Hello and happy International Women’s Week! 🦸♀️

Today's main headlines:

• Typeform edge toward unicorn status, land €122M 🦄

• Amazon brand aggregator Yaba bags €75M 📦

• Telefónica launches the Wayra Barcelona Tech Lab 👩‍💻

According to the org itself, the purpose of IWD is to "celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women", which we're more than happy to do.

But behind the shout-outs and flurry of token Tweets on March 8th (which happily, the Gender Pay Gap Bot is busy attending to), there's still many a bias to be broken. So, let's do both. Let's celebrate women while doing our best to raise awareness against bias and take steps within our business and personal lives to push for equality.

As part of this special IWD edition, we'll start by sharing our recently updated article showcasing some of the Barcelona ecosystem’s amazing female entrepreneurs and the stories behind their startups. Check them out here 💪🏽

Also, the first section of today's news will focus on women in tech, so make sure to check it out below 🦸.

Unnax: Empowering business through embedded finance (Ad)

In a world where customer experience is key to acquire and retain customers, businesses should be able to integrate financial solutions seamlessly to create an attractive and frictionless journey for their clients.

As an Electronic Money Institution, Unnax help companies build innovative financial services effortlessly and securely through their modular and API-based Banking-as-a-Service platform.

Regulated by the Bank of Spain under the PSD2, they’re combining regulation, expertise and technology to provide customers with a complete range of solutions:

• Bank accounts (Iban, Escrow, Wallets)

• Payment initiation solutions

• Bank aggregation, categorization and financial indicators

• Identity verification (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) check

Find out more here.

Women in Tech Special

• Female Entrepreneurship in Barcelona (Barcinno update)

• 300 leading women entrepreneurs in Catalonia by the DGIE

• BCN’s Moonai, an app using sound & AI to treat menstrual pain, have won the 2nd edition of the AticcoLab’s Women Pitch Competition 

• Celebrating IWD: Europe’s 100 most influential women in startups and VC 

• 40+ Black and mixed-race female founders in Europe to keep on your radar

• Europe’s 100 most influential women in startups and VC 

• 150+ female angel investors in Europe

• Women in Business: Closing the Gender Gap on International Women’s Day

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Online survey platform Typeform edge toward unicorn status with a €122M Series C 

• Amazon brand aggregator Yaba bags €75M 

• Alternative coffee capsule innovators Incapto raise €3.5M

• Baluwo, who allow relatives of migrants in Western Sub-Saharan Africa to send goods and money, secure €2M

Barcelona startup news

• TravelPerk integrates Ramp to offer an all-in travel, corporate card & expense management solution for business travel

• Blockchain startup Vottun team up with NFTMania & renowned sculptor Felipao to create a collection of NFTs

• BCN fintech launches 11Onze school to help students master financial literacy

• Motorcycle marketplace Mundimoto reached €15M in sales last year, aims for €100M in 2022

• Heura Foods become 1st plant-based meat ever exhibited at Salon de l’Agriculture, the biggest agricultural show in France

• Ocean-saving SaaS platform Fregata Space win the EmprendeXXI Awards in Catalonia

• Autonomo & SME fintech platform Nomo to offer virtual card and current account suitable for paying taxes & social security in Spain 

• UK-BCN software intelligence platform Cledara announces US expansion

Spanish investment news

• The Spanish ecosystem closes February with €127M invested

• Spanish-American RBF Capchase bring in €72.5M

• Madrid-based talent-sharing platform Circular raise €9.1M & expand into London

• Gipuzkoan production process optimizers Linq secure €1.24M

• Navarrese healthtech startup ABANZA land a €1.2M second round

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Barcelona’s Capital Cell closed 2021 with €19.5M raised for biotech companies, up 39%

• Barcelona-based Inveready acquire the majority of value fund manager True Value Investments

• Wayra teams up with Madrid accelerator SportBoost to invest in sportstech startups

• Miura Partners finalizes its purchase of eMagister to build its edtech-specialized portfolio

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• A handy list of Catalan accelerators and programs

• Wayra & 5G Barcelona are looking for startups based on 5G technologies (NB-IoT, LTEM, 5G-NSA); apply until March 14th

• EIT Manufacturing open call to give grants up to €1.5M to any size business creating smart, AI, robotics, or automation solutions in the European industry; first phase until March 11th, 2nd until April 29th

• Tarragona Open Future’s business acceleration program is also closing soon; apply until March 22nd

