Barcelona's Weekly Tech Update

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Hello and happy Monday,

Barcelona is well and truly back in the swing of it with two 250M+ megarounds from Open Cosmos and Fever, as well as strong funding for health, energy, and proptech firms.

Elsewhere, it’s AI season for BCN events, so don’t miss those if you’re that way inclined. And from last week’s big conference, check out Clemens’ EBC recap and add your thoughts here.

Have a great week!

Startup & Investment News

Barcelona investment news

• BCN-founded Open Cosmos raises €300M mega-round 

• Fever gets $250M primary equity financing, the largest ever for a live-entertainment tech company

• AXIS invests up to €12M in 011H Sustainable Construction

• heydiga raises €5.5M for its AI conversation platform for local businesses

• AI agent for hospital ops Health Force raises €4.2M Seed funding

Barcelona startup news

• Nora Real Food projects €10M turnover in 2025, €12M this year, and prepares for expansion in Madrid

• Qilimanjaro launches a pilot program to optimize operating rooms 

• Wallbox halts manufacturing in the US & focuses on Barcelona

• Flomics Biotech advances cancer detection through blood tests with CDTI & MRR European funds

Spanish investment news

• Madrid hydrogen refueling firm HVR Energy secures €20M

• San Sebastián-based Deneb Medical raises €15M to automate spinal surgery

• Spanish-Italian traveltech BizAway closes €10M

• Valencian circular waste management startup CoCircular gets €1.9M

VC, investment & crowdfunding news

• Madrid-based Portobello announces successful closing of Fund V at €710M, primarily investing in Spain

• Brighteye Ventures lands $72M first close for European early-stage AI, learning, productivity & labour startups

• BioInnovation Institute backs 17 early-stage startups with €9.5M

Open calls, accelerator news & incubator stories

• ACCIÓ offers Technology Exploration Grants for Catalan startups; deadline 21 Sep

• SOCAR WIN Open Innovation Program: Tech solving challenges in energy & industrial operations; deadline 22 Sep

• CREA FEINA Barcelona 2026: Subsidies to encourage recruitment

Barcelona startup & entrepreneur profiles & interviews

• Ovianta: The Catalan startup that automates medical appointments

• Timbal: Conquering the US with its enterprise AI solution

Tech & Business News

• French startup Skello closes €200M, allocating part to double staff at its Barcelona office

• CaixaBank mobilises €34.9B in sustainable finance in the first half of 2026, up 66%

• idealista launches operations in France

• Who is Cristina Pitarch, the former Google exec chosen to lead Anthropic in Spain?

• Spain surpasses 5000 startups and raises the value of its technological ecosystem to 125B per ICEX

• Spanish data watchdog publicises first AI agent-linked data breach report

Good Reads & Watches

• Ship2BeVentures: FemTech Spain Industry Report 2026

• 5 European success stories investors initially rejected

• 100 days to save EU Inc: Europe’s tech leaders warn against watering down landmark reform

• Companies are losing MILLIONS and they don't even know it | Embat (ES)

Great Events

This week:

• Mon 21–Wed 23 Sep: Talent Garden Barcelona - La Mercè Open House: Work, Connect & Celebrate

• Tue 22–Wed 23 Sep: AI Summit Barcelona 

• Tue 22 Sep @18:00: Notion Afterwork

• Tue 22 Sep @19:00: Barcelona Tech Startup & VC Rooftop Networking

• Wed 23 Sep @18:00: LLMs in motion at Monzo

• Thu 24 Sep @14:00: Running Hackathon Barcelona

Upcoming:

• Wed 30 Sep @18:00: Tech and Business Networking

• Wed 30 Sep @18:30: Networking & Drinks - Itnig Coworking

• Thu 1 Oct @17:00: Workshop | Build It Yourself: Agentic AI for Leaders

• Fri 9 Oct @11:00: HER/O Breakfast x unlock VC

• Wed 28 Oct @18:00: Barcelona Tech Job Fair Autumn 2026

• Thu Oct 29: FutureTravel Summit

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

Startup Jobs

• Qalea is hiring a Product Lead

• Metarina needs a Founders Associate/AI Operations Fellow

• Platform Engineering is recruiting a Head of Research & Editorial

• Itnig is hiring a B2B Sales Representative

• Biorce needs a Junior Product Manager