If you’re looking for signals in the noise, this week’s news might sound like: “debt is the new equity.” Clikalia and Jobandtalent just closed mega credit deals (€100M and €92M respectively), proving that venture debt is still very much in fashion—as long as you have the revenue to back it up. Meanwhile, Krea, co-founded by two Catalans, is riding the GenAI wave all the way to an $83M cap table with a16z and Bain Capital.

In M&A, Apollo is poking around Tradeinn (who did €550M in sales in 2024), Moova is making moves in Spain by snapping up Vonzu, and Acciona and Izertis are shopping local.

On the product side, Jorge Izquierdo’s Tuyo is letting users spend USDC like euros, and Bit2Me wrapped up its sandbox for a tokenized stock exchange. ING wants to hire 1,000 devs in Madrid, Amazon added another billion to its Spanish tally, and Glovo finally decided to put a few riders on payroll.

And if that wasn’t enough: Freepik’s origin story, SaaS plateau hacks, and preventive health startup ideas are waiting in the Interesting Reads section. Go get ‘em.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Google for Startups:

Throughout the years, Google for Startups Campus has been a thriving hub of innovation, a place for everyone in the startup ecosystem to gather, work, and connect; and where founders are more likely to succeed. With the new “Founders at Campus” initiative, Google for Startups wants to open Campus doors to support AI-based companies using Google Cloud to start, build and grow.

Is your startup ready to level up? Join a vibrant community of fellow founders, get access to dedicated workspace and exclusive resources such as Google Cloud credits, and different workshops and activities to fuel your growth. A key focus is helping startups like yours build innovative AI solutions with Google. Remote participation options are available.

Learn more and apply today!

Startup funding news 💸

Madrid-based Clikalia has secured a €100M credit line from Macquarie to accelerate its expansion in France and Portugal, where it has operated since 2022. The deal builds on a previous €200M facility with the same fund, helping reduce its debt costs. In 2024, Clikalia posted €270M in revenue (with €30M from France and €14M from Portugal) and returned to positive EBITDA

Madrid-based Jobandtalent has raised €92M in fresh capital and extended its €320M debt maturity to 2028, with BlackRock playing a central role in both moves:

• BlackRock invested €15M and now holds over 1% of the company, gaining the right to appoint a board member. Also joined by existing investors like Atomico, Kinnevik, SoftBank, and Kibo

• The round values Jobandtalent at €1.3B—down from €2.3B in 2021.

• In 2023, the company posted €1.85B in revenue, €49.8M in adjusted EBITDA, and a €173M net loss, largely due to €80M in interest payments.

• The company aims to boost its AI capabilities and targets a potential IPO or partial sale in 18–24 months. More info here

San Francisco-based Krea, co-founded by Barcelona natives Victor Perez and Diego Rodriguez, has raised a total of $83M (latest Series B of $47M) to build a one-stop GenAI platform for visual creatives. Backed by Bain Capital Ventures, a16z, and Abstract Ventures, Krea integrates multiple image and video models into a unified tool with an intuitive UI. More from the company here, and a16z wrote about their investment here

Valencia-based Inversiva, the proptech startup focused on passive real estate investment, raised €1.2M from BeWater, Faraday Ventures, and Angels. In 2024, it posted €6M in revenue and expects to double that in 2025

Other funding news: Turicleta (€500k), SegurosIA (-),

M&A 🎉

Apollo is in talks to acquire up to 49% of Tradeinn, one of Spain’s largest ecommerce groups, primarily by purchasing the 30% stake held by Suma Capital. The deal follows failed negotiations with Decathlon, which aimed to acquire 100% of the company. Tradeinn posted €550M in revenue and €55M in EBITDA in 2024

Argentinian logistics tech company Moova has acquired Barcelona-based Vonzu to enter the Spanish and Portuguese markets. Vonzu, founded 7 years ago, provides SaaS logistics tools and had raised €1.5M from Conexo Ventures in 2021

Acciona has acquired Spanish startup Mytra, specialized in water infrastructure monitoring and automation, to strengthen its water division

Izertis has acquired 100% of Grupo MBC (May Business Consulting UK & Spain) to strengthen its position in the financial sector. Grupo MBC had €8.4M in 2024 revenue

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

Spanish funds:

