Hello!
Here's what happened today in European Tech.
Deals
- Japan’s SoftBank has acquired a 40% minority stake in Norwegian robotics and software firm AutoStore for $2.8 billion. With the purchase, AutoStore now has a $7.7 billion market value.
- Paris-based AXA Venture Partners (AVP) has completed a €250 million first closing of its new AVP Growth Fund II. By year’s end, the final closing is expected to bring in €500 million.
- European private equity fund EMK Capital has acquired Israeli motorcycle Bluetooth communications headset developer Cardo Systems for a reported $150 million.
- Based out of Brighton, MPB is an online reseller platform for used photography and videography equipment. The UK company has raised £49.8 million in funding in a Series D round, led by Vitruvian Partners with participation from current investor Acton Capital.
- Creades has invested about €36 million in Swedish price comparison service Pricerunner for a 12% stake.
- Israeli startup Empathy has raised $13 million in a seed round to launch its app for minimizing burdens after losing a loved one.
- 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
- We dove into our database to capture all the funding deals — as well as IPOs and M&A — that minted new European unicorns in the first three months of 2021. To make things easier, we counted all startups whose valuation surpassed one billion US dollars, euros, or pounds — and found 27 of them!
- Turns out a range of EU institutions including the European Commission were hit by a significant cyber-attack last week.
- Facebook’s acquisition of customer service startup Kustomer may be subjected to European Union antitrust scrutiny after Austria asked EU enforcers to take over the task, the European Commission said today.
- How foreign investors are tapping in to Germany's late-stage VC boom.
- Deliveroo's IPO - Building a European Food Delivery Giant (Part I)
- Israeli fintech company eToro announced the appointment of Dr. Hedva Ber as Deputy CEO and Global Chief Operating Officer.
- The UK government, under pressure from science advocates, has promised an extra €250 million to help pay for the country’s association with Horizon Europe, the EU’s seven-year funding programme for research and innovation.
Today's Top Tweets
📆 There's a reason why the 2008 crisis heralded giants like @Spotify, @Airbnb, @Zoom: entrepreneurs thrive during uncertain times
Next week, we're diving into opportunities for growth with @eilerth (Kahoot) @marccabi (Zendesk), Neira Hajro (McKinsey) 👇https://t.co/3Sao5RsdAp pic.twitter.com/kyqDyprboV— Northzone (@northzoneVC) April 6, 2021
We've got 2 very special judges & media partners on board at #TheEuropas 21 - Amazing journo #founders @robinwauters of @tech_eu + @ardakutsal of @webrazzi.
Founders get your hard work recognised by these tech media legends: https://t.co/ysO74eTzfA
Deadline TODAY 6 April 23:59 pic.twitter.com/WyIGGyFJCW— The Europas (@TheEuropas) April 6, 2021
👉🏽 #Europe is lookin' good...👀 #data via @tech_eu ⬇️
Congrats to our portco, @sennderofficial, for their mention in this 🦄 roundup. Keep on truckin'
cc @HeilemannFabian @JuliusRuessmann https://t.co/QOqe8OThg2— Earlybird VC (@EarlybirdVC) April 6, 2021
Our newest episode is with Elena Mazhuha from Genesis Investments!
We discuss:
💲 Genesis' origins and their investment thesis
🎓 How Elena’s journey into VC started from attending lecture
💼 Being a 1st employee at a VC fund
🔊: https://t.co/fai7T90FjD pic.twitter.com/l3hDI0Qgte— Associated (@associated_pod) April 6, 2021
92% of VCs say they offer value beyond capital; founders reply, "mmm yeah no" https://t.co/6VhYuT2ho9
— Nordic Quantum Computing Group (@NQCG) April 4, 2021
Innovate Finance is now looking for a new permanent CEO - quite a big time for someone to get involved https://t.co/yzNhoCUP1P
— James Cook (@JamesLiamCook) April 6, 2021
🚨We're partnering with @Landscape_vc to bring you an insightful discussion on raising a Pre-Seed/Seed round in today's new world.
