• The Italian group based in Barcelona specialises in technological solutions applied to mobility, retail and fintech

• With the incorporation of Spindox, Tech Barcelona consolidates its position as the gateway to the local ecosystem

Barcelona, 30 March 2022. – Spindox, the Italian digital transformation technology consultancy that develops and integrates solutions in the field of ICT (Information & Communication Technology), has joined Tech Barcelona as a Corporate Partner. The agreement will allow the group to strengthen its approach to the Barcelona ecosystem and provides extensive knowledge in digital solutions for strategic sectors such as mobility or retail.

Spindox, based in Barcelona, has around 1,000 employees, distributed between Italy, with its headquarters in Milan, and its subsidiaries in Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Italian group specialises in technological solutions applied to mobility, retail or fintech and its clients include brands such as Maserati, Vodafone, Pirelli and United Colours of Benetton.

Spindox’s active participation in the Tech Barcelona ecosystem will provide a global vision of the challenges faced by large international corporations, providing visibility of global projects and technological solutions that can be useful to both corporations and startups in the ecosystem.

Paolo Marone, Country Manager of Spindox Spain, says: “For a company like Spindox, which is dedicated to supporting the innovation of its clients through digital solutions and which operates throughout Spain from Barcelona, being part of Tech Barcelona is a natural step. We love the idea of participating in the development of advanced solutions in areas such as mobility, retail or fintech and thus contributing to a competitive ecosystem”.

Miquel Martí, CEO of Tech Barcelona, adds that “the incorporation of Spindox as an active partner in the ecosystem corroborates the interest of large international corporations in Barcelona as a focus for talent, business and technological contributions. It is a new opportunity to strengthen top-level international connections. And as an association we are proud to continue accompanying the companies that are committed to Barcelona”.

SeQura, the leading Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and deferred payment solution in Southern Europe, will invest €10 million in an innovation centre in Barcelona over the next two years. To accomplish this, 150 people will be hired over the next 12 months, 80 of them in technology and product. The Innovation Hub will be located at SeQura’s headquarters in Barcelona.

SeQura, founded in Barcelona in 2014, will use this investment to develop new products and tools to accelerate the digital transformation of physical shops and e-commerce, to streamline the purchasing process, improve conversion and provide new experiences that will enable customer loyalty.

“Convenience, trust and agility in the checkout process are imperative to convert online visits into sales, in context with a consumer profile accustomed to immediacy and convenience. Does it make sense to be forced to provide your personal information at every online shop and remember a unique password when you come back to shop? We have rethought the current shopping experience and simplified this process down to a single click. This investment will allow us to accelerate the development and implementation of such tools for our affiliated merchants” says David Bäckström, CEO of SeQura.

SeQura also offers different solutions for deferred payment in physical shops. These range from those that are integrated into the regular POS sales cycle, to those that allow the shopper to scan a QR code on the product label, allowing them to complete the purchase from their mobile, streamlining the sales process. “We enhance the inherent benefits of physical shopping by combining the immediacy and convenience of digital shopping,” adds David Bäckström.

SeQura becomes a Global Partner of Tech Barcelona

As part of this strategy, SeQura announces its incorporation to Tech Barcelona as a Global Partner to lead the new wave of fintech transformation from the city. For Miquel Martí, CEO of Tech Barcelona, “the financial sector is undergoing a decisive change, and Barcelona has the opportunity to contribute to and lead this transformation through technology. For Tech Barcelona, the fintech sector is one of the strategic focal points for the development of the ecosystem, and it is essential to bring together the main technology companies, such as SeQura, which are leading this change”. Tech Barcelona promotes, within its structure, a vertical that favours the creation, attraction and consolidation of technology companies that have to contribute to the transformation of the banking, financial and insurance sectors.

In the photo, from right to left, David Bäckström, CEO of SeQura; Adrián Escudé, Head of Marketing of SeQura; Miquel Martí, CEO of Tech Barcelona; and Mar Galtés, Corporate Development Director of Tech Barcelona (PHOTO: Mercè Resino).

Tech Barcelona announces that Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, has become a corporate partner. Cloudflare will work with the regional technology ecosystem of the Tech Barcelona incubator to improve the security, performance, and reliability of their digital applications.

For Tech Barcelona, a private non-profit association that supports and drives the digital and technological ecosystem of Barcelona, having a company such as Cloudflare with its innovative and comprehensive solutions joining the association will contribute to the expansion of Cloud based technologies. It will help organisations to innovate and explore new disruptive online services to meet the growing needs of consumers in the way they use and expect a secure, fast, privacy-focused, and a fundamentally reliable, Internet.

