The biggest event in the history of Google Cloud Spain is about to kick off.

Google Cloud Spain's most significant event is imminent. This year, it features a dedicated area for Spanish startups, hosted by Telefónica, to network with top companies, investors, and founders, alongside expert-led technical and business sessions designed to enhance your startup with Google Cloud solutions.

Have questions? The Google Cloud engineering team will provide instant answers in the Ask The Expert zone, and live demos will showcase the latest technologies. The event concludes with an after-party featuring DJ Diego Aguas.

Javier Pérez, Digital Natives Manager for Google Cloud Iberia, is clear: "This is, without a doubt, the cloud event of the year. We encourage all entrepreneurs, developers and technical experts to join us to be part of the biggest Google Cloud Summit ever seen in Spain. We will discover together the new solutions and challenges in AI, Data, Sustainability, Security and Innovation".

Don't miss out on this technological milestone. Register for the Google Cloud Summit ‘24 Madrid on May 23 at Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano.

Startup funding news 💸

• El Mundo published “El atlas de la startup española: cada vez más arriba, pero aún muy abajo”. An article that looks at the evolution of the Spanish startup ecosystem using VC funding as a proxy
• Elche-based spacetech company PLD Space announced new funding last week. I’m entirely not sure if it’s new funding or a press release about the funding raised by the company to date. This article implies that since Jan 2024 it has raised an additional €120m, but in the Spanish press it appears as if the announcement is that it has raised €120m to date
• RevenueCat, the US company co-founded by Spaniard Miguel Carranza, announced a $12m Series C round led by existing investor Adjacent. RevenueCat has a relevant amount of employees in Spain too (18 out of 87, according to LinkedIn). The company recently crossed $20m in ARR
• Barcelona-based Mapsi, a startup in the photonics space, raised funding from Bullnet. The amount of the round was not disclosed
• Other rounds of funding:
• Skull Barber Shop: €450k
• g2-Zero: €315k, semis & quantum
• Nuela: €300k, shift management
• Domoblock: €250k, real estate

M&A activity 🎊

• French fintech company Powens has successfully acquired the Spanish fintech company Unnax. The acquisition was backed by PSG. The deal was announced in March of 2023, but it had to receive the approval of Spanish regulators. At the time, the price of the transaction that was mentioned was around €40m
• Galician technology company Plexus Tech acquired a majority stake in Coruña-based Nomasystems, specialized in mobile development. Plexus Tech closed 2023 with a turnover of €185m and recently raised funding from PE firm Portobello. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Nomasystems closed last year with around €10m in sales

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• According to El Español, Seaya and Mundi Ventures are the favorites to secure the mandate of the European Investment Bank (EIB) to create a €1b growth fund in Spain. The EIB is likely to commit an investment of between €300 and €500 million. Seaya recently sold part of its management company to Banco Santander
• Kibo Ventures’ PE fund Nzyme, backed by Oliver Wyman, announced a new closing of its fund, at €60m. Target size is €200m
• Inveready launched the Inveready Convertible Tech Notes I, a fund aiming to raise up to €40m. This fund will primarily invest in convertible loans to high-growth Iberian tech startups
• We at Kfund participated in Wakeup Spain two weeks ago, the event put together by El Español. Here’s an article and full video interview of Iñaki Arrola, chatting about the history of Kfund and the current state of the Spanish tech and investing market
• Antai Ventures Management is set to take over the management of Extension Fund from Riva y García. This move follows Antai's creation of its own fund management company (gestora)
• Nauta’s Finnish portfolio company HappySignals raised €12m, including Nauta’s participation in the round
• AEBAN presented its VIII annual report on the activity of Business Angels in Spain in 2023
• Julio Lluch Moral of Aktion Legal, published an analysis of the Spanish Ley de Startups one year after its implementation. It’s a paid article

Startup news 💡

• BusUp, a Catalan mobility management provider, projects to grow from €30m in revenues in 2023 to €100m by 2026. The company also launched an AI tool named Brainer. Brainer leverages ML to anticipate service quality issues, enabling proactive management of routes and schedules
• Holaluz is negotiating a financing of €21m to improve its liquidity. The energy company plans to sign loans with ICF, Avançsa, and several Catalan family offices this week. More info here
• Delivery Hero, the owner of Glovo, has committed to defending the status of its delivery riders as independent contractors in Spain, despite facing potential fines up to €430 million for non-compliance with local labor laws and also despite the fact that the model could threaten the company’s viability. The company anticipates Glovo will become profitable by the end of this year as it continues to grow above the sector average and reduce operational losses significantly in the first quarter of 2024
• Real estate crowdfunding platform Urbanitae is expanding its operations in France and Portugal, with plans to enter the Italian market soon. The company aims to acquire small platforms in France and leverage their know-how to penetrate the market. In Portugal, Urbanitae raised €1m in less than 20 seconds for a tourism complex project
• Eduardo Manchon, CEO of Mailtrack, wrote a post explaining the move from Mailtrack to Mailsuite: “a suite of advanced features for initiating, cultivating, and sustaining valuable connections through email. The beauty of it all? You won’t have to abandon your usual email routine or change the way you work. Simply use email as you always have”
• Cabify Spain has been awarded a total of €1.8m in grants from the MOVES Flotas program for its electrification plans
• New startups and talent moves:
• Guillem Sague, formerly of Nauta Capital, announced the beta launch of its first agent within CarriedAI. The company aims to build the “The Operating System for AI Investing”. The first agent is specialized in due diligence tasks
• Tecnalia and Branka have created a startup called Solarcraft to provide photovoltaic cells to "perpetual" aircraft manufacturers
• Javier Megias is returning to the entrepreneurial side as the Director of Europe & COO at Frenetic, a deeptech company focused on the design and manufacturing of magnetic components. Megias was previously at Plug and Play and before that co-founded Startupxplore
• Company profiles:
• Multiverse: quantum
• Overview of the location intelligence space and main Spanish companies

Big company news 🏦

• Indra is set to sell a majority stake in its technology subsidiary, Minsait, with a minimum valuation of €1.5b. The company's board has initiated a process to select investment banks
• Gaming giant EA has opened a new office in Madrid, which will house 600 workers
• Renault announced a plan to establish a new technology hub in Madrid, focusing on software development for its vehicles.
• Microsoft is negotiating an agreement with Hacienda to resolve a tax dispute in Spain for a total of over €21.5m. The conflict relates to Corporate Tax and transfer pricing
• Bizum is seeking partners to expand beyond Spain and become a pan-European player in payments

Interesting reads 🤓

• Nextscenario published the 2024 edition of its 2024 Saas Benchmark Report
• Javier Escribano published “¿Por qué entregamos software sin calidad?“
• Mariano Amartino, now at Microsoft but previously Global Director of Wayra, published “Seven Rings: lessons learned from seven years at Microsoft“
• Simon Muñoz (Voicemod) published “Por qué todo se va a joder según la segunda Ley de la Termodinámica: Sobre cómo la complejidad tiende a aumentar en un sistema, y cómo eso puede matar a tu producto o empresa”

Podcasts 🎧

• Kfund published an interview with Ignasi Vengas, co-founder of Mexican startup Cubbo
• SeedRocket interviewed Mario Pardo, socio at Carlyle
• Historias de Crecimiento interviewed Albert Duaigües, co-founder of Raw Data
• Product Hackers interviewed Fede Sainz and Verónica Olivares, CEO and CMO of Sepiia
• Dani Diestre interviewed Diego Chico de Guzmán, CEO of Thiga España