European tech activity in June 2026 was characterised by a recovery in deal volume but a decline in total capital raised compared to May. The ecosystem recorded 293 funding deals and €8.3 billion raised, compared to 258 deals and €10.5 billion in May, representing a 14 per cent increase in deal activity and a 21 per cent decline in total capital invested. At the country level, Germany emerged as Europe's leading funding hub, attracting €2.4 billion in investment and replacing the UK, which led in May with €7.9 billion, reflecting a more geographically balanced month for European funding. Sector dynamics also shifted, with robotics becoming the leading sector after attracting €1.3 billion, replacing cloud as the strongest-performing sector in May. Exit activity remained stable in June, with 39 exits recorded, unchanged from May, suggesting liquidity conditions held steady despite the softer funding environment. Our Cate Lawrence, Senior Journalist at Tech.eu, commented on the June numbers within the European tech investment landscape in our monthly report: “While headline investment volumes softened compared with the previous month, the underlying picture remains encouraging. The month's largest financings were concentrated in companies developing robotics, AI, security, space and quantum technologies - areas increasingly linked to Europe's ambitions around industrial resilience, digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy.” For her more detailed review and more in-depth analyses of the European tech ecosystem, including industry and country performance, exit activities, and more, check out our June report. Here are the 10 largest tech deals in Europe from June, accounting for 59 per cent of the month’s total funding. Amount raised: $1.4B NEURA Robotics is a German robotics company developing cognitive robots designed to work safely and collaboratively alongside humans. Its portfolio includes collaborative robots, mobile manipulators and humanoid robots equipped with AI capabilities that enable them to see, hear, feel and learn from their environment. Alongside its hardware, the company is building a software and data ecosystem for physical AI, aiming to make intelligent automation more accessible across manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and other industries. NEURA Robotics raised up to $1.4 billion in a Series C round to scale its Physical AI and cognitive robotics platform, expand manufacturing, accelerate commercial deployment, and grow its global robotics ecosystem. Amount raised: $1B Kpler is a global provider of trade intelligence and analytics for commodity and maritime markets. Its platform combines artificial intelligence with proprietary data collection to deliver real-time insights into global trade flows, shipping activity, energy markets and supply chains. Covering dozens of commodities, including oil, gas, agriculture and metals, Kpler serves traders, financial institutions, governments and industrial companies seeking greater market transparency and operational intelligence. Kpler secured a strategic growth equity investment of over $1 billion to support expansion into adjacent markets and the development of new products. Amount raised: €500M Stark is a defence technology company specialising in AI-enabled, software-defined unmanned systems for modern military operations. The company develops loitering munitions, autonomous maritime systems and command-and-control software designed to support multi-domain missions while strengthening European defence capabilities and technological sovereignty. STARK focuses on rapidly developed, scalable systems intended for deployment by European armed forces and NATO partners, with an emphasis on affordability, adaptability and operational effectiveness in evolving defence environments. Stark raised €500 million to scale production, expand R&D, and strengthen sovereign defence capabilities. Amount raised: €480M Alan is a healthtech company that combines digital health insurance, healthcare services and preventive care within a single platform. Its offering integrates insurance coverage with medical consultations, AI-powered health tools and personalised wellbeing programmes, aiming to simplify access to healthcare for individuals, employers and public organisations. Alan raised €480 million in a Series G round to expand into new international markets, strengthen its presence in existing markets, pursue acquisitions, and invest in AI-powered healthcare services and product innovation. Amount raised: €450M ICEYE is a space technology company operating the world's largest constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites. ICEYE operates satellites that provide round-the-clock, all-weather Earth observation data, supporting defence, disaster response, environmental monitoring, maritime surveillance, and other government and commercial applications. ICEYE raised €450 million in a Series F round to expand its global footprint, deepen its space intelligence capabilities, and accelerate delivery of sovereign intelligence systems and data to governments and commercial customers. Amount raised: $380M Nearfield Instruments is a semiconductor equipment company developing advanced metrology systems for the global chip manufacturing industry. Founded as a spin-off from TNO, the company specialises in high-throughput atomic force microscopy (AFM) technology that enables three-dimensional, atom-scale measurements during semiconductor production. Nearfield Instruments raised $380 million in a Series D round to scale manufacturing, expand customer support, and meet growing semiconductor demand. Amount raised: £260M Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) is a UK quantum computing company developing superconducting quantum computers for commercial applications. Founded in 2017, the company designs and builds its own hardware using proprietary Coaxmon architecture and Dimon qubit technology, with the goal of delivering fault-tolerant quantum computing. OQC provides Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS), enabling enterprises, researchers and public-sector organisations to access its systems through secure cloud infrastructure. Oxford Quantum Circuits raised £260 million in a Series C round to expand its international footprint, scale quantum infrastructure, and develop next-generation quantum systems. Amount raised: €270M Isar Aerospace is a German space company developing launch vehicles for small and medium-sized satellites and satellite constellations. The company designs, manufactures and tests most of its rocket systems in-house, aiming to provide reliable and scalable access to space for commercial and institutional customers. Its flagship launch vehicle, Spectrum, is designed to support Isar Aerospace raised €270 million in a Series D round to expand globally, scale production of its Spectrum launch vehicle, and grow its launch infrastructure. Amount raised: $300M Perk, formerly TravelPerk, is a business travel and spend management platform that combines travel booking, expense management and financial controls in a single AI-powered solution. The platform enables organisations to manage travel policies, approvals, expenses, invoices and company spending through integrated workflows and real-time reporting. Designed for finance, operations and travel teams, Perk aims to reduce administrative work while giving businesses greater visibility and control over corporate travel and spending. Perk secured a $300 million private credit facility to accelerate investment in product, technology and AI, and support global expansion, including the launch of its expense management product in the US. Amount raised: $300M PhysicsX is a UK software company that develops AI-powered engineering software combining artificial intelligence with physics-based modelling. Its platform supports product design, simulation and optimisation across industries including aerospace, automotive, semiconductors, energy and advanced manufacturing. The technology is designed to help engineers improve development processes and industrial performance. PhysicsX raised $300 million in a Series C round to expand its AI engineering platform, advance physics AI research, and support international expansion.

