Buguroo, TAPP Water, StudentFinance, Helloteca, Berdac, The Beemine Lab and Neki are startups that have captured the attention of several private investors to develop new business lines and expand markets.
Buguroo
The Spanish cybersecurity company, specialized in cutting-edge technology for the detection and prevention of online fraud, based on Deep Learning, which combines behavioral biometrics, malware detection and device analysis, has raised $ 11 million in financing with which will consolidate its presence in Europe and Latin America and focus on its global expansion.
The investment funds TenEleven Ventures and Seaya Ventures led the financing round. In addition, Inveready Technology Investment Group and Conexo Ventures, investors already present in the company, participated.
Currently, Buguroo technology protects more than 50 million customers of banks in Europe and Latin America, a portfolio that now expects to increase with customers in new markets. In addition, the company will promote the development of new capabilities, including Fraudster Hunter, a pioneering functionality in the sector, which identifies and tracks the behavior patterns of cyber-fraudsters and their collaborators to detect fraud scenarios and recognize their modus operandi.
TAPP Water
The startup) that is revolutionizing home water filtration systems has closed a financing round of 1.8 million euros to develop new water filtration products. Among its private investors are Bluewater, a Swedish company specializing in solutions and technologies for drinking water, and Yabeo, a German investment fund focused on the adtech, fintech and healthtech sectors. This new round comes after having closed 2018 with a financing of almost 2 million euros from private investors, as well as the largest research and innovation program in the European Union, Horizon 2020.
This growth will not only help boost the company financially. The objective of TAPP Water is to allocate this new capital to continue developing its filtration products in 2020 to offer cleaner, environmentally more sustainable and better tasting water, in an affordable way and directly from the tap.
With this, the company, which this year has exceeded 16,000 users, also seeks to expand its user base and avoid the use and disruption of nearly 10,000 million plastic bottles before 2025. So far, the company has sold more of 60,000 products in 65 different countries.
“We are very happy with the continuous support and support to our mission of creating sustainable and affordable products that eliminate the need to consume bottled water. TAPP is not only an excellent solution to reduce the use of single-use plastics, empower people to change their consumption habits and raise awareness about the impact our daily decisions have on the planet. It is also a great business opportunity. Our goal is to avoid the use and disruption of 10,000 million plastic bottles and grow a business worth one billion euros in the next 5 years, ”said Rocío Alcocer, general director of TAPP Water.
StudentFinance
This fintech has closed an investment round of 1,150,000 euros, to consolidate in Spain the educational financing system based on the “Shared Income Agreement”. The company will use this capital to build a technological data infrastructure that provides its partner schools with a platform to offer this new financing model. Which, according to its spokesmen, will allow them to support more than 500 students in 2020. StudentFinance wants to reduce, thanks to this type of financing, the digital talent gap that exists in the Spanish labor market. In fact, according to the company, there are more than 700,000 unfilled job vacancies of this type in Europe, which is why they consider it essential to promote education in technological skills, such as software engineers, data analysts or cybersecurity experts.
The round has been led by the European Seedcamp venture capital fund and the Mustard Seed Maze fund, focused on companies with a high social impact component. Likewise, well-known European entrepreneurs have participated, such as the founder and CEO of Farfetch, José Neves; the founder and CEO of Trivago, Rolf Schrömgenst; the founder and CEO of Feedzai, Nuno Sebastiao, and the founders and co-CEOs of Jobandtalent, Felipe Navío and Juan Urdiales.
Helloteca
This online mortgage advice and management platform has made a capital increase of 720,000 euros, coming from the entrepreneurial partners of Helloteca and PADEinvest.
“We accompany and advise the user throughout the search process until the signing of the mortgage with the best solution in the market and in a professional, simple, fast and free way, using our technological platform to find, offer and manage the mortgage to the measure of each of our clients. We offer, in a single management, the entire banking offer in a personal and personalized way, according to the financial and credit characteristics of the user ”, explains Juan Pablo Caturini, CEO and co-founder of the company.
The differential value of Helloteca resides “in our expertise and specialization, establishing ourselves as the vertical fintech of mortgage management and advice. Thanks to our technological platform, our professionals can maintain an agile, transparent and direct relationship with customers. It is in this deal in which it is clear the quality of the equipment, formed entirely by banking professionals specialized in the mortgage sector, qualified as financial intermediary advisors in the Bank of Spain and the Ministry of Consumption”, says Caturini.
The company estimates closing 2019 with about 1,000 mortgages under management and about 300 signed, and its goal is to achieve a 3% market share by the end of 2020, with a good projection in the coming years.
Berdac Smart Services
This company that produces and markets IMA (Intelligent Medication Assistant), the tablet dispenser that alerts you when you have to take your medication, has collected a total of 445,000 euros. On the one hand, 345,000 in a round led by Equity4Good, an investment vehicle of Ship2B; the network of investors promoted by Esade Alumni, Esade Ban; the network of investors sponsored by the Barcelona Association of Economists, EconomistesBan, and individual business angels. And another 100,000 euros through a participatory loan from Enisa.
Now the company will focus its efforts on its impending market launch, closing commercial agreements that are already underway and manufacturing the first 2,000 units of IMA. “This was an essential step to reach the market. Keep in mind that, being an industrial product, the initial investment is key to moving forward. So, we can only thank the confidence that our new partners have shown us in this very early stage, betting on IMA and the Berdac team”, said Roger Guasch, CEO of the company.
The Beemine Lab
This biotech of cosmetic, dietary and parapharmacy products, based on cannabis sativa L and beekeeping, has already captured 243,000 euros, exceeding the target that had been set at 230,000 in a co-investment campaign launched in Startupxplore, and there are still 15 days to close it .
Thanks to its network of farms, laboratories, distributors and warehouses, The Beemine Lab has managed to validate its business model after entering 5 countries and obtaining an average annual turnover growth of 137%. Its products have been very well received in the market: customers who have proven their benefits have continued to demand them, making the startup’s repeat purchase ratio greater than 70%.
The round, in which 47 investors have participated at the moment, will serve to increase their financial lungs and grow their product line with balms for pain, facial creams and masks. He is also working on a new innovative product: propolis spray with CBD to treat diseases of the nervous system.
Neki
This startup, specializing in the development of GPS devices for the elderly, has received 225,000 euros, exceeding the target of 180,000 that had been set in a joint venture campaign through Startupxplore, thanks to the contributions of 112 investors.
The funds raised will go to marketing to accelerate their growth and to the internationalization of their locating devices, which are already in Portugal, Sweden and Italy. This round has been led by Equity4Good, an investment vehicle of Ship2B, which considers that “since we invested they have successfully tracted fulfilling objectives and their business plan. We believe that it is a project with many possibilities in which to continue betting to invest in marketing and continue growing exponentially”.
Now, after the close of the round, the startup has increased its financial strength enough to meet the challenge of scaling its project and its business model.
Also published on Medium.