This chapter analyses the network system supporting the development of entrepreneurial ventures in Spain. It constitutes the third of the ten elements of the entrepreneurial ecosystem framework used to assess the country’s ecosystem. The chapter identifies strengths and areas for improvement, presents an international example, reviews recent policy developments, and offers recommendations for further progress.
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Diagnostics of Spain
Abstract
The growth of startups depends on access to key factors such as capital, clients, suppliers, product development and other services. Entrepreneurs must rely on their personal and professional networks and contacts to access resources and information that they find difficult to produce internally (Durda and Ključnikov, 2019[1]; Aldrich and Zimmer, 1986[2]; Kotha and George, 2012[3]). For example, to obtain capital, entrepreneurs need links with investors (Hoang and Yi, 2015[4]), to develop their innovative products and technologies, they may collaborate with research institutions (Pettersen and Tobiassen, 2012[5]), and they need to develop a network of potential customers and suppliers both in domestic and overseas markets. Indeed, networks are crucial for the early internationalisation of born-global firms (Andersson, 2003[6]).
The size and quality of a startup’s network often depends on the depth of personal relationships of the entrepreneur behind the venture (Lechner and Dowling, 2003[7]). However, establishing contacts and collaborations can be easier in some ecosystems than in others. These differences are driven by a large number of factors including the prevalence of co-ordinating entities such as cluster organisations and incubators that act as entrepreneurial ecosystem connectors, the existence of networking events that convene ecosystem actors, and the overall openness to collaboration among ecosystem actors (Galkina and Kock, 2011[8]). This section provides an assessment of the conditions and policies for networking within Spain’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and proposes a series of recommendations for policy action to address identified gaps and bottlenecks.
Entrepreneurial networks are growing
Successful entrepreneurial networks are characterised by interdependencies and linkages that weave an entrepreneurial ecosystem together, developing synergies and complementarities that mutually reinforce participating actors. One of the relevant measures is the extent to which firms collaborate with other firms, universities and other stakeholders to innovate, conduct research, and develop value chains.
About 7% of Spanish SMEs report having ongoing co-operation agreements on innovation activities with other firms, according to the European Commission’s European Innovation Scoreboard, below some other leading entrepreneurial ecosystems. The same source data show that collaboration between firms and universities on R&D is relatively low.
Another measure of collaboration is co-patenting. On this aspect Spain performs slightly above the European OECD average. Over 60% of patents in Spain are produced by at least two inventors from the same country, although the co-inventors may work in the same institution. In addition, according to CDTI, many Spanish firms act in a collaborative way in the context of the EU-funded Framework Programme for R&D projects.
The government has introduced policies to improve collaborations over the past 5 years, including a new initiative that has created over 280 open data initiatives across national and regional governments, and there are signs that firm innovation collaborations are developing, at least among the top end of the business population.
Spain is a hub for entrepreneurship events and communities
There is a substantial number of private and public entrepreneurship networking events and communities that aim at connecting stakeholders. Some of the main high-profile events convening Spain’s entrepreneurial ecosystem each year include:
South Summit: This is a 3-day conference held annually in Madrid. In the 2024 iteration, the event attracted approximately 18 000 people, including more than 2 000 investors. The event is centred around a startup competition that brings in 100 finalists selected from approximately 4 500 applicants from around the world. The core objective of South Summit is to foster networking and connections between businesses. This means remaining at a size that is optimal for creating meaningful and value-adding connections between participants. South Summit’s team of 34 staff is highly proactive in curating meetings and interactions between participants at the event, identifying their unique needs and making relevant connections to possible partners. A major part of South Summit’s work is matchmaking between startups and large corporations. It does this by preparing curated lists of relevant startups that their partner corporations might be interested in meeting with. South Summit then schedules meetings between the corporates and the startups with a defined agenda. South Summit currently has approximately 200 corporate partnerships, with a mix of Spanish companies and companies from other countries. South Summit is delivered in partnership with public actors, including the central government, the Madrid community government and Madrid City Hall. These public entities provide in-kind contributions, most importantly access to venues for the events. Relevant government entities also participate actively in the events at South Summit. However, South Summit does not receive any direct funding from the government, in contrast to similar events in other countries such as Web Summit in Lisbon and Viva Tech in France.