UK fintech startup Stoa has raised $2.4 million in a pre-seed funding round to accelerate the growth of its cash management platform, which enables consumers and businesses to access upfront rewards on cash deposits. The round was co-led by Bespokeist Partners and Ingenii Capital, with participation from Force Over Mass Capital and Fuel Ventures. Individual investors included Suneel Hargunani, formerly of Citi, Rachel Sestini, partner at Shaw Gibbs Group and co-founder of Canopy Capital, and other senior executives from the financial services sector. Stoa combines behavioural finance, embedded banking infrastructure and merchant partnerships to create a platform that connects financial institutions, brands and customers. The platform is now live in the UK for both consumers and businesses, allowing customers to place funds into fixed-term "Stoa Pots" and receive upfront rewards from partner brands instead of relying solely on interest payments. Deposits are held with regulated banking partners, with eligible funds protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Mike Saraswat, co-founder and CEO of Stoa, said: The future of cash management is not just about interest rates. People want choice, tangible value and a clearer sense of how their money is working for them. Stoa is creating a new experience around idle cash by offering customers upfront rewards while keeping eligible deposits protected through regulated banking infrastructure. According to the company, more than £600 billion is held in low-yield or non-interest-bearing consumer accounts in the UK, alongside more than £250 billion in SME cash reserves. The company aims to offer an alternative model that combines fixed-term deposits with upfront consumer rewards through partnerships with financial institutions and merchants. The funding will support product development, partnership growth and the company's expansion in the UK and the United States. The company said it is building partnerships with financial institutions and merchants in the US ahead of a planned market launch.

UK fintech startup Stoa has raised $2.4 million in a pre-seed funding round to accelerate the growth of its cash management platform, which enables consumers and businesses to access upfront rewards on cash deposits. The round was co-led by Bespokeist Partners and Ingenii Capital, with participation from Force Over Mass Capital and Fuel Ventures. Individual investors included Suneel Hargunani, formerly of Citi, Rachel Sestini, partner at Shaw Gibbs Group and co-founder of Canopy Capital, and other senior executives from the financial services sector. Stoa combines behavioural finance, embedded banking infrastructure and merchant partnerships to create a platform that connects financial institutions, brands and customers. The platform is now live in the UK for both consumers and businesses, allowing customers to place funds into fixed-term "Stoa Pots" and receive upfront rewards from partner brands instead of relying solely on interest payments. Deposits are held with regulated banking partners, with eligible funds protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Mike Saraswat, co-founder and CEO of Stoa, said: The future of cash management is not just about interest rates. People want choice, tangible value and a clearer sense of how their money is working for them. Stoa is creating a new experience around idle cash by offering customers upfront rewards while keeping eligible deposits protected through regulated banking infrastructure. According to the company, more than £600 billion is held in low-yield or non-interest-bearing consumer accounts in the UK, alongside more than £250 billion in SME cash reserves. The company aims to offer an alternative model that combines fixed-term deposits with upfront consumer rewards through partnerships with financial institutions and merchants. The funding will support product development, partnership growth and the company's expansion in the UK and the United States. The company said it is building partnerships with financial institutions and merchants in the US ahead of a planned market launch.

Cambridge-based startup Worldmodeldata has raised £7 million in seed funding as it emerged from stealth. The round was led by Iona Star Capital, a London-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage companies in artificial intelligence, data and technology. Founded by serial entrepreneur Rhea Loucas, the company is building a database of video game-generated training data for AI systems known as world models, which are designed to understand and predict how environments change over time. Lord Richard Allan, former vice president of public policy at Meta and a UK technology policy specialist, has joined the company's board as chairman. Worldmodeldata aggregates and structures gameplay data from modern video games to create datasets for organisations developing world models, physical AI systems and robotics. The data is sourced through licensing agreements with game developers and communities, including titles built on Unreal and Unity, rather than through web scraping. The platform targets what the company describes as a growing shortage of high-quality training data for AI systems that need to understand complex environments and make decisions in real-world settings. Potential applications include autonomous vehicles, where world models can be used to simulate traffic conditions and predict pedestrian movement. Rhea Loucas said the company was founded to address the growing need for large-scale training data for world models: World models represent a significant shift in AI, but they require large-scale datasets that enable systems to understand and reason about physical environments. Video games provide rich, controlled environments that can generate the data needed to train these models, and our goal is to make that data available at scale. The funding will support product development, team expansion and new data licensing agreements as Worldmodeldata works towards building a library of one million hours of training data by the end of next year.

Cambridge-based startup Worldmodeldata has raised £7 million in seed funding as it emerged from stealth. The round was led by Iona Star Capital, a London-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage companies in artificial intelligence, data and technology. Founded by serial entrepreneur Rhea Loucas, the company is building a database of video game-generated training data for AI systems known as world models, which are designed to understand and predict how environments change over time. Lord Richard Allan, former vice president of public policy at Meta and a UK technology policy specialist, has joined the company's board as chairman. Worldmodeldata aggregates and structures gameplay data from modern video games to create datasets for organisations developing world models, physical AI systems and robotics. The data is sourced through licensing agreements with game developers and communities, including titles built on Unreal and Unity, rather than through web scraping. The platform targets what the company describes as a growing shortage of high-quality training data for AI systems that need to understand complex environments and make decisions in real-world settings. Potential applications include autonomous vehicles, where world models can be used to simulate traffic conditions and predict pedestrian movement. Rhea Loucas said the company was founded to address the growing need for large-scale training data for world models: World models represent a significant shift in AI, but they require large-scale datasets that enable systems to understand and reason about physical environments. Video games provide rich, controlled environments that can generate the data needed to train these models, and our goal is to make that data available at scale. The funding will support product development, team expansion and new data licensing agreements as Worldmodeldata works towards building a library of one million hours of training data by the end of next year.

