Happy Friday!
This week, our research team tracked more than 70 tech funding deals worth over €600 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) Capgemini will acquire Altran Technologies in a €3.6 billion deal in order to win more tech clients and keep up with rivals. Paris-based Capgemini is looking to maintain its position as a major IT consultancy in a consolidating industry, as competitors such as Accenture have been building out their sales from digital projects.
2) European ‘micro-mobility’ startup Dott has raised 30 million euros more as the competition between e-scooter and e-bike providers in these parts continues to heat up along with the weather. Dott, which boasts 80 staff across two HQs in Amsterdam and Paris, has secured the funding in a round that was co-led by prior backer EQT Ventures and Naspers Ventures.
3) The UK competition watchdog has launched an investigation into the way Google and Facebook collect and exploit personal data and have used their power to dominate the £13 billion UK digital advertising market.
4) E.ventures, a globally active venture firm started in Germany, has closed a new fund to the tune of €355 million ($400 million), with the European Investment Fund and German industry behemoths such as Otto Group, Lidl, Kärcher, Dr. Ing. Oetker, KfW, Jägermeister and Porsche participating in the fundraising.
5) Epidemic Sound, a Swedish startup that lets video producers — creators for social media platforms, advertising folks, film producers and more — search for music and then license it to use as soundtracks on their videos, has raised $20 million at a reported $370 million valuation.
6) EU member states opened the way to competing technologies for Internet-connected cars on Thursday, rejecting a European Commission push for a WiFi-based standard backed by Volkswagen.
7) Indie artists will no longer have the option to upload music directly to Spotify. The Swedish company is shutting down the upload beta test after determining that its efforts were better spent elsewhere.
8) German authorities have fined Facebook 2 million euros ($2.3 million) for under-reporting complaints about illegal content on its social media platform in breach of the country’s law on internet transparency.
9) Israeli startup NeuroBlade has completed a $23 million early funding round, led by Marius Nacht, co-founder of Check Point Software Technologies, with the participation of new investor Intel Capital.
10) Antwerp-based startup Unifly is developing unmanned traffic management (UTM) software for drones in order to safely integrate them into the airspace. The startup has just completed a €17 million Series B round from investors including Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS – the national air traffic control authority of Germany) and Belgium’s Federal Holding and Investment Company (FPIM).
tech.eu Podcast: tech.eu Podcast #124: Apple’s response to Spotify; Why is Monzo successful; NordicNinja’s Claes Mikko Nilsen; Investing in podcasts; and more
Bonus link: Why Europe should build its own social platform for news (The Guardian op-ed)
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