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) Israel's two large content recommendation companies are merging, with Taboola paying $250 million to Outbrain for 30% of its shares. Taboola will hold a 70% stake in the merged company, and its founder and CEO Adam Singolda will serve as the CEO of the new entity.

2) Pitch, a collaborative presentation software from the creators of Wunderlist, is now available to select companies and teams. Thrive Capital invested $30 million in the new company, extending its original support for Wunderkind to the creators’ new venture. Check out our interview with founder and CEO Christian Reber on the round and more.

3) Private equity investor CVC Funds is to acquire a minority stake in Israeli mobile marketing company ironSource for over $400 million.

4) Notion Capital has announced Fund IV, with the first close expected at over $150 million. The firm’s assets under management now exceed $500 million, and it is already planning to raise a second growth opportunities fund next year. The European B2B SaaS investor, which has been in the game for ten years, boasts such portfolio darlings as Tradeshift, CurrencyCloud, Paddle, GoCardless, and Unbabel.

5) London-based Deliveroo announced that the company’s sales rose by £200 million in 2018. The growth is hard to miss. The food delivery platform was named Europe’s second-fastest growing company by the Financial Times, and was the first to top Deloitte’s UK Fast 50 two years in a row. Overall global sales rose to £476 million, an increase of 72 percent from the year before.

6) British-based digital banking app Revolut is set to hire around 3500 staff as it expands into 24 new markets thanks to a new global deal with payments giant Visa.

7) Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent is taking a 29% stake to become the largest shareholder in Oslo-based Funcom. The indie games developer is responsible for multiple adaptations involving the Conan the Barbarian franchise, such as Age of Conan and Conan Exiles, as well as a number of other multiplayer titles.

8) Berlin-born AMBOSS, a knowledge platform for medical professionals, has raised a €30 million Series B rund to fuel its international roll-out and app development. Investment firms Partech and Target Global led the round, with support from existing investors Cherry Ventures, Wellington Partners, and Holtzbrinck Digital.

9) Bnext, Spain’s leading mobile-first neo-bank, closed a $25 million funding round, the largest Series A awarded to a Spanish fintech company thus far. The round was led by DN Capital, Redalpine, and Speedinvest, with support from existing investors Founders Future and Mexico-based Cometa.

10) Berlin-based Grover, an electronics rental company and subscription service, has secured €41 million in a pre-Series B funding round that is a mix of equity investors and debt capital.

Podcast: tech.eu Podcast #137: Unbabel and gig economy, documents leak from the Commission, cap table issues, Carly Kind of the Ada Lovelace Institute, and more

Bonus link: Why It’s So Hard for Startups to Create Wealth in Europe (Bloomberg)