This week's newsletter is brought to you by Volava.

Barcelona-based Volava is a new connected, interactive fitness platform offering a premium gym experience from the comfort of your home. You’ll enjoy thousands of boutique classes live and ondemand, all with a technology driven immersive and social platform.

Deeply rooted in a passion for motivating people to exercise and unleash their full potential at Volava we started with our Volava Bike, a premium indoor cycling experience designed to transform how you exercise.

But we do not stop here, with a pipeline of products coming soon we hope to bring an integrated fitness platform from Europe to the world. We are passionate about designing products that transform people’s lives.

Find out more about the company here.

Startup funding news 💸

• Barcelona-based telco Parlem Telecom raised €2 million from family offices
• Barcelona-based water filtering system TAPP Water raised €1.8 million
• Barcelona-based health startup Berdac Smart Services raised €345,000 from Ship2B, ESADE BAN and others
• Sevilla-based Mister Fantasy raised €300,000 from Encomenda Smart Capital

M&A activity 🎊

• Gabi Aldamiz of Chicisimo published a brave post, announcing the sale of the startup: 'How to proceed when you run out of cash, but you still believe?'
• El Corte Ingles sold its computer business IECISA to Gfi for €300 million
• Cellnex acquired €260 million worth of antennas from Orange

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• PcComponentes announced its own accelerator program, aimed at companies in the e-commerce and retail space
• Antai Venture Builder had a profit of €6 million in 2017 thanks to the sale of Wallapop and Glovo shares

Startup news 💡

• Sponsored
  Volava is a Spanish startup building a new connected, interactive fitness platform offering a premium gym experience from the comfort of your home. Find out more about the company's products here.
• Jobandtalent expects to close this year with €275 million in gross sales, up 100% year-on-year
• Glovo expands its collaboration with Carrefour, launching supermarket delivery services in a total of 11 cities, including Madrid and Barcelona
• Talent agency Manfred published its November financials: €83,000 invoiced, €67,000 in sales
• Billin and N26 signed an agreement to offer each other's services to SMEs
• El Referente interviewed Diego Bestard, co-founder of real estate crowdfunding startup Urbanitae
• El Pais interviewed Ana Maiques, co-founder of health startup Neuroelectrics. In the interview they talk about the current state of biotech in Spain
• Hawkers claims to have sold one pair of sunglasses every second during Black Friday. The company currently has 80 retail stores around Europe
• El Referente published a ranking of Spain's 100 most innovative startups
• Startup profiles: RatedPower

Big company news 🏦

• Zegona owns a big chunk of Euskaltel. Now the Basque government and other institutions want the telco to regain its Basque origins
• Both Alibaba and Amazon are looking for real estate to open new distribution centres in Andalucia
• How Spanish professional football league La Liga uses technology to combat fraud or improve viewership
• Football giants Atlético Madrid, Valencia CF and Schalke 04 signed an agreement with French startup Sorare to join blockchain game
• Aena signed an agreement with Chinese travel startup Ctrip to promote Spain amongst Chinese tourists
• Correos launched Correos Market, a marketplace to help rural areas

Tech and policy 💂🏼‍♂️

• Spain planning on going ahead with ‘Google tax’ despite US tariff threats
• TRADE Digital is the type of contract that Glovo, Deliveroo and others want the Spanish government to implement. El Español explains what the contract entails. Deliveroo also said this week that it has a 600-rider waiting list in Spain

Interesting reads 🤓

• Xarxa Emprèn: a valuable helping hand for entrepreneurs and new startups in Catalonia
• When Extremadura wanted to become Silicon Valley
• Guillem Sague of Nauta Capital published 'Why capital efficiency matters: analysis from 48 publicly traded SaaS companies'
• Sergio Montoro of La Pastilla Roja wrote 'how to avoid building a monstrous digital product'

Podcasts 🎧

• Itnig interviewed Alberto Espinos, co-founder of Tropicfeel
• Minimalism interviewed Andres Casal of Wetaca
• K Fund interviewed Gabriel Herrero-Beaumont and Jorge Gonzalez, co-founders of Bluemove
• En.digital interviewed François Derbaix of Indexa Capital