The new digital newspapers are competing to fill the gap left by the big media groups as information and communication media on the Internet. La Communitat has closed a round with the aim of financing "Mediazines", an interactive magazine kiosk launched in January. In April Sabemos, a digital newspaper with €2M of investment, was born. Pedro J's newspaper El español has already raised more than €3.6M from 5000 shareholders before going public.
Using Big Data for semantic analysis gets funding.
In the last two months two Spanish Big Data companies that use natural language processing for semantic analysis: Bitext and Sentisis, have received the backing of investors. Moreover, in recent years the number of companies in the sector has grown considerably.
CDTI support for the preparation of Community proposals (APC) H2020
The CDTI will soon open the application period for H2020 grants for the preparation of proposals for research and innovation actions and SME instrument actions in phase II.
Telefónica invests in Sigfox, world's leading provider of a mobile network dedicated to the Internet of Things
France's Sigfox has raised a €115M funding round involving financial and strategic investors from Europe, the US and Asia.
Banco Sabadell creates the Aurica III fund to help the internationalisation of SMEs
Sabadell has launched a €150M fund to invest in growth projects in foreign markets. Of the €150M, €50M will be provided by Sabadell and the rest by family offices and institutional investors. It has also increased capital to buy TSB.
Seidor goes shopping: acquires Dispal and Softgasa
Seidor, a leading multinational firm in SAP Consulting solutions, Management Consulting and value-added ICT Services, has acquired two companies in February 2015: Dispal and Softgasa, with the aim of consolidating its position in the north of Spain.
Vitamin K and Kibo ventures invest in iContainers
Kibo Ventures and VitaminaK's investment in Icontainers was the second largest venture capital deal in February 2015. In addition, other companies in the logistics sector such as Glovo have also completed a financing round and Hubbl participates in Connector's accelerator programme.
Perseo, Iberdrola's venture capital arm, invests in Sunfunder
New technologies, together with alternative financing, are gradually making it possible to obtain energy in places that were previously unthinkable and to care for the environment. Perseo, Iberdrola's venture capital programme, has invested in Sunfunder, which finances off-grid solar energy projects in emerging countries. In addition, 15 Spanish companies have been chosen to participate in the European programme against climate change, Climate-kic, and Bornay, the renewable energy company from Alicante, is developing a crowdfunding campaign so that NGOs can obtain its product free of charge.
H2020 Smart, green and integrated transport
One of the societal challenges of the Horizon2020 programme is to achieve a smart, green and integrated transport system for Europe. It has a budget of €6339M for the period 2014-2020. 30% will go to transport systems and 70% to means of transport.
Springwater takes a stake in Uninvest to back its project
Springwater has entered the venture capital fund of the University of Santiago de Compostela, thus achieving the privatisation of the company, which was in the hands of three Galician universities. The privatisation of the company was necessary to raise funds from the ICO, which has limited its investment to managers and funds with a majority of private capital, forcing Uninvest - whose founding partners include Axis, the ICO's own venture capital company - to spend months analysing formulas for its survival. It has finally decided to consider the exit of universities and other public shareholders.
Crowdlending is winning market share from banks
In Spain, crowdlending with platforms such as Comunitae, has grown by 363% in the last 3 years, being the form of crowdfunding that has experienced the highest growth rate. Crowdlending is already considered a reliable possibility to raise money for companies. Banks around the world cannot remain indifferent to the fees that platforms are getting and are reacting in different ways.
DIGITAL ECONOMY AND SOCIETY STRATEGIC ACTION 2015 (AEESD)
The Aeesd 2015 call for proposals is expected to be launched by the end of April. The aim of the call is to develop the digital economy, reduce management costs in the administration and improve the service to citizens, strengthen the Spanish ICT sector as a source of economic growth and...