Hello and happy Monday, we hope you had a great weekend and are ready for the upcoming holiday break. A quick service announcement before we dive in:

Happy New Year from the Barcinno Team!

Thank you so much for supporting us throughout yet another successful year!

Special thanks to all the people who took the time to share their feedback on our newsletter (if you haven't done so yet you can fill out our 1-min survey here). We were overwhelmed by the high number of quality replies and great responses. We're taking all comments seriously and have some homework over the holidays to work on delivering an even better newsletter in 2020.

We're also taking a short break over the holidays will be back in January, so we want to wish you Happy Holidays & Joyful New Year! Meanwhile, if your planning ahead for 2020 already, feel free to have a look at our revamped Work-With-Us Page to see how you can collaborate with Barcinno to spread the news of your project across our local and global community.

Programa Primer – A Spark in the Dark for Startups in Catalonia

As part of our series focusing on local entrepreneurship initiatives in Catalonia, we took a deeper look at Programa Primer from Catalunya Emprèn. The program consists of a network of ‘pre-accelerators’ or entities within Catalonia that cultivate the creation of startups by offering specialized training and mentoring to entrepreneurs. The main objective of Programa Primer is to stimulate the creation of startup ecosystems throughout the region. Here's all you to need know.

Growth Marketing Barcelona CMO edition

Tomorrow, Tuesday, December 17th, Growth Marketing BCN will host Mark Smit CMO of ModelManagement.com for a talk on how to create a viral loop and convert freemium users. Register for the meetup here.

Ok, that's it from me. Let's get to the news.

Startup & Investment News

Investment news

• Spanish startup OrbitalAds gets €3M from ESHorizonte2020

• Spain-based startup Hellotickets secures a €2M investment

• Spanish firm Plastic Repair System lands €1.6M H2020 financing

• Catalan startup TipsterChat closes a €1M funding round

• Spanish startup GuruWalk closes €1M funding round

• Catalan EV charger startup Wallbox announces a €2M investment by Seaya Venture

• Spain-based aerospace firm Alén Space gets €1M

• Catalan machine learning startup AllRead lands €100K

• Barcelona AdTech startup Tappx secures funding from EU Horizon 2020 fund

• Catalan e-mobility startup Iomob receives investment & partners with VC firm B4Motion

Startups news

• Glovo acquires dark kitchen company Instamaki for €8M

• Catalan startup Exodronics prepares its first investment round for Q2 2020 to break into the drone market

• Yego to launch shared electric bicycles and scooters in Barcelona

VC, investment & crowdfunding news:

• Santander launches €1.1B private equity platform to support Spanish SMEs

• Barcelona VC firm Suma Capital is closing on launching SC Growth Fund II, a €125M fund aimed at mid-sized companies

• Talenta plans to launch a new €10M fund to invest in startups 

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories:

• B-Value opens call for its innovation program for social entities. You can apply until Jan 15

• Novartis and Conector join forces to launch a new accelerator program for startups that help improve care of cancer patients

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• AllRead: deep learning-based information spotting technology able to read any type of text and symbol in a single shot

• BROOMX: the Projected VR Company creating the most advanced tools to enjoy Virtual Reality in real spaces

• Qida: creating a better, more reliable care experience for families & caregivers

• Demium: interview with Priscilla Lavoie, Managing Director of the incubator program Demium in Barcelona

• Wallapop: interview with CEO Rob Cassedy who talks about the firms new strategy

Tech News

• Start-ups fall for Barcelona’s tech hub allure (Financial Times)

• Norwegian company Adevinta opens international HQ in Barcelona to host 1.000 employees

• Google looking to double Barcelona workforce 'in near future'

• The Catalan Government gives green light to a strategic alliance of research centers in the region to create a hub of biotech companies and become more competitive

• Barcelona Tech City & Esade join forces to open 'Hub EdTech'

• Catalonia has one of the biggest video game hubs in Europe

• - The video game industry in Catalonia grew from €4M FDI received and 87 jobs created between 2009-2013 to €36M FDI secured & 516 new jobs generated between 2014-2018

• The number of smart city companies in Catalonia grew by 62% from 2016 to 2019; today 438 smart city firms employ 45.000 people and provide 4% of Catalonia's GDP

• Catalonia hosts blockchain hackathon for waste recycling

Climate-conference special:

• Spain becomes largest solar market in the EU as every 4th MW produced from solar power plants build this year stems from Spain

• Barcelona shows one way forward for EVs

• Catalonia gets autonomous-ready

Tech news in Spain:

• Facebook is apparently looking into acquiring Spanish cloud gaming firm PlayGiga for €70M

• 3 Spanish firms BBVA, Iberdrola and Telefónica named amongst Europe's top 12 Corporate Startup Stars

• 5 Spanish companies ACCIONA, Amadeus, Banco Sabadell, Enagás and Ferrovial named amongst Europe's Top 24 Open Innovation Challengers

• Auro New Transport Concept, a shareholder of Cabify, launches its own transportation app

• Udekta launches Udekta Sports, a new investment vehicle for publicly traded football teams 

Good Reads

• Programa Primer – A Spark in the Dark for Startups in Catalonia

• Why Barcelona Is a Safe Haven for Digital Nomads

• Why Capital Efficiency matters: Analysis from 48 publicly traded SaaS companies

• Overview of the logistics startup ecosystem in Spain

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Interview with Laura Urquizu, CEO of RedPoints (by Lunes Inspiradores)

• Interview with Rafa Blanc, CEO of Vasquiat (by Itnig)

• "From traditional investment to impact investment" with Eneko Knörr, founder of Angel Club, and Iker Marcaide, founder of Zubi Labs (VI S2B Impact Forum Video)

Great Events

This Week

• Mon, 16 Dec @17:00: WILD WOMEN CODING WORKSHOP- Win a scholarship and become a developer

• Mon, 16 Dec @18:30: Women Who Have Transitioned to Tech – Part Two

• Tue, 17 Dec @18:30: DatabeersBCN Tuesday Dec 17th

• Tue, 17 Dec @19:00: Growth Marketing Barcelona Meetup

• Wed, 18 Dec @20:00: BUSINESS MATCHING PARTY

Next Week

• Merry Christmas :)

2020 Q1 Key Events:

• Mon-Tue, 20-21 Jan: European Blockchain Convention

• Mon-Thu, 24-27 Feb: Mobile World Congress

• Mon-Wed, 24-26 Feb: 4YFN

See the full event calendar here.

Startup Jobs In Barcelona

• Agile Content is hiring a Senior Java Software Engineer

• Choco is recruiting a Business Development Representative

• Cien is looking for a Sales Performance Consultant

See the full job board here.