Sources german auto1 sequoia pine 50m

• Xentral, the Augsburg-based developer of ERP and CRM software solutions for SMBs, raised a $20m Series A led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Visionaries Club (a B2B VC based in Berlin). Read more.

• Konux, the Munich-based provider of a software platform that uses smart sensors and machine learning to efficiently maintain railway switches, raised a $80m Series C led by impact investor Sanno Capital. Co-investors include Athos, the family office of the Struengmanns (who are also the largest BioNTech shareholder), and existing investors, including DIVC, and New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Read more.

• Bird Eats Bug, the Berlin-based developer of a SaaS tool that allows even non-technical people to create data-rich bug reports that can save companies expensive engineering time, raised $1.8m in a round led by Nauta Capital. Read more.

• Maps.me, the Zug-based offline travel app, raised $50m in a funding round led by Alameda Research, joined by new investors cryptocurrency lender Genesis Capital and crypto firm CMS Holdings. Read more.

• Personio, the Munich-based HR technology company, landed $125m in new and pre-emptive Series D funding in an investment round that provides the company with a value of $1.7bn. Index Ventures led the round with participation from other existing investors Picus Capital, Global Founders Capital, Northzone, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Accel. Meritech also joined as a co-lead investor. Read more.

• Moss, the Berlin-based FinTech startup that serves SMEs, raised a €21m Series A led by Valar Ventures, which is backed by early Facebook investor Peter Thiel, with participation from existing investors Cherry Ventures and Global Founders Capital. Read more.

• Wealthpilot, the Munich-based developer of a hybrid wealth management platform designed to offer personal advisory services, raised €8m of venture funding from Bayern Kapital, MIG AG and Seventure Partners. Other undisclosed individual investors also participated in the round. Read more.

• LatticeFlow, the Zurich-based provider of an AI system management software intended to help AI teams to build and deploy AI models that are safe, reliable, and trustworthy, raised c. €2.3m of seed funding in a deal led by b-to-v Partners and Global Founders Capital. Boris Paskalev also participated in the round. Read more.

• Tomorrow’s Education, the Berlin-based developer of an online learning platform intended to replace disengaging video calls and enhance traditional education, raised €1.1m of venture funding led by Emerge Education. Read more.

• Exporo, the Hamburg-based platform connecting real estate developers with investors, raised €16m in funding. Exporo has now raised over €75m from the likes of Partech and e.ventures. Read more.

• Shippeo, the Paris-based provider of a supply chain visibility platform that provides shippers instant access to predictive information of all deliveries, raised $32m in a round co-led by Battery Ventures and existing investors NGP Capital, ETF Partners, Partech and Bpifrance. Read more.

• Leocare, the Paris-based digital insurance provider, raised €15m of venture funding from Felix Capital, Ventech and Daphni. Read more.

• Lovys, the Paris-based neo-insurer offering online insurance products for homes, cars, pets and smartphones, raised a €17m Series A from Heartcore, NewAlpha, Raise Ventures and prior backers Maif Avenir, Portugal Ventures and Bpifrance. Read more.

• Indy, the Lyon-based developer of an accounting automation technology intended to help freelancers, doctors, lawyers, and architects' in their accounting and tax which connects to their professional bank account, raised €35m led by Singular, and was joined by return backers Alven Capital and Kerala. Read more.

• Bloom & Wild, the London-based startup that takes an updated and online approach to ordering and delivering flowers, raised a £75m Series D led by General Catalyst, with Index Ventures, Novator, Latitude Ventures, D4 Ventures, and existing investors such as Burda Principal Investments also participating. Read more.

• PPRO, the London-based provider of local payments infrastructure, raised over $180m in new funding. Investors included Eurazeo Growth, Sprints Capital, and Wellington Management. This round came six months after the company raised $50m from Sprints Capital as well as Citi Ventures and HPE Growth. PPRO’s valuation is now over $1bn. Read more.

• Multiverse, the London-based startup that works with organisations to develop apprenticeships, and then helps source promising, diverse candidates to fill those roles, raised $44m in funding. The Series B is being led by General Catalyst, with GV, Audacious Ventures, Latitude and SemperVirens also participating. Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, which first invested in the company in its $16m Series A in 2020, also participated. Read more.

