Edgar Vicente: Founding Partner of Enzo Ventures on raising a fund in your 20s

0:00Edgar Vicente:Hello and welcome to the Scaling Europe show. I'm Seb Johnson. Thank you so much for joining me. If you like what you see, please like, comment, subscribe. The more engagement, the more visibility, the better guests I can get and the better coverage I can provide of the European tech ecosystem. I would also like to say a huge thank you to my sponsors, Checkout.com, one of Europe's leading fintechs, and it is where the world checks out. And SurrealDB, the multimodal database for AI agent, which is partnered with thousands of the leading organizations, including the likes of NVIDIA and Samsung. So if you like both of those, check them out in the links below.

0:32Edgar Vicente:Thank you very much. I'm here with Edgar, one of the founding partners of Enzo Ventures, a super interesting VC that is focused on Southern Europe. How are you doing today, Edgar? Hello, how are you doing? Thanks for having me. I am good. Can you just give a quick introduction into yourself and Enzo Ventures, what it is and where it's come from? Sure thing. So basically, I'm Edgar Vicente, so I'm originally born and raised here in Barcelona in 28, actually. And I started at a very young age in technology. I was one of the first early employees at Globo, one of the main Spanish unicorns. So I joined the company in 2015, if I'm not wrong.

1:14So it was like pre-series A. We were 20 people in the company. So I had the chance to first being like a writer, you know, a delivery man, you know, delivering literally food across Barcelona. At the moment in time, I was at the same time studying my bachelor here in Barcelona as well. So it was like a part-time job for me. But, you know, I wanted to get experience in the startup land. So I was, you know, really quick, I had the chance to join the company in the operational department. They made me an offer and I spent two years in the company. So we went from 20 people up to more than a thousand people when I left.

2:04So I learned a lot there. I knew what really being part of scale up is, from zero to 100. I had the chance also to invest in the company personally, so it was my first angel investment. So it went really good as well. Lucky me. And yeah, so when I left the company, I decided that I wanted to do it by myself, so I decided to create my own company. I didn't know anything about creating companies, to be honest. So we start with my actual co-founder, which is Ivan. We met at university here in Barcelona. And we didn't think twice, so we decided to create our own company. It was called Yola, like say hello in Spanish.

2:52Basically, we developed a very sophisticated technology. It was a deep tech company, so we developed a very sophisticated technology in the ultrasound space. So basically, we apply ultrasound technology for different use cases, either for payments, verification processes, so on and so forth. So we got different patents as well. And we ended up selling that company back in February 2020 to a Mexican group. It was not such a big exit, but it was fair enough for us because at the moment in time, we were 23. We didn't raise too much capital, to be honest. So we just raised like a very small round, 250K just from angels, local angels here in Barcelona.

3:37So we had like a big portion of the company. So in absolute terms, it was a very great liquidity event for us. So afterwards, once we sold our company, we decided that we wanted to jump into the busy land, in busy space in our own way. we wanted to create something new here in the space, basically because our rationale was really clear. We were seeing that Southern Europe itself was literally booming. We were having the first unicorns coming out of the region, first generational companies being created here. But the BC level was not there yet, was not qualitative enough, especially in early stages, right?

4:24The current, I would say, BC firms here in Spain, at least, were super local, like super conservative, not founder friendly, not risk taker, so on and so forth. They were following the old playbook. So we wanted to replicate the sitcom, the local globe, the concept ventures model here in the region, in South of Europe. So we wanted to create the next wave, the next generation, like young people investing in the next generation of founders, right? So that being said, we started from scratch. So we raised our first fund in 2023, 10 million. We put a huge part of the fund ourselves as a GP commitment, demonstrating full alignment with our LPs.

5:09On top of us, we raised, as I said, from 45 high net worth individuals and a couple of funds of funds. And our thesis still is really clear, right? We want to be first check, first believers, day zero, investing class people here in Southern Europe, or Southern European founders creating all white. So we invested in nine geographies as of today, not just here in the region, but for instance, in the US, we invested in a couple of companies founded by two Spaniards or two Italians or whatever, right? So that's our thesis. So we actually, in fund one, we are like writing checks from 100K up to 300K tops.

5:54Then we can make follow-ons. We usually do follow-ons. And as I said, we want to be the first believers and that we want to get to the extraordinary founders before anyone else. So that's our objective, right? And as of today, we invested in companies such as Murphy, that raised$15 million from North Zone, Lake Star, Seed Camp, 11 Labs. We were the first checkers, believer. We almost created the company. Then we invested in Orbi as well, who raised 7 million from visionaries, also emblematic, raised from patient capital. All of those companies are founded by Spaniards, right? But we try to invest in companies, as I said, that at least has a minimum angle or touch with Southern Europe, right?

6:45So that's our thesis. And we're actually about to launch our fund too.

