Features/Profiles

This Week in European Tech: Wolt raised $530 million, Workday bought Peakon for $700 million, Twitter acquired Revue, and more

Robin Wauters 29 January 2021
This Week in European Tech: Wolt raised $530 million, Workday bought Peakon for $700 million, Twitter acquired Revue, and more
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Happy Friday!

This week, our research team tracked over 90 tech funding deals worth nearly €2.5 billion, and about 25 M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe, including Russia, Israel, and Turkey.

As always, we are putting all of them together for you in a handy list sent in our roundup newsletter (note: the full list is for paying customers only).

Recently, we also started publishing 'Today in European Tech', a daily roundup of deals and news stories that caught our attention. Keeping you updated on all things EU tech is our priority!

Today, instead of a daily roundup we give you an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for the past week (subscribe to our free newsletter to get this roundup in your inbox every Monday morning).

But before you check out the list: are you, or do you know someone, who can help us keep track of these things? We're hiring a tech journalist/news editor to expand our team.

Also (and finally), we just released our latest report on the State of European Fintech - download it free of charge now. You're welcome!

1) Finnish food delivery firm Wolt raised $530 million

Finnish food delivery juggernaut Wolt has raised $530 million in fresh funding to boost its growth. The round, which takes its total raised to a hefty $856 million, was led by ICONIQ Growth with Tiger Global, DST, KKR, Prosus, EQT Growth and Coatue joining as new investors.

2) Workday acquired Danish HR tech startup Peakon for $700 million

HR and finance software provider Workday has acquired Denmark-based SaaS company and ’employee success platform’ provider Peakon for roughly $700 million in cash.

3) A German enterprise exit: SAP picks up Signavio

SAP has acquired German enterprise software firm Signavio, without disclosed the terms of the deal. Bloomberg had earlier pegged the purchase price at around €1 billion.

4) LendInvest secured a £500 million investment from JP Morgan

UK-based property financing and investment platform LendInvest has secured a £500 million investment from JP Morgan. The fresh cash will be used for LendInvest’s future mortgage originations and comes after LendInvest sold a £125 million mortgage portfolio to JP Morgan in September of last year.

5) InPost's stellar Amsterdam IPO

InPost soared in trading after its shareholders raised €2.8 billion euros in Europe’s biggest IPO since 2018, amid an online shopping boom that’s driving up demand for the Polish company’s automated parcel lockers.

6) Online card retailer Moonpig confirms imminent IPO plans

Online greeting-card retailer Moonpig and its shareholders plan to raise as much as $524 million in an IPO in London, part of a rush of European companies looking to capitalize on robust stock markets and pandemic-fueled sales growth.

7) The Carlyle Group acquired RuneScape publisher Jagex

Investment firm The Carlyle Group has acquired British RuneScape publisher Jagex for at least $530 million.

8) Twitter has acquired Revue, a newsletter platform

Twitter has acquired Revue, a newsletter platform based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. Over the course of its existence since 2015, Revue has raised €400,000 and kept a minimalist team of six people.

9) New details on AUTO1's upcoming IPO; plans to raise at least €1.5 billion

German used-car trading platform AUTO1 set a range of between €32 and €38 per share for its IPO, implying that its Frankfurt flotation will raise at least €1.5 billion.

10) Israeli B2B payments platform Melio raised $110 million

Israeli B2B payments platform Melio has completed a $110 million financing round, led by Coatue at a valuation of $1.335 billion.

Podcast:

tech.eu Podcast #204: PitchBook’s Nalin Patel, Wolt wants to deliver everything, Twitter buys Revue, InPost’s IPO, and more

Bonus links:

- PitchBook this week released its 2020 Annual European Venture Report, sharing key funding and exit stats and insights to (once again) recognise European Tech’s record year – as well as its challenges ahead. In a year that will forever be remembered as the year of the coronavirus outbreak, PitchBook says the European tech ecosystem actually more than held its own, with VC deal value hitting a new annual record of €42.8 billion across 9,341 deals.

- Here are 30+ European tech companies most likely to go public this year.

- Included VC launched Fellowship II, a global nine-month, fully funded Fellowship for individuals from diverse backgrounds looking to enter the VC ecosystem. Ten funds are backing the programme, including Microsoft’s M12, Santander’s Mouro Capital and Seedcamp, and HSBC has joined, as well.

This Week in European Tech: Wolt raised $530 million, Workday bought Peakon for $700 million, Twitter acquired Revue, and more
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