Vilnius-based first-check VC fund FIRSTPICK has launched a new €25 million fund focused on early-stage investments.  The aim is to support Baltic founders who don’t fit the typical VC mold. No FAANG background or Ivy League degree needed.  In a startup ecosystem where half of the founders are starting their first company, this approach is about finding and supporting underpriced talent, giving local teams a real shot before the rest of the market catches on. Instead of relying on recognisable CVs or previous high-profile experience, FIRSTPICK will back people whose grit and ideas stand out well before the industry takes notice. “It’s not so different from the fairy godmother who knew Cinderella before the ball,” says Andra Bagdonaitė, a partner at FIRSTPICK. “Everyone wants to back success once it’s visible and on the biggest stage, but we prefer to meet founders while they’re still hustling below the radar. It’s about recognising the real work and character behind the scenes.” Over the years, the fund has built a record of finding potential outside what the mainstream expects. One example is their early investment in Emile Radyte, who founded Samphire Neuroscience in 2023. Samphire offers science-backed support for period pain, low mood, and brain fog. When FIRSTPICK invested, the product was still in the development stage and the risk was high. Today, Samphire is selling products with thousands of clients in Europe and the US. The company has also recently raised a $5 million seed round led by Inventure. Along similar lines, Copla is a cybersecurity compliance company led by a proven team and serial entrepreneur Aurimas Bakas. But when Copla was first building its product, the idea was still very early and few investors paid attention. FIRSTPICK became their first investor in their €650,000 pre-seed round, supporting their thesis before most others were ready. Copla has since closed a €6 million Series A round. FIRSTPICK’s new fund will focus on the earliest stages of new startups throughout the Baltics, supporting teams from inception and pre-seed. Backed by local entrepreneurs, angels, and founders of companies like Tesonet, Oberlo, and Kilo , the fund will target high-potential areas in AI-first software.  This is the second early-stage fund from FIRSTPICK. Their first, a €20 million fund, was launched in 2022. The fund is also backed by Lithuania’s Ministry of Economy and Innovation and the Lithuanian state-financed ILTE fund. “We are continuing our collaboration with FirstPick, having witnessed their strong ability to professionally select and nurture early-stage companies,” says Tadas Gudaitis, Member of the Board at ILTE and Head of Business Development unit. “As a strategic investor with a €9 million commitment, our role is not only to provide capital, but also to encourage the involvement of private investors. We believe that this partnership will help ensure a consistent funding pipeline for high-growth-potential startups — from acceleration to later stages of development — and will strengthen Lithuania’s innovation ecosystem in the long term.” Ultimately, FIRSTPICK’s aim is to help the Baltic tech sector take a bigger role in boosting the region’s economic future, starting with overlooked founders. “We see our investments as the start of a wider impact,” says Dmitrij Sosunov, managing partner at FIRSTPICK. “When the Baltic tech sector grows, the entire economy becomes stronger. Our goal is to help the best people kickstart their ideas right here, and build resilient businesses that benefit the whole region.”

Paris is set to host the 10th-anniversary edition of VivaTech from June 17 to 20, 2026. Since its launch in 2016 by Publicis Groupe and Les Échos-Le Parisien Groupe, VivaTech has cemented its position as one of Europe’s largest startup events and tech event, drawing disruptive minds and global leaders. This year, it will welcome an even larger audience in a new, expanded format within Hall 7 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, including a spectacular new 2,000-seat main stage. With Germany as the Country of the Year, the 2026 edition promises to be the biggest yet, building on the success of 2025 which saw 180,000 attendees and over 640,000 business connections. The Startup Challenges: Your Golden Ticket to Global Scale The core of the VivaTech experience is the Startup Challenges, an open innovation laboratory designed to connect startups with C-level executives, global investors, and corporate giants. By participating, founders gain direct collaboration on concrete industry problems, unrivaled networking with over 3,600 investors, global visibility in front of key players and media, and crucial market validation that often leads to long-term partnerships or funding rounds. The 2026 Challenges are structured around five strategic pillars, inviting innovators to lead the shifts defining the future: Building the Future of Cloud and Digital Infrastructure: Focusing on robust, energy-efficient, and decentralized digital sovereignty and security. Driving Sustainable and Energy-Efficient Innovation: Highlighting startups in decarbonization, circular economy, and green energy to accelerate a regenerative future. Accelerating AI-Driven Transformation: Seeking innovations that use AI to boost productivity, reinvent customer experiences, and solve societal problems. Empowering the Next Generation of Women Founders: The Female Founder Award is back to close the funding gap and provide maximum visibility to women-led startups. Unlocking Innovation Potential Across Africa: The AfricaTech Award will continue to showcase the vitality of African innovation across sectors like Fintech, AgTech, and HealthTech. Previous challenge winners have secured massive partnerships and funding, proving that a single application can be the launchpad for global success. Don’t miss your chance to define the next decade of technology. Apply today for the VivaTech 2026 Startup Challenges! Key Details: Event: VivaTech 2026 (10th Anniversary) Dates: 17-20 June 2026 Location: Paris Expo Porte de Versailles

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A total of 296 deals were recorded, including 11 rounds above €100 million, with Nscale’s €1.18 billion debt financing standing as the month’s largest transaction.Click to read the rest of the news.

