This week, our research team tracked more than 95 tech funding deals worth over €1 billion, and over 20 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.
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
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>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals
Zapp Electric Vehicles, UK-based makers of the self-billed "fastest accelerating" scooter in the world, is about to go public through a SPAC arrangement with special purpose vehicle CIIG Capital Partners.
US e-commerce enablement player AppHub has paid $72 million to snap up the founders' stake in REVIEWS.io, a UK-based customer feedback portal.
The operators of Brussels' main airport has acquired a majority stake (80%) in the Belgian operations AI and data analytics business Jetpack.
Female Invest has acquired sustainability-focused investment platform Gaia Investments
GlobalLogic, a Hitachi Group company, has agreed to acquire Fortech, a software engineering services company based in Romania.
Noventiq, a digital transformation services provider, has agreed to buy a controlling stake in Serbian digital infrastructure company Saga Group and the latter's portfolio that includes digital banking tools IP for managing banking apps, online banking and software on cash withdrawal kiosks.
Skindoc, an online dermatologist based out of the UK, has been officially acquired by Norwegian private healthcare provider Dr. Dropin.
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>> Interesting moves from investors
Motive Partners buys up Berlin-based investor embedded/capital, months after the latter's €100 million fundraise.
London-based asset manager and active fintech investor Fasanara Capital has secured $200 million from a Canadian pension fund.
OTB Ventures announced the launch of its new OTB Fund II. The already launched fund, to which the European Investment Fund (EIF) committed €45 million, is expected to raise €150 million.
The Warsaw-based bValue has announced opening of its third fund bValue Growth to invest in companies from the CEE. The fund has already completed the first closing of €72 million, and aims to increase its capital to €100 million.
London-based seed fund Pact has stepped out for its first outing, armed with a solid £30 million. According to the trio of female partners, Tong Gu, Reem Mobassaleh Wyndham, and Monik Pham, the new fund is the first of its kind in the UK, that is, founded by three female partners.
The Business Growth Fund (BGF), a capital investor in startups from the UK and Ireland, has raised its total funding for the UK Enterprise Fund (UKEF) to £80 million.
Untapped potential: VC BackingMinds expands its second €50 million fund across the Nordics and doubles down on Denmark.
A look at Hypernova, a $25 million fund which soft-launched in June and was founded by experienced investor Tugce Ergul.
Wave Ventures, a Finnish VC run by students, marked the formal launch of its second €2 million fund this week, with capital from high-profile Finnish unicorn founders.
Belgian angel investor collective Syndicate One has launched a standardised convertible loan agreement for early-stage financing.
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>> In other (important) news
Much-anticipated plans to list the British chip designer Arm on the stock exchange have been delayed by managers who fear the global economic downturn and a slump in tech shares could spook potential investors.
Twitter's decision to shut down its Brussels office and the laying off of thousands of employees are drawing concerns on whether the company can comply with new tough European Union rules against illegal online content, EU justice chief Didier Reynders said on Thursday.
Apple and Google could be forced to loosen their grip on mobile systems after the United Kingdom’s competition watchdog launched an in-depth market investigation last Tuesday.
Yandex, arguably the most successful and emblematic Russian digital company over the past 25 years, could be split amid the international and domestic tensions that have followed Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Mucho trouble over at Rocket Internet.
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has warned stock trading app operators to review design features, including those with game-like elements, which risk prompting consumers to take actions against their own interest.
Microsoft is likely to face an EU antitrust investigation as regulators intensify their scrutiny into its practices in a case triggered by Salesforce.com's workspace messaging app Slack.
The European Parliament on Wednesday voted through the EU budget for next year, including how €12.4 billion from the Horizon Europe research programme will be spent.
This week, the European Commission together with partners inaugurated Europe's latest supercomputer: LEONARDO, located at the Bologna Technopole, in Italy.
Finnish tech company Wolt, a last mile delivery platform, has announced the launch of two new technology hubs in Tel-Aviv and Stockholm. It's a glimmer of hope bobbing upon the sea of job losses, and belt tightening, currently occurring in the tech sector.
France’s digital taxman goes after Amazon — again.
Twitter's head of French operations, Damien Viel, said he was quitting the social media platform, whose new owner Elon Musk recently fired top executives and enforced steep job cuts at the company.
Poland's competition watchdog has initiated proceedings against PayPal over the use of possibly prohibited contractual provisions.
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>> Recommended reads and listens
How Washington chased Huawei out of Europe.
Credit and debit cards: the vinyl of payments
Here’s a quick guide to German Venture Capital Funds for Foreign Investors
European VC pre-money valuations remain on track - for now: Pitchbook
How the war on Ukraine is reshaping Russia’s digital underground.
Elon Musk’s scaling back of content moderation and other safeguards at Twitter has put him on a collision course with the European Union.
What are the barriers for female workers and how can companies overcome the gender gap? Our friends at Jobbio take a look.
Cool technology: the rise of cryopreservation in Europe
Why the EU should support WI-FI
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