The President of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, has announced this week the launch of three new business accelerators in “three strategic areas”: biotechnology, energy and healthcare, with the aim of “supporting no fewer than 70 new projects by 2028”.
These are Business Factory BioTrack (BF BioTrack), focused on the biotechnology sector; Business Factory Energy (BFE), specialized in renewable energy; and Business Factory Health&Care (BFHC), aimed at the healthcare and social care sectors.
The success of the Business Factory network promoted by the Xunta places Galicia sixth in Spain’s national ranking of innovative companies. This is highlighted in a report by the Galician Institute for Economic Promotion (Igape), presented at the Consello da Xunta, where the launch of the three new accelerators was approved as part of the Galician Government’s commitment to technological competitiveness.
The study also underlines that the experience accumulated by the Galician accelerators since the launch of the first BF in 2016 confirms the economic impact of this model. The Business Factory network has supported 375 startups and innovative projects, with a business survival rate of 95%, far above the average for entrepreneurial ventures, and has contributed to the creation of more than 1,400 skilled jobs. In addition, they are helping to consolidate a stronger, more competitive entrepreneurial ecosystem connected to industry and to the development of new technological and industrial capabilities in strategic sectors for Galicia.
Biotechnology, renewables and healthcare
The future Business Factories reinforce the Galician Government’s commitment to making innovation the core of the region’s development and are part of the first Galicia Business Innovation Strategy 2026–2028, which, once implemented, will mobilize more than €400 million to make innovation a common practice across Galicia’s business fabric rather than an exception. This investment will help attract talent and flagship projects, create experimentation spaces, stimulate innovation and enable the incorporation of new technological advances such as AI into more traditional productive sectors.
The new BFs are designed to accelerate companies with high growth potential in areas expected to play a key role in Galicia’s economic, technological and industrial transformation in the coming years. Through a specialized acceleration model, participating startups will gain access to strategic guidance, mentoring, market connections, industrial validation and financing, thereby strengthening their consolidation and international scaling capabilities.
BF BioTrack will focus on life sciences, biotechnology, bioindustry and technologies applied to healthcare and the agri-food sector, promoting projects with a strong scientific component and market transfer potential, while reinforcing Galicia’s position as an emerging ecosystem in advanced engineering.
Meanwhile, BF Health&Care will focus on innovative projects related to digital health, medical technologies, advanced care and social healthcare, contributing to the modernization of Galicia’s healthcare ecosystem and to the creation of innovative solutions aimed at improving people’s quality of life.
In the energy field, BF Energy will promote initiatives linked to renewable energy, the energy transition, storage, energy efficiency and sustainable industrial technologies. Its objective is to foster connections between startups, Galicia’s industrial fabric and the region’s energy value chain.
Participation of clusters
The three accelerators will be developed in collaboration with Galicia’s main sectoral clusters — Bioga, Clúster Saúde de Galicia, Asime and Cluergal — and will also involve the participation of XesGalicia, reinforcing a public-private collaboration model aimed at accelerating innovative companies, attracting talent and connecting entrepreneurship with Galicia’s major industrial challenges.
Up to €14 million will be mobilized for the launch of these three new accelerators “between the contribution of the Xunta de Galicia and that of private projects”: Igape will allocate more than €5 million to management, coordination, advisory and training expenses for the programs; the collaborating clusters will jointly contribute around €850,000; and, additionally, XesGalicia may provide financial support to selected projects that successfully pass the corresponding investment analysis process. This financial support may range from €50,000 to €250,000 per project, depending on the stage of development of each business initiative, with a maximum investment capacity of up to €8 million.
With the incorporation of these new initiatives, Galicia strengthens a pioneering Business Factory network promoted by the Xunta that already includes seven well-established accelerators such as BFAuto, BFAero, BFFood, BFClimaTech, BFSport, ViaGalicia and Galicia Avanza. Their success is backed by the figures and also by a context in which Europe is engaged in a global race to attract technology startups. In this regard, the European Commission has identified support for startups and scaleups — companies that have already moved beyond the initial startup phase — as a priority to reinforce competitiveness and technological autonomy. In this context, Galicia is consolidating its position as one of Spain’s most dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystems.
According to the report Tech and Innovative Companies in Galicia 2026, the region currently has 534 technology and innovation companies (264 startups, 29 scaleups and 229 SMEs), generating more than 5,700 jobs and annual revenues exceeding €556 million.
The Business Factory network therefore represents a modern industrial policy based on innovation, smart specialization and public-private collaboration. It is a model designed not only to create startups, but also to support their growth and consolidation, transforming innovation into viable businesses, skilled employment and new industrial capabilities for Galicia.
Galicia Avanza
The Consello da Xunta also authorized the signing of a new agreement between the Galician Institute for Economic Promotion (Igape) and the Galicia Technology Park Company (Tecnópole) to develop the 2026 and 2027 editions of the Galicia Avanza accelerator, a pioneering program “focused on supporting SMEs to promote their internationalization”. Total investment exceeds €1.19 million.
The initiative is aimed at established companies and startups with validated products and the capacity to scale internationally, but which require specialized support to professionalize their international presence. To this end, Galicia Avanza offers a practical and personalized support, mentoring and specialized advisory pathway that combines cross-cutting training, technical support and acceleration actions tailored to the specific needs of each participating company.
Each edition will include a maximum of 15 beneficiary SMEs and will run over a period of between eight and twelve months. The program will enable companies to validate the potential of their innovative solutions, improve their commercial strategy and strengthen both their organizational capabilities and their access to financing, investors and new international partners. It also includes specific actions to increase the visibility of participating companies and to create synergies within Galicia’s innovation ecosystem.
It should be noted that Galicia Avanza has consolidated itself in recent years as a key tool for accelerating the validation, positioning and international commercialization of Galician innovation
