After several years of crisis in which the lack of financing made it impossible to complete buyout operations, last year foreign investors began to regain confidence in Spain and started to divest, with significant capital gains for the investors involved.
Biotechnology finds a new form of funding with Crowdfunding and Spain is one of the pioneers
Faced with the difficulty biotech companies have in finding both private and public funding, they are turning to crowdfunding. This year, Spain has created the first European platform and the second worldwide for biotech crowdfunding. Although the operations closed in Spain are still of a small amount, operations closed in biotechnology in other parts of the world, such as that of Cell Therapheutics for almost €1M, show that it is a form of financing that will eventually have a significant impact on the sector. In addition, the public sector has also launched a crowdfunding platform in the biotech sector.
Busuu, Playgiga, Deporvillage, Talent Clue and Klikin receive funding in July
Venture capital rounds in the ICT sector in July follow the trend we saw in the last InvestmentReport in March, where the average deal size had increased from €1M to €2M from March 2014 to March 2015. In the month of July there have been a number of deals in excess of €4M. Below we highlight some of the deals completed this month.
Packaging is the protagonist of industrial M&A in June in Spain.
Analysing the M&A operations in the industrial sector that have taken place in June, it is worth highlighting the investments made in Spanish companies in the packaging sector with different materials. In addition, several of the investors have been foreigners such as DS Smith or Duravent, which reflects the confidence in the Spanish packaging sector. According to the sector barometer Hispack Packaging Trends, 70% of Spanish companies in the sector will increase their turnover this year and almost a quarter of the companies estimate a growth of more than 10%.

CDTI's role in Spanish biotechnology
The CDTI is contributing to the development of biotechnology in our country. In the last half of 2014 alone, more than 40 biotechnology-related projects received CDTI funding. In addition, the Cdti also supports private funding and in May 2015 injected €5M in Inveready Innvierte Biotech II.
Hidráulicas Jimol and Hydromodel, water industry companies receive funding
According to a report by RobecoSAM, the water business is a $600 billion market globally and is growing between 1% and 2% faster than global GDP. In Spain, spending is around €7,000 M. Water services, such as household supply, account for 55% of this total; wastewater treatment 38% and water for industry 6%. Although we are below the European average, Spain has companies that want to grow and achieve a leading position in the market. In recent months we have seen companies such as hidráulicas Jimol and Hydromodel receive funding for this purpose.
Gesgenerics and OWL: M&A biotech sector in June 2015
Foreign biotechs are interested in Spanish companies. Gesgenéricos has been bought by Israel's Altan Pharma and the Basque company OWL has granted Galmed an option to buy up to 19.9 % of the company.
Europastry and Valls companys star in the food sector Mergers and Acquisitions
In recent months we have seen how companies in the food sector have made acquisitions with the aim of growing in their sector and positioning themselves as benchmark brands. This is the case of Europastry, which has decided to increase its stake in the American company Wenner, and Valls Companys, which has made two acquisitions in the ham sector in Spain in the last two months.
Venture capital in the tourism sector: Springwater and Inveready.
Venture capital is active in the tourism sector. If we recently mentioned that the Hotusa group had decided to create a fund for technological and innovative startups focused on the hotel and tourism sector, in this post we comment on the operations that have been carried out in the sector recently.
CDTI: Innovation Hotline
Línea Directa de Innovación is a financing programme promoted by the CDTI and the Technology Fund, which aims to support business projects that involve the incorporation and adaptation of new technologies at a sectoral level and that represent a competitive advantage for the company. Technological adaptation actions aimed at the introduction of new markets will also be financed.
Fersa, Himoinsa and Dialecto Industrial: M&A in the energy sector
In the last two months we have seen Spanish companies in the energy sector being bought by foreign companies. SunEdison has bought Fersa and will buy Cielo Alto, Solarpack's project once the project is completed. In addition, the Japanese manufacturer Yanmar has bought Himoinsa and Sonepar Iberica has bought Dialecto Industrial.
Ecrowd and Arboribus: Crowdlending platforms get funding
Financing through crowdlending platforms is growing in Spain and the rest of the world due to the advantages it offers. According to a worldwide corporate study of the sector published in 2015 by Massolution, crowdlending has grown by 233% with 11,080 million dollars raised in 2014. Moreover, crowdlending platforms are growing. Recently two Spanish crowdlending platforms: Ecrowd and Arboribus have received funding.