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Startup funding news 💸

• Fintech startup Loanbook raised €830,000
• Agritech startup Farmidable raised €250,000 via equity crowdfunding

Startup exits 🎊

• According to El Confidencial, Repsol acquired Klikin for €6 to €8 million. The startup founded by Gustavo García Brusilovsky had raised funding from Caixa Capital Risc, Padeinvest and other business angels

Investor & accelerator news 🚀

• Chinese giant Didi acquired Brazilian startup 99Taxi for $900 million. One of the first investors to back 99 was Startcaps, the Spanish VC firm led by Nacho Vilela
• Hipertextual interviewed Iñaki Arrola, François Derbaix and Javier Megías to know what they expect from the Spanish startup market in 2017
• Mariano Torrecilla (Loogic): ’Investment in startups: business angels, risks and metrics’

Startup news 💡

• Ecommerce company Tradeinn closed 2017 with sales of €120 million
• Cabify continues to invest money and resources in its subsidiary that controls a bunch of VTC licenses. Last week it was reported that both Cabify and Rosauro Varo (Pepephone) pumped €420,000 more into the subsidiary
• Cabify says that is has grown its business by 500% last year and that it will triple the number of employees
• Barcelona’s local government has seized assets in Letsbonus. Apparently, the company has not paid its providers since November 2016
• Fitness marketplace Entrenarme closed 2017 with more than €5 million generated to trainers on its platform
• On-demand video platform Filmin is now profitable
• Facebook featured Lingokids as a success story in their platform
• Closca, the Spanish startup behind the foldable bike helmet, has launched its latest project: a water bottle
• El Economista interviewed Sacha Michaud, co-founder of Glovo: ’There are not as many competitors in the market to meet future demand’
• Forbes published a profile of health startup Bwom: ’An Entrepreneur Promoting The Power Of The V Word’
• Spanish technology that aims to fight against drought in the world

Big (local) company news 🏢

• Spanish restaurant chain Nostrum to launch an ICO to sell its own token
• Ethereum and Stellar join Ripple in BBVA bank tests
• In less than 6 months there have been more than 100,000 transactions using Samsung Pay from holders of El Corte Ingles’ card
• Seat, Saba and Glovo are trying a service that will deliver groceries to your parked car in one of Saba’s parkings
• Ignacio Pinedo (ISDI) to join the board of Tous
• 52% of Mango’s online sales take place on mobile
• Kippel01 published an analysis of BBVA’s digital strategy

Big (foreign) company news 🏦

• María Garaña, former Microsoft managing director in Spain, to join Google
• How Zity’s carsharing program compares to Car2go and Emov. El Confidencial published a comparison of the three

Tech and policy 💂🏼

• The Spanish government finally passed regulation that will control even more the activity of Cabify or Uber
• Madrid to limit Airbnb’s activity in the Spanish capital by setting a cap in the number of licenses for vacation apartments
• Hacienda to request vacation rental platforms such as Airbnb or HomeAway to provide details on its hosts and their number of transactions

Interesting reads 🤓

• Sintetia looked at R&D spending in Spain. The numbers don’t look very good
• Five young Spanish CEOs that you must keep an eye on
• Vanity Fair: 10 Spanish startups to watch in 2017

Podcasts of the week 🎧

• Brainsins interviewed Loogic’s Javier Martín
• K Fund interviewed David Bonilla, Alex Vega and Iñaki Arriaga to talk about the wonderful world of newsletters