Hello!
Below, you can find out what happened today in European Tech.
Deals
- Romania-born UiPath has raised $750 million in a funding round that values the automation software maker at $35 billion. The round was led by Alkeon Capital and Coatue.
- British private equity firm Vitruvian Partners has acquired a majority stake in Amsterdam-based IT company Expereo from Apax Partners for an undisclosed sum. The deal is reported to have doubled the value of the company to €750 million.
- UK-based ASOS has agreed to buy Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge - but their 70 stores, employing 2,500 people, are not included in the deal. The online retailer is paying a total of £330 million for the brands.
- Israeli software company Otonomo, which has developed a platform for managing automotive data, is in the process of merging with a SPAC that raised $172.5 million in a Nasdaq IPO last September.
- Israeli venture capital firm FinTLV has raised $120 million for a new fund investing in global growth-stage insurance and financial technology companies.
- US company Rapid7 is buying Israeli startup Alcide IO, developer of a security and control platform for Kubernetes-based cloud infrastructures, for $50 million.
- Spain-based EV charging solutions provider Wallbox has closed a €33 million financing round to help it enter new markets. The company also recently acquired Electromaps to help it scale up.
- German private equity firm BID Equity has acquired Paris, France-based Carenity, the developer of a social platform supporting 500,000 patients and caregivers worldwide.
- 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
- EU antitrust enforcers have claimed a court made legal errors when it scrapped their order for iPhone maker Apple to pay €13 billion in Irish back taxes, in a filing to have the verdict overturned.
- After raising a record $10 billion in 2020, Israeli tech startups have begun 2021 with more capital raised ($1.2 billion) than in any single month before.
- Fintech Trends: What to Expect in 2021 (a research report from Digital Horizon)
- ‘Buy now, pay later’ firms such as Klarna will face tighter regulation from the City watchdog following a review of the unsecured credit market. Sky News has learnt a report to be published on Tuesday by the former Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) interim chief executive Chris Woolard will recommend that the sector be formally brought under the regulator's scrutiny.
- 'I suffered anxiety': Monzo founder Tom Blomfield on the pressures of running a digital bank.
- A new working paper from the European Investment Fund says EIF VC-invested startups "were about three times more likely to participate in an M&A deal or experience an IPO than their non-VC invested counterfactuals.”
- How Yubo, one of the hottest consumer startups to come out of France, became an international hit.
- Three Swiss venture-backed startups launched IPOs in 2020, none of them in their home country. In this interview, small and mid-cap IPO specialist Leti McManus explains why there aren't more tech IPOs in Switzerland and what is needed to change this.
- UK fintech startup Zilch wants to flip the dynamic on ‘buy now, pay later’.
Today's Top Tweets
Personally, I’ve always found “focus” to be one of the most difficult things about building a company. (So hard to say “no” to all of those interesting new opportunities!!) @HarryStebbings and I had a great chat about it :) https://t.co/CgKv5PoAf3
— Ilkka Paananen (@ipaananen) February 1, 2021
A bunch of tech people have joined a consortium of investors buying anti-Brexit newspaper The New European. Among them: TransferWise's @taavet, LocalGlobe's @cape & @robinklein and a fmr Balderton/Benchmark VC https://t.co/B4JDDkAuMb
— Ryan Browne (@Ryan_Browne_) February 1, 2021
Always be your own customers! Alongside some great brands, excited about @_ThanksBen adding to team happiness! https://t.co/0RmTCKa3hL
— Reshma Sohoni (@rsohoni) February 1, 2021
🔔 Join me for the launch of Horizon Europe tomorrow!
Together with Manuel Heitor, 🇵🇹 Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, we will present the new #HorizonEU programme.
⏰ 11:30 CET
👉 https://t.co/HWD5lC6OpE
📽 https://t.co/xFraVXA2ZI@2021PortugalEU #EU2021PT pic.twitter.com/Mh7SYAc2wn— Mariya Gabriel (@GabrielMariya) February 1, 2021
Good luck with #London #UK expansion for @marion_teder and her team. In-home personal care is a growing need in all European countries which aging population. #homecare #healthtech #healthcare https://t.co/Ngye2r2Rcv
— Martin Villig 🇪🇪 (@waldec) February 1, 2021
Road safety in Europe is about to take a major leap forward with this new initiative that collects and shares the data from millions of cars and roads. #HERE360 #DataForRoadSafetyhttps://t.co/ZWAlQZ6Zwz
— HERE Technologies (@here) January 31, 2021
#HorizonEU news:
👉 @CDTIoficial invests €38 million in 50 corporate research projects.
👉 Horizon 2020 €1 billion green deal call receives 1550 proposals.
👉 EU cohesion money to fund €61 million revamp of Croatian research institute @institutrb.
➡️ https://t.co/6cepp7juBV pic.twitter.com/qhhJ17bvs0— Science|Business (@scibus) February 1, 2021
We sat with down with @sfallert, co-founder of @_ThanksBen to discuss:
- His time as an Expert in Residence with us 🌱
- Why @davidduckworth_ is the perfect person to build with 🤝
- Their plans for the future 🚀
Check out what he had to say below 👇https://t.co/VkYWNKeF03— seedcamp (@seedcamp) February 1, 2021
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