The Nest by Webhelp is the trusted outsourcing partner of fast-growing companies. We scale-up dream teams globally and improve customer experience operations, quickly and simply while optimizing costs & de-risking startups’ growth model.

Put simply, we’re where you need us, when you need us.

The Nest by Webhelp offers a wide variety of services, all of which are customized to the client’s individual needs, and available 24/7 in +80 languages, including:

- Omnichannel Customer Service (customer care, community management, technical support…) - B2B & B2C Sales Support (from acquisition to customer retention) - Regulated, KYC & Payment Services (marketplace payment services, credit management, KYC…) - Platform Management & Digital Content Services (Content moderation and management, Data annotation, Digital activation…)

Thanks to our dedicated outsourcing model focused on agility and flexibility, and our team of industry experts present in +60 countries, we already support the growth of some of the world’s most exciting companies, from fintechs to mobility players or even healthtechs (Ankorstore, Lydia, Swile, Dream Games, AirUp, Younited Credit...), on all their CX topics around the world.

Startup funding news 💸

• Novobrief looked into TheVentureCity 's VC funding report for Q4 2022: "Why Spain was one of the less disrupted markets in VC funding during the last quarter of 2022"
• Former professional NBA player Pau Gasol invested in proptech startup Vivla
• Spanish startups building alternatives to meat protein raised a combined €43m in 2022, up 56% vs. the previous year
• Madrid-based insurtech startup Vitaance raised €2m, led by us at K Fund
• Bilbao-based biotech company Innitius raised €1.8m, co-led by Clave Capital and Nara Capital
• Mallorca-based CIRCE Scientific raised €1.7m. CIRCE performs crystal engineering research of pharmaceutical compounds for pharma companies

M&A activity 🎊

• Basque startup Virtualware, a company that operates in the virtual reality industry, will be listed on the Paris Stock Exchange in the coming weeks. Virtualware's main product, VIROO, is a VR-as-a.Service (VRaaS) platform that makes VR accessible to companies of all sizes and sectors. In 2021, the company did €2.6m in revenue
• Banco Santander continues to increase its stake in Spanish and UK-based fintech startup Ebury. The bank firstly acquired a 50.1% stake that was then increased to 54%, and now it's been announced that it has increased its ownership in Ebury to 64%. In 2022, the company posted £109m in sales and a loss of £34m
• Wim Group acquired Fotografía eCommerce to power its existing services with AI and augmented reality

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Biotech VC firm Asabys announced the 1st closing of its 2nd fund, with commitments of €100m. The firm’s goal is to reach €200 million this year, to invest in 12 to 15 companies in the EU, Israel, UK and the US
• HearstLab is a new fund active in Spain that's looking to back startups led by women. The fund, associated with giant media company Hearst, plans to make investments ranging between €100k and €500k. The fund will be led in Spain by Azahara Espejo, formerly of La Bolsa Social and Crowdcube
• Profile of Antler, the startup accelerator that recently launched in Spain and Portugal. In its first program out of Madrid and Lisboa it's already working with 60 founders
• UpBizor to launch a fund of funds to back investment vehicles instead of going directly to startups
• Wayra and Hotelbeds launched TravelTech Lab, an accelerator to reimagine the future of travel
• Lean Finance, who has sponsored this newsletter several times in the past few years, announced that in 2022 it had a 88% success rate in applications of ENISA loans by startups. In the article, the company also highlights several other figures
• Building a sustainable future: CEMEX Ventures’ new ESG policy for responsible investing
• Other rounds of funding: SolodeCroquetas, Kumux, JAK, Uktena

Startup news 💡

• Sponsored
  The Nest by Webhelp is an outsourcing company designed to help startups to scale-up their team and improve their CX operations, quickly and simply. Several of our portfolio companies have worked with Webhelp and feedback has always been super positive. Check them out here !
• The Spanish Government unexpectedly shut down the High Commissioner for Spain Entrepreneurial Nation after three successful years. President Pedro Sánchez considered that the objectives since its creation three years ago have been successful. Paco Polo, who led the initiative and was also one of the main authors of the Spanish Startup Law, wrote about the news here
• At K Fund we published an overview and analysis of the Spanish climate tech ecosystem. In the post we highlight our areas of interest (enabling tech primarily), as well as a bunch of the local startups building products and services in the field
• Fintech startup Hubuc launched P1, a Mastercard-certified global card issuing and processing engine, allowing financial institutions and fintechs to enhance their customer experiences and deploy payment card use cases in a matter of weeks
• Profile of Golfmanager, a startup that sells software to manage golf courses. The company was launched with €1m from its founders and reached in 2022 €800k in sales
• The Valencia-based ecosystem, including entrepreneurs, accelerators and other actors, are not very happy about the fact that the local government is not really supportive of the various initiatives that are being launched and scaled in the city
• Barcelona-based aerospace company Celestia announced that it will create in Sabadell the infrastructure necessary to launch nanosatellites from airplanes, instead of rockets. This initiative follows a €100m investment in the company announced late last year
• Startup profiles:
• Invoicy: SaaS for retrieval and management of invoices
• Snab: B2B payments

Big company news 🏦

• PepsiCo to put together an investment team in its Barcelona technology hub, from where it plans to invest in startups. This would be Pepsi's third investment initiative, following those in Israel and in the US West Coast
• Twilio's round of layoffs to affect 60 employees in Spain, 30% of its total headcount in the country

Interesting reads 🤓

• Juanjo Mostazo, serial entrepreneur, business angel and now also colleague of ours at K Fund as a venture partner, was profiled here. Juanjo has an extensive career as an entrepreneur and is now based in Malaga
• Felix Lopez, VP of Engineering at Tinybird, wrote about what 'seniority' means at a startup
• Iñaki Arriaga, co-founder of Acumbamail, wrote about "emerging markets vs. classic markets"
• Alex Rodriguez, co-founder of Marsbased, was interviewed here, where he talks about investing as a business and also shares tips for founders

Podcasts 🎧

• Product Hackers interviewed Guli Moreno, co-founder of Capchase
• Paulo Rodriguez, head of Vanta in APAC and EMEA, published his talk at last year's Tarugoconf: "Sales for engineers"
• Itnig interviewed David Martin, CEO of TradeInn
• Historias de Crecimiento interviewed Fernando Moreno, founder of 8Belts
• SeedRocket interviewed Tomas Casals, founder and CEO of Bookish