6:51Edgar Vicente:Amazing. Are you about to announce Fund 2 or are you going to start fundraising for it? So look, that's still confidential. But yeah, we might announce it really soon. We're actually fundraising for Fund 2. It's going to be a bit bigger than Fund 1. But we're going to follow the same exact strategy. And yeah, our main idea is to become the main pre-seed fund here in the region in the next 5 to 10 years. and progressively becoming a more pan-European firm, but with a core focus in Southern Europe. That's our objective. Amazing. And look, there's a lot to break down. I think to summarize, you've had an amazing career, right?

7:34Edgar Vicente:The first company you joined, Glovo, a phenomenal company. That was also your first investment. Then your first attempt at your own company you sold in pretty quick time, right? It was under two years, I think, you were building it. Even if it wasn't a massive outcome, a serious liquidity event for somebody of your age at the time. And now you're building a successful VC firm based in Southern Europe. You've raised your first fund. You're raising your second fund. You've got a good track record. So overall, you've got an amazing career as an operator, a founder, and now an investor, all by the age of what you said, 28.

8:09Edgar Vicente:So overall, an amazing tech person in the European ecosystem. I want to talk about the fund. I know that you said you kind of committed a lot yourselves as to kind of give conviction to the LPs that you are bought in on this thesis as well. What else unlocked it for you? Like, was it your experience as an operator? Was it your experience as a founder? Did you have a good, you know, angel portfolio that you could already demonstrate the success of your thesis? What was it that got your LPs excited about investing in Enzo Ventures? That's a very interesting one because recently I was asking the same exact question to one of our LPs.

8:46And she asked that, well, sorry, she answered that she really liked us, right? She made a bet on us, basically, as when you are investing in a pre-seed company, right? So something similar happened here. and so basically we were like bringing like a fresh air or something different to the ecosystem obviously we were like entrepreneurs before we know how to run a company we know how to go from zero to one so that's super interesting I think it's something really needed when you are investing in pre-seed right otherwise I think it's it's very difficult to subjectively understand entrepreneurs, right?

9:33And to make a bet on them in day zero when the company has nothing to show. So I think it was like a mix of things, right? But I would say that the common thing that all my LPs say is that they really like us and they made a bet on us because we were doing things differently. And I think the asset that we were offering at the moment in time was not, I mean, yeah, it was not in our ecosystem, was not existing at the moment in time, right? So, yeah, I would say that.

10:08Edgar Vicente:And when you look at the ecosystem across, you know, Spain and Southern Europe, you mentioned that a lot of the VCs are kind of traditional, conservative, not founder friendly. Has it been disruptive, what you've done? As in, is it, does it run contrary to a lot of how other VCs operate in that area and what's that experience been like? Yeah, look, that's why we decided to go for this opportunity, right? So we are entrepreneurs ourselves, so we're always trying to be lab things, right? So Enzo is our next venture and we are seeing that as a lifetime project. So basically what we saw here when we were entrepreneurs here in Barcelona is that, you know, the existing VC firms in the region were like super local, like super traditional, as you said.

10:56They just wanted to invest like 100K in, you know, 2, 3 million post-money valuation aiming to sell the company at 20, 30 million maximum. So that was the, you know, the old playbook, I would say, in the region. But we were realizing that this was completely changing. You know, it was changing basically because, you know, first unicorns were, popping up from the region, recycling a lot of capital, a lot of talent, and above all, a lot of ambition. So we were seeing next wave of entrepreneurs, young people, young folks, with a huge ambition, very hungry, trying to create generational companies from here.

11:40But they didn't know where to raise the first capital from. So we wanted to be this kind of right hand for them in day zero and it was no brainer right for them so we are now feeling that we we made the great decision you know creating ends of enters basically because we are seeing that organically we're getting a lot of a lot of requests from entrepreneurs thinking globally from spain from italy from portugal because they see on us a great partner in in order to scale right and yeah so basically I think that there is like a huge difference between Enzo and other VCs in the region in terms of companies they are looking at especially because this international ambition that it's really it's been really weird to see here in in the region lastly and what about you

12:38Edgar Vicente:know I've read that you were kind of focused on Gen Z initially are you still kind of focused on not just Southern European founders, but also young founders in their 20s? Yeah, I mean, it's not a must. So we obviously can invest in older founders. But that's true that we usually have, like, great generational connection with younger founders, and we can connect really well with them, and we can help them out in a better way. we can bring a lot of value to them because we've been in the same current situation as them. And yeah, but it's not a mess. We started just focusing on Gen Z founders, but we realized that it didn't make sense at all.

13:27So we wanted to expand our founder age, of course. But yeah, we have a preference, maybe if you want to see it like that for younger founders.

