• Daniel Ek's starts building a holding
• VC doing PE like plays
• Estonian growth deals, more early stage funding for vertical AIs, exits

 

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Highlights

The new Wallenberg of Sweden

🇸🇪 Daniel Ek paid ​$33 million​ via Antheia for acquiring 12% of the shares in Teqnion, a local company operating as a holding of industrial assets. 

• Teqnion was founded in 2006 by Johan Steene, who is still running things, and listed on the local public market in 2019
• the deal is a secondary transaction with a local investment office owned by local business man ​Per Berggren​, who's been active shareholder since 2008 - his company will still keep some 11% of the shares, post deal.
• Teqnion bought and built a portfolio of some ​30+ companies​, paying always cash for 100% of the shares, funded 50/50 between own cash and bank loans - this approach reduces post-deal conflicts and minimises the risk for reckless investments. 
• their companies are ranging from subcontractors performing steel cutting and welding services to manufacturers of food trucks and wheelchairs, doing revenues between $3 and 10 million - they've been mostly all profitable but apparently the numbers have been deteriorating ​in 2024​. 
• NB. ​here​'s a good deep dive into its 2023 fundamentals. 

It is an interesting move to follow as i) Daniel Ek is sitting on a lot of cash - he has cashed out some ​$700 million​ of his Spotify stock since 2023 and ii) he is already involved in juggling with multiple positions as, besides active CEO role at Spotify, he is active in Neko, a health clinic, valued at 1.7 billion earlier this year, and in Prima Materia, a family office doing retail investments (first check in Helsing) and fund-of-funds deals.

Adding Teqnion to his holding means 30 extra assets to a mini industrial empire - the way to become the ​Wallenberg​ story of the 21st century. For those not familiar with Sweden, Wallenberg is a local family that similarly had bought and built a fairly large industrial holding in the past 70 years. They control EQT, among other things, while their flagship company, Investor AB, has a market capitalization of around $60 billion.

Back to Daniel, the above deal was made via Antheia, which employs ​Moritz Sitte​ working out of London (he is an ex-Baillie Gifford) - it is another investment vehicle controlled by Daniel Ek, alongside DGE Investments in Cyprus. And, ICYMI, Shakil Khan and Pia Michel are active working for ​Prima Materia​. 

Granted, it is a minority position in a holding company, likely not involving an active management role - yet a learning opportunity for scaling and optimising an already consistent portfolio, matching the management need of other similar minority stakes. Those include ​Helsing​ (defence tech), ​Sand Clinic​ (longevity clinic), ​Epiterna​ (health), ​Stegra​ (steel manufacturer) and ​Homa Games​ (gaming tech).

 

VC doing PE plays

🇫🇷 Hexa ​acquired​ the majority stake in Veevart, an American startup running a vertical SAAS platform for museums.

• Hexa (formerly eFounders) is a French-Belgian multi-stage investment fund founded in 2011 by Thibaud Elziere and Quentin Nickmans - it was initially started as an incubator of SAAS companies tackling the 'future of work'.
• in 2023, they have raised two funds - an early stage one, closed at €20 million, used for both incubation and investing in B2B SAAS startups out of Belgium and France, and a later stage one, Hexa Scale, targeting what they call the ​dead-end VC trajectory​, namely the delayed period of VC-funded startups looking to graduate from early stage to scaling and raising consequent later stage financing.
• Hexa Scale deploys €5M - €20M in companies doing €2M - €7M ARR with 20-40% yoy growth.
• Veevart is their first deal - bootstrapped since 2014, based in Miami, and selling an all-in-one platform built on top of Salesforce to some 160 museums and cultural institutions of all sizes around the world

VC turning into PE-like shops is a a theme that has become substantive lately, as at the high end of the market the likes of Sequoia, a16z and GC have turned into an asset management operation, with different types of financial products addressing different market segments, while pure seed firms like Hoxton in Europe, for example, are aggressively upping their positions with successive rounds as early as possible. 

 

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Deals

Nordics

🇩🇰 ​Involved AI​, developing an AI agent collecting employees insights, raised a pre-seed investment round with Accelerace and Ada Ventures.

🇸🇪 ​Re:Meat​, building a cultivated meat business, raised a $1 million seed round led by 8+ Ventures, joined by angel investors.

🇳🇴 ​Reduzer​, developing a planning SAAS for constructors and real estate developers, raised $1.8 million in a seed round funded by Momentum, Futurum Ventures and Construct Venture.

🇸🇪 ​NitroCapt​, manufacturer of green technology used for producing nitrogen fertilizers, raised an equity financing round with Novax.

🇫🇮 ​Zenniz​, developing smart court technology for the game of tennis, raises $2.1 million in a seed funding round led by Butterfly Ventures and Superhero Capital.

🇪🇪 ​Frankenburg Technologies​, developing cost-effective missile systems for defence, raised $4.2 million seed with Blossom Capital.

