Dealflow.es is the best way to keep up with Spain’s startup ecosystem, manually curated by Jaime Novoa.
Dealflow is a side project. I spend the vast majority of my time investing in early stage startups as part of Kfund. We make investments of €100k to €10m. If you want to chat, drop me an email at jaime@kfund.vc
¡Conviértete en Business Angel e invierte en las startups de SeedRocket!
Únete a nuestro “Campus para Business Angels”el 12 y 13 de abril, en Madrid.
Diseñado para aquellos que ya invierten o para los que están considerando comenzar a invertir en startups, también tiene valor para emprendedores que quieran comprender mejor qué busca un inversor.
Algunas de las cuestiones que se tratarán son cap table, pacto de socios, análisis de oportunidades de inversión o el funcionamiento de un fondo de inversión.
Nuestro cuadro docente está integrado por profesionales del mundo de la inversión en España, que incluyen business angels, fondos de inversión o abogados especializados, como Iñaki Arrola (Kfund), Tom Horsey (Eoniq Fund), Marek Fodor o Jesús Monleón (4Founders).
Regístrate antes del 15/2 y benefíciate del descuento Early Bird! Más info aquí!
Detalles:
Fecha: 12 & 13 de Abril, 2024
Lugar: Google for Startups Campus Madrid
Startup funding news 💸
Barcelona-based Delfos raised €6.3m in a seed round led by Contrarian Ventures and Headline. Delfos offers virtual engineer software that uses AI and big data to optimize the performance and reliability of renewable energy asset. Delfos was firstly founded in Brazil but has moved its headquarters to Barcelona as part of this transaction
Madrid-based Harbiz(formerly called Dudyfit) announced a funding round of €5m euros led by UK firm Octopus Ventures. Harbiz is a SaaS platform for fitness and wellness professionals. Previous investors JME, Athos and Enzo also participated in the deal
Valencia-based private and secure cloud provider Internxt raised €3m from a bunch of investors, including Angels, Telefonica, Extension Fund, Banco Santander and others. The company claims to have closed 2023 with more than €3m in sales
Madrid-based web3 infrastructure solution Depasify raised €2m from JME and GoHub Ventures
Barcelona-based sales tech Remuner raised €2m in a pre-seed funding round led by Pear VC. Kfund also participated in the round. Bonsai and Enzo also invested. Remuner offers a commission management platform that leverages AI and data to optimize incentive compensation management
Madrid-based learning platform Leemons raised €1.5m in its third round of funding. With the support of various investors, including Swanlaab Venture Factory and Ship2B Ventures, Leemons aims to lead the educational technology sector and expand to other countries in Europe and the UK
Seidor acquired Gesein to grow in the public sector and takes on 350 additional employees. In 2022, Gesein did €20m in sales. Seidor has more than 9,000 employees and closed 2022 with €750m in sales and EBITDA of €21m. Seidor aims to become the first Spanish private capital technology consulting firm with sales of €1b million euros in 2025
Neobank MyInvestoracquired a majority stake in mortgage broker Helloteca. This means that MyInvestor will help its clients find the most advantageous loan in the market, adapted to their profile and needs
Playtomic, the racket sports booking platform, acquired its counterpart in Italy, Sportclubby. This acquisition will strengthen Playtomic's presence in the Italian market. With more than 1.2 million active users and 5k clubs in 42 countries, Playtomic closed 2023 having achieved its goal of turning a profit (€200k)
Investor & accelerator news 🚀
Criteria Venture Techled a €3.5m round in Portuguese startup Enline, specialized in digital twin technology and data-driven solutions for the energy sector
The European Investment Bank (EIB) partnered with Axon Partners Group to invest €40m in Andalusia, in a collaboration that is expected to be long-term
Zubi Capitalpartnered with the European Investment Fund (EIF) to launch a guarantee program under InvestEU, aimed at supporting impact startups. The program focuses on innovation and digitalization, offering better financing conditions to startups committed to positive social, environmental, and economic impacts
Startup news 💡
Glovo received the first penalty for its freelance model after the Rider Law. The company has been fined for fraudulently employing 49 delivery riders in Asturias, marking the first such penalty since the law's enforcement. In addition, Glovo announced the closure of its supermarket service, Super Glovo, in six Spanish cities, resulting in a redundancy plan (ERE) for about 100 workers. Also last week, Just Eat's CEO, Jitse Groen, criticized Glovo for its labour practices. Groen emphasized that non-compliance with the law will inevitably lead to fines, stressing that Just Eat adheres to the law by employing salaried riders
David Okuniev, co-founder of Typeform, announced the official launch of Formless, the company’s new AI initiative that mixes its traditional forms with AI. In the post, David also announced that he’s leaving “all of his operational responsibilities at Typeform (apart from my board role) to start a brand new adventure, which I am super excited about”. More info on Formless here
Profile of luxury camping marketplace Kampaoh, which generated €23m in revenue and continues with its international expansion. The company has grown from €45k euros in revenue in 2016 to €23m in 2023, with plans to reach 6,000 tents by 2024
Barcelona-based corporate neobank Neo has achieved profitability and expects to grow its European business without external funding. The fintech reported €1m in profit in 2023, compared to a €1m loss in 2022. It did €5m in revenue last year. Neo offers multi-currency accounts for corporate treasurers and has over 300 corporate customers across Europe
