Enterprise content management platforms have been around for years, but since 2013 seven companies have received funding from investors to accelerate their growth, not only in the US but also in India and Europe.

In 2013 the Venture Capital invested $$3.7B in mobility, consecutively raising investments in excess of USD 1 billion during the last two quarters of 2013.

Faced with the lack of bank credit, the entrepreneurs themselves and their associations are promoting new funds to circulate the existing liquidity among the entrepreneurs themselves. Lleida, Andalusia and Castile are examples of this.

In these first months of the year we are seeing how several autonomous communities are announcing their commitment to the innovative business fabric. The Valencian community is no stranger to this trend and has announced an investment of €13M for 2014.

There is much debate in the education ecosystem as to whether new technologies bring substantial advances in education or are more of a distraction. Investors are backing companies that develop software for the education sector, such as the $9.5M raised by Flat World last January.

Yesterday in Madrid, a conference was held at the APD on the financing formula known as "Direct lending" or financing through investment vehicles specialised in debt without the need for a bank balance sheet.

The Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the Ministry of Finance and Public Administrations have launched a new credit line of 323.6 million euros through the Official Credit Institute (ICO), which will benefit more than 12,000 innovative companies.

Technologies for capturing and managing large volumes of data, known as big data, are being applied to a multitude of business sectors. One of these is the education sector, which has seen approximately $150M from early 2013 to date from 30 companies.

Programme for the improvement of the competitiveness of SMEs in the European Union.

The European Union's Innovation and Development Programme as part of its strategy to create jobs and growth.

Since mid-2013, the Geneva-based fund opened an office in Spain and has been the most active foreign fund investing in Spanish SMEs, having invested more than €50M. The firm has announced that it has more than €100M available for 2014.

At the beginning of 2014, several foreign investment operations have been announced by Spanish companies thanks to COFIDES financing. There have been a total of 6 operations for both SMEs and large companies located in South Africa, Germany and Latin America.

The Basque Government has joined public initiatives to promote SME financing through alternative instruments to traditional banking instruments such as venture capital.

2013 has been a good year in terms of M&A activitiesThe total number of transactions amounted to 1183, for an amount of €70.955M. This represents an increase of 29.57% of operations compared to the previous year.

There have been recent reports on venture capital and private equity activity. venture capital is in 2013. The numbers are not good: a 31% drop in volume and a 15% drop in number of transactions. Will Fond-ICO Global manage to increase these figures in 2014 and beyond?

Corporate investors lead the way in investing in the Internet of Things, with Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and Cisco Investments occupying 3 of the top 4 positions, while the only other investor in the Internet of Things is Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and Cisco Investments. Venture capital in the top 4 is True Ventures.

Improve the competitiveness of companies by promoting projects that include R&D&I activities to develop new products.

Aid for research, development and technological innovation activities, through a programme to support the implementation of projects to launch new science and technology-based companies.

The most positive development in 2013 in the private equity investment sector was the significant increase in divestments, which totalled €1,451M, an increase of more than 20% over 2012, for a total of 268 deals.

A total of €1,346M was raised in 2013, a decrease of 33% compared to 2012. Fortunately, the outlook for 2014 and beyond is improving with the emergence of FOND-ICO Global which aims to attract €3,000M over the next 4 years.

Although investment throughout 2013 was much lower than in 2012, the second half of the year saw a significant rebound to €1.2 billion. In addition, several recently announced transactions bode well for activity in the coming months.  

European countries have faced the worst of the sovereign debt and unemployment crisis. There is still a long way to go to regain pre-crisis levels of growth and capital investment, but there has been slight GDP growth and a stabilisation or reduction in unemployment in most countries. The data provided by Pitchbook show some positive trends for 2014. 

Venture capital invested $$1.8 billion in UK-based companies in 2013. In contrast, capital raised from the sale of VC-funded companies amounted to $2.2 billion.

The world of advertising has been one of the hardest hit by the crisis, as it is one of the activities with the most reduced business budgets. Despite this, the venture capital is has opted for new advertising models, almost all of which are based on mobility.

The recently merged Anglo-Saxon freelance recruitment platforms, Elance and oDesk, have received more than $130M in investment from the venture capital is. Leading Spanish-speaking Nubelo has attracted $1.7M to date.

Sovereign wealth funds are no longer looking exclusively at assets linked to the commodity or financial services sectors, as they did in the past. They are investing in "alternative" assets, beyond fixed income or equities, such as real estate, infrastructure, private equity and even in technology start-ups.

