València’s tech ecosystem is growing and maturing at a brisk pace. Founders, investors, and business leaders in the city are unanimous that this region in Spain will cement itself as a tech hub to be reckoned with in the coming years.
Names like Flywire, Fever, and Jeff are well-known, but there are tons more Valèncian startups and scaleups making waves at home and abroad. Ahead of The Next Web’s first conference in València on the 30th and 31st of March, we’re zooming in on 10 noteworthy local startups, selected by TNW and its key strategic conference partners: Lanzadera, Marina de Empresas, and Startup València.
Let’s dive in.
Zeleros Hyperloop
Zeleros Hyperloop is one of the world’s leading hyperloop developers. 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 1000kph.
With €15 million raised so far, and over 50 core staff, they are also using the time until the trains can launch (not before 2030) to work on advanced battery tech and trial automated tracks in local ports.
Zeleros Hyperloop will be speaking at TNW València, while Juan Vicen Balaguer is one of the event’s advisors.
Quibim
Founded in 2015 by Dr. Ángel Alberich-Bayarri — another conference speaker — and Prof. 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 radiology diagnostics 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 a huge roll with their human resource management platform that automates time-consuming processes like payroll and onboarding. The team numbers 200 employess now, as well as over 6,000 clients and 150,000 users in 30-plus countries across Europe and Latin America. Sesame raised a €10 million round and opened offices in Madrid and Barcelona in 2022; it recently set up shop in Mexico City too.
Internxt
A player in the internet privacy sphere since 2020, Internxt — one of the 60+ exhibiting startups at TNW València — is going up against the international corporate giants with a suite 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 the end users. Founder and CEO Fran Villalba Segarra’s startup employs 20 people and has raised €4 million at a €40 million valuation.
Voicemod
Voicemod’s AI-powered voice augmentation software generates “voice avatars” in real time for video gamers and virtual content creators. Founded by brothers Jaime, Fernando, and Juan Bosch in 2014, Voicemod has grown to over 150 staff, and said recently that they have 3.3 million monthly active users. It acquired Catalan AI music tech company Voctro Labs in December.
Funding-wise, Voicemod raised €7.1 million in Series A in 2020, and announced another $14.5 million raise this month.
ClimateTrade
ClimateTrade’s B2B blockchain-based climate platform helps companies counterbalance their carbon footprint by buying carbon offsets from climate projects via a virtual marketplace. Founded in 2017, it also offers an API that lets companies offer carbon-neutral products and services to their customers. ClimateTrade opened a US HQ in Miami in mid-2022.
The startup closed a €7 million pre-Series A round in 2021, and has announced plans to raise another €13 million in a US-focused round for international expansion.
Sales Layer
SaaS scaleup Sales Layer closed a whopping Series B round of €24 million in June 2022 for further expansion in Europe and the US of its cloud-based product information management tool. Its software automates complex B2B processes and connects companies’ products to sales platforms across the supply chain.
Founded by Álvaro Verdoy and Iban Borràs in 2013, the startup was named in G2’s 2023 Best Software awards for the second year in a row.
Rosita Longevity
Rosita Longevity, the team behind the largest longevity school in Europe, is another one to watch. The startup uses biomarkers to track physical condition and create individualised activity plans for live classes with personal health trainers, via an app. Rosita’s users were shown to have reduced their risk of falling (a key metric to measure frailty) from 36% to 6% after three months.
Co-founders Juan Cartagena, Clara Fernandez, and David Gil raised a €2.4 million seed round this year to launch in the lucrative US market.
NARIA
Headquartered 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 such as hotels, restaurants, and supermarkets with places like food banks to ensure excess food goes to those in need. NARIA app users can also make food donations, which are sent to digital wallets of people who need help buying groceries in supermarkets.
The startup has received €726,000 in investment so far and is currently raising a further €400,000 in private equity.
Passporter
A travel tech contender to keep an eye on. Valencia’s Passporter app lets you plan, book, and organise itineraries in over 75 global destinations, and record trips to share with others through a virtual passport.
The startup was founded in 2016 by Diego Rodríguez and Andrea Cayon, both co-CEOs, and so far has reportedly raised around €900,000.
If you want to experience València’s ecosystem for yourself and listen some of these startup founders speak on stage, we’ve got something special for our loyal readers. Use the promo code TNWVAL30 and get a 30% discount on your conference business pass for TNW València.