Investments in the sector do not stop, and despite the uncertainty of the moment at a global level, the ecosystem continues to add money for its growth. Some of these operations had been under negotiation for months – or even last year – and finally, at the end of this first quarter, the an investment of more than 1,220 million euros in just over 110 movements. Another is the amount if we talk about acquisitions, where it has also been a period in which ‘mega purchases’ have been made, such as that of Microsoft to take over Activision Blizzard for 69,000 million dollars; or the purchase of InStaff by Jobandtalent for a total of 29.5 million euros.
Last year ended with one of the biggest deals that has been known so far in Spain: the ‘mega purchase’ of Glovo from Delivery Hero. The chimes of New Year’s Eve were ringing and Oscar Pierre signed an agreement with the German giant where the company It would be sold for 1,750 million to be paid in shares. Although it was a movement announced in 2021, much of the details have been settled during these months. The problem with this ‘contract’ is that it was signed without a ‘minimum cap’ on the price until closing. Now the drop in the Delivery Hero stock market has meant that the valuation of 100% of the Spanish company is below the money raised accumulated since its first round in 2015.
In turn, the delivery startup founded by Oscar Pierre has made various purchases of companies to grow. He already has five operations in the last seven months, where two of them have been carried out this year: he stayed with the Italian Socialfood and the Portuguese Kitch. The same goes for Jobandtalent that has brought to the table 29.5 million euros to acquire the American InStaff in the process of expansion. Goi also continued with the trend of acquiring and signing for companies such as Lidertrans and Servimas; Playtomic gave the green light to add Finnish SL Systems Oy to its sports clubs.
The quarter has accumulated more than 1,220 million in rounds. The same period of 2020 registered almost 300 million less than this beginning of the year.
But if we talk about big purchases, Microsoft is one of the companies that takes the statuette during the first quarter. The American giant took out a checkbook for 69,000 million dollars to buy Activision Blizzard. His goal of becoming the ‘king’ of the gamer sector rose with this acquisition as he came to control the value chain even more, adding everything from software and content to hardware with his Xbox game console business. Netflix has also joined this race and paid 65 million for Next Games, a studio specializing in mobile video games. It is a sector where Spanish startups have stood out in recent years with companies such as Codigames o Tequila Works which just a few weeks ago Tencent acquired a majority stake in the Spanish video game studio.
From megabuys to megarounds
The first three months of the year have given much to talk about. The experts doubted about a possible correction of the valuations of the companies in the sector after having lived a 2021 with historical records in investment. However, the trend has shown that 2022 remains on the upside. For example, in investment areas in the first quarter of last year there were 94 operations with a total disbursement of 947.9 million; namely, more than 270 million less than this beginning of the year. In 2020, months in which the confinement due to the coronavirus had just been decreed, a goal of 64 movements was reached with 77.9 million euros agreed according to figures from the Bankinter Foundation.
One of the most outstanding has been the ‘mega round’ of Fever, the live events platform that raised 200 million euros (227 million dollars) in a round led by the giant Goldman Sachs, which was joined by the media group national, Atresmedia. With this movement the startup became a unicorn. The case is similar to that of Travelperk, which announced the closure of its series D with a total raised of 275 million dollars (242 million euros) after adding an additional 101 million to its previous round. Paack, the logistics company obtained from Softbank a financing of 200 million euros to reinforce its product. Kibo Ventures, Big Sur Ventures, RPS Ventures, Fuse Partners, Rider Global, Castel Capital and Iñaki Berenguer also participated in this expansion.
Another of the most outstanding operations has been that of Jobandtalent with its ‘megaround’ of 460 million euros, complete with the double endorsement of the giant Blackrock. Also the recent round of Talent.com where he raised 120 million dollars (108.7 million euros in exchange). Domestika, the startup with Spanish ‘DNA’ raised 97 million euros and reached a valuation of 1,300 million dollars. The operation was led by Zeev Ventures and GSV Ventures was also part of it, with the aim of nurturing its expansion and continuing to invest in products.
Several companies such as Typeform (123 million) are added to the list of ‘mega-rounds’ and rounds; Yaba (75 million); Clikalia (75 million); Capchase (48 million); or Submer (30 million). Others continue to add little by little to their companies with rounds of 8 million, such as Hubuc or Payflow, or the 10 million Sateliot round. The ecosystem grows in full global uncertainty and in a ‘perfect storm’ for the sector, where experts believe which will be a time of possible adjustment in the valuations of emerging companies and the eventual decrease in investor appetite for the next few months.
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