BankInter Innovation Foundation’s Scaleup Spain Network: The Scaleup Spain Network is operated by BankInter in partnership with Wayra and Endeavour. The initiative selects 15 chief executive officers (CEOs) of startups every year and connects them with experts, investors, and experienced entrepreneurs who have already had success in scaling. The admitted startups participate in an approximately 6-month support programme incorporating training and networking initiatives, after which they remain part of the Scaleup Spain Network. The aim is to help the participating companies to scale and mature and to create a collaborative network among founders to facilitate peer learning and exchange. The initiative targets companies at a more advanced stage of development. Indeed, the requirements for participation are having had either revenue above USD 1 million in the previous year or having raised more than USD 1 million in the last funding round. Participants are also required to have had a minimum annual growth rate of 60%.
Endeavour Spain: Endeavour Spain seeks to mobilise the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem through several channels. It firstly works to stimulate networking among entrepreneurs through the organisation of retreats and other events to build a community where there are opportunities for beneficial exchanges and learning. This is particularly important given that Spain is a multi-polar ecosystem relative to other countries, meaning that deliberate efforts are needed to connect actors in the different regional ecosystems. Endeavour also connects entrepreneurs with mentors, who can be more experienced entrepreneurs as well as other industry or business experts. In addition, Endeavour has an investor network comprising national and international investors that relate to Spanish entrepreneurs through roadshow events and other initiatives. An example is an event held in October 2024 that brought 100 investors from outside of Spain to meet with Spanish entrepreneurs.
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: This is a longstanding annual event with tens of thousands of participants from startups, corporates, investors, and governments from across the world. Startups have opportunities to demonstrate their products and innovations to potential investors during the 4-day event. There are also numerous roundtables, talks and networking opportunities that startups can benefit from throughout the event. The Mobile World Congress is supported by a large number of private sponsors as well as the Government of Catalonia.
Valencia Digital Summit: Since 2018, this annual event has brought together startups, international companies and investors in order to facilitate connections between these different actors. The 2025 edition is expected to convene more than 3 000 startups and 800 investors, with a total of 12 000 participants from more than 120 countries. The event is run by Startup Valencia with financial support from the European Union and Spanish government.
Digital Enterprise Show in Malaga: This 3-day event includes conferences, an exhibition space for innovative technologies, and networking opportunities for entrepreneurs, corporates and a range of other actors from the private and public sectors. The event has been running since 2016 and focuses on the digital economy and transformation. It is supported by a range of public entities at the local, national and European level.
Adigital / Estech Scalability Day: This annual event convenes entrepreneurs, investors and representatives from public entities to discuss and promote tech scaleups in Spain. The 2024 edition had sessions on the impact of scaleups in Spain, the role of technology in economic development and competitiveness, and strategies for supporting scaleups.
Despite this impressive array of networking events for Spanish startups and scaleups, several stakeholders consider that there is still a step to take to convert networking at events into systematic collaborations among firms. Most events, except perhaps South Summit, tend to be focused on inspiring people and enabling people exchanges while business matchmaking is limited. There is an opportunity for the organisers to take a more proactive role in setting up match-making activities aimed at creating real, long-standing collaborations.
This requires the important and resource-intensive task of curating matchmaking activities to partner startups and scaleups with potential investors, corporates, suppliers or customers that are relevant to their needs and circumstances. Although private entities such as Adigital, Spaincap, South Summit and Endeavour are doing a good job in this activity, their reach is currently limited compared with the total number of startups in Spain.
A further challenge for developing meaningful collaborations between startups and scaleups and other stakeholders is the lack of connectedness among Spain’s regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. Entrepreneurial activity in Spain is very multi-polar, with activity spread across the hubs of Madrid and Barcelona and other smaller regional ecosystems. While this diversity is positive, it does create a co-ordination challenge owing to the lack of a singular focal point, which can result in silos forming at the regional level. With respect to university-business collaboration, this is reported to be improving, though the high degree of autonomy that universities in different parts of the country have means that it can be challenging to implement nationwide initiatives to promote knowledge transfer and commercialisation activities.
