Catalonia is a land of potential unicorns, emerging from diverse fields. And the startups that emerge from the Catalan entrepreneurial landscape as the best positioned to acquire this coveted category include sectors as diverse as flower delivery, travel organization, sportswear, orthodontics, gene therapy, and electric motorcycles.
Thus, a wide range of expected and unexpected proposals are advancing towards the select club of emerging companies valued at over a billion dollars. They do so nestled within an entrepreneurial ecosystem that exceeds 2,100 startups in Catalonia, and from which seven unicorns have emerged so far. Barcelona and its ecosystem have the potential to reach fifteen in the coming years, according to forecasts from the Generalitat. Companies such as Wallapop, Typeform, Tradeinn, Paack, Red Points, Exoticca, Impress, and Splice Bio are among the Catalan startups aiming for unicorn status.
The best positioned are, at a distance from the rest, Typeform, Wallapop, and Tradeinn. They are near-unicorns, as entrepreneur and investor Carlos Blanco calls them. In fact, Typeform is on the verge of unicorn status, if it isn't already. With its online forms and surveys software, the company founded in 2012 by David Okuniev and Robert Muñoz closed a funding round of 123 million euros in 2022. Through this operation, the software as a service (SaaS) company reached a valuation of 850 million euros —935 dollars—, a valuation that has been increasing ever since.
Also with a current valuation of around 900 million euros, Wallapop is another favorite as a unicorn candidate. The company, founded in the Catalan capital in 2013, raised 81 million a year ago in a round focused on its expansion in Southern Europe. The operation, led by Korelya Capital, then raised the valuation of the Barcelona-based second-hand product app to 771 million euros, equivalent to more than 830 million dollars.
Blanco completes the list of Catalan quasi-unicorns with the Girona e-commerce company Tradeinn, which closed 2023 billing 500 million, a 15% increase compared to the previous year. The company, which was born as the heir to a small diving shop in L'Estartit (Girona), has become one of the main online sports product sales groups in the world, with 600 employees. Its growth has been financed mostly with the company's own generated resources, having grown without resorting to the funding rounds that startups usually undertake.
Also linked to the e-commerce sector, logistics company Paack is another candidate to enter the billion-dollar circle. The last-mile logistics company was developed in Dubai by a group of international engineers, and its original team settled in Barcelona. From the Catalan capital, the company has more than 150 international clients. Founded by Fernando Benito, Victor Obrados, Xavier Rosales, and Suraj Shirvankar in 2015, the startup has since raised more than 300 million in funding rounds, among which the one that raised 200 million in 2022 stands out. Through these operations, the company has increased its valuation to more than 800 million euros.
The Catalan entrepreneurial ecosystem has many more companies aiming for unicorn status, although far behind these quasi-unicorns listed by Blanco. According to the expert and based on data from the Generalitat's ACCIÓ agency, the online travel company Exoticca, founded in 2013 by Jesús Rodríguez, is another of the startups with the best forecasts. The agency, which differentiates itself by offering digitized long-trip packages, operates from its headquarters in Barcelona and its branch in Miami, with more than 300 itineraries in more than 60 countries.
Also holding prominent positions in this race is the tech company Red Points, which combats online fraud. Driven by Josep Coll in 2011 and now captained by Laura Urquizu, the company protects content and brands against online piracy and counterfeiting from its offices in Barcelona, New York, Salt Lake City, and Beijing. The varied catalog of potential unicorns in Catalonia that ACCIÓ is considering also includes the electric motocross bikes from Stark Future. With Swedish origins but with its headquarters and production center in Barcelona, the manufacturer founded in 2019 announced just over a year ago the entry of the British Royal Enfield into its capital, with a 10% stake after an investment of 50 million.
