Barcelona, a booming tech and digital hub in Europe

Catalonia has seen significant growth in its technology sector, now hosting 160 international tech hubs, which is a 9% increase from the previous year. In 2024, these centers created 6,191 new jobs—an impressive 22% rise from last year—bringing the total number of jobs in this sector to 34,869.

In 2024, Catalonia inaugurated 13 new international hubs, contributing to a total economic impact of 2.879 billion euros. These new projects have generated 263 qualified jobs and nearly 22 million euros in additional economic benefits.

Catalonia Trade & Investment played a crucial role by supporting 88% of these 160 technology centers. It’s no wonder that the tech industry thrives in Barcelona-Catalonia, which ranks as Europe's fifth most digitized region, surpassing nations like the UK, Germany, and Estonia.

Key reasons for setting up these hubs in Catalonia include the region’s ability to attract highly skilled talent, the presence of parent companies, and its overall quality of life. Notably, Catalonia ranks fourth in Europe for human capital readiness for digitalization and is recognized as the continent's first open 5G laboratory, solidifying its status as a highly connected society.

Barcelona, a city that has embraced technology like no other

Barcelona is one of the top tech cities in Europe. In fact, in terms of tech, it’s pretty much at the top of all the rankings:

• Barcelona is the 1st best Tech non-capital city in the world.
• The Financial Times named Barcelona 2nd – after London – for its tech-effective ecosystem approach.
• The Boston Consulting Group says that Barcelona is the 5th most attractive city in the world for digital experts.

Startups get a running start in Barcelona-Catalonia

The 2,285 startups here already up and running make Barcelona-Catalonia one of the top startup hubs in Europe. Why? Well, Barcelona is the 2nd best place to establish a startup in Europe and 5th EU startup hub.

Not only that but with 7 unicorns being founded here, it’s clearly an even greater place to make your startup grow.

• Glovo
• eDreams
• Wallbox
• Adevinta
• Letgo
• TravelPerk
• Factorial

Blue-chip companies also like what they find

The pro-active business mentality in Catalonia, combined with tech, makes us attractive to prestigious multinationals that find a solid ecosystem and a thriving center for the European tech industry.

Like Alstom, expanding their existing operations here with a new 3D printing hub. And DE-CIX, establishing a new Internet exchange in Barcelona, creating Southern Europe’s largest neutral interconnection ecosystem.

Barcelona-Catalonia, your digital hub in Europe

Foreign investments are increasingly pouring in from countries such as Germany, the United States, China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Japan. Notably, the United States remains the leader in establishing international technology hubs in Catalonia, accounting for 25% of the total.

PepsiCo, for example, opened a new digital hub in Barcelona that will be a center of excellence for its global digitalization priority program. Not to mention Amazon and DHL in logistics and Porsche Digital in the automotive sector.

However, over the past five years, European contributions have significantly increased, with 62% of the hubs now originating from European nations.