Last week, we tracked more than 55 tech funding deals worth over €1.6 billion and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. ? The top three industries that raised the most were robotics (€1.1 billion), climatech (€120 million), and semiconductors (€118.3 million). At the country level, ?? Germany took first place (€1.1 billion), followed by ?? Spain (€155.8 million) and ?? Lithuania (€120 million). ❗ Be sure to check out the Tech.eu Funding Explorer, free and open to everyone, for deeper insights into funding data, investor activity, company profiles, and market trends. Now, let's get you up to speed on everything that happened last week. Have a great week! Funding deals by amount GERMANY: Quantum Systems raises $1.2B at $8B valuation LITHUANIA: With 3,500+ agricultural SMEs financed, InSoil lands €120M to expand regenerative agriculture lending SPAIN: Openchip lands €115M SETT investment to strengthen Europe’s semiconductor capabilities SWITZERLAND: CCRAFT closes $7.8M funding round to scale up its photonic chips foundry UK: 1001 raises $30M in Series A funding GERMANY: Insight Partners and BlackRock are investing €25M in Theo UK: Gaussion raises over £21M to scale its energy intelligence tech ITALY: MDOTM raises $27M in growth equity funding SPAIN: Substrate AI closes a €39M capital increase with the participation of SETT SPAIN: Telum Therapeutics raises €18M to advance treatments for hospital-acquired infections UK: StirlingX raises £15M to scale sovereign data intelligence platform NORWAY: Alva Industries lands €16M to scale next-generation electric motors UK: Omni raises $14.6M in Series A funding NORWAY: Six Robotics lands €12M to advance unmanned systems software with Norwegian defence partners UK: BR-DGE secures $10M funding round UK: AI search visibility startup geoSurge scores £9.4M round UK: British Islamic property finance fintech Offa raises £6.5M BELGIUM: Azalea Vision receives up to €7.5M from European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator CZECH REPUBLIC: Wultra raises €6.8M Series A to expand post-quantum digital identity platform CROATIA: Hypefy AI raises $7.2M Series A to automate global influencer campaigns GERMANY: Fusion Bionic secures €5.8M investment SWEDEN: Nordic Forestry Automation closed a financing round totaling €4.3M for physical AI for forestry machinery NETHERLANDS: HousApp secures €4.3M to expand its AI platform for real estate agents SWEDEN: Radar Reticence secures €3.3M investment NETHERLANDS: Cybersecurity startup Dawnguard lands €2.8M for AI-native security architecture automation SLOVENIA: GapMinder and Silicon Gardens invest €2.6M in Codeplain SWITZERLAND: AI accounting startup infinity.swiss secures $3M investment SWEDEN: Digiclean raises €2.5M to optimise industrial cleaning with AI FINLAND: Coolbrook receives €2.5M grant from Business Finland SPAIN: Flyboard closes a €1.9M funding round GERMANY: Nomerra raises $2M to automate private market operations UK: Saltroad raises £1.5M and acquires AI platform Ogma to scale speech therapy for children SWITZERLAND: Carewell secured €1.6M to free Swiss healthcare managers from the staffing crisis ITALY: Archimede closes €1.5M seed round for remote infrastructure monitoring PORTUGAL: Food industry software startup BRAINR extends record seed round with €1.5M investment TURKEY: Lucida AI closes $7M seed round for speech-to-speech AI SPAIN: Tokenized Green has closed a €1.1M funding round led by the Luxembourg fund Wolver Ventures to boost the launch of twelve. GERMANY: Sophia received €1M investment UK: University-founded AI tender startup BidScript exceeds $1M in total pre-seed funding SWEDEN: BRYM secures €650,000 to develop wearable neurofeedback platform SPAIN: Baker, the AI-powered performance marketing agency, closes a €525,000 funding round led by Draper B1 BELGIUM: Visiblie raises €500,000 for AI search visibility TURKEY: Webrazzi GSYF invested $500,000 in Orfeo Labs at a valuation of $5 million. SPAIN: ProfessorCBD receives €207,000 to develop the first medicinal cannabis medical device in Spain SWITZERLAND: ALP Bio raises €161,000 from Venture Kick to improve the safety of biologic medicines SWITZERLAND: Subatron secures €162,000 to tackle one of underwater tech's biggest communication challenges UK: Circeus receives equity financing GERMANY: bmp Ventures is investing in HelloTwin.ai GERMANY: Entryzero secures an undisclosed sum investment ESTONIA: Vegvisir raises funding to connect allied unmanned systems through a unified command platform IRELAND: Alkimii receives investment from August Equity CZECH REPUBLIC: EquiLibre Technologies land record Creandum funding to scale AI agents for Nasdaq SWITZERLAND: Two Swiss family offices invest in Eldora FRANCE: VSORA raises an undisclosed investment AUSTRIA: Sophora Unternehmerkapital is investing a mid-eight-figure sum in Squer TURKEY: Vignetim received investment from İTÜ ARI Teknokent GSYF Exits and M&A activity SWITZERLAND: Ipsen to acquire Memo Therapeutics for up to €700M UK: Saltroad acquires AI platform Ogma to scale speech therapy for children FRANCE: DATADOG acquires ADAPTIVE ML to strengthen its AI lab UK: The Exploration Company acquires European Astrotech GERMANY: Berlin-based food grower KoRo is acquiring the Berlin-based supply chain startup seedtrace GERMANY: Rauch is acquiring the insolvent ginger shot startup Kloster Kitchen UK: Finova acquires Cubit Labs to accelerate its future of lending strategy UK: Parabellum acquires data firm Crux Informatics FRANCE: Qonto completes Acasi acquisition to strengthen its accounting capabilities UK: LemFi acquires Wealth8 following FCA approval GERMANY: The New York-based Livekindly Collective is acquiring the Munich-based Greenforce

