Startup funding news 💸

• According to Kippel01, Cabify is in the process of raising a €500 million round and could have already closed half of the amount
• Energy startup Dexma has closed a €1.2 million round led by Inveready
• Colvin is a marketplace connecting flower farmers and consumers. The company has raised €700,000 from Samaipata Ventures
• Travel startup Stayforlong raised €400,000 from business angels
• Travel startup UnSheeping has raised €280,000
• Proptech startup Propertista raised €130,000
• Uzzet and Sttorybox raised a combined €94,000 on equity crowdfunding platform Lignum Capital
• Universia (Banco Santander) has invested in Beroomers

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Nauta Capital closes out $170 million third fund
• Spanish funding activity in Q1 2017: the most active quarter in Spain’s young history
• VR and AR accelerator Oarsis to open a program in Madrid
• New study that looks into the social and economic impact of Enisa’s activity
• Nao Ventures is a new Sevilla-based accelerator focused on the tourism and travel sector
• Expansion interviewed Jose del Barrio, former co-founder of La Nevera Roja and now a Venture Capitalist at Samaipata Ventures

Startup news 💡

• How Typeform is scaling their culture in hyper-growth
• Malaga-based Freepik is one of the larger startups in Spain that has been flying under the radar for quite some time. El Español profiled the company, which had €8 million in revenue last year and posted a net profit of €3 million
• 21 Buttons has a new board of directors, which includes Jose del Barrio (Samaipata Ventures) and Nader Sabbaghian (360 Capital Partners)
• Take Two takes control of Social Point and will mantain its brand, at least for now
• E-commerce news profiled Shoppiday, a loyalty e-commerce startup
• Doctoralia reached more than 140 million users in 2016
• InstaVets, an on-demand vet service, is now live in Barcelona
• Madrid-based location intelligence startup Geoblink has launched in France
• Housfy is the last company to come out of Nuclio’s venture builder. The startup wants to disrupt the real estate agency market
• Transportation marketplace OnTruck has turned one year old. The company has more than 100 clients using its platform and 1,000 carriers
• Interview with MrJeff’s co-founder and CEO Eloi Gomez. The on-demand clothing cleaning service has also started sponsoring Valencia’s CF female team
• N26, the German online and mobile-first bank, now allows SMEs and freelancers to use the service in Spain
• E-commerce startup Tradeinn had sales of €25 million in Q1 2017, up 50% year-on-year
• Miami-based AI startup Cien plans to hire up to 100 people in Barcelona
• El Referente profiled Tabili, a startup that promises to fix your broken phone in 30 minutes
• E-commerce News interviewed Fernando Cabello, co-founder and CEO of Aplazame
• 6 Barcelona startups that are changing fashion through technology
• El Español profiled food tech startup Wetaca

Big company news 🏢

• Amazon Pay is live in Spain. Xataka has a good breakdown of what this means for the local e-commerce companies and what consumers can expect from the service
• Amazon and El Pais signed an agreement to deliver physical papers through Amazon Prime Now. Retailers are not too happy about it
• One of every €10 in revenue from Inditex come from online sales
• BBVA was able to make money transfers from Mexico to Spain in seconds, thanks to blockchain technology
• How banks are trying to win the attention, and euros, of Spanish millennials
• German giant Bosch plans to launch an on-demand motorbike service in Madrid and Barcelona, similar to Car2go
• Car2go against Emov: the economic battle between the two car-sharing giants
• ZTE to reorg its business in Spain after it lost MasMovil as a client
• Talking about MasMovil, the telco is about to hit a market cap of €1 billion in Spain’s MAB (Mercado Alternativo Bursatil)

Tech and policy 💂🏼

• Spain’s regulator CNMV approved the creation of a sandbox so that fintech startups can test their products of services without having to obtain a full license
• The CNMV will also hire 50 people to try to lure companies out of the UK and to be based in Spain
• eBay and PayPal paid €720,000 in taxes in more than 10 years in Spain
• Vozpopuli interviewed Ciudadanos’ Toni Roldán to talk about startups and regulation

Interesting reads 🤓

• Galicia: a technology ecosystem that deserves more attention
• El Confidencial published a series of articles about the impact luck has on entrepreneurship and building companies. The first one by Miguel Ferreira (Red Karaoke) and second one by Juan Dominguez (ADTZ)
• Carlos de Otto wrote an article about the dark side of entrepreneurship: when things don’t go well
• David Bonilla: ‘Open the door‘ – the motives behind teaching your kids how to (or why) code
• Inc magazine wrote about Barcelona’s startup ecosystem: ‘This unsuspecting European city could become Silicon Valley’s biggest rival’
• Spanish scientists are furious with the current government and cuts in R&D spending

Podcast(s) of the week 🎧

• MasQueStartups interviewed Acumbamail’s co-founder Ignacio Arriaga