Notable Transactions
AI startup Poolside, which is building AI models that can create software code, has raised a $500m Series B ahead of publicly releasing its first product. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures; DST Global, as well as a number of enterprises such as Nvidia, HSBC Ventures, LG Technology Ventures and eBay Ventures
Synova has exited Swiss software platform Avantra, netting a 4.5x return on investment. Atlanta-based private equity firm Resurgens Technology Partners has acquired the portfolio company, in what represents the first European deal
Based between California, Israel and Austria, xtype, a leading software company for multi-instance management on the ServiceNow platform, announced it had raised a €19 million Series A funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners
Verdane has acquired a majority stake in sports booking business Eversports. Founded in 2013 and based in Vienna, Eversports has a B2B product for operators of sports facilities and studios
Robotic warehouse startup Dexory has raised $80m in a joint equity and debt-based Series B funding round from DTCP alongside Latitude, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe
TPG Rise Climate and GIC, are to acquire Techem Group, a service provider for smart and sustainable buildings from Partners Group for €6.7bn
Ameba, a London-based AI startup developing supply chain insights software, has raised $7.1m in seed funding from Hedosophia who led the round
Submer, a company enabling next generation cooling and automation for data & energy-intense environments, announcd a successful investment round of €50.2 million led by M&G
Lovable, the platform aiming to allow anyone to create software, announced the closure of its €6.8 million pre-seed funding round. The round was led by Hummingbird and byFounders
Pockit has acquired Monese for an undisclosed sum, securing the long-term future of the London fintech that had warned on its ability to raise funds
xFarm Technologies, a tech company focused on the digitalisation of the agri-food sector, providing innovative tools that can support farmers and stakeholders in the management of their businesses, has announced the closing of a €36 million Series C funding round led by Partech
TA has acquired a majority stake in Solifi, a global fintech software partner for secured finance, with existing investor Thoma Bravo retaining a meaningful investment in the business
Soho Square Capital has exited its investment in Assured Data Protection, a managed services provider focused on backup, disaster recovery and cyber resiliency as a service, to Oakley Capital
Key Capital Partners has invested in excess of £7m for a significant minority stake in TheIceway, a specialised cruise IT company based in the UK
Foresight Group has exited fintech Substantive Research to Euronext, achieving a 2.4x return on its original investment
London-based Basecamp Research, which sends scientists around the world to collect microbes and discover novel proteins to build a database of previously unexplored biology, has raised $60m in a Series B round led by Singular
Quartr, a software and data provider revolutionizing qualitative public market research for finance and investor relations professionals, announced the closing of a €5.4 million investment from Altos Ventures
Paebbl, a company turning captured CO2 into permanent, carbon-storing materials, has raised a €22.8 million Series A funding round from Capnamic, Climate Pledge Fund, Holcim and Aurum Impact
Berlin-based forward earth, a leader in AI-powered environmental management solutions, has raised €4.5 million in seed funding, the round, led by Mosaic Ventures
Qantev, an advanced AI-powered platform transforming how health and life insurers manage claims, reduce costs and improve services, has raised €30 million in a new funding round led by Blossom Capital
Shift Bioscience is exploring how generative AI models can be used to understand how the activation of different genes can rejuvenate cells to combat the effects of age-related illnesses and has raised $16m in seed funding from BGF
French cyber insurance leader Stoïk announced a €25 million Series B funding round led by Alven with participation from existing investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Munich Re Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, and Anthemis
Omnea, an AI-powered procurement orchestration and supplier risk management platform, has raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Accel
German driverless car startup Vay, which rolled out its first commercial service in Las Vegas in January 2024, has raised €34m in debt from the European Investment Bank to build out its service in Europe
Iceland-based Frumtak Ventures has led an €8 million investment in AviLabs whose technology, Plan3, is redefining how airlines handle passenger disruption challenges
BGF has exited its investment in DriveWorks, a provider of design automation and 3D sales product configuration software to manufacturing and engineering companies, generating a money multiple of 2.7x and an IRR of 32%
CorPower Ocean, a pioneering Swedish leader in wave energy technology, has secured €32 million in Series B1 funding from NordicNinja, SEB Greentech and EIT InnoEnergy
Verdane has acquired a majority stake in software developer Cropster. Founded in 2008 and based in Innsbruck, Austria, Cropster’s suite of tools and data analytics aim to support stakeholders across the barista ecosystem
Neuphonic, a UK startup redefining human-AI communication with the world’s fastest text-to-speech technology, has raised £3 million in pre-seed funding in a round which was led by Moonfire VC
dottxt, an ecosystem and platform for interacting with LLMs, announced a combined raise of €11 million in funding, following the completion of both pre-seed and seed rounds in just over seven months, the rounds being led by Elaia and subsequently EQT Ventures
Plural, the investment group run by government AI advisor Ian Hogarth, has led a $22m round into Oriole Networks London startup using light to train large language models
Vinted has reached a €5 billion (around $5.4 billion) valuation via a secondary share sale, as they sold €340 million worth of shares to an investor group led by US private equity firm TPG
Paris-based GenAI startup LightOn has announced that it is planning to list publicly on the Euronext Growth stock exchange in Paris this year, with the company targeting a €10m capital increase at a valuation of €50m
French startup Filigran, which provides open-source tools to help organisations protect themselves against cyber attacks, has raised a $35m Series B from Insight Partners
Main Capital Partners has exited Perbility, a German HR software provider, to Rivean Capital for an undisclosed sum.
