Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Hello and happy Monday,

It’s the final edition of the year! Whether you’ve been following Barcinno for a week or a decade, we’re grateful to all our readers, partners, and community for being here. 

And as is tradition, here’s our Barcinno wrapped – your most-clicked stories from 2025:

1. Our Mobile World Congress 2025 & 4YFN25 Parties & Events Guide 🏆

2. Grupo Lux acquires Syra Coffee 

3. Barcelona transforms skyline’s biggest eyesore into stunning tech hub

4. Catalan-founded Krea raises $83M to be the one-stop shop for GenAI creatives 

5. Hello.app founder Álvaro Pintado: from dreaming of becoming a unicorn to being sued for alleged fraud by one of his investors

6. Sorry! My Prada's at the cleaners — how to dress tech bro in 2025 

7. Check how your tech salary or hiring stacks up

8. LinkedIn’s top 25 companies in Spain to develop your career

9. Our AI Marketing Workshop with Hello Operator 💥 

10. Amazon to lay off nearly 1,000 workers at its Barcelona offices

Have a great festive break, and here’s to a prosperous New Year. We’ll see you in 2026 for the next one! 🎊

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Homecare company Qida signs €4M financing with CaixaBank’s debt fund

• Home electrification startup Eltex raises €1.8M

• Insur-wealthtech platform Flinket launches with €1.4M initial funding round

• Former Factorial execs bootstrap Ramensoft with €400K to build human-first content platform

Barcelona startup news

• On-demand salary startup Payflow rules out new funding rounds as it reaches profitability

• Nora Real Food serves 4000 meals daily & expects €10M turnover for 2025 

• Revel grows by 23% in 2025 and launches new line of affordable storage units, RevelBox

• Recomotor accelerates expansion, acquiring its fifth scrap yard in Barcelona

Spanish investment news

• Tattoo removal startup Ray Studios closes €10M

• Spanish-Belgian startup Wodan AI raises €2M & relocates global HQ to Madrid

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Kibo Ventures launches €120M Fund IV, reinforcing its commitment to Europe

• EIB Group & BBVA mobilize €1.3B financing for SMEs and sustainable housing

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• Europe's first National Security VC firm, MD One Ventures and Randox, launch new security & biotech incubator and accelerator

• Autoocupació launches 4th Llançadora scholarship to help unemployed youth across Catalonia transform business ideas into viable companies

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Incapto Coffee: “Our work doesn’t end when it leaves the warehouse, but when it reaches the customer”

• Theker Robotics: Already creating robots that can fold clothes, with Intidex on board

Tech & Business News

• Coworking Impact Hub Barcelona allies with OneCoWork to house the local impact community

• Barcelona ranked in the European top 8 for attracting tech investment

• SEAT & CUPRA invests €4.85M in new Barcelona circular economy hub

• Airbnb Spain fined €68M for advertising unlicensed tourist apartments

• Cinven, KKR & Providence seal the sale of MasOrange to Orange for €4.25B

Good Reads & Watches

• Digital pills, human connection from AI, and GEO: LinkedIn’s 10 predictions that will define 2026

• How to generate AI blog images with consistent style in 4K

• Nature’s best science images of 2025

• What Europe’s VCs and founders are reading this Christmas

• Itnig talked to BCN-based Theker, Europe's most advanced robotics firm (ES)

See you in the New Year!