Barcelona: Holding Strong as Europe’s 3rd Best City for Start-ups

• Barcelona consolidated its position as the third most preferred city for entrepreneurs to set up companies, after London and Berlin.
• According to European Startup Heatmap, one in five founders would choose Barcelona to set up their company.

In which European city would you launch your startup? That’s the question that the company Deep Ecosystems includes in the European Startup Heatmap survey, combining the opinions of more than 10 000 founders and analyzing the attractiveness of cities for tech startups since 2016. Since then, London (35%) and Berlin (34%) have been fighting for the top two spots, with Barcelona (17%) climbing positions every year and consolidating third place in 2023, ahead of Amsterdam (16%), Paris (12%) or Lisbon (12%).

Other Spanish cities on the list include Madrid (#11), Malaga (#19), Valencia (#33), Las Palmas (#40), and Bilbao (#44).

It is interesting to note that Barcelona’s economy is not solely dependent on one industry, which allows startups in various sectors to flourish. The city has a strong presence in technology, biotechnology, fashion, tourism, and many other fields, offering opportunities for startups in different areas.

Similarly, Barcelona is home to excellent universities and research institutions, attracting talented professionals from various fields, such as technology, design, and marketing.

A THRIVING ECOSYSTEM OF STARTUPS

Barcelona has a vibrant and growing startup ecosystem. It is home to numerous co-working spaces, incubators, accelerators and technology-focused events, fostering a collaborative and innovative environment. Among the successful startups born in Barcelona are, for example, Glovo, Typeform and Letgo.

This ecosystem offers ample opportunities to network, find mentors and access funding.

For example, students at the TBS Education – Barcelona campus have the TBSeeds project incubator at their fingertips. After a decade of successful projects at the Toulouse campus, TBSeeds has found its place in the school’s new building. The incubator is a pedagogical device that welcomes TBS Education students to help them develop and finalize business creation projects thanks to individualized accompaniment and training seminars.