Why Spanish tech is sizzling: ‘The mentality has completely shifted in the last six months’

Authors: Éanna Kelly, Jonathan Sinclair, Hessa Alabbas

Publisher:

Sifted

Published: 6/20/2025

Language:English

--:--

David

Welcome to 'Future Forward,' the podcast that decodes the trends shaping our world. I'm your host, David.

Ema

And I'm Ema. It's great to be here on June 25th, 2025.

David

Today, we're heading to Spain, where the tech scene is absolutely sizzling. We'll explore why it's suddenly a European hotspot and what's next.

David

So, Ema, when we say the Spanish tech scene is "sizzling," what does that actually look like? It feels like this has come out of nowhere.

Ema

It’s a full-on explosion, David. The numbers are staggering. In the first quarter of this year alone, VCs poured over one billion euros into Spanish startups. To put that in perspective, it’s a 184% increase from the same time last year.

David

A 184% jump? That's not just growth; that's a rocket launch. Is this momentum continuing?

Ema

It is! Quarter two is on track for nearly a billion euros as well, a 90% rise on last year's Q2. Spain is now fourth for tech funding in all of Europe, nipping at the heels of giants like Germany and France. It's a huge deal.

David

So we're seeing the money flow in, but what about the atmosphere on the ground? What are the founders themselves saying?

Ema

The vibe is electric. One founder, Borja Solé Fauria of Murphy AI, said, "The mentality has completely changed, literally in the last six months." He says rounds are bigger, they're happening faster, and there's just so much more ambition in the air.

David

Ambition. I like that word. It suggests a deeper psychological shift, not just a financial one.

Ema

Exactly. He’s not the only one. Founders are giddily trading gossip on WhatsApp about huge, unannounced funding rounds. There's a real sense of FOMO—Fear Of Missing Out—among investors, which is just pouring fuel on the fire.

David

So it’s a self-perpetuating cycle of excitement and investment. What’s the main driver behind this sudden heat?

Ema

Well, Jordi Vidal, a partner at the VC firm Kibo Ventures, points to one major global trend: the AI gold rush. While Europe’s AI scene has been dominated by France and the UK, Spain is starting to make some serious noise.

David

An AI gold rush in Spain? Give me an example.

Ema

The perfect example is a company called Multiverse Computing. They’re based in San Sebastián—a city not typically on the VC map—and they just raised a massive $215 million Series B round. It was the biggest in Europe last week.

David

Wow, $215 million from a city not known for tech. That really proves something is shifting. So, it's all about AI then?

Ema

AI is a huge piece of the puzzle, but it's not the whole story. As one investor put it, what’s happening in Spain right now is "the perfect storm."

David

"The perfect storm." That's a powerful phrase. It suggests multiple forces coming together at once. Let's break that down, Ema. What are the ingredients of this storm?

Ema

Absolutely. The first, and maybe most important, ingredient is the people. Specifically, we're seeing the rise of what they call "mafia founders."

David

"Mafia founders"? That sounds a little dramatic. It's not what I think it is, right?

Ema

No, no, nothing sinister! The "mafia" term in tech refers to a network of former employees from a single, highly successful company who go on to start their own successful ventures. Think of the "PayPal Mafia," which included people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.

David

Ah, right. So it’s about experienced talent spinning out and creating new things, bringing their knowledge with them.

Ema

Exactly. In Spain, this mafia is coming from the first wave of big Spanish tech successes like the delivery app Glovo, the ride-sharing company Cabify, and the temp work platform Job&Talent. These companies started a decade ago and are now producing this second layer of experienced founders.

David

So you have people who have seen a startup scale from the inside. They know the playbook.

Ema

Precisely. They’ve learned the lessons, they have the connections, and they have the ambition. Nico de Luis, the cofounder of a freelancer site called Shakers, really captured this mindset shift. He said that just five years ago, your family would feel sorry for you for having the "startup illness."

