The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftereffects are setting the new normal in Europe. During this period, businesses are reopening and adapting themselves to the new standards. Despite this phase, the business activities in the European tech startup arena seem to continue as usual with many companies securing investment to expand their business, improve their products, and hire fresh talent.
European tech startups roundup
Here is a roundup of what happened last week in the European tech startup ecosystem.
Two tech companies team up to detect milk fraud
Two tech companies from Switzerland and the Netherlands have teamed up to accelerate the automated detection of milk fraud. These companies have come up with a platform, which is an integrated hardware device along with embedded software. The platform performs the milk validation analysis autonomously and delivers certified results sans any technical personnel.
Digi.Bio is an Amsterdam-based digital biotech company, which works with a vision to make biology programmable. Founded by Federico Muffatto, Frido Emans, and Jelmer Cnossen, this company uses technology that doesn’t require any pumps and complex chip designs. It has teamed up with a Swiss startup SwissDeCode, which was founded in 2016 by Brij Sahi. That develops rapid testing kits that help companies in different parts of the food supply chain to detect food contamination and
adulteration.
German fintech platform Penta closes Series B funding
Penta, a Berlin-based fintech platform has secured an additional €4 million funding to close the funding round of €18.5 million that it secured back in March this year. With this, the overall series B funding secured by Penta reaches €23 million. In addition to this funding round, the fintech startup welcomes S7V and Presight Capital as its new investors.
The previous funding round was backed by RTP Global along with HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. Further, ABN AMRO Ventures and VR-Ventures also joined this investment round. Founded in 2016, with Marko Wenthin, Jessica Holzbach, Luka Ivicevic, Lukas Zörner, Henrik Jondell and Igor Kuschnir in the top management, Penta lets companies apply for a business account within minutes and receive a German IBAN, debit cards for expense management and other financial services.
Cloud gaming company gets funding from Deutsche Telekom
Polish cloud gaming startup RemoteMyApp secured €2 million funding from Deutsche Telekom’s strategic investment fund, Telekom Innovation Pool GmbH. RemoteMyApp offers cloud gaming technology and gaming content to businesses across the world. Also, the company operates its own cloud gaming service, Vortex.gg. Besides the investment, both Deutsche Telekom and RemoteMyApp are working on a beta version of a platform that will provide the access to cloud gaming to the subscribers of Deutsche Telekom.
RemoteMyApp was established in 2014 by Radoslaw Zawartko and Rafał Krochmal in Szczecin, Poland. The app allows streaming from user’s computer to any other device. The Vortex Cloud Gaming platform Vortex.gg was launched publicly in 2017 and provides cloud-based games-on-demand service, which makes gaming possible anywhere and at any time.
Dutch bike startup Swapfiets expands in Europe
Dutch bike startup Swapfiets, which is well-known for the monthly bicycle subscription with its signature iconic blue front tire appears to be all set to become the leading brand in micro mobility membership service. In a recent development, the company has announced the expansion of its service in London, Milan, and Paris by the end of this year along with the addition of new e-mobility products.
Back in June 2020, Swapfiets reached a milestone of 200,000 members with immense groups in larger cities in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark. Swapfiets is the world’s first ‘bicycle as a service’ company. Founded in 2014 by Martijn Obers and Dirk de Bruijn, Swapfiets provides members with a fully functional bicycle or e-mobility solution. It also provides a repair service within 48 hours to repair or swap the same sans any additional cost.
Finnish mobile games studio Traplight secures funding!
Finnish mobile games studio Traplight focused on highly accessible mid-core games has secured €8 million funding led by EQT Ventures fund along with participation from Play Ventures and existing investors such as Heartcore Capital and Initial Capital. Also, the gaming startup has announced the global launch of Battle Legion, its new mobile gaming title.
Traplight will use the investment for Battle Legion and merge qualities from both mid-core and casual gaming titles. Already, Traplight founded in 2010 by Sami Kalliokoski, Jari Paananen and Riku Rakkola with immense experience in game development has high engagement metrics as well as a positive community response.
