Google Cloud Summit is back: this year, the magic of the in person event is finally coming back to Google Cloud.

On June 1st, in a live format, Google Cloud is holding its Summit '23 in Madrid. And how could it be otherwise after the pandemic, we will once again bring together thousands of people in the flagship event of the house with a disruptive and innovative agenda: technical sessions and workshops for entrepreneurs where the main startups from all over the country will gather.

Join us for a day to discover first-hand the latest product announcements, live demos, success stories and interactive talks with industry leaders.

Javier Pérez, Digital Natives Manager Google Cloud Iberia: "This is undoubtedly the cloud event of the year. I can't stop encouraging all entrepreneurs, developers and technical experts to join us to be part, first hand, of the 2023 event. where we discover the new solutions and challenges around AI, Data, Development, etc..".

More info here.

Startup funding news 💸

• Madrid-based transportation and logistics startup Cabify announced a new round of funding, bringing the total raised in this and the last two of transactions to €100m, including €40m in debt by EIB. This last investment is led by Orilla Asset Management (Francisco Riberas), president of Gestamp and ICO Next Tech. Techcrunch has more details about Cabify's financials: "Cabify notes that “turnover in 2022 is already 24% higher than in 2019, and 32% higher than in 2021.” Cabify told Techcrunch that global turnover for 2021 was $518 million, which would mean that the estimated figure for 2022 is $683.8 million (it also means that 2021 was still not back to 2019 levels)"
• Madrid-based corporate travel company Troop raised €10m led by Durable Capital Partners
• Barcelona-based healthtech company Abi Global Health raised €4.6m led Mundi Ventures and Uniqa Ventures
• Bilbao-based APlanet, a platform for companies to manage, track and showcase their ESG and sustainability, raised €4m with participation from multiple funds
• Madrid-based proptech company Auctree raised €2.5m led by Samaipata. The company operates a platform that offers investors access to distressed real estate assets
• Startups looking for funding: Mumbler
• Other rounds of funding: Padmi, Gloop, RawData, Recycap, FormacionEnInversion, Idoneo

M&A activity 🎊

• Consulting firm Izertis announced the acquisition of Autentia. Izertis expects to reach sales of €125m this year, while Autentia adds €10m in additional annual sales to the group
• Discount and cashback company Qoala acquired payments company Kupay
• Two home insurance startups have merged: Tuio and Luko

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• 5 EU member states and the EIB signed the European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI) mandate, a Fund of Funds that will channel much-needed late-stage growth capital to promising European innovators. The first event to promote the initiative took place in Madrid last week. My colleague Miguel Arias wrote about the event and initiative here
• FOND-ICO Next Tech to increase its investment capacity to €4b, to invest in funds but also to invest directly in companies. At Kfund we've also been beneficiaries of this initiative, thanks to an investment in growth fund Leadwind. Seaya Andromeda and Cathay have also received backing from Next Tech
• Cardumen Capital announced a new €100m fund to invest in Israeli startups
• Angels Capital and Juan Roig announced that they've invested in LifeX Ventures, the new fund launched by Iñaki Berenguer and Amol Sarva, and Biozell
• Patricia Pastor and Ruben Colomer, who had been leading Global Omnium's venture arm GoHub Ventures, announced that they're leaving the firm. Patricia wrote about the departure here and Rubén here
• Fernando Marzal to join Zubi's venture builder, Zubi Labs, as managing director. Fernando was previously founder of Mobincube and also VP of Business at Jeff
• Alantra's new cybersecurity fund, 33N Ventures, made its first investment, in Israeli startup Panorays