Austrian deeptech startup fibionic has closed a €3 million seed financing round led by Redstone together with Euregio+, Caesar, and Leap435, with additional support from several angel investors. Lightweight materials are widely regarded as a key technology across industries, including sports equipment, UAVs, robotics, industrial applications, and mobility. However, manufacturing processes, material efficiency, and automation in composite production often remain inefficient. fibionic addresses this challenge with its patented technology, “fibionic fiber placement” (FFP), a nature-inspired approach to precise fiber placement. Based on bionic principles, the technology aligns fibers along actual load paths, drawing inspiration from natural structures such as dragonfly wings. According to the company, FFP enables highly efficient and sustainable production with cycle times of up to one minute per component, establishing a new benchmark for process optimisation in composite manufacturing. The technology enables the production of high-performance, stable components while minimising material usage. Through this approach, fibionic aims to make lightweight engineering more economical, sustainable, and suitable for series production across industries, including automotive, sporting goods, aerospace, robotics, and defence. With fibionic, we are taking high-performance lightweight engineering to the next level. We enable the fast, sustainable and cost-efficient production of extremely high-performing, ultra-light products, said Elias Hirschbichler, co-founder at fibionic. In partnership with the Italian bicycle saddle manufacturer Selle Italia, the company has begun producing products at scale using the FFP process to optimise weight, stability, and material efficiency. According to fibionic, the technology can reduce material use by up to 60% and lower product weight by up to 50%. With the new funding, fibionic plans to expand its industrial processes and further develop its proprietary technology platform. The company also plans to grow its engineering and business development teams, advance pilot projects to full-scale production, and further develop its ecosystem across simulation, equipment, materials, licensing, and software tools.

Antwerp-based Vectrix, an order entry platform for the logistics sector, has raised €1.15 million in a seed funding round led by RDY Ventures to expand into European markets, starting with Belgium’s neighbouring countries. Logistics companies handle large volumes of transport requests each day, with administrative teams often manually entering order details into transport management systems. This repetitive process can take several minutes per request and leaves room for human error. Founded in 2024 by Dimitri Allaert and Ben Selleslagh, Vectrix aims to address this challenge by using AI to automate the manual entry of transport orders. The platform reduces processing time from around eight minutes to approximately two minutes per order while also helping to minimise errors. As the system processes more data, it continues to learn, enabling it to identify inconsistencies and suggest corrections, for example, when specific requirements such as temperature conditions for pharmaceutical transport are involved. Ben Selleslagh, CTO at Vectrix, explained that operational workflows differ between transport companies and that customer agreements are often tailored to individual clients: Vectrix’s AI understands each customer’s context, so it can complete missing information in a targeted way. The logistics employee always stays in control and can adjust where needed. That feedback loop helps the AI improve continuously. The efficiency gains help transport companies absorb the talent shortage, and new hires get up to speed faster, too. The platform operates as a pre–transport management system (pre-TMS) layer within the IT infrastructure. It converts unstructured input, such as emails or data from ERP systems, into validated information ready for use in transport management systems. Each automated decision remains transparent and is based on customer configurations, historical data, and defined operating procedures, allowing logistics teams to review and approve pre-filled transport orders through a single interface. The new funding will support team expansion, European growth, and further product development, including deeper integrations with transport management systems.

Silverflow, a cloud-native payment processing company, has closed a $40 million Series B funding round led by Picus Capital, with participation from Rabo Investments and existing investors Inkef, Global PayTech Ventures, Crane Venture Partners, and Coatue. Founded in Amsterdam, Silverflow provides a cloud-native card payment processing platform designed to modernise payment infrastructure. Its platform offers a single API connection directly to card networks, enabling payment service providers (PSPs), acquirers, payment facilitators, and merchants to process transactions while accessing enriched payment data and real-time insights. By replacing legacy processing technology with a flexible, scalable architecture, the company aims to reduce complexity and support innovation across the payments ecosystem. According to Anne Willem DeVries, CEO and Co-founder of Silverflow, the investment signals that the market is ready to move beyond the limitations of outdated legacy systems: We’re the only cloud-native company targeting this specific area, and this capital will ensure we cement our position as the new standard in payment processing globally. It’s not just about raising money – It’s about having the resources to build the infrastructure that helps our customers, including acquiring banks, payment companies and commerce platforms, to move faster and grow bigger. Over the past two and a half years, Silverflow has grown from processing around around 180 transactions per day to nearly 1.75 million daily, highlighting the rapid adoption of its platform. Its customers include acquiring banks, payment companies, and high-growth commerce platforms operating across Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific. The new funding will support global expansion, product development, and team growth. Silverflow plans to increase its workforce by more than 50 per cent to around 120 employees, while strengthening its presence in North America and Southeast Asia. The company also plans to expand support for additional card networks, enhance its developer tools, and broaden its capabilities for in-store card payments.

