Paris-based Phagos has closed a €25 million Series A funding round, four years after its founding. The round was co-led by CapAgro, Hoxton Ventures, CapHorn and Demeter, with participation from Acurio Ventures, Citizen Capital, Entrepreneurs First, Founders Capital, and Station F. Phagos is a biotechnology company founded in 2021 by Alexandros Pantalis and Adèle James that develops AI-enhanced bacteriophage (phage) therapies to combat bacterial diseases. Its initial focus is animal health, where antibiotic resistance is a major constraint, and it designs tailored treatments that can adapt as pathogens evolve. Bacterial infections are a leading cause of human mortality, a major driver of animal deaths, and contribute significantly to food waste. Antimicrobial resistance causes millions of deaths annually and could impose substantial global economic costs by 2050. In livestock, antibiotic effectiveness has declined markedly since 2000. To meet this challenge, Phagos combines microbiology and artificial intelligence in a platform designed to create precise, personalised phage treatments. The initial focus is animal health, with the longer-term goal of extending its approach to human health. Phagos has filed a patent for its AI technology, which analyses complete phage and bacterial genomes to predict their interactions and enable scalable, targeted phage therapies. The company has also received authorisation to market personalised phage-based veterinary medicines, a notable regulatory milestone in treating bacterial infections. The co-founders emphasised that, together, the patent and authorisation, underpinned by a platform combining microbiology and AI, position Phagos to scale phage therapy and establish it as a global standard. With new funding, Phagos plans to scale deployment of its veterinary phage-therapy solutions, advance R&D to develop the next generation of its patented AI technology, and expand its team to support platform growth and market launch.

Milan’s Cyberwave, which builds an operating layer between AI agents and real-world machines, has raised €7 million in a round led by United Ventures with participation from The TechShop, alongside seed funds Vento (Exor), Pi Campus, and several prominent angel investors. Cyberwave’s platform connects AI systems to physical machines through digital twins, simulation, and orchestration tools, enabling developers to control robots, machines, and sensors with minimal friction. Founded by Simone Di Somma and Vittorio Banfi, the company aims to provide core infrastructure for AI-driven automation in Europe. Deploying AI in the physical world remains slow and costly. Robots, sensors, and actuators often use bespoke APIs and specifications, and many projects depend on system integrators. The result is rigid, high-cost implementations that limit factory flexibility amid labour shortages, demographic decline, and pressure to boost productivity and reindustrialisation in Europe. Research estimates that integration complexity leaves roughly 30 per cent of manufacturing tasks manual, and the global manufacturing workforce could face an 8-million shortfall by 2030. Cyberwave addresses this by transforming physical hardware into programmable digital twins, so developers can simulate, control, and orchestrate machines with minimal code. A seamless developer experience is its key differentiator versus infrastructure-focused peers. At the core is a growing catalogue of digital twins that functions as a two-sided marketplace. Hardware makers can integrate their devices once, making them immediately available to developers. In contrast, developers gain plug-and-play access to an expanding range of robotic systems, from industrial arms to drones and sensors. Applications span civilian and defence contexts, including defect rework on assembly lines, logistics packing optimisation, drone inspections, construction site monitoring, and computer-vision upgrades that turn cameras into intelligent sensors. The platform’s rapid reconfiguration also supports defence needs for flexible, scalable production. Simone Di Somma, co-founder and CEO, said: Our goal is to bring the speed of digital software to the physical world. We want developers to treat machines the way they treat code—flexible, composable, and programmable. Just as SAP became the system of record for digital processes, Cyberwave is building the ‘system of actions’ for the physical world. The company is initially focusing on Europe’s manufacturing leaders, with planned US expansion to support European customers’ operations and tap North American reindustrialisation momentum. The funding coincides with the October 2025 launch of Cyberwave’s digital-twins platform. It will support the expansion of the developer ecosystem and validation of early enterprise use cases across manufacturing, logistics, and inspections.

London-based Nexcade, an AI automation company for freight forwarders, has raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding and is emerging from stealth. The round was led by Connect Ventures with participation from MMC Ventures, Entropy Industrial Capital, Inovia, and angels, including Charlie Songhurst and Keith Wallington. Nexcade develops agentic AI automation for logistics teams, simplifying pricing, quoting, and rate procurement to help forwarders operate faster and secure more business. Its AI agents extract unstructured work from emails and conversations outside the TMS and convert it into structured, automated workflows, enhancing rate management, improving win rates, and providing greater data visibility. Founded by Dan Bailey and Tasho Kjosev, the team brings deep freight and AI experience from companies such as Xeneta, Raft, Gravity Sketch, Improbable, and UnlikelyAI. Freight forwarding is the connective tissue of global trade, yet despite growing digitisation, it still relies on manual work, email, and fragmented data from shippers, carriers, agents, brokers, and warehouses, all with different formats and systems. Most automation fails in this environment due to customer-specific requirements, inconsistent data, and constant exceptions. Nexcade is built for that reality. Its AI unifies scattered inputs, handles edge cases, and keeps critical workflows running when other systems stall. The core issue is unstructured communication with endless emails, attachments, and back-and-forth messages that never reach the TMS, so quote requests go unanswered and pricing often depends on tribal knowledge. Nexcade captures that hidden information, structures it, and drives it through automated workflows so every request gets a response, turnaround drops from days to minutes, and teams shift from reactive firefighting to proactively driving revenue and margin. These gains matter as forwarders face unprecedented pressure. Freight rates continue to compress after record volatility, leaving many with revenues halved over the past year and net margins near 5 per cent, so inefficiency cuts straight into profit. At the same time, AI has reached a tipping point where it can reliably interpret natural language and automate exception-heavy workflows. Economic strain plus technological readiness make this the moment for change. Nexcade’s CEO and co-founder, Dan Bailey, said the TMS may be the system of record for customers, but much of the conversation, decision-making, and data that drive freight never enter it. That gap is where revenue leaks and service quality breaks down. He added: Bridging that gap is the only way to unlock real automation and enable the revenue growth and operational resilience forwarders need in today’s market. Rates and contracts underpin freight forwarding, and are especially pertinent in the current environment. Starting here enables the biggest commercial impact for our customers while building the core grounding for future automation for our customers. Looking forward, Nexcade plans to grow its customer base tenfold over the next 12 months, strengthen partnerships with leading forwarders to reinvent commercial workflows, and expand workflow volumes as adoption accelerates.

