Having spent a lot years as second fiddle to Barcelona, Madrid surpassed their Catalan cousin in 2023. with start-ups securing investments of €605 million ($672 million) over Barcelona’s €457 million ($507 million). “A lot of Latin American talent is arriving thanks to the recent entrepreneur visas and talent programs run by Telefonica to attract promising startup founders from Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela,” explains Boo Hases, innovation consultant at Impact Hub in Madrid .
The city has seen solid growth in transport, mobility and fintech startups over the past three years with artificial intelligence and deep technology bolstered by an astonishing 56 universities. “Business schools in particular provide a lot of networking opportunities to startups and strive to develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem,” says Miguel Arias, general partner at VC K Fund.
As Meta, IBM, Google and Amazon grow in the city, the main concern is the lack of housing stock for the influx of students, engineers and entrepreneurs. “We need more affordable housing if we continue this way,” Hasses warns.
Invopop
When Invopop co-founder and CTO Sam Lone worked as CTO for Cabify, a Latin American competitor to Uber, he found that the company needed to issue invoices in different formats in different countries. More than 30 governments in South America and Europe also require online businesses to report every sale to tax authorities when it happens, often with different reporting rules. “I thought it would be great to ship all of that in one place and have the company handle it,” he explains. Invopop’s platform converts sales into electronic invoices and reports them to local tax authorities in the correct format. With CEO Juan Moliner Malaxechevarria, Loan raised 2.2 million euros ($2.4 million) from Y Combinator, Rebel Fund and Wayra. Since its launch, Invopop’s 500 business customers – including Property Management Services, Amenitiz, Fever and Sunday – have issued more than 1 million invoices in 25 countries. This year, they released the Invopop app, which connects to Slack, Chargebee, and Google Drive. invopop.com
Weltz
Uelz is designed to simplify online payments for companies that use various payment methods such as credit card billing, mobile payment and buy now pay later services. It is also designed for international companies that use different payment providers in individual 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-off payments and selects the most appropriate payment provider – for example, if commission rates vary between countries, Uelz will ensure that the portal with the lowest commission is used. The company tracks payments and provides data to sales teams and finance departments. Co-founded by Xandra Etxabe and María Luke Astigarraga (former Atlético Madrid goalkeeper), Uelz has raised €2 million ($2.2 million) from Angels Capital and Wayra. The company is expanding into Latin America in 2025. uelzpay.com
Tukuvi
Tucuvi is a health technology company offering voice-based AI conversation and a “virtual nurse” called Lola. The service monitors patients after they leave hospital to reduce readmissions. Lola guides patients through a structured conversation and sends the results to the patient’s medical team for review. Co-founded by Maria Gonzalez Manso and Marcos Rubio in 2019, the company received €5.5 million ($6.1 million) in funding from the European Innovation Council. Offering Lola in Spanish, Portuguese and English, Tucuvi has worked with more than 60,000 patients in Spain, Portugal and the UK, reducing hospital stays by 26 percent and reducing 30-day readmission rates by more than 50 percent. tucuvi.com
iFeel
iFeel is a workplace mental health platform aimed at companies as a service for employees or as part of health insurance coverage. People talk to an AI that assesses their levels of stress, depression and anxiety. It then decides what kind of care is needed, from an online therapist to a standard self-care program. iFeel claims its treatment cuts missed work hours in half, with 90 percent of users reporting improved emotional and mental well-being after using the service. Available in 26 languages and in 30 countries, iFeel’s clients include Glovo, Insud Pharma, Cabify, TravelPerk, Spotahome and H&M. Launched in 2020. from co-founders CEO Amir Kaplan, COO Martín Villanueva Ordas and Gabriele Murrone, the startup has raised €40 million ($44 million), with a recent €20 million ($22 million) Series B investment round co-led from FinTLV Ventures and Korelya Capital. The new funds will support international expansion. ifeelonline.com
Luzia
Luzia, created by Spanish engineer Álvaro Higes, is an AI personal assistant based on WhatsApp and Telegram that uses OpenAI and Meta’s Llama to provide a ChatGPT-style service. Louisa can research topics, offer help with your math homework, create pictures and use translation tools. Founded in April 2023, Luzia secured a $2.5m (£1.9m) seed round in June 2023. Additional rounds — $10m (£7.6m) Series A in September 2023. and a $19m (£14m) Series A1 in April 2024. finance international expansion. The company has more than 50 million users and 15 million app downloads, topping the Android and Apple Store charts in most LATAM countries. Luzia.com
Embat
Embat co-founders Antonio Berga and Carlos Serrano García-Lison worked together at JP Morgan, where, says Berga, “we saw clients struggling to manage multiple banks and banking platforms. It took hours.” They founded Embat with Thomas Gill, former CTO at Fintonic, in August 2021 to centralize financial operations on a cloud platform for 600 companies in 60 countries and 50 currencies. The €6.5 million (US$7.2 million) pre- and seed round was backed by Samaipata, 4Founders and VentureFriends. €15 million ($16.6 million) Series A from February 2024. will fund further international expansion. Future plans include developing AI to detect fraud, underwrite insurance and recommend investment opportunities. embat.io
Elderly people
Senniors is a home care company for the elderly. It provides wearable technology from Fitbit to monitor users’ health and needs, and gives families access to the data through the Senniors app. The company also connects older users with health professionals when needed, provides a longevity program in partnership with Fitbit, as well as insurer Klinc to improve activity, sleep and emotional well-being. Co-founded in November 2020. by Claudia Gómez Estefan and José de Diego Abad, Senniors 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 is planned for 2025. hola.seniors.com
Boopos
Boopos is an online broker for buying and selling businesses, founded in 2020. by Juan Ignacio García, former CFO of Spain’s first unicorn Cabify. Many of the companies selling on the platform are mostly small online businesses. The Boopos team vets them while making sure they are profitable and have been operating for the past two years. García raised $20m (£15m) in three rounds led by Bonsai Partners and K Fund. With almost $80m (£60.9m) transacted on the platform, Boopos has 5,000 active buyers and 200 businesses for sale and will break even by the end of the year. “We want to scale,” says Garcia. “There’s a Wave of Baby Boomer Business Owners Retiring and Selling.” boopos.com
Onum
Onum is a cloud-based platform that monitors companies’ data as it moves from collection to storage. Using AI algorithms, Onum detects anomalies, potential security risks and system issues. It also helps to “separate the noise from the signal” by identifying what needs to be discarded, archived or analyzed, and claims customers reduce data management costs by up to 80 percent. Founded in October 2022. by Pedro Castillo — former CEO of cybersecurity unicorn Devo — joined by co-founders Lucas Varela and Pedro Tortosa. Onum closed two funding rounds for a total of €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. He can select an entire group from scratch or add new members to an existing talent pool. Founded by CEO Hector Mata, COO Nico de Luis, COO Adrian de Pedro and COO Jaime Castillo in 2021, Shakers raised €7 million ($7.7 million) in rounds led by Brighteye Ventures, Adevinta Ventures and Wayra. The company claims to have grown its revenue by 350 percent in the past two years. By charging businesses to access the platform, it has worked with more than 600 Spanish companies, including Inditex, Telefónica, Uber and Microsoft, and more than 7,000 freelancers. Expansion into southern Europe is planned for 2025. shakersworks.com
