AWS Summit Madrid 2023 is taking place this Thursday and we couldn’t be more excited. Don’t miss the activities at the AWS Startup Loft and the chance to network with startups, VC, Founders and more!

The AWS Startup Loft is a space dedicated to highlight the innovation of some of the most successful startups in Spain, to share insights to support startups on their journey in the cloud and to generate interactions between the local startup ecosystem.

In the AWS Startup Loft, you can attend specific sessions for startups throughout the day, from how to implement innovation mechanisms to the Web 3.0 investment ecosystem. You wil also discover AWS programs for startups and how to start using them with the help of our experts, to start building and growing. We will finalize the day with an amazing happy hour featured by Factorial.

See you there!

Startup funding news 💸

• Madrid-based life insurance startup Life5 raised €10m. Existing investor Singular is investing once again, along with Mundi Ventures and Global Brain (Sony Financial Ventures)
• Barcelona-based motorbike marketplace Mundimoto raised €10m, led by Mutua Madrileña and Orilla Asset Management. Mundimoto closed 2022 with €60m in sales
• Madrid-based EV charging company CargaTuToche raised €3m, led by Return
• Sevilla and Madrid-based companies Foodyt and Miss Tipsi have merged, and the resulting company has raised a €1.3m round, led by Sherry Ventures and Easo Ventures
• Barcelona-based startup Celebreak raised €1.1m from various business angels. The company helps people organise football matches
• Barcelona-based biotech MiMARK raised €1m
• Other rounds of funding: Material, Niche Mobility, Ouvo, Mumbler, ML Code

M&A activity 🎊

• Valencia Plaza wrote an overview of the Valencia tech M&A ecosystem, highlighting the main deals that have been closed in the past few years
• Edtech companies Nannyfy and Kokoro Kids (a Kfund portfolio company) have merged. The new company will be called Apolo Kids

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• More details about Yellow Fund, the investment vehicle launched by Glovo founders Sacha Michaud and Oscar Pierre. The team was known for a few weeks now, Adam Lasri (formerly of Atomico will lead the fund) along with Victor Navarro (former colleague of ours at Kfund). They expect to invest €30m in about 40 startups in France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, with initial cheques ranging between €300k and €500k and agnostic in terms of sectors and business models
• Swanlaab Venture Factory, a Spanish-Israeli VC firm focused on the deeptech industry in Spain, announced the successful first closing of its second fund, Swanlaab Tech Fund II FCR, with an initial funding of €45m
• During South Summit, former professional NBA player Pau Gasol unveiled Gasol16Ventures, an investment vehicle that will focus on Series A companies at the intersection of sports, wellbeing and led by Spanish founders
• Jorge Dobon, founder of Demium, announced that they'll be shutting down their multiple incubator/accelerator programs to operate more as a traditional fund out of a €25m vehicle. They plan to write cheques between €100k and €500k
• We at Kfund announced our first investment in Brazil, in eIPaaS company Digibee. The $60m round was led by Goldman Sachs
• LifeX Ventures, the fund co-founded by Iñaki Berenguer, participated in the €7.5m round of UK-based biotech company Hypervision Surgical
• Adara Ventures participated in the €3.5m round of UK-based cloud optimization company XONAI
• Zubi Group, the entrepreneurship and investing initiative led by Iker Marcaide, launched in Malaga. It will be focused on sustainability and positive impact projects
• Joaquin Rebuelta, partner at Kibo Ventures, attended SuperVenture (one of the most well known events in Europe to connect LPs (limited partners, or investors in funds) and VC firms), and wrote a thread with his conclusions of the event and the current investment and fundraising climate

Startup news 💡

• Andres Torrubia unveiled Lucentum.ai, a legal assistant for lawyers and practicians. It's focused on Spanish law, serves as a standalone webapp and is also integrated into Office
• The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said that the 1:30 VTC-to-taxi limit in Spain is illegal, but also said that it's ok with some local regions requesting a second license to operate. This is all becoming a bit confusing, so if you're interested in the topic, here's a good thread by Jesus Martinez. More info here
• Expansion wrote about the impact that the Spain's new 'Ley de vivienda' might have on some proptech startups, especially those focused on buying and selling properties
• El Confidencial wrote an article about salaries in the field of AI and how it might affect -or not- Spanish startups, featuring Joe Haslam (IE), Javier Andres (LuzIA) and Nacho Puell (head of research at Kfund)
• Salvador Mas, founder of Finametrix, acquired by Allfunds, started a Twitter thread where he's been writing about the new company he's building and documenting the steps he's taken so far
• Basque smart home startup Wattio to enter liquidation
• Startup profiles:
• PLD Space: space tech

Big company news 🏦

• According to reports, Tesla is in negotiations with the Comunitat Valenciana to open a gigafactory in Valencia. The investment to open such a plant would be of €4.5b and, if completed, it would become Tesla's second manufacturing plant in Europe (it has another one in Germany). Hours after the news came out, another article said that the Comunitat was worried that the leak could jeopardize the project, since it hasn't been signed and is still in negotiation
• According to Bloomberg, Inditex is considering setting up a vehicle to invest in startups and technologies that it hopes could help green its business. The project could see the fashion retailer create an in-house VC fund or become the anchor investor in a fund along with several other brands

Interesting reads 🤓

• Ramon Blanco, co-founder of Indexa Capital and Bewater Funds, published "Are former entrepreneurs better investors?"
• Pol Fañanás and Gerard García, who manage the newsletter Views, interviewed Oscar Farres of EIF, the largest investor in VC in Europe
• Various organisations published a report on the health and bigger trends of the Basque startup ecosystem. You can read the full report here

Podcasts 🎧

• Hola Mundo Tech interviewed Roberto Gomez and Daniel Olea, co-founders of Scalar
• Masterminds interviewed serial entrepreneur Roger Casals
• Itnig interviewed Ariel Camus, co-founder of edtech Microverse
• Kfund interviewed Carlos (CK) Kokron, head of Qualcomm Ventures LatAm
• Life on Mars interviewed Alex Bacardit (who usually hosts the podcast) to talk about the difficult topics of company building