Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello and happy Monday,

This week’s main headlines:

• BCN startups raise €34M 💰

• Mango enters the circular economy ♻️

• Samaipata banks on Spanish AI 🤖

BCN FinTech & Growth BCN joint event this week 📈🤝

It may only be two days away, but it's not too late to register for the BCN FinTech Afterwork & Growth BCN event on "FinTech Marketing" on Wed 22 Mar at 18:30 in Glories!

💡 Don't miss out on the opportunity to learn from some of the top marketing experts in the fintech industry and build your network. Register here and we'll see you there!

Have a great week 🌻

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Edtech InnovaMat closes €20M From Bonsai, Kibo & US investors 

• Solar startup Sunhero scores €10M

• Renovation firm Aquí Tu Reforma gets €2.5M & open first Madrid store

• Digital nomad housing Enso Co-living raises €1.7M

Barcelona startup news

• Medtech Top Doctors grows to €18.5M turnover & 415 staff

• Cooltra and Cabify combine e-moped fleets in Spain

• MarsBased celebrates 9 years with record €2M revenue

• Good News become first coffee startup recognized as a B-Corp 

• Removals startup Boxmotions goes into liquidation with €3M debt

Spanish investment news

• Biotech Cocoon Bioscience closes €15M 

• Education-sector fintech BCAS gets €7M

• Foodtech Burger Index bags €1.2M

• Home care startup Familiados raises €1M

• Dress rental startup La Más Mona gets investment from Mango’s Startup Studio

• IT consultant Hiberus acquires developer Factory Apps

• Pro-cyclist founded Berria Bikes sell 49% stake to Suma Capital

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Ex-Telefónica & Prisa director Santiso launches €100M fund focused on retail startups

• Innvierte allocates €11M to 6 new VC joint ventures in the first 2 months of the year

• Samaipata wants to invest in 15 AI projects in 2023, half in Spain

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Innoemprèn’s high performance entrepreneurship program is still open for early-stage startups; apply until today, Mar 20

• Hotelbeds & Wayra launched TravelTech Lab, a new initiative for innovators in the future of travel; apply until Mar 28

• UNICEF Spain & ISDI Accelerator open UNICEF Lab V to drive social impact for children; apply until Apr 5

• BCN-based Abacus Ventures launched a new acceleration program for edtech startups; apply until Apr 10

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• BCOME: Promoting sustainability in fashion

• A coffee with Eva & Marta: Leading the new edition of Desigual & Wayra’s Awesome Lab 

• Oliver: The startup that recently partnered with FC Barça

• Väcka: “In five years, we see ourselves as the leader in the alternative cheese market”

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona

• ACCIÓ increases its budget for aid and services by 22%, up to €200M

• Mango launches pilot clothing rental service

• 77% of Catalan companies expect increased turnover in 2023

• Europe’s largest eSports congress GES2023 moves to Barcelona

• New institute with 600+ places for digital field VET courses to open next year in Poblenou

• Port Vell prepares its transformation ahead of the sailing Copa América 2024

Tech & big company news in Spain

• New ENISA requirements for startups to pass as "innovative"; one will be patents

• Mercadona celebrates success with 3K new jobs–despite record losses last year

• Inditex dividends up, shares down & plans new tech & US expansion

• BBVA Spark launches in Colombia

• Ford plans to cut jobs in Spain in European production shake-up

• Alibaba’s AliExpress prioritizes Spain for overseas growth

Politics, legal & economics

• Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) panic spreads to Europe

• Enisa CEO says requirements for companies to comply with the new startup law could arrive in April

Good Reads

• ‘Basically mindblowing’: What GPT-4 can do, according to one startup that’s had access to it

• Meet the rising female founders building the Metaverse

• Telepathy experiments in Silicon Valley

• Unicorn Fever’s winning content strategy

• MWC CEO: “Barcelona can position itself as the epicenter of digital humanism”

• Betting hard on asynchronous work - the next step after remote work? 

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Looking at the Silicon Valley Bank crash in UK & Europe (Sifted, EN)

• Building a marketing team into a unicorn with Borja Prieto from Factorial (Product Hackers, ES)

• Vision and alignment of long-term goals, with Oriol Vila, Co-founder @ HolaLuz (Life on Mars, ES)

• From Lleida to the world with Jordi Barri from Flax & Kale (Itnig, ES)

Great Events 

This week:

• Tue, 21 Mar @18:30: The Startup Law: Opinion of the ecosystem

• Wed, 22 Mar @18:30: BCN FinTech & Growth BCN: How to succeed in (fin)tech marketing

• Thu, 23 Mar @18:30: Challenging the Status Quo: Women Disrupting Tech

• Fri, 24 Mar @10:00: The impact of AI on organizations

• Fri, 24 Mar @10:00: Promoting entrepreneurship: Lessons learnt from research

• Sat, 25 Mar @09:00: Women Techmakers: IWD 2023

Upcoming:

• Wed, 29 Mar @16:00: Entrepreneur Business Live Barcelona

• Thu, 30 Mar @19:00: NoBullshit Talk #07 with SpotAHome CEO & Co-Founder Alejandro Artacho

• Thu, 30 Mar @17:30: The new year in terms of technology: what should we focus on?

• Thu, 20 Apr–Fri, 21 Apr: EU-Startups Summit

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

Startup Jobs:

• EU-Startups is looking for Volunteers for its upcoming Summit

• Wallbox is hiring a Junior Full Stack Developer (MEAN Stack)

• Lexidy is recruiting a Global Head of People

• Neuroprofiler want a Business Developer VIE

• MarsBased is looking for a Growth Lead (100% Remote)

• Opticks need a:

  • Sales Development Representative (Spanish market)

  • Sales Development Representative (French market)