This Week in European Tech: Quantexa scores $129 million, Nestlé buys big into Munich’s Yfood, Paris bans e-scooters, Acorns buys GoHenry, and more
This week, our research team tracked more than 85 tech funding deals worth over €761 million, and 10+ exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.
As always, we are putting all weekly deals together for you in a list sent in our round-up newsletter (note: the full list is for paying customers only, and also comes in the form of a handy downloadable spreadsheet).
And don’t forget: we’re busy prepping for the next Tech.eu Summit, it’s gonna be epic!
Still on the fence? Check out our confirmed speaker line-up! And the 10 latest additions fyi.
Two tickets, a space at the venue to demo your wares, and a chance to present your company on our prestigious Startup Stage? Here’s how you can put forward your startup at the next Tech.eu Summit!
With that said, let’s get down to business with the biggest European tech news items for the past couple of days (subscribe to our free newsletter to get this round-up in your inbox).
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>> Notable and big funding rounds
London-based Travelport, a company that provides travel bookings for travel suppliers worldwide, has secured $200 million in funding.
UK-based Decision Intelligence (DI) solutions firm Quantexa has announced it has completed a $129 million Series E funding round with a $1.8 billion valuation.
London-based TerraPay has closed its Series B equity financing round, raising in excess of $100 million in equity and debt financing, funding its proposed expansion further into LATAM and MENA regions.
Swedish fintech company Trustly was revealed to have raised close to €90 million at a reduced valuation.
Amsterdam-based fintech player Fourthline has raised €50 million in a new funding round that will see the company ramp up operations, ultimately seeking to become “the undisputed tech platform of choice to alleviate the compliance burden for European regulated institutions.”
Stockholm-based electric boat maker X Shore has raised another €26.6 million in a new funding round that sets a course to continue scaling its in-house production and accelerate US market growth.
Munich-based AMSilk has raised an additional €25 million in its Series C round, bringing the round total to €54 million.
Founded by three former BMW digital product specialists, Munich-based 4.screen has raised €21 million in a Series A funding round.
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>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals
Nestle, the food and drink behemoth, has acquired 49.95% of Munich-based Yfood’s shares.
American micro-investing platform Acorns has acquired GoHenry, a UK-based digital banking startup focused on educating kids about money, for an undisclosed sum.
Tandem Bank has acquired money-sharing app Loop Money for an undisclosed figure.
The German-based multilingual tool LanguageTool has been acquired by US headquartered business tools platform Learneo. Financial details have not been disclosed.
London/Glasgow-based Phlo has acquired the UK arm of Hayward, California-based API-connected healthcare infrastructure provider Truepill for an undisclosed sum.
Automotive MediaVentions, a Dutch online car market and parent company of GasPedal.nl, AutoTrack, and AutoWereld, announced on Monday that it has acquired Utrecht-based online car platform Bynco from AutoBinck Group.
Aachen-based cybersecurity and compliance solutions platform Utimaco has acquired IT security solutions firm conpal.
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>> Interesting moves from investors
A decade after starting Hoxton Ventures, Rob Kniaz is pursuing a massive opportunity he spotted in European tech by starting a specialist fund called H Tree Capital for early-stage startups on the intersection of deep tech and bio, together with life sciences expert Vanela Bushi.
Future Food Fund, a Dutch specialist food and agri venture capital fund, announced the first close of its second fund, FFF II, at €20 million.
Dr. Ulrich Schmitt (37) has been appointed a new Partner at High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), one of Europe’s leading seed investors.
Ascend Capital Partners (Ascend), a female-led venture capital firm based in Luxembourg, has been making waves.
Eindhoven-based Round One Ventures, a VC fund that invests in promising student startups, announced that it has received investment from the VDL Group.
Eight universities from the UK’s Midlands have launched a new investment firm to help spinouts in the region commercialise ideas born out of academia.
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>> In other (important) news
Parisians have voted to ban rental electric scooters in their city, dealing a blow to scooter operators and a triumph for road safety campaigners.
Germany’s antitrust regulator has opened the door for measures to curb Apple after deciding that the US tech giant’s market dominance makes it worthy of such measures
Italy’s move to temporarily ban ChatGPT has inspired other European countries to study if harsher measures are needed to rein in the wildly popular chatbots and whether to coordinate such actions.
Spotify is shutting down its live-audio app Spotify Live, but says it will continue experimenting with live features in its main service.
Amazon is set to shutter Book Depository, a UK-based online bookstore and competitor it acquired back in 2011.
Southern Britain is set for a major public rollout of electric-vehicle charging stations as officials seek to help consumers ditch combustion engines.
Mind the gap: Revolut’s mean gender pay differential increases.
An Abu Dhabi-listed energy company is in advanced talks to provide financial backing to Xlinks, a British-based startup hoping to build the world’s longest undersea cable to help meet future UK energy needs.
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>> Recommended reads and listens
Q1 2023 marked a significant drop in investments compared to the same period in the last two years. And this is just one piece of a not-so-promising puzzle that is the European tech ecosystem.
After spearheading the Not Optional campaign, Index Ventures has run the numbers and finds the UK now ahead of the US, France, and Germany in terms of stock option treatment.
Regulating the machine: Europe’s race to get to grips with AI drugs
March 2023 in European Tech: Deals, exits and some tentatively good news! (?)
“Letter: Why Europe has an army of start-ups on the cusp of scalability“
Tech Tour, with a selection panel of over 90 of the most active international VCs and growth funds, joined forces to vote for Europe’s next unicorns in health, sustainability, and digital tech.
How AI is helping proptech overtake fintech investment and green the Built World
As the UK prepares to overhaul its competition regime, a fierce lobbying battle has broken out between the world’s largest tech companies and their challengers.
What’s an underpaid tech pro to do? In this climate, pivot, and pivot quickly to a higher-paying tech role that’ll offer more security in the long run.
Shifting roles, shifting priorities: Will legaltech continue its surge in 2023?
European gamers spend less time playing games than the rest of the world
European standards and the AI Act
Despite the difficult financial conditions faced in the country, the number of UK startups launched last year increased by 4.5%, according to research.
Gone are the days of hype-based startup funding. The Zendesk for Startups program helps startups build a foundation for lasting customer relationships to increase customer retention and, ultimately, profits.
Here’s how Generative AI imagines ‘European Tech’
Sunak’s Crypto Plans Are Hit by Reluctant UK Banks
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>> European tech startups to watch
Silo AI is one of Europe’s largest private AI labs, building AI-driven solutions and products to enable smart devices, autonomous vehicles, industry 4.0, and smart cities. This week it announced SiloGen, a large-scale initiative on generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs).
Starship Technologies, the Estonia-born provider of autonomous delivery services, announced that its robots having now passed the 10 million km mark in terms of distance travelled around the world.
Sweden’s STILRIDE has revealed the price and final designed of its electric motorcycle.
Having gone quietly and not-so-quietly about its business of servicing customers for close to a decade now, Europe’s second-largest neobank, bunq is now eyeing the US market and has filed an application for a US banking license with the FDIC in the state of New York.
Teton raised $5.3 million to build AI support for nurses.
Darmstadt-based climate tech startup Magnotherm has closed a €5 million seed round to mass produce its first sustainable refrigerator.
Finnish med-tech CurifyLabs has been awarded a grant of €2.5 million from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator programme to further its MiniLab technology.
University of Leeds spin-out LC AuxeTec is creating a material that thickens and is raising a £2 million Seed round to commercialise it.
From humble beginnings in the Greek seaside town of Xylokastro, Velos Rotors’ Seed investment round from Marathon Venture Capital will help the company meet the market demand for its robust drone offering.
