Google for Startups - Stories of 2020

2020 comes to an end and Google for Startups is looking back to share the stories of this unique year in which startups have had to innovate and respond to unexpected challenges.

You can now check Google for Startups 2020 yearbook, including testimonials and interviews with almost 30 startups, that share how this year has been for them, which challenges they had to face, and the opportunities they found along their journey.

Startup funding news 💸

• Barcelona-based biotech Peptomyc raised €11.4m, led by AurorA Science
• Cledara, a SaaS purchase and management company registered in London but with employees in Barcelona and co-founded by Spaniard Cristina Vila, raised $3.4m in funding. The round was led by Spanish VC firm Nauta Capital
• Albacete-based 3D printing startup Print3D raised €800k from BeAble Capital
• Barcelona-based fintech startup Mitto raised €556k via Crowdcube
• Madrid-based Barbara IoT raised €500k in a round led by GoHub Ventures
• Other rounds of funding: PLD Space, BlaineBox, DudyFit

M&A activity 🎊

• Barcelona-based Skitude IPOed last week on the Oslo Euronext Growth stock market. Market capitalisation was €52.5m on the first day of listing and the company raised €20m in the process. In May 2019, Skitude merged with Norwegian startup Skioo. If you want to dig deeper into Skitude's business and other characteristics, go read the company's prospectus used in the IPO. Skitude has a customer base of 1.8 million skiers and 175 contracted resorts, and a B2B and B2C business model, with revenues greater than €10m
• 4iQ, an identity intelligence company with offices in Madrid and California, participated by VC firm Adara Ventures, and Alto Analytics, a startup that specializes in applying AI & data science to the digital public sphere, announced that the two companies have merged and rebranded as Constella Intelligence. According to Expansion, the resulting company is currently valued at $170m, following a $35m round completed in October
• Energy intelligence provider Dexma has been acquired by Belgium startup Spacewell. Terms of the deal were not disclosed

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Samuel Gil published a 2020 summary of JME's activity, which you can find here
• El Español has a profile of Capital Cell, which has helped health and tech companies raise a combined €10m in 2020
• Business Insider interviewed Pepe Peris, the new managing director of Angels Capital. In the interview he talks about the firm's plans for 2021
• Barcelona Tech City to open two new centres, to be focused on startups in the areas of health and mobility
• Professional football player Gerard Pique invested in French fantasy football startup Sorare

Startup news 💡

• Sponsored
  2020 has been a year full of stories that are worth telling. Discover Google for Startups’ 2020 yearbook, including interviews and testimonies from over 30 startups, sharing how this year has been for them, how they have tackled unexpected challenges, and taken advantage of new opportunities. They've also been publishing quite a few video interviews; these two, among others, with Cristobal Viedma (Lingokids) and Guillermo Vicandi (Bnext) and Carina Szpilka (K Fund) are worth watching.
• Maria Santos, head of people at Belvo, wrote a blog post explaining how the fintech startup has approached building a world-class team in a global and remote context
• Indexa Capital has turned five years old, and the team published a post with highlights of its trajectory. The company currently manages more than €500m in assets under management
• Here's an interesting interview and profile of Hustle Got Real, a Spanish startup that enables individuals and businesses to sell online without owning any stock. The article is full of interesting data and tips. Hustle Got Real went from $0 to $18k in MRR in just one year, with a team of 7 people and 15k customers in 25 countries
• Business Insider published a profile of Genial.ly and how they've navigated the pandemic. The company has built software that allows all types of users to create presentations and other visual materials. Genial.ly had 2m users in 2019 and expects to close this year at 9m this year and 21m in 2021. It currently has 80 employees, up from 40 last year, and claims to have reached profitability
• Javi Santana, co-founder of real time analytics company Tinybird, published his summary of 2020 and what they've been up to at the company
• Neobank Bnext signed a partnership with Onyze to offer its customers the ability to buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies within Bnext
• Bob.io, the startup that leads the new way of flying post-covid and that offers passengers to check-in their bags from home and go to the airport luggage-free, announced an integration with Iberia to create a “luggage-free” flight experience. The company also announced that Julia Sattel, an Amadeus veteran, has joined the company as President
• Seedtag, the contextual advertising platform with presence in Europe and Latam, has reinforced its executive team to align its organization with the company’s go-forward strategy
• MasMovil and Yoigo have launched a new energy service as a result of its partnership with Spanish startup Lucera
• Fashion ecommerce brand Blue Banana, which recently opened its first retail store, announced that during Black Friday it sold €758k worth of products and 18k items, up 300% compared to same year ago period
• How Typeform gathers and uses customer feedback (Voice of Customer) to improve their product
• Startups' Oasis interviewed Joan Alvarez, co-founder of ecommerce furniture startup Hannun. The company will close 2020 with €3m in sales
• Coding and development studio MarsBased published an overview of their 2020 calendar year
• Startup profiles: Check-in Scan, Gotmy

Big company news 🏦

• Tech giants, which will be the ones mostly affected by the Spanish government Google tax, are going to request the government to postpone its implementation and payment until a later date, instead of Q1 2021
• Inditex posted new financials. The company's online business grew by 75% from January to September, compared to the year ago period. The company expects annual online sales to be at €6.5b to €7b

Tech and policy 💂🏼‍♂️

• Xataka interviewed Alberto Garzon, Spain's 'Ministro de Consumo'. The interview focuses on the government plans to regulate loot boxes, online betting and other matters

Interesting reads 🤓

• El Confidencial published a long article about the growth of virtual kitchens in Madrid, especially those associated with CloudKitchens, the company co-founded by Travis Kalanick (Uber). CloudKitchens has established several of these kitchens in locations that are apparently causing complaints from neighbors
• I've linked to them several times in the past, but here are a couple of recommendations: if you're interested in the travel sector, you should subscribe to Mauricio Prieto's Travel Tech newsletter, and if you're into mobile marketing (and mobile trends in general), you should take a look at Thomas Petit's MADV newsletter
• Diego Mariño appeared as a guest writer in David Bonilla's Bonilista, with an interesting article that includes relevant questions to ask yourself when building, selling and communicating your product
• Esperanza Amaya, software developer at Coverwallet, wrote 'Did we break production? How to solve and prevent applying urban legends (…wait, urban what?)'
• Ana Asuero (CPO at Bdeo) wrote about the principles he follows to have effective meetings
• Antonio Rull, former product manager at El Confidencial and also previously at elDiario, wrote a post explaining his experience after conducting 30 job interviews in two months

Podcasts 🎧

• MasQueStartups interviewed Vicente Solsona, co-founder of Declarando
• En.digital interviewed Emily Gonzalez, co-founder of Froged
• SeedRocket interviewed Javier Fondevila and Bernat Ripoll, co-founders of Holded
• MarsBased interviewed Victoria Gago (European Blockchain Convention), to talk about the future of tech events
• Finanziaconnect interviewed Ignacio Fonts of Inveready
• Itnig interviewed David Casellas, co-founder of Pridatect