In the words of Paloma Cano, Channel Manager for Southern Europe, “the agreement with Tech Barcelona is an opportunity that allows us to collaborate technologically and integrate new businesses focused on large companies and SMEs, and continue to support the startup ecosystem in the Barcelona region and internationally. Cloudflare’s goal is to develop operations that allow us to offer secure and cost-effective Cloud solutions”.

“We are very pleased about this new partnership with Cloudflare. It will contribute to increase technological expertise and offer performant, reliable and secure services available to all types of companies that are part of our ecosystem. In addition, it strengthens our position as an attractive technological hub for global companies”, explains Miquel Martí, CEO of Tech Barcelona.

RocaSalvatella, a consultancy firm specialising in digital transformation, joins Tech Barcelona as a Corporate Partner. The alliance consolidates the collaboration maintained since the beginning of the association and will add value to the ecosystem at a time when the entrepreneurial sector is consolidated as a driver of innovation of large corporations for the new market scenario.

RocaSalvatella, a business consultancy born in 2008 in Barcelona, through its Digital Ventures business unit, aims to accompany promoters, whether corporations or investors, to co-create the businesses of the future. From the detection of the opportunity to the incubation, validation, launch and market growth of the new business.

Tech Barcelona is a private non-profit association created in 2013 that supports Barcelona’s digital and technological ecosystem and promotes the city as a hub of international reference. It has more than a thousand members and more than seventy partner companies, leaders in their sector, committed to the project.

For Gerard Vélez, Executive Partner of RocaSalvatella Ventures, the alliance with Tech Barcelona means being closer to the innovative agents of the city and adding to this value proposition as well as having a window to the world to understand and connect with the main disruptors that are appearing.

In the words of Miquel Martí, CEO of Tech Barcelona, “the agreement with RocaSalvatella consolidates a trend that is central to the development of the ecosystem: the collaboration of corporations with startups to generate open innovation dynamics and the integration of new technologies into their value proposition. We are sure that this is the start of great projects for the ecosystem”.

• The international group has its headquarters in Sant Cugat and Barcelona, where it has just inaugurated its global technology hub

Barcelona, 25 October 2021 – The Knot Worldwide, the world’s leading technology group in the digital bridal sector, joins Tech Barcelona as a Global Partner. The Knot Worldwide has just announced that its new international technology hub will be located in Barcelona, from where it will also centralise the business of fourteen markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

For the company, which manages a structure of more than 850 employees from its offices in Sant Cugat and Barcelona, the collaboration with Tech Barcelona will allow it to be in contact with the best talent in the Barcelona ecosystem. The alliance also reinforces the city’s position as an enclave from which to build strategies of international scope and consolidates it as a hub for attracting technological talent.

The Knot Worldwide, headquartered in New York, operates in 16 countries around the world and in Spain with the renowned Bodas.net brand. The international team, based in Barcelona and Sant Cugat, has increased its global relevance and taken on a leading role in the group, both for the international management of 14 of its markets on several continents and as a global technology hub for all its portals. They are currently the leading global player in digital wedding planning, with special relevance in markets such as the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France and Mexico, among others. Since the end of 2020, the International President of the company is Ángel Llull, who for 8 years led Booking’s strategy and growth in Europe, Latin America, North America, Asia and the Pacific.

Ángel Llull, International President of The Knot Worldwide, assures that “joining Tech Barcelona as a Global Partner confirms our company’s commitment to the area as a key market for innovative and technological talent. We want to continue attracting the best professionals in this new stage of growth that we are starting and this agreement allows us to access them”.

For Miquel Martí, CEO of Tech Barcelona, “The Knot Worldwide’s decision to locate its international hub in Barcelona is great news for the ecosystem and the incorporation of the company into Tech Barcelona strengthens us as a hub with global reach. Accompanying The Knot Worldwide in its digital growth strategy is a challenge that excites us and a learning experience for the agents of the ecosystem”.

Tech Barcelona adds Wallbox, a leading provider of charging solutions for electric vehicles and energy management worldwide, as a Corporate Partner. Through this alliance, Wallbox will strengthen its presence in the technology ecosystem and share knowledge in the development of sustainable mobility and the visibility of talent. For Tech Barcelona, this alliance strengthens the positioning of the ecosystem as a generator of technology and a driving force for the transformation of the production model from the industry, in which there are other thousand of members and seventy organizations partners. Wallbox’s trajectory reinforces Barcelona as a city of reference for creating business projects with a global vision and impact.

The Barcelona-based company, founded by Enric Asunción and Eduard Castañeda in 2015, is a pioneer in electric vehicle charging, offering a complete portfolio of charging and energy management solutions for residential, semi-public and public use. Today, Wallbox, an example of sustainable innovation in the industrial sector, has a presence in more than 80 countries on 6 continents to achieve its goal of promoting electromobility and a cleaner and more affordable energy management.