The UK government has committed up to £40m to discover the UK’s AI “breakthroughs” of tomorrow, as it looks to rev up its sovereign AI credentials. A UK government-backed lab will support the effort, backed by up to £40m to invest in “blue sky AI research". The funding will be made available over six years for the Fundamental AI Research Lab, along with access to AI compute capacity worth tens of millions of pounds, the government said.   The UK government said it is looking to unlock breakthrough tech across healthcare, transport, science and everyday tech. The UK government is calling on the UK’s AI experts to bring their “boldest” and “ambitious proposals" to the table. Applications for funding will be assessed by a peer review panel chaired by Raia Hadsell, a researcher at Google DeepMind.   Last year, the government announced its Sovereign AI Unit, backed by nearly £500m in investment, to help build and scale AI capabilities on British shores, which is to be chaired by Balderton's James Wise.   AI minister Kanishka Narayan said: “AI is already doing things we could never have imagined just a few years ago, like helping to diagnose cancer. It can and will do even more – but if we want this technology to be a force for good, we need to make sure the next big AI breakthroughs are made in Britain.   “This is a long-term investment in the brilliant minds who will keep the UK in the AI fast lane. If we are the ones breaking new ground on what AI can do, we can make sure our values are baked in from the outset. This is a critical part of our mission to make AI work for everyone.” Image: Nano Banana Pro

London-based biomaterials company Shellworks has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Paris-based impact investment fund alter equity. The round also included participation from Nat Friedman (NFDG) and JamJar, founded by the creators of Innocent Drinks, alongside existing investors Founder Collective, LocalGlobe and Third Sphere. Founded in 2019, Shellworks develops and manufactures Vivomer, a bio-based material designed as a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics. Its technology aims to deliver environmentally friendly packaging that remains cost-competitive and functional at scale, enabling brands to transition away from traditional plastics. The funding comes as Shellworks reaches a milestone in cost competitiveness, demonstrating that its material can match the cost of conventional materials such as aluminium and glass despite operating at a smaller production scale of around five million units. The development addresses a key barrier to wider adoption and positions the company to support brands seeking alternatives to petroleum-based packaging. Insiya Jafferjee, CEO and co-founder of Shellworks, said sustainable materials have long been viewed as too costly for widespread adoption. We're proving that's no longer true. At just a fraction of plastic's scale, we're already cost-competitive with alternatives like glass and aluminum. As we scale further, we'll only get more competitive. Vivomer is produced by fermenting second-generation feedstocks, such as used cooking oil, with microbes and is designed to function like conventional plastic during use while biodegrading after disposal. The new capital will support Shellworks’ expansion into the United States and the European Union, with a focus on the growing wellness sector. As part of this strategy, the company plans to establish regional production capabilities to reduce carbon footprints and strengthen supply chain resilience, while developing a global production network focused on technologies such as blow moulding, with facilities planned across the UK, Europe and the US.

Techstars, the global startup accelerator and VC firm which provides funding and support for early-stage startups, is ending its accelerator programme in Turin, marking its latest exit from a European city.   Martin Olczyk, Techstars former managing director, said: “I’m closing a very special Techstars chapter as our programme in Turin comes to an end.”   Techstars closing its accelerator in Turin follows Techstars halting European accelerators in Berlin, Paris, Stockholm and Oslo.   It comes amid New York-headquartered Techstars facing funding challenges and focusing on what it says is “quality over quantity”.    Techstars ran the Turin accelerator in partnership with Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, the philanthropic foundation, the non-profit Fondazione CRT, and Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Centre, which is run by Intesa Sanpaolo, a major Italian banking group.   Techstars ran its first accelerator in Turin in 2020, with 69 startups participating over the years, raising more than $200m. Techstars' accelerator programmes typically run for three months, in which startups receive $220,000, (which was increased by $100,000 last year), along with mentorship and access to alumni founders and its corporate partners.   According to its website, Techstars is still running European accelerator programmes in London and Amsterdam, as well as several accelerators in the US, Saudi Arabia, Japan and other countries.   Andrea Palten, vice president, marketing, Techstars, said: “Over the past year, we have recommitted to being founder-first, focusing on quality over quantity, and building stronger startup communities around the world.   “As part of that work, we’ve made thoughtful decisions about where and how we operate accelerators.    “We are actively launching and relaunching programmes in communities where we see strong founders' momentum, deep alignment and the opportunities to deliver and an exceptional experience.   “We have reached the end of our six-year partnership with Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, la Fondazione CRT e Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center and concluded the Techstars Transformative Torino accelerator.    “While the official program has wrapped, Techstars and Martin Olczyk will continue to work with the 69 companies who participated.”   Reaction to the closure was mixed. One commentator on LinkedIn said it was “very bad news” for Turin, while others said the accelerator had had a positive impact on the Turin startup ecosystem. Olczyk has now left his role at Techstars.

