Bulgaria-based Estel Technologies has raised €270,000 in pre-seed funding to expand its AI-native sales platform for the global tech talent industry. The round was led by Vitosha Ventures, with participation from Austrian angel investor Kerem Basak, founder and CEO of FB Consulting. Founded by Bogdan Stavrev, Ivo Michorov and Yusuf Berki, Estel is developing an AI-powered workspace designed to help technology staffing firms identify, verify and prioritise sales opportunities. The platform combines demand verification, lead scoring and buyer matching in a single system, replacing the multiple disconnected tools typically used by recruiters and staffing sales teams. The company is addressing inefficiencies in a global tech staffing market where recruiters often rely on outdated or duplicate job listings and fragmented workflows. Estel's proprietary Demand Confidence Score analyses market signals, verifies active hiring demand, ranks opportunities for individual users and automatically matches them with prospective buyers most likely to convert. The new funding will be used to strengthen the platform's core technology, including its demand verification, scoring and matching algorithms, accelerate customer growth across key European markets, and support the company's progress towards a seed funding round and planned expansion into the US in 2027. 

Paris-based Shiplog has raised about $1 million in a pre-seed round to build an AI-powered customer lifecycle and expansion platform for B2B SaaS companies. The round is backed by Kima Ventures and Project Europe, alongside Purple, No Label Ventures, 100IN and Station F Fund. Shiplog is building agentic customer intelligence to enable personalisation at scale. I spoke to Khushi Mehta, co-founder and CEO, to find out more.  Shiplog’s AI agent, Ada, evaluates every customer individually and decides the next best action across the full lifecycle, in real time. From marketing bottleneck to AI-native customer intelligence The idea for Ada grew out of Mehta's experience leading GTM in e-commerce companies, where she saw a widening gap between what product teams could build and what marketing teams could deliver. "Personalisation has become the holy grail of modern marketing," she said. "Engineering teams were shipping features at a pace we'd never seen before, especially with AI, but marketing couldn't keep up." Despite increasingly sophisticated products, companies were still relying on broad customer segments and generic campaigns to drive conversion. "With AI and usage-based pricing, every customer uses a product differently," said Mehta.   "But we're still putting people into the same buckets, even though they expect the kind of personalised experiences they get elsewhere." She believes the disconnect has turned marketing into a bottleneck rather than a growth engine. "There's an infrastructure gap between what engineering can build and what marketing can deliver," she said. "That's what inspired us to build Ada. We think the next decade of software will be defined by hyper-personalisation at the individual customer level." Co-founders Khusi Mehta and Mehdi Gribaa met during the Entrepreneurs First process and now build out of Station F.  Mehta founded Shiplog at 23 after graduating from ESCP, having previously worked for 6 years in go-to-market, most recently leading marketing for agentic commerce infrastructure. Gribaa founded the company at 25 after graduating from École des Mines with a master's in computer engineering, having previously shipped AI products across finance, healthcare and retail. From customer segments to a segment of one Mehta argues that today's customer data platforms (CDPs), customer success software, personalisation engines and marketing automation tools were built for a world that no longer exists.   "The SaaS model is changing," said Mehta. "Many incumbents have architectures that were fundamentally designed before AI. Now they're trying to layer AI on top." Mehta believes that the next generation will be AI-native from the ground up. Instead of layering AI onto existing software, the next generation of companies will be built around AI agents that perform the majority of work autonomously. As AI compresses software development and pricing collapses from per-seat subscriptions into usage-based models, customers have stopped behaving like predictable cohorts and started behaving like individuals. Yet most companies still read them through segments drawn up weeks or months earlier, and act through tools that either display a dashboard or fire a rule written for the average.  Instead of dropping customers into fixed buckets or surfacing a health score for a human to interpret, Ada continuously updates each customer's profile as behaviour changes and personalises everything downstream: marketing campaigns, product interfaces, onboarding flows, recommendations, support, lifecycle communications, and the judgement calls that customer success and account teams make by hand today.  Every interaction adapts to the person, not the average. Shiplog calls the result a live "segment of one," though the company is quick to say segmentation is only one of the things it replaces. Mehta illustrates the problem with a familiar fintech scenario. Traditionally, customers who abandon a Know Your Customer (KYC) verification are grouped into a single segment and sent the same automated reminder a few days later. "Let's say someone starts KYC but never completes it," she said. "Traditionally, you'd treat everyone who dropped out as one segment and send the same reminder after three days." Ada instead combines signals such as previous customer support interactions, emails, phone calls, location and product usage to build a richer picture of each customer. "You're no longer just looking at someone who abandoned KYC," said Mehta. "Our AI agent remembers every interaction they've had with your business and uses that context to personalise the next step." Rather than sending a generic reminder, Ada can tailor messages based on an individual's circumstances and behaviour. "You're using the customer's entire history and context instead of treating them as part of a generic marketing segment," she said . "That's how you increase product adoption through personalisation." Mehta believes the same approach can extend beyond communications to the product itself. "That could mean dynamic paywalls, personalised onboarding or other product interactions that adapt to each individual customer." For companies using a product-led growth model, Ada enriches every new signup with publicly available information and data collected during onboarding to build a richer customer profile. "We try to understand as much as possible about each person," said Mehta. "That includes professional profiles and the roles they play within an organisation." By combining enrichment with product usage data, Ada identifies workspace administrators, billing owners, decision-makers and other users, allowing it to distinguish between buyers and end users. "We can see who's approving billing, who's completing onboarding and who's actually making purchasing decisions," she said. "That lets us personalise communications for each person's role, rather than treating everyone the same." An AI decision layer for the customer stack Shiplog sits above the existing stack, plugging into Salesforce, HubSpot, Snowflake, Shopify, Stripe and other customer platforms. Ada connects to them, builds a live customer profile, and decides what happens next. Because every revenue team pulls from the same live context, marketing, customer success and account management stop working from separate snapshots of the same account. Every recommendation and autonomous action is logged with supporting evidence, and organisations decide which actions require a human in the loop. Ada is designed to be fully transparent.  Users can inspect every piece of information the AI has used, including where it came from and when it was sourced. Whenever the platform presents a recommendation, the supporting sources are attached so users can verify everything themselves. “Nothing is sent to customers without human approval, " explained Mehta. “There's a review interface where teams can edit every AI-generated message before it's sent. Shiplog also built a conversational interface. Users can simply ask the platform, "Show me customers that are good candidates for expansion this week," and Ada analyses the available information before returning recommendations. Building a defensible AI platform While Shiplog is broadly focused on SaaS companies, it has gained the most traction in the fintech and cybersecurity sectors, specifically businesses with very large customer bases where you simply can't dedicate customer success managers to every account. Mehta shared: “Most companies naturally prioritise their highest-value customers—the accounts paying significant amounts of money. Those customers receive dedicated account managers and customer success teams. But there are thousands of other customers who might not generate as much revenue individually, yet they're still incredibly important to the business. That's where AI agents become valuable. They allow companies to provide personalised engagement to customers who otherwise wouldn't receive that level of attention. That's why fintech and cybersecurity have been such a good fit.” In terms of defensibility, Shiplog is focused on a specific vertical within software, which allows it to accumulate industry-specific knowledge over time. Mehta asserts: “We understand which messages convert, where customers typically drop off in a fintech onboarding journey, how those funnels can be improved, and what customer behaviour looks like across multiple companies.” Over time, Shiplog builds a detailed understanding of individual customers — their behaviour, preferences and interactions across different products.  “Looking five years ahead, every tool a customer uses could contribute to a persistent layer of personalisation. That long-term customer memory becomes incredibly valuable.” Ahead of its public launch, Shiplog ran two pilot programmes to validate the platform. In the first, it analysed more than four million events across around 1,000 customers, building a complete 360-degree view of every customer while proving the platform's ability to operate at scale. Personalisation stops being a feature and becomes the default operating system for customer software, where every interface, recommendation, message and workflow adapts continuously to the person on the other side of the screen.

