Pallete forced out. Filmin for sale. Spaniards in YC.
January 20, 2025 • Issue #450
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Startup funding news 💸
- H2SITE, a Bilbao-based company specializing in on-site hydrogen production, has secured a €36M Series B funding round led by Suma Capital’s SC Net Zero Ventures
- Barcelona-based Genesy secured €5M in a funding round led by Samaipata, with significant participation from Kfund and Itnig. Genesy specializes in AI agents designed to automate the prospecting process for sales teams. We wrote about the investment here. Prior to this round we had already invested in Genesy’s pre-seed round
- Barcelona-based startup Brickken, specializing in the tokenization of real-world assets, has secured a $2.5M funding round, valuing the company at approximately $22.5M. Since launching its digital assets platform in March 2023, Brickken has tokenized over $250M in assets across 14 countries
- → Other rounds of funding:
- The Camp Brands: €500k, sustainable growth & increase brand equity
- Caleida: €500k, AI-driven marketing and sales solutions
- Peimi: €415k, SaaS for sales compensation plans
- Lizcore: €400k, digital solutions for indoor climbing
M&A activity 🎊
- Filmin, the Spanish streaming platform renowned for its curated selection of auteur and independent films, is reportedly up for sale. Nazca owns 84% of Filmin, alongside Seaya Ventures (28%) and the founders (16%). Filmin, with 15,000 titles and €22.6M in 2023 revenue, has a market share of 5%-10% in Spain. The sale is expected to value the company at €40M-€50M. Carlos Otto has more details here
- Hotelbeds, now renamed HBX, confirmed its intention to go public, aiming to raise at least €725M through a primary offering of new shares. An additional secondary offering, primarily from selling shareholders (Cinven, CPPIB, EQT), is anticipated, potentially adding €500M. The IPO, set for February, seeks a €5B valuation
- Spanish biotech Veritas Genetics, part of U.S.-based LetsGetChecked (LGC), has acquired NIMGenetics, a Spanish leader in clinical diagnostics and advanced genetic panels
Investor & accelerator news 🚀
- → Spanish investors active abroad:
- Mundi Ventures co-led a $10M round in Brazilian health tech company Sami. Mundi also invested again in Ole Life, which closed a $13M Series B led by PayPal Ventures
- Acurio Ventures led a €6.6M round in UK startup Intelex Vision, a company specializing in AI-based video analysis for real-time surveillance. Adara Ventures, and Inveready also participated in the deal. Adara had first invested in the company in 2021
- Profile of BeAble Capital, a Madrid-based investment firm specializing in “science equity,” that manages €85M across two funds
- Corporate venture builder Byld concluded 2024 with the creation of 12 ventures, a 3.7-fold increase in revenue, and a tripling of its portfolio value compared to the previous year. Throughout the year, Byld developed 22 projects across key sectors including real estate, logistics, insurance, health
Startup news 💡
- Elevate has helped Holded and Bankflip scale. The company promises than in just 90 days it will increase delivery times and make things more predictable, so that you can maintain speed as you grow. Check them out here.