International space transportation company, PLD Space, has closed a €180 million Series C equity funding round led by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. The round included the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through the Centre for the Development of Technology and Innovation (CDTI) and its INNVIERTE fund, and the Spanish public funds management company COFIDES, through its FOCO investment fund, and Nazca Capital, via Nazca Aeroespacial y Defensa INNIVERTE I FCR Fund. With over €350 million raised to date, this financing advances PLD Space’s strategic roadmap, supporting its transition to commercial operations and the scaling of its industrial and launch capabilities.  PLD Space now consolidates its position among a select group of private companies worldwide developing complete launch systems, enabling global access to space supported by a strategic network of worldwide locations. PLD Space is preparing to transition into a commercial launch provider operating regular missions to deliver satellites and payloads. MIURA 5 is on track for its first test flight in 2026, with commercial activity expected to exceed 30 launches per year by 2030. “This financing reinforces our technological and industrial leadership in the launcher market, enabling us to execute the next phase of our strategic roadmap with the speed and scale required to compete globally,” said Ezequiel Sánchez, PLD Space’s Executive President.  “MIURA 5 was designed to address a clear and growing capacity gap in the market, and this investment support strengthens our ability to transition into commercial operations. It accelerates the build‑out of the industrial and launch infrastructure required to deliver reliable access to space for an expanding pipeline of global customers.” Tomonori Sato, Mitsubishi Electric’s Executive Officer, Group President, Defense & Space Systems said:   “By combining PLD Space’s launch capabilities with Mitsubishi Electric’s strengths in the satellite business, we aim to address evolving customer requirements, including those in the global market.” PLD Space will provide Mitsubishi Electric with small satellite launch services using its MIURA 5 rocket for Japan and across the Asian region, demonstrating international market confidence and positioning PLD Space as a trusted infrastructure provider on a global scale. The Spanish Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, has stated that “the closing of this series consolidates a strategic project with global impact born in our country, reinforcing Spain’s key position within the space economy. The Spanish Government has backed PLD Space’s growth plans, because investing in space means investing in technological sovereignty, strategic autonomy and qualified employment generation.” The new capital drives PLD Space’s industrial scale‑up and expands its production and test capacity. Leveraging its strategic global footprint, the company is building a global launch infrastructure and cementing its position among the most advanced private launch companies worldwide. I Ezequiel Sánchez added: “As demand for dependable access to space continues to rise, we are reinforcing the redundancy, test cadence and flight cadence needed to sustain continuity across multiple locations. This approach strengthens operational buffers and assurance frameworks that global operators increasingly rely on to secure their long‑term access‑to‑orbit strategies.”

