Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello humans,

This week’s main headlines:

• Fever raises €100M+ 💸

• Glovo fined over labor laws again 👩‍⚖️

• Amazon closes BCN hub, workers strike ✊

ChatGPT: The future of AI-powered content, but at what cost?

ChatGPT, a cutting-edge language model developed by OpenAI, has been making headlines in the tech and startup world. Platforms such as Medium and Buzzfeed have been utilizing its capabilities for AI-generated posts and quizzes, and even Microsoft has invested in its potential.

But ChatGPT's capabilities go beyond just entertainment, it has also been shown to assist in tasks such as acing business and law exams and helping students with their homework. It's no surprise that 89% of students admitted to using it for their homework.

However, as with any new technology, it's important to consider the potential consequences and ethical considerations surrounding its development and use. How will it impact the job market? How will it change the way we interact with technology and access information? What's the impact on society? Take our poll below by clicking on the reply you with the most!

Catch you next week, unless ChatGPT takes over my job of writing these newsletters.

(Intro, poll and outro written by ChatGPT, edited by humans)

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Unicorn Fever closes new €100M+ round

• Nuclio-founded fintech for SMEs Kintai raises €2.5M

• Ecommerce returns solution Dawa gets €1.2M

• ICN2 startup Cooling Photonics closes €630K first round

• Femtech Domma secures €450K

• Employee well-being platform Emocional receives €400K

• Gesture recognition software Gestoos acquired by US-based lidar developer PreAct

• Workspace booking app YADO acquired by UAE counterpart Hotdesk

Barcelona startup news

• Glovo fined again for breaching labor laws, this time €57M

• Neobank for real estate professionals Unibo predicts €12M turnover for 2023

• New Honduran specialty coffee brand Gallo Coffee launches in BCN

Spanish investment news

• Segovian compostable ammo maker Bioammo gets €4M & deal with US giant

• Madrid NLP platform Argilla gets €1.5M

• Spanish eyewear firm Miller & Marc close €1M & opens Berlin store

• Madrid AI fintech Citec Solutions raise €500K

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Wayra invested €5.7M in 40 startups in 2022, 16 of which were Spanish

• Mundi Ventures is negotiating a €1B megafund with investors from Europe & the Middle East, the first of this magnitude in Spain

• Banca March successfully closes €300M March PE Global II private equity fund including defense & niche sectors

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Desafía Tel Aviv, organized by ICEX and Red.es, helps entrepreneurs introduce & integrate into the Israeli ecosystem & market; apply until today, Jan 30

• Ship2B has 2 programs open: Health&Care (healthtech solutions for the elderly and people with disabilities & chronic diseases) and Tech4Climate (environmental and sustainability innovations); both until Feb 1

• Take part in iFest, Catalonia's council-backed challenge competition, and train in innovation & entrepreneurship; apply until Feb 9

• French Tech Barcelona launches 2023 business mentoring program; apply until Feb 13

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Haddock: The pandemic-born SaaS making life easier for restaurateurs

• Reclamio: Already helped 14K Spaniards claim €6M flight compensation

• Venca: The 90s home-order fashion catalog reinvented & billing €30M

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Amazon to close BCN logistics hub, cutting 800 jobs; workers will strike for 2 weeks

• Catalonia closed 2022 with 2,022 startups, 6.3% more than last year

• Tech Barcelona partners with InfoJobs to launch new tech talent platform 

• MWC predicted to bring 80K people and €350M to Barcelona

• Google to tackle complaints of fewer Catalan-language links shown on results page

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Bit2Me launches crypto Mastercard debit card with cashback initiative

• Hitachi to open several software centers Spain-wide, creating up to 3K jobs

• Telefónica raises Spanish wages by 7.8% in 2023

• Aragon-based ‘The Fork’ rival Gastrik expands to Madrid & BCN

Politics, legal & economics

• Spain updates traffic laws for e-scooters, including large fines

• Spain’s GDP grew faster than expected in 2022 (5.5%) to beat recession fears

Good Reads

• 18 can’t-miss Spanish events for startups & entrepreneurs in 2023

• Between equity and debt: VCs and founders on how to approach 2023 in the best fashion

• The new shape-shifting robot everyone’s talking about that can melt through bars

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Polygon president Ryan Wyatt talks partnerships, NFTs and gaming (TechCrunch podcast, EN)

• Pep Gómez: His story of Fever and Reby from 0 to 1.4 million (Hablando con líderes podcast, ES)

• Converting leads into clients: the technology behind the CRO (Itnig YT podcast, ES+EN subs)

• Syra & bringing specialty coffee to the mass market with Founder Yassir Raïs (YT video, ES+EN subs)

Great Events

This week:

• 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

Upcoming:

• Wed, 8 Feb @18:30: #005 BCN FinTech: FinTech Winter (registration link TBC)

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

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

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

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

Startup Jobs:

• Bourbon Creative is hiring:

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

  • Freelance Content Writers (English, 100% remote)

• Qonto is hiring a Head of Business Intelligence

• eDreams is recruiting a SEO Content Marketing Specialist

• Heura Foods is hiring a International Accounts Payable and Receivable Technician

• Opticks is looking for a Sales Development Representative (Spanish market)

• Eurosearch Consulting is recruiting a Startup fundraising consultant

• Wattwin is looking for a CMO

• Cognizant Netcentric has various open Tech roles