According to the National Entrepreneurship Office (ONE), in 2024, Spain had 3,640 active startups, an increase from 5,010 in 2025, as stated in the report Tech and Innovative Companies (Empresas Tech e Innovadoras). This data reflects a growth trend for entrepreneurship, which intensified after the approval of Law 28/2022—also known as the “Startup Law”—which was designed to strengthen Spain’s startup ecosystem.

Since the law’s enactment on December 23, 2022, many newly created startups have been eligible for significant benefits, such as a reduction in corporate income tax (IS) from 25% to 15% for the first 4 fiscal years. With these kinds of benefits, it is no surprise that more and more entrepreneurs are deciding to launch innovative tech companies. In this article, we’ll explain how to create a startup to make the process easier for you and help you take advantage of the incentives provided by Spanish law.

What’s in this article?

• What is a startup?
  
• Preparatory steps for creating a startup
  
• Legal formalities for creating a startup from scratch in Spain
  
• How to certify a startup in Spain
  
• Grants and subsidies for creating a startup in Spain
  
• FAQs about creating a startup in Spain
  
• How Stripe helps startups in Spain
  

What is a startup?

A startup is a new, often innovative and technology-based company with strong potential for growth and scalability. It typically uses information and communication technology (ICT) as the main driver for its rapid expansion. From a legal point of view, a business is only considered a startup in Spain if it meets the requirements established by Law 28/2022, which include the following:

• It is based on a scalable business model.
  
• It is innovative and, normally, technological in nature.
  
• It has a head office or a permanent office in Spain.
  
• It is not a listed company.
  
• It is a new or recently created company.
  

The period in which a startup is considered to be “recently created” varies depending on the industry it belongs to. As a general rule, the period is five years, but it increases to seven in the case of businesses operating in specific fields, such as biotech.

Preparatory steps for creating a startup

Before you begin the bureaucratic procedures needed to create a startup, it is important to carry out an exhaustive planning process and establish a solid growth strategy. This is particularly important for Spanish startups, since only 20.4% manage to successfully complete a Series A funding round (almost 4 percentage points lower than the European average). To help you multiply your potential for success, we’ll go over some key issues to take into account when laying the foundations of your future startup.

Assess potential risks

The economic landscape is constantly changing, which means significant risks for startups, such as difficulties in accessing financing and rising costs. According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), in December 2024, the number of dissolved companies increased by 20.7% year over year (YoY). This figure shows the enormous importance of performing risk analysis and doing market research before creating a startup.

Define your business idea

It’s possible to start a business based on an idea, but it is important to devote the necessary time and effort early on to avoid problems in the long run. To define your project and evaluate its viability, consider the following:

• Market analysis
  To ensure the viability of your startup, you’ll likely want to conduct a market study, which can help you decide whether your offer meets a real need in Spain. Analyze the size of the industry, growth forecasts, the profile of your potential customers, and your competitors’ strategies. The information you obtain from this study will help you adapt your product (or service) to the market.

• Skills and interests
  There are two fundamental aspects that serve as the foundation for the success of your startup: the first is having the skills needed to solve the problem or meet the need you’ve identified; the second is being interested in the type of project you are going to undertake. This interest will make it easier for you to maintain the consistency and commitment required for a startup.

• Scalability
  Even small startups with low initial capital can experience rapid growth that requires scaling up their business models. For this reason, it is important to analyze beforehand whether growth is financially viable. Estimate the number of customers you could realistically serve during your first year. Then, ask yourself if you would have the capacity to double that amount the following year and assume the costs and workload that this growth would entail.

• Profitability
  To evaluate the profitability of your startup, you have to take into account both the initial investment and the revenue model. First, determine the capital you are willing to invest. Some startups require a very high initial investment. For instance, startups that are 100% technology-based typically have to allocate a large part of their budgets to the human resources needed to develop software. In contrast, startups that sell digital services by leveraging already available technological solutions can be launched with a much smaller staffing investment. Second, it is important to define the revenue model for your startup from the very beginning. If you decide to offer subscriptions, for instance, you might consider either one-time or recurring payments; or you could use a freemium model in which you offer free access to part of your product or service, and then charge for more advanced features.

Validate your idea

Before investing all of your funds in your project or applying for funding, it is key to validate your business idea, that is, to make sure it truly provides a solution to a problem or need. To do this, you can create a basic or preliminary version of your product—known as a minimum viable product (MVP)—share it with people who could become your first 10 customers, and analyze the interest it generates. The feedback you receive from these early users can help you make the appropriate adjustments before presenting your product to institutions that can grant funding access and before offering your product to the general public.

