These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

Happy Friday!

This week, our research team tracked more than 70 tech funding deals worth over €1.1 billion, as well as some 10 M&A transactions, rumours, 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) OLX Group, Prosus’ Netherlands-based classifieds business, will invest $400 million in global car marketplace Frontier Car Group (FCG), with the plan to integrate the Berlin-based startup with the OLX corporation. The goal is to lead the online market for second-hand cars and transform customer experience in the used car industry.

2) Tesla will build its European base of operations near Berlin, according to company founder Elon Musk. Tesla’s fourth so-called gigafactory will set up shop not far from the German capital, after a long period of uncertainty about where the market-disrupting electric carmaker would choose to build its newest base.

3) VOI, the Swedish e-scooter operator, has announced $85 million in Series B funding. The round, led by Vostok New Ventures, was joined by many other investment firms: Balderton Capital, Creandum, Project A, BME Ventures, Raine Ventures, Kreos Capital, Inbox Capital, Rider Global, Black Ice Capital, and others.

4) EQT Ventures has closed its second fund, EQT Ventures II, at €660 million, with the plan to support ambitious European companies scale out of the continent and also to help US founders scale in. Bridging Europe and the US, the Swedish firm will use its proprietary AI system Motherbrain to identify nascent success and make investments accordingly.

5) Wirecard has announced the acquisition of China's AllScore Payment Services in a deal that has raised questions by analysts. The acquisition will see the German online, mobile, and at the point-of-sale payments facilitator hand over up to €109 million.

6) London-based Balderton Capital has announced a new $400 million fund to fuel European startups. The firm’s seventh early-stage fund since its start in 2000, the money will flow to Series A investments in companies that display pioneering technology and a strong brand momentum.

7) Eigen Technologies, a London-based startup whose machine learning engine helps banks and other businesses that need to extract information and insights from large and complex documents like contracts, has raised $37 million in Series B funding, a round that values the company at around $150 million – $180 million.

8) pureLifi, a light communication company founded as a spin-out of the University of Edinburgh, has raised an $18 million Series B to provide LiFi technology to mass-market manufacturers — and to eventually overtake current wireless communications systems. Investors include Temasek, an investment company from Singapore, and the Scottish Investment Bank.

9) Angular Ventures, a VC firm that’s been silently operating across Tel Aviv, London, and New York, has announced the closing of its debut fund, $41 million for early-stage deep tech enterprise companies growing from Europe or Israel.

10) Let’s Do This, an online marketplace for endurance sporting events, has announced a $15 million Series A round, led by EQT Ventures with participation from existing investors NFX, Y Combinator, Richard Oldfield, and Paddy Dear.

Podcast: tech.eu Podcast #142: EU’s concerns over Apple and Google, Huawei’s future in Europe, how to do a newsletter, interview with Lunar’s Ken Villum Klausen

Bonus link: Check out the 10 deep-tech scale-up winners of EIT Digital Challenge 2019