Today in European Tech: Kahoot picks up $215M from SoftBank, a new 'Glassdoor for VCs', and other deals/stories that caught our eyes

Today in European Tech: Kahoot picks up $215M from SoftBank, a new 'Glassdoor for VCs', and other deals/stories that caught our eyes

Hello! Here is what happened today in European tech:

Deals

- Banking on edtech: Norwegian user-generated gamified e-learning startup Kahoot! — which has clocked 1.3 billion “participating players” since launching in 2013 — has picked up $215 million from SoftBank in a private placement.

- Spend it wisely: Spendesk, a Paris-based spend management platform for SMBs, has announced an $18 million extension to its Series B round last year, closing the round at $38 million. The fresh investment, which came entirely from Eight Roads Ventures, brings the startup’s total fundraising to $68.5 million since it launched from eFounders in 2016.

- Qatalog, a London-based startup that wants to consolidate the numerous apps used at work these days, has exited stealth mode by announcing two fundraising rounds at once. Most recently the company closed a $15 million Series A round to expand its team and bring its product to market. Atomico led the round, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, and angel investors Jacob de Geer, Chris Hitchen, Thijn Lamers and all existing investors.

- Israeli code risk startup apiiro raised $35 million in a financing round from Kleiner Parkings general partner Ted Schlein, and Greylock general partners Saam Motamedi and Asheem Chandna.

- The Numan Show: Numan, the London-based startup building an online health clinic for men, has completed a £10 million Series A funding round led by Novator, joined by Anthemis Exponential, Vostok New Ventures and Colle Capital.

- Cyberpion, a new Israeli startup founded by a number of experienced security experts, aims to help enterprises identify and neutralize the kinds of risks that typically stem from connections to their infrastructure assets. The company today announced that it has raised an $8.25 million seed round, co-led by Team8 Capital and Hyperwise Ventures.

- Yandex, the NASDAQ-listed Russian Internet giant, is acquiring context ad platform K50.

- We are the Cobots: Israeli startup MOV.AI, which develops an operating system for cobots (collaborative robots), has announced that it has completed an additional $4 million financing round, bringing the total capital raised in its series A to $8 million.

- Alphaopen, a Moscow-based developer of IoT solutions for smart construction, will receive up to $3.4 million from two major corporate funds: Orbita Capital, the venture arm of state corporation Rosatom, and Veb Ventures (formerly VEB Innovations)

- Peers tying up: NOMADX, a real estate technology platform developed to meet the needs of location-independent remote workers, has merged with Flatio, a European based mid-term real estate rental company for professionals, students and digital nomads with listings in 17 countries and over 60 cities.

- Scottish indie game developer Ruffian Games has been acquired by Rockstar and rebranded as Rockstar Dundee, according to a new listing via Companies House.

- 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

- Freshly launched: Landscape, a tech ecosystem review platform dubbing itself the ‘Glassdoor for VCs’, launched from its home base in the UK. The goal is to provide more transparency to founders as they seek funding, and create more accountability (and pressure) on investors to behave better. In its beta, the platform has already received 700 reviews and has 83 verified partners across Europe, both VCs and accelerators.

- Frontier Car Group co-founder and CEO Sujay Tyle has joined Balderton Capital as a venture partner.

- McKinseys Says: 'Europe’s start-up ecosystem: Heating up, but still facing challenges'

- Another kind of landscape: European Quantum Computing Startup Landscape (by Alex Kiltz)

- Heading overseas: Revolut, the biggest European digital bank with 13 million users, is close to applying for a banking license in the US.

- Bletchley Park, a top-secret British codebreaking hub in World War Two, has received a £1 million donation from Facebook to help it through the coronavirus pandemic.

- Politico Explains: 'What’s a digital euro? 5 things to know'

- Today the Newton Program, a new training scheme for wannabe venture capitalists, opened for applications. It has been designed as part of a more than year-long project between the London Business School and VC firm LocalGlobe, along with grant funding from UK Research and Innovation.

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