Hello and happy Monday,

Today's main headlines:

• Minoryx bags €51M 💸

• New BCN web3 venture builder ⛓️

• Google opens office in BCN 🏢

Barcelona a top 5 EU startup hub: what does it mean?

According to a ranking created by StartupBlink, Barcelona comes in 5th in the EU (not Europe!), behind Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, and Amsterdam. Globally, our city lands in the #37th place.

It remains unrivaled in Spain though - being the clear number #1 and even posing a higher total score than the next two cities (Madrid, Valencia) combined. It also looks slightly better on the global scale when only considering sectors like Foodtech (#15 place worldwide), energy & environment (#16) and ecommerce & retail (#21).

Of course, every ranking uses its own criteria. In this case, the factors considered were:

• quantity (#startups, #coworks, #accelerators, etc)

• quality (traction, #unicorns, #exits, etc)

• business (economic indicators at a national level)

On a closer look, Barcelona’s score for quantity is between that of Berlin and Paris. The business score is also on par with top leaders in the EU. What stands out though is the quality score where the German and French capitals outscore us by 4x.

So what does it mean? Barcelona provides a good foundation for startups to set up base and the high Catalan entrepreneurial spiral is evident in the quantity score. What’s missing to take the next step and join the big guys at the very top is more quality. That’s why having more unicorns and exits is so important. This of course takes time, but more importantly speed. Leading startup hubs don’t sleep and will continue to grow and use their success so far to reinvest money and know-how into their city. So to catch up we need to outpace them.

So let’s continue to network, work together & help each other out to accelerate the growth of our local startups.

Build great things! 🤝

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Phase 3 stage biotech company Minoryx raise €51M 

• Parlem Telecom receives €6M

• Home car wash company Plazy land €300K pre-seed round 

• Online dance school Rebaila closes €225K pre-seed round

• Homeware company La Platera, launched by an ex-Mango employee, receives investment from Mango

• Sustainable packaging company Plasticband gets ICF funding to build green factory

Barcelona startup news

• Cooltra reaches 50K users after first year in Paris

• Platanomelón’s digital community reaches 1.3M subscribers on youtube and 675K followers on Instagram

• Marmota founder launches new furniture ecommerce firm Pummba, focusing on sofas

• Sustainable homeware brand Hannun’s path to BME Growth has exceeded triple in demand

• New B2B insurtech startup Vitaance launches in Spain; already has Cobee on board

• Syra Coffee’s rapid expansion sees it opening 50 more stores across Spain 

Spanish investment news

• Spanish startups raised a total of €172M across 34 investments in May

• Madrid-based B2B2C e-learning startup Odilo secure €60M

• Madrid-Miami creator platform Colkie raise €2M & launch its beta

• Argaonese hiking route planning app Dersu get €1M

• Gijon dentist equipment and material startup Zarc4Endo bags €1M

• Madrid-based NFT-accessed creative platform Komon receive €1.8M

• Valencian SaaS startup Imperia SCM close €300K round

• Madrid-based proptech giant Spotahome raises debt funding of an undisclosed amount

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• BStartup has invested €1.2M in 12 startups in the last year

• Demium & Valencia FC co-launch Matchday Innovation, a €5M fund for sports startups

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Barcelona-based Wagmi Venture Studio, a venture builder, raises €3M to build web3 startups

• Kunsen open 2nd accelerator for healthtech startups; apply until June 17

• Equity-free accelerator FI Boost opens 5th call for Spanish tech startups; apply until June 17

• Up-and-coming Web3 & blockchain accelerator Open Web Collective announced a new €596K fund; apply until June 30

• Le Wagon Spain is offering €1K scholarships for its data science & web dev courses; they’re offered from May 1 to June 30 & the sessions start July 11

• Cuatrecasas launches its 7th edition, opens call in Spain, Portugal & LATAM; apply until 10 July

