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Today in European Tech: Wolt woos investors for $530 million round, fashion e-tailers Boohoo and ASOS make expansion moves, and more

Robin Wauters 25 January 2021
Today in European Tech: Wolt woos investors for $530 million round, fashion e-tailers Boohoo and ASOS make expansion moves, and more
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Hello! Below, you can find out what happened today in European Tech.

But before you do: are you, or do you know someone, who can help us keep track of these things? We're hiring a tech journalist/news editor to expand our team and coverage.

Also, we just released our latest report on the State of European Fintech - download it free of charge now.

Deals

- Finnish food delivery juggernaut Wolt has raised $530 million in fresh funding to boost its growth. The round, which takes its total raised to a hefty $856 million, was led by ICONIQ Growth with Tiger Global, DST, KKR, Prosus, EQT Growth and Coatue joining as new investors.

- German used-car trading platform AUTO1 set a range of between €32 and €38 per share for its IPO, implying that its Frankfurt flotation will raise at least €1.5 billion.

- Investment firm The Carlyle Group has acquired RuneScape publisher Jagex for at least $530 million. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Daily Telegraph reported the deal was worth at least $530 million, which was the price paid in the previous transaction in 2020.

- British online fashion retailers Boohoo and ASOS have made major expansion moves today, with the former buying the Debenhams brand and the latter in talks to buy the key brands of Philip Green’s collapsed Arcadia group.

- Israeli B2B payments platform Melio has completed a $110 million financing round, led by Coatue at a valuation of $1.335 billion.

- Octopus Ventures is looking to launch a new £100 million institutional global fund to take advantage of the health tech market opportunity, in particular the opportunity to transform public healthcare systems across Europe and the emerging markets.

- Israeli-founded digital advertising platform Taboola is on its way to the New York Stock Exchange, with a person familiar with the move telling Calcalist that it has signed a deal to merge with ION Asset Managment’s SPAC.

- Israeli software startup Glassbox is joining other tech companies who are planning on going public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. It was revealed to Calcalist that Glassbox will attempt to raise $100 million at a valuation of over $400 million.

- Israeli automated industrial and security drones developer Airobotics is taking advantage of the stock exchange tech boom to raise $50 million in an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange at a valuation of about $240 million.

- Alma, the French fintech offering installment and deferred payment solutions for merchants and consumers, has closed a €49 million Series B financing round with Idinvest and Cathay Innovation.

- Sigma Software Group, a Swedish software development and IT consulting company, has announced the acquisition of IdeaSoft, the Ukrainian IT company that delivers integrated software solutions.

- Riverlane, a spin-out company from the University of Cambridge that develops software and algorithms for quantum computers, has raised $20 million in Series A funding.

- Darmstadt, Germany-based Wingcopter, a startup that develops and sells transport drones for humanitarian and civil applications, has raised $22 million in its Series A round of funding to advance technology leadership in drone delivery.

- 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 Reading/Knowing

- Italian consumer association Altroconsumo said on Monday it had told Apple it has launched a class action against the company for the practice of planned obsolescence. In a statement Altroconsumo said it was asking for damages of €60 million on behalf of Italian consumers tricked by the practice.

- The United States is leading rivals in development and use of artificial intelligence while China is rising quickly and the European Union is lagging, a new research report shows.

- After a decade of fierce rivalry with China's technology giant Huawei, Europe's telecoms equipment champions Nokia and Ericsson could soon face myriad new competitors to contend with.

- Bolt, the Baltic-born mobility platform, is launching Bolt Franchise to bring its urban transport and delivery services to new parts of the world. The new programme aims to expand outside the company’s core markets in Europe and Africa, to regions like Latin America and Asia.

- What Firstminute Capital looks for in tech entrepreneurs.

- Venture capital funds have joined forces with Baltic and Nordic universities, including Riga Technical University and University of Latvia to launch a unique investment readiness day for deep tech teams called Science Base Camp.

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Today in European Tech: Wolt woos investors for $530 million round, fashion e-tailers Boohoo and ASOS make expansion moves, and more
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