Funding Rounds
Dach
Branded, the Berlin-based e-commerce group, a global digital consumer products platform that partners with and invests in e-commerce and marketplace brands, raised $150m in investment capital and acquired 20 best-selling marketplace brands. Target Global co-founded the company and led the round with participation from other global funds including Declaration Partners, Tiger Global, Kreos Capital, Lurra Capital, Regah Ventures, Kima Ventures, and Vine Ventures. Read more.
Nexthink, the Lausanne-based late-stage startup that wants to help IT serve its internal constituents better, announced a $180m Series D at a $1.1bn valuation. The funding was raised from Permira with help from Highland Europe and Index Ventures. The company has now raised more than $336m to date. Read more.
unu, the Berlin-based e-mobility company raised €18m in funding from Capnamic Ventures, Iris Capital and Ponooc. The startup’s first product was the electric Scooter Classic, which has enabled the company to expand from German and Austrian into French and Dutch markets since 2015. In 2019, unu launched its second networked product generation – unu Scooter, which can be shared thanks to a SIM card and its own app. Read more.
lengoo, the Berlin-based developer of an artificial intelligence-enabled translation technology platform designed to automate the custom-training of neural machine translation systems, raised a $20m Series B led by Inkef Capital with participation from Creathor Venture and 5 other investors. Read more.
Circula, the Berlin-based developer of an employee expense management platform designed to digitize and simplify individualized expense and travel expenses, raised €4.3m of venture funding from Capnamic Ventures, Wenvest Capital and Main Incubator. Read more.
Next Matter, the Berlin-based developer of enterprise software designed to reduce time spent on administrative and management activities, raised a $4m Seed round led by BlueYard Capital. Crane Venture Partners and other individual investors also participated in the round. Read more.
Hive Logistics, the Berlin-based provider of third-party logistic services intending to store and ship products for small and medium-sized online merchants next-day, raised a €1.6m Seed round from Picus Capital, Roman Kirsch and Sebastian Merkhoffer. Other undisclosed investors also participated in the round. Read more.
France
Homa Games, the Paris-based hyper casual game publisher, raised a $15m Seed round led by e.ventures and Idinvest Partners. The company has built several in-house technologies that can take a game from prototype to App Store success. It partners with third-party game studios and has a few in-house game studios as well. Read more.
Scalinx, the Paris-based fabless semiconductor company specialised in advanced signal conversion chips, secured €10.5m in funding. The round was led by WaterStart Capital, anotherventure, with participation from BNP Paribas Développement, CEN Innovation, and Unexo. Read more.
Moka.care, the Paris-based provider of a comprehensive platform designed to help employees find the right mental care, with psychologists, certified coaches and licensed therapists, raised a €2.5m Seed round from Singular VC, Nicolas Dessaigne and Ning Li. Florian Douetteau, Céline Lazorthes, Marc-Antoine de Longevialle and 5 other investors also participated in the round. Read more.
Cajoo, the Paris-based operator of a grocery delivery platform intended to come up with a speedy delivery of groceries, raised a €6m Seed round led by Frst Capital and XAnge. Other undisclosed investors also participated in the round. Read more.
Powder, the Paris-based startup that helps users share video clips of their favourite games, follow people with the same interests and interact with them, raised a $14m Series A round. Serena led the round with General Catalyst, Slow Ventures, Alven Capital, Bpifrance’s Digital Venture fund, Secocha Ventures, Turner Novak and Kevin Hartz also participating. Read more.
UK & Ireland
Nothing (no website available), the London-based consumer electronics company, which was launched by OnePlus founder Carl Pei, raised $15m from GV (previously Google Ventures). Nothing plans to release headphones this spring and other devices later this year. Read more.
BigChange, the Leeds-based startup that builds fleet management software to help track and direct jobs to those on the go whose “offices” tend to be vehicles, closed a round of £75m. Great Hill Partners led the round. Great Hill’s stake values BigChange at £100m, as per the company. Read more.
U24 Solutions, the Hitchin-based game development studio intended to create VR experiences for its customers, raised €1m of venture funding from Thorgate Ventures and MSD Service OY. Read more.
Hubx, the London-based developer of a financial platform designed to provide capital raising and private placement services, raised £4.2m of venture funding in a deal led by Basinghall Partners. Read more.
Globacap, the London-based developer of a digital capital raising platform intended to automate and significantly streamline post-trade processes, raised a £10.54m Series A led by Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Moore Strategic Ventures also participated in the round. Read more.
Isotropic System, the London-based developer of a satellite antenna technology designed for increased accessibility, raised £29m of venture funding led by SES alongside 7 other investors. Read more.
Clubforce, the Galway-based developer of diverse software tools intended to provide a technology for sports club management, raised a $2.5m Seed round from Carole Neylon, the existing board and other undisclosed investors. Read more.
Invenio, the Reading-based global provider of SAP enterprise solutions and consultancy, secured a further £12m of funding from BGF to merge with US-based LSI Consulting. Invenio has a strong presence in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, while LSI has a strong position in the US and Canada. Read more.
Uptime, the London-based knowledge hacking app, raised a $16m Seed round. Backers are angels including Sir Terry Leahy, William Currie and Lord Alliance. Read more.
