Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Investment

  • Portuguese company MOV.AI closed a $4 million financing round

    Portuguese company MOV.AI closed a $4 million financing round

    MOV.AI, a provider of an enterprise-grade ROS development & run time environment for cobots (collaborative robots), announces that it has closed a $4 million financing round, bringing the total capital raised to $8 million.

    The fundraising was led by SOMV and existing investors NFX, and Viola Ventures.

    The company’s solution enables hardware-software separation to simplify the development and implementation processes of robotic systems.

    MOV.AI’s system includes unique features such as a graphical interface for describing robotic behavior, autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, and compliance with safety requirements.

    The company currently focuses on selling its products in Western Europe, particularly in England, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, and Ireland, and initial sales in Singapore and the USA.

    Robots operated by the MOV.AI system are used in the logistics and manufacturing industries of fashion, food, hospitality, automation for postal services, automotive manufacturing and more. 

  • NAG Studios raise $1m pre-seed round

    NAG Studios raise $1m pre-seed round

    NAG Studios has raised $1M in pre-seed funding to produce a Super Bowl spectacle. The round was led by games sector titan LVP with participation from Antler.

    Founded by games industry veteran Peter Stahl (ex-DICE & Resolution Games) and esports expert Johan Skott (ex-Tobii, Survivors Esports, Co-Op.gg), NAG is dedicated to creating the next generation of competitive experiences for gamers.

    With their first game, NAG will integrate community professionals (pro-players, teams, broadcasters and streamers) from day one making a product truly meant for the new gaming culture.

    Eight-time Counter Strike world champion and founder of the team Ninjas In Pyjamas, Emil “HeatoN” Christensen says: ”What these guys are building, I want to play now. To be integrated as part of the advisory group inside the dev team from the beginning is unheard of, and [I have] goosebumps all over.”

  • Spendesk raised another $18 million Series B round

    Spendesk raised another $18 million Series B round

    Spendesk announced it has raised $18 million in addition to its Series B round last year ($38 million). The new investment comes from global VC fund Eight Roads Ventures and brings the total raised to $68.5 million.

    Since its Series B in September 2019, Spendesk has opened three new offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco, and increased their headcount from 100 to over 200 people.

    The additional capital raised will allow the company to further scale its team to support growth.

    Spendesk will also continue to expand its product offering to provide budgetary control, spending insights, dashboards, and the ability for finance teams to temporarily limit employees from spending further if they haven’t submitted their receipts.

    Founded in 2016 by Rodolphe Ardant, Guilhem Bellion and Jordane Giuly within French startup studio eFounders, Spendesk now serves over 40.000 end-users at growing businesses.

    The company has raised $68.5M to date including two previous rounds led by Index Ventures. Headquartered in Paris, Spendesk has offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco.

  • Romanian platform Oncochain targets € 350.000 on SeedBlink

    Romanian platform Oncochain targets € 350.000 on SeedBlink

    Oncochain, a data collection and analysis platform for oncology research, aims to raise 200.000 euros through equity crowdfunding on SeedBlink.

    The total value of the financing is 350.000 euros, the round being led by the Cleverage VC investment fund.

    Oncochain is a startup launched in Timișoara at the beginning of 2019 by the couple Mădălin Margan (32 years old) and Roxana Margan (32 years old), both being doctors specialized in obstetrics-gynecology.

    Data collected from daily clinical practice are provided to oncology health professionals, research institutes, and pharmaceutical companies in the form of statistical analyzes.

    The statistics are anonymous and aims to generate information that can guide research and increase the quality of medical services.

    Since its launch, Oncochain has received investments of approximately € 80.000: the investment of the co-founders, European funds, grants from companies and a business angel.

  • Greece to sell Hellenic Shipyards, its largest shipyard

    Greece to sell Hellenic Shipyards, its largest shipyard

    Greece started on Friday the bidding process for the sale of Hellenic Shipyards, the country’s largest shipyard, the Greek Finance Ministry announced.

    The activity of the military division of Hellenic Shipyards, which is based in Skaramangas, near Athens, is to be reviewed.

    The US-based International Development Finance Corporation, along with a Greek company, have expressed interest in the Skaramangas shipyard, Athens authorities said.

    Analysts estimate that Greece will get only a small share of the estimated revenues from privatizations in 2020 because the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has forced authorities to postpone planned asset sales to avoid low bids.

    Athens authorities expect to get between 350 and 400 million euros, the head of the privatization agency, Aris Xenofos, told Reuters, well below the initial target of 2.4 billion euros.

    Greece’s Gross Domestic Product fell by 14% between April and June 2020, the worst quarterly contraction in 25 years.

  • Rockstart launches a €21m fund to invest in energy startups

    Rockstart launches a €21m fund to invest in energy startups

    Rockstart, one of Europe’s first accelerators, launches its second Fund of € 21m to invest in energy startups.

    The Rockstart Energy Fund aims to invest in energy startups in Europe with a primary focus in the Netherlands. The Energy fund is the second fund launched by Rockstart after the 2019 launch of the Rockstart Agrifood Fund.

    Rockstart has been active in the Energy domain since 2014. The company has a 75% follow-on funding rate from its latest Energy accelerator, with €5.2m raised by portfolio companies within 1.5 years.

    The Rockstart Energy Fund is launched with the participation of an institutional investor, family offices, and business angels.

    The main investors in the fund are the Dutch pension fund ABP, De Hoge Dennen Capital, investment companies and several prominent angel investors from The Netherlands and Germany. The fund is supported by the seed capital scheme from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).

  • Abris signs agreement to acquire majority stake in Apaczka

    Abris signs agreement to acquire majority stake in Apaczka

    Abris has signed an agreement to purchase the majority of shares in Apaczka, the largest e-commerce delivery solutions provider in Poland.

    The transaction is subject to the standard approval procedure of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK).

    Headquartered in Warsaw, Apaczka functions as a technology platform and an integrator, offering comprehensive shipment services for e-commerce stores, SMEs and small office / home office clients.

    Over the past decade, Apaczka has made close to 30 million shipments for more than 160.000 customers. The company has achieved increased revenues over recent years, exceeding €30m in 2019.

    Abris made successful investments in Polish e-commerce logistics business Siódemka, and Romanian courier services provider Urgent Cargus.

  • Ukraine to modernise and digitalise the Ukrposhta postal service

    Ukraine to modernise and digitalise the Ukrposhta postal service

    The European Investment Bank (EIB) and JSC Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s national postal service provider, have signed a €30 million loan to continue the modernisation and digitalisation of the country’s postal services.

    The loan will allow Ukrposhta to start modernising its logistics network with three new sorting hubs, 20 postal depots and IT infrastructure.

    With the loan from the EU bank, Ukrposhta will design and roll out a new, state-of-the-art parcel logistics network, reduce delivery times and improve the overall quality of the postal service for millions of Ukrainians.

    An improved and affordable postal service with reduced delivery times will also improve conditions for doing business in the country (especially for small and medium enterprises).

    The EIB has also provided a technical assistance package to Ukrposhta and assisted in the development of its investment programme.

  • Airly raises $2m pre-seed round. The financing was led by Giant Ventures

    Airly raises $2m pre-seed round. The financing was led by Giant Ventures

    Airly announced a $2m pre-seed round to scale its AI-powered air quality platform globally. The financing was led by Giant Ventures.

    Leading angel investors also participated, including: members of Sir Richard Branson’s and Sir Ronald Cohen’s families; Pipedrive co-founder Martin Tajur; Cherry Ventures partner and former Spotify CMO Sophia Bendz; former Gojek CMO Piotr Jakubowski; and Henkel board member Konstantin von Unger.

    Existing investor Wojtek Burkot (ex-Engineering Director at Google) also participated in the round via his fund Bitspiration Booster. Poland’s National Center of Research & Development provided additional funding.

    How Airly system workes

    Airly provides accurate, ultra-local, predictive air quality data for governments, companies and individuals to understand the air their communities breathe. 

    Airly’s sensors act as a global warning system for pollution at street level and in real time. Its proprietary breakthroughs in sensor miniaturization and machine learning allow it to monitor more pollutants with greater accuracy, at lower cost, and in more places. 

