BBVA Spark Summit 2025 brings together over 350 entrepreneurs and investors in Barcelona

In its third consecutive year in Barcelona, BBVA Spark Summit 2025 brought together over 350 representatives from the entrepreneurial ecosystem—more than half startups—and 45 venture capital funds from eight countries, with an investment portfolio exceeding €80 billion. 

This year’s BBVA Spark Summit was held at the Llotja de Mar in Barcelona, a unique, symbolic venue once central to Mediterranean maritime trade. Today, Barcelona, home to nearly half of BBVA Spark’s clients in Spain, solidifies its position as one of the most dynamic hubs for entrepreneurship in southern Europe. This year alone, the city has attracted 47% of total investment capital in startups, equivalent to almost €1 trillion, and is the leading city in Spain in terms of investment volume in 2024, while Catalonia accounts for 42% of the total value of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Spain, according to recent data.

Santiago Muguruza, Head of BBVA Spark, kicked off the event, highlighting main milestones and reaffirming BBVA Spark’s commitment to growth since its launch. In just over three years, the BBVA Spark already supports more than 1,700 customers and has channelled more than €750 million in financing, including working capital and long-term investment, to boost high-growth companies across Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Europe via its UK office. 

“The BBVA Spark team is empathetic and highly motivated, always seeking solutions. We’re here to support entrepreneurs and be part of their journey”, said Muguruza. 

Market figures also fuel optimism about the future. Following a robust 2024, when venture capital investment exceeded €56 billion in Europe and reached €1.9 billion in Spain, the ecosystem is entering a new cycle of maturity. While the winds are blowing in the ecosystem’s favour, trends such like artificial intelligence demand diligent attention to any changes. “The AI revolution requires us to learn to navigate uncharted waters and adapt to a constantly changing environment”, concluded Muguruza.

Despite such challenges, BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres Vila reminded the audience during his speech that people are the real drivers of change and the purpose that guides their projects. “A pattern of success is passion for the project and the pursuit of impact based on values, as well as courage, bravery, confidence and the conviction that you’re building something great”, he said.

One of the daily challenges for founders is staying the course when the winds change. This was the focus of the first panel, featuring Sandra Nolasco (founder and CEO of Twinco Capital), Víctor Gaspar (Chief Sales Officer of Multiverse Computing) and Miguel Ángel Alcalá (head of BBVA Spark Spain) as moderator. 

The panellists discussed their most complex challenges and the keys to continuing to scale up. “For us, the challenge was not only technical, but also commercial. We had to understand who our customer really was and how to communicate the value of what we were doing, because we had no previous experience in selling this type of technology”, explained Víctor Gaspar. 

For Nolasco, the most difficult thing was gaining the trust of large corporations: “For them, working with a financial start-up is a challenge, but we’ve proven that we are reliable and that we bring real value to their operations”.

Overcoming challenges and achieving stability makes it possible for new horizons to come into view. Europe is positioned as a unique space where companies can scale up and find new opportunities for growth. According to Atomico’s State of European Tech Report 2024, in 10 years the European ecosystem could reach a value of $8 trillion with a 300% larger labour market. 

To decipher the keys to success in Europe and making the most of its potential, Victor Trokoudes (co-founder and CEO of Plum), Markus Dickhardt (founder and CEO of Roadsurfer), Christian Saller (General Partner at HV Capital), Niko Karstikko (co-founder and CEO of Bob W.) and Donatella Callegaris (head of Venture & Growth Lending at BBVA) painted a picture of a continent that, despite its regulatory complexities, offers massive opportunities for entrepreneurs.

“Europe has changed radically in the last ten years. Raising large rounds of funding here was once nearly impossible; today, we see European start-ups competing on the same level as their US counterparts. Europe has talent, capital and an ecosystem that is already producing leading global companies”, said Saller. Along the same lines, Niko Karstikko defended the diversity of the European market: “Europe has enormous diversity, and that sometimes complicates expansion, but it is also what makes us stronger. It’s been proven that diversity creates more successful companies”.

Even so, this market fragmentation, coupled with regulatory barriers, sometimes becomes a challenge for high-growth companies such as Plum and Roadsurfer. “Entrepreneurship in fintech means facing regulation, bureaucracy and much higher standards. But it also means that, if you do it right, you create a product that impacts millions of people”, explained Trokoudes. Dickhardt said that “scaling in a market as fragmented as Europe requires patience and local partnerships”. 

After analysing the European market, Sergi Bastardas (founder and CEO of Orbio AI), Héctor Mata (co-founder and CEO of Shakers), Vladimir Lupenko (founder and CEO of Impress), Elena Betés (founder of Rastreator and CEO of Emooti) and Lucía Hojman (head of business at BBVA Spark Spain) took to the stage to discuss the lessons learned about managing uncertainty while balancing personal and professional lives.

“One of the things we’ve learned is that you can’t build a strong brand if you’re not consistent in every market where you operate”, said Bastardas. Betés added that “entrepreneurship is like a journey: it’s not about not making mistakes but about learning quickly from each mistake”.

And on this journey, surrounding yourself with a talented team that allows you to build new alliances is key to growth. “Choosing the right partners makes the journey much easier”, said Mata. “In our case, raising international investment was key to achieving our ambition”, added Lupenko.

The fifth panel took attendees into deeper waters: adopting artificial intelligence in businesses. According to Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2025, 74% of companies have already integrated some form of AI into their operations, up from 55% the previous year. Moderated by Jay Reinemann (general partner at Propel VC), the panel featured Simone Riva (partner at Partech), Sasha Vidiborskiy (partner at Atomico) and Jon Ander Beracoechea (chief scientist at BBVA). 

“Some generative AI applications may not last, because they’re too easily replicated. The key is to create something truly unique that adds great value and generates profitability”, said Riva. 

Vidiborskiy and Beracoechea shared some of the challenges, like integrating AI models into real business processes and the shortage of specialised talent. “The real bottleneck isn’t that the models are not smart enough, but ecosystem integration”, said BBVA’s chief scientist. Vidiborskiy added, “In the long term, the question will also be: ‘Where’s the talent?’ Because talent builds the most robust models and the best solutions”.

BBVA Chairman Carlos Torres and BBVA Spark Head Santiago Muguruza concluded the summit, reflecting on how to lead with vision and navigate changing winds. “Any transformation involves change, and change is always difficult because inertia causes us to continue doing things like always, because they work. For a transformation to work, the most important thing is to have a vision you believe in. A vision that transcends the details and sets the direction”.

Likewise, they stressed valuing diverse perspectives. “Change never stops. You have to stay curious, open to the outside world and willing to keep learning. Organisations have to be technological, but also human. It’s much easier when everyone thinks the same, but stepping out of your comfort zone and working with different people is what lets you keep moving forward and generating new ideas”. 

BBVA Spark Summit 2025 reaffirmed its role as a meeting point and catalyst for an ecosystem that never stops advancing. It was a space that once again demonstrated that, in a sea of entrepreneurship, creating and promoting new businesses is a shared journey that requires vision, collaboration and adaptability to new trends such as AI. 

The journey continues.