Dealflow.es #481: Factorial $100M ARR. Lingokids $120M financing. Fotocasa + Habitaclia go for €153M.
A weekly summary of everything that happened in the Spanish startup and tech investing ecosystem.
Last week Factorial announced that it has reached $100M in ARR, a milestone that few Spanish startups have hit to date, but that hopefully many more will achieve in the future.
At Kfund we’ve been ultra privileged to see Jordi, Bernat and the rest of the team, build, sell and develop not only one of the key companies in the Barcelona and Spanish tech ecosystem, but also one of the largest communities of founders, entrepreneurs and startup people in the country. Factorial, the itnig podcast, the itnig cafe and coworking space, the itnig fund, etc. I think it’s fair to say that they’ve had a tremendous and positive impact that I’m sure will continue into the future.
Jordi and Bernat talked about the milestone in last week’s itnig tertulia, and I especially liked this part, in which both of them talk about the speech they gave at the Endeavor gala, where they received the “Entrepreneur of the year” award:
Ayer, jueves, salió en prensa que hemos cruzado los 100 millones de dólares de facturación anual recurrente. Somos igual de listos, guapos, altos y fuertes en cualquier lugar del mundo. No debemos pensar que somos inferiores simplemente porque estamos en España.
En el discurso de la gala Endeavor contamos cómo siempre hemos trabajado con y para emprendedores, incluso antes de saber qué significaba esa palabra. Empezamos creando tecnología, software y más tarde negocios, aplicando la lógica de compartir conocimiento y comunidad. También destacamos la importancia del largoplacismo y la ambición en los negocios de tecnología en España y Europa. Insistimos en que desde aquí también se pueden crear líderes de categoría global.
Muchas veces el emprendedor español sufre de síndrome del impostor y se tiende a pensar que lo máximo a lo que se puede aspirar es a vender la empresa cuando aparece un comprador internacional. Nosotros defendemos lo contrario: crear compañías líderes, generacionales y sostenibles. Eso requiere no solo un plan de negocio a largo plazo, sino también un plan de vida: cómo organizar la familia, la pareja, los hijos y el autocuidado, porque la intensidad de las startups es enorme y sin equilibrio personal no es sostenible.
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Google:
Take your skills to the next level at Google Cloud Developers Lab Barcelona
If you're looking to master the latest Google Cloud tools and apply them to high-impact solutions, this is your opportunity. As part of Google Cloud Day Barcelona, there will be an exclusive Developers Lab for technical profiles. The goal: to learn how to create custom agents from scratch, covering everything from implementation and testing to their integration into real-world applications.
🗓️ October 16th, 3:00 PM 📍Los Tinglados
"This hands-on lab gives your team a real competitive edge. By mastering our latest tools, they can build disruptive solutions faster. It's a strategic investment in your talent and your speed to market."- Pablo Solera, Principal Architect for Digital Natives, Google Cloud.
Spots are limited. Secure yours and don't miss the chance to boost your professional profile.
