Dealflow.es #478: Exit season: Wallapop (€563M), Onum (€350M), Covermanager (€350M)
Dealflow.es #478: Exit season: Wallapop (€563M), Onum (€350M), Covermanager (€350M)A weekly summary of everything that happened in the Spanish startup and tech investing ecosystem.
Dealflow.es aims to be the best way to keep up with Spain’s startup ecosystem. 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 €10m. If you want to chat, drop me an email at jaime@kfund.vc Friendly reminder that we also have Dealflow France 🇫🇷 and Dealflow LatAm to follow startup and VC news in each ecosystem. Subscribe if you’re interested! This week’s newsletter is sponsored by zenital:
Startup funding news 💸Bit2Me, Spain’s leading crypto platform, has secured a €30M investment round led by Tether, the issuer of USDT and a global leader in the digital asset space, which also acquired a minority stake. The funding will accelerate Bit2Me’s EU expansion and growth in Latin America, particularly Argentina Maisa AI, a startup with offices in Valencia and San Francisco, has raised a $25M seed round led by Creandum, with participation from Forgepoint Capital (via Banco Santander), NFX, and Village Global. Maisa is building the evolution of RPA, Agentic Process Automation, aiming enterprise customers. Anna Piñol of NFX wrote about their initial investment in Maisa here, and so did Peter Specht of Creandum here Lingokids, the Madrid-based edtech platform for children, has closed a $16.3M round led by GP Bullhound, with Tencent also participating. The deal sets the company’s pre-money valuation at $200M. The funds will support growth and the push toward EBITDA profitability. HV Holtzbrinck Ventures fully exited its 14% stake for €15M, or a 2.5X multiple in 8 years Qbeast, a Barcelona-based data infrastructure startup spun out of the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, has raised €6.5M in seed funding. The round was led by Peak XV’s Surge, with support from HWK Tech Investment and Elaia Partners Ocean Ecostructures, a Barcelona-based startup focused on marine biodiversity regeneration, has closed a €3.5M funding round with new investor Faber joining existing backers Seven Seas Capital, Ship2B Ventures, and Inclimo M&A 🎉Naver acquired an additional 70.5% stake in Barcelona-based Wallapop for €377M, bringing its total ownership to 100% and assuming full control of the company. The deal values Wallapop at around €563M, below the €806M valuation from its early 2024 round. The company did €89M in sales in 2023, so the deal implies a 6x-ish revenue multiple. Also, the deal faces legal scrutiny, as minority shareholders like 14W argue the required majority for enforcing drag-along rights wasn’t met Onum, the Spanish real-time data observability startup co-founded by Pedro Castillo, Pedro Tortosa and Lucas Varela, sold to cybersecurity company Crowdstrike for around €350M. Backed by Kibo Ventures, Insight Partners, and Dawn Capital, Onum had raised over €36M since its 2023 launch. More details here Covermanager, the Seville-based restaurant management SaaS, was acquired by PSG Equity in a deal valued at €350M, combining €200M in cash and €150M in shares of a new holding company with France’s Zenchef. The founders retained a minority stake via rollover. Covermanager, which had only raised €5M in primary capital, reported €12.2M in 2023 revenue and €4.5M in net profit Verbio Technologies, a Barcelona-based AI automation company, has been acquired by U.S. firm Capacity as part of a $92M funding-backed expansion. Verbio specializes in conversational AI to streamline communication between humans and machines Lenskart, the Indian eyewear giant, acquired Barcelona-based Meller for over €40M. Founded in 2014, Meller sells trendy, affordable eyewear online and through its Barcelona store. With €30M in annual revenue and €5M in EBITDA, the company had raised less than €1M Details emerge of Magnific’s acquisition by Freepik. Freepik acquired Magnific AI, the Murcia-based generative AI startup, for €20M in cash plus up to €5.4M in earn-outs through 2026 Atresmedia acquired 35% of Ac2ality, a TikTok-first news channel aimed at young audiences, for up to €1.3M. Founded in 2020, Ac2ality now has 4.4M followers Trilantic Europe has acquired a minority stake in Sklum, the Valencia-based online furniture retailer. The founders retain majority control. Sklum generates over €300M in annual revenue and sells in 10 countries BCN3D, a 3D printing startup from Barcelona, has been acquired out of bankruptcy by Swedish firm 3DVerkstan Syra Coffee, the Barcelona-based specialty coffee chain, was acquired by one of Colombia’s largest conglomerates, Grupo Nutresa Ecotechers published the story of several notable Spanish exits: RatedPower, Ticketbis, Userzoom Investor & accelerator news 🚀Adara Ventures increased the internal valuation of Seedtag to €712M, up nearly 30% from last year. The Spanish adtech startup, backed by Advent, Oakley, and Adara (which holds 6.8%), aims for €400M in 2025 revenue and EBITDA of €50–100M COFIDES, committed €80M to Cathay Innovation III, a €1B global venture fund focused on AI across sectors like health, mobility, fintech, and consumer. At least €160M of the fund will be invested in high-growth Spanish startups Details of Seaya’s 2nd fund: the firm continues to manage its stakes in Wallbox and Delivery Hero (Glovo) as part of its second fund, now in its ninth year. In Glovo, Seaya sold part of its 3.4% stake post-acquisition, earning over €23M to date, with ~€11M in shares still held. In Wallbox, it retains 4.5% (worth ~€3.6M) The founders of Lanai Ventures are launching a new investment firm (sociedad gestora), Ohana Capital, to manage their portfolio and future funds under a long-term structure New funds:
