Happy Thursday! (we're taking the day off tomorrow)
(Even) this week, the Tech.eu research team tracked more than 30 tech funding deals worth over €190 million, and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, and rumours, and related news stories across Europe, including Russia 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).
As a bit of a bonus, we've also listed the top 20 financing deals for European tech companies in 2021, rounded up the most important news stories of the past year, reviewed the past year in terms of European tech IPOs, SPACs and direct listings, and took even deeper dives to list the biggest fintech and deeptech funding rounds in Europe in 2021.
Below, please find an overview of the biggest European tech news items for the past couple of days (subscribe to our free newsletter to get this round-up in your inbox every Monday morning).
This week:
1) Swedish battery maker Northvolt announced Wednesday that it has produced its first lithium-ion battery cell at its factory in Skelleftea, meeting its deadline to start production at the plant before the end of 2021. Northvolt, which was valued at $12 billion by investors in June, said it’s the first battery of its kind to have been fully designed, developed and assembled at a so-called gigafactory by a homegrown European battery company.
2) A Moscow court has said it was fining Google 7.2 billion roubles ($98 million) for what it said was a repeated failure to delete content Russia deems illegal, the first revenue-based fine of its kind in Russia.
3) Klarna co-founders Victor Jacobsson and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski have sold shares in the company just before Christmas Eve, with the transaction netting the former more than €200 million.
4) Crypto giant Binance is bolstering its presence in France after a choppy year of regulatory scrutiny. The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is financing a €100 million initiative with industry group France FinTech in an effort to support the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector in France.
5) Planet42, the Estonian startup fighting transport inequality by putting cars in the hands of people unfairly ignored by banks, has raised $30 million in equity and debt funding. The $6m equity round was led by Naspers, with existing investors Change Ventures and Startup Wise Guys also participating alongside unicorn founders like Martin and Markus Villig (Bolt) and Ragnar Sass (Pipedrive).
6) Roskomnadzor, the Russian Internet and telecom regulator, will require Netflix to offer state television channels to its Russian customers after it added the US-based streaming service to its register of “audio-visual services” Tuesday.
7) The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has ordered Apple to adjust the "unreasonable conditions" in its App Store that apply to dating-app providers.
8) Spain’s PLD Space has announced the close of its Series B funding round at $28 million. The company develops and offers commercial orbital and suborbital launch services of small payloads and satellites.
9) British neobank Viola Money has entered into administration.
10) Berlin-based MedKitDoc has raised €7 million in seed financing. While providing a platform for remote visits to a doctor is nothing new, where MedKitDoc aims to stand apart from the crowd is through its specific focus on chronically ill patients, a bundle of connected medical devices, and time-saving features for doctors.
Latest podcast(s):
🎧 Everything you need to know about the news and text analytics platforms in the financial sector — with Sjoerd Leemhuis, Owlin
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