These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

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This week, our research team tracked over 70 tech funding deals worth nearly €700 million, along with 14 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 (subscribe to our free newsletter to get this roundup in your inbox every Monday morning):

1) Bonn,Germany-based Enterprise Architecture SaaS company LeanIX has closed $80 million in Series D funding led by new investor Goldman Sachs Growth. Other investors are Insight Partners and DTCP who, along with Capnamic Ventures and Iris Capital, have participated in earlier rounds.

2) London-based VC Nauta Capital has announced its fifth fund with a first close at €120 million. Nauta Tech Invest V is expected to exceed the firm’s previous fund, which landed at €155 million in 2016, and which would bring assets under management over half a billion euros.  Operating from its three hubs in London, Barcelona and Munich, the firm plans to invest in companies mainly based in the UK, Spain and Germany, though is open to other continental European countries as well.

3) Canadian autonomous car sensor platform developer LeddarTech is acquiring Israeli startup VayaVision, which applies AI and computer vision algorithms to raw data fused from radar, lidar and camera to build an accurate 3D environmental model. Financial details about the deal were not disclosed but according to a Globes source close to the deal, the acquisition was for several tens of millions of dollars.

4) Cavalry Ventures, a Berlin-based early-stage venture fund, has closed its second fund of €80 million, more than 3.5x the size of its maiden fund.

5) The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to lend €50 million to UNIT.City, Ukraine’s leading innovation park, to finance an innovation campus. The funds are allocated for nine years through up to 10 tranches; the total cost of the project is estimated at €110 million, including around half covered by the EIB’s loan.

6) Barcelona-based travel management platform Travelperk has acquired Albatross, a startup that offers an API for structured information on travel restrictions and local guidelines in the coronavirus era. This is the Spanish company’s first acquisition.

7) London-based Wagestream, a fintech startup that allows workers to access earned income in real time, has secured £20 million in a round led by Northzone, with participation from QED Investors, Latitude Venture Partners and Balderton Capital. This latest investment, which brings the total raised to £65 million, will be used to consolidate the company’s market share in the UK and to fund its international expansion.

8) Spanish VC firm K Fund outed its fund II this week, which sits at €70 million, up from €50 million the first time around. Targeting Spanish startups with an international outlook, the seed-stage firm plans to invest from €200,000 to €2 million, writing first checks in 25-30 companies. K Fund also launched a pre-seed funding program, called K Founders.

9) London-based startup Farewill has secured £20 million in funding to expand through the UK, with the aim of modernising the country’s death care industry with technology and design. The round was led by Highland Europe, joined by Keen Venture Partners, Rich Pierson of Headspace, Broadhaven Capital Partners and VentureFounders.

10) Britain is betting that satellite operator OneWeb will help it boldly go into a post-Brexit era. But it faces formidable challenges to complete a working constellation and rebuild a collapsed venture that has proved a money pit for investors.

Podcast(s):

tech.eu Podcast #176: solarisBank raises €60M, six fresh funds in Europe and an interview with C4 Ventures’ Raph Crouan

Bonus link(s):

E-commerce in Europe is expected to be worth 717 billion euros at the end of 2020. That would mean an increase of 12.7 percent compared to the situation last year.