Happy Friday and, of course, all the best for the new year!
This week, our research team tracked some 20 tech funding deals worth more than €100 million, as well as several M&A transactions across Europe, including Russia, Israel, and Turkey.
We listed every single deal in our weekly newsletter. Here’s an extra overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week:
1) Switzerland-based AI healthcare startup SOPHiA GENETICS has landed $77 million in a funding round led by Generation Investment Management, with participation from Idinvest Partners and existing investors including Balderton Capital and Alychlo. The capital injection brings the total amount raised by the company to $140 million.
2) Berlin-based VC firm BlueYard has raised a second fund of $120 million, which it described as “same size , same team, same thesis, same strategy, same LPs.” The firm has described its current investment thesis as “the decentralisation of markets, the empowerment of users, and the liberation of data.”
3) Cision, which provides press release distribution, media monitoring, and other PR services to businesses and the media industry, has acquired Falcon.io, a startup founded in Denmark that lets companies post, manage and analyse their presence on social media platforms.
4) German “smart” luggage startup Horizn has secured a €10 million funding round from Project A, Vorwerk Ventures, Milano Investment Partners, Perpetual Ventures, and the former Puma CEO Franz Koch. This round brings the total amount raised by the startup to €25 million.
5) The founders of Layar are to bid for Blippar's intellectual property while the latter is on brink of collapse.
6) Over-the-top video solutions company Accedo has raised $17 million – a move it said will help drive growth and accelerate innovation in the coming years. The funding round was led by Stockholm-based investment firm and existing Accedo investor, SEB Private Equity, and follows Accedo’s move in recent years into new business areas like virtual and augmented reality, voice interaction and data-driven video analysis.
7) London-listed online gambling software developer Playtech will pay Israeli authorities $32 million within the next 30 days as part of a tax settlement. The additional tax has been determined following a civil tax audit for the years 2008-2017.
8) Israeli company Celeno that specialises on components for industry-grade Wi-Fi equipment has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Iris Capital, with participation from existing investors including Cisco and Liberty Global. Celeno expects to use the fresh funding to step up its marketing efforts in Europe and develop new products for IoT.
9) The European Commission is launching 14 out of a total of 15 bug bounties on Free Software projects that the EU institutions rely on.
10) Paris-based illiCopro‘s condo management platform allows residents of a property to manage their buildings without going through a professional property manager, promising a reduction in expenses for residents of up to 50%. The startup this week announced a funding round of €1.5 million from Samaipata and existing investor Kima Ventures.
Bonus link: Inside Finland’s plan to train its population in artificial intelligence (Politico)
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