Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello and happy April,

This week’s main headlines:

• Cabify lands €100M 🚖

• Loads of new VC funds 💰

• New draft law for teleworking parents 👩‍👧

Easter break & great events on the other side 🐇 🎉

Spring is here (or summertime, officially) and so is the long Easter weekend, so hopefully, you can turn off the screens and unwind 🧘, invest in your happiness (more on that below 👇), enjoy some traditional treats, and maybe even escape the crowds for a countryside getaway.

It's also a chance to recalibrate and get planning for the months ahead. And luckily, there are lots of great events waiting on the other side:

• Thu, April 20th–Fri, 21st: EU Startups Summit 2023 – if you haven't secured your ticket yet, you can still use the code BARCINNO until April 10th for 20% off here 🙌

• Mon, May 8th-Tue, May 9th: Startup Grind Tech Summit: Get 50% off your ticket with this link

• Wed, May 24th: BCN FinTech Afterwork X Barcinno #008: FinTech Regulation – details TBC but follow on LinkedIn for updates if you're not already ✔️

Is your happiness worth investing into?

Powered by The -C- Coach, in collaboration with Barcinno and OneCoWork.

As an ICF ACC accredited coach, I've identified 5 key pillars of wellbeing that lead to the biggest increases in overall happiness, but are most commonly overlooked.

Over the next 10 weeks, we’ll be sharing polls and surveys to collect data on your happiness levels around these 5 key pillars of wellbeing. I’ll also be sharing actionable tools, expert guidance, and easy life hacks – all backed by science.

Enrol in the Happiness ROI Programme now

Increase your happiness levels by up to 25%, with a daily investment of less than 1% of your time. Don't forget to take the happiness poll for yourself and see where your happiness levels fit within the Happiness ROI community.

Enjoy the break, be happy & stay positive!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Travelwear startup Tropicfeel raises €5M Series A

• Enerside energy gets additional €4M in convertible bonds from Inveready 

• Edible cutlery startup Gloop closes €540K first round

• Agritech HR app RawData raises €500K seed funding

Barcelona startup news

• Mundimoto boosts turnover from €15M to €60M in one year

• Big plans for Factorial after becoming a unicorn as they aim to triple revenues in first two quarters this year, boost US presence and consider buying three smaller competitors

• Heura Foods is apparently not as profitable as it seems (yet) due to thin margins, rising material costs & international expansion

• Biological sample transportation solution provider Groenlandia Tech opens financing round to boost international expansion

• Local firm SustainaBalls teams up with Pādel Nuestro to promote sustainability in the world of Padel & Tennis

• Mutter Ventures becomes first Spanish venture builder to trade on the stock market

Spanish investment news

• Cabify secures €100M

• Meeting tech Troop bags €10M

• Sustainability analytics platform Aplanet gets €4M

• Proptech Auctree raises €2.5M

• Smart fashion brand Sepiia gets €2.3M after doubling sales in 2022

• Web3 edtech Formación en Inversión closes €300K

• Demium-owned Qoala acquires checkout solution Kupay

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Elaia closes its DV4 Fund at €200 million to back early-stage B2B tech startups

• Iñaki Berenguer launches LifeX Ventures, a €100M fund to invest in climatetech & biotech

• First Drop VC to invest €50K in impact startups through unique coliving program in Valencia

• The European Tech Champions Fund (ECTI) commits over €3.75M to Spanish & European scaleups

• Draper B1 wins best global investor at the 2023 Global Startup Awards

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• BCN council is offering subsidies for the digital transformation of commerce & restaurants; until Apr 3

• Lánzate, promoted by Orange & EOI, opens its 5th call for startups and SMEs in ICT & the new digital economy; until Apr 28

• La Fundación Caja de Ingenieros launches the 6th edition of the Premio Ideas Innovadoras to promote the development of entrepreneurial projects; winner bags €15K; until 28 Apr

• Sacyr launches the 6th edition of its open innovation program, Sacyr iChallenges; until May 18

• BCN accelerator Bcombinator increases capital by €2M, allowing it to start operations in Madrid

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Adaptical: 'Infinite' AI content for the educational & publishing world

• Carlota Pi, Holaluz: “I owe everything to my parents”

• Color Sensing: Smart labels to reduce food waste

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona

• The gov & ACCIÓ will allocate €200M to Catalan companies in 2023

• RansomHouse publishes data obtained from their Hospital Clínic cyberattack

• First new sustainable metro trains go into service in the city; BCN is also investing €375M in 3 new stations

• Webhelp opens new mega-office in 22@ to attract & retain talent

• Mercabarna to set up a food lab & gastronomy innovation hub in 22@

• Metacampus launches new programme to get professionals job-ready in the Web3 era

• New audiovisual institute opens in BCN, offering courses in musictech & related fields

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Amazon announces 9K new layoffs; Spain may or may not affected

• Primark will raise Spanish wages by up to 23% over the next 3 years

• Indexa Capital launches first online pension plan for the self-employed in Spain

• Spanish government partners with Swiss startup Destinus to develop ultra-fast hydrogen-powered aircraft

Politics, legal & economics

• The Family Law draft has been approved, allowing new parents to request up to 12 years of teleworking

• Spain investigates Google for anti-trust violations in news licensing

• Spain clean energy case shakes confidence in EU investment

• Inflation in Spain drops to 3.3% in March, lowest point since August 2021

Good Reads

• The open letter that 1,100+ notable signatories just signed asking ‘all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months’

• How to build trust with fintech marketing

• 15 of Spain’s most promising startup investors to follow in 2023

• Great Place to Work: The best companies to work for in Spain 

• Wired: The unbelievable zombie comeback of analog computing

Good Videos & Podcasts

• An Interview With Ilya Sutskever, Co-Founder of OpenAI (Hackernoon, EN)

• Interview with Toni Perez, Co-founder of Bloobirds (Historias de Crecimiento, ES)

• From selling La Nevera Roja for €100M to investing in startups, with José del Barrio de Samaipata (Product Hackers, ES)

• The intersection between the CTO and the business angel, with Juanjo Mostazo (Life on Mars, ES)

Great Events

This week:

• Tue, 4 Apr @18:30: Startup Open Coffee Networking

• Sun, 9 Apr: Easter 🐰🥚

Upcoming:

• Fri, 14 Apr–Sun, 16 Apr: ​​Startup Weekend by Bcombinator

• Thu, 20 Apr @18:00: Barcelona tech job fair 2023

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

• Tue, 25 Apr @18:00: The Barcelona Startup Conference 2023

• Fri, 5 May: International Social Summit

• Mon, 8 May-Tue 9 May: Startup Grind Tech Summit

• Sat, 13 May: Automobile Barcelona

• Wed, 24 May @18:30: BCN FinTech Afterwork X Barcinno #008: FinTech Regulation – details TBC (follow on LinkedIn for updates)

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

Startup Jobs:

• OneCoWork is looking for a Community Associate

• Opticks is hiring several Sales roles for ES, DE & FR markets

• European Blockchain Convention is hiring a Web3 Community Builder

• Factorial is recruiting a Senior Content Creator – DACH 

• Plug & Play Tech Center is hiring a Fintech Partner Success Associate

• DaoPay is looking for a Sales & Office Manager

• TravelPerk is looking for an Internal Communications Specialist

• EIT Urban Mobility is recruiting a Start-up Digital Services Officer