Barcelona Startup News October 23, 2017 – Barcinno

Hello and happy Monday,

We hope you had a wonderful weekend, despite the unsettling news that Madrid has once again refused to accept any calls for dialogue and instead announced plans to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy for the 3rd time in last 100 years.

I’m sure that will go down just fine…

It is shocking that in the year 2017 a “democratic” EU member state has the power to seize control of telecommunications, takeover local media platforms, and dissolve an elected parliament.

We believe the right to self-determination is a non-negotiable tenant of democracy and we continue to support the call for dialogue (without restrictions) between Catalonia and Spain before this situation gets any worse.

Now onto the news.

Join us this week at NewCo, the reverse-engineered startup conference where 40+ companies will open their doors and invite you in to learn from their founders and see how they work! Barcinno readers save 20% with the code: NEWCO@BARCINNO 

Another great event coming up on the 5th of December sees Jeff Gothelf from Krymson Global talking about “Lean, agile & design thinking”. Get a discount on your tickets by signing up using the promo code: Barcinno

Ok, let’s take a look at the latest Barcelona startup news from this week: 

THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:

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Startup & Investment News

• Spanish startup Spotahome closes €13,6M investment round
• Barcelona Banking-as-a-Service startup Unnax lands €1,5M
• Spanish company Ibarmia gets €1M for expansion abroad
• Barcelona-based travel startup Exoticca lands €500k
• Catalan online pharmacy Farmaconfianza raises €345k
• Spanish health care firm Davalor Salud receives €250k 
• Catalan a fintech startup Kantox grew 14,4% in the past year
• Barcelona startup Restb.ai crowned one of the 5 hottest AI startups in Europe by Nvidia
• Ed-tech startup Eupheus Learning is collaborating with Fiction Express by Boolino
• Cortefiel, El Ganso & El Corte Inglés launch new fashion startup accelerator
• Startup investment in Spain totalled €579M in 2016, €80M less than in the record-breaking year of 2015
• Barcelona startup profiles, interviews & success stories:
  • Chopit: reaching 10.000 users & 1.000 shops in 1 year
  • Garantify: making the renting process more efficient

Tech News

• Government of Catalonia invests €350M in R&D
• Barcelona’s government is working on laws & regulations for the car sharing market
• US tech giant Mitek acquires Barcelona-based company Icar Vision Systems for €12,75M
• Catalan firm Mediapro sells over 50% of its shares to Chinese investment fund
• Barcelona seems to have lost most of its finance and insurance sector within less than two weeks (Vanguardia)
• Tesla opens its first permanent store in Barcelona
  • They also continue to take talent from Desigual
• Airbnb teams up with Easyoffer to help people who have been penalised for renting tourist accommodation in Barcelona
• Banco Sabadell sells its hotel management platform HI Partners for €630M
• BBVA continues its digital transformation & plans to diversify its business model by offering entertainment products
• Watching La Liga on Amazon or Facebook could soon become a reality as they are in talks about broadcasting rights
•  Capital investment in Spain reaches a new record in 2017 so far, but how will Q4 turn out amidst political situation?

Good Reads

• How to sell your startup twice
• ‘Firms like Wallapop & Cabify are ready for an IPO’
• Why Trello Failed to Build a $1 Billion+ Business
• How Long Does It Take to Develop a Mobile App?

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GREAT EVENTS THIS WEEK

• Mon, 23 Oct @ 18:30: Entrepreneur pills & networking
• Tue, 24 Oct @ 18:30: Networking: innovation & startups
• Wed, 25 Oct @ 19:00:  DrinkEntrepreneurs #25
• Thu, 26 Oct @ 19:00: Learnings from WooConf Seattle 2017
• Thu, 26 Oct @ 19:00: Docker Workshop: IT Orchestration
• Thu, 26 Oct @ 19:00: Software Architecture meetup
• Thu, 26 Oct @ 19:00: Kiwi.com Python Meetup

See the full Event Calendar here

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STARTUP JOBS IN BARCELONA

• Translation.com is looking for a:
  • Front End Software Engineer
  • Back End Software Engineer
• Totally Communications is hiring a WordPress Developer
• Mondo is recruiting a PHP Developer
• MarsBased is looking for a Full-stack Developer

Barcelona Startup News October 23, 2017 cover all the latest stories about Barcelona’s Tech & Startup scene from October 16th until October 23rd, 2017.