Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello and Happy Monday,

This week’s main headlines:

• BCN fintechs reach new heights ⛰️

• Catalan startups raise over €5M 💰

• Angels invest in diversity & inclusion 🤝

Barcinno/Bourbon guest podcast 🎙️

This week, we’re celebrating an awesome collaboration where our very own Clemens shared his thoughts on the brilliant Life on Mars podcast.

Give “The future of SEO and content strategy in an AI-driven world” a listen/watch here and share your thoughts on this current & very interesting topic with us or on this post. Thanks, Àlex!

Have a great week ✌️

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• A public-private consortium with biotech Connecta Therapeutics gets €2.7M for its fragile X syndrome drug

• Spiritual service marketplace Miistico closes €1.5M first round & launches in LATAM

• Company events platform Gaddex secures €760K

• Habitacion.com raises €400K pre-seed for its ‘don’t rent a room, buy it’ scheme

Barcelona startup news

• Factorial has a new VP, the general director of Glovo 

• Tropicfeel celebrates €27M sales in 2023 & will open 3 new stores 

• Fresh from its €40M funding, Heura moves into B2B

• Home care startup Qida closes 2023 with €60M turnover

• Healthcare startups in Catalonia raised €220M in 2023, despite global context

Spanish investment news

• Pharmacy network LUDA Partners closes €12M led by CDTI & Moira Capital

• Madrid-founded Zylon raises €2.9M pre-seed to develop gen AI for SMBs

• Brooklyn Fitboxing gets €600K from Cofides to expand into Italy

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Juan Roig’s Angels invests in the new Zubi Capital fund, the first diversity & inclusion impact VC fund in Spain

• Earlybird Health closes its latest fund at €173M, targeting investments in European healthtech companies

• Seaya leads €8.5M round in Copenhagen-based Aegir Insights, a software, data & intelligence provider for offshore wind investors

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Barcelona Innova Lab Mobility launches €200K challenge for solutions that improve the bus network service in the city; apply until 5 Mar

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Three Spaniards, two Italians & a Swede got together in Barcelona to make an impossible engine: The story of Pangea Aerospace

• Sifted interview with Holaluz CEO Carlota Pi 

• Liseners: Call a listener to soothe emotional discomfort

Tech News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Fintech firms in Catalonia now total 628, a growth of 40% & aligning with the gov’s aim to make Barcelona a financial hub

• Barcelona now has 140 tech hubs (+14 in 2023 alone) with an impact of €2.5B

Tech & big company news in Spain

• N26 is now offering freelancers a 5% fee refund through their business account

• TechCrunch is heading to MWC & wants to hear about your startup

Good Reads

• Redefining creativity in the AI age: Insights from Carlos Cantu, Freepik’s CMO

• Avi Meir, TravelPerk: The key to raising – get funding when you don't need the cash

• A16z’s Chris Dixon on crypto regulation, open source AI & the coming wave of blockchain products 

• YC's latest Request for Startups list: the 20 categories it’s looking for

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Building & Nurturing a Growth Team ft. Pierre-Jean Hillion, Growth @BlaBlaCar (Thrivecast, EN)

• Starting a business from the US & raising €100M, with Capchase Co-Founder Ignacio Moreno (Guli) (ES)

Great Events

This week:

• Mon, 19 Feb @19:00: Pitch Masterclass: Improve your 4YFN sales pitch

• Tue, 20 Feb @18:00: Esade eWorks Founders Meetup

• Thu, 22 Feb @18:30: Equal Pay Day: Steps towards closing the gender pay gap - Roundtable 

• Thu, 22 Feb @18:30: Startup Talks: HR 4.0: Empowering the talent of the future

Upcoming:

• Mon, 26 Feb @18:45: BCN FinTech Futures: Networking & Investor Insights - Presented by Scaleway → Link includes a 50% Barcinno community discount

• Tue, 27 Feb @09:30: The New Future Proof: The Role of AI & Blockchain in the Transformation of Companies → Use code Barcinno for 45% off :) 

• Tue, 27 Feb @19:00: Startup Grind Corporate Innovation Summit 2024 → This link gets you a 40% Barcinno community discount :)

• Tue, 12 Mar @18:30: Fuckup Nights Barcelona (Vol. XLVII) 

• Tue, 12 Mar @17:00: 10 years of Startup Grind BCN and MarsBased

• Tue, 12 Mar @19:00: Advanced startup Investing: Deal terms, Cap table, Valuation, Due Diligence

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

🗓️ Check out our regularly updated MWC Parties & Events guide here.

Startup Jobs:

• Tennium is hiring a Communications Manager

• honei is looking for a COO

• Norrsken Barcelona needs a Norrsken Club PR Manager