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Startup funding news 💸

• Madrid-based rental property Site Spotahome raised $40 million for expansion. The round was led by Silicon Valley-based VC firm Kleiner Perkins
• Madrid-based Devo (formerly known as Logtrust) scored $25 million from Insight Venture Partners and Kibo Ventures
• Barcelona-based online travel agency Exoticca bagged $4.1 million for market expansion, in a round led by K Fund
• Shoe maker Pompeii raised €1 million from various investors
• Andalusian logistics startup Mission Box raised €750,000
• Direct-to-consumer brand Thunder raised €300,000

M&A activity 🎊

• Portuguese corporate Sonae acquired Spanish cybersecurity firm Nextel. Terms of the deal were not disclosed

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Madrid-based Samaipata Ventures invested in French marketplace Procsea
• F.Iniciativas acquired Inveready’s consulting subsidiary, Inveready Innovation Consulting
• Kippel01 looked into the activity of Banc Sabadell as a startup investor and accelerator
• Conector to launch a blockchain accelerator program in conjunction with Bloomium
• Bewater Funds, the platform that allows investors to buy secondary shares in startups, launched a new fund to invest in Zacatrus

Startup news 💡

• Motorbike sharing platform Scoot, which as offices in Barcelona but was founded in San Francisco, will soon launch its service in the Catalan city
• Scott Arpajian, CEO of Softonic, was interviewed by Cinco Dias to talk about the company’s turnaround. Following several years of losses and layoffs, the company posted once again a profit in 2017
• El Confidencial profiled Housfy, the proptech startup that claims to help sell two apartments every day
• Energy startup Holaluz has signed a partnership with Tesla to distribute its powerwall home batteries
• Citibox has hired Joaquin Duran (former director of M&A boutique Bluebull Ventures) as head of finance
• Ecommerce startup Funidelia reached €18 million in sales in 2017
• Kippel01 profiled Berlin-based ghost restaurant startup Keatz, which is run in Spain by Joaquin Mencia and Carlos Maribona and is currently active in Barcelona and soon in Madrid
• La Informacion profiled Zeleros, a Valencia-based startup that’s trying to create a competitor to Elon Musks’ Hyperloop train
• Fintech startup Novicap expects to finance more than €100 million this year through its platform
• Biwel paves way for Spanish companies working abroad to have unified health plans

Big company news 🏦

• Bizum, the P2P payments platform created and supported by most Spanish banks, has reached more than 1.5 million users
• Uber is now live in several Spanish cities in the Costa del Sol. The company has also announced a 20% discount for all trips to/from AVE stations
• Amazon’s Spotify competitor, Prime Music, is now available in Spain. According to El Español, Amazon’s factory employees see the hiring of Mariangela Marseglia as a good sign, in the context of their requests for better working conditions
• Apple to pay the Spanish tax office €14 million following an inspection of its retail subsidiary in the country

Tech and policy 💂🏼

• Spain’s Supreme Court ratified a government law that will impose strict limits to the number of VTC licenses in the market, thus impeding Uber to grow in cars in Spain and other players from entering the market. Traditional taxi drivers will also benefit from this decision. This decision also benefits current holders of VTC licenses
• A Valencia judge has ruled that Deliveroo’s riders are ‘falsos autónomos’ (fake freelancers) given their relationship with the company. This could have a big impact in the delivery sector in Spain

Interesting reads 🤓

• Spain has a new government. El Confidencial looks at past promises that new president Pedro Sánchez made to entrepreneurs. Will he fulfil them?
• El País Retina profiled serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky and its Menorca Millennials initiative
• Caroline Lagergren (ExpandToSpain): ’Partnerships are key to success when expanding to Spain - Insights from 4 international startups’
• Product development studio Vernon launched its first in-house product, The Hiring Circle
• Barcelona’s thriving MusicTech scene

Podcasts of the week 🎧

• Travelcast interviewed Juanjo Rodríguez, founder and CEO of The Hotels Network
• MasQueStartups interviewed Fernando Blat of Populate
• Itnig interviewed Jesus Monleon (eMagister, Offerum, Seedrocket)
• En.Digital interviewed Victor Rodado and Pepe Martín, founders of Minimalism Brand