Hello & happy Monday!

Today's edition features:

• Catalonia to launch its own space agency

• Barcelona to get new €54M center of excellence for health tech research

• Wallbox to use €9M investment to build Barcelona EV-charger production plant

Barcinno Special: Are incubators worth it?

Many entrepreneurs have asked us what we think about incubator programs, particularly whether they're worth giving up equity for.

To help founders decide, we have asked our friend Elliott Locke, ACSI, co-founder & CEO of abroaden, to share his perspective as he takes part in the recently launched F10 fintech incubator in Barcelona.

In the first part of this article series, Elliott writes about his expectations and hopes ahead of starting the program. Find out more here.

That's it! Let's get right into it! Have a great week!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Telco startup Parlem Telecom raises a €3M funding round

• Housing reform company Aquí tu Reforma lands a €3M funding round

• Proptech startup Brickbro closes a €1M funding round

• E-Sports startup Gazoom lands a €400K funding round

• Sustainable fashion platform BCOME closes a €350K funding round

• Mental health and neuroscience company ITA Mental Salud sold to French healthcare company Korian

Barcelona Startup news

• Wallbox to use €9M investment to set up its new production plant in Barcelona's Zona Franca

• Medical data company IOMED launches Compass a clinical research division

• Herta launches new COVID-19 technology that allows monitoring of social distancing, occupancy control, mask detection & facial recognition even when people wear masks

• Service Club CEO Zeynep Demirbilek wins Pitch Competition Women Edition BCN

• Locat firms ID Finance, Signaturit, AdPone, Steros GPA Innovative & Parlem have been featured amongst FT's list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies

• French startup Not So Dark, specialized in dark kitchens, launch operations in Barcelona

• Austrian neobroker Bitpanda to use parts of €142M investment to open Barcelona hub for expansion

Spanish investment news

• Bilbao and Silicon Valley-based AI services company Sherpa.AI raises an €7.13M funding round

• La Coruña-based petcare telemedicine startup Barkibu raises €6.5M

• Madrid-based fintech startup TaxDown raises €2.4M in seed funding

VC, investment & crowdfunding news:

• Fellow Funders launches Spain’s first equity crowdfunding app for retail investment in private companies and startups

• Ship2B Ventures, EIF and Banco Sabadell back the largest impact venture capital fund for startups in Spain  

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories:

• The Institute for Business Competitiveness Institute promotes 10 startups in its new accelerator

• 5G Barcelona and Wayra pick the winners of the 2nd edition of their accelerator program

• Lefevbre Sarrut launches LightSpeed to accelerate startups in the legal sector

• Nodriza Tech and Banco Sabadell’s BStartup work together to promote entrepreneurship in Aragon

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• Flash Park: a solution to efficiently find parking spots in crowded cities using a network of renewable energy-powered parking sensors

• Goin: helping Millennials around the world save and invest money easily

• toddl.co: a platform to help parents discover and book the best activities for their kids

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona:

• Catalonia to launch its own space agency

• Barcelona’s Hospital Clínic and Leitat invest €54M in creating a center of excellence for health technology research

• German group BASF to invest €30M in its Tarragona plant this year

• 5G technology is being used to improve safety in Port of Barcelona

• Researchers at Barcelona university design a biological device capable of computing by printing cells on paper

• Barcelona Metro adds new, more accessible, customer service center at Sagrada Familia

• Barcelona taxis perform 'slow march' in protest against Uber's return to city

• Amazon Fresh is now live in Barcelona

Tech news in Spain:

• Repsol and Microsoft expand collaboration to accelerate digital innovation and energy transition

• German tech company Trumpf has acquired Spain-headquartered software house Lantek

• Grifols launches patient point-of-care system for monitoring infliximab in Europe

• Merck’s Spanish innovation office develops AI-based cancer treatment tech

Politics, Legal & Economics

• Spanish government to provide €11B in relief funding for businesses at risk of insolvency 

Good Reads

• Barcinno article: The Startup Classroom – Abroaden’s Incubator Journey I

• Report: The Big Data Sector in Catalonia, the Growth of a New Industry

• "Tech giants are keeping an eye on our (Barcelona) digital ecosystem", Rita Almela, co-founder of 101 Ventures

• The most common mistake startup employees make when negotiating a new job offer

• Using data to grow your startup

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Interview with François Derbaix, co-founder of Indexa Capital

• Interview with Helena Guardans, President at Webhelp:

• - Part I

• - Part II

• Interview with Carlos Costa, ex-director at BCG & Mango

Great Events

This week:

• Tue, 23 Mar @ 18:00: StartupGrind BCN: Lift as you climb: community-oriented entrepreneurship, with Eloi Gómez (CEO & Co-Founder @ Jeff)

• Tue, 23 Mar @ 18:30: Shots The Valley | How digital products are made and managed at Orange Bank [ES]

• Tue-Wed, 23-24 Mar: Barcelona Startup Congress [ES]

• Wed, 24 Mar @ 17:00: 8 Key Things You Should Know About Coding

• Thu, 25 Mar @ 18:30: Shots The Valley | Why does the health sector need experts in Data Science? [ES]

Upcoming:

• 12-16 Apr: 5th European Blockchain Convention 

• 6-7 May: Automobile Barcelona

• 28 Jun - 1 Jul: MWC

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

Jobs

• Riverbed Technology is hiring an Inside Sales Representative (English-speaking)

• Touchstream is looking for a Junior OTT Technical Support

• OneCoWork is recruiting a Community Associate

• Bourbon Creative is looking for freelance German, French & English B2B tech content writers; apply per email here