The flourishing entrepreneurial Valencia has been dubbed the “new California.” It was the Elcano Royal Institute, in a report on the industrialization of digitalization, in which it valued the “brilliance” of its promoters and an “effective” public-private collaboration that includes close university-business relationships when referring to it (equally than to Malaga) as a thriving region capable of competing with Madrid or Barcelona.
The truth is that the Valencian Community has a decade of successful journey in the field of technological entrepreneurship, which longs to have its space in the productive model that is to come. The 2023 Report of the Startup Observatory of the Valencian Community numbers 1,314 startups based in the territory, 16% more than in 2022; and 1,677 entities participating in the ecosystem, 14.31% more than in 2022. It could be said that this is already a startup territory, although those who make it possible still see a long way to go.
This is what Marta Nogueras, general director of Lanzadera, Juan Roig’s business accelerator, considers it, who knew how to see the potential of the Marina of Valencia as that innovative and entrepreneurial space where today everyone looks for an office to grow. “We are that territory, but we have to be more so. There are incubators, accelerators, investors and an ecosystem of companies that settle here to find innovation. Startups look for a network of contacts and that is why our job is to be able to make them see that here they have opportunities to create and do business,” explains Nogueras.
In the last 11 years, Lanzadera has allowed more than 1,400 startups to pass through Valencia and, the board notes, it is also “guilty” that many of them have settled permanently. “It is a challenge that we want to continue working on so that more and more startups that go through Lanzadera stay based in València,” he points out.
In this anchoring, the talent that knows how to retain will be key and here centers such as the UPV or the UV will be essential. “We have the base of Valencian universities and we have stopped being a territory that exports talent. Since the pandemic, Valencia has been a destination that attracts qualified talents and companies that want to work here,” explains Nacho Mas, CEO of Startup Valencia.
The association it represents calls for better incentives and taxation to facilitate the attraction of companies, even recognizing that in recent years many have chosen to establish themselves, such as Siemens, Lufthansa or PowerCO. Among the challenges of the ecosystem is the possibility of developing a Valencian startup law, a commitment that the Popular Party made in the last regional elections.
The idea is also developed with the support of the Valencian employers’ association, which sees an important market niche in Valencia and Alicante, and an emerging one in Castellón. For the three provinces, the Department of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism is preparing an integrating plan, which seeks to give “added value” to business attraction, converting the ports of the three capitals into technological hubs.
The one in València, already consolidated, grows in parallel with projects such as Lanzadera and its investment vehicle Angels, but also with Innsomnia or the Telefonica Tech center nearby. A new space will soon be added to the port to house more companies and more innovation thanks to prominent investors such as Iker Marcaide. The Terminal project, in the old maritime station of València, will be the image of this commitment to emerging companies.
A confidence in their ability to create business that the traditional company has also seen, since the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs promoted the LAB Mediterráneo Foundation after the pandemic, which has been dotting its calendar of meetings with startups, researchers, university students and small and medium-sized companies. . X-raying the Valencian I D i, they are working to achieve a greater investment effort in technology in the Valencian Community, even less than in other leading regions, but with great projection.
