These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

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This week, our research team tracked about 35 tech funding deals worth well over €230 million, along with a handful of 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) Norway-born SaaS company Visma, which offers a suite of accounting, payroll, HR and other business software products to more than one million SME customers across the Nordic, Benelux and Baltic regions, has received investments from existing and new investors valuing the business at $12.2 billion.

2) Berlin-based Omio, the travel platform formerly known as GoEuro, has raised $100 million in a late stage convertible note. Existing investors Temasek, Kinnevik, Goldman Sachs, NEA and Kleiner Perkins joined the round, as well as some unnamed newcomers.

3) Some European Union regulators objected to Ireland’s preliminary ruling in a landmark privacy investigation of Twitter, the lead regulator said on Thursday, triggering a process where a majority decision will be sought.

4) Disgraced German payment group Wirecard has found a buyer for its UK division in Railsbank, a rival banking and payments infrastructure-provider.

5) Behind closed doors, Google is engaged in a bitter standoff with the online travel industry. The issue is global but German travel companies have been particularly outspoken. Activity booking platform GetYourGuide, hotel finder Trivago, and Airbnb rival HomeToGo have been feuding with the search giant about their unpaid advertising bills since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

6) Voodoo, the French company behind a slew of popular casual games, announced Monday that Tencent has become a minority shareholder in its business valued at $1.4 billion. The scale-up did not disclose the funding amount.

7) Cobalt, a Danish-born cybersecurity platform that connects human penetration testers (sometimes known as ‘ethical hackers’) with companies looking to test their software, has raised $29 million to continue global expansion from its current headquarters in San Francisco.

8) London-based fintech company Form3 has raised $33 million in a strategic investment round, bringing on new investors Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society and VC 83North. Existing investor Draper Esprit joined as well. Founded in 2016, Form3 offers a cloud-native payment technology to financial institutions and other fintech companies.

9) Germany’s anti-trust authority has launched an investigation into Amazon’s relationship with third-party traders selling on its site.

10) UK-based crowdfunding platform Crowdcube has launched a new secondary sale platform aimed at later-stage businesses to take on rival Seedrs. The Direct Community Offer (DCO) allows early investors to get a return on their investments while simultaneously giving new investors the chance to get a slice of the pie too.

Podcast(s):

tech.eu Podcast #182: HMD’s funding, Apple antitrust roller-coaster, European fintech issues, and interview with Printful’s Kristine Kornilova

Bonus link(s):

After a turbulent start to 2020, in the second half of the year the EU will embark on a range of ambitious initiatives in the digital arena, some of which will be directly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and its knock-on effects. (Euractiv)