Celebrating Onum’s rapid and remarkable exit to CrowdStrike
Our experience with the company, the inside story and our investment thesis.
A few days ago, just a few hours after signing the contract with CrowdStrike, the founders of Onum invited me to lunch in Zahara de los Atunes (Southern Spain, by the Atlantic Ocean) to have an intimate celebration of this huge milestone. The photo below captures the joy of being together and the pride of reaching a significant achievement that will change many lives - though we couldn’t yet announce it publicly. I posted it with the caption In vino veritas. If you look closely, you’ll see that we toasted with As Sortes (Galician word for “Luck”), one of my favorite Godellos, and a Burgundy listed on the menu as “Prochaine Chapitre” (French for “Next Chapter”). And so, we raised our glasses to luck for this exciting next chapter with CrowdStrike.
Onum’s story is truly unique, not only because of the buyer, one of the world’s largest cybersecurity companies, or the scale of the transaction, but also because of the speed since its founding. This success builds on the work my dear and admired friend Pedro Castillo has been doing in data management and cybersecurity since his early years at Bankinter. That experience led him to focus on log management —the small units of information companies produce— and on how to normalize, move, and analyze these tiny data points.
Pedro’s first product, Logtrust, was designed to detect patterns in volumes of information far beyond human capacity. Logtrust evolved into Devo, which became Spain’s most valuable software company, valued at $2 billion, backed by some of the world’s leading data investors. After that success, the team founded Onum, to empower companies to manage efficiently the vast amount of data they generate. Pedro told me about his desire to leave Devo and start Onum during a summer lunch, also in Zahara, in 2022. So he did, and we incorporated Onum at the end of 2022. The picture shows some of the Kibo partners (Javier Torremocha, Juan Lopez Santamaria and myself) with Pedro Tortosa and Pedro Castillo on Juan’s iPhone when we incorporated the company.
This deep expertise allowed the Onum team to develop a unique technology initially focused on reducing data management costs for large corporations—a challenge where Onum quickly proved its product-market fit. But data reduction was only the beginning. Onum also enables processing data at scale at the source, unlocking multiple applications. Today, many clients use Onum for cybersecurity (CrowdStrike’s primary interest), as well as for risk reduction, regulatory compliance, customer behavior analysis and network efficiency.
Investment Thesis
What led Kibo Ventures to invest in Onum? What was our investment thesis?
Exceptional founding team. Alongside Pedro Castillo and Pedro Tortosa, Lucas Varela joined the team. Very technical profile with prior experience with the “Pedros,” having been a client of Devo at Caixa.
Very close relationship with the founders. Our longstanding relationship built over the years at Devo allowed us to jump on the opportunity to invest right away, completely trusting Pedro and the team. We knew beforehand their strengths: their technical expertise, leadership and commercial skills, and the honest and clear communication style.
In fact, Onum is no exception. We have led investments in companies by other founders we worked with before, such as Daniel Solís (Blueliv, Zynap), Rebeca Minguela (Blink, Clarity.ai), or Elisenda Bou (Vilynx, Cala), as well as in companies built by employees of our portfolio companies. These are the kind of relationships we cultivate at Kibo Ventures with portfolio founders.
Ambitious vision rooted in deep technical knowledge. Although Onum was creating a new category, Pedro and the team had a deep understanding of the underlying technologies and their evolution, making the size of the market opportunity very clear.
Extraordinary product-market fit. The initial focus on cost reduction resonated immediately. A major Spanish bank told us its data grew 8% monthly. They bought into the idea in two minutes. The vision was always to go beyond cost reduction, giving companies the ability to manage their data and acting as the first filter for generating other use cases.
Quality of partners and positive board dynamics. We initially co-invested with Insight Partners, with whom we have had an excellent relationship for many years, thanks to the joint work Pedro Castillo, Insight, and Kibo Ventures did at Devo. At Insight, we are fortunate to work with Jeff Horing, one of its founders, alongside with Josh Zelman and Emmet B. Keefe III. Later, in a highly competitive round, Dawn Capital joined, represented by Henry Mason and Daniela Raffel. We had never invested with them before, and it has been a true pleasure. Looking forward to next one with both. On the board we also had Juan Santamaría from HWK, another long-standing Kibo Ventures co-investor, and Sunir Kapoor, seasoned operator and investor who we have enjoyed knowing over the past years. Among the business angels, we also had Daniel Solís from our portfolio company Zynap, where Pedro Castillo also serves as a board member.
Early focus on the US market. From the start, we built a balanced Spain/U.S. board, established a Boston office, and hired American staff. The company started very early doing content and raising its profile within the industry. For example, Onum attended RSA after one year in the market where the team organized joint events and marketing actions with other Kibo Ventures portfolio companies, Zynap and Zepo, something that made us very proud. Photo below of Pedro Castillo with Daniel Solís (Zynap Founder) and Antonio Muñoz (Zepo Founder)
Early exit
Time (very shortly) has proven us right: a very relevant exit has been achieved, delivering substantial returns for our investors and generating value for many company employees. While the decision to invest was clear, orchestrating an exit that consolidates value for all shareholders is always the real challenge.
This success is particularly meaningful to us, as it reflects our ethos and is consistent with our history: second time founder, closeness and intimacy with the team, where we are true partners and not just mere investors, bringing our experience, networks and industry vision. A success that reinforces our belief in the potential of venture capital as an asset class that can create value and returns, that can be the driving tool for innovation, and ultimately, a drive for changing many lives. I hope many technical folks get inspired by this and decide to start their own venture.
For all this, we want to give huge special thanks. First, to Pedro Castillo and the entire Onum team, led by him, alongside Pedro Tortosa, Lucas Varela, Wences Sevillano, and Sergio Bellido. They had no hesitation in inviting us to be part of this story since Day 1. Secondly, to our partners at Insight Partners (Jeff Horing, Josh Zelman, and Emmet B. Keefe III), Dawn Capital (Henry Mason and Daniela Raffel), HWK (Juan Santamaría), and Sunir Kapoor.
It has been a privilege for everyone at Kibo Ventures to share this journey. And as the bottles in the photo proclaimed (In vino Veritas): good luck with the next chapter!