Archipelago Next Research
Investment Thesis
Archipelago Next (Archipélago Next) is the first venture capital manager based in the Canary Islands, founded by local entrepreneurs and corporate backers (Grupo Satocán, Binter, Grupo Dinosol, Inerza-Contactel and others per directory listings). Its stated mission is to invest in talent: "venture capital is a people business", and it backs teams that can execute. It looks for early signals of product-market fit, B2B SaaS models with real stickiness, and solutions that are painkillers rather than vitamins. By its own account roughly 80% of Fund II capital goes to B2B SaaS, especially AI and digitalization. In May 2026 managing partner Miguel Quintanilla framed the focus as defensibility: software is cheap to build, so the fund looks for "A-Player" teams whose edge sits in data, technical know-how, or vendor lock-in.
Stage Focus
Pre-seed and seed. The fund reserves capital to follow on in portfolio companies that show traction in later rounds, and invests via priced rounds and convertible notes (for example the Bcount convertible note).
Check Size
Initial tickets of EUR 100K to 500K (website states EUR 150-500K), adapted to stage and round terms. Minimum LP ticket for Fund II is EUR 100K.
Lead Tendency
Mixed. It co-invests alongside other funds and angels (for example the Box2box EUR 1.1M round with Torsa, Encomenda, Andorra Scale Lab and angels) and also writes initial tickets into early rounds. No clear evidence of consistently leading, so lead tendency is recorded as both.
Recent Activity
- Fund II: EUR 20M target, vintage 2024, status investing. About 90% committed as of September 2025. Selected by Fond-ICO Global in its 17th call (incubation category), the first Canary-based manager in the program. Total AUM across both funds is about EUR 36M.
- Late 2025: four new investments, Tendios (AI for public tenders, EUR 2M round), Bcount (AI-enabled accounting and advisory, convertible note), Growth Road (AI vocational guidance) and Oriane (video search, EUR 1.27M round).
- May 2026: five more investments from Fund II, Vantelis (cybersecurity), Monolayer (multi-cloud DevOps), Secrets Vault (image-based cryptography), CareerOS (career guidance for universities) and Dolfin (sales commission calculation). Four of the five are in Barcelona.
- 2025: opened a Barcelona office alongside Las Palmas and Madrid.
- Analyzed over 600 startups in 2024 and selected under 2%.
Portfolio Highlights
Fund I (vintage 2018, now divesting) holds early Spanish startups such as Blaine, Invofox, Triporate, Erudit, Shimoku, Nymiz, Hotelverse, Chargy and Fourvenues. Fund II holds Tendios, Bcount, Growth Road, Oriane, Ciudadela, Breakevent, Cicerai, Modelia, Catalyst Tools, Fresh People, Vantelis, Monolayer, Secrets Vault, CareerOS, Dolfin and others. Exits were not individually identified on the site.
Team
- Miguel Quintanilla, General Partner / Managing Partner: CIO of Grupo Satocán, 20+ years in technology.
- Javier Garabal, General Partner: former partner at McKinsey and FTI Delta, 25+ years in strategy and technology consulting.
- Patricia Fraile, Fund Manager, Compliance and Investor Relations: led the Canary Islands technology cluster, 15+ years in tech.
- David Guerra, Legal: 14+ years in commercial law (Uria Menendez, Allen & Overy), partner at Ambar Partners and JVD Abogados.
- Rodrigo Perez, Analyst.
Decision Process
Partnership with an investment committee. The fund's corporate LP base takes part in due diligence and sits on the investment committee. Those LPs can co-invest alongside the fund and invest directly in later rounds, and they act as pilot customers for portfolio companies.
Founder Preferences
Execution-focused teams with early traction metrics, international ambition from day one, and a clear link to the Spanish market. "Good people and good people to work with." The fund avoids regulatory-heavy sectors and proprietary hardware.
Geographic Focus
Spain, with startups that have a clear connection to the Spanish market. Offices in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Madrid and Barcelona.