Spain-based venture capital and private equity firm Cardumen Capital raised $60m yesterday for its initial fund with commitments from corporates including oil and gas supplier Repsol, Calcalist reported.
Repsol invested through corporate venturing arm Repsol Energy Ventures. The fund’s other limited partners include InnoCells, an investment vehicle for financial services firm Banco Sabadell, as well as undisclosed corporates, financial institutions and private investors based in Europe and Latin America.
Cardumen was founded in 2017 by Gonzalo Martínez de Azagra and Roy Gottlieb, former executives at Samsung Ventures Israel, a corporate venturing subsidiary of electronics manufacturer Samsung.
The firm already has half a dozen portfolio companies and targets Israel-based early-stage deep technology developers, focusing on areas including artificial intelligence, big data, cybersecurity, machine vision and the internet of things.
Cardumen is looking to conduct about 10 more deals in the next two years, providing roughly $1m to $3m per company. Martínez de Azagra told Calcalist is keen on co-investing with corporates and VC firms, with an aim to achieve exit events through mergers and acquisitions.
Regarding Repsol’s LP commitment, Clara Rey, corporate venturing director of Repsol Energy Ventures, was quoted by Europa Press as saying: “It enables us to cover areas such as brand loyalty, mobility and energy transition, verticals where digitisation has a great impact – a challenge of highest priority for Repsol – and to access technologies [in the Israeli ecosystem] with great integration potential within the company.” [translated from Spanish by Global Corporate Venturing]