AI software platform for autonomous inspection with robots and drones Energy Robotics, has raised $13.5 million Series A. It offers a full-stack, hardware-agnostic AI autonomy platform for fleet management in critical infrastructure. Autonomous robots and drones powered by Energy Robotics’ platform perform essential daily and hourly tasks, including visual inspections, thermal scans, and leak detection, eliminating the need for humans to enter dangerous environments while keeping proprietary data secure.  By automating these tasks, worker safety is improved, human error is reduced, and more frequent data can be collected. This proactive approach leads to more efficient maintenance and less plant downtime overall, increasing operational reliability and productivity. Energy Robotics has completed over one million inspections across five continents, saving 32,000+ hours of hazardous human labour for customers across oil and gas, industrial, chemical, and utility sectors, including Shell, BP,Repsol, BASF, Merck and E.ON. Existing infrastructure and industrial facilities are confronting two major challenges: a shrinking skilled workforce and increasingly complex, ageing equipment that requires specialised maintenance.  Energy Robotics addresses this through its AI software platform for autonomous robots and drones that cuts operating costs by up to 40 per cent while significantly enhancing worker safety.   "This funding round will help us scale autonomy to serve the world's most critical infrastructure, giving energy, chemicals, utilities, and security operators greater resilience, safety, and efficiency," said Marc Dassler, CEO and co-founder of Energy Robotics.  "A skilled workforce retires, and many of the world's most vital energy and chemical assets are decades old, requiring more frequent and intricate monitoring, inspection, and maintenance. This combination creates a perfect storm of operational risk. Our platform provides a timely and scalable solution, enabling customers to not only maintain but also improve operational efficiency and safety, while actively mitigating the challenges of this workforce transition."   Energy Robotics AI-powered fleet orchestration software eliminates the need for fragmented tools, with key features that include: Hardware-Agnostic Operating System: Seamlessly integrates with 8 leading robots and drones and OEM hardware manufacturers (e.g., Boston Dynamics, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, DJI), giving customers the flexibility to build mixed fleets without vendor lock-in; AI-Powered Analytics: An advanced AI analytics library interprets multimodal sensor data, from gauge readings to leak detection, continuously learning and improving with every mission. Simple, LLM-Driven Mission Control: Integrated large language model system enables operators to simply prompt the platform to generate and execute inspection tasks across entire fleets of robots and drones; Real-World Data vs. Synthetic Data: Fleet orchestration and autonomous operations are based on millions of data points gathered in complex, dynamic real-world facilities such as refineries and power plants. Evergreen Digital Twin: Each inspection mission automatically updates a live, evolving digital replica of facilities, providing real-time visibility and predictive insights that feed directly into customer ERP, CMMS, and digital twin platforms; and Data Privacy & Cybersecurity: Energy Robotics strengthens cybersecurity and data sovereignty by providing a platform that keeps sensitive inspection data within customer-controlled IT systems, independent of vendor-specific software platforms.  The Series A was co-led by Blue Bear Capital and Climate Investment (CI) , with participation from Futury Capital, Hessen Capital, Kensho VC, and TADTech. The funding will accelerate the commercial deployment of Energy Robotics’ software across energy, chemicals, industrial, and security sectors. "The industrial robotics market has reached an inflection point," said Cindi Bough, Managing Director at Climate Investment: "Energy Robotics has built an AI software platform that orchestrates diverse fleets of robots and drones, integrates seamlessly with existing enterprise workflows, and delivers actionable data services at scale today.  Also, Energy Robotics delivers climate impact by using autonomous robots to spot gas leaks early, so harmful emissions are fixed before they escape into the atmosphere.  This is why we are excited to co-lead their Series A investment."     "The global energy transition relies on a more resilient, efficient, and secure infrastructure,” said Dr Carolin Funk, Partner, Blue Bear Capital. “Energy Robotics' autonomous inspection platform, powered by AI, directly addresses this need. It provides a scalable solution that improves the safety and operational efficiency of key energy and industrial assets, while taking advantage of the global robotics expansion."

Qualcomm Technologies today announced its agreement to acquire Italian open-source hardware and software company Arduino.   Arduino is a leading open-source hardware and software company that provides an accessible platform for creating interactive projects. With an estimated 33 million active users, the Arduino community has expanded to address new demands and challenges, offering products for IoT, wearables, 3D printing, and embedded environments. From student days in Italy to a cornerstone of the maker movement Arduino was created in 2005 at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Italy by Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe, Gianluca Martino, and David Mellis. Named after a local bar, the project aimed to make microcontrollers affordable and easy to use for design students. By releasing both hardware and software as open source, Arduino quickly grew into a global platform for makers, educators, and developers.   Over time, it expanded from a simple educational tool into a cornerstone of the maker movement, powering DIY projects, art, prototypes, and commercial products worldwide. Supercharging developer productivity at the expense of European hacker independence The transaction accelerates Qualcomm Technologies’ strategy to empower developers by facilitating access to its unmatched portfolio of edge technologies and products.  By combining Qualcomm Technologies’ leading‑edge processing, graphics, computer vision, and AI with Arduino’s simplicity, affordability, and community, the Company is poised to supercharge developer productivity across industries.  Arduino will preserve its open approach and community spirit while unlocking a full‑stack platform for modern development. Further, Arduino will retain its independent brand, tools, and mission, while continuing to support a wide range of microcontrollers and microprocessors from multiple semiconductor providers as it enters this next chapter within the Qualcomm family. Following this acquisition, the 33M+ active users in the Arduino community will gain access to Qualcomm Technologies’ powerful tech stack and global reach. Entrepreneurs, businesses, tech professionals, students, educators, and hobbyists will be empowered to rapidly prototype and test new solutions, with a clear path to commercialisation supported by Qualcomm Technologies’ advanced technologies and extensive partner ecosystem. However, this acquisition marks a significant moment—and arguably a blow to Europe’s maker community. Even though Arduino will retain its brand and community, strategic control shifts to a US tech giant—raising questions about Europe’s ability to keep home-grown innovation and infrastructure under European stewardship. Meet UNO Q: Arduino’s most advanced board yet, powered by Qualcomm The new Arduino UNO Q is a next-generation single board computer featuring a “dual brain” architecture—a Linux Debian-capable microprocessor and a real-time microcontroller—to bridge high-performance computing with real-time control. Powered by the Qualcomm Dragonwing™ QRB2210 processor running a full Linux environment, UNO Q is designed to help enable AI-powered vision and sound solutions that react to their environment, ranging from sophisticated smart home solutions to industrial automation systems. UNO Q is designed to become the go‑to tool for every developer—accessible, versatile, and ready for lifelong learning and innovation. UNO Q is the first Arduino board to work with Arduino App Lab, a new, integrated development environment built to unify the Arduino development journey across Real-time OS, Linux, Python and AI flows to make development faster and easier. App Lab offers developers an open-source platform which is designed to rapidly ideate, prototype and scale AI-powered solutions to production. Seamless integration of App Lab with the Edge Impulse platform also helps streamline and accelerate the process of building, fine-tuning, and optimising AI models using real-world data for a wide range of capabilities such as object/human detection, anomaly detection, image classification, ambient sound recognition, and keyword spotting. “With our acquisitions of Foundries.io, Edge Impulse, and now Arduino, we are accelerating our vision to democratize access to our leading‑edge AI and computing products for the global developer community,” said Nakul Duggal, Group General Manager, Automotive, Industrial and Embedded IoT, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.  “Arduino has built a vibrant global community of developers and creators. By combining their open-source ethos with Qualcomm Technologies’ portfolio of leading-edge products and technologies, we’re helping enable millions of developers to create intelligent solutions faster and more efficiently — including a path towards global commercialisation by leveraging the scale of our ecosystem.” “Joining forces with Qualcomm Technologies allows us to supercharge our commitment to accessibility and innovation,” said Fabio Violante, CEO, Arduino. “The launch of UNO Q is just the beginning— we’re excited to empower our global community with powerful tools that make AI development intuitive, scalable, and open to everyone.” “Our passion for simplicity, affordability, and community gave rise to a movement that changed technology,” said Massimo Banzi, Co-founder, Arduino. “By joining Qualcomm Technologies, we’ll bring cutting-edge AI tools to our community while staying true to what has always mattered most to us.” The closing of this transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions.

