Barcelona will host an incubator for sports tech start-ups

The initiative will call the city’s iconic Olympic Stadium its home

Barcelona will have its first incubator for companies working and innovating in the world of sports technology. The new space, which is part of the Barcelona Sports Hub project, will set up shops in the south façade of the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium.

For this purpose, a 2.8-million euro budget has been set aside, which will go towards refurbishing the old office area in the stadium.

The digitalization of the sports world

The dedicated space, of 1,100 square meters, will have a pre-incubation area, up to 12 inter-connectable work modules, meeting rooms and common use environments for the professionals who work there. The offices also want to take advantage of a space of 400 square meters to organize outdoor meetings and encourage networking between the start-ups.

The transformation works are set to begin in the summer of this year and will conclude in the first half of 2023. Once it is ready, the incubator will become the first physical installation of the new Barcelona Sports Hub, which aims to make the Catalan capital an international reference in the technology sector dedicated to sports. 

However, it should not be confused with the Barcelona Sports Tech Hub, an agreement signed between the regional government (Generalitat) and the Barcelona Sportstech HUB23 association in April 2021, which has also started accelerating projects for emerging companies.

The Catalonian capital is a city that draws easy associations with the world of sports, what with the eponymous football club, which is one of the symbols of the city, or the legendary Olympic Games, which served to rejuvenate the city in 1992.

The Olympic Stadium itself was built in 1929, preserving its original façade from that time, though its interior has been modernized several times. It now also serves as the home ground for the city’s second-largest football club – Espanyol.