Kibo Ventures is one of Spain’s leading venture capital firms, known for backing ambitious tech companies at the early and growth stages. With a portfolio spanning SaaS, AI, cybersecurity, and enterprise infrastructure, Kibo brings more than capital: it offers strategic support, operational insight, and a rigorous approach to investment. When Kibo commits to a deal, it ensures the foundations are solid. That commitment to quality led them to partner with The Startup CFO for a full-spectrum due diligence on one of their latest portfolio additions: Jotelulu.
Why due diligence mattered in this round
In late 2024, Kibo led a €6.8 million Series A+ investment in Jotelulu, a rapidly scaling cloud infrastructure provider. With operations across Spain, France, and Portugal, the company had strong momentum, but also a complex financial and legal structure. Jotelulu’s business is capital-intensive, with significant hardware investments, cross-border operations, and a large partner network. To support a round of this size and complexity, Kibo needed more than a surface review. They needed a strategic financial and legal x-ray.
That’s where we came in.
Financial due diligence: Infrastructure, debt, and SaaS discipline
Our team at The Startup CFO led a full financial deep-dive covering:
- SaaS Metrics and Business Model: We reviewed MRR breakdowns, customer churn, payback periods, cohort-based analysis, CAC, LTV, Rule of 40, and more. Jotelulu had a solid structure, but we provided improvements to LTV calculation and EBITDA normalization, particularly around assets’ amortization.
- Revenue and Partner Dynamics: The company works via 1,000+ IT partners who resell its white-label cloud services to over 40,000 SMEs. Understanding cash collection, contract terms, and renewal patterns across this indirect network was critical.
- Asset Financing and CapEx: We audited the classification of the assets, their financing structure, and their accounting treatment.
- Gross Margin Integrity: Due to the capital model, amortization impacts the gross margin directly. We reviewed the treatment of this expense and ensured accuracy and transparency in SaaS reporting.
- Debt Validation: With most assets financed externally, we matched each active loan or renting contract to its corresponding asset, validating recognition and maturity alignment.
The result was a clear, nuanced understanding of Jotelulu’s financial engine, tailored to the needs of a high-growth SaaS with infrastructure complexity.
Legal due diligence: A 360º risk review
In parallel, we led the legal due diligence, covering:
- Corporate Governance and Cap Table: Verifying the accuracy of shareholder structures, legal registrations, and statutory documents.
- Contractual Risk: Reviewing key commercial contracts to ensure investment-friendly clauses and detect any triggers that could be affected by the capital raise.
- Intellectual Property: Confirming trademarks were registered and owned by Jotelulu, along with control over digital assets (domains, licenses).
- Data Protection (GDPR): Ensuring policies and practices aligned with European privacy laws, given the scale of user data processed via its platform.
- Labor and HR Compliance: Verifying employee contracts, social security obligations, and identifying any risks related to misclassification or benefits.
- Fiscal Health and Transfer Pricing: Reviewing tax compliance, existing inspections, and the robustness of their internal policies across geographies.
We identified areas for improvement and proposed concrete actions to optimize key processes. The company swiftly implemented our recommendations, enabling a clear and confident evaluation by Kibo.
The value for Kibo: Clarity, speed, and reduced risk
By the end of the process, we delivered:
- A complete report outlining all legal and financial findings
- Clear flags and mitigations, with supporting documents
- Enhanced clarity on the company’s growth levers, cost structure, and financial projections
- Alignment between accounting treatments and SaaS best practices
This gave Kibo Ventures the strategic visibility needed to lead the round quickly, backed by professional insights.
A model for future VC operations
At The Startup CFO, we believe due diligence should be more than a checklist. It’s a value-added process that reduces risk, improves deal quality, and fosters stronger investor-founder alignment.
For Kibo, this engagement reflected their high standards and operational discipline. For Jotelulu, it laid the groundwork for international expansion, product acceleration, and stronger financial reporting. And for us, it was a chance to apply our multidisciplinary expertise at a pivotal moment for two standout players in the European tech scene.
Contact us
- Mail: info@tscfo.com
- LinkedIn: The Startup CFO on LinkedIn