• USP: small size missiles produced using rapid prototyping and adaptive printing methods (i.e. cheaper and faster) and designed to combat drones and shoot down targets at altitudes of up to 2 km. 
• context: the company is CEO-ed by the former Chancellor of the Ministry of Defense, COO-ed by a major general and includes the former Estonian Defence Forces Commander - all from Estonia. It is operational in Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. 
• that's a different way to say that we've got an A team going after an A type of opportunity, in a market expected to spend 800 billion, as we mentioned in our previous intel notes. 
• also worth noting the low ticket value (Blossom covered half of it - unusual low entry point for the Brits), and the upfront high valuation, which is reportedly at a 150 million tag - 3X from late last year, when it was pre-seeded with 1.6 million by local investors.

🇸🇪 ​Gårdsfisk​, developing a vertically integrated recirculating aquaculture system, raised $4.6 million series A led by Industrifonden. 

🇩🇰 ​Atlant 3D​, developer of a atomic layer processing technology, raised $15 million Series A extension funding round led by West Hill Capital.

• traction: 50 industrial and research organizations.
• initial series A resumed at $15 million in 2022.

🇪🇪 ​Blackwall​, developing a digital fingerprinting technology that selectively blocks bad bot requests in real time, secured $47 million Series B round led by Dawn Capital, joined by MMC Ventures, Expeditions Fund, Red Dawn Ventures, and Tera Ventures.

 

UK

🇬🇧 ​JigsawStack​, developing a suite of small models for AI applications, raised $1 million pre-seed with Ada Ventures.

🇬🇧 ​Mimo​, developing a payments and cash flow management platform for small businesses, raised a $8.5 million seed extension led by Project A, joined by Northzone and Seedcamp

🇬🇧 ​Junction​, developing an API-based solution helping healthcare developers to automate their remote data collection from wearable devices, raised $18 million series A led by Creandum, joined by Y Combinator, Point Nine, and Amino Collective.

• seeded in 2022, in a 2.9 million deal led by Point Nine Capital - they since have moved to the US. 
• USP: order lab tests across all 50 US states, and receive results from over 10+ labs, through both in-person and at-home-tests. 
• traction: 140 customers

🇬🇧 ​Supercritical​, producers of green hydrogen electrolysers, raised $17.5 million series A, co-led by Shell Ventures and Toyota Ventures.

• not to be confused by the ​British startup​ going by the same name and working on a carbon removal marketplace.

🇬🇧 ​Alloyed​, manufacturing startup producing advanced metallic components for aerospace and electronics, raised $46 million Series B funding co-led by SPARX and the Development Bank of Japan, joined by Aviva Investors, Future Industry Ventures, Anglo American and Oxford Science Enterprise.

• USP: high-performance metallic alloys used for lightweight antennas and structural components for satellites, high-temperature-resistant alloys for jet engines.
• traction: customers include Boeing, Microsoft, Anglo American, BMW and the UK Ministry of Defence
• they previously have raised a 14 million A round back in 2020.

 

Other geo

🇫🇷 ​DrugOptimal​, building an AI platform used by health companies to detect the risks of physicochemical drug incompatibilities in prescriptions, raised $1.2 million with angel investors.

🇮🇹 ​Lexroom​, developing an AI-for-law product, raised $2 million in seed funding led by Entourage, joined by Verve Ventures, Vento Ventures, Banyan Ventures, and X-Equity.

• traction: 1500 users and €1 million ARR

🇭🇺 ​Qneiform​, developing a recruiting platform to serve as a single source of truth for headhunters and talent professionals, raised $3.1 million seed co-led by PROfounders Capital and Day One, joined by Keen Venture Partners and Dutch Founders Fund.

🇪🇸 ​Flowww​, developing a SAAS product for beauty and wellness businesses, raised $4.2 million in Series A funding co-led by Swanlaab Venture Factory and Bonsai Partners, joined by Sabadell Venture Capital.

• traction: 3,500 paying clinics in Spain, Mexico and Brazil

🇩🇪 ​Dance​, manufacturing and selling electric bikes against subscriptions, concluded a $12 million financing round with Elemental and angel investors.

• deal includes a debt facility with a French loan provider.
• traction: 10,000 customers and 80 corporate customers, expected positive EBITDA for 2025.
• ICYMI: Dance does an e-bike subscription service and was founded in Berlin by ex-Soundcloud Swedes Alexander Ljung and Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss alongside Christian Springub.

 

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Investors

On the move

🇳🇱 ​Jeremy Teboul​ joined OTB Ventures as a partner in Luxembourg, after three years of working with Promus Ventures. 

🇬🇧  ​Chris Magazzeni​ was hired by Lakestar as an investment director in charge of special projects out of the London office - he's spent two years as an associate with IQ Capital prior to. 

🇩🇪 ​Judith Dada​ joined Visionaries Club as a general partner in Berlin, after having spent seven years with La Famiglia/General Catalyst.

 

Powder 

🇫🇷 Eurazeo announced the final closing for Eurazeo Capital V with ​€3 billion​ in aggregate commitments to be spent on MLBO deals.

🇬🇧 bd-capital raised ​€430 million​ for a second fund targeting midmarket PE deals. 

🇬🇧 International Airlines Group announced ​€200 million​ commitments for a corporate VC fund to be spent over the next five years.