• Mundi Ventures will open a Miami office in H2 2025 to raise a $100M Latin America-focused insurtech fund. The expansion targets wealthy Latin American investors

• Cardumen Capital closed its third fund, the Cardumen Opportunity Fund I, at €20M. The Spanish VC firm, known for investing in Israeli deep tech, created the fund to maintain stakes in six high-potential portfolio companies from its first fund

• Kalonia announced new investments in Spanish startups Depasify and Uelz

Spanish investors active abroad:

• At Kfund we announced our first investment in Colombia. We co-led a $8M round in mobility startup Gopass, along with Qualcomm Ventures. More info here

• Helloworld (Rodrigo Martinez) participated in the €5.4M round of German startup REMATIQ

• Yellow invested in French AI startup Sandra

Atempo Growth, backed by Banco Santander (30% stake), has announced a €300M first close for its second venture debt fund, Atempo Growth II, aimed at financing high-growth European tech companies

The EIF and Spain’s ENISA will jointly provide €40M in guarantees to boost bank financing for innovative Spanish SMEs and startups. The agreement, under the InvestEU program, aims to facilitate access to up to €80M in loans from partner banks

Hasta hace no mucho invertía parte de los ahorros en bolsa, ETFs y otro tipo de activos. Eso era antes. Hoy en día invierto con Indexa Capital, y lo hago todos los meses. Creo que es la mejor opción para la mayoría de personas que quieren ahorrar e invertir. Si te das de alta con mi enlace de invitación-descuento, la gestión de los primeros €15k y durante el primer año será gratis.

Invierte con Indexa

Startup news 💡

New startups and products:

• Jorge Izquierdo announced the global launch of Tuyo Card, a debit card that allows users to spend USDC directly from your Tuyo account

• Walter Kobylanski wrote a thread explaining the history and timeline of Together, his latest startup, a “life manager that helps you stay on top of all that matters”

Startup and founder profiles:

• Profile of Joaquim De La Cruz, co-founder and CEO of Barcelona-based Flanks, has gone from building a flatmate expense-splitting app to disrupting the wealth management sector. Today, Flanks serves accounts worth hundreds of millions

Startup financials:

• Refruiting, the Barcelona-based startup that delivers fresh fruit and office snacks, expects to reach €15M in revenue in 2025, up from €11M in 2024

Other news:

• Glovo has begun directly employing some of its delivery riders in Spain for the first time, hiring around 100 workers under its in-house logistics unit

• Bit2Me STX, part of Spain’s leading crypto exchange Bit2Me, has completed its regulatory sandbox trial with the CNMV for launching a blockchain-based stock exchange

Big company & policy news 🤓

ING will open a new international tech hub in Madrid, aiming to hire 1,000 engineers over the next four years. The center, set to launch in September, will focus on software development, system architecture, and data analytics

Amazon grew its revenues in Spain by 12.7% in 2024, reaching over €8B, driven by its online store, AWS, and digital ads. Logistics accounted for €1.87B, with Amazon Road Transportation Spain quadrupling net profits to €10.4M. The advertising arm saw revenue jump 23% to €645.6M. The company now has 28,000 employees in Spain

Neon, BBVA’s Brazilian neobank (30.9% stake), reported its first-ever monthly profits in November and December 2024

Anja Brehm, country manager of Veepee Spain, leads the flash sales and marketplace giant that closed 2024 with €3.3B in global revenue (+2.6%) and EBITDA above 5% across 10 markets. Based in Barcelona, she oversees 670 employees and continues expanding Veepee’s model of time-limited brand sales and direct-to-consumer marketplace. Under her leadership since 2022, Veepee Spain has averaged 5% annual growth

Interesting reads 🤓

Eduardo Manchon published a series of tweets about Joaquin Cuenca and the history of Freepik. Good read!

Ignacio Arriaga published “Cómo salir de la meseta del SaaS”

Hugo Mardomingo (Acurio) published a presentation on startup opportunities in preventive health

Evoltio, an energy management startup, published “Trump, aranceles y OMIE: ¿riesgo inflacionista o bajada del precio de electricidad?”

Miguel Arias (Kfund) published “The Path Forward for European Innovation: Key Takeaways from a Discussion with the EU Commissioner for Innovation and Startups”

Thanks for reading Dealflow.es Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Subscribed