Amid the Coronavirus pandemic, several European tech startups have started to focus on growing and taking their businesses to the next level. With the recent fundings, these companies intend to boost their business as well as create more jobs around the world.
European tech startups weekly
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.
Visionable raises €558K to extend its Connected Ambulance offering
British health-tech company Visionable has raised £500K (approx €558K) in a fresh round of funding from Innovate UK Smart Grant, the UK’s innovation agency. With this, the company looks to extend its Connected Ambulance offering.
Connected Ambulance is an advanced communications system developed by Visionable which leverages 5G technology to connect ambulance paramedics and patients with specialist medical experts wherever they are located, through secure and reliable video conferencing. Utilising encrypted high-speed data and clinical-grade images, Visionable is enabling on-the-spot and accurate diagnosis of patients whilst reducing treatment times and improving patient outcomes.
The raised capital will be used by Visionable to develop its proprietary wearable devices for paramedics which allow them to live stream clinical consultations remotely while they are on-site treating patients. There will also be further improvements to in-ambulance telemedicine capabilities. This includes the digitising of onboard ambulance medical devices such as ECG Monitors to feed data and images to the Ambulance Command Centres and Remote Specialists in a bid to further streamline patient treatment and deliver essential healthcare on-site and on route to the hospital.
Founded in 2015 by Alan Lowe, and Lord Victor Adebowale, Visionable is a healthcare technology company that provides a digital collaboration platform for clinicians to deliver better patient care. It is designed by founders who have worked within the NHS and who continue to partner closely with NHS clinicians, the platform has been created to develop fit-for-purpose digital care pathways and virtual care consultations.
Zipp Mobility starts its e-scooters trials in 2 Buckinghamshire Towns
Dublin-based micro-mobility startup Zipp Mobility has commenced operating e-scooter trials in two Buckinghamshire towns. The company will be operating the trials, which have been approved by the UK Department for Transport (DfT), over the next 12-months, in Aylesbury and High Wycombe, in co-operation with Buckinghamshire Council.
The Irish startup will be operating an initial fleet of 25 e-scooters in both Aylesbury and High Wycombe, with plans to increase the fleet size to 300 scooters over the next two months. The company has also established its operations in High Wycombe to cover both trials and is creating seven (7) new local jobs.
Zipp Mobility is now operating e-scooter trials in three locations across the UK, including in Taunton, Somerset, in addition to the two Buckinghamshire towns.
Founded in 2019 by Charlie Gleeson, Zipp Mobility is an e-scooter operator that brings a more sustainable scooter sharing model to cities. Its e-scooter has a useful life of over two years, compared to the estimated industry average of just three months. In addition, Zipp’s all-electric charging fleet and use of swappable batteries make them 10 times more energy-efficient than the widely-used gig economy model.
CBD marketplace startup raises €1.2M in Seed round
London-based startup Alphagreen has raised £1.1M (approx €1.2M) in its Seed round of funding from Stockholm-based Enexis AB, US cannabis fund West Creek Investments, and angel investors including Igor and Oleg Tikhturov.
“The funding allows us to set up a new service in the US, the world’s biggest CBD market. We’ll establish and run a bespoke platform for American consumers looking to buy products as well as help leading US brands such as Charlotte’s Web enter Europe and list their products on our site,” said Alexej Pikovsky, co-founder and CEO of Alphagreen.
Currently, the startup generates organic traffic of 50k unique visitors a month and 80k page views and is growing at the rate of 30-40% month on month. This raised capital will allow the company to roll-out new products and services alongside its expansion into the US.
Founded in 2019, Alphagreen is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Alexej Pikovsky and Viktor Khliupko. It is an ecommerce platform and technology provider. The group is focused on
emerging e-commerce verticals such as CBD and other alternative healthcare products.
European AI startup ecosystem
With an aim to foster and accelerate Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Europe, German Entrepreneurship and the German Accelerator program as well as Vinnova – Sweden’s innovation agency – appliedAI, Ignite Sweden, AI Sweden, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and Hub France IA, developed a list of the top AI startups in their respective countries have been asked to provide an overview of the best AI startups in Europe.
This initiative came into being on November 17th, 2020, during a virtual Sweden Innovation Days event – the first version of the landscape – where over 500 startups were present from France, Germany, and Sweden.
As per the initiative, top represented industries include, Cross-industry (12.07%), Information Technology & Services (11.25%), Health & Pharma (9.41%), Transport & Mobility (7.57%), Retail & Commerce (7.36%), Manufacturing (6.34%), Enterprise Software (5.73%), Consulting (5.11%), and Finance & Insurance (4.91%).
Following the initial launch of the German/Swedish/French landscape, other European AI initiatives will be asked to participate in order to grow the landscape to include startups from more countries.