As consumer health shifts toward longevity, quantified wellness and personalised nutrition, one of Europe’s fastest-growing health tech companies is repositioning itself for the next wave. Founded in 2013, Kilo Health — now rebranded simply as Kilo — rose to become the second-fastest-growing company in Europe in 2022. After building direct-to-consumer health brands used by over 10 million people worldwide, the Lithuanian company is evolving into what CEO Žygimantas Surintas calls a “high-velocity venture studio”, co-founding startups and investing in early-stage companies across health, longevity, beauty and travel. In 2024, the company posted consolidated revenue of €234 million and EBITDA of €11 million. Its portfolio spans established brands including Moérie, Pulsetto, Bioma, Her Bodhi, ColonBroom, and RatePunk, alongside newer ventures Agava, Iteractive, and Go Health — with products now used by more than 10 million people across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain, Italy, and beyond. I sat down with CEO Žygimantas Surintas to find out more. Kilo's shift to a high-velocity venture studio According to Surintas, the rebrand from Kilo Health to Kilo signals a broader strategic shift: "It was really about clarifying who we are. For a long time, people described Kilo Health in different ways — studio, ventures, startup studio — and we wanted one clear answer. We did a full exercise to define where we act as an investor, as a managing partner, as a co-founder, as a financial partner, where we run operations, and where we don't. We crystallised it and landed on calling ourselves a high-velocity venture studio. We want to start and invest in companies that can develop very fast. Our key advantage is speed — we have a strong foundation to launch businesses quickly — and extensive knowledge from years in this space." That infrastructure is formalised through Kiloverse — Kilo's internal ecosystem, giving founders access to marketing expertise, technology tools, global partnerships, and specialists in R&D, nutrition, and research. The company works with builders primarily in health and wellness, supporting them from the MVP stage through to scale. Investment tickets range from €50,000 to €1 million, with follow-on funding of up to €10 million. To date, Kilo has invested over €10 million in external startups and nearly twice that in its own R&D and product development. The value of market specificity Kilo operates across health, wellness, beauty, and travel. Surintas contends that they're different markets, but they also share a lot: they target the mid-market and often serve more mature customers. “That means we have data and understanding around what these people want — their needs, interests, and problems we can solve. So we’re not going broad. If we launch a beauty product, we’re very specific about the market — and it often overlaps with what we know from supplements. Same with travel. We exchange a lot of data internally and we’re clear on where we’re going.” ​ Venture strategy: the right fit over the obvious winner From a venture perspective, Kilo isn't chasing segment leaders. "We're not rich enough to invest in the obvious, loved-by-everyone winners," Surintas says. "We focus on ideas that fit our concept — and especially where money is not the only value we bring. We're not private equity. This is our own equity — our own money — so we want to know how we'll help the business grow." If capital is the only requirement, Kilo isn't the right partner. "There are people with cheaper money. Our money is expensive — so we need the right fit and real synergies." He's equally pragmatic about defensibility. In Kilo's core markets, what launches today gets copied tomorrow — and Surintas accepts that as inevitable. What separates the winners, he argues, is execution. "Copy-paste doesn't win. A one-to-one copy never works because business takes soul, heart, and effort." Europe’s opportunity — but America first ​ Kilo sees Europe as its biggest potential market in the coming years. ​ But, Surintas admits, “We still have a rule: when we start something from scratch, we start in the United States first. It’s one country — one market. Europe is one system, but in practice it’s fragmented. You lose speed." "But if you’re afraid of wolves, don’t go into the forest.” Balancing speed, science, and data-driven decision making When asked how Kilo balances scientific rigour and regulatory compliance with the pace of growth he describes, Surintas says it is actually one of the company’s key strengths. “We have nutritionists, a legal team, and compliance specialists working on this every day. If someone comes with an idea tomorrow, we can quickly say: this path works, that path doesn’t.” While Kilo operates primarily in supplements and consumer health, the company does not manufacture its own products. Instead, it works with established partners — primarily in the United States — allowing it to develop scientifically grounded products while moving quickly. “We know who we work with, how to create unique formulas and blends, and how to build something scalable and compliant,” Surintas says. “That know-how saves time — and that’s where speed comes from.” Data, he adds, is central to how the company evaluates both products and new opportunities. After more than a decade of building direct-to-consumer health businesses, Kilo has accumulated extensive internal datasets about consumer behaviour and product performance. Looking ahead, Kilo plans to invest up to €20 million in AI development over the next three years, with an ambitious target of $1 billion in consolidated annual revenue. With the rise of quantified health, machine learning and AI are becoming increasingly prominent in wellness products. But Surintas says Kilo is deliberately cautious about how quickly it adopts new technologies. “We saw one company in our segment automate media buying with machine learning and let go of more than half their team — and sales dropped 40 per cent. That’s a hard lesson.” While he acknowledges the potential of AI, Surintas believes it should be introduced gradually rather than treated as a silver bullet. “As a leader, of course, I want AI to do everything today,” he says. “But the right approach is consistency and gradual adoption.” Why Kilo sees longevity as the next big health market In terms of what’s next in the health and wellness space, Surintas contends that diet will be a big shift: “Trends change — keto and fasting had their moment, and keto is declining year over year. People try something, then they look for the next thing. Even GLP-1 requires specific diets to reduce side effects — so it’s all connected.” He also sees growing demand emerging around mental health and longevity, arguing that the longevity market in particular has reached a turning point after several years of experimentation. “People are educated enough now that we can talk about mass products — what works and what’s proven versus what’s just noise,” says Surintas. “That’s a good moment for us. This year we’re planning to introduce four or even five longevity products.” Kilo prefers to invest once there is early traction rather than at the pure idea stage. “We invest when there’s real initial data and strong early development,” he explains. “The longevity point is more than the market foundations are now in place — so it’s the right moment to build and launch.” When it comes to navigating hype cycles versus genuine opportunity, Surintas says the company relies heavily on its own long-term dataset. “Kilo has 12 years of data and learning in this business. That’s central to our decision-making — and as machine learning improves, the importance of data only grows.” ​ Bootstrapped to €500M: Kilo’s biggest win and toughest lesson Surintas sees Kilo’s independence as its greatest achievement. “The biggest success is that the company got here without external funding. We expect to close 2025 at around €500 million in revenue — without external investment.” The business, he notes, was originally built by its founders from a small office and scaled organically. “Times were different then, but it’s still a major achievement. And I should stress — I joined two years ago. Others built this foundation.” But the biggest failure is also connected to success: the company grew too fast. Surintas explains. “When turbulence came, it was difficult to control and adjust the business quickly. It took time — but it also made the company stronger. Now we’re more consistent: doing less, but with better quality.” ​ "We want grinders" For founders considering the venture side, his advice is direct: take the help, and don't try to protect all the equity early. "You can have 100 per cent of something very small, or less than 100 per cent of something very big. Don't be afraid to share your ideas — we have plenty of ideas. For us, it's not your idea we need. It's you. We want strong partners we can grind with. Read this word: grinding. We don't look for hustlers. We look for grinders." Hustling, he contends, doesn't work anymore — especially post-COVID. "It's tough, it takes time, and you'll spend a lot of life in the office. It's doing the work — heads down. And no AI or machine learning will change that." Kilo’s ambitions for the next phase are both bold and pragmatic. The company aims to reach €1 billion in revenue within the next few years while maintaining strong high-digit profitability. At the same time, it plans to expand into new markets and verticals — particularly travel and longevity. “We want consistency — not chasing the latest FOMO. We don’t have a goal to be a unicorn or whatever the new term is. We could have chased that. Our goal is a stable, strong business.”

The European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the EIB Group, today announced a €50 million commitment to Join Capital’s third fund as Europe moves from defence spending announcements to rebuilding industrial capability. The commitment is the EIF’s largest to date in defence and is supported by the InvestEU Defence Equity Facility, which is designed to strengthen Europe’s defence technological and industrial base by backing venture capital funds.  Join Capital’s Fund III, targeting €235 million, will invest in 25 early-stage deeptech startups across Europe developing technologies with critical capabilities in defence, dual-use, security and space. Join Capital has backed early-stage defence and deeptech innovators across Europe, including Optics11 (Netherlands), Quadsat (Denmark), Kreios Space (Spain), Quantum Optics Jena (Germany) and 2D Photonics (Italy). These companies span fibre-optic sensing for critical infrastructure, quantum-secure communications, advanced electronic payloads, and cybersecurity. “We back founders whose technologies create an asymmetric advantage for their customers in the military and commercial industry. Investments in such dual-use technologies have a doubling effect, they create both deterrence and economic growth for Europe,” said Jan Borgstädt, a Founding Partner at Berlin-based Join Capital. "This investment, backed by the InvestEU fund, could not come at a better time, given the strategic importance attached to the fields of space, security and defence," said EIF Chief Executive Marjut Falkstedt. "With this backing, we are confident that additional investments will follow, helping Europe in building a robust ecosystem for innovative defence solutions.” “Innovation and disruptive technologies are crucial for the EU's defence readiness. By investing in specialist defence Venture capital funds, like Join Capital, the Commission and the EIF are strengthening the financial ecosystem that nurtures and supports our defence innovators, startups and SMEs to grow and scale up in Europe,” said Commissioner Andrius Kubilius.

