This Week in European Tech: Cash-strapped Lilium is raising $250 million, Getir may end up buying Flink, HV Capital closes €710 million fund, and more

Here's a roundup of this week's biggest European Tech funding rounds, exits, 'other news' that you might have missed, and a compendium of must-read articles on all things #EUtech.
This Week in European Tech: Cash-strapped Lilium is raising $250 million, Getir may end up buying Flink, HV Capital closes €710 million fund, and more

This week, our research team tracked more than 80 tech funding deals worth over €467 million, 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).

News flash! We've published the agenda and speaker line-up for our next Tech.eu Summit, which will take place on Wednesday 24 May at Brussels Expo.

Since our last update, we've added more great speakers, including:

Now is the time to secure your tickets if you haven't already!

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

Publicly listed electric vertical take-off and landing jet developer Lilium has announced plans to raise $250 million. According to an SEC filing, historic backer Tencent pre-funded the purchase of $100 million in shares.

French fintech scale-up Pennylane has raised €30 million more.

Hackajob, a London, UK-based provider of a technical hiring platform, secured $25 million in Series B funding.

Berlin-based Spread has raised $16 million in a Series A funding round. Since its founding in 2019, Spread’s bread and butter has been the automotive sector, however, the new capital will be used to further develop the platform’s capabilities as it expands into new industries.

Online fashion marketplace Secret Sales has secured $10 million in a Series B funding round.

IKEA-affiliated Ingka Investments has taken a minority stake in Kreditz.

Phantom Gamelabs has secured a seed investment from Supercell.

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>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals

Istanbul-based speedy grocery delivery giant Getir is reportedly in talks to acquire German competitor Flink.

London-based digital transformation and cybersecurity firm Noventiq has signed a merger agreement with special purpose acquisitions company Corner Growth Acquisition Corp in order to list on New York’s Nasdaq.

Tier Mobility, the electric scooter group, is reportedly exploring a potential sale or merger with a rival as investors push operators to seek consolidation opportunities amid mounting financial losses.

Meta has hired an Oslo-based team that until late last year was building artificial-intelligence networking technology at British chip unicorn Graphcore.

Irish-based venture private equity group VentureWave, and Estonia's investment trading platform Funderbeam, have announced they’ve agreed a 'game-changing' deal as the dynamic funding entities join forces to offer a plethora of funding opportunities on a global scale.

Cambridgeshire, UK-based graphene device manufacturer Paragraf has acquired San Diego-based Cardea Bio makers of a graphene biosensor.

Deutsche Bank has reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended all-cash offer for the acquisition of UK-based Numis.

Nalanda, a Madrid, Spain-based provider of a supplier risk and compliance management software platform for the construction and adjacent industries, acquired Dokify, a provider of supplier risk and compliance management software solutions for non-construction sectors.

Brillio is to acquire CloudStratex, a London-headquartered advisory services company that helps clients build smarter cloud infrastructure.

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>> Interesting moves from investors

Munich's HV Capital closed a new fund at €710 million.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and BBVA are set to make it easier for startups with innovative and sustainable value propositions to get access to financing. The two institutions have concluded an agreement under the InvestEU guarantee programme whereby the EIF will grant a €200 million guarantee to enable BBVA Spark (BBVA’s specialised startup initiative) to strengthen its support for startups, helping them with their expansion plans.

Pan-European firm Claret Capital Partners has launched a new €72 million Opportunity Fund, earmarked to provide follow-on funding for its portfolio.

Microsoft's M12 boss is departing the tech giant's VC arm to help turn London-based investor Systemiq Capital into the 'Sequoia of climate tech'.

In Europe, Accel banks on a turnaround over the next 6 to 9 months.

EIT Climate-KIC has revealed a plan to become the first financially sustainable EU-supported knowledge and innovation community (KIC) by the end of 2024.

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>> In other (important) news

Technology giants will have marked their calendars last Tuesday as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Union’s plan to curb the market power of Big Tech, now technically applies, after entering into force last November.

The UK competition watchdog has fired a shot across the bows of companies racing to commercialise artificial intelligence technology, announcing a review of the AI sector as fears grow over the spread of misinformation and major disruption in the jobs market.

Ex-Facebook and DeepMind employees are in talks to raise a 'sizeable initial funding round' to build an OpenAI rival called Mistral.

The European Union’s top court has handed down a couple of notable rulings this week in the arena of data protection.

Europe’s top satellite and aerospace companies have teamed up to bid for the EU’s €6 billion satellite project known as IRIS², aimed at beaming internet across the continent and giving the bloc its own fleet to keep up with constellations deployed by governments and businesses around the world.

Microsoft has offered to charge different prices for its Office product with and without its Teams app to stave off a possible EU antitrust investigation and fine.

The UK’s financial regulator has announced changes to equity secondary markets aimed at encouraging more activity in London’s public markets.

Electronics designer Dyson is building a new £100 million Technology Centre in Bristol, UK.

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>> Recommended reads and listens

According to the Tech.eu database and research team, European tech companies raised €3.9 billion over 367 deals in April 2023.

How can developers train AI models without violating copyright?

The future of insurtech is embedded, seamless, and effortless.

'Higher education institutions are not agile enough' - can edtech step in to fill the gap?

10 European edtech companies that are reimagining how we learn

"London needs to up its game if it is to stay tech capital"

‘I genuinely thought that the playing field was even when I lived as a man’ – Caroline Farberger is now aware of the disparities in business

What 2022 meant for VC – a necessary readjustment triggered by global events.

Unsure about Venture Debt? Hear from experts on how it works

Do humans still matter, or will AI take your job?

The first five years of the GDPR

European VCs are cautiously optimistic an uptick is coming—and one thinks they could have an edge when it comes to A.I.

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>> European tech startups to watch

French fintech start-up Green-Got is bringing climate conscious banking to Europe. The neo-bank has raised €5 million – part venture capital and part crowdfunding.

Ukraine’s Osavul raises $1 million to fight the war on disinformation.

Swedish sodium-ion battery developer Altris has secured €4.8 million in a bridge financing transaction.

Swiss sustainable travel company Viatu wants to take the hard work out of booking an adventure by utilising API and data-driven technology to save you having to book through various different sites for multi-day trips.

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