• SVB UK saga closing details
• hefty seeds for an aggregator of cyber startups and for a fantasy soccer game, series A for web3, Netflix for beauty and sleep wearables
• regular seed rounds closed by energy startups (a lot of those lately), B2B marketplaces and vertical SAAS
• more American hires in London, PE exits and generative AI-focused newly raised funds

 

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Late last night, the American govenrment anounced that it would fully cover the SVB depositors in their respective countries. 

The British one held talks without any material conclusion over the weekend, and said that the UK would have something to say ‘shortly’, hopefully witihin the next hour - the The London Stock Exchange opens at 8am local time. The consensus is that any announcements will present a solution fully covering the SVBUK deposits and it is likely that the delay is caused by the govenrment striking a deal with HSBC to take over in order to allow SVBUK continue to operate as normal.

In the US, J.P. Morgan and PNC are among the potential suitors for purchasing the bank. In the UK, other interested wishing parties for purchasing the local ops of SVB include: 

• Oaknorth - founded by Joel Perlman and Rishi Khosla in 2015 and raised north of $1 billion from outside investors including GIC, EDBI, Clermont Group (all three from Singapore), Coltrane AM (US) and Softbank (Japan). It's a classic business bank that sells loans to SMBs profitably since 2017. A few days ago it announced seeking an IPO in New York despite the UK's government efforts to keep it at home and, as a coincidence, that was also looking to buy another bank in Britain.
• The Bank of London - founded by Anthony Watson in 2020 as a clearing, correspondent and wholesale bank operating in the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe. It is the first pre-revenue bank to achieve unicorn status as it raised $120 million in funding within weeks of opening for business - investors include 14W, Mangrove Capital Partners and ForgeLight. They made a formal offer for SVB UK by leading a consortium of multiple PE investors.
• ADQ - an Arab investment and holding company founded and fully controlled by the local government in 2018, one of the region's largest holding companies.

If a sale doesn't materialise, the plan B is for the British government to take on depositors from SVBUK with some of the country’s biggest lenders - Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest,until it can either sell off the whole thing, or bits of it, to other banks. SVBUK has 3.3k+ customers with deposits of about £6.7 billion.

In case you missed it, yesterday I also wrote about he background story and the Euro implications.

 

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Interesting deals

Nordics

🇸🇪 Forsway, doing technology for hybrid satellite internet solutions that combine the benefits of satellite and existing terrestrial networks, was funded by Rymdkapital.

🇸🇪 SustainLab developing a SAAS for Sustainability Management that automates collection, processing and visualization of sustainability data, raised $300k from local angel investors.

🇸🇪 Divly, developing a cryptocurrency tax platform that focuses on creating localized tax reports for cryptocurrency traders globally, raised $400k from DHS Venture Partners, Greens Ventures and YEoS Ventures.

🇸🇪 Maintract, developing smart contract management solutions, raised $600k in a seed round backed by Wellstreet and angel investors.

🇩🇰 Klimate, operating a B2B marketplace for buying carbon removal at market prices, raised $800k in a bridge round backed by existing investors.

🇮🇸 Tulipop, maker of Tulipop world and character branded products for kids, raised $1.8 million in a growth round backed by Eyrir Vöxtur. 

🇳🇴 Heymat, ecological producer of entrance mats sold D2C mostly in the American market, raised $1.9 million from Investinor and Arctic Investment Group.

🇳🇴 Nicoustic, developing technology used to measure the amounts of solids and liquids using sensors, raised $2.5 million seed from Equinor, CoFounder and Fraunhofer Ventures.

🇳🇴 Lifeness, developing a cloud-based health service designed for patients with obesity or lifestyle diseases, as well as their therapists, raised $2.8 million from Arctic Capital, Link VC, Investinor et al.

🇩🇰 Chromologics, a biotech developing natural food colourants, has raised $7.6 million seed extension round backed by Doehler Ventures and Thia Ventures. 

