Led by the $1.6 billion acquisition of Yandex, Europe’s tech industry has seen AI deal activity jump by 26.7 per cent in the first quarter.

According to GlobalData’s deal database, a total of 212 artificial intelligence deals worth $5 billion were announced for the region during the first few months of 2021, against the last four-quarter average of 167 deals.

Of all the deal types, venture financing saw most activity, with 141 deals, representing a 66.5 per cent share for the region.

In second place was M&A with 60 deals, followed by private equity deals with 11 transactions, respectively capturing a 28.3 per cent and 5.2 per cent share of the overall artificial intelligence deal activity for the quarter.

M&A currently has the highest value in Europe’s technology industry with $3.37 billion, while venture financing and private equity deals totalled $1.56 billion and $116 million respectively.

The top five technology artificial intelligence deals accounted for a 75.7 per cent share of the overall value during Q1 2021.

The combined value of the top five artificial intelligence deals stood at $3.82 billion, against the overall value of $5 billion recorded for the quarter.

The top five technology industry artificial intelligence deals of Q1 2021 tracked by GlobalData were:
• Janus Henderson Group’s $1.6 billion acquisition of Yandex
• The $1 billion acquisition of Adjust by AppLovin
• 70Ventures and Practica Capital UAB’s $610.8 million venture financing of Biomatter
Designs
• The $450 million acquisition deal with Runtime Collective by Cision
• Medallia’s acquisition of Decibel Insight for $160 million

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