Start-up of the week
Product
Using its proprietary on-board technology based on the identification of electromagnetic waves emitted by ships, UNSEENLABS is capable of geolocating any vessel at sea from space, in near-real time, to within a kilometer. The goal by 2025 is to establish a constellation of 20-25 nanosatellites, with the performance of the UNSEENLABS constellation increasing with every new satellite launch.
Location
Rennes, France
Raised
€28m
Investors
360 Capital fund, Omnes, and Blue Oceans Partners, Definvest fund (managed by Bpifrance on behalf of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces) and Breizh Up
Revenue model
Subscription and enterprise contracts
Picture of the week
Don’t worry - we didn’t know King Harald Bluetooth either. Here is the Wikipedia article.
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Funding rounds
Dach
n8n, the Berlin-based provider of a next-gen workflow automation tool, raised a $12m Series A. The round was led by Felicis Ventures with participation from Sequoia Capital, firstminute Capital, and Harpoon Ventures and angels Kevin Hartz, Co-Founder of Eventbrite, Ilkka Paananen, Supercell CEO and Founder and early employees of Google and Zendesk among others. Read more.
Vivid Money, the Berlin-based financial platform and mobile banking app that helps customers save and invest their money, raised a new $73m Series B (€60m) led by Greenoaks, with existing investor Ribbit Capital also participating. Following today’s funding round, Vivid Money has reached a valuation of $436m (€360m). Read more.
Bluecode, the Lachen-based (Switzerland) payment solution provider, raised €20m from the Hopp Family Office. And that’s Hopp as in Dietmar Hopp, one of the five founders of SAP. Read more.
HoloRide, the Munich-based provider of technology that combines navigational and car data with XR, raised a €10m Series A (at a €30m valuation) led by Terranet AB with participation (among others) from Multi-Dimensional Connectivity (MDC) Limited, Schell Games, as well as Audi. Read more.
Knowunity, the Stuttgart-based digital learning platform for students, raised a €2m Seed round. Project A Ventures led the round, supported by business angels such as Mario Götze, Verena Pausder, Discovery Ventures and Saarbrücker21. Read more.
Dufour Aerospace, the Visp-based (Switzerland) manufacturer of a hybrid eVTOL passenger aircraft, raised additional funding led by investor session.vc, together with existing investors. Read more.
MedKitDoc, the Berlin-based start-up providing telemedicine services, raised €1.7m ($2m) in funding from various investors including Jochen Engert and Daniel Krauss from Flix Mobility, Hanno Heintzenberg and Lukas Pieczonka from McMakler, Florian Huber and existing shareholder Picus Capital. Read more.
France
Ocus, the Paris-based online photography platform, raised $24m in funding. The round was led by Ring Capital and joined by A/O PropTech and Expon Capital. Read more.
Ornikar, the Paris-based specialist in driver training and road awareness, raised a €100m Series C led by KKR, which is making the investment primarily through its Next Generation Technology Growth Fund. Existing investors Idinvest, BPI, Elaia, Brighteye and H14 also contributed to Ornikar’s latest fundraise. Read more.
OpenClassrooms, the Paris-based online education company raised $80m in funding by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Other investors include Lumos Capital, GSV Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. It already counts French state bank Bpifrance and General Atlantic as investors. Read more.
SOS Accessoire, the Elancourt-based start-up that helps people diagnose and repair their home appliances, raised $12m in a funding round led by ETF Partners and Quadia. The round was joined by Starquest, and Seed for Good. Read more.
EasyMile, the Toulouse-based start-up specialized in providing both software powering autonomous vehicles and smart mobility solutions, raised €55m in funding. Searchlight Capital led the latest round of funding, which also included money from McWin, NextStage AM, Alstom, Bpifrance and Continental. Read more.
Sweep, the Paris-based platform that allows companies to mobilize their employees and external partners to reach carbon reduction targets, raised a $5m funding round led by New Wave, 2050 and La Famiglia with participation from San Francisco-based technology entrepreneurs. Read more.
UK & Ireland
Current Health, the Edinburgh-based remote care management platform, raised a $43m Series B. The round was led by Northpond Ventures. Also participating in the round were LRVHealth, OSF HealthCare, Section 32, Elements Health Ventures and several of the company’s existing investors. Read more.
OneWeb, the London-based broadband satellite operator, raised $550m (€455m) from Eutelsat Communications, a European operator of geostationary (GEO) satellites. Read more.
Cuckoo, the London-based broadband services provider used to simplify broadband for users, raised $6m in funding led by RTP Global, along with participation from JamJar Investments. Read more.
Autonomous Flight, the Kent-based start-up that designs and manufactures an electric VTOL aircraft for the city and inter-city-based transportation, raised £5m as part of a £25m Series A funding round from private investors and institutions. Read more.
Taster, the London-based digital restaurant platform, raised a $37m Series B, led by Octopus Ventures. Read more.
