The Spanish startup scene's quiet ascent

Trailing behind its neighbors up north, the Spanish startup scene is quietly maturing.

Cycles of life

Comparisons can be easily manipulated. Faced with the same statistics, one can craft the story they wish to tell by arranging the numbers to their liking. The pessimist will tell you that the Spanish startup ecosystem’s funding dropped 15% in 2022 compared to 2021, a meager achievement. The optimist will tell you that the Spanish startup ecosystem’s funding in 2022 represented a 166% increase compared to 2020, a stellar performance. Both numbers are true: we’re here to understand the whole story.

Spain is known for many things. A dynamic and vibrant economy isn't one of them, exemplified by the country’s consistently mediocre, double digits unemployment rates. However, as Europe finally wakes up to the fact that a welfare state and an innovative economy aren’t mutually exclusive, the past decade has seen the rise of a Spanish startup ecosystem.

The catalyst for the modern Spanish startup scene was the 2008 financial crisis, which hit Southern Europe, most notably Greece and Portugal, particularly hard. Between 2008 and 2013, Spain’s economy shrank by 8.5%. The combination of the country’s ailing economy and its highly-educated population led to two things: a painful brain drain, but also a flourishing of startup creation, as entrepreneurial Spaniards sought an alternative route.