¡Premios EmprendeXXI, 18 años impulsando el potencial infinito!

Iniciativa impulsada por CaixaBank y ENISA en España, que en esta edición lo celebramos por todo lo alto, repartiendo 8000.000€ en premios, acompañamiento y visibilidad, para aquellos que, paso a paso, están cambiando el mundo. Los Premios EmprendeXXI te impulsan a desarrollar tu potencial infinito. Conecta con líderes del ecosistema emprendedor y accede a herramientas clave para que tu empresa crezca y evolucione sin límites.

Si tu startup es una de las ganadoras, disfrutarás de premios en metálico, visibilidad y acceso a formación internacional en hubs de innovación como el MIT en Boston. Además, tendrás la oportunidad de colaborar con el Grupo CaixaBank, acercando el ecosistema emprendedor a sus principales áreas de negocio.

¡Esta es tu oportunidad para empezar el camino hacia un crecimiento sin límites!

Startup funding news 💸

• Barcelona-based Holaluz has raised €22M through a capital increase, introducing Icosium Investment as a strategic partner and easing the stressful financial situation the company was in. The investment will occur in two phases, with an initial €6.48M for 14.12% equity and board representation, and an additional €15.52M convertible loan that would increase Icosium's stake to 33.43%. Carlota Pi, CEO, wrote about the deal here, and so did Elena Gomez Pozuelo here
• Sevilla-based Catalyxx, a green chemistry startup, has secured a €5.3M Series A round led by Aether Chemical Investments. Catalyxx’s tech converts bioethanol into sustainable, high-value chemicals like n-butanol and octanol
• Barcelona-based Acai Travel has raised €3.7M in a seed round led by Nauta Capital, with contributions from DraperB1 and One Travel Ventures. Acai Travel leverages AI to streamline travel operations
• Barcelona-based BCN3D, a 3D printing equipment manufacturer, has raised over €3M from Spanish industrial investors to support its growth and relocate its plant from Gavà (Barcelona) to Lleida. In 2023, BCN3D reported €4.4M in revenue, marking a 25% drop from the previous year
• Madrid-based Webel, a home services marketplace, has raised €1.4M to fuel its international expansion. Backers include Goodwater Capital and Decelera Ventures
• Chinese gaming giant Lilith Games has entered the Spanish market by investing in Barcelona-based game studio XRON, founded in 2020. Lilith plans to expand XRON’s team to develop multiplatform and PC games. XRON, currently developing the RPG Ars Notoria, was previously supported by the startup accelerator Lanzadera
• Other rounds of funding:
• Aridditive: €500k (BeAble Capital), 3D concrete printing tech

M&A activity 🎊

• BeSoccer, a Malaga-based developer of live football score applications, has been acquired by Czech media company LiveSport. The transaction, valued in the tens of millions of euros according to various publications, includes BeSoccer, Resultados de Fútbol, and BeSoccer Pro. BeSoccer, a boostrapped company, boasts 25 million unique monthly users and over 100 million app downloads. Founder and CEO Manu Heredia will step down from management but remain as an advisor. More details here
• PromptHero was acquired by Eleven Yellow, the company behind Botto Project: “Together with @rameerez, we launched just 7 days after Stable Diffusion dropped, and within months we were hitting +2M monthly visits. Our model Openjourney became the 2nd most downloaded on HuggingFace (right after Stable diffusion itself). We grew one of the most relevant Generative AI communities out there, with nearly 1,000 new users joining daily. And all of this with a team of two!”
• Indra has acquired 100% of the UK-based companies Micro Nav and Global ATS from the Quadrant Group to bolster its air traffic management (ATM) division

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Portuguese VC firm Faber has launched a €60M fund, Faber Tech III, aimed at supporting advanced technology startups in Spain and Portugal. The fund targets sectors like AI, robotics, biochemistry, and computational chemistry. Faber has previously invested in Spanish startups such as Mitiga Solutions and Poseidona
• Norrsken celebrated a year in Barcelona and said that it’s planning to create a fund to invest in impact-driven startups in the city. The foundation has already backed local startups like Submer and BeChained and aims to further support projects focused on climate and health
• Lanai Ventures said that has expanded its LP base to over 50 entrepreneurs, including founders from Shakers, Atrapalo, Amenitiz and Cobee

Startup news 💡

• Product and company launches:
• Listy, an app that helps users save everything you love, launched on PH and other sites. Co-founder Ismael Canal wrote about the launch here, with relevant metrics and insights for other founders that might be considering launching on PH
• Sergio Perdices and Santi Ortega, two Spaniards based in San Francisco who had previously spent 10 years at Samsung Research, announced the launch of Whyser, a product that allows companies to “conduct human-like voice interviews and uncover continuous insights effortlessly”
• Supercut, the new company from David Okuniev and other former Typeform people, showed the first demo of its product here. Beta available soon
• TravelPerk has surpassed €200M in annualized revenue as of November 2024. The company plans to continue its growth trajectory by exploring further acquisitions, building on the five it has completed to date. The US market currently accounts for 20-25% of its business, with ambitions to increase this share to 50% within the next five years
• Electric vehicle charger company Wallbox reported €126M in revenue through September 2024, marking a 26% increase from the previous year, mainly driven by strong North American performance. Despite this growth, the company posted an €82.5M operating loss, continuing its cost-cutting strategy initiated after layoffs earlier in the year. Meanwhile, Beatriz González, founder of Seaya Ventures, has been appointed as non-executive chair following Carl Anders Wilhelm Pettersson's resignation. Wallbox’s stock price is down by 94% from its peak in 2021 and the company currently has a market cap of $225M
• Crescenta, a platform that allows retail and institutional investors to invest in top PE/VC firms, has launched its third PE fund, Crescenta Private Equity Growth Top Performers II, with a target size of €30M. The fund, accessible to both retail and professional investors, starts at a minimum investment of €10,000. More info available here
• Higini Cierco, former owner of Banca Privada de Andorra, has invested in We Are Knitters, a digital knitting supplies company facing financial challenges. The new funding is expected to stabilize WAK, which has been restructuring its liabilities with bank support to sustain operations
• EU-Startups put together a list of 10 Madrid-based startups to follow: “The new face of Madrid: 10 startups defining the city’s entrepreneurial spirit”

Big company news 🏦

• Amazon appointed Ruth Díaz, previously head of the fashion division for Europe, as the new CEO for Spain. This change follows Mariangela Marseglia's promotion to Vice President overseeing all European stores. Díaz, who joined Amazon in 2010 through the acquisition of BuyVIP, will continue to lead the European fashion sector alongside her new responsibilities. In 2023, Amazon reported gross sales of €7.1 billion in Spain, marking an 11% increase from the previous year
• Mango to start using AI-generated avatars to replace some human fashion models in advertising, allowing for quicker content creation
• Aermont Capital is close to acquiring Nabiax, Telefónica's data center operator, valued at around €1 billion. Nabiax, 80% owned by Asterion Industrial Partners, operates data centers in Spain primarily for Telefónica, with clients like Microsoft and Google. Aermont’s offer surpasses bids from Goldman Sachs and Igneo Infrastructure Partners

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Interesting reads 🤓

• Diego Recondo (Acurio Ventures) published part 3 of his series on “raising a VC fund successfully in the current tough market: lessons learned and insights“
• David Bonilla wrote “Una simple pregunta”: “¿Creemos que la publicidad de nuestra justicia debería primar siempre sobre la incomodidad que puede suponer para los jueces el escrutinio constante de su trabajo?”