Manna, the Dublin-based drone delivery service, raised a $25m Series A led by Draper Esprit and with participation from Lukasz Gadowski’s Team Europe, and DST Global, with existing investors Dynamo Ventures, Atlantic Bridge, and Elkstone all following on. Read more.
Nordics
CluedIn, the Copenhagen-based data management start-up, raised a $15m Series A led by Dawn Capital. Read more.
Kry (aka Livi), the Stockholm-based health platform that facilitates video consultations for patients through its app, raised a $270m Series D (putting the company's pre-money valuation at $1.73bn) led by CPP Investments and Fidelity Management & Research, and saw participation from existing investors, including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Index Ventures, Accel, Creandum and Project A. Read more.
MatHem, the Stockholm-based e-commerce company that combines a complete grocery store online with recipes and subscriptions for ready-made groceries, raised €14.8m in funding from Kinnevik. Kinnevik is joined by existing investors AMF and Stena, and the funding round also included €69.2m in debt facility financing provided by P Capital Partners. Read more.
Nhost, the Stockholm-based full-fledged serverless backend for web and mobile applications, raised a $3m Seed round. The round was led by Nauta Capital with participation from Tom Preston-Werner, Scott Chacon, Christian Bach, Mathias Biilmann, and Antler. Read more.
Lexplore, the Stockholm-based edtech start-up, raised €5m in a round led by education sector champion Sparkmind.vc. Read more.
Benelux
Bux, the Amsterdam-based ETF trading platform, raised $80m in funding led by Prosus Ventures and Tencent with participation from new investors ABN Amro Ventures, Citius, Optiver and Endeit Capital as well as previous backers HV Capital and Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures. Read more.
Qover, the Brussels-based provider of an API-first global insurance solution for the new economy, raised $25m with Prime Ventures as lead investor, backed by Cathay Innovation. Existing investors Anthemis and Alven have also participated in the funding round. Read more.
MessageBird, the Amsterdam-based communications software start-up, raised a $1bn Series C, $200m of which was raised last year. The deal, led by Eurazeo, comprised $700m in fresh equity and $300m in debt. Tiger Global, BlackRock and Owl Rock also joined as new investors. Read more.
Go Sharing, the Nieuwegein-based (Netherlands) micro-mobility ride-sharing platform, raised €50m in funding from Opportunity Partners, as well as its own founders. To be precise, the funding was raised by Go Sharing’s parent company, GO Green, but it appears that the e-moped operator will be the one benefiting from it. Read more.
Others
Viva Wallet, the Marousi-based (Greece) start-up building banking services aimed at small and medium merchants, picked up financing of $80m. Investors include Tencent, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Breyer Capital. Read more.
Barkyn, the Matosinhos-based (Portugal) pet products and wellness provider has extended its Series A round to close at €8m. The extension saw an additional €3m arrive via foodtech investors Five Seasons Ventures, as they join existing investors Indico Capital Partners, All Iron Ventures, Portugal Ventures, and Shilling Capital. Read more.
TravelPerk, the Barcelona-based B2B travel platform that helps organizations to budget, book, and manage business travels, raised a $160m (in equity and debt) Series D led by Greyhound Capital and participation from existing investors, although which investors were not specifically named. Read more.
Interesting SPACs
SoftBank SPAC in talks about $2bn merger with location start-up Mapbox. Read more.
Intelligence
Snappy Shopper, the Dundee-based developer of a digital e-commerce platform designed to facilitate the delivery of products from convenience stores to consumers, is reportedly in the process of raising a £12m Series A from Justin Matthew King.
Entrepreneur Till Reuter, formerly head of KUKA, invests in Spread. The Berlin-based start-up, which was founded in 2019 by Daniel Halbig, Philipp Noll and Robert Göbel, wants to teach machines to understand complex products. Cavalry Ventures, La Famiglia and business angels such as Sebastian Borek, Felix Jahn, Johannes Schaback and Just Beyer have already invested in the company.
The Helvetia Venture Fund together with btov is reportedly making an investment in Germany’s Baufi24, a property finance firm, by acquiring its shares as part of a Series A round. The amount raised via the transaction has not been shared publicly.
Silver Lake-sponsored Cegid tipped for stake sale later this year.
Investors
Carlyle’s AlpInvest Partners raised $3.5bn for its eighth co-investment fund. Read more.
Endeavour Vision, a Geneva-based growth stage investor raised $375m for Endeavour Medtech Growth II. Read more.
EQT Partners closed its latest fund, EQT IX, at €15.6bn ($18.7bn), ahead of its €14.8bn target. Read more.
Endeit Capital, a Dutch-German growth capital firm, raised €250m for its third fund. Read more.
Good reads
Time machine
The app MyHeritage brings photos to life, letting people animate old photos of deceased loved ones and ancestors. This has spurred a TikTok trend, including an emotional video of an elderly man seeing his deceased wife “come back to life” using synthetic media: