4Founders Capital expands into hotel assets with new €60m vehicle
4Founders Capital, a Barcelona-based pre-seed investment manager, has launched its first fund dedicated to hotel real estate, unveiling 4Founders Capital Hospitality with an investment capacity of €60 million. The firm said the vehicle has a six-year duration, has already received approval from Spain’s securities regulator, the CNMV, and is preparing a first closing later this month alongside initial transactions that it says are already committed.
The fund launch comes after 4Founders Capital surpassed €130 million in assets under management, and roughly a year after it announced 4Founders Capital III, its third fund, which targeted €65 million. The move signals a broadening of the firm’s remit from early-stage technology investing toward an asset-backed strategy that blends operating cash flows with real estate value creation.
Partnership-led strategy and a new investment lead
Marc Badosa, Founding Partner of 4Founders Capital, said the decision was driven by a perceived market opportunity and a partnership with hospitality entrepreneur Enrique Domínguez, founder of the GaiaRooms chain. Domínguez is joining the new vehicle as Head of Investment Strategy, giving the fund an operator-led angle at a time when investors are increasingly focused on execution capabilities in hotel turnarounds and refurbishments.
4Founders Capital was founded by a group of entrepreneurs including Jesús Monleón (linked to Trovit), Marek Fodor (linked to Atrápalo) and Javier Pérez-Tenessa (linked to eDreams). The firm positions itself as an independent manager combining venture and real estate approaches, with an emphasis on profitability, capital efficiency and team quality.
Why Spain’s hospitality market is drawing capital
The launch lands against a backdrop of sustained investment activity across Europe’s hospitality, hotel real estate and HotelTech markets. In Spain, 2025 saw notable funding and deal announcements spanning both software-led platforms and property-backed roll-up strategies, underlining the sector’s dual-track appeal: technology-driven efficiency gains and tangible asset value.
Among the reported transactions, Barcelona-based Amenitiz raised €38.9 million in a Series B round to expand its hotel management software for independent operators, reinforcing the city’s role as a hub for hospitality-focused innovation. In Madrid, Room00 Group secured a strategic investment of up to €400 million to scale its urban hospitality platform via acquisitions and refurbishments across Southern Europe, highlighting continued investor appetite for real-estate-backed models.
Elsewhere in Europe, funding rounds pointed to growing interest in operational tooling: Vienna-based chatlyn raised €8 million for AI-driven communication tools for hotel operations; Amsterdam-based Toppi raised close to €1 million to scale AI solutions for hospitality businesses; and Milan-based Hotiday raised €5.5 million to expand a decentralised hotel and TravelTech model. Taken together, those disclosed 2025 announcements total roughly €453 million, offering context for why new capital is still forming around hospitality strategies—particularly in Spain.
Investment focus: Tier 2 cities, operational uplift and digitalisation
4Founders Capital Hospitality plans to invest in around 15 hotels located in prime areas of Spain’s Tier 2 cities with a strong tourism component, deliberately targeting markets outside the country’s most saturated destinations. The firm frames the strategy as a response to what it describes as a structural opportunity: parts of Spain’s hotel stock that still attract relatively limited investment volumes compared with headline markets.
The fund’s model is designed to combine two return engines. First, it seeks operating returns from the underlying hotel activity. Second, it targets real estate value creation through active management, refurbishments and the digitalisation of hotel operations—an approach that aims to improve margins and asset performance while supporting a higher exit valuation.
Return targets and holding period
According to the firm, returns are expected to be generated through dividends from hotel operations and through the divestment of properties over a three- to four-year horizon. The fund is targeting an internal rate of return (IRR) per transaction close to 18% and a net IRR for investors above 12%.
GaiaRooms brings operating scale to the strategy
Domínguez joins as the fund’s investment strategy lead with experience in the long-tail hotel segment. GaiaRooms is described as a Spanish operator managing more than 100 hotels and over 1,500 rooms, with a model centred on end-to-end digitalisation of assets. That operational focus aligns with the fund’s thesis that technology-enabled management can be a lever for both improved cash flow and asset re-rating.
What the launch signals for 4Founders Capital
With 4Founders Capital Hospitality, the firm is extending its platform beyond venture-style exposure to high-growth technology companies into a more tangible, cash-flow-linked strategy. The manager is betting that its experience in active management and value creation—paired with an operator partner—can translate into competitive performance in a market where execution, pricing discipline and operational efficiency are increasingly decisive.
The first closing expected later this month, as well as the execution of already-committed initial deals, will be watched for signals on pricing, asset selection and the fund’s ability to deploy capital quickly in Spain’s competitive hotel investment landscape.
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