Our cities
We cover technology and marketing where European money and talent concentrate. Every story on this site belongs to one of these cities, and London, Berlin and Amsterdam are next.
Hoy Es Marketing puts marketing on trial before 700 in Valencia
ESIC's yearly conference turned La Rambleta into a courtroom: CUPRA, Google, Froneri, Octopus Energy and MediaMarkt made their case, and the audience voted guilty or innocent after each talk.
Web Summit brings its biggest Chinese tech delegation to Lisbon
Tencent, Xiaomi, XPENG, Pony.ai, Manus and humanoid robot makers AGIBOT and Galbot will speak in November, alongside delegations from China's Ministry of Commerce and its internet regulator.
TrueLayer raises $27M from Italy's CDP to grow its Milan team
The London Pay by Bank company, founded by two Italians, has about a quarter of its staff in Italy and calls Milan a core engineering hub. The state-backed CDP Venture Capital led the round.
Italy's data centres could draw €36.9bn by 2036, says IDA study
The Italian Datacenter Association's 2026 study sees up to €36.9 billion of investment in a decade, with Milan and Lombardy still the core of the market and grid connections the bottleneck.
Uber puts Madrid among Europe's first cities for robotaxis in its app
Uber's mobility chief for Europe, the Middle East and Africa says WeRide cars are already testing in the capital and will start with safety drivers in set areas before going driverless.
Mirai brings direct hotel booking inside ChatGPT, starting in Madrid
The Madrid hotel tech company's first ChatGPT plugins, live at the Emperador and Moderno hotels, let guests check prices and book on the hotel's own channel without leaving the chat.
Madrid's audiovisual cluster shows its AI cases at Iberseries
At the sixth Iberseries & Platino Industria in Matadero, the cluster ran its own pavilion, a workshop on AI and new business models with eight member companies, and a talk with Berlinale Pro's Tanja Meissner.
Barcelona researchers' AI reads ageing in blood stem cell nuclei
ChromAgeNet, from IDIBELL, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and ISGlobal, sorts young and aged mouse blood stem cells from 3D images of how their DNA is packed, and could help screen rejuvenation drugs.
Óptica Bassol folds 25 web stores into one and doubles its revenue
The Barcelona eyewear retailer, which makes 90% of its sales online, left a Magento setup that went down for half a day with every change. Shopify published the numbers in a case study.
LightOn's LightOnOCR-3 reads charts, handwriting and page layout
The Paris-listed AI company's new open models, in 0.8 and 4 billion parameter versions, go beyond transcribing text: they map the page, describe images and turn charts into data.
Filigran gathers its cyber defence community in Paris for THREAD
The company behind OpenCTI holds its first annual community event on 15 October, with speakers from Accenture, Thales and the FBI, an AI agent lab and the beta of a new risk module.
Paris biotech Rivercell raises $25M to build an AI model of the cell
Founded by Cardiologs co-founder Yann Fleureau and former Owkin data science chief Eric Durand, the start-up will run its own automated lab in Paris to generate the data its AI Virtual Cell needs.
Desigual apologises for an ad that joked about Barcelona's pickpockets
The Barcelona fashion brand's spot for its Ottolinger capsule toured the city's "B side", from bag snatchers to a €9.50 iced coffee. Locals called it a mockery of gentrification; Desigual said sorry but kept the video up.
CUPRA's marketing chief on turning the Raval into a global stage
For its new electric CUPRA Raval, the Barcelona car brand shot 'University of the Streets' in the neighbourhood and took it to more than 50 countries. Patrick Sievers explains why a very local idea was meant to travel.
Google's Gemini and Pixel become FC Barcelona partners
The club named Gemini its Official Consumer AI Partner and Pixel its Official Mobile Phone Partner, across the men's and women's first teams. Barça is one of five European clubs in Google's new football push, alongside Paris Saint-Germain.
Vueling lets travellers design their own fridge magnets with Gemini
The Barcelona airline's summer campaign, created by Ogilvy Barcelona, asks "team beach or team city?" and uses Google's AI to turn any photo or destination into a souvenir, with a QR code on board and a special action in the Barcelona metro.
Heura wins its fight over 'burger' and 'chorizo' in a Barcelona court
On appeal, Barcelona's provincial court found that the plant-based brand can use meat names on clearly labelled vegan products. It also ruled that one of its best-known billboards was misleading advertising.
TF1 takes on Team Vitality's licensing, starting with a BYD campaign
The French media group will develop merchandise, brand content and events around the esports club, fresh from a summer in which the Esports World Cup moved to Paris and Vitality was its most-watched team.
Coca-Cola returns to PSG until 2029 with a collector can for Paris
The drinks brand is back as an official partner of Paris Saint-Germain in a global deal announced in August. First up: 400,000 collector cans in Carrefour stores across Île-de-France from 12 October, and a new fan space at the Parc des Princes.