Nordics
Redhill Games, the Helsinki-based operator of a gaming studio intended to make accessible and quality video games for a global audience, raised $18.6m of venture funding from undisclosed investors. Read more.
Instabox, the Stockholm-based developer of an online shipping platform intended to offer cost-effective and convenient logistic services, raised a $90m Series B led by EQT Ventures. Other undisclosed investors also participated in the round. Read more.
Labster, the Copenhagen-based developer of fully interactive advanced lab simulations designed to create scalable science training software with increased learning outcomes and motivation, raised a $60m Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from existing investors GGV Capital, Owl Ventures, Balderton Capital, David Helgason, founder of Unity Technologies, Northzone, Swisscom Ventures, and EduCapital. The round brings Labster’s total capital raised to $100m. Read more.
Others
Koa Health, the Barcelona-based digital mental healthcare provider offering personalized solutions backed by science, closed a €30m Series A. The round had a first close in October 2020, led by Wellington Partners Life Sciences and Ancora Finance Group, and has now been fully closed with key participations from MTIP and Akilia Partners. Read more.
Twinco Capital, the Madrid-based operator of an impact-driven fintech platform created to provide suppliers access to affordable working capital funding, early in the production cycle, raised €3m of venture funding led by Mundi Ventures. Finch Capital and other undisclosed investors also participated in the round. Read more.
hlpy, the Milan-based provider of a digital roadside assistance platform, raised a €1m Seed round from Bene Assicurazioni and Vittoria Assicurazioni. Read more.
Payflow, the Madrid-based developer of financial software designed to instantly collect the portion of their salary corresponding to how much they have worked, raised a €2m Seed round led by Wayra, Plug and Play Tech Center and Zone2boost. Read more.
Tau Group, the Turin-based developer of an industrial robotic system designed to simplify the process of manufacturing, raised a €6.75m Series A from Altana and Russian Direct Investment Fund. Read more.
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Intelligence
SoftBank Vision Fund arm reported $12.8bn in gains (and $8bn net profit) from its investments in Q4 2020, mainly driven by its stakes in Uber and DoorDash. SoftBank Group itself posted a $11.1bn net profit.
Stride.VC, the London-based venture capital co-founded by Harry Stebbings and Fred Destin, revealed Stebbings is stepping down.
Levine Leichtman Capital Partners named John O'Neill to Head of Europe and David Cowan to senior managing director in London.
Digital Adoption At Its Best
A virtual court hearing in the USA has disrupted after one of the lawyers involved got a Zoom filter stuck on his video output - displaying him as a giant kitten.
SPACS 101
There is no need to rewrite the history of SPACs here, or even the recent trends. If you are not up to speed, here are some useful links:
Video summary from Bloomberg: “Here’s How SPACs Work and Why They’re So Popular“
Deep dive from Connie Loizos at Tech Crunch: “Almost everything you need to know about SPACs“
Reuters goes through the massive numbers involved: “Wall Street holds the cards as Main Street chases blank-check deal frenzy“
Dan Primack on how the SPACs landscape is changing: “SPACs undergo fast evolution as they outpace traditional IPOs“
Startup Of The Week
Product
Easy to integrate video and text chat for websites and applications
Investors
iSeed Fund, Range Ventures, Silicon Badia, Techstars, eon Capital
Revenue Model
SaaS subscription
Investors
Finch Capital, an early-stage VC firm with offices in London and Amsterdam, held an €85m first close on its third fund, which is targeting €150m. Read more.
Golding Capital Partners of Germany raised €375m for its latest PE fund-of-funds. Read more.
Marshall Wace, a London-based hedge fund manager, is raising $400m for a late-stage venture capital fund, per the FT. Read more.
Frontline Ventures, a Dublin-based venture firm, raised €70m ($83.8m) for its third seed fund. Read more.
Eurazeo will receive €340m of additional commitments for its Eurazeo growth strategy from a group of international investors. Read more.
Sapphire Ventures announced it raised $1.7bn over "multiple funds," but declined to break out details. Read more.
OpenOcean, a London-based VC firm, held a €92m close on its third flagship fund, which is targeting a total of €130m. Read more.
Thought Of The Week
The Government of Japan is planning to have 20 unicorns by 2023. Yet, in 2019, it only has 3 (or 4 depending on how you count). Not so much time has left to reach the goal. It is only natural to ask how come that the 3rd largest economy in the world does not produce tech giants the way the United States or China do?
In Japan, innovation efforts have always been led by big corporations with banks more willing to loan money to these corporates rather than to invest in startup companies.
Also, Japan's venture-capital market, worth around $4bn in 2019, is much smaller than the United States' at $137bn and China's at $52bn.
But even Japan's own SoftBank Group, which has invested heavily in tech firms, tends to fund overseas prospects, including Uber and Alibaba, and has barely touched smaller homegrown companies.
That lack of private capital for expansion can force Japanese startups to go public much sooner than their counterparts elsewhere.
In Japan, the standards for listing are very low, so there are a lot of tiny corporations, and many of them are satisfied with that.
The country's graying population and stagnant economy mean a lot of international companies are not really interested in Japan.
That in turn can mean Japanese startups feel ‘protected’ from outside competition lacking the drive to grow and expand.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry established the J-Startup programme for that purpose but from what we see today, it will take longer than 2023 to get to the count of 20 unicorns.