Hello community,

This week’s main headlines:

• Catalan startups raise almost €15M 💰

• Barcelona has new social currency to spend locally 🪙

• Madrid startup launch 1st Spanish space propulsion 🚀

Hopefully, everyone's easing back in OK after the summer break. Recent 💰 reports seem to be trickling back in again, and there's been a fair few M&As 🤝 too. Let us know if you have any hot tips!

Have a good week and keep doing great things ☄️

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Coffee kiosk Good News brings in €11M & will expand throughout Europe

• Lleida-based auto parts marketplace Recomotor raise €2M

• Digital M&A platform for SMEs Deale close €1.5M 2nd round

• The Smart Lollipop get €320K to develop needle-free disease testing using candy

• Caixa Capital Risc sell stake of BCN legaltech vLex to Oakley Capital

• Travel company Suntransfer acquired by British ground transport firm CMAC Group

Barcelona startup news

• The 16 Catalan & Spanish startups taking part in Mobile World Congress Las Vegas

• Typeform enhances its startup program & discount to help more businesses scale

Spanish investment news

• Madrid insurance comparison site Rastreator acquired by Italian group MutuiOnline

• MyInvestor acquire Spanish roboadvisor Finanbest

• Madrid fintech Tinsa buys Chilean software company Ondac to strengthen LATAM presence 

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• New US fund of funds Equation is setting out to back Europe’s emerging micro VCs and blue chips

• Axon invested in two companies in the energy sector, Colombian company Uptime Analytics & UK-based SEaB Power 

• BeHappy Investment create first fund with 100% Spanish capital, which aims to tackle rural depopulation

• BCN Satellite-IoT startup Sateliot is looking for €10M in pre-Series B & €100M Series B in 2023

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Altostratus open call for the first Bootcamp with Google Cloud, aimed at scaleups; apply until Sept 23

• EDP‘s Energy Starter 2.0 calls for clean energy startups to accelerate in a USA bootcamp; apply until Sept 30

• Viladecans Airport 4.0 pre-acceleration program is open for tech aviation projects; apply now for sessions during Oct-Dec

• Ministry of Industry launches 3 programs to help SMEs: Active Industry 4.0, Active Growth & Active Cybersecurity

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• Cointelegraph interview Manel Sort, CEO & Co-founder of G4AL

• Typeform: "How to offboard users the right way, and one strategy to increase retention"

• Munich CEO ​​Xavier Berneda: "No politician would pass a job interview in my company”

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona:

• Catalan exports grow by 17.2% in the first half of 2022

• Barcelona study reveals we share similar genetics with those who look like us

• UK-based Gravity Co to grow its co-living portfolio in Barcelona & Europe

Tech & big company news in Spain:

• Madrid startup Ienai Space launch first Spanish space propulsion into orbit

• Gorillas reduce activity & distribution centers to get out of the red & stay in Spain

• PayPal hires former BBVA executive Beatriz Jimenez to lead Spain

• Digi is leading the Spanish telecom market (and stressing competitors) with its ultra-low-cost services 

Politics, legal & economics

• This rural Spanish town is enticing remote workers with affordable rent

Good Reads

• ESPN broadcast the world Excel championship live & apparently it was wild 

• Many companies use AI to screen CVs: Here’s how to avoid their biases and exploit their weaknesses

• Forbes Spain’s 100 Most Creative People in Business 2022

Good Videos & Podcasts

• What it was really like building Apple with Steve Jobs, with Founder & CEO of FNDR James Vincent (EN)

• Pivoting to the Silver Economy with Guillem Viladomat of BCN’s Durcal (ES)

• Foc a Terra: Àlex R. Bacardit & Marc Collado on work productivity, long hours & work addiction (CT)

Great Events

This week:

• Tue, 13 Sept @17:00: Due Diligence - The process to determine whether or not to invest

• Wed, 14 Sept @09:00: Singapore-Catalonia AgriFood Tech Session & networking

• Wed, 14 Sept @17:00: Financial Modeling - From Fuzzy Early Stage Project to Scaling Up

• Thu, 15 Sept @18:30: 9th Hola Barcelona! Cocktail - Barcelona Global

• Fri, 16 Sept & Sat, 17 Sept: Service Design Days Conference: product and service innovation & digital transformation

Upcoming:

• Wed, 21 Sept: CoinPoint Catalonian Metaverse & Web3 Gaming Event

• Thu, 22 Sept @09:30: Rethink Retail X.O: Metashopping, shopping as a journey

• Thu, 22 Sept @18:30: How to retarget in a cookieless world with Ata Gur of Frizbit 

• Thu, 22 Sept: Barcelona Deep Tech Summit

• Wed, 28 Sept @18:30: BCN FinTech Afterwork #003 

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

Jobs

• Opticks is looking for an Account Executive - Spanish Market

• Sekg is recruiting a Full Stack Engineer

• Reloadly want a Head of Operations/COO

• Logify is hiring a VP of Technology/CTO

• Cognizant Netcentric is recruiting several IT positions

• Bourbon Creative is hiring Freelance Content Writers (Native English, 100% remote)