Amsterdam startup funding news, February 2022

Micro-mobility company raises more than €62 million for European expansion

After raising more than €62 million in its Series B funding round, the Amsterdam-based micro-mobility company Dott now has a total of €133 million in a mix of equity and asset-backed debt. Dott is mostly known for its colourful electric scooters available in 36 cities and nine countries across Europe. The capital injection will enable the company to accelerate the rollout of its new e-bikes, invest in product development to improve the user experience and expand into new cities and countries. The latest funding round was jointly led by abrdn and Sofina, while other investors, including EQT Ventures and Prosus Ventures, also participated. 

Amsterdam’s ‘Airbnb for boats’ acquired in a bid to expand into European markets

Barqo, an Amsterdam-based platform for domestic boat rental, was acquired by London’s boat hire and yacht charter marketplace Borrow A Boat in February 2022. The peer-to-peer platform connects captains who have a boat to sailors who want to explore the seas (or canals). With this development, the company aims to expand Barqo’s reach by the addition of thousands of boats and Borrow A Boat’s large customer base to subsequently create one of the world’s largest inventories of boats in one place.

Biller acquired by Banking Circle Group

Just six months after its inception, the Dutch buy-now-pay-later startup for B2B payments Biller has been acquired by Banking Circle Group, suggesting that Biller is taking a leading position in the so far relatively untapped B2B credit market. The acquisition will now allow the AI-powered startup to further accelerate its European expansion. 

Amsterdam-based SaaS scale-up Fast Four acquired by US-based Zone & Co

Fast Four has been acquired by the US-based Zone & Co, a NetSuite development accelerator for lead-to-revenue software. Fast Four’s service includes automating core processes and providing real-time visibility into operational and financial performance. The team will now form part of Zone as part of the deal to develop their global NetSuite presence and strengthen its services capabilities and SuiteApps platform.

StudyTube closes €26.4 million deal and acquires Dutch-based Springest

StudyTube, an Amsterdam-based EdTech platform, has raised €26.4 million in its Series B round of funding led by strategic investment firm Energy Impact Partners (EIP) and existing investor Verdane. The investment will be used to scale up StudyTube’s product development team and boost business through strategic acquisitions in Europe. In addition to this, StudyTube has acquired another EdTech startup from Amsterdam: Springest, which offers a comparison website for training programmes and courses.

Productpine raises €2.5 million for its direct-to-consumer marketplace

Amsterdam-based online shopping platform Productpine has raised €2.5 million of seed funding, saying that the proceeds from this round will help scale up its platform and onboard new brands. The company, founded in 2019 by Camiel van Dooren, Vincent Hulshoff and Dimitar Maslarov, offers a platform that helps brands sell products directly to consumers; it has so far been joined by more than 90 international brands. The round was led by US-based venture capital firm Acequia Capital and Germany-based NFQ Capital, while several co-investors and private investors also participated. 

Connected Capital closes €154 million funding

Connected Capital, an Amsterdam-based private equity firm that supports B2B SaaS companies to scale and grow,  has closed its Fund II at €154 million. While the global demand for cloud software continues to grow, the firm wants to continue its hands-on investment approach and target European B2B SaaS businesses. With assets of more than €200 million, Connected Capital is now considering its own investment opportunities.

Insify to modernise the insurance market with new funding

The insurance tech startup Insify has raised €15 million in a Series A round of funding. Founded by Koen Thijssen in 2020, Insify aims to transform business insurance by making it more accessible and user-friendly for entrepreneurs and SMEs. By using this digital platform, SMEs can get a business insurance quote in a matter of minutes. The funding – led by the global venture firm Accel – will give Insify the opportunity to scale its operations and enter new markets in Europe.

Appical’s employee onboarding software is making paper handbooks obsolete

The Amsterdam-based IT company Appical has been acquired by Visma, a business software company in Norway. Appical, an HR-tech scale-up founded in 2012, is hoping to make onboarding as simple as possible. The platform supports employees in all phases of the employment process with the press of a button. This means that employees can easily prepare for a new job from the get-go thanks to how-to videos, gamification and quizzes. With this latest development, Appical hopes to move into the European market. 

Life Science Partners closes €1 billion funding and joins EQT

The Amsterdam-based investment firm Life Science Partners (LSP) has raised over €1 billion for its main fund, LSP 7. LSP has already invested in four companies and will join forces with the global investment organisation EQT later this year. The fund aims to invest in about 20 companies developing new drug therapies and medical technologies to help ensure that their scientific innovations benefit patients. LSP hope that the partnership with EQT will enable them to raise large funds much faster and serve life sciences in Europe even better than before. 

