June does not slow down and maintains ascending constancy regarding investments in Spain, exceeding the figure of 81 million Euro invested in startups in our country in a total of 19 public operations. A figure that keeps alive the hopes of increasing investment this year (476,226 million Euro invested in Spanish technology) compared to 2018, the month ended with €431.3 million, a slightly lower figure. In total, there have been fewer investment rounds (90) than last year (105).
And the year stands for not having a particularly big round. Five companies that have closed operations near or higher than 10 million Euro, an interesting figure that is usually the bridge round to a series B. That is the case of the Wallbox round, 15M €, European leader in recharging solutions for electric vehicles; the proptech startup Housell, has closed an investment round worth 12 million Euro thanks to the support of Cerberus, a U.S. fund that acquired the startup in 2017, and Aviv, the real estate division of the publishing group Axel Springer or Onna startup, which has closed a round of 9.8 million Euro led by the American fund.
INVESTMENT ROUNDS
Wallbox: the European leader in electric vehicle recharging solutions has completed a 15 million Euro round of capital increase–led by Iberdrola, along with two other co-investors and also including some of Wallbox’s current partners–which will allow it to consolidate its leadership and carry out its international expansion.
Housell: the company has closed an investment round worth 12 million Euro thanks to the support of Cerberus, a US fund that acquired the startup in 2017, and Aviv, the real estate division of the Axel Springer publishing group. The latter will now control 20% of the Spanish startup, as it has contributed three quarters of the total amount in this operation.
Citbox: it has raised 11 million Euro in its Series A investment round, with participation from investors such as Santiago Fernández Valbuena (former CFO of Telefónica and current co-owner of Banco EBN), José Manuel Martínez (owner of Corporación HMS), José Miguel Gilpérez (former president of Telefónica de España), Javier Rubió (founder of Nauta Capital and Galdana Ventures), Bernardo Hernández (founder of Idealista) and Richard Alden (former CEO of ONO). The latter also joins as Chairman of Citibox. With this capital injection, the Spanish company will accelerate and consolidates its national expansion in Madrid and Barcelona. In addition, Citibox is already taking its first steps to internationalize its model.
Onna: the startup based in New York and Barcelona, has closed a $11 million (€9.8 million) round of Series A funding to increase its central information access product. The round was led by Dawn Capital, with participation from Dropbox, Slack Fund and Nauta Capital. Norman Fiore, general partner of Dawn Capital, will join Onna’s board after the transaction. Norman has invested in several of Europe’s leading SaaS companies such as Mimecast [MIME], Collibra and Showpad.
PANGEA: the travel company has closed a €9M capital increase, with which the company intends to complete its value proposition in terms of technology, product and equipment. This new round of financing will speed up its national and international expansion with two new openings in 2019. Valencia and Bilbao will be the next two Spanish cities chosen to host the project. PANGEA The Travel Store is also expected to enter the Latin American market in 2020. The round has been led by the venture capital entity Axon Partners and Javier Rubió in the hands of the main existing investors who renew their commitment to the company.
Verse: the app has closed a round of seed financing of 7 million Euro, led by Greycroft Partners LLC and with international investors such as Expon Capital, Nikesh Arora, Alan Patricof, Martin Varsavsky, David Stern and Charlie Songhurst. With this capital the startup will expand to other European markets such as Italy, France and Portugal.
Bipi: the company closed a 6.5 million Euro round of Series A financing led by the Israeli fund Maniv Mobility. The Madrid-based company, which offers a vehicle subscription service, will use this injection of financing to accelerate and consolidate itself as a Spanish player in the car subscription model, in addition to expansion into other European markets. Other objectives set from this capital inflow consists of the expansion of the team of engineers, new strategic and commercial agreements with partners, car makes, banks and insurance companies to accelerate growth and expand the vehicle offer.
Learnlife: the Barcelona startup with its educational project that proposes a new learning paradigm, has achieved €3.1 million in its first round of investment, led by the German fund BPO Capital, a Benjamin Otto (Germany) company, and with the support of a score of investors from 11 countries. The initiative was born in 2017 by Christopher Pommerening, Stephen Harris and Blair MacLaren. Since this year Learnlife has a space in Barcelona of 1,200 square meters that encourages creativity, innovation and co-creation to prepare future generations with the skills required by today’s society.
