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Is your startup heading to MWC? TechCrunch wants to hear from you
Nature is healing, the tech show is returning to in-person events. I’m not sure I’m entirely over CES less than a month after returning from Vegas, but we’re already in…
Runa Capital kicks off new fund as it joins the VC ‘Scramble for Europe’ by moving to Luxembourg
TechCrunch understands Runa Capital, which launched in 2010, has raised $55 million toward its fourth fund, aiming for a target of $250 million. The company is declinging to comment. However,…
Fleksy targets devs with SDK platform for smart keyboard features
Keyboard tech licensing startup Fleksy has expanded its SDK offering with an eye on winning over indie devs and app makers with an accessible, SaaS-like platform entry-point to its software…
Exceptional Ventures joins Europe’s health and wellness gold rush with a new $24M fund
With the after-effect of the pandemic set to play out for years, VCs specializing in health, wellness and general ‘joy’ would appear to have rising fortunes. Funds such as Able…
Barcelona’s Impress heads toward a $125M Series B round in its bid to digitize orthodontics
Last year we covered how Barcelona-based startup Impress had digitalized the area of orthodontics, raising a $50 million Series A in the process, somewhat aping U.S.-based startups such as SmileDirect.…
This startup hopes to get us to net zero via its platform to construct wooden buildings
One of the stunning facts that’s emerged over the last few years — especially as VCs and startups have turned their attention toward the climate crisis — is that our…
Paris-based Breega closes €250M fund, opens Barcelona office to back Iberian startups
Paris-originated VC Breega wasn’t enormously well known in the VC world (it only closed its first fund in 2015) until, perhaps, it started attracting attention with its second €110 million…
TestGorilla scores $70M for skills tests aiming to replace the recruitment resume dump
Sending in a resume is the main way a person hopes to get noticed for a job. But a startup out of Amsterdam called TestGorilla is today announcing $70 million…
Fleksy switches to a SaaS model for its custom keyboard tech
Keyboard startup Fleksy has launched a new self-serve SDK to expand its reach for indie developers wanting to add custom keyboard software to their apps. The Barcelona-based mobile keyboard software…
Mass transit group Swvl confirms estimated $100M acquisition of UK startup Zeelo
Mass transit group Swvl has confirmed to TechCrunch its deal to buy U.K. startup Zeelo, estimated to be a $100 million acquisition, according to sources. The Egyptian-born startup that provides…
Spanish scale-ups club together to shift the tech policy agenda
In the latest spark from its fast evolving tech ecosystem, Spain’s scale-ups are banding together to lobby lawmakers and press the economic case for their high-tech, high-growth business model more…
Amenitiz gets $30M for SaaS it bills as ‘Shopify for hotels’
Barcelona-based Amenitiz, which sells software-as-a-service for streamlining the administration of independent hotels and B&Bs which it shorthands as ‘Shopify for hotels’, has closed a $30 million Series A a few…
SOSV and JetBlue Technology Ventures talk VC climate tech and ESG at TC Sessions: Climate 2022
Investment in climate tech is heating up almost as fast as climate change itself. In 2021, climate tech startups received $40+ billion across more than 600 deals. That’s more than…
Talent.com raises $120M to take on Indeed and ZipRecruiter in mass-market job search
Online recruitment was one of the early and big hits of the first dot-com boom. But with more and more business processes moving online, online job search is the gift…
It’s been several years since Barcelona-based Typeform tapped investors to grow usage of its “conversational data collection platform”, as it bills the customizable form/survey/quiz builder software it sells. Actually it’s…
Demand for talent continues to make tech recruitment a hotbed of startup activity. To wit: Madrid-based startup Circular.io, which is now expanding its “talent sharing platform” — initially focused on…
ByteDance-owned VR startup Pico strengthens ties with Qualcomm
Pico, the Chinese virtual reality startup bought by TikTok parent ByteDance back in August, has struck a major partnership with Qualcomm to push further into the extended reality (XR) space.…
Jeffrey Katzenberg backs the $10M seed round for HUBUC’s embedded finance API
I recently wrote about the so-called “Embedded finance” trend, citing the example of Intergiro’s recent fundraising in the space. There’s now yet another example of this trend in the shape…
EWA, which taps into popular media to teach languages, hits 51M downloads and 3.5M MAUs and raises its first outside funding
Online language learning continues to be a huge opportunity for startups, with the most engaging experiences meeting a surge of interest from consumers looking for more productivity out of the…
Spain’s Rosita Longevity, an app that helps seniors be more active, is headed to Florida
Hearts Radiant, a Spanish startup that’s building a “longevity coach” for seniors — with the goal of extending quality of life through app-based personalized coaching designed to combat and even…
Boutique hotel tech platform NUMA raises $45M growth financing round led by DN Capital
Based out of the U.S., Sonder is a tech-driven hospitality company. It’s raised $529.6 million, and, in the post-pandemic world where the population has become far more movable due to…
Bumble makes its first acquisition with deal for French Gen Z dating app, Fruitz
Dating app company Bumble, Inc. is making its first acquisition with today’s news that it’s adding the fast-growing French dating app Fruitz to its family of applications. Though Bumble, Inc.…
Featured Article
‘We are going to create the best environment for startups in Europe’
Spain’s government is gearing up to pass the country’s first ever startup law. A draft law agreed by ministers was presented to the parliament last month. The process of debating and agreeing the details of this startup ecosystem support framework is expected to take between six and nine months. So — if all goes to…
Spain’s Payflow, a salary advance startup, banks $9.1M to fuel a super app growth strategy
Barcelona-based Payflow, a YC-backed salary-advance fintech with ambitions to evolve into a neobank, has banked a $9.1 million Series A funding round — bringing its total raised since January 2020,…
TravelPerk adds $115M to equity and debt Series D, discloses unicorn valuation
SME-focused business travel booking platform TravelPerk has topped up the $160 million in equity and debt it raised last in a Series D last April with an additional $115 million…
Fleksy raises Series A to expand its keyboard SDK biz after 10x growth
Barcelona-based mobile keyboard software maker, Fleksy, has bagged a $1.6 million Series A to cement a pivot to b2b for its white-label SDK for Android and iOS. The round is…
Seqera Labs grabs $5.5M to help sequence COVID-19 variants and other complex data problems
Bringing order and understanding to unstructured information located across disparate silos has been one of the more significant breakthroughs of the big data era, and today a European startup that…
Spain’s Factorial raises $80M on the back of strong traction for its ‘Workday for SMBs’
Factorial, a startup out of Barcelona that has built a platform that lets SMBs run human resources functions with the same kind of tools that typically are used by much…
Gamestry gets $5M to give game-video creators a sweeter deal
Barcelona-based gaming video platform Gamestry has snatched up $5 million in seed funding, led by Goodwater Capital, Target Global and Kibo Ventures — turning investors’ heads with a 175x growth…
Italy’s DPA fines Glovo-owned Foodinho $3M, orders changes to algorithmic management of riders
Algorithmic management of gig workers has landed Glovo-owned, on-demand delivery firm Foodinho in trouble in Italy where the country’s data protection authority issued a €2.6 million penalty (~$3M) yesterday after…
