Barcinno visited Pub Summit on Wednesday, July 3rd and had the opportunity to chat with Rebecca O’Dowd from the Dublin Web Summit. Barcelona was the fourth city on the European tour and, compared to Porto, Lisbon and Madrid, the Barcelona startup scene was bigger and more open than they had expected. What brings you to Barcelona? We are searching for talented start-ups … [Read more...]
12 Disruptive Technologies Guaranteed To Change Our Lives
According to the McKinsey Global Institute, there are 12 technologies that could drive truly massive economic transformations and disruptions in the coming years. They estimate that applications of the 12 technologies discussed in the report could have a potential economic impact between $14 trillion and $33 trillion a year in 2025. This holds strong implications for … [Read more...]
Barcelona Moving Up, Spain Lagging Behind In Global Innovation Index 2013
On Monday, the Global Innovation Index (GII) presented the 6th edition of its annual survey that is developed under the supervision of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD. The prestigious GII reviews 142 economies around the world, using 84 indicators to measure the key role of innovation as a driver of economic growth, thereby … [Read more...]
Barcelona Global Unites ‘Barcelonians By Birth’ and ‘Barcelonians By Choice’
Last night, 400 of Barcelona’s most committed professionals gathered at the Palauet Albéniz on Montjuic for an “inspiring cocktail” to not only celebrate what this city has to offer, but more importantly, to identify Barcelona’s biggest weaknesses and set a course to improve them. The Barcel-Hola event was presented by Barcelona Global, the independent, not-for-profit civil … [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...]
Lanta Digital Ventures Makes Its First Investment in Traity
Lanta Digital Ventures, the Barcelona-based early stage venture capital fund, has made its inaugural investment into Traity along with Horizon Ventures and Bertelsmann Group (BDMI). With more than 800k users already profiled, Traity is pushing the boundaries of online reputation by building the biggest map of people’s personalities. Traity was born in 2012 with … [Read more...]
Dublin Web Summit 2013 Is Seeking 10 Spanish Startups
Each week, Web Summit is selecting 10 early stage startups from different countries around the world to receive a free exhibition table (€9950 value) at this year’s Dublin Web Summit event in late October. This week is Spain and there's less than 66 hours left to apply. The Dublin Web Summit is now in it’s 4th year and, with over 4,200 attendees in 2012, it’s now officially … [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...]
Watch Out For These 6 Barriers On The Road To Innovation
It must be said: At times, innovating can be quite frustrating. From adjusting prototypes to getting lost in the process and not having enough revenue streams to proceed, somewhere along the way you will likely be forced to face your mistakes and learn from them. You may even be forced to alter your business plan or come up with something entirely new, all the while … [Read more...]