The comms, PR, and journo world is a small one. Over the weekend, I had half a dozen people send me the same Futurism article via WhatsApp. It detailed UK-based PR firm Movchan Agency, which journalist Maggie Harrison Dupré at Futurism found had created numerous fake PR representatives — including names, email addresses, biographies, and, in some cases, AI-generated/stock-photo headshots — to pitch stories to journalists. ​ I was disappointed. As a journalist, trust and relationships are everything. I was also confused, because I'd received plenty of entirely legitimate pitches from Movchan Agency over the years that resulted in interviews and coverage, including an interview with Zing coach CEO Anton Marchanka, ​Gradient Labs CEO Dimitri Masin,​ Anatolii Kasianov, co-founder and co-CEO of HOLYWATER, and Natalia Shahmetova from nove8, developer of Woofz. So, I'm struggling to understand why the agency felt the need to create more than a dozen fictional PR personas. In response to Futurism's questions, founder Nadya Movchan said: “A few months ago (likely after one of Gmail’s deliverability updates), we had a major issue with our domain reputation. While we started working on the recovery, we decided to purchase pre-warmed domains, so as not to halt outreach, as a temporary measure. They came with pre-warmed mailboxes with set names and pictures from the vendor.” Yet despite this claim, journalists found press pitches in their inbox from 2025, meaning the practice had been going on for a fair amount of time. Freelance journalist Ellen Chang revealed on Bluesky, “I found dozens of their so-called 'pitches’ in my inbox after reading your article. ​ “I even caught one of them last Oct. claiming I wanted to meet a founder who attended Money2020 but asked to meet in LA when the conf. is in Vegas.” ​ According to journalist Harrison Dupré, the Movchan agency’s clients were unaware of the practice, which the company will wind down — no doubt because they got caught. I reached out to Gradient Labs CEO Dimitri Masin to get his take as a client on the news. He was surprised: "I was not aware they were using such practices. That's disappointing. But I suspect it's much more widespread than people realise. AI-generated outreach from fake identities is becoming an epidemic. I'd estimate around 70 per cent of the unsolicited emails I receive now fall into that category." He mentioned Artisan, whose AI sales employee product and "Stop Hiring Humans" billboard campaign illustrate how quickly synthetic outreach is becoming normalised. ​ PR isn't the problem To be clear, while I do post the odd post on LinkedIn complaining about PR practices — press pitches sent without notice is my number one bugbear — I do, as a rule, get along really well with PRs and genuinely respect their work. ​ Heck, I even started a group in Berlin for women in comms, PR, journalism and related roles! ​ That said, if you're a startup or VC, you don't have to use a PR agency. I get dozens of press pitches via email or LinkedIn messaging weekly — quite a few which result in interviews and articles. And they certainly aren’t universally adored. I once met with the head of technology at a highly respected publication that shall not be named, who told me that any journalist who wrote up news they received from a PR "shouldn't be working."  Ironically, he's no longer in that role. Why journalists and PRs need each other But good journalism isn't about rejecting information because it came from a PR — it's about verifying it, questioning it, adding context, and deciding whether it's genuinely newsworthy. The challenge is that good PRs are, to most media consumers, largely invisible. Most people don’t really understand the difference between PR and journalists and often don’t care. ​ But the relationship between journalists and PR professionals has always been strong.   A lot of company news reaches reporters via PRs, whether they're in-house teams or agencies. ​ Further, good PRs are crucial for getting quotes at short notice for breaking news, hustling to source technical experts, and locking in an interview with a founder crossing multiple time zones a week. ​ Then there are the countless events organised by PR teams, from product launches to press attendance at conferences. They often mean managing groups of journalists in unfamiliar cities — places that are just as unknown to the PRs as they are to us. I have nothing but sympathy for anyone tasked with herding a drunken group of bawdy journalists from one venue to the next. A sentiment about this relationship was echoed by Julija "JJ" Jegorova, founder of Black Unicorn PR, who wrote on LinkedIn that the issue goes well beyond one agency. “From the veridity and authenticity of what's shared, to the manner in which it's shared. The relationship between a PR and a journalist is sacred, dare I say … Readers are counting on the journalists and editors trusting in their work. The trust component is far too important. Fake personas or AI slop will trigger a huge red flag…” ​ When accountability disappears Anyone with an ounce of insight knows that the state of journalism today typically revolves around short-time-stretched teams, meaning trust is even more important. And if there’s no one behind an email, if a pitch contains false or misleading claims, there is no real person behind the identity who can be held responsible. ​ Unfortunately, this is not the first time I've encountered fabricated identities or fictional narratives in tech PR. In 2023, I wrote an expose on hedge fund Hedonova for announcing funding rounds in startups – neither of which existed. Like the situation with Movchan Agency, it followed the trope anyone will remember from the days of reading crypto startup whitepapers: using stock images to promote staff or advisors that don’t exist but extended to criminal activity. Fortunately the company no longer exists.  Further, to their credit, it sounds like Movchan is having a reckoning. Movchan conceded, “This is definitely not the quality of work that I live up to as a founder, and I will make sure this does not happen again.” ​ Every week I receive pitches for AI tools that promise to automate outreach, newsletters, copywriting and just about everything else. But journalism — and PR — is ultimately a relationship business. Trust and mutual respect are hard-won and easily lost. Once they're gone, no amount of automation can bring them back.

Italy-based agritech startup Aflabox has raised €1.35 million in seed funding to accelerate the commercialisation and industrial scaling of its AI-powered food safety monitoring platform. The equity round was completed through FoodSeed, the agrifood accelerator within CDP Venture Capital's National Accelerator Network managed by Eatable Adventures, with participation from Farming Future, the National Agrifood Tech Technology Transfer Hub promoted by CDP Venture Capital SGR in partnership with ToSeed & Partners. Founded by Luca Alinovi and Fabrizio Cardillo, Aflabox is developing a field intelligence platform that enables rapid testing of mycotoxins, commercial quality assessment and food safety monitoring directly across agricultural supply chains. The platform combines portable hardware, UV and white-light imaging, artificial intelligence, geolocated data collection and cloud-based dashboards. It delivers digital, shareable test results in less than 90 seconds while building a database to monitor contamination, quality, risk and the commercial value of agricultural commodities. Aflabox is addressing the limitations of conventional mycotoxin testing, which typically relies on specialised laboratories, expensive equipment and processing times ranging from several hours to several days. By moving testing closer to where crops are produced, collected, stored and traded, the company enables farmers, collection centres, food processors, exporters and public institutions to make faster, data-driven decisions. Beyond individual test results, every scan becomes a geolocated data point that can be aggregated to create territorial maps of contamination and quality, improve supply chain traceability, support export readiness, and help governments and international organisations target food safety interventions more effectively. The new funding will support the validation and certification of the company's device, enhance its AI platform and improve detection accuracy, establish a micro-factory to manufacture Aflabox devices, strengthen its commercial presence in Kenya, Nigeria and Italy, expand its distribution network across Africa and Europe, and grow the team.

