Hello! Here is what happened today in European tech:
Deals
- Ÿnsect, a French startup farming insects to improve food production, has raised $224 million in further funding, bringing its Series C round to $372 million with Robert Downey Jr.’s tech funding initiative joining the round.
- Tipalti, an Israeli enterprise software company that helps businesses manage suppliers, invoices, purchase orders, tax compliance, payments and billing and other accounting services from a single cloud platform, has raised $150 million at a valuation that the company says is now over $2 billion.
- UAE businessman Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah has partnered with Israeli VC firm OurCrowd to form a $100 million fund to back technology investments between the two countries. The venture is the first of its kind since the two countries normalised relations last month.
- Macy’s has entered into a 5-year relationship with Klarna that will see the Swedish company boost its growth in the US market. The deal also adds Macy’s to the roster of investors of the private fintech firm, which was last valued at $10.6 billion in a funding round.
- Kibo Ventures, an early stage fund with offices in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon, has announced the first close of Fund III, targeted at €100 million, which will go to European startups raising pre-A and series A rounds.
- Switzerland-based software company Veeam has acquired US-based Kasten, which specialises in Kubernetes backup and disaster recovery solutions - for $150 million in cash and equity.
- G:Loot, a Stockholm, Sweden-based esport operator, has completed a capital raise totalling $56 million. The money was raised from new and existing investors including Robur, CNI and Inbox Capital, in a deal that values the company at $143 million, pre-money.
- Israeli fintech company AccessFintech announced the completion of its $20 million series B round, led by Dawn Capital, and with the participation of Deutsche Bank and existing investors J.P. Morgan, Citi and Goldman Sachs among others. It brings the total capital raised by the company to date to $37 million.
- P27 Nordic Payments Platform today announced the acquisition of Bankgirot, Sweden’s only clearing house for mass payments.
- ClearCourse, a group of technology companies providing integrated software solutions to businesses around the world, today announced the acquisition of two UK-based payments businesses, Adelante and E-Novations.
- Belgian industrial IoT startup Sensolus has raised €3.5 million to develop and expand its logistics system, which helps companies track non-powered assets (or devices and equipment that aren’t ‘smart’) in supply chains and industrial manufacturing. The investment came from btov Partners, Annie Vereecken, Capricorn ICT Arkiv and Quest for Growth.
- 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
- Europe’s top court has delivered another slap-down to indiscriminate government mass surveillance regimes. In a ruling today, the CJEU has made it clear that national security concerns do not exclude EU Member States from the need to comply with general principles of EU law such as proportionality and respect for fundamental rights to privacy, data protection and freedom of expression.
- The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today officially banned the sale of cryptocurrency derivatives and exchange-traded notes to retail users, more than a year after first proposing such a ban.
- The European Parliament plenary approved the deal struck with the Council last December on common rules to boost EU crowdfunding platforms and protect investors. The new rules aim to help crowdfunding services to function smoothly in the internal market and to foster cross-border business funding in the EU, by providing for a single set of rules on crowdfunding services. The uniform set of criteria will apply to all European Crowdfunding Service Providers (ECSP) up to offers of EUR 5 000 000 (from EUR 1 000 000 proposed by the Commission), calculated over a period of 12 months per project owner.
- France's lower house of parliament voted unanimously to provide YouTube child stars with the same legal protection as child actors and models. Under the new rules, anyone — including parents — who records videos that feature minors under 16 years old for the purpose of monetization on video-sharing platforms will need authorization from an administrative authority, or face fines of up to €75,000 and five years in prison.
- Facebook has decided to defy a new law in Turkey requiring social media companies to establish a formal presence in the country, setting the stage for a showdown with the government of Erdogan that could culminate in the platform being blocked.
- Facebook also sparred with Belgium’s privacy watchdog at Europe’s top court over which data protection authority has the power to police the US social media giant in a case that could escalate its privacy fights across the EU.
- Airbnb faces calls for stricter enforcement of short-term rental rules in Ireland.
- Seedrs, which yesterday announced a merger with rival crowdfunding platform Crowdcube, has reported a loss of £4.7 million in the year ending December 2019 and has said Covid-19 has caused a “material uncertainty” which “may cast significant doubt on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
- Yandex and Sberbank’s fight to gain control of Russia’s finance and technology industries is being billed as the corporate showdown of the decade.
- Atomico’s take on Open Source: 5 reasons to 'build an OS company in Europe now'
- The EU agency for law enforcement has recognised the increasing difficulty of police authorities in Europe to access data stored on encrypted networks, as the EU itself attempts to find legal solutions that will facilitate police access to protected communications.
- Game Changers: The evolution of Israel’s video game industry
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