Startup funding news 💸
Lingokids completed a $16M equity round led by GP Bullhound. The edtech also secured non-dilutive financing from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, bringing the total to $120M
Ultralytics, the London and Madrid-based AI company behind the YOLO computer vision models, closed a $30M Series A led by Elephant. Profitable since launch, the startup serves 1M+ developers and processes 2B daily inferences across 200 countries
Kamino, a Brazilian financial management platform for mid-sized companies, raised R$54M ($10M) in a round. Kamino’s co-founder and CEO is Spaniard Gonzalo Parejo, also former co-founder of Ontruck
Vigo-based Kreios Space closed an €8M round, the largest in Europe for very-low-Earth orbit (VLEO) satellites. The NATO Innovation Fund and JOIN Capital led the deal
Vidext, the Valencia-based AI video automation startup, raised €6M in a Series A led by Flashpoint. Founded in 2021, Vidext turns written content into personalized videos
Lightbase, a knowledge platform for engineering teams founded by ex-Seedtag CTO Paul Goldbaum, raised a €2.2M pre-seed round led by Picus Capital with us at Kfund, helloworld, and angels. The Madrid-based startup uses code analysis to map systems and cut time lost to onboarding, meetings, and context-switching, aiming to boost developer productivity by up to 50%
Cofrai, a Madrid-based SaaS digitizing fire protection companies, raised €2M in a seed round led by Dutch investor DFF Ventures
Other rounds of funding:
Momoven, the Castellón-based peer-to-peer premium motorbike rental platform, raised €850k in a round led by MotoGP rider Álex Márquez
Unirisco and Xesgalicia joined the shareholder base of Batea Oncology, a biotech founded in 2024 in Santiago de Compostela. The company is developing GlioHook, a device implanted during surgery to capture residual glioblastoma cells and enhance radiotherapy
Ex-NBA player José Manuel Calderón joined Podoks as strategic partner. The Spanish startup develops biomechanical socks designed by podiatrists to improve foot health and performance
S.Lab, the Málaga-based biotech creating biodegradable packaging to replace polystyrene, secured €288k from Morgan Stanley
M&A 🎉
German listed classifieds group Scout24 announced the €153M acquisition of Spanish property portals Fotocasa and Habitaclia, previously set to be sold to EQT as part of its €2B Adevinta deal still pending approval. Together, the platforms attract 8M+ users and 1M properties, expecting €60M revenue and €11M EBITDA in 2025
Keyrock, a global crypto market maker, acquired Turing Capital, the Luxembourg-based fund manager co-founded by Spanish entrepreneur Jorge Schnura, for $28M (€24M)
Ebury, the Santander-controlled fintech specializing in FX and cross-border payments, completed the acquisition of Lithuanian provider ArcaPay. The deal strengthens Ebury’s presence in the Baltics
Beself Brands, the Tarragona-based e-commerce group behind brands like FitFiu, Greencut and McHaus, plans to go public in H1 2026 via a security-token market, becoming the first European company to tokenize 100% of its shares under CNMV regulation. The company expects €25M revenue in 2025
WeGow, the Spanish live events ticketing platform, sold 100% of its capital to Granada-based Cultural Capital Group (CCG), months after entering pre-bankruptcy proceedings
Investor & accelerator news 🚀
Suma Capital and Repsol closed their climate-focused fund SC Net Zero Ventures I at €210M, 40% above target. Repsol invested €50M as anchor LP, joined by EIF, ICO, CDTI, ICF, IVF, Seed Bizkaia and other institutional backers. The fund targets European ClimateTech scale-ups in industrial decarbonisation and circular economy, with initial bets in Hesstec, Corinex, H2SITE and V2C. More info here
Columbus Venture Partners launched its fifth fund, Columbus Life Sciences Fund V, with a €200M target, the largest in its history. Co-founded by Damià Tormo and Javier García, the VC will back biotech and pharma startups in areas like advanced therapies, industrial reindustrialisation, AI-driven biology, and longevity
Spanish investors & corporates active abroad:
Elewit, the technology platform of Redeia, joined an €11.5M Series A in UK-based AssetCool
Big Sur Ventures led a €9.4M round in Norwegian fabless startup Nanopower Semiconductor, alongside the European Innovation Council and Skagerak Capital
Batir a largo plazo al mercado es complicado, y poca gente lo consigue. Si además no tienes tiempo o conocimientos para invertir en bolsa, lo mejor que puedes hacer es utilizar Indexa Capital.
Startup news 💡
Sponsored bullet point 👉🏼 Google Cloud Developers Lab Barcelona – Oct 16 Learn to build and deploy custom agents from scratch with the latest Google Cloud tools. Limited seats — secure yours now to level up your skills and boost your impact.