David

The "startup illness." I can picture that. The goal was just to survive long enough to get acquired.

Ema

Um, right! He said the dream was for a French or German company to buy you out. Now, that's completely changed. This new generation of entrepreneurs is aiming to build global giants from Spain, not just create a quick exit. The confidence is on a totally different level.

David

That confidence must be what's attracting the second ingredient you mentioned earlier: the big money, especially from abroad.

Ema

That's the one. For years, Spanish startups primarily relied on local VCs. But now, founders are so confident in their vision that they're going straight to the top-tier global funds in London and the US. We're talking about huge names like Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer, and General Catalyst getting involved.

David

And why are they doing that? Is it just for the prestige of having a big name on your cap table?

Ema

Prestige is part of it, but it's also about a very practical reason: better terms. Borja Solé Fauria explained that a pre-seed company in Spain might get a valuation of around €3 million. In London, that same company could be valued at €10 million.

David

That is a massive difference. So they're getting more money for less equity, which allows them to grow faster without giving away the whole company.

Ema

Exactly. And that gap is starting to close as more foreign investors come in and drive up valuations. Nico de Luis from Shakers, for example, raised his latest round from a Paris-based fund. He said once you get a term sheet from a global fund, it creates FOMO for the Spanish VCs, and suddenly everyone wants in.

David

So the foreign interest actually elevates the entire ecosystem. It's a rising tide lifting all boats.

Ema

It is. And it’s becoming the norm. According to one angel investor, more than half of all fundraising deals in Spain last year had at least one foreign investor. That's a huge change from just a few years ago when a deal with a fund like SeedCamp was a rare, once-a-year event.

David

Okay, so we have experienced founders and a flood of international capital. What's the third ingredient in this "perfect storm"? You mentioned the government.

Ema

Right. You can't overlook the role of the Spanish government. They've been making very deliberate, tech-friendly moves to court foreign investment and talent. They've introduced things like a startup visa and a digital nomad program, making it much easier for people to move to Spain to work or launch a company.

David

I think I've heard about something called the "Beckham law"? Is that part of this?

Ema

It is! It's a great example. Named after the footballer David Beckham, it allows foreigners moving to Spain to pay a lower, flat income tax rate for a set period. It's a huge incentive for skilled workers.

David

So they're attracting the talent. Are they also providing direct financial support?

Ema

Yes, and that's critical. The state has a vehicle called SETT, which was a backer in that massive Multiverse deal we talked about. The idea is that keeping strategic tech like that in Spain will pay off hugely in the future.

Ema

There’s also a state bank called Enisa that offers loans specifically to startups. The key thing is, they don't ask for collateral like a normal bank would, and the terms are very founder-friendly. It’s another crucial piece of the funding puzzle, especially for early-stage companies.

David

So it’s a three-pronged approach: cultivate experienced local talent, attract foreign capital and workers, and provide strategic government support. It really does sound like a perfect storm.

David

This all sounds incredibly positive, Ema. A perfect storm of talent, money, and support. But storms can also be destructive. Is everyone convinced this growth is sustainable? Is there a downside to this boom?

Ema

That is the billion-euro question, David. And you're right, there's a healthy dose of skepticism bubbling under the surface. Kate Cornell, a general partner at Acurio Ventures in Madrid, put it perfectly. She asked, "Is something truly shifting? Or are we seeing the consequence of huge funds needing to deploy their money?"

David

That's a very sharp question. Is this genuine, organic growth, or is it just a symptom of a global market awash with cash, where big funds have to put their money somewhere?

Ema

Exactly. She wonders if this growth is "sticky." She admitted that some of the valuations she's seeing are, in her words, "quite terrifying." This is the classic fear of a bubble. When money is cheap and plentiful, valuations can become detached from the underlying business fundamentals.

David

And the risk there is that if the global market tightens, the tide of capital could go out just as quickly as it came in, leaving these high-valuation companies stranded.

