The buyer is the French e-commerce giant Vente-Privee, which has taken full control of the Barcelona-based ecommerce giant Privalia. The rumors have been spinning for some time, but according to Novobrief, the employees of Privalia got the official news of the acquisition this week. It’s not known how much Venter-Privee had to put on the table, and rumors were swirling … [Read more...]
Reimaging Barcelona Through Technology
Reimaging Barcelona Through Technology The travel apps that are ripping up the rule book Change in the travel industry is often vivid in retrospect, imperceptible in the moment. Mass tourism in the late 20th and early 21st century can be loosely grouped into three main periods: discovery, familiarity, and now boredom. Barcelona is heading towards the … [Read more...]
Zuckerberg defended Apple At The MWC16: “We believe in encryption”
Although Facebook issued a statement of support for Apple's feud with the FBI over their insistence to create a backdoor into iOS for security reasons, the man himself, Mark Zuckerberg, had not commented the issue yet. But during his keynote at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, he came to Apple's defense. "We're sympathetic with Apple on this one. We do believe in … [Read more...]
Nuclio – The Latest Spanish Venture Builder
Serial entrepreneur and the founder of the Conector accelerator, Carlos Blanco, this week launched a new venture builder called Nuclio. Venture builders are still pretty rare in Spain, and Nuclio is the second one in Barcelona and the fourth in Spain. Some venture builders dont use the ideas of external entrepreneurs, but Nuclio is open to anyone with a great idea, … [Read more...]
Barcelona Investment News: Startup BoatBureau closed a round of €700.000
The boat rental platform BoatBureau now has the wind at it's back. The Barcelona startup just closed a round of €700.000 from business angels connected to the IESE investment fund for business ideas. Prior to this funding round, BoatBureau had received only public investment from Enisa, ICO and the regional fund IFEM. Did you read? Barcelona Investment News: Startup … [Read more...]
Catalan NGO Hope Projects is Funding Super Early Stage Startups …On One Condition
The NGO called Hope Projects is looking for new startups for its program in Barcelona. It's a relatively new program started in 2013 with it's main focus on creating jobs for people with all kinds of backgrounds, either you hold a Phd, or holding a hammer, your the kind of person their aiming on helping. They already have four startups in their program, and Mireia Castaner, … [Read more...]
Barcelona Startup Getupcode Takes on 2016 With €200.000 in Funding
The Barcelona-based startup Getupcode recently closed a round of €200,000 through the Lanzadera acceleration program located in Valencia. Getupcode was founded in 2013, and is a private marketplace to find and hire new programmers for your company or your project. The business model is performance-based, only charging 15% of the base salary after the successful hire of a new … [Read more...]
Why You Should Launch Your Sharing Economy Startup From Barcelona
For the first time ever, Barcelona was host to Ouishare Fest, the global event dedicated exclusively to the sharing economy. Companies and global sectors such as mobility, tourism, education, finance and health were all present and accounted for to promote this emerging model of doing business and adding value. As the world has embraced sharing economy startups like Airbnb, … [Read more...]
Despite Our Ranking – It’s Getting Better For Startups In Spain
Once again Spain ranked as one of the worst countries in OECD on which to start a business. A report by the World Bank Group states that Spain is among the bottom five counties of the 34 OECD countries, with only Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland with a worse place to start a company. The report state that entrepreneurs in Spain often face complexity in setting … [Read more...]
Get To Know Barcelona’s Newest Fund: mVenturesBCN And The Man Behind It
This week the news about the Mobile World Capital latest initiative - mVenturesBCN - was officially announced. Their goal is to draw international talent to Barcelona and to promote the creation of technology-based companies. They will also allocate €15 million into the launching of 110 startups over the next three years. Aleix Valls is the man in charge of the ambitious … [Read more...]