Hello! Here is what happened today in European tech:
Deals
- Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek announced in an online #nodebyslush keynote address that he's devoting €1 billion of his personal resources to fund ground-breaking startups to generate more European super-companies (moonshots).
- UK food-delivery startup Deliveroo has begun preliminary talks to explore an initial public offering, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
- Israel-based medical device company Human Xtensions is examining the possibility of an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) according to a $170 million-$200 million valuation, one person familiar with the matter told Calcalist on condition of anonymity.
- HOWZAT Partners and ennea capital partners are joining forces as 'HOWZAT ennea Group' to create one of Europe’s leading early to mid-stage investment, M&A and advisory businesses. HOWZAT is now raising up to €100 million for its new Luxembourg-based VC fund, to be named “Fund Four”.
- The robots of the future need software, too: Munich, Germany-based advanced robotics company Magazino has closed a Series B financing round to the tune of €21 million led by intralogistics giant Jungheinrich and the European Investment Bank.
- Ripjar, a UK-based data intelligence company, has raised around €31 million in Series B funding from Long Ridge Equity Partners. With the latest investment, Ripjar has raised more than €51 million in total.
- CloudMargin, a UK fintech startup offering a collateral management solution, has landed $15 million in a Series B funding round. Major banks Citi and Deutsche Bank, as well as exchange Deutsche Börse, have all weighed in on the startup’s largest investment.
- Estonian-founded SaaS startup Klaus has secured $5.4 million in funding to boost the development of its platform, which helps large support teams improve conversations with customers by speeding up and simplifying the internal feedback process.
- Dutch B2B financial service startup Finom — which provides online financial services for SMEs, freelancers, and the self-employed in Europe — has raised an additional €10.3 million to add to its previous seed round of €6.5 million last April.
- We also tracked a large number of (other) 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
- The European Commission today set out plans to create what its officials described as the world’s most comprehensive set of rules for crypto-assets and their underlying blockchain technology.
- Cloud Wars: The EU’s battle with US digital giants is reaching new heights: the cloud. The European Commission already took legal action to raise technology companies’ tax bills and cracked down on how they use people’s personal data. Now it’s going after cloud computing, the online data storage business dominated by big American companies.
- An interesting new report on 'climate tech' from PwC: The State of Climate Tech 2020: The next frontier for venture capital
- The city of Leuven in Belgium has been crowned the European Capital of Innovation 2020. The municipality will receive a €1 million prize funded under Horizon 2020, the EU research and innovation programme. The five runner-up cities – Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Espoo (Finland), Helsingborg (Sweden), Valencia (Spain) and Vienna (Austria) – will receive €100,000 each.
- Analysis: Russia's Yandex plans to buy challenger bank Tinkoff for $5.5 billion: Deal parameters and implications (by Sova Capital)
- A Letter of Intent was signed today setting out a common objective between the European Innovation Council and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology to maximise EU support for game-changing innovators and entrepreneurs across Europe.
- The former chief of disgraced data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, has not disputed accusations that he engaged in unethical commercial practices including ‘bribery’ and ‘voter disengagement campaigns,’ in a procedure that will see him banned from heading up companies for seven years.
- Playfair Capital and Tech Nation are collaborating to deliver a UK-wide female founder office hours event on 5th and 12th November, expecting over 200 female founders and 70 VCs from some of the UK’s leading funds.
- Report card: The State of European Real Estate Crowdfunding in The COVID-19 Era
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