Happy Friday!
This week, our research team tracked more than 85 tech funding deals worth more than €1.7 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: from Bucharest to the moon
Romania-born robotic process automation software firm UiPath rose 17% in the company’s stock market debut after the software vendor and its investors reeled in $1.34 billion in its IPO. The shares opened at $65.50, giving it a market value of $34 billion upon debut.
Times Square was colored in orange yesterday, as UiPath hit a new milestone on its path. 🙌 to all our customers, partners, and #automation community for believing in our dream from the very start. #UiPathIPO #RPA
— UiPath (@UiPath) April 22, 2021
2) Alibiba increases state in Turkey's Trendyol with big investment
Turkish e-commerce platform Trendyol has received an additional $330 million investment from existing partner Alibaba in a capital increase. With this injection of capital, Alibaba now holds an 86.5% stake in the company.
Turkey’s largest e-commerce platform Trendyol receives an additional investment of USD 330 million from its partner Alibaba in a capital increase, bringing its total valuation to USD 11 billion.
Read more at https://t.co/AN18GujhWs. pic.twitter.com/dWSClUJ9lB— Invest in Türkiye (@InvestTurkey) April 22, 2021
3) The EU has proposed new rules on the use of AI
The European Commission announced tough draft rules on the use of artificial intelligence, including a ban on most surveillance, in an attempt to set global standards for a key technology dominated by China and the United States.
Artificial Intelligence is a fantastic opportunity for Europe.
And citizens deserve technologies they can trust.
Today we present new rules for trustworthy AI. They set high standards based on the different levels of risk. pic.twitter.com/EuzaIUBW9i— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) April 21, 2021
4) French insurtech scale-up Alan closes €185 million round
Healthcare app Alan has raised €185 million in a series D round, now bringing the company’s valuation to €1.4 billion. The round saw participation from Coatue, Dragoneer, Exor, and existing investors Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, and Temasek.
"The upside was gigantic and there was no competing startup in Europe."
Read @RomainLavault's blogpost on why he invested in @avec_alan's pre-seed round.
Alan is now celebrating raising a €185m Series D at a €1.4bn valuation. 🔥https://t.co/Ihr8omNtlb pic.twitter.com/8lTI0rh6Ij— Partech (@PartechPartners) April 21, 2021
5) Cash for carpooling: BlaBlaCar raises $115 million
French startup BlaBlaCar has raised a new $115 million funding round. While the company is better known for its long distance carpooling marketplace, BlaBlaCar has also added a bus marketplace.
It’s official 💥 we’ve just secured our next round of #funding: $115 million to accelerate our #growth strategy.
We are thrilled to keep pursuing our vision for a fairer, friendlier and more sustainable world of travel.https://t.co/rRjPlhbrM6— BlaBlaCar (@BlaBlaCar) April 20, 2021
6) Swedish online grocer MatHem secures €100 million+ in funding
Kinnevik is clearly going all-in on the red-hot online grocery delivery market. Just two weeks ago, they dropped at cool €220 million on Norway’s Kolonial (now Oda), and now how jumped into MatHem’s shopping basket (again) to the tune of €14.8 million in the grocer’s €108.7 million funding round.
Sweden’s @KinnevikAB invests €14.8 million in online grocer @MatHem’s €108.7 million funding round
Article: @sensorpunk https://t.co/u4yLhRNvi6 pic.twitter.com/4C8pyQ0BLo— tech.eu (@tech_eu) April 22, 2021
7) Under investigation in the United Kingdom: the Arm-NVIDIA deal
UK Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden issued a "Public Interest Intervention Notice" in relation to the proposed $40 billion sale of ARM to NVIDIA, effectively instructing the Competition and Markets Authority to kick off an investigation.
UK invokes national security to investigate Nvidia's ARM deal https://t.co/LkztvtPc5Y pic.twitter.com/ryNe3Yaqrf
— Reuters Tech News (@ReutersTech) April 19, 2021
8) More funding in France as Ornikar raises €100 million to scale up
French startup Ornikar, which set out to bring a new approach to driver education and road safety, and then used that foothold to expand into the related area of car insurance, has raised €100 million.
Amazing news: @ornikar raises $120M, led by @KKR_Co - and we're proud to be in, too! Well done @bgaignault, @flavienlerendu and team🔥! Learning to drive + auto insurance will be even better & more affordable for millions of Europeans! Story by @TechCrunch https://t.co/66tqZUPB7A
— Brighteye Ventures 🇪🇺 (@brighteyevc) April 22, 2021
9) Re-commerce group musicMagpie went public in London
- UK-based re-commerce group musicMagpie has been admitted to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange this morning, giving it a £208 million market cap.
MusicMagpie floated in London today - you’ll likely know them from their industrial scale selling of used books, CDs and DVDs on eBay and Amazon. Here’s my profile of the business: https://t.co/VyzenwNEq9
— James Cook (@JamesLiamCook) April 22, 2021
10) Dott scores $85 million to scale its micromobility services
- Micromobility startup Dott with headquarters in Paris and Amsterdam has secured $85 million in a Series B funding round. The capital injection was co-led by Belgium-based Sofina and UK-based Estari.
We’re super excited! 🥳 Thanks to this $85m investment we’ll be able to keep enhancing and expanding our service. Thanks to the #Dott team, our riders, cities, and existing & new investors. 🚀
Small ride. Big change.https://t.co/mJUk68DVas— Dott (@Dott) April 20, 2021
Podcast(s):
- tech.eu Podcast #216: Keith Grose and Plaid’s future in Europe, #helpimaguru, NVIDIA’s acquisition of ARM put on hold, and more
- tech.eu Podcast interview special: Annika Sjöberg and Bo Ilsoe of NGP Capital talk about gender and VC funding in Europe (also see link below)
Bonus link:
- NGP Capital, the Finland-born global VC firm, released a new depressing report on the abysmal state of gender parity in the European tech startup and investment community.
- Investment firms Creandum and Speedinvest believe Europe will pave the way for 'Climate Tech innovation', and published an insightful report/landscape on the current state of, and notable trends in the sector.
- German capital Berlin became number one in Startup Heatmap’s annual survey of Europe’s best cities for fledgling companies, overtaking London.
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