While there is a growing number of cancer-focused startups, the reality is that cancer is one of the most common diseases with a high fatality. While immunotherapies have transformed treatment for some blood cancers, they’ve had limited success against solid tumours. One UK biotech thinks the answer lies not in ever more targeted drugs, but in the body’s oldest line of defence: neutrophils. LIfT BioSciences is a UK biotech company working on a new kind of cancer treatment. Instead of using T-cells (like many current immunotherapies), they focus on neutrophils — a type of white blood cell that we are all born with that’s part of the body’s first line of defence.  LIfT engineers these neutrophils so they can better find and kill cancer cells, and also help the rest of the immune system join the fight. The company is still in the early stages of development, but has secured patents, research partnerships, and funding to move the technology forward. Its goal is to create a scalable cell therapy that works against solid tumours — types of cancer that are often hard to treat with existing methods. I spoke to CEO Alex Blyth to learn more.  “Find My Nearest” to finding a cure Blyth is a serial entrepreneur and inventor with a background in biology and economics. He began his career in the dot-com industry. He recalled: “When I was at university, I built and sold a company that created the world’s first 'find my nearest' technology for mobile phones. It took just two years from start to sale.” Since then, he’s worked with major pharma companies to bring novel biopharma assets to market.  However, when his mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he witnessed firsthand how targeted therapies ultimately fail:  “Watching my mother die on Abraxane, a drug I had worked on, made me realise that this targeted drug approach is fundamentally flawed for a moving target like cancer.” He detailed: “Tumour cells adapt under evolutionary pressure, escape the drug, and patients die from tumour escape — metastases that evade the immune system. In fact, 90 per cent of cancer deaths result from metastases, not primary tumours. And yet, the vast majority of oncology research focuses on identifying new targets. Most meetings start with: “What’s our target?” But that’s the wrong starting point.  Approximately 90 per cent of industry resources are allocated to targeted or fixed-modality therapies. These approaches can debulk tumours and extend life slightly, but they don’t prevent antigen escape, which ultimately kills the patient.” As a result, he began examining individuals who don’t develop cancer, and discovered that their immune systems possess a remarkable ability to distinguish between friend and foe.  He recalled: “I conducted donor studies comparing immune cell types in “super donors” with no history of cancer versus those who had it. The standout cell was the neutrophil. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that play a crucial role in your immune system by helping to fight infections and heal injuries. They are the most abundant type of white blood cell, making up approximately 50 to 70 per cent of all white blood cells in the body. How neutrophils slipped through the cracks of cancer research According to Blyth, the neutrophil is “the most corrupted cell in cancer patients compared to super donors, and it’s also the most abundant white blood cell in the body, making up 70 to 80 per cent of cells in a tumour. Yet neutrophils have been almost completely overlooked in cancer research.” He attributes this to four main reasons: First, they’re challenging to handle. Neutrophils are like the “puffer fish” of the immune system. When you take them out of the body, they’re incredibly fragile and survive only 12 to 24 hours, unlike hardy T-cells. Second, they don’t fit the industry’s binary model. T-cells work through inhibitors and agonists, which fits with how pharmaceutical companies — fundamentally chemistry companies — understand science. Neutrophils use advanced, non-binary threat pattern recognition, and many scientists are uncomfortable with mechanisms they can’t fully explain. Third, he contends that people used to think the innate immune system only fought bacteria and external threats: “In fact, it plays a key role in spotting and destroying anything that doesn’t belong — including worn-out cells and cancer cells. It’s also responsible for fine-tuning “friend vs foe” recognition inside the body. This system can weaken over time due to ageing, stress, and changes in gene expression. Some people are born with naturally stronger innate immunity, which may explain why certain families have little or no history of cancer.” Fourth, Blyth contends that pharmaceutical companies make money using low-risk technologies — such as antibodies and small molecules — so there’s little incentive to take career risks on new approaches. “It’s not that companies are 'evil'; it’s human nature. Most people in science are cautious rather than trailblazers. They build safe careers inside big pharma or VC firms, and that passive self-interest kills innovation.” Turning “super donors” into cancer fighters LIfT’s approach involves injecting healthy neutrophils into patients, but with a twist: these neutrophils are grown in the lab from stem cells donated by “super donors.” Super donors are individuals whose immune cells display exceptional cancer-killing abilities. By using their stem cells, LIfT can generate large batches of potent neutrophils in the lab. These cells — a unique type of innate immune cell called Immunomodulatory Alpha Neutrophils (IMANs) — behave entirely differently from the defective neutrophils typically found in cancer patients. Once produced, they are infused into the patient’s bloodstream via IV, providing a powerful, temporary boost to the body’s innate immune system to help combat cancer. “The hardest thing I’ve ever done” Biotech is, by necessity, a slow and cautious field. I wondered how Blyth reconciled this with the speed of the startup world. He admits that it has taken him ten years for the company to get to its current stage: “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, even with two previous exits under my belt. Biotech is slow and cautious for good reason — almost everything you put in someone’s body has the potential to do more harm than good. What pains me is knowing that nearly a million patients die every month from untreated tumours. I’ve lost friends along the way. It’s heartbreaking to watch people die knowing that we might be able to help but can’t intervene without jeopardising the entire clinical program — or risking my own position.” Then there’s the incremental nature of fundraising. Blyth asserts that “If someone had given me the total amount we’ve raised so far, up front, I could have done this in half the time.” Another obstacle is a lack of belief that cancer can be cured. Blyth explained that “pharma companies aren’t even allowed to use the word “cure,” which affects how people think.”  “But we’ve already seen immunotherapies cure blood cancers. Checkpoint inhibitors have given some patients with solid tumours a real shot at being cured. It is possible — the mindset just hasn’t caught up yet.” The crucial 1 per cent who push boundaries Blyth admits that he’s learnt that “you only need the 1 per cent — the people who really get it and care enough to do something." "These people tend to find each other. Over time, I’ve met many of the pioneers who worked on checkpoint inhibitors, for example, through different paths. There’s a small, tight-knit community of people who keep pushing, often outside the establishment. The public doesn’t realise how small this group is.  Most funding still goes to universities and trend-driven research, where the incentives are to publish, not to solve real-world problems. Unless you have a personal mission, the system pushes you towards career progression, not breakthroughs. I focus on finding and working with that exceptional few," he shared. LIfT BioSciences has raised over $38.4 million, including an €11.9 million Enterprise Ireland grant for a clinical trial in Galway. This investigator-initiated trial will focus on cervical, head, and neck cancers, with first patient dosing scheduled for next year. Lead image: Wikipedia.

