HarbourVest backs Spanish stapled restructuring with a twist

HarbourVest Partners, the fourth-ranked firm in the SI 50, has minted a strategic partnership to tap into the Spanish venture capital and growth sector.

The Boston-headquartered firm led a transaction to move the remaining assets from Madrid-headquartered Kibo Ventures Partners‘ first fund – the 2012-vintage Amerigo Innvierte Spain Technologies – into a continuation vehicle, according to a statement.

Alantra and Cuatrecasas acted as financial and legal advisers to Kibo on the transaction, respectively.

In addition to the continuation vehicle, HarbourVest has agreed to anchor the Spanish firm’s Opportunity Fund I, which co-invests in growth rounds of Kibo’s existing portfolio companies. The size of that fund was undisclosed and a spokesperson Alantra declined to provide further details, including pricing of the transaction.

This is HarbourVest’s first secondaries investment in Spanish venture capital, according to the statement.

Kibo, which will continue to manage the assets, is an independent European venture manager with over €250 million in assets under management across four funds. The firm employs 12 professionals between Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon, and invests in early-stage consumer and enterprise software companies with global growth prospects.

“We are also extremely grateful to our LP base that trusted us back then and are very happy to be able to provide them with relevant returns in less than nine years,” Javier Torremocha, Kibo Ventures co-founder & managing partner, said in the statement.

The transaction was based initially on a March, and then a June valuation date, according to a source familiar with the deal.

Those assets comprise payment platform Flywire, workplace-as-service marketplace Jobandtalent, data intelligence software company Carto, threat intelligence provider Blueliv, parental control app Qustodio, critical infrastructure internet of things company Worldsensing and programmatic adtech platform Tappx.

Kibo’s growth opportunity co-investment vehicle has also invested in Jobandtalent.

With this transaction, Kibo provided full liquidity to Fund I’s LPs. The fund’s current total value-to-paid-in is more than 3x, and it has delivered an internal rate of return of around 25 percent, according to the release.

– Adam Le contributed to this report.

– This story was updated to correctly note Flywire as a portfolio company.