Interesting interview in the itnig podcast with Juan Rodriguez, CEO and co-founder of The Hotels Network, which was acquired by Lighthouse last week. He shared quite a bit about the company’s historic performance, the exit and other relevant details.

Some of his key takeaways:

• Efficiency: It raised €15M over a decade. THN scaled to €15M ARR and 20,000 hotel clients across 100 countries, with a business that was cashflow positive and with 10% EBITDA margin before the sale.

• Little dilution: THN maintained full control over its strategy, with minimal fundraising (only €10M Series B closed right before COVID, plus some venture debt later). According to Juanjo, being financially independent allowed the team to sell when and how they wanted.

• Timing is everything:

  • Their Series B money hit the bank hours before Spain announced the COVID lockdown.

  • The acquisition was signed just after major financial volatility in early 2025 — both times, luck and resilience played a role.

• Choosing a strategic buyer: After 100+ conversations with funds and strategics, they decided to join forces with Lighthouse, a leader in hotel pricing data. It was a mix of cash + equity, prioritizing upside participation.

• Earnout structured around growth: A significant portion (around 30%) of the total deal value is tied to hitting aggressive growth targets post-acquisition — reflecting confidence in the combined platform.

• Why they sold:

  • Growing organically toward €30M ARR (the “platform threshold” for bigger moves in their category) would have taken several more years, with high risk.

  • Lighthouse’s distribution and scale offered a faster path to impact and value creation without sacrificing the team’s future.

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This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Crescenta:

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* La inversión tiene riesgos. La rentabilidad pasada no constituye un indicador fiable de resultados futuros. Más información sobre riesgos y condiciones aquí

Startup funding news 💸

Salsa, a US-based startup co-founded by Spaniard Juan Barroso and with several employees here, raised €17.4M in a Series A round led by Altos Ventures. The company simplifies payroll management through embedded APIs and UI tools

UK and Spain-based Cakewalk, a startup that builds AI agents to manage employee access to internal software and tackle security risks, raised $7.5M in a seed round led by Kindred Capital and Vertex Ventures

Madrid-based Spotahome raised €5M to boost its long term rental platform. New investors include Actyus and Martín Varsavsky. Existing investors Passion Capital, Seaya Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and 14W also participated. Spotahome achieved break-even in H2 2024 and reports 35% YoY growth

Madrid-based TaxDown raised €4M, led by Bonsai Partners. TaxDown helps consumers and businesses simplify income tax filing process

Madrid-based cybersecurity company Acoru closed a €4M funding round led by Adara Ventures and Athos Capital. Founded by executives with previous experience at Symantec and Deloitte, Acoru aims to protect cloud infrastructures through its threat detection platform

London-based Capably raised $4M in a round led by Boost Capital Partners, with participation from Wayra, among others. The startup offers an Intelligent Automation platform that combines RPA and AI agents to help businesses automate complex workflows effortlessly

Barcelona-based The Channel Store raised €2M from Inveready. The Channel Store specializes in developing and managing streaming TV apps for platforms like Samsung TV, LG, and Android TV

Other rounds of funding: Monthis (€555k), Lessthan3 (€455k), Optimitive (undisclosed)

M&A 🎉

Seaya acquired around 70% of Baïa Food, investing over €10M through its Seaya Andromeda fund. Baïa, which develops and sells natural probiotic supplements, expects to do €15M in sales this year. Seaya wrote about the deal here. This is Seaya’s 2nd transaction in which it acquired a majority stake in a business, following the deal with Nax Solutions

Inveready acquired the remaining 49.99% of True Value Investments, taking full control of the asset manager. Inveready had bought a 50.01% stake in 2022. True Value manages around €250M in assets and focuses on value investing strategies

Nalba Advisors acquired Deep Payments to strengthen its payments consulting business. The merged company expects €5M in revenues in 2025

Izertis acquired 50% of Coderland, a Central American tech consulting group specialized in software development. With this move, Izertis strengthens its presence in Latin America, adding over 150 professionals

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

Spanish investors active abroad:

• Nauta led a $7.8M round in London-based Neurolabs

• Axon backed Italian company WSENSE

• Mundi backed London-based fintech Hokodo

Batir a largo plazo al mercado es complicado, y poca gente lo consigue. Si además no tienes tiempo o conocimientos para invertir en bolsa, lo mejor que puedes hacer es utilizar Indexa Capital.

