Hi all & happy Monday,

This week’s main headlines:

• TravelPerk reach $100M ARR 📈

• Telefónica accepts crypto payments ⛓️

• N26 finally enables Bizum ✔️

Barcelona: The capital for digital nomads and international talent 🎒💡

Ask any foreigner why they moved to Barcelona, and the likely response will be along the lines of lifestyle/quality of life, food 🥔, climate, the buzzing international community, the opportunities. It doesn't matter whether you first experience Barcelona during your studies or holidays, on a business trip or at a conference (like MWC or 4YFN). Once you’re in, it’s easy to get hooked 🎣. From beaches to mountains, great universities, sports, and multilingual job ops, there are more than enough arguments to want to stay.

The point is: Barcelona is an incredibly attractive place for international talent. That’s why so many multinationals set up bases here – the city even ranks 📊 as one of the top 3 hubs in Europe for launching your startup. And with the world slowly moving to a location-independent work model, Barcelona will continue to be a great place to pull in digital nomads and freelancers.

⛰ Yet, the competition is steep. No surprise – there are a ton of beautiful places around the globe. A quick look at the Nomad List 🧑‍💻 shows Lisbon, Bali, Bangkok, and Mexico City all ranking at the very top. Barcelona, meanwhile, sits at #104, mostly due to the relatively high costs of living. This means that while Barcelona is a great place with incredible potential, it needs to step up its game 💪 to stay competitive. Thankfully, it is working on that.

Just last year, Barcelona opened a new office for welcoming international talent. Spain’s plans for a digital nomad visa should also help. Apart from that, the city is also working on bringing the international community together 🌎🤝 and making them feel welcome. That’s where the upcoming International Community Day comes into play.

Written by Clemens (with support from Natasha)

Barcelona International Community Day - 22 Oct 2022

Whether you have lived in Barcelona for days, months, or years, make sure to keep 🗓 Saturday 22nd October 🗓 free for the big gathering of the international community organized by Barcelona City Council.

Don't miss out on this event to discover everything Barcelona can offer you. You will find talks, workshops, networking, and live entertainment 🎤 activities on topics such as job seeking, housing, volunteering, carrying out official procedures, and much more.

This 2022, Barcelona International Community Day celebrates the diversity of the city and is looking forward to seeing you there!

Register now! (it's free)

Have a great week & do great things! 💪

Networking, entertainment, talks, and more… Over 60 activities are lined up for you at Barcelona International Community Day, at the Museu Marítim on 22 October.

Not to be missed! Register here.

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• BNPL platform SeQura close asset-backed agreement with Citi of up to €150M

• Edtech startup ​​Lifecole secure €750K seed round

• Nuclio-co-founded kids’ programming startup Minicoders get €350K

Barcelona startup news

• Traveltech unicorn TravelPerk announce it’s gone from $1 to $100M revenue in 4 years

• Ad fraud prevention solution Opticks joins IAB Tech Lab

• Telecoms startup Sateliot partners with AWS to build 5G core

• US-based, BCN-founded web3 startup NFT Price Floor selected for Open Web Collective accelerator program

• Verse is moving offices and will share headquarters with ClearPay    

Spanish investment news

• Madrid/London fintech SaaS provider Toqio secure €20M

• Spanish startup Kaleidos get €8M for its open-source Figma alternative Penpot

• Madrid-based neoinsurer tuio close €3M 2nd round

• Zaragoza-based agriculture startup Spherag raise €3M

• Madrid home storage service Box2Box get €1.1M

• Spain’s first cybersecurity unicorn Devo acquires SaaS startup LogicHub

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Wayra and Telefonica Seguros launch Íope Ventures to invest in insurtech & fintech startups

• Capagro launches second €200M fund to support promising EU AgTech startups

• Spain already has over 250 investment vehicles focused on startups

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Desigual open 2nd edition of Awesome Lab program for startups responding to challenges in the fashion industry; apply now

• New edition of Valkiria INTECH Program (with Generalitat de Catalunya, 22@ Network & Fundació Ibercaja) for women-led ICT startups; begins Oct 13th

• New accelerator Desafia San Fransisco launches, a Silicon Valley immersion program for Spanish scaleups

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• MWC’s The Collider: More than an incubator, an assisted production center for startups

• Coding Giants: Coding school that teaches kids & teens digital skills

• Eleva: Adjustable desks that can be personalized to each user

• Farside Ventures: The venture builder that wants to create 100 startups in 4 years 

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona:

• Crowdcube joins Tech Barcelona to bring new forms of financing for startups

• Nestlé to invest €100M in Girona coffee plant

• Catalonia participates in Choose Europe, an alliance of 14 cities and regions to position Europe as the ideal location for foreign investment

Tech & big company news in Spain:

• Telefónica integrates crypto payment feature provided by Bit2Me

• Neobank N26 finally incorporates Bizum

• Swiss tourist rental proptech GuestReady arrives in Spain 

Politics, legal & economics

• Spain tackles inflation by raising taxes for wealthy residents and making lower earners pay less

Good Reads

• The top Googled questions about NFTs – and the answers

• The photographer using AI to see what celebrities would like today if they were still alive

• MIT Technology: Patients immersed in VR during surgery may need less anesthetic

• Pre-seed funding 101: What founders need to know in 2022

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Being an operationally efficient SAAS company, with JoaquimLechaa, CEO of Typeform (EN podcast)

• Making things happen in the world’s largest companies, with Arsenio Otero of Celonis (Hablando con líderes podcast, ES)

• Financial mistakes in startups, with Alberto Henere from BCN’s Heneco (YouTube vid, ES+subs)

Great Events

This week:

• Mon, 3 Oct & Tue, 4 Oct: Global Software Architecture Summit

• Mon, 3 Oct-Thu, 6 Oct: Barcelona New Economy Week (BNEW) Conference

• Tue, 4 Oct @09:30: Content Session | Digital commerce after the pandemic: perspectives and new models

• Tue, 4 Oct @17:00: ETS Coffee Talks x Nexo: How to get a job in Web3

• Tue, 4 Oct @18:00: Tech Barcelona Tech Up Nights Vol. 3

Upcoming:

• Thu, 13 Oct @09:00: Sales Development for B2B SaaS: Inbound, Outbound and Midbound

• Sat, 22 Oct @10:00: Barcelona International Community Day 2022

• Tue, 25 & Wed, 26 Oct: AI & Big Data Congress Barcelona

• Thu, 3 Nov @18:00: Barcelona Tech Job Fair Autumn 2022

• Fri, 4 Nov @13:30: FutureTravel Summit 2022

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

Startup Jobs:

• Qonto is recruiting a Marketing Lead - Spanish Market

• Swan is hiring a Product Marketing Manager

• SeQura is looking for a Partner Marketing Manager

• Flax & Kale is recruiting a Group Reporting Analyst

• Impress is hiring a CMO

• Siemens Energy is recruiting a Team Lead for their Data Strategy & Innovation team

• Opticks is looking for an Account Executive & an Engineering Manager

• Sekg need a Campaign Specialist 

• MarsBased is hiring a Node.js/React Full-Stack Developer (100% remote)

• Cognizant Netcentric is looking for a Social Media Manager

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