Catalonia has become a European hub for digital innovation and biomedical technology. According to European tech report, a considerable amount of venture capital flows to Barcelona, Incidentally Berlin, London, Paris and Amsterdam are at the top of the lists in innovation and start-ups.
There are more than 1500 start-ups in Catalonian region, three out of four have attracted external investment says the director of start-ups of Catalonian Trade and Investment.
Catalonian government annually invests around €80 million to facilitate technology companies and start-ups have raised €3 billion in investment over the last five years.
In the field of e-commerce and digital consumer technology Barcelona is well built, quite a few popular digital platforms come from Catalonia at the end of last century a number of entrepreneurs successfully started digital business.
As the future lies in industrial innovation Catalonia should concentrate on industrial entrepreneurship, “What we need is a vision for the future” say experts, there is a fierce competition from other cities in this area.
Catalonia has everything in-house. It has a firmly established industrial tradition. For instance, it is the birth place of car manufacturer Seat.
North east of Barcelona consists of an industrial hub with 7000 manufacturers of components and subcontractors in particular.
Industrial technology takes a long-term perspective, but innovative products coming onto the market can have a greater impact on the economy than a digital service as a distribution platform.
Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is an example of an industrial start-up, this company is working on a prototype of a light and electrically-powered air taxi for urban mobility.
Aitor Martin, the director of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) says
“Everything can be produced in Catalonia. There is a large pool of knowledge, also in the field of aeronautical engineering,”
“The weather is always nice in Catalonia, which also works to our advantage.”
