I've spent a lot For years playing second fiddle to Barcelona, Madrid surpassed its Catalan cousin in 2023, with startups securing an investment of €605 million ($672 million), above Barcelona's €457 million ($507 million). “There is a lot of Latin American talent coming in thanks to Telefonica's recent entrepreneurial visa and talent programs to attract promising startup founders from Mexico, Argentina, Columbia and Venezuela,” explains Bu Haces, innovation consultant at Impact Hub in Madrid.
The city has seen solid growth in transportation, mobility and fintech startups over the past three years, with AI and deep tech driven by as many as 56 universities. “Business schools in particular offer many opportunities for startup networks and are eager to develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem,” says Miguel Arias, general partner at VC K Fund.
With Meta, IBM, Google and Amazon all expanding in the city, the biggest concern is the lack of housing stock for the influx of students, engineers and entrepreneurs. “If we continue like this, we need more accessible housing,” Haces warns.
Invopop
When Sam Lown, co-founder and CTO of Invopop, worked as CTO for Uber's Latin American rival Cabify, he discovered that the company had to issue invoices in different formats in different countries. More than 30 governments in South America and Europe also insist that online companies report every sale to tax authorities as it occurs, often with different reporting rules. “I thought it would be great to send all that into one place and make a business deal with it,” he explains. Invopop's platform converts sales into electronic invoices and reports them in the correct format to the local tax authorities. Together with CEO Juan Moliner Malaxechevarría, Lown raised €2.2 million ($2.4 million) from Y Combinator, Rebel Fund and Wayra. Since launch, Invopop's 500 corporate clients, including Property Management Services, Amenitiz, Fever and Sunday, have issued more than 1 million invoices in 25 countries. This year they launched the Invopop app, which connects to Slack, Chargebee and Google Drive. invopop.com
Uelz
Uelz is designed to simplify online payments for businesses that use different payment methods, such as credit card billing, mobile payments and 'buy now, pay later' services. It is also designed for international companies that use different payment providers in separate countries. Uelz's platform connects to all payment gateways, including Apple Pay, Visa, Global Payments, Klarna, Stripe and Truust.io. It automates subscriptions and one-time payments and selects the most suitable payment provider. For example, if commission rates differ between countries, Uelz will ensure that the gateway with the lowest commission is used. The company tracks payments and provides data to sales teams and finance departments. Uelz, co-founded by Xandra Etxabe and María Luke Astigarraga (the former Atlético Madrid goalkeeper), has raised €2 million from Angels Capital and Wayra. The company will expand to Latin America in 2025. uelzpay.com
Tucuvi
Tucuvi is a health tech company that offers a voice-based conversational AI and a “virtual nurse” called Lola. The service monitors patients after they leave the hospital to reduce readmissions. Lola guides patients through a structured conversation and sends the results to the patient's medical team for review. The company was co-founded in 2019 by María González Manso and Marcos Rubio and received €5.5 million ($6.1 million) in funding from the European Innovation Council. Tucuvi offers Lola in Spanish, Portuguese and English and has worked with more than 60,000 patients in Spain, Portugal and Great Britain, reducing hospital stays by 26 percent and 30-day readmissions by more than 50 percent decreased. tucuvi.com
iFeel
iFeel is a workplace mental health platform aimed at companies as a service to employees or as part of health insurance. People talk to an AI that assesses their stress, depression and anxiety levels. It then determines what type of attention is needed: from an online therapist to a standard wellness program for self-care. iFeel claims the treatment halves missed work hours, with 90 percent of users reporting improved emotional and mental wellbeing after using the service. iFeel customers are available in 26 languages and 30 countries and include Glovo, Insud Pharma, Cabify, TravelPerk, Spotahome and H&M. The startup, launched in 2020 by co-founders CEO Amir Kaplan, COO Martin Villanueva Ordas and Gabriele Murrone, has raised €40 million ($44 million), with a recent €20 million ($22 million) Series B investment round co-led by FinTLV Ventures and Korelya Capital. The new funds will support international expansion. ifeelonline.com
