Dealflow.es #442: Typeform new CEO. ForceManager sold for €38M. Playtomic's growth.
A weekly summary of everything that happened in the Spanish startup and tech investing ecosystem.
For many European founders—especially in Spain—relocating your company HQ to the US can feel like a no-brainer. Bigger market, better funding opportunities, easier scaling, right? But then... bam! You get slapped with the dreaded exit tax. Basically, you’re taxed on your unrealized gains (gains you haven’t even made yet) just because you're moving your company.
It’s like being punished for thinking globally and chasing growth. Instead of supporting entrepreneurs, this tax penalizes ambition and turns scaling internationally into a bureaucratic nightmare. The result? Founders end up stuck between losing a chunk of their potential wealth or keeping their business chained to a system that limits their future. At Kfund we’ve had several companies move their headquarters to the US and it’s a big pain in the butt. Julio Martinez of Abacum talked about it in this episode of our podcast.
Now that DOGE is in vogue, this is one of those instances where government intervention creates a lot more stress, headache and general pain than it should.
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Google Cloud:
Google Cloud partners with Flipflow to Transform Market Analytics in Retail Worldwide
Flipflow, founded in Valencia in 2022, aims to standardize retail data for billions of items, monitoring thousands of websites with billions of listings and SKUs globally.
In May 2024, Flipflow won the first edition of the AI Booster Program led by Google Cloud and started working with Google's AI teams to solve its entity matching challenge for large volumes of data. It also benefited from the GCFS credits program that provides mentorship, strategic support, training and $350,000 Cloud credits for AI startups.
Technically, Flipflow solved its challenge using Vertex AI, Cloud Run, and Gemini, the most powerful Google AI model to date, which has allowed it to increase speed and context capabilities, performing far more efficiently than other LLMs that Flipflow used before.
Startup funding news 💸
Minu, a Mexico-based fintech company co-founded by Spaniard Nima Pourshasb, secured $30M in funding to scale its solutions to enhance the financial health of millions of workers across LatAm
Facephi, a BME Growth-listed tech company specializing in digital identity verification, announced a €1.8M capital increase to offset a loan from its main shareholder, Nice & Green, who holds a 17% stake
Barcelona-based Superlativa, a natural health supplement company focusing on stress management, secured €1.5M in its first funding round, led by Iris Ventures. Superlativa tripled its revenue in 2023 to €1M
Barcelona-based Braingaze secured €1.5M in a round led by RYSE Asset Management. The funding will accelerate its clinical and business development for ADHD and neurodegenerative disorder diagnostics
Barcelona-based Insectius, a biotech company developing sustainable insect-based solutions, raised €1M in a round led by GVC Gaesco
Madrid-based EZ Telecom closed a €1M funding round, led by Faraday Venture Partners
Other rounds of funding:
M&A transactions 🎉
Sage paid at least €38M in the acquisition of Barcelona-based CRM company ForceManager. The company had raised around €12M in funding. In 2023, ForceManager did €6M in revenues and positive EBITDA of €800k. Nauta had a 20.3% stake in the company, while Axa Strategic Ventures owned almost 19%
Hotelbeds has confirmed its plans to go public in Spain in early 2025, aiming to raise between €750M and €1.25B. HBX reported record 2023 earnings, with €656M in revenue (+51%) and €356M EBITDA (+121%)
Crossmint, a US blockchain company co-founded by Spaniard Alfonso Gomez-Jordana, announced the acquisition of Mordisco AI agents, a startup developing AI agents that can make transactions on users’ behalf
Septeo, a French software group, has acquired Nivimu, a Spanish startup specializing in HR software solutions for workflow optimization and compliance
Investor & accelerator news 🚀
Grow Venture Partners has finalized a €50M fund to invest in university and research center spin-offs in sectors such as AI, robotics, medtech, and sustainability. The fund will back 30 companies, with investments from pre-seed to Series B stages
Seaya Andromeda, Seaya’s VC & PE fund focused on sustainability, hired Alfonso Díaz Córdova as Investment Director. Díaz Córdova, previously at BlueBull Partners, will lead investments in Spain and Portugal
Startup news 💡
Joaquim Lecha, who had served as CEO of Typeform for more than 6 years, announced that he’s stepping done and will be replaced by Jay Choi, who is based in Seattle. Lecha says in his post that “Typeform is today a very profitable and cash generating company, having grown our customer base 3.6x to more than 150k worldwide and our ARR by 5x”
