Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Investment

  • Exotec raises $90M to support the international expansion

    Exotec raises $90M to support the international expansion

    Exotec, a robotics solution for logistics and creator of the Skypod 3D warehouse robots, announces today a $90 million financing round.

    It was led by 83North – with participation from Dell Technologies Capital – and supported by historical investors, Iris Capital and Breega.

    This new funding will fuel Exotec’s international development, especially their recently formed Atlanta and Tokyo teams and help them meet the growing demand for warehouse automation technology in the United States and Asia.

    Exotec has the ambition to become the leader in robotics solutions for logistics and forecasts they will produce up to 4.000 robots per year by 2021.

    Exotec’s robots allow retailers and e-merchants to quadruple their warehouse productivity and increase up to five times their storage capacity.

    Their autonomous robots can move in a unique three-dimensional pattern at a speed of 13 feet per second, creating a faster and more efficient picking and preparation process.

    Exotec revenue doubled in 2020 as several new international clients, including Carrefour and Fast Retailing (Uniqlo group), adopted their technology in key warehouses.

  • Layerise closes the largest ever pre-seed investment in Denmark

    Layerise closes the largest ever pre-seed investment in Denmark

    Layerise has closed the largest ever pre-seed investment in Denmark from e.ventures, Heartcore and Falcon founder Ulrik Bo Larsen.

    A €1.05m pre-seed round led by e.ventures will be be used to commercialise the company’s product innovation and grow the development and commercial teams.

    Founded in March 2019 by Ervin Draganovic (Weorder, Tattoodo & Tidal) and Emil Forsmann (Weorder & Tattoodo), the Layerise team has a track record of building some of the most used digital products and services.

    Layerise’s mission is to impact customer product satisfaction by acting as a digital assistant between the customer and the brand.

  • MotorK receives €10 million in equity and debt

    MotorK receives €10 million in equity and debt

    MotorK raised a fundraising of more than 10 million Euros between equity and debt to further accelerate its growth in the post covid low touch economy. 

    Real Web led the investment round. Instead illimity, the high-tech bank specialized in SME credit, is the sole provider for the debt facility.

    MotorK plans to expand its skills into the digital auto customer journey with the aim of supporting the industry disruption.

    This new financing will allow the company to fast-track the release of new digital and technological tools consolidating the wide marketing suite range of products and services already available to dealerships and manufacturers.

    The capital raised will also be used to strengthen the international team.

    MotorK’s new backers thus join the pre-existing shareholders: 83North and Zobito, two prestigious venture capital firms, and the European Investment Bank, which granted MotorK a €30 million credit line at the end of 2018 to support Research & Development investment.

  • Robotics company Magazino closed a €21 million Series B financing round

    Robotics company Magazino closed a €21 million Series B financing round

    The robotics company Magazino has closed a Series B financing round of €21 million. Jungheinrich AG and the European Investment Bank (EIB) are leading the round, with existing investors also participating.

    The capital raised will be used to expand international sales activities and to accelerate the expansion of the ”ACROS.AI” software stack –a software platform for intelligent robots developed by Magazino that is also used on third-party hardware.

    At the same time, Jungheinrich and Magazino agreed on a broad strategic cooperation and intend to combine their skill sets in the field of mobile automation.

    In addition to the investments made by the existing shareholders and Jungheinrich AG, the European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing Magazino GmbH with financing of up to €12 million.

  • Mosa Meat raised a $55M Series B funding

    Mosa Meat raised a $55M Series B funding

    Mosa Meat, the European food technology company which introduced the world’s first cultured beef hamburger in 2013, announced the first closing of $55M as part of a larger Series B funding round. 

    Mosa Meat will use the funds to extend its current pilot production facility at its home in Maastricht, develop an industrial-sized production line and expand its team.

    The Series B funding round is led by Luxembourg-based Blue Horizon Ventures, a food technology fund.

    Dr. Regina Hecker is joining the board with special focus on science, scaling and regulatory. They are joined by Bell Food Group, M Ventures and other mission-based investors and advisors.

    Mosa Meat, which now has a team of 50, has reached critical technical milestones in 2019 and 2020 including an 88x reduction in growth medium cost, and removing Fetal Bovine Serum from the production process. 

    The company will work with regulators to demonstrate the safety of cultivated beef, in order to achieve regulatory approval to serve consumers in Europe who are craving change.

  • Kingfisher is launching a share plan for employees

    Kingfisher is launching a share plan for employees

    Kingfisher is launching an all-colleague share plan and every one of the 77.000 employees will be given the opportunity to become shareholders.

    The new plan will mean every share bought by a employee will be matched by Kingfisher on a one-for-one basis.

    The minimum monthly contribution will be £10, with a maximum total contribution limited to £1.500.

    The plan is open to all Kingfisher colleagues employed in September 2020 and participants can register for the plan between October and November 2020.

    Participants can choose to contribute anything between £10 and £250 a month (or the equivalent value in local currency). Contributions will be made for six months between January 2021 to July 2021.

    The shares will be bought in July 2021.

    After a vesting period of one year (in July 2022), participants can choose to keep or sell their purchased and matching shares.

    Participants will receive dividends accrued during the vesting period. These are automatically reinvested into shares.

    Participants can sell their purchased shares before the end of the vesting period, but they will not receive their matching shares if they do.

  • Daniel Kretinsky achieved a 3.05% stake in J. Sainsbury

    Daniel Kretinsky achieved a 3.05% stake in J. Sainsbury

    Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky is the fourth largest Sainsbury shareholder, expanding a portfolio of retail investments, says Reuters.

