Jobandtalent, Wallbox and Fever: facing the challenge of growing and going public.
The Spanish unicorns, companies whose valuation exceeds 1,000 million dollars, continue to grow and plan new corporate milestones such as mergers and acquisitions and IPOs to continue promoting their international expansion. These are movements that anticipate consolidation and a necessary change in the profile of the Spanish stock market to make it more technological. The experts consulted by elEconomista agree on the importance of Spanish start-ups being able to grow through acquisitions and access other financing alternatives, providing liquidity to their existing shareholders and improving the return of their investors, provided that market conditions allow them to maximize their valuation and the regulatory environment is conducive. It is the natural step, they agree, for an ecosystem ofventure capital in the expansion phase in Spain, increasingly mature and sophisticated, and where success stories are growing.
In an unprecedented start to the year, four startups joined the select club last January , bringing to 12 the number of Spanish companies that already have the coveted 'unicorn' status: the online travel agency TravelPerk, the parcel company Paack, the leisure experiences marketplace Fever and the creative learning community Domestika. Until now, the select club was held by eight companies: Glovo, Jobandtalent, Idealista, Cabify, Devo, Flywire, eDreams and Wallbox.
First debuts
The Spanish startup ecosystem has taken an exponential growth leap and it is undeniable that emerging projects occupy an increasingly relevant weight in the business environment. The success stories have, in turn, attracted a greater number of national and international investors. The best proof of this is that in 2021, almost 78% of the volume invested in young projects was contributed by foreign funds, a figure that triples that of the previous year according to Ascri data . Spanish technology companies are therefore capable of attracting more investment in large rounds led by US and European funds.
It seems unquestionable, therefore, that there is no lack of appetite for financing this type of company. With these premises, Jaime Tarrero, a partner at RocaJunyent, is clear that the Spanish unicorns can position themselves as candidates to swell the floor, both in terms of size and business plan, balance sheet strength and income statement. " The question is rather whether market conditions will be conducivefor these companies to maximize their valuation on the stock market and the return for the founders compared to traditional M&A, the entry of private investors or other more innovative alternatives, such as the merger with a foreign SPAC", he explains. These corporate movements would be the natural step for that companies like Jobandtalent, Wallbox and Fever, which are among the candidates, will maximize their rapid growth, attracting new resources and offering a liquidity event.
The question is whether the conditions will be conducive to maximizing their valuation on the stock market and the return for the founders compared to traditional M&A
Two Spanish unicorns have already taken their first steps on the US Stock Exchange, the main market of origin for technology companies. The Flyware platform, founded by the Valencian entrepreneur Iker Marcaide, was the last company to debut on the Nasdaq, the benchmark technology selective, in May 2021. A startup made in Spain debuting on the US stock market. A big debut that raised its capitalization to almost 3,400 million dollars (about 2,800 million euros) with a powerful team in its placement, made up of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup and Bank of America.A few months earlier, Wallbox, the Spanish provider of charging solutions for electric vehicles, and the first Spanish unicorn to debut on Wall Street, had done so . It did so at a $1.3bn valuation by merging with a SPAC, a type of special takeover-oriented go-to-market partnership. Wallbox obtained 217 million dollars to promote its business plan: product development, international expansion and new factories.
It remains to be seen which companies will follow these first steps with new movements that would strengthen the venture capital segment in Spain, demonstrating that investment in new, young and dynamic companies works. One of the candidates is the entertainment and events platform Fever. The one known as Netflix of experiences does not rule out an upcoming IPO in the United States, as its founding partners have confirmed to elEconomista . "The IPO is a milestone that we would like to accomplish but with no date on the calendar. Going public is one more mechanism to continue financing and growing, it is not an objective. In principle, it would be in the United States, our largest market and where it would make the most sense to operation", explains Ignacio Bachiller, founding partner of Fever.
The Spanish employment platform Jobandtalent is, at the moment, the best valued unicorn after Glovo, which already operates under the control of the German Delivery Hero at 95% . The collapse on the stock market of the German home delivery platform is taking its toll on the shareholders of the Spanish unicorn who converted their titles. Before this operation with the German, one of the great corporate transactions of the year, Glovo was already the clearest example of growth via purchases of a Spanish unicorn. Since its birth in 2015, the Barcelona company has made a total of 10 acquisitions of complementary delivery companies to add synergies. The last one was its first operation in Spain: the purchase of 100% of WinDelivery from Extremadura this year.
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