One of the UK’s hottest chip startups has raised over $300m at a $3.3bn valuation, tripling its valuation, and plans to bring its first products to customers next year, it says. Olix, founded by 25-year-old entrepreneur James Dacombe, has raised a $312m Series B round, two years after it was founded. The new $3.3bn valuation marks more than a tripling of its just over $1bn valuation when it raised $220m in February this year. The round was led by New York VC Fundomo, with participation from chip giant Arm and quant trading firm Hudson River Trading, alongside angel investors including Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix, with existing investors, which include the UK government's Sovereign AI fund, all increasing their commitments, Olix said. Olix also announced two appointments: former Wise CFO Matt Briers, who took Wise public, has joined as CFO and Nick McKeown, a high-profile figure in the chip world who is a computer science professor at Stanford and former Intel executive, has joined its board of directors. Chip designer Olix is developing an optical digital processor with a “novel memory and interconnect architecture” that is compatible with current AI models and supports AI inference workloads. Olix is taking on the dominance of Nvidia. Dacombe, who is also CEO of CoMind, a startup that is developing brain monitoring and treatment technology, told the FT that the days of Nvidia handling all AI chip workloads were over, saying that “we are moving into a world of specialists”. Olix says: “Olix believes the industry's approach to building AI inference hardware is reaching its efficiency limits. A datacenter is a factory whose product is the token. Producing a single token takes hundreds of operations, each placing different demands on hardware. Any other factory would give each stage a machine built for it. Instead, the token factory runs every stage on the same general purpose chip. Each new chip generation has improved by pushing single chip specifications higher: an even better generalist but never a specialist. Olix's systems are built on the belief that using specialised chips for each stage of the token production process will unlock a step change in AI performance and cost.” According to the FT, Olix is in the final stages of designing and testing its chips and expects to deliver its first products to customers next year. It also reported that it plans to sell its chips as part of a server rack that also includes software and networking equipment. Olix says it will use the funding to help bring its chips to market, build out the silicon platform behind it, and fund manufacturing and supply chain commitments.

Last week, we tracked more than 50 tech funding deals worth over €878 million and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. ? In H1 2026, European tech companies raised €44.1 billion across 1,740 funding deals, driven by a mix of early- and late-stage rounds. The UK led the region with €18.7 billion in investment, while AI startups secured €5.92 billion, underscoring the sector's continued momentum. More than 6,410 investors participated in funding rounds, and 252 exits were recorded across Europe.  The full report provides a comprehensive overview of Europe's startup ecosystem in the first half of 2026, combining funding data, market analysis, and insights from founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders to examine the trends shaping the months ahead. ❗ 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 UK: SME lender iwoca secures £250M debt facility UK: Dwelly raises $170M in Series B funding ITALY: Drivalia secures €48M EIB financing to boost electric mobility in Italy and Finland UK: inforcer raises $50M Series C to scale AI security platform for MSPs ROMANIA: Autonom Services raises €30M through Bucharest stock exchange bond listing UK: Defence startup Agon creating virtual battlefields to combat drone attacks launches, raising $30M UK: Greyparrot secures $27M Series B to scale AI waste intelligence for the circular economy SWITZERLAND: ZuriQ raises $25.5M to scale its breakthrough 2D quantum architecture NETHERLANDS: Medtech startup Xeltis secures €20.5M to advance vascular implant technology SPAIN: The children's animated audiovisual project Milo receives €18.8M UK: Private market fund accounting platform LemonEdge raises $21M UK: Qureight secures $20M Series B to expand AI-powered imaging platform for clinical trials UK: BAE Systems' energy spinout Nuclear Turbines emerges from stealth with £15M raise SWITZERLAND: AI Infrastructure Capital AG launches with €16M to tackle AI compute bottleneck UK: Vivid Dx raises $15M in seed funding ITALY: Babylon Facilities secures €12M to build solar-powered data centre in Rome GERMANY: PadelCity receives €12M investment GERMANY: metr secured €10.5M Series B investment UK: AI for spare parts startup Intropy raises $11M SPAIN: Healthtech startup Onalabs secures €9.3M Series A to expand sweat-based monitoring platform BULGARIA: Tiger Technology raises €8.7M to advance always-on hybrid cloud data infrastructure SWITZERLAND: Ahead Health raises $10M and opens first markets outside Switzerland UK: Perceptron raises $6.5M to build decentralised AI data network SPAIN: Atomic One closes a funding round and reaches €5.6M UK: DITTO raises €5.2M to tackle menstrual health gaps with research and targeted supplements UK: Mirae raises $5.4M in funding UK: Perceptual Robotics secures £4M+ to scale AI-powered wind inspections SWEDEN: Sunglasses brand Chimi raises €4.1M to tackle mounting debt ITALY: Beelzebub raises €3M to strengthen enterprise cyber defence with AI SPAIN: Kumori closes a €3M investment round GERMANY: 5U AI lands $3.2M pre-seed for AI freight workforce platform GERMANY: Medtech EVERSION raises €2.3M to tackle the pain hiding in your shoes SPAIN: Reental closes a €1.48M funding round UK: European Technology Network (etn) secured a $1.6 million seed round GERMANY: Caesar Ventures, CDTM.vc, and business angels are investing €1.2M in Celsio LITHUANIA: Sigvi raises €1.2M to expand automated car rental operations SPAIN: NANOSTINE raises €1M+ to take its nanotechnology coatings from the laboratory to industry UK: TaskHer secures £650,000 to connect customers with tradeswomen UK: Kinematic Trees raises £585,000 to scale nature-inspired robotics software SPAIN: ELEVA AI closes a €500,000 pre-seed round led by Encomenda SPAIN: Ratio launches the first Claude connector for real estate developers thanks to an investment of €400,000 SPAIN: Tripjoin closes a €300,000 funding round led by Encomenda SPAIN: Feending closes a €200,000 investment round UK: Technology firm secures £100,000 growth support SPAIN: Entomonorte, a pioneer in waste bioconversion, receives €100,000 ITALY: Solomei AI receives investment from Salesforce DENMARK: Digital bike ID startup Bikekey secures TÖNNJES investment HUNGARY: Insurtech Ominimo hits unicorn status two years after launch GERMANY: TA Ventures, True Growth Capital, TXL Capital, and business angels are investing an undisclosed sum in Willidrop AUSTRIA: iDWELL secures seven-figure growth financing from US investors SPAIN: Multiverse Computing targeting up to $570 million in latest round Exits and M&A activity UK: Legora acquires legal AI startup Wexler in fifth acquisition of 2026 SWEDEN: Lovable snaps up team behind Swedish AI agent startup Nalvin FRANCE: Clean Cells acquires Anaquant to expand biopharma quality control with mass spectrometry expertise TURKEY: Learning technology company Enocta has been acquired by Aquila UK: Tracsis to buy FirstGroup arm Mistral Data UK: Wild Bio acquires F1 Seed to create Britain’s first independent precision-breeding wheat business TURKEY: Kalder, founded by Gökçe Güven, has been acquired by Luumis SPAIN: InfoJobs strengthens recruitment services through Viterbit acquisition GERMANY: Cover Genius is acquiring the Berlin-based InsurTech company Friendsurance UK: Deepki has acquired Camion TURKEY: Ergün Holding has acquired Otosende UK: Bank of America acquires UK cyber specialist MDSec

This week, we tracked more than 50 tech funding deals worth over €878 million, and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. Alongside the week’s top funding rounds, we’ve highlighted key industry developments, as well as notable trends in European venture activity, investor moves and emerging sectors shaping the current funding landscape. This week, we tracked more than 50 tech funding deals worth over €878 million and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. This week we also released our H1 report for 2026, which includes essential data and critical insights from investors, startups, and ecosystem leaders on the last six months and what’s in store for the rest of the year. 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. ❗ Want to explore the data in more detail? The free, open-access Tech.eu Funding Explorer offers deeper insights into funding rounds, investor activity, company profiles and market trends. Either way, let's get you up to speed. ? Notable and big funding rounds ?? SME lender iwoca secures £250M debt facility ?? Dwelly raises $170M in Series B funding ?? Drivalia secures €48M EIB financing to boost electric mobility in Italy and Finland ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ??  Legora acquires legal AI startup Wexler in fifth acquisition of 2026 ?? Clean Cells acquires Anaquant to expand biopharma quality control with mass spectrometry expertise ?? InfoJobs strengthens recruitment services through Viterbit acquisition ?? Cover Genius is acquiring the Berlin-based InsurTech company Friendsurance ? Interesting moves from investors ? Highland Europe closes €1.1B Fund VI to back European technology scaleups ?  £1bn UK Scale-up Fund to back science & tech businesses ?  Nuggit unveils £5M Creator Support Fund to help UK YouTubers turn channels into scalable businesses ?️ In other (important) news ? More capital. Fewer deals. What H1 2026 tells us about European tech ? UK government AI Taskforce chaired by Lord Vallance launches ?  The EU launches its call for tenders to build the first AI gigafactories in Europe ? Recommended reads and listens ?? "We are a very different company to Palantir,” says “discreet” French replacement ? Beyond the hyperscale cloud: DFINITY's vision for sovereign computing ? How CurvLabs is using wearable technology to rethink back pain treatment ?? How The Bologna Gathering became an ecosystem builder ? European tech startups to watch  ?? Perceptual Robotics secures £4M+ to scale AI-powered wind inspections ??  Beelzebub raises €3M to strengthen enterprise cyber defence with AI ??  5U AI lands $3.2M pre-seed for AI freight workforce platform ?? Sigvi raises €1.2M to expand automated car rental operations ?? Kinematic Trees raises £585,000 to scale nature-inspired robotics software

Nuggit, the growth engine for creators, today announced the launch of a £5 million Creator Support Fund, a new initiative designed to enable UK-based YouTube creators to unlock growth in their high-potential media businesses.  The launch builds on Nuggit’s existing Creator Operating System, which has already helped over 33 high-potential YouTubers.  Nuggit creators include Arsenal fan channel AFTV, food travel creator Only Scrans, and lifestyle and family creator Anna Saccone.   The platform is also demonstrating strong early results, with median revenue growth of 29 per cent in under one year across its creator base. In addition, with Nuggit's support, six YouTubers have taken their creator role full-time.  The Creator Growth Fund is targeted at high-potential YouTubers who have reached an inflection point for professionalising their business.  While creators often grow their channels on their own, at a certain point many reach a plateau constrained by resources, time and expertise. This is exactly what the £5 million Creator Support Fund is designed to address.  Alongside funding, Nuggit provides strategic and operational support designed to help YouTubers professionalise their operations, and become brand-ready creators. This includes data-led content strategy to grow audiences, help deploying capital, and commercial support to land valuable brand partnerships as they grow.  The launch comes as the global creator economy continues to scale. Goldman Sachs Research projects the sector could reach $450bn by 2027, while in the UK, YouTube creators contributed £2.2bn to the UK economy and supported 45,000 jobs in 2024 alone, according to Oxford Economics. The UK government has identified the need to support the UK’s creator economy — an all-party parliamentary group has been set up, and the British Business Bank recently announced a fund focused on improving access to finance for creative businesses.   According to Johnny Freeland, Founder and CEO of Nuggit, the creator economy is maturing with more recognition of the value of a creator’s IP and the sector’s economic importance. However, the financial and operational infrastructure around it simply hasn’t kept pace.  “The paradox of the creator economy is that successful creators build their channels by being incredibly self-reliant and resourceful. However, at a certain point this becomes a limitation - many reach a plateau, constrained by resources, time and expertise. Creators are like any business owner or entrepreneur, where investment and support at the right time can turbocharge growth. Without it, many will fail to reach their full potential. “To date, the financing available for all but the very largest creators has been poorly structured and difficult to access. The primary option has been the sale of their channel or IP, which isn’t a solution for creators looking to fund growth while retaining their independence." Unlike generic, automated AI tools, Nuggit’s hybrid model combines AI and data-driven analytics with human strategic mentorship and expertise, providing creators with both automated insight and hands-on guidance. Alongside its latest launch, Nuggit is also in the midst of raising further investment to build out its AI-powered financing and analytics infrastructure, and expand its Creator Operating System into new markets, including the US and Europe. Lead image: Arsenal fan channel AFTV.

Swedish vibe coding startup Lovable has acquired the team behind AI agent startup Nalvin, as it looks to drive growth by cherry-picking top founders from startups. Stockholm-based Nalvin is an AI agent platform that automates repetitive tasks for businesses. It was founded by Pontus Gifvas, Fredrik Stockman, and Pascal Chatterjee. Anton Osika, Lovable CEO and co-founder, said: “I really like these founders and I'm very excited to have them on board.  “I believe Lovable is the best place for great talent to do their life's work and every team like this makes me more sure of it. Since we started, we have had four teams of deep technical founders join the mission. Founders often have the intuition for what it actually takes: the standards, the pace, the culture. They think end to end and they bring it with them on day one.” Nalvin said: “We started Nalvin to help companies put AI to work the way their business actually runs. At Lovable, we get to keep working on that same problem at a much larger scale.” Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but it appears to resemble a kind of acqui-hire, whereby a company snaps up a startup for talent. Founded in 2023, Nalvin, previously called Version Lens, received €1.5m pre-seed funding from People Ventures, Curiosity and Pitchdrive in 2024. Last valued at $6.6bn, Lovable is reportedly in talks to raise $300m at a $13.2bn valuation, doubling its valuation. Lovable, which competes against the likes of Replit, Cursor, as well as coding tools offered by the big AI labs, has been public about hunting for acquisitions.  Osika has previously posted on X that it was looking for ”more great teams and startups to join Lovable.” In November last year, Lovable acquired cloud infrastructure provider Molnett.

UK startup CurvLabs began with a simple question: why, after years of appointments, scans and physiotherapy, did founder Rohan Kotecha still not understand what was causing his back pain? Diagnosed with non-specific back pain at 13, Kotecha experienced first-hand a healthcare system where specialists treated symptoms in isolation and assessments were limited to brief clinic visits. Frustrated by the lack of continuous, real-world data, he set out to build a better solution. The result is Curv, a wearable spinal sensor device designed to help people better understand how their spine moves throughout everyday life.  According to Kotecha, “like many people, I spent years going between physiotherapists, chiropractors and osteopaths. I honestly felt pretty let down by the healthcare system.” During COVID, he had a major flare-up while he was studying biomedical engineering at University College London. The NHS waiting list for treatment was around six months, so as a student he decided to pay for private physiotherapy instead. He recalled: “The physiotherapists kept telling me that back pain is largely influenced by how you move—how you sit, stand and carry yourself throughout the day. “ One therapist even asked him to take his shirt off while he worked, set up a phone on a tripod next to him and record himself. “I remember thinking, 'This is a bit strange.' Then it struck me: they only saw me for 30 minutes each week. If movement throughout the rest of the week is what matters, how could they possibly know how I was moving during the other 167 hours?” At the same time, he was building an ECG as part of a university bioengineering project. He realised that if we could continuously measure something as complex as heart activity, surely measuring spinal movement should be possible. “I thought, maybe I could build something that lets me see how my spine is actually moving throughout the day. At the very least, I'd know whether my movement was improving and whether my treatment was actually working.” The tech behind you  The Curv Labs wearable is built into a strip of kinesiology (KT) tape. It adheres along your spine and contains sensors embedded within the fabric — it's a bit like a snap wristband — you position it behind you, it naturally follows the contour of your back, and then you stick it in place. The wearable tracks your spinal movement throughout the day. It connects to a corresponding mobile phone app via Bluetooth, which tracks and analyses range of motion, velocity and which sections of the spine are moving freely versus staying stiff. The device is manufactured locally in the UK, although Kotecha temporarily relocated to Shenzhen previously for faster prototyping.  Using research — not posture myths — to shape the product For anyone on the internet, you’ll see ads for plenty of hardware over the years that attempts to monitor posture from devices that buzz when you slouch to posture corrector braces.  For Kotecha, the starting point was always clinical research. “Coming from a biomedical engineering background, my instinct was to read the scientific literature first and understand what the evidence actually says.” He explained that one of the biggest misconceptions is that posture causes back pain.  “Clinically, that's simply not supported by the evidence. It's a very common cultural belief that you should "sit up straight", but physiotherapists often say that the best posture is the next posture. The important thing is to keep your spine moving rather than holding one supposedly perfect position. That's why we deliberately avoided building another posture alarm. Devices that constantly buzz every time someone slouches are actually something many physiotherapists advise against.” Learning from experts before launching While studying at UCL in London, Kotecha had access to a wealth of medical expertise. Rather than rushing into product development, he spent months speaking with physiotherapists, clinicians, researchers and academics, reading scientific literature and reaching out to experts around the world to understand which measurements would be genuinely clinically meaningful. Those conversations ultimately shaped the direction of the product. Across conversations with physiotherapists, doctors and osteopaths, one message kept coming up. “The clinicians consistently told me that their biggest challenge is getting patients to move more and to become more aware of how they move throughout the day. Awareness is the first step. Beyond that, they want patients to build confidence that movement is safe — even if it feels uncomfortable at first. That confidence helps people stop guarding every movement, which creates a positive cycle where they're able to move more naturally again. That's exactly the type of behaviour we're trying to support with CurvLabs.” Getting up close and personal with end users  At the same time as networking with healthcare professionals, Kotecha started sharing the project on Reddit. Curv’s first customers literally came from the r/backpain community— “people who, like me, had lived with chronic back pain,” he shared: “They've been incredibly valuable because we're building the product alongside them. We continually ask them what's actually useful in day-to-day life, rather than just building technology for technology's sake.” So far, Curv Labs users have been younger than many people would expect. There's a common perception that back pain mainly affects older adults, but according to Kotecha, the research doesn't really support that.  “Prevalence is actually fairly consistent across adults aged 18 to 65, with only a modest increase somewhere around the 45-to-55 age range. Most of our early customers have been people around my age, up to their mid-thirties.” Unsurprisingly, almost all of them work at desks. The users so far are already tracking all sorts of health metrics through wearables, but many of them assert that while they can measure lots of things they don't particularly care about, they have almost no information about the condition that's actually affecting their daily lives. “They want meaningful data about their back and how they're moving.” The value of data-driven insights While the hardware is important, the real value comes from the software and the insights derived from the data. Kotecha explained that one interesting fact is that the spinal discs don't have a direct blood supply — “they're essentially avascular. That means they rely on movement to receive nutrients and stay hydrated.” “Because we're measuring movement continuously throughout the day, we can estimate whether you're moving enough to support spinal health. It's a simplified way of thinking about it, but you could almost ask: are your spinal discs getting enough movement to "feed" themselves?” Beyond that, the platform looks at metrics such as range of motion, movement variability and whether those measures improve over time. “Movement variability is particularly interesting. People with chronic pain often become fearful of movement and adopt very rigid movement patterns,” shared Kotecha. “As confidence returns, movement naturally becomes more varied. We think movement variability could become an important biomarker—almost like a musculoskeletal equivalent of heart rate variability (HRV).” The app presents these insights at the end of each day and then suggests a practical action the user can take. From Reddit to pre-seed funding Having gained traction by conversing with those experiencing back pain on Reddit, the company has continued to work very closely with its early customers, and even hand-delivered the first unit to a customer in Washington, DC after meeting him on Reddit. Whenever possible, Kotecha will actually go and meet people in person to help them get set up.  “I want to understand exactly how they're using the product, what problems they're trying to solve and how we can make it more useful. If I can't meet them, I'll jump on a FaceTime call and guide them through the setup.” He still texts customers personally to remind them to do their exercises. “It's very hands-on, but it's also been a lot of fun because we're learning directly from our users,” shared Kotecha. Given Kotecha's willingness to reach out to strangers for advice and use of internet forums to find potential customers, it's perhaps no surprise he took the same approach to fundraising. To secure CurvLabs' first investment, he cold-messaged hardware investors on Twitter. The first investor he contacted said yes, setting the company on the path to raising $450,000 in pre-seed funding. Beyond back pain: a future of continuous health monitoring When it comes to Curv’s wearable device gaining traction from the healthcare sector – often one of the biggest challenges for early stage startups — Kotecha believes that we're approaching an inflection point in healthcare. “If you look ahead 10 or 15 years, I believe a significant proportion of primary care will be supported by AI. Instead of asking only your GP a medical question, AI systems will increasingly help interpret health information. In that world, wearables become incredibly important because they provide the underlying data that AI needs to make informed decisions. They become the source of continuous, real-world context.” Coupled with the increase of consumer spending on healthcare outside of traditional health insurance offerings, he believes that while the company started with the spine, the broader opportunity is much bigger. While Curv today focuses on the spine, Kotecha believes the underlying technology has applications far beyond back pain.  Kotecha foresees a future where people are effectively wearing a distributed hospital— a collection of unobtrusive sensors that continuously monitor different aspects of the body through lightweight patches. “So far, most consumer wearables have focused on the wrist, fingers or continuous glucose monitors. There's still a huge amount of the body that isn't being measured.” One application Curv Labs is interested in exploring is objectively testing ergonomic products such as office chairs. “Manufacturers often claim a chair is better for your back, but we want to ask a much more measurable question: does this chair actually encourage healthier movement? That's something we're hoping to investigate in the near future.”

