These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

Happy Friday!

We sincerely hope you and yours are keeping healthy and safe. Please take care of yourself and others.

This week, our research team tracked around 70 tech funding deals worth almost €800 million, as well as about 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 European Commission and European Investment Fund are launching ESCALAR, or European Scale-Up Action for Risk Capital, a new investment approach that will support venture capital and growth financing for companies, enabling them to scale up in Europe and “help reinforce Europe’s economic and technological sovereignty.” ESCALAR will provide up to €300 million, potentially leading to total investments of up to €1.2 billion.

2) Germany's Auto1 has received €300 million in debt capital, even though (or perhaps because) it has been hit hard by the global crisis already.

3) Avira, a cybersecurity company based out of Germany that provides antivirus, identity management and other tools both to consumers and as a white-label offering from a number of big tech brands, has been snapped up by Investcorp at a $180 million valuation.

4) Index Ventures, the venture capital firm with dual headquarters in London and San Francisco, announced the closing of $2 billion in new funds.

5) Privitar, a UK startup that helps companies embed privacy protection into their data projects, has raised $80 million in a series C round of funding led by Warburg Pincus, with participation from Accel, Partech, IQ Capital, Salesforce Ventures, and ABN AMRO Ventures.

6) France’s competition authority ruled on Thursday that Google must pay French publishing companies and news agencies for re-using their content.

7) Swedish logistics tech company Instabox has closed a €36 million financing round, boosting the business’ valuation to €100 million. Swedish investor Creades and London-based credit specialist CORDET participated in the round.

8) Israeli analytics platform Glassbox has raised a $40 million Series C round, led by Brighton Park Capital and joined by existing investors Updata Partners, Ibex Investors, Gefen Capital and CEIIF.

9) The yearly Slush conference planned for November 19—20, 2020 in Helsinki has been cancelled “due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the organisation announced in a press release. Instead, Slush is planning to “pursue our mission of helping founders in new ways this year,” said Miika Huttunen, the CEO of Slush who started on this position earlier this year.

10) Xpension, the Munich-based company digitising corporate pension and life insurance, has raised a €25 million Series C round, bringing its total funding just above €50 million. The round was led by HPE growth, whose. Existing investors Cinco Capital and Armada Investment also participated.

Podcast:

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