While the coronavirus might have had a notable impact on the economy, investors didn’t shy away from striking deals this year. This is reiterated by PitchBook’s European Venture Report for Q2 2020, which provides us with a deeper insight into the VC ecosystem in Europe, deal activity, fundraising activity, exit activity and more. While we have already covered the top 10 exits across Europe in another article, here, we will be taking a look at the top 10 VC deals that happened in Q2 this year, for companies based out of Amsterdam.
Otrium
Founders: Max Klijnstra and Milan Daniels
Deal value: €24M
Total funding: €32.6M
Otrium is a Dutch fashion e-commerce startup whose marketplace allows fashion brands to open an online outlet with minimal effort and all the advantages. The company was launched back in 2015 and it closed its Series B funding round in May 2020 wherein it raised a whopping €24 million. The round was led by Eight Roads Ventures while Index Ventures and Hans Veldhuizen participated as well. Otrium is planning to expand internationally after its latest funding round.
Roamler
Founders: Martijn Nijhuis
Deal value: €20M
Total funding: €26.2M
The Amsterdam-based rapidly growing pan-European crowdsourcing platform Roamler raised €20 million in its Series B funding round amid pandemic. The company operates three brands, which consist of Roamler Retail, Roamler Tech, and Roamler Care. In the retail sector, the company is the European leader in crowd-supported field-marketing activities. The latest funding round for it was led by Endeit Capital, SmartFin, and Achmea Innovation Fund. The company’s future plans include growth across Europe, along with international expansion, commencing with the UK and Germany.
VanMoof
Founders: Taco Carlier, Ties Carlier
Deal value: €12.50M
Total funding: €21.5M
VanMoof is a Dutch startup that specialises in manufacturing electric bikes. The company secured €12.5 million in its latest funding round in Q2 2020, which was led by Europe’s leading venture capital firms Balderton Capital and assembly partner SINBON Electronics. The company aims at international expansion plans as it aims to scale up for keeping up with the increased e-bike demands.
Cobase
Founders: Jorge Schafraad
Deal value: €10M
Total Funding: €17.6M
Founded back in 2017, Cobase offers a one stop, end-to-end solution for corporate customers who manage multiple bank accounts at various banks. It raised €10 million in its latest funding round back in June this year, which was led by The Nordic bank Nordea and the French Crédit Agricole CIB. Cobase plans to utilise the fresh investments for further development of its offerings and expansion of its network and connected banks.
Connecterra
Founders: Saad Ansari, Yasir Khokhar
Deal value: €7.90M
Total Funding: €18M
Connecterra set a new benchmark by securing the biggest Series B investment of €7.9 million for a European livestock tech company. The startup trains Artificial Intelligence for helping out in farming, which will help empower farmers of all sizes to increase the productivity of their farm, while reducing the notable impact animal agriculture has on our planet. The investment in Connecterra’s last round was led by AgTech specialists ADM Capital, Kersia, Dutch impact investor Pymwymic, Breed Reply and Sistema_VC. Connecterra is currently focussed on growing its presence in dairy leading regions such as Europe, North America and New Zealand. It is also working to further scale up and develop the AI models and technology behind Ida, its artificial intelligence-based system.
Finom
Founders: Konstantin Stiskin, Andrey Petrov, Oleg Laguta, Yakov Novikov
Deal value: €6.5M
Total Funding: €6.5M
Finom raised €6.5 million funding in seed round. Investors in the startup include Target Global, with participation from General Catalyst, along with other investors including FJlabs, the Raisin founders Tamaz Georgadze, Frank Freund, and Michael Stephan, as well as Ilya Kondrashov, the founder of MarketFinance. The company intends to use this funding to develop its product and plans to expand further into Italy and France in the summers of 2020. The company pulls together the accounting, financial management, and banking functions for early-stage businesses and SME into one mobile-first product.
Lepaya
Founders: Peter Kuperus, René Janssen
Deal value: €5.6M
Total Funding: €5.6M
The Amsterdam-based Lepaya is a provider of soft skills training courses that offers a blended training program – online and classroom training sessions in soft skills. It raised €5 million from media group Mediahuis. With the funding, Lepaya aims to accelerate the implementation of its projected growth plans and further develop its range of training courses and the underlying technology.
Growth Tribe
Founders: Peter van Sabben, David Arnoux, Quentin Lacointa
Deal value: €3M
Total Funding: €3M
Amsterdam-based startup Growth Tribe offers specialised training in multiple digital domains with the aim of bridging the gap in digital skills. It raised €3 million in its first funding round, which was led by Rinkelberg Capital Ltd. Growth Tribe will utilise the funds to further develop its training portfolio and learning experience platform. This forms the basis for further international expansion. The company is also ready to expand its learning suite reskilling and upskilling the workforces of large enterprises via internal academies.
Wakuli
Founders: Yorick Bruins, Lukas Grosfeld
Deal value: €0.5M
Total Funding: €0.5M
Wakuli is a coffee supplier scale-up that directly sources coffee from farmers to offer them a fair price. The company pays coffee farmers over 2–3 x more than typical supermarket brand coffee brands. It raised €500,000 in a seed round, which was led by VenturesOne and some informal investors. With the latest funding, the company aims to grow its business further and add at least 15,000 subscribers this year, and launch new coffee products every couple of months.
Bundleboon
Founders: Monique Janke and Nelli Jeloudar
Deal value: €0.5M
Total Funding: €0.5M
Bundleboon is an Amsterdam-based startup that features a curated shopping platform for kidswear. The company’s founders, Monique Janke and Nelli Jeloudar, appeared in an episode of Dutch Dragons’ Den wherein they walked away with €500k for 50 percent stake in their company. Bundleboon will invest the fresh funds on IT development and marketing of the startup.
Main image credits: VanMoof
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