Strategic Location, Investor Access, and Funding Outcomes: An Empirical Study of Spanish FinTech Firms

Abstract

This thesis investigates the extent to which the regional location of FinTech startups within Spain influences their ability to attract external funding. Using a custom geo-economic classification that captures functional differences between regions—such as financial concentration, innovation intensity, and industrial specialization—we develop a linear regression model as the primary empirical framework and validate findings with a log-linear specification for robustness. Our results reveal that regional disparities in funding exist but are generally modest. Startups based in Madrid, the Capital Core, receive the highest levels of funding, while those in the Andalusian Innovation and Services Region are significantly disadvantaged (p = 0.026). However, other inter-regional differences fail to reach conventional significance thresholds, suggesting that geography alone does not decisively determine funding outcomes. Notably, investor access, proxied by the number of distinct investors, exhibits no significant effect, nor do firm size or age.