Joan Bonet Majó (Banca March) | In recent years, the unicorns have not ceased to multiply. Their growth is so strong that it could be said that they are reproducing like rabbits. According to CB Insights, currently there are 403 unicorns with a joint value of 1.3 trillion dollars, similar to the GDP of countries like Spain.
Luis Martín Cabiedes started investing in technology ‘startups’ in 1998,first as a ‘business angel’ and then via his own venture capital firm (Cabiedes & Partners SCR). He has invested in over 80 companies, including Ole, Myalert, Privalia and Trovit. He points that there are venture capital funds in Spain with 90% of public money.”
Venture capital market is still relatively undeveloped in Spain, experts from La Caixa research argue. This kind of investment in Spanish firms totalled 280 million euros (0.03% of GDP) in 2014, clearly below the volumes of the US (0.17% of GDP).
BBVA announced the formation of BBVA Ventures, a strategic initiative that will invest $100 million in startups looking to transform the financial services industry. Through this effort, BBVA will work with entrepreneurs and venture capital investors to broaden the bank’s understanding of emerging trends, helping advance innovative initiatives in banking and finance.
During a recent visit to Wharton’s San Francisco campus, Perkins talked about his long career in technology entrepreneurship, noting at one point that successful entrepreneurs need to carefully thread the needle as they tackle the crucial issue of risk.
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | Please, bear with me. First, I took a graph from the Noah Smith’s blog, in which everyone can see that venture capital has almost passed away since the 2000 crisis. The chart shows the value of equity shares, and each line is a selection made under a different approach. The 1990’s were the golden age of risk, people loved risk and the VC funding…
By Fernando Rodríguez, in Madrid | Maite Ballester is president at the Spanish Venture Capital Association ASCRI, which is a non profit entity born in 1986 to develop and promote temporal investment in private companies. She also is managing director at 3i. In what way will Spain’s venture capital sector be affected by the financial system reform and more stringent rules on bank capital reserves? In the short term, these two factors will mean less…
The Spanish Association of Venture Capital (ASCRI is the Spanish acronym) presented the results of the sector in 2011, when the investment of these firms in Spain reached €3.249 billion, 7% less than in 2010, but more than twice the amount invested in 2009. Venture capital has 3,200 million euros to spend on new business investments in Spain, said on Tuesday Maite Ballester, president of ASCRI. Ballester believes that “the…