UK-based inforcer has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round led by Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors Meritech Capital and Dawn Capital. inforcer develops a unified Microsoft security and AI management platform for managed service providers (MSPs). The platform enables MSPs to manage Microsoft 365 security, compliance and AI services across multiple customers through a single control plane, helping them standardise deployments and deliver security and AI services to small and medium-sized businesses. As demand for Microsoft security and AI services continues to grow, inforcer has expanded its platform with capabilities including Copilot Manager, Shadow AI detection and Threat Detection & Response (TDR). These tools are designed to help MSPs identify and respond to both human and AI-assisted cyber threats while supporting the deployment and governance of AI services. Anthropic's Claude Code can make anyone a 'vibe coder' and Mythos has the potential to make anyone a hacker. The threat landscape has never been more dangerous for SMBs. This funding round enables us to expand our platform and help MSPs protect their SMB customers against increasingly sophisticated threats, particularly those enhanced by AI, said Jamie Daum, CEO of inforcer. The company says it has experienced rapid global adoption over the past two years, driven by growing demand from MSPs seeking to consolidate Microsoft security and AI management. The funding will support the continued expansion of the platform, including the further development of its Microsoft security and AI management capabilities, as the company scales its operations and customer base.

Danish digital bike registry Bikekey has secured a strategic investment from German company TÖNNJES , and will use the partnership to take digital bike registration into new markets worldwide.  As the number of bicycles and e-bikes grows, so does the demand for theft protection and proof of ownership - not only for private users, but for cities, insurers, manufacturers and retailers alike.  TÖNNJES provides governments and public authorities worldwide with vehicle registration systems — spanning tamper-proof plates, digital registration and identification solutions.  Bicycles are the newest chapter in that story, and one with stakes beyond theft: when a found bike can be traced back to its owner, it stays out of landfill, extending its usable life and supporting the EU’s green mobility and CO targets. For TÖNNJES, that means entering a micromobility market growing alongside urbanisation and climate action.  In Scandinavia, Bikekey already works with some of the largest insurers in the market, alongside manufacturers, specialist retailers and cycling associations.  “In Denmark, we’ve proven this works. Over 130 bikes are stolen every single day here - and until we built this, almost none of them ever came back,” says René Nørgård, CEO of Bikekey. “What TÖNNJES brings to the table is decades of trust and authority in vehicle identification on a global scale. Reaching new markets with a partner like that behind us is exactly what we set out to do when we started Bikekey.”  Bikekey’s registration system is already established in Denmark and Norway, with more than 100,000 bikes registered. It will now roll out internationally through TÖNNJES’s long-standing relationships with governments and public bodies in more than 100 countries.  “This partnership realises an ambition we’ve held for a long time: Bringing our expertise in vehicle identification to bicycles,” says Jörn Bertram, Managing Director of TÖNNJES INTERNATIONAL GROUP. “Bikekey has proven the concept works in Scandinavia. Through our network, we can now bring security standards to new markets and adapt them for cycling.” 

Perceptron, a decentralised AI data network, today announced the successful close of its $6.5 million strategic round, bringing together leading Web3 investors, trading firms, ecosystem partners, and infrastructure leaders, including: Sigma Capital, Selini Capital, QCP Capital, P2 Ventures, CoinDCX Ventures, Momentum6, DeFi Capital, Walrus Foundation, Aethir, Colosseum, GuruDev Capital, Tempo Finance, NewTribe Capital, Digital Consensus Fund, and CodeCraft Capital.  Perceptron is building a decentralised AI data network that condenses global data collection into a single contributor mesh, allowing AI companies and everyday contributors to source, verify, and monetise high-quality datasets in days. Perceptron is currently live with more than 700,000 nodes onboarded. Perceptron aims to make sourcing real-world data fast and accessible enough that AI companies no longer need centralised scraping infrastructure. The network compresses global data collection into a single mesh of idle bandwidth, unique datasets, and domain expertise. This unified format allows both individual contributors and AI companies to generate complete, verified datasets, taking teams from data request to delivered dataset in days. It gives AI companies and everyday contributors data they can work with directly.  Further, with Perceptron, contributors own their data and earnings, so they can monetise or withdraw them at any time, without depending on third parties.  The launch of the data-questing platform is central to delivering on this promise at scale. Rather than relying only on organically contributed data, Perceptron is enabling AI companies to commission data directly from its community. This approach shortens the timeline to sourcing high-value datasets and allows the team to focus resources on the community tooling and rewards infrastructure that contributors directly use. Early traction on the network demonstrates strong demand. In its first phase, live agents reached more than 200,000 users across communities like Telegram and Discord. That number has since grown to more than 300,000 daily active users across a network of over 807,000 nodes. These figures highlight a large audience of users who want to monetise their data and expertise but previously lacked infrastructure designed for them. According to Peter Anthony, UK co-founder and CEO of Perceptron, the company is creating the world’s first decentralised AI data mesh where user interactions directly fuel AI growth: “We’ve already shown that mission can become a reality, as evidenced by our ability to scale to hundreds of thousands of nodes organically. Now, with this funding, we are launching our data-questing platform, which will allow AI companies to commission specific, high-value datasets directly from our community.” Perceptron's near-term focus is its data-questing platform launch, with further announcements expected next quarter.  Longer term, Perceptron is building toward a fully integrated network of 5 million nodes, where everything an AI company needs lives in one place, with no gap between demand and supply. Nathan Gurr, Investment Analyst of P2 Ventures, said: "Perceptron has demonstrated an impressive ability to mobilise a decentralised workforce and build a globally distributed network. Their model allows them to tap into niche expertise - from doctors and lawyers to native speakers — on demand, from anywhere in the world. We see a significant opportunity to turn that reach into a scalable data and intelligence layer for AI, positioning Perceptron to become a leader in the DeAI stack." The funding will support the launch of Perceptron's data-questing platform, expand its contributor tooling and rewards infrastructure, and scale the network toward its target of 5 million nodes.

