These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

Happy Friday!

This week, we tracked 84 tech funding deals worth more than €711 million, as well as 7 M&A transactions 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). Here’s an extra overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week:

1) The European Union will unveil a directive within weeks on taxing between 2 percent and 6 percent of big technology companies’ revenue.

2) UiPath, an automation software company originally founded in Bucharest, has raised $153 million in a Series B round led by Accel with participation from CapitalG, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Earlybird, Credo Ventures, and Seedcamp.

3) France’s competition authority may open investigations into Facebook and Google “in the next few months” after an in-depth examination concluded the pair dominate the French online advertising market.

4) Ventech, a VC firm with offices in Paris, Munich, and Helsinki, has announced the first closing of its newest fund at €140 million. The fifth fund has an eventual target of €200 million that it hopes to reach later this year.

5) UK digital bank Atom has raised £149 million led by Spanish financial institution BBVA along with asset manager Tosca Fund. As part of the round, BBVA has invested £85.4 million into the company, bringing its stake to 39%.

6) Erdogan’s next target as he restricts Turkey’s democracy: the Internet.

7) BBVA, Visa, Lakestar and ABN Amro have contributed to a €56.6 million funding round in German banking-as-a-service platform solarisBank.

8) UK-based cybersecurity firm Netsparker has landed a $40 million funding round led by private equity fund Turn/River Capital.

9) In 2021, the UK government intends the country to be well on its way to a driverless future; this week it announced a three-year regulatory review to “pave the way for self-driving cars”.

10) Fintech firm Capitolis has raised $29 million in two separate rounds of funding: $20 million from Index Ventures and $9 million from Sequoia Capital. The company, which is based in London with offices in Tel Aviv and New York, develops services and solutions for capital markets, such as equities and foreign exchange.

Bonus link: Taking the pulse of startups, VCs, and innovation in ‘Emerging Europe’