Last week, we tracked more than 55 tech funding deals worth over €1.6 billion and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. ? The top three industries that raised the most were robotics (€1.1 billion), climatech (€120 million), and semiconductors (€118.3 million). At the country level, ?? Germany took first place (€1.1 billion), followed by ?? Spain (€155.8 million) and ?? Lithuania (€120 million). ❗ Be sure to check out the Tech.eu Funding Explorer, free and open to everyone, for deeper insights into funding data, investor activity, company profiles, and market trends. Now, let's get you up to speed on everything that happened last week. Have a great week! Funding deals by amount GERMANY: Quantum Systems raises $1.2B at $8B valuation LITHUANIA: With 3,500+ agricultural SMEs financed, InSoil lands €120M to expand regenerative agriculture lending SPAIN: Openchip lands €115M SETT investment to strengthen Europe’s semiconductor capabilities SWITZERLAND: CCRAFT closes $7.8M funding round to scale up its photonic chips foundry UK: 1001 raises $30M in Series A funding GERMANY: Insight Partners and BlackRock are investing €25M in Theo UK: Gaussion raises over £21M to scale its energy intelligence tech ITALY: MDOTM raises $27M in growth equity funding SPAIN: Substrate AI closes a €39M capital increase with the participation of SETT SPAIN: Telum Therapeutics raises €18M to advance treatments for hospital-acquired infections UK: StirlingX raises £15M to scale sovereign data intelligence platform NORWAY: Alva Industries lands €16M to scale next-generation electric motors UK: Omni raises $14.6M in Series A funding NORWAY: Six Robotics lands €12M to advance unmanned systems software with Norwegian defence partners UK: BR-DGE secures $10M funding round UK: AI search visibility startup geoSurge scores £9.4M round UK: British Islamic property finance fintech Offa raises £6.5M BELGIUM: Azalea Vision receives up to €7.5M from European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator CZECH REPUBLIC: Wultra raises €6.8M Series A to expand post-quantum digital identity platform CROATIA: Hypefy AI raises $7.2M Series A to automate global influencer campaigns GERMANY: Fusion Bionic secures €5.8M investment SWEDEN: Nordic Forestry Automation closed a financing round totaling €4.3M for physical AI for forestry machinery NETHERLANDS: HousApp secures €4.3M to expand its AI platform for real estate agents SWEDEN: Radar Reticence secures €3.3M investment NETHERLANDS: Cybersecurity startup Dawnguard lands €2.8M for AI-native security architecture automation SLOVENIA: GapMinder and Silicon Gardens invest €2.6M in Codeplain SWITZERLAND: AI accounting startup infinity.swiss secures $3M investment SWEDEN: Digiclean raises €2.5M to optimise industrial cleaning with AI FINLAND: Coolbrook receives €2.5M grant from Business Finland SPAIN: Flyboard closes a €1.9M funding round GERMANY: Nomerra raises $2M to automate private market operations UK: Saltroad raises £1.5M and acquires AI platform Ogma to scale speech therapy for children SWITZERLAND: Carewell secured €1.6M to free Swiss healthcare managers from the staffing crisis ITALY: Archimede closes €1.5M seed round for remote infrastructure monitoring PORTUGAL: Food industry software startup BRAINR extends record seed round with €1.5M investment TURKEY: Lucida AI closes $7M seed round for speech-to-speech AI SPAIN: Tokenized Green has closed a €1.1M funding round led by the Luxembourg fund Wolver Ventures to boost the launch of twelve. GERMANY: Sophia received €1M investment UK: University-founded AI tender startup BidScript exceeds $1M in total pre-seed funding SWEDEN: BRYM secures €650,000 to develop wearable neurofeedback platform SPAIN: Baker, the AI-powered performance marketing agency, closes a €525,000 funding round led by Draper B1 BELGIUM: Visiblie raises €500,000 for AI search visibility TURKEY: Webrazzi GSYF invested $500,000 in Orfeo Labs at a valuation of $5 million. SPAIN: ProfessorCBD receives €207,000 to develop the first medicinal cannabis medical device in Spain SWITZERLAND: ALP Bio raises €161,000 from Venture Kick to improve the safety of biologic medicines SWITZERLAND: Subatron secures €162,000 to tackle one of underwater tech's biggest communication challenges UK: Circeus receives equity financing GERMANY: bmp Ventures is investing in HelloTwin.ai GERMANY: Entryzero secures an undisclosed sum investment ESTONIA: Vegvisir raises funding to connect allied unmanned systems through a unified command platform IRELAND: Alkimii receives investment from August Equity CZECH REPUBLIC: EquiLibre Technologies land record Creandum funding to scale AI agents for Nasdaq SWITZERLAND: Two Swiss family offices invest in Eldora FRANCE: VSORA raises an undisclosed investment AUSTRIA: Sophora Unternehmerkapital is investing a mid-eight-figure sum in Squer TURKEY: Vignetim received investment from İTÜ ARI Teknokent GSYF Exits and M&A activity SWITZERLAND: Ipsen to acquire Memo Therapeutics for up to €700M UK: Saltroad acquires AI platform Ogma to scale speech therapy for children FRANCE: DATADOG acquires ADAPTIVE ML to strengthen its AI lab UK: The Exploration Company acquires European Astrotech GERMANY: Berlin-based food grower KoRo is acquiring the Berlin-based supply chain startup seedtrace GERMANY: Rauch is acquiring the insolvent ginger shot startup Kloster Kitchen UK: Finova acquires Cubit Labs to accelerate its future of lending strategy UK: Parabellum acquires data firm Crux Informatics FRANCE: Qonto completes Acasi acquisition to strengthen its accounting capabilities UK: LemFi acquires Wealth8 following FCA approval GERMANY: The New York-based Livekindly Collective is acquiring the Munich-based Greenforce

At VivaTech's tenth edition, the question was no longer whether AI reshapes the physical world, but how nations can secure the infrastructure that powers it. Envision's Mission Gobi offers Europe one answer: build AI where renewable energy is abundant, rather than concentrating demand where people already compete for power. When Emmanuel Macron and Narendra Modi shared the stage at VivaTech this year, the discussion moved past product demos to something more structural: who can secure the infrastructure, data, cloud and energy on which all AI now runs. For Europe, the question lands hard. The continent's power grids average around 50 years of age, and AI's appetite for electricity is colliding with that ageing infrastructure in real time. The strain is already visible. As data-centre demand climbs, the cost of grid upgrades increasingly lands on household bills, and local opposition to new builds is spreading. The IEA estimates data centres took around 1.5 per cent of global electricity in 2024, rising toward 3 per cent by 2030, with AI demand tripling over the period. Modest in aggregate, but in hubs such as Dublin and Frankfurt the local share is already far higher, and that is where the politics bites. Beyond electricity demand, Europe faces a broader challenge of digital and energy sovereignty: ensuring that future AI growth is supported by infrastructure that is secure, affordable and sustainable. Against that backdrop, the industry is exploring several possible pathways. Elon Musk's SpaceX has floated launching AI satellites to build data centres in orbit, drawing uninterrupted solar power above the atmosphere. The vision reflects a growing realization that the defining constraint of the AI era may not be computing power, but energy. Envision Energy's answer is nearer to the ground, and nearer to deployment. At VivaTech the global green-tech firm launched Mission Gobi, a global initiative to develop 5GW of green AI data center (AIDC) capacity in desert and arid regions by 2030. The premise is straightforward: place compute where the renewable power is, on land with strong sun, steady wind and no competing residential demand, then coordinate generation, storage and load as one system. Envision points to operational reference sites in China, including a 2GW renewable-powered demonstration in Chifeng and the world's only gigawatt-scale AIDC powered by directly connected renewable energy in Envision Galaxy Campus in Ulanqab. SpaceX looks to space for the answer. Mission Gobi looks to the desert. Both begin with the same premise: the next generation of AI infrastructure must be built where energy is most abundant. If SpaceX is opening a frontier in space, Mission Gobi is opening a frontier in energy. For European stakeholders, Envision is not an unfamiliar name. Its DuoAi plant in France is the only operational power-battery facility in the country. Renault Group CEO François Provost notes that the Renault R5, one of Europe's best-selling EVs, runs on batteries from Envision's French gigafactory, highlighting the importance of global industrial collaboration in accelerating Europe's energy transition. Société Générale CEO Slawomir Krupa has called Envision “an outstanding and exceptional enterprise.” The point those endorsements make is simple: a firm already embedded in European manufacturing and finance is a more credible partner for a desert-compute blueprint. Slawomir Krupa, François Provost and Lei Zhang@ Viva Tech The model targets four headaches European policymakers know well. It keeps AI load off residential grids, so households are not subsidising compute through higher tariffs. It runs on wind, solar, storage and hydrogen, aligning with EU carbon-neutrality targets. It lowers operators' total cost of ownership by co-locating cheap green power with the racks. And it draws on new renewable capacity rather than diverting existing civilian supply, sidestepping the energy-poverty risk. Deserts and arid zones span more than 30 million square kilometres globally, an underused resource that, in principle, extends to Europe's own low-density renewable regions. The competitive field is taking shape. NVIDIA is pairing with utility AES on on-site-powered AI campuses. Siemens and Schneider Electric offer source-grid-load-storage software platforms. Envision's pitch is fuller vertical integration, from wind turbines and storage through AI models to compute orchestration, backed by large-scale industrial deployment. Its Chifeng Net Zero Industrial Park anchors a green ammonia project that already trades across borders, with a first bulk cargo shipped this year to South Korea, a working example of renewable energy moving as a tradeable commodity. Whether the 5GW pledge arrives on schedule remains to be seen. But the blueprint is coherent, and it aligns with the EU's Green Deal industrial ambitions: build AI capacity on new clean power, in places that do not pit data centres against residents. The projects in China provide large-scale proof points for an approach that could be adapted to different geographic and regulatory environments, including parts of Europe. The defining infrastructure challenge of the AI era is not computing. It is energy. The question for Europe is whether AI will compete with households, industries and communities for finite electricity, or whether new models can unlock entirely new sources of clean power. Mission Gobi represents one possible answer. Not by asking people to consume less energy, but by ensuring AI is built where energy is most abundant.

