This week, our research team tracked more than 110 tech funding deals worth over €1.1 billion, and over 20 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
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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
Turkish delivery company Getir has raised about $500 million in a deal that cuts its valuation almost in half, news website Insider reported on Wednesday, citing industry sources. The company is also giving up on France.
Paris-based natural insect protein maker Ÿnsect has secured €160 million in a new funding round. According to the company, the new capital will be used to shift away from its current modus operandi of primarily animal feed to the more lucrative markets of pet foods and food ingredients.
Switzerland-based Distalmotion, a medical device company that has developed a surgical robot called Dexter to establish a new standard of care, has closed a $150 million round of funding.
Maltego, a Munich, Germany-based provider of an intelligence platform for data integration and graphical link analysis of investigations, raised $100 million in growth funding.
London-based rewards credit card startup Yonder has raised £62.5 million in a Series A funding round.
Amsterdam-based fintech Factris has received €50 million from Aegon Asset Management (Aegon AM) to cement its plans to bring its SME financing services into Estonia this quarter.
Weaviate, an Amsterdam-based infrastructure startup whose technology is essential for companies trying to build generative AI tools, has inked a $50 million round led by Index Ventures.
French corporate spend management firm Mooncard has raised €37 million in a Series C funding round led by Orange Ventures and Portage.
Dutch firm E-magy has raised €20.5 million in fresh funds to get cracking on industrial scale production of a silicon material for EV batteries, one that the company claims can increase the storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries, compared to today's industry standards
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>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals
Private equity firm Silver Lake has offered to buy Software AG in a deal that values the German business software developer at €2.2 billion.
Sega and Rovio, best known for its Angry Birds franchise have announced an agreement that will see the former acquire the latter in a deal worth €706 million.
Razor Group, one of the string of startups that has made a name for itself as a “roll-up” startup — raising big money to acquire and consolidate Amazon (and other marketplace) retailers — has acquired one of its competitors in the aggregator space, Stryze Group, as part of a bid to be “the consolidator of consolidators.”
Shares in online retail platform THG surged more than 40% after it said it had received a "highly preliminary" buyout proposal from Apollo.
Allurity has continued its sweep of acquiring cybersecurity firms, with Portugal's CloudComputing and the Swiss company Securix, as the Swedish firm looks to assert dominance in the Europe.
London-based Web3 and emerging technologies-focused marketing agency Zebu Digital and its accompanying event, Zebu Live have been acquired by Flight Story for an undisclosed sum.
Logistics tech company Shift has acquired the European home move platform Movinga, as the firm looks to expand overseas.
Caxton Payments has acquired the entire operating business and share capital of nimbl. Nimbl is a pocket money app from ParentPay, and online payment service for schools.
Finnish short-term rental operator Bob W has acquired Munich-based German competitor Charly Hospitality.
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>> Interesting moves from investors
Forbion, a European life sciences venture capital firm, has raised €1.35 billion for its two newest funds.
Utrecht-based Gilde Healthcare, a specialised healthcare investor, has launched a new investment fund called Gilde Healthcare Venture&Growth VI. The new fund has received €600 million in commitments.
British multinational insurance company Aviva is pumping a further £150 million in funding into its technology venture capital firm division.
Kindred Capital has closed its third fund at $130 million, which it says was oversubscribed at the hard cap.
Bootstrap Europe, a Swiss venture debt firm, has closed its third fund of €130 million to back sustainability startups.
The head of prominent London venture capital firm Hambro Perks has abruptly left his role while also stepping down from the city’s first special purpose acquisition company, casting doubt over the future direction of the investment groups.
Founders Pledge, a London-based charitable initiative, where entrepreneurs enter a legally binding commitment to donate a portion of their personal proceeds on liquidity to charity when they exit, has launched a VC arm.
Venture capital firm Foresight Group’s North East fund has received a £20 million commitment from British Business Investments to invest in SMEs.
Cyprus-based venture capital firm 33East on Tuesday announced that it has been selected to manage the Cyprus Equity Fund, further helping to grow and develop the island’s startup and innovation ecosystem.
Meet Lumaux, a Dutch-based new investment fund focusing on robotics, energy transition and mobility.
