The Saas Institute ayuda a startups B2B a implantar procesos de ventas escalables, medibles y predecibles. El próximo 21 de febrero, organizan un Bootcamp sobre Outbound Sales en Barcelona en el que darán las claves para construir un proceso que te permita generar oportunidades de negocio de calidad. Si estáis interesados en asistir, podéis encontrar toda la información aquí y un 30% de descuento con el código NOVO2019.

Startup funding news 💸

• Cabify received a $70 million loan from Latam’s Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo to continue its expansion in the region. La Informacion also published an article about Cabify, this time focusing on recent structural changes made by the company that affect some of its subsidiaries
• San Francisco-based Returnly raised $8 million to streamline customer returns. The round was led by Spanish funds Mundi Ventures and The Venture City. Returnly has offices in both San Francisco and Madrid

Startup exits 🎊

• Madrid-based dog sitting platform Gudog and UK’s HouseMyDog merged to join forces in their European expansion. El Confidencial has more details about the deal and the story of Gudog
• The founders of travel company Atrapalo acquired the 32% stake owned by investment firm Tiger Global in the company. Atrapalo posted revenue of €340 million in 2018

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Banc Sabadell invested in UK fintech startup Bud
• Milan-based Brumbum announced a $23 million round as it seeks to expand its platform for selling and renting cars. The round was led by Accel and included the participation of Spanish fund Bonsai Ventures
• El Español published an interview with Jaime Vazquez, the director of startup incubator Demium in Madrid. The interview caused a big uproar in the Spanish tech community in the past few days. As a consequence, Demium’s CEO Jorge Dobon published an article to give more context and explain what the company is doing in recent times and what its plans are
• Spanish regulator CNMV published a list of 14 companies or entities associated with the crypto world and ICOs that, it says, are not allowed to provide investment services to others
• Belerofonte Capital announced a new investment vehicle, the Value Venture Fund 2019, with a €20 million target size
• Business Factory Aero is a Galician accelerator program focused on aeronautic and drone projects. The program is currently looking for applicants

Startup news 💡

• Barcelona-based health startup mediQuo says that it has recorded 220,000 medical consultations to date via its chat app
• Xataka published a long and in-depth profile of Smart IoT Labs, a Sevilla-based startup that’s built a series of products in the smart assistant space. The company has previously worked with Telefonica on Aura and is now working on its own assistant for the home
• The same publication also published a long article and interview with Ana Pastor about Newtral, her new media startup that wants to battle fake news
• Ontruck launched its services in the region of Paris in France, its second international market after the UK and London
• El Español profiled Redexia, a new startup founded by Alex Bryszkowski and Juan Ederra (founders of Vozelia and Labellium, respectively). The company aims to build an IoT LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) network
• Barcelona-based InfoJobs and US company Stack Overflow to start an exclusive collaboration in Spain to revolutionise the contracting of professionals in the IT sector
• Technology consulting firm Sngular posted €30 million in revenues in 2018, 50% more than in the previous year
• Business Insider talked to Pep Gomez (co-founder of Fever) about his new venture, Reby, an electronic scooter company
• EFE Emprende interviewed Pepe Martin and Victor Rodado, founders of ecommerce brand Minimalism. In the interview they disclose that Minimalism will close 2018 with €130,000 to €150,000 in revenues. On another post, the company also shared the tools that it uses to manage the business while working remotely
• Cubicup is a new startup out of Demium to book and request home improvements and renovations. The article says that more than 100 renovations have taken place through the platform, for a total GMV of €1 million
• El Referente profiled Place to Plug, a Spanish startup that’s built a platform to discover and review charging points for electric vehicles. The company also offers a product for companies to manage their network of chargers
• La Voz de Galicia interviewed Tatiana Lopez, co-founder and CEO of nanotechnology startup Nanogap
• Loogic interviewed Elena Fernández, CEO of mattress ecommerce company Colchon Morfeo

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Big company news 🏦

• US company HomeAway will finally integrate TopRural, the Spanish startup it acquired in 2012 for €14 million
• Patrik Bergareche is the new Spanish director of Just Eat. The food tech company reached more than 2 million active customers in Spain in December 2018
• US giant Pinterest is looking to build a sales team in Spain. The company doesn’t currently have any employees in the country
• Ignacio Roman, head of Emov in Spain, says that the fact that Uber and Cabify are no longer available in Barcelona as a consequence of regulation won’t stop his company from launching in the city

Tech and policy 💂🏼

• The taxi strike in Madrid came to an end, as the regional government rejected any request made by the taxi associations. Taxi drivers now want the Spanish Congress to pass a law forcing a 15 minute booking waiting time across Spain. On the other hand, taxis in Valencia have already requested also want the local government to force the waiting time on VTC cars
• Cinco Dias interviewed Rafael Garcia, CEO of VTC company Moove, to talk about the current situation and whether the company has any plans to stop operations and/or fire its drivers

Interesting reads 🤓

• VC firm Openview Partners published the following piece: ’There are two ways to product-led growth: one is harder and possibly more effective’. The article talks about Typeform’s growth strategy
• Typeform’s co-founder David Okuniev shared his experience on how to successfully update your company’s vision to pivot along with the changing needs of the market and customers
• Interesting tips and learnings from design studio Soluble about job offers and hiring procedures
• Javier Escribano (Chief Product Officer at Ontruck): ’Product routines to align squads’
• Justyna Adamczyk (VP of HR at Carto): ’Hiring tech talent for a startup in Spain?’
• Madrid-based Graphext published an article explaining how they developed their new brand identity

Podcasts of the week 🎧

• K Fund interviewed Justyna Adamczyk, VP of HR at Carto
• Itnig interviewed Nicolas Salame, CEO and co-founder of Akiles
• En.digital interviewed Alejandro Orviz, founder of Bluco
• Jan Almuni interviewed crowdfunding consultant Valenti Acconcia