Spain's startup ecosystem is still relatively young, however it is still thriving. Madrid and Barcelona are two very well-connected cities that serve as the country's primary mature startup hubs. In addition to this, affordable living and operational costs make Spain a great option for developing an early-stage company. Spanish startups are able to benefit from a positive density of developers based locally, whilst also attracting a large amount of international talent due to its prime location. Startups in Spain also enjoy affordable costs in retaining and paying talent, which makes operations less expensive.
Spain has the appropriate financial conditions to allow new startups to thrive, with more than 450 different Venture Capital firms running funds within Spain. Additionally, Spanish startups receive a good amount of support within the early stages of their development due to the presence of more than 160 startup incubators and accelerators that support companies through the idea and early development stages. The presence of such mentoring and funding allows Spanish startups to undergo rapid growth and success.
Additionally, the Spanish government has been taking a very proactive approach to supporting the startup ecosystem. It has created several new grants and funding programs to support Spanish startups, in addition to the implementation of national entrepreneurship and startup competitions to bring a spotlight to upcoming talent.
1. Samara
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Size: 11-50
Founders: Iván Cabezuela, Manel Pujol
Samara is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently based in the capital city of Madrid. Samara operates in the CleanTech market and assists you with building cheaper and more environmentally friendly methods of energy generation into your home through solar power. It will help you throughout the entire process, so all you have to think about is how much you're going to save and the impact you're going to have on saving the planet.
Samara has been successful in securing external funding to fuel the development of its business operations and the service it provides, as well as innovating the technology it uses. The most recent funding round was completed in December 2022 when Samara raised 4.5 Million Euros as part of a Seed Round, six months after launching.
2. Bankflip
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Size: 1-10
Founders: Alvaro Mancilla Moreno, Gabriel Esteban Gullón, Honorio Marin Garcia.
Bankflip is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2020 and is currently based in Barcelona, Spain. It operates in the FinTech market and assists financial institutions with the process of capturing and processing financial data from your customers in real-time. By enabling your customers to consent to the sharing of data from their third-party institutions, you can quickly process things for your customers and make rapid decisions when deciding whether or not to offer a product or service to them, eliminating a large portion of the risk you could face.
Bankflip has been very successful in generating startup funding, with its most recent funding round taking place in January 2024. During this round, Bankflip has managed to raise a total of 2.6 Million Euros in funding. The funding from this round is to strengthen its position in the Spanish market and explore the possibility of creating additional use-cases surrounding its services.
3. Life5
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Size: 51-100
Founders: Guillermo Alen, Yago Montenegro, Yago Mendez
Life5 is a Madrid-based Spanish startup that was founded in 2021. Life5 operates in the InsurTech market and by using it, you'll be able to get an exceptionally transparent and hassle-free life insurance plan. You can get set up on your new plan incredibly quickly without the need to go through invasive medical examinations. Currently, you can benefit from the help provided by Life5 if you live in Spain, France and Italy. It also intends to expand into the German and Portuguese markets.
Life5 has managed to secure very lucrative startup funding rounds,with its most recent funding round taking place in June 2023. This Series A allowed Life5 to raise a total of 10 Million Euros to further its expansion into new markets and improve its service level in the markets that it currently operates in.
4. Dogfy Diet
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Size: 101-250
Founders: Sergi Font, Josep Font, Gonzalo Noy
Dogfy Diet is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently based in the city of Barcelona. It provides you with incredibly healthy and affordable food for your pets, with all of their foods being developed and tested with nutritionists to ensure that your pet gets all of the nutritional support they need to grow healthily and live longer lives. You can rest easy knowing that your beloved animal won't be eating processed junk and the best part is, you can tailor your portion sizes to your specific needs. This makes it easier if your pet has to follow a specific diet plan for their health.
Dogfy Diet has been very successful in raising startup funding, whilst no specific value has been declared openly and it closed its last funding round in June 2022, shortly after having been founded, it is estimated that it managed to raise a total between 2.5-5 Million Euros to further gain share in the Spanish market.
