Applications open · Founding cohort 2027 San Xoán de Río · Galicia

Build your startup.
Live the experience.

A 12-month founder residency in a one-of-a-kind enclave in the Galician mountains. 30 startups, 120 founders, all in from €350/month — your own cabin, full board, 1 Gbps fibre, strategic and technical mentoring, MVP development, hackathons and investors from day one. Win a scholarship and live it at €0 — with €2,400/month going straight into your startup. First cohort lifts off March 2027.

Apply for the founding cohort → How it works
30
Startups per cohort
€350/mo
All-inclusive residency
12
Months residency
1Gbps
Symmetric fibre
Why Rural Valley

The city is eating
your runway.

A 50 m² flat in Madrid or Barcelona costs more than your first engineer. You ship between three coffee shops and a co-working you barely use. You're paying urban prices for a working setup the city doesn't even give you — and your cofounder is two hours away on the metro.

Rural Galicia has space, silence, fibre and a community that wants you. Your runway lasts longer. Your team lives together. Your weekends look different. And the people building with you are the people building beside you.

40–60%
Lower cost of living vs. Madrid / Barcelona
€350/mo
All-in residency at Rural Valley
01 — What you get

Three things
you can't buy à la carte.

Rural Valley is the rare place where housing, acceleration and community arrive bundled. Spin one up alone in any other city and your runway is gone. Here, the bundle is the product.

01

Your home

An independent cabin for your startup, set in a one-of-a-kind mountain campus. Full board, 1,000 m² of shared workspaces and lounges, bills, fibre, cleaning and maintenance — all handled. Pack a suitcase and ship code.

  • Your own cabin from €350/mo, all in
  • Full board + 1,000 m² shared workspaces
  • 1 Gbps symmetric fibre, 24/7
02

Your accelerator

A 12-month programme to move you from idea to traction. Weekly 1:1 strategic and technical mentoring with operators who have founded and sold companies. MVP development included, national and international hackathons, leading speakers and quarterly demo days. Direct access to an EU-wide investor network from day one. No tuition fees.

  • Strategic + technical mentoring, weekly
  • MVP development, hackathons & speakers
  • EU-wide investor network from day 1
03

Your tribe

29 other startups, 120 founders. A village that wants you to ship. Mentors that show up. A LinkedIn contact you also see at breakfast. Nature, conventions and well-being events that don't feel like a corporate retreat. The community that survives long after the cohort ends.

  • 29 other startups · 120 founders
  • Intergenerational events with the village
  • Permanent alumni network
02 — Where you'll live

A village of 500.
A campus of 30 cabins.

San Xoán de Río, Ourense. Mountains, rivers, slow mornings, fast fibre. The municipality ceded a mountain enclave for the residency — 30 independent cabins, full board and 1,000 m² of shared workspace, home to 120 founders for 12 months. Two hours from Vigo and Porto airports. The kind of place that won't top a 'best cities to live' list — and that's exactly the point.

Host municipality San Xoán de Río · Ourense

EU Capitals of Inclusion & Diversity 2026 — Bronze winner Awarded to San Xoán de Río (under-50,000 category) for its sustainable-longevity model — care networks, active elder participation and rural accessibility. The pilot builds on a Commission-recognised foundation.

120
Founder capacity · 30 cabins
1Gbps
Symmetric fibre · 24/7
30
Startups · cohort 1 (Mar 2027)
~2h
To Vigo / Porto airports
Consortium

Rural Valley · Impact Campus · Wye Works · The Strategic School · Entre Nos · with institutional support from the Xunta de Galicia.

03 — Apply for the cohort

30 seats.
One founding cohort.

30 places in the founding cohort — every one eligible for a scholarship that covers the residency in full (€0) and adds €2,400/month into your startup. We read every application and select the projects intentionally; this isn't first-come, first-served. The pre-application takes three minutes.

01
Pre-apply in 3 minutes
Tell us who you are and what you're building
02
We review every application
Each one gets a careful read — we're looking for projects, not just headcount
03
Selected projects move forward
If we see a fit, we get in touch to take the conversation further

Application received.

We read every application carefully. If your project is a fit for the founding cohort, we'll be in touch. Follow us on LinkedIn for build updates in the meantime.

04 — The bigger picture

You're not joining
a one-off. You're joining the first.

Galicia is the first Rural Valley. By 2035 we're committed to ten or more — across Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and the European countryside that is ready for the next wave of founders. Your cohort is the proof of concept. The alumni network is European by design.

10+
Rural Valleys across EU Member States by 2035
3K+
Founders & digital residents at full scale
100+
Host villages reactivated
1
Replicable, EU-coordinated model
05 — Backed by Europe

The project sits inside
three EU frameworks.

The legitimacy isn't borrowed. Rural Valley plugs directly into three Commission priorities — which is also why the cohort lands with investor and institutional doors open from day one.

EU Smart Villages

Digital infrastructure for rural communities

Rural Valley delivers the Smart Villages thesis at the village scale: connectivity, services and economic activity built around the host community.

Long-term Vision for Rural Areas

Stronger, connected, resilient, prosperous

The four objectives of the Rural Pact map directly onto the three layers of the Rural Valley model — residential, programmatic, communal.

Cohesion Policy 2021–2027

Territorial & demographic cohesion

Each hub is a measurable instrument for territorial cohesion — beds, jobs, residents, services, intergenerational links — at a scale where outputs are auditable.

06 — Other ways in

Not a founder?
Three more doors.

If you're a founder, head straight to the application form above. If you're here in another capacity, Rural Valley is built by a consortium — and the consortium is open.

01 · Partners

Mentors, investors & local businesses

Mentoring slots, investor LP positions, local-supply partnerships, RSC programmes — every Rural Valley wires into the people and the place that host it. Tell us what you bring.

Join the consortium
02 · Governments

Regional governments & municipalities

Host the next Rural Valley. We're mapping candidate municipalities outside Galicia for cohorts opening from 2029. Building stock, demographics, fibre — let us run the diagnostic.

Start a diagnostic
03 · Institutional funders

European Commission & public funders

Co-fund the Galicia pilot as Tier A, with a Letter of Intent for two-to-three follow-on Member State pilots as Tier B. We share the 19-slide briefing on request.

Request the briefing
"The future doesn't have to be built where everyone is already looking. Rural Europe has the land, the silence and the people. We bring the bridge."
Rural Valley · Founding manifesto