Known for its association with Gaudí, Picasso, and many other prominent thinkers, artists, and architects, Barcelona has also become a benchmark for entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology. The beautiful city is home to organisations like Tech Barcelona, international technology events like the Mobile World Congress, or our annual EU-Startups Summit, and big startup success stories like Glovo, TravelPerk and Typeform.
With an ever-evolving ecosystem, Barcelona offers a competitive environment and a highly attractive living destination. Made up of an incredible mix of investors, accelerators, incubators, and international talent, the Catalan city made it to spot number 5 on our annual ranking of Europe’s biggest startup hubs in 2020.
For this article we’ve scouted super promising early-stage startups, founded between 2018 and 2021, taking into consideration team size, funding, growth rate, innovation, and market size. Here are 10 exceptionally promising Barcelona-based startups to keep an eye on in 2021 and beyond:
Payflow is on a mission to bring financial well-being to all workers, allowing them to increase their motivation and productivity at work. Payflow gives employees instant access to the salary that they’ve already earned. It integrates with the company’s Human Resources and payroll systems, without affecting current processes and cash flows. Born in 2020, the HRtech startup has raised over €4.5 million, expanded to Chile, and has recently been selected for YCombinator 21.
Inbrain Neuroelectronics is a biotechnology startup developing the next generation of neuroelectronic therapies powered by machine learning. Their graphene-brain interfaces can read and detect therapy-specific biomarkers and trigger highly focal adaptive neuromodulation for increased outcomes in personalised neurological therapies. Founded in 2019, the team raised around €15.5 million to build and improve neuroelectronic interfaces to cure brain disorders.
Almost 3 million SMEs and Self-Employed persons play an essential role in job creation and in Spain’s economy, and even so, they continue to be neglected by the insurance sector. SingularCover aims to change that by offering insurance that truly protects SMEs and self-employed people and adapts 100% to each person’s circumstances, available online at any time and from anywhere in just 5 minutes. Created in 2018, the insurtech has raised around €6.4 million to make insurance easy, simple and effective.
Emjoy is a femtech startup helping customers find sexual happiness and fulfillment through guided audios. They aim to normalize female pleasure one audio at a time with no-frills, real facts, and real fun. With a team of sexual wellbeing experts, there are over 300 audio sessions and sexy stories for all types of women. Founded in 2019 and launched worldwide in early 2020, the audio-based intimate wellbeing startup has raised around €3.5 million to close the orgasm gap by enabling women to discover their bodies and (re)gain confidence in their sex lives. We recently interviwed emjoy’s founder Andrea Oliver Garcia in our podcast, too.
Bloobirds is a business development solution, an all-in-one platform for SDRs. The end-to-end prospecting platform converts the company’s go-to-market strategy and sales playbook into a predictable, actionable, and measurable outbound process, including inbound qualification. Launched in 2019, the startup has raised over €3 million, not only to eliminate sales reps and managers’ admin tasks but to make selling more intuitive. They help teams flow through their pipeline, all the while collecting crucial data and creating competitive insights.
Kubbo operates a network of urban warehouses to bring e-commerce business inventories closer to their customers. Clients only need to choose the products, the quantity, the warehouse, and the date, and Kubbo takes care of the rest. It doesn’t matter if it’s Shopify, Woocommerce, or an independent platform, Kubbo’s technology connects to each store quickly and safely. This results in super-efficient fulfillment and ultra-fast deliveries. Founded in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic lockdown, the team has grown and raised €1.3 million to guarantee same-day deliveries and help small businesses grow.
Citibeats is an artificial intelligence platform that searches and analyzes large amounts of text provided by citizens. The platform processes data and identifies social facts and trends that are useful for companies and institutions. Easy to implement and customize, the tool monitors information in real-time, in changing environments, on a large scale. Founded in 2018, Citibeats’ team has raised €3.5 million and has been recognized with awards such as the United Nations World Summit Awards and COGx for the best Artificial Intelligence for public services.
Impress is a healthtech startup developing invisible orthodontics. Their mission is to combine oral health and aesthetic goals together with a medically minded, customer-focused approach. Experienced Orthodontists create personalized, expert treatment plans across all ages, from simple to complex cases. Founded in 2019, the team raised €47 million to offer in-person clinical attention in more than 45 locations all over Spain, and develop painless, hygienic, removable, and invisible orthodontic solutions.
011h is a construction startup aiming to revolutionise the sector through technology and create intelligent, high-quality, healthy, and sustainable buildings. They aim to reduce construction’s CO2 emissions and execution issues: delays, budget deviations, and inconsistent quality. More than sustainable buildings, they aim for cheaper costs, shorter execution times, and better overall reliability. Founded in 2020, the team has raised €10 million for its mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable building development.
Nomo is a tool for freelancers and SMEs to help them manage their businesses, controlling their expenses and income, overall making their lives easier. Nomo empowers customers to manage their business, finances and taxes in a single digital platform. Nomo offers services including issuance of unlimited budgets and invoices, cost control, tax forecast, bank reconciliation, and a digital management service. Launched in 2019, the fintech startup has raised €2.5 million to help SMEs and freelancers to grow their businesses in an easier and simpler way.
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!