Hello and happy Monday!

Today's main headlines:

• El Prat Airport tests facial recognition tech

• Factorial acquires Codegram

• BCN ranked 7th in EU for attracting tech investment

Barcinno Special: 9 Barcelona Blockchain Startups You Must Know

Barcelona is home to some truly innovative 💡 and inspiring blockchain ventures. Established players, mature startups and new challengers alike are all leading this fast-growing industry into its undeniably powerful future.

If you’re not yet familiar with the latest talent 🏆 spearheading the scene here in Catalonia, don’t miss our roundup of the best Barcelona blockchain startups.

👉 Read more here: 9 Barcelona Blockchain Startups You Need to Know

👍 And here is a challenge! If you want us to do a follow-up post dissecting the Barcelona blockchain startup ecosystem in more detail, covering industry leaders, VCs, accelerators and more, please upvote this Linkedin post. If it gets over 50 likes, we’ll get started on the sequel.

❄️ Happy Holidays & A Joyful New Year from Barcinno 🎆

As is our annual tradition, we’re taking a short break from the Barcinno newsletter. It’s usually very slow weeks for startup news anyway so you’re not missing much anyway. And if there is something interesting, we will cover it in the next edition of course. So don’t panic if you don’t get a newsletter in the next two weeks. We will be back on Mon 10 Jan.

In the meantime, have fun, take care and see you in 2022.

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Cosmetics firm Saigu Cosmetics closes a €400K round attended by BStartup and Dozen

• Fintech company Belvo gets funding from Visa, leading to partnership promoting open finance in Latin America

• HR process management platform Factorial acquires end-to-end digital solutions provider Codegram

Barcelona startup news

• Stark Future has launched the world's fastest electric dirtbike

• Ludium Lab enters partnership with ACCESS Europe to bring its cloud-based gaming subscription platform to the car

• Glovo asks permission to test autonomous delivery in Madrid district

• All Read wins TrenLabs category for best proposal for the digitization of freight transport

• Paymefy win VI Prix Tech Entrepreneur Award

• Six Catalan startups to participate in the CambrAccelera acceleration program

• Wallbox to participate in CES 2022

• Blockchain startup Inari.io announces Alexander Pike, ex-Morgan Stanley & Oxford Capital, as new CCO

Spanish investment news

• Madrid proptech firm Clikalia closes the largest VC round in Spain with €460M

• Madrid sports tech firm Playtomic secures €56M round led by GP Bullhound

• Valencia fintech firm Criptan lands a €3.5M round led by Draper B1

• Madrid e-learning firm Twenix raises €2M

• Almeria-based Trainingym closes an undisclosed investment round

• Madrid insurtech firm Cesce acquired a 50% stake in Madrid-based AI firm Dail Software for €3.2M

• Madrid music tech firm Wegow acquires Bracelit in a strategy towards cashless events

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Madrid VC firm Samaipata closes its second fund with €107M to invest in European digital platforms

• Iris Ventures is a new Barcelona-based €100M aimed at investing in European consumer brands

• Spanish VC firm Ysios Capital leads an €70.9M investment in Northsea Therapeutics

• Wayra invests in UK firm Sceenic

• Carmen Alfonso Rico, formerly of Blossom Ventures and Samaipata, to launch her own fund to invest in startups

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Demium launches an acceleration program that guarantees startups access to financing

• Emerge accelerator program invests €7.7M into startups with underrepresented founders to promote diversity in tech and entrepreneurship

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• Magicbell: a notification System for your SaaS product

• Holaluz: the electricity marketer that helps you get green energy at the best price

• Avi Meir: TravelPerk Co-founder and CEO

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona:

• Barcelona ranked 7th in Europe for attracting international tech investment

• Impress opens €10M 3D printing plant in Barcelona creating 130 jobs

• Barcelona El Prat Airport is testing facial recognition technology that allows passenger to board without having to show documentation

• Montjuïc area to get a close to €4M investment to turn it into a tech hub in 2023

• EU-Startups Summit 2022 to be held in Barcelona Palau de Congressos this May

• IBTM world 2021 reunited the events industry in Barcelona

• fonYou opens new offices space in BCN

Tech news in Spain:

• Vodafone, Orange keen for telecoms consolidation in Spain, local CEOs say

• DAZN secures La Liga rights in Spain

• Spain to invest €6.9B in renewables, green hydrogen, energy storage

Politics, Legal & Economics

• Spain moves closer to passing a startup law (by TechCrunch)

• Spain’s €70B problem: how to spend EU pandemic aid fast enough

• Bank of Spain lowers growth forecasts for 2021 and 2022

• How rising inflation is affecting Spain

• Spanish government to give €3K ‘cheques’ to help self-employed and SMEs digitalize

• Spain to reduce taxes for remote workers to attract more digital nomads to the country

Good Reads

• Barcinno Special: 9 Barcelona Blockchain Startups You Need to Know

• Can Barcelona create a new kind of tourist economy?

• Co-founder Juan de Antonio looks back on Cabify’s first 10 years

• The situation of startups in Spain: great growth in recent years, but weighed down by bureaucracy

• Home in time: Kevin McCallister's mum should have made it back in time to stop The Wet Bandits, new data reveals

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Interview with Yaiza Canosa, co-founder of Goi

• Interview with Alfredo Ouro, co-founder de Onlive.site

• Video chat with Pepe Agell from Pear VC

• Full video of the 12x12 Congress: The Digital Future of Catalonia

Great Events

This wek:

• Thu, 23 Dec @19:00: Pitch to Investors by Itnig (in-person + online)

Upcoming:

• New Year 2022 🎆

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

Jobs

• Oliva is hiring a Senior Full-Stack Engineer

• Amenitiz is recruiting a VP of Demand Generation

• Mr. Wonderful is looking for a Digital Project Manager

• eDreams is hiring a Senior SEM Manager

• CodeOp is recruiting a Manager Strategic Partnerships

• ManoMano is looking for a:

• - Frontend Engineer (React)

• - Senior Software Engineer

• Netcentric is looking for several IT positions