MA DRID
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Puerta del Sol; the new Amazon HQ; Plaza Mayor;
San Miguel market; Calle de Alcala
map, an events platform and advice on funding. It has also recently joined Startup City Alliance Europe (SCALE) – an alliance of 19 start-up organisations in 11 cities aimed at creating a broad ecosystem while offering support to firms that are ready to scale up and leverage their European neighbours. Members include Amsterdam, Helsinki, Paris, Rome and London. Young start-ups with a great idea but no cash are in
luck. One of the foundation’s key programmes aims to improve the oſten demoralising and restrictive process of finding investors. Basterretxea-Gomez says that they are creating an online stage where the country’s most popular crowd-funding platforms can facilitate their projects, tap into capital and get in touch with private investors. “This has uncovered a huge amount of talent,” he
adds. “We presumed this existed in Spain and Madrid, but it was hidden because [new start-ups] couldn’t find ways to fund themselves.” But it isn’t only start-ups that have found fertile ground
“Over the past five years we have proven that Spain is an ideal place to innovate”
in Madrid’s tech sector. Since launching in Spain in 2011, Amazon has opened new locations across the country each year, and, in 2016, unveiled a technology centre in the capital. At the launch, Terry Hanold, vice-president of technology for Amazon EU, said: “Over the past five years we have proven that Spain is an ideal place to innovate. We have found professionals with incredible talent.” In 2017, Andreu Castellano, corporate
communications manager at Amazon Spain, said: “This year, Amazon will create more than 600 new fixed jobs in Spain, which means that in just one year, its workforce will increase by more than 50 per cent.” In the autumn of 2017, the group’s Spanish
headquarters relocated to a larger 12,000 sqm space in downtown Madrid with capacity for more than 1,000 staff. Te new tech hub also moved there, along with the first team outside of the US that develops software for Amazon Business, the group’s B2B marketplace. A new Amazon logistics centre is also due to open this
year in Illescas, Toledo, 40km south of the capital, and is expected to create more than 900 jobs in its first three years.
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