A promising approach to building cross-regional networks would be to establish facilitators in each region to connect entrepreneurs from the region to opportunities in other regions and, when a good match is found, foster deeper engagement. Incubators and innovation centres could be well placed to serve this function, and there is a wide-reaching network in Spain that can expand their efforts in this area. For instance, there are 25 Business Innovation Centres (BICs) within ANCES (the national association of BICs), with at least one BIC in every region. They, to some extent, plug entrepreneurs from their region into Spain’s national entrepreneurial ecosystem, for example by bringing their client startups to major events like South Summit. Incubators also try to link startups to corporates as service suppliers and to create structures to connect startups to investors. However, these initiatives are ad-hoc and non-systematic and often rely on the proactiveness, knowledge and connectedness of individual incubator managers, who have the potential to play a pivotal role in facilitating networking within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Moreover, incubators could do more to ensure that networking events provide a chance to establish meaningful and mutually beneficial commercial partnerships as opposed to more fleeting connections.
Policy can help build business collaborations across stakeholders
In addition to initiatives by private entities, several public agencies in Spain serve an important networking function within Spain’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. For example, ICEX Spain Trade and Investment operates an investors network and is actively engaged in connecting investors or foreign corporates with startups that can meet their needs. Meanwhile, ENISA works to connect resource providers and ecosystem actors from more well-established regional ecosystems such as Madrid and Barcelona with parts of the country where the entrepreneurial ecosystem is less advanced or complete. Further, the Support for Innovative Business Groups (AEI) programme aims to strengthen collaboration within entrepreneurial ecosystems, encouraging knowledge-sharing and innovation among businesses.
Spain also has a well-established system of cluster organisations which play an important role in co-ordinating entrepreneurial ecosystems and facilitating networking at the sectoral level. This has been facilitated by the longstanding cluster policy which is operated by the Ministry for Industry and Tourism and has been in place since 2006. Through this policy, the Ministry provides grants to entities in its registry of “Innovative Business Groups”. These cluster organisations provide a range of networking supports to their members, including by facilitating co-operative research and development projects, establishing linkages with clusters in other sectors and countries, and organising networking events to foster mutually beneficial connections and exchanges. Although Catalonia (with 24 clusters) and Madrid (13 clusters) account for 30% of Spain’s Innovative Business Clusters, there is a relatively good spread of clusters across the country. The environment and energy sector features the highest number of clusters (19), followed by ICT (18) and agri-food (15), as shown in Figure 5.1 below.
Note: The vertical axis represents the number of business clusters of companies appearing in Spain registry of “Innovative Business Groups”.
Source: Ministerio de industria y turismo - Agrupación Empresarial Innovadora (https://clusters.ipyme.org/es-es/Identificar/Paginas/Estadisticas.aspx)
In recent years, the national cluster programme has focused increasingly on supporting innovation projects, fostering co-operation between companies, and enabling their participation in innovation and internationalisation programmes of other entities at the national and European level. This has been achieved by introducing new requirements for being part of the Registry of Innovative Business Groups to channel funding towards clusters with proven innovation potential and a sufficient size to deliver impact. Specifically, clusters are required to submit applications with documentation proving they meet requirements surrounding their representativeness, the number of companies they reach, their connections with research and training organisations, the adequacy of their organisational and co-ordination structures, their financial viability, their innovative potential, and their capacity for international outreach. As of 2021, 13 757 companies were part of one of the 124 registered Innovative Business Groups, of which 11 063 were SMEs. EUR 110.6 million in funding was provided to entities in the registry through the programme between 2007 and 2021, with the largest category of funding being “innovation activities in co-operation”, highlighting again the programme’s emphasis on networking and collaboration.
Another initiative that aimed to mobilise Spanish firms’ resources and access to European funding is the IDI Network. Under the responsibility of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the Network plays an important role in multi-level strategic co-ordination between the Autonomous Communities and the General State Administration in research and innovation. The Network is a strategic governance tool for co-ordinating the actors in the Spanish Science, Technology and Innovation System, avoiding duplication and improving access to European funding, strengthening the link between scientific policy and the innovative business fabric. Spain’s CDTI is also contributing to the initiative by co-financing the activities of the IDI Network and by designing public policies that support research, development and innovation.
Beyond its participation to the IDI Network, CDTI is also active in the State Programme for Catalysing Innovation and Business Leadership, part of the State Sub-programme for Public-Private Collaboration. CDTI offers grants for open collaboration projects between stakeholders at different territorial levels, with the aim of promoting technological development and innovation. With a budget of about EUR 3 million, the grants are dedicated to knowledge transfer through the Cervera Networks of Excellence.
