Only in the month of July, record-breaking € 273 million have been invested in Spanish startups including Glovo and Flyware and chances are high that the year 2018 will exceed all previous years, business news ElReferente reports.
Since the beginning of the year, € 704 million of investments have been announced in the Spanish startup sector. More than a third of these (€ 273 million) fall into the month of July, in which Glovo (€ 113 million) and Flywire (€ 85 million) are leading the list of successful investment rounds.
In total, 24 investment operations have have been announced this month. In addition to Glovo and Flyware, the startups Fever (€ 17 million), 21 Buttons (€ 14.5 million) and Logdify (€ 10million) crossed the treshold of € 10 million, the newspaper reports.
Lodgify, a Barcelona-based vacation rental SaaS platform was in the headlines earlier this month with a solid €4.25 million in Series A funding obtained to take on new hires and expand its platform offerings from SME’s to enterprises, similar to Shopify. The company has gone a long way from his first round of seed funding in 2015.
Read more: Lodgify closes €4.25M Series A to expand vacation rental SaaS platform
Overall, 2018 has seen huge developments in investments in the Spanish startup sector. Two months ago, Spotahome was the first Spanish Startup ever managing to to secure an investment from Silicon Valley. The Madrid-based property rental startup raised €34 million by Silicon Valley’s Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) in a Series B round, hailed as a ‘a milestone for the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem’
Read more: ‘A milestone for the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem’: Spotahome raises €34M
If the investment boom continues, we might see 2018 beating last year’s record even before the year closes. In 2017, € 840 million were invested in startups, almost 50% more than in 2016, Spanish media reported.
These are the details of the all investments above € 1 million made this month, as reported by the media:
Glovo: The on-demand logistics platform from Barcelona secured € 115 million in a Series C investment round from the previous investors Rakuten, Seaya and Cathay Innovation; AmRest, the largest listed restoration group in Central Europe; the European funds Idinvest Partners and GR Capital; and some minority investors. This new injection of capital will be aimed at technological resources and investments in the optimization of the platform. Furthermore, the company plans to hire more than 100 engineers in the coming months. In 2018, the company has been growing internationally, making inroads to Brazil to strengthen its position in Latin America.
Flywire: The Boston-based Fintech company for foreign-currency payments, founded in 2009 by by Spanish entrepreneur Iker Marcaide, has closed a round of $100 million, or around € 85,6 million. Leading investors are Temasek and Bain Capital Ventures, with contribution from F-Prime Capital. Flywire plans to utilize these funds to accelerate its international growth across the world.
Fever: Based in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, and Malaga, Fever closed a financing round of $ 20 million (€ 17.1 million) with Atresmedia as the main investor. The startup helps users decide where to go and what to do in each moment in a personalized way, offering the best inspired leisure plans.With this investment Fever aims to strengthen its international expansion in the coming months, especially in Los Angeles, Dubai and Lisbon.
21buttons: The Barcelona-based and fashion-centred social shopping app has closed a financing round of € 14.5 million to fund its ambitions for entering the US market. The $17 million dollars came mainly from Idinvest Partners, who led the round. It also involved shareholders who were already part of the startup such as Kibo Ventures, Breega, Samaipata, JME Ventures, 360 Capital Partners and Sabadell Venture Capital.
Nextail : The technology company that has developed an artificial intelligence platform for planning and stock management closed a financing round worth €8.6 million ($ 10 million). The new round was led by the venture capital firm KEEN Venture Partners LLP with the participation of Sonae Investment Management and Nauta Capital. New funds are planned to go into product development.
Silence: Barcelona-based motosharing startup Silence closed a funding round of €8.6 million to develop and launch two new electric scooter models. The Spanish startup is dedicated to the design, development and manufacture of two and three-wheeled electric vehicles, and aims to become a benchmark in the field of sustainable urban mobility. Leading the latest round of funding were Repsol, Caixa Capital Risc, and CDTI, which had reaffirmed their commitment to the company of the Spanish market of electric motorcycles for companies.
Read more: Barcelona startup Silence raises €8.6M to launch 2 new electric scooter models
MKD Automotive : The technological platform dedicated to the efficient management of maintenance and repair of vehicles raised €5 million to enhance the product development. The capital comes from European investment fund Ardian Growth, acquiring around 35% of the capital of the firm.
Lodgify: The Barcelona-based vacation rental SaaS platform raised €4.25 million in Series A to take on new hires and expand its platform offerings from SMEs to enteprises, similar to Shopify. With the latest funding from Nauta Capital, HOWZAT Partners, Business Angels, and Intermedia Vermögensverwaltung, the vacation rental SaaS platform will now look to expand its team and boost its product development department.
AGORA images: Barcelona-based AGORA Images closed an investment round of €2,052,921.87 to develop a “social network of photography,” as well as implement “sponsored contests”. The company closed its second round of investment significantly above the €1.5 million financing initially sought when it opened this round in January of this year. Among the Spanish startup’s new investment partners are renowned investors such as Gerard Piqué, Mnext Venture Capital (Javier Faus), WidInvest AG (international fund), Soller Invest SL (Rullan family), Kabche Real State (José Kabche), software development company Apium Hub, as well as several members of the IESE Investment Network.
Read more: AGORA images raises €2M to develop ‘social network of photography
Landbot: The Valencian startup that aims to support companies in their customer communication has closed a round of financing of € 1.8 million led by Nauta Capital. Bankinter or Encomenda Smart Capital have also participated in this capital injection. In 2015, Landbot.io obtained its first funds of € 65,000, followed by a seed round amounting to€ 250,000 in 2016..
SamyRoad: The technology platform that connects digital creators with brands to generate and distribute content has closed a financing round of € 1.4 million. The round was led by the Inveready Technology Investment Group and Sabadell Venture Capital funds. The entire financing will be destined to the expansion of SamyRoad in Latin America and Europe.
Agroptima : The mobile-based farm management software startup from Barcelona obtained € 1.2 million this month. Emilia Vila, the company director, stated that the financing will be used for the launch of new features, hiring more support staff as well as international expansion.
In addition, smaller investments were made into a range of Spanish startups, notably including IOMED (€500,000), Finanbest (€400,000), Dietox (€400,000), Ciclogreen (€245,000), Petoons (€200,000), Fundeen (€120,000) and Adtuo (€100,000),
