Barcelona Startup News March 19 2018 – Barcinno

Hello and happy Monday! We hope you had a great weekend! 

First up, a quick shout and congratulations to our friends at Gestoos for closing a €2.5M investment round from OneRagTime and Kibo Ventures!

ESADE is hosting a great event this week on Data & Games, featuring the data science team lead at King

Looking forward, Sónar+D has extended the call for startups until March 30 – apply to pitch here.

Also, new projects in search of support and guidance can apply for the 2nd edition of Barcelona Activa’s Programa de Preacceleració. Deadline to apply is April 4th. 

Applications for the 2nd edition of the Barcelona Startup City Seminar are now open. Registered attendees will get an overview of the Barcelona startup ecosystem through guided tours, presentations and roundtables. Sign up here. 

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

THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS:

BARCELONA STARTUP NEWS

Startup & Investment News

• Barcelona startup Gestoos closes €2.5M investment round
• Spanish startup Reclamador secures €1.5M investment
• Spanish travel tech startup TroopTravel raises €230K 
• Barcelona real estate startup Rentuos receives €150K
• Catalan medtech startup Topdoctors doubles income in 2017 to reach $7M and aims to treble that in 2018
• Barcelona medtech startup Qrem creates a pioneering technology for the treatment of osteoarthritis
• Catalan startup DrSails signs a deal with Harken to distribute its products in the USA
• Barcelona startup BYHOURS wins “Startupsfight” competition by Deloitte
• Catalonia-based startup Glovo eyes Africa expansion
• Barcelona-based startup Badi aims to focus on product and growth, but assures they have a monetization plan in place
• ESADE BAN invested €4M in startups in 2017
• Asics launched an accelerator startup for sports startups
• There are currently 19 open calls for startups in Spain
• Barcelona startup profiles, interviews & success stories:
  • TRC: recycling materials that used to be non-recyclable
  • Dribo: getting a driver’s license through your phone
  • Microomics: tackling human microbiomes
  • Faromatics: farming technology for monitoring animals

Tech News

• Barcelona ranked in top 10 in latest global smart city ranking
• Uber and Glovo start to charge employees a small fee for using their platform in latest trick to bypass labour laws
• Inditex grows online sales by 41% as e-commerce makes up 10% of their business already
• Facebook and WhatsApp were fined €600K for breaking Spanish data protection regulations
• BBVA thinks there will be less banks in the future and that the main competitors will be firms like Facebook & Amazon
• Schibsted Spain records high growth rates, but states it hasn’t reached full potential yet; eyes new business opportunities
• Majority of Spaniards thinks that e-commerce and apps offer the best opportunity for launching a new business
• Deliveroo riders prefer to get paid per delivery rather than per hour

Good Reads

• The 10 Best Cafes And Hidden Work Spots In Barcelona
• An insight into some Barcelona startups (by Cadena Ser)
• Barcelona flourishes thanks to startups
• The Pillars of a Technological Ecosystem (by Mauricio Prieto, CMO of eDreams) 

GREAT EVENTS THIS WEEK

• Mon-Fri, 19-23 Mar: Euroleague Basketball Tech Challenge
• Mon, 19 Mar @ 18:30: Great Potential of Architects in the UX World
• Tue, 20 Mar @ 8:30: Esmorzar de finançament: Decisions d’inversió i finançament
• Wed, 21 Mar @ 18:30: Startup Grind BCN with Carlos Trenchs
• Thu, 22 Mar @ 19:00: Equity crowdfunding for tech startups with Dmitry Skorinko
• Thu, 22 Mar @ 19:00: ESADE SPEAKER SERIES NUM. 4: Data & Games

See the full Event Calendar here

STARTUP JOBS IN BARCELONA

• ShoeSize.Me is hiring a Content Marketing Manager
• PayFit Espana is recruiting a Product Builder
• Flylancer is looking for two co-founders (CEO/CFO & CMO)
• ElectricFeel is hiring a:
  • Technical Customer Support Representative
  • Android Developer