🗣 “Their team effectively combined automation and AI to improve our workflows and processes and boost efficiency”

🗣 “The AI assistant delivers quick and precise answers with up-to-date data in this early stage, showing great potential”

These are just some messages we’ve received at zenital about our AI work. Our aim: genuine AI adoption, implemented in projects and flows that make sense and deliver real value.

Dare to imagine a smarter workflow? Let’s talk and make it happen.

Startup funding news 💸

• Almeria-based IKOS, the agtech startup specializing in agricultural input savings and automation through AI, secured €8M from Impact Bridge Asset Management
• QuiverAI, the AI startup founded by Spanish entrepreneur Joan Rodríguez, closed a €7M funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Kfund, JME Ventures, and Mission. The company generates editable vector graphics directly through AI, producing structured SVG code. Joan wrote about the launch and investment here. Yoko of a16z wrote about it here
• Barbara closed a €4.5M funding round led by Aramco Ventures, the investment arm of the Saudi energy giant. The Madrid-founded, Bilbao-based company develops industrial software for AI-powered automation
• Grodi, an Almería-based startup specializing in autonomous robotics and artificial vision for intensive agriculture, raised €2.5M in a round led by Swanlaab
• Apartool, the Barcelona-based corporate accommodation platform, closed a €1.8M funding round led by existing investors including Barlon Capital, Roch Ventures, Telegraph Hill Capital and Finaves, with new investor Endra Capital joining
• Ola Creators, a Valencia-based platform for hiring social media creatives, raised €100k from Angels

M&A activity 🎊

• PJ.LOBSTER closed its nine-year journey with an acquisition by Dutch eyewear brand Ace & Tate. More info on the transaction here and here
• ABE Capital Partners acquired IoT healthcare company Mysphera to strengthen its health tech Mediance platform. Mysphera specializes serves 60+ projects across Spanish hospitals and reaching 290k patients. It closed 2024 with €2.32M revenue and exceeded €3M in 2025, achieving profitability. Mysphera had raised funding from Swanlaab, Sabadell VC, ALIAD, and Wayra

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Inveready and Terram Capital formed an alliance to launch a €200M private debt fund through Terram Inveready Credit Partners. The asset-based vehicle will focus on real estate and infrastructure-backed investments, with Atitlan as an investor and Andbank as co-investor. This expands Inveready’s portfolio beyond VC and PE
• The Agencia Espacial Española (AEE) is preparing to launch a VC program to invest in space sector startups
• Encomenda Seed II received €9.5M from SETT. Encomenda has raised over €30M from private investors and targets 45-50 Spanish tech startups, with final close planned for April 2026.
• Spanish investors active abroad:
• NVIDIA acquired Israeli AI startup illumex, a portfolio company of Cardumen Capital. Cardumen co-led illumex’s $13M seed round in 2024. The price is rumoured to be $60M

Startup news 💡

Startup profiles

• PadelPROShop CEO Dionisio Ugalde built the world’s second-largest padel e-commerce platform, generating over €17M in revenue. It has presence across Latin America, EMEA, and the US
• Profile of Kloutit, the Barcelona-based startup developing AI-powered chargeback management tools for e-commerce. It serves customers such as Wallapop, Cabify, Playtomic, Factorial, and several hotel groups

New startups and product launches

• Multiverse Computing released HyperNova 60B 2602, a free compressed AI model on Hugging Face that’s half the size of OpenAI’s original while maintaining similar accuracy. The Basque startup is reportedly raising €500M at a €1.5B+ valuation and claims €100M ARR
• Pullpo announced it will allow clients to purchase its complete DevEx platform codebase as a one-time purchase. Interesting move from Marco Patiño and team
• Rebolt introduced Holocron, a digital twin platform that creates real-time knowledge graphs connecting people, concepts, actions, and systems within departments
• Bewater Funds launched a private markets fund-of-funds in collaboration with Indexa Capital, targeting €40M. The diversified portfolio allocates 70% to private equity, 20% to private debt, and 10% to infrastructure, with 2.45% annual fees and 11.2% projected net returns

Startup financials

• Softonic is still around. It increased revenues 14.1% to €32.4M in 2025, with EBITDA growing 21.4%
• On-demand salary platform Payflow hired Arcano Partners to explore strategic alternatives including a majority sale. The Spanish fintech expects €10M ARR by 2026 after 55% annual growth and achieved positive EBITDA in 2025. It has raised €26M in equity and €27M in debt from investors
• Subscription-based meal delivery platform Wetaca reported revenue exceeding €20M in 2024, up from €16.2M in 2023. The company now serves over 160,000 subscribers with 40 different homemade, additive-free dishes and expanded to Germany in 2025
• Catalan entrepreneur Maite Barrera joined MyInvestor‘s capital through her family office Redcap in the neobank’s latest €30M funding round. The round valued the Andbank-backed digital bank at €300M. MyInvestor closed last year with €13.8B in business volume and 750k clients, including €3.9B in deposits and €9.3B in investment products.

Big company news 🏦

• Banco Santander expects AI to generate €1B in benefits over three years, helping lower the efficiency ratio from 45.3% to 36%
• Booking, Airbnb, and Uber highlighted Spain as a major regulatory risk in their annual reports amid escalating government tensions. Airbnb faces a €65M fine from Spain’s Consumer Ministry for licensing violations, while Booking confronts a €413M competition penalty and potential hoteliers’ lawsuit. Uber cited Spanish restrictions on ride-sharing and VTC driver requirements as business limitations
• Amadeus dropped 24% this year, becoming the worst performer on the Ibex as AI concerns impact travel booking platforms. Precisely last week, Amadeus announced the acquisition of New York-based AI travel technology company SkyLink to accelerate AI deployment across the travel sector
• eDreams multiplied its net profit by 10 to €40.3M in the first three quarters, with shares surging over 20%. The online travel agency expects €172.9M adjusted EBITDA by March and 7.9M Prime subscribers
• This is a joke. I don’t think anyone really understands that Aesia does… Aesia, Spain’s EU-first AI supervision agency, announced the creation of a think tank to analyze AI’s societal and economic impacts
• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was in Madrid last week, where he praised Spain as a leader in AI adoption (I wonder what data they have to claim that, maybe none?). Nadella noted 2.5M Spanish developers on GitHub with 22% annual growth and reaffirmed Microsoft’s $10B investment in Aragón data centers

Podcasts 🎧

• Sponsored
  TODO sponsored (#TODO) news list element
• TODO news (#TODO) list element
• TODO news list (#TODO) element 2