Good morning, we hope you had a nice weekend!

The good news keep coming in Barcelona:

• Catalonia finally enters the ‘new normality’ after lifting state of alarm

• Local startups raise €60M+ across 4 investment rounds

• Barcelona finech records €50M exit (details below)

IQS Tech Fest 2021

Our friends at IQS Tech Fest are already working hard on the 2021 edition of the industrial startups focused event. To help them plan this event in a difficult time, we kindly invite you to share your feedback on what you'd like to see at the event here.

Have a great week and take care of yourselves!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Catalan fintech startup Verse gets acquired by US firm Square; the fee has not been disclosed officially, but it is rumored to be around €30M-€50M

• Barcelona startup Ona Therapeutics, a spin-off from IRB Barcelona & ICREA, nets €30M in Series A funding

• Barcelona & NY-based knowledge integration platform startup Onna raises €24M in Series B funding

• - Read more about what Onna does & their next steps here

• Catalan startup SingularCover closes a €4.5M investment round

• Barcelona proptech startup Housfy raises €3M

• Confinement has not stopped VC investment in Spanish startups; BCN startups Wallbox & Factorial among three firms that raised the most money

Barcelona Startup news

• Stockholm & Barcelona-based startup TechBuddy launches phone, tablet, and smartwatch repair service in Spain

• Barcelona startup Laagam teams up with Micolet to offer exlusive discounts and service to each others' clients

• Barcelona-based Fleksy rolls out SDK for Android & iOS to boost demand for its white label AI keyboard software

• Catalan e-voting startup Scytl to receive acquisition offers until today (22nd June) in order to rescue the company

Spanish investment news

• Basque startup CounterCraft raises €4.45M

• Segovia-based startup Bioammo lands €3M

• Madrid SaaS startup Kymatio receives €725K

• Madrid startup iCommunity Labs gets €300K

VC, investment & crowdfunding news:

• Santander InnoVentures leads €35M investment round in US fintech Upgrade

• Barcelona-based VC Nauta Capital participates in €6.1M investment round of Berlin startup zenloop

• Lanzadera organizes Deck & Docks, an online startup investment forum

• EIT InnoEnergy to invest €12M in Spain and Portugal

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories:

• Alicante Open Future and Sareb open call for proptech startups; apply until 30th of June

• Fundación Prosegur seeks covid-free solutions so that the return to classrooms is done safely; apply until 6th of July

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• Santa Fixie: ecommerce site for bicycles

• Philippe Gelis from Kantox: an entrepreneur between London & Barcelona

Tech News

• Bayer to hire 100 people for its Service Center in Barcelona this year

• Barcelona makes hydrogen commitment with plans for new hydrogen refuelling station and 8 hydrogen-powered buses

• Seat launches new mobility service Mó in Barcelona

• Metro de Barcelona tests UV light disinfectant

• Barcelona Supercomputing Center uses bioinformatics, AI and its MareNostrum supercomputer in the fight against COVID-19

• Fighting Covid-19 from Catalonia's life sciences hub

Tech news in Spain:

• Inditex grows online sales by 95% in last quarter, while overall sales fall by 44%

• Google Cloud and Telefonica partner to accelerate digital transformation for Spanish businesses

• Telefónica gets green light for TV and movie joint venture

• Glovo, Deliveroo & co to face increased labor costs and pressure to adjust business models if government approves new law requiring riders to be contracted as employees

Politics & Economics

• Spanish government open to extend ERTE support until 30th September

• Spanish tourism sector not satisfied with current aid plans

• Spanish supermarkets set for hiring and investment spree after busy period

• Women and the young 'left out' in recovery of lost jobs

Good Reads

• Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report for Spain 2019-20

• "The school of work in health sciences in Catalonia is extraordinary", Jaume Vives, managing director at Roche Diagnostics

• PagoFX — Can a bank really build its own fintech?

• Why creating a Netflix for news sites doesn't make sense (yet)

• What is good retention?

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Interview with  Pablo Viguera & Uri Tintore, co-founders at Belvo

• Interview with Ana Villanueva, CEO & co-founder at Tiko, and real estate industry expert Eugenio Morales

Great Events

This Week:

• Tue, 23 Jun @19:30: PitchSLAP – Get your pitch checked!

• Thu, 25 Jun @14:00: Virtual Tech Growth & Exit Strategies Event

• Thu, 25 Jun @15:00: Expanding your business to CEE

Next Week:

• Tue, 30 Jun @13:00: IQS Tech Factory TALK SERIES with Heriberto Saldivar (Brinc)

• Tue, 30 Jun @19:30: PitchSLAP – Get your pitch checked!

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