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Today in European Tech: chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor sold for €4.9 billion, a new Swiss unicorn, more moolah for Monzo, and more

Robin Wauters 08 February 2021
Today in European Tech: chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor sold for €4.9 billion, a new Swiss unicorn, more moolah for Monzo, and more
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Hello!

Here's what happened today in European Tech.

Deals

- Japanese company Renesas has agreed to buy the Anglo-German chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor for €4.9 billion euros in cash, boosting its position in low-power technology and connectivity across smart devices, cars and industry.

- Nexthink, a Swiss enterprise software firm founded 17 years ago, has reached unicorn status in a fresh funding round as the coronavirus pandemic significantly increased demand for its products. The company, which specialises in digital employee experience (or ‘DEX’) management software, has secured $180 million in a Series D financing round at an enterprise valuation of $1.1 billion.

- Venture capital firm Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) is raising a new $450 million fund to invest in late-stage companies.

- Napster is to make its debut on the London stock market later this month, marking the first time the music streaming pioneer has had its own public listing in a chequered 22-year history. Napster, which will start trading on the Alternative Investment Market from 26 February, is listing in London as a result of the company’s $70 million reverse takeover by a British music tech startup last summer.

- UK-based challenger bank Monzo is raised a further £50 million in equity funding from existing shareholders and one new investor, Silicon Valley firm Octahedron Capital.

- Isotropic Systems, a UK-based developer of broadband terminal technologies, has secured north of $40 million in funding to double down on the development of its multi-beam antennas.

- France’s Homa Games has raised $15 million to enhance its factory for building hypercasual mobile games. The seed round is a big one for Europe, but the publisher and developer already has more than 30 apps and games in its portfolio.

- 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

- Europe’s antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, has warned Apple to give equal treatment to all apps on its platform amid the iPhone maker’s privacy changes that have drawn charges of anti-competitive practices from rival Facebook.

- Airbnb will tighten control of short-term rentals advertised on its site in several French cities including Paris, by throwing out those without formal registration numbers.

- Amazon plans to buy half of the energy produced by a huge new wind farm in the Netherlands.

- European Union countries should use a chunk of the bloc’s €750 billion recovery fund to set up 5G corridors to help the bloc bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic, Europe’s digital chief said today.

- Government agency La French Tech has picked 120 French tech scale-ups to watch. You can find the list here.

- The Portuguese presidency of the EU has pitched a new text on the controversial ePrivacy regulation, focusing on the processing of communications metadata and data stored on end-user equipment, according to the latest proposal, obtained by EURACTIV.

- Europe’s Grocery Delivery Firms Awash With Cash And 15-Minute Promises (Forbes)

- The European Commission’s Research Executive Agency has come under questioning from judges at the Court of Justice of the EU as part of a case focusing on why the agency refuses to disclose documents on the controversial ‘iBorderCtrl’ project.

- Tandem Bank has acquired Bank and Client’s £100 million mortgage book.

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Today in European Tech: chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor sold for €4.9 billion, a new Swiss unicorn, more moolah for Monzo, and more
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