London-based Diligent AI, a Y Combinator-backed startup developing autonomous AI analysts for financial crime compliance, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding. The round was led by Speedinvest alongside fintech investor Shapers, with participation from strategic angel investors including the CEOs and founders of N26, Allica Bank, IDnow, Billie and Cybersource (acquired by Visa). KYC and AML teams play a critical role in safeguarding the global financial system by verifying customer legitimacy, monitoring transactions and identifying potential fraud or money laundering. However, the expansion of sanctions regimes, rising fraud levels and the growing velocity of digital payments have significantly increased their operational burden. As a result, much of the work has become repetitive and time-intensive, with skilled professionals often focused on routine data gathering rather than deeper investigative analysis. Diligent AI addresses this challenge by replacing static compliance workflows with autonomous AI analysts designed to read, reason and investigate. Its agents automate routine KYC and AML tasks, including reviewing SMB risk profiles, analysing adverse media and resolving sanctions and payment screening alerts, reducing the need for manual information gathering and contextual analysis. Founded by Edoardo Maschio and Ahmed Gaber, Diligent AI develops AI agents that automate complex financial crime compliance processes such as AML screening and merchant due diligence, helping institutions reduce operational costs while improving risk detection. Edoardo Maschio, CEO and co-founder of Diligent AI, said the company is designing its platform specifically for analysts: When you strip away repetitive tasks - like clearing false positive alerts, searching corporate registries and public records, cross-referencing adverse media - you free up the human mind to focus on judgment and strategy. It’s decision-making instead of data processing. We’re not just making teams faster; we’re enabling them to do the job they were hired to do. The company’s agents are already deployed across financial institutions in Europe, the Middle East, the United States and Japan. Customers use the platform to resolve sanctions, PEP and adverse media alerts, conduct merchant risk reviews and streamline customer onboarding. Users report measurable operational efficiencies alongside improved decision consistency. Diligent AI plans to use the new funding to expand its engineering capabilities and accelerate the rollout of its agents across the UK and Europe as it continues to develop tools for financial crime compliance teams.

A British defence tech startup developing AI software which helps improve the deployment of drones when communication is lost in combat has raised over $2m in a seed funding round.   Mutable Tactics has raised $2.1m in a funding round, led by spacetech investor Seraphim Space, with funding also from the UK’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund, Koro, Entrepreneurs First and Transpose.    Mutable Tactics is building AI software, in what it calls the “decision-layer”, that sits between the human operator and a drone, helping defence forces leverage multiple drones simultaneously.    It says its software translates a commander’s instructions into actions, meaning that mixed fleets of drones can operate together as a coordinated team, rather than as individually piloted platforms.   It says it’s solving the problem of drone deployment relying on one operator controlling one system, which limits how many drones can be used effectively at any given time.    The startup said that in battle environments, where communications are disrupted, drone systems that depend on constant human control quickly reach their limits.   Mutable Tactics was founded in 2024 by former British Army officer Colin MacLeod and robotics AI specialist Enrique Muñoz de Cote.   The startup says it will use the funding to increase the size of its engineering team in Cambridge and speed up the development of its software.    It also says the funding will be used to validate its tech in collaboration with two European governments.   MacLeod, CEO and co‑founder, Mutable Tactics, said: “Increasingly, the constraint is no longer hardware but human attention. We can deploy more drones than ever before, yet we still ask operators to control them one by one, often in environments where communications are unreliable.    "True autonomy breaks that one‑to‑one link, allowing humans to supervise and direct teams of systems rather than individual machines. That shift is essential for supporting modern military missions, where scale, speed and resilience matter, and where operators must remain focused on intent and outcomes rather than manual control.”

GHARAGE Ventures has launched its €40 million Fund I, positioning itself as an independent venture capital platform focused on early-stage technologies shaping the future of global travel and retail. Anchored by Gebr. Heinemann, the firm plans to collaborate with additional strategic investors to support innovation across the travel and retail ecosystem. As air travel continues to grow, many operational areas across airports and travel retail remain under-digitalised. GHARAGE Ventures aims to invest in startups addressing this gap, with a focus on automation, AI-enabled operations, digital infrastructure, travel technology services, and logistics and supply chain innovation. The fund invests globally from seed to Series A. Emerging from the venture capital and innovation activities of Gebr. Heinemann, GHARAGE Ventures has built a network of operators, brands, technology partners and investors across the travel and trade ecosystem. With Fund I, the platform is now open to additional limited partners seeking access to emerging technologies, real-world testing environments and global market insights. Lennard Niemann, Managing Partner at GHARAGE Ventures, noted that significant parts of the airport and travel retail ecosystem remain structurally under-digitised: The fund brings together capital, operational know-how and immediate access to industry environments. This is exactly where long-needed innovation can be turned into scalable, profitable impact. Through Fund I, GHARAGE has already invested in several companies targeting structural challenges in the travel and retail sectors. Looking ahead, Fund I plans to make around 30 additional investments across the travel and trade value chain, backing companies that deliver measurable operational improvements. The fund’s focus remains on technologies that enhance efficiency and support sustainable growth across global travel and trade markets.

