Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Happy Monday,

This week’s main headlines:

• Wallapop closes €80M megaround 💰

• 25G, 20gbps fiber in Spain ⚡️

• Big company layoffs, growth for startups ⚖️

First BCN FinTech of 2023 confirmed–and it’s a good one 💳 ❄️

✅🗓️ Mark your iCals: The next BCN FinTech is now confirmed. Falling on February 8th at our usual venue OCW Plaza Catalonia, it’ll include a very timely (and sure to be interesting) panel discussion topic: The Fintech winter.

🔥 Check out the experts speaking:

• Adriana Freitas, Partner at Muster Ventures

• Philipp Kolobkov, Fintech Associate at Plug and Play & zone2boost

• Tristan Pelloux, Director at StrategWhy, Founder at Fintech Review

Tickets are free for early-bird 🐤 bookings until February 5th (after which there will be a nominal fee) so snap them up ASAP!

Have a great week and stay warm 🪵

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Wallapop finalizes €80M megaround with Korean giant Naver

• Biotech spinoff Nimble Diagnostics closes first €1M

• Athlete platform Sporttips raises €1M & doubles valuation

• Audiovisual startup Titbit raises 2nd €150K

Barcelona startup news

• Tradeinn’s sales up 15% in 2022 to €433M

• Exoticca expects 200M sales & big funding in 2023

• Nude Project quadrupled clothing sales in 2022 at €11M

• Typeform’s final layoffs; 60 Spanish & 55 non-Spanish staff affected totaling 25%

• Wallbox to cut 15% of labor costs due to Europe’s EV slowdown

• Väcka launches 2 new products & expands into Europe

• Heura expands to Austria; now available in 22 countries

• Lleida.net’s Sisco Sapena invests €2M in the first green hydrogen microgeneration network in Spain

Spanish investment news

• Sevilla glamping platform Kampaoh raises €14M 

• Malagan healthtech Docline lands €3M 

• Valencian remote team tool Camillion gets €1.8M

• Madrid restaurant guide & booking app Velada raises €1M

• Other rounds: niid (€800K), Tribaldata (€800K)

• Valencian startup Robotnik acquired by German firm United Robotics Group

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• BCN firm Galdana Ventures raises €600M+ 3rd fund & appears on NYC Nasdaq billboard

• Record venture capital figures in Spain: more than €8.7M invested in 2022

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• SOUTH3E’s deeptech program has 3 tracks for research teams, startups & scaleups/SMEs; apply until Feb 9 

• The New Retail Challenge aims to help existing projects in the sector expand into shopping centers; apply until Feb 13

• MWC Open Innovation Challenge 2023 is still open, a B2B meeting event between corporations, investors & providers; apply until Feb 20

• Fundación Naturgy launches edition IV of its awards–€60K & €30K grants for the best social initiatives in the energy field; apply until Feb 28

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Claudia de la Riva, Nannyfy: Founder of ‘Uber for nannies’ story from Covid crash to successful relaunch as Apolokids 

• UPC professor Paco Solé Parellada & Tech Barcelona CEO Miquel Martí: The foundations of the tech ecosystem

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Barcelona invests €104M in new R&D and innovation complex

• Urban & mobility transformations Barcelona will undergo in 2023

• Barcelona calls time on ghost kitchens and supermarkets

• Taxi drivers to strike against ride-hailing companies during ISE

• Swedish food delivery & reservation startup Yippin opens BCN HQ 

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Forget 5G, Nokia & Telefonica are trialing 25G in Spain with 20gbps speeds

• Vueling to be first budget airline to accept crypto

• Twitter begins laying off large part of Spanish workforce

• Amazon opens 2 new robotic centers in Zaragona & Girona, generating 2.5K jobs

• Enisa reaches largest ever annual investment of a combined €105M, up 13%

Politics, legal & economics

• The first digital euro is being tested in the Bank of Spain’s sandbox, by Malagan startup Monei

Good Reads

• Everything we can expect from MWC 2023

• Google layoffs: Read the memo CEO Sundar Pichai sent to staff

• Forbes’ 6 most important tech trends for 2023

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Seeking profitability in the creator economy, with Vicent Martí from Streamloots (Itnig, ES)

• The latest in the world of AI; Getty to sue Stability AI, $MSFT to incorporate OpenAI into Azure + more (This Week in Startups, EN)

• M&A, Before and After: What Founders Need to Know (a16z by Andreessen Horowitz podcast, EN)

• WTF is Going On in VC? With SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin (20VC podcast, EN)

Great Events 

This week:

• Thu, 26 Jan @18:00: Tech Barcelona Afterwork January 2023

• Thu, 26 Jan @18:30: Aticco Learning: Most common errors of startups in Web3 with Bit2me

Upcoming:

• Tue, 31 Jan @19:00: Startup Grind Barcelona 2023 Kick-off Networking Event

• Tue, 31 Jan–Fri, 3 Feb: Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2023

• Tue, 31 Jan–Fri, 3 Feb: IOT Solutions World Congress & BCN Cybersecurity Congress 2023

• Wed, 8 Feb @18:30: #005 BCN FinTech: FinTech Winter

• Wed, 15 Feb–Fri, 17 Feb: European Blockchain Convention

• Wed, 1 Mar @15:00: Unveiling the Official 2022 FoodTech 500

• Mon, 27 Feb–Thu, 2 Mar: Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023

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

Startup Jobs:

• Radish Ventures is hiring an Investment Analyst

• Touchstream is looking for a Customer Integration Engineer

• Neuroprofiler want a VIE Product Owner Junior

• Qonto is hiring a Head of Business Intelligence

• eDreams need a SEO Content Marketing Specialist

• Opticks is looking for a:

  • Head of Customer Success

  • Adtech Account Executive

• Eurosearch Consulting is recruiting a Startup fundraising consultant

• Bourbon Creative is hiring:

  • Freelance Content Writers and/or Project Managers (German, 100% remote)

  • Freelance Content Writers (English, 100% remote)

• Cognizant Netcentric has various open Tech roles