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Investment in Spanish startups remained robust in 2018, with €417 million invested across over 500 deals. Major funding rounds included Glovo’s €115 million and OnTruck’s €25 million raises, highlighting strong international investor interest, which accounted for over half of the total investment (€235 million). Despite a reported 22% drop from 2017, this decrease is attributed to the exclusion of a large 2017 deal (Cabify’s $160 million round) and provisional year-end data, suggesting overall investment levels remain healthy. Notably, many Spanish startups are headquartered abroad, such as Letgo in New York, which complicates tracking investments solely within Spain and means actual investment figures may be significantly higher, with estimates surpassing $1.8 billion for the year.
International venture capital funds led 84 deals in 2018, representing 16.4% of total operations, and contributed 77% of venture capital volume when combined with private equity. National managers like Seaya Ventures and Inveready also actively raised significant funds to support growing sectors such as biotech. The broader venture capital market in Spain saw record investment levels in 2018, reaching €5.8 billion, driven by large deals and a booming IT sector, which accounted for nearly half of all venture capital investments. Madrid and Barcelona emerged as leading European tech hubs, supported by a growing developer workforce, underscoring Spain’s expanding technological potential.
Spanish startups received an investment of 417 million euros in 2018 with a growing role of international investors.
Investment in startups is still in full swing in Spain with €417 million invested in more than 500 operations in 2018. Funding rounds such as Glovo, which raised €115 million in the summer, or OnTruck, which raised €25 million a few months earlier, have marked the dynamics of a year in which international investors continue to gain prominence among Spanish startups.
Of the 417 million euros invested in the country’s startups, international funds contributed more than half: 235 million. The rest came from national managers, both private (171 million) and public (11 million). When comparing the venture capital investment data with 2017, there is a drop of 22%, according to provisional data from the Spanish Association of Capital, Growth and Investment (ASCRI).
But don’t panic. The organization assures that this decrease is due to two reasons. Firstly, Cabify’s million-dollar round of financing (which received an injection of 160 million dollars in January) is not included because it was accounted for in 2017. Secondly, the data are provisional because they do not include year-end operations, which are likely to exceed 417 million euros.
It should be borne in mind that ASCRI data only measure the pulse of venture capital fund activity, so the operations of the country’s business angels are not recorded. On the other hand, the organization relies on data from the European EDC platform to account for investment in startups in Spain.
What’s the matter? That as the headquarters of several startups in the country are located in the United States or the United Kingdom, among others, the European platform does not count them in Spain. As an example, ASCRI’s data does not include Letgo’s macro-round, which despite having Spanish DNA, is based in New York.
The dance of figures is considerable in this regard: Letgo’s round would add 500 million dollars to the statistics. And it’s not the only startup based abroad. Taking the latest data from Dealroom as a reference, investment in Spanish startups amounted to 724.2 million in the third quarter of 2018 alone. For the full year, the firm believes that the volume of investment reached about 1,800 million dollars.
Spain captivates international investors
The ASCRI report also shows that the pulse of international investment has been beating strongly in recent years, not only because of the money contributed, but also because of its growing interest in startups in the country. In fact, international private venture capital funds set a new record last year by leading 84 operations (16.4% of the total).
For Miguel Zurita, president of ASCRI, dependence on international investors is still very high. If we add private equity data to this equation, it turns out that these funds contributed 77% of the total volume of venture capital investment in Spain.
“It is important to advance in the development of a legal and tax framework that is competitive with the rest of Europe that facilitates the access of national institutional investors to the asset class and that allows the development and expansion of national asset managers,” said Zurita at the presentation of the report.
The national managers did not sit idly by either. Seaya Ventures, a partner of Cabify and Glovo, closed its second fund with more than one hundred million euros, while Inveready launched a new fund of 25 million euros to promote biotech companies. Each manager made a move and, between one and the other, they managed to raise more than 2,151 million for their venture capital and private equity funds.
Another year of record investment for venture capital
Venture capital put the finishing touch to 2018 with record figures. For the second consecutive year,
And in this scenario, the weight that IT companies are gaining (a category that includes Glovo, Lingokids, Red Points, Spotahome or 21 Buttons) is becoming increasingly evident. Last year, these types of companies accounted for nearly half of all venture capital investments (309 operations). Between them, they totalled 356 million euros in investment.
Spain’s technological potential is already a reality. Madrid and Barcelona stand as the fifth and sixth most important hubs in Europe, in the eyes of the firm Atomico, and are also two of the cities that best value their developers, with an invested capital per developer of 31,700 euros (Barcelona) and 16,700 euros (Madrid). More than 308,500 developers work in Spain, 17% more than in 2017.
