Like many of its other US peers, New York-based VC firm Coatue has stepped up its presence in Europe over the past year and plans to set up an office in the region soon. Coatue is best known for backing tech giants like ByteDance and Snap — but the team has now also backed some of Europe’s biggest private tech companies.
On Monday alone, the firm participated in two deals together worth over $1.3bn — in digital bank N26’s massive $900m Series E and London-based Deel’s $425m Series D.
The firm is commonly referred to as a "Tiger Cub" because founder Philippe Laffont worked for Tiger Global, and is known for a similarly fast-paced investment style. He’s obviously still friends with his previous employer because out of 17 of the European startups that Coatue has backed this year (for the first time, or in follow-on rounds), six have also had Tiger on their cap table.
Here are all the companies in Europe that Coatue has backed in 2021, including follow-on investments, according to press releases and Dealroom data. We’ll keep updating the list as deals are announced.
Deel
Sector: HRtech
HQ: London, UK
Date: Oct 2021
Round: $425m Series D
Coinvestors: Coatue led (Partners Rahul Kishore and Lucas Swisher). Altimeter Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, the YC Continuity Fund, Spark Capital, Greenbay Ventures and Neo participated.
Details: This follows the trend of increased investment in European startups providing services that facilitate remote working.
N26
Sector: Fintech
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Date: Oct 2021
Round: $900m Series E
Coinvestors: Coatue co-led with Third Point Ventures.
Details: This was the largest financing round to date for a digital bank in Europe. It valued the company at $9bn, placing it among the top 20 fintechs in the world by valuation.
MoonPay
Sector: Crypto
HQ: Malta
Date: October 2021
Round: $400m
Coinvestors: Tiger Global.
Silverflow
Sector: Fintech
HQ: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Date: October 2021
Round: €35m Series B
Coinvestors: None.
Gorillas
Sector: Food
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Date: March and September 2021
Round: $290m Series B (March) and $950m Series C (September)
Coinvestors: DST Global, Tencent, Greenoaks Capital Partners, Dragoneer and Atlantic Food Labs in the Series B. Delivery Hero, DST Global, Tencent and A* Partners in Series C.
Details: The Series B gave Gorillas the title of fastest European tech company to reach unicorn status ever. It has, however, hurtled into plenty of challenges as a result of that hyper-growth, as this Sifted investigation revealed.
Synk
Sector: Cybersecurity
HQ: London, UK
Date: March 2021 and September 2021
Round: $300m Series E (March), $530m Series F (September)
Coinvestors: Accel, Tiger Global, BlackRock, Temasek, Boldstart Ventures, Canaan Partners, Salesforce Ventures and more (across both rounds).
Detail: Snyk is now one of the most valuable cybersecurity companies in the world, private and publicly listed.
Choco
Sector: Food
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Date: July 2021
Round: $100m Series B
Coinvestors: Bessemer, Insight, Left Lane Capital
GoStudent
Sector: Edtech
HQ: Vienna, Austria
Date: March 2021 and June 2021
Round: €70m Series B (March), €205m Series C (June)
Coinvestors: Coatue led the Series B, existing investors Leftlane Capital and DN Capital participated. DST Global led the C, with participation from SoftBank, Tencent, Dragoneer and existing investors including Coatue, Left Lane and DN Capital.
Details: The Series C made GoStudent Europe’s second edtech unicorn in a year and Austria’s second unicorn.
Commerce Layer
Sector: SaaS
HQ: Prato, Italy
Date: June 2021
Round: €13.5m Series B
Coinvestors: Benchmark and Mango Capital
Portal One
Sector: Gaming
HQ: Oslo, Norway
Date: April 2021
Round: $15m seed
Coinvestors: Talis Capital, Seedcamp, Signia Venture Partners, Founders Fund, Rogue Venture Partners, TQ Ventures and previous investors SNÖ Ventures.
Causal
Sector: SaaS
HQ: London, UK
Date: April 2021
Round: $4.2m seed
Coinvestors: Accel, Passion Capital (and more).
Alan
Sector: Healthtech
HQ: Paris, France
Date: April 2021
Round: €185m Series D
Coinvestors: Coatue led the round, with participation from Index, Temasek, Ribbit, Dragoneer and Exor.
Details: Health insurance app Alan doubled its members in the 12 months leading up to this raise and made €100m in revenue. Cofounder and CEO Jean-Charles Samuelian told Sifted the company would use the new funding to launch more free apps around specialist health needs (like new parents and mental health) and continue growing in its newer markets — Spain and Belgium.
Hopin
Sector: SaaS
HQ: London, UK
Date: March 2021
Round: $400m Series C
Coinvestors: Northzone, Tiger Global, General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, Salesforce Ventures, DFJ Growth and Institutional Ventures Partners.
Details: Just a year after launching its online events software, in March 2021 Hopin landed a $5.65bn valuation and became the hottest startup in Europe. Just five months later, it raised another $450m in funding, led by Arena Holdings and Altimeter Capital, at a $7.75bn valuation. Coatue did not participate in that later round.
Supplant
Sector: Food
HQ: Cambridge, UK
Date: February 2021
Round: $15m Series A
Coinvestors: Y Combinator, Felicis Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Manta Ray Ventures
Wolt
Sector: Food
HQ: Helsinki, Finland
Last round: January 2021
Round size: $530m
Coinvestors: ICONIQ led the round. Other participating VCs included EQT Group, KKR, Prosus, Tiger Global, Vintage Investment Partners, DST Global, Goldman Sachs, Highland Europe, 83North and EQT Ventures.
Details: Food delivery giant Wolt ramped up the gears this year, raising a big round in January to help it crack the grocery delivery market. Founder Miki Kuusi told Sifted at the time that Wolt wasn’t as interested in ‘dark stores’ as some of its competitors and would instead focus on working with grocery partners.
Rapyd
Sector: SaaS
HQ: London, UK
Date: January 2021
Round: $300m Series D
Coinvestors: Tiger Global, General Catalyst, Target Global (and more)
Checkout.com
Sector: Fintech
HQ: London, UK
Date: Jan 2021
Round size: $450m Series C
Coinvestors: led by Tiger Global, with participation from Greenoaks Capital. Coatue participated alongside other existing investors including Insight Partners, DST Global Blossom Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, and Singapore’s GIC.
Detail: Coatue first invested in Checkout.com in its $150m Series B in June 2020.
Eleanor Warnock is Sifted’s commissioning editor. She tweets from @misssaxbys.
Amy Lewin is Sifted’s deputy editor. She covers VC, foodtech and diversity in tech and tweets from @amyrlewin.
