Hello and happy Monday!

International Women's Day Special

Yesterday was International Women's Day so we want to use this edition of the newsletter to celebrate women and highlight how much work still needs to be done to reach gender equality. Here a few interesting articles:

• Women-led business: Barcelona and the global movement

• Need to facilitate funding access for female entrepreneurs

• 10 promising femtech startups to watch in 2020

• 10 talented women entrepreneurs behind successful tech startups in Europe in 2020

Additionally, I'd also like to give a shout-out to CodeOp, an international coding bootcamp for women, since I think it's a brilliant project.

Finally, every little helps, so we want to make a small contribution at Barcinno too. As a result, we'll dedicate one of of our next articles to female entrepreneurship in Barcelona. For this, we are counting on your help: if you're a female founder, know an interesting startup led by women or can recommend an organisation that backs female entrepreneurship in Catalonia, please let us know per email here.

11th of March - Future in Fintech

This Wednesday, Finimize is organizing a free event at Itnig's venue to discuss the Future of Fintech. Maria Martinez from Dow Jones will moderate a panel featuring Santi Perez Olano, Head of Southern Europe at Remitly, Benjamin Cotte, Head of Product at Unnax, and our very own Clemens from Barcinno. We look forward to seeing you there. To find out more and secure your spot, click here.

If you want to do some 'homework' before the event, you might want to read:

• "The 10 Leading Fintech Startups in BCN"

• "The 7 biggest trends in payments in 2020"

Ok, that's it from me. Have a great week and see you out there!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Barcelona biotech startup Aortyx, an IQS spin-off, raises €650K

• Catalan startup Dental Residency closes a €490K funding round via La Bolsa Social

• Barcelona startup Mr Noow raises €235K via Crowdcube

• Catalan biotech startup ZeCardio Therapeutics opens €800K funding round

Spanish investment news

• Madrid adtech startup Mediasmart was acquired for €5.1M by Indian company Affle

• Hearts Espana sells media site Emprendedores to Alejandro Vesga, Blackpearl and various business angels

• Investment in Spanish startups is down 2.9% in 2019 according to data from Bankinter

Startup news

• Barcelona startup ParkHelp merges with US firm Parking Sense and rebrands to ParkHelp Technologies

• Barcelona proptech startup Housfy triples its revenue to reach €4.5M

• Catalan online marketplace Smartfooding acquires Graine de Bonne Santé to expand to France

• Barcelona startup Yego adds 300 scooters to its fleet in Valencia

• Catalan startup TravelPerk builds audited carbon offset program for biz travel

• Catalan startups ID Finance, Tappx, Signaturit, Typeform, Adsmurai, Quantion, Dlyte, NexolubBC amongst Europe's 150 fastest growing companies according to FT; the full list of 1000 firms includes 71 Spanish companies

• Overview of different Spanish startups delivering prepared food

VC, investment & crowdfunding news:

• Investment into Catalan startups via crowdequity platforms grew 51% in the past year, according to ACCIÓ

• Barcelona-based firm Ship2B and Open Value Foundation sign a collaboration agreement to finance impact companies in the initial phase

• Spanish telco MásMóvil launches the second edition of its startup program

• FOND-ICO to invest €15M into a fund created by French business loan provider October

• FOND-ICO invests €15M into Sabadell Asabys Health Innovation fund

• Carlos Trenchs has left Caixa after 16 years

• - Carlos Trenchs launches new investment vehicle aimed at Spain & Portugal

• Arcano acquired and integrated Spanish M&A boutique BlueBull

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories:

• Premios InÍciate, which awards €8K to the best scientific-tech innovator, extends call until the 10th of March

• TheCircularLab opens call for its new Circular Design Challenge; apply until the 13th of March

• Ances Open Innovation opens call until the 24th of March

• SeedRocket opens call for Campus de Emprendedores in Barcelona; apply until the 30th of March

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews:

• Citibeats: using ethical AI to turn citizens’ information into insight

• Partyo: marketplace for booking party venues and services

• Smiletronix: a US health tech startup launched by IESE graduate Yashar Faranjani that disrupts dental care

Tech News

• Scientists in Catalonia create coronavirus treatment drugs

• Barcelona introduces 105 smart buses

• US investor delegation explores cooperation opportunities with Catalan startups

• Barcelona will host the ISE, the world's largest exhibition for AV and electronic systems industry, in 2021; it has been taking place in Amsterdam in the previous 15 years

• The Trip Circus 2020 announces agenda & first group of speakers for its inaugural event in Barcelona that will bring together 500+ experts in the hotel & short-term rental industry

Tech news in Spain:

• Telefonica acquires Prosegur Alarmas for €305M; since the payment was made in Telefonica shares, Prosegur now owns 0.9% of Telefonica. More details about the acquisition here

• Telefonica and MediaPro debut 5G augmented tourism with AR bus windows

• Idealista owner Apax hires investment banks BoFa & Morgan Stanley to manage Idealista's IPO

• Acciona has started the first floating photovoltaic solar plant in Spain

• Zalando is set to launch a €20M distribution centre in Madrid, its first in Spain

Politics & Economics

• Spanish government to regulate videogame loot boxes

• Catalonia is amongst autonomous communities that pay the highest taxes in Spain

• Catalonia approves first anti-food waste law in Spain

• SEAT's ex-CEO De Meo backs Barcelona's bid to host 2030 Winter Olympics

Good Reads

• Barcelona & Catalonia: Driving the Future of Connected Cars

• Understanding your Fulfillment Costs: 3PLs vs. FBA

• Benefits of the Sharing Economy: A Coworking Space’s Perspective

• 50 Experts Rank Top User Engagement Metrics to Track in 2020

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Videos from the different panels from the Corporate Innovation Summit 2020 in Barcelona:

• - "The 7 myths of corporate venturing"

• - "From Contact to Contract: How to approach big corporations if you're a startup"

• Interview with Esteve Lombarte, co-founder of Acqustic (by Itnig)

Great Events

This Week

• Tue, 10 Mar @18:00: Service Design, Product Design, and Experience Design for Faster Growth

• Tue, 10 Mar @19:00: First 90 days of a Product Manager - Co-creating Session

• Wed, 11 Mar @19:00: Future of Fintech

• Thu, 12 Mar @19:00: Inspirational Talks : How I started my career as a Product Manager

• Fri, 13 Mar @13:30: Artificial Intelligence: Success stories and solutions

Next Week

• Mon, 16 Mar @19:00: How to start your podcast (ESP)

• Tue, 17 Mar @18:30: Free Workshop: How to Start Your Amazon FBA Business in 14 days

• Tue, 17 Mar @18:30: Visual Thinking: Learning by doing (ESP)

• Thu, 19 Mar @18:00: Together Connected

• Thu, 19 Mar @19:00: Pitch to Investors (by Itnig)

• Fri, 20 Mar @16:00: allWomen’s SheStartup III

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

Startup Jobs In Barcelona

• Hector Kitchen is hiring a Senior Full-Stack Developer

• Bourbon Creative is recruiting a Freelance Writer for Tech Industry Content (Native English)

• Unnax is looking for a VP Sales - B2B SaaS

• Agile Content is hiring a Senior Java Software Engineer

See the full job board here & add your job post here.