The Germany-based comparision website reportedly secures an investment from 500 Startups' Dave McClure, taking it to nearly $1m raised, according to TechCrunch.

Fred Olsen,, Total andABB Technology Ventures, and the Scottish government construct a $14.5m loan for Scotrenewables Tidal Power to help design, construct and install its commercial-scale tidal turbine.

Belgum-based chemical company Solvay invests $6.6m into Sofinnova Partners' Green Seed Fund for industrial biotechnologies.

German-based biotech start-up Ayoxxa Biosystems closes a $3.4m Series A round, which is led by Wellington Partners Venture Capital.

Futurelearn, a platform free-to-access Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), has been launched by a consortium of UK-based universities, led by distance-learning provider The Open University (OU).

The corporate-backed state venture fund, which raised nearly $380m for the first close of its second venture fund in October last year, is in late-stage talks with one company started outside Germany, after securing the ability to invest overseas as part of the new fund.

Vorwerk Ventures participates in a $10m round of funding for UK-based recipe subscription service HelloFresh.

Iris Capital exits from Dutch-based data management solutions service Human Inference, selling its stake to Neopost. Gimv also sells their stake.

Nandi Proteins, a spin-out of Heriot Watt University, signs a deal with ingredients producer Tate & Lyle for technology.