Spiking interest rates and their effect on fundraising efforts was the big talking point on the Plug & Play stage yesterday in a panel session on 2024 investment trends.
Making sure discussions take place with professional investors who understand asset classes can result in interesting outcomes, as Miguel Arrufat Conesa, associate, Aldea Ventures, suggested to the audience.
Joan Cavallé I Oller, investment associate at 4Founders Capital, agreed with Conesa, and added that the sector in Spain is now more mature for both startups and limited partners (LP).
“There are more LPs right now that better understand the asset class compared to some years ago,” he said. “There are also more funds, so more competitors and more options to compare with and choose from.”
Anna Pellicer, VC associate and sustainability lead, ABAC Capital, said that institutional investors have been cautious of private equity and venture capital so far this year because of what has happened within public markets.
“They are definitely more interested in technology and innovation,” she said. “We’re seeing them opening their doors to talk to us and understand how the venture space works.”
Oller added that when it comes to assessing a company, especially in the early stages, introducing technology resources and removing the human bias is crucial to the whole analysis.
“We’re talking to founders to understand more about their profiles and ambitions, and why they want to create something within the current market environment,” he explained. “We’re also seeing more and more international investors in Spain-based companies, and UK and even US companies opening offices here just to recruit tech talent, which is of high quality, but also may be a bit cheaper than other geographies.”
Pellicer added she thinks 2024 will be a good year in terms of equity and the type of deal that can be invested in: “We’re seeing very solid teams and very good products. I think technically, there’s a lot of talent in Barcelona,” she concluded.
