Some of you have reached out in the past few weeks to say that you’ve stopped receiving the newsletter. If that’s the case, please look in the spam folder of your email provider, since there’s a big chance it has dropped in there for some unknown reason. Thanks!

On to last week’s update.

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Startup funding news 💸

Palencia-based EV charging infra company Zunder secured a €225 million green loan from Banco Santander. This funding will support Zunder's plan to install 3,000 new charging points

Madrid-based Citibox raised €80 million through a bond issuance on the Vienna Stock Exchange. This funding, led by Growth Credit Partners and CoVenture, will support the expansion of Citibox's smart mailbox network in Spain, aiming to increase their installations tenfold to 600,000 units within three years. "Uno de nuestros grandes retos financieros ha sido ser atractivos para los mercados de deuda. Hemos realizado la emisión de bonos más importante de una start up en España de la mano de grandes fondos internacionales”, said CEO David Bernabeu

Malaga-based data analytics company Ravenpack raised $20 million, led by GP Bullhound. This is probably one of the largest rounds ever raised by a Malaga startup

Barcelona-based logistics startup Paack is apparently finalizing a funding round of “tens of millions” to secure financial stability amid a significant reduction in its valuation. The company raised at a valuation of €800 million in 2022 in the middle of the covid ecommerce bonanza, and could now be looking at raising at less than €100 million

Valencia-based Kenmei, developers of AI-driven mobile network management software, secured €4 million, led by Andorra Telecom

Other rounds of funding:

• Nomade Nation: €850k
  

M&A news 🚀

A couple of new articles about idealista’s acquisition:

• A look at the structure to be used by Cinven to complete the acquisition. The new holding company will be based in London, instead of Spain (screenshot below)

• Reactions from other entrepeneurs and investors to the deal

PAI Partners, in alliance with Inveready, is leading the acquisition of Avatel Telecom for over €550 million. Avatel, Spain's fifth-largest telecom operator, is valued at around 7x EBITDA, currently €80 million

Izertis acquired the British company Projecting, specialized in the financial sector, to strengthen its presence in international financial services. Izertis aims to achieve a revenue of €250 million and an EBITDA of €33 million by end of year

Seedtag acquired Australian-owned creative intelligence business, JustEggs, in a bid to expand its presence in the APAC region. It’s Seedtag’s second acquisition in the past 2 months

Meneame is looking for an exit. Minimum price €200k

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

Seaya closed its latest climate tech fund at €300 million, bringing its assets under management to €650 million. The fund, Seaya Andromeda, was launched in 2022. It’ll invest €7-40 million as a first cheque and is open to acquire majority stakes

Kibo Ventures received the 2023 SpainCap award for the best VC exit last year: Flywire. 35.8x return on a €1.8 million investment, for total proceeds of €65 million. Kibo shared some details of the exit and history with the company here

VC fund Inclimo Climate Tech has invested in five startups and has raised €26.4 million to date. Goal is to reach €40 million. The fund was launched last year by Sorigué, Antai, and Fernando Casado

Faraday launched First Drop FCRE, a €20 million investment fund focused on social and environmental impact projects

Yellow, the VC firm founded by the co-founders of Glovo, has invested in 3 new startups: Livo, Wordsmith, and Bud

Spanish investors active abroad:

• Mundi participated in the $15 million round of reinsurance company Supercede

Overview of the €150 million exit of Deporvillage. Tweet shared by David Miranda

Startup news 💡

Marti Gou is the co-founder of marketing software startup Gretel. The company had to shut down and Marti wrote a very interesting and long post on “learnings of not finding product market fit in a ’24 B2B SaaS startup”

The Community of Madrid has rejected the applications for 7,700 VTC licenses requested by Cabify. Cabify argues that the refusal to grant these licenses hinders their ability to offer competitive and sustainable urban mobility solutions. Cabify will appeal the decision

I’ve lost count of how many of these have taken place already: The Barcelona Public Prosecutor's Office has filed a criminal complaint against Glovo for employing false self-employed workers

Morabanc (Andorra), the Turkish fintech Papara, and Spanish company ID Finance are competing for a banking license in Spain. This license would enable them to expand their services and strengthen their presence in the Spanish financial market

Big company & policy news 🤓

British neobank Atom Bank, of which BBVA is a major shareholder, announced its first-ever net profit of £12.5 million in the last fiscal year

Booking.com has some crazy market share: Booking sold one out of every four hotel beds in Spain in 2023, according to a report by Hotrec. The company is facing a potential fine of €486 million for abuse of dominant position

Amazon increased its revenues in Spain by 11% to reach €7.1 billion euros last year

“El pajaporte”: Adults in Spain who wish to access adult websites will need to have a 'digital ID card' that allows for 30 valid accesses within 30 days

Interesting reads 🤓

Javi Santana of Tinybird wrote a thread on changes they’ve implemented in the way the tech/product teams work. Click on the image to go to the thread

Interview with Miguel Ángel Díez Ferreira, CEO of Startups Institute and previously of RedKaraoke: "El emprendedor aprende del fracaso, pero es un drama. Hay que evitarlo”

Podcasts 🔈

Itnig interviewed Unai Asenjo (Indexa Capital)

Historias de Crecimiento interviewed Beatriz Lizarraga (ABC)