[2024 ] 17 Startup Ideas from Spain that got funds in Q4 (from worst to best)
Here is what 17 Spanish entrepreneurs are working on. What is your favourite?
Why this article is useful for future entrepreneurs
Stephen King, when asked how to become a good writer, simply answered:
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”
The same applies to startups. To become a good entrepreneur, we have to do two things: try out a lot of startup ideas and analyze a lot of startup ideas.
The RULES of the GAME
For every one of these startups, I created two analysis criteria:
Potential (1 to 5 ⭐) — A personal appreciaiton on the potential of the project.
Capital Raised (💸) — A proxy of their financing round. One symbol every 1M raised in capital.
Let’s keep in mind:
👨🎓 I won’t analyze the team. Despite it being the most pivotal aspect of a startup. Here, I am just stating that we are not investing in the company, just having fun analyzing the business idea.
💡 I will analyze the potential of the idea as it is. Not of potential pivots in the same business area.
🎤 One phrase pitch. We will try to understand the essential value proposition just by their one-sentence pitch.
🌈 No judgment. We are just playing around and training. I am sure these start-ups are already doing great and really hope for them, they will all become unicorns 🦄
The Souring: Spanish Fundraising Round (Q4 2023)
We took all the recent fundraising that occurred in Spain during Q4 2023 (Octobre, Novembre, Decembre).
Here the list of the ‘excluded’ who raised at least 5M, if it may interest you: I decided not to include these startups because they that were too technical or uninteresting to analyze.
📅 𝘿𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 2023: Green Eagle Solutions (SaaS) 6M 📅 𝙉𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 2023: UniversalDx (biotech) 64M, CRISALION (mobility) 15M, ID Finance 12M, Fracttal (maintenance management) 10M, MYRUNS RFID (RFID tech) 7M, Atani (crypto) 6M 📅 𝙊𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙗𝙚𝙧 2023: Flanks (fintech) 8M, Divilo (fintech) raised 6M
Ready? Now let’s go with the real ranking:
#17 — An electrical car sharing service
Potential: ⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸 (1M)
Name: Guppy
🟢 Positive :
- Sustainable mobility is a topic.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- Car-sharing has all the same problems, and they fail for one main reasons: product degrades and gets broken at a faster pace than what companies can charge.
- Also, B2C acquisition is costly.
#16 — A marketplace for recycled tissues
Potential: ⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸 (1M)
Name: Recovo
🟢 Positive :
- Recycling and upcycling of clothing is booming.
- Mostly B2B clients.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- For the moment, still a niche market with limited supply and demand.
#15 — A hiring platform international-oriented, also with the possibility of upskilling
Potential: ⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸 (1.2M)
Name: Workfully
🟢 Positive :
- Hiring, especially in certain domains, is hard.
- Good internationalization approach.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- A lot of competition (LinkedIn above all, but a lot of recruiting agencies)
- Never easy to scale, agency-like company.
#14— A home-service marketplace
Potential:⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸💸 (2M)
Name: Appwebel
🟢 Positive :
- Some professions are not easy to find.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- In this sector the problem is always the same: recurring transactions. Once I meet my babysitter, I will bypass the platform and paying him directly.
#13— A marketplace for studying/working abroad
Potential: ⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸 (1.5M)
Name: Growpro
🟢 Positive :
- People are already spending budget on that.
- High Average Order Value.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- Not easy to build trust in the clients to spend such a budget.
- Sometimes complex transactions (accomodation, stay, …) that would need complex interactions (not easy to replicate in marketplace)
#12 — An housing marketplace to find solutions for employees' relocations
Potential: ⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸💸💸💸💸 (5.5M)
Name: Apartool
🟢 Positive :
- Good niche.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- The need seems to me quite spot or project-based. Therefore, difficult to get recurring clients or SAS model.
#11 — A Plugin for fashion e-commerce to find the right sizes
Potential: ⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸 (0.6M)
Name: Aitaca
🟢 Positive :
- A problem that everyone experiences, with a direct link with relevant metrics for e-commerce players (returns, conversion).
- Many players launching in the space and raising pre-seed money in the space (Fringuant: 0.5M, Kliff 1.8M)
- They chose a niche (rings) that sounds interesting.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- No one found a good solution, adopted by e-commerce players and that works (yet?).
#10 — A marketplace to buy and sell recycled materials or scrap metal
Potential: ⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸💸💸💸💸 (5M)
Name: Scrapad
🟢 Positive :
- Reusing, recycling are ramping topics.
- Unsexy market (scrap metal), it means you can make good money.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- Will see how they scale supply and demand (I don’t understand where they get supply from)
#9 — A freelance matchmaking platform
Potential: ⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised:💸💸💸💸💸💸 (6M)
Name: Shakers
🟢 Positive :
- Some good success stories in B2B on the French market (as Malt)
🔴 Potential Problems :
- Many freelance websites (Fiverr, Upwork), crowded space.
#8— A marketplace for motorbikes (new and occasion)
Potential: ⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised:💸💸💸💸💸💸 (6M)
Name: Mundimoto
🟢 Positive :
- Client budget is there, low supply from local resellers.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- Marketplaces are costly to scale (high CAC)
#7 — An IA Assistant
Potential: ⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸 (9.5M)
Name: LuzIA
🟢 Positive :
- Nice as a concept, especially if gathers the more and more info on custom experience.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- Differentiation. I fail to see a huge difference with what Chat GPT can do today.
#6— No-code payment collection for startups
Potential:⭐⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸 (0.8M)
Name: Uelzpay
🟢 Positive :
- As a startup, this can be a problem (a lot of technical documentation required)
- Fintech is booming.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- Other no-code solutions may arise from more structured players (Stripe, Shopify, …)
#5 — A SAS for Restaurant Management
Potential:⭐⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸💸💸💸💸 (5M)
Name: Last.App
🟢 Positive :
- B2B specific proposition. SAS model.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- Need to find value-adding features to convince restaurants.
#4— A Spanish company of electric scooters and bikes
Potential:⭐⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸💸💸💸💸 (5M)
Name: Velca
🟢 Positive :
- Electric mobility is booming, nice to see European pure-players.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- All the material and cost chain and B2C acquisition
🥉 #3 — A pet insurance company
Potential: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸💸💸💸💸 (5M)
Name: Barkibu
🟢 Positive :
- The market is there. Pets are the new children.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- An area that is rapidly becoming very crowded (Pety raised 1.2M, SanteVet has more than 200 employees, …)
- The math should be done right, a product that risks to become a commodity.
🥈 #2— Toasted-coffee machine and capsule with subscription
Potential: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸💸💸💸💸💸 (6M)
Name: Incapto
🟢 Positive :
- They studied from Nespresso playbook.
- A more sustainable and fashionable alternative.
🔴 Potential Problems :
- High investments in B2C acquisitions are needed to keep a strong branding.
🥇 #1 — An AI-based HR to check adherence to company culture and employee satisfaction
Potential: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Capital raised: 💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸💸 (10M)
Name: Erudit
🟢 Positive :
- Tech HR and AI are a very hot trend.
- The application can be linked to a real value (churn rate, …)
🔴 Potential Problems :
- Their predictions and use cases must be solid.
