Entrepreneurship in Spain is stronger than ever, is one of Whiteboard´s conclusions in their posts and yes, we can say that entrepreneurship is here to stay. Maybe is not part of the university curricula, but Business Schools are right on top of it. Just about every week you can participate in forums, seminars and discussions on how to set up your business every step of the way. Cities like Madrid and Barcelona have a well-developed network of entrepreneurial centers that offer courses and advice to all the visionaries of the future. Furthermore, Spanish entrepreneurship tackles just about every business sector. Let´s take a look at mobility and we find that Spain is in the forefront of innovation with Barcelona holding the 7th position in the world ranking and Madrid 10th just behind Germany, Canada, Great Britain and the United States. It may also be worth mentioning that out of the 600 European start-ups running for the 2nd Edition of the European Startup Prize for Mobility in December 2018, 15 out of the 150 applications that were shortlisted for the second phase were Spanish projects.
Entrepreneurship is present in all sectors of society and they rank among the best worldwide in aeronautics, communication and design, courier services, logistics, gastronomy, social innovation and welfare. Let´s take a look at some of the most successful Spanish start-ups:
CABIFY
We could describe Cabify, as the Spanish Uber. This young start up, offers a fleet of private vehicles with drivers to move around the city offering personalized customer service to all clients, including the ideal car temperature, the best music selection and even a cool bottle of water. Created in 2011 in the middle of the financial crisis, six weeks after beginning operations it already had 20,000 registered users. At present the company operates in 36 cities in Spain and has expanded to Latin America and Portugal operating in more than 130 cities in 12 countries.
FREEPIK
In 2010 brothers Alejandro and Pablo Blanes, together with Joaquin Cuenca, feel the need to create a platform where designers could find access to free graphic resources. This was the beginnings of Freepik, the platform where Internet professionals (designers, community managers, art directors and programmers, amongst others) can find graphic resources such as illustrations, icons, PSD templates and photographs all for free. It started in Malaga in 2010 and now it is present at the top of the global ranking, with over 41 million monthly visits, 13 million users and turnover of more than €15 million. I highly recommend it, you can always find something good!
GLOVO APP
Every city to go to you can see Glovo riders with their yellow delivery boxes on their backs. Glovo is a delivery app similar to Deliveroo or UberEATS, but instead of delivering only food, they can bring you just about everything that fits in their delivery box, from food, small buys, errands anything you can think of … but it has to fit in the box. Founded in 2015 in Barcelona and ever since then it has seen an exponential growth. The Glovo App has raised over €148 million and operates in 91 cities over 21 countries.
EYESYNTH
Eyesynth is an amazing audiovisual system for the blind. It is a fancy pair of glasses connected to a microcomputer. The system records the surrounding environment in three dimensions. Then, the collected data is converted into understandable audio for the blind. This innovative and revolutionary device operates in 3 dimensions so it can measure the depth of space and identify shapes opening a whole new world for the visually impaired. Let´s congratulate this wonderful team of experts, designers, engineers, business professionals and testers that made it possible. Also, it is worth mentioning that Eyesynth was awarded with the Best Company in Social or Sustainable Scope Awards from the Investors Forum -MIT Enterprise Forum in Madrid last December. Congratulations!
FUVEX
Last, but not least let´s introduce the new drones of the future. FuVeX is a small company located in Navarre that has revolutionized the aeronautical sector by creating a drone that has two unique features: it flies like an airplane and lands like a helicopter. On top of that the autonomy is over 300 km. This new drone has multiple applications, from courier service and goods transport companies (tests have been carried out in conjunction with the Spanish Postal Service) to suppliers of solutions for problems such as the pollution of oceans or for emergencies such as shipwrecks and forest fires. The future is here!
These are only some examples of the strong entrepreneurial spirit that it is well alive and kicking. In future posts we´ll bring you some more!
Meanwhile, why not coming to Spain to experience your entrepreneurial spirit? Think ahead and start planning on participating in the Leadership & Entrepreneurship Institute in Summer 2020. Browse through the courses and start thinking about how to develop and success in your own business. Dream. Dare. Discover.