Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Happy New Year!

This week’s main headlines:

• Aticco to lead BCN fintech hub 🏢

• BCN startups raise €745M in 2023 💰

• More firms land in Catalonia 🛬

BCN startup funding summary 2023: Barcinno insights 🚀 📊

We’ve been crunching the numbers from all the funding reports we share for a year now, which means we have tons of data to gain insights on. 👀 Stay tuned for a more comprehensive report soon, but meanwhile, here’s a summary:

🔍 BCN startups Q4 overview:

• Q4 has been the lowest this year for total funding at €92.4M (approx -64% compared to €261M in Q3).

• Barcelona startups raised the fewest rounds they have all year (29)

• The 3 largest rounds in Q4 were raised by cleantech (€29M Wallbox), biotech (€15M Inbrain) & fintech (€7.4M Flanks) firms.

🏭 Top startup industries in Q4:

• BCN funding round leaders Q4: Biotech (4) and mobility (3), followed by several smaller totals — showing more diversity — such as AI, edtech, clean/climatech, fintech, foodtech & proptech (all 2).

• In the whole of Spain in Q4, the 3 leaders are biotech, fintech, and mobility, with each closing 9 rounds.

🆚 BCN vs Spanish startup hubs:

• BCN startups accounted for just 18% of total investment in Spain this quarter, down from 50% in Q3.

• The share of Spanish funding rounds by Barcelona startups remains strong, however, at 35%.

• The largest (disclosed) rounds of the year were all raised by Madrid-based startups: Revel (€115M), MYLIGHT150 (€100M), and LuzIA (€95M).

• But Barcelona big hitters raised some major rounds in 2023 too: Wallapop (€80M), Wallbox (€45M), and Paack (€40M).

Also, thanks 🙏 to everyone who filled in our survey to help shape the future of Barcinno. For those who didn’t see it over the winter break, here is the form – we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Have a great week!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• IVF advancement spinoff Manina Medtech secures €1.75M

• BCN fintech Sekondary acquires Capboard

• Furniture startup Hannun finalizes its 51% acquisition in Danish firm We do Wood

• The startups from Barcelona’s CZFB Incubator, the first Spanish logistics incubator, raise €13.6M in 2023

Barcelona startup news

• Gen Z-focused alcoholic drinks startup Benditas closes operations

• Cosymbio laboratories’ lab-meets-coworking-space expands into 22@

• The government has subsidized 156 digital creativity projects in 2023, with more than €3M for the video game sector

Spanish investment news

• Madrid neobank MyInvestor closes €45M, including previously issued convertible shares

• Valencian market analytics startup Flipflow gets €900K led by Angels

• Murcia-based digital tax assistant Fiscoo closes total €400K funding

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Rockstart launches second AgriFood Fund for early-stage impactful Ag & Food Tech startups

• Startup Wise Guys becomes one of the most active seed-phase investors in Spain

• Tresmares finalizes the launch of 3 funds with up to €390M to invest in high-growth companies

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• EIT Digital Champions 11th call is open to find the best European deep tech entrepreneurs & help them scale internationally; apply until Jan 30

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Lilin Yang, founder of millionaire Korean cosmetics empire Miin: "Spanish women are obsessed with youth, we talk about prevention before cure"

• Volte.earth: Solidarity search engine that generates donations to NGOS

• VRAIn: “BabyVR” converting prenatal ultrasounds into immersive images

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Aticco wins the contract to convert the Barcelona Stock Exchange into a fintech hub

• Barcelona attracts over €811M foreign investment in 2023, creating 1,235 jobs

• Shanghai Jingqingrong Garment, of Uniqlo & H&M, will invest €3M in new BCN factory (its first overseas)

• French fintech Regate chooses Barcelona for new branch expansion

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Former Fintonic CEO sets out to conquer the elderly with new SeniorExpert platform

• Siemens acquires Basque startup BuntPlanet to strengthen its AI portfolio in the water sector

• Spanish government to acquire up to 10% stake in Telefonica following Saudi entrance

• IBM spends €15M on a voluntary leave plan for its Spanish staff

• Deloitte launches AI&Data Transformation Hub in Spain to help companies in their transformation

Politics, legal & economics

• Spain appoints new economy minister

Good Reads

• 20 Things That Made the World a Better Place in 2023

• Barcelona-based wealth-tech CommonSense’s report on cryptocurrency & tokenization trends for 2024: View on The Future 2024

• The most promising Spanish startups born in 2023 (and they’re not all AI)

• Wheels, deals, and what we can expect from mobility companies this year

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Factorial's Product Challenges, with VP of Engineering Ilya Zayats (Itnig, ES)

• Interview with Cristina Fonseca, General Partner at Indico Capital Partners (EU-Startups, EN)

• A Year of Unlocks: 2023 In AI, Healthcare, Housing, and More (a16z Podcast, EN)

Great Events

This week:

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

• Thu, 11 Jan @18:30: Fuckup Nights Barcelona (Vol. XLVI)

Upcoming:

• Wed, 17 Jan @14:00: Venture Lab: Meet the Venture Leaders Mobile 2024

• 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:

• Tropicfeel is looking for a Social Media & Content Creator

• Bloobirds is hiring a Junior Product Marketer (SaaS)

• Payfit needs a Customer Operations Analyst