Barcelona is the seventh European city that has seen the most unicorns born from its innovative ecosystemNot missing from the list of companies that could reach one billion in the coming years is the invisible orthodontics company Impress, as well as the room rental platform Badi and the gene therapy startup Splice Bio. La company, which operates from the Barcelona Science Park, is part of an emerging ecosystem in the field of health and life sciences that is booming in Catalonia. Among the candidates also figures the technological platform on sustainable investments Clarity AI and also Heura, which recently closed a 40 million round led by the Dutch multinational Upfield, which has entered the capital of the Barcelona-based plant-protein food startup.
Further from the billion but with good prospects are startups like the online real estate company Housfy, the aggregator of stores selling on Amazon Yaba, and Innovamat, which has developed an educational proposal to foster the learning of mathematics. The home delivery burgers from Vicio, promoted by Aleix Puig and Oriol de Pablo, are also promising, as are the video games from Game for a Living (G4AL) and the fintech ID Finance.
All of them show promise and, based on their current valuation and growth rate, could be included in the coming years in the privileged billion-dollar club, which already includes seven Catalan companies. Adevinta, eDreams, Factorial, Glovo, Travelperk, Letgo, and Wallbox are the startups that have managed in recent years to rise to unicorn status from Catalonia.
It was eDreams that debuted on the billion-dollar path in 2014 and, since then, the list of unicorns with a Catalan seal has been growing with companies like Adevinta, owner of marketplaces such as Fotocasa, Habitaclia, Infojobs, and Milanuncios. Barcelona-based Letgo reached a billion in 2018 with its second-hand sales, now especially focused on the American market. For its part, Glovo acquired unicorn status in 2019, and it was three years later when the startup founded by Oscar Pierre changed hands, with the acquisition by Delivery Hero of 80% of its capital in 2022.
Wallbox's electric chargers elevated the company to the admired category in 2021, although the company has lost momentum since then, partly due to a slower-than-expected evolution of electric cars. The company, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange also since 2021, announced in December the execution of a capital increase of 29 million euros, and brought Generac Power company into its board of directors. This operation served to close a 2023 during which the company acquired the German company ABL to accelerate its entry into the German market, and reached an agreement with the Italian Atlante to deploy a fast electric charging network across Southern Europe, among other movements by the company founded by Enric Asunción in 2015.
Blanco predicts that 2024 "will be a good year" for the evolution and valuation of startupsIt was the same year Travelperk was founded, which climbed to the podium of the unicorns in 2022. Since then, it has premiered corporate headquarters in 22@ and has recently closed a mega round for 95 million dollars. Also in 2022, Factorial was the last that became part of the category. Now, the startup of human resources for SMEs, based in Poblenou, has more than a thousand employees on its staff, is close to a portfolio of 9,000 clients and has a presence in nine countries.
With these startups, Barcelona is the seventh European city that has seen the birth of more unicorns from its innovative ecosystem. Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Munich, and Dublin have an advantage, which makes the Catalan capital the first city in Southern Europe in this field. Not only for the quantity of unicorns, but also for their diversity. "We have a series of projects that do not focus on a specific sector, but are very diversified, and this generates interest," defends the director of Technological Transformation and Disruption at ACCIÓ, Jordi Aguasca. "This diversification allows Barcelona to be positioned as an excellent place not only to create a company, but also to make it grow," according to the executive of the Generalitat's agency for business competitiveness.
Catalonia and its ecosystem have the potential to reach fifteen unicorns in the coming yearsGiven the diversity of unicorn candidates, Aguasca points out that the current market situation and investment make it difficult to predict when these companies could scale to this status. Blanco agrees in highlighting that there has been "a slowdown in company valuations, just as there has been in investment on a global scale." The expert predicts that the situation will reverse during the coming months, so "this is going to be a good year" also for the evolution and valuation of startups.
Regarding this assessment, Aguasca defends that "the concept of a unicorn should not be an obsession." And it is that "what generates a dynamic economy that attracts investment and international talent" are not unicorns, but a numerous ecosystem of startups. Thus, the crucial thing is that the interconnection mechanism between universities, research centers, emerging companies, investors, and corporations works: "The decisive thing is that the wheel turns."