Tech.eu Newsletter: €700 million for European tech startups; the ongoing implosion of Wirecard

Your weekly digest of all things EU tech for Friday, 26th June 2020 Hey there, Welcome to this week's newsletter! At the beginning of June, we welcomed Heini Järvinen to lead communications for the Geiger project, which aims to support the digital security of SMEs and MEs throughout Europe (and is funded by the EU H2020 research and innovation programme). A more thorough announcement is on the way, but if you're curious to know more about the project already, check out the Geiger Facebook page. This week, we've tracked 75 tech funding deals worth €700 million, along with a dozen M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe, including Russia, Israel, and Turkey. Become a subscriber to access our full newsletter with a list of all weekly deals; to give you a taste of what it's like, we've included the biggest deals and exits below. If you want even more up-to-the-minute information on what's happening in European tech, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, where we share all the latest in real time. Have a great week — see you soon in your inbox! ADVERTISEMENT       What happened this week in European tech?   After raising €2 million, CitySwift wants to help bus companies manage the social distancing challenge With lockdowns gradually easing around Europe, public transport is facing a particularly tricky challenge. Buses, trams and trains are often jam-packed at peak times as people make their way to and from work. In the era of social distancing, this simply can't be the case; at least not for long. Irish startup CitySwift knows the […]   French fintech scale-up Swile secures €70 million to extend beyond its digital meal voucher alternative Swile, a French fintech startup that offers digital solutions for employee rewards and benefits through a custom card and app, has raised a whopping €70 million in a funding round led by Index Ventures, with new investor Large Venture – a Bpifrance VC fund – and prior backer Idinvest participating. Founded in 2018 by Loïc […]   How Parimatch made the switch from betting firm to 'proactive tech company' by Jonathan Keane Editor's note: This is a sponsored article, which means it is independently written by our editorial team but financially supported by another organisation, in this case, Parimatch. If you would like to learn more about sponsored posts on Tech.eu, read this and contact us if you are interested in partnering with us. Parimatch is an international betting holding […]   Read the full story     Dutch VC BioGeneration Ventures closes €105 million fund for early-stage biotech startups in Europe BioGeneration Ventures (BGV), an early-stage VC in European biotech, has closed its fourth fund at €105 million, bringing the Dutch firm's total assets under management above €220 million. Investors in BGV IV include Bristol Myers Squibb, Schroder Adveq, the European Investment Fund, Industriens Pension and KfW Capital.  The Naarden-based VC aims to build new companies […]   Ireland earns another unicorn with Workhuman's $1.2 billion valuation On the heels of a new investment, Irish-born software company Workhuman, a performance management platform, has reached a valuation of $1.2 billion. The Irish Times reports this is the second Irish company to achieve unicorn status, after Intercom in 2018. London-based alternative asset manager Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) acquired a minority stake in the company […]   London's Connect Ventures closes its third fund at $80 million Connect Ventures, a London-based VC firm focused on seed-stage investments, has announced a new $80 million (£65 million) fund to support product-led founders across Europe. This third fund was raised from a combination of existing and new LPs, including Top Tier Capital Partners, Isomer Capital, British Patient Capital, De Agostini, Big Society Capital, Draper Esprit […]   Cazoo raises $31 million at $1 billion+ valuation to help you buy used cars online Cazoo, the used-car sales platform, has reached 'unicorn' status after raising a little over $31 million (£25 million) at a $1 billion+ valuation to spur growth. Cazoo closed a £100 million round earlier this year, and this round brings its total raised to £200 million in a short time. In fact, the company was founded […]   Berlin-born Rasa secures $26 million from Andreessen Horowitz and others for open-source chatbot software Berlin-born conversational AI startup Rasa has secured $26 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and joined by existing investors Accel, 468 Capital, Basis Set Ventures and Mango Capital. The company will also launch a new technology hub in Edinburgh, Scotland. Since 2016 Rasa has built an open-source infrastructure for […]   French startup ubble completes €10 million seed funding round to bolster its online identity verification service A fledgling French identity verification tech startup that goes by the name of ubble has raised seed funding from Partech and Breega to the total tune of €10 million and scored a partnership with Bpifrance to spur growth. The company intends to hire 15 additional people by the end of this year. Founded in 2018 […]   Austrian edtech startup GoStudent raises €8.3 million in Series A funding Vienna-based digital learning platform GoStudent has closed an €8.3 million Series A round led by Left Lane Capital. London's DN Capital joined the round alongside existing investors, and the founders of Swoodoo and HomeToGo participated as strategic partners. This brings the company's total funding to €12.3 million. The e-learning startup operates a "digital school" with […]   All this and more was published this week on our website   Go to Tech.eu ADVERTISEMENT   Upcoming technology events in Europe 30-03 Jul - RemoteCon by How to Web - () 01-02 Jul - Relevation - () 14-15 Jul - Chief Data Officer Exchange 2020 - (United Kingdom) 24-26 Aug - Step Anywhere - (United Kingdom) 25-27 Aug - International Conference on Pharmacy and Pharma Networks 2020 - () 01-03 Sep - Elevating Founders Europe 2020 - () 02-04 Sep - International Conference on Mechanical and Automobile Engineering, 2020 - (Munich, Germany) 02-04 Sep - International Conference on Mining and Mineralogy 2020 - () Check out Tech.eu/events for more European tech events happening in the coming weeks and months ADVERTISEMENT   Top 5: M&A deals, IPO filings and rumours UK: Descartes announces acquisition of UK-based Kontainers GERMANY: HDI Group takes over cyber specialists Perseus BELGIUM: ServiceNow to acquire Belgian configuration management startup Sweagle NETHERLANDS: Expereo buys Comsave ISRAEL: SciPlay acquires Israeli mobile games company Come2Play Top 10: Funding rounds UK: Checkout.com triples valuation to $5.5 billion in $150 million Series B funding round FRANCE: French fintech scale-up Swile secures €70 million to extend beyond its digital meal voucher alternative SWEDEN: Acast announced funding of €50 million from investors and the European Investment Bank ISRAEL: Israeli data recovery company Zerto raises $53 million FRANCE: Enterome closes €46.3 million financing round UK: Hopin raises $40 million in Series A funding SWITZERLAND: Polares Medical closes a $40 million financing to complete pilot clinical studies ISRAEL: SQream raises $39.4 million in Series B+ financing UK: Cazoo raises $31 million at $1 billion+ valuation to help you buy used cars online GERMANY: Berlin-born Rasa secures $26 million from Andreessen Horowitz and others for open-source chatbot software   Become our next Tech.eu Patron!