Iberian Startup Scene | May 2021

I am a VC at Armilar. In my free time, I write startup-related topics, including this newsletter (Yes, I agree, I am boring!). Content, opinions, and typos are my own!

Feedback is welcome.

• I have the feeling that over the past months, valuations have been going up and the time to close the round has been going down. I have been having this conversation with other investors and it seems I am not alone. I did a quick analysis to understand how much valuations have been going up vs. last year. Below the output of my analysis (FYI I only analyzed Portugal, as I only started to track data for Spain this year)
  • Pre-seed and seed are up by 50-75%
  • Series A seems to be aligned with the previous year. While Series A year-to-date data goes against my initial hypothesis, I believe that until the end of the year average and median will increase (FYI there were only 5 Series A rounds announced in Portugal in 2021). Time will tell if I am right…
  • Marketing has been playing a role as well. In 2021, a large number of companies have been (re-)branding rounds as “Seed” when in the past they would have called it a Series A – 27% of Seed rounds in 2021 had >25 employees at the announcement vs. 20% in 2020. These startups have raised on average €3.2M
  • In any case, if you look by amount raised, startups have a much lower number of employees for the same level of the amount raised in 2020 – meaning they have been raising earlier
  • Still, Iberian Seed rounds are not too far vs. the European average (€1.5M in Europe), but Series A rounds are still smaller (€11M in Europe) – Iberia is an attractive place to invest!

(As a consequence of this, I am overloaded with multiple deals which are closing soon and took longer to write this month’s newsletter… great weather has also increased the opportunity cost to write this newsletter…)

• During the past month, Portuguese and Spanish startups have raised over €130M on 72 deals. This was the most active month in 2021, in terms of the number of deals. The main driver was the announcement of 35 new investments realized in the last months by Think Bigger Capital
• Flywire successfully did an IPO, valuing Flywire at $3.4Bn – now there are 5 unicorns in Spain
• New funds in town
  • Ysios Capital launched a €216M fund to support Biotech startups
  • Alantra launched a fund for technology startups
  • Zubi Labs launched a €40M impact venture debt fund
  • Bit2Me launched a Crypto and Blockchain fund
• Institut Català de Finances is looking for VCs to manage a Technology Transfer Fund (Deep Tech Discovery Funds) with up to €80M
• Open opportunities in VC
  • Investment Analyst | Invivo Capital Partners
  • Investment Specialist | Bright Pixel
  • Investment Specialist | Sonae IM
  • Associate Southern Europe | Samaipata
  • Head of Platform | Samaipata
  • Head of Marketing & Growth | Samaipata
  • Investment Analyst Internship | Adara Ventures
  • For additional job opportunities check the MNA Teaser job board

• Who’s who: a list of active business angels, seed and Series A VC firms in Spain by K Fund
• Spain’s most active angel investors in 2021
• Looking at the Spanish tech ecosystem from an international perspective in 2021 by Creandum
• Portugal’s best under-the-radar startups, according to investors
• 8 investors and founders highlight Valencia’s potential as a fintech and cybersecurity hub
• Analysis of the Barcelona & Catalonia Startup Hub, 2020
• Iberian fintech report by Bynd
• Open source is eating Europe by Nauta Capital
• Cheat sheet #3: Key Metrics to track for B2B SaaS platforms by Samaipata
• Female VC Partners
• Why Institutional Investors Should Double Down on VC
• The future of Marketplaces by dealroom
• The Fundraising Field Guide Book v2

Click here for additional resources, including

• Term-sheets
• Investors information
• Startup fundraising data

Portugal

Spain

Iberian investors, investing abroad

• June 2: ESA Business Application Calls deadline
• June 3: Wannaseed
• June 10: Silicon Valley-Spain Venture Summit 2021 application deadline
• June 15-16: Cyber investors day
• June 16-18: Launch in Lisbon
• June 21: Lanzadera
• June 25: Entrepreneurship Talks – Unicórnios em Portugal: The Billion Dollar question
• June 25: Portugal Finlab application deadline
• June 27: Portugal Ventures Deep tech Call application deadline
• June 28: Mobile World Congress and 4YFN
• June 30: Indico Pre-Seed Accelerator powered by Google
• June 30: B-Venture application deadline
• June 30: Startup Olé Salamanca application deadline
• July 2: Portugal Ventures Open day
• July 8: Ayudas Neotec 2021
• July 11: S2B Tech for Climate application deadline
• July 11: S2B Health&Care application deadline
• July 12: Cuatrecasas Acelera application deadline
• July 12: Cuatrecasas Fast Track application deadline
• July 14: Scale4Impact application deadline
• July 26: BlueBioValue Acceleration application deadline
• July 26: BlueBioValue Ideation application deadline
• July 30: ABANCA Innova application deadline
• August 31: Farol application deadline
• September 17: Demium Madrid, Malaga, Barcelona, Valencia & Lisboa application deadline
• September 19: Portugal Virtual 2021
• October 8: Portugal Ventures Call Fostering Innovation in Tourism
• November 2: ESA Business Application Calls deadline
• Open: Wayra Blockchain Activation Programme application
• Always open: Made of Lisboa perks – Lisbon Growth program; Startup Lisboa incubation; CTT 1520 startup program; Gohub; Ufounders; Lanzadera Decks and Docks

Country | Startup | Type of transaction | Value of the transaction

• ES | Flywire | IPO | $3.4Bn
• PT | Abyssal | M&A | Unknown

Activity report

See also

• Iberian Startup Scene | Q4 2022
• Iberian Startup Scene | November 2022
• Iberian Startup Scene | Q3 2022
• Iberian Startup Scene | Q2 2022
• Iberian Startup Scene | May 2022