Spanish investors active abroad:
Startup news 💡Sponsored bullet point 👉🏼 Zenital helps companies turn data into growth. Because when data leads, business thrives — discover how Zenital makes it happen. New startups and key product launchesRebolt, a startup co-founded by Spaniards Javi Sanchez and Celia Manzano, unveiled its new product that allows businesses to build apps and agents by speaking with AI. Javi wrote about the launch here Galtea launched a new conversation simulator designed to train sales and support teams using generative AI. More here Jobandtalent expanded its suite of AI tools with four new agents aimed at improving user support and internal operations Startup financialsWallbox has regained compliance with NYSE listing rules after executing a 20-to-1 reverse stock split, which raised its share price above the $1 minimum required to stay listed. Wallbox’s current market cap stands at $66M Logistics startup GOI entered a financial restructuring phase after missing its €90M revenue target, ending 2024 with €42M in sales. The logistics startup, now rebranded as LOGI, is renegotiating debt with creditors including Sabadell and Bankinter, and has downsized its workforce by half. Founder Yaiza Canosa stepped aside as CEO, with CFO Sergio Martínez taking over amid efforts to preserve margins Wetaca closed 2024 with record revenue and profit, reaching €18.2M in turnover (+23%) and €602k in net profit—double the previous year. The growth is driven by its subscription model, launched in 2021, which now fuels most orders Filmin closed 2024 with record profits of €2.4M—nearly triple the previous year—on €26.7M in revenue (+18%). Arcano is exploring exit options as the investors approach their 5-year holding mark Mio Group, the marketing consultancy owned by the Arbeloa brothers, launched a delisting takeover offer to exit BME Growth at €1.77 per share. The company aims to gain flexibility for its long-term strategy after a 2024 marked by €3.6M in losses and a 10% revenue drop to €58.4M Startup profilesFactorial CEO Jordi Romero said the company doesn’t need to raise more capital to grow, following its €110M round from General Catalyst in March. Now with over 1,300 employees and 13k clients, the Barcelona-based HR platform is focused on scaling efficiently, onboarding 300 people in six months while exploring AI use and keeping IPO options open. Podcast interview available here. Also, the company announced that it grew 21% in revenue and 22% in client base in Brazil during H1 2025 Tucuvi developed Lola, the first clinically certified voice-based AI (Class IIB) in Europe, now used in 10% of Spain’s public hospitals. Lola calls patients at home to monitor chronic conditions, preventing up to 30% of hospitalisations and 70% of unnecessary ER visits Personnel movesDetails of personnel changes at Glovo. Several of the old execs have left the company, and new people have joined Spain’s gaming sector is being hit by mass layoffs despite record revenues. Secret 6 Madrid has closed (42 jobs lost), Aheartfulofgames faces 28 layoffs, and King Barcelona will cut 75 staff after training an AI that now replaces them Other newsTo date, Sateliot has secured €270M in IoT connectivity contracts across 50+ countries, operating the first NB-IoT-compatible LEO satellite constellation Pangea Propulsion announced a €18M investment to expand its test facilities in Lleida and open a new manufacturing site near Barcelona Cabify will deploy new VTC licenses in Madrid starting in September, following court rulings that forced the regional government to unblock applications filed since 2018 Big company & policy news 🤓Financing activity from Banco Santander:
Tesla grew its revenue in Spain by 18.2% in 2024, reaching €640M, driven by a 26% rise in EV registrations and strong Model 3 sales. However, in 2025 its local momentum has stalled, with sales up just 1.1% through July amid rising competition and uncertainty over EV subsidies Indra launched IndraMind, a new AI-focused division that will integrate cybersecurity, cyberdefense, and its tech subsidiary Paradigma. Backed by a €200M investment, the company plans both organic development and acquisitions to become a major European player in defense-related AI Chema Alonso joined Cloudflare as VP and head of international development after more than a decade at Telefónica. From Madrid, Alonso will lead the US company’s global expansion strategy, focusing on emerging markets and institutional relationships in Europe and Latin America Meta’s Spanish subsidiary, Facebook Spain, distributed €109M in restricted stock units (RSUs) to employees between 2023 and 2024—far surpassing the €35 million granted over the previous nine years Interesting reads 🤓Inditex published “How Inditex is adopting Microfrontends for future-proof platform development“ Iñaki Berenguer (LifeX) published several articles:
Julio Martinez (Abacum) published:
Miguel Arias (Kfund) published “La maldición de ver todos los deals” Simon Muñoz (Voicemod) published “Costes hundidos: por qué solo los perdedores promedian perdedores” Thanks for reading Dealflow.es Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
|
Similar newsletters
There are other similar shared emails that you might be interested in: