London-based startup First Concepts, an AI-powered workspace for early-stage creative work, has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding less than nine months after its founding. The round was led by Arāya Ventures alongside Antler. Additional participants included industry leaders such as Jez Jowett (former Managing Partner at Havas), Nathan McDonald (founder of We Are Social), Sean Williams and Sam Winward (partners at UNKNOWN), and Hugo Rodger Brown (founder of YunoJuno). Creative agencies often work on multiple pitches each month, investing significant time and resources in the process. However, much of this time is spent rebuilding context across fragmented tools and systems. First Concepts aims to address this challenge by introducing an AI layer that sits above existing tools and coordinates leading AI models through a shared context and “taste” framework. This approach helps creative teams maintain consistency in ideas, brand identity, and decision-making throughout the pitching process. Founded by Conor Hoey, Polina Sali, and Marin Godechot, who bring experience in design, AI, and product development, First Concepts has developed a system that brings context and creative judgment to the development of pitches. The product is built around three core components: a Creative DNA engine that learns individual and brand preferences, a unified interface that treats context as the central source of information, and a tool-agnostic infrastructure that connects creative tools while maintaining coherence across outputs. Explaining the company’s vision, Conor Hoey, co-founder and CEO of First Concepts, said: First Concepts has a simple mission to transform creative context from something fragile and ephemeral into a structured, compounding asset. We are building an operating system that understands the value of creative thinking and taste. This will transform creative workflows for teams around the world. The new funding will be used to further develop the company’s AI-native workspace for creative work.

Tracebit, a cloud-native cybersecurity company focused on threat detection, has raised a $20 million Series A round led by FirstMark, with participation from Accel. MMC Ventures, Tapestry VC, and CCL also joined the round. The funding follows the company’s $5 million seed round in 2024, led by Accel, bringing Tracebit’s total funding to $25 million. Founded in 2023 by former Tessian employees Andy Smith (CEO) and Sam Cox (CTO), Tracebit develops cloud-native deception technology designed for modern infrastructure. The system enables organisations to deploy decoy assets, known as canaries, across their environments to detect threats early and support an “assume breach” approach to security. The solution is designed to scale threat detection across cloud environments through a cloud-native deployment that generates tailored canaries across enterprise networks to identify malicious activity and reduce detection times. The platform currently supports thousands of accounts, monitors around five billion events each week, and generates millions of canaries daily for customers, including Riot Games, Snyk, Synthesia, Docker, and Admiral Insurance. To address the growing complexity of cloud environments, Tracebit has expanded its capabilities beyond AWS. The system now supports canary deployment across Azure, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, developer workstations, and identity providers. Alongside the Series A funding, the company is introducing new products, including Perimeter Canaries, Deceptive Artefacts, and support for Google Cloud Platform. Traditionally, decoys have been placed deeper within systems to detect intrusions. Perimeter Canaries extend this concept by placing decoys at the edge of SaaS and cloud environments, creating an additional layer of defence and enabling faster detection. This approach is increasingly important as organisations face evolving threats, including AI-driven attacks that can rapidly scan systems for vulnerabilities. The company plans to use the Series A funding to support the rollout of these new products, expand its customer base, and grow its go-to-market and engineering teams.

Choice, a Prague-founded all-in-one SaaS and QR ordering platform for restaurants, has raised $7.1 million in Series A funding. To date, the company has raised a total of $11.6 million. Founded five years ago, Choice began as a platform enabling restaurants to communicate with customers online. Since then, it has evolved into a comprehensive operating system for independent and multi-location restaurants.  Choice positions itself as an alternative to standalone restaurant tech solutions, which often are focused on separate features like QR payments, marketplace, reservations, or online ordering. Unlike single-function providers, Choice offers a fully integrated platform: Website builder with a custom domain connection Commission-free takeaway and delivery ordering QR menus, QR payments, and QR ordering Reservation management integrated with Google Marketplace integrations (Wolt, Bolt Food, Foodora, Glovo, Uber Eats, Just Eat Takeaway) Loyalty programs across all channels POS/EPOS integrations without requiring system replacement Everything operates from one admin panel, under one subscription, consolidating fragmented customer data into a single system. Today, Choice serves more than 30,000 registered restaurants, including over 7,000 paying customers across nine active markets in Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, and Romania). The company currently generates over 1.5 million monthly orders — representing approximately €35 million in monthly gross merchandise value (GMV). Choice has doubled year-over-year and is targeting €500 million in monthly turnover within the next three to four years. With fresh capital, Choice plans to expand rapidly across Europe. The next markets include Portugal — where Alea Capital will support scaling efforts across Southern Europe — followed by Spain and Italy. France, Germany, and the Netherlands are planned for subsequent phases. “We understand the fragmentation of the European restaurant market and the need for localisation,” said Alex Ilyash, Founder and CEO of Choice. “But we see this as a competitive advantage. We know how to scale in Europe. By combining strong local sales teams, efficient capital deployment from our CEE base, and AI-driven product innovation, we are confident we can win market by market.” Alea Capital Partners led the funding, with participation from Reflex Capital, Smartlink, and J&T Ventures.  According to  Rui Escaleira, Co-Founder of Alea Capital Partners, the  Choice app is addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing restaurants today: operating efficiently in a highly dynamic market with structurally tight margins.  “By giving restaurants greater control over digital ordering, additional revenue generation, and a more balanced relationship with delivery platforms, Choice App helps operators protect profitability while improving the end-customer experience.”  The new investment will primarily fund product development — particularly AI-integrated modules — as well as sales and marketing expansion in target countries. Choice plans to hire local sales and support teams in each new market to ensure a strong on-the-ground presence and customer success.

Italian startup Alomana has raised €4 million to accelerate the development of Alo, the AI operating layer for enterprise. Enterprises need more than AI that can answer when prompted; they need AI that can run and execute their workflows. Legacy systems were not built for AI. Organisations spend months testing and stitching together tools, integrations, and prototypes, only to end up with expensive, fragile experiments that don’t deliver at scale. Alo introduces a new paradigm: personalised AI at enterprise scale with a universal intelligence that works across any application, delivers business outcomes, and transforms AI from assistance into repeatable execution. Over the past year, Alo Autonomous Engine has been deployed across finance, manufacturing, and pharma, powering mission-critical tasks such as risk and security flows, financial controls, operational automation, and advanced data analysis workflows, translating AI adoption into real EBITDA gains.   According to Giuseppe Ettorre, co-founder and CEO of Alomana:  “Enterprises waste enormous energy on prototypes instead of outcomes.“We abstract away the integration and customisation complexity. Companies can run personalised AI across their systems and deliver production-level value immediately. Alo is building a future where autonomous AI won’t be a tool that companies use. It will be something they run on.” Alo works across data, documents, applications, and code: from performing advanced data analysis on millions of database tables, to generating full-stack applications and custom AI agents for enterprise teams in minutes. It brings the power of entire AI teams into a single operational layer for organisations. The company’s team brings experience from Bloomberg, the European Central Bank, BCG, and NASA, combining deep technical expertise with the rigour required in highly regulated environments. The financing round, led by CDP Venture Capital through its Corporate Partners I – ServiceTech fund, will fund the expansion of Alo’s enterprise AI, strengthen its autonomy capabilities, and support large-scale enterprise deployments worldwide. Other investors in this round include Italia Venture II – Fondo Imprese Sud, Founders Factory, Kairos Ventures ESG One, Gresilent Holdings, Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), and Club degli Investitori. According to Alessandro Scortecci, Director of Direct Investments at CDP Venture Capital, Alomana is redefining the future of Enterprise AI agents.  “The team’s talent, ambition, and ability to execute are simply exceptional. Its technology is a perfect fit for the Service sector – our fund’s core focus - delivering real value in a fraction of the time compared to its competitors.  Our verticalisation in the service industry and particular focus on financial services make us particularly pleased to support Alomana in the ongoing innovation and transformation of the financial service sector in Italy and Europe.”      

WhiteBridge AI, a team developing an AI-powered people search and research engine, has raised a $3M seed round. The round was led by FIRSTPICK VC, with participation from First Degree, NGL.VC, Scalewolf.VC, BADideas.fund, Nectolabs, Plug and Play, and several angel investors. Founded in 2024 by Tomas Martūnas, Irmantas Motiejūnas, Justinas Barauskas, and Paulius Taraškevičius, WhiteBridge was built around a simple observation: while large amounts of information about people already exist online, it is often fragmented, inconsistent, and difficult to verify. As digital content becomes easier to manipulate, determining what is accurate and trustworthy is becoming increasingly challenging. WhiteBridge addresses this challenge by turning scattered public signals into clear, decision-ready insights, helping teams move from “trust me” to “verify it.” The platform aims to strengthen professional and personal relationships through actionable insights while enabling individuals to maintain greater visibility and control over their digital footprint. The company initially launched as a platform for digital footprint audits and reputation monitoring, aggregating, verifying, and organising publicly available data across dozens of sources. This monitoring capability helps individuals stay informed about what appears online about them and respond early when changes occur. Building on this foundation, WhiteBridge is now expanding its broader mission by developing a people search and research engine designed to help users quickly validate information about others with reliable context rather than guesswork. Commenting on the growing visibility of personal data online, Tomas Martūnas, co-founder of WhiteBridge AI, noted that many people are unaware of how much information about them already circulates online, and even fewer understand how it can influence their personal and professional opportunities. WhiteBridge, we’re here to bring clarity and control to that chaos. Our platform gives people and businesses a reliable way to understand and manage online identity signals - so they can act with confidence, Martūnas said. The platform supports several practical use cases. For businesses, it enables teams to prepare for sales and partnership meetings with deeper, verified context that goes beyond surface-level online profiles. It also helps organisations validate potential partners and vendors, reducing risk and strengthening trust in professional relationships. In addition, the platform supports third-party screening for digitally active adults, where the ability to quickly access reliable information is often critical. With the new investment, the company plans to advance product development, connect to additional data providers, and strengthen the reliability and transparency of its insights.

The Tech.eu Summit London 2026 will take place on 21–22 April at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London, bringing together leading founders, investors and technology professionals from across Europe and beyond for two days of in-depth discussions, practical insights and meaningful connections. There are only two days remaining to secure tickets for the Tech.eu Summit London 2026 at the current rate. This tier is nearing its deadline, after which prices will move to the next level. Ticket pricing will be updated on 18 March 2026 Ticket pricing for the Tech.eu Summit London 2026 will be revised on 18 March 2026. From that date, the Early Bird ticket will be priced at £550 + VAT. Thinking of joining with colleagues or friends? A discounted group rate is available for purchases of three or more tickets, with Early Bird (3+ People) passes priced at £500 + VAT per person. The Tech.eu Summit London 2026 will gather founders, investors and technology professionals from across Europe and beyond. Sessions will cover artificial intelligence, fintech, deeptech, climate tech and other fast-evolving sectors, with speakers confirmed from organisations including OpenAI, Wise, Notion Capital, PolyAI, Oxa, NATO Innovation Fund, Upvest and 2150. Make the most of your summit experience with the Tech.eu Events App Attendees can download the Tech.eu Events App via the App Store and Google Play to begin connecting ahead of the summit. Through the app, participants can browse attendee profiles, schedule meetings, explore the agenda and organise their personal timetable in advance. The app will also be used for on-site access via QR code check-in. Get your tickets today Secure your ticket for the Tech.eu Summit London 2026 before prices increase on 18 March. Join us at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre on 21–22 April for two days of insights, networking and collaboration with some of the most influential figures in technology and investment. We look forward to welcoming you in London. Partners Pavilion Partner Gold Partner Silver Partners   Supporting Partner Community Partners           

Last week, we tracked more than 85 tech funding deals worth over €4 billion, and over 5 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.

This week, we tracked more than 85 tech funding deals worth over €4 billion and over 5 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. 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. Either way, let's get you up to speed. ? Notable and big funding rounds ?? Nvidia-backed Nscale raises $2B, appoints Sheryl Sandberg, Nick Clegg to board ??  Yann LeCun’s AI world model startup Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) raises more than $1B ??  Legaltech Legora raises $550M Series D at $5.55B valuation to accelerate US expansion ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ??  Legora makes first acquisition, as it expands North America presence ??  Energy Aspects to buy Paris-based Kayrros to add satellite and geospatial analytics capabilities ?? ŌURA acquires Helsinki-based gesture-tech startup Doublepoint to expand wearable AI capabilities ??  Expense management startup Ramp takes on rival Brex with European acquisition ? Interesting moves from investors ? Deep Science Ventures launches new doctoral cohort to turn science into startups ?. Elaia closes €134M fund DTS3 to back Europe’s next generation of breakthrough startups ?.Samaipata launches €110M Fund III to back Europe’s next generation of AI-native startups ?️ In other (important) news ? Here is what to expect at the Tech.eu Summit London 2026 ??. EU–INC campaign warns: Without a pan-European standard, founders will keep choosing Delaware ?? February 2026's top 10 European tech deals you need to know about ??. Ukraine launches world-first programme giving startups access to real war data for AI training ?? Hosel raises £500,000 pre-seed to create the 'Vinted for golf' ??. Vasuqi received €500,000 in convertible loan funding from BioInnovation Institute through Venture Lab programme ??. Defencetech Black Forest Systems raises $400,000 to scale infantry drone platform ??  SignaCor Therapeutics lands €288,000 investment as pat of €1.1M seed round ??  Mental health startup Bliss raises $270,000 to build culturally intelligent AI for therapy

US expense management startup Ramp today signified its European ambitions, acquiring a London and Stockholm-based payment outfit, as it takes on US rival Brex which is also making a play in Europe. Ramp, valued at $32bn, has snapped up fintech Billhop, a deal that will see Ramp open its first international offices, in London and Stockholm. Billhop, which employs around 15 people, is a payment infrastructure fintech operating across the EEA and UK. Billhop, founded in 2012, is headquartered in Stockholm. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Its tech allows the speedy payment of business invoices, even where suppliers do not accept cards Billhop holds a Payment Institution licence from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen), which gives it passporting rights across the EEA. Ramp offers an all-in-one solution combining payments, corporate cards, vendor management, procurement, travel booking, and automated bookkeeping. Nearly half of Ramp customers transact internationally across more than 180 countries every week. By acquiring Billhop, Ramp says it’s strengthening its ability to support businesses across the UK and EU. New York-headquartered Ramp, which has over 50,000 business customers, says it will begin onboarding businesses headquartered in the UK and EU directly this summer. Eric Glyman, co-founder and CEO of Ramp, said: “We’ve spent years building Ramp into something the most ambitious US companies rely on. This summer, for the first time, companies headquartered in the UK and EU will be able to use Ramp directly. In their first year, the median Ramp customer saves 5% and grows revenue 16%. Europe is home to extraordinary companies. We can't wait to get to work." Niklas Bothén, CEO of Billhop, said: "Our mission at Billhop has always been to remove friction from B2B payments and make it easier for businesses to manage their spend. Joining Ramp allows us to realise that vision at a much larger scale. Together, we can help companies move money across countries and currencies faster, more intelligently, and with less complexity." Ramp is pitching itself up against Brex, which was recently acquired by US financial services giant Capital One for $5.15bn. Prior to being acquired by Capital One, Brex announced it was expanding into Europe, having bagged a licence that allows it to serve European-headquartered businesses and is planning to roll out its services across the EU and the UK.

Europe’s startup community is urging the European Commission to ensure that its upcoming proposal for a new pan-European company framework delivers on its promise of a true “28th regime”. Today, EU–INC, Allied for Startups, and the European Startup Network released a joint statement on behalf of the European startup ecosystem calling for a genuine European corporate standard designed specifically for startups. The initiative stems from EU–INC, which began as a grassroots proposal from founders, investors and operators across the continent. The European Commission is expected to publish its proposal on March 18, as part of a broader effort to make Europe “the best place in the world to build a company”. However, according to the statement, documents leaked this week suggest that the current proposal may fall short of that ambition and goes entirely against the intention of the 28th regime. The error of creating of "27 different variations of EU–INC," According to the organisations behind the statement, the leaked proposal appears to stop short of establishing a truly independent European company form. Instead of creating a centralised system, the draft reportedly defers legal interpretation to national courts and company registration to national registries. Such an approach would effectively produce 27 different variations of EU–INC, depending on national legal systems and administrative practices. By routing disputes through national courts and filings through local registries, the framework risks entrenching the fragmentation it was meant to eliminate. This approach may represent a political compromise designed to avoid the unanimity vote required among EU member states to establish a fully independent European regime. The Delaware benchmark For the startup ecosystem, the benchmark for success is straightforward: whether the new structure can provide the same level of legal certainty as a Delaware Inc, which has become the global default for venture-backed startups. “The test was always simple: does it provide as much legal certainty as the Delaware Inc?” the statement notes. “If not, founders and investors will continue to use Delaware Inc as a global investment standard. Europe needs a pan-European alternative to stay competitive in a world of giants.” Today, many European startups choose to incorporate in the United States to access a widely recognised corporate framework familiar to global investors. A pan-European structure could help keep more companies — and their economic value — within the European ecosystem. More than 24,000 members of the startup ecosystem have signed on to support the idea of a single, autonomous corporate structure that would allow European companies to incorporate and scale across the EU without navigating a patchwork of national systems. What a true EU–INC should look like The letter urges the Commission to bring forward a real EU–INC that is a true, central, independentEuropean company form, with: A common EU registry and real-time database, rather than legacy software (BRIS)that duct-tapes together 27 nationally diverging systems. A central court for dispute resolution, rather than leaving dispute resolution to 27Member States and their different business practices. A true, new blank-sheet-of-paper solution for the future of Europe’s innovation An economy that can act as a standalone jurisdiction. The document concludes: "A true 28th regime would send an unmistakable signal to founders and investors everywhere:Europe is serious and understands the power of pan-European standards. We remain ready and willing to engage directly with the Commission to help shape a proposalthat delivers on that promise." The statement is signed by EU–INC, Allied for Startups and the European Startup Network on behalf of the European startup ecosystem. Stay tuned for more coverage next week. 

In another life, when I ran an NGO, one of my more arduous tasks was applying for tenders. While tenders can create huge financial opportunitiesffor startups, SMEs and NGOs, they are complex and incredibly time-consuming. It’s not only about filling in a form but also about providing project proposals, budgets, documentation, financial statements, timelines, and other items that may vary by provider.  But now a startup has found a way to reduce complexity and eliminate the common errors that put your application at the bottom of the pile or exclude it altogether.  Tendermore is a Norwegian startup building SaaS software that automates and simplifies the process of finding and applying for public and private tenders. The company focuses on helping businesses—particularly SMEs and startups—navigate the complex procurement landscape. I spoke to CEO Sebastian Mandal and COO Eivind Wassend to learn more. From door-to-door sales and coding to tackling the tender problem Both founders come from different backgrounds. Wassend has been in sales since he was 12, starting with newspapers and later selling alarm systems door-to-door.  At one point, he was ranked the best alarm salesperson in Norway. Mandal started coding at 12, which evolved into machine learning and AI —” before the hype cycle”, he stressed —  and building software. Following a shared stint at a now-defunct startup, they decided to merge their complementary knowledge sets into a consulting practice.  Mandal shared: “We ended up running around 50 workshops with construction companies, examining their biggest pain points. Almost every single one mentioned responding to tenders.”  In response, the duo decided to stop consulting and focus on solving the problem around tenders.  The challenges of applying for tenders  According to Mandal, the traditional tender process is often painstakingly slow and complex. “You have to understand every requirement before you even start writing,” he explains. “If you miss one detail — even a small one buried deep in a long document — you can lose the entire tender after spending days or even weeks preparing the submission.” Language and terminology add another layer of difficulty. Even when a company is technically qualified, the way responses are framed can determine the outcome. “If you don’t respond in the right way, or use the right framing, you can still lose the bid,” Mandal says. When Tendermore launched its MVP, the team discovered that writing proposals was only part of the challenge. Many companies also struggled to determine which tenders were actually worth pursuing. “What we learned early on is that companies also need help identifying which tenders are relevant to them in the first place,” he adds. “They don’t want to spend time preparing a bid for something they’re not pre-qualified for.” In Mandal’s view, the core problems come down to two factors: the significant time and effort required to prepare bids, and the difficulty of identifying tenders that a company realistically has a chance of winning. On average, a tender today can take 30 to 40 hours. For larger organisations, it can be almost continuous work because different departments are handling different parts of it. While its early days to measure win rates as the sales cycles and tender processes are often longer than the amount of time Tendermore has been working with some of these companies,  Wassend revealed that  “based on the beta and MVP, we’ve seen around a 60 per cent reduction in the time spent across the process — from analysing and refining through to responding.” How Tendermore works Tendermore was designed by closely observing how companies already manage tenders. “We saw how customers structure their work — the spreadsheets, the requirement lists, the way they prepare answers,” Mandel said. “So we built AI into that existing workflow instead of forcing them into something unnatural.” Tendermore connects to a company’s existing data sources — including Google Drive, SharePoint, previous tender submissions, pricing data, equipment lists, and other internal documents — and analyses them to build a structured knowledge base. Accuracy is critical in tender applications, so the platform is built around a sophisticated retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system that ensures responses are grounded in verified company data rather than generic outputs. Tendermore also structures responses using a requirement matrix, where each tender requirement is broken out and matched with a short factual answer. The platform’s analytics help companies discover tenders they are likely qualified for. It then analyses the tender requirements, highlights what is being asked, identifies relevant internal information, and flags any gaps that still need to be filled. From there, the system generates the proposal. To avoid generic AI-sounding submissions, Tendermore uses a brand analysis engine that learns a company’s writing style so the final output reflects its voice, making the tool feel like an extension of the organisation rather than a generic AI writer. A human-in-the-loop approach  Accuracy is critical in tender submissions, so Tendermore was designed to minimise the risk of AI hallucinations. Mandal explains that the company is strict about promoting its agents never to hallucinate. In the early days it had things like web search in the system, but that actually increased the risk because it could pull in outside information and confuse what belonged to the company and what didn’t. So we removed that and made the system rely only on the company’s internal knowledge base. We also turn the temperature down so it has less creative freedom. If it can’t find a basis for a claim, it leaves that blank or flags it instead of making something up.“If we can fill that in automatically, great. If not, the user can step in. “Then the AI mainly helps turn that factual structure into polished language. So the focus is really on making facts shine, not inventing them.” Despite the company’s long-term ambitions for automation, the founders believe human oversight remains essential. “We’re very AI-first, and our long-term vision is to automate much more of the process,” said Wassend. “But today, human-in-the-loop is the best approach. People still need to trust the system, and that trust has to be built step by step.” The cross-sector opportunity So far, the startup has gained the most traction with consultancies, contractors, and the hospitality sector. In sectors like construction, tenders form the basis of revenue, with some handling several each month. In hospitality, it depends on the season and the volume of events or development activity. In consulting, it can be for major client projects or government contracts. According to Mandal, “Hotel groups also deal with large RFPs  (Requests for Proposals), for example, when developers are deciding which hotel brand to place in a new building or estate.” The team was surprised by how big the private tender market is. It was initially thought that public tenders would be the main opportunity, but companies revealed they handle two to four times as many private tenders as public tenders.  “That really changed how we thought about the market,” shared Mandal.  According to Wassend, the startup is also seeing interest in API-based distribution.  “Some consulting firms want to embed our functionality into software they already provide to clients, rather than using a standalone platform. So that’s becoming a secondary offering for us.” Tendermore raised $400,000 in a round led by Antler in October 2025. The company brought in Ymir Egilson as CTO, formerly the youngest tech lead in Visma’s history- According to Mandal: “He loves building. He wants to shape products and ship things with people who are hungry and moving fast. Eivind and I are very execution-focused, and I think that energy mattered. We’re out there doing the outward-facing work, which means he can focus on what he does best.” Tendermore is also looking beyond Europe to Asia because it has become clear that many companies don’t know what opportunities exist outside their own countries.  “If we integrate with tender portals across different regions, we can help match companies with international tenders as well. That’s something we see as a really strong future differentiator,” shared Mandal. Future features will enable discovery, evaluation, and management of both private and public tenders in one place. Wassend contends, “So many people struggle with tenders, and smaller companies are at a real disadvantage comparedtz5e43w with large enterprises that can throw whole teams at the process. In a lot of smaller companies, the CEO is doing it all day and then all night, on top of everything else. My goal is to enable anyone to respond to tenders. Sebastian’s focus is on building the best AI in the world for that. We’re very aligned on that mission.” Mandal agrees. “Accessibility is the driving force for us. No matter what kind of company we built, we wanted it to make opportunities more accessible. That’s really what motivates us.”

Dutch chipmaker Axelera AI is hoping to benefit from European businesses wanting to run AI systems locally, amid data security concerns, a push towards European sovereignty, and geopolitical tensions. Axelera AI, founded in 2021, is one of the few European challengers challenging the dominance of US chip market leader Nvidia. In the US, the likes of Amazon and Google also design their own chips. Axelera AI makes chips and software for inference, the computing process of running an AI model, as opposed to training an AI model, which has become increasingly important as more enterprises embrace AI. Nvidia last year acquired assets from Groq, a key player in the inference market. Axelera AI’s chips are designed for use on edge devices, such as mobile phones and smart cameras, as it looks to make AI more energy efficient by processing data directly on devices rather than relying on large data centres. Axelera AI recently announced that it had raised more than $250m, with backing from new investor BlackRock. It has raised more than $450m to date, from a mix of European and US investors, and employs more than 200 people. It has two chips on the market, one called Metis, another called Europa, and a third to come called Titania. Fabrizio Del Maffeo, CEO and co-founder of Axelera AI, said: “Sovereignty is extremely important, because we can answer the needs of Europe. But I started this company not because of sovereignty. A company can’t survive only on the concept of sovereignty. Definitely, we want to play in this sovereignty moment, particularly with a lot of tension around the world and the need for local technology.” But he said Axelera AI wants to be a global player, pointing to its growing presence in North America and footprint in India and China. The startup’s 350 enterprise customers encompass sectors including defence, retail, robotics and agriculture. Sectors like defence, robotics and cyber lend themselves to processing data locally. Axelera AI says it’s a must in defence, for privacy, security and resilience reasons. Del Maffeo said: “There are some sectors where there is more sensitivity, like the defence sector.    “It’s a sector, where more and more companies want to be free, have local technology, stay close to customers; it is considered very important.” In defence, for instance, edge computing means that military units can operate when major communication links are jammed or cut and allows anonymous teams, such as drone swarms, to coordinate manoeuvres without relying on distant servers. Meanwhile, Del Maffeo has called on European governments and European businesses to be more willing to buy emerging tech, taking a lead from the US. He said: "It is the fact that new technologies are adopted immediately by the government. It was the first customer of Intel, it was the first customer of SpaceX. The government is the first customer. Without the commitment of NASA, SpaceX would fail, it would just crash. We miss this in Europe. We don’t have the European DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency). We don’t have the government as a first customer. And we don’t have corporations as the second customer. Corporations in Europe wait for the technology to mature. American corporations adopt technologies." While a future IPO is not imminent, Del Maffeo would not want to be wedded to a particular IPO market. He said: “I think we should be very pragmatic and understand where we can create more value for our shareholders, create more value for the community, and have more access to capital. I don’t buy this idea that we are European, we go in Europe, we should be open.”

UK market data and intelligence provider Energy Aspects has agreed to acquire Paris energy analytics and satellite data company Kayrros. The acquisition supports Energy Aspects’ growth strategy and will expand its data and analytics capabilities.  By combining Energy Aspects’ market expertise and analysis with Kayrros’ capabilities in satellite-based monitoring and advanced analytics, the combined group will strengthen its position as a leading source of energy market data and analytics. Kayrros’ strengths in geospatial proprietary data and machine learning will enhance Energy Aspects’ offering, enabling clients to benefit from more timely, actionable intelligence across the energy value chain. Such earth observation capabilities have proven particularly valuable during periods of heightened geopolitical uncertainty, including recent events in the Middle East, where rapid and unbiased geospatial data is critical for accurate market analysis. Fredrik Fosse, CEO of Energy Aspects, said: “The future of energy market intelligence will be shaped by data, technology and advanced analytics. Bringing Kayrros into Energy Aspects allows us to combine our deep market expertise with world-leading satellite and geospatial data capabilities. Together we will accelerate innovation and deliver a new generation of data-driven insights to clients across energy and financial markets.” According to Antoine Rostand, President and Co-founder of Kayrros, joining forces with Energy Aspects marks the start of a decisive new chapter for Kayrros. "We share a firm belief that better data makes for better decisions, and together we will move faster to provide more exact, more actionable energy intelligence. This will greatly improve our ability to innovate at speed and redefine what clients can expect from energy data and intelligence.” Upon completion of the transaction, the combined group will serve clients across energy and financial markets with a broader suite of proprietary data and technology-driven intelligence products.

Berlin-based Tower has raised €5.5 million across pre-seed and seed funding rounds to develop its approach to data engineering in the AI era. DIG Ventures led the pre-seed round, while Speedinvest led the seed round alongside existing investors. Additional participants include Flyer One Ventures, Roosh Ventures, Celero Ventures, and Angel Invest, as well as angel investors such as Jordan Tigani, Olivier Pomel, Ben Liebald, and Maik Taro Wehmeyer. As AI reshapes the competitive landscape around data ownership, companies increasingly need access to fresh, reliable business data to power trustworthy AI systems. Open data storage architectures play a key role in enabling this shift, allowing organisations to retain control of their data while supporting modern analytics and AI workloads. Tower provides infrastructure that helps companies manage analytical storage and processing while maintaining full ownership of their data. Its platform brings storage and compute together in a single environment, giving data engineering teams the tools needed to build and operate advanced analytics systems. Founded by former Snowflake engineers Serhii Sokolenko (CEO) and Brad Heller (CTO), the company focuses on what it describes as the “last mile” of development. AI-powered coding assistants enable data teams to generate applications and pipelines faster than ever, Tower provides an environment where humans and AI agents can collaborate to transform AI-generated code into reliable, production-ready systems. According to Sokolenko, AI coding assistants have significantly accelerated the development process, shifting the primary challenge toward deploying systems in production. While builders can quickly generate pipelines and agents, they still need infrastructure capable of running them reliably using real company data. Tower exists to turn those ideas into production systems, powered by information unique to each company instead of public and very dated internet archives. he said. The platform uses the Apache Iceberg open table format, ensuring compatibility with major data platforms and leading data engine vendors. This approach allows organisations to retain control of their data while ensuring AI systems can access up-to-date, company-specific information needed for accurate analysis and decision-making. The company plans to use the new funding to expand its go-to-market team and further develop the capabilities of its platform.

Ukraine is opening partner access to train AI models using real battlefield data — the first initiative of its kind in the world. According to  Mykhailo Fedorov, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, the government has approved a resolution launching a new framework for cooperation between the state, Ukrainian companies, and international partners. For startups, the initiative opens the opportunity to develop and validate defence AI systems using real-world operational data rather than simulated environments.  Early-stage companies working on autonomous drones, computer vision, electronic warfare resilience, and battlefield decision-support tools will be able to train and refine algorithms on large-scale, continuously updated datasets generated during active operations.   Access to this type of data — typically restricted or unavailable outside military programmes — could significantly shorten development cycles and improve model performance in real-world conditions. It also positions Ukraine as a unique, if involuntary, testbed for defence-tech innovation, creating potential pathways for startups to collaborate directly with government agencies, integrate their technologies into operational systems, and accelerate the commercialisation of next-generation autonomous defence platforms. Fedorov asserts:  “In modern warfare, we must outperform Russia in every technological cycle. AI  is one of the key arenas of this competition. The future of warfare belongs to autonomous systems. Our objective is to increase the level of autonomy in drones and other combat platforms so they can detect targets faster, analyse battlefield conditions, and support real-time decision-making.”  High-quality data for training neural networks is critical, and the Ministry of Defence has established a dedicated AI platform at the Centre for Innovation and Development of Defence Technologies.  The platform enables partners to: Securely train models without direct access to sensitive databases; Work with large volumes of labelled photo and video data; Use datasets that are continuously updated. Ukraine currently possesses a unique body of battlefield data unmatched anywhere in the world. This includes millions of annotated frames collected during tens of thousands of combat drone missions. These datasets are already used to train neural networks that automatically detect ground and aerial targets within the DELTA system. International partners and Ukrainian companies have expressed strong demand for precisely this type of data to develop and modernise defence technologies. For Ukraine, this initiative represents the next stage of a win-win partnership model. Partners gain the opportunity to train their AI models on real data from modern warfare, while Ukraine accelerates the development of autonomous systems and delivers new technological capabilities to the front line. Fedorov asserts: “We are ready to work with partners on joint analytics, model training, and the development of new technological solutions.” Lead image: Freepik