A further public initiative with potential to strengthen networks in Spain’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is the National Entrepreneurship Office (ONE), which is a digital platform established through the Startup Law and launched in February 2024. It is managed by Red.es under the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service. The ONE platform aims to become a common meeting point for Spain’s whole entrepreneurial ecosystem, and therefore targets not only entrepreneurs but also investors, corporations and professionals both from Spain and overseas. As of early 2025 there were 8 000 registered users of the platform, capturing a sizeable share of the entrepreneurial ecosystem players. It currently serves primarily as an information portal with information on laws and procedures of relevance to startups and scaleups. However, further features and functionalities are planned for the ONE platform. One of the goals is to create a dynamic platform in which there is spontaneous interaction among users.
On top of these existing initiatives, there are some areas of untapped potential with respect to facilitating more and better networking for Spain’s startups and scaleups. For example, Red.es is considering adding a matchmaking tool to the ONE platform, as well as a function for users to exchange messages with one another. With these new functionalities, the ONE platform could become a connection point for entrepreneurial ecosystem actors. However, this might still not be enough. A more proactive role could be taken to facilitate relevant connections between parties when concrete commercial opportunities arise, by readily suggesting links among startups and scaleups, investors, corporates and researchers and by organising bilateral online business meetings.
Similarly, there is scope to build more of a network around the startups being certified by ENISA under the Startup Law, with a clear co-ordinating entity that organises networking initiatives. More broadly, while public entities such as ENISA and ICEX do facilitate networking and matchmaking in an effective manner, it would be beneficial to formalise these initiatives and recognise the networking mandate of these organisations to ensure that networking efforts are suitably resourced and prioritised.
The Startup Forum established by the Startup Law can play an important role in bringing stakeholders together, identifying evolving challenges and bottlenecks and connecting regional ecosystems with national policies. However, it currently does not carry a mandate to introduce initiatives to translate networking opportunities into structured, deep collaborations, or building stronger linkages between academia and industries.
Large corporates can collaborate more and better integrate startups
Some large corporations in Spain are active in open innovation and supporting Spanish startups and scaleups. An example is Telefonica, whose venture capital arm and open innovation platform “Wayra” is a very active player in Spain’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
However, this approach remains the exception rather than the rule. In some cases, corporates can run mentoring programmes for startups, yet collaboration between startups and corporates as a whole remains underdeveloped in Spain. Large companies often have rigid procurement processes that are bureaucratically complex and a preference for working with traditional suppliers, which creates barriers for startups.
Spain’s entrepreneurial ecosystem would benefit greatly from more open innovation initiatives by large corporates, in particular by acting as first customers and providing opportunities to pilot and eventually commercialise their innovative products or services. More could be done to raise awareness of collaboration opportunities between corporates and startups. There is also a need to be proactive in establishing partnerships between corporates with innovation needs and specific startups with the potential to address these needs. The case of Ignite in Sweden provides a potential learning model for Spain (Box 5.1).
Data spaces are a promising area for developing networks
Spain is making progress in the area of open data, which refers to the availability of information collected, produced or paid for by public entities. Spain ranked sixth in the European Union for open data maturity in 2024, which represents a strength for the country’s ecosystem. The government is also taking significant steps to increase the availability and usage of data from private sources through its major efforts in the area of data spaces (Noardo et al., 2024[9]). These are enabling data infrastructures that can increase productivity and competitiveness in the economy by allowing companies to voluntarily and securely share data with other participants.
The General Directorate for Data has recently been established within the Spanish Ministry for Digital Transformation and Civil Service and is currently rolling out an EU-funded, EUR 500 million plan to promote sectoral data spaces across Spain. The aim is to develop 150 additional data spaces through the initiative. The sectors targeted are health, agri-food, sustainable mobility, trade, industry, social economy, and care.
The possibility of accessing, contributing to and sharing business-relevant data can help forge stronger business collaborations and develop value chains around data. As this policy area evolves, Spain’s role as a frontrunner is likely to spur the growth of deeper, data-enabled networks.
Description
Ignite Sweden was established in 2017 as a non-profit organisation aiming to connect startups to large companies and public entities. It is part-funded by Vinnova, the national innovation agency. This role is performed by undertaking tailored matchmaking to identify mutually-beneficial connections and facilitating first meetings between the relevant parties. The matchmaking process begins with an “activation” stage, where Ignite works with a corporate entity to establish whether they have a mandate and budget to collaborate with startups, to identify pain points that a collaboration could help to address, and to identify which individuals from the organisation would be best placed to meet with the startups. An inventory of business pain points is then developed, which is used by Ignite to develop a shortlist of startups that could potentially provide a solution. The corporates then attend a half-day matchmaking session where they hold seven, 20-minute meetings with selected startups. The goal of the meetings is to determine the compatibility of the two parties and whether a second, more technical meeting would be of benefit. Ignite Sweden also provides support to startups before and after this first meeting to maximise the possibilities of the exchange yielding benefits for both parties. This includes the provision of training, coaching and resources to help startups to prepare for the meeting as well as legal advice on issues such as patents and proof of concept agreements.
