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10 Barcelona-based startups to watch in 2017 and beyond

I just spent 4 weeks in Barcelona and I have to confess that I kind of fell in love with the city and its startup scene. Barcelona has so much more to offer than just great weather and delicious food! According to our annual raking of Europe’s biggest startup hubs, Barcelona is actually one of the Top 5 startup ecosystems in Europe. After speaking with many players from the local startup scene, I got the impression that the city’s startup ecosystem is growing and developing well, but there would be even more potential if there was better access to follow on funding (Series A rounds onwards) and if there was more international visibility for Barcelona-based startups.

During my time in Barcelona I met with many startups and took a close look at the local startup scene. To provide you with a little overview regarding exceptionally promising startups, I created a list of 10 Barcelona-based startups to watch in 2017 and beyond. All of these startups were founded between 2015 and 2017 and each one of them is -at least from my perspective- heading towards a successful future.

Glovo-logoGlovo: A Barcelona-based startup that is transforming the way consumers access local goods, enabling anyone to get nearly any product delivered in less than 60 minutes. Glovo’s on-demand mobile application connects customers with independent local couriers, who acquire goods from any restaurant or shop in a city and also deliver urgent packages for a fixed fee of €5,50. Glovo, which started in 2015, is currently available in 6 Spanish cities as well as in Paris and Milan. So far, the ambitious Glovo team raised about €7.15 million in venture capital.

CornerJob-logoCornerjob‘s mission is to help people to find the right job within the shortest timeframe. The Barcelona-based startup provides a job matching platform that enables users to find geolocated job offers, apply to them, chat directly with the recruiters and get an answer in 24 hours. For companies, it represents a great recruiting channel in terms of simplicity, rapidity and flexibility. Founded in 2015, Cornerjob so far raised about $54 million in funding.

Travelperk-logoTravelPerk aims to revolutionize the way that organizations budget, book and manage their business travel. The Barcelona-based startup offers a unique dynamic budgeting algorithm, incentives for employees to save, as well as reporting, dashboards, expense integrations, flexible payments and more. All of that within a single easy-to-use platform and at no cost to the user. TravelPerk was founded in 2015 and was already able to secure more than $8.5 million in venture capital. Most recently, TravelPerk won the renown The Next Web 2017 Scale competition.

Eelp-logoEelp! is an app to delegate all kinds of daily tasks and needs busy people have. By using the app, Eelpers will take care of everything for you. From taking the car for a wash to pet-sitting your dog while travelling, or getting your hair done before a dinner (etc.). Eelp! works with local professionals and services to let you have more time for yourself and the ones you care about. The Barcelona-based startup successfully launched a trial phase in Barcelona by December 2016 and secured about €200K in angel funding in the beginning of 2017.

Badi-logoBadi: Founded in 2015 and based in Barcelona, Badi provides a new way of flat sharing, making city-center living affordable for everyone by changing how flat sharers connect and interact. The platform enables you to list or look for available rooms in shared flats and find flatmates according to your age, tastes and hobbies. Badi is a peer-to-peer marketplace of non-vacational shared flats. The young company raised more than €2 million in funding.

Factorial-logoFactorial HR is a SaaS solution focused on HR management for small and medium sized companies. The Factorial software helps HR managers to automate tasks like time control, worker documentation, contracts and payrolls, and instead lets them focus on the employees on a personal level. In addition, Factorial provides employee benefits such as insurance, tickets, restaurant and gym memberships. Founded in the end of 2016, Factorial has been built with the help of itnig’s venture builder in Poble Nou.

Hibox-logoHibox is an out-of-the-box solution to handle the three most critical pain points in collaborating with your team: 1. faster communication (team messaging), 2. keep track of your projects (task management) and 3. live discussions for remote work or separate offices (video calls). In addition, the Artificial Intelligence bot of Hibox will help you with your everyday tasks. It automatically recognizes patterns in your messages and suggests possible actions, like creating a task or assigning it to someone else. The Barcelona-based startup was founded in 2015 and secured about $1 million in seed funding in 2016.

Dunforce-logoDunforce helps companies to better manage their invoice workflow by providing a smart and virtual assistant. The Dunforce software simplifies and accelerates the process of collecting payments. The goal of the Barcelona-based startup is to transform the way companies manage their receivables and payables. It is the first Intelligent Collection Agent that uses AI and machine learning to solve this growing problem of late payments. Founded in 2016, Dunforce secured about €100K in seed funding, took part in Telefonica’s startup accelerator Wayra and most recently got accepted to the fintech accelerator BNP Paribas Plug & Play.

RestbAI-logoRestb.ai‘s Artificial Intelligence technology enables real-time Intelligent Image Recognition Prediction. The startup offers an accurate cloud-based Deep Learning Image Recognition API service and by using AI technology it enables you to manage your images and videos. The images will be interpreted, moderated, filtered, categorised, classified or tagged in almost real time situations with high confidence scores. With Restb.ai, enterprises and developers can easily start using true AI and work more effectively with the data provided from visuals. Restb.ai was founded in the 4th quarter of 2015. In 2017 the startup raised €1.2 million in venture capital.

Furgo-logoFurgo is a marketplace where users can list the items they need to move and transport providers can bid on the delivery requirements. With Furgo, customers can choose among all the offers they receive, making a decision based on factors such as price or transporter reputation. Customers then book the transportation service through their mobile device. Furgo was founded in 2015 and secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding in 2016. In the first half of 2018, Furgo plans to launch its marketplace also outside of Spain.

By the way: If you’re a corporate or investor looking for exciting startups in a specific market for a potential investment or acquisition, check out our Startup Sourcing Service!

Thomas Ohr
Thomas Ohr
Thomas Ohr is the "Editor in Chief" of EU-Startups.com and started the blog in October 2010. He is excited about Europe's future, passionate about new business ideas and lives in Barcelona (Spain).
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