Bernardo Hernandez
About Bernardo Hernandez
Bernardo Hernandez is a Spanish entrepreneur and angel investor based in New York. He graduated from ICADE in Madrid in 1993, holds a Master's in Finance from Boston College and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He started as an analyst and portfolio manager at firms including Fidelity and Putnam Investments, and also worked as a fund manager at BBVA.
At 29 he co-founded idealista.com, which became Spain's leading real estate portal. He joined Google in 2005 and worked there until 2013, including as Director of Product Management. After Google acquired Zagat, he became its managing director in New York. He then ran Flickr at Yahoo until April 2015.
He later founded and served as CEO of Verse, a payments app that Block (Square) acquired in 2020. He was also a General Partner and later Venture Partner at Headline (formerly e.ventures) between 2016 and 2021, according to NFX Signal. Today he is co-founder and CoCEO of Pensero AI. He has also been a board member at MAPFRE since 2018.
Hernandez has invested as a business angel since his idealista days. His early Spanish internet bets included floresfrescas.com, planetaki.com, 11870.com and Tuenti. He was an early investor in Tuenti and chaired its board from 2006 until its sale to Telefonica in 2010. He also sat on the board of Bodaclick, the first Spanish internet company to go public.
Speaker bios and third-party profiles list later angel positions in Glovo, Fever, Paack, Citibox and Wallapop. PitchBook lists him as a former Glovo board member. Crunchbase shows him as an advisor to Citibox from 2016 to August 2023. He also founded StepOne, which helps Spanish tech companies expand into the US.
Crunchbase records 10 investments, 7 portfolio companies, 0 lead investments and 2 exits, none by IPO. Investment dates for most of these deals are not published in the sources I reviewed.
His main AI role is operating rather than investing. In 2024 he co-founded Pensero AI with Dave Garcia, and both are co-CEOs. Pensero applies AI to engineering performance and management, and its blog covers AI return on investment and visibility into engineering work.
PitchBook lists him as a board member at Graphext. A Franklin Institute biography lists him as an advisor to SandboxAQ and OpenChip. I did not find dated, announced angel checks into AI startups. Founders should not assume a specific AI thesis beyond what he writes publicly.
His documented angel record centers on consumer internet, marketplaces, mobile apps and logistics, mostly in Spain and later in the US. Examples are idealista, Tuenti, Glovo, Wallapop, Paack and Fever. Later work includes fintech (Verse) and AI software (Pensero). Aggregator profiles describe a seed and pre-seed focus on Spanish and European founders, but these are not statements from him.
I found no check size that he has published himself, so none is listed here. Public statements about what he looks for are limited. He speaks about founder-style thinking, AI adoption and board-level transparency, and he writes about AI return on investment on the Pensero blog.
- Pensero AI: AI platform for engineering performance and management. He co-founded it in 2024 and is CoCEO.
- Idealista: Spanish real estate portal. He co-founded it in 2000.
- Tuenti: Spanish social network. He was an early investor and board president from 2006 to 2010, and it was sold to Telefonica.
- Verse: European payments app. He founded it and was CEO, and Block acquired it in 2020.
- Glovo: delivery platform. Listed as an angel investment, and PitchBook lists him as a former board member.
- Fever: events discovery platform. Listed among his angel investments.
- Citibox: smart parcel and delivery lockers. He was an advisor from 2016 to August 2023.
- Paack and Wallapop: listed among his angel investments in speaker bios.
- FloresFrescas, Planetaki and 11870: early Spanish internet startups he backed as an angel.
- Graphext: PitchBook lists him as a board member.
- crunchbase.com/person/bernardo-hernandez
- pitchbook.com/profiles/investor/106477-39
- signal.nfx.com/investors/bernardo-hernandez
- speakersassociates.com/speaker/bernardo-hernandez
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardo_Hern%C3%A1ndez_Gonz%C3%A1lez
- institutofranklin.net/en/bernardo-hernandez
- linkedin.com/in/bernardohernandez
- pensero.ai/blog
Investing activity
Bernardo Hernandez has made 10 investments according to Crunchbase across 7 portfolio companies, and has seen 2 exits and founded 5 companies.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Bernardo Hernandez
Does Bernardo Hernandez invest in AI startups?
He is CoCEO of Pensero AI, which he co-founded in 2024. He is also listed as a board member at Graphext and an advisor to SandboxAQ and OpenChip. I found no dated, announced angel checks into AI startups.
What is Bernardo Hernandez's check size?
He has not published a check size in the sources reviewed. Some aggregator sites list ranges, but they are not confirmed by him, so ask him directly or through a warm introduction.
What companies has Bernardo Hernandez backed?
Reported angel investments include Tuenti, Glovo, Fever, Paack, Citibox and Wallapop. He also backed early Spanish startups such as floresfrescas.com, planetaki.com and 11870.com, and he co-founded idealista.
What stage does Bernardo Hernandez invest in?
Third-party profiles describe mostly seed and pre-seed angel investing. Crunchbase lists no lead investments, so he appears to join rounds rather than lead them.
Where is Bernardo Hernandez based?
Crunchbase and his LinkedIn list New York. He is Spanish and much of his portfolio is in Spain.
What has Bernardo Hernandez built or run?
He co-founded idealista, was a Google product leader and Zagat managing director, and ran Flickr at Yahoo. He founded Verse, which Block acquired in 2020, and he now co-leads Pensero AI.
Is Bernardo Hernandez an angel investor?
Yes. Bernardo Hernandez invests personally as an angel and is CoCEO at Pensero AI. Crunchbase counts 10 investments and 2 exits.
How can founders reach Bernardo Hernandez?
Founders on Lounge can see Bernardo Hernandez's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Bernardo Hernandez to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.