Startup financials
Factorial reached $100M in ARR, joining a tiny group of Spanish startups that hit this milestone in under a decade. The Barcelona-based company now serves 14,000+ clients across 10 countries. Massive kudos to Jordi, Bernat and the rest of the team. At Kfund we’ve been super fortunate to have front row seat to this amazing story. Jordi and Bernat talked about the milestone here
Devo, the Spanish-founded cybersecurity unicorn headquartered in Boston, initiated a restructuring that includes significant staff cuts in Spain. The company, valued above $1B and backed by top US investors, had expanded rapidly in recent years but is now adjusting operations to address profitability challenges and market pressures
Plexus Tech, led by Antonio Agrasar, grew revenues 28% in 2024 to €237.5M, nearly doubling in two years, with net profit reaching €17.5M—surpassing Galician rival Altia (€15.4M)
Juan Gil, co-founder of Mybooking, shared that his bootstrapped company has already surpassed its total 2024 revenue by August 31, reaching €305K, with projections to close 2025 at €425K–450K — nearly 60% YoY growth
MyInvestor, the Spanish neobank backed by Andbank, El Corte Inglés Seguros and AXA, acquired the stake that Blantyre Capital held in Findango Finance, a fintech offering alternative financing to SMEs
New startups and product launches
Zinco AI is a new company that’s sort of a roll-up play of gestorías and accounting firms. It’s launched with the goal of transforming the professional services sector through AI. The company applies automation to eliminate low-value tasks and free up advisors to focus on strategic client work. Its first move was acquiring Madrid-based firm Berenguela, with 800+ clients and 35 employees
CalliopeBI, an AI-first business intelligence startup, launched its first production version. Founded by Rafael Casuso (Wallbox, ThePowerMBA) and Joaquín Díez (Devo, Clarity)
Crossmint partnered with Google to launch the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), an open standard for secure agent-driven commerce
Adrià Blancafort, full stack developer at Factorial, shared an experiment on automating software demos with AI. Blancafort open-sourced the code and suggests Supersonik as a production-ready option for real-time AI voice agents
Other news
Glovo has begun limiting its service in certain time slots and mid-sized cities after shifting in July to a new labor model that involved hiring 14,000 salaried couriers. The company says it hasn’t exited any city, but acknowledges that the lower flexibility of this system—compared to the previous freelancer model—makes it harder to absorb demand spikes
Two European fintech with Spanish personnel moves:
Revolut started the search for a new CEO in Spain following the departure of Eduardo Pérez Toribio
Trade Republic appointed Pablo López Gil-Albarellos as CEO for Spain and Portugal, where the German neobank already serves 1M+ clients
Jobandtalent reshaped its board, reducing members from 10 to 6. New directors include Javier Torremocha (Kibo Ventures) and Bruce Felt (CFO of Nasdaq-listed Flex, ex-Domo), while cofounder Felipe Navío moves to observer role. Representatives from SoftBank, Atomico and Seek exit, though remain shareholders
Startup profiles
Secrets Vault develops post-quantum cryptography that replaces passwords with AI-powered image-based keys generated on users’ devices
FROGED, a Málaga-based SaaS, offers an AI-powered omnichannel communication platform that blends human interaction with conversational marketing
Big company & policy news 🤓
Booking.com initiated an ERE in Spain affecting 33 employees—20% of its local workforce, mostly in Barcelona
Rakuten launched its new marketplace in Spain, taking over eBay’s local operations after acquiring them in July. The Japanese giant will integrate eBay sellers into its platform, aiming to rival Amazon with a commission-free model for merchants
The Spanish Ministry of Housing ordered Airbnb, Booking and Rentalia to remove 53,876 illegal tourist flat listings that failed to obtain mandatory registration introduced in July
Xiaomi will open its first directly managed stores in Spain this year, starting with La Gavia (Madrid), followed by another in Madrid and one in Barcelona
Interesting reads 🤓
On the topic of building category leaders from Spain, RevenueCat’s Miguel Carranza had this interesting take on a response to a tweet from Harry Stebbings. Also worth reading the replies from Guli Moreno (Capchase, Exponential), Dani Carmona (Supersonik), Pau Ramon (Factorial) and others
Jorge Galindo (ex-47Degrees) wrote “Why It’s Easier Than Ever to Build Digital Products”