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>> In other (important) news
The European Union on Tuesday agreed a €43 billion euro plan for its semiconductor industry in an attempt to catch up with the United States and Asia and start a green industrial revolution.
WhatsApp, Signal and other messaging services have urged the UK government to rethink the Online Safety Bill.They are concerned that the bill could undermine end-to-end encryption.
Lawmakers in the European Parliament have approved the world’s first comprehensive package of rules aimed at regulating the cryptocurrency industry.
The European Commission wants to cut deals with private American space companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX to launch cutting-edge European navigation satellites due to continued delays to Europe's next generation Ariane rocket system.
As the European Union gears up to enforce a major reboot of its digital rulebook in a matter of months, a new dedicated research unit is being spun up to support oversight of large platforms under the bloc’s flagship Digital Services Act (DSA).
Stability AI, the UK startup behind the generative AI art tool Stable Diffusion, this week open-sourced a suite of text-generating AI models intended to go head to head with systems like OpenAI’s GPT-4.
Just Eat Takeaway.com this week announced a share buy-back programme that could see the company repurchase ordinary shares in the amount of up to €150 million.
Financial regulators in the UK have laid out their plans for the future of open banking.
Amazon.com has cooked up a public-relations project called “Ratatouille” to boost its image in France, where the company isn’t as popular as in other European markets.
Dozens of Polish startups haven’t received €175 million in public grants they were awarded at the end of last year, as the institution in charge has been embroiled in a political corruption scandal.
Horizon Europe is to have a new set of public-private partnerships starting in 2025, with candidates to be selected by the end of this year.
After its successful pilot, in 2022, WomenTechEU has launched a second call to boost innovation in Europe’s female-led deep-tech sector, with an increased budget of €10 million.
Having already expanded operations into Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Norway, the UK’s motorways will soon play host to Einride’s vehicles.
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>> Recommended reads and listens
After his longread on Europe's neobanks, fintech journalist John Reynolds is back with a comprehensive look at the European BNPL industry.
These are the fastest-growing open-source startups in Europe in Q1 2023
VC activities in Q1 2023 are characterised by a significant drop compared to the same period in the previous year according to the “2023 European Venture Report Q1” published by Pitchbook.
N26’s identity crisis: How Germany’s top fintech is struggling to grow up
The rockstars building a future worth getting excited about - Episode 1: Cells - the factories of the future with Stef van Grieken founder and CEO of Cradle.bio
🎙️ The Drive at Five - Valuations are in freefall, Rovio gets acquired, Kate's affordable EV's, and de-spamming the spam
20 European tech startups making a difference on Earth Day
How European startups can capitalise on the accelerating data economy
OpenAI’s services may be breaking data protection laws in Europe, and there is no resolution in sight.
Europe’s chips strategy staggers past the starting line.
Why it’s time companies finally got rid of the term “competitive salary” and started being honest
If you're one of almost half the tech workforce that feels that their salaries fall short, here are seven ways to boost your tech salary in 2023.
Is Europe’s MiCA a Template for Global Crypto Regulation?
The Family Files: Inside France's ugliest startup fight
Key drivers for the innovation of the tech ecosystem – five year predictions from Techstars
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>> European tech startups to watch
The newest iteration of the iconic Winamp music player is a “super aggregator” that wants to put everything audio in one place, and help creators monetise along the way.
Building a car is neither cheap nor fast if done right. Now armed with €7 million, French automaker startup Kate’s goal is to build 200 a day.
UK-based digital cancer support clinic, Perci Health has raised £3.4 million seed funding to expand cancer support services.
Finnish energy tech startup Synergi announced the launch of its smart electricity platform, which will cover electric vehicles and most major home electrical devices.
Huddersfield, UK-based Wayland Additive Limited, an electron beam 3D printing manufacturer has raised £4.6 million in funding to increase its in-house production capability, expand its team and hire a COO.
Spanish Plexigrid wants to tackle the surge of demand on electrical grids by increasing and decreasing supplies to make grids work more efficiently.
Berlin-based developers of traditional meat (and other sources of protein) Nosh has raised €3.2 million in a seed funding round.
Cambridge-based Zetta Genomics has raised £1.9 million in a Seed II funding round, to further scale its genomic data management platform XetaBase, ahead of a Series A raise next year.
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