At time when most of the country begins winding down for summer holidays, Offerum, the collective buying site for local daily deals, has been making some big moves. This week they announced the purchase of Destinity, the private discount travel club, and sold a 15% equity stake to PRISA to execute the acquisition of Planeo. Offerum was founded in December 2009 by Christian … [Read more...]
Heard@ Capside: How To Boost Innovation & Creativity In The Workplace
Looking over the square of Placa Catalunya, CAPSiDE is innovating the digital society. Not alone, but with everyone that shares their vision. On Wednesday, they held their first Capside Open Day telling the story of their evolution and how to nurture creativity & innovation across the organization. On the third floor above the FNAC center, you enter the Capside … [Read more...]
Mozilla & Telefonica Bet Big On HTML5, Low-Cost Smartphones, And The Death Of The App Store
In what may be remembered as a historic occasion, the first Firefox OS smartphones go on sale today in Spain to rival the market-leading Google Android and Apple iOS operating systems. For the first time, consumers will have the option to support a philosophy of open web standards, free of closed ecosystems and overcrowded app stores. Perhaps more importantly, today’s launch … [Read more...]
Taxi App Wars Heat Up As Hailo Challenges MyTaxi in Spain
One of the world leaders in cab-hailing mobile applications has just arrived in Madrid and Barcelona to challenge the local leaders myTaxi in the battle for taxi app market share. Founded in London in 2011, Hailo is the self-proclaimed “taxi magnet” smartphone application that has operations in 11 global cities and claims to pick up a new passenger every 4 seconds. In NYC and … [Read more...]
Spain Joins France In Legal Threat Against Google
The French National Commission on Computing and Freedom (CNIL) has given Google 3 months to add more transparency to the data they are collecting from European users or face privacy fines. Still reeling from recent backlash about handing over consumer data to the US government, Google now faces added pressure from European countries concerned about the exact nature of Google’s … [Read more...]
Now Is The Time To Invest In Spanish Entrepreneurs (video)
In an effort to promote the Spanish startup ecosystem, a somewhat anonymous video produced by New York City's IBL Studios has quietly been released on YouTube. Complete with a booming narrative and overly dramatic soundtrack, the 6 minute video reviews some of Spain's recent entrepreneurial success stories. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvDQyDFRNtQ&w=640&h=360 … [Read more...]
The Australian Fund Barwon Partners Acquires 11.8% of Dinamia
The Australian fund Barwon Investment Partners specialized in investing in alternative investments, headquartered in Sydney, has acquired 11.78% of Dinamia, the Spanish Venture Capital Fund managed by the N+1 that is quoted on the “Mercado Continuo” in Madrid. The investment from the Australian firm, that now controls close to 2 million shares of Dinamia, represents a cost … [Read more...]
BrandCont Raises Funding from 500 Startups, Inception Capital and Angels
500 Startups, Inception Capital and a bunch of well known business angels have invested into BrandCont, the innovative marketplace for native advertising. The Spanish startup, based out of Bilbao and Madrid, has just arrived to California where the online publicity platform will offer an innovative solution to brands and media channels to develop native … [Read more...]
NYC Makes Airbnb Illegal, Is Spain Next?
Every time a new, disruptive concept gains enough momentum to threaten the longstanding incumbents in any given industry we see situations like what happened yesterday in New York. New York City officials have decided that NYC resident Nigel Warren should pay $2,400 for violating the city’s hotel laws for hosting a traveler 3 days in his apartment using Airbnb last fall. The … [Read more...]
Bihoop Announces Its First Success Story With Cuentis
Cuentis, an online publisher specializing in customizing illustrated books for both children and adults, has closed a €70.000 seed round using Bihoop’s equity crowdfunding platform. This is a major milestone for all parties involved as it marks the first successful exit on Bihoop and comes during a peak investment period for crowdfunding platforms worldwide. Bihoop was … [Read more...]