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Today in European Tech: Made.com and About You's IPOs, Harry's two new funds, 10x's big fundraise, Europe's 'first' quantum computer

Robin Wauters 16 June 2021
Today in European Tech: Made.com and About You's IPOs, Harry's two new funds, 10x's big fundraise, Europe's 'first' quantum computer
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Hello!

Here's what happened today in European Tech.

Deals

- 10x Future Technologies, a London-based fintech startup that helps larger, established banks build both next-generation services as well as tools to help their older services work more efficiently, has raised $187 million.

- German fashion e-commerce company About You has jumped as much as 17% on its first trading day in Frankfurt, bolstered by investor expectations that easing lockdown restrictions will boost sales of its party and eveningwear.

- Harry Stebbings, a 24-year-old law school dropout from south-west London who, as a teenager started a popular podcast about tech investing, has raised $140 million in new funds to back tech startups.

- Made.com, the online furniture retailer, has endured a rocky start to its London stock market flotation with shares falling as much as 9%. The UK firm, which also operates a small network of stores, said ahead of the start of trading on Wednesday that it would list its shares at 200p - giving it a market value of £775.3 million.

- Berlin’s “Near Me” marketing SaaS solutions platform Uberall has raised $115 million in a new capital investment led by Bregal Milestone, Level Equity, United Internet, and Uberall management. Simultaneously, the company is announcing its definitive agreement to acquire Santa Monica, California-based proximity search optimisation tool MomentFeed.

- Israel's Bringg, which offers a delivery logistics platform for the enterprise market, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $100 million in Series E funding led by Insight Partners at a $1 billion valuation post-money.

- Iceland's Frumtak Ventures has closed a new $57 million VC fund, Frumtak III, which will invest in startups that are in their first stages of financing and are deemed to have growth opportunities in international markets.

- Hopin is expanding beyond virtual events with the acquisition of Boomset — becoming an all-in-one event management platform that now offers onsite capabilities for hybrid and in-person events.

- UK-based proptech scale-up Generation Home, a mortgage lender hoping to make everyone a homeowner, has just closed a $30.4 million Series A funding round and received a £300 million debt facility from NatWest.

- London-based online payment solutions provider Checkout.com has acquired Tallinn’s software development/consultancy firm Icefire. While the financial details of the deal remain undisclosed, according to Checkout.com, this is the largest acquisition to date, with 110 of Icefire’s engineers joining the team.

- Copenhagen’s B2B business document creation SaaS Templafy has raised $60 million in a Series D funding round led by Blue Cloud Ventures.

- Madrid-based early learning platform Lingokids has raised $40 million in a Series C funding round led by an undisclosed investor, and saw participation from GP Bullhound as well as existing investors HV Capital, and puzzles maker Ravensburger.

- Exscientia, a UK biotech startup that earned accolades as the world’s first company to take a drug designed by artificial intelligence through to human clinical trials, is buying Allcyte, a young Austrian company that uses an AI-based screening technique to match patients with effective cancer treatments.

- Belgian digital-first customs management firm Customs4trade has raised €17 million in a Series C funding round from 83 North.

- 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

- French President Emmanuel Macron today outlined an ambitious push for Europe to create 10 technology giants worth 100 billion euros each in valuation by 2030, in a bid to rival US companies that dominate the sector.

- After four years of strained relations between Washington and Brussels, US President Joe Biden yesterday agreed a series of new joint measures with the EU on research, technology and trade.

- Apple boss Tim Cook took aim at proposed European rules aimed at curbing the power of US tech giants, saying they could pose security and privacy risks to iPhones.

- Today, in spectacular fashion, IBM and the Fraunhofer Institute in Munich, Germany, unveiled a collaborative effort in the form of an IBM Quantum System One computer. IBM said it is Europe's first and most powerful quantum computer.

- Eleven public private research partnerships got off the ground today, with a promised investment of €22 billion over the next seven years for the first bunch of Horizon Europe’s 49 proposed partnerships.

- Invest Europe, the association representing Europe’s private equity, venture capital and infrastructure sectors, as well as their investors, today announced that Anne Fossemalle, Director, Equity Funds at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), has assumed the role of chair for 2021-2022.

- Vodafone has partnered with Amazon Web Services to launch "edge computing" services for its business customers in the UK.

- Crowdfunding pioneer Luke Lang has announced he’s leaving Crowdcube, which he co-founded in 2010.

- New York-based IAB Tech Labs, a standards body for the digital advertising industry, is being taken to court in Germany by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.

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Today in European Tech: Made.com and About You's IPOs, Harry's two new funds, 10x's big fundraise, Europe's 'first' quantum computer
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