Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello and happy Monday,

🤝 Lots to pack in as we close June, with not one but four acquisitions, some interesting new product innovations, and plenty of good podcasts to get you through the hot commute.

Also, last week, we trialed an audio edition of Barcinno. Did you check it out? What did you think? Vote below and feel free to drop any thoughts in the comments 🗳️

Have a great week!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Bluetech Ocean Ecostructures closes €3M

• Fintech PayRetailers acquired Amsterdam-based Celeris

• UK-BCN employee financial wellbeing platform Hastee acquired by Zellis Group

• WhatsApp business customer service tool Hubtype acquired by Aries Global software group

• Mycelium meat startup Libre Foods acquired by Swiss biomanufacturing platform Planetary

Barcelona startup news

• Krea.ai releases its first proprietary AI image generation model in public beta

• Food waste-fighting firm TALKUAL expects to invoice €6.5M in 2025 and targets France & Italy

• Kave Home wins the Mercè Sala 2025 Award, recognized for its 400% growth in 5 years

Spanish investment news

• Environmental wellbeing company Grupo Aire Limpio gets €8M from Impact Partners

• Digital identity protection firm 8Layers closes €1.5M led by JME 

• We Are Knitters acquired by Caracas Lab for almost €1M after entering pre-bankruptcy proceedings

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Norrsken commits €300M to support European startups using AI for good

• Family office Yaday targets B2B AI scaleups with new €100M Fund

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Barcelona Activa & the City Council open Crea Feina 2025 grants, offering businesses & freelancers up to €15K per new local hire 

• BCN Game Fest by IndieDevDay: Applications now open for content creators, influencers & press

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Wattium: Lithium-free batteries for a more sustainable future 

• 3 Catalan startups the digital health industry can't afford to miss

Tech & Business News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Catalan company Nomen develops rice that reduces anxiety and insomnia

• Barcelona's digital talent has grown sixfold compared to the global average, reaching nearly 130K professionals

• Delta launches direct flights from Seattle to Barcelona

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Revolut prepares its corporate banking takeover in Spain, offering loans, credit, mortgages & more

• BBVA’s takeover bid for Banc Sabadell approved, but with stricter conditions

  • BBVA has now also launched its 100% digital bank in Germany

Good Reads & Watches

• KFund Spain Ecosystem Report 2025: The ecosystem has more than doubled since 2020

• How to learn ANYTHING with Gemini + NotebookLM (by Scott, EN)

• Lessons from ElevenLabs’ Carles Reina (EU-Startups, EN)

• "The CTO path is not linear": Road to CTO with Lluís Inglès of GoCIMit, STAY & Exoticca (MarsBased, ES)

• Itnig in Barcelona with the Founder of Taxdown (ES)

Great Events

This week:

• Tue, 1 July @18:00: Search Barcelona - Growth Marketing in an AI World

• Thu, 3–Fri, 4 July: Mind The Bridge Scaleup Summit Barcelona

• Thu, 3 July @17:00: ES webinar: Self-employed vs. Limited Company: What You Need to Know About Taxation

• Thu, 3 July @18:00: Pitch, Blockchain and Drive

Upcoming:

• Tue, 8 July @18:30: DeepTech Talks Barcelona: From Lab to Market

• Wed, 9 July @18:00: Meetup - Connecting Ecosystems: Uniting Local and Global Communities

• Wed, 9 July @18:30: Fuckup Nights Barcelona July 2025

• Wed, 16 July @19:00: Fintech Vermut & Networking by BCN FinTech 🍸

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