Today in European Tech: Spryker raises $130 million, EU clears Google-Fitbit acquisition, Cazoo has acquired Drover, and more

Today in European Tech: Spryker raises $130 million, EU clears Google-Fitbit acquisition, Cazoo has acquired Drover, and more

Hello!

Here is what happened today in European tech:

Deals

- Berlin-based Spryker has raised over $130 million in a Series C financing round, led by Silicon Valley-based TCV, to further develop its B2B and Enterprise Marketplace products.

- British fintech startup GoCardless is one step closer to reaching a $1 billion valuation thanks to accelerated demand for digital payments during the coronavirus pandemic. The company has raised $95 million in a fresh investment round led by the venture capital arm of Bain Capital. The new funding values the company at $970 million.

- French financial services platform Lydia has announced a whopping extension of its Series B round, raising an additional $86 million led by Accel. The round now rests at $131 million, which it claims is the largest round ever raised by a French fintech startup.

- Brainly, a startup from Poland that has built a popular network for students and their parents to engage with each other for advice and help with homework questions, has raised $80 million, a series D round that it will be using both to continue building out the tools that it offers to students as well as to hone in on expansion in some key emerging markets such as Indonesia and Brazil.

- Cazoo, the high-flying UK car e-tailer, this morning announced that it has acquired Drover, a car subscription platform also based in the UK, for an undisclosed sum. Cazoo says the deal will help it expand across Europe.

- Just six months after its Series A, Berlin-based booking engine cargo.one has secured $42 million in Series B funding as demand for air cargo soars during the pandemic.

- ABN Amro is turbo-charging its fintech investment strategy, injecting a further €50 million into its €100 million corporate venture fund.

- The European Investment Bank is providing €30 million of funding for TTTech Auto, a Vienna-based company specialised in the development of a safety software platform for advanced driver assistance systems and automated driving.

- Dutch core banking vendor Five Degrees has raised €22 million to launch a new cloud-native banking platform. The new funding round, led by Velocity Capital FinTech Ventures, and supported by existing investors Reggeborgh and Atlas Invest, represents the company's largest capital raise to date.

- Israeli digital advertising platform company Kenshoo today announced that it is to acquire AI marketing intelligence analytics company Signals Analytics.

- Usercentrics, the Munich-based SaaS company that offers ‘consent management’ solutions, has secured €17 million in a Series B financing round led by growth equity investor Full In Partners.

- 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

- Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit has been conditionally approved by the European Commission.

- Listed: every investor that inked a deal with a European insurtech startup or scale-up in 2020

- Austrian-based cryptocurrency investment platform Bitpanda is committing €10 million to a technology and innovation hub in Poland that will employ 300 people.

- UK-based artificial intelligence lab DeepMind has shifted its focus from climate change to other areas of science and is pursuing its original mission of creating artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is widely seen as the holy grail of the nascent technology, according to a CNBC report.

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