If 11 figures is your threshold of consideration, you is likely to be to know that the mixed enterprise worth (EV) of Spanish startups exceeded €100 billion in 2023, in line with Dealroom’s newest report on the Spanish tech ecosystem. As we are going to see, enterprise capital funding in Spanish startups has additionally held up fairly nicely, with €2.2 billion raised in round 850 funding rounds.
The quantity of Spanish enterprise capital final yr was decrease than in 2021 and 2022; this isn’t stunning, as a result of these years have been distinctive. Not like elsewhere, the nation has not fallen beneath pre-pandemic ranges of exercise. For reference, in 2019 Spanish startups collectively raised €1.9 billion in enterprise capital.
However first, there are a couple of methods to take a look at Spain’s 11-figure EV startup. On the one hand, it places Spain forward of Norway, Italy or Portugal. However, at a complete worth of $191 billion, Cambridge’s tech ecosystem alone is price virtually twice that of Spain. (As we speak 1 greenback is the same as 0.92 euros, please forgive us for lacking the conversion.)
A lot might be mentioned about whether or not Spain is doing sufficient to help entrepreneurship, however for now let’s follow the information and figures.
If time is added as an element, France reached €100 billion in mixed EV startups six years in the past and Germany 9 years in the past. However the worth of Spanish expertise can also be one of many quickest rising in Europe, Dealroom notes in a slide. Give them extra time and possibly some Spanish startups will grow to be decorous and past.
Here is the funnel in line with the report:
With a complete of €2.2 billion in enterprise capital, the 2023 outcomes moved the needle in the correct route, however principally on the prime of the funnel. “Early-stage” investments — pre-seed, seed and Collection A — have been at an all-time excessive final yr, whereas Collection B and Collection C remained robust. Nonetheless, late-stage exercise has been “quiet,” in line with Dealroom, with solely two mega rounds (in veteran knowledge administration platform Denodo, which has lengthy since relocated to the US; and data-driven startup Fever).
The late-stage slowdown is just not distinctive to Spain however, as elsewhere, could also be worrying. Startup exercise is not only a funnel: it also needs to be a circle.
For instance, high-profile scales typically grow to be founder crops; in Spain it occurred with Fever, but in addition with Cabify, job&expertise, Glovo and wallbox. However with out liquidity occasions, it turns into more durable for ex-employees to grow to be angels or begin new firms.
That is additionally needed for enterprise capital, as exits present liquidity that may be re-injected into early-stage offers. With out main mergers and acquisitions and IPOs, there’s at all times the danger that funds will likely be starved of capital for brand spanking new investments.
Spanish enterprise capitalists do not appear fearful; time will take its toll, they consider. Jaime Novaa, a companion at Kfund, commented within the report that he and his colleagues are “very assured that a number of of the businesses presently being funded will scale within the subsequent 5 to 10 years.” He known as it a optimistic signal that early-stage exercise “stays very wholesome.”
Not solely is the early stage fairly lively, however the groups receiving funding are additionally consistent with what Europe would possibly need to see extra of. Many of the enterprise funding of Spanish startups in 2023 was centered on local weather applied sciences, adopted by biotechnology and clear vitality. It is too early to inform what number of of them would possibly grow to be centaurs, however it’s undoubtedly price keeping track of.