🌟 QUICK INTRO
I’m Seb and this is my new newsletter. It covers all the big news regarding European Tech every week. This week there’s been some big funding rounds, some financial reports, an acquisition and a big CEO-investor fall-out.
I would love any feedback you have, so let me know any thoughts you have by replying to this email or reaching out on LinkedIn.
I’ve also launched a paid version of this newsletter that will include extra articles that go in a lot more depth on specific issues (e.g. deep dives into the N26 CEO ousting, and the Apple - Mistral rumours). Sign up here: https://scaling-europe.beehiiv.com/upgrade
💰 FUNDING ROUNDUP
Turkish fintech Midas raised an $80m Series B from QED Investors with participation from the International Finance Corporation, QuantumLight, and HSG. More here.
German drone startup Stark raised $62m led by Sequoia at a $500m valuation. More here.
Swiss Loft Dynamics raised a $24m Series B to redefine pilot training with VR simulators, led by Friedkin with participation from Alaska Airlines. More here.
UK-based Phoebe raised a $17m seed round led by GV and Cherry Ventures to build AI immune system for software. More here.
German startup Hades, which aims to help Europe re-shore its critical mineral production raised a €5.5m pre-seed led by Project A. More here.
📰 THE NEWS
Qonto
Sifted got access to the French neobank’s latest financial results, which saw profit double and revenue grow significantly:
€144m of net profit (vs €71m in 2023)
€449m of revenue (vs €312m in 203)
Growth came from an increase in customer subscriptions and in transaction revenue. Valued at €4.4bn Qonto one of France’s most highly-valued scaleups.
N26
Cofounder Valentin Stalf is stepping down as CEO after a fallout with some of the company’s investors.
The FT reported that investors were pushing both cofounders out as a response to their poor handling of regulatory issues. The company has been fined in the past and had its customer numbers capped at 50k back in 2021 due to regulatory failings.
Tayenthal, N26’s co-CEO, is still in his position.
There are rumours that the founders are lining up a deal with investors that would seem them both leave the company and be replaced with (on an interim basis) the chairman of the supervisory board Marcus Mosen.
Starling Bank X Ember
The UK fintech has acquired Ember, the accounting-software startup, to enable it to offer tax and bookkeeping tools to its small business customers.
The transaction is reportedly less worth than £10m.
Ember was founded in 2019 by Daniel Hogan and Aaron Shaw who, along with 30 employees, will be joining Starling.
The arrangement comes ahead of rule changes which will force sole traders and landlords to report their financials every 3 months, instead of every year.
Starling is also rumoured to be looking at purchasing a US bank to help it expand there.
Lovable
Last week Anton Osika spoke on Bloomberg TV where he announced that the company:
Is on track to hit $250m ARR by the end of the year
Will hopefully hit $1bn ARR within 12 months
Is currently adding at least $8m ARR every month
Norrsken Evolve
Norrsken Foundation has announced a new €57 million pre-seed fund - Norrsken Evolve. It will back startups working "at the intersection of impact, resilience, and scalability".
The fund will be led by Johan Attby, Alex Bakir, and Rebecka Löthman Rydå, and will target European founders building in deeptech, sustainability and in areas critical to Europe’s self-reliace.
ElevenLabs
A woman who lost her voice due to Motor Neurone Disease has been able to get her voice back 25 years later thanks to ElevenLabs.
Simon Poole, from the UK, was able to take an 8 second VHS clip of the woman’s voice and build her voice again using ElevenLabs which she can now use for her eye-gaze technology.
Read the full story here.
U-Blox
Advent International, a Global private equity firm, is acquiring the Swiss chip developer U-Blox Holding.
The transaction is valued at $1.3bn according to a report by Reuters.
Monzo Bank
The Financial Times has reported that the UK fintech is planning to launch a digital sim, and offer monthly contracts in the UK.
It's very early in the process apparently so there is no launch date yet. Monzo is following in the footsteps of several other fintechs that either have launched (or are planning to launch) eSIMs:
N26 is rolling out eSIMs soon
Klarna announced this year that it's rolling eSIMs in the US
Nubank has launched it already
Revolut plans to launch monthly plans in the UK and Germany (already has eSIMs)
Cleo
I sat down with CEO Barney Hussey-Yeo where we discussed:
IPO: The company should hit $500m ARR in the next year at which point Barney sees the IPO market open up for them, however whether they IPO immediately or wait is TBC
Raising: Cleo will do at least 1 more primary round of funding before IPO'ing to scale internationally and invest in top ML talent
International Expansion: Cleo should be available in the UK, Latam, and Canada within 6 months
We also discussed capital markets, UK politics and much more. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/8n0_mDDLqZE
That’s all. Let me know what you think.
Seb