Dealflow.es #485: Hiring in Spain. Securitize SPAC? Typeform exit? LuxQuanta raised €8M

A weekly summary of everything that happened in the Spanish startup and tech investing ecosystem.

Last week, a tweet from Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch about hiring plans in Spain sparked a long debate on Twitter about the convenience -or not- of having employees in Spain as an international company. (Click on each tweet to expand)

Vercel’s CTO clarified the company’s stance:

Some highlights from reactions to the above tweets:

Javi Santana (Tinybird)

Miguel Carranza (RevenueCat) on things that could improve:

Eduardo Manchón (Mailsuite)

Alfonso Gomez-Jordana (Crossmint)

Diego Ferreiro (Trebellar) - click for the whole list

---

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by zenital:

Is aggregated data across companies not matching? Are insights coming too slow? How many acquisitions have been at risk because of this?

We know the situation: critical decisions can’t wait, but siloed data gets in the way.

The solution for succeeding in a multicompany environment is not about migrating everything, but about integrating the right data into one single source for your portfolio. At zenital, our data architects and engineers have expertise integrating data from more than 20 companies in just a few weeks.

Start fixing your data problem today.

---

Startup funding news 💸

Barcelona-based quantum‑cybersecurity spin‑off LuxQuanta has raised €8M Series A led by Big Sur Ventures. The Barcelona startup’s CV‑QKD technology secures fibre networks against quantum attacks

Malaga-based Docline has raised €4.6M from Arcano Partners’ Impacto Andalucía fund and CDG Invest Morocco (212 Founders) to accelerate AI‑powered telehealth for insurers and corporates

Former wefox executives Fabian Wesemann and Sergi Banos have launched Afori with €4M pre‑seed funding led by General Catalyst alongside Yellow. The AI platform plugs into brokers’ Outlook inboxes, turns unstructured emails into structured cases and delegates tasks to insurance‑specific agents

Madrid‑based Omnia has raised €3.5M pre‑seed led by Visionaries Club and Kfund. Omnia helps brands understand and influence how AI models (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) present them and uses autonomous agents to generate optimised content

Barcelona-based speech‑infrastructure startup SLNG has raised €3.3M pre‑seed led by Earlybird VC to build a global, developer‑first voice‑AI platform. SLNG firm provides a model‑agnostic API that integrates any speech model, deploys across 20+ regions and solves latency, compliance and language‑coverage challenges

Earned‑wage startup Payflow has secured a €2M extension to its May 2025 €10M round, bringing total equity to €26M and debt to >€30M. The startup serves >1k employers (Lidl, Mango, Decathlon) and boasts >€7M revenue, 80 % gross margin and positive EBITDA

Other rounds of funding:

• Biopolymer company Bioplastics4Health has raised €700k to produce PHBV‑based compostable films from potato starch

• Finance platform VICO Ahorro has closed a €500k seed round led by RACC with NotBoring and Juan Roig’s Angel

M&A news 🚀

Securitize, the US-based tokenized investment fintech founded by Spaniard Carlos Domingo, is reportedly exploring a public listing via a SPAC backed by Cantor Fitzgerald, according to Bloomberg. The company could surpass a $1B valuation

Bloomberg reports that Italian software investor Bending Spoons has offered $255 M to acquire Spanish form‑builder Typeform. Former CTO Pau Minoves called reports that Bending Spoons might buy Typeform “absurd.” He says Typeform has €110 M ARR, an 80 % margin and ~€100 M in cash; at the rumored price, Bending Spoons would recoup its investment in 18 months. Minoves adds that Typeform has already declined the offer

Nazca acquired a majority stake in Valencia‑based Clustag, a leader in RFID‑based intralogistics. Clustag, which expects >€18M revenue and >50 % of sales abroad across 25+ countries, offers high‑precision inventory‑tracking tech for fashion, retail and healthcare clients

Exoticca is accelerating its US expansion with an ambitious M&A plan targeting tour operators valued between €50M and €500M. The long-haul travel platform, led by CEO Pere Vallés, aims to consolidate a fragmented North American market that already represents 75% of its sales. A potential entry of a private equity fund could finance this build-up strategy. Backed by Quadrille Capital, KFund and 14W, the company reached €300M in 2024 revenue and expects a positive EBITDA in Q4 2025.

