2021 has seen Europe cement its place as one of the top destinations for tech with a record $100B of capital invested and 98 new unicorns and with the rise of remote and distributed working we are seeing this power more hubs across the continent.
I’d encourage you to read the full report here, but if you just want the highlights here’s the tl;dr version:
Projections show total funding to surpass $120bn, 3x YoY growth
Northvolt raised the largest round at $2.75bn
Early-stage raises made up 33% of total rounds (the US was 35% comparably)
The European tech market is now valued at over $3tn
9 UK companies completed an SPAC, notably Babylon and Cazoo
98 new unicorns in 2021 (More B2B than B2C unicorns)
London remains the top European tech hub
The gender gap is widening - female founders raised the lowest proportion; down to 1.1% from 2.4% in 2020
It’s even worse for people of colour, only 1% of funding went to full founding teams of people of colour - in CEE 100% of funds went to white founders
Brexit is hurting UK based founders on the “war for talent” with a much smaller talent pool to go after
Haris Qureshi, Editor & Founder @ London Startup Club
Top News
Monzo confirms $4.5bn valuation after closing new $500m round, more here
In Europe’s war for tech talent, are visas the answer? More here
Antler closes £21.4m fund to back 70 UK tech startups, more here
UK proptech investment hits record £1.6bn, more here
VC firm Antler is looking for founders to help build Web3, more here
VentureFriends raises $112M fund aimed at Southern Europe, Middle East and LatAm, more here
Portugal’s ban on after-work emails is a blessing for startups, more here
UK’s antitrust watchdog is taking a look at Microsoft-Nuance, more here
Meet the fastest-growing fintechs of 2021, more here
Republic buys Seedrs for £75m after merger with UK rival blocked, more here
UK Funding Rounds
Frog Capital takes leap on insurtech Genasys in £12.25m raise, more here
Subscription data platform Qonversion closes £1.45m funding round, more here
Social audio app Wisdom picks up £1.5m funding, more here
Jaguar Land Rover backs car repair BNPL firm Bumper in $12m raise, more here
Earnr raises £650k to launch finance app for self-employed ‘side hustlers’, more here
London fashion rental marketplace HURR raises £4m funding, more here
SoftBank backs AI-based edtech platform Atom Learning in $25m raise, more here
PetsApp raises €3.9m for virtual veterinarian appointments, more here
Software delivery platform CloudBees hits unicorn status after $150m raise, more here
Experience commerce platform Easol raises $25m, more here
Learnerbly secures $10m for workplace upskilling platform, more here
Agtech startup Gardin raises $10.8m for crop monitoring sensors, more here
Sorted acquires fellow Manchester ecommerce firm Clicksit and raises $40m, more here
International Highlights
Latvian startup Lokalise raises $50m to streamline localisation and translation, more here
French fintech Lydia bags $1bn+ valuation, racing Revolut to become Europe’s first superapp, more here
Female-founded fintech Enfuce raises €45m, more here
Unique closes $6M seed for its AI-driven video calls platform aimed at sales teams, more here
Gary Vaynerchuk, Mark Cuban back web3 project tool Thirdweb, more here
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