Which foreign entrepreneurs are thriving on the Costa Blanca?

Yes, foreign entrepreneurs really do build businesses on the Costa Blanca, even if you rarely read about them. The coast has no single expat startup hub the way Valencia does, so the founders who make it here tend to work quietly, serving a niche they know first-hand. We went looking for verifiable stories: a real name, a real company, a real address. We found two that prove the point, a French-language radio station born from a gap in the market and a yoga and dance studio built for expat women. Here is how each of them got started, with no padding and no invented numbers.

Who is Alain Leclerc and what is Radio Plus?

Alain Leclerc is the founder of Radio Plus, a French-language station that broadcasts from the southern Costa Blanca around Torrevieja and the neighbouring Costa Cálida, with a signal that also reaches central Alicante and the north of the province. He settled in the area and, around 2018, spotted something missing: there was no local, community-focused media outlet for the region's French speakers. Rather than wait for someone else to fix it, he launched the station himself.

The idea is a radio built around connection: practical information, music and a thread linking listeners scattered along more than a hundred kilometres of coastline. Today Radio Plus claims several confirmed FM frequencies and a broadcast area covering most of the Costa Blanca and the Costa Cálida. One honest caveat: Leclerc is French as far as we could establish, but that nationality is inferred from the context (a French-language project aimed at the French-speaking community) rather than stated in black and white, so we present it as a likelihood, not as a certified fact.

Who is Marie Filippi and what is Ondana Studio?

Marie Filippi founded Ondana Studio, a yoga and dance studio in San Vicente del Raspeig, just outside Alicante. What sets it apart is its offer: classes in French, designed for expat women who want to move, breathe and reconnect in their own language without wrestling with Spanish first. It is a niche, but a real one, and it is the kind of gap a founder only spots by living inside the community.

Her background blends the two disciplines she teaches. She came to it through a personal dance practice, then trained in yoga and earned a 200-hour certification, the standard recognised qualification for teaching. From there grew the wish for a space of her own, where dance and yoga answer each other. We do not have a precise opening date for the studio and will not invent one: what is established is the activity, the town and the audience it serves.

Why are these founders so hard to spot on the Costa Blanca?

Because the coast is long and fragmented, spread between Torrevieja, Alicante, Denia and Calpe, with no single expat capital that concentrates the energy the way Valencia does. Plenty of foreign residents live here, but many are retirees or seasonal residents rather than high-profile business builders. Those who do start something tend to do it solo, with no press coverage and no visible network, which makes them hard to find. We came across other leads, a bakery and a communications firm among them, but without a verifiable name or a confirmed local presence we chose to leave them out rather than pad the list. Two documented stories beat an inflated panorama.

Foreign entrepreneurs on the Costa Blanca: your questions answered

Why is the founder scene quieter here than in Valencia?
Valencia is a compact city that concentrates coworking spaces, a dense international community and a real startup ecosystem. The Costa Blanca stretches over a hundred kilometres of coast with no single centre, and its foreign population leans residential rather than entrepreneurial. Projects exist, but they are scattered and rarely publicised, so they are harder to count. For the wider funding picture nearby, see our look at Alicante startup funding rounds in 2025.

Can you make a living from a foreign-language business on the Costa Blanca?
The two verified cases show you can: a radio station and a yoga studio in French both find their audience among expats. The single-language market stays narrow, though. As in Valencia, also targeting Spanish-speaking customers widens your options considerably, which means getting to grips with Spanish. Budget realistically first with our guide to the cost of living on the Costa Blanca in 2026.

How do you set up a business here as a foreigner?
Registering as self-employed (autónomo) is the most common way in and can be done quickly, but Spanish tax rules have their own logic and a gestor usually pays for itself. Our guide to becoming an autónomo in Spain walks through the steps.

Are there really only two foreign founders on the coast?
No. These are simply the two we could verify by name, company and location. We are convinced there are many more between Torrevieja and Denia who never get heard, which is exactly why we keep the list honest rather than long.

Running a business on the Costa Blanca? Tell us

This article is short on purpose: we only included what we could check. But we are sure there are far more foreign residents building companies between Torrevieja and Denia than anyone hears about. If that is you, or you are in the middle of a launch, we want to read your story. The newsroom is preparing a series of founder portraits from the coast: write to us at hello@thedailycostablanca.com and tell us about your journey, the setbacks and the wins.

The Daily Costa Blanca newsroom

Sources: topinfoalicante.com, "Radio Plus, the French-language voice linking the Costa Blanca"; radioplusespagne.com (broadcast area and FM frequencies); yoga-alicante.es (official Ondana Studio site, Marie Filippi's background and training). Consulted in July 2026.

Information verified in August 2026. The Daily Costa Blanca is an AI-assisted publication with human review.