Afori, a new AI platform purpose-built for insurance brokers, announced its official launch out of stealth alongside the closing of a €4 million pre-seed funding round. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Yellow and Booom. Individual backers include industry leaders Christopher Lohmann (founder of Mulberry Ventures, former CEO of HDI and Gothaer), Chris Leifeld (founder of Thinksurance), and Garrett Koehn (CIO, CRC), as well as AI pioneers Mustafa Suleyman (CEO, Microsoft AI), Alex Rinke (co-founder and co-CEO, Celonis), and Mehdi Ghissassi (formerly of Google DeepMind). Founded in 2025 by Fabian Wesemann (wefox co-founder) and Sergi Banos (wefox’s first employee and former CTO), Afori is an AI platform for insurance brokers that automates back-office work starting in the email inbox. Integrated with Outlook, it understands insurance processes, turns unstructured communications into structured workflows, and enables brokers to focus on client relationships and growth. Addressing a key industry pain point, administrative work that takes over 60 per cent of broker time, Afori’s initial product, an AI sidebar, turns emails and documents into cases with structured tasks and delegates partial automations to insurance-specific AI agents within the inbox, saving users about an hour per day on average. According to Fabian Wesemann (CEO), Afori was developed in close collaboration with brokers to reflect their terminology and workflows, ultimately giving them more time to focus on client advice. By combining Agentic AI with deep industry expertise, we’re creating a product that integrates seamlessly into brokers’ daily workflows and delivers real, tangible value from the very first day, added Sergi Banos, CTO. The pre-seed round will accelerate product development, expand integrations, and drive German market adoption, with the platform debuting at DKM 2025 in Dortmund this month.

Italy-based Maia Ventures, an early-stage agrifood tech fund, has launched its first fund valued at €55 million to back 20–25 companies, with initial tickets ranging from €0.5 million to €1.5 million. Limited partners include institutional investors such as the European Investment Fund (EIF) and CDPVenture Capital Sgr, alongside private investors including leading Italian food corporates and their family offices (e.g., Teseo Capital sicav-sif, Cereal Docks via Grey Silo Ventures, Andriani). Maia, an Article 8 SFDR fund, targets both financial returns and impact, aiming to build a healthier, more efficient, and more resilient food system. The firm positions itself as a value-add partner, linking Italy’s established food industry with high-potential startups from top accelerators, universities, and the broader agrifood tech ecosystem. The team comprises former founders, investors, industry operators, and scientists, supported by a technical advisory group with representatives from leading agrifood universities and corporates. Maia views the current agrifood tech funding downturn as an opportunity to back solutions aligned with structural shifts and pressing industry needs, with a focus on the convergence of food, health, and sustainability. The fund is managed by Praesidium S.A., a Luxembourg-based AIFM, and advised by Maia Advisors SRL. It is fully operational, has completed six investments to date, and is targeting a final close in the coming months.

Arbio, a pioneer in the service-heavy property rental sector, is announcing a $36 million Series A funding round,  bringing the company's total funding to over $45 million.  Arbio is a full-stack AI-first services company in the property management and hospitality industry, which sits right at the intersection of AI-enabled services and roll-up plays, with the ambition to become the go-to brand for short-term rental in Europe.  I spoke to Constantin Schröder, founder and CEO of Arbio, to learn more.  From the hockey field to proptech  Schröder was born and raised in Cologne, a smaller German city. For most of his life, he was a professional field hockey player: “I played in the German Bundesliga and had aspirations to make the national team. That was everything I did back then—through high school and into university.” He studied business at WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, a university renowned for producing founders behind companies such as Zalando, HelloFresh, and JOKR. “It wasn’t one of the big schools,” he says, “but a lot of founders have come out of there. It gave me a solid grounding in business and entrepreneurship.” A solution for a personal pain point After graduating, he reconnected with his oldest friend, Paul Bäumler who’d previously founded two companies: a maths-learning platform in high school that he sold when he was just eighteen, and a corporate social responsibility startup letsact, which he launched during university and sold after graduation. They decided to take a break and travel. “We started in Europe, then went to Mexico and South America,” he says. It was during that trip—in Mexico—that the idea for Arbio was born: “We stayed in maybe ten or twelve Airbnbs,” he remembers. “Some were beautiful, but the overall experience was often disappointing: unreliable hosts, inconsistent standards, no 24/7 check-in or support. We realised that most small hosts couldn’t be on-site or manage round-the-clock communication. There was a clear pain point—but also a big opportunity, because Airbnbs still offered more flexibility and value than hotels.” Modernising an outdated industry There are 6.5+ million alternative accommodation properties in Europe,but managing them is stuck in the 20th century.  Owners face unpredictable returns, endless hassle, and poor reviews, while guests experience increasing inconsistency.  Traditional property managers claim they can help owners self-manage their properties by relying on legacy software, creating a patched-up, inefficient solution.  Turning a passion project into a dynamic, scalable business Back in Berlin, the founders of Arbio started digging into the local Airbnb market.  “At first, it was just a passion project,” he says. “We took over a small hosting business from someone who owned a beautiful apartment in central Berlin with great reviews. We did everything ourselves—cleaning, guest communication, even setting up baby beds for families. I remember scrubbing bathrooms with toothbrushes to get between the tiles!” Their hands-on approach paid off.  “Within a few months, we’d significantly increased that property’s revenue,” he says. “We introduced technology like a dynamic pricing algorithm, which made a big difference. That’s when we realised there was huge potential to improve both the guest experience and host operations.” The team noticed that most small property managers charged the same rate year-round—maybe slightly higher at Christmas — and didn’t sync pricing across booking platforms. It therefore built an algorithm that collects vast market data — how others price similar properties — and correlates it with live search volume and demand on Booking.com, Google, etc. It updates prices daily to optimise occupancy and revenue. “That product immediately increased income for property owners while maintaining guest satisfaction. It showed us technology could genuinely uplift both sides.” Since then, Arbio has grown quickly, raised venture capital and venture debt, expanded into Germany, Austria, and the UK, and manage over a thousand units. AI as Arbio’s engine Arbio's AI-native operating system that acts as a full-stack property manager. Thanks to AI workflows, it automates distribution, accounting, operations, guest communications, and dynamic pricing, delivering higher revenues, lower costs, and peace of mind for owners. Guests benefit from personalised stays, faster responses, and standardised quality. AI is core to Arbio, as Schröder stresses:  “We’re a technology-first, AI-first company. Everything revolves around product development that simplifies owners’ and guests’ lives.” He explained that AI enables the company to build and iterate faster while empowering teams to develop their own internal tools. According to Schröder, AI underpins three key areas: pricing optimisation, using machine learning across vast datasets; operational orchestration, where large language models automate communication between guests, owners, and service providers; and internal efficiency, allowing every department to solve problems autonomously. “Long-term, I think 90–95 per cent of what’s now done manually in property management can be automated,” he added. “Of course, physical tasks like cleaning and maintenance will still need people for quite a while—robots aren’t climbing Berlin staircases yet!”  This technology-first approach has enabled 1,000+ units currently under management across DACH,  10x revenue growth in the last two years, and 30+ strategic acquisitions completed through its dedicated M&A team. Balancing tech in property management Property management has traditionally been a very people-facing industry—hotel front desks and so on. Now there’s a tech wave—digital check-ins, automated communication.  However, Schröder believes that software alone doesn’t solve hospitality.  “Many solutions are pure tech — they sell AI software to property managers or owners. We take a different approach: being both a property-management company and a software builder. You need human touch to deliver real quality. Software can’t comfort a guest stuck in the rain who can’t check in. So we use AI to enhance—not replace — people. We extend the capabilities of those who have deep hospitality knowledge, enabling them to manage more properties efficiently.” He imagines a future where a team of 30–40 people can manage tens of thousands of units — “because we’ve automated the right things while keeping local teams for hands-on needs.” Arbio believes in a vertically integrated model—not just matching homes to guests, but guaranteeing quality. Schröder believes that Airbnb can’t always do that; “they have too much inventory.  And with AI-driven search tools like ChatGPT or Google’s travel results, I think we’ll see new discovery patterns and more niche travel platforms emerging.” According to Schröder, last year they began heavily building out their product with AI to orchestrate all communication between guests, property owners, and service providers. He asserts: “Our mission is to build “the one home for holiday homes,” where property owners who struggle with operations—and guests who struggle with reliability—both find a solution. When guests tell us they had a wonderful honeymoon at one of our apartments, or an owner says we’ve made their life less stressful—that’s what drives me.” Competing with hotels, not residents Importantly, addressing concerns about gentrification and housing shortages, particularly in cities like Barcelona, where short-term rentals face criticism, Schröder clarified that Arbio operates under a completely different model.  “We don’t use residential properties at all,” he explained. “We only operate in spaces with commercial licenses, designed from the start for hospitality use—just like hotels” He emphasised that this represents “a tiny fraction of the total market” and doesn’t affect local housing availability. “Housing shortages come from financial speculation and poor city planning, not regulated holiday-home use,” he said. “We see ourselves competing with hotels, not residents.” With the Series A funding, Arbio plans high-speed expansion across Europe, targeting hundreds of thousands of property owners who would benefit from its AI-native management platform. The company's technology-driven approach to scaling operations positions it to handle this expansion while maintaining its lean operational model.  Eurazeo led the funding, with investors including Open Ocean and previous investors Atlantic Labs and leading angels Philipp Freise and Justin Reizes (KKR), Johannes Reck and TaoTao (GetYourGuide) and DinBisevac (Buena), amongst others.  Elise Stern, Investment Director at Eurazeo, said:“ Arbio is pioneering an AI-native model in one of Europe’s largest and least digitised service sectors. By combining technology, data, and operational excellence, they’re redefining what property owners and guests can expect. We believe Arbio will become the category leader in the multi-billion-euro holiday rental management space, and we are excited to support them in this ambition.”  The funding will accelerate Arbio's acquisition pipeline, enhance its AI capabilities, and support expansion into new European markets where vacation rental management remains fragmented and owners are underserved. 