13:39Edgar Vicente:Yeah, absolutely. And when you think of the Enzo offering, it sounds like you move quicker, you're more friendly to founders, you're more of a San Francisco mindset, but in Southern Europe. What other kind of USPs or propositions do you think that you offer founders who kind of come with you? Are you helping to take them to the rest of Europe, helping them get used to bigger VCs? What do you think is the big value out of a founder signing up with yourself? Yeah, that's a very interesting one. I always ask myself every single day, why Enzo, right? Why the world needs another business firm, right?

14:14So I always have like a clear answer for that. And it's basically that we want to be like a first believer in each company. So we want to be there even before creating the company. So we take a lot of risk. So we know how to subjectively understand these founders, and we know how to get the most value out of them. And so because of that, we have the chance to jump into the best companies before anyone else. So we are seeing that it's possible to do that. so once we are in the company once we invest in the company we especially from zero to one this moment from nothing to the first clients we put them in front of potential ICPs big clients from our network and then we also help them to get to the best in class people in terms of hiring I think the first hires are the most important one.

15:18So we, we put our network at their disposal to the founder's disposal in order to get to the best talent, you know, to join the company at the very beginning. So we are somehow acting as a co-founder a majority of times. Um, and, uh, and yeah, so that's, I think that's our value proposition because we've been entrepreneurs. We're still entrepreneurs. We're young. So we think internationally, we are still hungry. So I think that we speak the same language as our founders.

15:48Edgar Vicente:amazing yeah it makes a lot of sense in them i think i can imagine if i was a founder having somebody who's been through it as you have as as founders and operators but also from the region who understands the culture but who wants to do things faster and move better yeah that's that's really interesting this is another topic but you know we found our sweet spot here because we are seeing as the ecosystem it's growing uh more and more blue chips and tier one firms are taking a close I hear to the region and because of that they are starting to to lead precedence rounds here uh but you know being local and being fast enough it's a competitive edge a competitive advantage for us so we usually are the follower in in every single round usually led by blood chip firms um but they really want us to be in the cap table basically because our local touch you know, our local connections.

16:44But we are still like an international fan. So we're local, but at the same time, we're international. We have this international mindset. So I think it makes completely sense.

16:55Edgar Vicente:And if you were a founder pitching to yourself and Enzo Ventures, what advice would you give them? I always say the same, right? I would love to invest in a, you know, hunger founder with an international ambition. trying to execute before brainstorming. I think that's the key, right? The speed of iteration. So I really like founders that really do things that they don't think too much in what's next. So just do it. That's the main thing. And also with this, I would say, as I always tell you, international mindset which is something that sometimes is missing here in the region and that's the subset of companies we're looking at right um yeah these two things mainly for me are the most important ones yeah being very action-oriented i always hear that as like a defining characteristic of a great founder someone who just like does it learns iterates does it again and again and again um and for you like what's the vision for enzo ventures you know how big would you like it to get to?

18:11Edgar Vicente:Would you like it to be, you know, a multi-stage, billion-dollar fund investing in all areas across Europe and the US? Would you like to kind of, you mentioned being pan-European, but with a sort of preference for Southern Europe. What would you like, what do you think the vision is? How big would you like this to get? Look, I think BC actually is broken, especially in growth stages for me. So either you are like a big multi-stage firm with a strong run or you are like a very small local player but something in the middle it's like a death valley to be honest um so we want to be in in the smallest i would say part of the game right so we want to be like we want to raise like subsock subsock when funds in the future but very small ones you know keeping something around 50 30 50 kf 30 50 million uh size uh investing in in pre-seed seed and maybe we can raise up to 10 funds in with the same exact strategy but we don't want to go far beyond that to be honest so we don't want to become like a multi-stage firm i think it it's something that it's part of the old playbook um and we want to be like a almost solo gp game if we want to call it like that.

19:30We are two people in the team. We want to be fast enough. We want to be, you know, founder friendly. We want to be very collaborative, very supportive. So if you're, if you're like a multi-stage fan, you potentially can lose all those things, right? So, so yeah, our intention is maybe to keep raising fans, but something, below 50, 60, 70 million tops fund size.

19:59Edgar Vicente:Interesting, yeah. Stay niche, stay focused and don't get too bloated. Well, it's been amazing to have you, Edgar. Thank you so much for joining me. It's like super interesting what you're building. I actually, I come to Barcelona quite frequently. I used to live there for some time. So, you know, next time maybe we should get a drink or something. But yeah, look, and it sounds like you've got exciting things going on with the second fund. So, you know, whenever the time is right, feel free to come back. I sat down with the founder of Bakkt when they announced the 100 million fund last week. So if you'd like to do something similar, just let me know.

20:31Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah, I'll pick you up whenever we are about to launch our next fund. And thanks for doing that, man. I appreciate that. And as I said, I ping you up as well whenever I'm in London. So if you are here in Barcelona, let me know as well and we can grab a coffee or something.

20:46Edgar Vicente:Sounds good. All right. Cheers, Edgar. Take care. Bye-bye.

20:57Thank you.