Invierte con Indexa

Startup news 💡

Startup financials:

• In its latest investor report, Kinnevik shares some highlights of TravelPerk’s most recent performance. TravelPerk achieved over 50% annual revenue growth during 2023 and 2024. At the end of 2024, it reported annualized booking volumes of over $2.5B and annualized revenue of over $200M. The company was EBITDA positive by the end of 2024, before starting new investments from its recently raised capital

• Housfy continues its expansion strategy with the acquisition of 14 real estate agencies and property management firms, and the opening of new retail offices. The proptech expects to grow revenues by 60% to €36M in 2025 and to achieve an EBITDA of €6M

New startups and products:

• Sherpas came out of stealth with its AI-powered platform for hybrid financial advice. The company combines human expertise and AI to help advisors deliver personalized wealth management at scale

• GuruWalk launched a new AI-driven support system to enhance user experience on its free tour marketplace, called GuruSup

• Internxt launched the so-called “world’s first” post-quantum encrypted cloud storage platform

• Portuguese startup Manie raised €1M to support its expansion into Spain. The Portuguese personal finance startup plans to reach 10,000 clients in the next 18 months

• Happyrobot launched Bridge, an AI-powered platform that automates repetitive B2B workflows in logistics and freight. Bridge connects companies without the need for integrations, enabling freight forwarders, carriers, and shippers to exchange data, documents, and updates automatically

Other news and startup profiles:

• Playtomic is exploring the acquisition of Spanish brands in the sports sector. The platform plans to use the fresh funding (it announced a €65M round one month ago) to accelerate growth through M&A and consolidate its leadership in Europe and Latin America

• Profile of Crescenta, which raised €125M in AUM with 2,000+ investors in its first year, offering private equity access to both high-net-worth individuals and retail investors. The firm, led by Eduardo Navarro and Ramiro Iglesias, aims to reach €500M by 2025, supported by strict fund selection, a digital platform, and financial education initiatives

• Expansion highlighted several startups working in the logistics sector: Imperia, Kanguro, Paack, and InPost, which are leveraging AI, automation, and last-mile solutions to boost efficiency and sustainability

Big company & policy news 🤓

Indra plans to double its revenues to €10B by 2028, driven by acquisitions like Hispasat and a potential merger with EM&E (formerly Escribano). The company, backed 28% by the Spanish state, is betting on the defense and space sectors to capture part of the €800B Europe plans to invest in defense, while also divesting non-core assets like its payments subsidiary

Spain announced a €808M public investment plan in quantum technology through 2030, aiming to mobilize €1.5B with private funding included. The strategy focuses on strengthening research hubs like BSC and ICFO, fostering startups, and positioning Spain as a European leader in quantum tech amid rising global competition

Telefónica ranked as the leading European corporation in startup activity, according to the Corporate Startup Activity Index 2025. With €245M invested through Wayra and other vehicles, Telefónica tops Airbus and SAP in Europe, and leads globally among telcos

Xataka reported that the blocking of IPs and domains by LaLiga to fight piracy has significantly impacted pirate IPTV services in Spain, with some operators seeing monthly revenues fall from €70k to €40k

Interesting reads 🤓

Secture published a guide with best practices for designing Live Activities on iPhone, featuring a practical case study with Wikiloc

Interesting perspective shared from Álex Bryszkowski. He reflected on his 24-year journey as an entrepreneur and investor. After selling his first company in 2016, he invested in real estate and startups, recognizing that co-founding companies with strong operators has delivered his best returns. Now, as a father, he’s reconsidering his next steps between supporting new ventures and building businesses with an “operator model”

Invofox’s founder shared his journey moving to San Francisco after raising their Series A. Navigating the US visa process took almost a year, over $30k, and extensive legal help, with the L1 visa being the best fit. Despite setbacks, the move allowed Invofox to scale in the US startup ecosystem

Javi Santana (Tinybird) wrote “AI in product design“

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