These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

Happy Friday!

We hope you and yours are keeping healthy and safe, and that the coronastorm will stop soon.

Please take care of yourself and others.

This week, our research team tracked 80 tech funding deals worth just over €450 million, as well as over 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) The UK government has confirmed that it will levy a 2% tax on "the revenues of search engines, social media services and online marketplaces which derive value from users" starting from April 1.

2) On Tuesday, the European Commission presented a new "Strategy to help Europe's industry lead the twin transitions towards climate neutrality and digital leadership".

3) Indico Capital Partners, the Portuguese investment firm that has backed the likes of Tier Mobility and Unbabel, says it has recently completed fundraising for its latest fund. Having already deployed €17 million across 9 companies after a year in business, Indico has now closed €54 million.

4) The European Commission has announced the latest results of the European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot, saying more than 100 "game-changing ideas" from across Europe are on track to receive EIC support totalling €344 million (funded by Horizon 2020).

5) Unity Technologies has acquired Irish software company Artomatix in a deal valued at up to $60 million, and plans to create 100 jobs in Dublin over the next two years.

6) Helsinki-based Sparkmind.vc is launching a €40 million edtech venture capital fund, claiming the first of its kind in the Nordics. The firm hopes to reach a €60 million final close by the end of 2020.

7) The UK-founded no-code insurance customer and policy management platform INSTANDA has landed $19.5 million in a Series A funding round. The investment was led by Assembly Capital Partners.

8) Luciana Lixandru will join the Sequoia Capital team (from VC firm Accel) as their first partner in Europe.

9) P2P lender Funding Circle is to lay off 125 staff as it scales back its European operations after booking a £34.3 million write-down related to its Dutch and German divisions.

10) Imperial College London, one of the world’s leading universities, has launched its first ‘Innovation Fund’ to back early-stage spin-out startups founded by students or staff, or with a research or development link to the institution.

Podcast: tech.eu Podcast #159: How important are conferences for startups; Lubomila Jordanova on saving humanity with Plan A

Bonus link: The effect of COVID-19 on European Tech (Seedtable)