At Bewater, we like capital-efficient companies. That is, companies that require little capital from their investors and are able to achieve significant revenue volumes and/or transaction value for the business, while being profitable or closely focused on profitability. Underpinning this are several principles we believe in:

If a founding team has managed to make their company profitable, they have already demonstrated a great deal, as reaching profitability is difficult.
Capital scarcity sharpens ingenuity and brings out the best in entrepreneurs.
Capital-efficient, profitable companies carry lower risk than companies that rely heavily on successive fundraising rounds (so-called “round-driven” companies).
In capital-efficient companies, founders typically retain a larger ownership stake, having been less diluted round after round, and are more closely aligned with investors in value creation (as opposed to prioritizing higher salaries).

To learn more about Bewater’s investment criteria, you can visit our Q&A section. In summary, we look for companies of a certain size, with growth, and with positive cash flow or close to achieving it.

Capital-Efficient Companies vs. “Round-Driven” Companies

Capital-efficient companies stand in contrast to what we call “round-driven” companies. These are companies in which the primary objective is not to reach profitability, but rather to maximize growth—even at the cost of requiring significant amounts of capital and sustaining high levels of losses.

Round-driven companies raise one funding round after another, often relying on continuous capital injections to avoid insolvency. While there are major Spanish success stories among this type of company—such as Cabify, BlaBlaCar, or Flywire—we are less inclined toward them as investors for several reasons:

They carry significantly higher risk than capital-efficient companies. They require new funding rounds to survive, and it is not uncommon to see them move from multi-million valuations to zero.
In theory, higher capital availability increases the probability of becoming a unicorn (a private company valued at over $1 billion). However, companies with relatively limited investment can also achieve this status, such as Idealista, which is likely the largest Spanish unicorn today.
High valuations are often accompanied by clauses that misalign shareholder interests, such as liquidation preferences and anti-dilution rights. These structures can result in situations where some shareholders win while others lose.
Valuations set in successive funding rounds may not be a reliable predictor of a company’s true value.

Paradoxically, media coverage tends to focus heavily on funding rounds in round-driven companies. However, it rarely highlights the strong financial performance of companies that do not raise external capital. For this reason, we have decided to give them visibility.

We have created a list of Spanish companies that are profitable, capital-efficient, and highly successful. These companies have achieved either significant revenue levels, high valuations, or both—with relatively little invested capital, while maintaining profitability. We will continue refining the selection criteria over time and expanding the list.

Inclusion Criteria

All companies included in the list meet the following requirements:

Gross profit above €500k (updated as of 01/06/2026)
Annual revenue above €1 million in the latest available year
Total external investment of less than €11 million

Do you know a company that should be on the list?

If you think a company should be included, or if you would like us to update any data, please contact us at info@bewaterfunds.com or leave a comment below. We would also welcome your thoughts on this debate between capital-efficient companies and round-driven companies.

Current Ranking of Companies

The current ranking of companies, ordered by revenue-to-funding ratio (descending), is as follows (updated as of 01/06/2026):