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Today in European Tech: Epidemic Sound scores $450 million, EU struggles to build antitrust case against Amazon, and more

Robin Wauters 11 March 2021
Today in European Tech: Epidemic Sound scores $450 million, EU struggles to build antitrust case against Amazon, and more
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Hello!

Here's what happened today in European Tech.

Deals

- Epidemic Sound, a Sweden-based marketplace for 'background music', has raised $450 million from Blackstone Group and EQT Growth, an equity round that values Epidemic Sound at $1.4 billion.

- The valuation of one of Britain's most prominent digital banks, Atom Bank, is about to halve, underlining the challenges facing new lenders in an era of ultra-low interest rates.

- In a move to expand their capabilities in analytics-driven transformation and workplace cultures, global giant Accenture has acquired Germany-based consulting firm fable+.

- London-based braintech startup HelloSelf has raised £5.5 million in a Series-A funding round powered by OMERS Ventures.

- Mons, Belgium-based Faqbot has been acquired by cloud communications solutions provider Destiny. Financial details were not disclosed.

- Finnish SaaS startup Cambri has recently raised €3.6 million in Series-A round led jointly by OpenOcean and Spintop Ventures.

- 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

- Spain’s government has reached an agreement with trade unions and business associations over labor reforms that will see delivery platform couriers recognised as employees.

- European regulators are struggling to build a case with enough evidence to bring antitrust charges against tech giant Amazon.

- For the last two years police and Internet companies across the UK have been quietly building and testing surveillance technology that could log and store the web browsing of every single person in the country.

- Nokia has struck a deal with Samsung to license patents covering its innovations in video standards, the Finnish telecom company announced today.

- Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of (Transfer)Wise and Teleport founder Sten Tamkivi have joined forces to launch a new investment firm. Hinrikus and Tamkivi intend their new firm to have a strong mission-driven influence on the European tech scene for decades to come.

- In an email to French and Spanish advertisers last week, Google announced a 3% increase in advertising rates on its platform from May, to cover what has been termed the ‘GAFA tax’ in force in both countries.

- A new open-source initiative called OpenVC wants to get out ahead of the curve by offering an online platform where VCs can display their investment criteria – things like preferred geography, technology stack, sector, stage, check size, etc.

- EU negotiators want an ‘absolute guarantee’ that personal data transferred to the US will not be subject to ‘mass surveillance,’ as part of ongoing talks on a new EU-US data transfer mechanism, according to the European Commission’s vice-president for values and transparency, Věra Jourová.

- The software facet of supercomputing, and the promise of RISC-V and open hardware.

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Today in European Tech: Epidemic Sound scores $450 million, EU struggles to build antitrust case against Amazon, and more
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