The Spanish startup landscape has changed dramatically in the past few years. Back then, valuations of €1b+ were unheard of and exits such as the one completed by Glovo this weekend were even rarer.

Jobandtalent is one of the prime examples of a Spanish startup with global ambition and precise execution that has become the world's leading digital temp staffing agency.

Jobandtalent's on-demand staffing marketplace aims to make the labour market more fluid and accessible by tearing down the barriers to job searching and hiring. The company is growing like crazy and hiring across multiple positions and departments -especially tech-, not only in Spain but also in Germany, UK, US, France, Colombia and several other geographies. If you want to join them, take a look at their careers page.

Startup funding news 💸

• According to El Referente, more than €4b was raised by Spanish startups in 2021
• Elche-based PLD Space, the company that leads the space launch business for small satellites in Europe, closed a Series B funding round of $28m
• The European Innovation Council will invest €90m in 11 Spanish startups. The list features companies such as Palobiofarma (€17m), Simplicity Works (€17m), Multiverse Computing, Wooptix, MySphera or Idoven. These transactions come in the form of grants and equity investments
• Other rounds of funding: Store+

M&A activity 🎊

• One of the bigger exits in the history of the Spanish tech ecosystem: Delivery Hero signed an agreement to become the majority shareholder of Glovo, valuing the Barcelona-based startup at €2.3b. DH was already a significant shareholder of Glovo, with a stake of 44%. DH first invested in Glovo when it led the company's Series C round, at a €210m pre-money valuation. Now it has acquired an additional 39% from "a number of Glovo shareholders", according to DH's press release, in an all-stock transaction. The deal needs to receive regulatory approval and both companies expect it to be completed by Q2 2022. Today, Glovo has a run-rate of approximately €3b in GTV with 80% organic growth rate in 2021 and €800m in revenue. Congrats to Oscar, Sacha, the Glovo team and all investors involved! especially Seaya as the main Spanish fund to have backed the company
• HolaLuz acquired the Spanish subsidiary of British energy startup Bulb. With the acquisition, HolaLuz adds 23,000 customers

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• US fund Pear VC to open an office in Barcelona. This will give access to the firm to Spanish and European investment opportunities. This new initiative will be led by Pepe Agell, co-founder of Chartboost (acquired by Zynga). Although based in the Bay Area, Pear VC was co-founded by also Spaniard Mar Hershenson
• According to Expansion, Criteria (Caixa) could be considering an investment into Lanzadera
• Aquilino Peña, co-founder of Kibo Ventures and president of ASCRI, was interviewed in Expansion to talk about startup valuations, the impact that high inflation could have in the sector, the health of the tech ecosystem as a whole and other topics
• Carlos Trenchs of Aldea Ventures wrote a summary of 2021. Aldea has so far invested in 18 funds as an LP and made 20 direct investments
• The Spanish government plans to lower the minimum ticket required to invest in a VC firm, from €100k to €10k. This would increase the pool of potential LPs in venture capital funds

Startup news 💡

• Sponsored
  Jobandtalent is growing very fast and hiring across multiple locations and departments. If you're thinking about changing jobs, take a look at their careers section here
• The Spanish Startup Law was finally published. You can read the whole 33-page document here. I haven't read it yet. Most of it had already been shared with the press a few weeks ago, but there are some details that have now surfaced that could limit its impact. For example, the fact that the new stock options taxation only works for companies that are less than 5 years old and with less than €5m in sales. David Miranda and Xabier Alvarez published a good series of tweets about the law here and here. Cinco Dias also talked to various entrepreneurs and investors about it. The final text of the law can still be modified before it goes into effect towards the summer
• Last week was the last one for Iñaki Berenguer at Coverwallet, the insurtech startup he co-founded out of NYC in 2015. Coverwallet was acquired by Aon in January 2020
• El Pais profiled Meinrad Spenger, co-founder and CEO of Grupo MasMovil, currently worth more than €3b
• Laura Urquizu, CEO of Redpoints, looked back at 2021 and what the company expects for 2021. Laura says in the past that RedPoints currently has almost 1,000 customers and 300 employees
• La Informacion profiled Spathios, a short-term space reservations marketplace. The company expects to close 2021 with €700k in revenues
• Four fintech startups have received the green light by Spanish regulators to participate in the fintech sandbox. The list features various crypto companies
• El Referente profiled Outvio, an Estonian startup co-founded by Spaniard Juanjo Borrás. Outvio helps online shops to ship, manage and return orders. The company claims to have assisted in more than €300m in ecommerce sales
• Startup profiles:
• Filkers: turn data into audiovisual content
• Froged: customer success SaaS
• Fuell: corporate card and expense report software

Big company news 🏦

• Spain is not amongst the list of countries chosen by Intel to heavily expand its chipset manufacturing business in Europe. According to Bloomberg, Intel global push to increase capacity will include adding facilities in France and Italy, as well as putting a major production site in Germany. Xataka has more details here
• BBVA says that in 2021 it has signed 20 commercial contracts with startups, either as pilots or proof-of-concept agreements
• Deloitte to "integrate" CFO-as-a-Service provider Vantum to provide more services to startups

Interesting reads 🤓

• Miguel Carranza, (RevenueCat), wrote a post on how his CTO role has changed in the past year and in year four of RevenueCat's history
• Miguel Arias (K Fund) and Oriol Juncosa (Encomenda) published an op-ed about their expectations for the tech sector in 2022
• Eduardo Manchon (Mailtrack) wrote an op-ed about the companies and professionals that try to suck startup's money: "Homeopathy for companies: the 'gurus' that make millions by selling incompetence"

Podcasts 🎧

• Asi Empece interviewed Juan Urdiales, co-founder of Jobandtalent
• TMD interviewed David Bonilla of Manfred
• Lunes Inspiradores interviewed Elena Peyró, co-founder of JoinUp