Funding Rounds
Dach
Rows.com (previously dashdash), the Berlin-based developer of an interactive web application designed to bring general-purpose computing to everyday business people, raised a $16m Series B. Lakestar led the round with participation from Accel and Cherry Ventures, as well as new angel investor Christian Reber, CEO of Pitch, who joined the Advisory Board. Read more.
actio, the Berlin-based healthy habits and wellness app has extended its Seed round to over €10m with a new investment from fellow Berlin-based firm Heal Capital. Back in December, the startup secured €8.5m in funding from HV Capital and Cavalry Ventures. Read more.
Charles, the Berlin-based provider of software that helps companies integrate their existing e-commerce and chatbot tools into one interface, raised a $6m Series A from Accel and HV Capital. Read more.
Penta, the Berlin-based B2B neobank, raised a $10m top up of its series B from finleap, HV Capital, RTP Global, Presight Capital, S7V and VR Ventures, ABN AMRO Ventures. Read more.
Radicle, the Rotkreuz-based (Switzerland) decentralized code repository, has raised $12m in funding. The funding round was led by NFX and Galaxy, with participation from Placeholder, Electric Capital and ParaFi Capital; Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan and Meltem Demirors were also involved. Read more.
France
IAD, the Paris-based digital platform offering a large range of value-added support services to independent real estate agents, raised €300m from Insight. Previous owners IK Investment Partners, FAPI and Naxicap are re-investing in the company. The transaction values the company at €1.2bn. IAD has 250+ employees in four European countries and reported turnover of €278m in 2020. Read more.
Zelros, the Paris-based AI-driven platform dedicated to advancing insurance distribution, raised a $11m Series A, bringing the total funding to date to $16.5m. The round was led by BGV with participation from ISAI Cap Venture and Plug and Play and historical investors HI INOV, 42CAP and astorya.vc. Read more.
UK & Ireland
Grip, the London-based market engagement platform, raised a $13m Series A. The round, which brought total amount raised to $14.5m, was led by Kennet Partners. Read more.
Eseye, the Guildford-based provider of leading-edge IoT connectivity solutions, announced a new strategic partnership with communications and information technology company, TELUS, which will see Eseye’s AnyNet Connectivity Platform power TELUS’ newly launched TELUS Global Connect. The partnership will also see TELUS’ strategic investment arm, TELUS Ventures, make a CAD26.3m (£15m) investment in Eseye. Read more.
Orka, the Manchester-based developer of software tools designed specifically for hourly workers, raised £29m in funding. The round was a mixture of debt financing from Sonovate and equity funding involving the British Business Bank Future Fund and existing investors, including former UK CEO of Adecco Peter Searle. This takes the total raised to £31.5m since launch. Read more.
Bottlepay, the Newscastle-based global payments app, raised a £11m Seed round. Backers included British fund manager Alan Howard, VC firm FinTech Collective, and financial services firm NYDIG and tech entrepreneur Phil Doye. Read more.
Better Origin, the Cambridge-based developer of insect mini-farms designed to empower farmers to convert waste biomass into insect biomass, rich in proteins and fats, raised £2.03m of venture funding led by Fly Ventures putting the company's pre-money valuation at £9.37m. Metavallon VC also participated in the round. Read more.
Gophr, the London-based operator of a logistics platform designed to connect professional couriers to business customers, raised £4m of venture funding led by Nauta Capital. AngelList, GR Capital, and other undisclosed investors also participated in the round. Read more.
Laundryheap, the London-based provider of laundry and dry cleaning services intended to collect, clean and deliver laundry in 24 hours, raised a $3.5m Series A led by Sova Ventures. The SideBySide Partnership International also participated in the round. Read more.
Monument (no website available yet), the London-based challenger bank that wants to target Britain’s wealthy savers, raised a £28m Series A as it finalises plans to launch later this year. Investors include Eric Zinterhofer, a founding partner of Searchlight Capital, Rakesh Loonkar, a cybersecurity entrepreneur, and Harry Handelsman, who oversaw the restoration of London's St Pancras Renaissance Hotel. Read more.
Vivacity Labs, the London-based maker of intelligent cameras to gather transport data, using the latest machine learning & computer vision techniques, raised a $7m Series A led by Mobeus Equity Partners. Read More.
Nordics
Podimo, the Copenhagen-based subscription service for short form audio stories and podcasts, raised an additional €11.2m in funding. The round was led by Chr. Augustinus investment fund, and comes just eight months after announcing its €15m Series A. Existing investors and the Spanish VC Aldea Opportunity Fund also participated. Read more.
