November 28, 2024

Technology Investment & Advisory in Europe Monthly Summary November 2024

Stay up to date with notable deals, fund raises, and key personnel movements in the Technology Investment market with our monthly newsletter.

Notable Transactions

EQT has acquired Australian recruitment software provider PageUp from existing majority owners Battery Ventures

Swedish healthtech startup Yazen has secured a €19.5m Series A, led by Evli Growth Partners and Helsana HealthInvest, with participation from Almaz Capital and Yabeo, as well as existing investors Luminar Ventures and Aggregate Media

French cloud-based Reality Data management and collaboration solution provider Cintoo, has closed a €37m Series B funding round which was led by Partech which was joined by Amavi Capital and Armilar Venture Partners

Digital fund operation platform fundcraft has closed its Series A round with an additional €6m investment led by 3VC and MiddleGame Ventures

Energy tech firm Flower has closed its Series A funding with a further €20m, bringing its round to €45m its and led by Northzone

Plato, a Berlin-based AI-powered ERP automation platform designed for wholesale distributors, has announced the closing of its €6 million pre-seed funding round which was led by Cherry Ventures

NorthEdge has completed the sale of CMap Group Limited, a Manchester-headquartered Professional Services Automation (PSA) software business, serves customers in the Architects, Engineering & Construction (AEC) and Consulting sectors, to ECI

Astorg is to acquire a majority stake in data management specialist Redslim from the Founders will re-invest significantly in the business

Huboo, which helps e-commerce brands manage warehousing and delivery logistics, has raised £44.7m which was led by existing investor Mubadala

HIG Capital and Thoma Bravo are to acquire the information technology certification and training division of the Computing Technology Industry Association, in a major shift for the globally recognised provider of IT credentials

Xavveo, a startup focused on advancing autonomous vehicle sensor technology, has closed its $8.6M Seed round. The round was co-led by Vsquared Ventures and imec.xpand

Marosa, an accounting SaaS for invoicing and compliance, has secured a €12 million investment from private investment firm Aquiline

Italian mobile payments unicorn Satispay has raised an additional €60 million in funding, strengthening its partnership with key investors Addition, Greyhound, and Lightrock

LDC has invested in LendingMetrics, backing the credit risk software provider’s management team, which is led by co-founders CEO Neil Williams and commercial director David Wylie

Snyk founder Guy Podjarny raises $125m for AI software development platform Tessl after announcing a $100m Series A from Index Ventures

Coopah, a run coaching app, has announced a £1.5m funding round, backed by pro-athlete Alistair Brownlee MBE and sports agent Ricky Simms with the round being led by Redrice Ventures and Active Partners

Foodtech specialist Wonder Group is acquiring delivery company Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway for $650 million including debt—a disappointing outcome in a sector still reeling from a post-pandemic hangover

Inflexion has acquired finance site and trading platform Finanzen.net Group from media giant Axel Springer. The private equity firm is investing in the German business alongside the founders in a carve-out deal valued at more than €300m

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is buying a large stake in data analytics software company Qlik at a valuation of about $10bn, investing $1bn as part of a deal which will see Thoma Bravo exit

Tourlane, an online travel expert based in Berlin has closed a €25M Series D funding round. The round is led by long-term investor Sequoia Capital with participation from HV Capital and new investor Target Global

London-based Tangible, has announced £4m fundraise to help companies building climate hardware such as gigafactories, emobility providers and heat pump manufacturers to access the deep-pocketed debt markets that they require to scale

AI digital worker startup 11x has announced a $50m Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz. The news comes less than two months after the much-hyped company raised a $24m Series A from investors including Benchmark

ScaleUp Capital has announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Verto, the UK-headquartered project and programme management software provider, focused on the public sector market

The Exploration Company, a German space logistics startup, has secured a $160 million Series B co-led by Balderton Capital and Plural as VC investment in European space-tech nearly doubles to rocket above €1 billion

Lighthouse, a company building AI-powered software for hotels, has raised a $370m Series C round, led by KKR

