En Ironhack vemos que cada vez son más los directivos que deciden aprender a programar. ¿Por qué? Porque consideran que necesitan conocer bien el idioma de sus equipos de producto y porque quieren entender las tecnologías que están dominando el mundo de la web.

Startup funding news 💸

• Barcelona-based LetGo, the 2nd-hand shopping app, raised another $500 million at over a $1.5 billion valuation
• Basque IoT startup Wattio raised €2 million from Repsol and CDTI
• Madrid-based influencer marketing startup Samyroad raised €1.4 million from Sabadell Venture Capital and Inveready
• Travel startup Triporate raised €266,000 in just one hour on investment platform Startupxplore, led by Bankinter
• Galician fintech startup Senseitrade raised funding from ABANCA

M&A activity 🎊

• Madrid-based Amadeus buys hotel tech firm TravelClick for $1.5 billion
• Health marketplace startup Promofarma got acquired by Swiss group Zur Rose. Promofarma had raised funding from Kibo Ventures, Vitamina K, Atresmedia and others
• WiZink acquired Spanish fintech startup Aplazame to enter into ecommerce. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Aplazame had raised funding from Cabiedes & Partners
• MailUp acquired 100% of Spanish startup Acumbamail. The Italian group already owned 70% of the company at this point
• Pernod Ricard acquired Spanish wine ecommerce startup Uvinum. Terms of the deal remain undisclosed
• Sports betting app Playfulbet.com acquired by Exogroup
• As a handful of exits coincided in time in the past few days, Cinco Dias looked at current trends in the Spanish M&A tech market

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Spanish VC firm Kibo Ventures participated in DefinedCrowd $11.8 million round
• Lanzadera to launch a new accelerator program in collaboration with car manufacturer Volkswagen
• IMPACT Connected Car launches its final call to distribute up to €60,000 equity-free

Startup news 💡

• Fintech startup Novicap is working on launching its own mini-fund to finance invoices of more than €1 million
• Revolut now has more than 100,000 customers in Spain
• Luda, the company that aims to connect pharmacies to ‘share’ clients, hired François Nuyts (former MD of Amazon Spain) as non-executive director
• Marketing4ecommerce interviewed Marcos Alves, co-founder of El Tenedor (acquired by Tripadvisor)
• Startup profiles: Libelium (IoT), Guruwalk (tour guide marketplace), Bendita Llave (home security), Finizens (fintech), Lookiero (fashion subscription business)

Big company news 🏦

• BBVA says that the current proposal to build a sandbox regulation for fintech startups (of which details have yet to be unveiled) is good for both banks and startups
• Very interesting profile of Madiva, the big data startup acquired by BBVA a few years back. Written by the BBVA itself, but still relevant to understand what they do and how they do it
• Electric scooters in Madrid: Lime launched its e-mobility in the Spanish capital
• El Corte Ingles to be considering selling its IT division (Iecisa) for as much as €400 million
• Tesla won’t open its European gigafactory in Spain

Tech and policy 💂🏼

• Spanish taxi drivers ended their strike “for now”, after a proposal by the Spanish government to let regional authorities decide whether they want to take over responsibility for issuing VTC licenses, which companies like Uber and Cabify operate under
• New labor law cracks down on startups such as Glovo and Deliveroo. The first few fines could be handled out six months from now
• Madrid’s local government will allow riders of food delivery services (Glovo, Deliveroo, etc) to use BiciMAD’s bikes to work
• Airbnb hosts in Madrid will be able to rent entire homes up to 90 days with no other requirements, as well as single rooms. For those that want to rent out homes for more days, they need a specific license and a separate door from the main building for guests. Spanish competition regulator CNMC is not too happy about these and other regulations that are being passed in various cities across Spain

Interesting reads 🤓

• La Vanguardia profiled entrepreneur and investor Jesus Monleon (Seedrocket, Offerum, emagister, Seedrocket4Founders): ’Investors are not your friends’
• The coworking bubble: chronicles of a really tough business
• Manuel Avello: ’The 8 reasons why I decided to learn how to program with Ironhack after getting a business degree’
• Caroline Lagergren (ExpandToSpain.com): ’Spains dominance in CleanTech is reaping new sustainable startups’
• Cecilia Ollero (Igeneris): ’Car sharing is the new normal’

Podcasts of the week 🎧

• Itnig interviewed Oriol Vinzia, CEO of Gymforless (acquired by Sodexo)