Tech startup M&A picks up in the downturn

It’s an unfortunate time to be out raising funding — startup valuations have taken a hit, investors aren’t writing cheques as eagerly and companies that burn a lot of capital each month are looking increasingly unappetising.

Several startups are shopping around for a buyer instead — and some bigger companies with deep pockets are scouting for bargains.

So far this month, online boutique shop marketplace Trouva has been acquired by online home platform Made.com, while other European unicorns like Personio, Paddle, Flink, and bunq have also made acquisitions.

Here, we list the top mergers and acquisitions that have taken place in Europe since May 2022. The list is based on data from Dealroom, and excludes any startups founded before 2005.

We’ll keep updating it — please let us know if we’ve missed any catchy deals.

The M&A list

Gaming

Acquired company: From the Bench — Mobile game development studio founded in 2008
HQ location: Alicante, Spain
Who bought it? TappX — Barcelona-based digital advertising software company
Who was on the cap table? Caixa Capital Risc, Bonsai Venture Capital

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Acquired company: GamerzClass — e-learning products for aspiring esports players
HQ location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Who bought it? Metafy — LA-based online gaming coaching portal, founded in 2020
Who was on the cap table? Jesper Vesten Drescher, VF Venture, 500 Global, Bumble Ventures, TrueSight Ventures, Ben Holmes, ByFounders, Morten E Wulff, Dreamcraft Ventures

SaaS

Acquired company: Quentic — software for occupational safety, environmental management and sustainability
HQ location: Berlin, Germany
Who bought it? Advanced Manufacturing Control Systems — Ireland-based software company, founded in 2002
Who was on the cap table? High-Tech Gründerfonds, One Peak Partners, Morgan Stanley, Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg, Shutterstock, Wecken & Cie, Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, B!GRÜNDET, Maria 01

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Acquired company: AreTheyHappy — reputation management software
HQ location: Ghent, Belgium
Who bought it? Black Box Intelligence — Texas-based restaurant analytics provider
Who was on the cap table? Diversis Capital

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Acquired company: Back — employee experience software
HQ location: Berlin, Germany
Who bought it? Personio — Munich-based HR software company, founded in 2015
Who was on the cap table? Point Nine, Seedcamp, MH2 Capital, La Famiglia, Gradient Ventures, Charlie Songhurst, Matthias Hilpert, Renaud Visage

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Acquired company: Okarito — travel management software for small businesses
HQ location: Paris, France
Who bought it? Swile — French scaleup offering employee benefits card and app, founded in 2016
Who was on the cap table? The Family, Kima Ventures, Axeleo Capital, Wilco, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux

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Acquired company: Futrli — business accounting and projections software
HQ location: Brighton, UK
Who bought it? Sage Group — UK-based multinational enterprise software company, founded in 1981
Who was on the cap table? Headline, Notion Capital, Firstminute capital, Tech Nation

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Acquired company: Formulate — sales management tool using AI
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Who bought it? Relex Solutions — Finnish retail planning unicorn, which raised a €500m round in February
Who was on the cap table? Bo Mattsson, DHS Venture Partners, Industrifonden, Lars Lindgren, European Innovation Council, HenQ, J12 Ventures

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Acquired company: Satismaster — customer feedback platform
HQ: Prague, Czech Republic
Who bought it? Productboard — recent unicorn based in San Francisco and launched in Prague
Who was on the cap table? CEED Tech, FIWARE, Nextech Ventures, StartupYard

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Acquired company: Scortex — AI-based tool for managing quality control on industrial sites
HQ: Paris, France
Who bought it? TriGo, a French corporate giant providing quality inspection. TriGo have pledged to invest €5m into Scortex as part of the buyout
Who was on the cap table? Agoranov, Notion Capital, Alven, Sap.io, Plug and Play, Plug and Play Insurtech, Sap.iO Foundry Munich

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Acquired company: Side — a French online staffing service
HQ: Paris, France
Who bought it? Randstad Innovation Fund, the CVC arm of the Amsterdam-based HR multinational Randstad
Who was on the cap table? Agoranov, Notion Capital, Alven, Sap.io, Plug and Play, Plug and Play Insurtech, Sap.iO Foundry Munich

Consumer

Acquired company: Cajoo — speedy delivery startup
HQ location: Paris, France
Who bought it? Flink — Berlin-based grocery delivery unicorn
Who was on the cap table? Carrefour, Frst, XAnge, Headline

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Acquired company: Trouva — marketplace for independent boutiques and brands
HQ location: London, UK
Who bought it? Made.com — UK-based homeware brand, founded in 2010
Who was on the cap table? Playfair Capital, Index Ventures, Avonmore Developments, LocalGlobe, Go Beyond Investing, Patty Dimond, Downing Ventures, Robin Klein, Octopus Ventures, Business Growth Fund, C4 Ventures, Ada Ventures, Downing LLP, Tech Nation

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Acquired company: Tripadee — travel tech that lists camping and outdoor holidays in the UK and France
HQ location: London, UK
Who bought it? Hipcamp — the largest US-based outdoor travel holiday booking platform, which has been previously backed by Marcy Venture Partners, the investment vehicle for rapper Jay Z

Fintech

Acquired company: Tricount — a group expenses management app
HQ location: Brussels, Belgium
Who bought it? bunq — Dutch unicorn neobank. Tricount will likely start offering bunq products within its app after the merger
Who was on the cap table? Belcube (Belgian seed-stage fund)

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Acquired company: finAPI — an open banking API provider that leads the market in Germany
HQ location: Munich, Germany
Who bought it? Yapily, a British open banking startup. By buying finAPI it hopes to expand its reach in Germany, and it will almost double its customer base with the purchase
Who was on the cap table? PwC accelerator

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Acquired company: Profitero — an ecommerce analytics platform
HQ location: Dublin, Ireland
Who bought it? Publicis Groupe — French digital advertising multinational
Who was on the cap table? Delta Partners, Enterprise Ireland, Polaris Partners, Episode 1 Ventures, Scaleworks. Founded in 2010, the company had raised $40m prior to acquisition. 

