Producer Jose Velasco founded and directed pioneering Spanish audiovisual companies such as Globomedia and Zeppelin TV. He has been behind some of television's most iconic shows, including the launch of Gran Hermano in Spain and the first streaming reality show for Netflix (Insiders). From Zebra Producciones (Grupo iZen) he has also been both creator and executive producer of El Cid, Prime Video's ambitious original series.

iZen, one of the largest independent production groups in Spain, is part of the international group Newen Studios, itself part of the French group TF1.

A couple of months ago iZen launched the production company Cacao & Cía together with Non Stop - Disney' s Latin American production arm - with the aim of creating and producing Spanish-language content for the Latin American market with global aspirations. 

Cacao & Cía operates from offices in Madrid and Mexico City.

"We want to highlight the value of a common market beyond Europe, linked by language and culture. It is a market we really have to go for. In a situation of global budget cuts, clients need to pool budgets from different countries and regions,” explains Jose Velasco, who leads iZen together with his daughter Sara Fernandez-Velasco.

"We can produce stories that work in Spain, in Mexico, because we have heads and hearts in both places. These are companies, each in a particular region, that are capable of doing things together."

Beyond their creative and production capacity, both iZen and Non Stop have enough muscle to take on productions, co-produce, and invest, and they believe that it is necessary to assume a slightly higher level of risk than in a more traditional production model, and thus be part of the value chain, and also part of the investment.

In short, they seek to offer high creativity and quality solutions at a reasonable cost. "Being producers means owning part or all of the IP and taking the necessary risk. Of course we will continue to work with the original production model, which is also interesting, but we believe that the other model is one where the risk for the client is lower, and our involvement and commitment as producers is greater. Many of the great successes will probably come from this model," says Velasco.

Cacao & Cía's first projects include a co-production about the legendary Argentine driver Juan Manuel Fangio, a story about Chavela Vargas, based on the book Las verdades de Chavela by María Cortina, which is being adapted by Arantxa Echevarría (El Cid, Carmen y Lola), also with several interested co-producers.

Both projects define the line of content Cacao & Cía wants to work on, reflecting strong IPs with leading characters closely linked to Latin America and strong international potential.

"For reasons of culture and historical heritage, it is almost an obligation for us to set our sights on Latin America, especially because we also believe that Spanish-language content is increasingly global, thanks to the explosion of Spanish fiction," he says.

Cacao & Cía has also opened conversations to produce different serielas projects, 40-episode productions with bigger budgets than conventional daily series, where they believe there to be an interesting market.

"We already have several projects on the table, several things that are not yet in production - the alliance started up in January - but will be in the coming months," he says.

"We see that the market is interested in our proposal and we are passionate about the idea of working closely with platforms and broadcasters. We have been pleasantly surprised by the market's need for initiatives like this," says Velasco, who hopes that the new company will also be a haven for talent.

iZen brings its recognized creative and production capacity to the Cacao & Cía alliance, as evidenced in titles such as El Cid, Insiders or TVE's daily strip Centro Médico. Furthermore, iZen has recently boosted its staff with the incorporation of prestigious executives Juliana Barrera and Tatiana Hernáiz. 

Non Stop, led by producer Patricio Rabuffetti, is behind hits such as Soy Luna, Violetta, Santa Evita, and Tierra Incógnita. It also provides production infrastructure in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Spain, with more than 70,000 m2 of facilities spread between twenty studios.
 
The distribution and financing capacity of iZen's partner Newen Connect further adds to the strengths of this alliance for the Latin market, giving the new entity privileged access to iZen's extensive catalog of fiction and entertainment content, generated by the production companies within the Newen group and the TF1 channels.

With the launch of Cacao & Cía led by Pedro Dávila - until now head of content at Non Stop - iZen is expanding its international presence, adding the Latin market to its penetration in the UK market, both in fiction and entertainment, through the production companies Chalkboard, Clapperboard and Storyboard Studios, which have produced numerous fiction series and programs for the main operators in the United Kingdom. "Right now there are five series in production there,” Velasco points out.