• Deliveroo, the London-based food delivery startup, secured $180m in new funding, pushing its valuation to over $7bn ahead of its long-awaited float. The Series H funding round was led by Durable Capital Partners and Fidelity Management & Research and indicates the strong demand from investors ahead of its IPO. Read more.

• proSapient, the London-based developer of machine learning research platform intended to conduct primary research around the globe, raised a $10m Series A led by Smedvig Capital. Noted high-profile investor Guy Hands and existing investors 24 Haymarket also participated in the round. Read more.

• DeadHappy, the Leicester-based insurtech company that provides digital pay-as-you-go life insurance services, raised c.$6.5m from Channel 4 Ventures, VentureFounders and 1200 stakeholders from a crowdfunding campaign. Read more.

• Connect Childcare, Lancashire-based SaaS nursery management software has raised c.$5.5m from Mobeus. Read more.

• Quantile Technologies, the London-based developer of a platform that provides compression and risk rebalancing services to banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions engaging in OTC derivative transactions, raised $51m from Spectrum Equity. Read more.

• Salestrip, the Buckinghamshire-based developer of an expense management and travel booking system on Salesforce, raised a $1.4m Seed round led by Floreat Group. Read more.

• Weezy, the London-based online supermarket platform designed for on-demand grocery shopping - delivering in as fast as 15mins, raised a $20m Series A led by Left Lane Capital and other investors including DN Capital, Heartcore Capital and angel investors. Read more.

• OneWeb, the London-based provider of a space-based global communications network that delivers high-speed and low latency internet access, raised $400m from SoftBank and Hughes Network Systems, bringing OneWeb’s total funding to $1.4bn. Read more.

• Spill, the London-based developer of a mental wellness application designed to provide workplace well-being, raised £2m of seed funding led by Ada Ventures. Seedcamp and the Government of UK also participated in the round. Read more.

• Wintermute, the London-based algorithmic liquidity provider for digital assets, raised a $20m Series B led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Pantera Capital. Other investors joining the round include Sino Global Capital, Kenetic Capital, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, Hack VC, DeFi Alliance and Avon Ventures. Read more.

• Budbee, the Stockholm-based ‘logtech’ startup which offers a sustainably-focused last-mile delivery service, raised €52m. The financing round was led by AMF, one of Sweden’s leading pension companies. Prior backers Stena Sessan, Kinnevik, and H&M CO:LAB all participated in the round. Read more.

• Sana Labs, the Stockholm-based provider of AI-powered personalised learning for multi-sector professionals, raised a $18m Series A led by EQT Ventures. Read more.

• Twisto, the Prague-based developer of an online payment and credit services platform, raised €14m as part of its Series B funding round. William Reeve, a co-founder of LOVEFiLM and Secret Escapes, has participated in the round alongside Finch Capital, Velocity Capital, ING Ventures, UNIQA Ventures and ING Bank Slaski. To date, Twisto has secured €21m and is seeking an additional €30-40m in senior and venture debt funding to expand. Read more.

• Vue Storefront, the Warsaw-based developer of an API-focused and Front-End as a Service platform for eCommerce, raised $1.5m from SMOK Ventures and Movens VC. Read more.

• Carne Group, the Dublin-based provider of regulatory reporting and compliance software to the asset management industry, secured a c.$120m minority investment from Vitruvian Partners. Read more.

• Creative Fabrica, the Amsterdam-based provider of an online subscription-based marketplace intended to offer fonts, graphics, crafts designs and premium content from leading designers, raised a €5.7m Series A led by Felix Capital, and joined by FJ labs with continued participation from Peak Capital. Read more.

• Ironhack, the Madrid-based operator of coding schools designed to provide software development programs for digital creators, raised a $20m Series B1 led by Lumos Capital Group. Brighteye Ventures, Endeavor Global and Creas Desarrolla also participated in the round. Read more.

