Barcelona Weekly Tech & Startup News – February 06, 2017 – Barcinno

Hello and Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend!

What a weekend! The Patriots won Super Bowl 51, Barcelona got a BIG EXIT success story thanks to Social Point and the city is heating up…at least in terms of the Mobile World Congress hype!

If you haven’t got your 4YFN or MWC tickets – get ’em now for cheap!

TICKETS:

Use the promo code BARCINNO_4YFN at check out to save 40% off the already discounted early bird rate! The 4YFN pass can be yours for €144 and includes a 1-day pass to the MWC.

EVENTS & AFTER-PARTIES:

Barcinno’s your source for all the extracurricular activities, afterparties and networking events that take place off-MWC. We’re updating our list daily and you can add your events too!

EU-Startups Conference

We have an exclusive discount code for our faithful community: BARCINNO
The code provides you with 15% discount for ticket purchases till February 28. More info regarding the EU-Startups Conference can be found here.

Tech5 invite

The Tech5 competition is back and The Next Web is looking for the 5 hottest startups in Spain. Throw your hat in the ring here.

Ok, let’s see what’s new in Barcelona’s startup scene this week: 

THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:

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Startup & Investment News

• BIG EXIT ALERT! Barcelona’s gaming startup Social Point was sold for $276M to Take-Two
• Spanish trade checking platform Habitissimo has sold a 70% stake to UK’s HomeServe
• Catalan e-voting company Scytl closed an additional $13M investment round to expand
• Beguerrilla acquired Xidere, a fashion brand for bulldog lovers, and present their plans
• SEAT and Barcelona startup BeMobile signed an agreement for connected car innovations
• Parking reservation app Parclick forms alliance with Moovit to promote public transport
• Indra and crowdfunding platform SociosInversores strike partnership to boost tech firms
• Akola Venture Builder has opened its first financing round to launch 2 startups this year
• Catalan Business School ESIC is looking for innovative projects for its accelerator program
• US AI startup Cien plans to use latest $1M seed funding to set up an office in Barcelona
• Investment into Spanish startups in January has doubled compared to 2017 levels
• The first edition of Mobile Weekend took place in Barcelona last week and it was great
• Finding a locker on your next travel trip won’t be a pain anymore thanks to Spain’s Keepiz
• New Spanish logistic startup Transporter lets you send packages whenever you want
• Service solution startup TheService moves to Barcelona and helps you out in busy times
• Spanish startup Happyforce helps companies meassure the happyiness of their staff
• Spain’s startup Canard aims to ensure aircraft landings stay safe thanks to drones
• Interesting interview about founding Barcelona startup Eelp! with its CEO Nina Alastruey

Tech News

• What to Expect at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 – Phones, AR, VR and Voice Tech 
• Spain’s Fintech firms push government to make better regulations to let them innovate
• Crowdfunding is evolving, but Spanish laws and regulations lag behind and need to adapt
• Catalunya is a 3D Hub and HP’s most important lab – 500 R&D engineers, 150 per year
• Spain’s public post firm has launched CorreoLabs, an accelerator for innovative projects
• Don’t expect new train link between El Prat Airport terminals & Sants to be ready by 2018 
• Spain’s court says that BlaBlaCar doesn’t constitute an illegal competition to bus operators
• Huawei increases revenue in Spain by 40% and becomes number 2 in smartphone market
• Tesla is struggling in Spain, just two new cars registered in the country in January

Good Reads

• GOOD READ #1: The Barcelona beachfront tower that boasts fast-growth startups
• GOOD READ #2: How Barcelona’s Tech & Innovation District 22 evolved since 2000

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GREAT EVENTS THIS WEEK

• Mon, 06 Feb – 14 Feb: ACM ICPC Programming Bootcamp
• Tue, 07 Feb @ 10:00: Digital Social Innovation Conference
• Wed, 08 Feb @ 18:15: Lessons from Silicon Valley & Blockchain Demystified
• Wed, 08 Feb @ 19:00: Expectations in the Mobile World, Michael Bayle, Head of Mobile
• Wed, 08 Feb @ 20:00: Healthy Food: The Press & Reset case
• Thu, 09 Feb @ 19:00: Apps debate Native VS Hybrid VS Progressive Web Apps
• Thu, 09 Feb @ 20:00: The Grid Talks with Clement Bazan

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STARTUP JOBS IN BARCELONA