CTO Summit is right around the corner: a new edition of one of the better events in Spain focused on Technology Directors and IT teams.

The new online format brings together the leading national and international technology leaders so you can watch it comfortably wherever you are. More than 15 speakers, 3 international talks, 2 round tables, workshops, exclusive interviews with startups leaders and... a whole lot of networking!

The event will feature top tech and IT talent from startups and companies such as CARTO, Tinybird, Flywire, Auth0, Google, Microsoft and more.

Ticket holders will have access to Brella's platform two weeks in advance to be able to meet all attendees, visit the virtual stands of the sponsors and even schedule videoconferences with people who have the same interests. An event that goes beyond streaming, it will be a complete virtual experience!

Scroll down to find a 50% discount for Dealflow subscribers 😊

Startup funding news 💸

• Madrid-based fintech startup Fintonic raised €10 million from existing investors ING and PSN
• Barcelona-based health startup Methinks raised €1.8m via Capital Cell
• Valencia-based KokoroKids raised €550k from The Valley Venture Capital, Bankinter and R2 Seed. At K Fund we also participated in the deal
• Other rounds of €500k or less: Kibus Petcare, SIARQ, Discocil
• Other deals: TheVentureCity invested in cybersecurity startup 4iq

M&A activity 🎊

• Scytl has been acquired by Irish multinational Paragon. The company will become a new division within Service Point, subsidiary of Paragon. This means that 140 jobs have been saved for now and that various Scytl international subsidiaries now become part of the Irish-born group
• AmRest (Tagliatella) plans to sell its 7.5% stake in Glovo to Delivery Hero for €76m, valuing Glovo at €1.015b. Delivery Hero now owns more than 26% of Glovo
• Visual storytelling startup SamyRoad acquired British AI and data company Share Creative
• Jesus Monleon (SeedRocket 4Founders) wrote a blog post about the topic of reps and warranties in M&A process

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Samaipata announced the launch of of its second fund, a €100m vehicle that will invest up to €1.5m in 20-25 companies, with a focus on pan-European digital platforms. Here's a longer interview with Jose del Barrio, co-founder of the fund.
• As La Informacion points out, this brings the total amount raised by Spanish VC firms in the past year and a half to €650m
• Another fund is also in the works, at THCAP plans to launch a €20m fund
• Sonia Fernandez of Kibo Ventures wrote a blog post about their most recent fund, including details about the fundraising process, investment strategy and other topics
• Telefonica presented Telefonica Tech Ventures, a new vehicle to invest in cybersecurity startups
• Expansion profiled Elies Campo, WhatsApp engineer that left the company to move to Telegram. Elies is an avid business angel, claims to have made more than 35 investments as an angel
• Valencia Plaza talked to various family offices and published an article to encourage more FOs to invest in startups
• Enzo Ventures is a new pre-seed fund of €300k to invest small tickets in early stage companies

Startup news 💡

• Sponsored
  CTO Summit Spain will take place between November 17th to 21st. Find our more about the event here and get a 50% discount in your regular ticket by using the promo code DEALFLOW50.
• Hosting company Gigas announced that it plans to raise €17 million in order to acquire three companies. One of such companies is Irish cloud company Ignitar, and the two other are telcos that have yet to be disclosed. The company says that these transactions could add €50m in revenues to Gigas, which appears to want to start providing "telecommunication services focused on connectivity and security"
• Invoicing factoring platform Novicap disclosed in an interview that since March it has financed more than €100m to companies, and expects the total amount for the year to be 50% higher than in 2019. The company would also like to be able to provide financing to SMEs via ICO-backed loans, but at the moment it can't do so because it's not an approved entity by the Bank of Spain, contrary to the flexibility that other countries offer
• Gabriel Aldamiz, co-founder of fashion and data startup Chicisimo, wrote a blog post about the shut down of the company. What they tried to save the startup, how they approached it, his feelings after the whole process has ended and other interesting tidbits
• Konstantin Vinogradov of Runa Capital included Spanish open source startup Frontity (we're investors at K Fund) in its Runa Capital’s Open Source Startup (ROSS) Index, which consists of the 20 fastest-growing OSS startups according to their methodology. Frontity was also in the news this week for another reason, their partnership with web agency 10up
• Mario Gutierrez, CEO of ecommerce mattress company Marmota, said in an interview that sales increased by 100% this year and that it plans to open its own retail stores
• El Mundo talked to Jeff about how covid has impacted its expansion plans and what they're up to since the outbreak took place
• Business Insider profiled Mitto, a Barcelona-based neobank with a sustainability angle. They claim to show their consumers the impact of any transaction they do using the bank's cards. The company started as a Banc Sabadell startup and is now independent, having raised €500k via Crowdcube
• Mexican publication El Financiero talked to Evaristo Babe of Pulpomatic about the relevance of the Mexican market for the fleet management startup
• Eje Prime talked to Carlos Blanco (Encomenda) about the proptech market and how the current crisis might impact fundraising events and M&A transactions
• Startup profiles: Homyhub, Kenjo

If you use the promo code DEALFLOW50, you'll get a a 50% discount on your regular CTO Summit ticket. Get yours now!

Big company news 🏦

• The rumours became true. Indra says it would like to lay off more than 1,000 employees in its tech division. Unidas Podemos believes the Spanish State should invest more money in the company to save it from cutting jobs
• According to El Confidencial, WeWork is trying to sell its Spanish business. The company currently operates more than 26,000 square meters in Spain across various coworking spaces

Tech and policy 💂🏼‍♂️

• Spain's Inspección de Trabajo (Labour Inspection department) has been forced to fix the labour situation of more than 11,000 Glovo riders since 2019 and that the company could owe as much as €16 million in social security costs. According to this other article, the numbers since 2017 are 20,000 riders and €35m owed to the Spanish social security system. This is a continuation of the debate of whether riders of last mile delivery companies should be considered as employees or contractors. The Supreme Court has recently said they should be treated as employees.

Interesting reads 🤓

• Eduardo Manchon (CEO of Mailtrack) published an op-ed in El Confidencial about what tech companies really are: 'A taxi with an app remains a taxi: the big fallacy of tech companies'
• Having to close a company sucks. Javier Meizoso (Legalpin) wrote a blog post with tips and advice to face those challenges
• Marta Gaia of Barcelona-based biotech fund Nina Capital wrote an article about 'the need for more data liquidity' and their investment in Segmed
• El Pais interviewed Ana Ariño, former Chief Strategy Officer of New York's innovation department, who oversaw the development of NYC tech and innovation sectors in the past few years
• Ander Lopez published an analysis of the Basque Country's startup ecosystem
• Juan Jesus Velasco (Andalucia Open Future) wrote a guide to understand the most fundamental aspects of subscription-based business models

Podcasts 🎧

• Bigdateame interviewed Javi Santana and Elena Torro of Tinybird
• En.digital interviewed Evaristo Babe of Pulpomatic
• MasQueStartups interviewed Josue Garcia of Nivimu
• MarsBased interviewed Jordi Gimenez of Mobile Jazz
• Hablando con Lideres, Novicap's podcast, interviewed Rafael Fontana, president of Cuatrecasas
• Itnig interviewed Miguel Anton of Elma Care
• K Fund interviewed Andres Garcia of Sifdi