This week, our research team tracked around 100 tech funding deals worth over €1.1 billion, and over 15 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.
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! and the 10 latest additions to the line-up!
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
UK business lender Merchant Money has secured £115 million in funding from Barclays Bank and new partner Quilam Capital.
French developer of electric propulsion solutions for small satellites Exotrail has announced a $58 million Series B round.
London-based Carbonplace, a carbon credit transaction network that enables the transfer of certified carbon credits, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $45 million in a Seed round of funding.
Weeks after revealing it was scaling back expenditures, Danish neobank Lunar has tapped its existing shareholders for a €35 million fundraising.
UK-based Coincover has received $30 million in a round led by Silicon Valley-based Foundation Capital to further expand its digital asset security platform.
Rotterdam's Ocean Cleanup has lured $25 million, courtesy of a follow-on donation by Airbnb and Samara co-founder Joe Gebbia.
Cambridge-based spin-out company Evonetix has raised £20 million in a Series B funding round that’s aimed at helping the company scale up the commercialisation of its DNA synthesis chip technology.
St. Gallen, Switzerland-based Terra Quantum has clinched funding from the global equity fund Investcorp.
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>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals
Germany's IONOS, a web hosting services provider owned by United Internet, listed its shares this week in an IPO viewed as gauging investor appetite after European listings stalled last year.
Confirmed: Angry Birds franchise developer Rovio in talks with Playtika - and others - about a takeover
Hungary's Complytron has been acquired by Budapest-based fraud prevention company SEON.
Espoo-headquartered startup Ment, formerly Contract Mill Oy, has been acquired by Texas-based firm M-Files, a global leader in information management.
Berlin-HQed corporate food ordering platform EatFirst has sealed a deal with hospitality services firm Compass Group UK & Ireland to acquire the latter's catering tech business Feedr.
London startup Unmind has acquired digital Dublin health platform Frankie Health.
London-based helper to students, tenants, and landlords save on internet, energy, water, TV, bills packages, and utility bills Billing Better has acquired cross-town friend utility comparison and switching service Homebox.
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>> Interesting moves from investors
Parisian investor Partech has announced an initial €245 million close for its second AfricaTech LP vehicle, surpassing its overall funds target of €230 million.
The European Commission's EIC Fund has confirmed making €331 million in investments since November, across 42 early stage deals in total.
Virginie Morgon, one of the most influential women in private equity, has been ousted as the boss of Eurazeo.
A Berlin-based green tech venture firm, Planet A, has closed its inaugural LP fund with €160 million thanks to commitments from the likes of BMW and the German supermarket chain REWE.
An industry 5.0-themed venture fund called Momenta, supported by the EU Commission, is attempting to raise $100 million to bankroll fledgling industrial startups, including those based in the EU.
Inven Capital, an independent venture firm allied to its 100% equity holder CEZ, the Czech energy utility, has launched the second phase of its clean tech collaboration with the European Investment Bank. The second iteration will once again invest €50 million in clean tech and decarbonisation startups, following the initial phase from 2017 to 2022.
CampX by Volvo Group kicked off a new Incubator track in Gothenburg in Sweden this week. Early-stage startups with promising cutting-edge technologies are invited to collaborate to bring their new innovations to life, with help to scale tech and take it to market.
In combination with the announcement that since 2014 GV has pumped over $500 million into the European and Israeli startup scene, the firms' London office welcomes Luna Schmid to the fold as Partner.
Wolves Summit, the CEE startup networking enabler that launched a new regional deep tech accelerator in December, is announcing another accelerator to connect Ukraine's tech ecosystem to counterparts in the Visegrad 4 (V4) bloc.
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>> In other (important) news
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is creating a standalone science, innovation and technology department as part of a wide-ranging shake up of UK government ministries.
Chinese social media company TikTok on Thursday pledged to do more to tackle disinformation on its platform by adding more safety features and broadening its fact-checking measures, spurred by the role played by state-controlled media and the war in Ukraine.
Deliveroo said it would cut around 9% of its workforce, or 350 roles, as it struggles to become profitable in a tougher consumer environment that has caused orders to slow.
Twitter was the only major tech platform that didn’t send a complete report to the European Union detailing how it was tackling disinformation, a move that risks angering regulators.
Gousto, the recipe-box subscription service, has cut its valuation in its latest £50 million funding round to help handle a “volatile period”.
Yababa, a Berlin startup that sought to serve up home grocery deliveries for cooking Oriental cuisine, is shutting its doors.
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>> Recommended reads and listens
Every end is a new beginning: Tech Nation CEO Gerard Grech reflects on the past decade, and what comes next
Spearheaded by Index Ventures and supported by more than 700 CEOs, the Not Optional campaign is spurring policymakers to reform outdated rules and regulations that limit employee ownership.
Startup Survival: Navigating the Challenges of War in Ukraine
Despite recession worries and lower valuations for cloud contenders globally, a new report from Notion Capital indicates European SaaS is holding up well.
The easiest path to scaling in the UK – the Global Entrepreneur Programme
Three-quarters of LGTBQ+ UK startup founders (75%) refrain from disclosing their sexuality or gender identity, according to a new data report from the UK LGTBQ+ collective Proud Ventures.
A one-size-fits-all approach is often ineffective in healthcare. Personalized medicine aims to provide a more individualized approach. Startups are developing health tech that caters for unique patient genetic, biological, and environmental factors.
Robin Röhn, CEO and co-founder and Berlin-based Apheris weighs in on what the US-EU artificial intelligence collaboration agreement means going forward, including what's sure to be a growing call for increased regulation.
Startups are transforming the future of European agriculture using technology such as IoT, robotics, and AI to improve farming practices, precision agriculture, livestock management, and crop health.
While you might dismiss it as being too fluffy for the workplace, empathy is increasingly being recognised as a crucial soft skill, especially when it comes to leadership.
The Tech.eu Summit: Here’s what you missed in 2022.
Six European foodtech startups redefining our favourite foods for the better
UK tech. It's more than just London. New data from the DCMS shows that Manchester is the number one tech hub in the North with tech companies raising over £500 million in funding in 2022.
The EU Commission has updated us on the quantum tech ecosystem around Europe.
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>> European tech startups to watch
Hamburg’s Vay drove the first car without a person in the vehicle on a European public road.
Avicenna.ai, an AI radiology screening platform that helps to optimise detection of prevailing pathologies, recently announced a €7 million series A round, bringing its funding total to €10 million.
Poland's Plenti lets consumers rent top-line gadgets on demand rather than having to shell out on every new device.
It's been a busy period for Valencia-HQed photon microchip developer iPronics. Since Tech.eu reported in July on its €3.7 million round, the academic spinoff has managed to finalise a commercial product, while exhausting only six months of its runway.
Denmark-based leisure experiences admin platform Holdbar has confirmed raising $1 million of pre-seed funding from early-stage VC vehicle Founderment.
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