As Spanish Catalonia pushes towards independence, Barcelona, one of the the most connected cities in the world and long-time host of the world’s largest conference on mobile technologies, Mobile World Congress — is poised to become a technology capital.
Miquel Martí, CEO of Barcelona Tech City, organizer of startup incubator Pier 01, draws the usual San Francisco comparisons but with a twist: “We are also the Miami of Europe, the gateway to the world Spanish speaking.
There are 400 million native Spanish speakers in the world, more than Arabic, French-Canadian and Japanese combined. Pier 01 itself is expected to grow next year from its current 1,000 residents to around 2,500, according to Martí.
This turmoil comes amid the turmoil of a $1.5 billion startup scene, driven by Pier 01’s $587 million in investment funding, but backed by some of the biggest names in the industry. technology and most blueblood blue chips, all stacked on a significantly lower cost of living with a breezy bohemian flavor heavily influenced by Salvadoran native yarns Dali, Antoni Gaudi, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso. It’s easy to see why Spain is reluctant say goodbye at the Catalan port and why global tech giants are eager to say hello in any language they can.
Airbnb
Airbnb has a hot and cold relationship with the city, which necessitates Airbnb hosts to have tourist licenses which are difficult to obtain. Under threat of a ban earlier this year, Airbnb recalled 1,043 illegal spots from its database – which has grown from 11,000 in 2014 to 20,000 now – and offered free accommodation to survivors of the attack terrorist this summer. But the city is still pushing a $704,000 fine. Barcelona is a tourist gem as the city’s 1.7 million inhabitants welcomed 8 million foreign visitors last year, 900,000 of whom used Airbnb.
Amazon
This year, the Seattle-based company opened a $35 million airport warehouse dedicated to Amazon Fulfillment, its third-party shipping service. It plans to have 1,500 workers by 2020. Amazon (AMZN) also announced plans last spring to add 500 more jobs by 2019 with a seller support center.
Ramon Clemente, Airbnb.
Antai
Since 2012, the entrepreneur has launched 14 digital businesses in eight countries, with centers in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Lima, Mexico City and Santiago. She also manages a $47 million marketing inventory. The CEO also co-founded other startups, like Wallapop. (See below.)
CartoDB
Boasting skills in analyzing and visualizing location data, CartoDB has Amtrak, AXA, Deloitte, Google Trends, Mexico, the US National Park Service, New York, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Twitter (TWTR) among its customers. It recently tripled its adoption rate and secured $23 million in Series B funding from Accel and Selling power Companies.
Privalia
Last year, French rival Vente-Privée bought Privalia for $588 million in Barcelona’s biggest outing. The Spanish flash sale company held top rankings in Brazil, Mexico and Spain. (In 2015, it had $488 million in revenue.) Privalia had reached that stature with just $189 million in six funding rounds, making the return on investment considerable.
Scytl
In 2014, Scytl, an online voting company born out of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, received $91 million in a Series C round – half of which came from Vulcan Capital in New York – and managed nearly of 400 elections in 25 countries. But after the 2016 US electionsit halted its IPO plans this year, fearing it would lose its independence if tied to stakeholders in a specific country (Hello Russia!) or, say, Facebook (FB) or Google (GOOGL).
Tiendeo
It’s the Kayak for the flyers and catalogs you receive with the Sunday paper or in junk mail, scanning them to maximize comparison shopping. Tiendeo has launched an expansion in Japan, but already claims 4 million downloads and 17 million monthly users since its launch in 2011.
wallpaper
A second-hand trading app, $43 million in investment and 11 million users in its first two years has investors and analysts talking about Wallapop’s chances as a Spaniard Unicorn. It bought New York-based Sell It to expand to the United States, but keeps costs low with just 80 employees.
[fortune-brightcove videoid=5453563115001]
We work
WeWork’s arrival in Barcelona this winter is meant to be notable for its design, as it snags prime real estate in a golden tower in Barcelona’s District 22@ innovation district. Its next door neighbor (in a silver tower) is Amazon. It’s a particularly enticing office for lean entrepreneurs given that the monthly cost of living in Barcelona is $2,854, about half that of New York or San Francisco.
Comments are closed.