Summer is coming to an end and a new chapter is about to start… Do you want to turn your professional career around and launch your own business? Demium’s what you’ve been looking for!

Join their AllStartup weekend hackathon, where you will work with other entrepreneurs like yourself in developing a startup project during 48h, which you will present to a jury on Sunday.

What happens if you win? You’ll have earned a place in their 6-month Incubation Programme, where Demium will help you create your startup from scratch and prepare you to present it to their VC fund, Demium Capital, hitting the goal to raise the first investment of €150,000 in a pre-seed round and up to €500,000 in the following ones.

What makes Demium different is that you don’t need to join with a clear business idea or with a co-founding team. They invest in talented individuals with the necessary attitude to challenge the status quo by creating their own company.

Are you ready to start building? Applications are open for Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Málaga, Lisbon, Warsaw, Prague and Kyiv (online).

Startup funding news 💸

• Citi Ventures, the venture arm of bank Citi, invested in fintech infra company Belvo
• Other rounds of funding: Roams, Aira System, Nerety, Golfee,

M&A activity 🎊

• Seattle and Spain-based engineering consultancy firm 47 Degrees got acquired by Netherlands company Xebia. Jorge Galindo, co-founder and CMO, wrote about the company's history here

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Sponsored
  Demium's AllStartup weekend hackathon will take place between September 16th and 18th in various European cities. What makes Demium different is that you don’t need to join with a clear business idea or with a co-founding team. They will help you with that and also in raising pre-seed funding
• Axon sold its stake in adtech company Adsmurai, with a return of 4.4X and 2.2X
• Interview with Lara Viada, partner at impact investment firm Creas. The firm has been around for more than 10 years

Startup news 💡

• Profile of Devo, the Madrid and US-based cybersecurity firm. The profile also features an interview with Marc van Zadelhoff, CEO of the company. The article focuses on the cybersecurity sector, M&A opportunities for inorganic growth and their plans to hire 100 people in Spain in the next few months
• Here's another profile, this time of Voicemod, the Valencia-based voice modification software. CEO Jaime Bosch talks about the origins of the company, the concept of sonic identities and the B2B2C model the company is focusing on (they just signed a partnership with Tencent)
• Profile of Igenomix, a Valencia-based biotech company that specializes in providing genetic testing services for reproductive health patients and clinics. The company reached unicorn status a few months ago, when it was sold to Swedish firm Vitrolife for €1.2B
• The French startup dispatch: why more entrepreneurs are crossing the Pyrénées. A post on the increasing number of French founders that are building their companies out of Barcelona
• All-in-one fintech solution for SMBs Nomo plans to expand to Italy, France and Germany. The company was acquired in June by Finnish company Talenom
• Startup profiles:
• Rever: reverse logistics
• Imperia SCM: supply chain
• Nester: real estate
• Venped: marketplace management solution
• Motoreto: motorbike ecommerce

Big company news 🏦

• Capgemini to open a cloud and cybersecurity centre in Malaga

Interesting reads 🤓

• Techcrunch talked to JME's Samuel Gil about the longevity sector, in an article titled "5 investors explain why longevity tech is a long-term play"
• Àlex Rodríguez Bacardit, co-founder of Marsbased, wrote "Personalism vs. professionalism"
• Vandal interviewed Fernando Rada, co-founder of iconic Spanish gaming studio Zigurat
• Iñaki Arriaga, co-founder of Acumbamail, published "Bundling y Unbundling"

Podcasts 🎧

• Life On Mars interviewed Carlos Sánchez, Head of Product at Real Madrid
• Itnig interviewed Julián Díaz-Santos, co-founder and CEO of Unnax
• Product Hackers interviewed Jesus Requena, VP of Growth Marketing at Figma