Legal formalities when creating a startup from scratch in Spain

The enactment of Law 28/2022 greatly simplified the procedures required to incorporate a startup, especially if you choose the limited liability company (SL) as your company’s legal formation. Let’s go over the formalities required to create a startup from scratch in Spain.

• Meet the requirements
  To create a startup in Spain, certain legal requirements must be met. Although they vary depending on the legal formation, these are the shared requirements:
  
  • Being of legal age or, failing that, being legally emancipated
    
  • Not being disqualified due to bankruptcy or judicial reasons
    
  • Having Spanish nationality or the nationality of a European Union (EU) country
    

Citizens of countries outside the EU must meet additional requirements, such as not having a criminal record, demonstrating financial solvency, and providing proof of the training and technical expertise needed to perform the startup’s professional activity.

• Gather the required documentation
  Several documents are required to create a startup, including the National Identity Document (DNI) or Foreigner’s Identity Number (NIE) of the person who will manage the company and of the other partners, if applicable.

• Choose the legal formation
  Each legal formation has its advantages and disadvantages, but in the case of startups in Spain, the most advisable option is often the limited liability company (SL), since the procedures for incorporation are much faster and simpler thanks to Law 28/2022.

• Specify the company details
  It is necessary to specify certain corporate information, including:

  • The category for your startup’s business activity as it relates to the economic activities tax (IAE)
    
  • The startup’s registered office (i.e., its official legal address for tax purposes)
    
  • Each founders’ percentage of participation in the startup’s share capital
    

• Fill out a DUE
  Fill out a Single Electronic Document (DUE) on your own or at an Entrepreneurship Service Point (PAE). This eliminates the need to complete several steps manually, since the procedures are completed through the Information Center and Network for Business Creation (CIRCE) and many of them are automated. For example, when you fill out the DUE, information is automatically exchanged among government agencies and your provisional Taxpayer Identification Number (NIF) is obtained automatically. This provisional NIF temporarily identifies the startup during the initial procedures and the incorporation process. The law on strengthening the startup ecosystem established a new procedure to obtain the provisional NIF in a single step, with lower registry and notary fees than those required to create a company that isn’t legally considered a startup in Spain. With this measure, the law aims to streamline some key processes, such as applying for financing.

• Reserve the company name
  Regardless of the legal formation you choose, you have to make sure that there is no other company with the same name. To do so, apply for a Certificate of Available Company Name at the Central Commercial Registry. This same registry allows you to check whether a specific company name is available, at a cost of €1.50.

• Obtain the notarial instrument
  After obtaining the Certificate of Available Company Name, the Central Commercial Registry’s system prompts you to select an appointment day and time at the notary office. If none of the available times suit you—or you’d rather make your reservation yourself—you can skip this automatic booking step and make an appointment with a notary of your choice. In either case, you must attend your appointment in person, identify yourself with your DNI or NIE, and provide proof of the contributed share capital in order to be granted the notarized articles of incorporation your startup needs.

• Register in the Commercial Registry
  To establish legal personhood, you’ll need to register in the Commercial Registry in the province that your startup’s registered office is located in. Law 28/2022 both reduces and provides exemptions from fees, making publication in the Official Gazette of the Commercial Registry (BORME) free of charge if a company adopts standard bylaws. If this is the case for your startup, the registrar will register your company within a maximum of six working hours after receiving the notarial instrument.

• Register with Social Security and obtain your permanent NIF
  To be able to work for the startup, you have to register with Social Security as a self-employed individual. The agency will generate a contributions account code that you will need further down the line if you decide to hire employees. Once your documents are approved, you’ll be able to apply for a permanent NIF from the Spanish Tax Agency. This will identify your startup for tax purposes in all of its activities and will confirm that it is now fully operational.

How to certify a startup in Spain

In order for entrepreneurs to receive the benefits of Law 28/2022, their startups must be certified. This is a process of evaluation to officially recognize that a startup’s business model is innovative and scalable. The measure is part of the Spain Entrepreneurial Nation Strategy, which includes objectives such as strengthening the innovative ecosystem.

The certification, which can be applied for free of charge, takes place after creation of the startup is complete. It is advisable to process it as soon as possible to enhance legal certainty for the business. Enisa is the institution responsible for evaluating the criteria set forth in Order PCM/825/2023, including the following:

• Characteristics
  There are several basic characteristics or conditions that the business must fulfill in order to be considered a startup and receive the certification. These include:

  • Being a new or recently created company
    
  • Not distributing dividends
    
  • Not having been formed from a merger with a company that is not a startup
    
  • Having the majority of employees’ contracts be in Spain (i.e., employees are hired by the startup in Spain and pay their taxes in Spain)
    

• Scalability
  One of the intrinsic characteristics of a startup is its strong potential for expansion, which is defined based on criteria such as using strategies to attract customers, being part of an industry with a high level of demand, and differentiating itself from the competition.