Ema

Um, right. And Cornell points to a historical weakness: for all this excitement, there aren't that many Spanish companies that have truly "gone the distance" and become lasting, global leaders. That's the ultimate test of an ecosystem's maturity.

David

This brings up another point of tension, then. The one between the local investors, like Kate Cornell, and the big foreign VCs who are driving up these valuations. How are the local firms handling this new competition?

Ema

It’s a mixed bag. Jordi Vidal from Kibo Ventures has a pragmatic view. He acknowledges that they will lose deals to the big US funds, but he also sees the industry as very collaborative. The increased attention on Spain benefits everyone.

David

So, he sees it as a net positive, even if it means more competition for individual deals.

Ema

Yes, and Kate Cornell agrees to an extent. She said she's happy for the foreign funds to "make her up her game." It forces everyone to be sharper, faster, and more competitive. But it doesn't completely erase the concern about sustainability.

David

Another potential conflict seems to be in the talent pipeline itself. We talked about the "mafia founders," but is that pipeline deep enough to sustain this level of growth?

Ema

That's a fantastic point, and it's something the founders themselves are worried about. Màrius Montmany, the cofounder of a fast-growing startup called Rever, was very candid about this. He said, "We have two or three role models in Spain, we don’t have 25."

David

So while you have the Glovo and Cabify success stories, you don't have dozens of them. You need a critical mass of these role models to inspire and mentor the next, next generation of entrepreneurs.

Ema

Exactly. He feels that everyone needs to be motivated by more success stories. It's about building a culture where massive, global ambition is the norm, not the exception. The talent is there, but the ecosystem needs more heroes to look up to.

David

And there's one last little point of friction, isn't there? It’s about what happens after a founder becomes successful. Spain is great for attracting talent, but what about retaining the super-wealthy?

Ema

Right. It's a bit of an irony. The government has all these great tax breaks for workers moving to Spain, like the Beckham Law. But as investor Carlos Trenchs points out, for wealthy people, it's "maybe not so much."

David

How so?

Ema

If you had a big, successful exit in another country and then move to Spain, you might get taxed heavily on that wealth. It creates a situation where the super-wealthy might keep their money in more tax-friendly places like neighboring Andorra or Switzerland. It’s a small but significant hurdle in creating a truly self-sustaining cycle of wealth and reinvestment.

David

So despite those conflicts and concerns, the boom is happening right now. Let's talk about the impact. How is this transforming Spain's economy and its identity on the world stage?

Ema

One of the most interesting impacts is geographic. For the longest time, the Spanish tech scene was synonymous with just two cities: Madrid and Barcelona. That's changing.

David

Right, you mentioned Multiverse Computing raising that huge round in San Sebastián. That feels significant.

Ema

It's hugely significant! It proves that world-class tech companies can be built anywhere in Spain. It breaks the geographic concentration and suggests a much broader, more distributed ecosystem is emerging. It puts new cities on the VC radar, which is incredibly healthy for the country as a whole.

David

And beyond geography, is this boom shaping what kind of tech Spain is becoming known for? Are any specific sectors emerging as leaders?

Ema

Yes, and this is where it gets really interesting for the future. Two interconnected sectors are really starting to define the new Spanish tech scene: AI and life sciences. Investor Carlos Trenchs basically said, "Keep an eye on AI and life sciences, something big could happen here."

David

That makes sense, given the government's push to attract big pharma companies with generous tax breaks and fast-tracked regulations.

Ema

Exactly. That strategy is creating a fertile ground for medtech and biotech startups. We're seeing it with companies like Seqera, a bioinformatics startup in Barcelona that recently raised a $26 million round led by a New York VC. And institutions like the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre are now spinning out five companies a year, when it used to be just one.

David

So we're seeing a strategic alignment of government policy, institutional research, and venture capital, all pointing toward a future where Spain could be a European leader in health and AI tech.

