Red River Insights - Spain's top 10
Vertical SaaS & global ambition - Spanish roots.
Red River Insights - May 2025
Dear Friends,
Spain has long been admired for its food, architecture, and culture, but when it comes to tech, it hasn’t always been at the center of Europe’s innovation conversation. That may be changing.
At Red River West, we’ve believed in Spain’s potential for years. That’s why we’ve had a local presence through a Spanish Venture Partner, and more recently, expanded the team with a dedicated analyst on the ground. We’ll also be in Madrid in a couple of weeks for South Summit, feel free to reach out if you’d like to connect!
Over the past months, we’ve seen a new generation of Spanish startups emerge with quiet strength: product-first, lean on capital, and often international from day one. This month, we asked RAMP, our proprietary momentum engine, to identify the 10 companies operating in Spain with the strongest early growth signals. The result is a list that’s as diverse as it is revealing, spanning fintech infrastructure, vertical SaaS, biotech platforms, and more.
Unlike past cycles, these companies aren’t trying to copy Silicon Valley or Berlin. They’re building around distinct competitive edges: cost-efficient remote teams, strong technical depth, and pragmatic go-to-market strategies. 90% of the companies in our ranking are already backed by international institutional investors, and many are scaling abroad while still relatively unknown at home.
This edition highlights the structural trends behind these breakouts and offers a snapshot of where Spanish tech might be headed next.
Scroll down to discover the 10 companies leading the charge, and the insights they reveal about Spain’s evolving tech landscape.
RAMP's Spanish top10
We hope this sparks interesting conversations. If you have any comments or would like to suggest a startup that should be included, feel free to reach out to us. Abel, Chloé, Joseph, Olivier and Ignacio will be delighted to discuss these trends and rankings.
(Ranking established on 15/05/2025)
We've highlighted 5 key trends illustrated by these companies:
Vertical SaaS dominance
Spain’s current wave of breakout companies shares one powerful common thread: they’re building specialised SaaS platforms deeply embedded in specific industries. This isn’t about chasing broad categories like CRM or ERP, it’s about solving concrete, operational problems with high-frequency use cases and clear ROI for clients.
Across the top 10, six companies are pure-play vertical SaaS: Imperia helps industrial SMEs digitise their supply chain planning and S&OP cycles; Fourvenues serves nightlife venues and event organisers with a tailored tool for CRM, automation, and ticketing; Indigitall offers enterprise-grade messaging infrastructure; and Shalion delivers retail and e-commerce analytics focused on shelf-level execution. Jotelulu (cloud infra for SMEs) and Seqera (workflow orchestration for life sciences) also operate in verticalized environments that require domain depth and technical precision.
Instead of competing with generalist US or UK players, these teams are dominating unsexy but highly profitable niches that outsiders often overlook. And because many of these markets (like supply chain or retail analytics) are universal, these SaaS startups are quietly positioning themselves for cross-border growth without needing to raise headline-grabbing mega rounds.
Fintech goes deep, not wide
The new wave of Spanish fintech is ditching the mass-market playbook. Instead of neobanks or tax apps, today’s most promising players, Embat and Crescenta, are building infrastructure-level solutions for sophisticated users.
Embat streamlines treasury management for finance teams, offering real-time visibility, automated reporting, and forecasting tools in a category long dominated by clunky legacy systems. Crescenta, meanwhile, opens access to private markets, like private equity or venture capital, to individual investors who traditionally lacked the tools, education, or entry points. Through digital onboarding, education, and curated funds, they’re enabling a broader segment of retail investors to invest more like institutions.
Remote-native, born-global from day one
One of the most distinctive features of this month’s Top 10 is the international trajectory many of these companies are beginning to follow, not just in terms of ambition, but in how their teams are evolving. While most were originally founded and built in Spain, today several are hiring across borders or setting up operations abroad, often accelerated by international fundraising.
Companies like Onum and Seqera illustrate this shift well: after securing funding from global investors, they now operate with a growing footprint in markets like the US and the UK. Others, such as Indigitall or Shakers, have adopted distributed team structures to serve clients across multiple geographies from early on.
This international orientation is increasingly common among Spanish founders, particularly in the wake of success stories like TravelPerk or Factorial, which have shown that it’s possible to scale global companies from Spain. In a market where late-stage capital and large-scale M&A remain relatively scarce, going global early is becoming less a luxury and more a necessity.
Spain attracts international capital, not just tourists
One of the clearest signals in this month’s Top 10: Spain is increasingly attractive to global investors. More than 65% of the startups featured have raised funding from international VCs, including names like Accel, Insight Partners, and Creandum.
This isn’t just anecdotal. It reflects a real shift in how global capital views the Spanish ecosystem. These founders aren’t raising from local networks, they’re getting into top-tier global portfolios based on traction, team quality, and product depth.
It also says something about Spain’s positioning: highly technical teams, strong engineering talent, lower burn, and increasingly global go-to-market models are becoming more appealing in a capital-constrained environment.
While the Spanish VC landscape still has room to deepen, the quality of international participation in these rounds is a sign that Spain isn’t just building good companies, it’s building investable ones. Ones that compete on fundamentals, not hype.
Madrid and Barcelona still lead, but they’re no longer the whole story
Spain’s tech ecosystem has long revolved around its two major hubs: Madrid and Barcelona. And this month’s Top 10 confirms their central role, 8 out of 10 companies are headquartered in one of the two.
But scratch beneath the surface, and a more meaningful picture emerges. Distributed teams are becoming the norm, with product, tech, and go-to-market talent increasingly based outside the two big cities. In fact, some of the fastest-growing teams are building critical functions remotely, without a fixed HQ.