• Innovative nature
  To determine whether the startup is innovative in nature, Enisa evaluates aspects such as the percentage of investment in research and development (R&D). Normally, Enisa calculates the investment that has been made in the previous two years, but if the startup has been recently created, only the investment during the previous year is considered.

Advantages of certifying a startup in Spain

The timeline for completing the evaluation is a maximum of three months. If it is approved, your startup will be able to access important benefits, such as:

• Greater legal certainty
  A certified startup is one that is officially registered as an “emerging company”. This certified status gives investors greater confidence in the business project and helps them see the project as lower risk. At the same time, institutions providing grants require fewer verifications when it comes to certified startups, which speeds up the funding process. In addition, in the event of an audit by the Tax Agency, there is a reduced risk of penalties for obtaining improper tax benefits, since there is no ambiguity about the company’s status as a startup.

• Tax benefits
  Under Law 28/2022, certified startups are entitled to certain tax benefits, such as the ability to defer the first two payments of corporate income tax (IS) and avoid the obligation to make IS installment payments by filling out form 202.

• Grants
  Both the national government and some autonomous communities offer various grants for startups in Spain to promote their creation and subsequent growth. Enisa is one of the institutions that helps startups, specifically by providing profit-participating loans.

The possibility of receiving these benefits encourages many startups to apply for certification; in April 2024, there were 1,000 certified startups and, as of December 7, 2025, there are 1,631.

Grants and subsidies for creating a startup in Spain

The Startup Law created the ONE, a platform that coordinates support services for entrepreneurs. On its website, entrepreneurs who have innovative projects they want to bring to fruition in Spain can find useful information on the process, including the financial aid available to them. Let’s take a look at some of the most requested grants and subsidies at the national and regional levels.

National grants for creating a startup in Spain

At the national level, the government provides grants for starting a business in Spain to entrepreneurs who want to create startups. The following are some of the most useful ones:

• The Digital Kit: This is a digital transformation program that helps startups that are already active to set up online businesses. For example, if you’re developing IT solutions, you can use the Digital Kit to create an online store. This, in turn, enables you to sell software licenses to customers throughout the country—or even abroad, if you decide to expand your business beyond Spain.

• Flat rate for self-employed workers: This is a subsidy that reduces the amount of the self-employed contribution paid to Social Security by self-employed workers, including corporate self-employed workers, who receive the most benefits under Law 28/2022. This government grant is only applicable to new self-employed workers who meet the requirements, such as not having any debt to the Tax Agency or Social Security.

• Capitalization of unemployment benefits: This is a measure that allows you to receive the remaining amount of your unemployment benefits in advance, provided that this single payment is used for one of the following purposes:

  • Creating a startup as a self-employed worker
    
  • Contributing the share capital of a newly created startup or of a company that was registered in the Commercial Registry no more than 12 months earlier
    

• NEOTEC: This is a program from the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) that promotes the creation of technology-based startups. For example, you can benefit from NEOTEC subsidies if you create a startup to sell innovative online services or digital products in Spain. The program also provides subsidies of up to €8,000 to cover training and travel expenses, provided they are related to the company’s growth or internationalization through programs such as ICEX-Desafía.

• Impulsa Startup: This program, run by the Chambers of Commerce, is aimed at entrepreneurs who want to create startups in Spain or who already have active startups. Both the requirements and the subsidies vary depending on the Chamber of Commerce responsible for managing the program. For example, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce offers grants of €4,800 and €1,600.

• Entrepreneurship Service Points (PAEs): While these information centers do not provide financial assistance as such, they offer necessary support for launching a startup, assisting entrepreneurs with many of the procedures that are necessary to formalize the creation of their startups.

Regional grants for creating a startup in Spain

At the regional level, specific grants are available that are in line with each region’s needs. Barcelona and Madrid, in particular, offer some of the most attractive grants due to their interest in maintaining their autonomous communities’ leading positions as hubs for startup creation. These measures are paying off, as shown by their fifth and sixth places, respectively, in the ranking of European cities with the most tech startups receiving funding in 2024. An example of an available regional grant is the Startup Capital program in Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia, which provides a maximum of €100,000 to newly created technology startups.

