February ends with 12 million Euro invested in Spanish startups

Signaturit Barcelona 2019
  • February ends with just over 12 million Euro invested in startups via a total of 7 operations.

February is once again a very weak month in terms of public investment in Spain, achieving one of the worst records of the last 24 months, as the month ends with just over 12 million Euro invested in startups through a total of 7 operations.

The second worst result in the last two years, November 2018 = 10M€, February 2019 = 12M€, March 2018 = 15M€, and so it is expected that the fall in investment in Spain is already becoming a reality.

In the first two months of 2018, 40 startup operations were announced for a total amount of €243 million, compared to 23 operations this year, with a total investment of €73 million.

Regarding the most outstanding rounds in February, the electronic signature company Signaturit stands out, with a Series A of 7M led by the French firm 360 Capital and with which it will begin its expansion throughout Europe.

Another startup that closed a new round is Datumize, a company developing smart data solutions, it has closed a new round for €1.8 million that has been led by Javier Santiso’s fund, Mundi Ventures. Other rounds closed this month have been those of Inbestme, Cobugs and Akiles.

FEBRUARY 2019 OPERATIONS

Signaturit: the provider of trust solutions and cloud-based electronic signature closed a 7 million Euro round of Series A funding. The French private equity firm 360 Capital joins Signaturit as a new investor, joining Bonsai Partners, Banco Sabadell, Faraday Venture Partners, Nero Ventures and Bbooster Ventures, bringing the total funds raised by the company since its creation to more than 10 million Euro.

Signaturit is also a qualified provider of trust services that offers innovative solutions for electronic signatures, certified electronic delivery, electronic identification and qualified electronic time stamp, to digitize any transaction securely and legally.

Datumize: the company developing innovative smart data products and solutions, has closed a round of €1.8M in an operation led by Alma Mundi Ventures, a Spanish venture capital fund specialized in deep tech companies, which has investments in leading European and U.S. companies with a strong connection to Spain, such as Rubicon, Mainsense and Qumram (recently acquired by Dynatrace).

InbestMe: the robo-advisor (automated manager of investment portfolios) based in Barcelona closed a round of financing for a sum of 1.3 million Euro, welcoming into the shareholding the holding GVC Gaesco as the main strategic partner, as well as other technological companies and private investors. This contribution completes the expansion that began in April last year with contributions from its own partners.

Cobugs: the Barcelona startup founded with the aim of making process sensing in the industry accessible. Cobugs obtained 600,000 Euro in a round that has been led by JME Venture Capital and included VC Athos Capital, the pledge fund Lánzame, the VC fund of IESE Finaves V, and business angels such as Ignasi Vilajosana, CEO of Worldsensing and Cedric Sellin.

The platform is designed to make it easy for the user to do what until now has been costly and complex. Jordi Llosa, co-founder of Cobugs, explains that without the need for experienced programmers the user will be able to develop a solution adapted to their needs “with dozens of templates that are easy to install and compatible with the most common tools used in the industry”.

DIR: the DiR Clubs gym chain closed a 550,000 Euro round through the investment marketplace Crowdcube to finance its twenty-fourth club, BDiR Calvet, which will open its doors in 2019. 142 people have invested in the company and the average investment is 3,875 Euro.

The BDiR Calvet round represents a clear commitment by DiR Clubs to innovation and new technologies in fundraising, as it is the sixth capital increase that the fitness chain carries out through Crowdcube.

At the end of 2016, DiR closed a financing round of 450,000 Euro to finance its twentieth club, BDiR Mallorca in 2017, and raised another 385,000 Euro and 485,000 Euro for BDiR Granados and BDiR Alcudia. And last June, it closed a round of 555,000 Euro for BDiR Lesseps.

Akiles: is a Barcelona startup. Is committed to saying goodbye to keys and to implementing a solution that allows users to open houses or businesses using their phones. Akiles has closed a financing round of 300,000 Euro through the investment platform The Crowd Angel. Akiles will allocate the amount to expanding its proposal in different European capitals.

Singerfy: Aragon’s business angel network, ARABAN, has accompanied the first local startup during its financing process. Singerfy has thus completed a €138,000 round of private capital, much of it from Aragon.

In this new business phase of the startup, as well as capitalist partners there will be some business angels. This is a term that defines the help of the business experience of an investor applied to the growth of the startup in which they invest, with the aim of maximizing and optimizing its success.