Context Labs raises more than €24 million and launches new venture

The US and Amsterdam-based Context Labs, which provides technology for data verification, has raised €24.58 million in a new round of strategic funding. The company has also announced a joint venture with BP Energy Partners (BPEP) to provide a trusted-data solution for the energy sector.

Workflow management platform TheyDo raises €1.7 million from investors

The Amsterdam-based tech startup TheyDo has raised €1.7 million in a new round of funding. The company, which was founded in 2019, provides a workflow management platform for customer service. The company hopes that the funds will help expand its team and functionalities. Apart from this, TheyDo said that more engineers will be hired to accelerate the rollout of the software. 

Haptic tech startup Aito raises additional funds

The haptic touch specialist Aito has raised a further €1 million funding from Rabobank. The company already received investments of up to €4.1 million in October 2021 to accelerate its growth among top consumer technology brands. Aito is known for its finger sensing and haptic touch solutions that have been integrated into laptop touch pads.

Check speeds up its international growth with €10 million investment

Check, an electric moped sharing service from Rotterdam, has raised €10 million in a new round of growth funding. The company states that its fleet increased by 300% and its revenues by almost 700% in 2021. The company says that the funds will help accelerate its self-built technology platform, which serves over 300,000 users daily. Additionally, the company will also use the funds to accelerate its growth worldwide.

Userguest wants to add more personalisation to hotel websites

Travel tech startup Userguest has raised €400,000 in a new venture. The company was founded in 2018 in Amsterdam to bridge a gap between hotels and new technologies. To close this gap, Userguest’s smart notifications tool helps to improve and support hotels’ online performance. These new funds will help take Userguest one step further as the startup focuses on launching a newer version with more automation and personalisation features. 

Innovactory raises €1.5 million for its mobility startup Gaiyo

The mobility startup Innovactory has raised €1.5 million in a fresh round of funding. Innovactory is popularly known as the company behind the transport app Gaiyo. This app functions as a personal travel assistant by providing an overview of all available travel options for users to get from point A to point B. The company also claims that it provides the cheapest parking app in the Netherlands. The money raised will help Innovactory to further develop and expand its product.

Crunchr wants to revolutionise people analytics for HR Teams

After a successful year for Crunchr, the people analytics platform announced that it has received funding in a round led by the SaaS investor Oxx. Crunchr believes that ‘people analytics’ can greatly assist HR departments and improve decision-making and workforce planning. Crunchr has been adopted by companies around the world and will use the new funding to develop its product and treble its team.

Blanco raises €3 million to further its operations

Blanco WealthTech has raised €3 million to further its position within the FinTech sector. The Amsterdam-based company develops technology that automates the entire wealth management process for wealth and asset managers. Apart from the funding, the company also appointed a new co-CEO and is now looking forward to scale its operations as a whole. 

Uni-Life receives capital injection for possible international growth

Uni-Life, a digital platform that helps academic institutions connect with students, has raised €275,000 in a round of funding. Founded in 2018, the platform offers universities the opportunity to connect with students by providing relevant information such as upcoming events and special initiatives taking place at the university. Thanks to the funding, and an additional €175,000 raised two years ago, Uni-Life is set to work towards gaining an international reach and developing its product. 

Pro Parents receives pre-seed funding for innovative platform

The HealthTech company Pro Parents is set to receive seed funding to expand its team and further develop its platform. Oost NL led the financing round and linked several private investors with Pro Parents. The e-learning and coaching platform focuses on helping working parents with their work-life balance and also guides employers to ensure that young parents remain in the workforce.  

Gymstory raises second round of funding

Gymstory has received funding for its digital platform, which aims to helps fitness enthusiasts reach their fitness goals by generating unique training data. After raising over €200,000 in 2020, the team has now raised an additional €150,000 to get the fitness platform off the ground. The funds will now assist Gymstory to launch the platform in ten gyms. 

SeMI Technologies raises €14.1 million in Series A funding

The open-source, AI-first infrastructure company SeMI Technologies has raised €14.1 million for its vector search engine Weaviate in a Series A round of funding. The Amsterdam-based company wants to grow their team and services and fine-tune Weaviate's machine learning (ML) algorithms. The company claims that Weaviate allows users to better index and search through their data, unlike previous databases that just stored raw data. 

AgriTech startup Source.ag gets helpful boost with €9 million investment

The AgriTech startup Source.ag has raised €9 million in a seed round of funding. The company was founded in 2020 to accelerate access to fresh fruit and vegetables with the help of AI-powered greenhouses. The company built its intelligent platform to simulate crop development in any environment as a way to create reliable food and to anticipate disturbances related to climate change.

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