Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello and happy Monday,

This week’s main headlines:

• Rise in foreign tech in Catalonia 🌍

• Over €10M for Spanish startups 💰

• Zara launches Pre-Owned ♻️

Barcinno newsletter recognition 🏆

🙌 Barcinno has been recognized as one of the top newsletters of 2023 by Decelera, the world's first startup Decelerator.

A timely note as we near our 500th edition; so we just wanted to say thanks to you and all our collaborators for helping Barcinno remain a valuable resource for the BCN startup ecosystem. We're excited to keep bringing you the latest news, articles, and insights in 2024 and beyond. Keep an eye out for a chance to have your say in Barcinno soon, too.

BCN FinTech X Barcinno: Festive networking this week 🍻 🎄

We're closing out 2023 with our December edition of FinTech Beers & Networking this Wednesday 20 at 19:00.

Come join us at Barna Brew to hang out with members of the fintech community and enjoy the best beers and beverages in Barcelona. There’s also going to be a pop-up Mexican kitchen 🇲🇽 (that alone should be reason to make your way over!)

No tickets needed, just click attend here and share with your network.

Have a great week!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Clinical biopharmaceutical firm FreeOx Biotech raises €1.7M seed funding

• Circular luxury fashion platform Cycle Platform raise €500K pre-seed

• IoT antenna startup Ignion receives investment from Barlon Capital & EIC

• Artificial vision startup Imotion Analytics gets further 10% capital from Renfe

• Barça Innovation Hub (BIHUB) becomes shareholder in Catalan football app CeleBreak

Barcelona startup news

• Algoritcom revolutionizes the world of the metaverse: a virtual city will be available in 2024

• Two out of five European winners awarded by the EC for innovation are Catalan: Zymvol and MJN 

• Nimble Diagnostics win twice: 1st Expansión awards & best deep tech startup at BCN Deep Tech Summit

• Food waste non-profit Espigoladors wins Ship2B Impact award

Spanish investment news

• Bio-composite ‘digital wood’ startup Strong by Form raises €4.8M seed 

• Malaga-US construtech CheckToBuild closes €1.1M led by a Swedish family office

• Madrid EMM platform Applivery gets €1M

• AI clothing size predictor Aitaca closes 2023 with a €635K round

• Mallorcan sneaker brand Yuccs doubles its crowdfunding goal, exceeding €400K in 48 hours

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Europe’s largest female-led VC firm Revaia is launching a new growth fund, closing an initial €150M

• Copenhagen VC Heartcore is still betting on Web3, closing €15M of a new €20M fund to invest in protocol & token startups

• Hugo Boss ‘first’ to invest in new sustainable fashion capital fund by backing climate-first Collateral Good Ventures Fashion I

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Immerse yourself in European Tech School’s 5- or 10-week Blockchain & Digital Asset Courses with its 8th cohort (starting Jan 18). Clemens took the course himself and was very happy with it–check out his no-filter review here. Barcinno readers save 25% on enrollments until Jan 5; schedule a call here

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• 011h: Building a ‘startup within a startup’ to clean up construction

• Geoskop: Predictive weather data for companies to make informed decisions

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Catalonia now has 1,835 foreign tech companies, 6% more than 2022

• Saudi Arabian video game company Sandsoft will create 60 jobs in Barcelona with a new European HQ

• CaixaBank forms GenAI task force with Microsoft, Accenture & Banco BPI

• Barcelona metropolitan area has attracted 70% more tech investment in the last three years

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Bizum plans deal with Italy's Bancomat & Portugal's SIBS for users in all 3 countries to make instant transfers & develop a ‘unified European payments market’

• Worldline is also working to incorporate Bizum as a form of in-person payment

• Zara’s pre-owned platform has launched

• UK quick loan company Creditea leaves Spanish market after 8 years due to costly regulatory requirements

• Digi buys spectrum licences from MásMóvil, a move that should help Orange and MM get the green light for their merger

Politics, legal & economics

• ​​The EU AI Act passed — now comes the waiting

• Spanish authorities seek details on pre-Black Friday Redsys payment network crash

Good Reads

• Mind the Bridge report: The Barcelona Startup Ecosystem – Digital, Tech, and Open Innovation

• OpenAI thinks superhuman AI is coming — and wants to build tools to control it

• Why is Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot so unfunny? An investigation

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Inside Intel’s AI ambitions with CEO Pat Gelsinger (Masters of Scale, EN)

• Nimble Diagnostics CEO Oriol Iborra: health startup, entrepreneurship in the USA vs ESP & more (Bluecast, ES)

Great Events

This week:

• Wed, 20 Dec @19:00: BCN FinTech: FinTech beers & networking 

• Thu, 21 Dec @20:30: Startup Meetup: Wayra BCN XMAS Edition

Upcoming:

• Wed, 10 Jan @18:00: Ctrl+HACK+ZK Virtual Hackathon

• Tue, 23 Jan @09:30: LUMENS'24: annual networking event for UPF Alumni

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

Startup Jobs:

• Algoritcom is hiring a Unity Developer Senior

• Wallapop is looking for a Trust and Safety Manager

• Venga wants a Junior Marketing Manager

• Benevity is looking for a Manager, People & Culture International

• Red Points is recruiting Operations Interns