At VivaTech's tenth edition, the question was no longer whether AI reshapes the physical world, but how nations can secure the infrastructure that powers it. Envision's Mission Gobi offers Europe one answer: build AI where renewable energy is abundant, rather than concentrating demand where people already compete for power. When Emmanuel Macron and Narendra Modi shared the stage at VivaTech this year, the discussion moved past product demos to something more structural: who can secure the infrastructure, data, cloud and energy on which all AI now runs. For Europe, the question lands hard. The continent's power grids average around 50 years of age, and AI's appetite for electricity is colliding with that ageing infrastructure in real time. The strain is already visible. As data-centre demand climbs, the cost of grid upgrades increasingly lands on household bills, and local opposition to new builds is spreading. The IEA estimates data centres took around 1.5 per cent of global electricity in 2024, rising toward 3 per cent by 2030, with AI demand tripling over the period. Modest in aggregate, but in hubs such as Dublin and Frankfurt the local share is already far higher, and that is where the politics bites. Beyond electricity demand, Europe faces a broader challenge of digital and energy sovereignty: ensuring that future AI growth is supported by infrastructure that is secure, affordable and sustainable. Against that backdrop, the industry is exploring several possible pathways. Elon Musk's SpaceX has floated launching AI satellites to build data centres in orbit, drawing uninterrupted solar power above the atmosphere. The vision reflects a growing realization that the defining constraint of the AI era may not be computing power, but energy. Envision Energy's answer is nearer to the ground, and nearer to deployment. At VivaTech the global green-tech firm launched Mission Gobi, a global initiative to develop 5GW of green AI data center (AIDC) capacity in desert and arid regions by 2030. The premise is straightforward: place compute where the renewable power is, on land with strong sun, steady wind and no competing residential demand, then coordinate generation, storage and load as one system. Envision points to operational reference sites in China, including a 2GW renewable-powered demonstration in Chifeng and the world's only gigawatt-scale AIDC powered by directly connected renewable energy in Envision Galaxy Campus in Ulanqab. SpaceX looks to space for the answer. Mission Gobi looks to the desert. Both begin with the same premise: the next generation of AI infrastructure must be built where energy is most abundant. If SpaceX is opening a frontier in space, Mission Gobi is opening a frontier in energy. For European stakeholders, Envision is not an unfamiliar name. Its DuoAi plant in France is the only operational power-battery facility in the country. Renault Group CEO François Provost notes that the Renault R5, one of Europe's best-selling EVs, runs on batteries from Envision's French gigafactory, highlighting the importance of global industrial collaboration in accelerating Europe's energy transition. Société Générale CEO Slawomir Krupa has called Envision “an outstanding and exceptional enterprise.” The point those endorsements make is simple: a firm already embedded in European manufacturing and finance is a more credible partner for a desert-compute blueprint. Slawomir Krupa, François Provost and Lei Zhang@ Viva Tech The model targets four headaches European policymakers know well. It keeps AI load off residential grids, so households are not subsidising compute through higher tariffs. It runs on wind, solar, storage and hydrogen, aligning with EU carbon-neutrality targets. It lowers operators' total cost of ownership by co-locating cheap green power with the racks. And it draws on new renewable capacity rather than diverting existing civilian supply, sidestepping the energy-poverty risk. Deserts and arid zones span more than 30 million square kilometres globally, an underused resource that, in principle, extends to Europe's own low-density renewable regions. The competitive field is taking shape. NVIDIA is pairing with utility AES on on-site-powered AI campuses. Siemens and Schneider Electric offer source-grid-load-storage software platforms. Envision's pitch is fuller vertical integration, from wind turbines and storage through AI models to compute orchestration, backed by large-scale industrial deployment. Its Chifeng Net Zero Industrial Park anchors a green ammonia project that already trades across borders, with a first bulk cargo shipped this year to South Korea, a working example of renewable energy moving as a tradeable commodity. Whether the 5GW pledge arrives on schedule remains to be seen. But the blueprint is coherent, and it aligns with the EU's Green Deal industrial ambitions: build AI capacity on new clean power, in places that do not pit data centres against residents. The projects in China provide large-scale proof points for an approach that could be adapted to different geographic and regulatory environments, including parts of Europe. The defining infrastructure challenge of the AI era is not computing. It is energy. The question for Europe is whether AI will compete with households, industries and communities for finite electricity, or whether new models can unlock entirely new sources of clean power. Mission Gobi represents one possible answer. Not by asking people to consume less energy, but by ensuring AI is built where energy is most abundant.

Finnish health technology company CurifyLabs has raised €12 million in a Series A funding round to expand its operations in the United States and accelerate the development of its platform for personalised medicine manufacturing. The round was co-led by Sandwater and HealthCap, with participation from Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd.), existing investor Lifeline Ventures, as well as customers and employees in the United States. Founded in 2021, CurifyLabs develops technology for automated pharmaceutical compounding. Its Compounding System Solution combines proprietary software, GMP-manufactured excipient bases and three-dimensional printing technology to automate the preparation of personalised medicines. The platform is designed to improve the consistency, precision and speed of compounding compared with conventional manual pharmacy processes and includes integrated quality control features. CurifyLabs said its technology is used by pharmacies in twenty-one US states and across Europe to prepare personalised medications. As the company expands, it plans to invest further in its supply chain to support its growing network of pharmacy partners. Commenting on the company's growth and future plans, Charlotta Topelius, founder and CEO of CurifyLabs, said: This investment reflects the conviction our partners have in what we're building. We have set a high bar for clinical rigour, product quality and customer support, and this funding gives us the resources to raise that bar further. The funding will be used to expand the company's US operations, strengthen its supply chain, enhance customer support and accelerate product development. The funding will also support continued development of the CurifyLabs platform, including its latest product, the PharmaPrinter Aurum.

