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Welcome to another edition of 🕵Startup Researcher - EMEA Weekly, your essential digest delivering the latest news and premium insights on startups and venture capital across the region🌍

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Without further ado, let's delve into the latest developments!

Europe

📰 Important News

• Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of UK AI startup DeepMind, has been appointed as CEO of Microsoft's consumer AI division, directly reporting to Satya Nadella.

• The French competition authority fined Alphabet Inc and its subsidiaries €250 million for failing to comply with commitments made in June 2022.

• Robin AI, a legal tech startup specializing in generative artificial intelligence tools for legal tasks, has appointed Scott Casey, a former financial executive from Tumblr and MySpace, as its CFO.

💸 Top Funding Rounds

• Berlin-based unicorn Enpal has secured a €1.1 billion debt vehicle from Barclays Europe, Bank of America, and Credit Agricole CIB to support its next 35,000 customers.

• Paris-based climate tech firm Greenly, offering carbon emissions tracking tools for SMBs, has raised a $52 million Series B round led by FISV.

• UK fintech Smart has raised a £37.1 million Series E extension and implemented layoffs as part of its efforts to hit group profitability by the end of 2024 after its UK business achieved profitability two years ago.

• Eindhoven-based EFFECT Photonics, a developer of highly integrated optics solutions, has raised $38 million in a Series D funding round.

• German embedded finance platform Solaris SE has announced the closing of its €96 million Series F round, with SBI Group leading the investment.

💰️ Notable Exits

• Amsterdam-based IoT space tech startup, Hiber, has acquired Srett Industrie, a Paris-based IoT hardware manufacturer specializing in LoRaWAN-enabled devices for ATEX environments.

• Germany's Rheinmetall has acquired Dutch startup REEQ to expand its vehicle range with innovative light hybrid vehicles.

• Culture Amp, an employee experience platform, has announced its plan to acquire Orgnostic, a Serbian people analytics company.

• Global anti-fraud software provider Signicat has acquired SmartWorks, an Icelandic e-signature company, to expand its reach among Nordic customers.

• D-EDGE, a SaaS company serving over 17,000 hotels in 150 countries, has acquired LoungeUp, a CRM platform for the hospitality sector.

🏦 About Investors

• OTB Ventures closes its second deeptech fund at $185 million, the largest in Central Eastern Europe and among the first to secure funding from the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF).

• Frontline, a London and Dublin-based VC has closed a new $100 million growth fund. This fund will focus on investing in US B2B startups from Series B onwards that aim to expand into Europe.

• Orano, a French nuclear fuel producer, is investing €50 million in a new corporate venture capital fund to support early-stage industrial startups.

• World Fund has achieved the final close on its €300 million climate tech fund, with notable LPs including Croatian pension fund Erste Plavi, Bpifrance, and the European Investment Fund...

• British Business Bank has launched its second Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, which will allocate £660 million to startups across northern England.

📈 This Week’s Insights

Middle East

💸 Top Funding Rounds

• Saudi Arabia's foodtech startup, Barakah, secures undisclosed funding from German-based VC FoodLabs, making it the firm’s first investment in MENA.

• Oman's platform Zameeli, linking local freelancers with SMEs, has closed its equity crowdfunding through Omani fintech "Mamun".

• Bahrain fintech Receiptable has raised a pre-seed round led by HP Spring Studios.

• Tunisia-born and UAE-headquartered AI startup ClusterLab has raised $600,000 in a pre-seed funding round from regional investors, including Karim Beguir.

💰️ Notable Exits

• Saudi Arabia's MBC Group, through its MBC Ventures arm, has bought 4,074,533 ordinary shares in music streaming app Anghami, gaining a 13.7% ownership stake in the Nasdaq-listed company.

🏦 About Investors

• Jordanian Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund (ISSF) has decided to increase its investment in Propeller's second fund, raising it from an initial $3.5 million to $5 million.

📈 This Week’s Insights

Africa

📰 Important News

• Kuda Microfinance Bank, an African neobank, has obtained payment licenses in Tanzania and Canada as it expands its presence across Africa and into the global market.

• Visa's Cross-Border Solutions division and LemFi sign a global expansion deal, with Visa facilitating cross-border transactions for LemFi in new markets like China, India, and Pakistan.

• Morocco launches its inaugural industrial zone solely for electric vehicle battery production, with an initial investment of USD 2.3 billion.

• ANKA, previously Afrikrea, appears to be shutting down after nearly 11 years in operation, despite raising $5 million in a Series A extension round just last September.

• A 2020 agreement between ride-hailing platforms and the Lagos state government regarding data access is causing friction, with Uber hesitant while competitor Bolt has agreed.

💸 Top Funding Rounds

• Egyptian healthtech Pharmacy Marts has secured a six-figure bridge round with Acasia Ventures leading the round.

• African fintech Moove has raised $100 million in a Series B round to drive global expansion, with ongoing support from Mubadala and fresh investment from Uber.

• Zone, a rapidly expanding payment infrastructure company in Africa, secures $8.5 million in an oversubscribed seed round, led by Flourish Ventures and TLcom Capital.

• South African fintech startup Float has obtained an $11 million funding facility from Standard Bank to support the expansion of its card-linked installments platform.

• Kenyan online insurance platform mTek has raised $1.25 million in funding from VKAV and Founders Factory to support its expansion in the East African insurance market.

💰️ Notable Exits

• Telkom, a South African telecommunications provider, has agreed to sell its Swiftnet masts and towers business for $356.445 million to a consortium led by Actis, a UK-based investment firm.

🏦 About Investors

• Pan-African VC fund P1 Ventures closes second fund's second round at $35 million, with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as the first public institutional investor.

📈 This Week’s Insights

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