These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

Happy Friday!

This week, our research team tracked more than 60 tech funding deals worth more than €700 million, as well as eight M&A transactions across Europe, including Russia, Israel, and Turkey.

We listed every single deal in our weekly newsletter. Below is an extra overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week.

Note: In May, tech.eu will be shining a light on digital health in Europe, with a little help from a friend (Bayer G4A) - get in touch with tips!

1) French multinational telco Orange is coughing up more than half a billion euros to demonstrate its ambitions to become a European leader in cybersecurity services. The company is acquiring The Netherlands-based SecureLink for €515 million, a little more than double the latter’s revenue total in 2018.

2) Gett — the ride-hailing startup that focuses primarily on the business market, currently in Israel, the UK, Russia and New York — has picked up $200 million in a mix of debt and equity at a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion, as it gears up for a 2020 IPO.

3) Apple is bracing itself for a formal antitrust investigation by Brussels after the iPhone maker was accused by the music streaming service Spotify of anti-competitive behaviour.

4) US cybersecurity company Proofpoint has acquired Israel's Meta Networks for $120 million.

5) German travel startup Tourlane has landed $47 million in a funding round led by Sequoia and Spark Capital, with participation from DN Capital and HV Holtzbrinck Ventures.

6) Software company Salesforce is acquiring Tel Aviv-based conversational AI startup Bonobo. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but one person familiar with the matter who spoke to Calcalist on condition of anonymity put it at $50 million.

7) Kahoot, the popular Norway-born e-learning platform that provides a range of games to teach subjects, has made its first acquisition: it has bought DragonBox, a startup that builds math apps, for $18 million in a combination of cash and shares.

8) Baring Vostok, a major Moscow-based international PE firm, and Sistema, a large Russian conglomerate, have provided a 10 billion ruble (roughly $150 million) convertible loan to online retailer Ozon.

9) Facebook intends to drive a global expansion of mobile payments on WhatsApp from London, accelerating its efforts to make money off the popular messaging service. WhatsApp dispatched engineers to Britain late last year as part of a drive to recruit about 100 people in London and Dublin to support its payments initiative.

10) The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced that it will lend up to €110 million to Dräger, a German company specialised in medical and safety technology.

Podcast: tech.eu Podcast #117: EU’s latest investigation into Apple; interview with Isidro Laso; big tech tax in Israel; Apple’s acquisitions; the story of CureVac; and more

Bonus link: Invest Europe, the association that represents European private equity and VC, has released a free report that concludes private equity investment has hit a new record, increasing 7% year-over-year to reach €80.6 billion.