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Today in European Tech: Google to close down its London 'Campus', Forto raises $240 million at unicorn valuation, and much more

Robin Wauters 21 June 2021
Today in European Tech: Google to close down its London 'Campus', Forto raises $240 million at unicorn valuation, and much more
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Hello!

Here's what happened today in European Tech.

Deals

- Berlin-based digital freight forwarding and supply chain solutions provider Forto has raised a hefty $240 million. With this round, Forto now weighs in at a $1.2 billion valuation.

- Israeli music education startup JoyTunes has completed a $50 million funding round at a $1 billion valuation led by GV (formerly Google Ventures) and with participation by Qualcomm.

- Wellster, a(nother) telemedicine hailing from Bavaria, has raised $40 million in a round led by Dermapharm with support from existing investors HV Capital and SevenVentures.

- Helsinki’s Tesseract, which specialises in bridging institutional capital flow between traditional and digital asset finance has raised $25 million in one of the largest Series A rounds in Finland to date.

- Doctrin, a medtech startup hailing from Stockholm, has raised €13 million to further its efforts of providing, “patient-centric healthcare, free from barriers”.

Belgian telecoms provider Destiny is marching forward with its goal of becoming the leading European cloud communications solutions for SMEs, announcing its acquisitions of Swedish firms Telepo and Soluno.

- 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

- Europe's two privacy watchdogs teamed up to call for a ban on the use of facial recognition in public spaces, going against draft European Union rules which would allow the technology to be used for public security reasons.

- Germany’s competition authority, the FCO, has completed its Big Tech GAFA ‘bingo’ card by opening a proceeding against Apple. As with similar investigations already opened this year — into Amazon, Facebook and Google — the proceeding will determine whether or not the iPhone maker meets the threshold of Germany’s updated competition law.

- Fintech company Revolut saw slower growth in revenues and mounting losses last year as the coronavirus pandemic hit payment volumes, though an increase in the value of cryptocurrencies gave the company a big boost. Revolut generated revenues of £222.1 million in 2020, up 34% from the £166 million revenue it made a year earlier.

- Speaking of Revolut, the British fintech scale-up is reportedly in the early stages of a fundraising round that could value it at $20 billion or more.

- Google is closing its dedicated start-up space in London known as Campus. The Silicon Valley tech giant announced on Monday that it has decided “not to reopen” Campus in East London after it was forced to close by the coronavirus pandemic.

- Israeli venture capital fund Glilot Capital Partners is reportedly mulling raising $200-300 million on Wall Street in an IPO of a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

- Last week, hundreds of the biggest names in European tech rubbed shoulders with politicians and wealthy investors on the lawns of the Soho Farmhouse private members club in rural England at Founders Forum, one of the first major tech events to happen in over a year.

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Today in European Tech: Google to close down its London 'Campus', Forto raises $240 million at unicorn valuation, and much more
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