Only five months have passed since we entered 2021, and the investment in Spanish startups already exceeds 2,000 million euros thanks to the 282 million euros raised this past June. 190 operations to date, up from 309 in 2020. We expect this year’s figure to exceed 400 operations.
Most of the money accumulated in 2021 is coming mainly from rounds of well-known startups such as Jobandtalent, Idealista, Glovo, Wallapop, and Travelperk, as well as the American startup with Spanish founders Capchase (€103M), Securitize (€40.36M) and Lingokids (€33M). Despite the great rounds, June is the second worst month of the year, only ahead of May, which closed with €103 million.
Apart from the three highlighted rounds in June, we would like to highlight other startups that continue to grow. Heura, a company that less than two years ago was one of the ten finalists of the El Referente Awards and had only less than 1 million euros. The fintech Payflow. Fuell, that continues growing with the €1 million round, or Antai’s latest project, the insurtech Vitaance.
INVESTMENT ROUNDS
Capchase. The supplier of non-dilutive capital to recurring revenue companies has announced a Series A investment of €103 million ($125M), led by QED Investors. Additional investors in the round include early investors Bling Capital, ScifiVC, Caffeinated Capital, and several Angels. The new funding comes after Capchase has experienced strong growth over the past eight months.
Securitize. The Florida-based fintech created by former Spanish Telefonica executive, Carlos Domingo, has announced the closing of a €40.36 million ($48M) funding round from new and existing investors. This fundraising comes ahead of the anticipated launch of Securitize Markets, where one can trade with digital asset securities, and the necessary liquidity is provided to the private capital markets.
Belvo. The Barcelona-based startup has announced the closing of a $43 million (€35.15 million) Series A funding round, led by global investors such as Future Positive, the investment fund of Fred Blackford and Biz Stone (investors in Pinterest and Square); Kibo Ventures (investors in Flywire and CARTO); and FJLabs (investors in Betterment and Recargapay). The startup has also attracted well-known business angels such as Sebastian Mejia, co-founder and CEO of Rappi, Harsh Sinha, CTO of Wise (formerly Transferwise), and previous investors Kaszek, MAYA Capital, and Venture Friends.
Lingokids. The Spanish startup specializing in English-language digital content for young children has closed a Series C round of 33 million euros. New international investors, such as GP Bullhound, have entered the deal, and previous investors, such as Ravensburger and HV Capital, have renewed their confidence. This round constitutes the fourth round in edtech’s history and the second in less than a year.
Cooltra. The mobility company has received an injection of 20 million euros from the holding company of the businessman and investor Francisco Riberas, acquiring 20% of the shares of the Catalan company. The operation coincides with the debt conversion of German family offices, partners in the company’s capital, for 29 million euros.
Heura. The plant-based meat brand has announced a €16 million Series A investment round led by Impact Fooding. The Barcelona-based startup founded in 2017 by food activists Marc Coloma and Bernat Añaños aims to accelerate the protein transition by moving animals away from the food system. Heura has investors supporting its mission, such as Impact Fooding, Unovis, Lever VC, Capital V, and Green Monday.
bound4blue. The company has closed a funding round of more than €5 million, opening a new stage to develop and implement its rigid sail technology (eSAIL®) for the shipping industry.
Insurama. The end-to-end digital platform for insurance distribution has raised €5 million in an investment round led by Inveready and the startup’s own founding group. This capital injection will allow the insurtech to accelerate its national and international expansion and expand its line of products and services.
Fracttal. This developer of technological solutions for the management and maintenance of physical assets has raised 4.36 million euros (5.3 million dollars) in a funding round led by Seaya Ventures, backed by GoHub, a corporate investment fund of the Spanish group Global Omnium. This round complements the investment made in 2018 by Scale Capital, which continues to support the company in this next growth stage.
Perfecta Energía. The company dedicated to the commercialization, installation, and financing of photovoltaic panels for self-consumption in the residential sector has closed an investment round of 3.5 million euros, led by Creas, a Spanish fund manager focused on environmental impact investment. The round’s capital will promote the development of solar photovoltaic energy in the residential sector to foster a more accessible energy transition for all citizens.
Energy Solar Tech. The Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), through its private equity fund manager SEPIDES Gestión, has entered into the pool of investors of Energy Solar Tech with a disbursement of 2 Million Euros. The capital is provided through a conditional participative credit policy vehicle. With this transaction, Energy Solar Tech has raised more than 9.5 million euros in private investment to undertake its investment plan in generating infrastructure for its industrial customers.
MESbook. SaaS technology company MESbook has received €2 million in financing in a round led by Bewater Funds, which has contributed close to 50% of the total capital. The SaaS MESbook is focused on the development of Industry 4.0. Its technology provides real-time management information to factory management teams. It digitizes and links all the basic operations that are currently performed manually and in a disconnected manner.
Smileat. The Spanish organic baby food company has raised €1.8 million in financing through a round led by Creas, which has also attracted Quadia, with an Impact Investment mandate from the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, Tech Transfer Agrifood, managed by Clave Capital, and the minority shareholders who have accompanied the project in all its phases.
