Madrid Investment Attraction (MIA), the foreign investment attraction office affiliated to Madrid’s City Department of Economics, has helped the Spanish capital to become the country’s leading city in the creation of start-ups. In 2021, Madrid became the city with the highest level of investment in start-ups for the first time, with investments of up to 2.489 billion euros. This figure was seven times higher than the previous year, up 589%, according to the Fundación Innovación Bankinter annual report.

MIA works to promote the city internationally as an attractive economic space and to proactively find and bring companies, investment, and foreign talent to Madrid. The target strategic sectors MIA wishes to attract includes start-ups, particularly in the fintech sector.
Finnovating, chosen as a specialist partner in the fintech sector.

A few weeks ago, MIA decided to partner up with specialist firm Finnovating to develop relations with the Fintech sector. It was chosen on account of its in-depth knowledge of the fintech ecosystems of the major economies in the surrounding area, making it the perfect partner to strengthen Madrid’s position as a hub and attract businesses, talent and investment linked to a strategic activity in economic development and, therefore, for the future of the city.

Miguel Ángel Redondo, Madrid’s City Councillor for Economics, said: “in 2022 we have opted to combine this geographical approach, with specialist partners in strategic economic spaces and with a new sectoral approach, forging a new specialist partnership in a particular activity, namely fintech. The sector that, in our experience, has been bringing in more business projects and more international talent to Madrid in recent years”

The main tasks of the fintech partner include creating specialist content; defining the strengths and opportunities offered by Madrid to companies and entrepreneurs in the fintech field; identifying opinion leaders and influencers in Madrid’s fintech activity; organising international events abroad; organising meetings in Madrid; and creating shared workspaces in the city to facilitate the arrival of companies and fintech start-ups.

Rodrigo Garcia de la Cruz, CEO of Finnovating said: “Madrid, in the space of a few years, has become a hub for FinTech, positioning itself in 4th place behind cities like San Francisco, New York, and London. The impulse, both private and public, given by Madrid’s City Council and the Madrid Investment Attraction programme, has provided a unique opportunity to position Madrid as the FinTech capital par excellence, attracting investment and talent, helping international companies to scale and set up in one of the best cities in the world.”

MIA’s goal is to facilitate and assist the establishment of foreign companies in the capital from this booming sector as well as other key areas such as video games, E-health, Big Data and Cybersecurity.