A brand new Food & Food Tech Innovation Hub is coming to Barcelona!

That’s right, folks. Forward Fooding have officially launched their new Food & Food Tech Innovation Hub in the Spanish tech capital.

This brand new hub will be hosted at @22Barcelona, Talent Garden Spain newest campus, in Poblenou, Barcelona’s tech neighborhood.

Talent Garden is an international company creating campuses to empower digital tech communities and connect them globally. Founded in 2011, it has been a champion in the co-working space market ever-since, offering its clients top-class digital training and networking opportunities.

Forward Fooding are thus opening a brand new Hub in Barcelona. Their very first London Food & FoodTech Innovation hub, located at Huckletree West in White City, was a huge success. It is London’s first shared workspace dedicated to the most innovative food and food tech startups. And it’s the go-to place for startups looking to network, engage and partner up with like-minded food and tech businesses.

Why Barcelona?

Although it may not be Spain’s official capital, Barcelona is certainly the most vibrant startup city in the country. That is not because it is the city with the highest number of startups in Spain (Madrid actually comes first), but because it is the place where all things tech happen.

As a matter of fact, according to The Digital Startup Ecosystem Overview 2019 by Mobile World Capital, Barcelona is ‘the main digital hub in the country which shows an increasing global value’.

Moreover, when it comes to investment, Spain presents one of the largest investment growths in Europe (+90% YoY) (source: Mobile World Capital), with Barcelona being where most of the country’s startup activity is concentrated.

Barcelona offers a large and very international tech and startup scene. Today, the city is already home to some of Europe’s most promising startups like Glovo, Travelperk, and many more. And it counts more than 1,500 startups according to the Governement of Catalonia.

Thomas Ohr, Editor in Chief EU-Startups.com

As far as Food Tech is concerned, Barcelona is home to some of the most innovative startups of the European scene. Here are some of them: Novameat, Heura, Cubiq Foods, Natural Machines, Consentio, and Agroptima.

Let’s take a broader look at the European food innovation landscape to understand how Barcelona fits into the broader food tech and innovation movement.

European Food Tech

We think 2020 has marked a turning point for the European AgriFoodTech ecosystem. As a matter of fact, in the first half of 2020 alone, Europe counted almost 900 million euros invested in food tech companies. This goes to show a strong pattern of growth and expansion in the European food tech scene. And we expect the total volume of investments for 2020 to be higher than in 2019.

The pandemic has notably generated a strong interest towards sustainable protein alternatives, supply chain management and traceability solutions, and e-commerce and food delivery amongst other areas. 

We have collected the main food tech trends from the first half of 2020 in a free-to-download report, which you can download here.

Post-covid Europe

It is undeniable that Covid-19 had a significant impact on the food and beverage sector. But according to Alessio D’Antino, founder & CEO of Forward Fooding, the global economic crisis caused by the pandemic will not affect the Food Tech sector as much as the other sectors. Why is that?

On the one hand, COVID-19 has shown the fragility of our food system. However, on the other hand, technology has in many ways proven to be the answer to address many pressing issues throughout the supply chain.

Although 2020 will most certainly be a little bump on the road, we have all the reasons to believe that investment in the AgriFoodTech sector will continue to grow in the near future. This is because technological solutions have proved to be critical in making our food system more resilient and pandemic-proof.

Alessio D’Antino, founder & CEO

Therefore, it is safe to say that food tech is and will be the power behind the recovery of our broken food system.

The Barcelona Food Tech Hub

The news is out: a brand new Food & Food Tech Innovation Hub is coming to Barcelona.

Its home will be in the heart of Poblenou, which locals consider to be Barcelona’s most vibrant tech neighbourhood. Sure enough, this barrio lies at the center of the city’s design movement. And it attracts a wide range of people with its trendy markets, concept stores, and innovative festivals. It sounds just like a paradise for the edgiest foodies and techies out there!

Of course, Forward Fooding’s team are over the moon to begin this new Spanish adventure.

We were overwhelmed by the amount of interest we’ve received from companies wanting to sign-up for our new FoodTech hub. We are stoked and humbled to foster and grow the food tech space in Spain. Creating a new Innovation hub and supporting more amazing FoodTech companies in Spain is truly exciting for us.

Alessio D’Antino, founder & CEO

Do you want to take a sneak peek of our brand new Food & Food Tech Innovation Hub in Barcelona? You can find out more about it by visiting bcn.hub.forwardfooding.com

Are you interested in joining the new family? You can book a tour of the space by filling out this form.

We look forward to welcoming you to our new FoodTech Innovation hub!