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!

Last week, we tracked 68 tech funding deals worth more than €409 million, as well as 6 M&A transactions and 1 IPO across Europe, including Russia, 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) European Union lawmakers were working on another set of changes that could have a global impact on the Internet, as a committee in the EU's legislative branch this week approved a proposed model copyright law that would likely lead many apps and websites to screen uploaded content using automated filters to detect copyrighted material. The proposal will now move to a vote by the full European Parliament.

2) Elastic, the creator of a data search software that companies buy in order to scan massive documents, data sets and visualizations, has confidentially filed to go public in what will be an initial public offering at a multi-billion dollar valuation, according to Recode.

3) F-Secure says it will acquire all the outstanding shares of MWR InfoSecurity, a privately-held cyber security company operating globally from its main offices in the UK, the US, South Africa and Singapore, for €91,6 million in cash. In addition, the terms include an earn-out of a maximum of €28,6 million in cash to be paid after 18 months of the completion, subject to reaching certain business targets.

4) Berlin-based startup Blinkist, which squeezes non-fiction books into 15-minute audio and text-based digests, has raised $18.8 million in a funding round led by Insight Venture Partners. The company will use the money to expand its team and introduce support for new languages for its app in addition to English and German.

5) German software developer Silexica has just raised $18 million in a Series B round led by EQT Ventures. Existing investors Merus Capital, Paua Ventures, Seed Fonds Aachen, and DSA invest also participated in the round. The company previously raised $8 million in a Series A round in November 2016.

6) Beamery, a London-based startup that offers self-styled “talent CRM”– aka ‘candidate relationship management’ — and recruitment marketing software targeted at fast-growing companies, has closed a $28 million Series B funding round, led by EQT Ventures.

7) Sweden-based startup Virtusize that has created a clothes-fitting solution for e-commerce websites, has been bought for €11 million by a group of Japanese investors, including Yahoo Japan Capital, Ideos Venture Cap fund, D4V, and a textile giant Toyoshima. The buyers will also invest an additional €700,000 in the company.

8) The UK-based startup Tessian, formerly known as Checkrecipient, has raised $13 million in a funding round led by Balderton Capital and Accel, with participation from Amadeus Capital Partners, Crane, LocalGlobe, Winton Ventures, and Walking Ventures. The company intends to use the capital injection to expand its product offering and grow the sales and marketing teams.

9) Panaseer, a cybersecurity company that aims to improve the "cyber hygiene" of major companies, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Evolution Equity Partners, with existing investors Notion Capital, Albion Capital, Winton Ventures and Paladin Capital Group also participating in the round, along with new investor Cisco Investments.

10) San Francisco-based mobile marketing startup Leanplum has acquired the Bulgarian startup Connecto, which creates AI-based conversational interfaces. Leanplum will use the acquisition and Connecto's technology to enable brands to engage their customers in real-time, and to fuel innovation in AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and advanced algorithms across its platform.

Bonus link: The overwhelming success of Adyen’s IPO this week shows an example of - and could give a boost to - the growing popularity of listing locally within the European tech community.

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