Deep Tech Momentum has raised €1 million in funding for its deeptech capital and customer acquisition marketplace, aiming to establish Europe as a robust deeptech ecosystem. Deep Tech Momentum (DTM) was founded in 2022 by Isabelle Flanagan, and Martin Schilling. Centred around an annual conference in Berlin — in my opinion finally putting Berlin back in the race for great startup conferences — which functions as a growth engine for deeptech startups, investors, and corporate leaders. It’s an invite-only platform where just 6 per cent of applicants are selected, connecting top founders with VCs managing over €25 billion, corporate innovators, and ecosystem leaders.  DTM isn’t just a conference — it’s where deals get done, partnerships are forged, and Europe’s deeptech competitiveness accelerates. In a post announcing the raise, DTM cited remarks by Mario Draghi: “A different path demands new speed, scale and intensity. It means acting together, not fragmenting our efforts. It means focusing resources where impact is greatest. And it means delivering results within months, not years. Start with technology.” They added: “That’s precisely why DTM exists: to accelerate the commercialisation of European Deep Tech by connecting industry leaders with innovations that will redefine Europe’s sovereignty in technology.” “At DTM, leading corporate decision-makers, top investors, and the world’s most innovative deeptech builders forge partnerships that fuel competitiveness, investment, and Europe’s deeptech renaissance.” To achieve this, the company concentrate on six niches where Europe excels, each with its own Innovation Market at DTM: DTM Energy DTM Space DTM Defence DTM Robotics DTM Materials DTM Computing As part of the investment, DTM welcomes a stellar syndicate of angel investors via Events Venture Group, which brings decades of expertise in scaling world-class events. They join a group of visionary VCs and industry leaders committed to closing Europe’s innovation gap and securing technological sovereignty: ???? ? ??? ??? ??????: Isaac Kato (Two Ravens VC), Peter Niederhauser (redalpine), Max Bautin (IQ Capital), Florian Heinemann (Project A), Martin Schleich (Tech10), Dr Patrick Nathen (Lilium), Daniel W. Dippold (EWOR) ????????? ???????:  Hanjo Arms (Kearney), Tim Miksche (Audi Denkwerkstatt), Ken Herrmann (Universitätsmedizin Essen), Univ.-Prof. Dr Frederik Giesel, MD, MBA (Universitätsklinikum Düsseldorf) The funding supports the Deep Tech Momentum 2026 festival, which is expected to attract 3,000 participants.

ChatGPT now has more than 800 million weekly active users, according to Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, which introduced a wave of new products and partnerships at its developer day conference.In his keynote speech, Altman said: “Back in 2023, we had two million developers and 100 million weekly ChatGPT users and we were processing about 300 million tokens per minute on our API. That felt like a lot at the time."Today, four million developers have built with OpenAI and more than 800 million people now use ChatGPT every week. And we process over six billion tokens per minute on the API."AI has gone from something people play with to something people build with every day."The 800 million figure marks an uptick on the 700 million weekly active users OpenAI said ChatGPT was expected to hit in August this year, which was up from 500 million in March this year. At its developer day conference, OpenAI, valued at $500 billion and which is inking gigantic deals to ensure it has sufficient computing power to run its models, revealed a range of new products, as it looks to outflank rival frontier AI model firms. These include a feature so users can connect directly and interact with third-party services inside ChatGPT, with examples of Spotify and Canva given.It also introduced a tool called AgentKit, so developers can design, deploy and better manage AI agents.

Germany’s Resourcly, an AI platform that harmonises parts data, removes redundancies, and recommends qualified alternatives for manufacturers, has raised a €2.7 million seed round. The round was led by Project A, with participation from Knut Alicke, Philip Harting, Gregor Stühler, FIEGE Ventures, D11Z Ventures, Prequel VC, and former leaders from SAP, VW, Siemens, and Danaher. Federico Travella joins as an advisor. Resourcly is an AI platform for manufacturers that harmonises complex inventories by standardizing parts data, removing duplicates, and recommending qualified alternatives. It boosts part availability and unlocks up to 15 per cent improvement in working capital. Trusted by leading global enterprises, it’s proven, real-world AI for manufacturing. Manufacturers have $2.5 trillion locked in idle inventory and discard $200 billion in usable parts annually, not because they’re defective, but because fragmented systems, countless variants, and inconsistent data make them hard to find. As a result, up to 20 per cent face production delays despite overflowing warehouses. Resourcly standardises messy inventory data without replacing existing systems. Manufacturers upload CSVs, the platform detects duplicates, flags interchangeable parts, and builds a unified dataset. Beyond cleanup, it creates liquidity by enabling resale and sharing through trusted networks, turning excess stock into working capital. Our AI-based similarity analysis uncovers patterns that humans and traditional systems can no longer detect, saving our customers time, unlocking millions, and improving revenue potential by up to 20%, said Helena Most, CEO and co-founder of Resourcly. The funding will support hires across engineering, product, and sales, and accelerate platform expansion for large enterprise customers across Europe’s manufacturing hubs.

The UK and India-based medical travel startup, The Medical Travel Company (TMTC), has raised €3.8 million to bring a new full-stack medical solution, offering UK patients world-class and affordable treatments in India. The round was led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from 4CAST, an athlete-led investment collective group co-founded by England cricket stars Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer, along with Indian cricketer KL Rahul. The Medical Travel Company offers a full-stack platform for medical travel, enabling UK patients awaiting elective care to access high-quality, lower-cost treatment in India. The service includes UK doctor involvement throughout the care pathway, post-surgery insurance, and end-to-end logistics across travel, in-house aftercare, and recovery. The company reports steady user growth and industry recognition for its role in cross-border care. Demand is rising, with about 7.7 million people in the UK facing long waits for elective procedures as of June 2025, including orthopaedics, dental, IVF, gynaecology, ophthalmology and urology. With private care often unaffordable, more than 500,000 UK residents travel abroad each year for faster, lower-cost treatment. Yet the broader medical tourism market remains fragmented, with opaque pricing, variable quality standards, and limited aftercare that can increase uncertainty and risk. Founded by Sahil Jain and Ankit Mehrotra, the Medical Travel Company addresses these gaps with a structured, clinician-led model. UK doctors remain involved before, during, and after treatment. Patients are connected to internationally trained clinicians in globally accredited hospitals, and a 12-month post-surgery insurance policy is valid back in the UK through a network of private hospitals. The experience is fully managed, with personalised aftercare and concierge logistics to provide a seamless journey. The company plans to use new funding to expand and deepen clinical partnerships in the UK to strengthen patient trust, establish certified treatment pathways for safer medical travel, and build technology to maintain complete medical records, supporting continuity of care when patients return home.

Paris-based Ewake, which develops an AI system to improve software reliability, has raised €2 million in a pre-seed round led by Connect Ventures. The round also included participation from 2100 Ventures, Notion Capital, Insiders, 50partners, and several angel investors, including Amirhossein Malekzadeh. Ewake develops an AI “teammate” for software reliability that integrates with production systems and works alongside engineering teams. The platform proactively surfaces issues, recommends actions, and helps developers maintain service reliability with greater autonomy. The product consists of a suite of AI agents that monitor production, investigate incidents, and assist with prevention in real time. Operating on top of existing tools, the agents interpret and correlate signals to address downtime, learning continuously to adapt to each company’s technical and business context. Manual tasks can be increasingly automated as the agents improve over time. Ewake was co-founded by former Criteo engineers Pooné Mokari (CEO) and Omid Gosha (CTO) to address the shared challenge of preserving reliability while shipping quickly. Their goal is to redefine software reliability through agentic AI. Coming out of stealth, Ewake will use the funding to develop additional AI agents and expand its Paris-based team to support its growing customer base. Looking ahead, the company aims to broaden its agentic approach so every developer can more easily own and maintain their code, deepening the agents’ ability to learn from each environment, automating more manual tasks, and supporting rapid software delivery without compromising reliability.

