Hello and happy Monday! Let's jump right into it, shall we?

Tue, May 14th: SGBCN hosts Lina Chong

The ever-popular Startup Grind BCN series is back this month on Tuesday, May 14th. This time they are featuring a fireside chat with Lina Chong, the Investment Director at Target Global. Of course, as usual, this will be preceded by a brief open-mic session and followed up by awesome networking with food and drinks. To sign up, simply get your ticket here.

Thursday, May 16th: Solicitud Abierta de Innovación

Our friends at Wayra Barcelona have announced a call for startups to work with Telefonica's deep learning technology. The winning team will earn €50k to carry out a real pilot. Learn more and RSVP to the open day on May 16th here.

Fri-Sun, May 17-19: Startup Weekend Barcelona

Startup Weekend Barcelona has been the birthplace of several multi-million dollar companies. This time the objective is to disrupt the maritime logistics industry in just 54 hours. Are you up for the challenge? Register Here

Ok, that's it from me. Have a great week and we'll see you out there!

Startup & Investment News

• US firm Spiral Therapeutics, a spin-off of Catalan pharma firm Salvat, closes a €5M investment round

• Barcelona competitor-analysis SaaS startup Kompyte raises €2.7M

• Spanish startup ICIRED secures a €2.4M investment round

• Barcelona startup Hubtype raises €1M to disrupt conversational messaging industry

• Catalan startup Zinklar lands a €1M investment

• Spanish shoe ecommerce Muroexe gets a €1M funding

• Catalan travel tech startup TravelPerk doubles its London team

• Barcelona sports ecommerce Deporvillage launches its own bicycle brand

• Catalan startup Freshly Cosmetics launches in France

• Following its massive €150M funding round last week, Glovo is now planning to hire 300 engineers

VC & investment news:

• Investment in EU growth-stage tech firms has doubled over the last three years to reach €30B across 2,300+ rounds between 2016-2018

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories:

• IQS Next Tech looks for 10 industrial startups to take their functional prototype to production ready in six months

• Conector launches its #11 accelerator program in Barcelona, meet the 6 selected startups

• Ashoka and Vía Célere launch the 2nd edition of Future Cities and look for projects committed to the use of water

• Airbus Bizlab opens the fifth call of its acceleration program; interested startups can apply until July the 7th

Barcelona startup profiles, interviews & success stories:

• Brickbro: the real estate crowdfunding platform with 2000+ investors & €1M in sales this year is looking for funding

• Red Points: co-founder Josep Coll talks about his background, the firm's beginnings, funding rounds & more

Tech News

• Barcelona working on developing a '22@' in the area around the iconic three chimneys in Besòs

• Sónar+D & 4YFN team up to launch a startup program

• Several Spanish banks, including Santander, CaixaBank, Unicaja & Liberbank, are restructuring their workforce in an attempt to stay competitive; about 8.000 jobs might be lost

Telco news in Spain:

• Telefónica agrees to sell 11 data centre facilities to Asterion for €550M

• Spanish telco MásMóvil carries out a capital increase of €100M

More strikes affecting public transport in & around Barcelona:

• Metro workers go on strike again, forcing subways to run at minimum capacity on the 20th and 24th of May

• Due to a strike, FGC trains will run at only 50% capacity at rush hours (7-9 & 17-19) during 13-17 of May and 20-27 of May

Mobility, Transport & Logistics

• Spain's delivery market just got even more competitive with Just Eat announcing plans to develop its own delivery fleet

• Madrid announces regulations for VTCs: each license-holder can't operate more than 16 hours/day, 5 days/week and can't stop within 100 meters of train & bus stations

• CORREOS boosts the efficiency of its fleet with the acquisition of more than 150 new vehicles

Good Reads

• Size matters: Europe's biggest startup hubs are also growing the fastest

• The State of Venture Capital in Europe and Spain

• The Rebellion Against China’s 996 Culture

Great Events This Week

• Mon, 13 May @ 19:00: Celebrate Entrepreneurship @ IESE Business School

• Tue, 14 May @ 18:30: Startup Grind BCN hosts Lina Chong (Target Global VC)

• Wed, 15 May @17:30: MASTEAM talks: 5G networks + edge computing with José Miguel Pulido (Volta Networks)

• Thu, 16 May @9:00: UBEntrepreneurship day

• Thu, 16 May @18:30: Neuroscience of Digital Distractions

• Thu, 16 May @18:30: Enisa Financing Lines for Entrepreneurs and Innovative Companies

See the full event calendar here.

Startup Jobs In Barcelona

• Carts Guru is hiring a Community & Growth Hacker

• L+R is looking for a Mobile Engineer

• Tropicfeel is recruiting a Head of Digital Growth

• Bourbon Creative is hiring a Junior Digital Marketer

See the full job board here.