5. SolarMente
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Size: 11-50
Founders: Wouter Draijer, Victor Gardrinier
SolarMente is a startup in Spain that was founded in 2020 and is currently based in the city of Barcelona. It makes it easier for you to navigate the usually costly process of installing solar panels on your home or property development. Instead of forking out for large costs up front, you'll be able to enter a subscription from which you pay monthly for your panels. This means you'll make energy savings immediately without having to pay anything up-front for your installation.
SolarMente has achieved near unparalleled levels of funding in its category, with its most recent funding round in April 2023 netting it 50 Million Euros in funding. This funding was entirely backed by GNE Finance and is slated to be used for the installation of more than 10,000 solar systems in major cities across Spain.
6. Asistensi
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Size: 101-250
Founders: Andrés González-Silén, Luis Velásquez
Asistensi is a startup in Spain that was founded in 2020 and is currently headquartered in Madrid. It provides a more efficient and hassle-free method for you to get access to healthcare for your loved ones back home outside of Spain. Its health coverage runs constantly all year and your family can benefit from telemedicine, ambulance transfers, lab tests and more. One of the main benefits for your family is that the health plans also cover major surgeries and hospitalisation, with 98% of cases dealt with within 45-minutes to ensure you can quickly get the help you need.
Asistensi's mission of helping to provide healthcare for the foreign-based families of workers in Spain has allowed it to secure a large amount of funding. Its last funding round took place in July 2021, when it raised a total of $10.5 Million during its Series A. This funding has helped Asistensi to improve its underlying technology and services, whilst also allowing it to reach out to more potential customers.
7. Payflow
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Size: 51-100
Founders: Benoit Menardo, Avinash Sukhwani
Payflow is a startup in Spain that was founded in 2020 and is currently headquartered in Barcelona. It operates in FinTech and allows you as a business to offer your employees the opportunity to get their salary on demand and can also get access to key benefits within an easy to use app. This works by allowing your employees to access any of the money they've already earned for the month, which you will then be able to expense against their upcoming paycheck, meaning you'll have a happier team working for you.
Payflow has excelled in generating startup funding, with its most recent funding round taking place in September 2023. During this funding round, Payflow managed to secure investment in the form of debt financing worth 20 Million Euros, which was backed by BBVA Spark. This funding has gone towards its planned expansion into new markets, such as Latin America.
8. Piper
Year Founded: 2023
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Size: 11-50
Founders: Sergio González, Rodrigo Burillo, Michele Trevisiol
Piper is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2023 and is currently headquartered in Barcelona. If CRM management is holding your team back from doing their jobs, then Piper is the solution for you. Their application uses AI to help your team by filling their CRM for them, taking notes based on the conversations they had, drafts up your next emails to customers, schedules your calls and much more. This allows your sales team to actually spend their time with selling, instead of constantly having to catch up with CRM administration.
Piper, despite being founded only last year, has managed to secure a good amount of startup funding to accelerate its growth. This funding was received in October 2023, when Piper raised 3 Million Euros in an equity round led by Seaya Ventures, Ignia and Shilling. The funding has been used to improve Piper's AI technology and to hire new employees to facilitate its future expansion.
9. Crisalion Mobility
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Size: 101-250
Founders: Carlos Poveda Rey
Crisalion Mobility is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2019 and is currently based in Madrid. If you're conscious about your vehicles and their impact on the environment, then you should be watching the work of Crisalion Mobility. It aims to develop the first practical eVTOL aircraft for civilian use along with electrically powered ground vehicles. You could be using one of their vehicles, as soon as 2030- when it is planned to be publicly introduced to the market.
Crisalion Mobility has secured a large amount of funding to support its mission of changing the way we get around. This has culminated in it raising a total of $21.9 Million since being founded, with its most recent funding round in December 2023 contributing $5.89 Million of that funding. Needless to say the funding has been used to further testing of current prototypes and the research and development that goes into creating newer models to test.
10. Rever
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Size: 11-50
Founders: Màrius Montmany, Oriol Hernandez i Fajula
Rever is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently based in Barcelona. If you've run an e-commerce store, then you know the process of handling returns can be a nightmare. Rever makes everything easier by speeding up the rate at which you can process return, whilst also saving you money on lost time and customers. 99% of your returns will be processed within less than six-hours, which means there's minimal disruption to your business.
