💵 $200m+ Invested in the last 3 weeks across Europe
United Kingdom sees the lions-share of funding, whilst Germany, France and the Nordics are busy too
The last 3 weeks have seen ~$210m in pre-seed and seed funding rounds across Europe announced (Crunchbase). Incase you were wondering, that’s a lot.
The increased volume, velocity and valuation on deals is also not unique to the early-stage - with Tiger Asset Management reportedly making 2+ investments a week.
Personally I don’t see this activity being sustained long term, and something will have to give sooner or later. But that being said, dramatic economic, technological and cultural opportinities have emerged and accelerated over the last 12 months, meaning there has probably never been a better time to start a business or raise capital.
Throughout the early-stage fundraising process founders need to continue to focus on the fundamentals, finding the right partners and raising just the right amount of capital they need. Everything else is noise, and vanity valuations could be problematic in the case of a macro downturn.
Overall I’m cautiously optimistic and excited to see the companies establishing themselves throughout 2021.
Picks of the Week
Bluu Bioscience - maybe I was influenced by SeaSpiracy here, but I suspect there has been a disproportionate amount of focus on meat/dairy replacement by companies over the last 5 years, when the delicate ocean ecosystems have continued to be plundered by every nation on Earth. The company are attempting to use cell cultivation to produce lab grown fish in a more elegant way than fish farms or ‘alternatives’ can offer.
Ribbon - With the explosion of user-led research, companies and product teams globlaly will be looking to utilise more tools such that Ribbon offers. With two lines of code, teams can embed and schedule live customer interviews from their website in seconds. (Note, RLC Ventures is an investor in this company).
🇩🇪 Germany
Raised: $8.42m (Seed)
Description: Bluu are on a mission to bring cell biotechnology and food technology together to make cultivated fish a reality. If you’ve seen Netflix’s SeaSpiract, you will probably like this.
Investors: Manta Ray Ventures, Norrsken VC, CPT Capital and others.
Raised: $7.5m (Seed)
Description: Charles develops software that helps companies integrate their existing e-commerce and chatbot tools into one interface.
Investors: Accel and HV Capital.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Raised: $7.1m (Seed)
Description: Gro develops protocols or autonomous blockchain programs designed for a simple and friendly DeFi experience.
Investors: Northzone, Galaxy Digital, A.Capital Ventures and others.
Raised: $3.45m
Description: VFC Foods is a vegan food producer that provides fresh plant-based protein foods, focused initialy on Fried Chicken alternatives.
Investors: Veg Capital
Raised: $3.45m
Description: Payosu offers professional invoicing and instant payments for the self-employed.
Investors: Creandum, Firstime Venture Capital, Breega, Ada Ventures and others.
Raised: $3m
Description: Yoppie is a DTC subscription-based, organic period care and PMS solutions provider.
Investors: VNV Global and Colle Capital Partners.
Raised: $2.5m
Description: Anima delivers optimal care faster with automated, always-on triage for outpatient lists.
Investors: Y-Combinator, Hummingbird Ventures and Amino Collective.
Raised: $2.5m
Description: kleene.ai is SaaS data pipelining (ELT) for scale-ups. Taking businesses on their data journey and creating a single source of truth.
Investors: Episode 1 Ventures and SuperSeed Ventures.
Raised: $1.9m
Description: Founded in 2018 by former Apple and BMW executives, LNG’s offerings support enterprise clients with scaling out the usage of edge AI, through the usage of edge AI.
Investors: Trucks Venture Capital, Luminous Ventures, InMotion Ventures and others.
Raised: $1.5m
Description: YHANGRY is a private chef platform where users can book a professional chef to come cook for them at home.
Investors: Eileen Burbidge (Passion Capital), Jack Tang (CEO of Urban), Martin Mignot (Index Ventures) and others.
Raised: $275k
Description: Ribbon lets companies start user interviews in roughly “the same time it takes to order a ride through Uber”.
Investors: RLC Ventures and MMC Ventures.
🇫🇷 France
Raised: $4.2m
Description: Leeway helps companies reduce the time spent on contract management and gives them more control and visibility over legal and financial risks.
Investors: Kima Ventures and henQ.
Raised: $1.2m
Description: Cryptio is a financial data analysis tool for cryptocurrencies. It helps crypto CFOs & CPAs easily automate accounting, bookkeeping and tax reporting for their digital assets.
Investors: Draper Associates and SGH Capital.
🇩🇰 Denmark
Raised: $6m
Description: Abzu offers a machine learning technology that is inspired by quantum mechanics and neural networks, resulting in a transparent AI.
Investors: Seed Capital, Inventure and PreSeed Ventures.
🇫🇮 Finland
Raised: $4.8m
Description: Sellforte is a marketing optimization platform for retailers & consumer brands.
Investors: Icebreaker.vc, Bonnier Ventures and Sonae IM.