Luzia
Created by Spanish engineer Álvaro Higes, Luzia is a WhatsApp and Telegram-based AI personal assistant that uses OpenAI and Meta's Llama to provide a ChatGPT-style service. Luiza can research topics, suggest help with your math homework, create images and use translation tools. Founded in April 2023, Luzia secured a $2.5 million (£1.9 million) seed round in June 2023. Further rounds – $10 million (£7.6 million) series A in September 2023 and $19 million (£14 million) series A1 in April 2024 – funding international expansion. The company has more than 20 million users and 15 million app downloads and tops the Android and Apple Store charts in most Latin American countries. Luzia.com
Embat
Embat co-founders Antonio Berga and Carlos Serrano García-Lisón worked together at JP Morgan, where, says Berga, “we saw customers struggling to manage multiple banks and banking platforms. It took hours.” Together with Tomás Gil, ex-CTO at Fintonic, they founded Embat in August 2021 to centralize financial activities on a cloud-based platform for 600 companies in 60 countries and 50 currencies. €6.5 million ($7.2 million) Preseed and Seed series were backed by Samaipata, 4Founders and VentureFriends. The €15 million ($16.6 million) February 2024 Series A will fund further international expansion. Future plans include developing AI for fraud detection, underwriting and recommending investment opportunities. embat.io
Seniors
Senniors is a home care company for the elderly. It offers Fitbit wearable technology to monitor users' health and needs, and gives families access to the data through the Senniors app. The company also connects older users with healthcare professionals when needed, and in partnership with Fitbit and insurer Klinc, offers a longevity program to improve activity, sleep and emotional well-being. Senniors was co-founded by Claudia Gómez Estefan and José de Diego Abad in November 2020 and raised €5.3 million ($5.8 million) in a seed round led by SixThirty Ventures. The company has provided 800,000 hours of home care to more than 40,000 families in 100 Spanish cities. US expansion planned for 2025. hola.senniors.com
Boopos
Boopos is an online broker for buying and selling businesses, founded in 2020 by Juan Ignacio García, the former CFO at Spain's first unicorn, Cabify. Many of the businesses for sale on the platform are primarily small online businesses. The Boopos team examines them and ensures that they are profitable and have been operating for the past two years. García has raised $20 million (£15 million) in three rounds led by Bonsai Partners and K Fund. With almost $80 million (£60.9 million) of transactions on the platform, Boopos has 5,000 active buyers and 200 businesses for sale, and is set to break even by the end of the year. “We want to scale up,” says García. “There's a wave of baby boomer entrepreneurs retiring and selling their stuff.” boopos.com
Onum
Onum is a cloud-based platform that monitors companies' data as it moves from collection to storage. Using AI algorithms, Onum identifies anomalies, potential security risks and system problems. It also helps 'separate the noise from the signal', identifying what needs to be discarded, archived or analyzed, and claims it can reduce customers' data management costs by up to 80 percent. Founded in October 2022 by Pedro Castillo – former CEO of cybersecurity unicorn Devo – he is joined by co-founders Lucas Varela and Pedro Tortosa. Onum closed two funding rounds totaling €38 million ($42 million), led by Kibo Ventures and Dawn Capital. onum.com
Shakers
Shakers is a digital workforce platform that helps companies build, manage, and pay teams of freelancers. It can select an entire group from scratch or add new members to an existing talent pool. Shakers was founded in 2021 by CEO Héctor Mata, COO Nico de Luis, CPO Adrián de Pedro and COO Jaime Castillo and has raised €7 million ($7.7 million) in rounds led by Brighteye Ventures, Adevinta Ventures and Wayra. The company claims sales have grown 350 percent in the past two years. The company charges companies for access to the platform and has worked with more than 600 Spanish companies, including Inditex, Telefónica, Uber and Microsoft, and with more than 7,000 freelancers. Expansion across Southern Europe is planned for 2025. shakersworks.com
This article first appeared in the November/December 2024 edition of WIRED UK.
