This Week in European Tech: Blacklane bags Series F funding, Battery Ventures takes over Germany’s Vimcar, MariaDB starts trading on the NYSE, and more

This week before Christmas, our research team tracked more than 85 funding deals totalling €1.1 billion+, and about 17 exits across Europe. We also looked at what the data tells us for December 2022.

As always, we are putting all 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!

Tickets are on sale.

Still on the fence? Check out our first 25 confirmed speakers!

If you haven’t seen them yet, we’ve made all the videos from the Tech.eu Summit last May available as a playlist on our YouTube channel – enjoy!

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

German independent power producer ILOS Projects has secured a €500 million structured finance facility from global energy and infrastructure investor EIG.

Blacklane, a chauffeur services provider based out of Berlin, has raised Series F funding from a consortium backed by its existing investor Mercedes-Benz Mobility and UAE-based holding company Gargash Group. The exact figure has not been disclosed, with Blacklane only confirming a “significant million dollar investment”, specifically in “middle double-digit” million euros.

Razor, a Berlin-based Amazon aggregator, has reportedly secured a $70 million equity round led by US private equity fund L Catterton.

Moneyhub, a UK-based open finance data and payments integration company, has closed on £55 million in debt and equity funding from backers including banking group Lloyds and insurance group Legal & General.

Germany-based cybersecurity startup VMRay has closed a $34 million series B round to support expansion of its advanced threat detection and analysis services into new target markets.

Recognise Bank, a small and medium enterprises (SMEs) lender and savings provider has received an additional £25 million from shareholder PV27.

The European Investment Bank has completed a €40 million loan deal, supported by its InvestEU guarantee scheme, to back the Spanish electricity grid supplier Ormazabal.

Madrid-born Cabify, a ridehailing and on-demand logistics operator active in Spain and Latin America, has closed on a €40 million loan from the European Investment Bank.

German Bionic, a startup working on AI-powered robotic exoskeletons and other smart wearable devices, has raised €15 million of venture debt.

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>> Noteworthy acquisitions, mergers, IPOs and SPAC deals

Cloud database company MariaDB has finalised its public listing on the New York Stock Exchange through its merger with the SPAC vehicle Angel Pond Holdings, to be renamed MariaDB.

This week, Viva Wallet and J.P. Morgan announce closing on a 48,5% ownership stake in the fintech company.

Vimcar, a Berlin-based startup whose fleet management software and GPS sensors let car rental operators keep tabs on vehicles, has reportedly been acquired by US VC Battery Ventures for a €135 million sum.

Shift4, a publicly-traded global leader in commerce technology solutions, has revealed the acquisition of SecurionPay, a Swiss-based mobile-based payments provider and gateway. Shift4 paid a total of $125.9 million, including cash, stock, and potential contingent payments.

Oslo-listed media group Schibsted has bought up a majority shareholding of 79% in AutoVex, a Helsinki-based used car marketplace.

London-listed adtech group Tremor is working with bankers at Goldman Sachs to solicit interest from potential bidders.

AdTech and marketing tech holding group QNTM has bought a majority shareholding in Actito, an agile marketing software outfit based out of London/Belgium.

Mobilezone has acquired Digital Republic, an online provider for mobile internet in Switzerland.

Near Light, a virtual reality games developer based out of Brighton, UK, has been acquired by the VR games publisher nDreams for an undisclosed sum.

Germany-based Forteil, operators of the credit checking and financial health platform Bonify, has been acquired by credit bureau company Schufa for an undisclosed sum.

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>> Interesting moves from investors

The European Investment Fund has provided a €101 million guarantee through its InvestEU programme to the Spanish bank Banco Sabadell, aimed at unlocking up to €336 million to support Spanish SMEs and mid-cap businesses in the renewables sector.

Amsterdam-based FORWARD.one has reached its final close for a new fund, raising a total of €145 million in commitments to invest in European early-stage deep tech startups.

P101, a Milan, Italy-based venture capital firm investing in digital and technology-driven companies, held the first closing of its latest fund, Programma 103, at €150 million.

Vilnius-based Practica Capital has announced the first close of its third fund at €32 million. It’s targeting a final close of €70 million.

