Barcelona's Masia closes €18M debut fund, opens 1,000 m² founder hub

Barcelona-based venture platform Masia has closed an €18 million debut fund and opened a 1,000 m² community space in the city's Gràcia neighbourhood. The fund will back early-stage AI and frontier tech founders with ties to Barcelona.

More than 70 limited partners committed capital to the vehicle. They include technology founders, executives, and seasoned operators. Two institutional investors also joined the LP base.

"We launched Masia's first fund last year because we saw Barcelona's tech ecosystem was nearing a tipping point, and we wanted to connect successful LPs and international VCs in the city with talent choosing to build and scale global frontier tech businesses from here," said Carlos Trenchs, co-founder and Chairman at Masia.

The fund writes cheques between €125,000 and €250,000. It targets pre-Seed and Seed rounds. It does not lead rounds or take board seats. That posture positions Masia as a collaborator rather than a controller, contributing capital and a network of 60 co-investors while founders keep full operational authority.

What does Masia House add?

Masia House spans four floors in Gràcia. The 1,000 m² building combines workspaces, meeting rooms, and investor accommodation. A terrace hosts events.

"Masia House is the next step in that mission, providing a physical space because we know capital alone doesn't create innovation," said Trenchs. "It happens when ambitious people repeatedly encounter other ambitious people."

The hub formalises a model that digital deal flow cannot easily replicate. It gives visiting investors a base in Barcelona. It gives local founders a room to meet them without booking a coffee shop.

How has the portfolio performed so far?

According to Masia, the firm has deployed capital into 46 companies since its 2025 launch. Those companies employ 60 founders. The firm has co-invested alongside 60 international and specialist VC firms, including Common Magic, Nina Capital, Point Nine, and Lunar Ventures.

Masia says its portfolio companies have raised follow-on capital from a16z, DST Global, Norrsken VC, Y Combinator, and Initialized Capital. The brand names signal mainstream validation of the firm's deal sourcing.

Three companies anchor the portfolio. Biorce applies AI to clinical trial optimisation and closed a €43.8 million ($52 million) Series A earlier in 2026. Prosper runs an AI-driven patient journey platform and raised €26.67 million ($30 million) in a round led by a16z. Didit offers AI-native identity verification and counts Y Combinator among its backers. Combined, those three companies alone have raised more than €70 million in follow-on capital since Masia first wrote them cheques, an outcome that anchors the case for any second fund.

"We're already seeing companies we backed last year raise Series A rounds and expand into the US," said Pepe Borrell, Founding Partner at Masia Fund. "Our focus is on founders using AI and frontier technology to address significant market opportunities, with international ambition from the outset. We want to support that growth through both investment and access to people who can help them scale."

What is the Barcelona context?

Barcelona startups drew €1.175 billion in the first nine months of 2026, according to Fundación Bankinter. That marked a 14% year-on-year increase. The city ranks sixth in Europe for DeepTech funding, having raised €610 million between 2020 and 2024, per data from Accio.

Masia's debut arrives against that backdrop. Biorce alone raised more than twice the debut fund's size in a single Series A. The fund's small cheque size, however, fits its super-angel role of seeding rather than anchoring rounds.

Who runs the firm now?

Trenchs and Borrell founded Masia in 2025. The team has since grown to seven. Gemma Torruella now leads operations, bringing more than 20 years of experience across Spain's financial and entrepreneurial sectors. Cathy White joined as Fractional CMO, with prior roles at Seedcamp and 15 years in European tech and venture.

The pair combine local capital relationships with European network reach through a portfolio architecture designed to keep founders in control of their own cap tables. Their fund model is built for repeat collaboration rather than winner-takes-all returns.

What comes next?

Masia announced in May 2025 its intention to deploy €20 million across 60 pre-Seed and Seed investments. The closed €18 million fund delivers 90% of that target. The next milestone is a broader Series A pipeline emerging from the current portfolio over the next 18 to 24 months as founders scale into US markets.

Biorce, Prosper, and Didit have already cleared that hurdle. If the next wave of Masia-backed companies follows them, the firm will need a larger second fund to keep pace with its own portfolio's growth.