Money Buzz! Europa

Tag: brussels

  • Essent sells Belgian subsidiary to Luminus

    Essent sells Belgian subsidiary to Luminus

    Dutch energy supplier Essent and Belgian energy company Luminus entered into an agreement regarding the sale of Essent’s Belgian commodity supply business.

    The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

    The transaction is subject to the approval of the European Commission and is expected to close during Summer 2021. Essent is currently supplying more than 500,000 electricity and gas customers in Belgium.

    Essent is a 100-percent subsidiary of E.ON, Luminus is a 68.6%-subsidiary of EdF, the remaining stake is held by municipalities and regional bodies. 

  • Carrefour freezes the prices on more than 20.000 products in Belgium

    Carrefour freezes the prices on more than 20.000 products in Belgium

    Carrefour Belgium has implemented a number of different price initiatives since the start of the crisis (that includes lowering the prices on a thousand products in May and launching its ”healthy price” campaign in September). 

    For the last two months of the year, the retailer has decided to freeze the prices of all of its products (both national and Carrefour branded ones).

    That’s more than 20.000 products at its hypermarkets and more than 10.000 at its Market and Express stores.

    However, this initiative, which runs from 1 November to 31 December 2020, will not apply to special offers, fresh produce with highly variable prices (fish, seasonal fruit and vegetables) and products made by local producers with short distribution channels.

  • 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.

  • Carrefour and Uber Eats launch their delivery service in Belgium

    Carrefour and Uber Eats launch their delivery service in Belgium

    After France, Carrefour Belgium will soon be the third country to benefit from Uber Eats partnership: it will be operational in September, with the service being launched in Brussels and Liège.

    Belgium will be testing a 30-minute shopping delivery service, as well as meal box solutions.

    How Carrefour – Uber Eats partnership started

    As of 6 April across the capital and throughout the Paris region, consumers have been able to do their food shopping on Uber Eats.

    At the start of lockdown, both brands joined forces to help consumers get hold of everyday products getting them delivered to their home within 30 minutes, dispatched from fifteen or so Carrefour stores. 

    The service was rolled out to 100 stores at the end of April, then 200 at the start of June and then 300 stores at the start of July.

    As of 20 July, the service is now available via 330 sales outlets and covers 91 major urban areas, 25% of the French population.

    250 essential everyday items can be delivered

    More and more products are being added every week: from the 130 products available at launch, consumers can now choose from more than 250 essential everyday items, with the aim being to increase this to 500 by early September.

    Carrefour Market and Carrefour City both feature on the Uber Eats app and other Carrefour Group formats are shortly to be included.

    The service, exclusively available outside Paris 

    Following these promising results, Uber Eats and Carrefour have signed an exclusive agreement to launch a shopping home delivery service for the whole of France. The idea is for shopping to be delivered within 30 minutes using the meal delivery apps available.

    Carrefour and Uber Eats both remain free to make use of the agreements they have entered into with other players across the Paris region. 

    Uber Eats – Carrefour partnership to expand

    The partnership with Uber Eats is not limited to France. An initial agreement was signed with Carrefour Taiwan at the end of 2019 covering 8 major urban areas and 38 stores involved in preparing orders.

    Other Carrefour Group countries will follow over the next few months.

  • Klarna officially launches in Belgium by introducing “Pay in 21 days”

    Klarna officially launches in Belgium by introducing “Pay in 21 days”

    Klarna officially launches in Belgium by introducing “Pay in 21 days”. Shoppers will be able to buy online and pay once they’ve received the goods.

    Klarna teams up with merchants, including H&M, A.S. Adventure and Omoda as their first step in the Belgian market.

    With the launch of ”Pay in 21 days”, Belgian shoppers can now purchase their goods from their favourite online stores and try them before footing the bill.

    The payment solution comes at no interest or fee when users pay on time.

    Along with the new offer, Klarna is also introducing the Klarna app which allows users to keep track of their payments, pay off existing payments, as well as find inspiration.

    Founded in Stockholm in 2005, the company currently holds a post money valuation of $5.5 billion, which ranks Klarna as the largest private fintech in Europe and one of the largest private fintechs globally.

    Today more than 85m consumers use Klarna, and the company partners with over 200,000 merchants in North America, Australia, the UK and Europe including H&M, Sephora, Michael Kors, Wayfair, IKEA, Expedia Group, Samsung, Microsoft, ASOS, Peloton, Boohoo, Sonos, RayBan, Levi’s, Ticketmaster, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Nike.

  • Deliverect, a food tech start-up, raises €16.25 million to expand

    Deliverect, a food tech start-up, raises €16.25 million to expand

    Deliverect, a Belgian start-up streamlining the restaurant industry with its online food delivery management software, announced that it has raised €16.25 million in its Series B funding round, led by OMERS Ventures, with existing investors Newion, Smartfin, and the company’s founders also participating.

    Deliverect is a subscription-based service that integrates third-party online ordering platforms like Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Glovo, and Doordash into restaurants’ point-of-sale systems, automating the inbound online order flow through a single point.

    It eliminates the requirement for restaurant staff to monitor multiple devices and manually re-enter orders into their existing system, dramatically reducing both staff workload and the probability of errors.

    Deliverect is also used by ”virtual” kitchens. These are essentially delivery-only restaurants where, assuming good food is standard, efficiency is paramount and technology plays a critical role in helping to build up brand loyalty with customers.

    With the number of virtual kitchens on the rise and an increasing number of FMCG businesses and food retailers entering the delivery marketplace, Deliverect aims to become the global gateway for online food ordering and delivery.

    Deliverect, founded in 2018, has processed more than 3.5 million orders since its inception, with UK customers including Absurd Bird, You Me Sushi, Taqueria, and Crêpeaffaire. In addition, the company works with Unilever, which through Deliverect is able to integrate with Deliveroo and Uber Eats and deliver Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum ice creams directly to customers.

  • Realterm closes €100 milion european logistics fund

    Realterm closes €100 milion european logistics fund

    • Realterm announced the closing of Realterm Europe Logistics Fund (RELF) at its hard cap of €100 million to invest in the high flow through (HFT) logistics real estate sector in Europe.
    • RELF is the ninth fund raised across the Realterm platform and the firm’s first value-added fund in Europe.

    “Our successful fundraise is a testament to the team that we have built and our investors’ belief in our ability to create value through our differentiated investment approach and market insights,” said Peter Lesburg, Realterm’s Managing Director of Capital Markets.

    RELF’s first investment is a 10,000 sqm (107,600 sf) HFT facility fully leased to DHL at the intersection of two key pan-European transport corridors – E40 and E19 in Brussels.

    The property has an infill location with close proximity to Brussels Airport, the Benelux ports and a dense residential population.

    Realterm is a real estate operator with a 30-year track record of executing niche private equity strategies at the intersection of the global supply chain and evolving consumption trends.

    Realterm currently manages over $5 billion in assets through five logistics-oriented private equity fund series.