Hello & happy Monday!

Today's edition features:

• EV charging startup Walbox lands €33M

• SaaS startup Holded raises €15M

• Spanish startups secure €150M in funding in Jan 2020

Bootcamp exclusivo para SDR’s

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Ok let's get right into it! Have a great week!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• EV charging startup Wallbox lands €33M to meet rising global demand

• Business management SaaS startup Holded lands a €15M investment round led by Elaia

• Aflorithmic nabs $1.1M for AI-driven personalized audio-as-a-service

• FinTech startup Payflow expands its first funding round by €400K

Barcelona Startup news

• Glovo appoints new CTO & will hire 200 engineers by 2021-end

• Energy company HolaLuz grows revenues by 13% to reach €236M & records 272K customers in 2020

• Furniture brand Kave Home grows revenue by 30% to €75M, thanks to 80% growth in online sales in 2020

• Demand-led fashion brand Laagam reached €1M in revenues with 8.5K clients in 2020

• Clevernet teams up with open source SD-WAN vendor flexiWAN to bring WAN optimization to the latter’s customers

• Startup Grind launches in Catalan city Mataró

• 7 Catalan startups got selected to participate in Euronext’s TechShare program for firms that aim to go public

Spanish investment news

• Over €150M was invested in Spanish startups in January 2021

• Biotech company Highlight Therapeutics closes a €23M funding round

• Asturias-based automated manufacturing startup Triditive lands a €1.8M seed round

• Nanomedical startup InnoUp Farma lands a €991K funding round attended by Sodena

• Valencia-based AI hearing accessibility startup Visualfy raises a €520K funding round

• Valencia-based cryptocurrency platform Criptan lands a €500K funding round

• Cadíz-based EPC Tracker Development receives €271K participatory loan from Enisa

• Valencia-based delivery startup Delitbee raises €100K in their first funding round

• Madrid-based MarTech company Seedtag acquires Munich-based competitor Recognified

VC, investment & crowdfunding news:

• BBVA increases its investment in San Francisco-based PE fund Propel Venture Partners by €124M

• The Valencian Institute of Finance selects Oquendo Capital and MCH Private Equity to manage its 2 new €75M funds

• Inveready launches €50M alternative investments fund

• The CDTI approves €38M in grants for 50 Coronavirus-related R&D products

• Barcelona-based consulting firm Intelectium raised €20M for startups and SMEs in 2020

• Wayra invests €4.5M in 39 Spanish startups in 2020

• Inveready invests in €4M of convertible bonds in digital transformation consultancy business Izertis

• The Lladró Roig family launches Valencia-based VC Firm Cuarzo Investments

• Startupxplore launches a new investment vertical focused on gaming & eSports

• The Crowd Angel changes name to ‘Dozen’ amidst rebranding 

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories:

• SeedRocket launches the new edition of Campus de Emprendedores, showcasing the value proposition of 10-12 IT startups

• Multinational professional services firm Grant Thornton LLP joins SeedRocket in providing online training for early-stage entrepreneurs

• Lanzadera and Nestlé Purina collaborate on open call supporting innovative petcare startups

• Ufounders helped 100 entrepreneurs launch their projects in 2020 and has big plans for 2021

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• Antai Venture Builder: BCN-based international online-mobile venture builder

• JustinMind: free prototyping tool for web & mobile apps

• Landbot: intuitive, codeless conversational interface builder for frictionless CX & more effective lead generation

• Platanomelón: the sextech startup Platanomelón breaking taboos

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona:

• Global shipping and logistics company Maersk chooses Barcelona as its first platform in Southern Europe

• Consorcio de la Zona Franca de Barcelona to open DFactory building in June; aims to become center for multinationals and startups in 3D printing technologies, robotics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity & advanced manufacturing

• Barcelona Supercomputing Center researchers part of Horizon 2020 project to develop personalized healthcare powered by AI

• Banco Santander opens its second Work Café in Barcelona

Tech news in Spain:

• Vodafone and MásMóvil potential merger could cause rising prices for Telco services

• Orange’s 5G network reaches 121 Spanish cities

• Google to ban Spanish digital certificate authority Camerfirma from Chrome

• Spain's Cellnex plans capital hike of up to €7B to acquire France's Hivory

Politics, Legal & Economics

• Spain's economic recovery in 2021 has started worse than expected

• Government aims to reform the legal framework to increase financial aid for companies and freelancers hit by the pandemic

Good Reads

• How the pandemic has expedited digitization

• How startups can access the EU’s Recovery Funds

• Thoughts on Ray Dalio’s comments on Bitcoin

• Thoughts on the podcast industry in 2021

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Interview with Marc Macia, co-founder at NoviCap

• Interview with Pau Ramón, CTO at Factorial

• Video interview from Startup Grind Mataró with Àlex Rodríguez Bacardit, Business Angel; & CEO & Founder at MarsBased

Great Events

This week:

• Wed, 10 Feb @18:00: Conector Talks with Albert Colmenero, COO at Kompyte

• Wed, 10 Feb @18:30: An Introduction to Coding with CodeOp: HTML & CSS

Upcoming:

• Mon-Fri, 12-16 Apr: 5th European Blockchain Convention

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

Jobs

• Amenitiz is hiring a Sales Operations Manager

• Signaturit is hiring a Head Of Partnerships

• Typeform is recruiting a Head of SEO

• Unnax is recruiting a:

• - Product Owner

• - Client Support Engineer

• - Deputy Technology Director