Tech

Getir, the Turkish fast delivery startup, has bought its German rival Gorillas. This further reduces the number of companies in Europe promising to bring groceries to your door within minutes. This merger leaves only three such businesses active on the continent: Getir, Berlin-based Flink, and US-based Gopuff. As Getir’s founder tweeted, the acquisition valued Gorillas at $1.2 billion — down from $3.1 billion in September 2021. Gorillas was among the most hyped-up startups in the instant grocery delivery sector, offering delivery times in less than ten minutes and numerous discounts. Founded in 2020, the company expanded rapidly covering multiple European…

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The Netherlands is one of the best places in the world for startups and businesses working on green tech. Managing the climate is deeply rooted in Dutch culture. With nearly a third of its land below sea level, the country has been highly-adaptive to environmental challenges — finding ways to turn them into opportunities for technological growth. Think, for instance, of how the Dutch have managed to reclaim land from sea with polders, or avoid flooding from the North Sea with the construction of the Delta Works, a series of dams and surge barriers along the southern West coast. The…

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When signing up for Facebook and Instagram, users are forced to agree to Meta’s privacy policy. This allows the company to deliver targeted adverts — but not for much longer. On Monday, EU privacy regulators ruled that users of Meta’s platforms should no longer have to accept these sort of adverts, sources from Reuters and the Wall Street Journal reveal. The regulators declared that this kind of coerced consent falls foul of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU’s wide-reaching privacy law. This doesn’t mean it’s a done deal though. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission still needs to issue specific orders…

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The European startup scene is booming, with the total equity value exceeding $3 trillion in 2021 — the highest number ever recorded. Currently, four countries are the major players in the ecosystem: the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and France, which host nearly two-thirds of the continent’s top 1,000 startups and scaleups. Among them, Amsterdam has seen explosive growth, with a whopping 53% average year-over-year growth since 2011. It has also been ranked as Europe’s second top performing startup hub for 2021 — preceded by London, and followed by Paris and Berlin. Yet, compared to the other countries, the Netherlands is…

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France has been given the green light to ban short-haul domestic flights. Specifically, between locations where there is a train alternative that takes less than 2.5 hours. When the French government suggested the measure in 2021 as part of the country’s Climate Law, it was contested by the Union of French Airports (UAF) and the European branch of the Airports Council International (ACI Europe). This led to an investigation by the European Commission, which gave the final approval on Friday — making France the first EU member state with a short-haul flight ban. Initially, the measure will affect routes between…

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According to EU data, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Europe’s economy. They represent 99% of all businesses in the Union, employ around 100 million people, and account for more than half of Europe’s GDP. Yet, business survival for SMEs has been continuously challenged since the pandemic. After suffering the consequences of the COVID crisis, SMEs are now particularly affected by soaring energy prices, inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, and changed consumer behavior. That’s especially the case in the retail, food, and restaurant sectors — among those that were hit hardest during the pandemic. A survey conducted by…

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