Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello and happy Monday,

🏃‍♀️ Barcelona never slows down, so neither do we! This week, we’ve got:

• Big funding: €25M for Exoticca, Nina Capital’s €50M fund for healthtechs & the EU’s €200B AI and gigafactory push

• Initiatives for women entrepreneurs: The Sheblooms community launches in Barcelona & Time to Raise opens its latest female-focused fundraising cohort

• Tech & work culture shifts: Ubisoft BCN workers lead Spain’s first video game industry strike, while CaixaBank commits to a €5B digital transformation push

Read on for the lowdown and have a great week! 👌

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Exoticca secures €25M venture debt from BBVA Spark, following its €60M Series D last year

• Robotics startup Theker raises €3M led by JME & with public financing

Barcelona startup news

• Proptech Psquared, which transforms office spaces, generated €3.5M in 2024 & expects 20% more this year

• Spyware startup Variston shuts down, per filing

• Green hydrogen startup Jolt Solutions selected for Japanese accelerator

• Qalea & Steryon selected for 2025’s Google for Startups Growth Academy: AI for Cybersecurity cohort

Spanish investment news

• Madrid-based Libeen, a rent-to-buy smarthousing model for young people, secures €25M

• Nido secures €5M to drive the energy transition through residential heat pumps

• Vigo-based vanlife startup Vancubic raises €500K

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• BCN-based Nina Capital launches €50M fund for early-stage healthtechs

• Banco Sabadell & Antai Ventures create Necta Ventures, a fund of funds with a target size of €100M

• EU launches €200B initiative to back AI and gigafactories

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Time to Raise’s spring cohort is open, focusing on fundraising for female-led startups; deadline 28 Feb

• ONCE Foundation Growth Program: Promoting startups or companies in the field of disability or senior citizens; deadline 7 March

Tech & Business News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Sheblooms community emerges in Barcelona to boost female entrepreneurship

• Ubisoft Barcelona workers carry out Spain’s first strike in the video game industry, over returning to the office

• CaixaBank accelerates its digital transformation, allocating €5B to AI etc over the next 3 years

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Silk launches first digital rent payment platform in Europe

• Superapp Jeff’s CEO & executives face court proceedings after €48M+ debt against companies, loans & workers

Good Reads

• FS6: 100 top AI companies & startups in Spain in February 2025 (many from BCN)

• A list of 15 websites for remote work that aren’t LinkedIn

• 5 absorbing books to read this February to help you escape the chaos

• MIT: Meta has an AI for brain typing, but it’s stuck in the lab

Good Videos & Podcasts

• K Fund interviews Ryan Foutty, VP of Business @Perplexity (EN)

• ICYMI: Itnig talked to Glovo’s Óscar Pierre (ES)

Great Events

This week:

• Tue, 18 Feb @17:30: Crafting Your Investment Thesis: Identifying Startups Worth Investing In

• Wed, 19 Feb @16:00: Free "Form Fiesta" workshop for startups, solopreneurs, marketers, etc by Typeform & Notion + free coworking 

• Wed, 19 Feb @20:00: Angels & Beers (For Investors)

• Thu, 20 Feb @09:00: Tech Spirit Barcelona Health Edition

Upcoming:

• Wed, 26 Feb @17:00: Dost free Webinar: Process invoices 10x faster with AI

• Mon, 3 Mar: BCN Fintech: Fintech Networking Event - Presented by Draivi (link includes 50% Barcinno discount)

• Thu, 6 Mar @18:30: Corporate Innovation Summit 2025

• Tue, 11 Mar @17:00: Webinar: How to create a financial roadmap for scaleups

+More events added to our MWC & 4YFN guide ☺️

Got news or an event to share? Fill out this form.

Startup Jobs:

• Seabots is hiring a COO, devs & more

• THEKER Robotics needs various types of engineers 

• EU-Startups is hiring for a Design & Social Media Internship