The Japanese investments in the Nordics, the American VC invasion in Europe, and interesting startups from across the continent.

#9

Nov 24, 2019

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

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MENU

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

1. More money in the market

🇪🇺 The EU is planning a $3.9 billion fund that will invest in early stage tech in an effort to increase innovations that might someday take on giants in the U.S. and China

🇳🇴 Northzone announced Northzone IX, a $500M fund for European startup investments.

🇬🇧MMC Ventures outs new £100M ‘Scale Up’ fund to double-down on its portfolio at the later stage

🇫🇮 Dutch VC firm Borski Fund raises €21 million fund to blow wind in the sails of female founders

🇩🇰 Unconventional Ventures raised €125,000 to invest in Nordic early-stage startups led by founders from underrepresented groups

Bonus:

Amsterdam-based Newion added John Sjölander as Nordic partner in Stockholm, who will have about 10 million euros available to invest in Scandinavia and Germany.

2. How others are doing it

🇸🇪 How to raise your next funding round - structured, planned, must read for entrepreneurs

🇫🇷 9 reasons why Series A is not “just a big Seed round”

🇪🇸 The thinking behind launching a prepaid card for young people from 14 years of age (aka Gen Z)

🇫🇮 Aalto University launched a free online startup course to teach basic skills of entrepreneurship.

🇸🇪 Another day, another case of a foreign worker being kicked out of Sweden, this time a biomedicine scientist. Sweden has already gotten this fame in Europe of not being foreigner friendly, and the general feeling is not great according to a study made by SCB. It is too bad as especially the local startup ecosystem is in dire need of good people and a multicultural environment is more competitive than a monocultural one.

🇪🇺 Meanwhile, a group of VCs from Europe kicked off Included VC in an attempt to change the face of the venture capital industry - the program includes 30 individuals, 16 nationalities, 9 countries, 60% female and 56% black, Asian or mixed. Background story here.

🇬🇧 The UK should learn from France’s tech visa

Bonus

3. Interesting bets

🇧🇪 Belgium

direct-to-consumer fine jewelry brand using lab-grown diamonds and recycled gold | €1.1 million | Talis Capital, angel investors

🇪🇪 Estonia

influencer marketing platform | Icebreaker

🇫🇷 France

online tool that helps students learn to read at their own pace | €5 million | Partech, EduCapital, Citizen Capital.
medtech working to improve fertility care | €1.7 million | Inventure, Doberman, Privilege Ventures

🇩🇪 Germany

platform for efficient agricultural production | €6.6 million | RTP Global, Piton Capital, Atlantic Labs, Index Ventures.
collaborative product management and roadmapping software | €1.7 million | Nauta Capital

🇳🇱 Netherlands

online shaving brand | €10 million | JamJar Investments, Slingshot Ventures
manufacturer of an AirConsole that transforms any Laptop or AndroidTV into a video game console | $3 million | Ringier Digital Ventures, Swiss Founders Fund, Alpana Ventures, EquityPitcher Ventures
plug-in AI services to make optimised decisions in Workforce Management | $2 million | Volta Ventures

🇪🇸 Spain