Finnish health technology company CurifyLabs has raised €12 million in a Series A funding round to expand its operations in the United States and accelerate the development of its platform for personalised medicine manufacturing. The round was co-led by Sandwater and HealthCap, with participation from Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd.), existing investor Lifeline Ventures, as well as customers and employees in the United States. Founded in 2021, CurifyLabs develops technology for automated pharmaceutical compounding. Its Compounding System Solution combines proprietary software, GMP-manufactured excipient bases and three-dimensional printing technology to automate the preparation of personalised medicines. The platform is designed to improve the consistency, precision and speed of compounding compared with conventional manual pharmacy processes and includes integrated quality control features. CurifyLabs said its technology is used by pharmacies in twenty-one US states and across Europe to prepare personalised medications. As the company expands, it plans to invest further in its supply chain to support its growing network of pharmacy partners. Commenting on the company's growth and future plans, Charlotta Topelius, founder and CEO of CurifyLabs, said: This investment reflects the conviction our partners have in what we're building. We have set a high bar for clinical rigour, product quality and customer support, and this funding gives us the resources to raise that bar further. The funding will be used to expand the company's US operations, strengthen its supply chain, enhance customer support and accelerate product development. The funding will also support continued development of the CurifyLabs platform, including its latest product, the PharmaPrinter Aurum.

Thought Machine, one of the UK’s most valuable fintechs, is set to unveil that it has received £30m ($41m) funding from a "tier 1" bank later this year, as its annual revenues surpass $100m for the first time, it said. The boss of the UK fintech also said the conditions “were difficult” for a London IPO, with an IPO at least two years away, and criticised valuations as a performance metric, saying revenues are a better measure. Thought Machine is one of a new breed of fintechs which provide cloud-based banking services. Others in the space include 10x Banking, founded by former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins, Mambu and Starling Bank’s Engine. Thought Machine, which provides services for traditional banks and challenger banks, counts Lloyds, JP Morgan Chase, Intesa Sanpaolo, the Italian bank, and Danish challenger bank Lunar as clients. Last year, filings showed that Thought Machine raised £44.8m in a funding round in July 2025. Thought Machine did not publicise the funding round at the time. The UK fintech says it has raised an enlarged £80m in total. This is inclusive of the £44.8m as well as £30m from a new unnamed “Tier 1” bank, which is also a client, Paul Taylor, Thought Machine CEO and founder, said.  Taylor, who founded Thought Machine in 2014, said part of the reason Thought Machine did not publicise last year’s funding round was that it was part of a bigger round.    He also said he did not like valuations as a gauge of success, preferring revenues.  Taylor said: “We are trying to put less emphasis on valuation and more emphasis on commercial success. Funding rounds are just not where we want the attention to be. We want the attention to be on commercial growth. Hitting revenue targets is a far better indicator of success than saying ‘look how valuable we are'." Taylor declined to give a valuation following its latest funding round. Thought Machine’s valuation hit $2.7bn in 2022 after a funding round featuring institutional investor Morgan Stanley. Another investor, Molten Ventures, cut the value of its stake in Thought Machine by nearly 40 per cent to £5.9m between March and September 2024. Molten Ventures has since upped the valuation of its stake to £6.6m as of year-end March 2026. Thought Machine’s other investors include Lloyds, ING and Standard Chartered. Many of its investors are also clients. Thought Machine says its latest accounts show it has surpassed $100m in revenues in 2025, marking a 57 per cent increase on the year before. Taylor said this was a “huge milestone”. It also said it had reduced losses from nearly £70m to around £12m in the period. Asked how it had managed to reduce losses, Taylor said that costs have been broadly even over the past four years, but revenues have been increasing, helped by the value of deals increasing year-on-year. Thought Machine makes money by getting paid a usage fee by its clients, based on how many bank accounts are live on its platform. Taylor says a banking client “will start small with a few hundred thousand accounts live and they put more and more traffic through it”. Last year, Thought Machine inked deals with a big Canadian bank and an Australian bank, he said. Thought Machine, which employs around 530 people, increasing headcount by over 90 in the year ending 2025, is a UK-headquartered business. But only around 15 per cent of revenues come from the UK, with the US, where it has offices in New York and Miami, its biggest market, ahead of Australia and Latin America. Thought Machine has long been viewed as a possible candidate to list in London. Taylor said: “I would just love to get the London stock market going again; it’s just been in the doldrums for five years. But we have to act responsibly to the shareholders. If you look at the recent results on Nasdaq, it is just very, very impressive. We are a UK company; we would like to fly the flag. I still think the general conditions are difficult.” He said Thought Machine would not be going public until at least 2028. On the possibility of Andy Burnham being UK prime minister and the impact on startups and scale-ups, Taylor said there has been “wave after wave of anti-business sentiment, activity since Labour got in”.   One example of this was Labour increasing employers’ national insurance contributions.   But he said that UK entrepreneurs are “wildly optimistic" so Burnham’s policies, whatever they were, would not deter them.

Thought Machine, one of the UK’s most valuable fintechs, is set to unveil that it has received £30m ($41m) funding from a "tier 1" bank later this year, as its annual revenues surpass $100m for the first time, it said. The boss of the UK fintech also said the conditions “were difficult” for a London IPO, with an IPO at least two years away, and criticised valuations as a performance metric, saying revenues are a better measure. Thought Machine is one of a new breed of fintechs which provide cloud-based banking services. Others in the space include 10x Banking, founded by former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins, Mambu and Starling Bank’s Engine. Thought Machine, which provides services for traditional banks and challenger banks, counts Lloyds, JP Morgan Chase, Intesa Sanpaolo, the Italian bank, and Danish challenger bank Lunar as clients. Last year, filings showed that Thought Machine raised £44.8m in a funding round in July 2025. Thought Machine did not publicise the funding round at the time. The UK fintech says it has raised an enlarged £80m in total. This is inclusive of the £44.8m as well as £30m from a new unnamed “Tier 1” bank, which is also a client, Paul Taylor, Thought Machine CEO and founder, said.  Taylor, who founded Thought Machine in 2014, said part of the reason Thought Machine did not publicise last year’s funding round was that it was part of a bigger round.    He also said he did not like valuations as a gauge of success, preferring revenues.  Taylor said: “We are trying to put less emphasis on valuation and more emphasis on commercial success. Funding rounds are just not where we want the attention to be. We want the attention to be on commercial growth. Hitting revenue targets is a far better indicator of success than saying ‘look how valuable we are'." Taylor declined to give a valuation following its latest funding round. Thought Machine’s valuation hit $2.7bn in 2022 after a funding round featuring institutional investor Morgan Stanley. Another investor, Molten Ventures, cut the value of its stake in Thought Machine by nearly 40 per cent to £5.9m between March and September 2024. Molten Ventures has since upped the valuation of its stake to £6.6m as of year-end March 2026. Thought Machine’s other investors include Lloyds, ING and Standard Chartered. Many of its investors are also clients. Thought Machine says its latest accounts show it has surpassed $100m in revenues in 2025, marking a 57 per cent increase on the year before. Taylor said this was a “huge milestone”. It also said it had reduced losses from nearly £70m to around £12m in the period. Asked how it had managed to reduce losses, Taylor said that costs have been broadly even over the past four years, but revenues have been increasing, helped by the value of deals increasing year-on-year. Thought Machine makes money by getting paid a usage fee by its clients, based on how many bank accounts are live on its platform. Taylor says a banking client “will start small with a few hundred thousand accounts live and they put more and more traffic through it”. Last year, Thought Machine inked deals with a big Canadian bank and an Australian bank, he said. Thought Machine, which employs around 530 people, increasing headcount by over 90 in the year ending 2025, is a UK-headquartered business. But only around 15 per cent of revenues come from the UK, with the US, where it has offices in New York and Miami, its biggest market, ahead of Australia and Latin America. Thought Machine has long been viewed as a possible candidate to list in London. Taylor said: “I would just love to get the London stock market going again; it’s just been in the doldrums for five years. But we have to act responsibly to the shareholders. If you look at the recent results on Nasdaq, it is just very, very impressive. We are a UK company; we would like to fly the flag. I still think the general conditions are difficult.” He said Thought Machine would not be going public until at least 2028. On the possibility of Andy Burnham being UK prime minister and the impact on startups and scale-ups, Taylor said there has been “wave after wave of anti-business sentiment, activity since Labour got in”.   One example of this was Labour increasing employers’ national insurance contributions.   But he said that UK entrepreneurs are “wildly optimistic" so Burnham’s policies, whatever they were, would not deter them.

