VC Angle Weekly Briefing #13: Bending Spoons Raises €500M+ for M&A Spree & N26 Investors Push for Co-CEO Exit
VC Angle Weekly Update #13
Hey — welcome to the thirteenth edition of VC Angle Weekly Updates! As always, we're keeping tabs on what actually matters across 🇪🇺 European tech. If something broke the news this week and it's worth your time, it's probably below. Scroll on for the deals, roles, reads, and events you'll want on your radar.
In This Edition:
Bending Spoons raises €500M+
Investors press N26 co-CEOs to step down after fresh BaFin critique
Anthropic acqui-hires Humanloop team to sharpen enterprise AI push
European VC steady at $12.6B; CEE raises €640M
Osika: "University is not the best place to learn, no matter the major"
📰 What Happened This Week
Bending Spoons raises €500M+ to accelerate its tech M&A spree
Milan’s Bending Spoons secured over €500 million in debt financing led by J.P. Morgan (with BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole CIB among arrangers) to fund further acquisitions. The package sits within a €514 million structure arranged by Silver Point and includes an extra €100 million facility, bringing total capital raised to ~€1 billion.
The product operator—whose portfolio spans Evernote, WeTransfer, Remini, Meetup and more—has been on an active buying streak and is reportedly weighing IPO options
Lovable + Project Europe crown GoodOmen at Stockholm hackathon; AI tool bought for €20k on the spot
Swedish AI unicorn Lovable and accelerator Project Europe ran a 90-person “Project Lovable” sprint in Stockholm. London trio GoodOmen shipped two products in ~20 hours—a video-generation platform and an AI tool that drafts articles from interviews—to take the €20k prize. Impact Loop acquired the journalism tool immediately for €20k.
Investors press N26 co-CEOs to step down after fresh BaFin critique
Series E investors (led by Third Point Ventures and Coatue) proposed waiving part of their returns if founders Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal are replaced. A sticking point: whether the pair would join the supervisory board; their special voting rights complicate any move. N26 must respond this month and a renewed monitor is possible.
N26 processes €140B/year across 24 European markets, lost €213m in 2023, and is weighing a down-round that could let some investors recoup capital.
Anthropic acqui-hires Humanloop team to sharpen enterprise AI push
Anthropic has hired the co-founders and most of the team behind Humanloop—the LLM eval/observability startup—adding ~a dozen engineers and researchers. No assets/IP were acquired; it’s a straight talent grab aimed at strengthening tooling for enterprise deployments. Humanloop (YC/Index-backed) worked with customers like Duolingo, Gusto and Vanta and had told clients it was shutting down ahead of a deal.
🔍 Reads & Reports
Europe logged $12.6B in Q2 venture funding—flat QoQ, -24% YoY. Germany edged the UK for the first time since 2012 ($2.8B vs. $2.5B); France hit $1.8B. Capital clustered in deeptech, buoyed by mega-deals like Dream Games ($1.25B) and Helsing ($694M). Early stage was relatively resilient ($5B+, 270+ rounds) while growth lagged ($5.7B, 75 deals); Europe’s H1 global share slipped to 13%. CEE recorded 144 rounds / €640M, led by Poland, Estonia, and Ukraine.
Defence tech mapped: 50+ European startups across 13 subsectors (Sifted Pro)
Sifted charts 50+ defence-tech startups that have raised ≥€5m, spanning drones/ISR, electronic warfare, AI & quantum, command-and-control, space & satellites, advanced materials, and more (13 categories in total). Germany stands out alongside other hubs; marquee names like Helsing and Quantum Systems sit next to lesser-known builders—useful landscape for dual-use deal sourcing.
“University is not the best place to learn, no matter the major.”
20VC’s Harry Stebbings hosted Lovable’s founder Anton Osika: “I would invest in Grok, I would short OpenAI,” plus “50/50 chance the best model is created in China,” and “university isn’t the best place to learn.”
💶 Where Funds Went (Or Will Go)
Startups
🇬🇧 Smart raises €69.4M credit facility to expand global retirement savings technology
🇩🇪 Plancraft raises €38M Series B to drive AI transformation in construction
🇨🇭 Mabylon raises €31.8M to advance peanut allergy treatment
🇬🇧 Fateless raises $14M to develop RPG game Godforge
🇬🇧 Bumper raises $11M for BNPL car repair financing
🇬🇧 Archestra raises $3.3M to build guardrails for enterprise AI agents
🇬🇧 Riva raises $3M for blockchain-powered global transfers
🇧🇪 EDGX raises €2.3M to bring edge computing to satellites
🇩🇰 VentriJect raises €1.7M to expand fitness monitoring device
🇩🇪 Paddy raises €1M Pre-Seed to lighten teachers' workloads in edtech
Investors
🇳🇱 Marktlink Capital secures €520M for private equity and venture capital investments across Europe
🇩🇰 Delphinus Venture Capital launches €80M fund to back innovative companies
💼 Open Roles
ALSTIN Capital → Visiting VC Analyst Intern in Munich, Germany. Apply here.
Planet A Ventures → Visiting Analyst Investment Team in Berlin, Germany. Apply here.
Versetti Family Office → Venture Scout (Remote). Apply here.
Kopa Ventures → Internship in Berlin, Germany. Apply here.
Plug and Play Tech Center → Ventures Analyst in Valencia, Spain. Apply here.
👋 That’s a wrap for this week.
If you’ve got a round, role, or resource others should see, reply to this or ping us at hello@patrons.vc or send me a message on LinkedIn. We’re building Europe’s finest scouting network at Patrons. If you have a good deal flow, want to expand yours, or want to reach the right investors, send us a message!
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