Dutch agentic AI-powered platform Datamonk has secured a total of €1.6 million in pre-seed to date to address one of healthcare IT’s biggest challenges: moving and cleaning decades of medical imaging data. The round was led by Healthy.Capital and Nina Capital, with participation from notable angel investors including Jeroen Tas, former Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer at Philips, and Harm-Jan Wessels, founder of Applicare (acquired by GE), Forcare (acquired by Philips) and Healthsage AI. The total also includes earlier support from Antler and Rabobank. Hospitals and imaging providers store decades of X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs in PACS. Many are migrating to newer systems to modernise, consolidate, and enable AI, but consultant-led projects moving millions of studies are slow and costly, often taking a year or more. Datamonk is tackling this challenge by replacing manual, consultant-heavy migrations with agentic AI. Founded in 2024 in the Netherlands, Datamonk is building the data layer for modern healthcare. The company uses agentic AI to automate PACS migrations while improving data quality: its agents detect and correct metadata issues, standardise study naming, and validate data integrity during transfer, reducing manual effort and cost and enabling go-lives five to ten times faster. Datamonk was founded by Jaap Gielink, Jai Bhatia, and Matthew Condron, whose backgrounds span healthcare data, cloud technologies, and AI. Jaap Gielink, CEO and co-founder of Datamonk, emphasised that modern healthcare relies on clean, connected data to support both routine clinical decisions and the adoption of emerging AI technologies. He commented: We don’t just move imaging data, we clean it and make it usable so hospitals can trust it is ready for clinical workflows, research, and innovation. The funding will support platform development, the advancement of AI capabilities, and team growth.

UK medtech Owlstone Medical has won an award of up to $49.1 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) for the Platform Optimising SynBio for Early Intervention and Detection in Oncology (POSEIDON https://arpa-h.gov/explore-funding/programs/poseidon program.  Owlstone Medical is developing a breathalyser for disease, with the goal of improving non-invasive diagnostics for conditions such as respiratory and liver diseases, cancer, and digestive health disorders.  The company aims to save 100,000 lives and reduce healthcare costs by $1.5 billion through earlier detection and more precise treatment.  Its Breath Biopsy®platform represents a new diagnostic modality designed to identify novel, non-invasive biomarkers in breath, with the potential to be deployed at the point of care. At the heart of this approach is the award-winning ReCIVA®Breath Sampler, which enables the reliable collection of breath samples. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) captured in these samples are then analysed using advanced chemical analysis technologies.  Owlstone Medical aims to further develop tools, potentially leveraging its proven FAIMS microchip chemical sensor technology, to detect validated biomarkers of disease and enable earlier, more accurate diagnosis. The POSEIDON program aims to develop first-in-class synthetic-sensor-based Multi-Cancer-Early Detection (MCED) tests for Stage I detection of 30+ solid tumours using only breath and urine samples that can be performed in the home and are available over the counter. Owlstone’s project, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Qurin B.V., and Planned Systems International Inc, aims to overcome this challenge by delivering accurate, low-cost cancer screening for 30+ solid tumours to Americans aged 18 and older. The project involves the inhalation of a mix of pan-cancer and tumour-specific synthetic sensors from a single-use inhaler, which then circulate throughout the body and accumulate on the surface of cancer cells. The reporters produced by the sensors are either DNA-based, which act as a readable barcode, or a set of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), supporting the detection of 36 cancers in total. These will be collected at home or in the clinic in urine samples and from breath, respectively, using portable collection and analysis devices.   Results will be uploadable in real-time to electronic health records (EHR) for rapid review by healthcare professionals, integrating seamlessly into clinical practice and digitally enabled care. This unique approach offers significant advantages over competing technologies. These include boosting the signal to enhance test performance such that cancer is reliably detectable from early stage, enabling simple and non-invasive sample collection at home, rapid result generation and EHR integration, and a low-cost manufacturing model such that economics are not a barrier to adoption of the technology as the new standard of care for early cancer detection. According to Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO at Owlstone Medical, access to an accurate and low-cost MCED test that does not require a doctor’s visit or laboratory testing is key to preventing late-stage diagnoses.  “This award validates both breath as a diagnostic approach and Owlstone’s EVOC® probes as a reporter technology to overcome the shortcomings and challenges that have held back early cancer detection previously.  We are grateful to ARPA-H for the opportunity to bring transformative MCED testing to every American within the next decade.” 

