Hello! Here is what happened today in European tech:
Deals
- French venture capital investor Daphni has raised its third fund, bringing the total assets under its management to $350 million and signalling a new chapter for the firm after some high-profile departures.
- UK-based fintech startup Uncapped, which bills itself as Europe’s first revenue-based finance provider, has closed a $26 million financing round – including debt and equity – led by Mouro Capital (the $400 million successor fund of Santander InnoVentures).
- 3i has agreed to invest around £60 million for a majority stake in Germany's GartenHaus, an online leader in garden homes, sheds, saunas, and related products in the DACH region.
- Freeletics, the Munich-based startup behind an “AI-powered” fitness coaching app, has closed $25 million in Series B funding. Leading the round is U.S.-based JAZZ Venture Partners and Causeway Media Partners, with support from KKCG. The fresh injection of capital follows $45 million in Series A funding in late 2018.
- On the back of raising $200 million, UK-based software scale-up Snyk is today announcing its acquisition of DeepCode, a Swiss provider of real-time semantic code analysis powered by AI. By acquiring ETH Zurich spin-off DeepCode and its technology, Snyk aims to boost both the speed and overall intelligence of its ‘developer-first’ security platform.
- 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). Also check out our European tech news section for ongoing coverage.
Worth Knowing
- TransferWise‘s business has been ramping up quite nicely, as it currently handles over £4 billion in cross-border payments every month from more than 8 million customers. The UK-based fintech scale-up today announced its results for the past financial year, reporting a 70% rise in revenue to hit £302.6 million, and a nice little net profit of £21.3 million for the fiscal year, which ended March 2020.
- As the European tech ecosystems continue to mature, the US has seemingly lost its relocation shine, and local tech startups are no longer hellbent on expanding their R&D ops across the Atlantic. That is the main conclusion of new research done by international investment firm Index Ventures, which has surveyed more than 100 European startups and analysed the transatlantic expansion strategies of more than 275 companies in total.
- The European Commission has concerns that certain aspects of the UK’s data protection regime may change in the future and negatively impact the safety of EU personal data when transferred to the country, Commission sources have informed EURACTIV.
- Tech Nation announced the 31 companies selected to join 'Fintech 3.0', its growth programme for "the best and brightest UK fintechs".
- Glovo, a Spain-based delivery platform startup, is facing legal disruption in its home market after the country’s Supreme Court ruled against its classification of delivery couriers as ‘autonomous’ (i.e. self employed) — finding riders are instead in a laboural relationship with the platform.
- The European Commission has given its clearest indication yet that obligations on digital platforms to remove content are unlikely to feature in far-reaching EU efforts to regulate the web, due to be presented before the end of the year.
- Amazon has announced that it is expanding its workforce in Israel by 150 in development and related areas. Amazon has been operating in Israel since 2014 and currently has 1,150 employees in the country in the area of development. The online retail giant hopes to complete the recruiting by the end of 2020 and if all goes to plan it will have 1,300 development employees in Israel by the end of the year.
- The Deep Tech Europe Report: key numbers from the European Innovation Council performance. The EIC says its 'Accelerator' portfolio companies have attracted over €5.3 billion in private funding to date.
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