Kyiv-based company Black Forest Systems has received $400,000 in investment from Front Ventures and Hede Capital Partners AB.    Founded in 2024, Black Forest Systems develops vertically integrated unmanned systems and tactical drone platforms for infantry and Special Operations Forces operating in forward positions.  Their solutions combine proprietary electronics, secure communications, and control software into vertically integrated platforms that prioritise simplicity, safety, and rapid deployment. The systems are designed so that even soldiers without drone piloting experience can operate them effectively after minimal training.  “Our mission is to shift complexity from the operator to the technology itself,” says Oleksandr Davydenko, CEO of BFS. “We build systems that simplify decision-making and give every infantryman access to advanced unmanned capabilities.”  The company’s flagship system, SHADOX, is a compact reconnaissance platform designed for rapid deployment and effective close-range operations. Its protected propeller design enables safe use inside buildings and trenches. The system features self-stabilisation and does not require FPV piloting skills, allowing operators to become proficient with less than 30 minutes of training. It comes with a proprietary remote control unit and uses encrypted, low-profile communications designed to function in electronic warfare (EW)-contested environments. Unlike traditional FPV systems that rely on specialised external operators, Black Forest Systems focuses on delivering autonomous capability directly to infantry units. By reducing cognitive load and simplifying deployment, the platform allows soldiers to operate advanced drone systems without requiring extensive piloting expertise.  A key differentiator is the company’s vertically integrated approach, where both hardware and software are developed in-house. This provides full control over performance, security, supply chain resilience, and long-term scalability into broader unmanned and robotic architectures.    “Drone technology has fundamentally changed how modern conflicts are fought. Black Forest Systems represents a new generation of infantry- and special forces-adapted systems where autonomy, simplicity, and rapid deployment are central. We see strong structural growth drivers in this segment,” says Jonas Malmgren, CEO, Front Ventures.  “We invest in technologies that build long-term strategic capability. Black Forest Systems is not merely developing a drone platform — it is building a technological foundation in autonomy, electronics, and secure communications that can scale across multiple unmanned applications. We view this as a strategically important step in strengthening European defence technology capacity,” says Patrik Olson, CEO, Hede Capital Partners.  The investment strengthens Front Ventures’ and Hede Capital’s exposure to defence technology and autonomous systems, a sector characterised by structural growth, accelerating innovation cycles, and increasing geopolitical importance.   According to  Alex Winter, CTO, Black Forest Systems, the round will allow the company to industrialise SHADOX — from engineering refinement to production readiness and structured military deployment.  “Together with investors Front Ventures’and Hede Capital Partners, we are building the scale and structural foundation required for a long-term defence technology platform.”

PerpTools, an on-chain perpetual futures trading platform, has been introduced by the creators of DEXTools, an analytics suite for decentralised exchanges. The platform was developed following a $3 million seed funding round led by DEXForce and Orderly and is built on the Orderly liquidity layer. PerpTools is integrated directly within the DEXTools environment, allowing users to access perpetual futures trading without needing additional tools or separate accounts. According to the company, the DEXTools platform has more than 30 million active users. Through the integration of PerpTools, these users will be able to trade perpetual futures within the same interface, without switching services. The addition expands the DEXTools ecosystem, which already includes analytics tools, AI-driven features, and prediction markets, and now adds perpetual trading functionality. The company tracks activity across the platform using internal analytics tools, monitoring indicators such as active traders, connected wallets, executed trades, API calls, and strategy usage. Javier Palomino Fernández, CEO & co-founder of DEXTools, explained: We built DEXTools to give traders unparalleled insight into on-chain data and activity. With PerpTools, we’re extending that mission to the futures market, delivering a secure, community-driven, and seamless experience for all users. Built by the DEXTools team, PerpTools extends an ecosystem already widely used by traders in decentralised finance. By combining analytics tools with the liquidity infrastructure provided by Orderly, the platform is intended to broaden the range of trading services available within the DEXTools environment and support the development of decentralised derivatives markets. Rather than operating as a standalone on-chain protocol, PerpTools functions as a tooling and infrastructure layer. Running on the Orderly liquidity network, the platform provides access to shared liquidity and on-chain transparency while enabling trading through integrated tools. Future development plans include the introduction of advanced analytics and automated trading strategies connected to the upcoming PERP token, which is intended to support incentives, rewards, and governance functions.

Kyiv B2C edtech platform Kodree has secured $10 million in user acquisition financing (UA) from financial services firm PvX Partners. Kodree is the first product from Rist Labs, a co-founding studio launched by the founders of Ukrainian edtech company Mate academy – Roman Apostol, Anna Apostol and Max Lysak – focused on building AI-powered B2C products for Tier-1 global markets.  A subscription-based edtech platform, Kodree provides structured learning paths supported by an AI assistant that suggests solutions and provides feedback, alongside a community-driven learning experience designed to build skills through hands-on exercises, real-world projects and group collaboration. With users in 185 countries, the platform helps those looking to make a career switch to develop in-demand skills for new opportunities, while also supporting professionals seeking to upskill and perform better in their current roles.  Led by Kodree CEO and former Mate Academy Head of Product Oleksandr Bartosiuk, the platform operates as a separate company with its own P&L. “About 80 per cent of the learning process in Kodree is hands-on practice. The AI assistant helps users move faster by suggesting solutions, checking answers, and providing feedback along the way. We don’t believe in passive learning through watching YouTube videos — it creates an illusion of knowledge but doesn’t build real skills,” Bartosiuk said.  Kodree’s parent company, Mate academy, is an established edtech company in the Ukrainian tech ecosystem known for its AI-powered learning platform that helps users develop skills for both technical and non-technical roles and build careers in IT and beyond. The company operates across multiple markets and is supported by a robust product and engineering team.  According to Mate academy co-founder Max Lysak, launching Rist Labs is a natural extension of the team’s internal product experiments. “At Mate academy, we’ve constantly experimented with new product ideas. Over time, this evolved into a dedicated R&D direction. Rist Labs gives us a way to systematically build new global products,” Lysak said. The company will use the credit facility to scale marketing efforts and accelerate global user acquisition.  PvX is a financial services platform specialising in cohort financing and market intelligence for consumer applications. Backed by General Catalyst, PvX provides businesses with non-dilutive, scalable capital. 

