This Week in European Tech: Keyrock bags $72 million, Dropbox buys Boxcryptor, Carlyle earmarks $3 billion+ for a pan-European tech fund, and more

This week, our research team tracked more than 85 tech funding deals worth over €1.4 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. And these are the first 14 confirmed speakers!

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?

-----

>> Notable and big funding rounds

Swiss data centre operator Green has signed a refinancing agreement underwritten by Credit Agricole and ING Bank to free up around €490 million to invest in its business.

Brussels-based fintech Keyrock has raised $72 million in a Series B funding round that will see the digital asset market maker further develop its infrastructure and scalability tools, and perhaps most crucially, seek regulatory licenses across Europe, the US, and Singapore.

Highland Europe, the spin off from the US VC giant Highland, just led a €60 million growth raise for Parisian startup Le Collectionist, adding firepower to the latter's budget for growing its premium, tailor-made vacations offering, which encompasses rental properties, services and experiences.

Sweden-based Volta Trucks, an automotive company offering electric trucks for sustainable cities, announced that it has raised €60 million in a Series C extension round.

Dutch e-commerce brand buyer Dwarfs has secured €30 million in a Series B funding round, one that was initially anticipated to be much, much larger.

London-based V7 has raised $33 million in a Series A funding round that will see the company further expand in the US market as it aims to double the team size.

Car repairs buy-now-pay-later platform Bumper has announced an extended £26.1 million series A round backed by car maker Jaguar Land Rover's investment arm InMotion Ventures.

Zoe Health, a UK-based personalised nutrition testing app that's conducting a large-scale nutrition science study group, has announced a £25 million series B extension, bringing its total funding to $83.7 million.

-----

>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals

German encrypted cloud storage Boxcryptor's joining Dropbox.

DACH region one-on-one tuition class provider Studienkreis has just been acquired by the global online tuition company GoStudent.

Thread, a UK-based AI fashion recommendation portal, just shut down its web presence announcing the assets have been acquired by the clothing and department store giant M&S for an undisclosed sum.

London-based Tide is expanding the family and providing its 475,000+ members with access to an additional 120+ SME lending partners over time through the acquisition of crosstown fintech Funding Options.

Payment infrastructure for platforms and marketplaces provider Mangopay is acquiring Polish fraud detection and prevention company Nethone.

Bath, UK-based Roqqett fintech startup Roqqutt has been acquired by international payments group Equals Group for up to £2.25 million.

-----

>> Interesting moves from investors

US-based private equity and alternative asset management firm Carlyle Group has raised $3.12 billion for a pan-European technology fund that aims to invest in 20 to 30 companies.

Peak is back with its fifth fund at €150 million, aimed at supporting early-stage SaaS, marketplace, and platform founders across Europe.

Reinhard Meier (German telemedicine provider Teleclinic's co-founder) has set up a new VC in an effort to drive more cash into digital health in early-stage growth phases.The new VC firm, called Yzr Capital, is announcing its first fundraise for a €100 million LP vehicle.

Round2 Capital, a Vienna, Austria-based software investment firm, completed the first close of its second software lending fund with €62 million.

The impact VC fund arm of UK social innovation agency Nesta this week announced a new £50 million funding pot to back early-stage impact startups.

VenturePath, a new founders members community with 100+ founders signed up, officially got underway this week in the hope of making more all-important connections to the venture capital community.

After pretty much pioneering the 'startup studio' model since its initial launch about 12 years ago, Franco-Belgian eFounders is ready for its next act: a platform for vertical startup studios called Hexa.

London’s Isomer Capital has formalised its relationship with The European VC founders Andreas Munk Holm and David Cruz e Silva, who both now add the title of Venture Partner to their CVs.

Supported by Swiss-based investment holding company xMultiplied, Seedstars has launched Seedstars Capital, an initiative through which it aims to support the next generation of fund managers, particularly in emerging markets.

Planday CEO Christian Brondum agrees to join Denmark's SEED Capital.

Luxembourg’s Digital Tech Fund, 6 Years On

-----

>> In other (important) news

Facebook parent company Meta has been fined €265 million by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) following a data breach which saw the personal details of hundreds of millions of Facebook users published online.

German vertical farming startup Infarm this week confirmed it will make redundancies that will cover up to 50% of its 500-person workforce.

JP Morgan is in discussions about a takeover of Freetrade, a British stock trading app that targeted a £700 million valuation during talks with investors earlier this year.

In a blog post and an email to employees, MessageBird CEO Robert Vis has announced that the omni-channel communications platform provider is laying off around 31% of its workforce.

A lobby group backed by Elon Musk and associated with a controversial ideology popular among tech billionaires is fighting to prevent killer robots from terminating humanity, and it's taken hold of Europe's Artificial Intelligence Act to do so.

Renault and Airbus are partnering to advance battery technology for next-generation cars and planes.

Microsoft is likely to offer remedies to EU antitrust regulators in the coming weeks to stave off formal objections to its $69 billion bid for "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard.

Ireland's privacy watchdog has asked Twitter to provide information about a data scraping incident that saw the profile details — including emails and phone numbers — of millions of Twitter users leaked online.

UK-based buy now, pay later startup Zilch is set to be the latest fintech to be hit by job cuts, which could see more than 10 per cent of the workforce axed.

Lyst, the UK fashion e-commerce site that last year raised funding at a $700 million valuation, is in the process of laying off 25% of its employees as well.

-----

>> Recommended reads and listens

Here are the first 14 confirmed speakers for the 2023 edition of the Tech.eu Summit!

The tech ecosystems of Europe and Israel remain in good health despite early signs capital markets are tapering off, as the fundamentals look stronger than at the start of the 2008/2009 global financial downturn.

As we wind down 2022, November brings a slight increase in investments compared to the previous month, but as expected, dramatically lower figures when compared year-over-year

Want to know what makes Benelux's unicorn factory so compelling? Antler has just published its latest research, and the results are fascinating.

The European Investment Bank — in collaboration with Goldman Sachs Bank Europe, Santander and Société Générale — launched Project Venus, their second euro-denominated digitally native bond issue and first using private blockchain technology. The €100 million, two-year bond was issued, recorded and settled using private blockchain-based technology.

Spotify's CEO Daniel Ek renewed his attack on Apple on Wednesday in a series of tweets alleging the iPhone maker "gives itself every advantage while at the same time stifling innovation and hurting consumers".

Startups should leverage technical infrastructure to gain competitive edge

UK VCs face dwindling exit opportunities, report finds

Brent Hoberman on IPOs, Rishi Sunak and Founders Forum’s future

From the brains behind Motherbrain, Ark Kapital has released its AI-driven forecasting platform AIM to founders everywhere.

Barcelona: The past, present and future of a European startup hub

MPs have warned that the UK risks “falling behind” other countries in safeguarding semiconductor supply and called on the government to forge partnerships with other countries and support the construction of new production facilities in Britain.