🇸🇪 C-Resiliens, a special holding acquiring cyber security startups from Sweden, raised $57 million from Formica Capital. 

• The company was founded in conjunction with the new NIS2 directive within the EU, which will enter into force in 2024 and setting comprehensive requirements for information security at nearly 2,000 Swedish companies, authorities and municipalities.
• The Nordic market for cyber security is estimated to grow by 50% to €6 billion in the next three years.

DACH

🇩🇪 Cocoli, operating a multi-brand marketplace platform for premium furniture and design objects, raised seed from Adevinta Ventures, Ship2B and angel investors.

🇦🇹 506, developing tools used for data protection-compliant analysis, visualization and activation of digital visitor and customer data, raised $1.2 million seed from local angel investors.

🇨🇭 trawa, developing an electricity procurement solution for consumers, raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round co-led by Speedinvest and Magnetic, joined by TinyVC, The Deltaand multiple German angel investors.

🇩🇪 Tidely, developing a smart liquidity management and cash flow forecasting SAAS, raised $3.5 million seed from TX Ventures and Bayern Kapital.

🇩🇪 Greenlyte, developing an efficient low temperature DAC process that captures CO2 from the air, while generating hydrogen as a byproduct, raised $3.5 million pre-seed from Green Generation Fund, Earlybird Venture Capital and Carbon Removal Partners.

🇩🇪 Edgeless Systems, developer of a high-performance platform for secure storing and processing of data, turning the public cloud into everyone’s private cloud, raised $5 million seed from multiple German angel investors led by Berlin-based SquareOne. It was initially pre-seeded by Acequia and Possible Ventures in 2021.

🇩🇪 Violet, working on an identity protocol built on Ethereum providing a DeFi compliance infrastructure, raised $15 million from BlueYard Capital, Balderton Capital, Ethereal Ventures, FinTech Collective, Brevan Howard and Coinbase Ventures.

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The UK

🇬🇧 Lithium, developing a SAAS platform that onboards communities to web3 startups, was pre-seeded by Fuel Ventures.

🇬🇧 MEplace, developing a chain of nursery schools in the UK, raised $1.4 million seed from Active Partners and angel investors from the UK.

🇬🇧 ViridiCO2, doing technology that converts waste carbon dioxide into high-value chemical products, raised $3.6 million seed in a round led by EQT Ventures.

🇬🇧 Gyroscope, developing an asset-backed stablecoin built on resilient DeFi infrastructure, raised $4.5 million in seed funding round co-led by Placeholder VC and Galaxy Ventures, joined by Maven 11, Archetype, and Robot Ventures.

🇬🇧 Envisics, a dynamic holography developer, working on new technologies for the future of head-up display (HUD) and automotive sensor systems, raised a $50 million tranche of a Series C round from investors including Hyundai Mobis, InMotion Ventures, andStellantis.

🇬🇧 Threecolts, startup founded in 2021 by an ex-Amazon guy for doing ecommerce software for 22,000 Amazon merchants, announced financing of $90 million seed+series A, in an undisclosed split of debt and equity from Crossbeam Venture Partners, General Global Capital, Stratos and CoVenture.

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Other geographies 

🇮🇪 Klearcom, doing IVR (interactive voice response) software tools used by telecom and call centers providers ito dentify customer impacting issues, raised 

🇫🇷 Elyn, developing an automated and unified sales platform designed to make try-before-you-buy sales easier, raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Headline and Sequoia.

🇮🇹 Glassfy, developing an app revenue management platform helping engineering and growth teams build predictable revenue streams from their apps, raised $3.2 million seedfrom SquareOne and InReach Ventures.

🇫🇷 Wildsense, operating ESG, a new carbon standard certification for nature-based restoration projects, raised $5.3 million from LocalGlobe and Raise Ventures.

🇳🇱 QuantWare, building quantum processors for research and commercial usage, raised a $6.3 million seed round led by Forward One, joined by QDNL Participations and Graduate Entrepreneur.

