En Ironhack estamos preparando la nueva generación de creadores digitales: desarrolladores web, diseñadores UX/UI, analistas de datos… Ya hemos graduado a más de 2000 estudiantes en todo el mundo y queremos seguir cambiando la vida de muchos más.

Entérate de nuestras próximas convocatorias de Primavera con los Bootcamps de Full time (9 semanas intensivas) y Part time (6 meses en donde podrás complementarlo con tu trabajo actual).

Startup funding news 💸

• Glovo says that it could raise another big round soon. The company raised a €115 million round in July, valuing the company at €250 million. The fresh capital would be used to continue its expansion in Latam, Africa and Asia. The company also aims to open a new tech development centre in Brazil
• According to Crunchbase, Barcelona-based conversational sales & marketing startup Whisbi raised €5 million in December 2018. €1 million in fresh capital from Active Venture Partners and €4 million in venture debt from Columbia Lake Partners
• Telefonica announced that Wayra Spain invested €1.3 million in 2018 in 13 startups: Clevernet (portfolio company of ours at K Fund, previously known as Starflow Networks), Engidi, Floorfy, Govertis, Ihacklabs, iUrban, Ludus, Quadminds, SmartIOTLabs, Teltoo, Vchain, Wibson and Ybvr
• On-demand home cleaning startup MyPoppins raised €1 million from US VC Brainstorm Ventures
• Valencia-based travel startup Howlanders raised €250,000 via investment platform Startupxplore. The company says that it closed 2018 with €600,000 in sales and 2,000 travelers that used its platform
• Food company Grefusa has invested in Valencia-based gamification startup Play&Go

Startup exits 🎊

• The price that Repsol paid to acquire payments and promotions platform Klikin was revealed last week: €12 million

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• MasMovil announced the launch of its own startup accelerator, Masventures
• R2 Seed Investments is a new investment vehicle linked to Realiza Business Angels that aims to back early stage startups
• Lanzadera disclosed the name of the 33 new companies that will participate in its accelerator program in Valencia
• Renfe announced the four companies that will participate in its accelerator batch: Limmat Group, IoMob, Zeleros and Nixi1
• Bewater launched a new fund to invest in Gear Translations, a company based in Canarias that’s built a system to help companies translate their content

Startup news 💡

• Sponsored
  If you work at a SaaS startup, you probably know that scaling your sales & marketing operations is one of the toughest things to do. That’s where consulting firm ’The SaaS Institute’ comes in. The company is putting together a couple of one-day bootcamps in Madrid (Feb 7th) and Barcelona (Feb 21st) for SaaS startups that want to learn how to build a scalable and predictable sales operations. More info here
• Madrid-based location intelligence startup Carto announced Luis Sanz as its new CEO. Luis is the former co-founder of Olapic (acquired by Monotype for about $130 million a few years ago) and will replace Javier de la Torre, who will become head of strategic partnerships and business development for the company. El Confidencial sat down with Luis Sanz for an interview and pofile
• Wallapop posted revenues of €11 million in 2017, as well as a loss of €36 million (down from €54 million in 2016). These numbers are really not representative of the current state of the company and are also outdated. What I’ve heard is that the company expects to become cash flow positive this year. La Informacion has an interesting article with a deeper analysis of the company’s current state, as well as potential bonuses for its executives in the case of an exit
• Interesting article about Woffu, the Barcelona-based startup that’s built a product to make life easier for HR teams. The article says that Woffu grew 90% in 2018, reaching an ARR (annual recurring revenue) of €700,000, and that it’s looking to raise €1.5 million in funding
• ElDiario.es profiled Mission Box, the Andalusian startup that’s built a last mile delivery network formed of professionals/employees (instead of freelancers) that mostly works for Just Eat
• Real estate crowdfunding platform Housers wants to raise €5 million. According to this article in La Informacion, the company now faces internal issues as one of its co-founders (who was apparently fired a few months ago) wants to stop the company from raising more capital
• Spanish neobank Bnext says that it reached 100,000 clients in 2018 after growing at an average monthly pace of 48%
• Kippel01 talked to OnTruck’s co-founder and CMO Gonzalo Parejo. Some numbers: the company is active in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and London and is currently looking at the French and German markets, it has 115 employees and it has grown at a +25% monthly rate in 2018 in terms of business. Javier Escribano, OnTruck’s head of product, looked back at the past three years and various lessons learned building product for truckers and companies
• bnc10, a new neobank based in Barcelona, puts app on ‘waiting list’ with prizes for early adopters before official launch. The company has partnered with Unnax, a Spanish BaaS (banking-as-a-service) provider, for the management and control of accounts, transfers and online services for customers
• El Pais profiled Blinkfire Analytics, the Valencia-based startup that’s built a product to help advertisers and professional sports teams understand their advertising efforts better
• Real estate startup Housfy said that it sold more than 1,000 homes on its platform in 2018 (7X year-on-year) and will launch its services outside of Spain in 2019
• Kippel01 published this week that Fever is changing offices in Madrid. What’s also included in the article is news that Fever wants to raise funding again in Q1 2019. The company raised €20 million in July 2018 and has raised almost $40 million since being founded, according to Crunchbase
• Reflights is a new company that wants to help consumers get some kind of compensation when their flights are cancelled or delayed. The space is quite competitive in Spain already, with other players such as Reclamador or Indemnizame already operating locally
• Napbox is a Barcelona-based startup that has created a network of physical booths or boxes that consumers can rent by the hour to relax inside, rest or do other more personal things. Byhours is apparently involved in the project
• Barcelona’s nightlife concierge startup Xceed surpasses 3.5 million users

Big company news 🏦

• Spanish bank BBVA may be preparing to add the UK’s Atom Bank to its burgeoning portfolio of 100%-owned neo-banking startups. BBVA owns at least 40% of the British neobank
• UK food tech company Just Eat posted its financials for 2017. The company reached a profit of €2.5 million (its first in Spain since 2013) with revenues of €28 million
• French multinational Sodexo plans to create a tech hub in Barcelona, following the acquisition of local wellness startup Gymforless a couple of years ago
• Uber is now live in Valencia, it’s sixth city in Spain

Tech and policy 💂🏼

• Taxis and VTC license holders were on the news a lot this week. Barcelona’s taxi drivers went on strike towards the end of the week, which ended not only in protests, but also in personal and physical attacks to Cabify and Uber drivers. Shameful. Cataluña’s government is now saying that it might implement a 15 minute booking threshold for those who want to use Cabify and Uber in Barcelona, although this limit has not been imposed yet
• Taxi drivers will also go on strike this week in Madrid to demand stronger regulation against VTC licenses in the city. The strike coincides with Fitur, the giant tourism and travel fair in Madrid
• Xataka has an article explaining what the Spanish Google Tax is and how it can affect businesses. Interestingly, and probably in an anticompetitive way, the tax won’t apply to local companies such as El Corte Ingles or Zara

Interesting reads 🤓

• El Confidencial put together a list of six Spanish startups that they believe will do very well in 2019: Devo (Logtrust), Singularu, Travelperk, Platonic Games, Blueliv and Chiara

Podcasts of the week 🎧

• Blockchain minutes published its first podcast in seven months. Raul Marcos and Pablo Ventura looked at what’s happened in the meantime in the crypto world
• Itnig interviewed Philippe Gelis, CEO and co-founder of fintech startup Kantox
• En.Digital interviewed Joshua Ivars, CEO of ecommerce company La Tienda del Apicultor
• Lunes Inspiradores interviewed Enric Miquel, co-founder of the foodtech company KUiK Meal