Areas that have a lower concentration of startups also offer attractive grants. In the city of Ceuta, for example, the Governing Council has allocated grants that will be available until 2027 and that are intended for the creation and modernization of innovative startups. The amount of these grants totaled over €650,000 in 2025. Similarly, in 2024, entrepreneurs in Murcia were able to obtain up to €80,000 through a grant from the Murcia Department of Business, Employment, and Social Economy designed to encourage the creation of startups with technological potential. The evaluation criteria included Enisa certification, which, if obtained, gave applicants up to seven additional points in the selection process, demonstrating the importance of the certification.

Since each autonomous community offers specific lines of support and establishes its own criteria for applications, the grants that are available change quite often. To find the grants that will be most helpful to you, try using the public grants and incentives search tool on the SME Platform (Plataforma PYME), an initiative from the Ministry of Industry and Tourism.

FAQs about creating a startup in Spain

What is the most appropriate legal formation for creating a startup in Spain?

The limited liability company (SL) is the most advisable legal formation for a startup in Spain, since the Startup Law streamlines the procedures for incorporating this kind of company. Some of the main advantages of incorporating an SL under the Startup Law include: the ability to obtain an NIF earlier to facilitate immediate access to financing, the possibility of completing all procedures online, and reduced registry and notary fees.

What happens if a startup that has been created loses money?

In general, Spanish companies are required to dissolve if the losses cause their net worth to equal less than 50% of their share capital. However, Law 28/2022 exempts startups from this obligation if the losses occur during the first three years after incorporation. Still, the startup will have to be dissolved if it enters into insolvency proceedings due to financial problems, such as excessive delays in payments to suppliers.

Is it possible to create a startup in Spain without money?

Although incorporating a company entails certain fixed costs, it is possible to receive subsidies that cover the initial investment. First, visit a PAE to receive information on how to create a startup and learn about the associated costs, such as notary fees (regulated by Royal Decree 1426/1989), the Certificate of Available Company Name, and registrar fees (regulated by Royal Decree Law 13/2010). Then, you can check which financing options are available at the time. If you meet the requirements for certain grants or subsidies, your startup might even be exempt from the costs of incorporation.

Can foreigners create startups in Spain?

Yes, foreigners can open businesses that are certified as startups if they are legal residents of Spain or if they have an initial temporary residence and self-employment work permit. In fact, the Startup Law extends the duration of this permit from one year to three, so that these foreigners can stay in Spain longer than foreigners starting conventional businesses. The law also simplifies the process for having an NIE issued, which speeds up the incorporation of the company.

Can a startup be created abroad from Spain?

It is possible to create a startup abroad from Spain, but the requirements vary by country. Although many countries allow foreigners to incorporate companies online, some steps must be carried out in person. In the United States, for example, you must have a registered agent who is responsible for carrying out the necessary legal procedures, and this agent must reside in the US.

How Stripe helps startups in Spain

Creating a startup is much more than finding a good idea and putting it into practice: it involves managing payments, subscriptions, international billing, and financial processes that have to work perfectly from the start. Stripe offers a set of tools designed to help startups in Spain launch, scale, and optimize their operations as dynamically as they develop their products.

Whether you just incorporated your company or you’re looking to expand into new markets, Stripe’s solutions let you focus on what really matters: growing your business.

How Stripe Payments can help

Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payments solution that helps any business—from scaling startups to global enterprises—accept payments online, in person, and around the world.

Stripe Payments can help you:

• Optimize your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment UIs, access to over 125 payment methods, and Link, a wallet built by Stripe.
  
• Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across more than 135 currencies.
  
• Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalize interactions, reward loyalty, and grow revenue.
  
• Improve payments performance: Increase revenue with a range of customizable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorization rates.
  
• Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% historical uptime and industry-leading reliability.
  

Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments, or get started today.

How Stripe Billing can help

Stripe Invoicing simplifies your accounts receivable (AR) process—from invoice creation to payment collection. Whether you’re managing one-time or recurring billing, Stripe helps businesses get paid faster and streamline operations:

• Automate accounts receivable: Easily create, customize, and send professional invoices—no coding required. Stripe automatically tracks invoice status, sends payment reminders, and processes refunds, helping you stay on top of your cash flow.

• Accelerate cash flow: Reduce days sales outstanding (DSO) and get paid faster with integrated global payments, automatic reminders, and AI-powered dunning tools that help you recover more revenue.

• Enhance the customer experience: Deliver a modern payment experience with support for more than 25 languages, 135 currencies, and 100 payment methods. Invoices are easy to access and pay through a self-serve customer portal.

• Reduce back-office workload: Generate invoices in minutes and reduce time spent on collections through automatic reminders and a Stripe-hosted invoice payment page.

• Integrate with your existing systems: Stripe Invoicing integrates with popular accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, helping you keep systems in sync and reduce manual data entry.

Learn more about how Stripe can simplify your accounts receivable process, or get started today.