A cool new 1.5 billion in VC & PE funds, best European entrepreneur, the Spanish VC ecosystem and the state of SAAS from Finland.

#8

Nov 17, 2019

This is the eight edition of Sunday CET, a weekly curation of what we found interesting in the European investment tech landscape.

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1. More money in the market
2. How others are doing it
3. Interesting bets
4. Data, research, observations
5. What others think

1. (A lot) More money in the market

🇸🇪 EQT announced its second venture fund, EQT Ventures II, at €660 million.

🇬🇧 Balderton raised new $400 million fund to continue supporting outstanding European founders at Series A

🇫🇮 DevCo Partners announced raising €180 million for further investments from Finland.

🇫🇮 Lifeline Ventures announced its fourth fund at €130 million to invest in Finland.

🇫🇮 Juuri Partners announced a €110 million new fund, Juuri Rahasto II Ky.

🇮🇱 Angular Ventures closes $41 million fund with focus on Israel, European startups

🇳🇴 Bertel O. Steen launched BOS Kapital, an investment firm with €30 million to invest in small- and midsize companies primarily based in Norway

Bonus:

Sequoia Capital plans to open its first-ever European office in London, and has hired a search firm to help it find investment talent in Europe for the first time
Lazarus, the US investment bank, hired a ten-person new team based in London that will focus on European private firms seeking growth equity and venture capital.

2. How others are doing it

🇸🇪 A great interview with Daniel Ek, probably one of the best entrepreneurs from Europe

If I were to choose one of the better entrepreneurs from Europe Daniel Ek would be it. He is a great example of a visionary guy who not only built one of the greatest tech companies of our times but also positioned it in a sustainable way to unlock value and open up new and interesting avenues serving billion of people.

Daniel’s work should be a conversation starter whenever Europe finds itself in the odd position of comparing to Silicon Valley since he didn’t copy anybody but built his own path.

Bonus, for a better understanding of Spotify’s business:

Foundational Videos: Get Acquainted With The Spotify Story!

🇪🇺 UEFA signs three start-ups as part of innovation drive

The three start-ups which were offered the opportunity to work with UEFA as it launched its Innovation Hub:

WSC Sports (Israel) - AI-powered video creation tool for sports content
Formalytics (Australia) - mobile phone used for ball tracking, turning any football into a smart ball.
LiveLike (USA) - next-gen OTT sports technology company delivering live sports experience to fans on any platform

🇫🇮 How Inventure adds a VC platform to its investment business

🇸🇪 How to get to $10+ million in sales in 3 years in a difficult market: headphones. With no venture money.

🇮🇱 Launching Angular Ventures I

Bonus:

Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore - here’s how they will go about without it
How to make money the startup way

3. Interesting bets

🇫🇮 Finland

software platform that facilitates virtual meetings | €3.5 million | Maki.vc, Reaktor Innovations, Bragiel Brothers, Foobar Technologies

🇫🇷 France

web-based teaching platform using AI to customize learning | $5.5 million | Partech Partners, Citizen Capital, Educapital

🇩🇪 Germany

mobile service for employees to develop their potential through live coaching sessions via video calls | €10 million | HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Partech, Speedinvest, RTP Global
mobile software company developing an outfit recognition tool that works with Instagram | $7 million | IDI Partners
fully self-driving system designed to operate vehicles for cleaning purposes | €6 million | Redalpine, Berlin Technologie Holding
advanced vector design software solution | €5 million | HV Holtzbrinck Ventures
cross-brand platform for used premium e-bikes, via ecommerce or subscription | €4 million | Vorwerk Ventures, STS Ventures

🇮🇱 Israel

optical tracking based sports analytics company | $5 million | ADvantage Sports Tech Fund, Bundesliga, REDDS Capital, angel investors

🇳🇱 Netherlands

Energy Data Management platform for utility companies | €1 million | EDP Ventures

🏴 Scotland

LiFi technology manufacturer | $18 million | Temasek, Scottish Investment Bank
provider of online tools for offline businesses to connect with their customers | £1 million | Techstart Ventures, Galvanise Capital, Judy Wilson
platform that enables convenience stores and corner shops to sell online | Kelvin Capital, Mercia, Scottish Investment Bank

🇪🇸 Spain

social-impact startup that offers different fundraising solutions for Non-Governmental Organizations | €565k | Equity4Good

🇸🇪 Sweden

payment solution for p2p transactions | $2 million | Inbox Capital, Inventure, angel investors

🇨🇭 Switzerland

platform for the analysis of magnetic materials at the nanoscale based on a proprietary quantum technology | $2.6 million | Quantonation, ZKB Start-up Finance, High-Tech Gründerfonds

🇬🇧 UK

home services marketplace | $32 million | A/O Proptech, Target Global, Round Hill Ventures
social network for motherhood | $5 million | Index Ventures, Sweet Capital, Greycroft, Sound Ventures, Female Founders Fund, Felix Capital, Partech
AI assistant that enhance people’s bank balance | $3 million | VentureFriends, EBRD, Christian Faes
recruitment program and platform provider that connects businesses and students across secondary and higher education | £2.75 million | Puma Private Equity

4. Research, data, observations

🇪🇺 Facts, figures and investment deals from the Nordics for the month of October

66 deals | $240.4M value | 15 with undisclosed data
🇸🇪 Sweden - 32 deals
🇳🇴 Norway - 14 deals
🇫🇮 Finland - 10 deals
🇩🇰 Denmark - 7 deals
🇮🇸 Iceland - 3 deals

🇪🇸 The evolution of the Spanish VC ecosystem — 2019 edition

two-city ecosystem (Barcelona & Madrid) - 76% of all rounds, 84% of volume invested
60% of the dealflow in seed rounds (< 1M), on a downward yoy trajectory though
B2C country for many years. B2C still drives most investment volume
top sectors = sectors with more weight in Spain’s GDP. Real estate, fintech, energy, transportation, food.

🇫🇮 The state of SAAS startups in Finland, as it results from asking 116 Finnish B2B SaaS companies

Some key answers:

most active investors: Gorilla, Icebreaker, Superhero, Vendep
pace declining, from over 100 deals in 2016 to less than 100 in 2018
sales and scaling are the biggest issues to overcome
2/3 of SAAS products are horizontal applications (focused on the needs of a company not of a market)

🇬🇧 Which are the top UK universities turning research into businesses (Entrepreneurial Impact Ranking 2019 report)

The Queen’s University of Belfast
The University of Cambridge
Cardiff University
Queen Mary University of London
The University of Leeds

🇪🇺 Unauthorized immigrants accounted for less than 1% of Europe’s total population of more than 500 million people living in the 28 European Union member states

Half of Europe’s unauthorized immigrant population live in Germany and the United Kingdom
Among the roughly 24 million noncitizens of EU-EFTA countries living in Europe, fewer than one-fifth were unauthorized immigrants in 2017.
asylum seekers in Europe still awaiting a decision on their pending application accounted for nearly a quarter (20% to 24%) of Europe’s unauthorized immigrant population in 2017.