SingularCover: the Spanish insurtech startup co-founded by Rafael González-Montejano (CEO) and Christian Hoffmann (COO) together with Miguel Vicente and Gerard Olivé (Antai Venture Builder) has closed a round of more than €1.8M, led by Antai Venture Builder and Global Founders Capital–a venture capital fund with more than 1,600 million dollars in management and investors from world-class companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Zalando, Trivago, Eventbrite and HomeAway. The fundamental objectives of this new round are to strengthen the technological platform for greater personalization thanks to artificial intelligence, and to develop a specific marketing strategy for each business segment in which the company operates.
Rated Power and Predictive: Horizon 2020 has bet on Predictive and Rated Power. The former, through ‘Instrumento Pyme’, has obtained more than one million Euro to develop one of its projects: CLARA. This is a technology for auditing and interpreting voice interactions between call centre agents and customers. Rated Power has obtained 2 million Euro that will go to the expansion of the company, which offers pvDesign, a software to perform the design and optimization of large-scale solar photovoltaic plants in just minutes. Its objective: to merge technology and engineering, making photovoltaic energy more accessible to make it the main source of energy worldwide.
Tricksters: Spanish startup that optimizes the world of logistics and the freight transport industry, has closed a round of financing of 850,000 Euro led by venture capital firms Big Sur Ventures and Metavallon VC. The company’s main objective is to use this capital injection to consolidate its domestic market, with a special focus on entering the Mediterranean Corridor and consolidating northern Spain, as well as improving its technological coordination platform.
Alias Robotics: just over a year ago David Mayoral set up the startup Alias Robotics in the capital of Alava, specializing in the field of robotic cybersecurity. This month the startup closed its first round of financing for sum of 750,000 Euro. This investment has been contributed by the founders of the startup, in addition to several private investors, including Baron Capital, as well as other professional investors. The operation has been managed by the San Sebastian law firm Baum and BSK, it will be completed with a second round of funding for another three million Euro in 2020, when the capital of the Vitoria startup is also open to professional investors. This investment will begin to be studied after the summer and could be closed at the end of 2020.
Ingelia: the Spanish startup that designs and builds plants to convert organic, vegetable and food waste into biofuel, has obtained an additional investment of €500,000 from EIT InnoEnergy, the engine of innovation in sustainable energy, to support its international expansion. After completing the EIT InnoEnergy Boostway program, which supports the expansion of companies, Ingelia requested an investment from InnoEnergy due to the confidence in its ecosystem and its access to more than 400 industrial partners throughout Europe, which will give a boost to Ingelia’s international sales.
Vottun: the Catalan startup has signed its first round for a total of 500,000 Euro in seed capital. The round has been accompanied by investment funds, business angels and consulting firms specializing in this new disruptive technology. Bbooster Ventures promotes this round of financing after selecting Vottun as the startup invested in the framework of its last Bbooster Week in Gran Canaria. Other funds such as Lánzame, ESADE business angels or consulting firms such as Roca Salvatella are now entering this round; the latter will act as prescribers of the platform. The aim of this round is to consolidate the company’s business model and to boost the company’s growth in Spain, in order to fully embark on conquering the North American market.
Gamestry: an online platform that allows users to learn from the best professional sports players, has closed its first round of funding worth 300,000 Euro. The startup has been surrounded by important business angels such as Didac Lee, renowned investor and member of the board of FC Barcelona; Pablo Zubicaray, investor of the well-known startups Badi and Glovo; Heiko Rauch and Ot Vila, among others. The company was founded by two brothers from Barcelona, Alejo and Guillermo Torren; both are in San Francisco, where Gamestry is being accelerated by the Boost VC accelerator.
Flamingueo: the company that creates trends with fashion items and accessories among the youngest, has closed a financing round of 250,000 Euro with the support of Angels, the investment company of Juan Roig, and Grupo Zriser, family office of the Serratos family. This is a new case of success in the cycle of entrepreneurship proposed by Marina de Empresas, given that Flamingueo is a company led by young people who have been trained at EDEM classrooms, which has been driven by Lanzadera and whose growth is consolidated by the investment of Angels.
Bodyla: the online platform specialized in sports activities and group wellness, has closed its first round of funding for an approximate amount of 100,000 Euro, contributed by professionals in related sectors, business angels and individuals. The founders of the company, Jorge Alcaide and Tulo García, control most of the capital. With the funds raised the strategic business plan to continue growing will materialize and a global marketing and communication plan will be developed to promote the company in strategic areas and sectors.