Today in European Tech: SoftBank ups its stake in Kahoot, Trigo raises $60 million, Rovio has a new CEO, IBM buys Nordcloud, and more

Today in European Tech: SoftBank ups its stake in Kahoot, Trigo raises $60 million, Rovio has a new CEO, IBM buys Nordcloud, and more

Hello!

Here is what happened today in European tech:

Deals

- Tel Aviv-based Trigo, which develops store checkout technology that aims to rival Amazon Go, has raised a $60 million Series B funding round led by 83North and joined by Tesco and others. The Israeli startup uses computer vision technology together with off-the-shelf hardware to, basically, retrofit existing retail stores and enable its customers to simply walk in, pick up their desired items, and walk out without the need to stop at the checkout.

- Northzone has sold 12 million of its shares – or half of its ownership – in Kahoot, the Norwegian game-based learning platform, to SoftBank at a price of 79 Norwegian Krone apiece, netting the investment firm roughly €90 million at the current exchange rate. The deal gives SoftBank a total of 60 million shares, or an equivalent 13.45% of the share capital of Kahoot.

- Hopin has acquired Topi, a US-based event tech company.

- The European Investment Bank (EIB) is backing Spanish company Wenea with €50 million so an investment of around €100 million in total can be carried out to increase long-distance mobility in Spain by installing a host of electric vehicle charging stations alongside many of its motorways.

- IBM has acquired Nordcloud, a Finnish company that specialises in cloud implementation, application transformation and managed services. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

- Estonian government-held fund SmartCap is launching a new deep tech fund and seeking a manager to run it with patience. The firm will make the initial cornerstone investment of €15 million, and the fund manager is expected to raise more from private investors.

- Lithuania-based Eneba, a marketplace for gamers that sells games and other products, has raised a $8 million round of funding from Practica Capital and InReach Ventures.

- Hambro Perks, a London-based venture firm and investment management platform, announced it has acquired Ombu, a group comprised of seven environmental tech companies.

- Essen-based technology company talpasolutions has closed a €4.5 million Series A funding round. The financing round is led by the logistics investment fund F-LOG Ventures, which, like NRW.BANK, is a new investor.

- Moovee, the Luxembourg startup specialising in shared vehicle solutions, announces “an external growth operation” in the Belgian market with the acquisition of Zen Car Belgium.

- London-based data science startup Tradefeedr has raised $3 million to develop its trading analytics software that’s used by the likes of Goldman Sachs. The majority of the funding comes from IPGL, a fintech investment firm owned by entrepreneur Lord Michael Spencer.

- Jaguar Land Rover’s VC and mobility services arm InMotion has invested in Circulor, a London-based startup bringing blockchain to recycling and resource extraction, so that the automotive company can put the technology to use in 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

- Angry Birds maker Rovio has appointed Alexandre Pelletier-Normand as the company’s new CEO as of January 1, 2021.

- The fintechs that quit the UK in 2020.

- High Tech Campus Eindhoven (HTCE) has initiated the rollout of a new generation of advanced autonomous aviation digital infrastructure.

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