These were the 10 biggest European tech stories last week
by Robin WautersHappy Monday!
Last week, our research team about 80 tech funding deals worth over €1 billion, along with almost 20 M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe, including Russia, Israel, and Turkey.
It’s also the week when we started publishing ‘Today in European Tech’, a daily roundup of deals and news stories that caught our attention, which will go out every weekday except for Fridays, when we (usually) publish the weekly roundup. Tell us what you think!
Meanwhile, here’s an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for last week (subscribe to our free newsletter to get this roundup in your inbox every Monday morning):
1) EQT has agreed to acquire Spanish online real estate classifieds platform provider idealista from Apax Partners and its management for a whopping €1.3 billion. Apax bought idealista in 2015 at a reported €150 million valuation.
2) Reuters reported that Swedish payments firm Klarna is in talks with investors for a new $500 million round of funding which would value it at more than $10 billion (decacorn material) as it attempts to expand its business in the United States.
3) Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity startup Snyk announced a $200 million investment on Wednesday, led by venture capital firm Addition, according to a company valuation of more than $2.6 billion.
4) The $850 million merger between ‘web discovery platforms’ Outbrain and Taboola, which would have been one of the largest ever merger deals in Israel’s technology industry, has broken down after the companies failed to agree on revised deal terms.
5) London-based VC Dawn Capital has successfully raised Dawn IV, a $400 million fund dedicated to early-stage B2B software investments, from existing and 14 new blue-chip investors. This brings the firm’s total assets under management to over $1 billion
6) Israeli automatic software updating company JFrog set terms for its Wall Street IPO. In a revised prospectus the company reveals that the offering will reflect a company valuation of between $3 billion and $3.3 billion with shares priced in the $33-37 range.
7) Mollie, a Dutch startup that offers a simple, API-based way to integrate payments into a site or an app, has raised €90 million in a round of funding led by TCV. The Series B brings the total raised by Mollie to €115 million and the startup’s valuation to $1 billion+, founder and CEO Adriaan Mol confirmed in an interview with TechCrunch.
8) Sweden’s Evolution Gaming Group, a company that develops, produces, markets and licenses Live Casino solutions to gaming operators, announced a public offer to the shareholders of digital entertainment company NetEnt to sell all their shares in NetEnt to Evolution. The amount of the deal – whose estimated settlement date is 2 November 2020, is approx. €1.9 billion.
9) Ireland’s privacy watchdog has told Facebook that it will soon have to stop transferring its European users’ data to the United States because the social media giant’s current procedures fall foul of EU law.
10) Munich-based Holtzbrinck Ventures is reportedly raising a €500 million fund.
Last week’s podcast:
Tech.eu Podcast #185: Rocket Internet’s retreat, France earmarks money for startups, Germany 💖 Elon, and we talk to Laura González-Estéfani of TheVentureCity
Bonus link:
Developing Artificial Intelligence in Russia: Objectives and Reality (Carnegie Moscow Center)