The climatic conditions of Russia have always pushed the inhabitants of this country towards the warm sea and the Sun. The climate of Spain is probably one of the key factors that encourages businesses with roots in the former USSR to put down new roots on Spanish soil.
Based on the results of an analysis of the speeches of speakers at several events that were held in 2023 in Barcelona, there is reason to consider the following key factors in favor of Spain:
- business development in the Spanish language market, with the prospect of entering the markets of Latin America and the USA
- lower cost of living than in the USA, UK, or northern EU countries, and at the same time, a sufficiently qualified labor force.
- fairly clear legislative norms governing business that work according to clear rules, compared to other countries in South-East Asia or Latin America
- the possibility of relocating personnel from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other countries of the former USSR to Spain on various types of visas (startups, digital nomads, highly qualified specialists, etc.)
- availability of government programs to support private initiatives in business
It is also necessary to note the disadvantages that the event participants mentioned when speaking about the creation and development of businesses in Spain:
– extreme slowness in executing bureaucratic procedures for no obvious reason
- the dependence of a particular decision on the personality of the bureaucrat who makes this or that decision. There is an unspoken habit among the Russian-speaking business community that, in case of failure to make a decision or refusal, you need to make a similar request to another bureaucrat, and there is a high probability that the decision made by another official will also be different (under the same introductory conditions)
- poorly spread spoken English among bureaucrats and among the population in general (and the need to train staff in Spanish, as a consequence)
- sanctions pressure on average Russian citizens without taking into account their disengagement from any actions of the current Russian government.
Despite some obstacles to the development of entrepreneurship in Spain, even after February 2022, investments from Russia, Ukraine, and other countries of the former USSR continue to come to Spain. The catastrophic events that began and continue to develop from 2022 have formed an upscaling trend for the growth of Russian/Ukrainian-speaking communities in Spain, creating an additional and understandable market for Slavic businesses.
Following the money and businesses, business networking organizations also came to Spain with their formats and events.
At the end of October 2023, a Founders’ Mondays event took place in Barcelona, the second-largest city in Spain (and probably the most multinational).
Founders’ Mondays is an initiative by founders for founders. These are regular informal meetings of founders in different parts of the world on Monday evenings.
The event in Barcelona was opened by Kirill Kulikov, co-founder of the YC startup Beau, Andrey Perfilyev, co-founder of ATLAS Biomed Group, and Ivan Zolochevsky, CEO of the venture club AltaClub (Altair Capital).
At the event, the following speakers presented their businesses
Boris Preobrazhensky, co-founder of a logistics company,
Mikhail Trofimov, CEO and co-founder of a platform for marketing automation, Kirill Ilyichev, co-founder of a music social network, and Artem Kosarev, CEO and co-founder of a platform for mental health based on artificial intelligence,
Dmitry Tsivilev is the CEO and co-founder of a platform for launching and distributing electronic gift cards.
As it turned out, entrepreneurs from France, other EU countries, and various cities in Spain came to this meeting. According to the latest information from Founder’s Mondays producer Ekaterina Fedyuk, there are currently no plans to hold such events in Spain, while Barcelona remains the only place where it was held.
After the official part, there was an informal networking afterparty in one of the El Born bars until late at night, where the main “magic” took place. And, perhaps, this was the most interesting part of the event. Thus, the author met famous IT entrepreneur Olga Vesser, who is engaged in buying apartments with Okupas in Valencia and then solving this problem in a legal manner (4 apartments have already been returned to the real estate market of this businesswoman).
Another entrepreneur from Moscow and architect Ekaterina Arefieva, together with her partner, is building a glamping site in the Berga area in Catalonia. In addition, she is creating an architectural startup.
Many participants of this FM event are related to the so-called MedTech sector, that is, an innovative business in the field of medicine. It was a surprise for the author to admit that one of the participants, Maxim Bunimovich, scaled up the audit and QA business of clinical trials from Poland to Spain, and the reason for this transfer is largely related to the Latin American countries and the US market. After networking at the event, the author conducted a series of interviews and a story from one of the participants – it must be conveyed as a direct quote in the first person.
Sergey Katargin
“My colleagues and I have a successful business using artificial intelligence in the field of drug testing in Russia. I moved to Spain with my family and applied for a startup with my four colleagues as co-founders of the startup. Since my family has Russian passports, I encountered difficulty in opening bank accounts and thus renting property. It turned out to be easiest to open an account with Correos. Other banks had difficulties. I also opened an S.L. in Spain. From the Correos account, in about six months, I have already spent about 50,000 euros on the life of my family in Barcelona.
But with the opening of a startup, we have a paradoxical situation, and one of my co-founders was denied a startup visa. Another co-founder was approved for a startup visa. And the fourth founder received approval for a startup visa “by default”, since Spanish bureaucrats did not approve or deny his request in a timely manner.
I asked the lawyers advising us whether we could appeal the refusals and how a startup could operate without two founders. Lawyers believe that the situation is insoluble within the Spanish bureaucracy, and the idea of this startup can be forgotten. This is how my family and I live in Barcelona.”
