Good morning & happy Monday!

COVID figures in Barcelona are going into the wrong directions so Catalonia has adopted more restrictions. Please wear a mask and respect social distancing.

Meanwhile, local startups continue to recover with 6x new funding rounds being closed for a total of more than €12M. Find out more below.

Have a great week and take care of yourselves!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Barcelona-based EV sharing service Yego closes a €7,5M investment round

• Catalan biotech startup Immuni Therapeutics raises €2M

• Barcelona-based fintech Payflow lands €1.6M

• Catalan startup Cuideo secures a €1.6M investment round

• Barcelona navigation technology firm Rokubun gets €400K

• Barcelona-based fintech startup HUBUC receives €350K

Barcelona Startup news

• Mailtrack launch email-tracking add-on on iOS & claim to have 1.5M active users

• Facial recognition firm Herta launches new video analytics to enhance security and safety in the new post-pandemic era

• Health tech startup Sherplay launches Beeseet, a new cloud-based clinical notes manager

• Oimo creates a biodegradable food container made of plastic-like materials extracted from seaweed, natural sugars & vegetable oils

• Spin-off Kumux launches a software to create artificial light with positive health effects

• Researchers from IRB Barcelona, UB & SJD launch Gate2Brain, a company based on a novel technology developed at IRB Barcelona to transport drugs into the brain

• Badi faced with 70% drop in demand, despite records in new room offers, as a consequence of Covid-19

• Glovo reflects on its social commitment in letter to shareholders

Spanish investment news

• Navarrese biotech startup Telum Therapeutics secures a €4M investment

• Madrid firm closes a €500K investment round

• Pamplona startup everSens receives €356K

VC, investment & crowdfunding news:

• Crowdfunding accounted for more than €200M in raised capital in Spain in 2019

• EIT InnoEnergy and everis create a new investment fund to accelerate energy transition

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories:

• BFAero launches 3rd edition to select 7 new projects in the field of unmanned vehicles; apply until 22nd of October

• Acceleration program Fundacion Repsol launches 9th edition with six new startups

• MedTech OITBs opens call for projects developing solutions to combat Covid-19

• Concurs Emprendedors 2020 IEBS Business School opens call; apply until the 15th of September

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• Broomx: creating the most advanced tools to enjoy Virtual Reality in real spaces

• vadeBike: safe parking for bicycles

Tech News

• South Korean games company Smilegate opens studio Barcelona

• Catalonia will regulate rental prices by law

• - Real estate sector is not happy

• Ada Colau set to close 300 tourist apartments in Barcelona and wants to further reduce supply

• Ikea chooses Catalonia for launch of new store concept

• La Cambra forecasts predicts 10.3% drop in GDP Catalonia this year, which could increase to 13% in case of new COVID outbreaks

Tech news in Spain:

• Spain emerges as a European cloud hub

• Virgin's Hyperloop project in Spain has been paused as firm claims it hasn't received public funding support from CDTI

• Bankia aquires 20% stake in fintech platform Finweg

• Spanish firms raise €1,434M in the first half of this year, a 67% drop compared to last year

• Ironhack and Landing.Jobs join forces to support those affected by COVID-19 with €300K in scholarships

• Uber dismisses more than 30% of its staff in Spain 

Politics, Legal & Economics

• Spain looks for jobs boost from EU pandemic recovery package

• Spanish industry grows by 18% in May but revenue is still 33% lower than in 2019

• Public debt grows in May, exceeds 100% of GDP and sets new high

Good Reads

• Study on investment in the Life Sciences and Healthcare industry in Catalonia 2020

• 'Rethinking the corporate accelerator model', by Miguel Arias, Director of Wayra

• How can we really make European startups more diverse?

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Interview with 3 digital product leaders from Typeform, Tuenti & Factorial

Great Events

This Week:

• Mon, 20 Jul @12:00: Cybersecurity and Blockchain in ICT Tourism

• Tue, 21 Jul @19:30: PitchSLAP – Live Pitching Event

• Thu, 23 Jul @10:00: SPRINT 4.0 – Acercando el Talento Universitario al reto de la industria 4.0

Next Week:

• Tue, 28 Jul @19:30: PitchSLAP – Live Pitching Event

• Thu, 30 Jul @19:00: Design Thinking and Innovation: Staying Ahead of the Curve

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