Tech.eu

Post-SVB drama, this week might just go down as the week that the world woke up to AI, as GPT-4 dropped, Microsoft and Google unleashed the beast, and people both cheered and feared.Up this week:01:38 - GPT-4, Microsoft, and Google, oh my!.02:55 - Climate Policy Radar and GPT-4.04:16 - Tech.eu's collective thoughts on AI.06:47 - is SXSW best in show and best in entertainment, media, and content winner PentoPix killing creativity? Cate finds out. And explains Cocaine Bear.11:47 - Dan visits a lot of sketchy places on the interwebz; Cate helps us all stay private in our travels via Gener8.16:08 - Robin's still burning dead dinosaurs with his kid transportation device, and it looks like the UK's EV developer Arrival isn't arriving any time soon.19:12 - Speaking of delistings - Just Eat Takeaway.com and Rocket Internet.20:50 - Happy St. Patrick's Day, what's what with Manna Drone Delivery, and Fiona dives deep with Starship Technologies.25:56 - Robin's One More Thing - International law firm Orrick has analysed 5

International law firm Orrick has analysed 500+ transactions it closed for European clients last year, with an aggregate value of more than $12 billion, and released a very comprehensive report based on all that useful data.We caught up with the firm's partner Jamie Moore, and Raph Crouan, who is Orrick's Managing Director for 'Tech Clients' in Europe, to learn more.You can and should check out the report proper, but both gentlemen did a great job summarising the main findings of the research, which includes things like term sheet terms have become 'more investor-friendly' (so, less founder-friendly) in recent times, the average deal size in Europe declining, the rise of debt funding in these parts, and more.You can also watch the interview directly on YouTube.

We caught up with Pedro Barros, Partner and Head of Fundraising & Investor Relations at Target Global, the pan-European technology investment firm with more than €3 billion in assets under management.Last Friday was an interesting day to talk to Pedro Barros, a Partner at multi-billion euros VC firm Target Global who's in charge of fundraising and investor relations at the investment company, as the SVB saga started unfolding.So of course the first questions were about Silicon Valley Bank, but it quickly turned to how the past 3.5 years after Pedro joined Target Global have been for the man, given that there wasn't a dull moment in European tech and VC in recent history.Target Global is focused on Europe and Israel, and has made investments in the likes of Delivery Hero, Grover, WeFox, Revolut, Cazoo, Auto1, Omio, and plenty more.Pedro discussed the current trends in the European tech innovation and investment space, given the downturn and market volatility that's defined it in the past 15 months or so, a

The overarching, and still developing story of what's going on at Silicon Valley Bank has overshadowed pretty much every piece of news that came out this week. And perhaps many more stories to come. But as we watch events unfold ...Up this week:00:25 - Moody's downgrades Silicon Valley Bank, stock price falls 60%, and all hell breaks loose.05:03 - International Women's Day: European tech startups – a long way off gender pay equality, UK Women tech founders are taking a bigger share – 24 percent capital increase in 2022 compared to 2021, and Geraldine MacCarthy, Chief Revenue Officer at Personio offers her advice on how we bring more females into the tech sector.07:38 - Meet the rising female founders building the Metaverse.10:58 - Once looking at a unicorn valuation, UK fintech Railsr has been sold to a consortium of investors.12:52 - Is this the same Nigerian prince?13:23 - Italian unicorn Scalapay pays out as it acquires Cabel IP.15:11 - UK Government unveils £360 million plan to ‘cement the UK’s place as a

