Adara Ventures
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These guys have a refreshingly honest philosophy: they're not chasing unicorns, they're maximizing 'dragons' - companies that return the entire fund, and they've delivered at least one per fund generation. They've won Spain's Best VC Deal award three times in five years, which tells you they know how to pick and nurture winners. The founding team has serious technical chops - Alberto's MIT/Harvard, Nico's MIT/INSEAD with aerospace engineering background, and Rocío brings actual cybersecurity and trading software experience. Their exits speak volumes: AlienVault to AT&T, PlayGiga as the first Spanish startup acquired by Facebook, Seedtag to Advent International. They're obsessed with global scalability from day one - won't touch you unless you have a clear internationalization plan, because they know Spanish exits need global reach.
- —Best for: B2B deep tech founders with global ambitions and proven product-market fit
- —Known for: Producing actual exits that matter, not just vanity valuations - dragons over unicorns
- —Sweet spot: Series A in Spain/Portugal with clear path to US/European expansion
Adara Ventures seeks to invest in deep-technology companies, focusing on cybersecurity, data and applications, infrastructure, DevOps, components, and digital health companies, with an expanded focus on energy transition technologies. They seek out entrepreneurs with vision, courage and capacity to execute big plans, engaging in the long-term from seed to exit.
They typically lead seed rounds with €300K-€500K tickets and Series A rounds of €1M-€2.5M, with much larger follow-on reserves. Focused on early-stage European B2B companies in cybersecurity, data applications, infrastructure, DevOps, hardware components, digital health, and energy transition. They only invest in companies with clear global growth and internationalization plans, targeting global B2B markets.
Prior to founding Adara, he was a founder, operator, and strategy consultant, holding degrees from École Centrale de Paris (Aerospace Engineering), MIT (Aero & Astro MSc), and INSEAD (MBA). He has managed VC funds for 18 years, actively involved with 25+ early stage ventures and served on 23 company boards.
He co-leads Adara's Energy Transition Fund, bringing extensive investment and operational experience in cybersecurity, analytics, and software, with degrees from MIT (electrical engineering) and Harvard (MBA). He's been Founding Partner at Adara Ventures since 2004.
Computer engineering background with experience in cybersecurity and investment banking, leading projects and building trading software, holds MBA from University of Chicago Booth School and teaches Venture Capital at IE Business School. Joined Adara in 2013 and became Partner in 2018.
Co-leads Adara's Seed fund and drives the firm's Platform strategy, joined in 2018 after working with WPP's M&A and Ventures team, IE MBA alum. Recently promoted to Partner from within the firm.
Co-leads Adara's Energy Transition Fund, joining in 2023 with extensive sector and operational experience from leadership roles at Siemens Energy and General Electric. Combines deep expertise in investing in startups with competitive technological advantage with experience in digital energy sector ventures.
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