Interview with Pablo Carro, co-founder of Playtomic, a platform to book paddle tennis courts and other assets. Playtomic has 1.5M monthly active users and partnerships with 6,000 clubs worldwide. It facilitates 200,000 daily matches, has achieved 90% market penetration in the UK and is now announcing a move to the US. The company generates only 20% of revenue from Spain
Iker Marcaide is now also serving as CEO of Matteco, a startup he co-founded focused on hydrogen solutions. “El hidrógeno puede llegar a ser una industria de miles de millones de euros", he says. Matteco aims to create a scalable, profitable hydrogen economy while addressing challenges like cost and infrastructure
Elogia, a Spanish digital marketing agency, has rebranded to focus exclusively on "Full Digital Commerce," covering the entire e-commerce lifecycle. The move aligns with its goal to offer end-to-end solutions for online businesses, including strategy, marketing, and operations. Ruben Ferreiro, founder and CEO, wrote about it here. Ferreiro, who is also co-founder of VC firm Lanai Partners, was interviewed about the investment side of things here
Carlota Pi talked to Sifted about Holaluz’s recent months, the financial struggles and what they plan to focus on in the next few years: “We've been fighting like hell to keep the business alive”
Spanish startup Rever will manage returns for TikTok Shop in Europe and the U.S., streamlining the reverse logistics process for one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms
Supreme Court reviews €14M fine for Glovo. Spain’s Supreme Court will decide if delivery platform Glovo must pay €14M in social security surcharges
Company and product launches:
Cabify is entering the vehicle rental business by amending its corporate purpose to include non-driver car leasing. Already piloted via a partnership with Wible in Madrid, the move aligns with its broader urban mobility goals
Freepik simply doesn’t stop launching new products. After recently introducing Freepik Tunes, last week they presented its AI video generator
Two interesting profiles:
Profile of Jose Florido, “The Malagueño who conquered Silicon Valley and returned”. Florido is now at Freepik
Profile of Theker Robotics and its co-founder Carla Gomez. Theker is a spin-off from the Polytechnic University of Barcelona, and is developing robots capable of recycling electronic components
List of startups:
Top 15 Spanish biotech startups to watch in 2024 and 2025: El Referente highlights 15 Spanish biotech companies poised for success
Foreign startups active in Spain:
Turkish payments platform Craftgate has launched operations in Spain. The startup provides API solutions for payment integrations
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Big company & policy news 🤓
The WSJ published an article about the commercial relationship between BBVA and OpenAI. BBVA has more than 3,000 ChatGPT Enterprises licenses and says that it has triggered an “explosion of creativity” across the bank. The article also claims that employees have created more than 2,900 GPTs to date
Airbnb appointed Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago as Head of Spain and Portugal. Jaime has held leadership roles at BlaBlaCar and FreeNow
Iberdrola, through its Perseo startup program, invested millions in RTS, a Seville-based company specializing in renewable energy solutions
Expansion is publishing a special on data centers, given the increasing interest of Spanish companies from different industries (construction, energy, etc) in the sector:
Grandes grupos libran una batalla de 80.000 millones por los data centers (link)
ACS, Acciona y Ferrovial se lanzan a por 300.000 millones en data centers (link)
Las 'Big Tech' invertirán más de 24.000 millones en centros de datos en España (link)
Just Eat Spain recorded its highest net profit (€7.3M) in 2022, bolstered by a €12.6M "market support" payment from its parent company, Takeaway.com. This payment, classified as operating income, and reduced operational costs contributed to the positive results. However, auditor Deloitte flagged concerns over the classification of these payments. Additionally, Just Eat transferred its delivery operations to another subsidiary, paying €32M in service fees
Airbnb urges Barcelona’s mayor to reconsider the moratorium on tourist apartments. The company argues that the restrictions have failed to address housing affordability or over-tourism
Interesting reads 🤓
Ignacio Arriaga published “Freemium: ofrecer droga gratis para enganchar al usuario“
Jorge Galindo, former co-founder of 47Degrees, announced a mentorship program to help other entrepreneurs
Alex Rodríguez Bacardit, a good friend of the newsletter and someone who’s been deeply involved in the Barcelona startup ecosystem through various initiatives, announced that he’ll stop running the Startup Grind events in the city. He also talked about it here