Por Israel Pantaleón
March 2, 2026
The Madrid City Council is promoting a strategy to turn the Spanish capital into the main European hub for Latin American talent. Through its Innovation and Entrepreneurship Department, the city is implementing an active policy to attract investment, startups, and tech profiles, with a focus on fintech, edtech, and artificial intelligence startups.
The municipal team is basing its goal on a compelling premise: today, talent chooses city over country.
Under this logic, Madrid competes with global startup hubs by offering quality of life, a shared language, a solid business network, and access to the European market.
The city designs specific programs to attract growing projects, especially in high-impact technology sectors.
Madrid Emprende and Madrid Innovation provide comprehensive support to entrepreneurs. Both programs allow a Latin American founder, even from Mexico City, to request online advice, develop their business plan, and set up their company in Spain with specialized technical support.
The strategy eliminates operational friction because the team provides guidance on the viability of the project, facilitates the legal creation of the company, and assigns space in municipal innovation centers according to specialization.
In addition, entrepreneurs can access free stays of up to one year, personalized mentoring, and key networking opportunities within the Madrid ecosystem.
“The reality is that the Spanish capital does not wait for talent to come to it. The city runs direct recruitment programs in Latin America. One of them operates from La Nave, where the soft landing begins with six months of online acceleration and continues with six months of in-person training in Madrid with space and mentors at no cost to the startup,” Ángel Niño, Councilor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Madrid’s City Council, told Contxto.
The Puentes de Talento (Talent Bridges) program, recognized by the Inter-American Development Bank as an international best practice, reinforces Madrid’s position as the epicenter of Latin American startups in Europe, explains Niño.
The initiative also funds an eight-week stay in the capital for established entrepreneurs from different Latin American countries.
During this period, the founders learn about the public and private ecosystem, forge strategic alliances, and broaden their vision of scalability towards Europe. They then return to their countries as natural ambassadors for the Madrid ecosystem, which multiplies the effect of attracting talent and investment.
“Madrid prioritizes startups in the growth phase with real capacity to scale between Latin America and Europe. The team evaluates the founder’s training, technical expertise, and the maturity of the business model. However, it also analyzes the personal commitment, resilience, and commercial capacity of the entrepreneurial team,” explains Niño.
Personal interviews are part of the process, as Madrid seeks profiles with determination and long-term vision. Experience also shows that the founder’s character influences the survival and expansion of a technology startup as much as their academic background.
Madrid incubates around 300 new startups per year. Approximately 30% of the founders come from Latin America. This means that around 90 projects per year have Latin American leadership, even when the company is incorporated directly in the Spanish capital.
In specific programs such as Puentes de Talento and Soft Landing, participation is 100% Latin American. By 2025, the city registered between 200 and 250 new ventures in its incubators, with at least 50 to 70 projects driven by Latin American entrepreneurs.
“The ecosystem shows a clear sectoral evolution. FinTech experienced a boom five to eight years ago, especially after the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union. Although the sector remains strong, today it is more mature and less explosively growing,” says Niño.
EdTech, on the other hand, is showing sustained momentum. Between 15% and 20% of startups in acceleration programs focus on educational technology. In addition, artificial intelligence cuts across virtually all verticals, from SaaS to mobility, sustainability, and Smart Cities solutions.
Both Latin American and Spanish entrepreneurs are rapidly integrating artificial intelligence into their business models. However, the ecosystem also identifies a certain excess of expectation surrounding the term. Even so, technological adoption accelerates scalability and improves the international competitiveness of startups, he adds.
Madrid particularly values the proactivity of Latin American founders. In many countries in the region, there are fewer initial bureaucratic barriers, which encourages more daring and action-oriented profiles.
In addition, commercial acumen and extroversion strengthen the capacity for expansion.
“The city offers a similar cultural environment and a common language that facilitates immediate integration. In Madrid, the ecosystem prioritizes the project and the ability to execute it over the founder’s origin. This openness reinforces the narrative of Madrid as the epicenter of Latin American startups in Europe,” explains Niño.
Por Stiven Cartagena
January 21, 2026