Qdrant, an open-source vector search engine, has closed a $50 million Series B funding round led by AVP, with participation from Bosch Ventures, Unusual Ventures, Spark Capital, and 42CAP. Vector search initially emerged as a technique for retrieving nearest neighbours from dense embeddings within relatively static datasets. However, modern AI systems operate under more dynamic conditions. Retrieval is now often embedded in agent-based workflows that execute large numbers of queries across multiple data types while interacting with continuously evolving datasets. Applications such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), semantic search, and agent-based reasoning require retrieval systems capable of operating reliably at production scale. Tools designed primarily for single-vector similarity or built on legacy indexing architectures can struggle under these demands. Qdrant has been developed to address these changing requirements. Built in Rust, the system treats retrieval as a set of modular components (including indexing, scoring, filtering, and ranking) that engineers can configure and combine. This composable approach enables teams to work with dense and sparse vectors, metadata filters, multi-vector representations, and custom scoring functions while controlling how these elements affect relevance, latency, and cost. By exposing these options, the platform allows search performance to be adjusted to priorities such as accuracy, speed, or efficiency without requiring major architectural changes as workloads evolve. AndréZayarni, CEO and co-founder of Qdrant, said that many vector databases were originally designed simply to store dense embeddings and retrieve nearest neighbours, capabilities that are now considered a basic requirement: Production AI systems need a search engine where every aspect of retrieval - how you index, score, filter, and balance latency against precision - is a composable decision. That's what we've built, and what developers and enterprises are looking for as they scale internal and external AI workloads. This funding accelerates our ability to make it the standard. The new funding will support the further development and adoption of Qdrant’s composable vector search platform as infrastructure for production AI systems.

Estonian-founded SkySelect, an AI-powered procurement platform transforming how airlines and maintenance providers source aircraft parts, has secured $9 million in funding.  Airlines face mounting pressure to modernise legacy procurement systems that leave them holding approximately $50 billion in excess parts inventory globally.  When aircraft are grounded due to missing components, airlines scramble to procure parts through manual, fragmented processes that can take days or weeks. Aircraft-on-ground (AOG) incidents, where a plane is grounded waiting for parts, cost airlines around $30 billion each year. Airlines also carry more than $10 billion in excess inventory. Advancements in procurement technology are enabling airlines and maintenance, repair, and overhaul organisations (MROs) to reduce the number of shipments by up to 30 per cent while keeping fewer parts in stock. This minimises logistics costs and reduces carbon emissions, making operations more sustainable. SkySelect pioneered the application of AI to aviation parts procurement before AI became ubiquitous in marketplace technology.  Unlike generalised large language models, SkySelect's platform employs specialised AI to match aircraft part requests with optimal suppliers across its network of thousands of vendors worldwide, providing real-time market visibility. This targeted approach enables just-in-time procurement, building operational resilience while reducing the need for costly safety stock. The company also partners with major ERP solution providers to streamline the end-to-end part procurement process through seamless integrations.  Since its launch, SkySelect has processed over $6 billion in transactions, with $1.3 billion completed in 2025 alone. The company is currently landing approximately one new major client per month, with recent additions including JetBlue, Sun Country Airlines, Air Transport Services Group, Widerøe, and Vueling. Verb Ventures and RockCreek co-led the round, with participation from SmartCap Green Fund, funded by the European Union NextGenerationEU, and existing investors Bain Capital Ventures and Lux Capital. Erkki Brakmann, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of SkySelect, shared: "Legacy procurement systems and processes are fundamentally broken. Airlines invest over $40 billion annually in aircraft parts while simultaneously carrying $50 billion in excess inventory — a massive inefficiency that our AI-driven platform directly addresses. This growth funding validates both our early-mover advantage in applying AI to aviation procurement and the tangible value we're delivering to customers." Alexander Chikunov, founding partner at Verb Ventures, says: "SkySelect exemplifies the kind of B2B platform we back: a platform that brings transparency to opaque supply chains through data and automation. This new funding positions SkySelect to capture a larger share of the $40 billion aircraft materials market."  Anahita Smeets, Managing Director at RockCreek, says: "RockCreek invests in AI and innovative companies that deliver both economic value and operational resilience. SkySelect addresses a critical bottleneck in aviation by using AI to match supply and demand for parts. With airlines facing billions in losses from aircraft-on-ground delays and excess inventory, we believe SkySelect's platform offers a compelling solution at scale." The investment will be used to enhance its AI sourcing and procurement optimisation tools, helping airlines and MROs build a more reliable, predictable, and sustainable supply chain. SkySelect plans to hire across product development, data science, and customer success in its USA, India, and Estonia offices. Lead image: Karen Harms.