Spanish tech news: 30/3/2017

Startup funding news ?
  • Chinese auto giant SAIC Motor has invested an undisclosed sum in machine learning startup BigML. BigML is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, but 50% of its employees are in Valencia
Investor and accelerator news ? 
  • Webcapitalriesgo has a new report out: ‘Maturity of Venture Capital in Spain. 2017′. Relevant facts and details of over 60 outstanding deals from the 90´s to the present (in Spanish and English)
  • Startup accelerator NUMA Barcelona held its first demo day in Madrid
Startup news ?
  • UberEats, Deliberry, Glovo and DelSuper talked about the current state of online food delivery in Spain
  • El Español published an interesting article that looks into the secondary market of VTC licenses in Spain, which can now cost as much as €60,000, and how Uber and Cabify are participating in it
Big tech news ?
  • La Liga, the Spanish professional football league, has hired former Facebook and Netflix directors to lead its digital strategy
  • Alibaba has yet to open an office in Spain, but the Chinese company is building a team to lead AliExpress’ operations in the country
  • Telefonica to become an official sponsor of Real Madrid. Expansion says that the deal could be as high as €15 to €20 million in two years
  • BBVA joins Hyperledger blockchain project
Tech and policy ??‍♀️
  • The legal battle between Cabify and taxi associations has resumed
  • Palma de Mallorca will prohibit all vacation rental properties after the summer, affecting Airbnb, Homeaway and similar platforms
Interesting reads ?
  • Iker Marcaide, former CEO  and co-founder of Flywire (peerTransfer), presented its latest project: La Pinada. An eco-friendly neighbourhood in Valencia
  • The Spanish IT market grew by 3% in 2016, reaching €23 billion
Jaime Novoa: Jaime Novoa is the Founder of Novobrief. He is a technology writer turned investor at Madrid's K Fund. He was also a data analyst at Tech.eu.