¿Qué fue antes: el CFO o las finanzas? Esto es como la eterna duda entre el huevo y la gallina. Solo que en este tema se manejan las decisiones que más afectan a una empresa. Y precisamente de eso queremos hablar: los retos a los que se están enfrentando los Directores financieros (y las finanzas) en este 2023.

En cuanto a retos de finanzas y contabilidad, en Pleo sabemos de lo que hablamos. Por si es la primera vez que oyes hablar de nosotros: somos la solución que ayuda a gestionar los gastos de todo tipo de empresas. Una solución para ahorrar tiempo, esfuerzo, dinero e incluso dolores de cabeza a directores y trabajadores. A todos los que tienen que hacer cuentas a final de mes. Nuestro objetivo es centralizar y gestionar los gastos de empresa en una sola plataforma, para hacerle la vida más fácil a todo el mundo.

Y aunque sabemos del tema, no siempre se puede tener la respuesta a todo. Por eso, hemos investigado un poquito y reunido en este e-book gratuito las principales preocupaciones de los directores financieros para este 2023 junto a varias herramientas y recomendaciones para hacerles frente. Hemos querido arrojar un poco de luz en este tema, porque en el de huevo-gallina no nos poníamos de acuerdo.

Si te interesa, descárgalo gratis aquí.

Startup funding news 💸

• Barcelona-based electric bike manufacturer Stark Future raised €20m in debt from Banco Santander
• Barcelona-based quantum computing company Quside raised €10m from a group of investors, featuring ICF, Trumpf Ventures, Bullnet Capital, Demium Capital and TechVision Capital. Quside designs and manufactures innovative quantum technologies for all connected devices
• Barcelona-based flower marketplace Colvin raised €6m from existing investors. Last week it was also revealed that the company is looking for a new CEO and that its two co-founders could depart the company. According to La Informacion, this new round was closed at a 40-50% discount compared to its previous valuation. To date, the company has raised almost €100m in equity and debt
• Tenerife-based energy startup EAVE raised €3m from Banco Santander's The Smart Fund. EAVE distributes solar energy products, including solar panels and EV charging stations
• Madrid-based car marketplace Motoreto raised €1.4m
• Seville-based cosmetics company LICO raised €1m from Bewater Funds. As a result of the transaction Bewater owns a 15% stake in the company
• Madrid-based health tech company Zerintia Health Tech raised €1m, led by Bio & Tech Smart Capital
• Other rounds of funding: Oncostellae, Eholo

M&A activity 🎊

• Indexa Capital to go public on July 12th with a target valuation of around €150m. The company, which has been profitable for quite a while (€750k in profit last year), has more than €1.7b in AUM. François Derbaix is the largest shareholder, with a 20.4% stake, followed by Cabiedes & Partners (19%), Unai Asenjo (16.7%) and Ramon Blanco (8.4%). François, Unai and Ramon are all co-founders. Indexa doesn't plan to raise money with the transaction, which has been put together to provide liquidity to existing investors and employees. A lot more information is available in the company's prospectus
• British PE firm Stirling Square Capital Partners acquired Grupo Gtt for about €300m. Gtt is a tech firm focused on taxes
• A Delaware judge has ruled that SOL Global Fund can back out of a $100m deal for Reby, a Barcelona-based micromobility startup. The judge justified the decision because it said that Reby's representations about its capital structure and financial statements were untrue. Months ago, the founders of Reby sued the buyers because they claimed they had not paid the agreed price
• Spanish neobank Rebellion acquired by Turkish fintech giant Papara

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Sonia Fernandez, partner at Kibo Ventures, explained in a post why the firm led an €18m round in Barcelona-based elderly care platform Qida: "Qida, passion for improving the lives of the senior population at home"
• Adara Ventures welcomed Alberto Echeverri as partner. Alberto will co-lead Adara's investment in technologies that enable the energy transition alongside co-founder Alberto Gómez. Adara announced last week the launch of a new €200m climate tech fund. Alberto Echeverri formerly worked at Siemens Energy and General Electric
• UK-based firm Notion Capital announced its fifth fund at €300m and the promotion of Spaniard Itxaso del Palacio to general partner

Startup news 💡

• Sponsored
  Pleo has put together a free e-book with the main worries of CFOs for 2023, as well as tools and recommendations to face those challenges. You can download it here
• AI startup Clibrain launched LINCE, a Spanish focused LLM. LINCE ZERO will be a 7b parameter open source LLM and there will be a much larger proprietary one
• Ignacio Travesi, co-founder of employee benefits Cobee, said in an interview that the company tripled revenues last year and that its making a bigger push among large companies
• Blablacar disclosed its revenues for the first time ever. The French company did €197m in sales in 2022, up from €130m in 2019. Spain is the second largest market for Blablacar, accounting for 10% of all sales, and 8m users relied on its transportation services last year
• Worldcoin has expanded access to World ID, the privacy-preserving proof of personhood protocol co-founded by Sam Altman, throughout Spain. Following the expansion, Spain now marks the largest operational market in Europe for the project. More info here
• Tech.eu published a profile of Madrid-based design tool Penpot: How Figma competitor Penpot is championing design collaboration and open source tools for cross-functional teams
• Real estate equity crowdfunding company Housers is looking for a new CEO

Big company news 🏦

• US chip manufacturer Broadcom to invest in a $1b EU-funded chip programme in Spain. The project would include the construction of "large-scale back-end semiconductors facilities unique in Europe", the ministry said, adding no location had been picked yet
• Goldman Sachs tripled its stake in Indra, reaching a 6% stake in the Spanish company that plans to double down on its defense business in the short term. Also, Indra could be i nteresting in selling its tech consultancy division Minsait for around €1.5b to €2b
• Mango invested in online identity startup Union Avatars

Interesting reads 🤓

• Last week saw the inaugural meeting of Cleantech for Iberia, an initiative focused on increasing the speed and scale of the deployment of cleantech across Spain and Portugal. My colleague at Kfund Max Bray attended the event and wrote about it here
• From Miami to Madrid: Charting the symbiotic relationship between these two high-growth tech hubs. An article featuring various interviews with some of the entrepreneurs, investors, and community builders that are building bridges between Miami and Madrid
• Miguel García-San Román, former head of sales ops at Bdeo, Ontruck and Geoblink, published "Sales Operations, the unknown Revenue best friend"
• Ignacio Arriaga, co-founder of Acumbamail, wrote "SaaS and open source: opposites or complimentary?"

Podcasts 🎧

• Itnig interviewed Guillermo Alen, founder of life insurance startup Life5
• Kfund interviewed Alejandro Diez, founder of Mexican fund DILA Capital to talk about how they help startups at both sides of the ocean
• Product Hackers interviewed Ramiro Zandrino, founder of Ucademy
• Rivela interviewed Natalia Olson-Urtecho, Director of Government & Institutional Partnerships at Plug and Play