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Today in European Tech: Apple to invest €1 billion in a new chip lab in Munich, insurtech startup Zego raises $150 million, and more

Robin Wauters 10 March 2021
Today in European Tech: Apple to invest €1 billion in a new chip lab in Munich, insurtech startup Zego raises $150 million, and more
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Hello!

Here's what happened today in European Tech.

Deals

- French data solutions firm Talend will go private in a $2.4 billion all-cash deal with private equity firm Thoma Bravo.

- Israeli cloud native application security company Snyk has closed $300 million in Series E financing at a valuation of $4.7 billion.

- It’s been a pretty good week for unicorns in the UK. Insurtech company Zego closed a $150 million funding round, the largest ever by a UK-founded insurtech startup, which now places them at a $1.1 billion valuation. The Series C funding round was led by DST Global and included participation from new investor General Catalyst and others.

- British payments company Worldremit is considering spurning the London Stock Exchange for a US SPAC listing that could value it in excess of $1.5 billion.

- Aqua Security, a Boston- and Tel Aviv-based security startup that focuses squarely on securing cloud-native services, today announced that it has raised a $135 million Series E funding round at a $1 billion valuation. The round was led by ION Crossover Partners. Existing investors M12 Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Insight Partners, TLV Partners, Greenspring Associates and Acrew Capital also participated.

- Swedish battery maker Northvolt has acquired US-based Cuberg, and gains access to high performance lithium metal technology that can be built upon already existing lithium-ion manufacturing lines. Specifically, those already in place and serving the electromobility market. Terms of the sale remain undisclosed.

- Spanish workforce marketplace Jobsandtalent has secured €100 million from the SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in a Series D round. Additionally, they’ve secured €83 million in debt financing from BlackRock. SoftBank joins previous investors including Atomico, Seek, DN Capital, InfraVia, Quadrille, Kibo, and FJ Labs. Jobandtalent has raised €310 million to date.

- Optibus — a Tel Aviv-based startup that provides a platform that analyses how cities move around and then provides navigation, scheduling, driver rostering and other guidance for mass transportation providers to service those cities better — has picked up $107 million.

- Israeli cybersecurity company Cynet has announced the completion of a $40 million series C funding round. Greenfield Partners led the round

- 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

- Apple will make Munich its European Silicon Design Center, adding hundreds of new employees and a new facility focused on connectivity and wireless technologies. Munich is already Apple’s largest engineering hub in Europe, with close to 1,500 engineers. The expansion, together with additional investment in R&D, will exceed €1 billion in the next three years alone.

- Web Summit has started licensing its conference software, with the United Nations as its first customer.

- Passion Capital, a UK early-stage tech VC firm, is opening up its latest £45 million fund to investors registered and qualified by the Seedrs crowdfunding platform. Passion Capital will make an allocation available to the public, making it the first time retail investors can be part of a private venture fund that invests in UK tech startups.

- The Kremlin said today that Moscow had no desire to block any Internet resources after the state communications regulator said it was restricting the use of Twitter but that companies had to follow Russian law.

- A look at Unit 8200, an elite intelligence unit within the Israeli Defense Forces and a pipeline for the country's sprawling network of cybersecurity startups.

- One of the biggest players in the ride hailing and multi-mobility space, Cabify is now jumping into the get-it-to-your-door game. Following on the success of their Cabify Envios programme launched in April of last year, the move is slated to “foster efficient, multimodal object transport.”

- How Israel is building the model B2B SaaS capital.

- An overnight fire at French cloud computing company OVHcloud, which this week started the process for a potential IPO, destroyed some servers and forced the temporary shutdown of others.

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Today in European Tech: Apple to invest €1 billion in a new chip lab in Munich, insurtech startup Zego raises $150 million, and more
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