Swiss foodtech startup bags Series A funding
The Zug-based foodtech startup yamo has secured €10.1 million Series A funding from French investor Five Seasons Ventures, Ringier Digital Ventures, Swiss Entrepreneurs Fund, Müller Ventures, btov Partners, BackBone Ventures, Polytech Ventures and Fundament. This investment will be used by yamo to expand into France and add more products for children and it takes the overall funding secured by the foodtech startup to €12 million.
Established by José Amado-Blanco, Luca Michas and Tobias Gunzenhauser in 2016, yamo has witnessed great success for its natural and fresh food for babies and toddlers in the DACH region. The company services customers both via online and offline retailers.
UK startup secures funding to predict user behaviour
NumberEight, a UK-based contextual intelligence platform for mobile devices leverages advanced context recognition, AI and signal processing techniques to produce more than 100 contextual insights to provide mobile apps with real-time situational and behavioural consumer insights. It predicts consumer context to deliver the right content at the right time.
Recently, NumberEight, which was founded by Abhishek Sen and Chris Watts in 2016 bagged €2 million seed round led by Nauta Capital. This investment will support the UK-based company enhance its patent-pending technology, accelerate its business growth, and hire new talent such as engineering and commercial professionals.
Nauta Capital announces fifth fund of €120 million
Nauta Capital, a London-based VC has announced the fifth fund with a first close of €120 million. The VC firm operates from its three hubs located in Barcelona, Munich, and London and intends to invest in companies in the UK, Germany, and Spain. In addition to these countries, Nauta Capital also intends to support companies across Europe.
Already, the VC firm has used the investment to back UK-based NumberEight. And, its portfolio comprises of companies such as UK-based digital consumer intelligence company Brandwatch, a knowledge integration platform Onna, Berlin-based experience management platform zenloop, and PromoteIQ, which has been acquired by Microsoft.
Spanish startup Colvin pockets funding
Colvin, a Barcelona-based online flower delivery business has pocketed €14 million Series B funding led by Milano Investment Partners along with participation from Samaipata and P101, its existing investors. The company intends to use this funding to expand its team with the focus on business development and technology and expand its plant offerings in Germany.
Colvin founded by Andres Cester, Marc Olmedillo and Sergi Bastardas in 2017 has secured a total investment of €24 million. It is an online platform that sells bouquets with the intention to bring about a more efficient supply chain between people who grow flowers and consumers who buy them. This way, Colvin brings about better prices and improved quality.
Productivity app from ex-N26 exec secures investment
Berlin-based Amie, a new productivity app, which has been developed by Dennis Müller, an ex-N26 product manager has raised $1.3 million (nearly €1.15 million) pre-seed funding to kickstart hiring and development. The investment comes from Creandum, the well-known European VC, which is an early investor in Spotify along with Tiny.VC and other angels.
Established earlier this year, Amie intends to launch its service in early 2021. Amie develops productivity app combines a person’s calendar and to-dos in a single place. Formerly dubbed coco, it assures to work across all devices with an interface that works the way users think.
Online pharmacy secures funding to expand into telehealth
Truepill, a Manchester-based digital pharmacy enables healthcare organisations to deliver prescriptions directly to customers’ doors. Now, this company that was founded in 2016 by Sid Viswanathan and Umar Afridi has announced that it has secured $25 million (nearly €22 million) Series B funding from TI Platform Fund, Initialized Capital, Sound Ventures, and Optum Ventures. The company will use this investment to help scale its infrastructure and meet the surge in demand right now during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Truepill provides a slew of services for pharmaceutical manufacturers, health brands, and insurance providers including pharmacy fulfillment that provides medication directly to patients’ homes. Its APIs serve up programmatic access to its online pharmacy and lets brands customise the packaging themselves. Operating five pharmacies in the US and the UK, Truepill intends to open pharmacies in more locations soon.
Main image picture credits: Swapfiets
01
Empowering Ukrainian Startups: Highlights from the PowerUp Ukraine 2024 Conference