PwC: The socioeconomic contribution of South Summit in Madrid
04/26/2023South Summit
SHARE:
PwC, one of the world’s leading professional services firms, and South Summit, a global platform that connects startups, investors, corporations, and public institutions from all over the world, have been working closely together to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic progress in Spain. With a shared vision of driving sustainable growth and creating value for society, the two organizations have combined their expertise and resources to support the development of the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem.
As part of their ongoing collaboration, PwC and South Summit have released their latest report, which reveals that:
The upcoming South Summit 2023 is expected to generate an economic impact around €28 million in the city of Madrid.
For every €1spent by South Summit on the event, €2.7will be generated in Madrid’s economic activity.
In terms of employment, the 2023 event will generate around 2,200 equivalent jobs of monthly duration.
Even though the global entrepreneurial ecosystem value has suffered a downturn in 2022, the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem has increased6% in 2022 relative to 2021.
South Summit is a global showcase that gathers national and international entrepreneurial ecosystems, to develop connections between startups, investors, and executives at a global level. Throughout the last 10 years, South Summit has emerged as a thriving hub, fostering innovationglobally. It has made significant contributions towards talent attraction; creation of valuable connections; instilling corporate cultural transformation and driving global economic progress.
In 2023, South Summit will keep contributing to Spanish society and its productive landscape through the following channels: economy and employment; image and reputation; entrepreneurial ecosystem and open innovation.
Impact on the economy and employment
The upcoming South Summit 2023 edition is expected to generate an economic impact of roughly €28 million in Madrid’s economy, reaching a new record in South Summit history. Indeed, for every €1 of direct impact, South Summit will generate €2.7 of total impact in Madrid.
In terms of employment, South Summit will contribute to the local economy with around 2,200 equivalent jobs of monthly duration. Hence, for every employee directly hired by South Summit, nearly 9 additional jobs will be generated in Madrid’s economy.
Improvement of image and media coverage
South Summit counts with a strong media coverage, mainly online, which improves the image and reputation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. In 2022, South Summit registered more than 268 million of audience and 54 international impacts, with an economic value exceeding €5.6 million. Furthermore, its international relevance is increasing over the years, as evidenced by the last edition of South Summit Brazil, with more than 700 media outlets from all over the world.
Development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem
In 2022, the volume of global investment in startups decreased by nearly 30% due to the current macroeconomic uncertainty, arising from factors such as bottlenecks in global value chains, inflation, rise of the interest rates and geopolitical conflicts. The impact of these restrictions has been significant, with one high-profile casualty being the Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed in 2023 as a result of the downturn in the startup investment landscape.
In Spain, the number of operations recorded transactions experienced a 3% increase in 2022, although the volume of investments in startups has been reduced due to the lower number of megadeals (>50M€).
Despite the widespread economic downturn in the global entrepreneurial ecosystem, Spain has kept its upward trend, reaching more than $93,000 million in 2022 of entrepreneurial ecosystem value.
Within Spain, Madrid and Barcelona continue as the main innovation hubs, although other locations such as Valencia, Bilbao or Málaga are gaining attraction.
Concretely, Madrid stays as one of the key European hubs, with an ecosystem of approximately 2,500 startups and about 37.000 employments.
Open innovation boosting
South Summit has been since its beginnings one of the pioneers of the open innovation technique, which allows the interconnection between startups, innovation hubs, R&D entities, entrepreneurs and corporations. This mechanism grants benefits for all the actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. This open innovation approach is reflected partially in the increasing volume of corporate investment in Spain, which has multiplied by 11 since 2013.
Ultimately, South Summit is looking internationally for new horizons and opportunities, encouraged by the 2023 edition of South Summit Brazil. Indeed, the last Startup Competition recorded more than 100 different nationalities, showing the rising global interest aroused by international startups.
AUTHOR: JORDI ESTEVE BARGUÉS, PARTNER RESPONSIBLE FOR THE AREA OF ECONOMICS – STRATEGY OF PwC SPAIN
Jordi brings more than twenty years of professional experience in economic consultancy, specialized in the application of quantitative economic techniques to strategic projects.
With his extensive professional experience, he has prepared economic impact reports across a diverse range of sectors. Additionally, he has contributed to the development of impact studies for top Spanish corporations.
He holds a degree in Economics and a Master’s in Economics from CEMFI (Bank of Spain).
AUTHOR: ALBERTO TORNERO SUÁREZ,
PARTNER RESPONSIBLE FOR THE AREA OF HIGH GROWTH COMPANIES (SCALE UPS & OPEN INNOVATION) OF PWC SPAIN.
Alberto has been working for more than twelve years with Start Ups, Scale Ups and middle market + companies, collaborating on the strategies and needs related to their high growth rates.
Likewise, the area directed by Alberto is responsible for collaborating with large corporations and institutions in their innovation, investment and transformation strategies with Star Ups and Scale Ups.
For four years he was CEO and General Director of a Spanish industrial and technological business group.
Graduated in Law, MBA from ESADE, PDD from IESE and Masters in Law of technologies from ICADE, Alberto is a professor of data strategy, business transformation, data ownership, intellectual property and entrepreneurship at various business schools (Instituto de Empresa, ICADE, School of Industrial Organization, CEU).
