Today in European Tech: ECB not so keen on Big Tech cryptocurrency plans, SAP buys Finland's AppGyver, Flipdish nabs €40 million, and more

Today in European Tech: ECB not so keen on Big Tech cryptocurrency plans, SAP buys Finland's AppGyver, Flipdish nabs €40 million, and more

Hello!

Here's what happened today in European Tech.

Deals

- French-born venture capital firm Eurazeo has announced the first close of its second smart city fund, devoting €80 million to invest in the most promising energy, mobility proptech and logistics startups worldwide.

- Flipdish, an Irish software that helps restaurants build branded websites and ordering apps, has raised €40 million from Tiger Global to continue expanding internationally.

- Northmill Bank, the Sweden-based challenger bank that has around 200,000 customers across three European countries, has raised around $30 million in new funding.

- SAP has acquired AppGyver, the Finnish 'no-code development' platform company that enable users with no coding skills to build applications for Web and mobile uses.

- Libeo, a French fintech startup offering software that simplifies invoices and payments for SMEs, has closed a €20 million Series A round with the partners of DST Global, Serena, Breega and LocalGlobe.

- Solidatus, a London-based data lineage and metadata management company, is today announcing it has raised £14 million in Series A funding. AlbionVC led the round, which also includes HSBC Ventures and Citi.

- Scalarr, a Ukraine and US-based ad fraud prevention startup, has raised a $7.5 million Series A round led by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development.

- Spacelift, a Polish-American startup that automates the management of cloud infrastructure, has raised $6 million in a Series A funding round led by London’s Blossom Capital. Polish fund Inovo Venture Partners and Hoxton Ventures are also investing.

BusUp, a Barcelona-based corporate bus commuter management solution, has raised a $6 million Series A round to expand from Europe and Latin America into the US.

- 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

- The European Central Bank (ECB) has issued a stark warning on the involvement of Big Tech firms in cryptocurrency projects, cautioning that such moves could jeopardise privacy, create further risks to competition and even “endanger monetary sovereignty”.

- The EU is considering building an advanced semiconductor factory in Europe in an attempt to avoid relying on the US and Asia for technology at the heart of some of its major industries.

- The French government has announced a €1.8 billion strategy to boost research in quantum technologies, and especially quantum computers, over five years, a move that increases public investment in the field from €60 million to €200 million per year, putting France in third place behind China and US for quantum funding.

- European VC funds are building community around ESG initiatives.

- 6 Fintech & Insurtech Predictions from a Pan-European VC.

- The British owners of 74,000 suspended .eu domain names have been given an additional three months to change their registration details to an address in Europe before they are permanently taken away.

- European Union efforts to resolve a patent dispute between tech companies and carmakers have hit a roadblock after experts enlisted for advice failed to agree on the level of royalties or who should pay them.

- The European Commission is weighing up whether to add tougher rules to promote gender equality in research grant contracts awarded in the imminent Horizon Europe R&D programme, according to leaked draft planning documents.

Today's Top Tweets

Tell us what you think about this daily roundup and how we can improve it!

And follow us on Twitter of course.

Follow the developments in the technology world. What would you like us to deliver to you?
Your subscription registration has been successfully created.