Bank financing is essential for the development of any business project. Without money it is impossible to advance. Obtaining these economic resources for an entrepreneur with an innovative business idea is, without a doubt, the most difficult challenge he faces in order to transform his dream into a reality that contributes wealth and generates jobs. It's not just about the initial impulse. The financial needs that arise as the company makes its way are even more relevant.
Despite the setbacks, the truth is that the entrepreneurial ecosystem, supported by projects based on innovation and technology, prospers. Thanks to the talent and resilience of its promoters, this new business model has demonstrated its ability to be an engine for the economy. In 2021 alone, 14,000 startups were created in Spain. The strength of this business phenomenon could be reinforced with the approval on November 3 of a startup law that seeks to stimulate the development of these business initiatives.
With the purpose of analyzing the future of the startup ecosystem, La Vanguardia, with the collaboration of BBVA, convened a meeting in which Peio Belausteguigoitia, country manager of BBVA Spain; Timo Buetefisch, co-founder and CEO of Cooltra Group; Jordi Romero, co-founder CEO of Factorial, and Miquel Vicente, president of Tech Barcelona and president and co-founder of Antai Ventures.
Enric Sierra, deputy director of La Vanguardia, began the debate by speaking with Peio Belausteguigoitia about BBVA Spark, an innovative initiative of the bank that provides financial solutions tailored to startups. The country manager of BBVA Spain explained that "we detected a lack of financial services for these companies that are discovering new sectors or are changing the rules of the game in those that already existed". For Peio Belausteguigoitia "when analyzing the risks of these companies we must measure them with different parameters than those we use for traditional ones and take more into account, for example, variables such as the growth capacity of their business."
BBVA Spark was born with the vocation of serving startups and providing them with financial solutions "according to their particularities and with the aim of satisfying both their day-to-day needs and those that guarantee their stability and sustainability in the medium and long term," he said. the head of the bank.
Barcelona is the heart of the rise of the entrepreneurial phenomenon. The Catalan capital is a pole of attraction worldwide and, according to a recent study cited by the moderator, "it is the third favorite city to start a business behind London and Berlin". For Miquel Vicente, a successful entrepreneur and president of Tech Barcelona, an entity made up of more than 1,200 startups, the secret of this success "is due to a 20-year trajectory of continuous commitment to innovation that has given rise to generations of trained professionals. in the development of this type of project and that in many cases have become multinationals”.
Vicente highlighted that Barcelona's ability to attract talent "places us as a first-rate technology hub, undoubtedly the most important in southern Europe, and a source of wealth creation and generation of quality employment". In 2021, in a difficult context, the city invested more than 1,600 million euros in technological projects. The president of Tech Barcelona recalled that when this entity was created 10 years ago "we set ourselves the goal of multiplying our ability to attract foreign investment by five and, in reality, it has multiplied by more than ten".
The promoter of Wallapop, Glovo or Letsbonus, among others, appreciated the importance of large companies such as Amazon, Google, Meta, Lidl or Mediamark having installed technological innovation centers in the city. Looking to the future, the entrepreneur pointed out that "Barcelona will be digital or it will not be" and the current goal is for the weight of the technology sector to reach 20% of GDP in the next 2 or 3 years.
For Vicente, an initiative like BBVA Spark "is very necessary and is an example that the best comes when the capacity and speed of innovation of startups come together with the support of corporates." The businessman considered that entrepreneurs have specific circumstances and need someone in the financial field "who understands their reality."
The German Timo Buetefisch, co-founder and CEO of Cooltra Group, arrived in Barcelona years ago to study a master's degree and the city captivated him. After failing in a first project, he decided to promote a business model based on renting electric motorcycles to tourists. Today his company has the largest fleet of electric vehicles in Europe, invoices 50 million euros and is present in 8 countries. "We have little structure in the rest of the cities in which we work and Barcelona is our hub from where we attend to all the business."
The entrepreneur highlights that he started his company with 30,000 euros from his own capital, "then a family office came in, later we did a first round of financing, and, over time, we managed to get 80 million euros." Cooltra Group currently uses the services of BBVA Spark "because, although we already have some positive indicators that make us attractive in the eyes of traditional banks, the truth is that at the level of risk we do not have the strength of a large corporation when we seek financing from a reasonable price and we need someone who understands our needs”, clarifies Buetefisch.
Nearly half a million people and more than 8,000 companies are currently users of the platform for managing company human resources created by Jordi Romero from Barcelona, co-founder and CEO of Factorial. The pandemic accelerated the process "through which many company managers understood how technology provided solutions in a very complex moment of tension," Romero explained.
Factorial has offices in Barcelona, Sao Paulo, Mexico City and Miami and has close to 1,000 employees. For Romero, "Barcelona is key because it allows us to attract international talent, especially from Europe, young people who come to the city because they live well and once here they find job opportunities that motivate them and help them develop professionally." The entrepreneur also highlighted "the incredible local pool of technological talent that has emerged from our universities."
Romero's company, which was born in 2016, is currently valued at 1,000 million euros. "We are committed to a model based on rapid growth and that requires external financing," he clarified. The entrepreneur explains that this speed of growth "makes us a bad client for banks, since according to their actuarial models we are unfinanced, and that led us to resort to venture capital." Now also "we have started working with BBVA Spark because we saw that there was really a clear interest in understanding each other".
Romero explained that "with the BBVA Spark team we are looking for financing models such as Venture debt, which mix the traditional credit model with a small capital investment option." On the other hand, he points out that "BBVA Spark's customer service adapts to the schedules of a startup, which basically consists of the fact that there are no schedules and being able to solve any problem with a WhatsApp is essential."
Belausteguigoitia highlighted the importance in Barcelona's current status of having been a pioneer in this process of commitment to technological innovation 20 years ago and that, beyond other attractions in the city, "is fundamental to the reality we are experiencing". In this sense, the BBVA manager assured that "it is important to continue betting because if you do not you can quickly fall behind." The manager referred to the advances in Bilbao, Madrid, Malaga or Valencia in recent years. In this sense, he cited how much the startup law can contribute "to help attract talent and investment."
Miquel Vicente assured that "we are a sector that competes in attracting talent and capital in a global market and the new law deals with these two issues and places us on an equal footing with other countries". The new rule tries to solve a serious problem that has to do with "the size of local venture capital funds, which is much smaller than those that exist abroad." This situation causes part of the shares of the companies to leave the country and also loses proximity and influence with the decision-making centers. "The new law provides for a contribution of 4,000 million euros through the ICO to provide local funds and improve our competitiveness as a country," said the president of Barcelona Tech.
Buetefisch valued the law as "a success and a way to eliminate many obstacles at all levels." The German entrepreneur assured that "I have been swimming in a wild river for 17 years and everything that now emerges as a help is very welcome." For his part, Jordi Romero stressed that "what unites all entrepreneurs is that we don't make excuses, although the fewer obstacles there are, the better it is." The businessman recalled his experience in San Francisco Bay and "it is clear that in Europe we are still very far from that reality." For the CEO of Factorial "the startup law can be a first step, a beta version in which we must continue to deepen".
Regarding the future of investment in the sector, Belausteguigoitia assured that we are witnessing a change of context in which there is less liquidity. However, she considered that "there will continue to be investment and, in addition, innovation will be leveraged as it has always happened throughout history."
