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Novobrief #158: Spaceboost raises €4m, BCN3D gets €2.7m led by JME, Chicfy and Trendier to merge, vLex acquires UK company, financials from PcComponentes and Gigas, trouble at Hawkers and Housers

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Last week in the Spanish startup ecosystem

April 1 · Issue #115 · View online
Manually curated by Jaime Novoa. The best way to keep up with the Spanish startup and tech ecosystem.
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Startup funding news 💸
○ Proptech startup Housfy is looking to raise €5 million to continue with its international expansion
○ Barcelona-based ad management company Spaceboost raised €4 million from two Catalan family offices
○ Barcelona-based X1 Wind received €4 million in public money to make offshore wind more affordable
○ Barcelona-based startup BCN3D raised €2.7 million for its disruptive IDEX 3D printing technology. JME led the round
○ Travel startup Passporter raised €600,000
○ Madrid-based eSorts startup eGoGames disclosed a €300,000 funding round raised in September 2018. Pedro Serrahíma, former CEO of Pepephone, is one of the investors in the company
Startup M&A activity 🎊
○ Fashion marketplace companies, Mexican Trendier and Spanish Chicfy are merging. The resulting company will have Cabiedes & Partners, Bonsai Ventures and Antai Venture Builder as shareholders
○ Barcelona-based vLex acquired UK company Justis, expanding its global legal intelligence platform by more than 20 countries
○ Data management and analytics company Sweetspot, based in Asturias, got acquired by US company ClickDimensions
Investor & accelerator news 🚀
○ Samaipata Ventures published an article explaining what led them to invest in live streaming startup Streamloots
○ Invivo is a new €40 million VC firm to back biotech and medtech companies
○ Polo Positivo is a new Burgos-based accelerator focused on manufacturing and industry startups
Startup news 💡
○ [Sponsored] Chicisimo has built one of the larger platforms in the world to help women to decide what to wear. The company is looking for a remote Growth designer. Scroll down for more details and learn more here about some cool things they’re doing
○ Cinco Dias talked to PcComponentes about the company’s plans for 2019: it expects to reach €410 million in sales this year, to launch its services in two new European markets and to open its own digital store for games
○ Madrid-based cloud hosting company Gigas disclosed revenues of €8.6 million and EBITDA of €1.6 million in 2018, both figures up significantly from 2017
○ Eneko Knörr, Angel Luis Quesada and Alvaro Alcañiz are working on a new startup called Onyze that provides crypto custody services
○ The Objective published a long interview with Yaiza Canosa, founder and CEO of logistics and transportation company GOI
○ Trouble at real estate investment platform Housers continues. The company’s shareholders are suing each other
○ The same could be said about Hawkers, the ecommerce company. The company’s new CEO wants to complete a big audit of past performance to clearly understand the current situation of Hawkers
○ elPeriodico interviewed Nacho Sala, co-founder of travel company Atrapalo
○ Marketing4Ecommerce interviewed David Moran, head of digital and commerce at Muroexe. David says that Spain accounts for 70% of the company’s sales and that Muroexe expects to launch in the US in 2019
○ Startup profiles:
Prohipotecas: mortagage management and lead generation platform, co-founded by Carlos Blanco
Meep: urban transportation app
Landbot: platform to build conversational websites
Chartok: hotel collaboration software
Chicisimo is a subscription-based app that helps women decide what to wear, powered by a built-in infrastructure to automate outfit advice. The company is looking for a remote Growth Designer focused on metrics, someone oriented to scaling the business while designing for people. The role requires experience in product thinking, interaction, visual design and user insight, or a strong willingness to work developing those skills. 
Big company news 🏦
○ Emov, the car sharing platform owned by PSA Peugeot Citroen, to place a bunch of electric vans around Madrid to offer locals a new transportation alternative
○ El Confidencial interviewed Olivier Reppert, managing director of Car2go. In the interview, he talks about the decision to launch in Madrid in 2015 and what’s stopping them from launching in other Spanish cities like Barcelona or Valencia
○ Correos signed an extension of its contract with Amazon for three more years
○ The Spanish professionall football league, LaLiga, announced LaLigaSportsTV, an on-demand streaming service to watch live sports. Despite the name, the list of sports featured on the platform doesn’t include football
○ Last week it was announced that Amancio Ortega acquired Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle. La Informacion looked at what other buildings in the tech sector Ortega owns. The list includes giants such as Google, Facebook and HomeAway
Tech and policy 💂🏼
○ Madrid’s local government passed regulation that limits the activity of the short term rental sector in the Spanish capital. This applies to properties that are rented out more than 90 days per year
○ Valencia passed regulation forcing Uber and Cabify to wait 15 minutes to accept riders from users. As a result, and as happened in Barcelona a few weeks ago, both companies have decided to leave the Mediterranean city
Interesting reads 🤓
○ This is a very interesting article in El Pais about how technology and smartphones allow young kids to be connected in rural and remote areas in Spain
○ Xataka published an article looking at the current state of online voting in Spain, which has yet to gain traction
○ Pablo Santos (Plastic SCM): ’From Scrum to Kanban: how we deliver tasks twice as fast’
Podcasts of the week 🎧
○ Marketing4Ecommerce interviewed Dimas Gimeno, former president of El Corte Ingles
○ MasQradio interviewed Diego Bestard, co-founder and CEO of real estate investment platform Urbanitae
○ Kuombo interviewed Juan Luis Hortelano, co-founder of Blinkfire Analytics
○ Itnig interviewed Javier Aracil, co-founder of Mr Wonderful
○ Lunes Inspiradores interviewed Pep Gomez, co-founder of Reby and previously of Fever
Want to promote your products and services to more than 4,600 relevant thinkers and doers in the Spanish tech ecosystem? To sponsor this newsletter or promote your open job positions, send me an email and I’ll provide you with more details.
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