This week, the first one of 2023, our research team tracked more than 100 tech funding deals worth over €1.7 billion, and over 30 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.
We also recently took a close look at what the data told us for December 2022, and published our 'year in review' complete with a ton of insightful charts.
As always, we are putting all weekly deals together for you in a list sent in our round-up newsletter (note: the full list is for paying customers only, and also comes in the form of a handy downloadable spreadsheet).
And don't forget: we're busy prepping for the next Tech.eu Summit, it's gonna be epic!
24 May in Brussels Expo
Still on the fence? Check out our first 25 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
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>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals
BioNTech has announced a planned acquisition of London-based InstaDeep in a £562 million deal.
Battery company Britishvolt is reportedly in talks to sell a majority stake as it continues to fight to stay in business, with company filings showing that it recently issued new shares to raise £67,143.
One of the largest co-living companies in the US is merging with a European peer to create one of the world’s largest providers of shared apartments for young professionals. New York-based Common manages more than 4,000 apartments in the US, while Berlin-based Habyt operates around 7,000 apartments in Europe and Asia.
DocPlanner, the Warsaw-based giant in the healthtech sector, has made another acquisition, this time on the domestic market. The company took over MyDr, which is currently managing three brands: EDM, Dr100, and drNews.
Deloitte snapped up Munich-based venture client services provider 27pilots.
Helsinki-based commerce experience platform Nosto acquired Austria-based AI-powered product discovery platform Findologic for an undisclosed sum.
Two London-based RegTech startups are joining forces. CUBE , an automated "regulatory management" company, is acquiring The Hub, whose AI allows regtech clients to scrutinise unstructured text data from thousands of online regulatory sources.
Tap Global, a Gibraltar-licensed crypto app that offers preloaded Mastercards and fiat bank accounts to its customers, has just went public in an IPO that raised £3.1 million.
Turkish omnichannel marketing company Insider has clinched a deal to acquire Istanbul-HQed MindBehind's conversational e-commerce and messaging software.
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>> Interesting moves from investors
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) announced the launch of 100x Impact Accelerator, a £50 million initiative to shape a new generation of “social unicorns”.
A first closing of €104 million for FrenchFood Capital.
A €50 million VC fund has been set up in collaboration with a startup association representing French ties to the Ukrainian startup community.
An €18 million funding allocation from the EU's European Defence Fund (EDF) has been awarded to Grenoble-based startup Lynred and nine others to deliver next gen infrared sensor supply chains within European borders.
The UK government has made £7 million in funding available to businesses developing technologies that decarbonise the freight sector by incorporating technology such as artificial intelligence.
Balderton Capital announced the appointment of Dan Teodosiu, who previously served as CTO at Onfido and Criteo, as its latest Executive In Residence (EIR), providing technical and engineering-focused support for Balderton’s portfolio companies.
A Northern Irish co-investment vehicle has disclosed its 100th portfolio company.The Belfast-headquartered Co-Fund NI initiative is currently Northern Ireland's most active equity investor having invested nearly 90% of its £47.3 million allocation, pouring over £42 million into Northern Irish startups since its inception in 2011.
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>> In other (important) news![]( "news-889")
Four of Europe’s largest telecom companies formally informed the European Commission of a joint venture to build a technology platform for digital advertising.
Britain's attempt to become the first European nation to launch satellites into space ended in bitter disappointment early on Tuesday when Virgin Orbit said its rocket had suffered an anomaly that prevented it from reaching orbit.
One day, you're announcing that you've hit unicorn status, the next day you're telling your employees "around 12%" of current staff will be leaving the company shortly. This is the latest sign-of-the-times event playing out over at Beamery.
Amazon has launched a consultation to close three UK warehouses, where it employs a combined 1,200 people.
France's data protection authority CNIL has fined Chinese-owned video-sharing platform TikTok €5 million for privacy violations.
London fintech Paddle, valued at $1.4 billion as of last May's $200 million series D round, has been forced to dismiss 8% of its 350 or so staff to streamline its cost structure in the ongoing downturn.
The European Commission wants to ask Big Tech and EU telecoms providers about their investment outlays and cloud infrastructure plans before tabling legislation that could make the former pay for network costs.
Utrech-based AI-powered analytics platform Objectiv has decided to close up shop.
Trouble at Railsr: New layoffs, insiders allege funding issues and sale to Nigerian fintech.
Darren Westlake, co-founder and CEO of UK-based fundraising portal Crowdcube, is standing aside to explore pastures new.
Rishi Sunak revived talks with SoftBank on a London listing for Arm.
Netflix has announced plans to open an engineering centre in Polish capital, Warsaw.
British neobank Starling expects profits to quadruple as CEO says crypto lacks ‘moral purpose’.
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>> Recommended reads and listens
This Year in European Tech: 2022 in review (and in charts)
Europe's largest known deposit of rare earth elements — key for building electric vehicle batteries and wind turbines — has been discovered in northern Sweden.
This year a sizeable number of European startups exhibited their hardware devices at CES 2023 in Las Vegas across a diverse range of verticals, many to critical acclaim.
An economic downturn triggered by rising interest rates and the war in Ukraine has changed the mood music around the European tech sector. Academics from London Business School’s Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital shared their views on how 2023 will go with Tech.eu.
Solar panels are becoming an essential part of efforts to transition from coal to renewable energy and halt the impact of climate change. But there are obstacles to mass adoption, and startups in Europe are responding to the challenge, resolving some of the complex issues plaguing the solar industry.
You might think compensation or company values are the most divisive catalysts prompting people to look for a new job.But it turns out Blue Monday, a.k.a the most depressing day of the year (which falls on January 16 this year) is a big influence.
The Maria 01 startup hub in Helsinki can proceed with its growth/expansion plans.
The EU Artificial Intelligence Act is set to cover many more companies than first expected, loading them with a regulatory burden that could deter investors.
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>> European tech startups to watch
Andreessen Horowitz has led a seed round for the Stockholm games duo at Seidr.
Zurich-based fintech startup Relio has raised €3 million in a funding round aimed at supporting the launch of a digital payment account for business customers. The Swiss company is led by CEO Lav Odorovic, who previously founded Penta.
Romania-founded pet tech startup Digitail has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by Atomico.
Calling the Parisian suburb of Montrouge home, French startup Qarnot has raised €35 million in new capital. The company has tapped into a crucial problem facing our modern world, that of the tremendous amount of excess heat given off by data centres, and is ushering it back into heating systems.
London-based Prograd has raised $2.5 million in a seed round. The startup is out to help a younger generation understand finance, allowing users to establish financial goals and discover bespoke pathways to earning, saving, or borrowing their way to these goals.
Lodz-founded/London-HQ’d Cryptiony has raised €500,000 in a pre-seed funding round. The startup offers a crypto tax automation platform for individuals, traders, and tax professionals.
Paris-founded 3D immersive virtual worlds builder Digital Village has taken on $4 million in its first equity funding round.
Lapsi Health, a Netherlands-based developer of audio-driven med tech and remote healthcare tools, has raised $3.7 million.
London-based Fractal Homes has raised $30 million in a seed round aimed at what the proptech startup claims will reinvent second home co-ownership across Europe.
QV Bioelectronics, a Cheshire, UK-based medical device startup, has received £2 million in pre-series A funds. QV is undertaking pre-clinical studies on an electric field therapy (EFT) implant, a kind of medical device that holds promise in treating brain tumours and other cancers.
Despite Czech rules that currently forbid urban parcel deliveries by unmanned aerial vehicles, Brno-based 3L Robotics expects to launch the country's first landing helipad for drone shipments in 18 months time.
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