Ageras, the Copenhagen-based provider of accountancy software and solutions to SMEs and accounting firms, raised $73m from Lugard Road Capital, a US-based alternative asset manager. Read more.
Klarna, the Stockholm-based instalment loan company is expected to announce new funding in the coming days that will value the company at $31bn. The amount is around three times more than what the company was valued at after its last round in September. The new fundraise will be around $800m to $1bn. Read more.
NIL Technology, the Copenhagen-based specialist in advanced optical solutions, raised €26m in funding. The round was co-led by Jolt Capital, NGP Capital and Vækstfonden, with EIC Fund as a new investor. Read more.
Others
Katana, the Tallinn-based startup that has built manufacturing-specific ERP software for SMBs, has raised a $11m Series A. Atomico led the funding with participation from angel investors Ott Kaukver (Checkout.com CTO), Sten Tamkivi (CPO Topia, formerly Skype), Sergei Anikin (CTO, Pipedrive) and Kairi Pauskar (former TransferWise HR Architect). Previous backer 42Cap also followed on, bringing the total investment raised by the company to date to $16m. Read more.
Mosa Meat, the Maastricht-based producer of laboratory-made beef intended to commercialize cultured minced meat, raised a $75m Series B led by Blue Horizon Ventures. M Ventures, Bell Food Group, Nutreco, Rubio Impact Ventures, and 4 other investors also participated in the round. Read more.
StorageOS, the Maastricht-based provider of cloud native, software-defined, persistent storage for Kubernetes solution, raised a $10m series B led by Downing Ventures, including participation from existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures and MMC Ventures. Read more.
Founda Health, the Amsterdam-based startup that says it’s bringing FinTech-style ‘platformisation’ to healthcare, raised a $15m Seed round from an undisclosed group of healthcare and FinTech entrepreneurs. Read more.
Intelligence
Sequoia Capital told limited partners that some of their personal and financial information may have been accessed by a third party, after a Sequoia employee's email was successfully phished.
Deepfakes
Radiolab put together a great podcast episode on deepfakes. What are deepfakes?
Deepfakes are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness. While the act of faking content is not new, deepfakes leverage powerful techniques from machine learning and artificial intelligence to manipulate or generate visual and audio content with a high potential to deceive. Wikipedia
Deepfakes (in particular videos) have the potential to make it impossible to sort fact from fiction. Although this might sound like the distant future, a series of recent events in the small African nation of Gabon suggest it's already happening:
Mars
NASA has released stunning footage of the Perseverance rover landing on Mars, in what is a seminal achievement for the space agency.
The History Of QR Codes
Have you ever wondered who came up with the idea for QR Codes? Neither have we, but here you go! In the 1960s, Japan was experiencing a wave of economic growth. Supermarkets expanded from selling just food items to adding in clothing and a versatile range of other commodities. So, they basically realized that they needed a way to keep track of everything.
Startup Of The Week
Product
Searchable.ai, an internal search engine that helps individuals find knowledge that exists and might be hidden within an enterprise
Location
San Francisco, USA
Raised
$6m total raised to date
Investors
NextView Ventures, Omicron Media, SIG Susquehanna, Angels
Revenue Model
SaaS subscription
Investors
Tikehau Capital, a France-based alternative asset management group, raised nearly $1.3bn for its T2 Energy Transition investment strategy. Read more.
Pauline Chatin joined 17Capital as a Paris-based director of IR and fundraising. She previously was with Lyxor Asset Management. Read more.
Earlybird Digital East Fund — a fund associated with Germany’s Earlybird VC, but operating separately — has launched a €200m successor fund. Read more.
Founders Future raises an additional €50m to accelerate its Tech for Good investments. Read more.
Flashpoint VC announced the launch of its secondary fund at a $70m first close. Read more.
2150 announced its first close of its flagship €200m fund. Based in London, Copenhagen and Berlin, the fund will back technology companies that seek to sustainably reimagine and reshape the urban environment. Read more.
Oak HC/FT, a venture capital firm focused on health care and fintech, raised $1.4bn for its latest flagship fund. Read more.
Thought Of The Week
Europe is seeing a slew of startups inspired by goPuff's vertically integrated model sprouting up including Berlin's much-hyped Gorillas and London's Dija and Weezy, and France's Cajoo, all of which claim to focus more on fresh food and groceries, where margins are arguably tighter. There is also some question as to whether these businesses can actually become profitable. With a delivery fee of just €1.80, there is some question as to whether Gorillas and similar services can actually make money at scale.
By the way, this is what the German food delivery landscape looks like: