Swanlaab Venture Factory, a Spanish-Israeli VC firm focused on the deeptech industry in Spain, has announced the successful first closing of its second fund, Swanlaab Tech Fund II FCR, with an initial funding of €45 million.
The fund has garnered support from prominent investors, including Fond-ICO Global as an anchor investor, BBVA as a corporate investor, as well as various family offices and private investors.
According to the firm, Swanlaab Tech Fund II FCR aims to invest in early-stage Spanish startups with B2B business models and clear technological differentiation and is projected to complete its fundraising by the end of this year or the beginning of 2024.
As the lead investor in these early-stage rounds, Swanlaab offers initial investments ranging from €500,000 to €3 million, with potential follow-on investments of €2 million to €4 million in subsequent rounds.
Swanlaab Venture Factory’s second fund will continue to be managed by the same team of Hispanic-Israeli professionals who successfully led the first fund, and will prioritize companies with a clear vision for international scalability.
This approach ensures continued exposure to local deal flow in Spain while maintaining global investment management expertise.
Spain’s entrepreneurial success
The fund’s overarching goal is to further bolster the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem, which, according to Mark Kavelaars, Managing Founder Partner of Swanlaab, has been consistently growing and has all the necessary ingredients for success.
“Our passion is to invest in building the entrepreneurial references of the future in Spain: solid, sustainable, and lasting companies of international success. All Spanish innovation and creativity must have sufficient support to grow and develop, generating employment opportunities for highly qualified profiles, thus maintaining the industrial property and talent in Spain,” adds Kavelaars.
Santiago Muguruza, head of Venture Capital Investments at BBVA, commented on the investment in Swanlaab, highlighting its alignment with BBVA’s strategy of supporting the technology-based innovation ecosystem in Spain, and stressed that the bank is not only investing in innovative companies through third-party funds, but also offers high-growth companies alternative financing through high growth companies a financing alternative through BBVA Spark.
Swanlaab expects to reach a final fund size between €60 million and €80 million within the next 12 months.