This week, our reseach tracked more than 95 tech funding deals worth over €1.2 billion. On the other end of the spectrum, we saw over 10 exits and M&A transactions. 

As always, we've also indexed the most important/industry-related news items you need to know about, however, this recap is by no means exhaustive.

Our comprehensive brief, and its associated data, are available to our insights members via a weekly round-up newsletter and a handy .csv file allowing for even more in-depth analysis.

With that said, let's get down to business with the biggest European tech news items for the past couple of days. If email is more your thing, you can always subscribe to our free newsletter and get this round-up delivered to your inbox.

And now, the news.

💸 Notable and big funding rounds

🇫🇷 French B2B lender Defacto shores up to €167 million.

🇩🇪 Nasdaq-listed Lilium raises $192 million in shares sale and matching contribution from Tencent.

🇳🇱 SMART Photonics beams in €100 million.

🇳🇴 Freyr Battery welcomes €100 million grant via EU Innovation Fund, presses forward with Giga Arctic project

🇧🇪 Backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others, Belgian agtech firm Aphea.bio raises €70 million.

🫱🏽‍🫲🏻 Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers

🇳🇴 Kahoot! acquired by Goldman Sachs, General Atlantic, and others in $1.72 billion deal

🇬🇧 CapVest buys UK-based SaaS ERP Kerridge Commercial Systems from Accel-KKR in $1 billion deal

🇩🇪 German autonomous driving tech provider ASAP Group acquired in $280 million deal.

🇪🇸 Randstad buys CTC from Portobello for €80 million.

🇮🇹 eBay acquires Milan-based Certiligo, an AI-powered authenticity verification service for products.

🚀 Interesting moves from investors

🇩🇰 CIP raises €5.6 billion to become the world’s largest dedicated greenfield renewable energy fund

🇺🇳 NATO launches €1 billion fund to finance innovative defense-related projects.

🇫🇷 Épopée Gestion launches a €100 million fund for low-carbon infrastructure.

🇧🇪 Belgium’s Amavi Captial acquires Sweden’s SF Ventures, doubles proptech portfolio.

🇪🇸 Madrid-based ONYZE closes Europe’s first decentralised finance investment fund.

🗞️ In other (important) news

🇬🇧 Snoop founder Gadhia in talks to sell money-saving app to Vanquis.

🇪🇺 Europe greenlights Broadcom’s $61 billion VMware acquisition.

🇬🇧 London fintech Monzo preparing merger deal with Nordic rival Lunar.

🇬🇧 Elon Musk’s Tesla poised to launch British household electricity supplier.

🇪🇺 EU seals new US data transfer pact, but challenge likely.

🇬🇧 UK startups and scaleups set for £50 billion funding injection after pension reforms.

🇪🇺 Google launches generative AI model Bard in Europe.

🇬🇧 The Bank of London formally submits application for EU banking licence.

🇬🇧 UK Government to set up Digital Securities Sandbox.

🇪🇺 EC and EIB to establish HERA Invest, a health fund specifically targeting emergency preparedness.

📡 Recommended reads and listens

🌍 Dealroom's global venture capital – Q2 2023 wrap up.

🇪🇺 Meet the startups leading the way in circular design and sustainable innovation.

🇫🇷 The French tech ecosystem, an H1 2023 report.

🇪🇺 A VC perspective on the State of Insurtech Europe as of H1 2023

🇫🇷 Sweeping reforms aim to make French research system stronger.

🇪🇺 We’re going down a very dangerous path with AI regulation, despite better options.

🇪🇺 EIT Urban Mobility unveils 86 start-ups selected to participate in the seven accelerators and scaleup programmes.

🇬🇧 UK fintech funding slumps in first half of 2023.

🇧🇪 Cowboy responds to the VanMoof situation with Bikey, an app to keep the VanMoof community riding.

🧜‍♀️ Behind Europe’s agenda for undersea internet cables.

🔭 European tech startups to watch

🇬🇧 Brill Power unveils game-changing tech for large scale battery operations.

🇬🇧 Helping scientists untangle the yarn that is disease biology, Causaly brings home another $60 million in a Series B funding round.

🇫🇷 French plastic recycling robotics company b:bot raises €20 million to double its robot network and accelerate international expansion.

🇫🇷 Non-refundable travel tickets get a second life as Fairlyne raises $3 million

🇳🇱 TNO spinout FononTech aims to scale micro-electronic parts printing technology via €2.3 million investment.