Dealflow.es #475: Sklum could be valued at €500M. Inveready's 4.3x MOIC. Kibo's €160M PE fund.
Dealflow.es #475: Sklum could be valued at €500M. Inveready's 4.3x MOIC. Kibo's €160M PE fund.A weekly summary of everything that happened in the Spanish startup and tech investing ecosystem.
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Goin:
Startup funding news 💸Madrid-based digital car renting startup Revel is preparing a new funding round that could value the company at €250M, aiming to attract VC and strategic investors by the end of 2025. Revel previously secured €115M in 2023 from KKR and Santander Huspy has raised €50M in a round led by Balderton Capital to accelerate its expansion in Spain. The Dubai-based proptech plans to operate in 8–10 Spanish cities by the end of 2025 and double that in 2026, with Madrid as its European tech hub Telecom quality monitoring company Medux has raised €10M to support international growth and acquire two companies in Europe and Latin America. The funding includes a €5M loan from Banco Santander and €5M in equity from existing and new investors Barcelona-based Biorce has raised €5M in a round led by Norrsken VC to expand its AI platform for streamlining clinical trials. CEO Pedro Coelho wrote about it here Barcelona-based The Blue Box has raised €3M to fund clinical trials and pursue CE marking for its AI-powered, urine-based breast cancer screening test. Led by Unconventional Ventures. More here Barcelona-based yPlasma has raised €2.14M to revolutionize electronic cooling systems using plasma-based technolog. Led by Faber BusUp has raised €2M in fresh funding, bringing its total for 2025 to €5M. The Barcelona-based corporate mobility startup welcomes Bonsai Partners as an investor Hamelyn has raised €2M to scale its second-hand cultural books and goods marketplace across Spain and expand into new markets like Mexico. The round was led by Inclimo Climate Tech Other rounds of funding:
M&A 🎉Trilantic Europe is in advanced talks to acquire a minority stake in Sklum, the Valencia-based online furniture retailer. The deal, which could value the company at around €500M, may close before August. With €300M in annual revenue, Sklum competes with Ikea in markets like Spain, France, and Italy Clarity AI has acquired Berlin-based Ecolytiq to expand its climate engagement capabilities. Ecolytiq enables banks to embed carbon tracking and sustainability insights into apps, and is a long-time partner of Visa—who now also joins Clarity AI as an investor and strategic partner Ecotechers wrote about the acquisition of Alienvault in 2018. The Madrid-born cybersecurity startup founded in 2007 by Julio Casal and Dominique Karg with just €40k, was acquired by AT&T in 2018 for around €600M. Initially planning an IPO, the company pivoted to M&A after growing its SIEM platform through an open-source model. Spanish VC Adara Ventures made nearly 8x return Investor & accelerator news 🚀Inveready closed its Innvierte Biotech II fund with a 4.3x return and a 19.15% IRR. Launched in 2013 with €17.1M, the fund returned €63.4M to its 50 LPs, including CDTI, Sodena, and IVF. Key exits include Avizorex, Apta Targets, and Palo Biofarma. It invested in 22 life sciences startups, 94% of them in Spain Nzyme, the private equity fund launched by Kibo Ventures, has closed a €160M fund to digitalize and consolidate traditional Spanish SMEs. The fund targets solid, well-managed B2B companies with growth potential, focusing on the adoption of AI, big data, IoT, and cloud tech. It plans to build 8–10 sectoral platforms with individual investments of €15M–€20M Profile of FJ Labs, the firm that has invested $36M in 40 Spanish startups, generating $55M in returns with 10 exits. The US-based VC, co-led by José Marín and Fabrice Grinda, follows a high-volume, low-ownership model without a local fund. Recent bets include Abacum, Luzia, Playtomic, and Crescenta Ramón Saltor, co-founder and CEO of Dozen Investments, has stepped down from his executive role nearly six months after the platform’s acquisition by Orbyn. Saltor launched Dozen 14 years ago with Inveready Propel Venture Partners has raised $100M for its fifth fund, bringing total commitments to $436M since its 2016 launch. Backed by BBVA, the San Francisco-based VC focuses on seed-stage fintech infrastructure startups Vivid Vision, the new venture studio launched by Rafael Tamames (founder of Findasense), has launched with over €1M in committed capital to connect large corporations with scaleups across Ibero-America Spanish investors active abroad:
