europe News of 01/21/20

Challenger Business Bank Qonto Raises $115 Million Round Led By Tencent And DST Global

Challenger business bank Qonto raises $115 million round led by Tencent and DST Global image French startup Qonto has raised a $115 million Series C funding round led by Tencent and DST Global. Today’s news comes a few days after another French fintech startup Lydia raised some money from Tencent. Existing investors Valar and Alven ...

Personio, The German HR Platform For SMEs, Raises $75m Series C At A $500m Valuation

Personio , the Germany-founded HR platform for SMEs, has raised $75 million in Series C funding in a round led by Accel. I understand the investment values the company at around $500 million. Also joining is Lightspeed Venture Partners, alongside ...

Maze Raises $2 Million And Adds Figma Support To Enable User Testing At Scale

Maze wants to reinvent usability tests by letting you turn design prototypes into tests in just a few clicks. It could become the equivalent of a developing test suite for developers, but this time for designers — it could be something that you ...

Google’S Sundar Pichai Doesn’T Want You To Be Clear-Eyed About AI’S Dangers

Alphabet and Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, is the latest tech giant kingpin to make a public call for AI to be regulated while simultaneously encouraging lawmakers towards a dilute enabling framework that does not put any hard limits on what can be ...

France Improves Stock Options Policies For Startup Employees

A couple of weeks ago, France’s digital minister Cédric O announced some changes when it comes to stock options in France. President Emmanuel Macron is going to talk about the new policy today ahead of the World Economic Forum. While I don’t ...

Open Banking Platform Tink Raises €90m At A Post-Money Valuation Of €415m

Tink , the European open banking platform, is disclosing €90 million in new funding, just 11 months after the Sweden-headquartered company announced a €56 million round of funding. Co-leading this new round is Dawn Capital, HMI Capital and ...

EU Lawmakers Are Eyeing Risk-Based Rules For AI, Per Leaked White Paper

The European Commission is considering a temporary ban on the use of facial recognition technology, according to a draft proposal for regulating artificial intelligence obtained by Euroactiv . Creating rules to ensure AI is ‘trustworthy ...

Harvestr Gathers User Feedback In One Place

Harvestr gathers user feedback in one place image Meet Harvestr , a software-as-a-service startup that wants to help product managers centralize customer feedback from various places. Product managers can then prioritize outstanding issues and feature requests. Finally, the platform helps you get ...

LocalGlobe Partner Julia Hawkins Discusses Femtech’S Risks And Rewards

London-based seed fund LocalGlobe is incredibly active at the early-stage end of the startup pipeline with a broad focus across multiple sectors and areas, including health. We interviewed partner Julia Hawkins about the opportunities and risks ...

Cambridge Analytica Email Chain With Facebook Sheds New Light On Data Misuse Scandal

Cambridge Analytica email chain with Facebook sheds new light on data misuse scandal image Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser has released new documents today that suggest Facebook accepted only a simple acknowledgment on email from the firm that it had deleted data associated with 87 million Facebook users’ profiles. ...

Privacy Experts Slam UK’S “Disastrous” Failure To Tackle Unlawful Adtech

The UK’s data protection regulator has been slammed by privacy experts for once again failing to take enforcement action over systematic breaches of the law linked to behaviorally targeted ads — despite warning last summer that the adtech ...

Funnel Closes $47m Series B To Prepare Marketing Data For Better Reporting And Analysis

Funnel , the Stockholm-based startup that offers technology to help businesses prepare — or make “business-ready” — their marketing data for better reporting and analysis, has closed $47 million in Series B funding. Leading ...

What We Know (And Don’T) About Goldman Sachs’ Africa VC Investing

Goldman Sachs is investing in African tech companies. The venerable American investment bank and financial services firm has backed startups from Kenya to Nigeria and taken a significant stake in e-commerce venture Jumia, which listed on the ...

Hyundai And Kia Put Over $110m Into UK Electric Delivery Vehicles Startup Arrival

Forget the consumer market for electric vehicles. It turns out delivery vehicles could be the ‘Trojan horse’ for electric to really take off. Korean auto giants Hyundai and Kia put over $110 million in UK startup Arrival, which emerged from ...

Matera Raises $11.2 Million To Let You Handle Residential Property Management Yourself

Matera , the French startup formerly known as illiCopro, is raising a $11.2 million funding round (€10 million). The company has been building a SaaS platform to give you all the tools you need to handle property management for your residential ...

Bolt Raises €50m In Venture Debt From The EU To Expand Its Ride-Hailing Business

Bolt, the billion-dollar startup out of Estonia that’s building a ride-hailing, scooter and food delivery business across Europe and Africa, has picked up a tranche of funding in its bid to take on Uber and the rest in the world of on-demand ...

Atomico Promotes Surgeon-Turned-VC Irina Haivas To Partner

Irina Haivas, the surgeon-turned-VC that joined London-based VC firm Atomico in late 2018 and has already led several investments on behalf of the firm, has been promoted to partner. Her Atomico investments to date include: Healx, the Cambridge, ...

Getsafe, The German Insurtech, Brings Its Contents Insurance App To UK

Getsafe, the German insurtech, brings its contents insurance app to UK image Getsafe , the German insurtech that offers home contents insurance via an app, has launched in the U.K., despite an increasingly competitive market for insurance in the country, and the thorny regulatory issue of Brexit. This has seen Getsafe ...

Mobile Payment App Lydia Raises $45 Million Round Led By Tencent

Mobile payment app Lydia raises $45 million round led by Tencent image French startup Lydia is raising a $45 million Series B round (€40 million). Tencent is leading the round with existing investors CNP Assurances, XAnge and New Alpha also participating. If you live in France, chances are you already know Lydia ...

Mass Surveillance For National Security Does Conflict With EU Privacy Rights, Court Advisor Suggests

Mass surveillance regimes in the UK, Belgium and France which require bulk collection of digital data for a national security purpose may be at least partially in breach of fundamental privacy rights of European Union citizens, per the opinion of ...