Growth-stage venture capital firm Highland Europe has closed a €1.1 billion sixth fund to continue investing in European technology scaleups. Headquartered in London and Geneva, Highland Europe specialises in growth-stage technology investments. Since its launch in 2012, the firm has raised €3.75 billion across six funds, backed more than 80 companies and completed 30 exits. Its portfolio includes 9fin, AMCS, Bending Spoons, Camunda, EGYM, Featurespace, GetYourGuide, Huel, hyperexponential, ME+EM, Nabla, n8n, Nothing, Wolt and Zwift. The new fund follows a year in which Highland generated more than €1 billion in liquidity. Recent portfolio milestones include the $3 billion sale of Nexthink, the agreed acquisition of Huel by Danone, the $7.5 billion merger of EGYM and Playlist, and the public listing of Bending Spoons on Nasdaq. Recent investments include leading the $70 million Series B round for legal AI platform Wordsmith, the $50 million Series B for enterprise AI delivery platform Unframe, and the $105 million Series D for precision agriculture company Ecorobotix. We are deeply grateful to our limited partners for their continued trust and commitment to Fund VI. Their support enables us to continue backing Europe's most ambitious founders at a transformational moment as AI reshapes every industry, said Sam Brooks, Partner at Highland Europe. Highland Europe also announced the promotion of Helena Richardson and Jacob Bernstein to Partner. Richardson joined the firm in 2016, while Bernstein joined in 2017. Both have been involved in a number of the firm's portfolio companies and investments over the past decade. The new fund will support Highland Europe's continued investments in growth-stage technology companies across Europe. The firm has offices in London and Geneva and a team of 36, including 20 investment professionals.

French biopharma quality control services provider Clean Cells today announces its acquisition of French company Anaquant, a specialist in mass-spectrometry-based bioanalysis. Founded in 2020, Clean Cells, a subsidiary of Clean Biologics, offers:   Quality control and biological safety tests for biopharmaceutical products to assist in regulatory compliance, Production of cell banks and GMP-grade BSL2/BSL3 virus seed stock, Supply of secure storage for these products, alongside development and validation of bespoke analysis tools.  Anaquant is a private Contract Research Organization (CRO) specialized in protein quantification and identification by Mass Spectrometry (MS) for better drug development.  As part of the acquisition, Clean Cells takes entire ownership of Anaquant’s brand, intellectual property, proprietary mass spectrometry-based analytics platform, equipment and existing client relationships, strengthening Clean Cells’ capabilities in protein characterization, a critical requirement in biopharmaceutical quality control and regulatory readiness.     “Anaquant is highly complementary to Clean Cells, bringing unique expertise that addresses a growing need in biopharmaceutical development. Protein characterization is a critical but often underestimated layer of biopharmaceutical quality control,” said Laurent Claisse, CEO of Clean Cells.  “Anaquant has developed standardised mass spectrometry methods that are accessible to early-phase developers and generate valuable data from the earliest stages, laying the foundation for future regulatory submissions. Transferring this expertise to Clean Cells strengthens our analytical platform and gives our clients access to a level of protein characterization previously out of their reach. This is exactly the kind of scientific depth we want to build into the group."    Under the deal, Clean Cells also obtains Anaquant’s ReadyBeads™ technology (patented 2017). This is a proprietary reference standard product line for Host Cell Protein (HCP) profiling and targeted quantification of drug product-specific HCPs. HCPs are residual impurities from the manufacturing process that require increasingly sophisticated analytical methods to support product quality and regulatory approval.  The addition of ReadyBeads, a commercially proven technology used worldwide, will enable Clean Cells to help clients generate more robust datasets that strengthen regulatory submissions.   The acquisition creates an end-to-end analytical offering for Clean Cells, spanning from early-stage method development through to GMP-grade release testing.    "Anaquant was built on the idea that mass spectrometry-based protein characterization should be as accessible and as reliable as any other standard quality control method in biopharmaceutical development. Over the years, we have proven that the technology works and that we can provide our clients with valuable data for their programs. Joining Clean Cells means we can now take this a step further. The GMP infrastructure and commercial reach that Clean Cells brings are exactly what we need to serve clients across the full development lifecycle, not just at the research stage," said Tanguy Fortin, CEO and founder of Anaquant.      Financial terms were not disclosed. Lead image: Magnific.

A London-based AI for spare parts startup has raised $11m in new funding, as it targets US expansion. Intropy has raised a seed round from lead investor Felix Capital, with participation from Quiet Capital and existing investors General Catalyst and Firstminute Capital. General Catalyst led the pre-seed investment for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2024 by two former researchers at UK AI insurtech Tractable, Intropy automates inventory, pricing and other key decisions for spare parts businesses. It uses AI to help distributors, manufacturers, and recyclers speed up their decision-making, replacing spreadsheets and outdated legacy software and manual systems. Intropy’s technology aggregates fragmented structured and unstructured data, automating decisions directly within a customer’s existing operations in an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system rather than presenting recommendations for employees to review.  It says it helps businesses move from periodic, reactive reviews to proactive decisions that update continuously as market conditions change. In the automotive industry alone, more than $4bn in spare parts are estimated to be transacted every day. Since its launch, Intropy’s technology has processed more than $10 billion in spare parts demand, the startup, which was founded by YihKai Teh and Franziska Kirschner, said. It says it will use the funds to speed up product development, expand its team, and set up a New York office. Teh, co-founder and CTO, said: “Every machine made from multiple components will eventually need spare parts, whether it is a car on the road today, an autonomous vehicle of tomorrow or a robot supporting humanity on Mars. ”We’re building the intelligence layer that understands the extraordinary complexity of spare parts: what fits, how it performs and when it is needed, so parts businesses can make better decisions.”

Throughout the year we track various data points across the European tech ecosystem, and the mid-year mark is a great time to review numbers and highlight significant milestones and what the implications might be, as well as identify trends. Half year data (three year view, €B) Comparing the same (H1) three-year period, the data points to a market increasingly defined by capital concentration rather than deal volume. H1 2024 was the funding peak, with €50.1 billion invested across around 2,000 deals. H1 2025 saw funding fall by more than 30 per cent year-on-year, while deal activity remained broadly unchanged, reflecting a more disciplined investment environment. In H1 2026, funding recovered to €44.1 billion despite deal count falling to just over 1,740. The divergence between capital deployed and transaction volume suggests investors are continuing to concentrate larger amounts of capital into fewer companies. Biggest rounds in H1 2026 The largest funding rounds in the first half of 2026 were concentrated in cloud infrastructure, AI, robotics and other capital-intensive sectors, with six of the ten biggest transactions exceeding €1 billion. The UK dominated the ranking with six of the ten largest deals, led by Pure Data Centres' €2.3 billion debt financing and Isomorphic Labs' €1.8 billion Series B. Germany contributed two companies, while Sweden and France each had one. Top 10 countries by the total amount raised in billions, H1 2026 In H1 2026, funding remained heavily concentrated in Europe's largest tech ecosystems, with the UK maintaining a dominant lead. UK companies raised €18.7 billion across 423 deals, more than three times the total secured by Germany (€6.3 billion), while France followed closely with €6.0 billion from 132 deals. Sweden (€2.8 billion), the Netherlands (€1.9 billion) and Spain (€1.7 billion) rounded out the top six by funding. Top 10 verticals by the total amount raised (in millions) and the number of deals, H1, 2026 European tech funding in H1 2026 was led by AI, fintech and healthtech, which together attracted nearly €15 billion in investment. Artificial intelligence emerged as the largest sector by funding (€5.9 billion), driven by several mega-rounds, while fintech (€4.7 billion) and healthtech (€4.3 billion) combined strong deal volumes with significant late-stage financings. Software remained the most active category by number of deals (338), highlighting sustained investor demand for enterprise and AI-enabled applications across Europe. Investors in Q1 2025 Over 6410 investors participated in H1 2026. HTGF was the most active with 31 deals. Download the full report for free for essential data and critical insights from investors, startups, and ecosystem leaders — offering a clear view of the current state of European innovation and what lies ahead in the second half of 2026. 

