This week, the Tech.eu research team tracked more than 85 tech funding deals worth over €2 billion, and over 20 exits, M&A transactions, and rumours, and related news stories across Europe.
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, and now also comes in the form of a handy downloadable spreadsheet).
We've also announced a whole bunch of confirmed speakers for our upcoming Tech.eu Summit on 17 May in Brussels. Check out more info here and get your early-bird tickets now!
From the likes of European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel to world-record breaking pilot Zara Rutherford, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, (Transfer)Wise co-founder and CEO Kristo Käärmann, unicorn CEOs and builders from Bunq, Veriff, GoStudent, Deliverect, Sorare, Voi, and investors from Index Ventures, Molten, Lakestar, Speedinvest, Localglobe, Blossom Capital, eFounders and many more - we can't wait to meet them and you there in person!
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).
What happened this week in European Tech?
>> Notable and big funding rounds
Betting big on the rise in demand for providers of logistics technologies, Berlin-based digitised logistics startup Forto has raised a mammoth funding of $250 million.
London-headquartered AI-powered consumer finance platform Lendable has raised a massive £210 million funding round to surpass its valuation of over £3.5 billion. The round was led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board.
London-based digital foreign exchange player Currencies Direct has roped in a £140 million investment from Blackstone.
Barcelona-based conversational interaction platform Typeform, has raised $135 million in funding. The Series C round was led by Sofina.
Norwegian SaaS company reinventing Enterprise Architecture for today’s digital enterprise, Ardoq has announced a $125 million funding round. The round was led by EQT Growth and saw the participation of One Peak.
Parisian digital insurance brokerage platform +Simple brings in €90 million in growth financing. The round was led by global investment firm KKR.
Norway-based smart energy provider Tibber has raised $100 million in a Series C financing round led by Europe’s largest impact fund, Summa Equity.
Barcelona-based aggregator startup for digital-native brands that sell via Amazon, YABA has closed an $85 million equity and debt financing round. The investment was led by international funds, including US VC firm Crossbeam Venture Partners, and alternative asset manager Tikehau Capital.
OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei's London-based consumer tech startup Nothing has now wrapped up a whopping $70 million Series B fundraise.
Cambridge-based player in the field of microbiome-based therapeutics, biomarkers and targets, Microbiotica has raised £50 million in funding. The Series B round was co-led by Flerie Invest and Tencent.
>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals
Darnstadt-based process management, data management, and consulting services provider Software AG has acquired dataops platform StreamSets for €524 million, plus a customary retention package awarded to the latter’s senior management team.
Driven by a need amongst service teams to connect to customers with intelligence, empathy, and the right information, Danish customer support innovator Dixa has acquired Lyon-based analytics firm Miuros and Berlin-based automation company Solvemate.
Banking and financial services firm LHV Group is set to acquire fellow Estonian company EveryPay as part of its strategy to expand into payments services.
London-based visual storytelling platform and extended reality (xR) solutions player disguise has announced the acquisition of US-based broadcast data and content visualisation solutions platform Polygon Labs.
>> Interesting moves from investors
Venture capital heavyweight Index Ventures will no longer co-invest with Russian entities or back Russian startups.
London-based proptech venture capital firm Pi Labs has secured $90 million for its oversubscribed fund.The VC company will identify and invest in the next generation of proptech startups that have developed proprietary technology to enhance any stage of the real estate value chain.
Amsterdam-based early-stage investor Rockstart has wrapped up its energy fund at €27 million to further invest in early-stage energy startups and co-invest in its energy portfolio companies up to Series B.
Splitting ops between Helsinki and London, former Seedcamp investment team member and head of HTC’s $100 million Vive X fund Dave Haynes and the Nordic XR Startups accelerator’s Petri Rajahalme have taken the wraps off their new specialist VC fund FOV, and are coming out charging with a respectable first close of €16.5 million of a targeted €25 million.
The Norwegian venture capital firm Norselab, which offers investment and incubation services for technology startups, has announced its new fund called Meaningful Equity II.
>> In other (important) news
The European Union and the UK are ramping up their parallel crackdowns on big tech companies, opening formal antitrust investigations into whether Google and Facebook owner Meta sought to illegally fix prices in digital advertising.
The European Commission, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) signed the Guarantee Agreement on a European Union budget guarantee of €19.65 billion to support investment projects across Europe.
Another European privacy watchdog has sanctioned the controversial facial recognition firm, Clearview AI, which scrapes selfies off the Internet to amass a databased of some 10 billion of faces to power an identity-matching service it sells to law enforcement.Italy’s data protection agency announced a €20 million penalty for breaches of EU law — as well as ordering the controversial company to delete any data on Italians it holds and banning it from any further processing of citizens’ facial biometrics.
After more than seven years of leading Volocopter from 5 person research project to a unicorn startup comprised of over 500 personnel, Florian Reuter has decided to step down as CEO and Managing Director. Beginning in September of this year, he will be replaced by former CEO of Airbus Defence & Space Dirk Hoke.
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