clean tech & entrepreneurship in barcelona

Oriol Pascual oriol@enviu.org

@onsustain

Entrepreneurship & Clean tech in Barcelona

US has MORE support programs to early-stage

entrepreneurs than the EU

MYTH!

Accumulated number of incubators in top 10 EU countries by GDP

• The first incubation program launched in 1989 • Currently, Spain hosts 38 startup programs - most

launched after 2010 • Ticket size: between 20-60K • Average equity share across accelerators: 8-14%

Spain

• 7 m. inhabitants - Barcelona: 5.1 m • Catalonia produces 1% of the world’s scientific

output

Catalonia

9 accelerators/incubators in Barcelona Barcelona, leads in clean tech sub-categories:

• Smart City • World Mobile Capital • Large “sharing economy” community

Barcelona

• 1997-2013: Spain became a world leader in PV and wind energy production

• Of all Spanish patents, 43,6% are related to solar • Spain is the 5th country in the world in number of

patents in renewables, after US, Japan, Germany & UK

Rise of the renewables

photo by treedork

• Today, Spain is an unattractive and risky market to invest in renewables

• Of the 50 factories PV silica and related in 2011, only 10% remain open today, with a focus in inverters and exports

Fall of the renewables

Challenges

Current clean tech challenges are not about fundamental science:

• Complex financing & incentives • Failure to communicate to consumers • Poor sales channels

Cleanweb

COLLABORATIVE !CONSUMPTION

INTERNET OF

THINGS

CLEAN TECH

Data & networks

Market re-structuring

Efficiency

SunPower

Connecting small investors with high-quality renewable energy projects

Opower

Using behavioural science to change consumption patterns

The Barcelona entrepreneur

Source: Telefonica

Barcelona Silicon Valley

Age 33.29 34.12

Gender (F/M) 5% / 95% 10% / 90%

Education (dropout vs. master+PhD) 1 : 10 1 : 2.5

Serial entrepreneur 41% 56%

% non-technical founding teams 12% 16%

Customer (B2B vs B2C) 5 : 2 2 : 1

Working hours per day 8.25 9.95

Ecosystem

Incubators

Government programs

Universities Investors

Dedicated Spaces

StartupsClean tech

entrepreneurship BARCELONA

Trade Shows

• KIC InnoEnergy • Fundación Repsol • Eco-Emprenedor XXI

Clean tech Incubators

• Green Economy Plan • TECNIO/ACC10 • Biocat

Government programs

• Transformation of a neighbourhood • Private foundation managed the transition • After 10 year: +1500 (tech) companies

22@

• UPC - Campus Energia • ESADE • IESE - Clean tech Venture Forum

Universities

• Business Angel Networks • Business School forums (ESADE -IESE) • Engineers’ fund • Keiretsu

Investment

• Sant Pau • Regional Centre for Cleaner Production • Barcelona Lab • IAAC + Valldaura

Other Interesting players

• EV Symposium • Smart City Expo • Mobile World Congress

Trade shows

Clean tech Startups

Environmental data monitoring board & community

Smart Citizen

Enerbyte

Using behavioural science to change consumption patterns

Smart City solutions

Urbiotica

Smart water & energy consumption

BNstar

Electric motorbike made in BCN

Volta BCN

• Barcelona attracts international talent, and retains local due to the attractiveness of the city itself

• Barcelona is Mobile World Capital • Proactive local government; “business friendly” • Bottom-up entrepreneurial community • Catalonia produces 1% of all research in the world -

but does’t have a direct translation in valorisation of this science

What works

To improve

• Lack of ambition: local startups think small, a local win is enough rather than conquer the world

• English is not yet common language amongst all society • To fund a limited company is expensive and bureaucratic • Need for more “learning by doing” education, rather than

fact-based education

To improve

• More success stories • Early stage funding clearly insufficient • Many players, but fragile ecosystem due to insufficient

funding resources • Not enough projects with high growth potential

• Regulation can be an enabler or barrier for clean tech to create a positive impact

• Clean tech is evolving towards new forms that have IT as central element

• Barcelona has the ingredients to become a reference in clean tech for the south of Europe and the Mediterranean

Final thoughts

Oriol Pascualoriol@enviu.org

@onsustain

Contents

• Context

• Clean tech in Spain

• BCN ecosystem

• What works & what to improve

Brief history of clean tech in Spain

• Period 1997 - 2013 represents a high point on renewable energy installations

• Spain became a world leader in PV and wind energy production

Rise of the renewables

MetroMile

Unlocks car data to take out the hassle and expense out of driving. Pay-per-mile insurance

Kinetic energy harvesting applied to maritime solutions

Smalle Technologies