Find out more below👇 https://t.co/GZl187FgHI— Tech Nation (@TechNation) April 6, 2021
We caught up with our CTO Sara Brodin about the importance of role models and flexibility when developing a tech career. As well as what makes EyeEm’s tech stack so unique → https://t.co/K3ajdvToAj pic.twitter.com/th2luBHhtK
— EyeEm (@EyeEm) April 6, 2021
CEE report: #women -founded companies significantly outperform men-founded companies - https://t.co/uXE5fb1zsa: Gender diversity has to be a priority but not for the future, we need to act now. @WeXchange @WeInvest4 https://t.co/ylyqXkvu6H
— marta cruz (@marta_cruz) April 6, 2021
🇪🇪 The Estonian government has approved a legal basis for establishing a database for an automated biometric identification system (there are several already in the country). The new system, ABIS, will be centralised and used for internal security: https://t.co/FberSdDz6l
— Samuel Stolton (@SamuelStolton) April 6, 2021
📣 Scale up your deep tech business with #EITDigitalChallenge - apply in one of the five focus areas: Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital Wellbeing, Digital Finance, Digital Tech.
Submit your application by 10 May!https://t.co/9GWEmQJe4D pic.twitter.com/jviO4QiHKq— tech.eu (@tech_eu) April 6, 2021
👩💻 Cool survey by @domjacquesson on whether Europe's startups will return to offices after covid?
✍️ The results are relatively aligned with what I am seeing in our portfolio 👇 pic.twitter.com/xD5JdImuxB— Yannick Oswald 📲 (@yannickoswald) April 6, 2021
We have reinvested in @LiveEO_space. In total, Daniel and Sven raise 5.25 million euros in a Series A. Congrats guys. Keep on rockin'.https://t.co/8wm6BIUtJh
— Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures (@DvHVentures) April 6, 2021
⏲️ 24h online event
🌍 6 #EU countries
👥 Teams of 6
🏆 Only 10 teams in final
⌨️ One word: #coding!
🤓 Ready to hack your city?
Take part in the #CodeWeek Hackathons.
✨ The new coding experience by @CodeWeekEU ➡️ https://t.co/PqishfnWPy#DigitalEU pic.twitter.com/qA4O0RzDTg— Digital EU 🇪🇺 (@DigitalEU) April 6, 2021
That would be 18 new unicorns in Europe in three months, if you exclude Israel but include UK and Switzerland.
12 new unicorns in Q1 2021 if you only count EU27 countries: 7 via big funding rounds (incl. 1 through an accelerated bookbuild offering), 3 IPOs and 2 acquisitions. https://t.co/u4xD6WjJOk— Robin Wauters @ tech.eu (@robinwauters) April 6, 2021
US section 301 tariffs against Austria, Italy, UK, Spain in response to their digital services taxes.
Ok, then...https://t.co/hdvk015ZAv— Rem Korteweg (@remkorteweg) April 6, 2021
👋 Hey, female founders & CEOs! @VivaTech has just launched its Female Founder Challenge in partnership with @50inTech.
💡 Learn more here: https://t.co/nGdtTt7327
🔔 Applications are now open until April 18, 2021 pic.twitter.com/ubnoZfL5zu— Startup Sesame (@startupsesame) April 6, 2021
French minister Marlène Schiappa met with Airbnb, Booking, Expedia etc today to talk about clandestine parties and how to develop new tools to flag them to the authorities.
— Laura Kayali (@LauKaya) April 6, 2021
NEW: Ocado, Just Eat Takeaway, HelloFresh and Delivery Hero are all trading down today. I asked some analysts at AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown to explain what's going on and where the stocks are headed https://t.co/Mn4vaStWgs
— Sam Shead (@Sam_L_Shead) April 6, 2021
📣 @Luxinnovation invites tech startups from around the world to join its ‘Fit 4 Start’ acceleration programme!🚀
Read more: https://t.co/nTFXxCPMDj
Apply now: https://t.co/u9AtCcUEtT
#ICT #space #startups #Fit4Start #Luxembourg pic.twitter.com/AS2q2rfY27— tech.eu (@tech_eu) April 6, 2021
Last year was a busy one for our Fintech partner @vinothj.
Connecting all his investments is the belief that fintech should work to empower everyone to have more control of their financial future. https://t.co/Hft0gwJatx— James Clark 📈📉¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (@mr_james_c) April 6, 2021
Ecommerce in DACH region surpasses 100 billion euros - https://t.co/a8UM7qZnT4
— Ecommerce News (@EcommercenewsEU) April 6, 2021
We are delighted to announce the launch of our new website https://t.co/ZbN2K8DEi3 🚀
You can learn lots about our work and collaborations to promote founders and the sector
Thanks, @LukeRynneCullen for all his hard work#ScaleIrelandStartups pic.twitter.com/qpCo48mUmK— Scale Ireland (@ScaleIreland) April 6, 2021
Tell us what you think about this daily roundup and how we can improve it!
And follow us on Twitter of course.
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments