As a part of a weekly roundup, here is a list of some of the most important tech startups that have hit the headlines in Europe this week.
Glia raises €63.6M
New York-based Glia, a provider of digital customer service, has raised $78M (approx €63.6M) in its Series C round of funding led by existing investor Insight Partners. This round brings Glia’s total fundraising to $107M (approx €87.2M). Although it’s based in New York, a major chunk of its operations takes place in Estonia.
Don Brown, a pioneer in the customer service space, also invested in Glia’s current round. Brown was the founder and CEO of Interactive Intelligence, which was acquired by Genesys in 2016 for $1.4B (approx €1.14B).
Founded in 2012 by Daniel Michaeli, Carlos Paniagua, and Justin DiPietro, Glia is reinventing how businesses support their customers in a digital world. Its solution enriches web and mobile experiences with digital communication choices, on-screen collaboration and AI-enabled assistance.
Glia has partnered with more than 150 financial institutions, insurance companies and fintech providers globally, to improve top and bottom-line results through digital customer service.
Too Good To Go raises €25.3M
Copenhagen-based, the startup that lets you buy food right before it goes to waste, Too Good To Go, has raised $31.1M (approx €25.3M) in a fresh round of funding. Blisce is leading the round and investing $15.4M (approx €12.5M). Besides, existing investors and employees also participated in this round. The raised capital will help the company to consolidate its current market and expand in the US.
Founded in 2015 by Chris Wilson, Jamie Crummie, and Klaus B. Pedersen, Too Good To Go develops an app for fighting food waste and saving delicious food. Through the app, anyone can make a difference by saving perfectly good, delicious food from going in the bin. The company aims to reduce food waste worldwide, and their vision is to create a world where food produced is food consumed.
Too Good To Go is a Social Impact company fighting global food waste, and is B Corp certified as of 2020. B Corporation (also B Lab or B Corp) certification of “social and environmental performance” is a private certification of for-profit companies, distinct from the legal designation as a Benefit Corporation.
Currently present in 15 countries, Too Good To Go saves more than 100,000 meals every day by connecting consumers with restaurants and grocery stores in their local communities through its dedicated mobile app.
Combating Cancer
Theolytics, a UK biotech harnessing viruses to combat cancer, has raised $6.8M (approx €5.5M) in its Series A round of funding. The round was co-led by Epidarex Capital and Taiho Ventures LLC with participation from existing investor, Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI).
The raised capital will be used to progress the company’s pipeline of candidates towards human clinical trials.
Founded in 2017 by Charlotte Casebourne, Margaret Duffy, Kerry Fisher, and Len Seymour, Theolytics is a biotechnology company harnessing viruses to combat cancer. The company uses an adenovirus platform to develop targeted, self-amplifying therapeutic agents and aims to deliver innovative cancer care to the people in need worldwide.
“A step-change in the oncolytic viral therapy field, our phenotypic screening Platform enables the discovery and development of efficacious, targeted candidates suitable for intravenous delivery and optimised for a chosen patient population. In addition to advancing an internal pipeline of programs spanning both solid and liquid tumours, we are establishing select strategic partnerships to expand and accelerate pipeline development,” says the company.
Mass producing powerful motors for electric vehicles
Belgian automotive startup Magnax has raised €16M in its Series A round of funding led by Hirschvogel Automotive, a large manufacturer of automotive components, through its investment arm Hirschvogel Ventures.
The raised capital will enable Magnax to accelerate its development of electric motor technology. The Magnax team is preparing the technology for mass production at Hirschvogel’s facility in Germany.
Magnax was founded in 2015 by Peter Leijnen, Daan Moreels, and Kester Goh.
Peter Leijnen assembled a light generator for a foldable wind turbine in his garage in Deinze for a customer. Because this generator had to be light and compact, but at the same time had to deliver a lot of torque, Leijnen opted for an axial machine instead of the classical and easier to manufacture radial machine, of which millions are made each day.
Leijnen built upon the expertise of Ghent University, which has been researching so-called axial flux machines since 2008. According to experts, they are the electric motors of the next generation, because they are more efficient in terms of electromagnetics. The technology is based on a concept already known 200 years ago, a motor topology called “axial flux”, but which is just recently coming into play in a practical way, says the startup.
€1.2M for at-home air purifiers
Italy-based Vitesy, a startup producing IoT devices that purify the air, has raised €1.2M through equity and debt financing. Online investment platform Doorway led the round, raising €500K through its community of investors, and other business angels invested another €500K. The remaining €200K was received in the form of a bridging loan.
Founded in 2015 by Alessio D’Andrea, Paolo Ganis, and Vincenzo Vitiello, Vitesy has created smart devices that monitor and eliminate indoor air pollution.
The company’s mission is to have Vitesy products be present in every home, school, and office, protecting people from the environmental challenges of modern living and enabling them to live easier, happier, healthier, longer lives. The raised capital will help the company to speed up its commercial distribution and the development of a new at-home consumer product called Eteria.
Confirmit intends to merge with FocusVision
Confirmit, a provider of solutions that enable market research, customer experience and employee engagement teams to turn insights into stories that fuel action, has announced its intention to merge with FocusVision, a company that provides customer insights technology.
The merger is conditioned on receipt of regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021. The combined company will be led by Confirmit CEO Kyle Ferguson and supported by members of both the FocusVision and Confirmit management teams.
FocusVision offers a suite of experience insights software solutions, including advanced survey, online interview and focus groups, and online qualitative research community solutions to get brands close to their customers to have a full understanding of how they think, feel, and act.
As for Confirmit, it offers market research, customer experience and employee engagement software solutions to turn insight into stories that fuel action. The platform delivers the flexibility and power that customers need to understand and manage experiences, emotions, and behaviours, so they are always one step ahead.
With this merger, the combined company will provide a one-stop-shop of complementary software solutions and offer benefits to existing and new customers.
Veo Technologies raises €20M for global expansion
Danish technology company, Veo Technologies, has raised €20M in a fresh round of funding led by Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker (a tobacco company) with participation from existing investors, including Seed Capital, US-based Courtside VC, and European investors Ventech.
The raised capital will be used to further invest in Veo’s product development and accelerate its ongoing global expansion. Veo CEO, Henrik Teisbæk, believes the US is the optimal place to gain a permanent foothold.
Founded in 2015 by Henrik Teisbæk, Veo is a solution for recording and watching sports without a cameraman. It only requires a minimal setup to be able to share your sport. Veo enables football clubs of all sizes to automatically record, edit, and stream their matches. The company has sold its product to almost 5,000 clubs in 79 countries since they opened for sales in 2018.
As of December 2020, over 200,000 games have been recorded on Veo cameras, and the number is set to drastically increase in coming years.
Mambu raises €110M led by TCV
Berlin-based SaaS banking platform, Mambu, has raised €110M in a fresh round of funding. The round was led by TCV, whose investments include Netflix, RELEX, Spotify, and WorldRemit. Besides, new investors, including Tiger Global and Arena Holdings, as well as existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Runa Capital and Acton Capital Partners, also participated in this round. The new round brings the company’s valuation to over €1.7B.
Founded in 2011 by Eugene Danilkis, Frederik Pfisterer, and Sofia Nunes, Mambu is a SaaS banking engine powering innovative lending and deposits. The platform is used by traditional banks, fintech startups, financial institutions, nonprofits and other businesses to power their financial products and services.
Mambu claims to be powering both: a) building new fintechs and b) migration of existing financial institutions onto a tech stack fit for the fintech era.
“This latest funding round allows us to accelerate our mission to make banking better for a billion people around the world and address one of the largest, most complex global market opportunities that’s still in the infancy of cloud,” says Eugene Danilkis, co-founder and CEO of Mambu.
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