How Big Corporates Tap into Barcelona-Catalonia Startup Ecosystem

Barcelona-Catalonia has become one of the top business hubs in Europe, home to more than 2,100 startups that build on the city's renowned innovation capabilities. International investors choose Barcelona-Catalonia for their business ventures in Europe and have helped Barcelona become a top investment hub.

The recent edition of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was a testament to the business relationships that are emerging between large corporations and the Barcelona-Catalonia startup ecosystem. At the Open Innovation Challenge, a B2B event organized by Catalonia Trade & Investment, multinationals such as AstraZeneca, Fujitsu, Turkish Airlines or Renault had the opportunity to connect with Barcelona-based startups in search of solutions to business challenges.

“The Catalonia and Barcelona ecosystem of startups is very diverse across different tech areas”

Oriana Medlicott, Tech & Innovation Strategist at Fujitsu

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“I was amazed by how Catalan startups are good at health tech, travel tech, customer experience technology and, especially, in AI”, said Murat Can Demir from Turkish Ailines. “The Catalonia and Barcelona ecosystem of startups and IT systems is very diverse. We are tapping into lots of exciting startups across different tech areas”, added Oriana Medlicott from Fujitsu.

Barcelona-Catalonia, a magnet for investment

Catalonia is the second European region in terms of attracting technology investment projects. Moreover, the number of startups has been growing nonstop in recent years, almost doubling since 2016 to more than 2,100. As a sign of the region's attractiveness, Barcelona is the 2nd most preferred city for founders to launch a startup in the European Union, behind only Berlin.

The video features contributions from Al Mackay, Innovation Lead at AstraZeneca; Richard de Cabrol, Incubator & Startups Director at Renault- Software Republic; Pere Duran, Director at 4YFN; Oriana Medlicott, Tech & Innovation Strategist at Fujitsu; and Murat Can Demir, Entrepreneurship Programs Lead at Turkish Airlines.

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