Good morning & happy Monday!

We hope you had a great weekend. This is the period where a lot of you are starting to go on vacation so let's get right to the news :)

Have a great week and take care of yourselves!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Catalan health tech startup Elma closes a €3.1M round

Barcelona Startup news

• AI.Just develops video processing system to detect accidents in occupational risk areas

• Scytl's creditors reject acquisition offer from Grupo Paragon which means that firm might have to shut down

• Cabify might sell it's stake in Glovo to fund its operations in the next months during COVID-19

Spanish investment news

• Spanish startups raised a total of €578M in the first half of this year, just €20M less than in the same period last year despite the pandemic

• Madrid fintech startup Bnext receives €11M 

• Elche-based startup PLD Space secures a €2M loan

• Madrid startup We Are Knitters gets €800K

• Madrid startup Ekonoke land €422K

VC, investment & crowdfunding news:

• Repsol Impacto Social invests in package recycling firm SAEMA

• Big Ban teams up with Lanzadera and sets up base in Marina de Empresas in Valencia

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories:

• Conector has an open call for startups; apply here

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• Aortyx: a biodegradable patch for the aorta

• Nannyfy: how the nanny marketplace reinvented itself to move from offline to online during the pandemic

Tech News

• Barcelona & Catalonia have Europe’s second best strategy for attracting FDI in tech according to FT & TNW study

• Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra ranked amongst top 10 young universities in the world

• Catalan firm Futureco Bioscience secures a €300K loan from COFIDES to strengthen its commercial activity in Peru

• Nissan reaches an agreement with workers to delay closure of Barcelona plants and lay-offs to December 2021

• CaixaBank revenues fell by 67% amidst pandemic

• Banco Sabadell revenues drop by 73% but banks shoots down the possibility of mergers

• Growing wheat on shelves: The agricultural revolution that is sprouting up in Barcelona

Tech news in Spain:

• Telefonica's revenues fell by 50% and profits by 14% during the pandemic

• Orange Espana revenues drop by jut 4.6% amidst pandemic

• Google announced plans to build a new undersea network cable connecting the US, UK and Spain until 2022

• Real Madrid teams up with Funding Box to invest €9M in startups

Politics, Legal & Economics

• Spain's Secretary of Digitalisation and AI announces that the government plans to re-launch the 'Ley de Startups'

Good Reads

• Ramon Blanco of Bewater Funds talks about their investment strategy and view on the startup ecosystem

• Madrid or Barcelona: which startup ecosystem would you choose?

• Everything You Need To Know About EV Incentives In Spain

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Interview with Celia Megías, Co-Founder at Conector Travel Tech & Board of Directors at Conector Startup Accelerator

• Webinar Video: Conector and Novartis: Entrepreneurship in Health. From the theory to the practice

• Video: entrepreneurship workshop with Carlos Blanco

Great Events

Upcoming:

• Wed, 26 Aug @23:30: Brad Feld (Co-Founder @ Techstars) at Startup Grind Barcelona

According to the annual tradition, Barcelona is slowing down in August event-wise. If you do find any interesting events happening this month, just let us know here,

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