Deblock, a crypto wallet built by former Revolut and Ledger execs, has raised an extra £13.3m in seed funding which was led by Headline, Hoxton, 20VC and Chalfen

Europe’s best-funded nuclear fusion startup Tokamak Energy has raised $75m as it looks to commercialise its tech. East X Ventures and Lingotto Investment Management led the round

Smart ring maker Oura has hit a $5.2bn valuation after raising a $75m Series D from US continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) giant Dexcom

Nivoda, a digital marketplace focused on the diamond industry, has raised €48.4 million in its latest funding round. The investment, led by Northzone with participation from existing investors Avenir, Headline, Abstract Ventures, and Canaan Partners

PSG Equity has led a €20m investment round in Apaleo, a Munich-based, API-first open property-management platform

emma, a cloud management platform, has raised $17M in a new Series A funding round, which was led by Smartfin

Generative AI biotech Cradle has raised a $73m Series B led by Silicon Valley VC IVP

Keensight Capital has acquired a minority stake in German software business Advancis Software & Services

Eurazeo’s Small-Mid Buyout team has exited French cybersecurity firm I-Tracing to a new €180m continuation fund, raised and managed by the GP

Latest Funds

London-based VC firm Emerge has raised £56m for its second fund to invest in 25 to 27 startups working on learning and the future of work

Lyon headaurtered Axeleo has reached a 1st close of €125m of a targeted €250m fund to target climate tech start-ups developing novel products

Dutch-based VC fund 4impact Capital has successfully closed its second fund at a final total of €68 million, focusing on early-stage digital and sustainability ventures in northwest Europe

Bynd Venture Capital, an Iberian-focused venture capital firm, has launched its third fund, valued at €40 million

Swiss VC Firm Founderful has closed an oversubscribed $140 million Fund II, the fund was established in 2019 by a trio of successful entrepreneurs and investors - GetYourGuide co-founder Pascal Mathis, former Creathor Ventures Switzerland Lead Alex Stöckl, and EAT.ch co-founder Lukas Weder

Bek Ventures (formerly Earlybird Digital East) has launched $250 million Fund III to be invested in early-stage technology companies

Helsinki-based venture capital firm Maki.vc has launched its third fund of €100 million to invest in Pre-Seed and Seed-stage startups across the Nordics and Northern Europe

Parkwalk Advisors, in collaboration with Cambridge Enterprise, has launched its new University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund X. This is the tenth fund dedicated to early-stage science and technology startups started in Cambridge

Nucleus Capital launches a €40m fund focused on synthetic biology start-ups in Europe

Extantia Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to climate tech, has closed its flagship Article 9 fund at €204 million. The fund saw support from institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurance companies, and family offices

Apse Capital has announced the closing of its €350m continuation fund, led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Industry News

The first budget statement from the recently formed Labour government has been delivered and with it, came tax rises for employers and asset holders

Bowmark Capital, a £2bn UK-based private equity firm focussed on investments in technology, data, and services companies, has promoted Tom Shelford, head of the firm’s Software practice to Managing Partner

A Silicon Valley-based property giant has announced a £500m investment into a British research campus, following the chancellor’s pledge to bring private investment into fast-growing UK businesses

The UK government is bringing in a new rule to combine pension funds into eight mega-funds, with the hope of unlocking £80 billion in investment capital—a measure broadly welcomed by the private markets

Aurelius Growth Capital, the Private Equity Growth segment of Aurelius, has appointed Richard Glatzel as Partner with responsibility for driving operational improvements in the company’s new portfolio companies

Canadian pension fund giant CDPQ has hired City veteran Dame Sharon White to head up its European team. White, who was chair of the John Lewis Partnership until September, is joining the group as managing director and head of Europe at the end of January next year

Speedinvest has announced a new five-person management team composed of CEO and managing partner Oliver Holle, GP Marie-Helene Ametsreiter — who has been with the firm for more than 10 years — and newly promoted GPs Markus Lang and Andreas Schwarzenbrunner. Nora Frizberg, the firm’s operating partner and general counsel, will also join the management team as COO