And that's a wrap on February this week folks! While it might be cold and grey out of doors, as expected, it's hunting season and the M&A activities have been off the charts, this week in particular.Up this week:01:38 - German semiconductor manufacturer Infineon is to buy GaN Systems of Canada for $830 million in cash.02:12 - Helsinki's cash flow management SaaS Nomentia was acquired by Inflexion for a rumoured €300 million.02:20 - Milan’s Nexi to purchase 80 percent of Sabadell's PayComent for €280 million.02:32 - Britishvolt finds a new owner in the Australian firm Recharge Industries. 03:45 - Summa Equity has acquired a majority stake in cybersecurity firm Logpoint.03:53 - Shell struck a deal to acquire the evpass EV charging network in Switzerland.04:49 - QDNL Participations announced the launch of a €15 million early-stage Dutch quantum fund. (With commentary from Managing Director Ton van 't Noordende).06:40 - High-Tech Gründerfonds closed a new fund at €493.8 million.08:21 - Payfit to part ways wit

On the one-year anniversary of the Russo-Ukrainian war Tech.eu has dedicated our coverage to the Ukrainian ecosystem. In addition to this week's news recap, we heard from Reface co-founder and CEO Dima Shvets about how the company has survived and is growing.Up this week:00:31 - Interview with Dima Shvets of Reface14:40 - Lay-offs at Zalando and Ericsson16:43 - Quantum Motion computes new UK record with £42 million raise19:02 - Robin's 'quick' rundown of a whole lotta other news20:55 - Europe's AI industry's set to confound market expectations, generating 25% CAGR through to 2026Slava Ukraini.

Spearheaded by Index Ventures and supported by more than 700 CEOs, the Not Optional campaign is spurring policymakers across Europe to reform outdated rules and regulations that limit employee ownership.We recently reported on new analysis by Not Optional which found that over the past six years, the 2017 average of 12 percent of European employee ownership has climbed to 16 percent.Not quite the 20 percent still enjoyed across the pond, but a 4 percent increase is better than a no percent increase, and figures continue to go up.Looking at 2021 and 2022 numbers, years that saw the crowning of 124 new venture-backed unicorns, the increase in percentage equates to some €5+ billion more that’s been put into the hands of European startup employees.We had a catch-up with Dominic Jacquesson, VP of Insight and Talent at Index Ventures, to learn more about the campaign and the report that was released last week, and what will need to happen to maintain the momentum.Also, a good reminder to check out the handy resourc

GetYourGuide, the Berlin scale-up that enables people to book excursions and tour guides worldwide through an online marketplace, has a few difficult years behind it, in large part because of the global coronavirus pandemic and its extreme effects on global travel.But, co-founder and CEO Johannes Reck tells me in a recent video interview, there's a profound belief within the company that the best years for the travel tech unicorn are still to come.With close to $900 million in financing received to date, GetYourGuide has seen more than 80 millions tours booked through its platform since its inception, and its focus is now on helping people personalise their travel experiences while helping tour operators, guides, and others on the supply side run their businesses online more efficiently.Reck talked about how the company weathered the Covid-19 storms, how big its TAM is (and can become in the future), what happened to its 'Originals' product, how GetYourGuide deploys AI and machine learning to innovate, and th

Tech Nation will reach the end of its journey on 31 March, and after that it will be up to Barclays Eagle Lab to provide similar, perhaps complementary services to the UK tech community's startups and scale-ups.We had an interesting chat with Tech Nation's CEO, Gerard Grech, on the impending closure, how it came to pass, and what happens next with regards to the non-profit's activities, its team, and, of course, himself personally.Grech explained why Tech Nation was unable to continue operating without the UK government's core funding, and called into question Barclays' ability to serve the UK tech ecosystem's needs at the same level as Tech Nation has in the past nine odd years as a private, commercial organisation rather than a non-profit, a sentiment echoed loudly by others as well.Grech also pointed out that Tech Nation will be continuing its work bringing global tech talent to the UK through the 'Global Talent' visa scheme in the immediate term, despite the impending cease of operations and the fact that

Up this week:03:00: Scaling startups showcase cutting-edge Industrial tech at the Sixth Sense Summit09:10: The end of an era as Tech Nation to cease operations as of March 31st17:33: Robots aren't representing us in court but here are 7 legal tech startups transforming the legal system21:56: In no way boring, spacetech startup The Exploration Company lands €40.5 millionAnd this doesn't even dive into our conversation about dongles, being left-handed, the Mac Mini M2 vs. the Mac Studio M1, Italy, and a whole lot more on this week's Drive at Five!

