These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

Happy Sunday!

This week, our research team tracked some 50 tech funding deals worth more than €700 million, as well as five 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) Google has been hit with a new antitrust fine from the European Union totaling €1.5 billion. EU antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that the tech giant had abused its dominant position by forcing customers of its AdSense business to sign contracts stating they would not accept advertising from rival search engines. The fine is the third major penalty the EU has levied against the tech giant in as many years, and closes its last open probe of the firm.

2) Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) said on Monday it has agreed to buy Britain-born Worldpay for about $35 billion, with the US-based financial services provider striking the biggest deal to date in the fast-growing electronic payments industry.

3) UiPath, a Romania-born robotics process automation platform targeting IT businesses, is raising more than $400 million in Series D funding from VC investors at a valuation north of $7 billion.

4) Israeli taxi hailing app Gett is planning an IPO later this year.

5) Let’s all welcome a freshly-minted European unicorn: Paris-based booking and scheduling platform for the healthcare industry Doctolib has just raised €150 at a valuation of €1 billion. The funding round was led by General Atlantic, with participation from Eurazeo, Bpifrance, Kernel, and Accel, as well as several German healthcare entrepreneurs.

6) The European Commission has earmarked an extra €2 billion to develop technologies such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology as part of a bid to place Europe at the forefront of innovation.

7) Axeleo Capital, a venture arm of the French enterprise-focused startup accelerator Axeleo, has closed its €45 million fund. Officially launched back in July 2017, the fund has made 20 investments in 20 months.

8) Danish employee retention SaaS startup Peakon has raised $35 million in a Series B extension round led by Atomico, with participation from EQT Ventures, IDInvest Partners, Balderton Capital, and Sunstone. The company, which has raised a total of over $60 million to date, wants to spend the fresh capital on scaling on the US market.

9) SimplyBiz Group has agreed to purchase Defaqto owner Regulus Topco for £74.3 million. SimplyBiz is a provider of compliance services, while Defaqto is a technology company which rates 21,000 financial products and funds.

10) British cloud infrastructure provider for the public sector UKCloud has landed a £25 million funding round from Digital Alpha. The company is working with the UK’s health and life sciences customers, as well as defence and national security organisations.

Podcast:

tech.eu Podcast #110: Spotify vs. Apple, solar power funding on the rise, ethics in AI, unicorn M&A trends, interview with the EC’s Carlos Moedas, and more

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#TechChill Interview Special: Elizabeth Varley, TechHub; Andris Berzins, Change Ventures; Rolands Mesters, Nordigen

Bonus link: In Israel, A Stand Out Year For Artificial Intelligence Technologies (Forbes)