Ema

That's the trajectory. But perhaps the biggest impact is the one we touched on earlier: the shift in the founder mindset. It's a move from local ambition to global ambition.

David

The idea of wanting to be the next big global export, not just a local player.

Ema

Precisely. Take Màrius Montmany from Rever, the e-commerce returns company. He's only 25. He worked at Glovo, saw a problem in e-commerce, and decided to solve it on a global scale. He went through the prestigious Y Combinator accelerator in the US.

David

How important is something like Y Combinator in this story?

Ema

It’s a game-changer. Montmany said, "Entering YC changes how you’re perceived: You go from being a Spanish company to being a YC company." It immediately gives you a global stamp of approval and a network that transcends national borders. His ambition is palpable; he literally said, "We all need to be motivated by success stories and I'm happy to be the next one." That's the new voice of Spanish tech.

David

It's an incredible story of transformation. So, looking to the future, Ema, what's on the horizon? What should we be watching for next out of Spain?

Ema

The immediate future looks just as buzzy. The founder WhatsApp groups are apparently fizzing with news of more sizable deals that are yet to be announced, with top-tier VCs leading the charge. So, expect more big headlines in the coming months.

David

And the sectors to watch remain AI and life sciences?

Ema

Absolutely. That combination seems to be Spain's emerging superpower. But there's another, more cultural trend that I think defines the future of Spain as a tech hub, and it's a fascinating one. It’s this unique duality of work culture.

David

A duality? What do you mean?

Ema

On one hand, you have these young, hungry founders like Montmany who have that classic, work-crazy-hours startup mentality. The article mentions chatting with founders at 6 or 7 p.m. on a Friday, and they were heading straight back to their desks afterwards. The hustle is real.

David

The kind of Silicon Valley stereotype of sleeping under your desk.

Ema

Exactly. But, on the other hand, Spain is also attracting a different kind of entrepreneur. People who are explicitly choosing to live there because it has a slower pace and a better work-life balance.

David

So it's a place for both the hustlers and the... non-hustlers?

Ema

Precisely! The article features an American entrepreneur, Ashley Duque Kienzle, who worked in the high-pressure tech scenes of New York, San Francisco, and London. She moved to Barcelona to slow down. She says she doesn't want to be "20 and hustling" anymore. She wants to walk her dogs in the morning.

David

That's a powerful selling point. It suggests the Spanish tech ecosystem is maturing to a point where it can accommodate different life stages and priorities. It’s not a one-size-fits-all model.

Ema

Um, right. It can be the place you go to build a billion-dollar company by working 80 hours a week, or the place you go to build a great business while still having a fantastic quality of life. That flexibility could be its ultimate competitive advantage in the global war for talent.

David

A place that combines world-class ambition with a world-class lifestyle. That's a compelling vision for the future.

David

Well, Ema, this has been an incredibly insightful look into the perfect storm brewing in Spain. We've seen how experienced founders, a surge of global capital, and smart government support have ignited a tech revolution.

Ema

Exactly. It’s a story of soaring ambition and staggering growth, but also one with important questions about sustainability and building a lasting ecosystem.

David

A huge thank you to our listeners for joining us on 'Future Forward.' We've learned that Spain is definitely a country to watch. Until next time, stay curious.

Read original at Sifted →

There’s no tech pain in Spain: both the number and size of deals have ballooned in 2025, with startups landing chunky offers from big name VCs and founders giddily trading gossip on (still unannounced) future rounds.VCs pumped just over €1bn into 95 Spanish startups in the first quarter, a 184% increase on the sum raised in the same period last year (€362m), according to Sifted data.

There have also been 95 equity rounds and €910m raised so far in Q2, a 90% rise on the amount raised in Q2 2024, with one week still to go in the quarter. The country is fourth for tech funding overall this year in Europe, with a deal count not far behind Germany and France. “The mentality has completely changed, literally in the last six months: rounds are bigger and faster,” says Borja Solé Fauria, founder of Barcelona-based Murphy AI, which uses AI to modernise debt collecting services.