British self-driving startup Oxa has raised $103 million from investors to expand autonomous vehicle operations at ports, airports, warehouses and other industrial sites. The company said $50 million of its Series D funding came from the UK’s National Wealth Fund, with additional investments from chipmaker Nvidia’s venture arm NVentures and BP’s bp Ventures. The round brings Oxa’s total funding to more than $250 million. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Oxford, Oxa develops configurable autonomous driving software that can be integrated into different types of vehicles to automate repetitive driving tasks in industrial environments such as ports, airports, warehouses and manufacturing sites. Its technology combines autonomy software, modular hardware and fleet management tools designed to enable the safe and scalable deployment of driverless vehicles. Unlike many autonomous vehicle developers focused on robotaxis and passenger cars, Oxa concentrates on what founder Paul Newman calls “industrial mobile autonomy”, where environments are more controlled and involve fewer interactions with pedestrians and regular traffic. We think trying to do that in the passenger car space is super, super hard. In the industrial space, it's extremely clear what you need to do to make a product, Newman said. The company designs both the software and hardware required to equip vehicles with autonomous capabilities and says it can convert a heavy-duty port truck to autonomous operation in under a day. The funding will support expanding deployments with customers including DHL, BP and Vantec, and will also be used to roll out Oxa’s technology in projects the company plans to announce in the near future. Oxa CEO Gavin Jackson will speak at the Tech.eu Summit London 2026, taking place on 21–22 April at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre.

Norwegian energy storage scale-up Photoncycle has raised €15 million in Series A funding to address a key renewable energy challenge in Europe: enabling households to store surplus summer solar power for winter heating and electricity. The round was led by NordicNinja and Voima Ventures, with participation from existing investors Lifeline Ventures, Eviny Ventures, Luminar Ventures and Momentum. Photoncycle develops solid-state hydrogen energy storage systems that allow households and businesses to store excess renewable energy for seasonal use. Its patented technology converts surplus solar power into solid-state hydrogen stored underground and releases it later as clean heat and electricity when needed. The investment comes as Europe continues to face energy vulnerabilities exposed by the 2022 crisis. In 2025, the EU imported €396 billion in fossil fuels (about €880 per citizen), underscoring ongoing reliance on external supply. Winter risk remains high, with space heating accounting for 62.5 per cent of household energy use and natural gas still a major component. Photoncycle’s distributed, household-level seasonal storage is designed to reduce the volume of imported gas required to meet winter heating demand. At full industrial scale, the company’s proposed 1.4 TWh manufacturing facility would represent storage capacity equivalent to roughly 140,000 homes each storing 10,000 kWh of seasonal energy. Bjørn Brandtzæg, founder and chief executive of Photoncycle, said the company was focused on moving seasonal energy resilience closer to consumers: Europe is beginning to solve short-duration storage. The remaining gap is seasonal. If households can store summer energy for winter use, they reduce exposure to imported fuel and price volatility as well as to increasing grid costs for consumers. The company plans to offer its system through a subscription-based model covering solar panels, storage, servicing and access to energy trading markets, with the aim of lowering upfront costs for homeowners. By shifting summer solar energy into winter use, Photoncycle aims to provide households with more predictable year-round energy costs and reduced exposure to volatile gas markets. The new funding will support commercial rollout in Denmark and the Netherlands and finance the first phase of the company’s industrialisation plan, including the proposed 1.4 TWh annual manufacturing facility. Beyond its initial European markets, Photoncycle also sees longer-term expansion opportunities in regions such as Japan and the United States.