• Landbot, the Barcelona-based developer of a chatbot platform intended to assist companies to create conversational experiences, raised a $8m Series A led by Swanlaab Venture Factory. Bankinter Capital Riesgo, Encomenda Smart Capital, Nauta Capital, and The Center for the Development of Industrial Technology also participated in the round. Read more.

• Healthcare-focused Heal Capital reaches €100m goal for debut fundraise. Read more.

• SoftBank Vision Fund’s Jeffrey Housenbold is leaving the company in July. He is a managing partner. Read more.

• Blue Horizon Ventures, a Zurich-based VC firm focused on sustainable food tech, raised €183m for its debut fund. Read more.

• Northzone Ventures promoted Wendy Xiao Schadeck to partner. Read more.

• Octopus Ventures, a London-based venture capital firm, named Emma Davies as Co-CEO working alongside Alliott Cole. Read more.

• Robin Eric Haak joined French growth equity firm Gaia Capital Partners as a Germany-based general partner, per his LinkedIn. He previously co-founded Jobspotting (acquired by SmartRecruiters) and the Axel Springer Plug & Play Accelerator. Read more.

Tomasz Tunguz from Redpoint wrote a great article about the fastest growing sectors of startup fundraising in 2020. He analysed Crunchbase data and looked for the startup categories that grew fastest in terms of funding rounds year-over-year, provided there were at least 10 rounds in that category:

We are pretty bullish about quantum computing as it has the potential to allow people to do things previously thought impossible through whole new applications, new industries, new markets. If you don’t know anything about quantum computing, we suggest that you start with the a16z primer - enjoy!

daily is a developer platform for real-time video. With just a couple lines of code, individuals can add 1-click video calls to any site or app. Developers can create custom video UI/UX with daily’s front-end libraries and REST APIs.

Freestyle Capital, Y-Combinator

SaaS subscription with a base fee and variable fee driven by call minutes used.

• Sequoia Capital agreed to invest in Auto1 Group at a valuation of c. €6bn ahead of the online car-trading platform’s IPO, according to sources. Sequoia and rival fund Lone Pine Capital reached a preliminary deal to each buy c. €50m in shares from early investor DN Capital. They have agreed to a lock-up period of six months.

• Glovo, the Barcelona-based on-demand delivery app, has announced a strategic partnership with Swiss-based real estate firm, Stoneweg. The deal will see the latter invest €100m in building and refurbishing “prime city real estate” in some of Glovo’s key markets as the delivery app works to build out its network of dark stores and sign up more retail partners for its urban delivery service.

Tesla's rocketing share price this year has created an army of millionaires - self-named 'Teslanaires'. Shares in Elon Musk's electric car firm have risen more than 700% during 2020 to become the world's most valuable car company. So how does Tesla sets itself apart? Vertical integration!

In the past, automakers became design companies, focusing on supply chain management expertise. With this strategy, car manufacturers have transferred all combustion engine vehicle knowledge to suppliers for free. In the short term, they reduced production costs with strong outsourcing, but they lost the ability to advance technology in the long term. So they all focused on horizontal integration, and with this strategy, the main focus was supply chain management, and they were successful for a long time. This is probably due to combustion engines' maturity and the lack of need for major industry changes.

Tesla recognized the complex supply chain in the automotive industry and revolutionized the industry by using vertical integration.

Supply: By making its own parts it has total control of the quality and design of them, it can make compromises or absorb higher costs that a parts contractor might not be willing to do. This doesn’t show when you look at a part, all you can do is estimate how much it cost. By controlling all of these aspects, Tesla can make changes quickly and with less red tape and expense than a standard car maker who has to deal with separate parts suppliers.

Direct sales: Unlike other car manufacturers who sell through franchised dealerships, Tesla uses direct sales. By cutting out all the intermediaries, Tesla is probably the only ‘mainstream’ car manufacturer in the world which has a direct relationship with every single one of their customers. In fact, Tesla is taking customer experience to the next level. In the past, customers have repeatedly made suggestions via twitter to which Elon Musk responded personally, but also said Tesla would indeed implement some of the suggested changes as part of the next software update. And while customer satisfaction certainly can’t be entirely explained by Musk’s willingness to interact with customers on Twitter, it certainly doesn’t hurt.