Gold's Gym enters Paris proper with a campaign built on its statues
The American gym chain is opening its first club inside the city, on avenue Daumesnil, and is announcing it with close-ups of Parisian sculptures under the line "La forme devient capitale". It is aiming for 200 clubs in France.
HelloFresh drives a giant text bubble through Paris to defend dinner
The meal-kit company's new signature, "À taaable.", took to the streets on a box truck carrying a giant phone-style message, with tastings for passers-by and the influencer Jeremstar on board.
Shein opens a marketing and content hub in Barcelona
The fashion retailer opened its second Spanish office in March, on Carrer Entença, with an all-female team of eight working on branding, marketing and content for Spain and for its Mediterranean-styled own brand Nöista.
Verdú Artesanos, Asindown and Emuca win Valencia's MIA marketing awards
The Club de Marketing del Mediterráneo handed out the 2026 MIA awards on 10 June. A Dénia ice cream maker turned national brand took the audience vote, and Norauto's Laura Oro was named marketer of the year.
Hoy Es Marketing brought CUPRA, Google and MediaMarkt to Valencia
ESIC's marketing event took over La Rambleta on 30 September under the motto "Marketing will be judged", with marketing leaders from CUPRA, Froneri Iberia, MediaMarkt, Octopus Energy and Google.
Valencia is Spain's third deep tech hub as the country commits €8bn
With Spain's Deep Tech Strategy 2026-2030 on the table, the Valencian Community counts more than 100 deep tech spin-offs, from PLD Space's reusable rockets to Matteco's new materials and Golden Owl's AI intelligence platform.
Valencian companies lead Spain on innovation but need €370m more a year to catch up on R&D
The Observatorio LAB 2026, presented on 15 September by Fundación LAB Mediterráneo and the Ivie, finds the Valencian Community is the only Spanish region where companies spend more on innovation than on R&D. Only 16.1% of its industrial firms use AI.
Valencia's GSIC Testing Lab marks its first year with 61 startups and 1,000 executives connected
A year after opening at La Harinera, the sports technology lab run by the Global Sports Innovation Center powered by Microsoft has put 61 startups in front of industry decision makers and connected more than 1,000 executives.
Orange brings its Tech Future event to Valencia for the first time
Orange brought its flagship technology event to Valencia in March 2026. Seven local companies and institutions, from the Port Authority to Fermax and WM Clinics, showed how they are using private 5G, AI, IoT and cloud security in day-to-day operations.
Your company records what happened. Almost nothing records why.
Every enterprise has a system of record. Almost none has a system of reasoning. That gap is the reason your AI agents look brilliant in the demo and behave like a new hire on day three in production.
How Genuine Trust With Your Audience Leads to More Sales Than Optimized Funnels
Trust is the currency people actually buy with. It's the real sales generator, the thing that gets someone to click purchase more than any part of your backend ever will.
The AI layer is the easy part. Fixing your data mess is something else
Conversational analytics will become normal, and scale-ups are trying to jump straight to it. But AI makes access easier without resolving the inconsistencies underneath, and a fluent answer sounds authoritative even when the logic is weak.
DMK Tribe returns to Barcelona for free networking night on 17 Sept
The 8,000-member marketing community hosts an evening of drinks, peer learning and connections for founders and marketers, with no fixed entry fee.
PAZZI opens a fully automated robotic pizzeria in Madrid
The robotics-driven pizza concept lands in the Spanish capital, with the source confirming the launch but disclosing little on investment or covers per day.
Valrhona brings Eggxtraordinaire Easter activation to Paris CDG
The French chocolate house takes its brand off the shelf and into the terminals of Europe's second-busiest airport, betting on travel retail for Easter.
Primavera Sound touts economic impact of its 2026 Barcelona edition
The festival published an assessment of what its 2026 Parc del Fòrum edition brought the city, though the headline numbers behind the claim are not yet public.
FCB Lisbon wins big at 2018 Lusophone Awards of Creativity
The Lisbon office of the FCB network took a haul of prizes at the annual Portuguese-language creativity awards, the agency said.
Kia, Samsung, IKEA and Fiat descend on Milan Design Week 2026
Seven consumer brands with no furniture to sell are turning Milan Design Week into their biggest experiential-marketing stage of the year.
Bending Spoons opens Madrid office in bet on Spanish tech talent
The Milan-based owner of WeTransfer and Evernote plants a flag in Madrid, joining the roster of foreign tech firms hiring from the Spanish capital.
Paris startup Naboo raises $70m for AI-powered event platform
The corporate-events booking company lands one of the year's larger Paris rounds, though investors and valuation were not disclosed in the reporting.
Valencia's biggest fashion and home outlet returns with 70% off
An outlet market billed as Valencia's largest is back with 25,000 branded fashion and home items at discounts of up to 70%, according to Valencia Secreta.