Francis Fajula Its mission is to help Barcelona continue to take steps to become one of the world’s main technology poles of attraction. Last June, Mobile World Capital Barcelonathe public-private foundation created a decade ago to boost the entrepreneurial ecosystem and open up new economic opportunities for the Catalan capital, ratified this businessman as its new CEO.
Fajula has extensive work experience in large companies. He has been director of Innovation and Digital Strategy at Santander Groupdirector of Digital Transformation and Innovation of Banco Sabadellhead of electronic commerce within Terra (of the Telefónica Group) and general manager of financial services at Dominion Global, a company focused on engineering and technology projects.
With less than two weeks to go before the start of the Mobile World Congressthe technology fair that has helped project Barcelona to the world, Fajula sits down with EL PERIÓDICO to learn more about the challenges of Barcelona.
What has been achieved in recent years?In Barcelona alone there are more than 2,000 registered ‘startups’, which may be even more. If you look at it with perspective, in the last 20 years we have turned Barcelona into a spectacular international pole of attraction. Back then, entrepreneurs, startups and venture capital did not exist, this was a desert. We take for granted that this entire ecosystem has always been there.
“20 years ago, entrepreneurs, startups and venture capital did not exist, this was a desert”
Francis Fajula
Catalonia attracted 620 million euros in foreign investment last year through 94 projects, a new record. Many Catalan companies have managed to grow despite the macroeconomic turmoil and the impact of the pandemic…
Yes, in Catalonia there are quite a few unicorns (companies with a valuation of more than 1,000 million dollars) and about 12 companies with a valuation between 200 and 400 million. And that’s after last year’s tech crash, which could soon grow into unicorns. It’s not bad at all. We complain that later capital comes from outside and buys them, as happened with Glovo or Tiendeo, but there is also a good part: the base stays here and that continues to attract talent to Barcelona and generate new jobs.
In fact, this foreign investment led to the creation of 3,464 direct jobs, 11% more than in 2021, according to data from Acció. Are we just as good at capturing talent as generating it?
We are faced with a global problem: there is practically no country capable of generating talent at the same rate that the economy needs. Maybe China or India do it, but they are command economies. With a more democratic national structure it is impossible to achieve this. This tension generated by the need to attract talent from outside happens everywhere.
Mobile World Capital has a talent program that is helping to train new professional profiles and adapt them to the technology sector, and we do this with the help of 80 large foreign companies that have created their hubs in Barcelona such as Nestlé, Zurich or Pepsico. Sometimes it is about people who were outside the system and suddenly they have 100% employability.
“Mobile will always stay in Barcelona. That is a window of opportunity that we have to take advantage of”
Francis Fajula
How does it benefit Barcelona that there is expanded its alliance with the Mobile World Congress at least until 2030?
The Mobile will always stay in Barcelona. Now that we have the GSMA (organizer of the fair) at our side, it is a window of opportunity that we have to take advantage of.
Has it harmed that the Government has preferred locate the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence in A Coruña?
There were many very strong candidacies from cities such as A Coruña, Málaga or Alicante, but it is true that they also had to choose a location to compensate for territorial diversity.
There are experts who point out that, although many ‘startups’ are created in Barcelona, when they have to raise new rounds of capital to consolidate their projects they have to find the money abroad…
In Barcelona there is ‘private equity’ (private investment by large companies in small projects) but it is still small. We do not have a powerful technology industry, but we are the buyers of those companies.
“The regulatory culture in Europe limits the growth of digital companies”
Francis Fajuls
Are we limiting innovation?
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Europe does not work like the American model that allows startups to grow and burn profits to finance and get new rounds of investment. The first thing is to grow and then it will be to find ways of monetization. Here, on the other hand, they immediately ask you for profitability. That makes venture capital capital, but relatively risky.
Another factor limiting the growth of digital companies is the European regulatory culture. In the United States, everything is allowed as long as it is not strictly prohibited. In the European Union there is nothing allowed that is not strictly regulated. This greatly limits innovation and that is why there are so few cases of companies that have grown in Europe.