These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

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Happy Friday!

This week, we tracked 62 tech funding deals worth more than €600 million, as well as 7 M&A transactions, 2 IPOs, and 1 ICO across Europe, Israel, and Turkey.

We listed every single deal in our weekly newsletter (note: the full newsletter is now available to paying subscribers only), and here’s an extra overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week:

1) TransferWise has raised $280 million in a Series E round led by Old Mutual Global Investors and venture capital firm IVP. The UK-based company is now reportedly valued at $1.6 billion. Other investors in the round include new and old backers like Sapphire Ventures, Mistui, World Innovation Labs, Andreessen Horowitz, Richard Branson, and Baillie Gifford.

2) HelloFresh, the German meal kit delivery company, made its debut as a publicly traded company on Thursday, with shares gaining 4 percent at IPO, giving it a value of around €1.7 billion - more than twice that of US rival Blue Apron.

3) Germany's Continental has acquired Israeli automotive cyber security company Argus for a reported $400 million.

4) London’s Kano, makers of children’s DIY computers, has raised $28 million. Thames Trust and Breyer Capital led the Series B round with participation from Index Ventures, Stanford Engineering Venture Fund, LocalGlobe, Marc Benioff, John Makinson, Collaborative Fund, Triple Point Capital, and Barclays.

5) GetYourGuide announced a $75 million Series D, bringing on board new lead investor Battery Ventures, with all its existing investors participating in the round (including KKR, Spark Capital, Highland Europe, Sunstone Capital and Nokia Growth Partners). The round brings the Berlin-based company's total raised to ~$170 million.

6) VC firm Sunstone has raised almost €160 million for two new funds. This includes €112 million for its Sunstone Technology Fund IV and €47 million for Sunstone Progression Alpha, a new fund for investing in growth stages.

7) Finland-based open source database company MariaDB has raised $27 million in an investment led by Alibaba, with participation from existing investors Intel Capital, California Technology Ventures, Tesi, SmartFin Capital and Open Ocean. Combined with a recent $27 million investment from the European Investment Bank, this latest capital brings MariaDB's total funding this year to $54 million.

8) Brighteye Ventures, a Luxembourg-based VC firm, has closed its first edtech fund at €50 million to invest in education technology startups.

9) Ada Health, a UK-based health app, has raised €40 million. The round was led by Access Industries with participation from June Fund, Cumberland VC, and Evi Technology founder William Tunstall-Pedoe.

10) The European Commission has announced how it will spend €30 billion of the EU research and innovation funding programme Horizon 2020 during 2018-2020, including €2.7 billion to kick-start a European Innovation Council.

Bonus link: Emmanuel Macron makes bid for Silicon Valley on the Seine (Politico)

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