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Startup funding news 💸

• According to El Referente, Spanish startups raised a total of €13,5 million in August 2019
• Madrid-based Soto Solar raised €100 million from a group of international wealth investors, in exchange for 50% of the company's shares. Soto Solar develops and invests in subsidy-free, large-scale, ground-mounted solar PV projects
• Spanish multinational Geroa invested in energy startup Holaluz. Terms of the deal were not disclosed
• US real estate and robotics startup Ori raised $20 million from Ikea, Alphabet and Khosla Ventures. The startup's CEO is Basque entrepreneur Hasier Larrea
• Barcelona-based home improvement company Aqui Tu Reforma raised €650,000 from Encomenda Smart Capital and other investors

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Axon Partners expects to complete the first closing of its fund of funds, Aurora, in October. First closing will be at €100 million
• Equity crowdfunding site Sociosinversores says that it has channeled more than €3 million to Spanish startups so far in 2019

Startup news 💡

• Sponsored
  Bardo es una compañía de producto e innovación con sede en Barcelona, clientes en todo el mundo y más de 10 años de experiencia. Facilitan Design Sprints y Brand Sprints, diseñan productos innovadores, ayudan a compañías a sumarse a la transformación digital y a optimizar sus procesos de trabajo. Si quieres una sesión de consultoría 1:1 gratuita para tu compañía puedes escribirle a josefina@bybardo.co mencionándole este newsletter.
• El Pais wrote a profile of Empathy.co, an Asturias-based startup that offers a series of search APIs to companies. Empathy will ofer its services to Tim Bernes-Lee decentralization project Solid
• Glovo was all over the news last week, with several articles. The company had sales of €52 million in 2018 (2.7X year-on-year) and losses of €47 million (8.2X YoY). Expansion has all the numbers. Glovo is currently active in 26 countries and 200 cities and has more than 1,300 employees, not counting delivery riders. El Confidencial looked at the company's numbers and the risks Glovo faces in the next few years
• El Español wrote about Playtomic, the platform to book tennis and padel courts and football pitches. In the article the company says that it has raised €7.1 million to date and revenues have tripled to €4.1 million
• Fundsfy is a new Valencia-based neobank aimed at people with between €10,000 and €1m in assets that don't have access to private banking services
• Valencia-based Mr Jeff says it's currently opening 100 new stores per month
• Talent agency Manfred continues to publish its monthly revenue numbers. The company had sales of €111,000 in August
• El Pais wrote an overview of the tech pet sector, featuring local startups such as Gudog, Wakyma or Vivadogs
• Malaga is increasingly becoming a small hub of cybersecurity firms, featuring companies such as VirusTotal (Google) or Hispasec. An event taking place next month will bring together these companies and other professionals
• Spanish profiles: Woom, Medicsen, Yami, Wado, Parc, Fixme, Sunjob, Scoutim, Zensei, Shoreview

Streamloots is a Valencia-based startup that was born in Silicon Valley and that has developed a unique way for streamers to interact with their fans and increase their revenue.

Streamloots is hiring a Front End developer (React). If you are a passionate software developer, you take pride in choosing the best technical solution and you care about the product you’re building, this is your team! You will get involved early in the Product Design process, meaning you will make an impact on helping to decide what we build and how we build it. You can read more and apply here.

Big company news 🏦

• Inditex's online sales reached €3.1 billion in 2018, 12% of the company's total sales, becoming the largest online fashion retailer in the world, bigger than H&M or Asos
• Mercadona plans to hire more than 200 software engineers in the next few months
• Telefonica's share price has dropped significantly in the last few years. According to El Confidencial, the level of concern internally about this is increasing and the company is having its board meeting earlier to address the issue

Tech and policy 💂🏼

• Bank of Spain has pushed back the implementation date of PSD2 in Spain, the new payments directive that will affect online businesses across Europe
• Francisco Polo, Spain's secretary responsible of designing a digital strategy, was interviewed in Valencia Plaza to talk about what the government can do to improve entrepreneurship in Spain
• Aemec, the Spanish tech employer's association, asked the government not to impose a tax on tech companies and to wait for the OECD to legislate

Interesting reads 🤓

• An increasing number of Spanish newspapers and publications are trying subscription-based business models. Xataka looked at the results of some of these initiatives
• Jorge Calvo, professor at Tokio's University Graduate School of Management, looked at the possibilities of Barcelona becoming a deep tech hub
• Victor Servin (The Venture City): 'Do’s and don’ts when building early stage startups (from an Engineer’s point of view) '
• Andy Areitio (The Venture City) :'How much dilution makes sense for a founder'

Podcasts of the week 🎧

• Itnig interviewed Juan Zamora, CEO of Signaturit
• K Fund interviewed Hans Christ, CEO of Bipi
• En.digital interviewed Jorge Garcia, of Marketing Paradise