Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello and Happy La Mercè,

This week’s main headlines:

• Payflow raises €20M 💰

• Red Points reaches profitability ✅

• MWC has €5.8B impact on BCN 💥

Have a great week!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Fintech Payflow raises €20M from BBVA Spark

• Metaverse startup Algoritcom closes €3.2M

• Solar energy marketplace Solfy gets €1M from Ona Capital

• Biotech Nanobots Therapeutics closes €478K pre-seed led by BStartup

• Water filter brand Tapp Water acquired by Sweden’s Bluewater Group

• Gene therapy startup Tramontane Therapeutics acquired by US-UK firm Kriya

• AI lab Nennisiwok gets acquired by Damm; sources say over 60% stake

• Coffee chain Good News launches crowdfunding to involve its community in its expansion

Barcelona startup news

• Red Points finally becomes profitable & expects to invoice over €30M this year

• MWC selects the 17 startups to bring to Las Vegas, 8 from Catalonia

• Factorial loses one of its Co-Founders

• Prestalo CEO Kristoffer Hansom launches Men's Circle, an event focused on helping men become better partners, fathers & community members (a more less similar idea of event also exists for women & couples)

Spanish investment news

• Galician data virtualization company Denodo gets €313M from American PE giant TPG

• Malaga-based Booh! Food closes €13M to bring its dark kitchen to light

• Automated code inspection software Codee raises €5M

• Valencian jewelry firm Singularu gets €1.3M from Faraday in a strategic secondary capital operation

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Aticco opens its checkbook to start financing pre-seed and seed startups

• Belgian VC Astanor remains bullish on agrifood with new €360M EU fund

• Santander to contribute €67M to €100M fund with Inveready Asset Management, which will be Spain’s biggest venture debt fund

• Solo GP Finn Murphy raises $20M fund to help European startups make it in the US

• Norrsken Foundation launches Norrsken Mind, a €3M initiative focusing on mental health treatment through psychedelic substances

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Stage2 has opened the call for its accelerator that helps hardware-based startups with market validation, prototype building & launching their first industrial series; apply until Oct 1

• PcComponentes has launched a new edition of its 4-month online Venture Builder program for pre-seed startups in ecommerce; apply until Oct 6

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• David Riudor, CEO & Co-founder of Goin: “Luck plays a very important role in the creation of a startup”

• TheKer: The Catalan robot born at UPC to revolutionize the electronics industry

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona

• GSMA estimates MWC’s economic impact on Barcelona to be €5.8B

• Asian social network Bigo Live, owned by Chinese multinational Joyy, chooses BCN for its European headquarters

• Catalonia seeks Chinese investment at the Spain-Shenzhen Trade Conference in Barcelona

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Rakuten sells €36M convertibles in Cabify to Riberas at a loss

• British investment company Zegona in talks to buy Vodafone Spain

• EV company Zunder gets €22M grant from the European Commission to deploy 125 charging stations & 1000 public charging points in Spain

Politics, legal & economics

• The government allocates €2M to promote 20 early-stage deeptech startups through ACCIÓ

• Spain's upward growth revisions show strong resilience to rate hikes

Good Reads

• New iPhone 15 questions answered by nerds, for nerds

• Manfred’s new talent & salary report: Tech Career Report 2023

• List of Spanish early-stage impact startups currently fundraising

• Miguel Arias, Kfund: Fundraising as a VC vs fundraising as an entrepreneur

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Interview with Anna Gener (CEO @ Savills Barcelona) at Startup Grind Mataró (ES)

• Interview with Stanley Fourteau from Ukio, talking about real estate business, its digitalisation and short term rentals (Itnig, ES)

Great Events

This week:

• Tue, 26 Sept @18:00: 1st Bananatech Meetup: Networking for Ecuadorian techies 

• Wed, 27 Sep @18:00: Digital Health Innovators Barcelona: Get Together event with Dr Geeta Nayyar

• Wed, 27 Sep @18:30: Startup Grind: No bullshit panel - Uncensored, unfiltered, unhinged, unrecorded → 40% Barcinno community discount already applied 👌

• Wed, 27 Sep @18:30: Honeypot [Workshop] Women in Tech: From Awareness to Action

• Wed, 27 Sep–Thu, 28 Sep: The AI & Big Data Congress

• Thu, 28 Sep @20:00: Ama Ama: Men’s Circle BCN

• Sat, 30 Sep–Sun, 1 Oct: SmartCon Hacker House: Building Web3

Upcoming:

• Mon, 9 Oct–Wed, 11 Oct: GSAS 2023 → Use code barcinno-gsas23 for 20% off 🙌 

• Wed, 25 Oct @17:00: eWorks Accelerator 2023 Demo Day - hybrid 

• Wed, 25 Oct @18:00: Barcelona Tech Job Fair Autumn 2023

• Tue, 24–Thu, 26 Oct: European Blockchain Convention 9 → Use code BARCINNO for Barcinno community discount

• Fri, Oct 27: Future Travel Summit 2023

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

Startup Jobs:

• European Blockchain Convention wants a Web3 Community Builder

• Heura Foods is recruiting a Logistics Specialist

• Happy Scribe is looking for a Project Manager - Quality & Operations

• Benevity is hiring a Director of Engineering

• Wallbox wants an Environmental Tests Intern