    The stake is held by Kretinsky’s VESA Equity Investment.

    VESA’s portfolio also includes stakes in U.S. retailer Foot Locker. It took a 5% stake in department store chain Macy’s in May but reduced it shortly after and now holds 0.67%.

    Also, VESA raised its stake in French retailer Casino CASP.PA in March to 6.88% and is the biggest shareholder in Britain’s Royal Mail, with a 13.1% share.

  • Swedish giant to acquire 13.000 hectares of forest land in Latvia

    Swedish giant to acquire 13.000 hectares of forest land in Latvia

    Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) has signed an agreement to acquire forest land in Latvia. The acquisition comprises an area of 19.150 hectares, of which 13.100 is forest land.

    The purchase price is EUR 44.5m, approximately SEK 450m.

    The standing timber volume amounts to 1.8 million m3fo. Some areas of the acquired land that are not forest land, will be divested.

    SCA has so far acquired 30.000 hectares of forest land in Estonia and Latvia.

    The seller is Isnaudas Forest Holding AB and the acquisition is expected to be closed in the fourth quarter of 2020.

  • Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget issues bonds for SEK 2.5 billion

    Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget issues bonds for SEK 2.5 billion

    Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) issued new bonds under the companys’ Medium Term Note programme (MTN).

    The total issuance amounted SEK 2.5 billion, of which SEK 1.3 billion with a 5 year maturity with fixed and floating rates, and SEK 1.2 billion with a seven year maturity with fixed rates.

    The interest rate margin was 0.80% per annum on the five year bond and 1.10% per annum on the seven year bond.

    The proceeds from the bond issue will be used for general corporate purposes, including the re-financing of outstanding bonds and other short term debt.

    Handelsbanken Capital Markets and Swedbank acted as Joint Bookrunners for the transaction. The bonds will be listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.

  • Infarm raises $170M to grow largest urban vertical farming network in the world

    Infarm raises $170M to grow largest urban vertical farming network in the world

    Infarm announced $170 million investment raised in the first close of a Series C funding round expected to reach $200 million.

    Led by LGT Lightstone, the first round included participation by investors Hanaco, Bonnier, Haniel, and Latitude, and was supported by existing Infarm investors Atomico, TriplePoint Capital, Mons Capital and Astanor Ventures.

    With a mix of equity and debt financing, the capital infusion brings Infarm’s total funding to date to more than $300 million.

    By 2025, Infarm’s farming network is expected to reach more than 5.000.000 square feet to become the largest distributed farming network in the world.

    With operations across 10 countries and 30 cities worldwide, Infarm harvests 500,000+ plants monthly and growing while using 99.5% less space than soil-based agriculture, 95% less water, 90% less transport and zero chemical pesticides.

  • Kahoot! is acquiring 100% of the shares in Actimo

    Kahoot! is acquiring 100% of the shares in Actimo

    Kahoot! is acquiring 100% of the shares in Actimo ApS for a total of USD 26-33 million on a cash and debt-free basis, to be settled in a combination of cash and shares, including a performance-based element.

    Completion of the transaction is subject to customary conditions and the transaction is expected to be completed in October 2020.

    Actimo enhances Kahoot!’s corporate learning and engagement tools by combining the features of employee engagement from the Actimo platform with the learning approach, scale and reach of Kahoot!.

    Kahoot! will continue to develop new services and solutions, and together with Actimo extend Kahoot! 360, the company’s product for corporate learning scaled to enterprise, to fit the needs of today’s HR, learning and development roles, and internal communications teams.

    In the last 12 months, more than one billion participating players in over 200 countries attended over 200 million Kahoot! sessions.

    In the last 12 months, corporations and organizations around the world, including 97% of Fortune 500 companies, used Kahoot! at work to make learning awesome – with more than 2 million sessions and over 20 million participating players.

  • Italy: EIB lends €500m to the Lazio Region for post COVID-19 recovery

    Italy: EIB lends €500m to the Lazio Region for post COVID-19 recovery

    A wide-ranging collaboration between the bank of the European Union and the Lazio Region will lead to funding of €500m in all production sectors in the coming years.

    The first operation concerns the Framework Agreement for €300m worth of loans to the Region over the next four years, which has already been signed.

    On the basis of the Agreement, projects aimed at combating climate change, preventing and mitigating risks from hydrogeological instability, improving, building and upgrading public urban and regional infrastructure, and protecting the environment will be eligible under the Regional Multiannual Programme.

    Emergency measures to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic could also be financed in order to contribute significantly to the economic recovery.

    The loans can have maturities of up to 25 years, with a five-year grace period. In addition to financing operations, this cooperation will also enable the Region to benefit from the EIB’s free advisory services and technical assistance.

    This advisory support is already being provided in the preliminary phase of projects for energy efficiency of public buildings and sustainable mobility.

    €200m in partnership with banks for SMEs and mid-caps

    A second operation, which is currently being finalised, is based on initial EIB financing to the Region for projects launched by SMEs (up to 250 employees) and mid-caps (250-3 000 employees) in all production sectors, again with a special focus on investment to tackle the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The credit line will be onlent to companies in the Lazio region active in all economic sectors via three intermediary banks selected by the Region following a public tender: UniCredit, BCC Roma and Banca Popolare di Sondrio.

    The three banks will double the EIB’s €100m to a total of €200m, which will benefit an indicative number of 400 businesses based in the Region.

    Loan maturities will be 12 years for private firms and 15 years for investments carried out by public-private companies, with a three-year grace period.