Between Airbnb’s IPO and Omio’s new $100 million funding, August was full of surprises. Let’s take a look at a fast recap on everything that happened in the startup and tech universe during the last month of summer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Airbnb’s IPO is finally real! The company submitted a draft registration statement for IPO, according to a press release<\/a>. The vacation unicorn was valued at $31 billion in 2017, but only at $18 billion this year and still plans to go public by the end of the year, in spite of its 40 percent decrease in valuation in three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, giant Just Eat Takeaway.com<\/strong> recorded losses of 158 million euros<\/a> in the first six months of the year, largely attributed to integration costs of its merger, as well as the acquisition of Grubhub<\/a>. The company’s Ebitda grew 133%, to 177 million euros in the first semester with a 44.2% increase in revenue in comparable terms, to 1,031 million euros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2620\ufe0fNo market need, running out of cash, user-unfriendly products, competition, and disharmony on teams are among the most common reasons why startups fail<\/strong>. CB Insights broke down the top 20 reasons for startup failure<\/a> by analyzing 101 startup failure post-mortems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other news, Berlin-based travel startup Omio has raised a new $100m<\/a> funding round. It has also maintained its unicorn status, despite seeing revenues drop to almost zero in March. Travel restrictions, border closures, and safety concerns are here to stay for the next months and business is not exactly rocketing forwards. So how did Omio convinced new investors<\/a>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking of funding, Crowdcube<\/a> launched a new secondary product: the Direct Community Offer (DCO), which gives later-stage businesses a way of offering early investors a return on their investment while simultaneously giving new investors a chance. The product represents an exciting next step in the evolution of investment crowdfunding<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This month, we had very interesting guests and topics on Itnig\u2019s weekly podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>Bernat interviews Mauricio Prieto<\/a>, co-founder of eDreams \u2708\ufe0f to explore the history of one of the largest and most successful travel agencies in Europe: the difficulties of starting, the experiences of the first online purchases, the evolution of the travel sector, and the crises that they managed to overcome when other players couldn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n Bernat interviewed Juan Rodr\u00edguez, CEO of Camaloon<\/a>, one of the key figures within the Itnig ecosystem, both for his high level of knowledge and experience in the business and entrepreneurship world and for being one of the investors at the Itnig Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this second part of the episode<\/a>, Juan talks about his experience with his second unicorn: OtterBox<\/strong>. Juan explains how he transformed everything they had been building and drove the business to a greater growth through an aggressive distribution strategy. His most recent adventure is taking over the e-commerce world with Camaloon<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sergi Sans talks about his career<\/a> in the world of Digital Marketing and SEO. In this episode, Sergi highlights the evolution of SEO, keys to good SEO, and at a general level, the knowledge necessary to sell online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bernat Farrero and Jordi Romero talk with Josep Navajo<\/a> about one of the most important documents when developing a business: the Shareholders’ Agreement<\/strong>. Josep, being a lawyer and the CEO of Delvy, shares all his knowledge about what establishes, regulates, and orders this pact, as well as the usefulness of clauses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Subscribe to our YouTube channel<\/a>. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Airbnb’s IPO wasn’t the only big announcement this month, lots of acquisitions, funding, initiatives and cool reports and insights are worth mentioning:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jean-Eric Paquet, the EU\u2019s urbane director-general for research and innovation, has a \u20ac10bn war chest to turn the European Innovation Council into “the biggest deeptech equity fund<\/a> in Europe.” Could it be the next \u201cunicorn factory\u201d? A new \u2018Facebook Accelerator: Commerce<\/a>\u2019 welcomes startups from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa focused on e-commerce solutions<\/a> that help \u201cbridge the gap between online and in-store experiences.\u201d The program will adopt an entirely virtual format, providing startups with training, mentorship, and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Latin American fintech industry<\/strong> is booming, and women have been an integral part of the region\u2019s success<\/a> stepping up as fintech leaders, with five times<\/a> as many female-founded fintechs as the global average. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udeb4\u200d\u2642\ufe0f Glovo, Deliveroo, and Delivery Hero share millions<\/strong> of users have raised funding rounds worth billions and reached unicorn status. Here’s a short table<\/a> to see them side-by-side. In other news, Delivery Hero<\/a> acquired InstaShop<\/a>, an online grocery marketplace valued at $360 million<\/strong>. The initial purchase price was about $270 million.<\/a> Based in Dubai, the grocery platform launched five years ago and has hit up to 330 percent year-on-year growth<\/strong>. With Delivery Hero\u2019s support, the plan is to continue expanding into new markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pagantis has been acquired by Afterpay<\/a> for at least \u20ac50 million<\/strong>! Pagantis\u2019 existing technology will be re-configured to provide the Afterpay core product,<\/a> and the business will be rebranded to Clearpay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Valencia-based Jeff opens its first fitness center<\/a> in Valencia and begins its expansion. The new business line adds to its already consolidated laundry and dry cleaning franchise that has already expanded in more than 30 countries<\/strong>. You can check out our past episode with Eloi Gomez<\/a>, CEO, and founder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udcb8Europe recorded $17 billion in funding in the first half of 2020, down 20 percent from 2019<\/a>. However, the continent experienced an increase in funding dollars to seed, angel, and early-stage rounds. You can check Crunchbase’s “The State Of Global Venture Funding During COVID-19<\/a>” report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides Airbnb’s IPO, the tech scene had a lot happening! <\/p>\n\n\n\nStartup Inside Stories Podcast<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Startup News & Updates<\/strong> of the Month<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Ironhack and Landing.Jobs scholarship program<\/a> has been launched to help people shift into a career in tech and fight unemployment with a \u20ac300,000 scholarship fund. Also, Ironhack has recently launched Ironhack Remote<\/a>, which allows any student to join their tech bootcamps regardless of their nationality or location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jeff, Declarando, and GrowPro Experience<\/strong> will be part of the Scale-Up phase of the Lanzadera program<\/a> next September. This Scale-Up phase expands Lanzadera’s scope of action by targeting those startups that have grown a lot and have a proven and profitable business model<\/strong>. Through the program, the accelerator will support them in addressing new goals and new markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNew Funding for Startups <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Random Tech Stuff<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n