    The system involves dense networks of sensors that measure particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5 and PM10) and gaseous compounds (NO2, SO2, O3 and CO).

    It provides users live access to this data through an intuitive mobile app and online map. 

    Airly’s AI-powered air quality forecast function allows it to predict the flow of pollutants for the next 24 hours with a verifiability of up to 95%. 

    Airly has more than 10.000 data points in over 30 countries

    Airly’s customers comprise over 400 local governments and cities including Berlin, Jakarta, Oslo, Rome, Athens and Krakow, corporates such as Philips, PwC, Motorola, Aviva, Veolia and Skanska, as well as schools, universities, and charitable foundations.

    Recently launched API allows media, technology, and finance companies to access live air quality data globally. 

  • Romanian Cassa software wants to get 200.000 euros on SeedBlink

    Romanian Cassa software wants to get 200.000 euros on SeedBlink

    Cassa aims a 200.000 euros funding by listing on SeedBlink. The listing will take place tomorrow, October 6, at 10.00 AM.

    Cassa is a Software as a Service application that orders in a smart way the flow of documents and simplifies communication between accountants and entrepreneurs.

    The app was launched in June this year by Cornel Fugaru (34 years old) and Daniel Teodoroiu (32 years old).

    Digitization and thus the elimination of manual work of accountants is based on a technology of optical character recognition (OCR) that allows the transformation of scanned documents, photographs, PDFs into editable documents.

    For example, the OCR system gives accountants the ability to export to their own accounting software the invoices issued by the application or received through it.

    Regarding the communication between accountants and companies, the message flow is similar to the Facebook’s feed. Thus, users can comment, like, share or download the documents.

    The application has 500 users – accounting firms and their clients. The platform is addressed firstly to accountants, but they have the opportunity to become resellers for their own accounting clients.

    2.000 customers by the end of the year

    By the end of this year, the company aims to reach 2.000 customers, and by the end of 2021 to have 15.000 users.

    One of the factors that led to the rapid adoption of Cassa services is the Coronavirus pandemic.

    Cassa’s management estimates revenues of 500.000 euros for 2021 if it manages to obtain the 200.000 euros through the campaign on the SeedBlink platform.

    Also, the co-founders estimate that in 2024 it will reach a turnover of 7.6 million euros (the amount includes only Romania).

  • Cazoo raised another outstanding £240m of funding

    Cazoo raised another outstanding £240m of funding

    Cazoo, one of the UK’s fastest growing technology businesses, announced that it has raised a further £240m of funding. This latest round takes the total funding in the two years since the company was founded to a record-setting £450m.

    Cazoo has already achieved revenues of over £100m since its launch less than a year ago, another UK record.

    Latest backers are led by General Catalyst, D1 Capital Partners and funds managed by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Blackrock alongside other new and existing investors including L Catterton, Durable Capital Partners, The Spruce House Partnership, Novator, Mubadala Capital and dmg ventures, amongst others.

    Cazoo owns and fully reconditions all its cars before offering them for sale exclusively on its website. It lists thousands of cars in stock at any time, all stored centrally in the Midlands and available for either home delivery anywhere in the UK or collection from one of its Cazoo Customer Centres.

  • HomeDoctor closed a €3,7m Series A funding round

    HomeDoctor closed a €3,7m Series A funding round

    HomeDoctor announced a €3,7m Series A funding round led by Cogito Capital Partners with participation from the company’s founders.

    HomeDoctor, founded in 2016, is a leader in the Polish market in providing online medical consultations and delivery of healthcare services to patients’ homes and is a key partner for largest medical centres and insurers in Poland.

    It’s services are available online as well as through a dedicated mobile app (connecting doctors and patients).

    For home-visits business, the company uses geo-location technology, to ensure that the nearest available doctor is dispatched to a patient, which allows for delivery of a home visit within 1 hour of wait time.

    The company works with over 350 doctors (GPs as well as 16 different specialisations) who call on patients across Poland. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, HomeDoctor recorded an unprecedented growth in demand, especially in teleconsultations.

    HomeDoctor will use the investment to continue the growth of its operations in Poland, building its team and capacity in order to further expand geographically.