Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello and happy October,

This week’s main headlines:

• 📊 Total of €56M+ raised by 6 BCN startups

• 📉 Wallapop losses increase

• 🏢 New Rakuten office in @22

Funding is picking up in Barcelona

While we’re still quite far behind total funding raised this year compared to previous ones, the month of September has been more encouraging. This is especially crucial after what has been a slow summer. Total weekly BCN startup funds raised in the last 28 days:

• 2nd Sep week: €37M across 5 rounds

• 3rd Sep week: €75M+ raised across 4 rounds

• 4th Sep week: €24.5M+ across 4 rounds

• 5th Sep week: €56M+ across 6 rounds

Hopefully, these are signs of better days being ahead and not just deals that dragged on over summer being closed now as people came back from holidays.

For more details, we’ll bring you our quarterly funding update (Q3) in the next edition so stay tuned!

Have a great week & be nice!

Barcelona investment news

• Paack gets €45M led by BBVA & French fund Infravia Growth

• Coffee company Incapto raises €6M to expand internationally

• BCN & Ireland-based energy firm Openvolt closes €1.5M pre-seed

• Traveltech Globick secures €1.4M

• Circular fashion platform Recovo closes €1M

• Aesthetic medicine startup Bloome bags €1M

• Kids’ English language app Nominis gets €340K from Ship2B Ventures

Barcelona startup news

• Wallapop posts its financials; losses grew to €50M in 2022, despite earnings being up 39%

• Doctomatic selected as one of 30 startups in Google for Startups’ AI for Health program

• Tropicfeel opens its first-ever UK pop-up in London

• Banco Sabadell’s ecommerce solution Paycomet wins Best Gold Solution Award at the 2023 e-awards

• Incapto, Ukio, 011h, Aquí tu Reforma, Yaba, Dogfy Diet & more among LinkedIn’s 20 Top Startups 2023

• Signaturit & Cornerjob Co-founder launches Remuner, a variable compensation platform for sales

Spanish investment news

• Madrid-based Erudit AI closes €9.4M Series A

• Madrid HR startup Kenjo raises €8.8M

• Valencia-based fintech Criptan gets 3.5M€

• Valencian SaaS Aunoa closes €1.2M round led by StartupXplore and Eoniq.fund

• Madrid sustainable pet food startup Ginqo raises €240K

• Canarian cloud software provider Quaderno acquired by Norwegian firm Visma

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Dawn Capital raises record $620M flagship fund to back 20 European B2B software startups

• German investor Redstone announces quantum push with new €52M VC fund

• Iris Ventures co-leads €14M investment in German petcare brand Mammaly

• Kiatt launches Earth Ventures & plans to invest €50M in projects against climate change

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• SocialTech4EU’s project call is open for social enterprises seeking financial support for innovation; apply until Oct 18

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Bartek Kunowski, CPO of Glovo: Glovo Secrets to Success

• Irene Góme, CEO & Co-founder of Keybotic: “Just as we have robot vacuums at home, industries will incorporate robot dogs”

• TalentFY: Platform to recruit digital talent in less than 10 days

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Chinese automotive company Chery wants to manufacture cars in Barcelona; may produce them in old Nissan plant,; agreement apparently close

• Coinbase registers as crypto exchange with Bank of Spain as it continues international expansion

• Japanese firm Rakuten TV inaugurates new offices in 22@

• IDEADED inaugurates the largest private semiconductor cleanroom in Southern Europe in Viledecans, creating up to 100 highly skilled jobs

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Minsait (Indra) acquires telecoms firm Nae for €30M

• Stellantis aspires to build the largest European electric car gigafactory in Zaragoza

Politics, legal & economics

• Spain: The artificial intelligence regulatory "sandbox" has arrived

• The European Commission is preparing a formal complaint against Microsoft Teams video app

• Catalonia to distribute free, universally available, reusable menstrual products starting in 2024

Good Reads

• Europe, America is coming for your startups

• 25 years of Google — and a look at what’s ahead

• Interview with Daniel Cuthbert: top hacker, leading cybersecurity at Banco Santander, using tech against child abuse

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Lex Fridman interviews Mark Zuckerberg in the Metaverse (EN)

• Interview: Seedcamp’s Reshma Sohoni on bunker mentality during a downturn (Sifted, EN)

• Alfonso Sáinz de Baranda, Chief Growth Officer at Bit2Me: How to grow in the largest Spanish-speaking exchange (Product Hackers, ES)

Great Events

This week:

• Thu, 5 Oct @09:30: Innovation hubs in Barcelona: best practices for attracting talent

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

• Fri, Oct 27: Future Travel Summit 2023

• Sat, Oct 28: Barcelona International Community Day (free)

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

Startup Jobs:

• Unnax is looking for a Business Development Executive (BDE)

• Qustodio is recruiting a QA Automation Engineer - Tech Lead

• Impress needs a Senior Accountant

• AILY LABS is hiring a Principal Data Scientist