Barcelona presents ten companies to London investors

London (ACN).- "Barcelona has the infrastructure and the eco-system that make it ripe for investing," confirmed Scott Sage, one of the twenty investors attending the London presentation of ten companies from Barcelona, seeking foreign financing. "We haven't invested in Spain before but now it's become a new hotbed of innovation," explained the investor. "Madrid does have some interesting companies but it doesn't have the infrastructure which takes time to develop. We're seeing the very beginning of that in Barcelona which has been our focal point for the last six to twelve months," Sage explained to the CNA.

In his opinion, the Catalan capital shows potential for developing pan-European and possibly global companies as the city is starting to have: serial entrepreneurs who have developed and sold companies before; early stage funding from angel investors and banks; and advisory networks of lawyers, corporate finance partners and consultants with relevant experience. "It's two or three years into a new cycle of having really exciting technology companies and that's why we're looking at Barcelona," added the venture capitalist. 

The Catalan companies attending the meeting in London were small and medium sized enterprises, mostly specialised in the field of new technology. Víctor García explained to the CNA that his telecommunications business, AB-TEL, was looking for investment into a new project producing a platform for unified communication and mobility.

"We're ready to make jump to a global level and for that we are looking for economic resources in London," Garcia said. "London is the central point in Europe for financing and entrepreneurial activity," he added, hoping to leave the British capital with "good news".

The Deputy Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi William Carnes, also attended the meeting, organised by the Barcelona's City Council and by "Barcelona Activa", in the framework of the programme "aXelera for Global Excellence". Carnes said that in times of economic crises, it is necessary to look beyond the countries' borders to find new means of financing.

"We all know the difficulties we have in our country of attracting capital and the difficulties that many small and medium sized businesses face in obtaining liquidity," explained Carnes. "One of the things that this crisis is making us see, is that in order to grow, you need to find new systems of financing," said the Deputy Mayor, who thinks the means to searching capital have become "more global and sophisticated".

Barcelona's City Council chose London and other European capitals in which to present the companies' proposed projects as a projection of the city. Carnes indicated that London is where the money is, and said that the meeting's objective was to offer up a group of companies that despite being small, had the ambition and potential for growth. "We are trying to put ideas and economic resources into contact", he said. The Deputy Mayor added that the meeting "did not close the door" to opportunities with investors in the United States or in Asia.

The Barcelona companies involved in the London event were: PAL Robotics, Siffeed, Justinmind, AB-TEL, Flumotion, Tinytronic, EyeOs and Kinetical, all specializing in new information and communications technologies. Mimótica Micola, a fashion company and Barcelona Technical Centre, a business service company also attended.