The FrenchTech on top of the world ?
Weekly press review in Tech - 17th January 2022 - Issue #32
I’m Sebastien co-founder and CEO of Early Metrics. TechWatchbySeb is a monthly newsletter to provide Tech Investors, Entrepreneurs & Innovators insights to evaluate any Innovative & Growing company.
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🥇The French Tech 🇫🇷 on the top of the world 🌎
The French Tech ecosystem was on fire last week, following the announcement of 3 major fundraisings:
Backmarket the marketplace for refurbished devices raised a $510M series E at a $5.7Bn valuation. This round happen just a few months since the Series D of $335M.
Qonto the neobank for business raised $500M at a $5Bn valuation. The round was led by Tiger Global and the private equity fund TCV.
Ankorstore wholesale marketplace for independent retailers has raised a $283M Series C at $2Bn valuation. The round was led by Bond and Tiger Global.
Sources:
Backmarket: Wall Street Journal
Qonto: Reuters
Ankorstore: Tech EU
🥈Checkout 🇬🇧 the payment company raises 1Bn at a 40bn valuation
Founded in 2012, Checkout.com provides fintech companies with a cross-border payment solution for digital commerce. The business offers direct access to domestic acquiring across payment methods and geographies. This is achieved through a unified integrated platform that also provides fraud management tools, analytics, and comprehensive reporting features.
The company has raised a total of $1.8Bn and is now valuated at $40Bn which makes it the most valuable fintech in the U.K.
Source: UKTN
🥉Health tech sector is consolidating
Aside from the major fundraising that happened this week, I was pretty interested by the consolidation of 2 health tech unicorns which both acquired tech companies:
Headspace Health acquires AI-powered mental health and wellness company Sayana. The acquisition of the San Francisco-based company for an undisclosed amount will expand its ability to provide personalized self-care to its users;
Doctolib the online platform booking that connects doctors with patients acquires encryption startup Tanker. The startup has developed a protocol as well as client-side development kits that can be integrated into a web app, a mobile app or a desktop app.
Sources:
Headspace acquisition: Techcrunh
Doctolib acquisition: Techcrunch
Last but not least
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That’s it for this week, wishing you a great week ahead, and feel free to share if you like 👇