Pelvic organ prolapse is a common but often stigmatised condition in which one or more of the organs in the female pelvis descend into, or out of, the vagina. It can cause pain, discomfort, and significant emotional distress, disrupting women's ability to fully engage in work, social life, and family activities.  An estimated 1 in 12 women experience symptomatic prolapse, amounting to more than 200 million women worldwide. Due to underreporting and stigma, the true number is likely even higher, and incidence is expected to grow by a staggering 46 per cent in the US alone by 2050. Danish healthtech startup Sylvia Health is pioneering a revolutionary medical device to empower women suffering from pelvic organ prolapse. I spoke to CEO Andrew Stretton to learn more.  Stretton has lived in Denmark for five years. Before that, he completed a PhD in biotechnology at a UK university, finishing in January 2020 — just before the pandemic. He started working for a couple of startups here that were connected to his PhD: "Initially, it was in sensing technology, and then I moved more into green tech—working with companies that used sensors to measure air quality. They were spun out of a chemistry department and were very good at removing particles from the air, but they didn't quite manage to sell during the pandemic. These were good technologies with good people, but ultimately they were solutions looking for problems. I became keen to flip that approach around." Sylvia Health came out of the Novo Nordisk Foundation BioMedical Design Fellowship Programme, a needs-based innovation programme at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. During four months of clinical observations at the obstetrics and gynaecology departments of Slagelse Hospital, the team encountered many problems within women's health and witnessed the profound impact of pelvic organ prolapse on women's lives.  "The first part of the program involved four months of clinical observation. I spent that time with a notebook in a gynaecology and obstetrics department," shared Stratton. He admits, "I'm not a doctor, and as a man, it was an unusual but incredible opportunity to observe and learn in that environment." A hidden epidemic of shocking need Throughout the program, participants observed numerous unmet needs in women's health. Prolapse emerged very quickly as a major one.  According to Stretton, the scale and impact of prolapse shocked the team, sparking a deepening interest that persisted throughout the programme. "We met with and interviewed patients and clinicians from six countries, delving into disease fundamentals, prevalence, risk factors, stigma, and treatment options.  If you start with the patient population, the numbers are striking: one in twelve women has symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse." The two biggest risk factors for vaginal prolapse are vaginal delivery and age. It can also be caused by menopause, heavy lifting and genetic or hereditary factors.  He realised there was not only a lack of societal knowledge of the issue but a lack of meaningful solutions, describing the options as "innovation light."  "When you look at existing solutions, you have surgery — often invasive and not always viable for women who are family planning. Then there are pessary devices, but over half of women discontinue using them within 3–12 months."  A medical scandal is hidden explained away by gender stigma Another solution for vaginal prolapse is transvaginal mesh, a surgical implant used to support weakened pelvic tissues, primarily for treating conditions like pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence in women. It is a net-like device inserted through the vagina to help hold pelvic organs in place.  However, since the 2000s, tens of thousands of women with mesh insertions have complained of severe side effects, including chronic pain, infection, organ perforation and other debilitating conditions. As a post by the Lawsuit ínformation Centre asserts, in US depositions, lawyers have uncovered internal documents showing mesh manufacturers were hearing complaints about mesh tension and material degradation as far back as 2009. Doctors flagged these issues, but they were not shared with regulators. And patients received no warning prior to surgery. The post asserts: "A lot of these women were told their symptoms were unrelated. That their pain was normal. That they were just getting older. Some were told it was in their head. It went on for years, in many cases, with most everyone paying lip service to the pain and suffering." According to Stretton, the mesh debacle set back innovation in this area for a long time. And, the themes experienced by women suffering as a result of the vaginal mesh represent the broader issues around stigmatisation and vaginal prolapse.  Medical misogyny lives in everyday consultations There's also a lot of normalisation of women's suffering in these contexts. According to Stretton: "We spoke with women in their 40s who, after finally working up the courage to see a doctor, were told, "Well, you've had kids, you're in your forties now—this is normal."  That kind of normalisation can be incredibly confusing and disheartening. "Even in Denmark, with free healthcare and strong equality measures, women reported these experiences. If this is happening here, you can imagine what it's like elsewhere. It reflects a broader pattern of medical misogyny and stigmatisation." Further, the underlying clinical need remains unchanged — especially for certain subtypes of prolapse. For example, in the rectocele, where the rectum descends into the vagina, the standard pessaries sit too high and don't really match the anatomy. "It's surprising that something so fundamental hasn't been addressed, but it's a stigmatised area," shared Stratton. "Many of the basic needs simply haven't been studied in detail." Anatomy-first innovation with global market potential  I was interested in how Sylvia Health approached R&D for something so sensitive and anatomical. Andrew explained that the team started by looking at the anatomy of rectocele.  "Because existing devices like pessaries sit high, but the prolapse bulges lower down, we asked: what kinds of devices are already used in that part of the body? Menstrual cups and tampons. So we thought: what if we take something like a menstrual cup and modify its function—not to collect fluid, but to provide support? That was the core idea." The team sketched out concepts, shared them with gynaecologists and physiotherapists, and got encouraging feedback. Then it created simple silicone prototypes, refined them, and developed medical-grade versions suitable for clinical testing. Sylvia Health developed its first medical-grade prototypes in Autumn 2023, following the end of the BioMedical Design Programme. Since then, it's been focused on testing and improving its products. Together with expert pelvic health physiotherapists, its done over 40 functional tests with women with prolapse.   It was surprisingly easy to recruit participants — because so many women are affected and current options are limited. "Early on, we interviewed and surveyed women affected by prolapse to understand their daily experiences," explained Stretton.  "If you speak their language and show that you understand the impact on their lives, they're often eager to participate. And crucially, we listened. Many medical consultations are only ten minutes long; there's no time to unpack everything. Having someone sit down and truly listen was validating for them. A lot of women with prolapse experience a loss of dignity in their interactions with healthcare systems. Restoring that dignity is core to our approach."  This user-centred design approach has enabled Sylvia Health to iteratively improve its designs, so much so that towards the end of its functional testing phase, many women asked to take the prototype home with them.  Sylvia Health has since begun clinical trials at Hvidovre Hospital in the Copenhagen region, where it will recruit around 40 participants and measure quality of life changes from baseline to the end of the study. Stretton explained that it's a simple, non-comparative study because pessaries are already well-established and silicone is highly biocompatible. If adverse effects occur, they typically resolve upon removal of the device. "If we can show a meaningful quality-of-life improvement and acceptable safety, that data will go into our regulatory submission." The device is patent-pending, but Sylvia Health aims for the device to become a prescribed medical device—essentially the go-to option for rectocele prolapse. Stretton explained:  "First, we need to prove clinical efficacy. Then we'll focus on commercialisation—starting in Denmark and likely one large European market. Once we have proof of business, we can bring in a strategic partner, raise a Series A, or consider an exit. We're realistic that our founding team may not be the ones to scale it globally. If the product works—and we believe it does — it needs to reach as many women as possible." Currently, Sylvia Health is actively engaging with partners in the UK and EU to enable us to provide devices in those regions as soon as possible, followed by the rest of the world.

French cybersecurity startup Filigran, whose clients include the FBI and the European Commission, has raised $58m in a funding round, meaning it has now raised over $100m since its inception three years ago.The Series C funding round was led by French investment group Eurazeo with funding from Deutsche Telekom and existing investors Accel and Insight Partners. It follows its $35m funding round last year. Filigran is an open source platform which uses its tech or what it calls "real-time intelligence" to help its customers anticipate the growing problem of cyber threats and risks. Filigran has developed products to combat the problem. These are OpenCTl, an open source cyber threat platform, which collates data and intelligence from the likes of CrowdStrike and other data sources and has been downloaded millions of times.Another product is called OpenBAS, an open source platform which simulates real-life cyber attack scenarios.The new funding will support the development of another product, OpenGRC, which will enable organisations to “prioritise their cyber risks and take the most effective actions first”, as well as creating an AI agent platform.Furthermore, the funding will be used to support the Paris-based startup’s expansion into the Pacific and Middle East and strengthen its presence in the US and Europe.Founded in 2022, Filigran says its tools are used by over 6,000 public and private organisations, including the European Commission and the FBI. Samuel Hassine, CEO of Filigran, said: "This Series C round is an important milestone in Filigran’s journey. We are extremely proud of the collective commitment that brought us here, with one clear mission: enabling organisations everywhere to be more proactive against threats and to leverage intelligence at every level of their security strategy.“It reflects everyone’s commitment to achieving our mission, which is to make threat intelligence accessible and actionable for all organisations worldwide."