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• Interview with Ana Zamora, CEO & Co-Founder of new insurtech startup Vitaance

• Bio2Coat: Edible, plastic-free packaging for rice, cereals & more

• Freshis: Online store aiming to lead the fresh produce sector

• Mática Partners: AI, talent & hyper-specialization as a driver of change

• Interview with proptech Psquared on the lack of office space in Barcelona

• Tattoox: Platform to match tattoo hopefuls with the right artist

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona:

• Barcelona ranks 5th as a startup hub in the European Union in 2022

• Google opens office in Barcelona; focus will be on sales and consulting and it's supposed to create 40 jobs

• German biopharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim to invest €11M in Barcelona digital hub

• Japanese industrial robot and motion controller manufacturer Yaksawa to open new HQ in Barcelona

• HubSpot to continue its expansion with new focus on Barcelona

• FC Barcelona is the world’s most innovative team, according to Sports Innovation Lab

Tech & big company news in Spain:

• Google opens first cloud region in Spain to address local data sovereignty needs

• Uber launches its Explore ticket and restaurant booking service in Spain

Politics, Legal & Economics

• New Spanish law prohibits fake product reviews; firms can be fined up to €1M

• Unemployment in Spain falls below 3M for first time since financial crisis took off in 2008

Good Reads

• Internet of Things, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence: the tech most adopted by Catalan companies in 2021

• Another list of the 20 most promising Spanish startups for 2022 – 8 are from BCN

• Have we finally reached the great fintech consolidations? Analysis of the sector

• Remote jobs: Why tech professionals are the only ones who can choose where to work

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Video from Startup Grind Barcelona ft. FuckUp Nights 

• The collector’s dilemma, the role of crypto experts & the intersection of NFTS and blockchain innovation with Sarina Charugundla (EN)

• Sifted interview billionaire Christian Angermayer, founder of ATAI Life Sciences who treat mental health disorders with psychedelics (EN)

• World Fund's Alexis Caporale on how climate focus brings the best results (EN)

• Interview with Pau Garcia-Milà, co-founder of BCN startup Founderz (ES)

• Interview with François Derbaix, co-founder of Indexa Capital (ES)

Great Events

This week:

• Tue, 7 Jun @15:30: The Capchase Cup: 5-a-side football & networking for SaaS founders and VC 

• Tue, 7 Jun @19:00: Open Coffee Startup Networking

• Tue, 7 Jun @19:00: Belgian tech Networking Night

• Thu, 9 Jun @09:30: Rethink Retail X.O: the hybrid shop [ES]

• Thu, 9 Jun @17:00: How to Succeed with a Pitch with Martina Guzmán [ES]

• Fri, 10 Jun @14:30: Women in Tech Barcelona: 2022 Global Impact Summit

Upcoming:

• Wed, 15 Jun @18:30: Startup Grind BCN hosts Pep Gomez (Founder @ Reby & Fever)

• Thu, 16 Jun @15:00: Building Bridges Between Startup Ecosystems in Lithuania and Spain

• Thu, 16 Jun: Hired!BCN Talent Acquisition Conference

• 26-28 Jun: European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona

• Wed, 13 Jul @18:30: BCN FinTech Afterwork #002: feat. Loïs Duhourcau, CEO at Novicap

See the full event calendar here & add your event here.

Jobs

• Bourbon Creative is hiring a Freelance Content Writer (Native English, 100% remote)

• OneCoWork is looking for a Junior Accountant

• fonYou is hiring a:

• - Software Engineer

• - Cloud System Administrator

• Prestalo is looking for a:

• - Product manager

• - Social Media & Content Intern (FR market)

• Opticks is recruiting an Implementation Specialist

• Riverbed Technology is hiring a Digital Sales Representative - Dutch Speaking

• Frizbit is looking for multiple Sales positions

• FirstDerm is recruiting roles for sales, marketing, product & tech

• Netcentric is looking for several IT positions