Happy Friday!
This week, our research team tracked over 50 tech funding deals worth more than €400 million, as well as a bunch of 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) Spotify announced in a blog post written by CEO Daniel Ek that it has filed an unfair competition complaint against Apple with the European Commission. The streaming company is claiming that Apple's App Store stifles competition by "acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers." Apple, meanwhile, accused Spotify of wanting all the benefits of the App Store ecosystem without making any contributions to the marketplace.
2) Nvidia has agreed to buy Israeli chipmaker Mellanox Technologies for $6.9 billion, gaining expertise to help it push into the growing market for data center components.
3) Brussels is set to fine Google for hampering potential rival search advertisers, in the latest antitrust showdown between the EU and the US tech giant. Following a high-profile investigation, Margrethe Vestager, EU competition commissioner, will announce the fine next week.
4) Italy-born Talent Garden has raised a €44 million round of financing from TIP, Social Capital, Indaco Ventures and primarily European family offices to expand its network of co-working and education campuses across Europe – and beyond.
5) European Union governments on Tuesday scrapped a plan to introduce an EU-wide digital tax as some states opposed it, the Romanian presidency of the EU said.
6) US enterprise asset management and Industrial IoT technology developer I.D. Systems has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Israeli telematics and mobile IoT solutions provider Pointer Telocation Systems for $140 million in a cash and stock deal.
7) Pagantis, a Madrid-based fintech startup that offers funding on e-commerce sites, has closed a €65 million Series B funding round in debt and equity financing. Investors in the round included Prime Ventures, SPF Investment Management (formerly Credit Suisse Asset Management), and Rinkelberg Capital Group.
8) Israeli startup Lightbits Labs wants to revolutionise datacenters as we know them, as it emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday with $50 million in funding. Backers include Dell EMC, Cisco, and Micron, and venture firms including Square Peg Capital and Walden International.
9) German “intelligent process automation” startup Automation Hero has secured a $14.5 million funding round led by Atomico, with participation from Baidu Ventures (BV) and Cherry Ventures.
10) Rakuten TV, the Japanese e-commerce giant’s effort to take on Netflix and Amazon in the world of video streaming, is landing in 30 new countries in Europe, bringing the total across the region and Japan to 42.
Podcast: tech.eu Podcast #109: SurveyMonkey buys Usabilla; new French Tech Visa; StartHer report; interviews with TNW’s Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten and Talent Garden’s Davide Dattoli
Bonus link: Tim Berners-Lee says World Wide Web, at 30, must emerge from 'adolescence' (Reuters)
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