Happy Friday!
This week, our research team tracked 110+ deals funding deals worth more than €2.9 billion in aggregate, as well as 20+ exit deals across Europe, including Russia, Israel, and Turkey.
As always, we are putting all of them together for you in a handy list sent in our round-up newsletter (note: the full list is for paying customers only).
Recently, we also started publishing 'Today in European Tech', a daily round-up of deals and news stories that caught our attention. Keeping you updated on all things EU tech is our priority!
Today, instead of a daily round-up we give you an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for the past week (subscribe to our free newsletter to get this round-up in your inbox every Monday morning).
1) Visa takes over Sweden's Tink for €1.8 billion
Payments giant Visa has announced a definitive agreement to purchase Stockholm’s open banking platform Tink for €1.8 billion, including cash and retention incentives.
We are thrilled to announce Visa is acquiring Tink. This is the beginning of a new chapter for open banking. We couldn’t be more excited about what this means for our employees, our customers and the future of finance: https://t.co/X01ZxS9fwx pic.twitter.com/iu9PkrW0FA
— Tink (@tink) June 24, 2021
2) Mucho money for Mollie
Mollie, an Amsterdam-based startup that provides a way for businesses to integrate payments into sites, documents and other services by way of an API, has raised €665 million in an all-equity round that values the company at €5.4 billion.
Congrats to the @MolliePayments team! Landmark deal and good for the NL #fintech scene. #funding #payments https://t.co/VJyILrGAp5
— Matthijs Koorn (@KoornMatthijs) June 22, 2021
3) Forto scores $240 million in growth funding
Berlin-based digital freight forwarding and supply chain solutions provider Forto has raised a hefty $240 million. With this round, Forto now weighs in at a $1.2 billion valuation.
Congrats to the entire Forto crew, especially @themikewax, @Michi1814, @erikmuttersbach! From Europe to the world. You are heroes. ⛴️ https://t.co/jFHA7P05us
— Chris Steinau (@chrissteinau) June 21, 2021
4) Edtech firm GoStudent raises monster round to scale up
SoftBank, Tencent and other leading investors are betting that the next big online education company will come out of Europe. Vienna-based online tutoring startup GoStudent has raised €205 million in a bumper investment round that values the five-year-old firm at €1.4 billion.
Vienna-based @GoStudent1 raises $244M at a $1.7B for global expansion! https://t.co/YbwFTPy4xk
Congrats @FelixOhswald !— Andreas Klinger (@andreasklinger) June 22, 2021
5) EA buys UK gaming studio Playdemic in £1 billion deal
Videogame giant Electronic Arts has swooped for Cheshire, UK-headquartered Playdemic in a £1 billion deal. Playdemic, founded in 2010 and led by CEO Paul Gouge, is the studio behind hit mobile game Golf Clash.
EA says it will buy Warner Bros. Games' Playdemic mobile games studio, known for one of the top mobile games "Golf Clash", for $1.4B in cash (@xpangler / Variety)https://t.co/Xq2sGaUMSAhttps://t.co/wEyb5dYxAN
— Techmeme (@Techmeme) June 23, 2021
6) EU opens probe into Google's adtech business
Google was in the EU antitrust spotlight again on Tuesday as regulators opened an investigation into whether its digital advertising business gives the Alphabet unit an unfair advantage over rivals and advertisers.
Google could face yet another multi-billion-euro fine from the EU Commission.
After fining the tech giant €8 billion over its search, mobile and search advertising services, Brussels now looks into its adtech business.
https://t.co/e1y3aGUEHe— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) June 24, 2021
7) When rivals merge: Raisin and Deposit Solutions become one
Two of Germany's largest fintech scale-ups, Raisin and Deposit Solutions, are merging into a new pan-European group called Raisin DS. The combined entity made up of the two firmer rivals will be headquartered in Berlin and will have around 400 banking partners as well as over 500 employees.
8) Aircall dials up $120 million in fresh funding
French cloud-based phone system and call centre platform Aircall has raised $120 million and now sits at a valuation of over $1 billion.
Today, @Aircall raises $120m Series D funding & officially becoming a unicorn!
Congrats to @Olivierpailhes @JonathanAngv @pbechu @xavedurand & the whole team.
A special moment for us too as we welcome our very first eFounders unicorn ✨
⬇️https://t.co/NZ3Raa7Ztv— eFounders (@efounders) June 23, 2021
9) Call for a ban on facial recognition tech in public spaces
Europe's two privacy watchdogs teamed up to call for a ban on the use of facial recognition in public spaces, going against draft European Union rules which would allow the technology to be used for public security reasons.
Europe’s privacy regulators call for a ban on facial recognition in publicly accessible spaces https://t.co/OjU8Eq6eIY
— David Meyer (@superglaze) June 21, 2021
10) Germany launches antitrust probe against Apple
Germany’s competition authority, the FCO, has completed its Big Tech GAFA ‘bingo’ card by opening a proceeding against Apple. As with similar investigations already opened this year — into Amazon, Facebook and Google — the proceeding will determine whether or not the iPhone maker meets the threshold of Germany’s updated competition law.
Apple became the fourth Big Tech target for Germany’s Federal Cartel Office https://t.co/gEQzcpoGyE
— Bloomberg (@business) June 21, 2021
Podcast(s):
Patient capital in European healthtech, with Fiona Pathiraja, Crista Galli Ventures.
Bonus link(s):
- The European Union will invest nearly €9 billion in European space programs over the period of 2021 to 2027, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
- A ruling by Europe’s top court has shed some light on the conditions under which content-sharing platforms are exempted from responsibility for copyright infringements, with potentially far-reaching implications for the EU’s Copyright Directive and the Digital Services Act.
- Google's YouTube won its latest copyright-infringement challenge after Europe's top court said online platforms are not liable for users uploading unauthorised works unless the platforms failed to take quick action to remove or block access to the content.
- The European Commission laid out its vision for a Joint Cyber Unit to tackle evolving cyberthreats and to increase European resilience.
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