Funding Room | 25 March
After Skype, LinkedIn, will Discord's be the new communication platform Microsoft acquires?
Startup Of The Week
Product
Enthuse provides charity-branded donation, fundraising and event management tools to more than 4,000 charities, and has helped them raise more than £100m to date. It supports one in five of UK’s largest charities, including Macmillan Cancer Support, NSPCC, WWF, and Save the Children.
Through a range of white-labelled, fully customisable tools and platform technology, Enthuse helps charities improve their brand recall, build and nurture a loyal supporter base, raise more funds and ultimately have more impact.
Products include branded payment and communication solutions, virtual fundraising tools, data management and event registration software, as well as a corporate platform for employee engagement.
Location
London, UK
Raised
Enthuse just secured £3.5m bringing the total capital raised to £7.5m.
Investors
Praetura Ventures (a VC that targets early-stage businesses in high-growth sectors), Angel investors
Revenue model
Subscription
Funding Rounds
Dach
Blacklane, the Berlin-based start-up that provides on-demand black-car chauffeur services, closed a round of €22m. The investment came from existing investors Daimler, the UAE’s ALFAHIM Group and btov Partners. It has raised c. $100m to date. Read more.
Camunda, the Berlin-based open source software provider, completed a €82m funding round. The round was led by Insight Partners with participation from existing investor Highland Europe. Read more.
Kontist, the Berlin-based developer of a neo-bank and tax advisory platform for freelancers, raised a c.$30m Series B led by Founders (Danish start-up studio). Read more.
France
Cubyn, the Paris-based on-demand logistics and fulfilment platform, raised €35m in funding. The round was led by Idinvest/Eurazeo and Bpifrance, with participation from Fuse Venture Partners, and existing investors DN Capital, 360 Capital, BNP Devéloppement and First Bridge Ventures. Read more.
Jungle France, the Picardie-based company engaging in vertical farming and hydroponics, raised a $50m Series A from Founders Future, Demeter Partners and other existing investors. Read more.
UK & Ireland
Blockchain.com, the London-based crypto wallet and exchange company, raised a $300m Series C at a valuation of $5.2bn. DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital led the round with participation from existing investors. Read more.
What3words, the London-based developer of a web and mobile-based geocoding system designed to find and communicate locations with a resolution of three meters, received an estimated £12m of development capital from IKEA owner and operator Ingka Group. Read more.
nPlan, the London-based system which utilises machine learning and AI analytics to predict outcomes of construction projects and mitigate risk, raised £13.5m in a new funding round. The investment round was led by GV (formerly Google Ventures) with participation from Local Globe, Pentech, Entrepreneur First and former McKinsey & Company managing director Sir Ian Davis. Read more.
Zopa, the London-based neobank that offers P2P lending service bagged £20m in funding from existing investors. IAG Silverstripe led the investment round alongside a slew of investors, including Augmentum, Waterfall managed Alternative Credit Investments and Venture Founders. Read more.
VoxSmart, the London-based software company that helps financial institutions monitor employees' electronic communications received a $25m (£18m) investment from Toscafund. Read more.
Kuda, the London-based Nigerian digital banking start-up announced a $25m Series A. The round was led by NY-based VC firm Valar Ventures with participation from existing investor Target Global and several other existing investors. Read more.
Pollinate, the London-based global software business that partners with banks to extend relationships with their business customers, closed a $50m Series C. The round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from all existing investors, including NatWest Group, Mastercard, National Australia Bank (NAB), EFM Asset Management, and Motive Partners. Read more.
Invstr, the London-based education platform raised a $20m Series A in the form of a convertible offering. This builds upon $20m it previously raised across two seed rounds from investors such as Ventura Capital, Finberg, European angel investor Jari Ovaskainen and Rick Haythornthwaite, former global chairman of Mastercard. Read more.
Lilli, the Surrey-based SaaS company that uses machine learning to monitor elderly care and safety at home, raised a c.$6m Seed round from West Hill Capital. Read more.
Freetrade, the London-based commission free trading platform, raised a $69m Series B, led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from L-Catterton Growth, and existing investor Draper Esprit. Read more.
Nordics
Aiven, the Helsinki-based software company that combines open source technologies with cloud infrastructure, raised a $100m Series C. The round, which brought total funding to $150m at a valuation of more than $800m, was led by Atomico, with participation from new investors Salesforce Ventures and World Innovation Lab and existing bakers Earlybird Venture Capital and IVP. Read more.
Ardoq, the Oslo-based developer of enterprise architecture software intended to optimise the application portfolio ecosystem, raised a $26m Series C from Altitude Capital AS, Norselab, and other undisclosed investors. Read more.
Matsmart, the Stockholm-based e-commerce company that reduces food waste across the supply chain, raised €35m in growth capital investment. SEB Private Equity and Gullspång Invest led the round alongside 5 other investors. Read more.
Fixico, the Amsterdam-based online car damage repair platform, raised a $14m Series A from Autotech Ventures, with participation from existing investors Finch Capital and Mundi Ventures. Read more.
Others
Tylko, the Warsaw-based D2C modular furniture company that employs augmented reality as part of its sales cycle, raised a $26m Series C from Pitango Venture Capital and Evli Growth Partners. Read more.
Intelligence
Algama, a French food-tech company that is developing ingredients made of microalgae, plans to raise a Series B this year.
Matt Zames is stepping down as president of Cerberus Capital Management, after just three years in the job.
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is in talks to buy Discord, a San Francisco-based chat platform that's particularly popular among gamers. A deal could be valued at around $10bn. Discord last raised at a $7bn valuation. Backers include Bessemer Venture Partners, Benchmark, Greylock, Greenoaks Capital Partners, Index Ventures, IVP and Tiger Global.
Deliveroo aims for $12bn market cap in biggest London debut in a decade.
Tiger Global is about to invest in Pitch at a valuation of c.$400m.
Cavalry Ventures invests in Spain-based Gorilla's clone Blok.
Lesson Nine, the German company behind language-learning app Babbel, is preparing to list on the Frankfurt stock exchange in a deal expected to value it at more than €1bn.
Snap acquires Fit Analytics, the Berlin-based fitting technology start-up, for $100m.
Investors
KLAR Partners, a European private equity firm focused on asset-light industrial and mission-critical services companies, raised €600m for its debut fund. Read more.
Breega, a VC firm based in Paris, announced the final closing of its third fund at €110m. Read more.
The Riverside Company raised €465m for its sixth fund focused on European lower midmarket companies. Read more.
Aldea Ventures held a €60m close for its debut pan-European VC co-investment and fund-of-funds, which is targeting €100m. Read more.
Illuminate Financial announced the closure of its new $100m fintech fund. Read more.
iNovia Capital expands its European presence with a new $450m fund. Read more.
Kvika closes first round of financing for venture capital fund Iðunn at $53m. Read more.
Your 10 Minute Distraction
Food For Thought
Pitching VCs is a tough exercise and preparing for it properly can dramatically change the outcome of the process, but also the duration of your pitch.
Battles are often won before you set foot on the battle field…
Jason gives powerful insights how to avoid “rookie mistakes” in his video linked below. Enjoy!