From Worthless Paper to Coveted Asset: The VTC License Arc Under Alejandro Betancourt López

Few assets have swung as far as the Spanish VTC license. A single permit sold for about €5,000 in 2015, dismissed as a bureaucratic relic. A decade later it sat inside a company Uber valued highly enough to commit €220 million for less than a third of it. That arc traces the bet Alejandro Betancourt López made before almost anyone else.

The gap between cost and outcome is hard to overstate. Permits priced like administrative curiosities became among the most valuable assets in Spanish transport.

Why the price stayed low

The cheapness had causes. Taxi unions had lobbied for decades to keep private hire marginal, routes were restricted, and the ratio of VTC to taxi licenses was capped, which kept the permits a minor supplement to the taxi trade.

The market was also thin and illiquid. Holders who’d obtained permits years earlier often let them sit, and sellers found few interested buyers, so serious investors paid no attention.

Why it climbed

Demand changed the picture. Uber and Cabify both needed VTC permits to put cars on Spanish roads legally, and the supply was fixed, so whoever held the most permits set the terms of entry.

Scarcity did the rest. A government ceiling on supply, set just as demand began to accelerate, meant the asset had one direction to travel, and the holder who bought early captured the climb.

Few assets have swung as far as the Spanish VTC license. A single permit sold for about €5,000 in 2015, dismissed as a bureaucratic relic. A decade later it sat inside a company Uber valued highly enough to commit €220 million for less than a third of it. That arc traces the bet Alejandro Betancourt…