The Swedish Norrsken foundation opens an incubator with 80 'startups' in Barcelona

Barcelona has a new startup accelerator that joins the innovative ecosystem of the Catalan capital. Driven by the Swedish foundation Norrsken, the center is aimed at entrepreneurs with social and environmental impact. A total of 80 companies and about 500 people work from the new space, according to the general director of Norrsken House Barcelona, Marc Jordana. The incubator has started operating in front of Barceloneta beach after an investment of 11 million euros.

The center has been inaugurated by partially opening its facilities, which will total about 10,000 square meters. According to Jordana, for now, three floors dedicated to workspaces have been adapted. It will be in January when the rest of the macro-center opens, which will include an auditorium for 120 people, an 800-meter terrace facing the sea and, as a differential element, a meeting space for entrepreneurs with "people who want to contribute, rather than receive," through mentoring and accompaniment. To this end, the center will have a restaurant on the fourth floor designed to "generate connections and close the circle between entrepreneurs who are starting" with consolidated profiles linked to the accelerator without being in its programs.

He highlighted that the companies and entrepreneurs operating from the center are in different stages of development. Thus, some are practically in a theoretical phase, while others are close to obtaining benefits. This diversity enriches the ecosystem: "If there are only companies in the same phase, there cannot be a transfusion of knowledge between them". With this objective, the center aspires to be more than a workspace and generate a community. For this reason, Jordana assures that they carefully select the members of the ecosystem. "We are only the facilitators, the community is made by the people. And the more diverse it is, the better," he defends.

Regardless of the phase they are in, all projects have in common that they are impact initiatives, that is, those that generate positive consequences for the planet or for society. Thus, "businesses that address at least one of the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda" fit into the project. The accelerator has companies linked to various fields, ranging from energy to finance, including foodtech that study new ways to create proteins. The most powerful sectors within the center currently are health and climate.

The center has opened facing Barceloneta beach. It has done so by renting part of some offices that Desigual occupied until now, next to the W Hotel. The accelerator for entrepreneurs occupies 40% of the Desigual building. Through a concession, the brand continues to operate from the rest of the property, which is owned by the Port Authority of Barcelona. Precisely the founder of Desigual, Thomas Meyer, has been involved in the project. He has done so by promoting and co-financing the new Norrsken center, a word that in Swedish means aurora borealis.

The general director of Norrsken House Barcelona assures that the city is "acting as a magnet" for international talent

What reasons motivated the Swedish foundation to open its third global center in the Catalan capital? "It's important to be located in cities with a very powerful technological ecosystem, and Barcelona has it," according to Jordana. He explains that a group of local entrepreneurs, of which he is a part, met the Norrsken team, proposed the possibility of settling in the city, and began working to open the recently inaugurated center.

Now, the city is "acting as a magnet" for international talent. Proof of this is that 35% of the entrepreneurs at the center are foreigners. Jordana assures that the opening of Norrsken's macro-center "ends up being decisive for them to come to Barcelona." Thus, the new accelerator invigorates its startups ecosystem, already previously dynamic through other innovation hubs such as the nearby Pier 01. The Swedish foundation's commitment to the city reinforces its position on the entrepreneurship map and positions it as a pole of attraction for promoters and investors of emerging companies.