In the words of Miquel Martí, CEO of Tech Barcelona, “Wallbox is a local hero that has managed to innovate in a sector dominated by industrial giants. Their corporate journey and global vision are an example for the ecosystem and further proof of Barcelona’s potential for the technology and industrial sectors”.

According to Enric Asunción, CEO and co-founder of Wallbox, “At Wallbox we are always willing to collaborate to raise awareness of the entrepreneurial spirit that exists in Barcelona and to highlight the region’s profile as a leader in innovation and business. We are glad to be part of such a dynamic association”.

• The alliance aims to work together for Barcelona to lead the challenge of integrating new business models and the future of urban mobility and work.

Glovo, the delivery technology platform created in 2015, joins Tech Barcelona as a Global Partner. The alliance will contribute to boosting Barcelona’s projection as an entrepreneurial and talented city focused on the creation of business projects with a global vision. The new alliance will also work together to help Barcelona lead the challenge of integrating new business models and the future of urban mobility and work.

Glovo’s story of entrepreneurship is one of the great success stories of the ecosystem: founded by Oscar Pierre, aged just 22, in 2015 and becoming a unicorn in 2020, the company is currently present in 23 countries and in more than 870 cities around the world. At its Barcelona headquarters, it employs more than 2,000 people, more than 400 of whom are engineers.

For Tech Barcelona, a private non-profit association that works to develop the digital and technological sector, it reinforces the desire to make Barcelona a city in which global projects can be developed.

Oscar Pierre, co-founder and CEO of Glovo, “as an entrepreneur from Barcelona, I am proud that Glovo has become a strategic partner for Tech Barcelona, a benchmark for entrepreneurship and commitment to innovation. With this alliance, we want to contribute to promoting Barcelona as an international benchmark technology hub, reaffirming our commitment to the city where we were born and supporting global projects that transform the digital economy and add value to society”.

Miquel Martí, CEO of Tech Barcelona, “the story of Glovo is the story of a young entrepreneur who creates a startup that has had a global impact from Barcelona, following the path started by eDreams, Privalia or Socialpoint. We need to make local heroes visible and generate more references. Moreover, as a sector we can jointly address the great challenges posed by the digital transformation of the economy and society”.

The financial advisory and wealth planning firm DiverInvest has joined Tech Barcelona as a Corporate Partner. This alliance aims to jointly face the new challenges brought about by the digital transformation in the investment and financial sector.

DiverInvest, which has a long and consolidated track record in wealth and investment management, reinforces its commitment to growth with this approach to the Association, whose function is to represent the main players in the technological and digital framework.

For Tech Barcelona, a private non-profit association that works with the aim of developing the digital and technology sector, the agreement with the financial advisory firm allows the incorporation of an important source of knowledge about the industry, a sector with a great commitment to technological transformation and with an important future projection on the ecosystem of Barcelona.

David Levy, founder and CEO of DiverInvest, states that “this alliance is a great opportunity that allows us to collaborate with the technology and entrepreneurial hub of international reference. From DiverInvest we want to be part of the innovation process and contribute to its development”.

Miquel Martí, CEO of Tech Barcelona, believes that this incorporation is “a sign of the maturity of the ecosystem. DiverInvest is a good example of an investment services company that evolves together with technology to respond with greater agility and analytical capacity to the challenges of the future”.

Tech Barcelona incorporates Bip&Drive, the digital platform for driver payment services, as a Corporate Partner. The agreement will allow them to work together in the development of Tech Barcelona’s future mobility hub, which will bring together startups, corporations and other agents in the ecosystem to find innovative and sustainable solutions in the sector.

The Bip&Drive platform, a company owned by Abertis, Cintra, Itínere and CaixaBank, aims to provide innovative solutions through the use of technology and new means of payment to simplify and facilitate the mobility of its customers: drivers. The application concentrates services such as electronic tolls, booking and payment of the MOT, refuelling at petrol stations, on-road catering and parking at car parks and parking meters. Its marketplace aims to revolutionise the driver’s overall experience, placing all services related to mobility and driving in the same place.

In the words of Josep Jové, CEO of Bip&Drive, “with the integration of Bip&Drive in Tech Barcelona we want to connect with the talent of the city, create synergies and advance in the mobility of the future: more connected and intelligent which, in turn, will also be more sustainable, efficient and safe. Moreover, if we want to be at the forefront of innovation with the best startups to develop the mobility of the future and car connectivity, we cannot afford not to be present in the Tech Barcelona ecosystem”.

According to Miquel Martí, CEO of Tech Barcelona, the agreement with Bip&Drive “visualises the transversality of technological solutions to solve major challenges, which is one of Tech Barcelona’s motivations. Crossing innovations in mobility with payment services and the new needs of drivers, as Bip&Drive does, opens up a great field of play for many companies in our ecosystem”.