The leading UK equity crowdfunder’s Spanish subsidiary recently closed a €450,000 round for Barcelona-based drone company HEMAV. The €450,000 – which was raised in just 6 days via 73 private investors – represents a record within the nascent Spanish crowdfunding sector, both in terms of time taken to fund and amount funded. HEMAV acquired 4 new board members as part of the round, including prominent business angel Lluis Font – Co-Founder of Zyncro.
Crowdcube Spain kicked things off back in June 2014. The platform’s first campaign, somewhat appropriately, was for a jamón ibérico-selling company called Iberic Box. That round overfunded, with €92k funnelled through to the company.
The platform has also funded another 2 companies – Foodinthebox and Eureka Startups Experts – bringing its cumulative funding total to €620,000. The entirety of that sum has been sourced from Spanish investors. Whilst it may not seem like a significant total in relation to the UK sector’s gaudy numbers, the fact that all 4 of these projects have been funded entirely by local money is a sign that progress is being made in Spain’s fledgling alternative finance market.
Crowdcube Spain has a further 5 pitches live on the site at present. CEO Pepe Borrell likens the current state of the Spanish equity crowdfunding space to the position of the UK market 3 or 4 years ago – when the Crowdcube mothership first launched. A dedicated regulatory regime in Spain sits high up on Mr. Borrell’s wish list. Such a framework, he argues, would help to persuade a greater number of accredited investors to look upon the platform as a legitimate and professional investment channel.
We’ll keep you up to date with Crowdcube Spain’s development.
