Mike Butcher
Editor At Large
The Latest from Mike Butcher
Republic acquires the UK’s Seedrs in $100M deal to push into Europe
UK equity crowdfunding business Seedrs – who’s merger with rival Crowdcube was earlier blocked by competition regulators – has been acquired by start-up investing platform Republic in a
Fresh from a $10M round, Plan A launches SaaS tool for ESG reporting aimed at startups/VCs
With key ESG reporting regulations such as the EU Taxonomy and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) covering more than 75% of European companies across the EU and the U.K., the regulat
Portugal’s ‘predictive maintenance’ startup Stratio pulls in $12M Series A round led by Forestay
The fleet management industry needs to be able to predict when a truck or a van is about to break down. Not only does this prevent millions in lost revenues, but it also has huge implications for supp
Student media giant Chegg acquires language learning startup Busuu for $436M
Chegg, the NYSE listed student media learning platform is acquiring Busuu, the online language learning startup established in Europe in 2008, for approximately $436 million (€385 million) in an all
Co-working and edtech company Talent Garden acquires Hyper Island to scale online courses globally
Talent Garden is a sort of “European-WeWork-meets-General-Assembly” in that its business model is a combination of co-working spaces (in places like Italy, Austria, Romania, among others)
Secondhand car auction platform Motorway hits unicorn status after $190M raise with Index, ICONIQ
It was only in June that Motorway — a U.K. platform on which professional car dealers can bid in an auction for privately owned cars for sale — raised $67.7 million in a Series B round. It’s now
Vauban, an AngelList-like platform for VCs and angels to run and raise funds, closes $6.3m
It’s always been a slight puzzle why AngelList never really properly took off in Europe, especially when, a few years ago, there was such a dearth of funding options for poorly served European start
Eatron, which makes ‘intelligent automotive software’, raises $11M Series A led by MMC
An electric vehicle is, essentially, just “software on wheels”, and requires lots of moving parts, not physical but, of course, virtual. That software needs to continually optimize the per
US leads health tech VC investment globally with $31.9B so far this year
Of the top 10 countries for health tech VC investment (between 2016-2021 YTD), the U.S. leads globally with $31.9 billion in VC investment so far this year, according to new research. In second place
In-game creation platform Overwolf raises $75M Series D led by Andreessen Horowitz
Overwolf, a platform that enables creators to build, share and monetize items inside games, has raised a $75 million Series D funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Previous investors, incl
Ultraleap’s mid-air haptics tempts Tencent to join its $82M Series D fundraising
It was way back in 2017 that the company that became Ultraleap (Ultrahaptics) demonstrated at TechCrunch Disrupt a technology that pioneered ultrasound to replicate the sense of touch. The impressive
Roleshare launches job-sharing marketplace to match professionals, raises pre-seed round
Partly as a result of modern employment trends, and partly as a result of the pandemic’s effect on the world of work, there’s an increasing gap between traditional full-time employment and freelan
Sustain.Life launches to measure company carbon output, raises $7M pre-seed funding
The number of companies launching that claim to be able to help organizations measure and reduce their carbon output continues apace. There is already Normative, Plan A and any number of others, to va
UK-based Virtuoso raises $13.3M Series A led by Paladin Capital to automate software testing
U.K.-based software testing startup Virtuoso has raised a $13.3 million Series A round led by Paladin Capital. The round was joined by Mubadala Capital as well as existing U.K. investors Crane Venture
Abwaab raises $20M Series A led by BECO Capital to expand across MENA and Pakistan
Jordan-based online learning platform Abwaab has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round (following a $5 million seed round in March of this year), making it one of the most funded edtech start
UK cyber startup Immersive Labs acquires US-based Snap Labs — and there’s a climate angle
Cybersecurity startup Immersive Labs — which recently closed a $75 million Series C funding round giving it a significant war chest — is acquiring U.S.-based cyber startup Snap Labs in an undisclo
Entrepreneur First launches partnership with Tezos to spin up Web3 startups
Entrepreneur First (EF), an accelerator-come-company builder, is partnering with the Tezos crypto platform to attract new potential founders to Web3. EF specializes in putting together early-career co
Mimica, which automates RPA, raises $6M Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures
Mimica, which (perhaps oddly enough) automates robotic process automation, has raised a $6 million Series A funding from Khosla Ventures. The company will use the funds to establish a sales team in th
Ometria raises $40M C round to automate CRM for retailers
We last heard from Ometria, an “AI-powered” customer marketing platform allowing brands and retailers to personalize marketing messages, in 2019 when it raised $21 million in a Series B. It’s no
Framework raises $2M seed to create an ‘on-demand business school’ aimed at startups
Business education is, let’s face it, finding it hard to keep up with a $3 trillion global tech startup economy that’s booming right now. High-growth companies are time-starved and so are thei