Startups in Barcellona: ecosystem, companies and strengths
Southern Europe's number one startup ecosystem: 1,500+ startups, leadership in healthtech, travel tech and mobility.
Why Barcellona matters in the European startup ecosystem
Barcelona is the heart of European innovation in Southern Europe: 1st ecosystem in Southern Europe, 5th in the EU and the leading European city for attracting foreign investment in AI. The city combines a unique density of international talent, university spin-offs, global capital and strong vertical clusters in healthtech, travel tech, mobility and agentic AI. In 2025, Catalan startups raised over €1.1 billion, with health and travel accounting for 51% of funding. TravelPerk, Factorial and Amenitiz are among the best-known Barcelona tech cases.
Why it works
- Rare balance between city quality and ecosystem quality
- Produces both B2B and consumer winners
- Local network dense enough to self-reinforce
Historical growth
Barcelona became Spain's leading startup ecosystem by enterprise value and one of the most international in Southern Europe. It combined digital health, software and global consumer startups well.
Europe's most interesting startup stories. Every week.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
🌟 Covered by Scalable
Factorial
Factorial is turning its HR, finance and IT SaaS into an AI-first platform built around enterprise agents.
Kalipso
The platform bringing Europe's entire compliance cycle - from regulatory change to control implementation - in
Mafer AI
Mafer AI builds an AI operating system for R&D teams in formulation-driven industries.
Multiverse Computing
Multiverse Computing compresses AI models with tensor-network techniques for deployment across cloud, private
Openchip
Spanish scale-up developing energy-efficient RISC-V chips and accelerators for AI and high-performance computi
Theker
Theker builds AI-native industrial robots capable of adapting in real time to changing production environments
Wallapop
Spain's leading secondhand marketplace: 19M active users, €2B+ GMV annually, acquired by Naver (Korea) in 2025
Strengths of Barcellona
- International structure
- Strong in SaaS and digital health
- Very powerful city brand
- Early-stage capital is now much stronger than ten years ago. For growth, international leads remain essential, but the local base is now mature.
- Digital health, retail, travel and HR software offer good initial demand. The ecosystem is strong in both B2B software and digital consumer models.
Weaknesses and limitations
- Late-stage less deep than top hubs
- High talent competition
- Strong dependence on foreign capital for larger rounds
Key startups in Barcellona
Unicorns
Notable scaleups
Exoticca
Exoticca is an online travel platform founded in 2013 in Barcelona. It lets users book vacation packages (flights, hotels, tours) to exotic destinations with a single click. In 2019 it generated €48M in revenue (doubling from the year before). It has raised several VC funding rounds (a €3.5M Series A in 2018) and continues to expand globally.
Factorial
Barcelona scaleup offering HR, finance and IT software and repositioning its platform around AI agents.
Glovo
On-demand delivery platform founded in Barcelona in 2015, operating in 25+ countries. Acquired by Delivery Hero in 2022 after reaching a $2.3 billion valuation.
Heura Foods
Heura Foods is a Spanish foodtech (Barcelona) founded in 2017. It produces 100% plant-based foods (burgers, cheeses, etc.) with nutritious Mediterranean ingredients. The goal is to replace meat's saturated fats with fiber-rich plant proteins. In 2025 it received a €20M loan from the EIB to expand research and production of new plant-based products.
Kalipso
Kalipso automates regulatory compliance for European financial institutions: it identifies relevant obligations, maps them to existing policies, flags gaps and proposes ready-to-use solutions across frameworks like DORA, MiCAR and the AI Act.
Mafer AI
Barcelona startup helping R&D teams in chemicals, food, cosmetics, fragrances and personal care organise lab data, formulations, analysis and compliance.
Multiverse Computing
We enable organizations to deploy safe and production-ready artificial intelligence with tailored solutions, reducing processing costs while maintaining full control over cloud, data center, and edge environments.
NeuralTrust
Barcelona startup building a platform to discover, monitor, control and protect enterprise AI agents.
Openchip
Openchip designs RISC-V processors and accelerators for AI and HPC through a fabless model and a strong European technological autonomy thesis.
Paack
Paack is a logistics startup founded in 2015. It offers last-mile delivery services for e-commerce and retail: next-day, same-day and scheduled deliveries with a focus on sustainability. It uses advanced technology to optimize delivery routes and is present in several European countries. In 2022 it was acquired by the InfraVia fund.
Recover
Recover is a unicorn-scale company with an indicative valuation of $1.1B. It operates in textile recycling by building recycled cotton fiber producer for circular fashion.
Red Points
Red Points is a startup founded in 2011 in Barcelona. Its AI-based SaaS platform automatically monitors and removes counterfeits, piracy and brand abuse from websites and marketplaces. It has over 1,300 global clients (e.g. Puma, Hugo Boss) and has raised about $76M in funding.
Theker
Barcelona startup developing generalist robots for industrial automation, logistics, retail, food and beverage and waste management.
Typeform
Form builder platform making surveys and data collection engaging and easy.
Wallapop
Spain's leading secondhand marketplace: 19M active users, €2B+ GMV annually, acquired by Naver (Korea) in 2025 at €600M valuation.
Wallbox
Wallbox is a Spanish company founded in 2015 that makes advanced charging stations for electric cars. It offers smart chargers for home, commercial and public use, with energy management features. It has sold over 100,000 units and operates in over 67 countries. It announced a SPAC merger to go public as 'WBX'.
vLex
vLex is a Spanish legaltech startup founded in 2000. It offers an AI-based legal research platform with access to over 1 billion international legal documents. It has 2.8 million professional users. In 2024 it was acquired by Clio for about $1 billion, becoming part of a leading legal software group.
VCs, accelerators and key players
Key VC funds
Hubs & campuses
Key universities
Public support
Key sectors in Barcellona
What we can learn
- A Mediterranean ecosystem can compete by pushing hard on internationality
- City branding only works if supported by genuine role models