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Flywire raises $120m at $1b+ valuation. Kantox raises €8m. Barcelona Tech Spirit.

February 17, 2020 • Issue #204

¿Quieres medir la experiencia de tu cliente o empleado? ¿Quieres escucharles en un punto concreto de su journey? ¿Quieres tener toda la información en una única plataforma, donde poder entender y accionar su voz en tiempo real?

Likeik CX es un B2B tecnológico español que opera dentro del ecosistema del Experience Management. Su Plataforma omnicanal, mide y acciona en tiempo real la voz del cliente y empleado.

Para poder satisfacer la necesidad de todo tipo de cliente, contamos con una herramienta autoservicio SaaS pero también desarrollamos e implantamos proyectos 100% a medida. Somos muy versátiles y asequibles. Nuestra plataforma tiene más de 35 funcionalidades y cada cliente puede contratar solo aquellas que necesita.

Grandes marcas como Grupo Correos, IKEA, Leroy Merlin, Eroski o Grupo Caja Rural, nos han elegido para ayudarles a activar los super poderes de sus clientes.

Startup funding news 💸

  • Boston and Valencia-based payments startup Flywire raised $120 million from Goldman Sachs. The company also announced the acquisition of Simplee, a health care technology platform. The round values Flywire at more than $1 billion. Flywire was originally founded by Iker Marcaide and has always had its software development centre in Valencia. Spanish funds Kibo Ventures and JME invested in the company, with JME selling its stake in Flywire in its previous round of funding
  • Barcelona-based FX platform Kantox raised €8 million from BNP Paribas
  • Barcelona-based clean and health startup Baula raised €1.3 million
  • Barcelona-based trading app for goods Consentio raised €1.1 million from various investors
  • Barcelona-based pricing intelligence startup Optimus Price raised €600,000 from Wayra and various business angels
  • A Coruña-based Arengu, creators of a SaaS product to create and automate sign-up forms, raised €500,000 from K Fund, Lanai Partners and Rafa Garrido. I wrote about why we made the investment here

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

  • Emprendedores.es talked to various Spanish accelerators (SeedRocket, Conector, Demium) about what startups should focus on when choosing an accelerator
  • Tandem Bank’s chief product officer has joined Santander InnoVentures

Startup news 💡

  • According to La Informacion, Spotahome laid -off 10% of its staff due to its business apparently not growing as fast as expected
  • Neobank Bnext to launch in Mexico. Bnext claims to have attracted 300,000 active users in Spain. In the last 12 months, the startup has processed €430 million across 11.6 million transactions. Bnext also announced last week that it has obtained a banking license from Banco de España and that it will launch a current account soon
  • ABC profiled foodtech startup Wetaca. The company claims to sell 30,000 weekly meals and has monthly sales of €450,000
  • TaskRabbit, acquired by Ikea a few years ago, has launched in Barcelona. In the same article, El Confidencial looks at the activity of Spanish competitor Jobin, which has gone through some up and downs in recent times
  • El Pais published a profile of Manuel Heredia, co-founder of Resultados Futbol. The bootstrapped data and news site reached revenues of €6 million in 2019
  • Cooltra must move 1,200 of its mopeds out of Barcelona, and it’s not happy
  • Fintonic was once again in the news. The fintech company plans to launch an insurance broker within its app, as well as services aimed at the telco and energy sector. Fintonic claims to have 900,000 clients and to have generated €100 million in loans last year
  • Forbes published a profile of We Are Knitters, a community and brand that last year had 130,000 orders from around the globe with over $13.5 million in sales
  • Ironhack published its first student outcome report, to analyse how students have fared after going through one of the company's bootcamps. Ironhack says that 90% of job-seeking graduates were placed within 6 months
  • Ticketing platform Wegow says that in 2019 it had sales of €25.4 million, more than 100% growth compared to 2018
  • El Referente published a deep dive of the govtech sector (startups selling products and services to government clients) in Spain and Latam
  • Startup profiles: AllRead, Sepiia

M&A 🎊

  • Sngular acquired talent agency Manfred. David Bonilla wrote about why in his weekly newsletter

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We are a Series A VC-backed SaaS startup with an incredible team of +100 people based in Madrid. We are looking for a Sr. UI / UX Designer to join the Product department and their mission of taking our products to the next level.

Big company news 🏦

  • Adevinta Spain (Schibsted) closed 2019 with €182 million in revenue, up 14% year-on-year, and €60.5 million in EBITDA
  • FC Barcelona to launch its own cryptocurrency

Tech and policy 💂🏼‍♂️

  • 140 minority investors in Gowex have sued BME (Bolsas y Mercados Españoles) and E&Y for lack of supervision

Interesting reads 🤓

  • As you've probably heard by now, MWC and 4YFN have been cancelled. Since then, a grassroots movement has started in Barcelona to put together a series of events in the dates of MWC/4YFN. The movement is called Barcelona Tech Spirit. There's a #barcelonatechspirit or #bcntechspirit hashtag on Twitter to know what's goin on
  • Digital advertising in Spain surpassed the €3 billion mark for the first time ever. Display, social and search account for 86% of the total
  • Simon Muñoz (Director of Product Management at Flywire) wrote about mental models for product managers and 'Addition by Subtraction'

Podcasts 🎧

  • K Fund interviewed Aurore and Carmen of VC firm Samaipata
  • En.digital chatted to Miguel Caballero about the world of crypto and blockchain
  • Itnig interviewed Sergi Villaubí of Apartum
  • SeedRocket interviewed Pablo Szefner of Justfab
  • Lunes Inspiradores interviewed Gerard Compte of FindThatLead
  • I don't think I've ever highlighted Fran Guillen's podcast, Acelerando Empresas. He publishes a few episodes per week and you should check them out

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