This Week in European Tech: Yet another massive spike in debt funding deals, Carta buys Capdesk, Claret Capital closes €297 million fund, and more

Here's a roundup of this week's biggest European Tech funding rounds, exits, 'other news' that you might have missed, and a compendium of must-read articles on all things #EUtech.
This Week in European Tech: Yet another massive spike in debt funding deals, Carta buys Capdesk, Claret Capital closes €297 million fund, and more

This week, our research team tracked more than 80 tech funding deals worth over €1.6 billion, and over 25 exits, 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.

Tickets are now on sale.

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 get 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

Germany’s fourth largest automotive supplier, MAHLE, has received a loan of €300 million from the European Investment Bank to accelerate research and development on vehicle electrification and the decarbonisation of road traffic.

Copenhagen-based embedded finance startup Moneyflow has secured €250 million in asset-backed debt funding from Belgian Aion Bank.

Wayflyer, a Dublin, Ireland, revenue-based financing and growth platform for e-commerce businesses, has secured $200 million (plus $53 million mezzanine) in a debt financing facility from Credit Suisse.

H2 Green Steel raised €190 million in funding from investors in its latest series B round to scale up its hydrogen, iron and steel facilities.

Swiss food tech Planted has raised over €70 million to develop clean-label bio-structured meat. The Series B funding was led by L Catterton and backed by existing investors.

Boopos, a Madrid-based company that operates a tech-enabled lending platform for acquiring small businesses, has secured $58 million in a combined debt and equity round, tripling its valuation in under one year.

Berlin-based fintech topi is empowering retailers and manufacturers to access subscription-based transactions and helping to fuel the shift to a circular economy. The startup has just secured €44.8 million and announced a strategic partnership with GRAVIS, a leading electronic retailer in Germany.

Based in Stockholm and recently launched in the UK, Motatos is a startup taking on food waste through e-commerce. The Nordic team has just raised €38 million through a directed new share issue to existing shareholders.

After having raised $200 million in Series C funding round in December last year, Berlin-headquartered phone-as-a-service provider everphone has raised €32 million as an extension of its Series C funding to expand into new markets.

Swedish troubleshooting automation startup Mavenoid has secured $30 million in a Series B round.

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>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals

Silicon Valley-based tech equity unicorn Carta has announced the acquisition of European equity management leader Capdesk. This acquisition is a part of their shared vision to solve the illiquidity of private markets, and follows the recent acquisition of another London-based fintech Vauban.

NetEase, a Chinese technology company and billion-dollar video-game publisher, has acquired French video-game studio Quantic Dream.

US private investment firm Republic has completed the $100 million acquisition of London-based crowdfunding platform Seedrs.

Serbia-founded software engineering and digital product development company HTEC Group has acquired Sarajevo-based Mistral Technologies and its team of over 300 experts, making it the largest tech company in the Balkan country.

Cambridge-based payments insights firm Bango has acquired the global payments business of Japanese mobile phone network operator NTT DOCOMO for €4 million.

Just days after announcing a £2.5 million investment, Auddy is on a roll and has acquired Vienna's Audiomy, a podcast advertising sales company focused on the German language/DACH region.

To further incentivise employees aligned to real-time performance data and feedback, the Swiss HR tech platform beqom has acquired the Irish continuous performance management platform Our Tandem.

Utrecht-based Scoupy, a cashback app, has been acquired by Cashback Holding for an undisclosed amount.

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>> Interesting moves from investors

DTCP has held the second closing of its Digital Infrastructure Vehicle II with around €1 billion of capital commitments. The Fund was launched in June 2021 and has raised additional capital from new international investors, including BlackRock and abrdn, as well as a sovereign wealth fund from the Middle East and various German insurance companies.

A new fund-of-funds wants to back Europe’s emerging VCs. Co-founded by former Lakestar partner Mark Schmitz, Equation has backed 13 emerging VC fund managers already.

MEPs have finally lost patience over the 18 month delay in getting the new EU equity fund up and running. But as the gloves came off this week, the European Commission claimed the solution is in sight.

London-based growth capital provider Claret Capital has wrapped up a €297 million fund to back innovative businesses in the technology and life sciences sector. Dubbed as Claret European Growth Capital Fund III, the fund will invest in about 50-60 new companies.

The Green Generation Fund (GGF) founded by Manon Littek and Janna Ensthaler has raised €100 million for investments in innovative food tech and green tech startups.

Early-stage venture fund Forward Partners has shut down its loss-making revenue-based financing subsidiary, Forward Advances, just two years after launch due to “macroeconomic uncertainty”.

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>> In other (important) news

Klarna, the buy now, pay later provider, has revealed that losses more than tripled in the first half of the year, saying it had slashed jobs and would issue smaller loans to some customers to return to profitability.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has cleared the £6 billion acquisition of cybersecurity company Avast by US giant NortonLifeLock.

Microsoft’s $68.7 billion all-cash deal to bag gaming giant Activision Blizzard faces closer antitrust scrutiny in the U.K. where the country’s market watchdog has announced it will move to an in-depth investigation.

The European Union has officially launched its new office in San Francisco to liaise with tech companies based in the US and help them comply with EU regulations. Initially co-located with the Irish Consulate, the office will reinforce EU-US cooperation on digital diplomacy.

The European Commission (EC) published draft rules which would impose a range of durability and repairability requirements for smartphones and tablets sold within the EU, its latest effort to cut waste related to electronic devices.

Jupiter Fund Management is in talks to sell its entire stake in Starling Bank months after the digital lender's valuation passed £2.5 billion.

UK-based cross-border payments firm Zepz has appointed Mark Lenhard as its new group CEO. Lenhard has 20 years’ experience in the payments space and was most recently chief operating officer (COO) at accounts payable fintech Bill.com.

The European Tech Alliance (EUTA) welcomes Victoria de Posson as its first ever Secretary General. She will lead the EUTA’s policy and advocacy work, in addition to running day-to-day operations.

Payments firm SumUp is making the leap into B2C services with its first direct-to-consumer product, a digital wallet.

ESNA – the Europe Startup Nations Alliance – is ready to start its operations following receipt of a €1 million grant from the European Commission’s Horizon Europe programme.

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>> Recommended reads and listens

🎙️ Lessons in sustainable growth and achieving market dominance from Zürich-based Scandit CEO and co-founder Samuel Mueller.

European games have devoted fans. But big-name politicians aren’t coming out to play.

The EU is world-leader in quantum research, but companies set up to exploit this are struggling to get the money needed to scale. Experts say the EU and member states should coordinate efforts and work to boost investment.

Estonian startup scene report: €1 billion in funding and €958 million in turnover in H1 2022.

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