Notable Transactions
Investcorp Technology Partners, is to acquire a majority stake in VEDA, an HR software and digitally enabled payroll-as-a-service provider in the DACH region
UK legaltech Robin AI has raised £18.1m in a Series B round which was led by Temasek
Paris-based startup Nabla, which provides doctors with an AI-powered tool that generates clinical notes from patient consultations, has raised a $24m Series B to continue expanding in the US
Kick ICT, a Scottish information technology service provider, has secured £17m from LDC, as BGF exits and doubles its investment
Bumper, a fintech providing buy now pay later payment options for car repairs, has raised £40m in a funding round featuring backing from Porsche and Jaguar Land Rover
Norwegian AI startup 1X has announced its $100m Series B, led by EQT Ventures and will use the capital to launch its new android NEO, tailored for everyday domestic tasks for consumers
European scooter startups Tier and Dott are set to merge, the companies have announced, with the new valuation set to be €150m, a significant drop from Tier’s €2bn valuation in 2021
YFM Equity Partners have sold their shareholding in KeTech Defence, part of KeTech Group, to safety and security company Wescom Group, generating a 2.8× return for YFM’s investors in the process
Charterhouse Capital Partners, has acquired data-driven sports marketing company Two Circles
Zilo, a fintech developing asset and wealth management software, has announced a £25m Series A funding round led by FISV
CloudTalk, which makes AI-powered software for call centres, has raised a €26m Series B co-led by KPN Ventures and Budapest-based Lead Ventures, which is one of the largest rounds in Slovakia
e-fuels company Ineratec has announced a $129m Series B, led by Piva Capital, a US VC firm investing in energy and industrial startups, with participation from existing investors such as Planet A Ventures and HTGF
Aira, which supplies heat pumps and home energy tech to consumers, raised €87m in Series B funding in October last year. It’s now extended that Series B by a further €58m, bringing the total to €145m
Paris-based EV-charging startup Electra has raised a €304m Series B to expand its network of charging stations across Europe, the round is all equity and was led by Dutch pension fund PGGM
Quantum computing company Quantinuum has secured $300m in funding at a pre-money valuation of $5bn, the round being led by JPMorgan Chase
PSG has paid over €100m to acquire a majority interest in Visit Group, a Nordic-based, hospitality and travel software company
Kennet Partners has agreed to a deal to sell learning and development platform provider Eloomi to Ceridian, a blue-chip HR software company, netting a 3x return on its initial investment
Barcelona-based unicorn TravelPerk has raised $104m to improve its business travel platform with AI-powered capabilities, he funding round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund, with participation from Kinnevik and Felix Capital
Just a year after announcing a small pre-seed round, ElevenLabs, a voice AI startup, which launched text-to-speech technology, has landed $80m in a Series B co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, and joined by Sequoia Capital
Allianz Direct, a digital-first German subsidiary of the insurance giant, has acquired the French home insurance business of ailing insurtech Luko for €4.3 million
Just a year after raising $11.6 million, Kittl raised another $36 million in a Series B round led by IVP as startup has been working on a graphic design tool that you can use in your web browser without having to install an app
Latest Funds
Barcelona-based VC firm Encomenda announced the first close of its new Encomenda II fund, as well as its first seven investments ranging from marketplaces to fintech
Cinven has held the final close of its latest flagship fund, the Eighth Cinven Fund at its hard cap of $14.5bn, nearly 30% larger than its 2019 vintage predecessor fund
London-based Thema, is a new fund-of-funds which plans to write cheques of up to £5m into three to four first-time VC funds each year
EQT has set out a new healthcare growth strategy focusing on scaling innovative, fast-growing healthcare companies and announced its first acquisition under the programme
Aramco, has allocated an additional $4bn to its global venture capital arm, Aramco Ventures, more than doubling the capital allotted from $3bn to $7bn
Bowmark Capital, has closed its seventh flagship fund, Bowmark VII, with commitments totalling over £900m and exceeding its predecessor fund by approximately 50%
Vidia Equity, a thematic private investment firm focused on industrial decarbonisation climate solutions, has held the final close of its inaugural fund at its hard cap of €415m
Early-stage VC Delin Ventures has closed a new £46m fund targeting future of work, education and learning startups in Europe
ISAI Expansion has completed the first close of its third tech-focused fund ISAI Expansion III on €190m
Smedvig Ventures has closed a new €115m fund targeting B2B startups across Europe, with a focus on the UK, Nordics and Benelux, it is the Smedvig family offices 1st venture-specific fund
Plural, the VC firm set up by four former founders (and prolific angel investors), has raised a second fund of €400m just 18 months after its first €250m fund
London-based investment firm Fuel Ventures has launched a £50m VCT and will target 30 investments in high-growth tech innovation over the next three years
Industry News
Gerard Grech, the founding CEO of Tech Nation, is among some of the tech leaders who have been recognised in the New Year Honours list 2024
Ben Wallace, the UK’s former defence secretary, says Europe needs an additional £1bn defence tech fund, warning Europe’s innovation in this area could “disappear across the Atlantic”
Northvolt, has secured approval from the European Commission for €902m in state aid from Germany to build a production plant in the north of the country
UK fintech funding fell by a steeper rate than the global average in 2023 but retained its second place for investment globally, funding fell by 66% in 2023, as investments dropped from 592 to 409
General Atlantic acquired Actis, a global investor in sustainable infrastructure, creating a diversified, global investment platform with approximately $96bn in combined AUM
Harris Williams, appointed Jonathan Abecassis as a Managing Director in the firm’s private capital advisory group in London, joining the firm from Credit Suisse
EIF, the biggest backer of VC funds in Europe has reported that they expect the market will begin moving by the 2nd half of 2024, amidst huge amounts of capital that funds are sitting on
Stockholm-based climate start-ups raised $3.6bn in funding in 2023, putting the city a top of the leaderboards within the sector, narrowly beating London at $3.5bn
Information Sources: sifted.eu, www.privateequitywire.co.uk/, www.uktech.news/, www.penews.com/, techcrunch.com/, realdeals.eu.com/
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