These were the 10 biggest European tech stories last week

Happy Monday!

Last week, we tracked 42 tech funding deals worth more than €289 million, as well as 7 M&A transactions 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 last week:

1) Finnish telecom network equipment maker Nokia has secured a 500 million euro loan from the European Investment Bank to step up development of next-generation 5G technology capable of faster speeds, wider coverage and more stable connections.

2) Britain is to start work on its own satellite navigation system to rival the European Union’s Galileo project because the UK’s access to sensitive security information could be restricted after Brexit, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

3) The Tel Aviv-based company Fiverr, the online marketplace for freelancers who offer services for as little as $5, is looking into an initial public offering on the Nasdaq that will value the company at $1 billion, according to a report from Haaretz.

4) Wonga, the payday lender that became notorious for its extortionate interest rates and was a toxic symbol of Britain’s household debt crisis, has collapsed into administration after it was brought down by a welter of compensation claims.

5) French scale-up RegionsJob becomes HelloWork and raises €30 million to expand in Europe.

6) A new car-sharing service is coming to Berlin in 2019 from Volkswagen — and it’s electric! The recently announced service, We Share, will start with 1,500 e-Golf vehicles and expand with 500 e-up! cars, and later with VW’s next-generation I.D. EVs.

7) Facebook has announced a new chapter of its LDN_LAB accelerator with a focus on deep tech startups. Teams can apply until September 6, while the programme itself starts at Facebook’s office in central London in early November.

8) Salary Finance, a UK-based startup that markets a financial wellbeing platform for employees, has raised a $20 million Series B round led by founding investor Blenheim Chalcot and multinational financial services company Legal & General. The money will be used to launch and scale the company in the US as well as to continue to support its growth in the UK.

9) UK medtech startup Digital Surgery is in talks with Magic Leap, a US company backed by Google and the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, to develop new healthcare applications for its futuristic mixed reality headset.

10) Munich-based LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) startup Blickfeld has landed $5.7 million from existing investors OSRAM Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Tengelmann Ventures, and Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners, bringing the total amount of funding to $10 million.

Bonus link: From local underdog to international scale-up: an interview with Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski (video)