The Bankinter Innovation Foundation Spanish start-ups report is here: The 'megarrondas' turn 2021 into a record year with more than 4,000 million euros invested in Spanish start-ups, according to the Bankinter Innovation Foundation

New confirmation of the take-off of Spanish start-ups in 2021. After data from venture capital managers, another entity that evaluates the fabric of emerging companies in the sector, the Startup Observatory of the Bankinter Innovation Foundation, estimates that 2021 was a record year, with 4,294 million euros invested in Spanish companies or companies of Spanish origin.

The data, which includes both Spanish start-ups with headquarters in Spain, and others with team in Spain but tax headquarters in other countries (Cap chase, Devo, Travelperk...), represents an increase of 287.9% in the volume of investment captured, distributed in 409 operations (an increase of 20.3%), distributed equally in the four quarters of the year just ended.

"The four quarters have been higher than the historical series," said Javier Megías, director of the start-ups program of the Bankinter Innovation Foundation. This data does not include the takeover of the German company Delivery Hero in Glovo.

If there is a reason for this growth, it has been the growth of megarrondas, those that exceed fifty million euros. In 2021 there were twenty operations of this type, according to Bankinter, and above all they accumulated 6 times more investment: almost 3,000 million euros in total.

Bankinter Innovation Foundation Spanish start-ups report

This is a significant change in trend, since since 2018, the total amount of this type of operations had fallen, according to the data collected by this Observatory, which is prepared from information from specialized media.

"The change has occurred in the rounds of more than fifty million. Since Letgo (2018) we were going down, but 2021 has been a year in which the megarrondas have had a very relevant weight," Megías has detailed.

Among these rounds, the 450 million of the operation of Glovo at the beginning of the second quarter, the last operation of 440 million of JobandTalent in December, those of Idealista, Capchase or Devo, among others, stand out.

Most of the rounds had venture capital funds as the main investors (171 operations, with a total amount of 2,127 million euros), a growth of 26%; while the investment of corporations in start-ups contracted 7.2% to star in sixty-four investments for 247 million.

As already advanced by the managers, foreign investors increase their confidence in Spanish start-ups.

According to Bankinter, they carried out 70 operations (15% more) with a total amount of 2,170 million euros; and 125 operations were "mixed", that is to say with the participation of a foreign investor and a Spanish one, to total 1,786 million, a 367% more.

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"This means not only those foreign investors are betting in a clearer way, but that local funds are beginning to have the capacity and volume to co-invest with foreigners, and that is great news," said Megías, who also pointed out another key: foreign funds invest more in initial rounds (71 operations between 1 and 5 million).

"If they invest sooner, they know the ecosystem better and perceive less risk," he said.

As for the exits or sale of companies, the Bankinter Innovation Foundation accounts for 3,553 million euros, with the exit to the New York Stock Exchange of Wallbox, the sale of the optical fibre operator Adamo to the French Ardian or the sale of the Busuu language application to the American Chegg.

Among the companies that were able to obtain funding in 2021, sparked more resources to those that offer services to business (B2B), 57.2% that give services to the user (B2C), driven by the growth in the business of business tools and productivity, which caught together 795 million, followed by the real estate sector or proptech (689 million), mobility and logistics (562 million) and fintech and insurance (541 million).

"Historically Spain was dominated by two sectors, mobility-logistics and fintech.

Interestingly these sectors have been surpassed by business, with companies such as JobandTalent, Factorial, Genially or Holded, and proptech, with Idealista or Clikalia", explained Megías.

Essential elements of Bankinter Innovation Foundation Spanish start-ups report

The director of the Startup Observatory questions that this growth of the B2B sector is "a fairly global trend", but it has a differential element in Spain: it shows that the business sector is increasingly relying on the products of start-ups.

"Companies and SMEs are increasingly considering using start-up products. There is a sustained growth of B2B, while B2C start-ups have more periodic peaks, caused by very large rounds", has detailed Javier Megías.

Health start-ups have led the largest number of operations (51), only behind those of fintech (56), although in total volume they do not exceed two hundred million, which shows the growing interest in the sector motivated by the pandemic and the lack until recent years of investors specialized in this sector.

"We have more than fifty operations, they are many and small, although we have large companies still have few years of history. But that will change and those companies that have surely obtained seed rounds, next year will be series A and B, and will increase in number and volume," the director of the start-up program of the Bankinter Innovation Foundation has predicted.

# Bankinter Innovation Foundation Spanish start-ups report #