Rating: Spanish tech startups to look at in 2022

This piece is an accompaniment to our newly launched rating of Spanish startups and scaleups to look at for 2022. Test it out in full right here — it’s free for all Sifted readers this night earlier than it reverts to members-only tomorrow morning. Not a member? Enroll now.

Residence to the likes of Cabify, Glovo, and Paack, Spain is just not solely the chief of southern Europe’s tech scene, but in addition a aggressive participant throughout the continent.  

The worth of the Spanish ecosystem — measured as the whole valuation of its startups — has grown almost 40% on common annually over the past 5 years. The nation waved goodbye to 2021 with a blazing $500m Collection E for staffing market Jobandtalent, and walked into 2022 with a €101m Collection E for Barcelona-based TravelPerk, including to its rising unicorn tally. 

The Spanish authorities has picked up on the legislative and financial wants of its booming ecosystem. The a lot anticipated startup regulation was drafted on the finish of 2021, full with fiscal incentives and expertise retention initiatives to make Spain a pretty hub for operators. 

2022 thus far has stored up with 2021’s record-breaking tempo regardless of macroeconomic instability. Q1 closed at $1.3bn in VC funding — in keeping with 2021 developments, and 9 instances the quantity of Q1 in 2017. 

However the slowdown in world markets might have an effect on the sizes and kinds of exits. No firm has gone public within the Bolsa de Madrid thus far in 2022, with anticipated IPOs of established establishments resembling Ibercaja being postponed as a consequence of market volatility. 

Realised exits have maintained some traction, producing flows of $330m between acquisitions, mergers and buyouts in Q1 in comparison with $240m in Q1 2021 — thus far in keeping with the $8bn for the entire of final 12 months. 

Excessive hopes are then set upon the fleet of thrilling startups main the way in which within the nation. Sifted ranked probably the most promising amongst them — together with large hits, family names and fast-growing wonders.  

👉 Try the total rating of Spanish startups and scaleups to look at 

New entries

Multiverse Computing 

Primarily based within the Basque metropolis of San Sebastián, Multiverse Computing affords quantum purposes for the monetary business — from fraud detection and portfolio optimisation to insurance coverage pricing and automatic credit score scoring — designed to outperform classical computer systems. It was chosen as rising star in Sifted’s quantum computing briefing. 

Koa Well being 

Barcelona-based Koa Well being has raised over $30m in underneath a 12 months to supercharge its digital well being platform. With a robust concentrate on workers’ psychological wellbeing, it targets firms, healthcare suppliers and insurers to facilitate help for psychological well being points. 

Cobee

Based in 2018, Cobee is an worker advantages administration platform. It closed a €14m Collection A from Balderton Capital, Speedinvest, Goal World and others, and was beforehand backed by Ruben Ferreiro — founding father of Amazon aggregator YABA and angel to Glovo and Cabify.  

Rising stars

Factorial 

Barcelona-based Factorial is among the most promising startups within the nation. The SME-focused HR platform gathered an $80m Collection B — joint largest for the nation — from Tiger World, Creandum, Level 9 and others in September final 12 months, and bought digital platform Codegram shortly after. Serial entrepreneur Jordi Romero launched it in 2016, and has supervised workforce progress of 590% over the previous two years.

Clikalia

Cikalia is a frontrunner in Spain’s flourishing proptech scene, having raised a wholesome $86m cheque from SoftBank, Luxor Capital, Fifth Wall Ventures and Checkout.com’s cofounder Guillaume Pousaz — who additionally backed Irish unicorn Wayflyer. Lively in Spain, Portugal and Mexico, Clikalia has large growth plans for the remainder of Europe. 

Typeform 

A longstanding no-code SaaS startup, Typeform collected a recent $135m Collection C since its final characteristic in a Sifted rating, led by Sofina together with current traders. With a $985m valuation, Typeform is a tiny push away from unicorn standing, and might leverage its decade of market expertise to consolidate its European presence. 

Different notable names embody flower market Colvin Co, proptech Tiko, information platform Carto and plenty of others. 

For in-depth evaluation of earlier stage firms throughout all sectors, go to our Intelligence briefing catalogue right here. 

Federico Scolari is junior intelligence analyst at Sifted.