🇫🇷 Ieva, providing personalized solutions for the personal care market via a service they call Netflix for beauty, raised $9.6 million from The Crédit Mutuel Innovation fund and SEB Alliance. 

🇧🇪 Sunrise, a health wearable developer of a 3-gram sensor used to diagnose sleep, raised $18.1 million series A led by Kurma Partners and joined by the EIC Fund.

🇪🇸 Matchday, Irish-Spanish startup operated from the US and producing a combination of video games, sports and web3 for building an ecosystem of casual football games, raised $21 million seed from Courtside Ventures, Greylock, HackVC, Capricorn Investment Group and Horizons Ventures.

​

Please note that this is just a selection, all deals are available here.

 

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Investors

Powder

🇬🇧 Permira raised €16.7 billion for its eighth flagship buyout fund.

🇩🇪 La Famiglia raised €250 million combining a third seed fund of €165 million and a first growth co-investment fund of €90 million.

🇫🇷 Calcium Capital announced the closing of its second fund at €120 million, a size twice as large as the previous one closed in 2013. 

🇩🇪 Matterwave announced a first €75 million closing for a second fund to be spent on early-stage industrial startups from across Europe, with initial investments of between €1-4 million.

🇸🇪 Node Ventures announced closing 2/3 of an early stage fund targeted at $70 million to be spent of early stage Swedish startups.

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On the move

🇬🇧 Rahul Parekh was promoted to partner and Margarita Skarkou to principal at 2150, a London-based VC firm focused on urban climate tech.

🇺🇸 Golub Capital, a mid-market loan provider w/ $40bn in AUM, made three hires in Europe: Daniel von Rothenburg as MD and head of EMEA, Philipp Schroeder as senior director of direct lending, and Mensah Lambie as a principal of direct lending.

🇺🇸 Alexandre Gafsi and Emmanuel Hibou will co-lead the TMT banking in the EMEA region for Bank of America from the London office.

​
Also notable

🇸🇪 Hedvig sold its majority of shares to the local private equity shop Adelis in a $33 milliondeal. It was founded in 2016, sells insurance to a portfolio of 130k customers and has raised over 70 million from investors including Anthemis, Cherry Ventures, and Obvious Ventures.

🇬🇧 Weavr, British developer of an embeddable payment solution for B2B applications, acquired Comma, a smaller B2B open banking platform in a largely equity-based deal​

• Weavr rased $40 million series A a year ago and is backed by the likes of Tiger, QED Investors, Anthemis, Mubadala and Latitude.
• Comma was seeded with 6 million by Octopus and Connect Ventures in the summer of 2021.

🇬🇧 Railsr, the embedded finance startup that raised over $180 million in VC funding and once worth nearly $1 billion, went into bankruptcy protection under new consortium owner including D Squared Capital, Moneta VC and Ventura Capital. 

🇬🇧 20VC contributed to a $20 million round raised by Toku, an American-founded, Japan-based startup doing a global solution for token payroll and tax compliance. The round included funds provided by about 30 other investors.

🇸🇪 Volta Trucks, the Swedish commercial EV manufacturer, is seeking to raise up to €250 million in a pre-IPO round.

🇫🇷 L Catterton, the LVMH-backed fund, acquired A.P.C., the Paris-based fashion brand founded by Jean Touitou.

🇱🇺 CVC Capital Partners is investing $150 million for a 20% stake in the Women's Tennis Association.

🇺🇸 BlackRock is targeting €1 billion each for a pair of private equity funds, seeking an LP base of wealthy European individuals.

🇺🇸 Salesforce Ventures launched a $250 millon fund focused on generative AI startups. 

• The fund was raised to specifically invest in four American companies riding the "build AI tech" wave: Anthropic, Cohere, Hearth.AI and You.com. 
• In Europe, Salesforce did about 30 deals in the last 24 months, mostly later stage, with notable series A rounds including Charles (e-commerce chatbot tools), Sequence (FinOps stack for B2B) or Sylvera (carbon tracking SAAS).