The management and exploitation of big data is seen as a key to the development of competitive advantage in many industries. A multitude of companies have emerged that have developed core technology or vertical applications that have found strong support from the venture capital is.

Biotech companies are developing new test systems to detect diseases as early as possible. The venture capital is is no stranger to this trend and in the month of December alone more than 15 financing operations were carried out, in a field dominated by the corporate venture capital of pharmaceutical companies.

On the internet, video content is increasingly becoming the preferred format for consumers. This trend has not escaped the venture capital is Spanish who has invested in a number of companies working with video.

The fourth quarter of 2013 has seen the highest number of transactions of venture capital is in mobile in the US. Investments have gone to large companies such as Uber, Flipboard, and Snapchap, but also to seed companies.

According to a study by CBinsights, the average time an app spends in the top 1000 in the iTunes store is 23 days. There is also a wide variation depending on the sector targeted.

Hackers and hackers are making the digital world an increasingly dangerous place. Bad news for businesses and states, but not so bad news for innovation hubs like Silicon Valley where cybersecurity is once again attracting the attention of the world's most vulnerable. venture capital is.

Last year, investments in ecommerce companies led activity in the new technologies sector. Some of them have in common their relationship with the furniture trade or with the home. Cabiedes was present in the most significant ones.

After a month of uncertainty regarding the viability of the project of Seville's oldest newspaper, the Morera&Vallejo Group has finally acquired ownership of the media and offers guarantees for the future of the 53 employees.

Emerging countries, led by China and India, are increasingly investing in developed country companies. In 2013, China invested $855M in 36 investment deals. The acquisition of cutting-edge technologies to apply in their domestic markets is one of the reasons why Chinese investors are acquiring technology startups in the US.

Since 2012 the connected home sector has attracted a total of $468M of investment in 56 financing transactions. The venture capital is has set its sights on this sector by participating in the development of new technologies.

The investments of the venture capital is Within the field of mobility, they cover a wide range of activities such as payment systems, hotel reservations and fleet management. In recent times, the presence of Telefónica and business angels has attracted particular attention.

The world of fashion has undergone a profound change from the conception of designs to the way they are distributed with large textile groups such as Zara, Mango and H&M. The venture capital is see technology as a tool for further change.

The CDTI's role as a lever to mobilise private investment alongside public R&D funding has been key during the first half of 2013. New developments include agreements with private investors, foreign governments and new lines of support.

The Andalusian innovation agency signed last week the contracts for financial intermediation services with the four Andalusian innovation managers. venture capital is winners of the JEREMIE EU initiative tender in October. The winning managers were four well-known venture capital firms in Spain: Avindia, Axon, Alta Partners and Gedsur.

UNIR emprende and Vocento are launching an ambitious Spanish initiative to help journalism and communication entrepreneurs to innovate and begin to overcome the crisis in the sector.

Last year the venture capital is español realizó varias inversiones en tecnologías de la información dedicadas al desarrollo de software. Destaca el perfil internacional de dichas iniciativas y el origen como spin-off de algunas de ellas.

On 12 November, the second demoday of Wayra, Telefónica's incubator, was held with the presentation of 16 startups.

The venture capital is is seeing an investment opportunity in startups developing new technologies for international money transfer that help eliminate some of the forms, costs and timescales of traditional systems. In the last 2 years they have invested a total of $104M in 39 deals according to cbinsights sources.

Private investment activity such as venture capital and private equity continues to grow in the Latin American region, having surpassed the number of deals in 2012 in October 2013.

Over the last few years we have seen investments from the venture capital is Spanish in the internet and mobile games sector. The old model of developing to be bought by the big "Publisher" has passed away, let's look at the new models.

The Spanish education sector has been able to train prestigious professionals. The activity of the venture capital is shows signs of a good future development of the sector together with online educational entities such as UNIR and IEBS that augur good opportunities.

In the United States, a global benchmark in technology investment, the financing of companies in the Fintech sector grew by more than 20% in terms of both the number of transactions and capital invested. In Spain, there are also some good startups setting a good example.

Security in the IT sector has continued to experience significant activity in Spain in recent years following major operations such as Panda Software or the presence of S21sec.

The interest of industrial investors in the meat sector has been maintained both for assets from bankruptcies as well as for assets from acquisitions and partnerships for growth.

In 2012, the publishing sector has seen several corporate movements with an increasingly significant presence of Planeta and Ramdom House.

The media sector has had two names of its own, Secuoya and Vértice. Both have carried out operations with venture capital that have allowed them to obtain liquidity to fulfil their development plans.

