Start 2020 investing in a Retail Tech Acceleration program with EGI Booster

The retail digital transformation/revolution is a reality and its constant evolution brings new needs that have to be solved. Most of these challenges are solved by the arrival of innovative Digital Commerce startups.

As an investor it might be difficult to choose which startups can make the difference, this is why we created EGI Booster. Our main goal is to identify for you the most disruptive european startups in Retail Tech, Fashion Tech and Ecommerce Tech.

Facing the growing success of SaaS ecommerce solutions such as Olapic, Demandware, UserZoom, EGI Group has decided to launch the first international SaaS ecommerce tool accelerator in Barcelona.

If you are an an investor looking for new projects in 2020, this is your opportunity. Last tickets available! Join our board of investors together with Sonae Group (Continente, Worten, Salsa) and the Mulliez Family (Alcampo, Decathlon, Leroy Merlin), among others. Fill in this form to receive more details.

Startup funding news 💸

• Bob.io, Madrid-based tech service that transports and checks in luggage for passengers, raised €3 million from K Fund, Big Sur Ventures, GAA Investments and TA Ventures and business angels such as Andreas Mihalovits and Carlos Domingo. Cinco Dias has more details on Bob's business. Pablo Ventura of K Fund explained in an article why the fund decided to back the company two years ago
• Salamanca-based traveltech Beonprice raised €2.5 million for its AI-driven hospitality revenue software, led by Adara Ventures and K Fund
• Barcelona-based Boxmotions raised €2.4 million led by Fitalent (Everis), Castel Capital and Finaves
• Valencia-based biotech startup Arthrex Biotech raised €1.5 million from Invivo Ventures
• Madrid-based corporate travel management startup Triporate raised €1.3 million from multiple
• Barcelona-based Pangea Aerospace raised €1 million via The Crowd Angel
• Madrid-based EthicHub, a startup that puts in contact investors in developed countries with solvent borrowers in developing countries, raised €1 million from BIDLab
• Repsol announced a new capital increase for Nanogap, a Galician nanotechnology startup. Repsol was already an investor in the company, and with this increase, it says that it has "expanded its participation in the company by a significant amount"
• Startups looking for funding: Mr Noow

Exit activity and investor & accelerator news 🎊

• Sponsored
  Are you an investor looking for new investment opportunities? EGI Group is putting together a new batch of its retail tech accelerator. If you want to find out more details about this opportunity, click here.
• Indra acquired Spanish cybersecurity company SIA (Sistemas Informaticos Abiertos). Some reports claim that Indra paid between €70 and €75 million for the company founded in 1989. SIA provides security and digital identity services, has more than 700 employees, sales of €60 million and EBITDA of around €10 million
• US insurance giant AON completed the acquisition of NYC-based insurtech startup Coverwallet. Coverwallet was co-founded by Iñaki Berenguer and has a product and engineering office in Madrid. Kibo Ventures was also an investor in the company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed
• Wheels, an American e-scooter startup that has raised more than $90 million in VC funding, acquired Spanish mobility company Mygo
• US company Appian acquired Sevilla-based Novayre Solutions, developer of the Jidoka RPA (Robotics Process Automation) platform. Jidoka is currently the highest-rated RPA software on Gartner Peer Insights.

Startup news 💡

• La Informacion wrote in an article that Spotahome is currently looking for a new round of funding, a year and a half after raising €34 million from Kleiner Perkins. The article has more details on what the company has been up to in recent months and why they might need a new capital injection
• Cabify's CEO, Juan de Antonio, told La Informacion that 2019 was the best year in the company's history and that it's on its way to becoming the first profitable company in the ride hailing sector
• Jeff, the Valencia-based startup building a technology-driven cleaning and adjacent services franchise model, explained in a blog post how their expansion plans work in "Expanding a franchise: the value of turnkey". The company has more than 1,700 franchisees worldwide
• Talent agency Manfred published its financial performance in the month of December: bookings of €75,000 and sales of €72,000
• NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie plans to launch a token-based investment vehicle that will allow third party investors to participate in his contract and future. Behind this whole deal is Securitize, a company co-founded by former Wayra director Carlos Domingo
• Ecommerce brand Minimalism disclosed its 2019 financials: sales of €211,000, growth of 45% year-on-year, more than 6,000 orders and more details
• Food ecommerce startup Mentta disclosed several financial numbers for the 2019 year
• El Referente profiled Qonto, a French startup that's also active in Spain and that provides a business banking account for SMEs and freelancers
• Startup profiles: Pantala, Journify

Big company news 🏦

• Mercadona to launch its new ecommerce store in Madrid before June, following previous launches in Valencia and Barcelona
• Mutua announced the hiring of Marta De Eusebio, former country manager of Movo in Spain, to become part of its mobility division

Interesting reads 🤓

• David Z of Spotahome wrote an article explaining how the company does QA and tests its backend platform
• Felix Lopez of Google continued with its series about the role of the engineering manager and this time he wrote about conflict management
• Javier Escribano, CPO at OnTruck, wrote about OKRs: "Two exercises to review your past OKRs to achieve high performing teams"
• Programming language COBOL is turning 60 years old. Xataka talked to various programmers who use COBOL on a daily basis: "I'm a professional developer and I still use COBOL"

Podcasts 🎧

• Acelerando Empresas interviewed Cristina Vila of Cledara
• K Fund interviewed José Pérez Agüera and Fernando Díaz, CPO and CTO, respectively, of Mercadona Tech
• Itnig interviewed Octavi Uyà of Nautal
• Lunes Inspiradores interviewed Sara Orra, COO of Trioteca