• IAG is the UK-Spanish owner of airlines including British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus.

🇫🇮 OpenOcean made a first ​€100 million​ close for a fourth fund to be spent on AI-driven data & software startups in Europe.

🇮🇹 Vento closed a second ​€75 million​ fund for backing Italian early-stage startups.

🇬🇧 ​Project Europe​ raised $10 million for what they describe it as a combo of a Thiel Fellowship and YC VC fund targeting Europeans under 25 willing to build startups.

• initiative done by 20vc, Point Nine Capital and Adjacent, including a few hundred other founders who contributed with 25k each and who will provide mentorship for people accepted in the program. 

🇫🇷 ​Drysdale Ventures​ is a new angel fund out of Paris launched by ​Nicolas Essayan​, known as one of the co-founders of the local family office Motier Ventures.

 

Exits

🇯🇵 Softbank, 🇸🇪 Oxx, 🇬🇧 MMC and 🇬🇧 Octopus exited their positions from Peak, Brits doing an AI platform used to optimize product inventory and pricing for businesses of all sizes, and acquired by UiPath for ​an undisclosed amount​.

• Peak has raised some $120 million, with the $21 million B early in 2021 led by Oxx, up-marked six months later by Softbank, which led a ​$75M C round​. 

🇩🇪 Lightspeed, Speedinvest, Fabric, Backed, Inflection et all exited from Iron, a Berlin-based crypto bank startup building an API-focused stablecoin infrastructure platform, acquired by Moonpay for ​an undisclosed amount​.

🇫🇷 OneRagtime, Bpifrance and Axeleo Capital exited from Mantra, a cybersecurity SAAS provider acquired by Italy-based Cyber Guru for an ​undisclosed amount​.

• OneRagtime’s 9th exit, including its 3rd in just six months.

🇫🇷 Elaia and Holnest exited from Pixyl, French startup delivering AI-powered clinical diagnostic support to radiologists and clinicians, acquired by Gleamer for ​an undisclosed amount​.

 

Europeans abroad

🇬🇧 Anthemis led a ​$4 million​ seed raised by LiquidTrust, Americans building an instant escrow payment solution 

 

Also notable

🇸🇪  Nordstjernan sold for ​an undisclosed amount​ its growth investment unit Nordstjernan Growth to a local Swedish company co-owned by two EQT guys - ​Caspar Callerström​ (ex-COO) and ​Thomas von Koch​ (ex-CEO).

• Nordstjernan is a fourth-generation family holding company founded in 1873 and controlled by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson, alongside a holding of food and distribution operations.
• the growth investment unit currently has five holdings in which it acts as a minority owner: Mentimeter, Roaring, Insurello, Zimpler and Oden Technologies.
• besides Nordstjernan, Axel Johnson also makes investments via ​Novax​ and ​AltoCumulus​.

🇫🇷 Mirakl reported a ​$177 million​ ARR for 2024, 15% increase yoy.

🇩🇪 ​Verena Pausder​ announced ​Choose Germany​, a lobby movement for Germany as a business hub for startup investments.

 

Elsewhere

• GSR Ventures formally ​separated​ its American business from its China business, and renamed the US effort as Informed Ventures.

 

• General Catalyst
  • led a ​$3,2 million​ seed funding raised by Podqi, Americans using AI for an IP protection platform.
  • also led a ​$3.8 million​ seed deal raised by PvX, an Indonesian crew based in Singapore and selling non-dilutive, user acquisition funding for consumer apps.

 

• FirstMark and Craft Ventures led a ​$12 million​ series A raised by Pickle, Americans operating a peer-to-peer rental marketplace for wardrobes.
• Kleiner Perkins led, and was joined by Index Ventures, Lightspeed, A*, Factory, Greycroft, a ​$64 million​Series A transaction closed with Cartesia, an SF-based voice AI startup.

 

• SoftBank
  • led a ​$20 million​ deal closed with OpusClip, startup done by three Chinese in San Francisco and developing an AI-based video editing platform.
  • led a ​$130 million​ Series C raised by Terabase Energy, a West Coast startup that uses robots to streamline the construction of large solar power plants
  • paid ​$676 million​ for an old Sharp plant to be used for building a datacenter for AI agents, for its OpenAI collab in Japan.
• Accel chipped in to a ​$40 milion​ series B done by Scimplify, a B2B fulfilment platform out of India.
• Coatue led a ​$48 million​ series B round secured by Norm AI, New York startup deploying AI agents used for mitigating compliance risks
• Accel, Lightspeed, DST Global and HSBC contributed to a ​$51 million​ series B (plus $200 million in debt) raised by Zolve, an Indian neobank for people moving to the USA.

 

• Lightspeed Venture Partners co-led a ​$95 million​ round at a $1.65B value post money, raised by Dexterity, an American industrial robots manufacturer.
• Accel led a ​$100 million​ at $2B post series C extension raised by Supabase, American developers of a PostgreSQL database.
• A16z led a ​$275 million​ deal at a $7.5B valuation done by an American provider of surveillance tech for public safety departments.

 

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