Keel, a startup lowering tech barriers with a user-friendly platform for building custom operational software, aimed at growing, tech-enabled businesses, announced €5.5 million in seed funding from leading European investors Earlybird and LocalGlobe
Cyber Guru, a fast-growing cybersecurity awareness training platform which enables organisations to increase their resistance to cyber threats by changing employee behaviour, announced it has raised €23 million in Series B funding from Riverside Acceleration Capital
AI startup Sana has raised another $55m in a round led by US-giant NEA, reaching a valuation of $500m. Menlo Ventures and also participated in the round
NorthEdge has made an undisclosed investment in Telford-headquartered edtech software provider, PebblePad, as it looks to support the company’s expansion in the US
Norvestor has acquired a majority stake in accounting tech business Wint Group from Neudi & Co and others, joining the portco’s cap table alongside its management and “key” employees
Latest Funds
Paris-based Kurma Partners, a health and biotech-focused VC that’s part of the Eurazeo Group, is announcing a €140m first close of its new fund targeting €250m in total in 2025
Morgan Stanley Investment Management has held the final close of the 1GT climate private equity fund at $750m of equity capital commitments, with a number of institutions in Europe, Japan and North America leading the investor group
Italian venture capital firm Mito Technology has held the first close of its latest fund of €55m as the fund targets €90m for a final close
Former partners from Speedinvest and Target Partners, Dominik Tobschall and Michael Munnix, are today launching a new fund, Backtrace, to invest in early-stage software developer, security and AI infrastructure startups
Dutch private equity firm Mentha has closed its first Impact Fund at €153m, ahead of its hard-cap target of €140m
Podcaster Harry Stebbings’ venture capital firm 20VC has reached a $400 million close on its third fund targeting early-stage investments. The vehicle is more than double the size of its predecessor, which raised $140 million in just four months in 2021
Forbion, has raised over €2bn across its two newest funds, Forbion Growth Opportunities III and Forbion Ventures VII, bringing total assets under management to €5bn
node.vc, a Nordic early-stage venture capital firm led by veterans of leading startups and scaleups has closed a €71m fund
Resurge Growth Partners has unveiled a new venture equity vehicle in a bid to bridge the gap between venture capital and private equity for high-potential European and Israeli scaleups. The firm will invest over €120m via the vehicle over the next three years
Mubadala Capital, the wholly owned alternative asset management subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, has closed its fourth private equity fund, MIC Capital Partners IV, securing total commitments of $3.1bn, and surpassing its initial target of $2bn
UK and Ireland lower midmarket investor Hypha Private Equity has held the first close of its maiden fund on £73m. They secured 70% of the fund’s £100m target just three months after launching
General Catalyst, the global investment and transformation firm, has closed its largest global fund to date, raising over €7.5 billion in new capital. This historic fund aims to support the world’s most ambitious entrepreneurs, transcending the traditional venture capital model to tackle pressing global challenges
Verdane has held the final close of Verdane Idun II on the decarbonisation fund’s €700m hard-cap, more than double the size of its €300m predecessor fund.
Industry News
Blackstone has committed to invest £10bn in the United Kingdom to finance the construction of one of Europe’s largest artificial intelligence data centres
Advent International is targeting a push on deals in the lower mid-market across its global investment strategy
Google has added an extra 400 staff to its UK headcount as it prepares to move into its huge new office in London’s King’s Cross
Meta AI, a ChatGPT competitor developed by the Facebook and Instagram parent company, has launched in the UK
Nearly €100 billion could be wiped off Europe’s unicorn market value as stalling growth puts valuations under pressure
Earlybird Digital East Fund has become the first European VC firm ever to land the number one position in the HEC-Dow Jones Venture Capital Performance Ranking
Former London tech journalist Steve O’Hear has died aged 49 after a short illness. O’Hear worked for TechCrunch for over a decade and covered the rise of many of the UK’s most successful tech businesses, like Monzo and Wise
Venture Capital firm Forgepoint has launched a new London hub – with a dedicated on-the-ground team – as part of its plan to scale-up investment across Europe, focusing on early-stage and select growth stage start-ups in cybersecurity, AI, and infrastructure software
The UK Treasury could potentially raise up to £1bn in additional revenue by taxing private equity profits as income. With research suggesting that increasing the carried interest tax rate to 45% would only reduce the take-home pay of the top 100 private equity executives by 16%
Tech investor Paladin Capital Group has appointed Nazo Moosa, formerly of Energy Impact Partners, as Managing Director for the firm’s European operations, driving international investments and fundraising, as well as serving on the Executive Committee
Current mandates:
Growth Equity Associate (UKI) – London, UK
M&A Manager – London, UK
Partner (Early stage Climate VC) – Remote/Hybrid
Sources:
https://www.uktech.news/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/
https://www.privateequitywire.co.uk/
https://www.fnlondon.com/
https://sifted.eu/
https://www.eu-startups.com/
https://realdeals.eu.com/
https://pitchbook.com/
https://www.penews.com/
https://tech.eu/
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