These were the 10 biggest European tech stories last week

Happy Monday!

Last week, our research team tracked more than 60 tech funding deals worth just over €700 million, as well as over 20 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 last week:

1) Colonies, a Paris, France-based startup that designs and runs living spaces, has raised €180 million in funding. Backers included existing investors Idinvest Partners, Global Founders Capital, La Financière Saint James and LBO France, a French investment fund that provided €150 million in funding.

2) RTP Global, the Moscow-headquartered VC firm formerly known as ru-Net and focused on early-stage technology investments, is launching a new $650 million fund to support founders across Europe, North America, India and South-East Asia.

3) France-based music application publishing powerhouse Music World Media (MWM) has raised €50 million in Series B funding to expand its scope to other creative outlets.

4) Chipmaker Hailo, started by members of the Israel Defense Forces’ elite technology unit, has raised $60 million in Series B financing in a round led by its existing investors. The round brings Hailo’s total raised to $88 million, and adds a number of investors to its roster, including ABB’s Technology Ventures arm, NEC and London-based VC firm Latitude Ventures.

5) UK-based fintech startup Thought Machine, which builds cloud-native technology for banks, has raised $83 million in a Series B funding round led by Draper Esprit.

6) Five, the UK startup developed self-driving software, has raised a $41 million Series B from Trustbridge Partners, Direct Line Group and Sistema VC. Existing investors Lakestar, Amadeus Capital Partners, Kindred Capital and Notion Capital also participated.

7) European venture capital firm Frontline has announced a new $80 million fund, FrontlineX, for B2B tech companies. Based in London and Dublin, the firm typically invests in European seed-stage startups. With this fund, the firm will back US businesses looking to expand into Europe.

8) Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group, and Tripadvisor have come to a data-sharing agreement with the European Union. The deal means that for the first time reliable information about the short-term rental market will be made public via the EU’s statistical office Eurostat.

9) Swedish fintech scale-up Klarna has brought yet another investor on board as Ant Financial Services Group, the Alibaba affiliate that owns payments and lifestyle platform Alipay, takes a minority stake for an undisclosed sum.

10) Pipedrive, a sales CRM startup founded in Estonia, has acquired Latvian email marketing automation startup Mailigen for an undisclosed amount. The two companies plan to spend the next few months working on product and team integration and come to the market with a “new, high-value offering for customers.”

Podcast: tech.eu Podcast #158 — Berlin interview special: Zalando, Omio, and Santander InnoVentures (at Finovate Europe)

Bonus link: European proptech is on the rise, as sector funding grows 550% in five years: research report