Security 

Acquired company: Ubble.ai — identity verification service
HQ location: Paris, France
Who bought it? Checkout.com — London-based fintech unicorn, and the most valuable UK startup
Who was on the cap table? Partech, Kima Ventures, Breega, Bpifrance, Thomas Rebaud (founder of French unicorn Meero). 

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Acquired company: BehavioSec — “behavioural biometrics” cybersecurity and authentication products
HQ location: Stockholm, Sweden
Who bought it? LexisNexis — New York-based data analytics corporation, founded in 1970
Who was on the cap table? Conor Venture Partners, Northzone, Norrlandsfonden, Lunova, Partnerinvest Norr, PwC Accelerator, ABN AMRO, Trident Capital, Cisco Investments, Octopus Ventures, ABN AMRO Ventures, FinTech Innovation Lab, Luleå University of Technology, Plug and Play, Plug and Play Insurtech, Startup Sweden, Almi Invest

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Acquired company: Hdiv Security — continuous cybersecurity vulnerability tracker
HQ location: San Sebastián, Spain
Who bought it? Datadog — US-based data analytics scaleup, founded in 2010
Who was on the cap table? Adara Ventures, BIND 4.0 — Basque Open Innovation Platform, StartUp Alcobendas, Telefónica Innovation Ventures, BIC Gipuzkoa, Prosegur, Wayra

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Acquired company: Excellium Services — penetration testing and cyber incident response
HQ location: Cotern, Luxembourg
Who bought it? Thales Group — French multinational working in aerospace, defence and security
Who was on the cap table? Sonae IM

Renewable Energy

Acquired company: Groendus — B2B renewable energy network
HQ location: Utrecht, Netherlands
Who bought it? Joint acquisition by Dutch pension fund APG and Canadian asset manager OMERS Infrastructure
Who was on the cap table? NPM Capital

Transport

Acquired company: Clicars — ecommerce marketplace for second-hand cars
HQ location: Madrid, Spain
Who bought it? Aramis Group — French online marketplace for second-hand cars, founded in 2001
Who was on the cap table? Seaya Ventures, Inaki Berenguer, PSA Group, Luis Sanz, Pau Sabria, Startup University Ventures

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Acquired company: Reby — micro-mobility and escooter service
HQ location: Barcelona, Spain
Who bought it? House of Lithium — California-based ebike company, founded in 2018
Who was on the cap table? 500 Global (formally 500 Startups), Exor Seeds, Fuel Capital, NEO, Abac Nest, Edward Lando, Simon Rothman, Exor, Ruben Ferreiro, Hard Yaka, House of Lithium

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Acquired company: Share NOW (Formerly Car2go) — a car-sharing joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and BMW
HQ Location: Stuttgart, Germany
Who bought it? Stellantis — the merged Fiat-Peugeot parent company. Stellantis already has a mobility subsidiary, Free2move, which Share NOW will be rolled into
Who was on the cap table? Daimler

Deeptech

Acquired company: Myrmex — robotics for unmanned delivery
HQ location: Ilioupoli, Greece
Who bought it? Ocado — listed British supermarket technology company
Who was on the cap table? Odyssey Ventures L.P.

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Acquired company: Metaliquid — AI-powered video analysis for data discovery
HQ location: Milan, Italy
Who bought it? BeMyEye — London-based data-as-a-service provider founded in 2011
Who was on the cap table? Not known

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Acquired company: ProGlove — wearable barcode scanners for warehouse workers
HQ location: Munich, Germany
Who bought it? Nordic Capital — Stockholm-based private equity fund, founded in 1989
Who was on the cap table? Intel Capital, Bayern Kapital, GettyLab, DIVC, Summit Partners, TechFounders, Technical University Munich (TUM), Plug and Play, Plug and Play Insurtech

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Acquired company: IFollow — a French startup developing autonomous robots for warehouse optimisation
HQ location: Arcueil, France
Who bought it? Stow Deutschland — a shelving systems developer
Who was on the cap table? Axeleo Capital (AXC), WaterStart Capital (NCI), Agoranov, W2 Labs, Normandie Capital Investissement, Supernova Invest, Socadif, Bpifrance

Health & Wellness 

Acquired company: PlusDental — invisible aligners manufacturer
HQ location: Berlin, Germany
Who bought it? Straumann Holding Deutschland — Swiss dental care provider
Who was on the cap table? Ping An Group, HV Capital, Lakestar, Cadence Growth Capital, Jebsen Capital, Bruce Darnell, SB21 – Saarbruecker21, Elephant & Castle Capital. The acquisition was priced at €112.5m, while the company had raised €77m. 

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Acquired company: Wavy — Paris-based communication management company for the wellness industry
HQ location: Paris, France
Who bought it? Treatwell — online booking platform with five acquisitions in its history
Who was on the cap table? Bpifrance, Kima Ventures.