Where the first meetings are successful, a pilot project can be launched where the startup’s technology is tested in a production or real customer environment. A requirement for the pilots is that startups receive payment for their time and technology, with budgets typically ranging from EUR 15 000 to EUR 25 000. After the pilot, there is an evaluation phase where the success of the pilot is assessed and a decision is made on whether to change, scale up or end the collaboration. Since 2017, 7 968 meetings have been organised in this way, involving 1 793 startups, 372 corporates, and 48 public organisations. These meetings have resulted in 715 commercial collaborations.
Success factors
Key to the success of the Ignite Sweden initiative is the creation of a compelling value proposition for both the startups and their potential customers, be they large corporates or public entities. This is achieved by Ignite’s efforts to organise meetings only where there is a real and tangible opportunity for a business collaboration, based on the proactive identification of businesses’ pain points and startups with potential solutions. The preparatory training and post-meeting support that Ignite offers the startups also increases the chances that the meeting will be useful and productive from the point of view of the corporate partner. Meanwhile, Ignite’s approach of vetting corporate partners to ensure they have a mandate and budget for a commercial collaboration helps to attract more startups to the programme.
Lessons for Spain
Getting Spanish corporates to engage with Spanish startups is a longstanding challenge in Spain, with corporates’ risk aversion often cited as a barrier to collaborations. While there are opportunities for startups and corporates to network in Spain through the various high-profile events convened by entrepreneurial ecosystem actors, a proactive and deliberate approach is needed to connect specific startups and corporates for which there is a genuine opportunity for commercial collaboration. Private organisations such as South Summit already play an important role in establishing these types of opportunities, but the ecosystem would benefit from public support to scale up such activities.
Source: https://www.ignitesweden.org/.
Spain’s federal structure and multi-polar entrepreneurial ecosystem can make it more challenging for entrepreneurs to grow their networks than might be the case in a context where there are fewer regional divides and a clearer focal point for the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Given this, the many high-profile events that take place in Spain each year to convene entrepreneurs, investors, corporates, public entities and other ecosystem actors, both at the national and international level, play a key role in facilitating connections and generating a more cohesive entrepreneurial ecosystem overall.
Spain also benefits from a good network of cluster organisations and business incubators that cover all parts of the country, boosted by the government’s longstanding support programme for innovative business clusters as well as funding for business incubators and business innovation centres provided by national and regional public entities. These organisations are important facilitators of networking, providing an important source of matchmaking opportunities and connections for Spanish startups and scaleups. Public entities such as ENISA, Red.es, and ICEX Spain Trade and Investment also play an important role in supporting networks within Spain’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, though more could be done to better resource and formalise these activities.
A key challenge for networking is to stimulate substantive and meaningful collaborations and relationships that deliver concrete benefits to all parties, as opposed to shallow or less tailored introductions that are unlikely to be followed up. South Summit provides a good illustration of this approach in action through its facilitation of highly curated matchmaking between startups and large corporates based on the identified needs of the corporates and the competencies of the startups. Such matchmaking activities require substantial resources and expertise and are currently carried out mainly by private entities at a relatively small scale.
The following policy actions are recommended to improve the networking element of Spain’s entrepreneurial ecosystem:
Launch a public matchmaking programme that provides tailored introductions between Spanish startups and large corporates operating in Spain, based on identified needs and competencies, with a clear process for progressing to a pilot project where there is a suitable fit.
Publish information on Spanish startups and ecosystem actors (including large corporates, investors, researchers, startup support providers, mentors, and public entities) on the ONE platform and introduce online matchmaking functions.
Organise events and establish a platform for companies certified under the Startup Law to share relevant resources, contacts or experiences, discuss shared challenges, and explore potential collaborations.
Assign mandates and provide resources to chosen incubators, business innovation centres, or innovative business clusters to create and manage specialised ecosystem networks in selected sectors.
References
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