AI-generated summary
A new generation of scaleups is redefining business growth by embedding purpose—environmental, social, or technological—into their core strategies. This trend moves beyond idealism, becoming a competitive advantage in sectors like clean energy, health, responsible digitalization, and sustainability, where such values are market necessities. In Spain, companies in energy transition, electric mobility, and smart cities exemplify this shift by delivering solutions to societal challenges while expanding revenues and international presence.
Examples include Holaluz, a renewable energy retailer promoting solar self-consumption; Wallbox, innovating fast electric vehicle chargers aligned with decarbonization goals; RatedPower, optimizing solar plant design software to accelerate energy transition; and Libelium, providing IoT solutions that enhance urban management and environmental monitoring. However, the rise of “purpose washing,” where companies superficially claim purpose without integrating it operationally, poses challenges. Tools like B Corp certification and growing consumer and investor demand for transparency push companies toward genuine impact.
For Spain, purposeful scaleups represent a strategic opportunity aligned with European priorities. By 2025, authentic integration of purpose will be essential for growth and addressing systemic issues such as decarbonization and sustainable urbanization. This model demonstrates that purpose-driven innovation not only coexists with competitiveness but actively propels it, positioning Spain to lead in impact-driven entrepreneurship.
In the national ecosystem, a model that integrates purpose – social, environmental or technological – as part of its growth strategy is gaining strength.
For many companies, growth is no longer enough. A new generation of Scaleups integrates purpose—environmental, social, or technological—as a structural part of its strategy. And far from being an idealistic gesture, it has become a competitive advantage in sectors where clean energy, health, responsible digitalisation and sustainability are no longer added values, but market conditions.
This transformation is clearly observed in the Spanish entrepreneurial fabric. Scaleups operating in areas such as the energy transition, electric mobility and Smart cities are redefining what it means to grow: it is no longer enough to increase revenues and international presence, but it is required to do so by providing real solutions to collective challenges.
Spanish startups that combine purpose and business
Holaluz is a good example of this evolution. Founded in Barcelona in 2010, it has established itself as a 100% renewable energy retailer with more than 300,000 customers and some 14,000 photovoltaic installations managed. Its commitment to solar self-consumption and the digitalisation of the home grid demonstrates how purpose can be integrated into the operational and financial model. It has been listed on BME Growth since 2019 and participates in European programs such as H2020, confirming that its impact narrative is supported by regulated activity and verifiable projects.
Wallbox represents another aspect of this culture: the one that links technological innovation and the decarbonisation of transport. Since 2015, the company has been developing smart chargers for electric vehicles and advanced energy management solutions. In 2025, it announced a fast-charging technology capable of reducing times by around 30%, and received 8,355 million euros from the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) as part of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. In this case, the purpose is not expressed in abstract terms: it is materialized in infrastructure, industrial expansion and regulatory fit in a crucial sector for the energy transition.
Purpose is also manifested in Specialized scaleups whose contribution is less visible to the general public, but essential to the ecosystem. RatedPower, founded in 2017 and acquired by Enverus in 2022, develops software that optimizes the design of large-scale solar plants. Its platform has been used in projects totaling tens of gigawatts and more than 180 countries. Its value lies not only in technical efficiency: it allows the global deployment of solar energy to be accelerated, reducing costs and development time. Here, the purpose is technical and concrete: to facilitate the energy transition to occur.
Libelium, born in Zaragoza in 2006, completes the panorama from the field of IoT and smart cities. Its sensors are used in air monitoring, water management, smart agriculture and urban digitalisation. Following its restructuring in 2021, it strengthened its ESG strategy and participates in multiple Europeansustainable innovation projects. It fits into a scale-up model where technology not only optimizes processes, but also improves public services and generates direct positive externalities.
Avoid ‘purpose washing’
But these virtuous cases should not hide a parallel phenomenon: not every company that talks about purpose integrates it into its strategy. In Spain and Europe, alerts have multiplied due to the rise of purpose washing, heir to greenwashing. Writing inspirational statements is simple; turning them into operational decisions and assuming the associated cost is what is really difficult. This distance between message and business reality has led to the search for independent mechanisms that help distinguish marketing engagement.
Among them is the B Corp certification, which requires audits in governance, human rights, environmental and social impact, as well as statutory changes that require all stakeholders to be considered. According to According to the organization’s own data, certified companies show a financial impact that is 30% higher than the market average, a correlation that reinforces the idea that impact and performance are not opposites.
Another key factor is added to this trend: regulatory and social pressure. Consumers and investors alike are increasingly valuing consistency and transparency. Recent studies by Kantar’s Sustainability Sector Index indicate that a significant part of the population declares that they have avoided brands after perceiving negative practices or information that is not very credible. This increase in distrust forces companies to demonstrate real impact through verifiable metrics, not just communication.
For Spain, this transition represents a strategic opportunity. Purposeful scaleups are positioning themselves in high value-added sectors – renewable energy, electric mobility, industrial digitalisation, smart cities – that coincide with European priorities in investment and innovation. Thus, integrating purpose is not a reputational luxury, but a way of operating in markets where sustainability and energy efficiency are regulatory requirements and drivers of competitiveness.
By 2025, entrepreneurship with purpose means building companies capable of growth and, at the same time, solving systemic challenges such as decarbonization, urban management or sustainable digitalization. The scaleups leading this trend show that purpose, when integrated in an authentic and measurable way, doesn’t limit competitiveness – it drives it. Spain has the opportunity to consolidate a model in which innovation, impact and growth move in the same direction.
