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This Week in European Tech: UiPath files IPO prospectus, Arrival's $13 billion (SPAC) IPO, Europe's fastest unicorn yet, and more

Robin Wauters 26 March 2021
This Week in European Tech: UiPath files IPO prospectus, Arrival's $13 billion (SPAC) IPO, Europe's fastest unicorn yet, and more
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Happy Friday!

This week, our research team tracked more than 80 tech funding deals worth more than €1.8 billion, and about 15 exits, M&A transactions, and 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 round-up newsletter (note: the full list is for paying customers only).

Recently, we also started publishing 'Today in European Tech', a daily round-up 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 round-up 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 round-up in your inbox every Monday morning).

1) UiPath's IPO is on the rails

Romania-born robotic process automation company UiPath has filed its IPO prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “PATH.”

2) Quite a public Arrival

Electric vehicle company Arrival has staged what is believe to be the biggest ever stock market listing for a UK tech company. Arrival completed its merger with a SPAC today, which means Arrival is now listed on the Nasdaq in New York under the ticker ARVL. Arrival's stock was listed at $22, valuing it at roughly $13 billion when the deal closed.

3) A bananas funding round for the speediest 'EUnicorn' yet

Berlin-based ultra fast delivery service Gorillas has raised $290 million and become Europe’s fastest unicorn to date. The round was led by Coatue Management, DST Global and Tencent.

4) ironSource's SPAC IPO has been made official

It's official: Israeli company ironSource, a platform for game and app developers, is to be merged into SPAC Thoma Bravo Advantage at a valuation of approximately $11.1 billion.

5) Trustpilot shares started trading in London

Danish consumer-review site Trustpilot rose as much as 16% before trimming gains on its first trading day in London after its IPO raised about $655 million.

6) A $2 billion+ exit in The Netherlands

Utrecht-based ERP software firm Unit4 has been acquired by private equity firm TA Associates. The exact number of the deal was not provided, with TA Associates commenting, “a transactional values in excess of $2 billion.”

7) Another $300 million for London-based Blockchain.com

Blockchain.com, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency wallet providers, has raised $300 million in a mega fundraising round that values the company at $5.2 billion. The London-based start-up said its latest cash injection was led by DST Global partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital.

8) The Seedrs-Crowdcube merger deal has collapsed

The UK’s two largest equity crowdfunding platforms, Crowdcube and Seedrs, have abandoned their £140 million merger just a day after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) concluded its opposition to the deal.

9) Rocket Internet is (back?) on the stock exchange

Rocket Internet Growth Opportunities, a US-listed SPAC formed by Rocket Internet targeting the tech sector, raised $250 million by offering 25 million units at $10.

10) Aiven raises $100 million for its open-source tech

Finnish open source software company Aiven has raised $100 million in a Series C round that values the firm at north of $800 million. The financing round was led by Atomico.

Podcast(s):

- tech.eu Podcast #212: What do you know about Nokia, $500M+ for quick delivery, Seedrs 💔 Crowdcube, and more

- Interview Special: Benedikt Blomeyer, Director of EU Policy at Allied For Startups

Bonus link(s):

- A new report commissioned and created by European Women in VC, Experior VC, and Unconventional Ventures found that in terms of capital productivity, women outperform men by as much as 96% in the CEE region.

- Europe lost the first round of the digital revolution to China and the US and needs to take decisive action to fix its digital single market, according to European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, who heads the bloc’s digital strategy.

- Europe needs to pump €300 billion into its telecoms infrastructure by 2025 if it wants to roll out super fast 5G across the 27-country bloc to boost economic growth.

- Scale-up operating model series: Bas Smeulders of e-commerce shipping platform Sendcloud

- How Disrupt Me helps corporates engage with innovative Israeli startups

This Week in European Tech: UiPath files IPO prospectus, Arrival's $13 billion (SPAC) IPO, Europe's fastest unicorn yet, and more
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