Rever's solution has led to its receiving a large amount of startup funding. It most recently completed a funding round in June 2023, which allowed it to raise a total of 7.5 Million Euros. The funding has been used to build improvements into the existing platform and gain more share within the European markets that Rever operates in.
11. Nova
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Size: 51-100
Founders: Andrea Marino, Lars-Henrik Friis Molin, Ramón Rodrigáñez Riesco
Nova is a startup in Spain that was founded in 2020 and is currently based in Madrid. If you're really struggling to find the best talent across the world, then you need Nova. It's a network where you can find the top 3% of talent across various fields of expertise. It's already being used to fill roles at the world's top companies, such as Spotify, McKinsey and Company, Ikea and more. Membership to the talent network is based on merit, meaning you'll only be dealing with the best of the best. This makes hiring for your teams a dream.
Rather than operate through the traditional startup funding route, Nova decided to operate a crowdfunding round from its list of members. This took place in April 2021 and was very successful, with more than 520,000 Euros being raised to support building connections with new enterprise clients and launch new technological products.
12. Luzia
Year Founded: 2023
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Size: 11-50
Founders: Alvaro Martinez, Carlos Pérez Ruiz, Javier Andres Marin
Luzia is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2023 and is currently based in the capital city of Madrid. The tasks of everyday life can be incredibly overwhelming, that's why it can be helpful for you to have someone constantly there to help, that's Luzia. An AI powered assistant that you can integrate with your WhatsApp and communicate with it through there. This assistant can help you with many things, like getting ideas for gifts, turning audio into text, finding important information sources for exams and almost anything you can think of.
Luzia has done exceedingly well in securing startup funding, with its most recent funding round taking place in October 2023. During this funding round Luzia managed to raise a total of $10 Million, which was led by Khosla Ventures. This funding has been used to fuel its expansion into the USA and other foreign markets.
13. Delfos Energy
Year Founded: 2016
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Size: 1-10
Founders: Guilherme Pinheiro Studart, Samuel Lima
Delfos Energy is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2016 and is currently based in Barcelona. Using its platform, you're able to monitor the performance of your renewable energy asset operations and identify additional power generation opportunities for your assets. This also helps you to reduce the amount of network downtime and improves performance for your network.
Delfos Energy has done incredibly well with raising startup funding, as its Seed Round was completed in January 2024. Delfos Energy raised a total of $6.9 Million during this funding round and it was stated that these funds would be used to roll out its services across additional markets within the European Union. It is likely that Delfos will seek further funding as it plots its global aspirations.
14. Ciudadela
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Size: 51-100
Founders: Jonatan Poderoso
Ciudadela is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently based in Madrid. It provides a platform that allows you to seamlessly manage your properties digitally. You will be connected with a custodian who will manage your properties for you and ensure that you are paying local rates for your building works, ensuring that you're paying less every month. The custodian will also catalogue and respond to any incidents, keeping you away from the stress.
Despite the utility of Ciudadela's platform, it has not yet sought to generate any external funding to fuel its growth. If it has plans to pursue further expansion into global markets, then it is likely that Ciudadela would pursue a round of startup funding to facilitate this expansion, as it would be difficult to do so without a cash injection.
15. Nestcoin
Year Founded: 2021
HQ: Tortola, Spain
Size: 101-250
Founders: Yele Bademosi and Joseph Orilogbon
Nestcoin is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2021 and is currently based in Tortola. It's a Web3 development and funding company that allows you to make your finances truly borderless. For example, its product 'Onboard' allows you to turn your cryptocurrency into usable fiat currency at the drop of a hat and earn a range of rewards for using their products. This means you can use crypto, anywhere and anytime.
Nestcoin has received strategic investments as it has needed them, with the most recent being a September 2023 funding round that allowed Nestcoin to raise $1.9 Million in startup funding. This funding will be used to strengthen its balance sheet and make improvements to the aforementioned product, 'Onboard'.
16. Tonto
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Alicante, Spain
Size: 51-100
Founders: Manna Justin
Tonto is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently based in Alicante. It's created an audio social network, the place where you can manage most of your audio needs. For example, using its platform you can explore popular audio content, record, edit and upload your own content, connect with new people and share your content to various social media platforms.
