Hello and happy Monday!

Today's main headlines:

• New BCN office for welcoming international talent 👋

• Barcelona ranked 🏆 7th in Europe in Global Power City Index

• Spain has a new unicorn 🦄

Barcinno has always been a big supporter of Barcelona and its potential for attracting international talent. And the Barcelona City Council has just announced big and great news that will make it so much easy for people to move to our beautiful place. In a world where more and more people are open to and actively exploring living in a different country, Catalonia has a great chance to position itself as a great destination for international talent, experts and leaders. That's why we applaud this step 👏 as a really great move! Thanks! More on the big news below.

BIWD: New Support Service For International Talent

Barcelona City Council opens the 'Barcelona International Welcome Desk' (BIWD), a new office located in the MediaTIC building in the 22@ innovation district. It is aimed at international talent who want to come and live in the city or who have just moved here. The new office will offer information, advice and the possibility of carrying out various useful procedures on arrival in the city. It is the first office of its kind in Spain. The system of attention will be channeled through a specific section of the website Barcelona International Welcome. Check it out now here.

Take care & have fun out there.

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• NY & Barcelona-based SaaS startup Abacum lands €22M

• Insurtech startup Cleverea closes a €5M seed round to launch new products and accelerate growth

• Biotechnology startup Integra Tx gets €4.5M funding injection

Barcelona startup news

• HR tech Factorial expands to USA & Brazil and grows at 200% per year

• Ona Therapeutics hires the president of US pharma company iTeos

• Tropicfeel partners with Hyosung in new sustainable footwear and backpack collection

• Glovo announced that its global logistics service for the third sector, Glovo Access, has delivered more than 500K meals on behalf of many entities

• Fintech Unnax gets its own BIC code which will allow it to appear before the National Electronic Clearing System to process the transactions of its services as a Electronic Money Entity

• Fintech 11Onze wins international award for its cutting edge private social network platform

• Healthtech firm Groenlandia Tech wins 2nd prize at Healthcare Smart Logistics Challenge organized by UPS

• Music tech startup SonoSuite unveils a new brand identity and website

Spanish investment news

• Spanish startups raised €63M across 35 operations in November

• Madrid-based workforce marketplace Jobandtalent raises €442M & becomes Spain’s latest unicorn

• Bilbao-based Satlantis lands €16.5M

• Madrid startup Ufounders secures €3M

• Madrid firm NAPPTIVE bags €550K

• 4 Spanish business projects receive €657K from Seed Capital Bizkaia

• 5 innovative projects in Spain receive €325K from new Asturias Startup Fund

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• VC firm Sego Finance acquired Fintup

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Lisa Hehenberger and Ecoalf win the S2B Impact Awards 2021

• MentorDay launches its 68th edition, its most international acceleration program

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• Ariadna Font: creator of the algorithmic ethics area of ​​Twitter

• Nutual: proptech startup launched by Antai Venture Builder

• Cosi BCN: the fashion and jewelry firm that invoices around €2M/year

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona:

• Barcelona opens a new office for welcoming international talent

• The Global Power City Index 2021 places the Catalan capital in 18th position globally and 7th in Europe

• UK chemical company Croda invests 10.5 MEUR to open an automated warehouse in Girona

• Sanofi's digital hub in Barcelona turns five and will hire 100 people in 2022

• A delegation of Catalan startups and investors participates in the Slush fair in Helsinki to access the Nordic entrepreneurial ecosystem

• Catalan climate control unit producer Hitecsa was acquired by BAXI

• Port of Barcelona eyes economic growth with Innovation Plan

• 8th edition of the S2B Impact Forum brought together 5,000 people in Barcelona to discuss the transformation towards real impact

• An accelerated route to Catalonia for growing UK life science companies

Tech news in Spain:

• Telefónica Spain opens the way to extend the social employment pact with union in 2023 with a 1% salary increase

• Research from Oxford Economics claims YouTube generated €313M for the Spanish economy and supported the creation of 21,000 jobs

• CaixaBank maintains the most extensive branch network in Spain after integrating 800 branches

Politics, Legal & Economics

• Despite an outstanding year for startups, the Spanish Startup Law will take effect next year

• Spain’s unemployment numbers improve and fall back to pre-pandemic levels

• The Government puts a limit on its labor reform and will force a review in 2025 of the effects on temporary employment

• Barcelona has installed speed cameras for cyclists

• Spain and four other countries asked EU for energy regulation change

Good Reads

• How the 'crypto' universe is expanding in Spain

• 10 Innovative Barcelona Startup Gift Ideas

• Barcelona and the emerging talent opportunity as seen by Yego & Amenitiz

• 5 startups that best position Barcelona abroad (according to ICEETS)

• The uphill battle of local Spanish online marketplaces

• Financing channels for impact startups

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Interview with Montse Labiaga, CEO of Fotografía eCommerce

• Interview with Juanjo Mostazo, talking about his experience as a business angel

• Interview with Eloi Planes, executive chariman at Fluidra

• Interview with Nacho de Pinedo, Co-founder and CEO at ISDI

Great Events

This wek:

• Fri, 10 Dec @09:00: JUMP2DIGITAL

Upcoming:

• 15 Dec: Startup Grind BCN hosts Benjamin Viguier (Co-founder & CEO @ YEGO)

• 15 Dec: Startup Grind Mataró hosts Christian Rodríguez (Founder @ ByHours & Chairman @ Mutter Ventures)

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

Jobs

• Exoticca is looking for a Director Of Operations

• Blockchain startup Freeverse.io is hiring a Head of Marketing

• Riverbed Technology is hiring a Digital Sales Representative (fluent in German)

• Unnax is recruiting several tech & marketing positions

• Netcentric is looking for several IT positions