Hello! Below, you can find out what happened today in European Tech.
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Deals
- Mytheresa, the Munich-based online luxury retailer, began its first day of trading with a $2.2 billion valuation Thursday, following an initial public offering that exceeded its target. The company sold shares for $26 dollar each, well above the original $16 to $18 range, in a sign of strong investor demand.
- Israel-based digital intelligence company Cellebrite is gearing up to go public on Nasdaq.
- Britain’s IG said it plans to buy US trading platform tastytrade for $1 billion.
- Israeli-founded travel tech company TripActions has raised $155 million in Series E growth funding, ballooning its valuation to $5 billion. This is the travel company’s second massive funding round during the pandemic, adding to the $125 million convertible-to-IPO financing from June 2020.
- Native Instruments, a Berlin-based developer, manufacturer, and supplier of music software and hardware has announced that Francisco Partners, a global investment firm, is to become the majority shareholder of the company.
- Blue Horizon Ventures, a foodtech VC based in Zürich, is launching a new fund, dedicating €183 million to investments that have a positive impact on the environment, human health and animal welfare. The fund brought in over 100 private, corporate and institutional investors, including the European Investment Fund (EIF).
- French accounting automation startup Georges is raising a new round of funding of $42.4 million. The company is also getting a new name and will be called Indy going forward.
- Berlin-based venture capital firm APX has secured additional funding from its two investors Axel Springer and Porsche, bringing its total investment potential to €55 million.
- Berlin-based asset and wealth management platform Elinvar has raised €25 million to fuel further expansion.
- Danish platform Valuer is heading for a listing on Nasdaq’s First North Premier Denmark at the end of February, according to a press release. The IPO, which could value the company at $65 million, should bring in about $20 million in new funding.
- Influencer e-commerce platform Genflow, headquartered in London and Los Angeles, has raised $11 million from UK VC firm BGF. The startup plans to spend the money to fuel its “global expansion plans,” Genflow stated in a press release, starting with Miami, New York, and Hong Kong.
- 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
- In a first in Europe, Google and a group of French publishers have agreed a general framework over copyrights under which the US tech giant will pay publishers for content online.
- The European venture markets held up in 2020, despite the slowdown in funding in response to the pandemic in the first quarter and leading into the second quarter of 2020, according to Crunchbase data. Funding to European startups last year totaled $40 billion, down a mere 4 percent from 2019 at $41.8 billion.
- TransferWise, the British-based payments group, has picked two of Wall Street's biggest players to spearhead a bumper flotation that could be among the most prestigious in a bulging pipeline of London stock market debutants.
- Monzo founder Tom Blomfield is departing the UK challenger bank entirely at the end of the month.
- Dating apps and videoconferencing tools could come under the scope of new EU efforts to monitor online communications in a bid to stamp out child sexual abuse material.
- France plans to inject €1.8 billion into its quantum computing plans.
- Israel's startup ecosystem powers ahead, amid a year of change.
- The maker of the Raspberry Pi single board computer has released the new Raspberry Pi Pico, a $4 microcontroller board built on its own RP2040 silicon.
- Romanian venture report for 2020.
- Lucile Cornet has been appointed Partner with Eight Roads Ventures Europe, a VC firm focusing on startups in Europe and Israel. Cornet is its first female Partner.
Top Tweets
Startup/VC Europe have been going crazy over @joinClubhouse in the past few weeks.
Seven learnings after an intense week of co-hosting, attending, listening in, and raising hands:— Beata 👾 (@axeliaklein) January 21, 2021
★ Just published a new episode of The European Startup Show: Tim Kraska, co-founder and CEO of Einblick on Key Considerations for an Entrepreneur Commercialising Research/IP from Academia. Listen: https://t.co/efGdyugJK0
— anita moorthy (@anitamirchi) January 21, 2021
I am totally with everyone who says the amount of money flowing into venture is enormous.
I am also absolutely fucking astounded by the quantity of super high-quality companies I meet every day.
A very unique time for our industry!— Harry Stebbings (@HarryStebbings) January 20, 2021
Christine Lagarde on digital euro: "I want to downplay any expectations that it is about to come. It will take a number of years, it is a complicated issue ... we have not yet decided what technology backbone would support that digital euro." #CBDC
— Ryan Browne (@Ryan_Browne_) January 21, 2021
Attached you will find a letter written by Fabio Panetta, Chair of the @ecb’s taskforce on a digital euro, to Portuguese Finance Minister João Leão (dated January 18). He gives details on the Digital Euro consultation & the main concerns highlighted, predominantly privacy: pic.twitter.com/Eml4oDYhzW
— Samuel Stolton (@SamuelStolton) January 21, 2021
New French Tech Journal (@frtechnjournal) newsletter is on the newsstands. Talking with @frst_vc co-founders @brunoraillard and @PEntremont about Seed investing: How they build their fund and how they spot startups.https://t.co/Q0gSiLLoo9
— Chris O'Brien (@obrien) January 21, 2021
US: you can raise a rolling fund in the millions overnight.
Germany: we might double the tax allowance for employees to €720.
So sad, so frustrating! 😩 https://t.co/pCB6CHIR0q— Robin Dechant (@robindchnt) January 21, 2021
Kima Ventures, 2010-2020
2021, we will be launching a great initiative towards our new portfolio companies ! Stay tuned :) pic.twitter.com/Z1MIWLNwP2— Jean de La Rochebrochard 👱🤖 (@2lr) January 21, 2021
.@Forbes: As the #EU as a whole has made major strides in #AI powered social #innovation, within #Europe, #Estonia, the country that is the world’s one and only e-Nation, is among key players. https://t.co/If8IOXzuyM
— Invest in Estonia (@EstoniaInvest) January 21, 2021
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