Borja Brena

Partner

2024 - Current

• Board observer at Last.app (since 2023) • Board observer at airfocus (since 2023) • Board observer at StockAgile (since 2022) • Board observer at Loyal Guru (since 2022) • Board observer at TrustWorks fka QueryLayer (since 2021) • Board observer at Weecover (since 2022) • Board observer at ifeelonline (since 2021) • Board observer at Cledara (since 2020) • Board observer at Smart Protection (2019-2020) • Board observer at World Mastery (from 2019 until administration in 2021) • Board observer at Emjoy (from 2019 until stopping operations in 2023) • Board observer at Hosco (since 2018) • Board observer at Landbot.io (since 2018) • Board observer at Geoblink (from 2018 until the sale to MyTraffic in 2023) • Board observer at Holded (from 2018 until the sale to Visma in 2021) • Also, a small-time supporter of Nextail (since 2019) and Onna (in 2019)

Principal

2018 - 2023

Investor

2011

• Sonar Ventures, a Spanish tech venture builder (www.sonarventures.com). • TARTESIA, a Spanish contemporary jewellery brand (www.tartesia.com). • LanguageStays, language education and training agency (www.LanguageStays.com). • Nacho Quiroga Dressage, a horse riding school in Madrid, Spain (www.AulaEcuestre.com).

Lead - StartmeUP Solutions Center for Innovators

2017 - 2018

Partner

2017 - 2018

CVC Senior Investment Manager

2013 - 2017

• Co-managed the investment portfolio of its startup accelerator Wayra (€30M), fund of funds (€90M), and corporate VC TEF Ventures (€70M). • Led the team responsible for investment sourcing, analysis, presentations to C-level committees, and deal negotiation and closing, as well as ongoing portfolio reporting, startup showrooms and investor meetings. • Selected investments in early-stage: Pixoneye, Swipii, NFWare, CinePapaya, Trocafone, Kubo Financiero, Qudini, Proradis; and late-stage companies: 4iQ (now Constella Intelligence), Satlantis, Sigfox. • Hired as a member of Telefónica’s 1st MBA Graduate Programme.

MBA Associate

2012 - 2012

Growth VC fund with $600M AUM. • Performed deep-dive and due diligence of +3k companies in B2B sectors: enterprise, fintech, cloud-based/XaaS, big data, mobile, e-commerce, social, etc. • Assisted in the analysis and due diligence of potential investments, including Trademob. • Introduced an efficient screening process and led the implementation of a new CRM system. • Helped CFO prepare calculations for the biannual report and the fundraising materials.

Product Control Analyst - Credit Flow

2010 - 2011

• Assisted Fixed Income Credit desk by producing profit and loss and risk control reports as well as weekly update presentations for a portfolio exceeding £1bn in sales. • Managed and reconciled trading books, performed valuation tasks for FX hedging and reserves, price testing, risk control reporting. • Devised and implemented system efficiency projects (16 daily man-hours saving).

Senior Consultant (Enterprise Risk Services)

2006 - 2010

• Trained with Deloitte for ICAEW's ACA. • Managed IT and financial audit for clients including Vodafone, AOL UK, WPP, Paypoint, British Land and Itochu Europe, reporting directly to the audit partners. • Acted as the liaison between the UK and Spanish firms (across all levels up to partner) in relation to Santander Bank’s UK audit engagements (revenue in excess of £1m). • Designed operational procedures framework for Barclays' Global Retail Banking. • Secured partner buy-in to set up and manage the Deloitte UK Spain & Latam Group, involving the coordination of conferences, language buddy schemes, newsletters, and social events.

Assistant Product Manager

2006 - 2006

• Assisted in the development of the Nexagent System (multi-environment IP-VPN software) • Produced the support website, the system user manual and training documentation

Researcher

2004 - 2005

• As part of the Department of Engineering Systems and Automation, designed and built a pneumatic-levitation positioning system, to remotely control the height of a ball suspended in a stream of air with advanced strategies of automated control.