Girona ranks as the third Catalan municipality with the most start-ups, with 37 companies, the same as Terrassa and only behind Barcelona and Sant Cugat, according to the latest ACCIÓ study on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Catalonia.
The report places the Girona environment around initiatives such as the Fundació Farinera Girona, the Girona Hub, the Girona Next association, the BAGI business angels network, and the Research Park of the University of Girona. That map places the city among the local poles with more weight in an ecosystem that continues to grow throughout Catalonia.
Catalonia reaches 2,403 start-ups
The Catalan ecosystem currently has 2,403 start-ups, 5% more than the previous year. During 2025, 378 companies of this type were founded, around 90 closed, another 30 were acquired or went public, and about 150 stopped appearing in the ranking due to growth.
Of that total, 429 are scale-ups. These are companies that for three consecutive years increase their annual turnover by more than 20% or that have closed at least one investment round exceeding one million euros.
The study also points out that the number of start-ups in Catalonia has grown uninterruptedly since 2016 and that it has more than doubled since the first measurement. 44% have been created in the last five years.
Jaume Baró, Secretary of Business and Competitiveness of the Generalitat, assured during the presentation of the report that "We are starting to have data of importance and weight within the economy". In that same event, together with the Minister of Business and Labor, Miquel Sàmper, he added that Catalan start-ups "are no longer so much start-ups, they are getting bigger and bigger, and that has many positive consequences".
More turnover, more employment and more economic weight
The total annual turnover of Catalan start-ups reaches 2,947 million euros, 26% more than the previous year. That figure is equivalent to 0.9% of Catalonia's GDP.
Employment also grows. Companies in the sector exceed 30,000 workers, 34% more compared to the previous year.
The jump in size also appears in other indicators. The percentage of start-ups that earn more than 500,000 euros per year has gone from 32% in 2022 to the current 52%. In parallel, companies with more than 10 employees have risen from 30% to 40%.
Almost 60% of start-ups have at least one founder with previous experience creating other companies of this type. 28% have at least one international founder and almost 60% have foreign workers.
Health, industry 4.0 and university spin-offs
The health sector is the main one by number of companies, followed by technology applied to travel and leisure, finance, e-commerce, and solutions for companies. 30.8% of start-ups are dedicated to healthtech and business services.
Advertising and media technology represents 6.2% of the total. Online commerce and sales platforms account for 5.4%, while educational technologies reach 5.1%.
Health, travel, and finance concentrate 37.3% of the ecosystem's total turnover. Regarding the weight of the healthcare sector, Baró pointed out that "this sector helps us cushion some variations."
The report puts the number of deeptech companies at 374. In addition, it identifies 308 start-ups as spin-offs born from university research or research centers. Baró presented this data as an indicator to measure "how the country's innovation model works" and claimed that "among all of us, we have to make this volume grow."
The head of Business and Competitiveness also highlighted that Catalonia is the second region in the European Union with the most spin-offs. In his opinion, the community has a "very vibrant" ecosystem, with research and supercomputing centers, specialized clusters, digital hubs, and industrial companies.
The technological base also gains weight. 57.5% of start-ups work with technologies linked to industry 4.0, such as artificial intelligence, big data, sensors, or cloud computing. Almost 90% invest in R&D and more than half have some patent.
The investment exceeds 1,100 million in 2025
Catalan start-ups raised 1,131 million euros in 2025, 8% more than the previous year. The average round stood at 5.6 million euros.
In that exercise, 203 investment rounds were closed, the third best record in the historical series, only behind 2021 and 2022. Between 2021 and 2025, accumulated investment reached 6,106 million euros, more than double that in the period 2016 and 2020.
Two operations of more than 100 million euros influenced the increase in investment in 2025. Sàmper also stressed that the drop in the number of rounds has been smaller in Catalonia than in other major European hubs. As he detailed, the decrease was 25%, compared to 39% in Paris, 30% in Madrid, and 29% in Dublin.
Objective of the Government for 2030
61% of Catalan start-ups export products and services. Their main markets are the United States, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. Among companies with international clients, 15% export more than 90% of their turnover.
Catalonia occupies the fifth position among the most relevant European regions in entrepreneurship, behind Paris, Berlin, Stockholm and Amsterdam.
Sàmper linked the evolution of the ecosystem to the Govern's objective of reaching 3,000 start-ups by 2030. The minister defended that sustained growth "evidences an increasingly favorable environment" and maintained that it brings that goal closer "in a solid and realistic way."