 

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Investors profile

🇩🇪 La Famiglia VC

• founded in 2016 by Jeannette zu Fuerstenberg and Robert Lacher, joined by Judith Dada as a GP in 2017. 
• Jeannette is known as coming from one of the old European families, running an industrial manufacturing operation named Krohne Group.
• they list a team of 11 people out of an office in Munchen, including Carsten Thoma, an ex-founder now active angel and announced as an advisor of the firm. 
• La Famiglia started as seed investors with an initial $45 million seed fund closed in 2017, and now deploying from a double one - a seed €165 million (third) and a growth €90 million (first) - both secured at the beginning of 2023. 
• focused on early stage deals across Europe, with checks up to €5 million in B2B startups, with no particular differentiator or thesis. They are howver among the more active early stage investors in Europe, and their portfolio includes unicorns like Personio, Forto, Deel or y42.
• co-investors: GFC, Atomico, Northzone, Cherry, Balderton, Cavalry Ventures
• 16 new startups added in the portfolio in 2022, 3 of which with money from the growth fund:

🇩🇪 Apryl (seed) - B2B fertility benefits platform that helps employers attract & retain top talent while tackling diversity & inclusion.
🇸🇪 Atlar (seed) - AP) that facilitates bank-to-bank payments for European businesses.
🇫🇷 Arkania (seed) - B2B API solution for brands to create and sell online NFTs directly on their platforms
🇩🇪 Bling (seed) - mobile app providing an educational pocket money card service for families. 
🇨🇭 EthonAI (seed) - AI-powered platform that detects and prevents quality defects in manufacturing.
🇫🇷 Evy (seed) - insurance for non-Apple brands and retail merchants
🇩🇪 Fides (seed) - SAAS tool used for C-level governance.
🇩🇪 Flowers (seed) - SAAS workflow management tool
🇫🇷 Iteration X - tool used for live, collaborative iteration on any website, right from the browser
🇩🇪 karla (seed) - last-mile delivery service provider from Germany.
🇫🇷 Pelico (growth) - data management platform for industrial operators.
🇬🇧 Qogita (growth) - wholesale B2B platform aiming to drastically increase market efficiency and supply chain margins.
🇩🇪 SoSafe (growth) - cybersecurity training platform to corporate clients
🇳🇴 Tana (seed) - software management tool similar to Roam.
🇩🇪 Zavvy (seed) - employee enablement tool used for onboarding, training and setting up tools for performance reviews and other HR-related functions.

.

🇬🇧 InReach Ventures

• founded in 2015 by John Mesrie, Roberto Bonanzinga (both ex-Balderton) and Ben Smith (software guy). 
• they call themselves an AI-powered Venture Capital firm as they built a software tool on top of a Dealroom API used to screen and discover investments. Novel at that time, now pretty much any respectable VC shop has something similar in-house.
• team of 11, including the founders, all based in London
• have only one fund publicly announced, with a first close of €53 million in 2019.
• they back early stage consumer internet, marketplace and SAAS from Europe - no thesis or differentiator other than using software for tracking deals.
• co-investors: SquareOne, id4, Creandum 
• 8 new deals added to the portfolio in the last 14 months:

🇫🇷 Amalia - tool helping sales teams with calculating performance-based compensation.
🇬🇧 Arro - a personal development and planning solution for consumers.
🇬🇧 Good Life Sorted - a healthcare marketplace used for connecting elderly people with vetted, local helpers.
🇬🇧 Landmark Games - mobile games studio
🇬🇧 MyJam - marketplace for cultural and specialty food
🇬🇧 Rosecut - mobile consumer app helping with financial planning and investment management
🇫🇷 Sealk - AI-powered deal sourcing platform used for the merger and acquisition, private equity, corporate, and consulting industries. 
🇫🇷 Your Juno - a mobile app aiming to provide financial literacy access for women.

 

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