Happy Friday!
Our research team tracked over 60 tech funding deals worth more than €574 million, as well as 12 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) Europe's Bitfury, a blockchain technology company, has closed an $80 million private placement with global institutional and corporate investors. The investment was led by Korelya Capital, the European growth capital firm backed by Korean digital giant Naver Group.
2) Britain’s information watchdog has asked Facebook’s lead European regulator to investigate how the company targets, monitors and shows adverts to users, saying it was concerned about some practices at the world’s biggest social network.
3) Italy-headquartered Deltatre, a provider of sports media technology and services, has inked a deal to acquire London-based Massive Interactive, which sells a suite of software tools to develop and manage over-the-top (OTT) video user interfaces. The deal is worth up to $127 million, with a combination of cash and conditional earn-out provisions.
4) UK-based Zopa has topped up its latest funding round, which has closed out at £60 million, giving the peer-to-peer lending pioneer a war chest for the upcoming launch of its digital challenger bank. The firm has added £16 million to the first stage of the round, which brought in an initial £44 million over the summer.
5) One of Europe’s largest and most well-known tech startup conferences, Web Summit, has launched a $50 million VC fund baptised Amaranthine, the Financial Times reported.
6) One of the major European equity crowdfunding platforms, the UK-based Crowdcube, has raised £8.5 million in funding. The round was led by Draper Esprit, which took a £6 million stake, with participation from Channel 4 and Balderton Capital. In addition to this, on November 14 Crowdcube will launch a crowdfunding campaign on its own platform for everyone to chip in.
7) In a move aimed at boosting its falling stock price, Spotify this week announced it would buy back up to $1 billion worth of stock — up to 10 million in ordinary shares.
8) In yet another crackdown on online freedom, the Russian government has decreed that all users of messaging apps must be identified. The decree, signed by prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, was published on Tuesday and will take effect in six months' time.
9) Uber said it will triple headcount working on food delivery across Europe, the Middle East and Africa in its fight for market share against local rivals including Deliveroo and Just Eat. The restaurant delivery arm of the world’s largest ride-hailing company, called Uber Eats, represents more than 10 percent of gross bookings across the business.
10) Berlin-based startup Watchmaster has raised €9 million in equity funding and €4 million in debt financing to expand its pre-owned fine watch marketplace across Europe.
Podcast: tech.eu Podcast #94: UK’s “digital services tax,” lessons learned from Blizzard and Click & Grow, interview with EarlyBird’s Christian Nagel, and more
Bonus link: Seed The Future: A free report on early-stage tech startups in Europe (tech.eu)
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