More importantly, other regions are starting to matter. The Comunidad Valenciana and the Basque Country in particular are seeing rising founder activity, stronger local support networks, and international hiring momentum. As infrastructure improves and remote work becomes default, founders are choosing to build from where it makes most sense, not just where the capital is.
Spain’s tech map is flattening. It’s still anchored in its two giants, but the next breakout team could come from anywhere.
Extra Trend – French founders are building in Spain
While technically outside the Top 10, two companies stood out in our broader RAMP scan: WeGrow and BSport. Both are French-founded, with headquarters in France, but they share one notable trait: over half of their team is now based in Spain.
This isn’t a coincidence. Spain is increasingly becoming a strategic base for European tech companies looking to scale efficiently. Lower operational costs, access to strong engineering talent, and a high quality of life are turning cities like Valencia, Madrid and Barcelona into magnets for international operators.
WeGrow and BeSport didn’t relocate out of convenience, they chose Spain deliberately, and the results show. Both have metrics strong enough to compete for a spot in the Top 10, and their ability to scale cross-border with Spanish-based teams is proof that Spain is no longer just a domestic ecosystem, it’s becoming a European operating hub.
As talent becomes more mobile and growth strategies more distributed, expect more European founders to follow suit.
Other signals from the RAMP scan:
US readiness is strong across the board: Spanish startups in the Top 10 showed a surprisingly high average US expansion score, particularly for vertical SaaS and data infrastructure. Companies like Seqera and Onum scored especially well, validating the thesis that focused B2B products with strong technical foundations and clear ROI are well-positioned to scale transatlantically. The momentum is not just local: these teams are building with global markets in mind from day one.
Deeptech foundations are taking shape: Startups like Seqera and others at the intersection of biotech, AI, and data orchestration show that Spain is quietly building deep technical capabilities. While still early compared to some European peers, this growing layer of complexity signals that deeptech momentum is real, and accelerating.
Consumer models take a back seat - for now: With the exception of legacy players, consumer-facing models were rare among the top performers. Like in other European markets, Spain’s current momentum is concentrated in B2B models with clear monetization and international potential.
More on RAMP's scoring method
The ranking of these startups is based on the estimated momentum of the company, but the algorithm does not assess the quality or reliability of the products/solutions developed by these companies!
Find out about the algorithm behind this ranking and the way scores are calculated here: Cheat sheet on RAMP
In case you missed them, our latest top 10s are here: Sport Tech (April 25), HR Tech (March25), Open Source AI (Feb25), Agentic AI (Jan25), French Tech (Dec24)
All the previous Top 10 are here.
Co-Leading Veesion’s Series B: Reinventing Retail Security Through AI
We are thrilled to announce our investment in Veesion, co-leading their €38M Series B round alongside Whitestar Capital, Bpifrance, and KPN Ventures.
Retailers lose over $120B each year to theft, despite massive investments in cameras and security. Veesion uses AI to detect suspicious gestures in real time, turning existing CCTV systems into proactive loss prevention tools. Already active in 5,000+ stores across 25 countries, the company has demonstrated clear ROI, including one pilot that intercepted €50,000 in attempted theft.
With Benoit now leading U.S. expansion and a product roadmap extending beyond theft detection, Veesion is on track to become the global leader in AI-powered retail security.
Read Joseph’s piece for more details on our investment in Veesion and how his journey with the company started 7 years ago! (More here)
Portfolio news:
The Exploration Company successfully completed final integration and testing of its first orbital capsule, Mission Possible, which has now been shipped to the U.S. for launch preparation. The team also secured a new contract from the European Space Agency to develop a cryogenic heat exchanger for its Huracan engine, advancing sustainable propulsion technologies for Europe’s future space infrastructure. (More here)
Resilience officially enrolled the first patient in its large-scale RC-102 clinical trial. The study, involving 1,458 oncology patients across 45 hospitals in France, Belgium, and Germany, will compare Resilience PRO’s remote monitoring platform to standard care, aiming to deliver new clinical evidence for RPM in cancer treatment. (More here)
Brut reported a record audience of 28 million views across Brut, Brut America, and Brut India for its exclusive coverage of the Cannes Film Festival opening ceremony, reinforcing its position as a leading global media player for younger audiences. (More here)
DeepOpinion was selected among the 100 companies shaping the future of the UAE, as recognized by the Ministry of Economy and the Office for Government Development. This marks a major milestone in the company’s expansion and validation of its Agentic Automation technology across the Middle East. (More here)
Team news:
We want to give a warm welcome to Alessandro Ciffo, who just joined the team! Alessandro brings a strong background in data science and machine learning, with experience building AI-powered products across Amazon, Generali, and the legal tech startup Midpage.ai. Most recently, he co-founded Casify.it, a SaaS tool that helped real estate investors evaluate deals faster through machine learning. We're thrilled to have him on board!
Last week, we hosted our annual LP meeting at the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, bringing together our community to explore two critical themes: Artificial Intelligence and European Sovereignty. We heard from Stefan Engl (DeepOpinion) and Pierrick Arnal (Okeiro) on how AI is driving real-world impact in enterprise automation and organ transplantation. Hélène Huby (The Exploration Company) shared her vision for autonomous European access to space during a fireside chat with Luc Emmanuel, and Abel Samot led a panel on the strategic role of open-source software in sovereign AI. Thanks to our LPs, speakers, and team for making the evening a success. (More here)
Looking ahead, a few upcoming travel plans for the team:
→ Olivier, Chloe, and Ignacio will be attending South Summit in Madrid this June. If you're planning to be there and would like to connect, don’t hesitate to reach out - we’d love to meet.
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