Hello!
Here is what happened today in European tech:
Deals
- Online luxury fashion retailer Farfetch has secured an eye-watering $1.1 billion in funding from Alibaba Swiss watch and jewellery group Richemont. The money will be used to fuel the company's expansion to China.
- Israeli app monetisation company IronSource is reportedly gearing up towards going public in the first half of 2021. The company is said to be targeting a valuation of $7 billion to $8 billion, which could make it the biggest Israeli IPO of all times.
- Under Armour has sold the UK-founded MyFitnessPal for $345 million and announced that it will shut down Endomondo at the end of 2020.
- Cellwize, an Israeli startup in mobile network automation and orchestration, has raised a $32 million Series B funding round in its parent company Cellwize Wireless Technologies. The company is actually currently headquartered in Singapore, and its goal is said to be “to accelerate 5G in a way that is open and disaggregated.”
- Mind Foundry, an AI startup and spin-out of the University of Oxford’s Machine Learning Research Group, has raised $13.6 million in funding. The startup's product is an AI platform that's designed to help insurers predict accidents and help humans prevent them.
- 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
- “Is Europe about to ban E2E Encryption? No.” Read a breakdown of the recently surfaced draft resolution by the Council of the European Union regarding encryption and backdoors.
- Early-stage VC Antler is opening a new office in Berlin. It will be led by Alan Poensgen, co-founder and former MD of Westwing, and Christoph Klink, former partner at McKinsey & Company.
- The Netherlands’ Deputy Prime Minister Kajsa Ollongren is arguing that the upcoming Digital Services Act has to give governments a better access to data of platforms like Airbnb.
- It looks like the UK-based challenger banks have decided to start working on achieving profitability sooner rather than later. The question is — can they get there?
- London-based fintech company SumUp is going to establish an office in Dublin as the “key regulated hub” for its payments business after Brexit.
- And here's a lead paragraph I wouldn't dare to rephrase: “The brother of the deceased Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and a Kalashnikov-wielding Swedish executive known as ‘El Silencio’ are suing Europe’s most valuable fintech company, Klarna, in the US.”
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