Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME), a Spanish company that addresses the organizational aspects of Spain’s stock exchanges and financial markets (including stock exchanges in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, and Valencia), has reportedly teamed up with Barcelona Tech City in order to establish a new Fintech hub.
The financial technology hub will be located on 1,000 square metres of communal property that’s being reserved for local startups, investors, VCs, and traditional banking and insurance firms.
The Fintech hub is being established in the Barcelona Stock Exchange building. It will offer financing opportunities to Spanish startups by leveraging its close relationship with the BME.
The Hub’s management will advise firms on how to develop their growth strategies and will help program participants understand the functions of key market infrastructure, including the Stock Exchange itself, its target SME growth market MAB and its Pre-Market Environment.
Javier Hernani, CEO of BME, stated:
“This alliance allows BME to be closer to companies deeply-rooted in trends and disruptive value-added services. This reality broadens BME’s options to increase the number of companies in its markets, participate in technological solutions useful for its business purposes and evaluate technologies that can be incorporated into its range of services.”
The incorporation of the new space to the Urban Tech Campus won’t be confirmed until next year, due the COVID-19 outbreak.
Miguel Vicente, president of Barcelona Tech City, remarked:
“The agreement with BME offers us the opportunity to explore new financing alternatives for our startups. The Pre-Market Environment and the MAB are growth opportunities to be considered for the ecosystem companies.”
A somewhat similar initiative has been launched by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and Global Accelerated Ventures (GAV).
As reported, GAV has teamed up with the LSEG to introduce a post-COVID-19 fundraising program that aims to assist Fintech and Healthtech firms that might need additional capital to support their growth and development after the pandemic has passed.
In an interview with CI, Christopher Malter, CEO at Global Acceleration Ventures, stated:
“Companies that are accepted by ELITE (which is the LSEG’s international business support platform) will join in monthly workshops over an 18-24 month period, where they will better develop their companies for scale. In addition, the program will provide mentoring, develop relationships, and guide the company’s finance and management teams for larger fundraising rounds.”
Malter added:
“Accepted applicants will work in close coordination with regional business, academic and financial communities across the markets. More than 1400 companies have already gone through ELITE, with an average growth rate of 30 percent following the program.”