Objective Platform, a startup that lets you track and optimise social media activities has raised €2M
Amsterdam-based Objective Platform, a scale-up that provides marketing measurement and optimisation software, has raised €2M in a fresh round of funding led by Newion – an early-stage investor in B2B software companies. Robbert Visser (former CFO Dept) and existing investor The Hatch Firm also participated in the round.
Rudy de Back, CEO of Objective Platform, says, “Having opened offices in Singapore and London recently, this investment comes at a pivotal moment. The funding will be used to further expand our great team and platform.”
Objective Platform was founded in 2014 by Willem van der Weide and Andre Merkus to help companies take control of their media investments. The SaaS platform brings transparency to complex omnichannel media landscapes. By maximising the use of available data sources, marketing measurement models offer a holistic view across digital and traditional media without sacrificing granular information. This results in both strategic and tactical insights that marketers need to plan and optimise campaigns across channels.
The team works from offices in Amsterdam, London, and Singapore and counts Deutsche Telekom Group, Coolblue, and Vattenfal as its clients.
Sweden-based FirstVet, a digital veterinary clinic has raised €29.5M
Stockholm-based FirstVet, the company that provides pet-owners with on-demand video consultations from local, qualified veterinarians, has raised $35M (approx €29.5M) in a fresh round of funding led by Mubadala Capital, with participation from Cathay Innovation. Existing investors include OMERS Ventures and Creandum.
With this development, FirstVet has raised a total of $65M (approx €54.8M) since its inception in 2016.
The raised capital will help FirstVet to support its launch in the United States – where it already has an operational team of 14 staff members. In the US, it will enable pet owners of all
50 states to receive 24/7 expert vet advice and diagnoses for a variety of different animals, including cats, dogs, horses, and reptiles.
Founded by David Prien, Joakim Widigs, and Lars-Martin Norviit, FirstVet is a mobile app service that offers video call veterinary consultations for pet owners to provide solutions about the health of their pets. The startup is currently operational in the Nordics region, the UK, and Germany, employing a team of 55 staff and 250 veterinarians.
Juni raises Seed funding
Sweden-based online banking platform for e-commerce and online marketing professionals, Juni, has raised €2M in its Seed round of funding led by early-stage VC firm Cherry Ventures.
The round was also supported by a group of notable angels including NA-KD’s founder and CEO Jarno Vanahatapio, as well as iZettle’s former chief strategy and communications officer Johan Bendz.
The raised capital will help Juni for its product development and team expansion.
Founded in June 2020 Juni (still set to launch fully in early next year) was created by Samir El-Sabini and Anders Orsedal who were tired of “modern” banks creating problems rather than solving them.
According to TC, Juni looks to be a ‘financial companion” for the e-commerce and online marketing market. Its features include a debit card with cash back on advertising spend, along with cash flow management, invoice and bank statement matching, and liquidity management. Besides, the Juni dashboard also offers a centralised overview of users’ bank accounts, networks, and payment services.
PayPal founder and billionaire Peter Thiel invests in Insur-tech Neodigital
Germany-based digital insurance company Neodigital has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Christian Angermayer’s new European VC fund, Elevat3 Capital, as well as from PayPal founder and billionaire Peter Thiel.
Reportedly, Elevat3 Capital may invest around €125M through its first fund, which will focus on tech investments in Europe. Neodigital has already secured €100M from backers including Peter Thiel, and the fund expects to close in December.
Stephen Voss and Dirk Wittling founded Neodigital with an aim of making it the leading insurance factory. It is an insurance startup that provides digital insurance services for companies. The company has developed into a digital insurance company based on simplified and accelerated processes with the help of automation. It uses automation to help in the tailor-making of products for individuals like private liability, accident, and household products through independent brokers.
Neodigital was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Neunkirchen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.
This startup buys and builds amazon brands; raises €100M
Berlin-based SellerX, which buys and builds promising smaller businesses that sell via Amazon’s platform, has raised a Seed funding of €100M in a mix of equity and debt funding.
The round was co-led by Cherry Ventures, Felix Capital, and Silicon Valley-based TriplePoint Capital, with participation from Village Global. Besides, angel investors with e-commerce backgrounds also participated in this round; these include Zalando co-founder David Schneider and Shutterfly CEO and former Amazon UK CEO Chris North.
The raised capital will be used to roll up smaller enterprises that use fulfilment by Amazon for payments, logistics, and delivery of their products.
Founded by Malte Horeyseck and Philipp Triebel, SellerX buys and builds promising smaller businesses that sell via Amazon’s platform. Its aim is to make the acquisition experience as efficient as possible. Transactions are usually completed within 30-45 days after signing a letter of intent.
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