Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Good morning,

This week’s main headlines:

• Last.app raises €5M 💰

• Foreign firms in Catalonia at record high 💼

• Layoffs at Holaluz ⚡️

Great response from you - the Barcinno readers 🙌

🙏 Thanks to all readers who got in touch with us after last week’s newsletter. It’s been a pleasure to see all your messages and we’re looking forward to meeting all of you in the upcoming days. We always enjoying getting to know our readers as it helps us better support and connect the startup and tech community here in Barcelona. For anyone out there who is still hesitant, don’t be. Just contact Scott, Natasha or Clemens and we’ll be happy to speak with you.

Catalonia’s fintech community is growing 🚀

Non-profit organization BCN FinTech, which aims to make Catalonia a major fintech hub, has enjoyed a great year. On the back of breaking even last week, it also announced its 2023 growth figures 📈.

These include doubling the amount of events organized, nearly tripling attendee numbers, and increasing its LinkedIn followers by 8x. This makes it the fastest growing fintech association in Spain.

To be able to further boost its impact and help local fintechs be successful, it has now opened sponsorship opportunities for next year. They provide a unique opportunity to promote your brand with fintech decision makers in Barcelona all-year round, both on-side and online. BCN FinTech’s annual sponsor options start at €490 and increase by tier.

👉 For full details on value proposition, audience info, and sponsorship options, download the complete sponsorship media pack here. 

To join in on the highly engaged fintech community, sign up to their next event on Wed, 29 Nov here (link includes Barcinno member discount).

Have a great week! 🦃

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Restaurant SaaS Last.app gets €5M

• Early stroke detection healthtech Methinks AI secures €2.5M in convertible loans from EIC

• New proptech Praefy, a cloud software for real estate agencies & agents, raises €120K first round

• AI WhatsApp wellness & weight loss assistant Pulso is crowdfunding

Barcelona startup news

• Holaluz announces layoffs totaling around 200 people due to residential solar market slowdown

• Red Points returns its HQ to Catalonia after 6 years in Pamplona

• Nido, a financial management platform tailored for vacation rentals, crowned pitch winner at StartupBooster by AtticoLab & Attico Ventures

• GooApps & La Ruta Azul launch We Fit Differently, an early-detection app for autism spectrum disorders

Spanish investment news

• Anti-fraud & financial crime solution Lynx announces €17M funding round led by Forgepoint Capital 

• Basque recycled materials marketplace ScrapAd raises €5M

• Madrid-based biomed firm A4Cell closes €3M 

• Smart housing startup Libeen gets undisclosed investment 

• Minsait Payments acquires 100% of fellow Madrid fintech Pecunpay

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Nexxus Iberia closes its second fund at €230M to accelerate the international growth of SMEs

• K Fund launches K3, an €80M fund for startups in Southern Europe

• Inveready and IWeM launch ARRAIGO, a new alternative investment fund manager for family offices 

• Tritemius Fund I is born, the first Web3-blockchain reference fund in Europe

• BBVA Spark, Kibo Ventures & The Venture City join the Ancla.Life project to support mental health

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Santander X Global Challenge: Transforming the Digital Economy is open for IoT startups & scaleups, with six €120K prizes; apply until Dec 12

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Interview with Óscar Pierre: “I’m very optimistic about Barcelona: it is a magnet for attracting talent, but more local investment is needed”

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Catalonia is home to 9,255 foreign companies, a historical record & up 62% in 10 years ago

• Danish EV charging startup Monta chooses Barcelona for its European hub & expects to open 80 jobs

• The Barcelona Swimming Club (CNB) launches an ambitious sustainability plan to create the largest hybrid solar field in Europe from a private institution

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Tenity buys startup accelerator Hackquarters

• BBVA joins Cleantech for Iberia initiative to boost clean technologies in Spain and Portugal

Politics, legal & economics

• Brussels says Spain will be the fastest growing economy out of the EU’s big 4

Good Reads

• Interview with Norrsken founder Niklas Adalberth (of the recent impact hub in BCN)

• Interview with Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde: “No one does tech for good — especially not in fintech”

• Dealroom.co & Flow Partners’ Global tech & VC report

• Survey finds only 27% of Spanish employees enjoy their work & boomers are the most committed at 74%

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Interview with Seedrs CEO Jeff Kelisky (EU-Startups, EN)

• The unfiltered reality of serial entrepreneurship, with Francesc Font Cot, Co-founder of Incapto Coffee (Life on Mars, EN)

Great Events

This week:

• Wed, 22 Nov @17:00: Capital Cell Demo Day; Biotechnology & health investment forum

• Wed, 22 Nov @20:00: Angels & Beers (for investors only)

• Wed, 22–Thu, 23 Nov: B GOOD DAY: Spain’s annual B Corp movement event

Upcoming:

• Tue, 28 Nov–Thu, 30 Nov: 3-day coding challenge

• Wed, 29 Nov @18:30: BCN FinTech X Barcinno #011: FinTech Trends - What's next? → Barcinno discount already applied 🙂

• Wed, 29 Nov @18:30: ​​Women Tech Talent Sessions: Barcelona

• Wed, 29 Nov–Thu, 30 Nov: 10th Ship2B Impact Forum

• Thu, 7 Dec @12:00: Trans Atlantic Angel Conference 4: Final Demo Day Event

• Tue, 12 Dec @18:30: Fuckup Nights Barcelona Dec. 2023 (Vol. XLV)

• Wed, 13 Dec @18:30: Free bootcamp: An introduction to data science

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

Startup Jobs:

• Games for a Living (GFAL) is hiring an Administrative Officer

• Qustodio is recruiting a Content Marketing Specialist

• IOMED is looking for an Annotation Manager

• Restb.ai needs Jr Data & Full Stack Engineers and an Accountant