Sherpa.ai, a company specialising in artificial intelligence for data privacy and security, has raised $18 million in a funding round to accelerate the development of its AI platform for enterprises and governments and expand its work on AI systems built around data sovereignty. The round includes new investor Forgepoint Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm focused on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Existing investors Mundi Ventures, Ekarpen, Allegra Holdings and SETT also participated. The funding follows a period of commercial growth for the company. In recent months, Sherpa.ai has signed contracts with organisations including Indra, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centogene Genomics, Caja Laboral, Unicaja and Prosegur. The projects span sectors including healthcare, finance, industry and government, where privacy, security and data sovereignty are key considerations for AI deployment. As organisations and governments increasingly prioritise sovereign AI capabilities, Sherpa.ai develops AI infrastructure designed to enable organisations to train, deploy and operate models collaboratively without sharing sensitive information. The platform is intended for use in regulated environments where data privacy and security requirements can limit AI deployment. Xabi Uribe-Etxebarria, founder and CEO at Sherpa.ai, said: This round allows us to accelerate our vision: to develop and commercialise a secure and scalable artificial intelligence platform that enables companies and governments to harness the full potential of AI without giving up control, privacy and sovereignty over their data. In parallel with its commercial expansion, Sherpa.ai has expanded its research activities by publishing peer-reviewed studies on privacy-preserving AI, reflecting its ongoing investment in developing and validating its technologies. Recent research includes Towards the Next Frontier of LLMs, Training on Private Data: A Cross-Domain Benchmark for Federated Fine-Tuning, which explores methods for training large language models on private, distributed datasets without sharing sensitive information. Sherpa.ai also collaborated with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and University College London (UCL) on Training Together, Diagnosing Better, a study examining the use of federated learning for rare disease diagnosis. In addition, the company has published research on Blind Federated Learning and distributed training techniques that reduce communication requirements by up to 99 per cent, with applications in sectors including healthcare, finance, cybersecurity and industry. Sherpa.ai said it plans to expand the capabilities of its platform throughout the year, including additional features for enterprise and public sector users.

Sherpa.ai, a company specialising in artificial intelligence for data privacy and security, has raised $18 million in a funding round to accelerate the development of its AI platform for enterprises and governments and expand its work on AI systems built around data sovereignty. The round includes new investor Forgepoint Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm focused on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Existing investors Mundi Ventures, Ekarpen, Allegra Holdings and SETT also participated. The funding follows a period of commercial growth for the company. In recent months, Sherpa.ai has signed contracts with organisations including Indra, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centogene Genomics, Caja Laboral, Unicaja and Prosegur. The projects span sectors including healthcare, finance, industry and government, where privacy, security and data sovereignty are key considerations for AI deployment. As organisations and governments increasingly prioritise sovereign AI capabilities, Sherpa.ai develops AI infrastructure designed to enable organisations to train, deploy and operate models collaboratively without sharing sensitive information. The platform is intended for use in regulated environments where data privacy and security requirements can limit AI deployment. Xabi Uribe-Etxebarria, founder and CEO at Sherpa.ai, said: This round allows us to accelerate our vision: to develop and commercialise a secure and scalable artificial intelligence platform that enables companies and governments to harness the full potential of AI without giving up control, privacy and sovereignty over their data. In parallel with its commercial expansion, Sherpa.ai has expanded its research activities by publishing peer-reviewed studies on privacy-preserving AI, reflecting its ongoing investment in developing and validating its technologies. Recent research includes Towards the Next Frontier of LLMs, Training on Private Data: A Cross-Domain Benchmark for Federated Fine-Tuning, which explores methods for training large language models on private, distributed datasets without sharing sensitive information. Sherpa.ai also collaborated with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and University College London (UCL) on Training Together, Diagnosing Better, a study examining the use of federated learning for rare disease diagnosis. In addition, the company has published research on Blind Federated Learning and distributed training techniques that reduce communication requirements by up to 99 per cent, with applications in sectors including healthcare, finance, cybersecurity and industry. Sherpa.ai said it plans to expand the capabilities of its platform throughout the year, including additional features for enterprise and public sector users.

Swiss photonics startup Aylight has raised €4.5 million in a pre-seed funding round to support the development of its chip-scale multiwavelength laser technology. The round was co-led by Elaia and Swisscom Ventures, with participation from Verve Ventures and Plug and Play. Founded in 2025 by Bahareh Marzban and Dmitry Kazakov following research at ETH Zürich, Aylight develops chip-scale multiwavelength lasers for AI data-centre optical interconnects and high-precision frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) sensing. Its technology generates multiple precisely spaced wavelengths from a single chip, reducing the need for multiple discrete lasers in optical communication systems. The architecture is based on a frequency-modulated comb (FM comb) and is designed to be manufactured using existing semiconductor photonics foundries. The company said demand for more efficient optical interconnects is increasing as AI infrastructure scales and data transfer between chips becomes an increasingly important factor in data centre performance. Bahareh Marzban, co-founder and CEO of Aylight, said the company was founded to tackle one of the key constraints facing AI infrastructure: We started from a problem rather than a technology: the laser had become one of the constraints on scaling AI infrastructure. This funding will help us bring our technology from research to our first products. The funding will support the development of the company's first semiconductor-foundry prototypes and the expansion of its research and development team. Beyond optical interconnects, the company's laser technology is also intended for applications such as semiconductor inspection, metrology, industrial automation, and precision robotics, where high-resolution three-dimensional sensing is required.