“I’m seeing way more ambition around me.” “The market’s gotten hotter,” says Jordi Vidal, a partner at Barcelona-based VC firm Kibo Ventures. He pins this mainly on the global AI gold rush. Europe’s AI industry is centralised in France, the UK, Germany and Sweden but one big Spanish player of note is Multiverse Computing, which has developed technology to compress large-language models, with the hope of making them cheaper and more energy efficient to run.

The company, based in northern San Sebastián, a city not normally on VC radars, raised the biggest round in Europe last week, a $215m Series B. AI is just one part of the Spanish surge, however, with techies also keen to give plaudits to tech-friendly moves by the government and the emergence of so-called mafia founders, the ones with experience in big Spanish companies like Glovo, Cabify and Job&Talent.

“It’s the perfect storm for Spain,” says Kate Cornell, general partner at Acurio Ventures in Madrid. “We were quite behind in startup culture and now are catching up. We’ve got a few big companies that started a decade ago which are now offering that second layer of startups. This has fed into a bigger interest from abroad.

”More buzzy deals are promised, with info fizzing on founder WhatsApp groups about rounds yet to be made official. In the coming months, expect to hear about sizable deals led by VCs including Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer, among others.Growing confidenceNico de Luis, cofounder of Shakers, a site where companies can find freelancers, bagged a €14m Series A in May.

“It’s a really strong generation of entrepreneurs we’ve got right now,” he says. He agrees there’s been a notable mindset shift. “Even five years ago, your family would feel sorry for you for having the startup illness. The goal would be for a French or German company to buy you.”Shakers’s round was led by Paris-headquartered Partech.

“If you get a term sheet from a global fund, suddenly you’ve created FOMO for the Spanish VCs.” De Luis shopped his company to 50 firms overall. “Two told us their LPs [limited partners] weren’t sure about investing in Spain. We can live with just a couple saying this.”Everyone’s excited to see the big firms circling.

Recent deals involving US names in Spain include Barcelona bioinformatics startup Seqera’s $26m Series B, led by New York VC Addition, and HR software player Factorial’s $120m ‘go-to-market’ investment by General Catalyst.“Spanish founders are reaching out to big investors — which is a sign of a growing confidence in itself — because they want better terms than Spanish VCs offer,” Solé Fauria explains.

“Here, the valuation for a pre-seed company might be €3m, whereas in London it could be €10m. That gap is starting to close.”More than half of all fundraising deals in Spain last year had at least one foreign investor, according to Carlos Trenchs, cofounder of Barcelona angel fund Masia Ventures. “General Catalyst, SeedCamp: it used to be just one deal a year for these types of funds, now you’re seeing multiple,” Trenchs says.

What does he think has changed? “There are a lot more second and third time founders around: I’d say this is the main factor.”More foreign VCs will mean extra competition for local firms — but that’s okay, says Vidal. “We will lose deals at some point but this is an industry that’s also very collaborative.

”Cornell says she’s also happy for foreign funds to “make her up her game”. But she has a deeper question about the Spanish surge: “Is something truly shifting? Or are we seeing the consequence of huge funds needing to deploy their money?“I just wonder if this growth is sticky, because some of the valuations I find quite terrifying.

There are not that many companies, after all, that’ve gone the distance in Spain.”‘Happy to be the next big thing’Barcelona-based Rever, which came second in a recent Sifted ranking of the fastest-growing southern European companies, wants to be the next big Spanish export. The company aims to make the handling of returns smoother for e-commerce sites.

“I previously worked at Glovo and I saw that all parts of e-commerce were working well except one: returns,” says 25 year old cofounder Màrius Montmany. “They’re slow, they’re messy, they can take up to three weeks to process.”Rever promises to prevent some returns before they happen. “We gather valuable data for companies; for example, we could tell a clothing company that one t-shirt is being returned a lot in Germany and that they should proactively order different sizes,” Montmany says.

