Impulse4Women
This week, Impulse4Women sat down with Lourdes Alvarez de Toledo of JME Ventures, a Spanish investment firm with €150 million in assets under management. Within their diverse portfolio of 80 companies across various sectors, JME has invested in eleven FinTech companies, a few examples being GPT Advisor, Flywire, Taxdown, Bankflip, and Reveni, among others. JME Ventures invests in pre-seed and pre-series A Spanish companies with international aspirations, in amounts between €250k and €2 million. JME’s insider told I4W that they favor B2B software companies, but have invested in B2C and hardware companies as well. An example of a hardware company with JME’s backing is PLD Space, which manufactures rockets to launch nanosatellites. Another example is BCN 3D, a company that manufactures 3D printers. In just the last 12 months, JME has invested in 14 companies, many of them related to AI. One of the most recent investments was Theker, “an AI software applied to robotics that is deploying its solution in verticals such as logistics, waste management, fashion and supply chain.”
Alvarez de Toledo also revealed some insight into their decision-making process, which varies based on investment size. “For investments under €300,000, the process typically takes less than a month, with no formal due diligence and often using convertible notes. For investments over €500,000, we conduct due diligence after investment committee approval, taking 2-4 weeks including negotiation of terms.” I4W was also told that investments of at least 10% ownership or over €500,000 require a board seat. JME does not hold any ESG specific criteria in their investments, but focuses more on companies that create value disrupting markets through technology, believing this approach ultimately impacts society, productivity, and job creation.
Beyond capital, JME provides various resources dependent on the needs of their founders, “We mostly help them with fundraising, business planning, strategy definition, international connections, hiring, and a go-to-market strategy. But there is a huge variety depending on each company. The most important point for us is trying to ease our founders the path to success.” With a needs-led business model such as this, JME’s involvement in their investments relies heavily on the individual business owners. Lourdes Alvarez de Toledo stated, “Some founders like to speak on a weekly basis, some founders won’t ever call. We have at least a quarterly meeting, but I personally like to have at least a monthly call with every portfolio company that I manage.” In terms of requirements, for pre-seed investments they only ask for a monthly email check-in with five bullet points showcasing the main KPIs of the company. They don’t participate as board members or require loads of information, just updates on basic performance metrics. However, with large investments of over €500,000, these standards change accordingly, “we will usually take part in the board of directors, and we will need to have at least quarterly detailed information about their financial statements and the performance of the company.”
I4W and JME also covered what concerns might be a deterrent to securing an investment, including a slow time to market and scalability issues for the project and team.They prefer to invest in companies that have the potential to grow rapidly in a restricted time frame, about 7 years, with one of the biggest risks being plateaus in revenue and geographic limitations, “being a local player.” The founding team also plays a role, with attractive features including, “a founding team able to scale in terms of being leaders, hiring talent, and managing people and investors in a way that enables them to grow at the pace needed.”
The biggest lesson and takeaway that Alvarez de Toledo shared was that there are no real rules or deal breakers in venture capital, “Every company has its singularities, and it should be analyzed holistically.” One example they provided was with their most valuable company, Flywire, which began with just one founder, who ended up leaving the company just two years after their investment. The succeeding CEO had a very small stake in the company, which would have been a red flag for many investors, but they ultimately ended up reaching a $5 billion valuation and were even listed on NASDAQ. Another example is JobAndTalent, which had a diluted team at the time of initial investment, but one which did not prevent the company from raising additional rounds and reaching a €2.5 billion valuation.
JME Ventures’ approach to investing proves that success in venture capital is not about rigid formulas but about vision, adaptability, and trust in the potential of disruptive ideas. By backing bold founders and innovative technologies, they are not just funding companies, they are shaping the future of industries. For entrepreneurs with ambition and resilience, JME’s insight offers a powerful reminder: the right investor doesn’t just provide capital; they become a partner in navigating the path to success.
