Barcelona will host a new innovation hub linked to the development of impact projects. After the arrival of Ship2B and Norrksen, it is the New York management company XY Booster that is betting on the city.
The company will open a seven-story club with capacity for 400 people in the heart of Barcelona, ??in a passage very close to Passeig de Gràcia. “We have invested 5 million euros in remodeling this old gym. We would like to inaugurate it at the end of the year but the bureaucratic procedures will delay the opening to the second quarter of 2025,” explains Robert Monturiol, a Catalan businessman living in the United States, who has decided to bet on Barcelona for his personal connection but also for its vibrant innovative ecosystem. .
The hub is designed to host startups financed by XY in the United States and projects outside the group, as long as they are aligned with its values. “I am dyslexic and I want to give opportunities to social projects, preferably promoted by neurodivergent professionals and women,” says Monturiol, who is a descendant of the engineer Narcís Monturiol, who was the inventor of the Ictineo, one of the first submarines in the world. In addition, the hub will host a private club for expats, foreign professionals living in Barcelona, ??and will also offer multipurpose rooms where events can be held with agents from the ecosystem.
The Barcelona center comes after the openings of offices in New York and San Francisco and another hub in Mexico aimed exclusively at women.
Founded in 2022, XY Booster is dedicated to managing several investment funds that receive financing from Monturiol and individual investors from the United States and Mexico. “Before founding this project, I worked for 30 years in banking and finance and technology consulting. I also promoted the company Ictineo Plataforma in Mexico, which I sold to Bradesco, the second private bank in Latin America,” he says.
With its track record and capital, Monturiol has convinced other investors and, together, they have contributed a total of 112 million dollars, about 100 million euros, to XY Booster. At the moment, they have been allocated to three vehicles, one for real estate investment and two others specialized in the purchase and sale of debt to private companies. With this money, they have facilitated the creation of offices and 17 social impact startups. “In the future, we plan to contribute 100 million more and create two new funds, one focused on women’s projects and the other on neurodivergent professionals,” he advances.