Startup news 💡<sponsor> With more than 7 years of experience in personal finance and +$15M raised, Goin continues to be the benchmark for gamifying savings, investment, and reward systems in Spain; and is now back at it with new automatic saving methods, new merchants with cashback, and a renewed subscription model designed for the smart shopping generation. </sp> New startups and productsArtiso, a new fashion design AI platform, has been launched by three former Mango executives. Built in Barcelona, the SaaS tool leverages agentive AI to streamline fashion design workflows—from moodboards to marketing assets Devtools startup Endor, co-founded by Daniel Lopez (Bitnami), has launched a command-line version of its instant, sandboxed environments for services like PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and Alpine Linux. Designed for AI agents and developers, Endor enables fast local, private, and secure environments Startup financialsTravelperk has hit an annualized revenue milestone of $275M, up from $200M at the end of 2024, as it expands aggressively in the US and integrates the recent acquisition of Yokoy. The Barcelona-based unicorn continues to focus on enterprise clients and eyes Navan’s upcoming IPO as a key benchmark in the corporate travel tech race Real estate investment platform PropHero has reported €30M in sales for H1 2025 and expects to exceed €50M by year-end, aiming for 6% EBITDA in Q4 Real estate projects published on Urbanitae have raised €426M since 2019 to finance the construction of over 6,200 homes, including nearly 6,000 in Spain and 332 in Portuga Other newsAlbert Nieto, co-founder of Seedtag, announced his transition to a non-executive role on the board after nearly a decade leading the company. Starting August 1, Brian Gleason will take over as CEO Maisa has been recognized as a Sample Vendor in Gartner’s 2025 Hype Cycles for AI and the Future of Work. Also last week, Maisa published “Are AI Agents Ready for Banking & Financial Services?” Glovo won a major legal battle against Just Eat, which had sued for €300M over alleged unfair competition tied to the employment status of riders. A Barcelona commercial court dismissed the claim, stating that Glovo’s rider models (Slot 2 and Flex) ensure sufficient autonomy and comply with the law. The judge also criticized Spain’s labor inspection for “arbitrary” actions and praised Glovo’s legal adaptability Zunder has partnered with Repsol to integrate its 1,200+ ultrafast EV charging points into the Waylet app, expanding access to over 7,000 public chargers across Spain Startup profilesProfile of Multiverse Computing, the Basque startup that recently raised €189M to advance its quantum-inspired AI software, including CompactifAI, a tool that compresses large language models to run locally on low-power devices—like phones or cars—without relying on the cloud Interview with Gustavo Medina, co-founder of defense tech startup XRF: "Es un riesgo para la innovación tener un sólo campeón nacional en defensa" Profile of Orbio, the Spanish startup founded by Sergi Bastardas, Nacho Travesí and Antonio Melé, is building AI agents to automate HR processes end-to-end International startups active in SpainRevolut has reached 5M customers in Spain, making it the neobank’s third-largest market in Europe after the UK and France. The company now holds over €3B in Spanish deposits, with transaction volume growing 120% YoY N26 has appointed Antón Díez Tubet as its new General Manager for Spain and Portugal, poaching him from rival fintech Trade Republic, where he led Spanish operations Vivid, the German neobank, has launched a Spanish IBAN for businesses and freelancers Big company & policy news 🤓Broadcom has cancelled its planned €850M semiconductor plant in Spain after talks with the government broke down Google announced Sol, its second private transatlantic submarine cable connecting Spain and the US. The new system will link Palm Coast (Florida) with Santander
Interesting reads 🤓Luis Garicano and Jesús Saa-Requejo argue that Europe should abandon the race to build foundational AI models and instead become the world’s fastest and smartest adopter. Rather than chasing US and China, they propose a “smart second mover” strategy—focusing on AI integration in core industries, deregulating deployment, enforcing open standards, and building powerful data commons to turn Europe’s size into strategic advantage Miguel Carranza (RevenueCat) published a series of tweets about their most recent hiring process, including “few tips to help your chances in today's employer's market, based on what I've seen” Thanks for reading Dealflow.es Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
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