RIU

EL · A VENTURE BUILDER · EST. MMXXVI

el riu rao — a venture builder that designs, builds, funds, and scales new companies.

We build, fund, and scale new companies with the world's most ambitious partners.

01 · About

A venture builder with an operator's hands.

el riu rao is a venture builder. We partner with established companies to design, build, and scale new businesses from a blank page to a funded, operating company. We don't write a deck and leave. We build the product, recruit the team, and run the venture until it can stand on its own.

Capital, product, engineering, growth, and talent live under one roof, so a venture goes from idea to market in months, not years. Half the speed comes from never starting from zero — the other half from putting our own skin in the game.

“riu rao” is the Catalan word for the persistent murmur a river makes on its way somewhere else. We named the company after it because that's what building does — keeps moving, keeps compounding, doesn't stop to ask permission.

What We Bring

02 · The studio
  1. 01 Capital We fund the venture from the first euro to scale, and we invest our own capital alongside our partners'. Skin in the game, never a retainer. Co-invest →
  2. 02 Product & Design Product strategy, UX, and brand from people who have shipped category-defining products. We design the company, not just the screens. See how →
  3. 03 Engineering Full-stack product teams that ship the real thing, not a throwaway prototype. Modern, fast, and built to scale from day one. Talk tech →
  4. 04 Growth Go-to-market, performance, and brand. We find the first thousand customers, then build the system that finds the next million. Grow with us →
  5. 05 Talent We recruit and embed the founding team, then hand the venture to operators who own it. Great companies are people first. Join us →

How We Build

03 · The model
01

Ideate

We pressure-test ideas against real market demand and a clear wedge before a single line of code.

02

Validate

Prototype, put it in front of customers, and kill what doesn't work fast. Evidence over opinions.

03

Build

We stand up the product, the brand, and the founding team in one focused sprint.

04

Scale

Capital, growth, and operations to find product-market fit, then push hard past it.

05

Spin Out

The venture becomes its own company, with its own team, board, and cap table.

04 · We build with
A GLOBAL BANK A TELCO LEADER AN ENERGY MAJOR A RETAIL GIANT A HEALTH SYSTEM A MOBILITY GROUP
Now raising · Fund I

el riu rao capital

We don't just build companies — we back them. el riu rao capital is our investment arm, currently raising its first fund to seed the ventures we build and a select few we don't.

Explore the fund →

A subdivision of el riu rao

el riu rao media

Every company we build needs a voice. el riu rao media is our in-house content studio — newsletters, podcasts, film, and editorial — and the same team works with outside brands who want to be read, not scrolled past.

Visit el riu rao media →

Let's build your next company.

Get in touch → See how we build
05 · Contact

Have a venture worth building?

We read every inquiry within 48 hours. Bring a market, a mandate, and an appetite to build — or just bring the problem and we'll help shape the venture around it.

Get in touch
info@elriurao.com