This Week in European Tech: 16 December 2022

This week, our research team tracked more than 105 tech funding deals worth over €3 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).

Scratching your head, wondering what holiday gift to give to that someone that seems to have everything? Do they (and you) have a ticket to the 2023 edition of the Tech.eu Summit? This

24 May in Brussels.

we're back at it, Tickets are now on sale.

Still on the fence? Check out our 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?

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>> Notable and big funding rounds

JP Morgan has reportedly signed a deal to buy a 48.5% stake in Athens-based payments fintech Viva Wallet for more than $800 million.

Zappi, a consumer insights startup that's leveraging AI to whittle down marketing and product concepts, announced a $170 million growth raise from Sumeru Equity Partners and unnamed co-investors.

Despite a sharp increase in demand and a Europe-wide shortage of modules, Berlin-based solar panel provider Enpal says it can continue to deliver on its promise to drive solar power adoption and secured a fresh €855 million in funding to do so.

Barcelona-based working capital provider Novicap has agreed a €200 million debt facility with asset manager Fasanara Capital to expand its working capital platform for SMEs, mid-market companies and public bodies.

French-founded “platform for Everyday AI” Dataiku has raised $200 million in a Series F funding round, at a $2.7 billion valuation.

Amsterdam-born hotel tech startup Mews recently announced it has closed its Series C round at $185 million.

UK-based financial habit forming platform, Updraft, raised another £108 million in equity and debt.

London-based startup Aztec has closed a $100 million Series B funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s blockchain investment arm a16z crypto.

Younited, a Paris-based credit and payment platform, has hit unicorn status thanks to a €60 million raise from its main shareholders, including Goldman Sachs.

CoverManager, a hospitality bookings management platform based in Seville, has announced a second close for its latest funding round, bringing its total to €52 million with the help of London-based tech consultancy and investor GP Bullhound.

London-based talent acquisition, engagement, and retention platform Beamery has raised $50 million in a Series D funding round, aiding in part to a valuation that now welcomes the startup to an increasingly rare, and perhaps return to the venerable status it’s meant to have, the unicorn club.

Robco, a Munich-based startup that has built a platform for designing low-cost modular robots for small and medium industrial businesses, has picked up €13 million in a Series A round led by Sequoia, with Kindred Capital, Promus Ventures and Torsten Reil, Christian Reber and Daniel Dines all also investing.

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>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals

German cloud-based logistics platform Transporean has been acquired by competitor Trimble in a transaction providing the former with an enterprise value of €1.88 billion.

Microsoft is buying a 4% stake in the London Stock Exchange Group as part of a deal that will see the market operator spend at least $2.8 billion over 10 years on the software provider’s cloud services.

UK-based wellbeing and lifestyle products brand The Original Fit Factory seeks to make its mark on the global stage following an eight-acquisition spending spree that's seen it invest $137 million in all.

Renting Finders, the marketplace that has transformed online car rental in Spain and Portugal, has acquired Swipcar from publicly listed company, Cazoo.

The centuries-old story of Munich-based bank Bankhaus von der Heydt is ending, at least in its current independent form, following an agreed sale to the German crypto holding company Bitcoin Group for around €14 million.

Euroclear, a Brussels, Belgium-based provider of post trade services, acquired Goji, a London, UK-based provider of digital access and technology-enabled solutions to private markets.

New York sustainability consultancy ERM has formally acquired Libryo, a London-HQed environmental, health and safety (EHS) regulatory compliance platform.

Octopus Group is entering the ‘death tech’ market, with the acquisition of London-based digital bereavement startup Guardian Angel.

Belfast-based ESG scoring platform Coriolis Technologies has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by the trade finance compliance and automation tools provider TradeSun.

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>> Interesting moves from investors

What started off in Vienna as €10 million micro fund with macro ideas, 11 years later, Speedinvest has announced a raise of €500 million, giving the fund over €1 billion in assets under management.

UK banking group Barclays has announced it will expand investments from its sustainable impact capital mandate to £500 million in the next five years.

Fondo Italiano di Investimento announced the first closing of a €130 million food and agritech fund.

People Ventures debuted a new Nordic fund of €100 million to back early-stage tech startups.

The construction-themed VC Foundamental has raised $85 million for its second fund to increase its stockpile of dry powder for innovators in what it sees as a $12 trillion market opportunity.

News from our parent company Webrazzi: together with fund management company Re-Pie they’ve launched a new fund that will initially focus on backing promising Web3 startups in Turkey. In 2023, the fund will cover 4 verticals and grow to approximately €25 million in size.

Brand new Lithuanian VC firm Baltic Sandbox Ventures has raised €10 million for its first deeptech fund, out of a target final close of €13 million.

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>> In other (important) news

Europe’s most valuable private tech group Checkout.com has slashed its internal valuation to about $11 billion, down from $40 billion less than a month ago.

Softbank-backed metaverse building technology company Improbable is reportedly preparing for a round of layoffs as profitability still eludes the decade-old startup.

The European Union will release €270 million in funds as it tries to attain technology independence by building chips based on the open RISC-V instruction set architecture.

Berlin-based logistics services startup Sennder is taking on funds at around double the $1 billion or so value it received for equity issued in January 2021. According to Handelsbatt, unnamed sources say €60 million in funds has been clinched already from Sennder's existing investors.

Rivian is shelving plans to jointly build electric vans in Europe with Mercedes-Benz, aborting a deal signed just three months ago to share costs and technology.

Apple should face a €6 million euro fine for breach of privacy rules, the top adviser to French data protection authority's sanction body recommended on Monday.

Microsoft is seeking to address European Union antitrust concerns about its business practices prompted by a complaint from Salesforce.com's workspace messaging app Slack.

EU competition regulators have revised state aid rules to make it easier for European Union countries to finance the rollout of fast-speed broadband, key to achieving the bloc's ambitious digital and green goals.

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>> Recommended reads and listens

A majority of European SaaS-focused startups complete their payback period in less than 12 months, according to a new survey.

Helping founders save time, capital, and avoid potential legal pitfalls, the European VC and legal communities have joined together to support Seedsummit.

Inside a German state’s bid to become the European hub for chipmaking.

Private equity is swooping in for European tech companies as valuations fall.

To Rein In Big Tech, Europe Looked Beyond Lawsuits. Will the U.S. Follow?

We've analysed and recapped the top 25 European tech funding deals of 2022.