Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello and happy July,

Next BCN FinTech x Barcinno Event on July 10 🎟️ 

Come join us at BCN FinTech x Barcinno #015 for a fireside chat with Viktoria Soltesz, CEO of PSP Angels Group 👼 as well as the usual networking, 30-second mic pitching, and general awesome community fintech-ing.

Sign up for tickets at this link to get your Barcinno discount!

Have a great week and 4th of July for those who celebrate 🇺🇸 🌭 

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• BCN-Madrid travel deal Chrome extension Directo raises $1M (~€930K)

• Softonic acquires France-based SaaS recommendation platform Appvizer

• Business studio consultancy Liquid Lab acquired by Madrid-based Jungle

Barcelona startup news

• Surprise trip platform Waynabox celebrates its 10th anniversary with 250K travelers & expected turnover of €14M

• Payfit partners with TaxDown to offer discounted services

• Motorcycle startup Stark Future says it’s pacing towards an annual revenue of €90M

• Foodtech Libre Foods co-develops Fungi.AI, a game-changing tool for R&D in the fungi-based science industry

• Robot dog developer Keybotic aims to reach €1M in 2024

Spanish investment news

• Soonicorn tour guide platform Civitatis gets €46M further investment from Vitruvian Partners; it also just won EY’s scaleup award 

• Crypto firm Bit2Me gets investment from Unicaja as a strategic partner

• Edtech Smartick acquires stake in school finder Micole, boosting its value to €8M

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Enrique Linares, founder of Spain’s first unicorn letgo & investor Oriol Juncosa launch new VC fund Plus Partners; TechCrunch says this suggests Southern European VC is on a roll

• Munich-based Vsquared closes second fund of €214M to cash in on Europe’s deeptech boom

• Impact Bridge launches new €50M impact fund focused on developing countries

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Pitch Competition applications for this year’s FutureTravel Summit in BCN are now open

• Co-develop, test & scale your energy solution with Galp’s Startup the Future open innovation program; deadline Sept 10

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Consentio: Agritech SaaS minimizing food waste

• Equito: App to acquire fractions of rented properties from €100

• Neatsight: Artificial vision for rapid detection in industrial processes

Tech & Business News

Tech news in Barcelona

• According to ACCIÓs barometer, 60% of Catalan companies innovated in 2023, three points higher than the previous year

• Dutch firm AkzoNobel to invest €14M and create over 70 new jobs in Catalonia

• Barcelona Global has a new president, Ramon Agenjo

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Idealista sale update: Cinven takes 70% stake valuing it at €2.9B 

• Amazon says it has created more jobs in Spain than any other company in the past 5 years, now with 25K full-time employees 

• El Referente’s annual report says Spain now has 1,185 scaleups generating an economic impact of over €9.7M

• BBVA plans to start digital Bank in Germany to rival JPMorgan

Good Reads

• Would you book one? Waymo’s (created by Google’s parent Alphabet) self-driving taxis are go in San Fransisco

• Thoughts on this? New workplace trend: Carewashing

• EU-Startups on ‘The impact of AI on music and the creative industries and the need for equilibrium’ (and music tech at Sónar+D)

• Wired wrote ‘How to Avoid Scams and Shoddy Wares on Amazon’ ahead of Prime Day

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Oneday chats to Ankit Nayal, Founder of BCN-based Flamme - The Couples App (EN)

Great Events

This week:

• Mon, 1 Jul @16:00: TB X ENISA: Report presentation of the first 1,000 certified startups

• Tue, 2 July @18:30: Attico Startup Talks: Inbound recruiting: Attract talent to your project

Upcoming:

• Wed, 10 July @18:30: BCN FinTech X Barcinno #015: Viktoria Soltesz (CEO of PSP Angels Group) → 50% Barcinno discount applied!

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