Luis Martín Cabiedes

Who they are

Luis Martín Cabiedes is Managing Partner at Cabiedes & Partners — co-founded the firm in 2009 and backed BlaBlaCar, Privalia, and Idealista from seed before any of them were household names.

Person

Luis Martín Cabiedes came out of media before moving into venture: he ran Europa Press, the Spanish newswire, giving him an operator's lens on information markets before he ever wrote a check. In 2009 he co-founded Cabiedes & Partners, a Madrid-based seed fund focused on Spanish ICT and internet startups — and has been the sole managing partner and central decision-maker there since. The portfolio reads like a who's-who of Spanish internet: Idealista, Privalia, Trovit, BlaBlaCar, Kantox, Indexa Capital, We Are Knitters. The through-line is early conviction on internet-native businesses in Spain before that bet was obvious. He's active on the conference circuit — First Tuesday Barcelona, Startup Grind Barcelona, BIGBAN Investors Congress, and the MIT Alumni Entrepreneurship Forum Spain — speaking on venture capital, early-stage startup finance, and the Spanish innovation ecosystem. He also serves as Secretary on the AEBAN board, the Spanish business angel network, which keeps him close to the angel-to-seed pipeline. Possibly — his media background at Europa Press informs a preference for founders who understand distribution, not just product.

Company

Cabiedes & Partners is headquartered in Madrid and operates as a seed and very early-stage fund — backing pre-revenue companies across a wide range of sectors including fintech, edtech, travel, healthtech, legaltech, and fashion. Its most recent notable portfolio move is the acquisition of We Are Knitters, a fashion/tech company. The firm's market position rests on a track record of notable exits — Idealista, Privalia, and Olé — and a reputation as a founder-aligned investor in the Spanish ICT space. Luis Martín Cabiedes is named as the sole managing partner, making this effectively a single-GP vehicle.

Market

Cabiedes & Partners operates in the Spanish early-stage venture market, competing and co-investing alongside other seed funds and business angels in a market that has matured significantly since 2009. Portfolio companies like BlaBlaCar, Privalia, and Gigas compete in their own respective sectors — ride-sharing, fashion e-commerce, and cloud infrastructure. The broader investment environment is being shaped by the EU AI Act (effective 2025) and geopolitical fragmentation between US and Chinese technology blocs, both of which affect where European seed-stage technology bets land.

Network

No direct edge data is available, but Luis's institutional footprint tells the story: he sits on the AEBAN board as Secretary, placing him at the centre of Spain's organized angel and seed investment community. His portfolio touchpoints — BlaBlaCar, Kantox, Indexa Capital, Trovit — connect him to founding teams and co-investors across Spanish and European venture.

How they likely show up

Sole managing partner at Cabiedes & Partners since 2009 → makes investment decisions unilaterally and moves without committee drag — expect directness and speed.
Prior role as CEO of Europa Press → brings an operator's P&L mindset to founder conversations, not just a pattern-matching VC lens.
Long-running seed focus on pre-revenue companies → comfortable with deep uncertainty; not looking for traction before engaging.
Active at First Tuesday Barcelona, Startup Grind, BIGBAN, and MIT Alumni Forum → values being visible in the ecosystem and likely uses conference stages to test and broadcast conviction.
Secretary on AEBAN board → engaged in the institutional side of early-stage investing, not just deal-by-deal; thinks about market infrastructure.
Possibly — single-GP structure over 15+ years signals high independence and low tolerance for consensus-driven decision-making.

Conversation tips

→ Come with a view on the Spanish internet market — he's been building conviction there since 2009 and will respect a peer perspective, not a pitch.
→ Reference a specific portfolio company (Idealista, Kantox, Indexa Capital) and ask about the thesis at the time of investment — he'll have a real story, not a rehearsed answer.
→ Don't show up with late-stage metrics or traction requirements as a baseline — he backs pre-revenue companies and that's deliberate.
→ His media background at Europa Press is an underused entry point: ask how running a newswire shapes how he thinks about distribution for portfolio companies.
→ If you're in the angel or seed world, acknowledge his AEBAN role — he's institutionally invested in the ecosystem, not just his own fund.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the We Are Knitters acquisition — it's his most recent portfolio move and a distinctive bet: a craft/fashion-tech company sitting inside a fund known for fintech and internet infrastructure. Worth asking how that fits the thesis.
Reference his time as CEO of Europa Press before founding Cabiedes & Partners — he's one of the few Spanish VCs who ran a real media business first, and that operator background shapes how he underwrites founders.
Bring up Indexa Capital or Kantox specifically — both are fintech bets that paid off in a market where fintech was not obvious in Spain at seed stage. He'll have a first-principles story about why he moved early.

Discovery questions

You backed BlaBlaCar and Privalia before either had Spanish-market proof — what does a pre-revenue Spanish internet startup have to show you today that those companies showed you then?
Running Europa Press before starting the fund is an unusual path into venture — how does having been an operator change what you look for in a founding team?
With the EU AI Act now in force, how are you thinking about compliance risk versus opportunity for pre-revenue companies in your sectors?

Avoid

Don't lead with late-stage metrics or ask what traction he requires before investing — the entire fund thesis is pre-revenue seed, and treating traction as a prerequisite signals you haven't done the work.

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