One of the companies that collaborates most closely with Google in Spain is Iris Venture Builder, a company dedicated to promoting startups specialized in cybersecurity services and data management in the cloud.
The company, born in Barcelona in 2011, has created under its umbrella companies such as Necsia Ciberseguridad, sold to the Israeli group Ciberproof; Necsia Digital, acquired by the Devoteam and Nubalia group, one of Google's first partners in the Peninsula. "After more than ten years of growth, in 2021 we decided to sell 75% of the property to Devoteam, a French multinational specialized in digital consulting, to which we will sell the remaining 25% in 2024," says Miguel Planas, director delegate of Iris Venture Builder, who details that today Nubalia invoices 50 million.
Iris Venture Builder's business model is to promote the initial phases of startups and disengage from them once they reach maturity. After the sales of Necsia and Nubalia, the company is now boosting the growth of two more companies: uCloud and Tranxfer.
In the first case, the activity is also supported by a collaboration agreement with Google. “We help companies to raise the management of their activity in the cloud. We have a thousand clients, such as Decathlon, Fever, N26 or Revolut”, adds Blanca Serra, CEO of uCloud. With 30 people on staff, this startup focuses on growing in Latin America, in countries like Mexico, Chile, Peru or Colombia. In addition, it has also opened offices in South Africa, the US and Dubai. “We are global partners of Google so we will continue to promote the business internationally. This year we will land in India and Brazil”, advances Planas, who hopes to boost turnover from 4.8 to 15 million euros this year.
Tranxfer, on the other hand, is at an earlier stage. With 18 people on staff, the company invoices around 1 million euros with the manufacture of software that allows documents to be sent securely. Its clients are large Spanish Ibex corporations and also from France and Latin America.
Planas explains that in all cases growth is carried out with own and bank resources. “Unlike other startups, we like to earn money and reinvest it in growth,” says Planas, who owns Iris along with Pedro Fontana, Gabriel Ferraté, Angel Marquez and Ramon Planas. Looking to the future, the company wants to continue exploiting the same model. Soon, he plans to create three startups related to the cloud, finance and cybersecurity. It will invest at least 5 million in each of them.