Last month, I attended The Bologna Gathering, a curated event bringing 300 selected innovation leaders to Italy. Bologna is a city in Northern Italy and the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region.  The event represents an increased effort to host tech events beyond capital city hubs to broader regions, which may not have the same number of startups or investment capital but are equally able to stand on their own, and it was a stellar event. According to Cubbit co-founders Stefano Onofri and Alessandro Cillario, recent months have shown a continued rise in international capital invested in Italian startups"  "We're approaching a pivotal moment in the maturity of Italy's tech ecosystem. This is especially important at a time of geopolitical uncertainty, when Europe is seeking to transform its young tech companies into global champions. Italy must be central to this journey, and The Bologna Gathering is a key forum to accelerate this process and showcase the strengths of our region." Bologna’s Leonardo supercomputer opens doors to industry with €300M AI Factory At a side event facilitated by LandinBo, a local designed to support and attract emerging technology companies, startups, and investment ventures, Laura Morselli from Cineca introduced IT4LIA. This new €300 million AI Factory project leverages Leonardo, the Bologna-based supercomputer located at the Bologna Technopole. Managed by Cineca and co-funded by EuroHPC JU and the Italian government, Leonardo delivers a peak performance of around 250 petaflops, making it a critical asset for AI development, scientific research, and industrial innovation without having to rely on US hyperscalers. The side event stood out in that attendees were simply not the usual startup and investor mix, but included plenty of industrial players (in other words, potential customers). Beyond academia, Leonardo is increasingly being opened up to the private sector through initiatives like the IT4LIA AI Factory, a €300 million programme launched in 2025.  With demand far outstripping supply, Leonardo is helping to position Bologna as a strategic European AI and HPC hub, underpinning both innovation and digital sovereignty. Morselli stressed, "If you want millions of GPU hours, you have to hurry up." Morselli explained how companies can collaborate with the IT4LIA infrastructure: "Most likely you will be moving your data to our supercomputer, and you can tell us: 'I need support because I need to scale up.' We can become collaborators on your project, which means that we have access to the files in your storage location — but you decide the level of access you want to give us." According to Morselli, some companies are already very independent because they've used HPC before, while others prefer co-development. "We're adapting to both." Asked about market demand, she pointed out that capacity is already oversubscribed: "Leonardo has always been the most requested supercomputer at the European level. It's always completely full. In April we opened calls for private companies — 30 per cent of European capacity is now dedicated to them — and it was gone immediately. We're still accepting applications, but there's more queueing time. If you want millions of GPU hours, you have to hurry up." The project's €420 million budget covers both capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenditures (OpEx) for the first five years of production. Bologna pushes to redefine Italy’s innovation narrative Attending regional events is always interesting, as I invariably end up speaking with the champions of local tech ecosystems.  In Bologna, a clear pattern emerged in conversations with people from both the local and broader Italian startup scene: while they were eager to highlight the ecosystem's strengths, they often slipped into candid critiques of Italy's relatively conservative investment culture. Many described a low appetite for risk, with those holding capital more inclined to invest in real estate than in higher-risk ventures. Numerous people pointed out that Italy's strong reputation for fashion, tourism, and food & wine has, in some ways, overshadowed its potential and achievements in other sectors like manufacturing, deeptech and logistics. There's a certain ongoing tension between the country's La Dolce Vita image — a celebration of beauty and simple pleasures, such as enjoying a glass of wine during lunch — and its push to be recognised as a serious player in innovation and high-growth industries. In response, the Bologna Gathering represented a concerted effort to position Bologna as a hub for deeptech innovation and change that narrative, especially abroad.  Italian tech leaders diagnose what’s holding the country back Gianni Cuozzo, CEO of Exein, shared that the company was forced to have a global mindset from day one. "It wasn't a choice — it was survival. Now, more than 50 per cent of our revenues come from the Asia-Pacific region, 25 per cent from Europe, and 25 per cent from the US. We were international before we were ready for it." He contends that if Exein were based in Tel Aviv or San Francisco," nobody would question our technology." "As Italians, we have to be better than everyone else to overcome stereotypes — We present Exein as a global company with Italian founders, not an Italian company. That distinction matters when attracting top talent internationally." Luca De Angelis from Tech Europe Foundation shared that in terms of R&D, Italy ranks higher than France and Canada in global scientific publications.  "What's missing are strong entrepreneurial ideas and urgency. Tech transfer is a specialised job. You need people who can move an idea left or right to make it commercial — and that pipeline doesn't exist in Italy today." The contends that the most fragile research stage is TRL 1–5. "That's where deep tech lives or dies, and almost no one is there. Traditional VC isn't designed for this stage. I've never seen a good idea that didn't find capital — but we don't have enough good ideas in the pipeline." Alec Ross, former State Department Innovation Advisor in the Obama administration, tech policy expert and Distinguished Professor at Bologna Business School, minced no words, sharing the need for a concentration on business school graduate education in innovation and the intersection of geopolitics with geoeconomics. He called for Italy to move beyond the mentality of old industrial Europe and advised startups to rely less on government programs and more on investors.  It's a view I heard echoed across the event.  Alessandro Cillario, co-CEO and co-founder at Cubbit, urged attendees: "Don't wait for help, it's up to all of us in this room." Ross also raised a topic I heard many mention, low salaries resulting in a talent exodus, as well as a challenge for cities such as Bologna to attract top talent. He asserted:  "Your salaries in Europe are embarrassing. My US-based 22-year-old son makes more money after 1 year of college than a 30-year-old CEO."  “Failure used to scare us too”: Nordic unvestor shares how ecosystems mature Egita Polanska, Partner at Outlast Fund, shared valuable insights with attendees, drawing on lessons learned in the Nordics. She shared: "Our combined markets are tiny — six or seven million people — so we're kicked out of our comfort zone early.  Urgency is built in. "Failure used to scare us too, but the ecosystem matured. Now failure is accepted as part of the journey — not just by founders, but by investors and corporates too." She contends that Finland has successfully established a connection between universities, public funding, and commercialisation. "Students think about business from the start. I can't think of a successful deep tech company that didn't have strong corporate partnerships. The supply chain has to work for innovation to scale." With world-class education and infrastructure like the Leonardo supercomputer, increasing international capital flows, candid self-assessment from ecosystem leaders, and valuable lessons drawn from abroad, Bologna is positioning itself as more than a regional player. It’s becoming a focal point for Europe’s deeptech ambitions, blending tradition with urgency to carve out a stronger role on the global stage. Bologna startups to have on your radar Besides local standouts like Cubbit, Musixmatch, identifAI, and CellPly, the region is also home to an abundance of younger startups. Some standouts:  AdapTronics AdapTronics is an Italian deeptech startup redefining how robots grasp and manipulate objects—both on Earth and in space.  Their signature innovation is the Electro Active Adhesive Layer (EAAL): a thin, flexible film that becomes adhesive on demand via electrostatics, enabling a robot to pick up items of virtually any shape, size, or material with minimal energy use and built-in tactile sensing.  Lithium Lasers  Lithium Lasers designs and manufactures ultrashort-pulse laser systems for high-precision applications. Its flagship product, FEMTOFLASH, is a femtosecond GHz-burst laser tailored for micromachining, non-linear optics, and complex material processing tasks—especially when tight tolerances, low thermal damage, and fine feature control are required.  MAMA SCIENCE MAMA SCIENCE is a biotech focused on creating advanced, sustainable, and non-toxic biomaterials through proprietary bio-inspired synthesis processes. It provides solutions for industries seeking to minimise environmental impact and replace traditional, harmful materials.Product lines include biodegradable and active packaging coatings, self-sanitising surface additives (without biocides or nanomaterials), and materials that mimic natural purifying systems for air and water.  TrueScreen TrueScreen is an Italian Trust as a Service / legaltech startup focused on restoring reliability in the digital age. Its platform certifies the authenticity of digital content—photos, videos, documents, emails, chats, screenshots — and detects tampering (including deepfake or metadata manipulation) to provide court-ready evidence. Lead image: Freepik.

