by Valencia’s tech ecosystem is growing and maturing at a rapid pace. Founders, investors and business leaders in the city agree that this region in Spain will establish itself as a technology hub to be reckoned with in the coming years.
Names like Flywire, Fever and Jeff are familiar, but there are plenty of startups and scaleups from Valencia making waves at home and abroad. Ahead of The Next Web’s first conference in Valencia on March 30 and 31, we’re zooming in on 10 remarkable local startups, selected by TNW and its key strategic partners: Lanzadera, Marina de Empresas and Startup València.
Let’s dive in.
Zeleros Hyperloop
Zeleros Hyperloop is one of the leading hyperloop developers worldwide. Since its founding in 2016 by Juan Vicen Balaguer (CMO), David Pistoni (CEO) and Daniel Orient (CTO), Zeleros has been working on the ultra-fast train that will transport people and cargo through vacuum tubes on maglev tracks at speeds of up to 1000 km/h.
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With €15 million raised so far and over 50 key employees, they are also using the time until the trains start rolling out (not before 2030) to work on advanced battery technology and trial automated lines at local ports.
Zeleros Hyperloop will speak at TNW València, while Juan Vicen Balaguer is one of the advisors of the event.
Quibim
Founded in 2015 by Dr. Ángel Alberich-Bayarri — another conference speaker — and Professor Luis Marti-Bonmati, medtech company Quibim has grown to over 70 staff in Madrid, Barcelona, New York and Cambridge, UK.
The company’s AI-powered diagnostic radiology platform is used by hospitals and medical researchers to detect pathologies using imaging biomarkers, with algorithms developed for more than 20 diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer’s. Quibim raised a seed round of €8 million in 2020.
Sesame HR
Founded by Albert Soriano in 2015, Sesame HR is on the rise with its human resource management platform that automates time-consuming processes like payroll and onboarding. The team has 200 employees now, as well as more than 6,000 customers and 150,000 users in more than 30 countries across Europe and Latin America. Sesame raised a €10 million round and opened offices in Madrid and Barcelona in 2022. It also recently set up shop in Mexico City.
Internxt
A player in the internet privacy sphere since 2020, Internxt — one of the 60+ exhibiting startups at TNW València — is taking on international corporate giants with a range of encrypted cloud services, including Internxt Drive storage, Internxt Photos and Internxt Send .
It’s not just about “military-grade encryption” for individuals and businesses, but also about reducing energy consumption by storing data closer to end users. Founder and CEO Fran Villalba Segarra’s startup employs 20 people and has raised €4m at a €40m valuation.
Voicemod
Voicemod’s AI-powered voice augmentation software creates real-time “voice avatars” for video players and virtual content creators. Founded by brothers Jaime, Fernando and Juan Bosch in 2014, Voicemod has grown to over 150 staff and recently claimed to have 3.3 million monthly active users. In December it acquired Catalan music technology company AI Voctro Labs.
In terms of funding, Voicemod raised €7.1 million in Series A in 2020 and announced a new $14.5 million raise this month.
ClimateTrade
ClimateTrade’s blockchain-based B2B climate platform helps companies offset their carbon footprint by purchasing carbon offsets from climate projects through a virtual marketplace. Founded in 2017, it also offers an API that allows companies to offer carbon-neutral products and services to their customers. ClimateTrade opened US headquarters in Miami in mid-2022.
The startup closed a €7 million pre-Series A round in 2021 and announced plans to raise another €13 million in a US-focused round for international expansion.
Sales Level
SaaS scaleup Sales Layer closed a massive €24 million Series B round in June 2022 for further European and US expansion of its cloud-based product information management tool. Its software automates complex B2B processes and connects companies’ products with sales platforms throughout the supply chain.
Founded by Álvaro Verdoy and Iban Borràs inside In 2013, the startup was named in G2’s Best Software Awards 2023 for the second year in a row.
Rosita Longevity
Rosita Longevity, the team behind Europe’s largest longevity school, is another one to watch. The startup uses biomarkers to track fitness and create personalized activity plans for live classes with personal health trainers through an app. Rosita users were shown to reduce their risk of falling (a key metric for measuring frailty) from 36% to 6% after three months.
Co-founders Juan Cartagena, Clara Fernandez and David Gil raised a €2.4 million production round this year to launch in the lucrative US market.
NARIA
Based in Castellón de la Plana, NARIA was created in 2019 by CEO Kilian Zaragozá and COO Josevi Villarroig. The blockchain platform connects food industry outlets like hotels, restaurants and supermarkets with places like food banks to ensure excess food goes to those in need. Users of the NARIA app can also make food donations, which are sent to digital wallets of people who need help buying groceries at supermarkets.
The startup has so far received €726,000 in investments and is currently raising an additional €400,000 in private equity.
Passport
A travel tech contender to watch. Valencia’s Passporter app lets you plan, book and organize itineraries to over 75 global destinations and record trips to share with others via a virtual passport.
The startup was founded in 2016 by Diego Rodríguez and Andrea Cayon, both co-CEOs, and has reportedly raised around €900,000 so far.
If you want to experience the Valencian ecosystem for yourself and hear some of these startup founders speak on stage, we have something special for our loyal readers. Use promo code TNWVAL30 and get 30% off yours conference business card for TNW Valencia.
