Alrededor del 44% de las startups y PYMES que fracasan lo hacen como resultado de un pésimo control financiero. En 2024, esta situación es probable que empeore. De hecho, se ha reducido la inversión un 80% en 2023 respecto al año anterior.

En lean finance, nos encargamos de aliviar este pain. Así lo hemos hecho con nuestros casos de éxito, y así queremos seguir haciéndolo.

Con un CFO externo en tu equipo, tendrás la solución más adecuada para tus necesidades financieras. Un CFO experto, respaldado por un equipo detrás, y control financiero a tiempo real.

¿Hablamos ?

Startup funding news 💸

• Madrid and Galicia-based electric vehicle manufacturer Velca raised €5.3m from multiple investors. The round comprises a capital increase of €3.5m, a participatory loan from Enisa of €600k, and bank financing of €1.2m
• Barcelona-based biotech MiMARK raised €4.2m
• Valencia-based edtech and travel startup GrowPro raised €1.5m led by us at Kfund
• Madrid-based Gataca raised €1.3m for its decentralised identity solutions, led by Signature Ventures
• Other rounds of funding: toddl,

M&A activity 🎊

• Proptech Housfy acquired Finques Feliu to strengthen its "administrador de fincas" division. This acquisition is part of Housfy's strategy to expand its portfolio, targeting 1k property communities in Barcelona by the end of 2023. The company expects to close 2023 with €40m in sales
• Quatre Lab, a Basque company specializing in Quality Control services for advanced therapies and backed by Columbus Venture Partners, acquired the Swedish company Vironova BioAnalytics
• Stickets acquired the assets of Camaloon, which entered bankruptcy proceedings last year

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Grupo Catalana Occidente launched GCO Ventures, a new corporate venturing entity focused on long-term growth through the development and launch of new businesses. GCO will invest in both startups and VC firms as an LP
• Abatable, a London-based carbon procurement and market intelligence tech firm, secured $13.5m in funding from Azora Capital and fully acquired a nature-based carbon credits provider, Ecosphere+. Azora also announced last week that it participated in the €100m round of French energy startup mylight150
• Cardumen participated in the $7.2m round of Israeli startup Munch. Munch was already a portfolio company of Cardumen
• Mango invested in Spanish 3D printing startup Ziknes

Startup news 💡

• Sponsored
  As an early stage startup, you might not need a full time CFO. However, having control of your financials and internal operations is key. If you don't want to hire a full time CFO yet, take a look at Lean Finance and their external CFO services.
• Ecommerce company Tradeinn did €47m in sales during the week of Black Friday, up 27% YoY. The company could reach €500m in sales this year
• Travel startup Destinia said that it anticipates closing 2023 with record sales and profits, targeting revenues of at least €250m next year. The company is open to expanding through M&A, including buying competitors, integrating with rivals, and potentially opening its capital to new shareholders
• Proptech startup Prophero expects to close 2023 with €10m in revenue, 2X YoY. The company, which mediates between home owners and investors for rental properties, has expanded its operations to Indonesia, adding to its presence in Australia and Spain. Prophero's co-founder, Gil, projects a revenue of €25m by 2024 and anticipates a positive operating result (EBITDA) in the first quarter of 2024
• Profile of Chema Molina, co-founder of magnetics startup Frenetic. The company has developed an algorithm that significantly accelerates the design process of magnetic components in devices like chargers, reducing it from months to hours. It recently raised $12m, led by Kibo Ventures. The company will open an office in San Francisco to target a wide range of sectors like automotive, renewable energy, and space technology
• Satellite technology startup Open Cosmos has accelerated its operations, launching seven satellites and having fourteen more in production. This surge follows a recent funding round of $50m. The company designs, manufactures, and operates microwave-sized satellites for Earth data collection, with plans to launch additional satellites through early 2025​
• In the context of Redsys' recent issues, here's an interesting post by Devengo on its "smart payment retry system, and why we built it". The system "works to increase the payment deliverability of our customers"
• Profile of Fintech startup Coinscrap, which specializes in using AI to help banks like Santander, Bankinter, and EVO Banco analyze millions of transactional data. Having raised €3.6m, Coinscrap operates in Spain, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, and is built on a B2B fintech model​
• The EIC fund has approved €1b to Deeptech VC investments. Expand to Spain put together a list of 15 deeptech startups in Spain worth keeping an eye on

New products and new startups 🆕

• Voicemod announced a new set of features that make it easy for users to create and share their own bespoke AI voices from scratch
• Tinybird expanded self-service real-time analytics to AWS. This means that the company's self-service customers can select AWS as their deployment environment when creating a new Tinybird Workspace
• Signing IP agreements with leading global companies is not an easy task. Freepik announced last week an agreement with Disney so that some of its assets are available to designers and users of its platform
• Daniel Peris, co-founder and CEO of Pickaso, launched a new tool, INDEXED.pro, on Product Hunt. The tool "helps indie hackers, startups, niche site owners and SEOs to have website URL indexing under control on autopilot"
• Bayteca, a new proptech startup and a new entrant in Spain's mortgage brokerage market, has launched as an independent unit of Mortgage Direct, focusing on Spanish residents. It has established partnerships with over 15 financial entities, including Banco Santander and Banco Sabadell​

Big company news 🏦

• Google's new safety engineering centre, one of only three in the world, opened in Malaga. Video here and more info here. El Pais wrote a nice profile of VirusTotal and its six original engineers
• The crisis at crypto platform Binance is threatening the investments of Spanish clients, amounting to €183m. Binance Spain's accounts for 2022 show client deposits totaling €183m, considered liquid assets due to their immediate availability
• Telefonica to do an ERE that could affect as many as 2,500 to 3,000 employees
• Estrella Galicia is developing an internal platform to enhance its AI capabilities, aiming to revolutionize its production and distribution channels. The platform, expected to be operational by mid-next year, is part of the company's broader open innovation strategy, including initiatives like a marketplace for artisans
• According to the 2023 edition of Just Eat's Gastometro, food and grocery delivery in Spain has become a €6.8b a year business. Full report here

Interesting reads 🤓

• Barcelona's video game industry is rapidly growing, expected to generate €911m in 2023, with a focus on inclusivity and innovative projects like Barça Games. The sector is attracting global attention, emphasizing both entertainment and educational content
• Sergio García, Product Manager at Inditex, wrote "Haz productos que emocionen"
• Ignacio Arriaga (Acumbamail) wrote a thread about the importance of cashflows and a post on the same topic here
• Carlos Beneyto, Head of Product at Inmovilla - idealista, wrote "Creando un “MVP”, de 0 a 1 sin humo"

Podcasts 🎧

• Product Hackers interviewed Ramon Blanco, co-founder of Indexa Capital, to chat about the company's recent IPO
• Kfund interviewed Toni de la Fuente, co-founder of Prowler
• Outliers interviewed Alejandro Artacho, co-founder of Spotahome
• Itnig interviewed Oier Oier Urrutia, co-founder and CEO of Lookiero
• SeedRocket interviewed the two founders of AI assistant LuzIA