Free

Today in European Tech: Starling Bank raises £272 million, Deliveroo and Trustpilot IPOs enter final stretch, PayPal buys Curv, and more

Robin Wauters 08 March 2021
Today in European Tech: Starling Bank raises £272 million, Deliveroo and Trustpilot IPOs enter final stretch, PayPal buys Curv, and more
Send email Copy link

Hello!

Here's what happened today in European Tech.

Deals

- The UK has a new darling in Starling. The digital bank has confirmed its Series D round funding totalling a healthy £272 million, their largest ever. Led by Fidelity Management and Research the round was oversubscribed by £72 million, and now gives the company at £1.1 billion pre-money valuation.

- Danish consumer reviews service Trustpilot is aiming to be valued at $1.4 billion when it lists its shares in London later this month. Trustpilot today confirmed its intention to float on the London Stock Exchange later in March.

- PayPal has acquired Curv, a Tel Aviv-based startup that uses a novel form of cryptography to safeguard customers' stashes of Bitcoin and other digital assets. The deal is the latest sign of the payment giant's growing crypto ambitions. PayPal did not disclose financial terms, but the deal was reportedly worth nearly $200 million.

- British-Israeli cybersecurity company Kape Technologies, controlled by Israeli businessman Teddy Sagi, is acquiring Israeli online platform Webselenese in a cash and stock deal valued at $149.1 million.

- Berlin-based indoor farming startup Infarm has raised an additional $100 million to expand into more foods as the coronavirus pandemic increases interest in growing produce in urban areas.

- Rimac Automobili, the Croatian company known for its electric hypercars and battery and powertrain development, has gained yet another investment from Porsche. The latter has invested €70 million into Rimac, a move that increases its stake from 15% to 24%.

- Swedish autonomous electric vehicle startup Einride is aiming to continue the momentum sparked by partnerships with Oatly and Lidl, by seeking additional capital, TechCrunch has learned. Einride is seeking $75 million in new financing.

- Medallia, a provider of customer and employee experience and engagement solutions, is set to acquire Decibel for $160 million in cash. Based out of London, Decibel provides digital experience analytics.

- The two biggest names in cashless payment solutions, PlayPass and Weezevent have combined forces.

- Central European programming and IT talent hub Codecool has recently closed a Series C investment round of €7 million and plans further expansion into Europe with two new campuses planned.

- OliveX has announced the acquisition of London-based game developer Six to Start, expected to close on 31 May 2021. Six to Start is the studio behind The Walk, the first smartphone fitness game ever funded by the UK Department of Health.

- 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

- Deliveroo, the Amazon-backed UK food delivery service, has revealed that it recorded a loss of £223.7 million ($309 million) last year in plans to float on the London Stock Exchange that were published Monday. Deliveroo’s losses are substantially less than they were in 2019, when the London-headquartered firm recorded a loss of £317 million.

- Microsoft's $7.5 billion deal to acquire ZeniMax has been approved in the US and EU. The acquisition required approval from the European Commission as well as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission before it could be completed.

- The global wireless industry is planning to allow tens of thousands of international visitors to congregate for its flagship event - Mobile World Congress - in Barcelona in June, more than a year after it was axed due to the pandemic.

- The European Union wants to produce a fifth of the global output of cutting-edge semiconductors at the end of this decade and make its first quantum computer in five years, as part of efforts to cut its dependence on non-European technologies.

- The European Commission will try to mitigate the risks stemming from EU data being in the hands of third countries by outlining a series of 2030 objectives that will help the bloc procure next-generation data processing technologies, documents obtained by EURACTIV reveal.

- Never spam a German lawyer. That's the moral of a story that starts with a spam email, and could end up opening the floodgates to billions of euros worth of compensation claims under the EU's data protection rulebook.

- Russian tech giants Yandex, Mail.ru, Ozon and Wildberries are developing their own fintech services in an expansion that could put them in stiff competition with the country’s leading banking institutions.

- The UK government is likely to join Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson as a shareholder in an aviation startup that is trying to bring Zeppelins back to Britain's skies.

- Maria Gabriel, the EU commissioner for research and innovation, has announced Women TechEU, an EIC-led initiative that will offer coaching, mentoring and funding to promising female tech entrepreneurs.

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.

Today in European Tech: Starling Bank raises £272 million, Deliveroo and Trustpilot IPOs enter final stretch, PayPal buys Curv, and more
Comments
  1. Would you like to write the first comment?

    Would you like to write the first comment?

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