The company works with 500 merchants and transacts returns globally. Montmany and cofounder Oriol Hernandez i Fajula started the company in 2022 after a stint at the Y Combinator accelerator. “Entering YC changes how you’re perceived: You go from being a Spanish company to being a YC company,” Montmany says.

He wants to see more Spanish-born, global-sized companies. “We have two or three role models in Spain, we don’t have 25.” Glovo founder Oscar Pierre is someone he admires (he’s also a Rever investor). “We all need to be motivated by success stories and I'm happy to be the next one,” Montmany says.Government steps upThe government, despite currently battling corruption scandals that may force an early election, is receiving some credit for helping to stir the tech scene.

Investors say it has courted foreign investment, particularly pharma companies, with some of Europe’s most generous tax breaks and a relatively speedy regulatory process for new drugs. Other tech-friendly efforts in recent times include a startup visa and digital nomad programme. The influx of pharma companies means that medtech may increasingly define Spain’s tech scene, says Trenchs.

“Keep an eye on AI and life sciences, something big could happen here,” he says, noting the progress of Seqera. Spain doesn’t have many startups that fit into Europe’s other high growth category, defence, but there’s a new €150m defence-focused fund, Hyperion, launched by former politician Pablo Casado.

Some investors also speak about the importance of new state vehicle SETT, deployed last year with an initial €20bn, which was one of the backers in the Multiverse deal. “Keeping this tech in Spain was seen as strategically vital and something that will pay off in the future,” says Vidal. De Luis also points to the influence of the state bank Enisa, which offers loans to startups.

“They’re not asking for collateral like a normal bank would and you can get pretty good terms,” he says. Other institutions are stepping up. The Barcelona Supercomputing Centre is expected to spin out five companies this year, says Trenchs. “Previously it was one company a year from these guys.”Vidal rates other startup efforts like tweaks to tech share options.

“This used to be a nightmare, it has improved a bit,” he says. There are good tax breaks for employees moving to Spain, he says, including the so-called Beckham law, named after ex-England captain David Beckham, that allows foreigners to pay a lower income tax rate for a fixed period.“For workers, Spain’s fantastic.

But for wealthy people, maybe not so much,” says Trenchs. “If you had a nice exit in another country, you may be taxed for it when you move here.” The super wealthy keep a lot of their money in neighbouring Andorra or further afield in Switzerland, Vidal notes. Home to non-hustlers, tooSpeak to young Spanish founders and one thing quickly stands out: they have the work-crazy-hours mentality that’s seen a resurgence in tech circles this year.

It was after 7pm when Sifted chatted to Solé Fauria, while the chat with Montmany took place at 6pm on a Friday. Both founders headed back to their desks after the meetings ended. But Spain is also for those who want to slow down a bit. US entrepreneur Ashley Duque Kienzle worked at a string of tech companies in New York, San Francisco and London before settling in Barcelona.

Overall, she loves her new work-life balance, even if the after-work calendar is a lot less full than it was previously. “I would have two events a night to choose between in London. But that’s fine, I don’t want to go to as many things these days anyway. I don’t want to be 20 and hustling. People choose to live here because it has a slightly slower pace.

I want to walk my dogs in the mornings and evenings: I don’t want all the rush.”Kienzle reels off a list of familiar attributes. In her experience, “Spanish people are very well rounded; I love the friendliness of my neighbours. My parents live here now, too, three floors above me. How Spanish is that?

”

Analysis

Impact Analysis+

Event Background+

Future Projection+

Key Entities+

Twitter Insights+

Related Podcasts

Meta tried to buy Ilya Sutskever’s $32 billion AI startup, but is now planning to hire its CEO

6/26/2025

Emergency Tech City: The Network State's Bold Bid

6/21/2025

View All Podcasts →