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▶ 23:20 · Venture Capital · Follow-on strategies diverge: spray-and-pray vs concentration as ownership math breaks
episode briefing
SeedRocket TV

How Investors Really Think (What They Never Say in Public) | Live Panel Discussion

2026-05-20 · 14 company · 4 thematic
sentiment
14 bull0 bear0 neu
speakers
jesús monleón

Host of SeedRocket's 4Founders podcast; runs Go Trendier (a secondhand fashion marketplace) and 4Founders; actively applies AI learnings from guests to his own companies.

lauren arens

Investor at BStartup, Banco Sabadell's corporate venture arm investing off balance sheet via two vehicles (100-200k pre-seed/seed, 500k-2M follow-on/Series A) plus venture debt product; active in healthtech, hardware, biotech; backed Tiay, Mondo, Xnova (co-invest).

jaime novoa

GP at KFund managing ~650M AUM across three funds (11M pre-seed, 70M seed, larger growth) plus fund-of-funds and energy transition vehicles; invests 50% Spain, 25% Europe, 25% LatAm; backed Factorial, TravelPerk, Abacum, Hotel Networks.

marta campillo

Investor at Abac Ventures, the VC arm of Abac Capital (800M AUM multi-strategy platform); manages 20M Fund II deploying in pre-seed/seed with follow-on; backed Galtea, Xnova, Ánfora, Payflow, Taxdown; leverages PE portfolio for commercial validation.

now playing · Venture Capital
AI Bubble / Capex Debateheadwindscore 9/10jaime novoa
Valuation discipline collapses as capital deployment pressure meets scarce quality deals
Too much capital (public-funded micro-VCs, international funds) chasing too few fundable Spanish startups; pre-seed rounds now 1-3M without product, forcing VCs to either overpay or miss de…
AI Applicationstailwindscore 8/10marta campillo
VCs shift to vertical AI applications over infrastructure as defensibility erodes
Investors agree AI is not a standalone category but an enabling layer for vertical B2B solutions (finance, sales, support, healthcare); pure model/infra plays absent in Spain, while applica…
Advanced Manufacturingtailwindscore 7/10lauren arens
Spanish VCs pivot to hardware, biotech, robotics as software defensibility fades
With AI commoditizing software creation, investors (BStartup, KFund, Abac) actively seek deeptech founders with specific technical backgrounds (PhDs, industry experience) for hardware, sili…
Venture Capitalmixedscore 8/10jaime novoa
Follow-on strategies diverge: spray-and-pray vs concentration as ownership math breaks
Funds split between KFund's diversified no-follow-on micro-fund (40-50 bets) and concentration strategies requiring 10-15% ownership; consensus emerges that initial ownership is max achieva…