Hello!
Here is what happened today in European tech:
Deals
- German-born Atai Life Sciences has landed $125 million in funding from investors including Peter Thiel. “Atai is developing a range of drugs for mental health treatment, including ketamine, MDMA and psilocybin — the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms,” Sifted reports.
- Berlin-born HelloFresh announced its US subsidiaries have entered into an agreement to buy Factor 75 for up to $277 million. Of that amount, $177 million is payable upon the closing of the transaction, while up to $100 million is structured as performance-based earn-out. With the acquisition, HelloFresh will gain its first office in Chicago, along with four production and fulfillment facilities.
- Israeli startup AI21 Labs has secured $25 million in a funding round led by Pitango First, Pitango Venture's seed fund. together with TPY Capital. The company's first product, Wordtune, launched about three weeks ago in both free and paid-for versions “is the first AI-based writing tool able to understand context and meaning.”
- London-based fintech startup TransferGo has received £4 million in financing from Silicon Valley Bank UK Branch (SVB) to expand its real-time payments platform for consumers, SMEs and enterprise clients. The company started in 2012 as a money transfer service and has since shifted its focus to payments, specifically cross-border payments and remittances. The platform now has over 2.5 million customers.
- Audoo, a London-based music tech company working to ensure that artists and composers receive the royalties they’re owed, has raised a £5.2 million Series A round by Björn Ulvaeus and existing investors including Tileyard London. The fresh funding will go to the rollout of the startup’s ‘Audio Meter’, a small device that securely monitors what music a venue is playing.
- 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
- Reddit is looking for a Brussels-based lobbyist to “ngage with EU and member state government officials and staff to advance Reddit’s policy agenda, both generally and in response to specific legislative or regulatory matters.”
- Europe has 60 unicorn startups at the moment.
- UK digital marketing firms are pushing back against Google's “Privacy Sandbox” initiative. A group of companies have filed a complaint with the CMA to prevent Google from phasing out third-party tracking cookies. The CMA has yet to decide whether to investigate the matter.
- How to articulate a clear go-to-market strategy. It can sound like a big, scary thing — but the reality is that a good go-to-market can be simplified into a one-page document. However, there is a lot of work that needs to be done to be able to feel confident in the strategy you put forward to your C-level team.
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