Javier Megías, co-founder of Startupxplore, during the business angels congress held the last week of December in Valencia, said that investment in startups so far this year has already reached €400 M distributed in 2,638 startups. In the last 15 days companies such as La Comunity, Ad-Pure, Paypro, Groopify and Upplication have received funding. These companies are each from a different technology sector and are a good reflection of the technology sectors that have been most active in 2015.
Venture capital has reached industrial SMEs
With two weeks to go before the end of the year, the venture capital industry can begin to congratulate itself on the conclusion of a historic year, at least as far as SME financing is concerned. The year 2014 saw the regulation of SME venture capital funds, which has led to the creation of 8 SME venture capital funds.
Oryzon genomics floats on the MAB
Oryzon Genomics is now listed on the MAB, reinforcing the biotech market, which is the largest listed on the MAB. Of the 33 companies listed on the MAB, 8 are active in the biotechnology sector.
Software, the technology sector of choice for investors in 2015
Of the 10,847 rounds we have detected globally as of September 2015, software with 828 rounds and biotech with 795 rounds take the lead, followed by e-health, mobility and finance.
Foreign companies interested in Spanish ERP
In the last half of the year we have witnessed the acquisition of several Spanish companies in the ERP sector by international companies, which shows us that the Erp market is already a mature sector and its main players are making acquisitions to open up to new markets and offer new, more specialised services in order to compete. Spain represents a great opportunity for these main players.
The Basque budget for public aid to boost the business fabric for 2016 will be €437.5 million.
This budget is 2.3% higher than last year and the Basque Government's Minister for Economic Development and Competitiveness, Arantxa Tapia, stressed in November that we cannot sleep, we must continue to promote the economic fabric of this country, not only the industrial but also trade, tourism and the primary sector and highlighted the need to improve their technology, the level that allows each of them to be positioned among the best, promoting R&D actions and helping our companies with different tools, subsidies and lines of financing.
2015 again sees acquisitions in the automotive industry sector
According to a study conducted by the consultancy firm EY, 48% of Spanish entrepreneurs will make corporate acquisitions next year and the M&A market will remain "strong" thanks to the economic momentum. From Abra-Invest , we wanted to highlight some operations that have been carried out in the automotive sector this year, as it is a sector that has been quite affected by the crisis in previous years and that this year has already shown signs of recovery.
Spanish startups are financed thanks to business angels
The figure of business angels is essential for the development of startups in our country and although it is a relatively new figure, which has a long way to go to take advantage of its full potential, Spain was the second European country with the most operations carried out by business angels in 2014, behind the United Kingdom and ahead of France, with a strong presence in sectors such as Internet, mobility and ICT.
Startups get funding through Crowd equity
Crowdequity, despite being a lesser known form of Crowdfunding, is growing considerably in our country. In 2014 this type of crowdfunding grew by 234%. This year we have witnessed new records in this area. MindTheByte, closed a €234,310 round in October, making it the largest crowdequity round raised in the biotech sector in Spain with 115 private investors.
Cybersecurity, a market with a lot of potential.
The cybersecurity sector is one of the most profitable sectors at the moment. Spanish companies lost €14 billion to cybercrime last year. Almost thirteen thousand incidents were recorded in Spain, of which 132 were considered serious. This market presents an opportunity for Spanish companies as there are firms with leading solutions such as: S2 Group, S21 Sec, GMV, Indra, Panda and Telefónica.
Accelerators are on the lookout for startups
Orange Fab, Orange's accelerator has debuted for the first time in Spain. In addition, this week we have also learned that several accelerators such as Connector and Plug and Play are looking for startups for their new call.
Spanish fashion startups are in "fashion".
Taking advantage of the fact that Vudoir has recently received a round, we wanted to review Spanish startups in the fashion sector that have aroused the interest of investors in 2015 and are having great success. Among the most successful business models we find collaborative consumption, and we have also detected that artificial vision is gaining a foothold in the world of fashion.