Cuyhttps://elreferente.es/inversiones/cuyna-cierra-ronda-inversion-15m-consolidar-expansion-espana/na. The delivery-focused kitchen network has raised €1.5 million in an investment round led by Unidata, focused on the Spanish digital sector. The funding complements the pre-seed round that closed in September 2020 and will finance its expansion throughout Spain and form a solid operations team to strengthen its Digital Franchise model.
Fuell. The fintech that offers a corporate card to help companies spend less has announced the closing of a €1 million investment round. Most investors are K Fund, a fund focused on seed-stage startups in the Spanish ecosystem. Moreover, the round also attracted Wayra, Telefónica’s accelerator, TheVentureCity, and FJ labs, a renowned New York fund that has invested in companies such as Stripe, Uber, and Alibaba.
Jump Into Reality. The technology startup, specializing in interactive content and Virtual and Augmented Reality platforms, has closed its first investment round, raising a total of 1 million euros, between debt and equity. Among the core investors are public entities such as ENISA and ICO, joined by several international investors such as Seedrs, WA4STEAM, Aderis Inversiones, or Runway Investments.
Payflow. The employee payments platform Payflow has raised €1 million through a debt round participated by the French family office Financierè Saint James. Payflow was born in Barcelona in 2020 to bring freedom and financial well-being to workers and a positive social benefit to companies. The company works through an intuitive application that allows users to collect their salaries whenever they want.
Marsi Bionics. Born in 2013 as a spin-off of the Center for Automation and Robotics, Marsi Bionics closed a funding round with an initial target of €800,000 through Fellow Funders. Despite that initial target, the company led by Elena García has finally managed to raise €943,000 (118% of the target). 154 investors have participated in the operation. Thanks to the raised funds, Marsi Bionics will initiate the commercialization process of the first pediatric exoskeleton.
LavanApp. The Spanish home dry cleaning and laundry app have successfully closed a new round of funding of 700,000 euros that will allow it to continue to increase its market niche. Along with this new round (in which investors have not been revealed), the company announced the arrival of its service in two new Spanish cities, Barcelona and Seville.
Idoneo. Spanish leasing marketplace Idoneo.com has announced the closure of a €550,000 funding round to accelerate its growth and consolidate its leadership in Spain, aiming to end 2021 with a total fleet of 3,000 cars. Thanks to the new capital inflow, the company expects to quadruple the revenues obtained in 2020.
Watchity. The streaming event broadcasting tool, Watchity, has announced the closing of a 500,000 euro funding round in which Wayra, Telefónica’s open innovation hub, Enisa, and K-LAGAN have participated.
SmartMonkey. The startup dedicated to optimizing the management of last-mile logistics routes with a system based on artificial intelligence has closed a Seed funding round of 425,000 euros. The investment has been led by several business angels, including Jesús Majem, CEO of Abbrain, a logistics consultant and investor in Paack, among others, and Xavier Herce and Frederic Horta of Nemeda.io, investors in LoyalGurú and the accompaniment of prominent partners such as EIT Innoenergy.
Kleta. The Barcelona startup founded by two former Badi colleagues that offers a monthly subscription service of bicycles for personal use has announced the closure of a €400,000 funding round led by the German goalkeeper of the Barcelona Football Club, Marc ter Stegen.
Vitaance. This insurtech was created to transform and democratize the life insurance sector in Southern Europe. The startup is the brainchild of a team of entrepreneurs with experience in the insurance, health, and wellness sector. It seeks to change the perception of life insurance in Spain with an innovative, customer-centric offering. Vitaance was launched in early 2021 by Ana Zamora (CEO), Bernard Granados (CPO), Christian Rochas (COO), Miguel Vicente, and Gerard Olivé, and with the support of Antai Venture Builder, which endowed the company with a total equity capital of 370,000 euros.
Copernic. The virtual communities and events platform has closed its first funding round for capital of 350,000 euros. Its objective is to strengthen its product and become the Spanish benchmark in virtual business communities, a challenge for which it has given venture capital to 4Founders and other private investors.
HarBest Market. The Barcelona investment platform Dozen has announced the closing of an investment round of 250,000 euros for the B2B food marketplace HarBest Market. This transaction has attracted 57 investors. They are confident in the potential of the Madrid-based startup led by Álvaro Pérez.
CLEB. The technology platform brand that connects celebrities with fans and brands has closed a financing round of 225,000 euros. This round allowed to incorporate smart money and consolidate the technological infrastructure and the firm’s network of strategic contacts. This “bridge” financing round is the company’s second, after the first incorporation of partners that helped the platform to achieve its first metrics.
Vegaffinity. The vegan products eCommerce has announced the closing of a €200,000 investment round from partners of the Valencian company DACSA and the investment fund Bamboo Venture Capital.
Trovant. FACSA and Enagás Emprende have announced an investment in Trovant Technology to further promote the development of a new technology to improve the viability of biomethane production from biogas from wastewater or organic waste. The operation has been led by FACSA, accompanied by Enagás Emprende (Enagás’ Corporate Venture Capital initiative), which added Trovant Technology to its portfolio of investees in 2020.
Libelium. The Zaragoza-based company, specializing in IoT technology, has reached an agreement with Axon Partners Group that will join the company’s shareholding after a capital increase. With the entry of venture capital, Libelium receives a boost to its strategic growth project. However, the company will continue to maintain its corporate headquarters in Zaragoza.
Source: El Referente
