€1B+ for residential solar, investor Climate Hardware Playbook, and over €1.7B invested in tech this week

This week our research tracked more than 75 tech funding deals worth over €1.7 billion, and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.

In addition to this week’s top financials, we’ve also indexed the most important/industry-related news items you need to know about.

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Either way, let’s get you up to speed.

💸 Notable and big funding rounds

🇩🇪 Greentech unicorn Enpal secures over €1B in refinancing for residential solar systems

🇩🇪 Banking-as-a-Service pioneer Solaris announces €96M Series F funding

🇫🇷 Fidelity leads $52M funding for Greenly’s carbon accounting tech

🫱🏽‍🫲🏻 Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers

🇪🇸 Oakley Capital acquires majority stake in progressive lens maker Horizons Optical

🇳🇱 Germany’s Rheinmetall acquires Dutch startup REEQ, maker of light hybrid tactical vehicles

🛰️ Amsterdam’s spacetech startup Hiber expands IoT offerings by acquiring Paris-based Srett Industries

🚀 Interesting moves from investors

🌍 World Fund unveils €300M fund for climate founders

☁️ Climate Hardware Playbook launched by Speedinvest, Planet A and Norrsken VC

🐄 Ukraine’s Roosh X and Tiny Studio want to create cash cows, not unicorns

🇪🇺 EIC recommits to cargo airline Dronamics with €10M investment

🇬🇧 ‘Huge day’ as Northern founders handed £660m funding boost

🗞️ In other (important) news

🖥️ Inflection AI co-founder Mustafa Suleyman hired by Microsoft

🍖 Meatable can now transform cultivated cells into sausages in a record four days

🔌 Last-mile mixed electric fleets could save €500M annually and cut emissions by 80%

📡 Recommended reads and listens

☘️ 35% Northern Ireland’s funding deals went to women-led startups last year

😺 Meatly unveils the world’s first cultivated chicken pet food

🇵🇱 10 Poland startups that closed the biggest rounds in 2023

🎶 AI voice clone startup faces legal action from music industry

🚁 UK’s eVTOL taxi plan: taking flight or just hot air?

🔭 European tech startups to watch

🌍 Twig founder launches “circular economy” startup — months after previous “circular economy” startup shuts

🌲 Dryad Networks “Internet of the Forest” secures €5.6M for its advanced wildfire detection

🇨🇭Salesforce founder invests in Weev

🥤Coca-Cola backs Airhive’s direct air capture tech in 1000-tonne pilot

🛟 Binamod, which determines the earthquake risk of buildings, received investment from Founder One