Startups Brilliant Labs, Neuphonic and TheStage AI today announced a strategic partnership to enable frontier AI in wearable technology without the latency and privacy compromises of cloud computing. Currently, AI inference, such as audio or image analysis, relies on models hosted in the cloud, creating unnecessary latency and risking user data exposure. This partnership addresses the issue by moving processing directly into consumer hardware, protecting sensitive point-of-view data and enhancing performance with faster response times. Brilliant Labs is gearing up for the launch of Halo, their latest smart glasses. In addition to on-device vision inference, Halo will use Neuphonic’s Conversational AI models on an inference engine built by TheStage AI. This architecture challenges the foundation of cloud-dependent offerings from giants like Meta and Snap, placing user privacy and latency at the core of the user experience. Brilliant Labs will release its groundbreaking AI memory feature through its open-source eyewear platform in one of the slimmest form factors available. Neuphonic will deliver the conversational interface, where their ultra-low-latency text-to-speech technology runs locally, turning the device into a conversational partner with human-like responsiveness.  Finally, TheStage AI will provide an automated inference engine that optimises AI models to run efficiently on the edge, ensuring instant processing without draining the battery. By combining these strengths, Brilliant Labs is delivering an unprecedented AI wearable experience to its customers where voice, vision, and sensor data is processed locally on the user’s device: no raw point-of-view data ever leaves the user’s phone or glasses. This architecture stands in stark contrast to cloud-dependent AI models that rely on remote inference for messaging, voice, and image analysis. Recent investigations have raised questions about whether major platforms have renege on their privacy promises. Those concerns only grow more acute as AI systems expand beyond text into always-on microphones and cameras. This partnership offers an alternative: intelligent wearables that keep sensitive visual and conversational data local, while delivering advanced AI through an open-source stack designed for transparency, trust, and independent scrutiny. “We believe in a privacy-first future for personal computing. AI glasses are soon going to be everywhere around us: always-on cameras and microphones capturing our lives. That’s either exciting or terrifying, depending on where that data lives and who is monetising it,” said Bobak Tavangar, CEO of Brilliant Labs and former Apple program lead. “I don’t want my children growing up in a world where that data is sold to the highest bidder. This partnership shows there’s a better way. And by embracing open source, we want people to understand how these systems work, build upon them, and ultimately foster trust. That’s the standard we think the industry should be held to.” “When you’re having a conversation, speed and privacy are everything. You cannot wait for the cloud to think,” said Sohaib Ahmad, CEO of Neuphonic. “We provide the 'voice' of this new ecosystem. By running our advanced speech models directly on Brilliant’s hardware, we’ve unlocked a conversational experience that feels real, immediate, and completely private.” TheStage AI ensures this heavy lifting happens smoothly. “Great hardware and great models need a bridge, and that is what we build,” said Kirill Solodskikh, CEO at TheStage AI. “Running conversational AI on a pair of glasses is a massive computational challenge.You have to manage peak memory, latency, and power consumption to make responses feel immediate. Our core technology, ANNA, optimises Neuphonic’s models and supporting components, including transcription, wake word, and diarisation, so they run efficiently on a smartphone paired with the glasses. Deploying the optimised models on GPU and NPU accelerators delivers the best performance possible on-device.” Looking forward, Brilliant’s Halo glasses will support: Context-aware, conversational AI that sees and hears in real time.  Private memory that indexes what the user sees and hears for later recall and personalised context. Vibe Mode, a natural-language interface that generates custom AI mini-apps on demand — from on-demand AI agents to enterprise workflows. All visual and audio inputs are processed on-device and converted into encrypted embeddings. Brilliant Labs’ Halo glasses with integrated Neuphonic voice AI will be available in Q1 2026 at $349.

Finnish infrastructure software technology company Groundhawk has raised €2 million in Seed funding to transform how underground utilities are mapped and documented.  As Europe invests heavily in electricity grids, fibre networks, EV charging and renewable integration, a critical weakness remains: underground infrastructure is still documented using outdated, post-construction surveys and estimates. The result is over €100 billion in annual global damage, project delays, and safety risks caused by inaccurate mapping.  Groundhawk replaces analogue documentation with real-time, AI-powered 3D capture, allowing construction crews to record precise underground data while trenches are open, creating digital records with centimetre-level accuracy, instantly synced to the cloud. The company’s technology combines high-precision satellite positioning, 3D scanning, and AI analytics to embed quality assurance directly into the construction workflow.  By capturing accurate depth measurements, installation details, and visual documentation while trenches are still open, Groundhawk enables crews and project managers to verify that cables, ducts, and connection points are installed correctly before the site is closed. This real-time capture transforms documentation from a passive record into an active quality-control tool, allowing issues to be identified and corrected immediately rather than discovered weeks later during post-build surveys. “Groundhawk is so user-friendly that anyone already on site with the device can handle the cable mapping. If you can shoot a video with your mobile phone, you can use Groundhawk. This accelerates the entire project,” says Christoffer Winquist, CEO and co-founder of Groundhawk. All data synchronises in real time to a cloud platform, giving network owners precise visibility and an accurate map of their entire new underground network. This approach delivers up to 50 per cent cost savings on surveying while providing project managers with immediate visibility into contractor progress and quality compliance. Groundhawk serves network owners, prime contractors, and subcontractors across fibre and electricity infrastructure projects. Customers include major Nordic and European infrastructure contractors such as Eltel Networks, Voimatel, Elvera, and Signal Group, which serve network operators including Telia, Telenor, Caruna, Global Connect, E.on, and Valokuitunen. The round was led by investors Greencode Ventures and 2C Ventures.  According to Ines Bergmann-Nolting, Managing Partner at Greencode Ventures, the Groundhawk team brings an exceptional combination of profound sector insight and deep technical expertise, and their strong early traction convinced us to invest. “As networks expand and regulations tighten, Groundhawk becomes the essential interface between physical construction and digital infrastructure."  The €2 million seed funding will support several strategic priorities: building a scalable B2B sales organisation across Germany, the UK, Benelux, and Nordic markets; expanding the engineering team to advance the AI and spatial intelligence capabilities; and developing new product features that extend from build-time documentation into planning support and predictive quality assurance.  Lead image: From left: Otto Salminen, Otto Virta, Christoffer Winquist, and Jonne Davidsson. Photo: uncredited.