Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello and happy Monday,

There’s lots going on in BCN this week both event and otherwise—check out the calendar section further down and hope to connect with some of you offline! As always, reach out if you want to chat about projects or share ideas at EBC, BCN FinTech’s side event, or virtually.

Have a great week whatever you’re attending, building, or enjoying at La Mercè 🐦‍🔥

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• E-motorcycle firm Stark Future signs a €40M loan with EIB

• Aesthetic & wellness startup Holaglow closes €1.5M

• Biomaterial startup DAN*NA gets €800K from BeAble Capital

• Refurbed cycle retailer Bike Ocasió sells 70% majority stake to Seaya

Barcelona startup news

• Update on Paack post-layoffs: The last-mile delivery firm will sell its French subsidiary & secure its future with a restructuring plan

• Kantox partners with Finastra to offer trade confirmation matching service

Spanish investment news

• Corporate travel platform BizAway secures €35M

• Madrid-based Nomad Solar Energy gets €15M to decarbonize the off-grid market

• Energytech Samara tops up its June Series A to €10.5M

• Home services marketplace Webel closes €1.4M

• Valencian ‘Tinder of banks’ Colibid raises €400K

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Paris-based VC Wind gets €30M from EIF to back European climate-conscious deeptechs

• Seaya opens its first European office outside of Spain, in London

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Europas 100 Awards: Get recognition as one of Europe’s hottest tech startups; deadline 1 Oct

• The Collider Venture Builder Call for Technologies: Open for researchers with promising results to bring their innovations to market

• ICEX Spain Export and Investments launches the ICEX Next program to help Spanish SMEs & startups sell & grow internationally

Tech & Business News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Barcelona Activa publishes a €11.6M call to offer more quality free public training in the tech sector

• Microsoft 365’s Copilot now supports Catalan 

• Brazil’s Pix instant QR payment system pilots first European launch in BCN airport

• Huawei chooses Barcelona to present & launch its most innovative products

Tech & big company news in Spain

• AI startup Luzia reaches 50 million+ users worldwide, triples its workforce in a year & plans to increase its headcount to 50 by the end of 2024

• Seville glamping startup Kampaoh launches its own €50M investment vehicle

• Alibaba-owned Spanish marketplace Miravia acquires 20% of vdShop

Politics, legal & economics

• The EU is getting its first-ever commissioner for startups

Good Reads

• The ‘adult gap year’: viable employee benefit or giant HR headache?

• Quiz: See if you’re keeping up with the latest on the global economy

• I'm struggling to get a job in tech. Where should I look?: With Sequoia's VP of Talent Zoe Hewitt

Good Videos & Podcasts

• Fighting online scams and Ad fraud, with Nandini Jammi, Co-founder @ Check My Ads (Life on Mars, EN)

Great Events

This week:

• Wed, 25 Sep @19:00: BCN FinTech X Barcinno #016: Blockchain in FinTech → Discount applied 😁

• Wed, 25 Sep @18:30: ​​SaaStock Local Barcelona: How to Fund and Grow a SaaS Business in 2024

• Wed, 25 – Thu, 26 Sep: European Blockchain Convention 10 → use code 15BARCINNO for 15% off ⛓️

  • Plus many side events!

• Wed, 25 Sep @19:00: Beer2Business EBC10 Networking Event

• Thu, 26 Sep @18:00: Tech Barcelona Pier01 Afterwork 

• Fri, 27 – Sun, 29 Sep: IndieDevDay 

• Sat, 28 Sep: Barcelona International Community Day

Upcoming:

• Wed, 2 Oct @09:30: TB Workshop: Boost user conversion through Kit Consulting 

• Wed, 9 Oct @18:30: Fuckup Nights Barcelona 

• Wed, 9–Thu, 10 Oct: AI & Big Data Congress

• Thu, 10 Oct @18:00: Empowering Patients through Digital Solutions (Barcelona Health Hub & Norrsken Barcelona)

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

Startup Jobs:

• Restb.ai is hiring for several roles: Data Analyst & Annotation, Senior Frontend Engineer, VP of AI

• Wegrow is looking for a CSM

• Ironhack is hiring Subject Matter Experts + Lead Teachers for its tech bootcamps

• AILY LABS is recruiting an Office Administrator

• MiiN Korean Cosmetics needs an SEO & Marketing Data Analyst