In September 2025, European tech companies raised €8.4 billion, up 163 per cent from August’s €3.2 billion and roughly double September 2024’s €4.2 billion. Deal activity also increased, with 367 transactions, a 94 per cent jump from August (189) and 6 per cent higher year over year (347). Funding was concentrated in five countries: the UK led with €2.7 billion, followed by France (€2.2 billion), the Netherlands (€739.9 million), Sweden (€662.1 million), and Germany (€547.3 million), which together accounted for about 82% of total capital. Sector-wise, artificial intelligence dominated at €1.9 billion, trailed by cloud at €947.9 million and fintech at €758.4 million. Exit activity also accelerated, reaching 74 deals in September, up from 66 in August and 53 a year earlier. Tech.eu’s Cate Lawence commented on the September numbers within the European tech investment landscape in our September Tech.eu Pulse, a compact version of the monthly report: While funding remains concentrated in a handful of countries and sectors, the data reflects renewed momentum after a quieter summer. AI, cloud, and fintech continue to attract outsized capital, while energy, healthtech and quantum also held strong. As Q4 begins, the question is whether this surge marks the start of a sustained rebound—or a September spike driven by a few eye-watering rounds. For a more detailed review and in-depth analysis of the European tech ecosystem, including industry and country performance, exit activities, and more, please check out our September report. Here are the 10 largest tech deals in Europe from September, accounting for approximately 54.7 per cent of the month’s total funding. Amount raised: €1.7B Mistral AI provides an enterprise platform to customise, fine-tune, and deploy large language models, assistants, agents, and multimodal AI across cloud, on-prem, and edge environments. Its offering includes Le Chat (a multilingual assistant), La Plateforme (a build-and-deploy environment), and developer tools for coding, with an emphasis on privacy, control, and flexible deployment. Mistral raised €1.7 billion, increasing its valuation to approximately €11.7 billion. The round includes a significant stake by Dutch chip-equipment firm ASML as part of a strategic partnership. Amount raised: $1.1B Nscale is a hyperscaler engineered for AI, providing vertically integrated infrastructure, compute, networking, storage, managed software, and AI services, delivered through its own and colocated data centres. It designs energy-efficient facilities and high-density GPU clusters to support training, fine-tuning, and inference at scale. Headquartered in the UK, Nscale operates globally with projects across Europe and North America. Nscale has raised $1.1 billion in a Series B round, supporting ongoing efforts to expand AI infrastructure in the UK. Amount raised: €600M EcoDataCenter is a Swedish operator that designs, builds, and runs high-performance, sustainability-focused data centres for AI and cloud workloads, with sites in Falun and a planned large-scale campus in Borlänge. The company emphasises renewable electricity and efficiency while scaling to over 500 MW of available power to support AI/HPC growth EcoDataCenter secured €600 million in debt financing from Deutsche Bank Private Credit and Infrastructure to support its expansion and development of advanced digital infrastructure. Amount raised: €346.2M Netomnia is a wholesale full-fibre network operator building an “uncompromising” fibre platform across the UK for ISPs and MSPs. The company is the UK’s fourth-largest full-fibre network and is targeting 5 million premises serviceable by 2027, backed by over £1.6 billion in funding. Its rollout focuses on high-performance, capital-efficient fibre designed to support business and residential connectivity. Netomnia secured €346.2 million to expand its fibre network in the UK. Amount raised: $320M IQM Quantum Computers builds full-stack superconducting quantum systems for research institutions, HPC centres, and enterprises, delivered on-premises and via a managed cloud. Its product lineup includes the 5-qubit IQM Spark for education and research, the IQM Radiance system with configurations up to 150 qubits, and the IQM Resonance cloud service. Founded in 2018, IQM focuses on advancing from today’s NISQ devices toward fault-tolerant quantum computing. IQM Quantum Computers raised a $320 million Series B round, described as the largest to date for a quantum company in Europe and outside the US. The raise brings the company’s total funding to $600 million. Amount raised: $200M Nothing is a London-based consumer technology company that designs smartphones, audio products, and accessories with a focus on distinctive industrial design and a simplified user experience (e.g., the Glyph Interface). Its mission is to reduce barriers between people and technology by creating products that are as engaging to use as they are to look at. Nothing raised $200 million in a Series C round at a $1.3 billion valuation. Amount raised: €150M Terra One is a Berlin-based developer and operator of grid-scale battery energy storage systems that pair hardware with machine-learning control to stabilise power grids and make better use of renewable generation. Its platform autonomously optimises batteries across wholesale and ancillary markets to improve grid flexibility and reduce price volatility. The company’s aim is to provide reliable, affordable, and clean electricity by storing surplus renewable power and releasing it when demand peaks. Terra One secured €150 million to scale its grid-scale battery storage projects across Europe. Amount raised: $165M Signal AI provides an external intelligence platform that analyses global news, social, and regulatory content to deliver reputation and risk insights for enterprises. Its AI models transform vast, multilingual data into structured, real-time signals to help teams monitor issues, anticipate risks, and inform decisions. Signal AI received a $165 million investment to support strategic M&A that expands its data collection, sector expertise, and AI research. Amount raised: £114M Triver is a UK fintech that provides instant working-capital advances to small businesses by turning approved client invoices into cash, without requiring traditional loans or personal guarantees. Its platform uses Open Banking data and AI to automate underwriting and can be embedded within accounting, banking, and other SME platforms for “in-a-click” access to funds. TRIVER secured up to £114 million to expand and streamline access to finance for UK small businesses. Amount raised: €126M Treasury is a euro-denominated Bitcoin treasury company that aims to bridge traditional finance with digital capital. It positions Bitcoin as a “digital gold” benchmark and offers a transparent, liquid, institutional-grade vehicle for BTC exposure. Treasury secured €126 million in funding and plans to list on a European stock exchange.

Last week, we tracked more than 90 tech funding deals worth over €1.5 billion, and over 10 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 90 tech funding deals worth over €1.5 billion, and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. In addition to this week's top financials, we've also indexed the most important/industry-related news items you need to know about. 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 ?? Thought Machine raises £45M as losses increase ?? Lexroom secures $19M Series A to redefine legal workflows with AI Germany’s Black Forest Labs to raise $300M at $4B valuation ?? Simple Life lands $35M to scale its AI health coach  ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ?? Dutch oncology company Merus to be acquired for €6.8B ?? Mews acquires Flexkeeping to automate housekeeping and boost guest satisfaction ?? Carya acquires Dagosoft ? Interesting moves from investors ? Former Sequoia partner Miller targets B2B AI with "unique model" VC firm ?? Why Europe's angel investors are rallying behind EU-INC's 28th Regime ? UK Government awards £4.4 million to aviation and drone tech startups ?️ In other (important) news ? Investors don’t understand AI, says founder of OpenAI safety adviser ?? The rise of female founders in AI: Lessons from Haut.AI’s journey ⏰ It’s now or never: final day to back Eu Inc.'s 28th regime ? European tech startups to watch ? Meet Cortex: Sereact’s foundation model that lets robots think on their feet ?? Finnish car-logistics pioneer Flovi rolls into Poland ? What’s in a Name: Why this AI startup honours Aaron Swartz in its mission to transform drug development

Paris-based cybersecurity startup MokN has raised €2.6 million in seed funding to accelerate its fight against credential theft and begin expansion into the United States. The round was led by Moonfire, with participation from OVNI Capital, Kima Ventures, and several business angels. MokN has developed a “phish-back” technology that proactively deceives attackers into revealing stolen credentials before they can be exploited or sold on the dark web. MokN now protects over 500,000 users and reports more than €1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), a significant milestone for an early-stage cybersecurity firm. Credential theft remains the leading entry point for cyberattacks, according to the 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. While traditional security solutions focus on detecting and blocking intrusions after they happen, MokN’s approach is designed to stop attackers earlier in the process. The company’s solution mimics real enterprise systems, such as VPNs or webmail portals, to lure in attackers. When threat actors attempt to use stolen credentials on these decoy systems, security teams are alerted and can neutralise the threat before damage is done. "We knew attackers were targeting us, but never had direct proof. Within days of deploying MokN, we intercepted credentials that had just been stolen, before any public exposure. These insights now help us reinforce our detection strategy and communicate risk clearly to the board,” said a security leader at a French multinational. Moonfire’s involvement signals growing investor interest in proactive cybersecurity tools that go beyond conventional detection and response. With this new funding, MokN plans to scale its European operations while launching commercial efforts in the United States, a market the company says currently lacks direct competitors offering similar technology. Part of MokN’s leadership team will relocate to the U.S. to stay close to customer needs and accelerate go-to-market execution. The startup will also grow its product team in France and expand its sales and marketing presence to support U.S. expansion.