Swiss photonics startup Aylight has raised €4.5 million in a pre-seed funding round to support the development of its chip-scale multiwavelength laser technology. The round was co-led by Elaia and Swisscom Ventures, with participation from Verve Ventures and Plug and Play. Founded in 2025 by Bahareh Marzban and Dmitry Kazakov following research at ETH Zürich, Aylight develops chip-scale multiwavelength lasers for AI data-centre optical interconnects and high-precision frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) sensing. Its technology generates multiple precisely spaced wavelengths from a single chip, reducing the need for multiple discrete lasers in optical communication systems. The architecture is based on a frequency-modulated comb (FM comb) and is designed to be manufactured using existing semiconductor photonics foundries. The company said demand for more efficient optical interconnects is increasing as AI infrastructure scales and data transfer between chips becomes an increasingly important factor in data centre performance. Bahareh Marzban, co-founder and CEO of Aylight, said the company was founded to tackle one of the key constraints facing AI infrastructure: We started from a problem rather than a technology: the laser had become one of the constraints on scaling AI infrastructure. This funding will help us bring our technology from research to our first products. The funding will support the development of the company's first semiconductor-foundry prototypes and the expansion of its research and development team. Beyond optical interconnects, the company's laser technology is also intended for applications such as semiconductor inspection, metrology, industrial automation, and precision robotics, where high-resolution three-dimensional sensing is required.

This week, we tracked more than 55 tech funding deals worth over €1.6 billion and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. If email is more your thing, you can always subscribe to our newsletter and receive a more robust version of this round-up delivered to your inbox. We also released our monthly report for June — now available FREE to all Tech.eu readers — covering the biggest fundraises, standout deals, and evolving tech trends. Either way, let's get you up to speed. ? Notable and big funding rounds ?? Quantum Systems raises $1.2B at $8B valuation ?? With 3,500+ agricultural SMEs financed, InSoil lands €120M to expand regenerative agriculture lending ?? Openchip lands €115M SETT investment to strengthen Europe’s semiconductor capabilities ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ?? Saltroad acquires AI platform Ogma to scale speech therapy for children ?? DATADOG acquires ADAPTIVE ML to strengthen its AI lab ?? The Exploration Company acquires European Astrotech ?? Ipsen to acquire Memo Therapeutics for up to €700M ?? Openchip lands €115M SETT investment to strengthen Europe’s semiconductor capabilities ? Interesting moves from investors ? Omnea launches fund with Firedrop to back employees as future founders ?  P101 expands into seed investing with PranaVentures integration and €100M fund ?  Nothing-backer Tapestry VC raises $80M fund, opens London office ? Common Path launches to connect low-income graduates with UK startups ?? More deals, smaller rounds: European startup funding in June 2026

This week, we tracked more than 55 tech funding deals worth over €1.6 billion and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. If email is more your thing, you can always subscribe to our newsletter and receive a more robust version of this round-up delivered to your inbox. We also released our monthly report for June — now available FREE to all Tech.eu readers — covering the biggest fundraises, standout deals, and evolving tech trends. Either way, let's get you up to speed. ? Notable and big funding rounds ?? Quantum Systems raises $1.2B at $8B valuation ?? With 3,500+ agricultural SMEs financed, InSoil lands €120M to expand regenerative agriculture lending ?? Openchip lands €115M SETT investment to strengthen Europe’s semiconductor capabilities ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ?? Saltroad acquires AI platform Ogma to scale speech therapy for children ?? DATADOG acquires ADAPTIVE ML to strengthen its AI lab ?? The Exploration Company acquires European Astrotech ?? Ipsen to acquire Memo Therapeutics for up to €700M ?? Openchip lands €115M SETT investment to strengthen Europe’s semiconductor capabilities ? Interesting moves from investors ? Omnea launches fund with Firedrop to back employees as future founders ?  P101 expands into seed investing with PranaVentures integration and €100M fund ?  Nothing-backer Tapestry VC raises $80M fund, opens London office ? Common Path launches to connect low-income graduates with UK startups ?? More deals, smaller rounds: European startup funding in June 2026

The Dutch Ministry of Defence has signed a strategic partnership worth tens of millions of euros with Dutch defence technology company Intelic to build the software foundation for its future unmanned systems ecosystem, making the Netherlands the first country in the world to formally invest in a Software-First approach to military interoperability.The three-year agreement marks a shift in how defence capabilities are developed. Rather than acquiring platforms first and addressing integration challenges later, the Dutch Ministry of Defence is making interoperability the starting point of its strategy.Under the partnership, Intelic will work closely with the Ministry over the next three years to develop and evolve the software architecture required to connect unmanned aerial and ground systems into a single operational ecosystem. Central to this partnership is Intelic’s Command-and-Control software NEXUS, which enables unmanned systems from different manufacturers to operate together within a single mission environment. This greatly reduces deployment times and training for operators, and ensures that different unmanned systems work together reliably. The rapid evolution of drone warfare and autonomous systems has exposed a growing challenge for military organisations: fragmented technologies that struggle to work together. By adopting a Software-First strategy, the Netherlands aims to ensure that new technologies, sensors and capabilities can be integrated quickly and effectively, regardless of platform or manufacturer.According to Derk Boswijk, Minister for Arms Procurement and Personnel of the Netherlands (Staatssecretaris van Defensie): "Ukraine teaches us that not only the hardware, but also the software, is of great importance. Integrating different drone systems makes the fight easier. I am proud that a Dutch company can now meet this demand. We are entering into a partnership together, leaving the classic customer-supplier relationship behind us and committing to each other for a longer period of time." This approach is greatly informed by the Ukrainian frontline, which demonstrates the necessity of interoperable systems to enable superior surveillance, supply chain management and defence. NEXUS has been used on the battlefield in Ukraine since 2025, allowing drone operators to respond rapidly to changing conditions. The partnership builds on Intelic’s vision of software-defined interoperability. Earlier this year, the company launched Intelic BASE, a procurement platform that connects European drone manufacturers with Ministries of Defence, helping governments explore and identify unmanned systems already integrated with NEXUS across the European defence industrial base. By focusing on interoperability before procurement decisions are made, the Dutch Ministry of Defence aims to reduce integration risks, accelerate deployment timelines and remain flexible as new technologies emerge.Maurits Korthals Altes, CEO of Intelic, shared: "Europe now has more than 700 drone manufacturers, and that number continues to grow. For defence organisations, the challenge is no longer access to technology, but ensuring those technologies can operate together. Military advantage increasingly depends on software that connects platforms rather than locking governments into individual systems. This partnership reflects a fundamental shift from platform-centric procurement to software-defined defence capabilities built around interoperability." The partnership represents a significant milestone for Intelic and reinforces the growing role of software as the foundation of future military capability. For the Netherlands, it establishes a new model for defence modernisation built around adaptability, interoperability and operational readiness from day one.