A line of financing from the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society (SETSI) aimed at financially supporting the start-up and development of business projects in the field of ICTs, with the aim of promoting the development and launch of new products and services, contributing to the generation of employment and wealth in a sector with high growth potential.

In the food sector, corporate groups have taken advantage of the opportunity to make some very sweet moves in recent years. Growth has come from joining forces in the niches where they were already present, acquiring more of the pie and sorting out markets.

During 2013, investment in companies in Brazil has grown significantly, with "Internet" standing out as the most active sector. In 2012, this sector was not even among the five most interesting activities for investors.

Perhaps by necessity, perhaps by nature, the financial sector is seeing the growth of technology companies that aim to bring about a profound change in the way finance is managed. In 2012, the number of transactions in the "Fintech" sector increased by 20% and the total amount invested by 22%. This trend is continuing in 2013.

The beverage sector has seen a number of corporate transactions in recent times, with Coca-Cola bottlers and the world of beer being particularly prominent.

Según TTR, Estados Unidos y Francia lideran el ránking de países con mayor número de operaciones de purchase of companies españolas durante el tercer trimestre del año 2013.

During 2012, the crop protection residues sector was mainly driven by the acquisition of shares in the US company Sterycicle. A total of seven transactions were recorded, five of which were carried out by Sterycicle.

According to TTR, investments in Venture capital have grown significantly in the third quarter of 2013 compared to 2012. Brazil and Chile are the leading countries in this growth.

Full-time RGSS recruitment of UNIVERSITY DEGREE technologists to carry out a specific R&D project.

In 2012, there have been several corporate movements within the water sector. There are several strategic reasons for each of them, ranging from internationalisation, build-up or diversification.

According to CBinsights, among the IPOs in 2013, security networking company FireEye has doubled since its debut on the Nasdaq. But the case has not been the only successful sale recently, in the last year 78 companies have sold within the sector. There are also relevant cases in Spain, such as alient vault.

Comunitae, pioneer in Spain as a platform for loans between individuals, begins its operations to discount promissory notes to companies and offer a way of financing working capital.

According to CB insights data, B2B technology investments are growing rapidly, accounting for 70% of the 50 largest deals, up from just 38% in 2011.

According to a report by Clipperton finance, the health sciences sector experienced solid growth (100%) in Q2 2013 over the previous quarter with several large deals (>$50M) in "Medtech" and "Biotech".

According to a report by Clipperton finance, innovative SME financing has rebounded in the second quarter of 2013 despite all the rumours about the European economy.

According to CBinsights data, the Novo Group tops the list of the most active corporate investors in the healthcare sector in terms of level of investment and number of deals. Johnson & Johnson and Novartis complete the top three.

The food sector in general, and the fisheries sector in particular, has been a safe haven sector during the crisis, especially for the "non-premium" product segments. Proof of this are the corporate movements that have taken place in the sector.

According to webcapitalriesgo, the number of investment transactions in the first half of 2013 increased by 41% to 468 transactions. Despite this, the volume invested fell by 101bTP1T compared to the same half of 2012 with a total of €92.3MM.

Last week the "Innobideak- Lehiabide - Accelerator for the Competitiveness of companies in global environments" regulations were published by the Basque Government. It is the new initiative of the executive to facilitate the growth of SMEs in need of new ideas and projects.

During the pre-crisis period, the creation of new wineries and appellations proliferated. There was no self-respecting entrepreneur who did not have a stake in a winery. Now the time has come for the sector to be reorganised and the entrepreneurs with winemaking experience will remain.

The sale of Spain's Indisys to Intel has been in the news in recent weeks. This deal was not an isolated effect: "voice recognition" technologies are in the midst of rampant activity.

Despite a downward trend in investment across the board, the information technology (ICT) sector has seen a rebound in the second quarter of 2013. Private investment firms invested 12,500$ million in 65 deals in the second quarter, which is at a similar level to the last two years.

In the US, access to healthcare could reach millions of new consumers with the passage of the Affordable Care Act next year. Investors have bet on start-ups that offer transparency in healthcare costs, crucial to improve efficiency for patients, providers, hospitals and insurance companies.

The reversal of the venture capital is Corporate investment by the "telecos" is at the highest levels in the last 10 years. They have invested $ 1.64 billion euros in 145 deals since the beginning of 2012.

Latin American and European companies dominate the investment market in Spain, with Mexico standing out in August.

