Yet again March ended with the worst accumulated investment in the last four years regarding the rounds of public investment being carried out in Spain.
The month closed with a total of thirteen investment operations for a total amount of €11.32 million. This figure is slightly lower than March 2018, when 11 operations were carried out for a total amount of €15 million.
At the end of the first quarter of 2019, investments in Spain suffered a significant setback if speaking about accumulated millions of Euro.
This year a total of 36 operations have been announced for a total of 84.95 million Euro compared to 51 operations closed last year after closing the first quarter of the year and a cumulative figure in millions of Euro of 258 million Euro, that is, 173 million Euro less than in 2018.
Clearly series A and B rounds have not occurred during these first few months of the year, but on the contrary there continue to be a significant number of operations in early stages, a basis for once again seeing rounds in late stage phases in the coming months and years.
The number of operations carried out in the first quarters of the last four years should be noted: 2016, 32 public operations; 2017, 79 operations; 2018, 51 operations and 2019, 36 operations.
OPERATION DETAILS
Spaceboost: the startup has closed a €4M round of funding in which the founding partners and two Catalan family offices have participated. Spaceboost develops software for automation and optimization of advertising campaigns in Google Ads and Bing.
Created in 2018, the spin-off of RocketROI, an advertising agency based on the automation and optimization of digital advertising, is now available to anyone interested in improving the performance and control of their online campaigns.
BCN3D: the research group that created the disruptive 3D printing technology IDEX, raised a seed round of 2 million Euro through JME VC, Accurafy4 and Victoria. BCN3D currently leads IDEX 3D printing technology, which allows productivity to be doubled compared to conventional desktop 3D printers.
BCN3D has recently reached the milestone of 5,000 3D printers sold thanks to its distribution network with more than 60 active points operating worldwide. This investment round makes the Catalan startup BCN3D the desktop 3D printer company to receive most investment in the country.
MyPoppins: the startup that connects private individuals and cleaning professionals closed its second round of investment of € 1M, which will serve to carry out a new stage of international growth.
This A series round included investment from the likes of Brainstorm Ventures, Grupo Girbau (leading industrial laundry company that welcomes the application of its model to B2C with MyPoppins) and prestigious investors such as ESADE, IESE and the College of Economists of Barcelona, which already participated in the first round of the startup.
The objective of this investment round is basically to drive international expansion and the development of technology to optimize and scale up all internal processes.
Streamloots: the company closed a round of 800,000 Euro with Samaipata. This investment makes the platform that allows streamers to interact with their followers and monetize these interactions becomes the fifteenth startup that Samaipata has invested in since it raised its first fund in 2016.
The four creators of Streamloots had previously founded a stock market to invest in eSports players (online sports leagues) and found that they quickly became ‘influencers’ whose audience grew exponentially, without being able to monetize the content they shared with their viewers.
Thus, Streamloots was created between Spain and Silicon Valley, a marketplace for live streamers (creators of live audiovisual content) where they can monetize their broadcasts thanks to their audience, creating live interactions to be carried out by them in the form of letters (grouped in chests) that they commercialize with the viewers of their channels.
Egrin Alimentación: 646,000 Euro with the support of Sodena, a public company of the Government of Navarre. The company participated in the 646,000 Euro round of financing to boost the growth of Egrin Alimentación.
This agri-food SME from the region has become the leader in the salad business in two years and has just acquired a stake in the Biscayan company Bocadis to increase its presence in the sandwich sector.
Passporter: the objective of the €600,000 round of financing that Passporter has closed is to consolidate the business throughout the Spanish territory and project its entry into the United States. The innovative technological company in the tourism sector identifies three priority areas to which it will allocate capital and effort: technological innovation, team expansion, and international expansion.
The startup unites, via an app, a community of travelers where everything revolves around a virtual passport, through which the users register the trips made or planned, by means of unique geolocalized photographs of the exact point where it was taken.
That way another traveler can visit the same place. The company, founded at the beginning of 2018 by Andrea Cayon and Diego Rodríguez, has accumulated financing of €850,000.
Apodemia: the Madrid company dedicated to the sale of original design jewelery, has closed an investment of €440,400 in 2019. The startup founded by Jaime Landeta and Jimena Von Knobloch has carried out four investment rounds since it was founded in 2013, ranging from €255,000 in 2016, to €440,400 in the round closed in February.
The last round included ten investors from different business areas such as banking, real estate and retail who have been closely associated with the brand since the beginning. Baluma and Levos are also now shareholders.
Apodemia has stated the three main area to which it will allocate this funding and its efforts during this year: network expansion, promotion of the online strategy, and scaling operations.
DNActive: the project has raised €370,000 through InvestorPartners. The biosanitary startup specialized in developing genetic tests and subsequently manufacturing made-to-measure products aimed to raise 300,000 Euro, so the final amount obtained represents an over-financing of 125%.
Together with SociosInversores.com, 15KAngels participated very actively in the round, as the lead investor, and contributing with several professional investors who know the sector and who can contribute a lot of value in the future.
DNActive’s mission is to provide the market and society with a substantial improvement in the quality of life and health of its patients with very innovative treatments, as opposed to traditional treatments. The company has also been awarded the Innovative SME Seal by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
Acqustic: the initiative has obtained an investment round of around 250,000 Euro, in which several family offices such as Acom Ventures (investor of Badi), Aticeo (investor of MiCuento and Librinova) or the record company Brisa Records have participated.
Acqustic was born in 2017 with the firm intention of taking music to all sorts of places, from living rooms and gardens to stages at festivals. Based on this initial idea, the business of the platform has expanded to today become a platform with all the tools to manage a music career.
ADmit Therapeutics: has closed an investment round of €200,000 thanks to support from BStartup of Banco Sabadell and Ship2B; Ship2B has participated through Equity4Good, its investment vehicle which has co-investment from the European Investment Fund and its impact investment network.
Genesis Biomed and other private investors also participated in the round. The startup, which is currently developing a test for the early detection of Alzheimer’s, will use the investment to undertake the development plan for the diagnostic test, to begin the clinical validation phase and to enter into agreements with commercial partners. The company is expected to develop a new laboratory IVD device that will obtain the corresponding CE marking by the end of 2022
Foxid: The company LLeida.net acquired 5% of the capital of the cybersecurity company Foxid by carrying out a capital increase amounting to 150,000 Euro. Foxid is a company dedicated to the detection of fraud and identity theft worldwide. The strategy of Lleida.net with this investment is to enter the capital of companies with high growth potential in certification and electronic contracting segments.
Livetopic: the online platform created in 2018 by two Galician businessmen linked to the banking and insurance sector, Alejandro Mariño and Antonio Casal, has closed a financing round of €165,000, which tops off the first €100,000 that was raised in March 2018. Vigo Activo (promoted by the consortium of the Vigo Free Trade Zone) has entered this second round; and new private investors such as Ángel Vázquez Míguez and Joaquín Huergo Luz, who join benchmark professionals in similar sectors that are already part of the company.
Decoratio: the social decoration network has closed its first round of investment with the support of several business angels and the venture capital fund Cabiedes & Partners. The startup has been created for lovers of decoration, both professional and amateur. It is a space where you can get inspired, inspire others, share trends and styles and upload photos of projects and environments. You can tag products and buy in just three clicks.