Hello!
Here is what happened today in European tech:
Deals
- Israeli cybersecurity startup Toka has raised a $25 million Series B funding round. Globes describes the company's activities as developing “cutting-edge and lawful intelligence-gathering platforms and products and advise governments on building an integrated cyber defense.”
- London-based startup Anything World has raised £500,000 in pre-seed funding and launched the public beta version of its deep tech platform, which lets users speak their 3D worlds into (digital) existence. Warner Music led the investment.
- Munich-based VC firm EMH Partners has closed a €650 million fund. The Fund II almost doubles in size the previous fund, which was closed in 2017 at over €350 million. The fund will be focused on high-growth companies working in the DACH region — that is, in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
- Healthtech gamification platform Sidekick Health has landed $20 million in funding led by Wellington Partners and Asabys Partners. The startup's product helps manage chronic and lifestyle diseases “via digital nudges from a helmet-wearing cartoon helper,” TechCrunch reports.
- Streetbees, a London-based consumer behaviour analytics startup, has raised $40 million from Lakestar, LocalGlobe, Atomico, GMG Ventures, and Octopus Ventures. The company has over 3.5 million consumers around the world using an app on their phones to fill out on-the-spot surveys about brands. (The website says Streetbees pays up to £5 per entry.) The data is then analysed by the company's AI algorithms and sold to the relevant brands.
- Amsterdam-born secure communications startup Zivver has secured a $17 million funding round led by DN Capital. The platform is designed so that organisations, especially those in regulated industries such as government, law and healthcare, can communicate securely — namely through email data protection and secure file transfer. Thanks to the new funding, Zivver plans to add in other features like digital signatures, secure forms and secure video.
- Apple has apparently acquired Barcelona-based startup Vilynx for about $50 million, Bloomberg reports. The startup's technology is essentially an AI engine that analyses the visual, audio, and textual content of a video to “understand” what it shows and assign relevant tags, making the video searchable.
- We also tracked a large number of (other) European tech funding rounds and M&A transactions, all of which we are putting in a handy list for you on Friday afternoon in our weekly roundup newsletter (note: the full list is for paying customers only). Also check out our European tech news section for ongoing coverage.
Worth Knowing
- Delivery Hero has released its Q3 report, which looks pretty good for the the company. Its orders have doubled year-on-year to reach 362 million, and so did its revenue, which grew 99 percent to €776 million. Following the report, Delivery Hero's share price on the Frankfurt bourse went up 5 percent, while the overall DAX index was down 3 percent.
- Israeli-born Monday.com is preparing for a $4 billion IPO on Nasdaq in the first half of 2021. Calcalist reports that Monday.com is already lining up meetings with international investment banks, although the company's board is yet to give its final approval for the move.
- While Starling Bank's founder Anne Boden is finishing her autobiographical book, you can read a recap of the events that had led to the multi-year “brutal” rivalry between Starling and Monzo.
- Yesterday we talked about Sweden being “on the verge of of another tech revolution,” today it's France's turn to boast. Read more about the country's strategy to attract businesses and “overtake London after Brexit.”
- Not all at once! Italy's antitrust authority is investigating Google for alleged abuse of its dominant position in the Italian online display advertising market.
- This one has nothing to do with tech per se, but shows a good way of thinking about investing: “BrewDog Crowdfund: A Scam for Punks?”
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