Barcelona continues to cause a sensation in the European entrepreneurial world. Neither the pandemic, nor regulatory brakes nor political instability have had an effect on the perception of entrepreneurs when choosing the city to found a start-up .
For the fourth consecutive year, the Catalan capital continues to occupy the third position on the European podium, behind Berlin, London and, this year, sharing a position with the city of Amsterdam. Madrid occupies position number 13, with 7% of support and a drop of one point compared to the previous year. The data comes from the report Startup Heatmap Europe , prepared by the non-profit association European Startup Initiative (ESI). Between the months of May and August 2020, it conducted a survey of 1,200 professionals from the entrepreneurial sector from all over Europe.
Access to capital and regulation to do business are the worst valued aspects
The results, made public yesterday, are usually taken as a reference among the members of the European ecosystem and, in Barcelona, they have been welcomed with open arms. The general director of the Barcelona Tech City association, Miquel Martí, pointed out yesterday that the data once again demonstrate “the strength of the ecosystem during the crisis of the pandemic, which has also affected emerging companies in sectors affected by economic paralysis.”
The authors of the report dedicate a special chapter to analyze how Barcelona has managed to remain for four consecutive years as the third favorite city for entrepreneurs. The dynamism provided by 1,200 stands out start-ups In the city, the high presence of foreign founders (65%) and fundraising, which despite having suffered a decline in 2020 this year is recovering with larger rounds.
Report highlights how Berlin has overtaken London
According to the perception of those surveyed, Barcelona is attractive due to the robustness of the ecosystem (80% say so), the affordable cost of living (71%), access to talent (65%, it has fallen seven points in one year) and connections with industry (65%). On the contrary, the most deficient aspects are access to capital from investment funds (only 55% see the situation as optimal) and regulation for doing business, which only receives 49% of approval for the second consecutive year.
Miquel Martí comments that the results of the survey are not surprising since they put on the table claims that
the ecosystem has been doing it for years. In this sense, he adds that the public and private sectors should decide which model they want from the city to attract entrepreneurial talent and solve the deficiencies expressed in the report.
The director of Tech City recognizes that Barcelona needs to create more start-ups to achieve larger projects. In fact, the Catalan capital is not classified in the study as a “unicorn ecosystem” because in the last three years its start-ups they have not been able to raise 1 billion a year. On the other hand, London, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm and Amsterdam are in this group.
At the European level, the report highlights how Berlin has overtaken London with the support of 39% and 36%, respectively. According to the authors, the reasons for this overtaking They are in the ravages that the pandemic has done in the archipelago but especially with the entry into force of Brexit. Likewise, the decline in Paris from fifth to seventh in just one year and at the same time, the rise in Munich is striking.
Ultimately, the authors consider it relevant to take the results into account because although they do not provide objective data but rather opinions of the entrepreneurs, on many occasions their perception of the popularity of each city is a decisive element when creating innovative companies, raising capital and attract digital talent.
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