Málaga and Seville tell two very different business stories

Foreign self-employment is climbing fast on the Costa del Sol while Seville takes the lead in Andalucía’s start-up investment

Málaga and Seville are both attracting business activity, though the latest figures show it is arriving in rather different ways.

In Málaga province, the number of self-employed people from abroad has risen to 39,198, according to UPTA’s analysis of Social Security data up to August. That is 6,364 more than in August 2024, an increase of 19.4% in two years.

The province now accounts for 51.8% of all foreign self-employed workers in Andalucía, making it the clear centre of this part of the region’s economy. Across Andalucía, there are 75,695 self-employed workers from other countries, representing 12.6% of the overall self-employed population.

Foreign nationals have also driven much of the recent rise in self-employment in Murcia, accounting for eight out of every ten new self-employed workers there over the past four years.

All these figures give an example of the concern raised in an April report, which warned that fewer immigrants in Spain could have serious consequences for sectors reliant on workers and business owners from abroad.

Commerce and hospitality remain important areas for Málaga’s overseas entrepreneurs, but their work is spreading into technology, advanced services, construction and renovations. UPTA expects Málaga could have close to 55,000 foreign self-employed workers by 2031 if annual growth continues at around 7%.

The organisation says the regularisation process has also contributed to the 2026 rise. By the end of August, nearly 340,000 people covered by the process had been registered with Social Security across Spain, including 16,912 self-employed workers.

Spain’s foreign workforce reached a record high this year, with its contribution to employment and the wider economy continuing to grow.

Seville takes the funding lead

While Málaga’s story is one of steady growth among smaller businesses and independent professionals, Seville has dominated Andalucía’s start-up investment this year.

Start-ups in the region raised €97 million between January and September across 16 funding rounds, a 224% increase on the same period in 2025. Seville attracted €73 million of that total, or three out of every four euros invested in Andalucía.

Much of the figure came from Universal DX, a company specialising in early cancer detection through liquid biopsy, which secured €62 million. Vaxdyn, a vaccine developer based in Dos Hermanas, received a further €11 million.

Málaga, despite its established technology scene and 29,018 employees at Málaga TechPark, did not feature in any of the year’s major funding rounds. Its most notable deal was Taalentfy’s €1.5 million investment.

That does not mean the city has lost its technology base, but it does show how sharply investment can be concentrated. After Seville and Málaga, Granada, Jaén and Almería are competing for a growing share of activity, with companies such as Ikos Advanced in Adra, InsectBiotech in Jaén and Grodi in Almería also attracting investment.

Málaga is adding thousands of self-employed professionals across a widening range of sectors, while Seville’s strong figures have come from a smaller number of large funding rounds. They are different measures of business activity, but together they show where Andalucía’s current growth is coming from.
 

Image: AI generated