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• Giuseppe Ciotta: VP of Engineering at Belvo offers a look behind the scenes

• Inspiravia: B2B tech solutions for the tourism industry

• Outvise: the Spanish Upwork for telecom, media & tech freelancer projects

• Vitalbook: cloud computing web platform transforming how memories are stored

• Yumminn: new app for diners that integrates with restaurant POS for instant payment

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona:

• Telefónica launches the Wayra Barcelona Tech Lab, a 5G space to showcase startup technology

• Barcelona’s new economic model for 2030 includes building on 22@ & Besòs hub 

• Spanish airline Level collaborates with 22@ to link Barcelona tech community to comparable US hubs like San Fran & NYC, offering special fares and other benefits

• Catalonia invites remote digital workers that look for country life

• ACPET teams up with British company Aqua Superpower to provide charging infrastructure for electric boats along Catalonia’s coastline

• A new ride-sharing simulation game will be released featuring an uber-realistic 1:1 recreation of Barcelona 

Tech & big company news in Spain:

• Cabify sign new CFO (former CFO of Citybox, Juan Barbolla) less than a year after appointing its last

• Airbnb Spain provide free temporary accommodation for 100K Ukrainians

• Bizum close 2021 with a €1.4M profit & €30M turnover after 5 years in the red

• Santander to offer loans backed by tokens collateralized in agricultural products

• Telefonica is back in the Hacienda’s bad books with a new €387M tax fine

• Nestle Spain closed 2021 with sales of €2.1M, up 4.5%  

Politics, Legal & Economics

• Hacienda may introduce a new last-mile delivery tax, affecting everyone from small online businesses to Amazon

• CaixaBank president fights for crypto to have the same regulations as traditional banking

Good Reads

• Therese Jamaa, VP of Huawei Spain: "Our country needs female talent to create a totally digital Spain"

• The myth of exponential hypergrowth: an alternate model for how fast-growing companies actually grow

• Is web scraping legal? 

• Ariel Camus from Microverse on how to build stronger connections as a distributed team

• How is the war in Ukraine affecting the country’s tech workers?

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Video: Helena Torras (CEO & Managing Partner @ PaoCapital) at Startup Grind Mataró

• Nordic round table: Tech Barcelona, Acció, Ship2B & MobilityXlab on the future of mobility (EN)

• Is the AR and VR market only for trillion-dollar companies? Techcrunch Equity podcast (EN)

• The truth of the Hawkers case according to David Moreno - Itnig Podcast (ES)

Great Events

This week:

• Tue, 15 Mar @09:30: Metavers, a new reality

• Wed, 16 Mar @18:30: Startup Grind BCN hosts Alex Huertas (Co-founder @ Northweek)

• Wed, 16 Mar @18:00: SaaStock Barcelona startup founder networking

• Thu, 17 Mar @18:30: Startup Talk & Networking: Let’s play! Mujeres en el Sector Gaming

Upcoming:

• Tue, 22 Mar @19:00: Open Coffee Startup Networking. Open conversations about startup life & fun 

• Thu, 24 Mar @18:30: Startup Grind Mataró hosts Ricard Jornet (Business Angel & President @ Som Mobilitat)

• Thu, 24 Mar @18:30: Startup Talk & Networking: “Women on Blockchain, removing the barriers”

• Thu, 24 Mar @18:00: Google Analytics: what’s happening in France? 35 minutes with Rubén Gallardo

• Wed, 30 March @19:00: SAP SuccessFactors: 35 minutes with Teresa Castaño

• 26-28 Jun: European Blockchain Convention in Barcelona

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

Jobs

• Touchstream is hiring a Technical Product Manager (OTT Video Monitoring Tools)

• Qida is recruiting a VP Marketing

• OneRagTime is looking for a Venture Ecosystem Catalyst

• BitPanda is hiring a Head of Referral Marketing

• Heura is looking for a Head of Strategy & Transformation

• MundiMoto is recruiting a CMO Chief Marketing Officer

• Bourbon Creative is looking for a:

• - Freelance Content Writer (Native German, 100% remote)

• - Freelance Content Writer (Native Spanish, 100% remote)

• - Freelance Content Editor (Native Spanish, 100% remote)

• Freeverse is hiring a Head of Marketing

• Riverbed is recruiting a:

• - Digital Sales Representative (Dutch/Swedish/Danish)

• Netcentric is looking for several IT positions