Cooltra acquired Kleta Mobility’s productive unit to expand its urban‑bike services

Barcelona tech consultancies Kiteris and HSI have merged to form H&K, aiming to become a leading Microsoft Cloud and AI partner. The new firm starts with >€20 M revenue, 200 staff and 10 % EBITDA

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

Profile of Bewater Funds — run by Indexa Capital co‑founders Ramón Blanco, François Derbaix and Unai Ansejo — operates a unique model where it creates a dedicated fund for each company it backs. Since 2018 it has launched two diversified funds and 20+ mono‑investment vehicles, managing €20M with ~150 investors

Gerard Valverde i Polo, councilor for Junts pel Prat and former investment banker, has launched Discovery Ventures FCRE, a €60M VC fund focused on deeptech and technology transfer

Samaipata hired tech veteran Roberto Cruz as Operating Partner to lead AI integration across its portfolio

---

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 👉🏼 Zenital helps companies turn data into growth. Because when data leads, business thrives — discover how Zenital makes it happen.

New startups and product launches

Former Typeform co-founder David Okuniev oficially unveiled Supercut, his new startup that’s the AI‑powered video‑messaging tool

Pau  Ramon (ex‑Factorial CTO) wrote on LinkedIn that we built computers to serve us, “now we serve them.” He’s launching Ramensoft with Jordi Robert Aguado and Josep Jaume  Rey Peroy (also both ex Factorial) to explore tech that serves people again. Their first product will help with writing, because “that’s where thinking begins”

Overeview of several robotics startups that have launched in Spain in recent times: a new wave of Spanish robotics is taking shape, as startups like Theker Robotics, Alias Robotics, Inrobics and Star Robotics lead a shift toward intelligent automation, driven by AI and computer vision

Trade Republic launched a diversified bond fund letting Spanish customers invest from €1 in government and corporate bonds via ETFs

Startup financials

CARTO, the Spanish geospatial analytics startup, is doubling down on AI-driven agents to boost revenue and expand platform usage. With an ARR of around $20M and 180 employees, the company believes AI will make its tools accessible to non-technical users, multiplying adoption across large enterprises. After its $61M round in 2021, CEO Luis Sanz rules out new fundraising and says the focus is on growth and value creation

Wallbox shares have surged 76 % in a month after the EV‑charger maker announced a debt‑refinancing deal with Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank

Impress, the Barcelona-based dental aligner unicorn, plans to open 20 new clinics across Europe in 2026 and expand into Belgium and Austria, according to CEO Vladimir Lupenko. Following its €110M raise and acquisition of Germany’s Dr. Smile, the company now operates 200 clinics in nine countries and aims to reach EBITDA break-even this year.

Other news

Onirix, the Asturian XR startup, announced its closure after nearly a decade of work in augmented reality. CEO Pedro Sánchez shared a heartfelt farewell, citing slower-than-expected market adoption of XR as a key factor. Founded in Asturias, Onirix built a platform used in over 100 countries and by clients in 32

Telefónica has formed a strategic alliance with HR software unicorn Factorial to accelerate SME digitalization. Through Acens, Telefónica Tech will integrate Factorial’s people management platform—covering payroll, absences, and internal communication—into its corporate solutions catalog. The deal strengthens both firms’ positioning in Spain’s SME segment.

Profile of Zaragoza‑based startup Pensumo, that converts everyday purchases into pension savings via a free iOS/Android app

Big company & policy news 🤓

Babel plans to reach €1B in revenue by 2029, five times its current €200M, following the entry of Mubadala Capital, which acquired 65% of the company in 2024. CEO Jesús Marco says the consultancy will accelerate acquisitions in Iberia and Latin America while investing heavily in AI, cybersecurity and automation

BYD, China’s top automaker, is reportedly considering Spain as the leading candidate for its third European manufacturing plant, according to Reuters. The factory would join existing sites in Hungary and Turkey as part of BYD’s plan to produce all EVs for Europe locally within three years

Mango suffered a cyberattack that exposed limited customer data through an external marketing service. The breach, which occurred over the weekend, compromised names, phone numbers, postal codes, and emails, but no banking or sensitive information

Ikea has grown its sales in Spain by 2.8% in FY2025, reaching €1.99B. Online sales rose 11% to €537M, now representing 27% of total revenue

Interesting reads 🤓

Samuel Gil (JME) wrote “Las 7 diferencias: Entre el venture capital y otras clases de activo”

Ignacio Arriaga published “Cómo arruinar tu estrategia de marketing”

Joao Alves (Head of Engineering at Adevinta) published “The pendulum has swung: remote isn’t sacred anymore”

David Bonilla (Petalo) published “Cómo crear una constelación de software”

Over the past six years, the Canary Islands have become a hotspot for video game studios, thanks to a 45% tax deduction and the Zona Especial Canaria (ZEC). Pioneered by Drakhar Studios, over 20 Spanish and international developers—including The Game Kitchen, Route 24, and No Brakes Games—have relocated there, creating 300 jobs

---