Barcelona Weekly Tech & Startup News – January 30, 2017 – Barcinno

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

We’re only 4 weeks away from Barcelona’s biggest tech events of the year. The 2017 Mobile World Congress and 4 Years From Now kick off on February 27th. Here’s what you’ll need:

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 had for under €150 for the next 2 days 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!

To sign up to Barcinno’s Weekly Newsletter, simply click 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

• eDreams acquired hotel booking site BudgetPlaces.com for an undisclosed fee
• Spanish space startup PLD Space received $7,1M investment from GMV
• SOM Biotech secured a €2M investment to fight Huntigton disease and compete in the USA
• The online booking platform for camping, Glamping Hub, received €1,8M funding
• Parking App llollo raised €1,2M to accelerate growth in Spain and expand to the UK
• Barcelona’s B-Wom closed a cool $1M investment round to expand its app that helps women manage their health
• Logistic startup Koiki received €900k funding to revolutionize home delivery of packages
• Barcelona equity crowdfunfing platform The Crowd Angel closed a €500k investmet round
• Catalan Hydrokemos raised €500k from Victoria Venture Capital for its Technology
• Coach and sports center searching platform Entrenarme closed a €405k investment round
• Barcelona startup Furgo received €275k funding to expand its marketplace transport app
• Telco service provider Ringsouth Europa secured an investment round to expand to LA
• A new life science fund, Alta Life Sciences, was launched in Barcelona – aims to capture €100M
• Glovo founder stands his ground against assaults on company results of the past year 
• How Spanish students created Olapic from scratch and sold if for $130M to founder of Times New Roman
• Great story about Catalan firm Mr Wonderful that went from sideproject to €19M revenue/year
• Startupexplore predicts the Spanish startups that will be talked about the most in 2017
• Cool infographic about Barcelona’s Tech Ecosystem (though it misses some key players)
• And another one that shows how Barcelona is Spain’s most important startup hub
• Spain’s business schools best for entrepreneurs according to Financial Times ranking
• 2 Catalan women are amongst the 12 finalists of the EU Prize for Women Innovators 2017

Tech News

• Spanish firm Carbures has signed a €4,6M contract with Hyperloop Transporation Technologies to develop and produce 5 capsules
• PC sales in Spain have declined by 11,8% during the past year, vendors hope for better in 2017
• The Spanish citizen Juan Antonio Zufiria was named the new CEO of IBM Europe
• Google Spain’s former CEO expands the Spanish education institute ISDI to Sillicon Valley
• BBVA share its vision for digital banking, in short: algorithms, regulation and blockchain
• Spanish banks complain about Apple Pay’s conditions and tariffs, Banco Santander less so
• Spain’s €500M video game industry if fighting to keep its edge and calls for tax exemptions
• Spanish Government approves the construction of an European Molecular Biology Laboratory center in the Biomedical Research Park Barcelona (PRBB)
• Spanish satelite operator Hispasat has launched its 10th satelite to improve Telco services
• Télefonica approved a voluntary redundancy plan to simplify its corporate structre
• A Spanish-led company has developed Arduino, a mini-PC aimed to teach kids how to code
• Demand for IT and Big Data professionals in Spain is estimated to grow by 30% in 2017
• Spanish tax agency sets focus on ellaborating means to control digital economy this year

Good Reads

• GOOD WATCH #1: What to expect from the Barcelona Startup Ecosystem in 2017
• GOOD WATCH #2: Code-in-the-Dark: watch the front-end hackathon
• GOOD READ #1: Investor Rodrigo Martinez shares his Tech prediction for 2017
• GOOD READ #2: A CTO’s guide to crushing an interview for a job in tech

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GREAT EVENTS THIS WEEK

• Mon, 30 Jan @ 19:00: 12th Databeers Barcelona Meetup
• Tue, 31 Jan @ 19:45: How to make your company more receptive to outside changes
• Wed, 01 Feb @ 13:30: Burgers & Business featuring Barcinno @One Ocean Club
• Thu, 02 Feb @ 18:00: Taller Seduce con tu elevator pitch ganador por Silvia Bueso
• Sat, 06 Feb – 14 feb: ACM ICPC Programming Bootcamp