The company specializing in attracting and transforming talent, Demium, has closed 2021 with a turnover of four million eurosdivestments worth €4.4 million and reaching the break even for the first time since its launch in 2013.
The company divides its activity between its incubator, in charge of selecting the best professionals, helping them find their co-founders to launch a startup and validating a business idea in the market; and his venture capital managercreated in November 2020, which invests in those incubated projects in which it sees a clear potential for impact and scalability.
“2021 has been the year in which we have stopped being simply service providers to also become investors, with the launch of our first fund of 50 million euros, in which more than 100 European investors participate. In addition to being profitable for the first time, we have shown that our business model works, and that investing in talent at the earliest stage, from our own structure and through this fund, can offer really attractive returns”says Monte Davis, CEO of Demium.
68 startups invested, the most active venture capital
During the past year, the group manager has invested 7.2 million euros in 68 startups born in the incubator itself (through their hubs in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ukraine and Poland). Of these, 49 are Spanish (14 from Valencia, 13 from Madrid, 12 from Barcelona and 10 from Malaga), in which she has invested 5.2 million euros. These data make it the venture capital most active in the country by number of operations, all of them in phase pre seed.
By sectors, in 2021 there was an increase in investment in projects linked to the gaming and the eSports and with the scope edtechwhile those related to areas such as commerce and travel have been reduced in relation to 2020. On the other hand, projects in the sector fintech they remain on the rise, and those belonging to the field of health have also gained strength. The most frequent business model in the startups invested by the Demium manager is, without a doubt, the Software as a Service (SaaS) in B2B environments.
Divestments: the success story of Swipcar
Regarding the divestments carried out during the past year, the most notable operation was the one carried out at the end of the year with Swipcar, born in Demium. This Spanish startup was acquired by the British automobile ecommerce company Cazoo, and as the company’s main investor after the co-founders, Demium entered 3 million euros, reporting an IRR of 156% and a multiple of more than 25 times the invested capital.
It has also achieved a partial divestment of its stake in VoiceMod, a Spanish startup that has developed a real-time voice modulator for gamers Y streamers, which has reached a valuation of 124 million euros. Another outstanding operation has been the round of 11 million euros closed by its investee Citibox, a startup creator of a system of intelligent mailboxes for receiving online purchases and that has already reached a valuation of more than 100 million euros.
Objectives for 2022
In 2022, the Demium incubator will continue to organize in all its hubs the events AllStartups, which represent the gateway to talent (last year a total of 485 people participated at its headquarters in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Malaga). And the first edition of its new Acceleration Program will start, to help startups in their initial phase to increase their traction and achieve an investment round of at least €100,000 in four months (the registration period is open until January 31 ).
The company’s goal is to strengthen its presence in the places where it already operates and open hubs in new European countries, with special interest in generating projects and investments in Eastern countries. In addition, through its manager, it plans to launch new funds and vehicles that reinforce the assets they already have, such as the creation of a fund of opportunities to invest in those startups in which it has a stake that are already in a more advanced phase (series A).