- → New startups
- Two new companies co-founded by Spaniards have joined Y Combinator’s last batch:
- Pablo Bermudez-Canete with Paratus Health. Post here
- Celia Manzano and Javier Sánchez with Tieki. Post here
- Daniel Solis, former founder of cybersecurity company Blueliv (acquired by Outpost), shared that he’s building a new cybersec company: Zynap. A company that “leverages a cutting-edge AI platform to outsmart cybercrime and protect businesses and critical infrastructure worldwide”
- Tradeinn, the online retailer specializing in sports equipment, achieved a 12% increase in revenue in 2024, reaching €550 million. This growth follows a 15% increase in 2023, when the company reported €500 million in revenue. Despite a 5% decline in sales outside Europe due to increased transportation costs, Tradeinn maintained a profit margin of 10% of its revenue
- Bosco Gonzalez, co-founder and CEO of Bcas, published a recap of 2024. Bcas offers a “Study Now, Pay Later” model to finance educational courses. 2x YoY growth, deployed over €13M to fund the education of more than 2,200 students since launching
- Benoit Menardo, CEO of salary advancement fintech Payflow, shared his 3 learnings in 2024 across 3 key areas: Margins, AI and ARR ($5.4M in ARR)
- Barkibu, the Spanish pet health insurance provider, has expanded its services to Portugal and Italy
- FOSSA Systems, an aerospace startup, successfully launched its new generation of nanosatellites on January 14, 2025 from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. The three FOSSASats were deployed aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket during the Transporter-12 mission. These satellites, developed and manufactured entirely in Madrid
- Fuvex, a drone technology startup, has secured a major contract with Naturgy’s UFD to inspect 40,000 km of high- and medium-voltage power lines until 2026
- AI Customer support automation company Rauda said that its agents have managed 194,000 customer support tickets in the last month of December
- The Tutellus Mafia: 20 companies that have emerged from former employees of the crypto startup
- Revolut plans significant investments in Spain after surpassing 4M clients in the country, with 500k added in 2024. Co-founder Vlad Yatsenko highlights future expansions including credit products, mortgages, and 50 card-dispensing ATMs in Madrid and Barcelona
Big company news 🏦
- Jose María Alvarez Pallete, CEO of Telefonica, was forced out on Friday by the government. Here’s Pallete’s goodbye letter. He will be replaced by Marc Murtra, CEO of Indra. Angel Escribano will replace Murtra as CEO at Indra (he’s the largest shareholder). A lot has been written about the change in the past couple of days, the article I’ve enjoyed the most is this one by Jesus Cacho: “Pedro se cepilla a Pallete ”
- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Spanish scientist Darío Gil as Undersecretary of Science and Innovation in the Department of Energy. Gil, a MIT PhD and former head of IBM Research, is recognized for his expertise in emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing
- Rovio Entertainment, the Finnish developer behind the popular mobile game franchise Angry Birds, has established its Southern European headquarters in Barcelona’s iconic Torre Glòries
- The Junta de Extremadura and Merlin Properties have partnered to develop two large-scale data center campuses focused on generative AI and advanced computing
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Interesting reads 🤓
- Techcrunch published “How Barcelona became an unlikely hub for spyware startups“. The article focuses on how Barcelona has become an unexpected hub for spyware startups, attracting companies specializing in surveillance technologies. Factors contributing to this trend include the city’s lifestyle, lower cost of living, favorable tax policies, and a more flexible regulatory environment compared to countries like Israel, where export controls on surveillance technology have tightened. Notable companies operating in Barcelona’s spyware scene include Palm Beach Networks, Paradigm Shift, and Epsilon
- Spain Neurotech, led by renowned neuroscientists Rafael Yuste, José Carmena, and Álvaro Pascual-Leone, is an interesting initiative in Spain aiming to advance neurotechnology for medical, scientific, and entrepreneurial purposes. Backed by €200M from EU recovery funds and regional and national governments, the project will focus on ethical AI applications, clinical advancements, and fostering a neurotech ecosystem. It is set to begin operations in 2026
- Julio Martinez (Abacum) published “The 10x Finance Leader: Actually Being a “Strategic CFO”“
- Nacho Gómez García (Sngular) published “Un proyecto del que merece la pena hablar”. UBIK is an internal tool designed to map the company’s structure, emphasizing skills as its central pillar
- Jochen Doppelhammer (Maisa) wrote “The Fatal Flaw in Current AI: Why More Data, More Compute, not even Inference-time scaling, Won't Fix It“
- Javier Escribano published “¿Qué pueden enseñarnos un free tour, una audioguía y una churrería sobre diseño de producto?“
- Ignacio Arriaga published “Cómo crear contenido que no sea una mierda”
- Tomas Moreno Cebrian published “CES 2025 insights”