Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

Happy 2026! Hope you had a great start to the year. 

📊 We’re back with January’s usual startup funding recap from the previous year. This analysis aims to note key trends and patterns in flow, geographic concentration, and industry focus in BCN & Spain. 

2025 funding takeaways & trends in BCN & Spain

Summary: Funding was front-loaded in the first half of the year. Total capital raised was significantly higher in the first two quarters, followed by a noticeable drop in the second half.

💰 We tracked over €3.5B total funding across Spain in 2025:

• Q1 and Q2 accounted for the majority of total ES funding, with both reaching just under €1.4B each – BCN totaled €505M in Q1 & €415M in Q2

• ES funding fell sharply in Q3 to around €400M and Q4 to €378M – strong investment momentum early in the year that did not sustain into the later quarters.

Barcelona leads in volume & invests in biotech, traveltech, fintech & AI: BCN led in deal volume with 125, totaling over €1.26B. Madrid secured slightly more capital than BCN, attracting over €1.58B (85 deals)

🏭 Top industries in BCN by funding 2025:

• Biotech: €203M

• Traveltech: €288M (thanks to TravelPerk’s €191M last Jan)

• AI: €115M

• Fintech: €60M

• Spacetech: €53M

Top industries in BCN by rounds 2025:

• AI: 26

• Biotech: 14

• Fintech: 15

• Healthtech: 11

• Traveltech: 7

Now on to the news – have a great week! ⭐️

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• Lura Care launches €8M round to expand home-based dental care across Europe

• Elha Laser, backed by Adapta Capital, merges with Láserum

Barcelona startup news

• From larvae to antibacterial drugs: Dapibus prepares for €40M round to build a plant 8x larger

• Events startup Tiketblok files for bankruptcy after 6 years in operation

• Grandvoyage joins BME Scaleup to boost growth and consolidate leadership in large-scale travel

Spanish investment news

• Co-ownership model for second homes VIVLA increases financing to €55M

• Clinical Voice AI Tucuvi raises €17M

• Computer vision firm Ultralytics raises $30M

• Lookiero Outfittery Group closes €17M to boost growth & AI commitment

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Bankinter to mobilise up to €100M in investments to promote Spain’s film industry

• Barcelona-based pre-Seed manager 4Founders Capital launches €60M hospitality fund against backdrop of strong dealflow in Spain

• EIB Group launches TechEU, the largest financing programme to boost European innovation

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• MWC Open Innovation Challenge 2026: International B2B matchmaking event uniting corporates, investors, startups & tech providers to solve real-world challenges

• Bcombinator: Startup business opportunities in AI and infrastructure for 2026

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• B4Experience: The Catalan AI future of guided nature travel 

• Blinkset: Turns any pair of glasses into an ally against the sun and wind

Tech & Business News

Tech news in Barcelona

• Port of Barcelona kicks off new €60M blue economy hub, set for 2028 completion

• Cutting-edge neuroscience: BCAN scientific hub takes shape in Mundet

• eDreams ODIGEO secures legal victories as German court fines Ryanair for unlawful practices

Tech & big company news in Spain

• Revolut reaches 6 million Spanish customers, surpassing Banco Sabadell on market penetration

• Decathlon finalizes the purchase of Intersport in Spain

Good Reads & Watches

• 2025 in Spanish exits: who sold, how much and why

• What AI-native means for startups in 2026, and why it is not just for big tech

• Don’t stress, do less: 52 ways to make your life easier in 2026 – The Guardian

• We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened: Jason Lemkin, SaaStr (EN)

Great Events

This week:

• Wed, 14 Jan @18:00: Startup Failure Stories Open Mic

• Thu, 15 Jan @19:00: AI & Tech Builders Meetup

Upcoming:

• Mon, 19 Jan @09:30: Founders Fundamentals: Fundraising Like a Pro

• Tue, 20 Jan @18:30: DeepTech Talks BCN: Engineering Security in a Regulated & Post-Quantum World

• Thu, 22 Jan @19:00: BCN FinTech Vermut & Networking 🍸

• Wed, 28 Jan @18:30: Applied AI beyond the hype: InnoIT & Back Market

• Thu, 29 Jan @17:00: The Elephant in the Room: An experiential workshop for co-founders

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