My name is Jaime Novoa and I’m a partner at Kfund. I spend the vast majority of my time investing in early stage startups as part of Kfund. We make investments of €100k to €15m. If you want to chat, drop me an email at jaime@kfund.vc
This is a free newsletter supported by sponsors. If you’re interested in sponsorship opportunities, drop me an email at jaime@dealflow.es
At Kfund, one of the main requests from our portfolio companies is credits from cloud hosting providers. But that’s only the start of the journey.
As companies grow, two things become meaningful: a) making sure that your infra works well and efficiently, and b) that cloud costs are reduced and optimized. This becomes super relevant with scale as cloud costs affect gross margins and the bottom line of a company’s financials.
If you need help to simplify your cloud-related issues, you should chat to DoiT. Regardless of which major cloud platform you use (AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure), DoiT’s tech and expert cloud engineers will help you address your most common and frustrating cloud challenges.
Several of our portfolio companies have worked with DoiT and the experience has always been great.
If you want to give it a try, you can schedule an evaluation with their team for free. It’s worth it.
Quick reminder that since last week there’s also a Telegram channel where I share an adapted version of this newsletter. You can subscribe to our channel here: https://t.me/dealflowes
Startup funding news 💸
There was one big round last week:
San Sebastian-based Multiverse Computingraised €25m, led by Columbus Venture Partners. The round will be used, among other things, to develop and launch new applications for large language models (LLMs). Multiverse also said that a share of the new funding will go towards refining CompactifAI, a product launched that attempts to substantially cut the memory and storage space that an LLM requires. More info here
Five rounds of €1m to €5m:
Barcelona-basedLuxQuanta has secured a funding of €2.5m from the European Innovation Council Accelerator (EIC) to scale its quantum cryptography technology
Barcelona-based Blaine, an ecommerce and subscription service for artificial plants and decoration services, raised €2.3m
Barcelona-based venture builder Utópika Labs has secured €1.5m in funding to launch Terra, an innovative school aimed at transforming traditional education methods into "conscious education
Barcelona-based health tech company Braingaze, the spin-off from the University of Barcelona, raised €1.5m led by RYSE A
Indexa Capital has acquired 100% of Caravel, a French insurance broker specializing in retirement savings. This acquisition will allow Indexa Capital Group to complete its offering and accelerate its development in France
A Coruña-based tech consultancy company Trileuco Solutions is merging with Diverger, a new company that aims to lead the adoption of generative AI/LLMs in software development. Trileuco will continue to lead its product YepCode under the umbrella of Nidio Invest
Investor & accelerator news 🚀
New funds:
Invivo Partners plans to launch a new €100m fund to invest in companies that develop health therapies with advanced technologies, such as cell therapy and synthetic biology. This will be Invivo’s third fund. The article says that the first fund has provided returns of 3X (not sure if that’s TVPI or DPI)
The Generalitat has launched the Advanced Technology Investment Fund (FITA), a €55m investment fund aimed at financing scientific and technological startups in Catalonia
Fluidralaunched a corporate VC fund of €20m to invest in startups in the pool sector
International investments done by Spanish investment firms:
Axoninvested in German energy storage company phelas
Enisa said that last year it provided €112m worth of loans to startups. Cataluña was the main region, with 35% of all loans, closely followed by Madrid (30%) and Valencia (9%)
Telefonica announced that Wayra will be able to invest bigger checks from now on (up to €5m)
Profile of Mark Kavelaars, co-founder of VC firm Swanlaab. A couple of interesting quotes:
“España no termina de consolidarse en la escena global. Nos falta esa vocación de modelo de negocio de país que sí tienen Alemania, Israel u Holanda. ¿Qué eje vertebra la estrategia española? ¿El turismo? ¿La agricultura? ¿Las renovables? ¿Los mayores?
Mucho talento se marcha de España en todo tipo de profesiones. Deberíamos subir el nivel académico: hemos igualado el listón por la parte baja, de modo que la gente brillante y con currículo acaba en el mismo saco que individuos con menos talento y al final todos cobran igual”
Startup news 💡
Jobandtalent is negotiating with BlackRock to extend the maturity of its €354m debt, initially due in February 2025, to Q3 of this year. The company began its relationship with BlackRock in early 2021 with a $100m loan. This extension aims to provide Jobandtalent with time to refinance and reflects Jobandtalent's strategic shift towards achieving a positive EBITDA and stabilizing its net equity by 2026
Profile of Doofinder, a startup specializing in intelligent search solutions for eCommerce that has successfully grown through bootstrapping. In 2023, it reported €16m in revenue and a presence in over 10,000 online stores across 60 countries. Doofinder is now preparing to enter the US market in 2024
David Okuniev, co-founder of Typeform who recently left his role as head of Typeform Labs, announced the launch of his new project: Float, “a new product lab dedicated to shipping beautiful software and assembling small, stellar teams”
Recruiting platform Joppy put out Tech Salaries & Ecosystem Report, a good read on the evolution of the Spanish tech market, salaries and professional roles
Wallbox has secured a €23.4m contract to expand the home charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in the state of Washington
Mr. Wonderful, known for its designs with motivational phrases, is preparing an ERE that will affect 23% of its workforce, or 38 people. The last financial results available are from 2021, so it’s impossible to know what the brand’s business looks like right now
Nester has reached an agreement with real estate giant Engel & Völkers to digitalize its property management service. The company helps customers manage 20,000 properties through its software
Crescenta: digital fund manager for private equity and venture capital investment
Big company & policy news 🏦
Amazon has stopped investing in the logistics section of its Spanish branch, after having accumulated more than €1.1b in investments since the start of the pandemic. This decrease coincides with the halt of plans for 'mega-warehouses' in several Spanish regions due to the slowdown in ecommerce
Sngular has developed the technology behind B100, the new digital bank launched by Abanca. The bank offers innovative features such as a product that generates savings while the customer walks
Sam Altman's eye-scanning Worldcoinhas been banned in Spain for at least 3 months, amid perceived privacy risks from the venture which scans irises in exchange for a digital ID and free cryptocurrency
Interesting reads 🤓
VC firm Samaipatapublished “IA y experiencia de usuario: un romance potencialmente infinito”
Alejandra Otero Arenzana, investment manager at European VC firm Burda, published a deep dive on the topic of “Navigating the Digital Transformation in Hospitality“
