Hello and happy Monday! We hope you had a great weekend!

Last week, Barcelona set in motion its plan to become a European 5G Open Lab. Learn more about the impact this will have on our future as a leading digital ecosystem and smart city here.

This Wednesday, Cecilia Tham of MOB will be speaking at Startup Grind BCN. We're especially excited to hear about her new initiative 'Future Funded' and her experience at Singularity University last summer.

Also, get the best price on your 4YFN tickets, which includes 1-day access to the Mobile World Congress using the PROMO CODE (not “invitation code”): BARCINNO_4YFN 

Do you have news to promote? Get in touch here.

Startup & Investment News

• Barcelona SaaS startup Red Points lands $12M Series B funding

• Spain’s PLD Space gets a $2.4M grant from EU to develop smallsat launchers

• Spanish startup Irisbond closes €1.23M investment round

• Spanish startup Fulltip receives €595k investment

• Spain's marketing personalization firm Indigitall gets €450k

• Barcelona startup MyPoppins closes €440k investment round

• Catalan startup Binnakle raises €100k on Crowdcube

• Barcelona startup Mayordomo gets funding to expand its network to 1.000 lockers across Spain

• Catalan startup Mind the Byte acquires Intelligent Pharma

• Catalana sports ecommerce firm Tradeinn reached €120M in sales in 2017

• Barcelona startup Let's Bonus sees assets seized by government after not paying their providers for over a year

• Kantox continues to improve technology and eyes USA expansion

• Ulule and BStartup launch new competition to encourage entrepreneurs to initiate their projects

• Barcelona-based VC Black Toro Capital looking to raise €350M for their new fund

• 5 startups from social-entrepreneurship focused foundation Ship2B LABs raised a total of €5.71M in 2017

• Spanish technologies look to fight against global drought

• Conector launches first travel tech accelerator in Mallorca

• Are Spanish startups actually ever repaying ENISA loans?

• Barcelona startup profiles, interviews & success stories

Tech News

• Barcelona sets its sights on becoming a European 5G Open Lab

• Bank of Spain and CNMV working on regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies

• Local food chain Nostrum wants to introduce its own cryptocurrency

• Beer brand Damm is a new official partner of BCN Tech City

• Several traditional local markets from Barcelona to start selling goods online through Ulabux

• Chinese mobile gaming company I Got Games expands to Barcelona, its first expansion to Europe

• Spanish tax agency now requests platforms like Airbnb to share details about hosts and their transactions

• What does the tax situation look like in Spain if you own bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies?

Good Reads

• The startup investment landscape in Spain in 2017: €784 million across 195 rounds (by Jaime Novoa)

• 5 young Spanish entrepreneurs to watch in 2018

• 10 startups from Spain to keep an eye on in 2018

• How local entrepreneurs predict the future in 2018

• Why 2018 could be the year for Spanish fintech firms 

• Startup investment: business angels, risks & metrics

• "Without financing, there is no life for startups"

Great Events This Week

• Mon, 15 Jan @ 20:00: Digital Makers

• Tue, 16 Jan @ 18:30: Creation of a Product: Telling the Story

• Wed, 17 Jan @ 09:00: Hackathon #LetsDoIt Barcelona

• Wed, 17 Jan @ 09:30: BWN Networking January

• Wed, 17 Jan @ 18:30: Cecilia Tham (CEO at Makers of Barcelona)

• Thu-Fri, 18-19 Jan: Lean Startup and Open Innovation for Corporations

• Sat, 20 Jan @ 10:00: Graphic Facilitation Course

See the full event calendar here.