This week, Tech.eu tracked 8 technology M&A transactions, 4 IPOs and 70 tech funding deals totalling about €559 million (about $626 million) in Europe, Turkey and Israel. Here’s an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week:
1) The European Union has scrapped roaming charges following a vote in the European Parliament in February. From this week, EU citizens won’t be charged extra for calls, SMS messages or internet outside their home countries, when travelling in the EU.
2) London-based Firstminute Capital has closed its new seed fund at $60 million to invest in early stage European tech companies. Investors in the new fund include Atomico as well as co-founders of Skype, Supercell, King, BlaBlaCar and Skyscanner. The London-based firm will invest between $250,000 and $750,000 in startups and is currently hiring for its team. The fund was founded by executive chairman, Brent Hoberman and general partner and head of investments, Spencer Crawley.
3) Finnish mobile game and animation studio Rovio, maker of the Angry Birds game, said it could list on the stock exchange in the future, while The Information reported that China’s Tencent is actually looking to acquire the company.
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4) The European court of justice (ECJ) has ruled that BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay is directly infringing copyright, in a move that could lead to ISPs and governments blocking access to other torrent sites across Europe.
5) French startup Shadow has raised a €51 million Series A round. The startup is developing super-sleek computers based in the cloud, directed at primarily at gamers.
6) Spotify has surpassed 140 million global monthly active users as filings revealed this week that its revenue grew more than 50 % to $3.3 billion last year.
7) Orange Digital Ventures, the early stage investment fund of French telco giant Orange, is launching a new €50 million Africa-focused investment program for startups.
8) US financial technology provider Fiserv said on Tuesday it had agreed to buy British financial services tech firm Monitise for about 70 million pounds ($88.72 million).
9) Hardware Club announced this week that it has raised its first venture fund, a $28 million pool that will be used to back seed-stage startups coming out of its community platform. Launched almost three years ago and originally based in Paris, Hardware Club also has offices in San Francisco and Tokyo.
10) Snips, an AI voice platform provider based in Paris and New York City, has raised $13 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Korelya Capital and MAIF Avenir, with participation from BPIfrance and previous backer Eniac Ventures.
Bonus link: Russia Is Becoming a Cryptocurrency Haven (The Moscow Times)
This post originally appeared on Tech.eu.
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