Hello! Here is what happened today in European tech:
Deals
- Israel-based mobile games company Playtika has submitted a confidential filing for an IPO on Wall Street. The company said it had not yet decided on the size of the offering but Reuters reports that Playtika will try to raise $1 billion at a company valuation of $10 billion.
- VC firm Samaipata is launching a new €100 million fund to invest in digital platforms across Europe, with the hope that the continent’s ecosystem can come to rival the US and China.
- CapitalBox, the online pan-European SME funding platform, has acquired the Netherlands division of fintech company Spotcap Global as part of its own ongoing European expansion.
- Payments issuer processor Global Processing Services (GPS) has secured a strategic investment from payments giant Visa. GPS, which is backed by UK growth private equity firm, Dunedin, works with many fintechs and digital banks - including both Revolut and Starling Bank - and e-wallet providers.
- SME funding provider Accelerated Payments today announced it has secured a €20 million senior debt line from asset manager Channel Capital Advisors to expand AP’s receivables financing capability.
- Blubrake, an Italian e-mobility company that’s developed a safe anti-lock braking system (ABS) for electric bikes, has secured $6 million in Series A funding from e-Novia, the deep tech startup factory where Blubrake was founded.
- Mastercard and Monese, the European banking service provider, announced a new multi-year strategic partnership to further enhance local banking services for the underserved across Europe, with Monese becoming a principal Mastercard issuer.
- UK-based marketing, payments and loyalty company Yoyo, and wiGroup, the South African-based mobile rewards software company, are joining forces to create a global loyalty company under the Yoyo brand.
- Pimloc, a London-based visual privacy and security company, has raised £1.4 million in a seed funding round led by Amadeus Capital Partners with participation from Speedinvest and existing shareholders.
- 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 Union is finalizing a plan to toughen export controls on technologies used for espionage and surveillance outside the bloc, two officials involved in the negotiation told POLITICO.
- Japan will join forces with the United States and Europe to take on any market abuses by the four Big Tech companies, the new head of its antitrust watchdog said on Monday, a sign Tokyo will join global efforts to regulate digital platform operators.
- Google has tweaked concessions aimed at allaying EU antitrust concerns about its $2.1 billion purchase of Fitbit, people familiar with the matter told Euractiv, putting it on course to secure EU approval for the deal.
- Ireland's Data Protection Commission has launched two inquiries into Facebook after concerns were raised about the social network giant's handling of children's personal data on Instagram.
- Uber has pledged to invest more than £5 million in public electric vehicle charging infrastructure in some of the poorest boroughs in London, to help persuade its reluctant drivers to switch to electric cars.
- EQT today announced that Marc Brown, former Microsoft Corporate VP of Corporate Development, has joined as Partner and Head of EQT Growth. Brown has overseen Microsoft’s M&A and strategic investment activities, leading more than 185 acquisitions (including LinkedIn, GitHub and Minecraft) and 80 strategic equity investments (including Flipkart, Databricks and Graphcore).
- Covid-19: To exploit the full potential of contact tracing and warning apps to break the chain of coronavirus infections across borders and save lives, the European Commission, at the invitation by EU Member States, has set up an EU-wide system to ensure interoperability – a so-called ‘gateway'.
- Finland's Nokia has been selected by NASA to build the first ever cellular network on the Moon.
- A contingent of EU nations has pressed the European Commission to urgently develop a strategy to counter disinformation related to 5G telecommunications networks, amid concerns that the bloc may miss legally-binding targets for the rollout of new infrastructure.
- A manifesto for EU Covid-19 research has collected 2,000 signatures from researchers and research organisations pledging to make the results of their work openly available for the common good.
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