Two years after the launch of its Sustainable Future Goals, Balderton Capital’s 2022 report covers how they are progressing.

Zero One Hundred, a venture capital firm focusing on making CEE investments, is looking to start its second venture fund for making CEE startup investments. It’s targeting a close of around 1.5 billion crowns (€60 million), according to the Czech tech webzine, Czechcrunch.

Amsterdam-based Borski Fund has become the first venture capital fund to receive the nod (and €5 million in financial backing) from Visa Foundation as part of its Equitable Access Initiative, a five-year, $200 million strategic commitment to support gender-diverse and inclusive small businesses around the world in accessing capital.

Ukrainians launch alternative fractional investment startup Investables.

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>> In other (important) news

Amazon.com settled EU antitrust investigations over how the US e-commerce giant uses rivals’ sales data and whether it unfairly favours its own products.

Germany appealed to the European Union on Thursday (22 December) to consider regulating “abrupt” and “arbitrary” decisions at Twitter since Elon Musk’s takeover.

The European Commission has confirmed that it’s proceeding with an antitrust investigation into Facebook’s parent company Meta, over the way it ties together its core social network and Marketplace classified ads service.

Online used car dealer Cazoo’s share price has tanked to a new record low of just $0.13 – valuing the business at just over £79 million.

Coinbase has been granted approval by the Central Bank of Ireland to operate as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP), meaning that Coinbase can continue to provide products and services to individuals and institutions in Europe and internationally, from Ireland.

The Paris Commercial Court on Monday fined Apple just over 1 million euros for imposing abusive commercial clauses on French app developers for access to the company’s App Store, the court ruling showed.

A Brussels court has ruled in favour of ride-hailing app Uber in a dispute over a driver’s employment status.

Google’s parent company Alphabet, Facebook parent company Meta and enterprise software giant Salesforce are among the US technology groups people say are privy to plans to give up leased office space in London and Dublin.

Chipmaker TSMC is in talks with suppliers over its first European plant.

France’s CNIL privacy watchdog said it had imposed a 60 million euro fine against Microsoft Ireland, saying it sanctioned the company for not having put in place a mechanism to let people refuse cookies as easily as accepting them.

Broadcom’s proposed $61 billion takeover of cloud-computing company VMware faces an extended European Union review, after EU regulators warned that the deal could lead to “higher prices, lower quality and less innovation” for business customers.

A multi-country consortium consisting of banks and technology companies has been chosen to deliver a cross-border payments pilot for the European Commission’s EU digital identity wallet programmer.

Digital estate agent Purplebricks is to lay off around 10% of its approximately 800 staff.

The government has appointed five industry experts to lead the chancellor’s plan to turn the UK into the “world’s next Silicon Valley”.

The European Commission has outlined possible “transition pathways” to address the environmental impact of the construction sector, with plans to set up a “European Construction Data Space” to pull together industry-generated information.

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>> Recommended reads and listens

The first 25 confirmed speakers who will be gracing our stages at the next Tech.eu Summit

New data from international VC Lakestar suggests Dutch businesses are being hampered by a significant €500 billion shortfall in growth-stage financing.

Inside the Self-Destruction of Pollen, the Startup Once Worth $800 Million

It may have been cut off from the EU’s common market but the UK’s tech ecosystem has a lot of positives to take away from 2022.

By deftly navigating crypto’s frontier markets and winning big on the collapse of Terra’s stable coin, UK-based Wintermute has grown into one of the world’s leading crypto trading firms. Now it must navigate a market littered with carcasses and landmines.

2022 by the numbers: the Baltic startup ecosystem

2021 UK tech IPOs one year on: Slashed valuations, insolvency and profit woes

Creandum and Slush have set out to build Europe’s largest database on early-stage founders’ compensation.

The top 5 European fintech funding deals of 2022

The Netherlands hatches fresh push in artificial intelligence

“Optimism for European private capital despite a challenging year ahead”

“It’s time to put the UK’s startup economy to work supporting our health sector“

The top 5 European climate tech funding deals of 2022

Regional spotlight: Why the future is bright for Scotland’s tech industry