The 10 biggest European tech stories this week

This week, Tech.eu tracked 47 funding deals and 13 M&A transactions in Europe and Israel. Here’s an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week:

1) Another big week for fintech funding in Europe, with GoCardless (UK) raising $13 million, CurrencyFair (Ireland) scoring €8 million, insurtech company Friendsurance (Germany) securing $15 million, Kreditech (Germany) receiving €10 million in funding and London-based blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic closing a $5 million Series A round

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2) Two major M&A deals involving UK-based companies, with enterprise software company Micro Focus buying Serena Software for $540 million and financial services firm Markit joining forces with IHS in a $13 billion ‘merger of equals’

3) Google was fined $112,000 on Thursday by France’s data protection watchdog for failing to comply with demands to extend a European privacy ruling across its global domains, including Google.com in the US

4) Apple, Google and Facebook published a long list of problems with the UK’s proposed ‘Snoopers’ Charter’

5) China’s Youzu has acquired German online and mobile games developer Bigpoint for (only) €80 million

6) Zalando has outlined its ‘platform strategy’ last week in Berlin and it’s well worth a thorough analysis

7) The UK’s Dyson is to invest £1 billion in battery technology, and is reportedly developing an electric car with aid from the British government

8) Cisco is going to pour millions into Berlin to turn the German capital into a smart city

9) Spotify has 30 million paid subscribers, CEO Daniel Ek announced

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10) Atomico is raising a $750 million fourth fund, and co-founder Mattias Ljungman is bullish about Europe

Bonus link: check out this slide deck: “Understanding VCs” by Boris Golden, a Principal at Partech Ventures

This post first appeared on Tech.eu.

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