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The top five deals in the second quarter of 2021 accounted for a quarter of the overall total.
Venture financing deals in Europe reached a value of almost $12bn in the second quarter of 2021 according to GlobalData’s deals database.
The analytics company tracks real-time data concerning all merger and acquisition, private equity, venture capital and asset transaction activity around the world.
The leading deal was for Celonis, a German-based data analytics company that raised $1bn in June, bringing its valuation to more than $11bn.
The next-largest financing round in the quarter was an $800m funding round for Messagebird, which was an extension of its Series C funding round in October 2020, bringing the round to more than $1bn.
The Dutch cloud communications platform subsequently put the funds to use in acquiring email platform SparkPost for $600m.
Other deals that made the top five were a $500m funding round for SaaS company Contentsquare, a $380m round for crypto security start-up Ledger, and a $316m raise for digital health start-up Kry International.
These tech deals accounted for a quarter of the overall value of European deals during in the second quarter of 2021, which totalled $11.9bn.
This marked almost a 16pc increase compared to the previous quarter and is more than double the last four-quarter average of $5.78bn, according to GlobalData.
Europe’s VC climb
This latest data highlights an ongoing trend that Europe is skyrocketing when it comes to venture capital deals.
In April 2021, data from Pitchbook showed a record-breaking first quarter for Europe, with €17.6bn invested in the first three months of the year across more than 1,900 deals.
A number of bumper later-stage deals buoyed the numbers for the quarter, especially in sectors such as fintech. Sweden’s Klarna raised $1bn, while Starling Bank and Checkout also raised large investments.
The first quarter of the year also saw virtual events platform Hopin raise $400m, bringing its value to more than $5bn.
This particular start-up is keeping Europe’s tech deals going strong with another major funding round of $450m at the beginning of August.
Other major deals in the last few months that will spell good news for Europe’s third quarter include Estonian ride-hailing start-up Bolt, which raised €600m in funding at the beginning of August and German start-up Grover, which raised more than $1bn in a mix of asset-based and equity financing at the end of July.
Europe has also been leading the way in the tech unicorn boom this year, with 65 of the 170 cities globally to have at least one unicorn.
