The tax deduction for R&D and IT (Technological Innovation) represents one of the main sources of financing. These deductions allow companies to recover 42% of the investment made in R&D and 12% of the investment made in Technological Innovation. Although the deductible quota limit is 50%, the deductions can be accumulated as a tax credit and are applicable for 18 years.
Enisa 2015: Participatory loans for companies
On 24 April, the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism (MINETUR) signed 3 agreements with Enisa with the aim of setting the characteristics and budgets available for the 2015 financing lines. The Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism will allocate €98.319M for this purpose.
Venture capital bets on technology companies: deals March 2015
Technology start-ups receive the most support from venture capital. Of the 550 venture capital and private equity deals closed last year in Spain, 274 involved a technology company. Among the technology companies, e-commerce and collaborative consumption lead the way. In March 2015, 8 technology companies received funding rounds.
Basque Country M&A news: Jauregui, Teknia ,La Salve and others.
Basque companies are active. The industrial companies Jauregui and Teknia have gone on a buying spree to consolidate their customer portfolios. In addition, the beer company La Salve has received support from Mahou to build its own brewery in Bilbao. In addition...
Crowdlending platforms receive funding: Spotcat, Zank and Prosper.
In the last year, crowdlending platforms have become very popular, and in Spain it is the type of crowdfunding that has grown the most. In Spain the sector is led by the pioneer Comunitae with more than €17m lent. In March, two Spanish crowdlending platforms, Spotcat and Zank, received funding and in April the American platform Prosper received $160M.
New funds for technology companies: Galdana, Antai, cdti and fondico.
In 2014, venture capital investment in technology companies grew considerably, partly due to the entry of international funds, which see an opportunity in Spanish technology companies. It seems that this positive trend will continue to grow in 2015. Proof of this is that Spanish venture capital is creating new funds for technology companies. In March alone, Antai Venture Builder has raised its fund to €25M, Galdana Ventures has been created to offer investors in Spain and Latin America advice and access to the best international Venture Capital managers, Fond-ico has distributed €124M and the CDTI has launched a new technology fund.
Spri Programme "Industria digitala" application of ICTs in industrial SMEs
On 21 April, the deadline for applications for aid granted by Spri for the incorporation of Electronics, Information and Communications Technologies (EICTs) in industrial manufacturing SMEs opened.
BASQUE INDUSTRY 4.0: Technology Transfer of R&D in ICTs applied to Advanced Manufacturing
Spri has opened the deadline for the Basque Industry 4.0 grants, to support Technology Transfer Projects from "technology suppliers" to industrial manufacturing companies, in the field of EICTs (Electronics, Information and Telecommunications Technologies) applied to Advanced Manufacturing, which have a demonstration effect and therefore allow accelerating the transfer to the market of the results of R&D projects in EICTs.
Solutions for the disabled receive investment: Irisbond, Noomad bike, Fit&sit and others.
Startups focused on providing solutions for people with disabilities want to grow and are looking for funding through different means. Irisbond closed a €300,000 funding round in February 2015. Noomad bike is looking for investors and companies such as Fit and Sit and Dismore have decided to use crowdfunding.
Investments in food sector: Bolton, Garavilla, Orizont and others
Investors in food companies are active in 2015. If February was in the news for the large number of operations that venture capital made in the sector, this April is characterised by the entry of foreign investors and the creation of a new startup incubator focused solely on the food sector.
Microwave and Civeta enter the publishing world by investing in "La Communitat".
The new digital newspapers are competing to fill the gap left by the big media groups as information and communication media on the Internet. La Communitat has closed a round with the aim of financing "Mediazines", an interactive magazine kiosk launched in January. In April Sabemos, a digital newspaper with €2M of investment, was born. Pedro J's newspaper El español has already raised more than €3.6M from 5000 shareholders before going public.
Using Big Data for semantic analysis gets funding.
In the last two months two Spanish Big Data companies that use natural language processing for semantic analysis: Bitext and Sentisis, have received the backing of investors. Moreover, in recent years the number of companies in the sector has grown considerably.