The Madrid Audiovisual Cluster, in collaboration with CaixaBank and CREA SGR, has held this pioneering event, which has been well received by the industry. More than 160 professionals from the sector attended the event, including prominent executives, institutions, associations, media, and representatives from creative, technical, financial, training, educational, and other branches of the audiovisual ecosystem.

Madrid, January 31, 2025 – The First Madrid Forum on Investment in the Audiovisual Sector took place this Tuesday at CaixaBank All in One in the capital, organized by the Madrid Audiovisual Cluster in collaboration with CaixaBank and CREA SGR.

With a full house, the event brought together key authorities and professionals from the audiovisual and entertainment industry. It provided a unique opportunity to delve into long-term private and public financing models and explore investment options such as private equity and emerging financial strategies. Additionally, the challenges currently facing the sector were analysed.         

Companies were introduced to new financial instruments beyond tax incentives for productions. Discussions highlighted how the sector can engage with investment funds to enhance companies’ capital structures, ensuring sustainable economic and structural growth for a more robust industry.

The sector’s creativity and innovative financial opportunities can work together to drive business training and specialization, fostering partnerships that facilitate access to credit under more favourable conditions.

This forum served as a space for connection, reflection, knowledge-sharing, and exploring avenues for collaboration and innovation, all aimed at boosting competitiveness and supporting initiatives that enhance the positioning and expansion of companies—key objectives promoted by the Madrid Audiovisual Cluster.

As stated by its president, Raúl Berdonés, who inaugurated this economic forum: “At the Madrid Audiovisual Cluster, which currently comprises more than 90 entities, we felt it was necessary to hold this event to analyse long-term financing opportunities—not only for projects but also for investments in companies to achieve solidity and stability, which is what we are all striving for here. Without a doubt, the audiovisual sector in Madrid is in an excellent position; the data confirms that it leads production in Spain, and for that reason, it is worth having this dialogue and recognizing the added value that a cluster provides.”

He continued, “It is important that we all stand together to keep growing and building the future so that we truly move forward, consolidate our position within the sector, and become a global benchmark. This is what we aim to promote from the Cluster: to facilitate mechanisms that make companies more sustainable, strengthen them financially, and increase the visibility of financial resource contributions.”

The opening ceremony featured Teresa Azcona, Managing Director of the Madrid Audiovisual Cluster; Juan Antonio Peña, Director of Institutional Relations in Madrid at CaixaBank; Gonzalo Cabrera, Director General of Culture and Creative Industries of the Community of Madrid; and Inmaculada Sánchez-Valdés, General Coordinator of the Madrid City Council’s Mayor’s Office. They all emphasized the audiovisual sector’s strategic importance and its role as a key economic driver with significant investment returns. As highlighted during the event, the audiovisual industry already represents 2.6% of Madrid’s GDP. It is a constantly evolving industry and a decisive factor in strengthening the country’s brand on the international stage.

The relevance of the sector’s viability to finance itself in the markets, through investment funds or other operations that enable the development of companies and translate into the creation of stable jobs, was also emphasized, allowing the industry to take on more ambitious productions globally. Employment in the audiovisual sector has increased in recent years, and Spain is one of the leading countries in investment in European original content platforms among EU nations.

The first roundtable of the day focused on private equity, one of the alternative investments that has gained traction in recent times. This is a model where financial resources are provided to a company for a period of time in exchange for a stake in that company. The goal is to make specialized, long-term investments to boost companies and optimize their profitability.

This topic was discussed by Juan Miguel Goenechea, partner at GOROS Investment; Alejandro Guil de la Vega, investment manager at Three Hills Capital; Gordon Mackinnon, managing partner at TwentyFourSeven; and Hernán Pérez, CEO of Workout Group, in a session moderated by Andrés Sánchez Pajares, CEO of Filmika Audiovisual.

The second panel, led by Henar León, head of Innovation and Grants at PRISA Audio, focused on public financing policies, with the participation of Borja Cabezón, CEO of ENISA; Miguel Ovejero, Deputy Director-General of the Audiovisual Communication Services Department at the Secretariat of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence; Alex Lafuente, partner and co-founder of BTEAM Pictures; and José Marino García, Director of Capitalization at the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT).

The main funding lines of ENISA (National Innovation Company), which is under the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, were discussed, as well as the operation of its participatory loan programs for SMEs and entrepreneurs, designed to strengthen the financial system of companies, and the requirements for applying for them.

On the other hand, it was emphasized in this session that the audiovisual sector will have an additional 1.5 billion euros in financial instruments in a new phase of the ‘Spain Audiovisual Hub of Europe’ plan, supported by SETT, an entity launched last year by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Function to finance and invest in advanced technologies related to telecommunications, disruptive digital technologies, and the audiovisual sector.

After a break, the conference on the audiovisual financing platform SEGO Creative took place, attended by Carolina Barco, founder of Incoproduction; and Javier Villaseca, CEO of Sego Finance. Both noted that SEGO Creative, resulting from the financing agreement signed by EGEDA and SEGO Venture to support audiovisual producers in accessing financing through a network of over 40,000 private investors, has reached one million euros in private investment in its first six months of operation. This will make it possible to support three feature film projects. This has led to a significant involvement of private investment funds in fostering film and television talent, while modernizing and expanding financial instruments in favour of culture.

The rapid and effective acquisition of private investment by these projects demonstrates the great interest the audiovisual production sector has sparked among investors. This financing tool opens new possibilities for producers, offering a simple and profitable investment avenue while providing a new resource to bring new audiovisual projects to life, the participants emphasized.

Next, a debate on innovation and new investment models took place, moderated by María Valenzuela, founder & CEO of Brisa Media. Guillermo Jiménez, CEO of AXIS (ICO Group); Jesús Martínez, founder of Moby Dick Film Capital; Juan Antonio Moreno, CEO of AD4Ventures; and Javier Nuche, general director of Atresmedia Diversificación participated. Among other topics, the alternative media-for-equity financing model was discussed, where capital is contributed to companies in kind, in the form of advertising space in the media.

Additionally, there was a discussion on how Artificial Intelligence is changing the film and television business, affecting the adaptation of creative processes as well as production and distribution models. The opportunities it offers for implementing innovative solutions that optimize efficiency and enable the undertaking of more ambitious projects were also addressed. The panelists argued that the integration of AI should be based on collaboration between different industry players in order to harness its potential for the sector.

The final session of this First Madrid Audiovisual Investment Forum specifically delved into the challenges and opportunities in accessing long-term bank financing, with the presence of Rafael Lambea, general director of CREA SGR; Eduardo Ballesteros, head of company financing at CaixaBank; Íñigo Santías, general director of Peris Costumes; and moderated by Irene Jiménez, editor and co-founder of Audiovisual451.

CREA SGR, a financial entity established twenty years ago to meet the financing needs of the audiovisual sector, has allocated over 300 million euros in guarantees for audiovisual initiatives since 2019, leading to the creation of more than 5,200 jobs, thanks to public-private collaboration.

The speakers emphasized the interest in advancing towards long-term financing with banking institutions and investment funds, so that Spanish companies can continue expanding and consolidating, with the goal of making the audiovisual sector internationally competitive. In conclusion, it is essential to build trust among all involved parties. This means maintaining lasting relationships with banks, creating strong and sustainable projects, and driving the professionalization of companies, which would facilitate accessing different types of financing with greater assurance.