Hello! Here is what happened today in European tech:
Deals
- Point taken: Germany-based Point Nine, a pan-European and US focused VC firm that specialises in B2B SaaS and marketplace investments, has closed a new €100 million seed fund (technically €99,999,999) dubbed ‘P9 V’. You guessed it, this is the firm’s fifth fund since its founding in 2011.
- Yandex — Russia’s largest technology company — is set to buy challenger bank Tinkoff in a $5.5 billion deal that would become one of the most high-profile Russian tie-ups in recent corporate history.
- French startup Mirakl has raised a $300 million funding round led by private equity firm Permira at a $1.5 billion valuation — the company is now a unicorn. Mirakl helps you launch and manage a marketplace on your e-commerce website.
- The European Investment Bank’s financing to Italy's Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for manufacturing ever-safer battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles has increased to almost €800 million.
- Finnish space tech startup Iceye has raised €74 million in fresh funding in a round led by return investor True Ventures, with a significant additional investment by OTB Ventures. ICEYE has so far launched 5 satellite missions, starting with the first ever small SAR satellite launched in January 2018.
- Fabrick, part of the Banca Sella Group and current owner of 100% of open banking platform HYPE, has sold a 50% stake of the platform to Italian digital bank Illimity. The deal, which is worth around €140 million, is the first of its kind in Italy and will see the two banks build the largest open banking platform in the country.
- Netdata, the Greece-founded company behind the eponymous open-source, distributed, real-time, performance, and health monitoring solution for systems and applications, has announced it completed a new round of financing. Totalling $14.2 million and led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Bain Capital Ventures and Uncorrelated Ventures, it brings Netdata's total raised in Series A to $31 million.
- Israeli autotech company Aurora Labs has completed a $23 million series B financing round. The round was led by Check Point co-founder Marius Nacht and LG Technology Ventures, LG Electronics’ investment arm.
- DeepCube, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based deep learning company, raised $7 million in Series A funding. The round, which brings the total invested in DeepCube to $12 million, was led by Awz Ventures with participation from Koch Disruptive Technologies and Nima Capital.
- Gimme the loots: Streamloots, a Valencia, Spain-based company operating a marketplace for gamers helping them monetise their following, announced the completion of a $5.6 million capital investment round. The money was raised from a range of US-based investors led by Bessemer Venture Partners and including angel investors such as Tobi Lutke (CEO of Shopify) and Jeremy Stoppelman (CEO of Yelp).
- Luxembourg-based Howzat Partners expects to raise up to €100 million for a new fund that will invest in travel startups and other digital businesses.
- Alternative property lender Zorin Finance has signed an agreement with Avenue Capital Group to fund up to £200 million worth of property development and investment loans for the UK SME housebuilding market.
- Israeli pain response monitoring company Medasense today announced that it has raised $18 million in a series C round from Spain's Sabadell Asabys venture capital firm, Israeli family offices and returning investors Baxter Ventures, Olive Tree Ventures and LGL Capital.
- We also tracked a large number of European tech funding rounds and M&A transactions, all of which we are putting in a handy list for you on Friday afternoon in our weekly roundup newsletter (note: the full list is for paying customers only).
Worth Knowing
- Europe’s top court today gave its backing to European cities cracking down on short-term rentals of private homes to solve a housing crunch, dealing a setback to homesharing site Airbnb.
- Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media wants to ban websites from using the latest encryption technologies, to make it easier for Russia’s Internet and telecom regulator, Roskomnadzor, to block access to Russian Internet resources containing prohibited content.
- Five ‘mission reports’ outlining ambitious 10-year plans to tackle some of the major challenges faced by Europe were officially handed over to EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel today at the opening session of this year’s European Research and Innovation Days.
- AI perspective report: How shall European policymakers deal with Artificial Intelligence regulation in specific application sectors? EIT Digital has a new report out on the topic.
- MEPs on the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee have questioned EU plans to establish a bloc-wide facial recognition database for use by police authorities, citing the potential abuse of data as well as the likelihood of false positives.
- The Israel Competition Authority has published a report claiming that the banks see fintech companies as rivals and are blocking their entry into the Israeli market.
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