Dealflow.es #407: Booking.com's fine. Seaya's partial sale. Microsoft's Spanish bet.
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Welcome to another edition of the Dealflow.es newsletter. This is a free newsletter supported by sponsors. If you’re interested in sponsorship opportunities, drop me an email at jaime@dealflow.es Dealflow is a side project. I spend the vast majority of my time investing in early stage startups as part of Kfund. We make investments of €100k to €15m. If you want to chat, drop me an email at jaime@kfund.vc Startup funding news 💸Bilbao-based WIVI Vision raised €4m, led by Adara. The startup develops technical solutions to improve visual function and quality of life Madrid-based health company Ailin raised €1.5m. Ailin positions itself as a pioneer in diagnostic support solutions, offering home laboratory tests and result interpretation software for doctors Barcelona-based Pack2Earth raised €1m, led by German investor JRV Holding. Pack2Earth is develops compostable materials for packaging food and other products in a more sustainable way Valencia-based proptech Cubicup raised €1m, led by Bolsa Social Other rounds of funding: Manglai (€500k), Veltis (€400k), Articae (€200k), Virmedex (€150k), Muse Scene Lab (€130k), M&A activity 🎊Portobello Capital acquired nearly 20% of Galician tech consulting firm Plexus Tech. Plexus, founded in 2000, has shown significant growth with a 2023 revenue of €185m and an EBITDA of more than €10m in 2022 Ebury, the fintech startup that specializes in international payments and currency exchange and is controlled by Santander, says that it is waiting for an interest rate cut before going public. The company aims for a valuation over €2 billion, linked to central banks' monetary policy shifts Cooltra is set to acquire French startup Cityscoot for €400k, saving it from liquidation. Cooltra's offer includes keeping 30 employees and taking over Cityscoot's contract with the city of Paris, giving it a leading position in the French capital Tiko, a Spanish digital real estate agency, has acquired proptech company Housell, previously owned by Cerberus and controlled by Aviv Group, to become the largest digital real estate agency in Spain and Portugal in terms of the number of properties and geographic coverage Shopfully, the owner of Tiendeo, has acquired Ofertia, enhancing its position in Spain and expanding its influence in Mexico and Colombia. Ofertia is known for aggregating deals and promotions across various retailers Investor & accelerator news 🚀According to El Confidencial, investment firm Seaya is looking to sell up to 33% of its management company to a “financial sponsor”. The name of the investor was not revealed Nina Capital is launching its third investment fund aimed at raising €50m, following €60m invested across 46 early-stage companies. The Barcelona-based firm specializes in medical technology and digital health. The new fund will focus on early to Series A investments, with plans for 20 to 30 transactions ranging from €200k to €2m each An article in Expansion featured several Spanish VC firms (Kfund, Kibo, Samaipata, Aldea, and others) in the context of the more sophisticated investments that these firms are making, increasingly betting on companies with stronger software and tech characteristics Startup news 💡<sponsored> DoiT delivers technology and cloud expertise to buy, optimize, and manage AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure with ease. Navigate multicloud costs and usage with ease with the help of DoiT and its team of cloud experts. For more information click here. </sponsored> Profile of Innovamat, a Catalan startip that blends traditional and digital learning methods to enhance students' mathematics performance. The company serves over 2.1k schools across nine countries. In 2023, the company reported revenues of €16.7m and also raised €20m, led by Kibo Profile of Zepo, a cybersecurity startup from Ciudad Real, has earned a spot in Google's startup acceleration program. The company focuses on the human element, the weakest link in cybersecurity, utilizing AI to customize training and detect social engineering in real-time Civislend, a proptech crowdlending platform, aims to finance real estate projects for €90m in 2024, up from €33m last year Modulor Ventures, the parent company of design and product companies such as Mendel Saltaren, Minimumrun or Codehackers, said that it reached €6m in sales last year with a profit of €1.1m. Profile of Modulor here On the topic of cybersecurity, Euskadi's cybersecurity sector is rapidly expanding, boasting a rate of companies per capita 3x higher than the national average in Spain. However, this growth is challenged by a lack of tech talent and specialists Two Cabify related news: Cabify is marketing hundreds of VTC licenses in Madrid and the company also announced that it will enter the the roadside assistance business (asistencia en carretera). The latter agreement will allow drivers insured by Europ Assistance to receive roadside assistance through Cabify vehicles Pelayo Cortina Koplowitz has appealed against a court ruling related to the valuation of shares he sold in Jobandtalent, a job-search platform, in 2016. The appeal disputes the monetary compensation previously awarded, arguing for a higher valuation based on comparisons to sales by other shareholders at the time. The former investor seeks to increase the compensation for their shares, initially valued at over €800k, to a figure that could be 10x An article in Expansion discusses startups that have captured the interest of collectors across various fields, turning hobbies into passions and significant financial investments. The article focuses on the story and development of GeekSquare Venped, a startup that offer store owners the possibility of managing their presence on multiple marketplaces from a single interface, announced that it will shut down Revolut has launched its own roboadvisor in Spain Big company & policy news 🏦Big announcement by Microsoft: the tech giant announced the largest investment in its history in Spain for AI and cloud infrastructure. The collaboration agreement with the Spanish government aims to grow by 4X its investments in AI and cloud in the country, reaching $2.1b in 2024 and 2025. Microsoft plans to open a Cloud Region of Data Centers in Madrid and build a Data Centers campus in Aragon. The agreement also includes the expansion of the use of AI in public administration, the promotion of responsible AI, and the reinforcement of national cybersecurity. More info here. Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, said in a tweet that “I’m thrilled to announce that we will expand our AI and cloud infrastructure in Spain by $2.1B USD in the next two years. Our investment is beyond just building data centers, it’s a testament to our 37-year commitment to Spain, its security, and development and digital transformation of its government, businesses, and people.” On the topic of cloud providers, in an interview in El Mundo, the CEO of OVHcloud, the only major European cloud service provider, called for fair laws to address the monopoly in the cloud sector and enable Europe to compete with tech giants from the US and China Spanish competition watchdog CNMC has plans to impose a $486m fine on travel company Booking.com for infringing on competition law in Spain. Booking CEO Glenn Fogel stated that the company strongly disagrees with the decision and will appeal if it becomes permanent. More info here eDreams is currently in the process of legally preparing to respond to Ryanair's veto on OTAs. Ryanair has accused these agencies, including eDreams, of behaving like "pirates" by not paying a fee for utilizing the airline's flight catalog and artificially inflating prices through concealed commissions and surcharges. Also last week, Expansion published an interview with the company’s CEO, Dana Dunne Alfonso Paredes has been promoted by travel giant Expedia to become the company’s B2B division Interesting reads 🤓Employment in the tech sector in Málaga has grown by 2.2x in the last ten years, reaching nearly 20,000 workers in technological activities An op-ed in Sifted wondered “Is Spain getting its act together?” and looked at the most recent developments in the Spanish tech sector Felix Lopez, VP of Engineering at Tinybird, wrote “¿Qué es un tech lead?“ Ignacio Arriaga, co-founder of Acumbamail, published “Guia de anuncios para B2B“ Podcasts 🎧Kfund interviewed Miguel Carranza, co-founder of RevenueCat Itnig interviewed the founders of Holded to talk about the company’s history and exit to Visma SeedRocket interviewed Pablo Szefner, co-founder of Moonoa Curioso Dinero interviewed Ignacio Zaera of Simpling Product Hackers interviewed Hernán Corral, CPO and co-founder of Argentinian startup Pomelo Thanks for reading Dealflow.es Newsletter! 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