As it stands, there have been no reports of Tonto receiving any external funding. In the event that Tonto intends to aggressively expand into new markets or go on a recruitment drive, then it may be more likely to see that it pursues a round of startup funding.
17. Flipflow
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Valencia, Spain
Size: 11-50
Founders: Ricardo García Zorzo
Flipflow is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently headquartered in Valencia. As a retail brand or distributor, you'll benefit from Flipflow's SaaS platform that allows you to have a dashboard providing you with real-time information about how your products are performing relative to your competitors and how the markets are currently operating worldwide. This accurate market data allows you to identify new trends and avoid costly mistakes.
FlipFlow has recently secured a good amount of startup funding during its Seed Funding round that took place in December 2023. During this round, Flipflow managed to raise a total of 900,000 Euros. The stated goals of this funding were to accelerate growth in existing markets and provide a platform for expansion into new global markets.
18. Reloadly
Year Founded: 2019
HQ: Barcelona, Spain
Size: 51-100
Founders: Michel Francis, Emmanuel Piard
Reloadly is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2019 and is currently based in Barcelona. It has developed an API that allows you to improve how you collect mobile payments for a number of use cases, such as your research study incentive vouchers, gift cards, mobile top ups for your customers and much more. Reloadly has already partnered with global companies such as Airtel, Vodafone, Orange and more than 20,000 different businesses in total.
Reloadly has gone through two rounds of startup funding since being founded, with the total raised from the most recent round in September 2019 reaching $750,000 whilst the first round's total was undisclosed. This funding was achieved with the support of eight institutional investors.
19. Holafly
Year Founded: 2018
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Size: 101-250
Founders: Pedro Maiquez, Lidia Yingan
Holafly is a startup in Spain that was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in the capital city of Madrid. Holafly makes it cheaper and easier for you to keep a mobile connection, wherever you are. It offers you the chance to buy Esim cards, which connect you to the internet, meaning you won't have to pay expensive data roaming charges. You get unlimited data and the ability to keep your local sim so that you can answer calls. With more than 160 destinations to choose from, you're covered almost anywhere in the world.
Holafly has had success with startup funding, its last confirmed round was a Seed Funding round in July 2019, when it raised an undisclosed amount. It is estimated that Holafly has received anywhere between 100,000-500,000 Euros in funding during its lifetime.
20. Clevergy
Year Founded: 2022
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Size: 1-10
Founders: Beltrán Aznar, Gonzalo López Tirado
Clevergy is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2022 and is currently headquartered in Madrid. By using Clevergy's software you'll be able to keenly monitor and make changes to your carbon footprint, as well as helping to facilitate your transition to cleaner energy generation. Another key benefit you get from this is that you're able to reduce the amount of money that you're spending on your energy.
Clevergy has experienced recent success in securing startup funding, with its most recent funding round being closed in January 2024. During this funding round, it managed to secure a figure of 1.5 Million Euros. This funding will be used to build its technology into the energy infrastructure of more homes and improve its existing services with retailers.
21. Harbiz
Year Founded: 2020
HQ: Madrid, Spain
Size: 11-50
Founders: Mario Morante
Harbiz is a Spanish startup that was founded in 2020 and is currently headquartered in Madrid. If you're a health and fitness pro looking to expand and better manage your business, Harbiz can help. You'll benefit from being able to manage all of your clients and their workout plans within the app, making adjustments and monitoring progress in real-time. This allows you to make time savings and service even more clients within your business. Streamlined payments also mean that you get paid what you're owed, when you're owed it.
Harbiz has been quite successful in raising startup funding, with its most recent funding round taking place in January 2024, when it managed to raise 5 Million Euros. This funding will be used to attract new global talent and aggressively gain new share in its current market.
FAQs
What Are The Strongest Startup Industries In Spain?
The startup industries that best represent Spain are CleanTech, EdTech, IT and Tourism.
How Much Funding Do Spanish Startups Raise?
Spanish startups raised a total of $1.6 Billion during 2023, meaning the average startup received more than $145,000 in funding.
How Many Tech Startups Are There In Spain?
It is estimated that there are more than 11,000 tech startups operating from Spain.