Tech.eu caught up with sustainability advisor Kristine Nagle and Elodie Broad, the recently appointed Head of Impact and ESG at Balderton Capital, to have a chat about what 'sustainability in VC' actually means, whether 'greenwashing' is a thing in that industry as well, and how investment firms can (should?) approach the implementation of ESG strategies internally and with their portfolio companies.If your prefer, you can also watch the double interview straight on YouTube.And in case you missed it, there is a new European VC collective called ImpactVC and comprising 120 venture firms, including Northzone and Balderton, that will attempt to disseminate industry knowledge on leveraging ROI and ESG value from impact-led investments.

After an extended holiday break, the Drive at Five is back! Helping to celebrate its return, Dan and Robin are joined by Cate and Callum this week where we call tech support, discover who the founder of the Bauhaus school was, talk about death (or however you want to call it after your heart stops beating), Walt Disney, qubits, and how supply chain problems can tarnish a brand and lead to (potentially) a closing up of shop. Robin covers:Layoffs sadly.Callum digs into:Tech.eu's tracking of smart building tech and some interesting funding rounds in the space.Cate featured:Berlin's Tomorrow Biostasis, a startup that's working on cryopreservation and how death might not be the final chapter for us humans.Dan lays down:Quantum computing player Pasqal announced a raise of €100 million in a Series B round this week, and how they're planting a flag for Paris in the home-of-quantum ground.And Cate and Dan pedal:Things aren't looking so great for Amsterdam-based developer and designer of urban e-bikes VanMoof.This and

Tech.eu had a chance to sit down with Daniel Glazer, managing partner of the London office of American tech law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, as he was passing through Brussels.Glazer has been in the tech game for a while, knows a thing or two about what a crisis looks like, and shared his views on how he thinks the general market downturn and economic crisis will affect the European tech ecosystem in the short and long run.We discussed the current (worrying) state of the ecosystem, of course, using the Atomico report on the 'State of European Tech' as reference.We also talked about what the future might bring for both founders and investors, and why a tech-specific law firm like Wilson Sonsini doesn't need to necessarily worry about wanting for work even during a downturn.

As the phrase goes, the best-laid plans of mice and men, just minutes after Robin and I finished recording this week's edition of the Drive at Five, Getir's acquisition of Gorillas broke. Needless to say, this would have been a topic we would have addressed, but in lieu of audio, you can find our coverage of the story here.Up this week:

While Dan was OOO for a few days this week, Robin was MC'ing The Big Score and collecting tonnes of knowledge. Up this week:

Index Ventures Partner Hannah Seal joins the show today to provide deeper insight into the whats and the whys behind the firms' recently launched $300 million Origin II seed-stage focused fund.

TRIGGER WARNING: There's quite a bit of bad and/or sad news in this episode. We've done our best to remember the words of Robert Hunter, "...nothin' left to do but smile, smile, smile." Up this week:

This past May London-based payments infrastructure provider Paddle secured $200 million in a Series D funding round led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., perhaps better known as KKR.No less than 15 days later, the company announced the purchase of US-based subscription metrics and retention automation startup Profitwell in a deal reportedly worth north of $200 million.With today’s funding environment for startups getting tougher and tougher, we’ve seen a noted uptick in the number of mergers and acquisitions taking place in Europe. And we expect to see more.Joining me today to discuss some key items to keep in mind when considering and negotiating an acquisition deal, I’m joined today by a man who’s seen both sides of the table when it comes to an acquisition, closing the Profitwell deal, but also as a Senior Director at Siebel Systems, a popular CRM that was acquired by Oracle back in 2005, Paddle President and COO Jimmy Fitzgerald.