Small companies carry great weight in the Spanish economy, representing over 99% of all businesses. As in many countries, small firms create the most jobs and boost the economy. Supporting these businesses thus helps society and economic growth potential. Digital technology is one of the best ways to help small companies innovate and grow locally and globally. COVID-19 has intensified the need for digitalisation and underscored the importance of ensuring that companies are adequately aware of the opportunities and access to financing to support the digital transition.

The COTEC Foundation for Innovation was established to promote innovation and digitalisation while helping Spain’s economy and society. In Spain, COTEC has approximately 100 members, including private companies, financial institutions and regional and local administrations. The foundation helps improve research, technology, science and innovation, and provides analyses and advice to help small companies that want to improve their digital capabilities.

To find more ways to help small firms make the digital transition, COTEC asked the European Investment Advisory Hub to undertake a study that identifies the barriers to digitalisation and makes suggestions to clear the hurdles. COTEC especially wanted to assess the benefits and challenges for firms striving to adopt digital technologies when their assets are mainly intangible ones, such as patents and trademarks. The European Investment Advisory Hub’s study identified that Spanish small and medium companies were below the EU average when it came to the integration of digital technologies for two key reasons. First, there is not enough awareness in the country of how digital tools can improve businesses, and secondly, companies lack the skills to use the technology to its full potential.

Building on similar experiences in countries such as Portugal and Italy, the EIB innovation finance experts and external consultants mobilised by the European Investment Advisory Hub identified funding and policy measures that could help companies use more digital technologies, setting out measures to improve existing support, and they devised concrete ways to finance new digital projects. Making the most of existing initiatives offered by local banks and other financial institutions, experts also proposed a series of “soft measures” to boost investment in small businesses’ digitalisation.

Building on these ideas, COTEC and its partners will now take further steps to help small Spanish companies adopt more digital technologies while making the economy more competitive and prosperous