La competición de Cita Emprende, que tendrá lugar el 29 de abril en Donostia, ofrece una oportunidad inmejorable a startups a la búsqueda de levantar una ronda de financiación y/o encontrar un socio industrial.

En este contexto, deberán convencer al jurado de que están desarrollando un modelo de negocio robusto, escalable e invertible.

Las 8 startups seleccionadas podrán hacerlo en uno de los mejores escaparates posibles, ante un importante número de inversores cualificados y directivos de pymes interesados en conocer proyectos en los cuales invertir o con los que suscribir acuerdos win-win de desarrollo de negocio.

Consulta las bases de participación y los atractivos premios a repartir aquí.

Startup funding news 💸

• According to El Referente, Spanish startups raised a combined €19 million in February 2020
• Barcelona-based medtech startup Aortyx raised €650,000
• Barcelona-based food tech startup Mr Noow raised €235,000 on Crowdcube

M&A activity 🎊

• A few weeks ago I mentioned that PE fund Apax could try to take idealista public. Last week it was disclosed that Apax is now valuing idealista in its books at more than €900 million, almost 5X the amount it valued it five years ago
• Banco Santander agreed to acquire 50,1% of Ebury a few months ago, the deal is pending regulatory approval. In the meantime, Banco Santander made last week its first payment by acquiring 6,4% of the fintech startup for €45 million, valuing Ebury at €700 million
• MasMovil acquired low-cost pay as you go MVNO Lycamobile for €372 million. Lycamobile had €140 million in sales and EBITDA of €45 million

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Sponsored
  CITA Emprende is an event that will take place in San Sebastian on April 29th with the goal of bringing together startups, corporates and investors in the Basque Country and beyond. If you're a startup interested in applying, you can find more information here.
• Fundación Bankinter published 'Observatorio del Ecosistema de Startups' a new useful tool to keep track of data related to the Spanish startup ecosystem
• Altamar has become one of the larger fund management firms outside of the US to focus on Venture Capital investments, with more than €1 billion in assets under management

Startup news 💡

• 'El florecimiento de la Andalucía tecnológica': El Mundo wrote about the technology scene in Andalucia, mostly concentrated in Sevilla and Malaga, that has produced several relevant startups in the past few years
• La Informacion says that Scytl will compete with Indra to become the main provider in the Catalan elections to be celebrated this year
• Ecommerce startup TradeInn to open a new distribution centre with the goal of reaching €245 million in sales in 2020
• Barcelona-based travel management startup TravelPerk launched GreenPerk, a new product to not just track, but address, the carbon output from business travel flights
• Fintonic plans to expand its financial services, including a bank account and debit card
• Wallbox, the Catalan producer of electric chargers for the home and businesses, plans to open a new development centre in Barcelona with capacity to sell 500,000 chargers per year. Wallbox surpassed €9 million in sales last year
• Cabify launched in Zaragoza, with 20 cars available for now
• Electronic invoicing and signature company Docuten to open its first international office, in London
• Startup profiles: Fuell, 2gether

CITA Emprende es el evento de match-making para la generación de negocio entre pymes y startups en clave de innovación abierta. Tendrá lugar el 29 de abril en San Sebastián y las startups interesadas en participar en este formato pueden aplicar aquí.

En esta tercera edición se consolida la colaboración del Bind 4.0, programa vasco de aceleración startups #Industry40 con corporates, además de asegurar la participación de numerosas startups y un número significativo de corporates de otros ecosistemas avanzados del país.

El núcleo del encuentro son las citas speed dating, curadas por la organización, entre startups, pymes/corporates y los fondos de inversión, para facilitar operaciones y acercamiento entre los diferentes actores del sector.

Big company news 🏦

• Banco Santander's PagoFX is due to go live in the spring, taking on TransferWise and other startups tackling foreign exchange fees

Tech and policy 💂🏼‍♂️

• Lots of uncertainty continues to surround the Spanish Google Tax. The government acknowledged last week that it doesn't know how many local businesses will be affected by it

Interesting reads 🤓

• Myriam Barnes (K Fund) wrote 'The seed startup ecosystem in Spain: An analysis of K Fund’s Dealflow using Graphext'
• Samuel Gil (JME) wrote 'Money is emotional, investing is rational'
• Felix Lopez (Google) wrote 'Ownership, what's ownership?'
• Arcabo Blue Bull wrote 'How to assess Artificial Intelligence startups'
• Caroline Lagergren (Expand to Spain) wrote 'Spanish women-led startups get access to more VC cash'

Podcasts 🎧

• Jesus Alonso interviewed François Derbaix, co-founder of Indexa Capital
• Data Interviews interviewed Victoriano Izquierdo and Almudena Sanz of Graphext
• K Fund interviewed Felipe Talavera, VP of Engineering of Flywire
• En.digital interviewed Victor Correal of GuideDoc
• Itnig interviewed Juan Pablo Tejela of Metricool
• Lunes Inspiradores interviewed Sebastien Marion of Kasaz