Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

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Hello and happy Monday,

Slow summer in Barcelona? Nope!

While lots of people in Barcelona are taking a break this summer, local entrepreneurs aren’t resting. Thanks to their grit 💪, this week alone we’re covering no less than 6 funding rounds that reaped an impressive €82.5M 💸. Not bad! And then there are two M&A stories around Barcelona startups, one beeing eyed by Decathlon and another was already snapped up by a US firm.

Have a great week & let’s get right to it! 👇

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Travel tech Exoticca raises a €60M Series D; aim to expand to Latin America, the Middle East, India and China

• Enso Co-living raises €8.2M and enters the US & Mexico

• Holaluz receives additional €7M (on top of the €8M a couple months back) through a new promissory note & hires PwC to organize the debt

• Fintech Payflow gets €6M to boost growth in Spain, Portugal, Colombia and Peru; they’re making €40M in ARR with just 40 employees 

• Nutritional supplement startup Jelly Pills gets €1M

• Legaltech Lawwwing closes €360K to expand into Europe & LATAM

• Deepfake detection startup Loccus was acquired by Seattle’s Hiya for an undisclosed fee

• Decathlon is negotiating a takeover of sports site Tradeinn, which would bring TI’s valuation to €1B

Barcelona startup news

• Former CTO & Co-founder of Factorial Pau Ramon launched fika bar, a “minimalistic product for people who want to discover and collect genuine content on the internet”

• HR mentoring startup Lernmi wins the first edition of the Cofidis Startup Booster

• Healthtech Made of Genes aims to expand to the US & Middle East and grow by 50% in 2024

• Deleito (by Masterchef finalist Alberto Gras) opens 4th location in Sant Cugat

Spanish investment news

• Murcian agrotech Widhoc raises €2M

• Madrid discount store Sqrups! gets €1.5M

• Andalusian firm Fitness KPI, a BI platform for gyms, gets €1M

• Zaragoza-based social action startup Coometas closes €600K

• Segovia-based recycling firm Sostenplas gets €550K

• Valencian firm Solved, an incident management and analysis software for supply chains, lands €300K

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• 13books Capital announces £121M founder-focused fund for fintech disruptors

• The Institut Català de Finances launches a new €40M VC fund, ICF Venture Tech III, to invest in about 15 tech startups with rounds of up to €4M

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• The NEW TALENT+ program promotes entrepreneurship in an important but lesser-addressed sector: maritime & marine

• Accelerate your tourism, hotel, or gastronomy project with CETT’s Primer Empren

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Interview with Isabel Jiménez, Asabys Partners: “I want a Barcelona that is inclusive, open to innovation, and prioritizes the well-being of its citizens”

• Lactapp: 1 in 4 mothers in Spain uses it & this year it expects to turn over €1M

• Inbrain Neuroelectronics: graphene-based brain chip offers 200x more power for Parkinson’s patients

Tech & Business News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Catalonia's nautical sector generates over €1B and creates 4,000 jobs, says study aiming to improve local competitiveness & decarbonize leisure vessels

• The America's Cup & World Sailing announce BCN flagship sustainability project

• LCI Barcelona aims for its new 22@ campus to serve as a European design hub

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Unicaja Bank acquires 5% stake in crypto exchange Bit2Me 

• Netflix boosts sales in Spain to €690M, now subject to inspection for the 'RTVE tax'

Good Reads

• Tech to live longer: The entrepreneurs using AI to crack the longevity code

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Kfund podcast with Carlos Riquelme: Basic (and advanced) concepts of Generative AI and LLMs (ES)

• Itnig podcast with Oriol Fuertes, founder at Qida (ES)

Great Events

This week:

• Tue, 30 July @18:30: Investor's guide to things that will kill a startup

Upcoming:

• Tue, 13 Aug @18:30: Ask Me Anything - New Business Angels Information Session

• Tue, 20 Aug @18:30: Startup Pitch Deconstruction: Polish your pitch with angel investors

• Tue, 27 Aug @18:30: SIA: Should I be Investing Globally or Locally?

• Thu, 29 Aug @18:30: Summer Party - Fuckup Nights BCN & Startup Grind BCN

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

Startup Jobs:

• Bourbon Creative is hiring a Spanish-speaking remote, freelance fintech writer (apply by filling out this Google form)

• Venga is looking for a Head of Marketing

• Stenn is recruiting:

  • SEO Associate

  • Full-Stack Engineer