Upbe analyzes B2B sales calls (cold calling & inbound calling) and product demos. This conversational data helps Sales Managers, VP Sales & CROs in several ways:

1. Close up to 30% more meetings by scaling best-selling practices, improving and refining the sales pitch in first calls and reducing the learning curve of your SDRs by about 50%.

2. Reduce the sales cycle & increase revenue by doing a better qualification process and deeply analyzing product demos.

For more information, visit their website.

Startup funding news 💸

• According to SpainCap, startup investing in Spain was down 30% YoY
• Barcelona-based mobile marketplace Wallapop raised €81m led by Naver, the Korean internet company, at a €771m valuation. This represents a slight increase in valuation compared to the previous round, which was closed at €690m in Feb 2021. Accel, 14W and Insight are also participating in the round, all existing investors in the company. Wallapop said that in 2022 it had revenues of €72m, up 40% on FY 2021. Wallapop Envíos, its end-to-end shipping service, grew to €32m from €17m in that period. Subscription services brought in €10m in revenues, up from €6.7m in 2021. More info here
• Palencia-based Zunder, a Spanish electric vehicle charging company, announced that it has raised €40m in debt from the European Investment Bank
• Valencia-based comms platform for remote teams Camillion raised €1.8m, led by Wollef VC with the participation of Wayra
• Ourense-based digital marketing agency Redegal raised €1.6m via Segofinance. The company expects to raise €2m via equity crowdfunding, in anticipation of an IPO on the BME Growth in the next few months
• Barcelona-based biotech firm Nimble Diagnostics raised €1m, led by Grow Ventures. Nimble develops novel non-invasive technologies to improve the life of millions of patients with implanted stents
• Barcelona-based Sporttips, a marketplace for sports coaches, raised €1m
• Other rounds of funding: Titbit,

M&A activity 🎊

• Berlin-based SaaS-enabled food marketplace Choco acquired Spanish counterpart Katoo. Katoo is a K Fund portfolio company

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Galdana Ventures, the venture capital unit of private asset manager AltamarCAM Partners, unveiled its third fund of funds aimed at raising above $700m. This would bring Galdana's AUM to $1.8b. Galdana
• According to El Confidencial, Javier Santiso and Mundi Ventures are planning to raise a €1b fund
• El Español published an interview and profile of Luis Martin Cabiedes, founder of Cabiedes & Partners
• Lean Finance interviewed Jose Maria Hernanz, partner at JME Ventures
• EAE Business School is open for applications for its 2023 Impact Awards

Startup news 💡

• Sponsored
  Upbe is a Spanish startup that helps startups and sales teams boost their sales with revenue intelligence: Upbe analyzes B2B sales calls and product demos to help sales managers, VP of Sales and CROs close more meetings and reduce sales cycle. Check them out here
• Wallbox to cut 15% of its workforce, or 210 people, as part of a plan to save up to €50m in costs. Enric Asuncion, CEO of the company, said that "As previously discussed, near-term disruptions in global supply chains have impacted EV delivery rates, and as a result, require us to better align our cost structure with the current demand environment.” More info here
• Next generation tour operator and travel company Exoticca announced that it reached €124m in sales in 2022, up from €75m in the previous year. The compa ny expects to get to €200m this year. K Fund is an investor in Exoticca. What Exoticca has done in the past 2 to 3 years is quite remarkable, given the struggles that all companies in the travel space have faced. We wrote this in our blog a while ago, explaining the measures that Pere Valles and his team put in place to navigate covid's impact in the travel industry
• HR startup Nailted announced that it's moving to a 4-day working week, while maintaining employee salaries and working hours during the rest of the week
• Furniture marketplace Bechester said that 2021, its second year of activity, it surpassed €1.5m in sales
• Bank of Spain to allow fintech startup Monei to launch digital euros in a proof of concept part of Spain's fintech sandbox
• Crypto startup Bit2Me announced its Mastercard debit card that allows users to pay whatever you want with the cryptocurrencies they have in their Bit2Me wallets
• Ontruck says that its revenues have grown by 73% YoY and its customer base by 15%. No more concrete data on traction was provided
• Amsterdam-based B2B payments platform Sprinque announced a €6m round and plans to launch its service in Spain. Sprinque offers B2B merchants a solution that helps up both conversion and retention numbers by mitigating risk by taking on all defaults and fraud risk, as well as automating the end-to-end process of offering pay by invoice with net payment terms at scale
• Startup profiles:
• Clivi: gaming social network
• Haddock: SaaS for restaurants

Big company news 🏦

• Telxius, a Telefonica subsidiary also co-owned by Amancio Ortega's Pontegadea, and Carlos Slim's America Movil, plan to build a submarine cable between the US and Guatemala por telecommunications purposes
• Global Logic, a subsidiary of Japanese company Hitachi, to open several software development centres in Spain (Madrid, Valencia, Malaga and Tarragona). The company said that it plans to hire up to 3,000 people

Interesting reads 🤓

• Interesting interview with Ray Shan, VP of Product Development at fintech infrastructure startup Belvo. The interview covers a lot of areas, from fintech in Latam, the current state of open banking, how they do product management at Belvo and many other topics
• Iñaki Arriaga, co-founder of Acumbamail, wrote "Funnels vs. Flywheels vs. Ecosystems"
• Cris Busquets, Senior Product Designer at Twitter, wrote about her experience working full time in English

Podcasts 🎧

• Restaurantes con Alma interviewed Yassir Rais, co-founder of DNVB Syra Coffee
• Levantando Podcast interviewed my colleague Pablo Ventura, of K Fund
• Itnig interviewed Vicent Marti, co-founder of Streamloots
• Historias de Crecimiento interviewed Fran Lopez, of Clientify
• Minimalism interviewed Pablo Recuenco, CEO and founder of Morrison Shoes
• Hackio interviewed Maria Sajim, community builder at SinOficina
• Product Hackers interviewed Daniel Perez, co-founder of IENAI Space