Hello!
Here's what happened today in European Tech:
Deals
- Payments business Checkout.com is valued at $15 billion after a $450 million investment led by Tiger Global, according to CEO Guillaume Pousaz. The London-based company’s valuation is almost triple the $5.5 billion it was valued at in a round last year.
- Online greeting card retailer Moonpig said it intends to list in London, buoyed by an acceleration in online shopping amid the coronavirus pandemic. The deal is expected to value the company at more than $1.4 billion.
- Gett, the ride hailing company that's co-headquartered in London and Israel and started out as a direct competitor to the likes of Uber and Lyft but now focuses mainly on ground transportation services for business clients, has closed a $115 million funding round.
- Jedox, a German startup that builds tools to help companies with their financial planning and analysis using data sourced from basic documents like Excel spreadsheets, has picked up a funding of over $100 million in a round being led by Insight Partners.
- Curve, the London-based fintech startup that combines multiple cards and accounts into one smart card and app, is to launch in the US after sealing a $95 million equity round.
- Israel-based Glilot Capital Partners, typically an early-seed investment firm, has launched its first early growth fund. The new $170 million fund, called Glilot+, is the firm’s fifth fund. The new fund primarily will look for post-Series A enterprise software and cybersecurity opportunities.
- M-Files, a Finnish intelligent information management company, has raised $80 million in an investment round led by European growth capital firm Bregal Milestone, with current investors Partech, Tesi and Draper Esprit also participating.
- Delivery Hero has announced a new €50 million VC fund to invest in early-stage food and delivery startups. DX Ventures said it will be investing in founder-led companies with all of the capital (for now) coming from Delivery Hero.
- Sofia, Bulgaria-based early-stage VC firm LAUNCHub Ventures is on its way to raising a €70 million fund by the end of the first half of 2021; today the company announced a €44 million first close as its investment activities across the SEE and CEE regions pick up.
- German SaaS company Filestage has closed a €2.8 million Series A round led by Newion, together with current investor HTGF and seed + speed Ventures.
- Italian startup Fitprime, which offers a monthly membership that gives people access to online fitness classes and sports clubs across the country, has raised €2.5 million to fuel further expansion and prepare for international markets.
- 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 Reading/Knowing
- Online delivery group Deliveroo plans to expand into around 100 new towns and cities across the UK in 2021 as it seeks to capitalise on its popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Index Ventures now ranks Latvia as the most “startup-friendly” country in Europe, following a legislative change to the country’s stock option policy. Neighbours Estonia and Lithuania claim the next top spots.
- Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist who was knighted for inventing the internet navigation system known as the World Wide Web, wants to re-make cyberspace once again.
- It is “no longer acceptable” for social media giants to take key decisions on online content removals alone, following the high profile takedowns of US President Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Twitter, the European Commission has said.
- In the first week of January, Telegram surpassed 500 million monthly active users.
- Wildberries, Russia’s answer to Amazon, is a genuine success. But its corporate backstory involves a lot of mythmaking.
- Euronext has announced that the sixth edition of TechShare, its dedicated pre-IPO program for European tech companies, will welcome participants from 10 countries across Europe. This year’s edition includes 119 tech companies participating in the first half of 2021.
- VC firm Partech announced today the promotion of Boris Golden to Partner. Boris joined the Paris office of Partech in 2015 as part of the Seed team.
- Four of the five main Irish retail banks have notified the competitor regulator of plans for an app based payment system that would enable consumers to move money between each other with ease. If developed, the system would allow bank customers to transfer funds in much the same way as users of fintech services like Revolut and N26 can.
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