About Abac Nest Ventures
Abac Nest Ventures is the early-stage venture arm of Abac Capital, a multi-strategy investment firm with over €600M AUM.
Our Track Record
Our journey began at Apax Partners, where we spent over a decade leading successful investments in standout companies across Southern Europe, including Vueling, Jazztel, and eDreams.
After years operating and investing in some of today’s most well-known category leaders, we experienced firsthand how deep sector expertise and hands-on support can unlock long-term, scalable growth. Driven by this conviction, we founded Abac Capital, a private equity firm focused on the Iberian lower mid-market, leveraging our operational excellence, digital transformation, and an international outlook as core drivers for value creation.
Two years later, our strong ties to the tech ecosystem and our commitment to supporting Spain’s entrepreneurial talent led us to launch Abac Nest I, our first venture capital vehicle within the Abac Capital platform. Here, we were fortunate to back exceptional founders from 21 startups, including Cobee, Payflow, Taxdwon, Amphora, and Taclia, while also co-investing with leading international investors like Balderton Capital, Speedinvest, Target Global, Notion Capital, and Octopus Ventures.
After delivering a top-quartile performance in Abac Nest I, we launched Abac Nest II, a €20 million fund to invest in 40 startups with a meaningful connection to Spain. With this new fund, we are doubling down on our thesis to support the best talent building B2B SaaS solutions that will transform the SME industry and drive Europe’s competitiveness. We have already invested in 13 promising startups and are now actively seeking to invest in 25-30 more over the next 2-3 years.
Where We See the Opportunity
SMEs are the backbone of the European economy, representing 99% of all businesses and generating over 50% of the region’s GDP1. Yet, many remain under-digitized and underserved by enterprise software, constrained by outdated tools and manual processes that limit their ability to grow efficiently.
As a result, we believe the next decade of value creation in Europe will emerge at the intersection of vertical SaaS and AI, as industry-specific solutions are already demonstrating the ability to address real-world pain points in sectors like retail, logistics, education, health, finance, and many others. These platforms not only achieve fast product–market fit but can also build defensible moats through tailored integrations, sector-specific regulatory frameworks, and access to proprietary data.
For this reason, we are constantly looking for B2B SaaS solutions that empower SMEs with smarter tools, as, in our opinion, this is the most effective way to unlock growth, innovation, and resilience at scale. As highlighted in the Draghi report on European competitiveness, “Europe must accelerate the deployment of new technologies to counteract structural stagnation and productivity decline”.
What Excites Us
First, the cost and complexity of building software has dropped dramatically thanks to modern infrastructure and the rise of AI-native tools. At the same time, SMEs are increasingly adopting new technologies to automate and optimize processes and operations within their value chains. This growing willingness to embrace industry-specific software solutions is fueled by three key factors:
New EU regulations promoting digital tools to enhance traceability
A generational shift that is more inclined to adopt AI-native applications
Mounting pressure to improve operational efficiency and avoid falling behind global market leaders.
Second, Europe’s tech talent pool has grown 7x2 over the past decade, now exceeding 3.5 million professionals3, fueled by pioneering, world-class academic centers in cities like Oxford, Paris, Berlin, Zurich, Stockholm, and Barcelona.
Barcelona, in particular, is emerging as a leading hub for AI and deep tech, supported by:
Cutting-edge research labs: Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), Caixa Research Institute
Innovation centers: 22@Barcelona, Pier01
Top-ranked STEM universities: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Universidad Pompeu Fabra (UPF), La Salle Barcelona
Public–private organizations: Barcelona Global, Barcelona Activa, ACCIO
Flagship tech events: 4YFN, DeepTech Summit, Tech Spirit
As a result, Barcelona has attracted a vibrant community of international talent, many of whom have chosen the city to build and scale their companies. In fact, today, 5 out of every 100 residents are expats, a figure that has increased fivefold over the past 25 years4.
Third, entrepreneurship has become an increasingly attractive path for top technical talent. Actually, Europe now generates more early-stage startups than any other region, with 39% of this talent working at a pre-Series A stage5. At the same time, we’re seeing a new wave of experienced second-time founders, particularly in Spain, launching new companies with bolder goals, sharper execution, and a global mindset from day one. This presents an exciting opportunity to back such high-performing teams as the startup flywheel in Spain continues to accelerate.
How we add value
Our private equity background provides us with unique domain expertise across a wide range of sectors, enabling us to identify where software can add real operational value quickly and effectively. We actively leverage our mid-market portfolio companies to validate use cases and accelerate early commercial traction in a collaborative, low-friction environment.
Our active M&A and exit experience is another key differentiator. We have been investing in SMEs across multiple sectors for over a decade (+50 M&A deals of c. €100M), which gives us a deep understanding of how these processes work. When the time is right, we help founders structure and navigate exits, connecting them with the right buyers through our relationships and brand, and providing the guidance needed to maximize outcomes.
We also activate a network of over 30 Operating Partners (seasoned executives, second-time founders from different sectors and backgrounds) who provide operational expertise and hands-on support on key strategic decisions. This, combined with our long-standing relationships with global venture capital firms, enables our founders to craft a compelling and successful long-term fundraising strategy.
Last, but not least, we invest with conviction and remain closely involved throughout the company's lifecycle. That’s why we reserve 50% of our funds for follow-on investments, ensuring we can support our founders at every step of their journey. We firmly believe the foundations of successful, high-impact companies are built at the earliest stage, when the right partner can make the greatest difference.
If you are bold (Spain-based) entrepeneur building innovative SaaS solutions to transofrm the SMEs industry, we’d love to conect 🌍