A British defence startup founded by a former Anduril director, which is building virtual battlefields where AI-powered autonomous weapons practice fighting, has today launched, supported by $30m in funding. The $30m funding round marks one of Europe’s biggest defence technology seed rounds this year and comes amid increased appetite from European governments to embrace modern defence technology, as seen in the war in Ukraine. The $30m is made of $7m pre-seed funding from Lakestar, 201 Ventures and D3 and angel investors. This was followed by a $23m seed round from XYZ, Lux Capital and Northzone, with existing investors doubling down significantly and Lakestar's Klaus Hommels joining the company's board of directors. Founded in 2026, Agon is pitching itself as a startup that builds the infrastructure that designs, trains and iterates AI systems faster than adversaries. Its “synthetic” battlefield is aimed at helping its customers train their weapons to repel enemies, so for instance counterdrone weapons can practice downing drone swarms. It claims that its technology gives defence companies, AI developers and governments the best chance of success on the battlefield. UK-founded Agon, which has offices in London and Berlin, was founded by former soldier and former Anduril director Tristam Constant and Junaid Hussain, who is the co-founder of another British defence startup, Cambridge Aerospace and Google-backed AI and gaming company Iconic. The Agon team includes individuals from Applied Intuition, Google, Helsing, Palantir, Amazon and Unity. News of the launch of Agon, which says it has signed initial partnerships with European defence autonomy companies, was first reported by The Times. Constant said: “We have spent the last six months quietly building, partnering with operationally proven platform builders and assembling a world-class team. We are in an AI arms race - Agon is developing the infrastructure that will ensure European defence can iterate and orchestrate systems at the pace of the threat.”  Hussain said: “Our launch today reflects the critical need for Europe to establish its own sovereign defence AI capability and the significant investor confidence in what we are building. With this investment we will now scale and iterate our platform for European end users."

A British defence startup founded by a former Anduril director, which is building virtual battlefields where AI-powered autonomous weapons practice fighting, has today launched, supported by $30m in funding. The $30m funding round marks one of Europe’s biggest defence technology seed rounds this year and comes amid increased appetite from European governments to embrace modern defence technology, as seen in the war in Ukraine. The $30m is made of $7m pre-seed funding from Lakestar, 201 Ventures and D3 and angel investors. This was followed by a $23m seed round from XYZ, Lux Capital and Northzone, with existing investors doubling down significantly and Lakestar's Klaus Hommels joining the company's board of directors. Founded in 2026, Agon is pitching itself as a startup that builds the infrastructure that designs, trains and iterates AI systems faster than adversaries. Its “synthetic” battlefield is aimed at helping its customers train their weapons to repel enemies, so for instance counterdrone weapons can practice downing drone swarms. It claims that its technology gives defence companies, AI developers and governments the best chance of success on the battlefield. UK-founded Agon, which has offices in London and Berlin, was founded by former soldier and former Anduril director Tristam Constant and Junaid Hussain, who is the co-founder of another British defence startup, Cambridge Aerospace and Google-backed AI and gaming company Iconic. The Agon team includes individuals from Applied Intuition, Google, Helsing, Palantir, Amazon and Unity. News of the launch of Agon, which says it has signed initial partnerships with European defence autonomy companies, was first reported by The Times. Constant said: “We have spent the last six months quietly building, partnering with operationally proven platform builders and assembling a world-class team. We are in an AI arms race - Agon is developing the infrastructure that will ensure European defence can iterate and orchestrate systems at the pace of the threat.”  Hussain said: “Our launch today reflects the critical need for Europe to establish its own sovereign defence AI capability and the significant investor confidence in what we are building. With this investment we will now scale and iterate our platform for European end users."

Legora today announced the acquisition of London-based Wexler, the company’s fifth acquisition in 2026. Wexler’s fact intelligence platform extracts, verifies, and reasons over the factual record from large and unstructured document sets, used by some of the world's leading litigation and disputes teams at Clifford Chance, Goodwin, and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, as well as in- house legal and compliance teams at large global enterprises. Check out our earlier interview with Wexler co-founder and CEO Gregory Mostyn. Wexler was founded in January 2023 by Gregory Mostyn and Kush Madlani. Wexler’s engine runs documents through a gated pipeline that isolates discrete, verifiable happenings – who said what, to whom, when, and why it matters to the case – rather than returning summaries or loosely sourced excerpts, at scale over 1,000,000 documents per case.  The product is used by litigators, arbitrators and investigators working matters that require exhaustive, source-traceable fact development, the fact-lawyering at the heart of every dispute, as well as in-house legal teams to surface and resolve factual issues before they escalate into disputes. The company has since grown to a team of 18 with a significant client base in Europe and the United States, expanding revenue eightfold year-on-year with over 400 per cent net revenue retention.  Wexler's engineering team will form the founding team of Legora's London engineering hub. “Every dispute and every investigation comes down to the facts, and finding them is often the most manual and expensive part of legal work,” said Max Junestrand, CEO and Co-Founder of Legora.   “As agentic systems take on more of that work, fact queries won't just grow, they'll multiply by orders of magnitude. Wexler is the infrastructure built to handle that scale today.”  Wexler’s product will become part of the Legora agentic operating system, and their team becomes a cornerstone of the engineering hub Legora is building in London. “Fact-lawyering is the most challenging part of disputes work: the endless, painstaking review needed to map the facts, the issues and the characters into a compelling theory of the case,” said Gregory Mostyn, CEO and Co-Founder of Wexler.  “From a week-long investigation to a decade-long class action, building the case brain has never been harder, and it has never mattered more. We are delighted to be joining Legora and to continue serving the expert litigators and investigators working on the world’s most complex cases, as well as the in-house teams trying to get ahead of those cases before they're ever filed.” Combined with Legora's platform, Wexler's engine will become the fact layer underneath Legora's agentic workflows.  Litigation teams working inside Legora will be able to build the case brain for every matter: fact chronologies and evidentiary records without leaving a matter workspace, corporate legal teams will be able to use it across contract and communication archives to catch factual exposure before it becomes a claim. The acquisition follows a $600 million Series D round earlier this year that valued Legora at $5.6 billion, and comes as the company's platform is used by more than 100,000 lawyers at 1,500 leading law firms and in-house legal teams across over 50 markets.