Startup news 💡

• Edtech and design platform Domestika, which raised a big round a few months ago and reached unicorn status, announced that it will lay off 45% of its employees in Spain, or almost 90 people. The company said that one of the reasons for the layoffs is the "automation of certain processes by technologies such as AI and ChatGPT". In this other Twitter thread, Nieves Gamonal paints a very different picture, one of mismanagement that has led to the current situation
• Motorbike ecommerce company Mundimoto closed 2022 with €60m in sales, up by 4X compared 2021. The company has 250 employees and sold 15,000 bikes last year
• Clidrive is a new startup co-founded by Pablo Fernandez (Clicars, Clikalia) and Elena González-Blanco (Coverwallet). The company connects drivers with financial institutions and investors, providing its users access to money by using their cars. The company claims to have generated €1m in financing in its three months of operations
• Remotely, a startup co-founded by two of Olapic's founders that connects US companies with developers in Latam and other regions, published "The fear of losing your job to AI: A look at how computing replaced manual human calculation"
• Jaume Gomà, co-founder of online supermarket Ulabox, announced that the company will shut down. The company was a Spanish pioneer and one of the first fully online supermarkets that have launched to date
• Andres Casal, CEO of foodtech Wetaca, said that the company currently delivers 250k meals per month
• Patrik Bergareche was named executive VP of Southern Europe, Israel and other regions for Just Eat Takeaway. In this interview, Patrik talks about the new role, the financials of Just Eat and the difficulty of turning a profit for many players in the business, as well as the fact that certain competitors, more specifically Glovo, allegedly don't comply with local rider regulation and continue to operate with freelancers instead of employees. If I'm not mistaken, Just Eat recently announced that in the UK it will be going back to a freelancer model with its riders
• According to a study, Barcelona rivals San Francisco with a 20% increase in attracting top gaming talent. The article adds a few examples of Barcelona's gaming strength, including "King, the renowned mobile gaming firm (Candy Crush), has its second largest office in the world in Barcelona, with 600 professionals of more than 45 nationalities; the American company Scopely has strengthened its presence in Barcelona with a technology hub employing 425 people; and the Japanese company Bandai Namco chose Barcelona for its European development and marketing headquarters thanks to the city's reputation as an important technology hub"
• Spain sees huge growth in its agri-foodtech ecosystem, with investments of €268 million in 2022, ICEX report reveals
• Indexa Capital launched its services in France, its second international market after Belgium
• Startup profiles:
• Nantek: tech to transform plastic into fuel
• Galgus: network connectivity

Big company news 🏦

• Iberdrola announced that it owns close to 10% of Wallbox, increasing its stake in the tech company in last year's capital increase. Other local investors that have increased its stake in Wallbox are Francisco Riberas, president of Gestamp, and Manuel Lao, founder of Cirsa
• The Spanish competition authority, CNMC, opened an antitrust investigation against Google. The CNMC said that it's concerned about possible anti-competitive practices related to the licensing of news content by local publishers. More details here
• Interesting analysis of Inditex's online strategy and performance to date: 30% more online sales than H&M and 3x those of Uniqlo. Impressive. The Financial Times published a long profile of Marta Ortega
• Vodafone to pay €72m to acquire Masmovil's business in Portugal, which was not part of the merger between the latter and Orange

Interesting reads 🤓

• Edu Riera, co-founder of edtech platform Zrive, published "The Spanish university and the social ladder"
• Xavi Ruiz interviewed Alejandro Wonenburger, founder of PlantOnDemand
• Interesting article and perspective: "Why the Spanish IP registry doesn't allow for the registration of art created using ChatGPT and Midjourney"

Podcasts 🎧

• Kfund interviewed Steven Tey, of Vercel, to chat about developer relations
• MarsBased interviewed Juanjo Mostazo, entrepreneur, business angel and venture partner at Kfund
• UpBizor published a conversation about how to finance DNVB brands, featuring Josep Casas (Naturitas, FoodforJoe and business angel) and Alejandro Fresneda (Yaba)
• Itnig interviewed Andreu Fernandez, co-founder of Hockerty
• SeedRocket interviewed Xavi Beumala, co-founder of Marfeel
• Historias de Crecimiento interviewed Adela Romero, founder of epiLate