Profile of Napptilus, a veteran software company in Barcelona founded 20 years ago by Rafael Terradas, that specializes in digitalization services for major Spanish corporations and also operates a startup incubator. In 2023, the company did €8m in sales. Napptilus' incubator has created 24 startups, with 10 active ones
Atrapalo, the travel and leisure platform, grew its revenues by 5%, surpassing €230m in 2023. This marks a significant recovery after the challenging situation it faced during the Covid-19 pandemic
Profile of fintech startup Crescenta, which recently received regulatory approval to launch. Within three months, it has introduced two private equity funds, Crescenta Private Equity Buyouts Top Performers I and Crescenta Private Equity Growth Top Performers I, aiming to raise up to €45m
Recomotor, a recovered spare parts network for professionals, has opened a warehouse in Balaguer, Catalonia, and has experienced a significant increase in its revenues, reaching sales of €3.5m in the last fiscal year, 3X YoY
Profile of Tyris, a Valencia-based software startup, that has partnered with Lebanese investor Bill Saad to expand its four business areas: AI, ML, big data, apps, and data visualization. The company did €5.5m in revenue last year and employs 100 professionals
Profile of iFeel. iFeel is a technological platform that offers personalized solutions to measure the work environment and address mental health issues in the business environment
French energy startup Electra has raised €304m. The company plans to invest around €100m in Spain over the next four years to deploy 150 electric charging stations with 1,000 charging points, considering Spain as a strategic market
El Referente has put together of what they consider to be the 25 most promising Spanish startups for the year 2024. Among them are Bankflip, Clotsy, Dcycle, Depasify, Enso, Eholo, Flip, Ikualo, Invofox, Nido, Livo, Recovo, Rhyde, Snab Finance, SleepZzone, Tattoox, Ocean Ecostructures, Pontio, Poly Cashback, Ucademy, Unibo, Renaiss, ZenRows, Zepo, and Ziknes
Tech + government news 👩🏼⚖️
The Spanish Government plans to mobilize €18b for the development of AI in Spain, taking advantage of European funds. The aim is to finance both large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises, with the goal of increasing productivity
The Spanish Supreme Court has ordered the Community of Madrid to process a request from Cabify for 1,000 VTC licenses that were denied to them in 2018. The court partially accepts Cabify's appeal against the limitation of 1 VTC license for every 30 taxis, which was recently rejected by the CJEU
Big company news 🏦
Banco Santander is closing its subsidiary Mercury TFS after carrying out an ERE (employment regulation file) affecting around twenty workers. The closure comes after Banco Santander acquired a 50.1% stake in the company in March 2020 for 30 million euros
Over two years, Amazonhas paid €20m in the 'Google tax' through its Spanish advertising subsidiary, accounting for only 4.5% of Spain's total tax revenue from this levy between 2021 and 2022. The tax, aimed at digital services, has underperformed government expectations, with its future uncertain due to OECD plans for a similar global tax. Also last week, Amazon announced the acquisition of its logistics center in Far d'Empordà (Girona) from Eurofund and Logistic Capital Partners for €150m
Vueling has implemented a facial recognition system in collaboration with AENA at several Spanish airports, allowing travelers to save time at security and boarding controls
In a Linkedin post, Telefonica’s president Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete said that the telecommunications sector needs a modernized regulatory framework. As Telefónica says that there’s a need for deregulation, moving away from outdated, monopolistic regulations to foster fair competition in a digital era
Fashion company Adolfo Domínguez has achieved two consecutive quarters with positive net results, supported by its online sales, which grew by 25%
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Interesting reads 🤓
Online sales for supermarkets in Spain have regressed to the mean in the past few quarters. During the first semester of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, online sales represented 4.1% of the country's ecommerce business, but it has decreased to 3.1% with the return of customers to physical stores. On the other hand, travel agencies, tour operators, and hotel chains have experienced a 40% growth in the first semester of 2023, surpassing pre-Covid figures. Online tourism represents nearly a quarter of ecommerce in Spain
Interesting article in the FT about a digital twin project taking place in Barcelona, among other cities. Digital twin technology is revolutionizing urban planning by mirroring real cities in digital space, aiding in predicting and managing city dynamics. Barcelona is creating its digital twin, harnessing the power of its supercomputer MareNostrum 5 for tasks like traffic and energy analysis
Simon Muñoz, platform PM at Voicemod, published “Los datos agregados son basura: Un caso real de cómo los datos en agregado nos ocultó una caída en conversión. La importancia de la segmentación y la calidad de la adquisición“
Podcasts 🎧
Software Engineering Daily interviewedCarlos Sanchez of Adobe
Itnig interviewedLucas Carne, co-founder of Privalia and now of 011h
SeedRocket interviewed a bunch of Spanish VCs and investors to chat about what they expect the market to look like in 2024
Kfund interviewedAlejandro Marti, co-founder of Mitiga
Product Hackers interviewedBenoit Menardo, co-founder of Payflow
