Happy Friday!
This week, our research team tracked more than 74 tech funding deals worth more than €1.8 billion, and 22 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).
Here's an overview of the 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).
This week:
1) Berlin Brands Group (BBG) — one of the new wave of e-commerce startups hoping to build lucrative economies of scale around buying up smaller brands that sell on marketplaces like Amazon and using technology to run and scale them more efficiently — has picked up a big round of funding to fill out that mission. The startup has closed a round of $700 million, comprising both equity and debt, at a $1 billion+ valuation.
2) Delivery Hero raised €1.25 billion from an offering of notes convertible into shares, marking the food-delivery company’s third equity-linked issuance in less than two years.
3) Ireland’s data privacy watchdog has slapped WhatsApp with a record €225 million fine for violating EU data protection rules. The Dublin-based Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced the decision on Thursday after a three-year investigation into the messaging app.
4) Amazon brand buyer Heroes has raised an impressive $200 million in new funding. The London-based company has been relatively quiet in the FBA brand buying race, but this heated injection of capital is set to light some fires, as a number of purchases are already on the burner.
5) London-based Olsam has raised a respectable $165 million in a Series A round. The capital will be put to use immediately acquiring leading e-commerce businesses, namely those in the Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) space.
6) Amsterdam-based startup VanMoof has raised a $128 million Series C funding round. The company designs and sells electric bikes that are quite popular in some markets. It now wants to become the world’s leading e-bike brand by iterating at a faster pace.
7) Seeking to improve the lives of those with diet-related health challenges, Zürich-based healthtech Oviva has raised $80 million in a Series C round. The platform combines a personalised coaching service via an app as well as direct access to certified dieticians.
8) Berlin-based digital coaching platform CoachHub has raised an additional $80 million in a Series B round extension. Using a proprietary AI-based solution, CoachHub matches customers with the perfect fit amongst a network of over 2,500 certified business and well-being coaches in 70 countries across six continents in 60 different languages.
9) Online car retailer Cazoo, headquartered in London, has acquired international data insights company Cazana, which provides real-time vehicle valuation, pricing and stock management tools. The acquisition was agreed upon for a price of approximately £25 million, with Cazana’s team of more than 50 staff all joining Cazoo.
10) Peak AI, a startup out of Manchester, England, that has built a “decision intelligence” platform, has raised $75 million, money that it will be using to continue building out its platform, expand into new markets and hire some 200 new people in the coming quarters.
Podcast:
>> Why we need the .eu domain, with EURid’s Giovanni Seppia
Bonus links:
- Google, Facebook and Microsoft are the three biggest lobbying spenders in Europe in a battle against tough new laws aimed at curbing US tech giants’ powers, a study released on Tuesday (31 August) showed.
- The Take Back Your Privacy Foundation (TBYP), in cooperation with the Consumentenbond, is taking TikTok to court for over €2 billion in damages. The organizations previously set forth demands against the company for violating the privacy and consumer rights of children.
- Europe’s top court has struck what could be a mortal blow to the practice of zero rating where mobile operators exempt data associated with specific services, such as Spotify or Facebook, from counting toward users’ overall data caps.
- France and the Netherlands signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday to intensify synergies for the research and development of quantum technologies, joining the race in building high-performance supercomputers.
- Google is appealing against a €500 million fine imposed by France’s antitrust watchdog after a dispute with local media about paying for news content.
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