EU|BIC Country Report - Spain

EU|BIC’s impact on the Spanish innovation ecosystem

The next era of entrepreneurship is about raising the bar, levelling the playing field, expanding participation and scaling the networks of business, social, financial and knowledge capital that provide the foundation for successful and sustainable start-ups and scalable businesses. Moreover, leveraging breakthrough technologies and strong partnerships along value chains are key to achieve a successful transition and a sustainable future for our planet.

Spanish EU|BICs have an excellent capacity to support startups in accelerating the green and digital transformation – developing the breakthrough innovations of tomorrow, in response to real world needs, creating new jobs and building synergies with Europe’s strong traditional industries.

Cristina Fanjul – Representative of Spanish EU|BICs to EBN Board of Directors,
EBN President and CEO of EU|BIC (CEEI) Asturias

EU|BICs in Spain: How they contribute to national and European innovation environments.

The late 90s and early 2000s marked a rapid increase of EU|BICs founded in Spain. The majority uses the Spanish term CEEI: “Centro Europeo de Empresas e Innovación”. Similar to EBN, the national association ANCES provides the CEEI label, specifically at Spain’s country level.

30% of all startups in Spain are supported by an EU|BIC

EU|BIC Country Report 2022 – Spain

Spanish EU|BICs are mostly business incubators and accelerators, with strong roles as development and innovation agencies, entrepreneurship and innovation centres, science and technology parks and chambers of commerce and industry. EU|BICs in Europe always remain focused on the support of entrepreneurs and innovative companies.

Startups supported by EU|BIC have a higher survival rate

Spain counts on 11,100 startups that employ 140,000 workers in total – according to a report presented in the “South Summit” in May 2022. Spanish EU|BICs supported over 13,000 entrepreneurs and companies last year, out of which almost 4,500 were startups. Important to note that this number is reported by EU|BICs considering startups as companies within their first 3 years of creation with an established strategy for creating long-term profit.

Long-term success and survival rates of companies supported by EU|BICs are higher than those of companies created in Spain between 2016 and 2021.

EU|BIC Country Report 2022 – Spain

Considering the number of Startups accounted for in Spain in 2022, and depending on this study’s definition, one can conclude Spanish EU|BICs are contributing significantly to the support of total startups in Spain. Long-term success and survival rates of companies supported by EU|BICs are higher than those of companies created in Spain between 2016 and 2021

Spanish EU|BICs can pride themselves on the high success rate of the companies they support. 81% of companies still operate 3 years after receiving support from an EU|BIC. Not only is this value high above the EU average, showcasing the quality support of Spanish EU|BICs, but it is also higher than the average 1-year survival rate of businesses created in Spain from 2016-2021 (which is at 73%, considering 27% failure rate after 1-year existence

The most popular sector of activity of startups created between 2016 and 2021 is digital, with 46,7% of startups created working in this area.

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