MA DRID
24 Smart government policies have also helped to attract
foreign investment – from e-commerce giants Alibaba and Amazon, alongside digital and fintech providers such as UST Global, Ebury and Ria, among others. The capital has done particularly well in appealing
to overseas investors, drawing as much as €51 billion (US$63 billion) in foreign direct investment (FDI) between 2012 and 2016. “Ever since Spain and Madrid leſt the economic crisis behind, investment has grown rapidly,” says Rocio Guemes, director of government agency Invest in Madrid. “In 2016, Madrid received investment worth €11.5 billion (US$14.25 billion), up 11.5 per cent on the previous year. This was 47.5 per cent of the total investment received in Spain.” Things got even better in 2017. Te third quarter of
last year saw FDI of €2.6 billion (US$3.2 billion), up 59.6 per cent from the previous quarter and 12 per cent more than the same quarter in 2016. Much of this funding has been ploughed back into
real estate, financial services and construction, as investor confidence grows in the property sector. The country’s GDP is now rising steadily, up 3.1 per cent at the end of 2017 compared with the previous year, while unemployment has fallen to a post-crisis low of 16.5 per cent.
START-UP HOTSPOT Before the effects of the extra cash could be felt, glimmers of hope began to emerge from the city’s tech scene. While the downturn ravaged Madrid’s housing and construction sectors, young entrepreneurs capitalised on the low rents and living costs. Support
AP RIL 2 0 18
“We have a high level of engineers, a great quality of life, access to talent and interest for our start-ups”
for start-ups began to appear in the capital, with Spanish telecoms group Telefonica opening its global small business accelerator Wayra in 2012, followed by the 2015 launch of Google’s third European outpost for entrepreneurs (aſter London), offering a
space for people to work and collaborate. “Spain has always been a country of
entrepreneurs, but the crisis was a wake-up call,” says Sofia Benjumea, head of Google’s Campus Madrid and co-founder of the South Summit start-up
conference. “Since 2012, the start-up ecosystem has developed tremendously, both in Madrid and Barcelona, along with new hubs like Valencia and Malaga.” At that time, Google Campus
ABOVE: Google Campus
(
googleforentrepreneurs.com) was present only in London and Tel Aviv (it now has hubs in Warsaw, Seoul and Sao Paulo), so why did it choose Madrid next? “The answer is, why not?” Benjumea says. “Spaniards are not the best at selling themselves, but we have a high level of engineers, a great quality of life, access to talent, and our start-ups have received interest from a lot of major venture capital funds.” Now in its third year, Campus Madrid has amassed 32,000 members from across Spain, Europe, the US and Latin America, all of whom can use it to work, meet and host demo days and workshops, for free. Housed in a 19th-century battery factory, the space is bright and airy with colourful murals, a café and clusters of Scandi furniture where pairs of 20- and 30-somethings huddle over their laptops.
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