Welcome Martinho: doubling down on Barcelona

Barcelona has been a key part of Kfund’s story almost from day one.

Over the years, we’ve backed some of the city’s most ambitious founders and companies, while progressively building a stronger presence on the ground. We have always believed that venture capital is a local business: the best way to understand an ecosystem is to be part of it, spend time with its founders and build relationships long before there is an investment opportunity.

Today, we’re taking another step in that direction. Martinho Correia de Matos is joining Kfund to lead our presence in Barcelona.

Martinho joins us after several years investing at the earliest stages of the Iberian tech ecosystem, working closely with founders across both Portugal and Spain. Most recently, he was an investor at Bynd Venture Capital, where he focused on pre-seed and seed companies and backed teams including Reveni, NuuEnergy, Dealcar, Manie, Kapia, Reach AI, Artiso, Assimetria and Cori Clinical. But what caught our attention about Martinho goes beyond his investment experience.

He is someone who likes to build things himself. He founded Ivory Therapy and has been one of the people behind Lisbon AI, which has grown into one of the largest gatherings for the AI and developer community in Lisbon. That combination of investor, founder and community builder fits particularly well with how we think about early-stage investing at Kfund.

And there is another reason why the timing makes sense.

After spending the last few years investing across Iberia, Martinho became increasingly convinced by what he was seeing in Spain, and particularly by the density of talent, ambition and new companies emerging from Barcelona.

In his own words:

“The more time I spent on the Spanish side, the harder it became to ignore the momentum there. There is a density of talent, ambition and energy in the Spanish ecosystem right now that feels special, and I wanted to be part of it from the inside rather than watching from Lisbon.”

That conviction is bringing him to Barcelona, where he will live and work alongside the local ecosystem and become one of Kfund’s main points of contact for founders in the city.

For us, this is also about what comes next. Our approach has always been to meet exceptional founders as early as possible, sometimes when there is little more than an idea, a couple of people and a very ambitious plan. Having people deeply embedded in the ecosystems where those founders are building is fundamental to doing that well.

Barcelona already has the talent, universities, experienced operators, international founders and capital to create exceptional technology companies. Our ambition is to be even closer to the people building the next generation of them.

Martinho will help us do exactly that.

Bem-vindo to the K family, Martinho. And benvingut to Barcelona.