europe News of 01/16/21

Luko Raises $60 Million For Its Home Insurance Products

Luko raises $60 million for its home insurance products image French startup Luko has raised a $60 million Series B funding round (€50 million). The round is led by EQT Ventures, with existing investors Accel, Founders Fund and Speedinvest also participating. Some angel investors with a background in ...

Revolut Lets Businesses Accept Online Payments

Fintech startup Revolut is launching its own acquiring solution . With this move, the company is competing directly with Stripe, Adyen, Braintree or Checkout.com. This is an in-house product and not just a fresh coat of paint on an existing ...

Enter New Markets And Embrace A Distributed Workforce To Grow During A Pandemic

Sarah Cole Contributor Sarah Cole is a senior associate in Taylor Wessing 's Silicon Valley office. She advises mostly North American technology and life sciences companies on their investments into the UK and Europe, including ...

Joe White MBE Appointed New UK Consul-General In SF, With New Technology Envoy Role

Joe White MBE — a General Partner of Entrepreneur First , a Greylock backed early-stage deep tech fund — is leaving after being appointed as Her Majesty’s Consul-General, San Francisco, and Technology Envoy to the United States in a new, combined ...

Two Key UK Military Non-Profits Join Forces To Boost Veteran Training In Cyber And Tech

Two key UK military non-profits join forces to boost veteran training in cyber and tech image Advancements in the tech and the cyber threat landscape are creating vast job opportunities. The global cyber security market is projected to reach £210 billion by 2026. But in the UK, out of 952,000 working aged (16-64) UK military veterans and ...

NASA Selects Four Companies For Moon Material Collection As It Seeks To Set Precedent On Private Sector Outer Space Mining

NASA has selected the winning candidates that they’ve decided to tap to collect lunar resources for eventual Earth return, from a number of commercial companies who applied. The four companies all have rides booked on future commercial lunar ...

As Crypto Comes Back, Binance-Backed Injective Protocol Launches Testnet For Its DeFi Trading Platform

Decentralized exchange protocols that allow crypto traders and investors to trade across different blockсhains have been in development for a while. A significant new development now comes with the launch of the ‘Testnet’ from Injective Protocol . ...

Europe To Put Forward Rules For Political Ads Transparency And Beef Up Its Disinformation Code Next Year

New rules for online political advertising will be put forward by European Union lawmakers next year, with the aim of boosting transparency around sponsored political content. The Commission said today that it wants citizens, civil society and ...

Taking On The Business Scenario-Planning Giants, Pigment Raises A $25.9m Series A Led By Blossom Capital

Realizing that modern, complex businesses can no longer be adequately managed using spreadsheet-style programs, the founders of Pigment decided there had to be a better solution. Their business forecasting platform has now raised a substantial ...

Portugal’S Bizay – A Customized Products Marketplace For SMBs – Just Raised A $38.6m C Round

Bizay , a marketplace for small-to-medium-sized businesses allowing them to create highly customized products (such as merchandise), has raised a $38.6 million (€32 million) funding round. The Series C financing round was co-led by investors Indico ...

Bolt Unveils Its Fourth-Generation Scooter

Bolt unveils its fourth-generation scooter image Bolt is better known for its ride-hailing service. But the company also operates an electric scooter service in 45 cities across Europe. Designed by the company’s in-house hardware team, the new model focuses on safety. As you can see on the ...

Food Robotics Startup Karakuri Unveils Automated Canteen, Plus $8.4m Investment Led By Firstminute

Last week I witnessed for myself how a new kind of robot really could — as sci-fi has been telling us for many years — create and serve us food. Today, Karakuri , a food robotics startup, unveils its first automated canteen to make meals: the ...

Europe Will Push To Work With The US On Tech Governance, Post-Trump

The European Union said today that it wants to work with US counterparts on a common approach to tech governance — including pushing to standardize rules for applications of technologies like AI and pushing big tech to be more responsible for ...

The UK Approves The BioNTech/Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine For Emergency Use

The UK approves the BioNTech/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use image The UK government has approved the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 for emergency use, following the recommendation of the national medicines regulator. The UK is the first country to approve the vaccine for widespread use — paving ...

Monzo, The U.K. Challenger Bank, Picks Up Additional £60m In Funding

Monzo , the U.K. challenger bank now with more than 4.8 million customers, has closed another £60 million in funding, priced the same as and effectively an extension of the its previous top-up round in June. This saw Monzo valued by private ...

Revolut Launches Early Salary Feature In The UK And Web App

Fintech startup Revolut has two new features this week. First, the company is launching a web app for its regular users — not just business users. Second, in the U.K., Revolut has partnered with Modulr to let you receive your salary a day ...

Voi, The European ‘Micro Mobility’ Rental Company, Raises $160m Additional Equity And Debt Funding

Voi , the Stockholm-headquartered micro mobility company known for its e-scooter rentals, has raised $160 million in new funding. The round, about two thirds equity and one third debt, is led by The Raine Group. Others participating include VNV ...

Floww Raises $6.7m For Its Data-Driven Marketplace Matching Founders With Investors, Based On Merit

Floww – a data-driven marketplace designed to allow founders to pitch investors, with the whole investment relationship managed online – says it has raised $6.7M / £5M to date in Seed funding from angels and family offices. Investors ...

Novakid’S ESL App For Children Raises $4.25m Series A Led By PortfoLio And LearnStart Investors

With the pandemic playing havoc with children’s education EdTech startups have been on a roll. A new fundraising seems to come almost every week at this point. Today it’s Novakid’s turn. This EdTech startup is yet another ‘learning English ...

Vivenu, A Ticketing API For Events, Closes A $15m Series A Round Led By Balderton Capital

vivenu , a ticketing platform that offers an API for venues and promoters to customize to their needs, has closed a $15 million (€12.6 million) in Series A funding led by Balderton Capital. Previous investor Redalpine also participated. ...