Join Aika and K Fund at this first CTOs SUMMIT in Madrid on Nov 10-11. The event will gather both CTOs and developers looking to up their game and learn from each other.

Along with this first CTOs SUMMIT, they’re working on a report about tech teams in Spain. If you’re a startup CTO, help them by completing this survey and you’ll get a discount for the event.

Startup funding news

• 21Buttons, a social-commerce app dedicated to fashion, closes $10 million Series A led by Kibo Ventures and JME
• Insurtech startup Coverfy raised €3.5 million. The round was led by K Fund and included the participation of Seaya Ventures and Sabadell Venture Capital
• Housers is looking to raise €1 million via equity crowdfunding
• Fashion brand The Brubaker plans to raise funding via syndicate platform Startupxplore

Startup exits 🎊

• Grocery shopping platforms Lola Market and Comprea have merged
• El Español interviewed Ander Michelena, co-founder of Ticketbis. He explains how the exit to StubHub took place

Investor & accelerator news

• Urizen, Adeyemi Ajao’s new veture fund, continues its fundraising process with the help of Arcano. Their goal is to raise €200 million and to back US-based companies interested in the European market
• GP Bullhound opens office in Madrid. The firm has also published a report about Spain: ’Late to the game, but now ideally positioned’
• El Español interviewed London-based VC firm Balderton to talk about their vision of the Spanish tech sector
• Kippel01 interviewed entrepreneur and investor Miguel Vicente
• Glovo’s recently announced fundraising means the first exit for equity crowdfunding platform The Crowd Angel

Startup news 💡

• Lavanapp claims to have closed its first year of operations with 15,000 orders via web and app
• Interview with Carto’s CTO Javier Santana about coding as a career and how to hire well
• Interview with Hawkers co-founder David Moreno about the company’s retail expansion plans
• Car selling startup Clicars claims to have reached €15 million in gross transactions since its launch
• Startup profiles: Prezo (SaaS-enabled marketplace connecting providers and restaurants), Podo (energy)

Big (local) company news 🏢

• BBVA’s president Francisco Gonzalez says that it’s a matter of time that Google and Amazon start competing with the banking firm
• Endesa is looking for cleantech companies

Big (foreign) company news 🏦

• Amazon to increase prices of its Prime offering in Spain
• Nathalie Picquot (former Googler) was named Twitter’s director for Spain & Portugal
• Gaming studio Scopely announced that it will be opening an office in Barcelona, where it expects to hire 60 people in the next 12 months
• Some businesses in Spain are already using ‘WhatsApp for business’. Xataka explains how it works

Tech and policy 💂🏼

• Catalan startups are afraid of suffering financial consequences as a result of 1-O
• Catalonia’s technology startups are optimistic for the future
• Biotech startup Oryzon to move its headquarters from Barcelona to Madrid as a consequence of recent political instability
• Cinco Dias interviewed Marta Planas, co-founder of fintech startup Digital Origin, about regulation changes the market would need to catch up with the UK, France or Germany
• There are now more than 6,000 VTC licenses in the market (the ones that Uber and Cabify need to operate) but there’s an expectation that many more will be available in coming months
• Fedetaxi continues to ask the Spanish government to increase regulation of Uber and Cabify

Interesting reads 🤓

• oBike is the first bike sharing startup to launch in Madrid. And people are not too happy about it. Ofo or Mobike could be next
• More than 2.69 million homes in Spain don’t have an internet connection
• Javier Martín (Loogic, Singular): ’Blockchain in the automotive industry’

Podcasts of the week 🎧

• K Fund interviewed David Tomas (Cyberclick) and Carina Szpilka to talk about startup culture
• MasQueStartups recorded a retrospective of the 2017 edition of Tarugoconf