This week, our research team tracked more than 80 tech funding deals worth over €1.9 billion, and over 10 M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe,
As always, we are putting all of them together for you in a list sent in our round-up newsletter next Monday (note: the full list is for paying customers only, and also comes in the form of a handy downloadable spreadsheet).
We've also got some news for you: we're already gearing up for the second edition of the Tech.eu Summit! Save the date:
24 May in Brussels.
If you haven't seen them yet, we've made all the videos from the Tech.eu Summit last May available as a playlist on our YouTube channel - enjoy!
With that said, let's got down to business with 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).
What happened this week in European Tech?
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>> Notable and big funding rounds
With a vision of using technology to make green energy revolution affordable, UK-based energy tech unicorn Octopus Energy has closed its recent funding round at a total of $550 million.The British energy firm got $325 million from its existing shareholders from the close of a fundraising round and an additional $225 million from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Madrid-based adtech company Seedtag has raised over €250 million via Advent International, historical backers of names including McAfee and NielsenIQ.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is supporting the digital health specialist CompuGroup Medical with a loan of up to €200 million for research, development and innovation.
UK-based battery tech pioneer Britishvolt has received confirmation from the UK Government that it is to receive £100 million in funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF).
London-based all-inclusive electric car subscription service Onto has raised $60 million in equity in a Series C funding round to consolidate leadership in the U.K. and expand into Europe.
London-based investment app Shares has closed $40 million in funding to tap into a boom in retail trading brought on by the pandemic. Leading the round was Peter Thiel-founded Valar Ventures.
Spanish insurance company Mutua Madrilena has inked a strategic deal with Cabify and acquired a 1.26% stake in the ride-hailing and multi-mobility unicorn company.
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>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals
France-based software program group Cegid is buying Spanish rival Grupo Primavera in a €6.8 billion deal that mixes two private-equity backed corporations which have every been fashioned by acquisition sprees.
Low Earth Orbit satellite constellation building OneWeb and global commercial satellite provider Eutelsat have announced a $3.4 billion merger.
Ageras Group, whose suite of financial and accounting software powers 1 million+ small businesses across Europe and North America, has acquired Kontist, a Berlin-based neo-bank.
Swiss platform for human mobility analysis Teralytics has acquired US-based mobility data business firm Streetlytics from Bentley Systems to make inroads in the US.
Density, a San Francisco-based company building hardware and software that helps companies measure, analyze and optimize physical space, has acquired Prevision.io, a Paris, France-based data science company.
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>> Interesting moves from investors
London-based venture capital firm Concept Ventures has launched a £50 million fund in the U.K to back over 60 startups in its pre-seed stage.
Since its launch nine years ago, Switzerland-nbased Seedstars has invested in 81 companies in over 30 emerging markets. Now it’s set a goal of investing in 100 more startups with the launch of its second emerging market seed-stage fund, with a first close of $20 million.
Spain-based Miura Partners has launched its first impact fund with a target of €150 million to invest in high-growth small-caps in Southern Europe.
The UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S ) has expanded its patient capital fund by £37 million.
Demium Capital launched a new fund to promote high-tech innovative startups in Central Europe. It has launched with an initial closure of €7-9 million and expects a 2nd closure of €30-40 million in September.
Platform for Ethereum scaling Polygon and Techstars, platform for customised programming for early-stage entrepreneurs, have joined hands to host Techstars’ London Q1 2023 accelerator programme.
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>> In other (important) news
The European Commission is considering creating a new directorate that may be headed by two top antitrust officials to enforce tough new rules aimed at reining in the powers of Big Tech.
Germany has pledged to mobilise €30 billion of additional funding by 2030 to foster its startup scene, according to the country’s first comprehensive policy roadmap for startups.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has ordered Monzo to review the way it informs customers of their historic financial transactions when closing accounts after it judged the challenger bank to have broken banking rules.
Sweden-headquartered production music house Epidemic Sound has hit Facebook parent company Meta with a multi-million dollar lawsuit for the alleged “theft” of “thousands” of its works.
Some nine months after the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) revealed it was carrying out a market study into music-streaming services, the government department has revealed it believes there is no case to answer.
Vinted reportedly wants to buy its German rival Rebelle.
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>> Recommended reads and listens
Video interview: diving head first into the metaverse with Herman Narula, co-founder and CEO of Improbable
Mariya Gabriel is looking for a few good commissioners — ‘seven, eight’ — to chart the course of Europe’s tech ecosystem.
Where finance and climate meet, with Molten's Vinoth Jayakumar
The Irish Startup Ecosystem with Patrick Walsh, the Founder of Dogpatch Labs, Ireland
Tech.eu Summit: veteran entrepreneur/investor Saul Klein explains why 2022 is merely the 'starting line' for European Tech
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