Hello and happy Monday! We're back from a brief summer break and we're ready to deliver the latest startup news & events right to your inbox! First up:

Startup Grind BCN Summer Party 2019

Grab a cold one, reconnect with old friends and enjoy the good vibes at the Startup Grind BCN Summer Party 2019 on Wed, 27th of August. Sign up now for free here until the end of this week.

Barcinno Events Guide - Plan Your Event Agenda For 2019

August is traditionally a slow month for events in Barcelona with most of the locals taking holidays abroad. However, the rest of the year is full of amazing meetups, workshops and conferences, so pull out your planner and map out the rest of the year with our annual Halftime Report: Official List of 2019 Barcelona Tech Events. A big thanks to Adriana Freitas (aka Ms. Omnipresent) from Muster Ventures for compiling this list!

10 Inspiring Social Startups From Barcelona

Barcinno is always happy to support social initiatives, events and organizations. That's why we dedicated our latest article to highlighting amazing social startups based in Barcelona that make a positive impact on our world. Get an overview of Barcelona's most exciting social startups here and do let us know if you can think of any that we should add to the list!

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

Startup & Investment News

Investment news

• Barcelona travel startup Exoticca raises €11M

• Barcelona & LA-based health tech startup MedAnswers receives €4.5M

• Catalan e-signature startup Validated ID lands €2M

• Barcelona femtech startup Emjoy closes a €1M investment round

• Barcelona-based recommendation platform Picker gets €650K

• Barcelona startup Inloc Robotics secures a €550K investment

• Catalan furniture ecommerce platform Hannun raises €187K

• Catalan cloud computing firm Abiquo secures funding from Nauta Capital and Wayra

• Barcelona startup Scytl is closing in on a new €5M round

M&A news

• Spanish startup Cabify apparently rejected a €1.8B acquisition offer last year because the deal was mostly structured in stock instead of cash

• Glovo said to have held early-stage talks with Uber, Deliveroo

• Catalan startup Glovo acquires Polish food delivery business PizzaPortal for €30M

Startups news

• Barcelona fintech startup Kantox and Silicon Valley Bank team up to provide cutting-edge FX hedging tech to UK corporates

• Barcelona proptech startup Kasaz was featured in El Pais for their innovative approach to self-service apartment viewings.

• Catalan proptech startup Housfy launches in Portugal

• Barcelona HR startup Woffu earns €130K MRR in first half of the year, a 300% YOY increase

• Spanish startups raised a total amount of €357M a total of 242 investments worth a combined €357M according to the ASCRI, 82% came from international funds

• Spanish startups raised €137M in July

• According to the OECD, 84% of startups in Spain don't even have one woman amongst its founders

VC, investment & crowdfunding news:

• BBVA invests in three new companies that have not been disclosed via its VC fund Propel Ventures

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories:

• Banco Sabadell's BStartup Health opens call for health projects; apply until the 30th of September

Barcelona startup profiles, interviews & success stories:

• Via Families: online platform that allows families to organize linguistic, academic and sporting exchanges between their kids

• Freightol: a 4.0 transport SaaS, in which thousands of forwarders and freight forwarders are added

• BrandYourShoes: create fully customized sneakers with your own logo or design

• Belvo: a new startup in Barcelona that looks to become the cornerstone that powers the next generation of financial service

Tech News

• Japanese video gaming company Bandai Namco to set up a mobile gaming studio in Barcelona

• International scooter company Hive chooses Barcelona for European HQ

• Glovo riders went on strike in Barcelona to demand either employment contracts or to improve their work conditions

• Glovo, Deliveroo and Uber Eats propose law modification so that freelancers have better conditions without losing flexibility

• Spain’s CNMC appeals Barcelona government's VTC regulations, says it doesn't promote competition

• Overview and insights into various labour strikes at the Barcelona airport

Newsworthy tech stories affecting all of Spain:

• Amazon is set to create 600 new jobs in Spain this year

• Atresmedia to launch its own video subscription service to compete with Netflix, HBO and the like

• Netflix is increasing prices for specific packages in Spain this September

• How Spanish companies like Siro, Estrella Galicia and Mackmyra are developing food and drinks thanks to AI

Good Reads

• Halftime Report: Official List of 2019 Barcelona Tech Events

• 10 Inspiring Social Startups From Barcelona

• 100 Must-Follow Blogs for Every Entrepreneur (featuring Barcinno)

• Overview of the Spanish taxi, transport and mobility market

• Summer reading list for all things Open Banking and PSD2

Good Videos

• Interview with Ignacio Fonts (Managing Partner en Inveready)

• Watch Barcelona startup Broomx' immersive hub at Sónar +D

Great Events

This Week

• Thu, 22 Aug @19:00: H/F Barcelona - Let's talk about tech startups

• Thu, 22 Aug @19:00: e-commerce Stars (Amazon, Ebay, Shopify, WooCommerce) Get inspired!

• Fri, 23 Aug @16:00: International Fitness Summit - Barcelona

Next Week

• Tue, 27 Aug @19:00: Startup Grind BCN Summer Party!

• Wed, 28 Aug @18:30: STATIK (Systems Thinking Approach to Introduce Kanban)

• Thu, 29 Aug @18:30: #capsideLAB: Reconocimiento facial con IoT

• Fri, 30 Aug @18:30: WomenInTech Summer Picnic (3rd Edition)

• Sat-Sun, 31 Aug-1 Sep: Mini- Hackathon BSV en Barcelona – 31 Agosto 2019

See the full event calendar here.

Startup Jobs In Barcelona

• Global Elite Pay is recruiting a Personal Assistant (Bilingual)

• Chimpy is hiring a Business Developer

• Marfeel is looking for a Front End Jedi

• AL Ventures is recruiting a CTO/Co-founder

• Bourbon Creative is hiring a Digital Marketer

See the full job board here.