The European tech startup ecosystem has started shifting its focus on growth and expansion. With relaxations in place, several tech startups have hit the headlines as these have secured funding targeted at their growth.
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.
Revolutionary SaaS platform
Icelandic-based SaaS platform GRID that revolutionises the way people work with numbers and data has closed €10.1 million Series A funding. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) along with participation from existing investors such as Acequia Capital, Slack Fund, BlueYard Capital and other strategic partners. With this funding, GRID will bring its product to the market and accelerate its development.
Founded in 2018 by entrepreneur and data enthusiast Hjalmar Gislason, GRID gives wings to spreadsheets. The SaaS startup’s user-friendly software empowers people to turn any spreadsheet into a beautiful web report, dashboard or interactive application. It empowers every-day Excel users to turn these spreadsheets into modern web applications sans learning any new skills.
Challenger bank eyes rapid growth
Swiss challenger bank neon has completed a €4.6 million funding round from existing investors TX Group, Backbone Ventures, the Schwyzer Kantonalbank innovation foundation and the “Höhle der Löwen” investors Roland Brack and Bettina Hein. Also, the round is backed by new investors such as Helvetia Venture Fund, QoQa Services SA and other private investors. The company will use this investment for its rapid growth in customers.
Founded byJörg Sandrock, Julius Kirscheneder, and Michael Noorlander in 2017, Zurich-based neon lets you open a bank account and manage your debit card and account via an app. The digital banking service will help you keep track of your everyday finances. There areis no base fees, and the service provides you with a free Mastercard as well. Open a neon bank account in less than 10 minutes and manage your finances in just a few clicks with the neon banking app.
Advanced e-scooter with built-in helmet
TIER, a leading European e-scooter company, has unveiled the most advanced e-scooter in the world, which is yet to hit the streets. This new e-scooter comes with an inbuilt helmet, indicator lights, and user swappable batteries. The best-in-class e-scooter lets users earn free rides by swapping out batteries at charging stations across the UK cities.
Berlin-based TIER Mobility was established in 2018 by Julian Blessin, Lawrence Leuschner, and Matthias Laug. It is certified to be climate-neutral and plans to roll out its swappable battery tech by the end of 2021. The micro-mobility startup works with the mission to change the mobility industry for good.
Game-changing battery tech
Roche-based British Lithium has recently been awarded €560K for its game-changing technology that revolutionises the supply of lithium needed to manufacture Li-ion batteries on a large-scale. This funding comes as match grant funding from the ‘Innovate UK Smart Grant’, the highly sought-after award of the UK government. The fund will be used to progress its R&D into hard rock lithium extraction in Cornwall.
British Lithium was established in 2016 and is the first company in the UK to explore for hard rock lithium. Lithium is highly reactive and a light metal used in batteries, including those that power electric cars.
Next-generation social gaming platform
Gothenburg-based Hiber has bagged €1.9 million seed funding from Luminar Ventures, Bumble Ventures, Wild Sloths, Rasmussen, Sybo, Konvoy Ventures, and the GFR Fund. In addition to the investment, Sybo (Subway Surfers game publisher)’s CEO Mathias Gredal Nørvig joined the board of Hiber. The investment will be used to grow the next-generation social gaming platform and make it easy to create user-generated games.
Hiber, founded by Mattias Johansson and Michael Yngfors in 2017, is building a next-generation social gaming platform that is free to use. This platform focuses on social interaction and lets users create and play together and share the content with the rest of the world sans any need to code. Users of the social gaming platform can express themselves and has over 300,000 games from more than 250,000 monthly active users.
Leading Swedish open banking platform
Swedish fintech startup Open Payments has secured €3 million seed funding in a round led by Industrifonden, angel investors and existing investors such as Brightly Ventures and Luminar Ventures. The fintech startup will use the investment to continue to grow its team and establish its open banking platform in the Nordic and European markets.
Open Payments was founded in 2017 by Jonas Kjellin, Louise Brandt and Per Westin. It is the first fintech in the Nordic region to offer a genuine PSD2 aggregated platform that initiates account-to-account payments and retrieves account details and transaction history via a single API with the users’ consent.
Asperitas gets new CCO!
The Dutch immersion cooling specialist Asperitas has appointed Peter Uelen as its new Chief Commercial Officer. Peter has an extensive background in the datacentre industry and has served management positions at IBM, Schneider Electric, Lucent Technologies, and Vertiv. He replaces Wim Buters, the previous CCO at Asperitas.
Peter said, “The Asperitas Immersed Computing technology is very innovative. It’s not only an enabler for the next generations of IT hardware, but it will also strongly contribute to a more sustainable datacentre industry. We are in a position to continue our leadership in the immersion cooling market, with a strong and focused product portfolio validated by enterprise-level users and strategic partners like Shell to enable carbon-neutral datacentres globally.”
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