Over the last few months the travel and hotel sector has been involved in a series of transactions acquisitions by large groups. It is a good thermometer of the high level of competition in the sector and the need to seek advantages through the incorporation of differential technology.

From the Kauffman Foundation last August, a number of experienced entrepreneurs gave their recommendations on how to pitch a project. They included Karen Griffith Gryga of Mid-Atlantic business angel, Bob Thomson of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of northeastern Pennsylvania and Ellen Weber of Robin Hood Ventures.

According to a PwC study, new buyers are coming from emerging markets. In 2012 alone, investors from high-growth economies made $32.6 billion worth of purchases in developed economies, three times more than in 2005.  

According to a study carried out by http://www.economist.com/, the assessment of the venture capital ecosystem and of the venture capital is in Latam has shown significant improvements as local regulation has improved the investment climate.

Companies have focused their strategies on reducing costs, increasing productivity and improving net profit. But these strategies are bottoming out and companies are opting to slim down structures by selling non-strategic assets to private equity in order to generate cash, and these slimming down transactions seem to be picking up in 2013, with three quarters of those in 2012.

The venture capital is Corporate venture capital has grown by 23% in the US with 1.7B$ of investment and 126 deals. The reasons for the growth are due to both a greater number of corporations with venture capital and a small group of CVCs being hyperactive.

The world of offers has been in turmoil in recent years due to the importance of price for consumers. Proof of this is the progress made by PRISA with its participation in OFFERUM with its PLANEO portal. Consumers in this period of crisis are looking more and more at the price and are willing to receive abundant information about offers, in addition to the difficulty that businesses have in getting customers.

Services ranging from thermostat sensors to wristbands that can track how you sleep or eat, is made up of hundreds of startup companies categorised as the Internet of Things (IoT). The Internet of Things describes technologies that connect to the internet and to each other through sensors, wireless networks, as well as "machine-to-machine" methods.

There are talented managers out there, but without the right tools, there is a good chance that you will not be able to find the perfect candidate for a particular job.

According to CBinsights analysis of 2012, VCs, angels and large corporations invested almost 1,100MM$ in educational technologies. During the first half of 2013 the number of deals has increased (10%) although with a lower volume of money invested. This is due to the increase in seed stage and early stage investments, which account for 50% of the deals and 30% of the amount invested.

The BBVA Research team considers crowdfunding as a business model that has to be considered by traditional banking due to its simplicity and transparency as a competitive threat in the future.

According to CB Insight, large sales transactions in the "Software Defined Networking" sector stimulate 416M$ of investment by the Venture Capital. Activity increased by 75% year-on-year supported by large acquisitions by Juniper Networks and VMWare and the public offering of Cyan.

Investment in financial technologies (FinTech) by venture capital and private equity venture capital is has increased steadily since 2008 and has eclipsed $ 9 B. 2013 is shaping up to be an exceptional year for FinTech surpassing the high levels seen in 2012.

According to data provided by ascri.org, during the first half of 2013 the difficulty of divestment by private equity remains: 113 sales transactions for a volume (at cost price) of €570M (-28% compared to the first half of 2012).

Due diligence is a key part of any procurement process.sale of companies. Its purpose is to validate all the information that has been provided to the buyer. Each sector has its peculiarities and the IT sector is no exception. Here are 10 observations made by the company McGaldrey, an expert in DD services, on [...]

In 2012, in the food sector, there were 5 buy-sell transactions involving venture capital of all types, ranging from restructuring to seed investments.

According to capcorp, of the 20 corporate transactions in the environmental sector in 2012, only four were led by private equity.

The microcredit fundraising platform, Milaap, has raised 1M$ from venture capital is following the trend of these platforms and the disintermediation of alternative financing.

Technology continues to influence the recruitment process. Traity offers personality measurement to complement curriculum information.

In the first quarter of 2013, the investment of Venture capital in US companies has slowed for the third consecutive quarter since peaking in the second quarter of 2012, with 753 deals closed and 6,000 M$ of total amount invested.

Not long ago, in the context of negotiating the sale of an industrial company based in the Basque Country, I met with the president of a German multinational with production centres on five continents. When I explained to him the average collection period of the company being sold - a reasonably low 62 days - my interlocutor was astonished.

In view of the difficulties that companies have in growing their sales, marketing services companies are increasingly in demand. In 2012, investment operations were carried out in the sector with the expectation of future market growth.

According to Capcorp, in 2012, two e-commerce companies related to the baby world have received investment from Venture capitalCuriously, Cabiedes & Partners has participated in both of them.