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 over €500 million, as well as some 10 M&A transactions and related news stories across Europe, including Russia, Israel, and Turkey.

Meanwhile, here's an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week:

1) Digital bank Monzo has doubled its value to £2 billion after closing a fresh round of investor funding. The valuation of the London-based bank leaped as it confirmed it had raised £113 million from a group of investors led by Y Combinator.

2) Creandum, an early investor in Spotify and iZettle, has raised a 265 million euro ($300 million) fund, in a bid to find and back Europe’s next tech superstars. With offices in Stockholm, Berlin and San Francisco, the venture capital fund returned more than $800 million to investors last year after exits from previous investments.

3) Belgium-based sales enablement startup Showpad has raised $70 million in a combination of debt and series D equity led by Dawn Capital with participation from Hummingbird Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, and Korelya Capital, bringing the company’s total raised to $180 million.

4) Shares in Trainline jumped 18% on their first day of public trading, valuing the online rail and bus ticketing service at nearly £2 billion. The company, which raised £110 million in an IPO on the London Stock Exchange, is likely to join the FTSE 250 index of mid-cap firms.

5) The UK-based VC Talis Capital, which has invested in Darktrace and iwoca among others, has raised $100 million to invest in startups from late seed stage to Series C. The closing brings the total amount of transactions in 10 years to $600 million.

6) Music streaming service Spotify pays Apple a 15% fee on about 680,000 of its 100 million premium customers, Apple disclosed in a response to Spotify’s complaint with European antitrust regulators.

7) 42CAP, a Munich-based VC firm, has closed its second €50 million seed fund. The investors in the fund include the European Investment Fund (EIF), the German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW Capital), Isomer Capital, as well as other private investors and business angels.

8) The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced the fourth version of its miniature budget computer. The Raspberry Pi 4 keeps the same form-factor and $35 starting price of its predecessor, but it has improved specs across the board.

9) IBM on Thursday won unconditional EU antitrust approval for its $34 billion acquisition of software company Red Hat.

10) Tel Aviv-based “urban revitalisation” startup Venn has secured a Series A funding round from Pitango Venture Capital, Hamilton Lane, and Bridges Israel, which brings the total amount of money secured by the company to $40 million.

tech.eu Podcast: tech.eu Podcast #123: Meero’s mega-round, cities against Airbnb, interview with OpenOcean VC, Fiverr experience, and more

Bonus link: Are European startups sell-outs? (Sifted)