This week’s newsletter is brought to you by Predictiva. Based in Marbella, Predictiva believes companies can create better products and services if they understand their customers better.

The company’s conversational intelligence software transforms phone calls from a non structured sequence of audio into actionable data facilitating that communication. Predictiva aims to help companies develop great customer experiences reducing subjectivity in the analysis and interpretation of communication.

Predictiva recently raised €2.6 million and is looking to hire for several positions, including a Chief Product Officer. For more info, scroll down.

Startup funding news 💸

• Madrid-based startup Fever raised $35 million for its event curation platform. The round was led by Rakuten Capital, with participation from Accel Partners and Atresmedia
• Barcelona-based travel startup Exoticca raised €11 million in a round led by Italian VC Milano Investment Partners
• Madrid-based chatbot developer 1MillionBot raised €1.5 million
• Logistics startup Booboo raised €400,000 from undisclosed investors

M&A activity 🎊

• UK-based PromoteIQ, a company backed by Spanish VC firm Nauta Capital, was acquired by Microsoft
• According to Bloomberg, Glovo has drawn preliminary interest from Uber Technologies and Deliveroo in recent months as the industry undergoes a wave of consolidation

Startup news 💡

• Spanish neobank Bnext has more than 250,000 active users as of July 2019. This represents a 10X increase compared to the same month last year. The company expects to start its international expansion later this year, starting with Mexico
• Long and in-depth profile of Madrid-based real estate startup Spotahome by Xataka
• Ticketea's founder and former CEO Javier Andres is leaving the company, following its acquisition by Eventbrite. In a post, Javier takes a look at the beginning of the company and what he might do in the future
• Barcelona-based fintech startup Kantox has partnered with Silicon Valley Bank to offer cutting-edge FX management software to SVB’s corporate clients across the UK
• El Referente published a profile of Footters, the Sevilla-based football streaming company. Footters claims to have more than 2,000 paid subscribers and 25,000 registered users
• Malaga's old Correos building is vacant. Several tweets from various Malaga-based startup founders sparked a conversation -and perhaps plans- to convert the building into a startup centre. Malaga's major seems to back the initiative
• Eloi Gomez of Mr Jeff published on Twitter a screenshot of the evolution of franchises opened in the past two years
• Marketing agency Cyberclick reached €5 million in sales last year. 30% of the company's business is outside of Spain. In an interview, CEO David Tomas also says that the company sold its investment in 5 other startups last year
• Cinco Dias published an overview of the transportation and taxi market in Spain, which features several startups and corporates trying to co-exist
• Startup profiles: Dribo, Kiwi Last Mile, GreeMko, Useful Wastes, Bob, Situm

Predictiva’s mission is to create great customer experiences reducing subjectivity in the analysis and interpretation of communication.

Following a significant €2.5 million round, Predictiva is ready to take its product and company to the next stage. In order to do so, it’s looking for a Chief Product Officer to be located in its Marbella headquarters.

For more info on the role and to apply, click here.

Big company news 🏦

• Fashion brand Mango reached €2.3 billion in sales in 2018. Online sales represent 20% of the company's revenues, a 30% year-on-year increase
• Netflix's price increase will affect Spanish clients from September
• How Spanish corporates such as Siro, Estrella Galicia or Mackmyra are developing new food and beverages using AI

Tech and policy 💂🏼

• The Spanish Health Minister is investigating various websites and online stores that sell meds and drugs online

Interesting reads 🤓

• How a Basque school uses big data and AI to personalise children's education. The school relies on solutions built by Spanish company Ibermatica
• El Mundo profiled Ana Ariño, Chief Strategy Officer at New York City Economic Development Corporation, tasked with designing NYC's innovation strategy
• Thought provoking post by Vizzuality: 'Vizzuality is moving'
• Pablo Pazos (Barkibu): 'Who will be the Babylon Health of the Pet Health Sector?'
• Jorge Gomez Sancha (Tinybird): 'VP of Delivery'
• Felix Lopez (Google): 'Do I want to become a manager?'

Podcasts of the week 🎧

• Kernel interviewed Carina Szpilka (K Fund, Adigital)
• MasQueStartups interviewed Felix Lopez (Google)
• En.digital interviewed Alex Bryszkowski (Redexia)