Every enterprise runs on B2B transactions - the purchase orders, shipping notices, invoices, payments, and claims that form the heartbeat of modern commerce. When these flows align, shelves are stocked, supply chains move, and customers are happy. When they don’t, the cost is both immediate and compounding. For decades, electronic data interchange (EDI) systems provided the backbone for these flows. Today, however, new layers of technology, from APIs and managed file transfer to event streaming and cloud-based ERP, have created a hybrid landscape that is faster but far more fragmented. Each system captures part of the truth, but none can see the whole story. The result is a hidden loss that drains enterprise value every year. The invisible cost of disconnection Many organisations believe their current tools provide full visibility. Yet, in practice, most still struggle to reconcile transactions end to end. Files move, APIs fire, and dashboards go green. But behind the scenes, purchase orders go missing, invoices don’t match, and payments stall without explanation. The result is what experts increasingly call the assurance gap. This is the space between knowing something happened and proving it happened correctly and completely. Across industries, that gap has measurable financial and operational consequences: Between one and five percent of EBITDA is lost each year through chargebacks, deductions, and disputes. Compliance teams spend weeks preparing audits because records cannot be reconciled across systems. Modernisation projects stall because leaders fear losing visibility during migrations. Partners and regulators lose trust when continuity cannot be demonstrated. How confident are most enterprises that they could prove every transaction completed as intended? Monitoring is not assurance Most enterprises assume that their combination of monitoring and observability tools covers these scenarios. The problem is that these platforms only provide technical insight - not business assurance. EDI gateways confirm delivery but purge records after 30 days. API platforms show success codes but not whether transactions match downstream. Observability tools highlight performance metrics but not whether shipments, invoices, and payments align. The gap between activity and truth remains. “In complex B2B ecosystems, visibility alone isn’t enough, ” writes Andrew Mallaband. “Enterprises now need proof of continuity - the ability to demonstrate that every transaction completes, reconciles, and complies. ” A new layer of assurance This challenge has given rise to a new capability known as B2B flow intelligence, a unifying layer that provides cross-system visibility, reconciliation, and auditability. It does not replace existing systems but overlays them to correlate, track, and prove the continuity of transactions across multiple technologies. At the data layer, B2B flow intelligence correlates transaction identifiers, timestamps, and acknowledgements across systems to reconstruct an unbroken lineage from order to settlement. At its core, B2B flow intelligence delivers: Unified lineage - linking all data from order to payment across EDI, APIs, ERPs, and partner portals. Real-time exception detection - spotting missing acknowledgements, duplicates, or mismatches instantly. Contextual routing - sending exceptions to the right resolver with full traceability. Immutable history - creating long-term, tamper-proof records for audits and regulators. This combination turns reconciliation from a reactive burden into proactive assurance. Industry snapshots The effects of the assurance gap vary by sector, but the underlying cause is the same, fragmented visibility. In retail, peak trading periods such as Black Friday reveal how fragile order-to-cash continuity has become. A single missing shipping notice can trigger millions in chargebacks and strained supplier relations. In pharmaceuticals, a missing chain-of-custody record can delay shipments or regulatory approvals, disrupting both revenue and patient care. In banking, complex payment modernisation programmes, such as the migration to ISO 20022, demand complete reconciliation across legacy and modern systems to avoid costly compliance breaches. These examples highlight how a purely technical view of system health no longer guarantees business continuity. What enterprises gain Organisations implementing B2B flow intelligence are realising quantifiable outcomes: Leaner operations - 50 to 70 percent reduction in reconciliation effort. Margin protection - 1 to 5 percent of EBITDA safeguarded. Modernisation with confidence - ERP and API migrations delivered on time, without data loss. Audit readiness - 60 percent faster audit preparation with immutable lineage. Stronger trust - partners, customers, and regulators share the same source of truth. CFOs see measurable protection of margin. CIOs gain confidence that transformation programmes will not disrupt business continuity. Compliance teams eliminate the manual scramble before every audit. The value is enterprise-wide. From visibility to proof The adoption of B2B flow intelligence signals a broader shift across industries, from monitoring systems to proving outcomes. Monitoring shows that something moved. Observability shows how it moved. Assurance proves it moved correctly. That assurance is fast becoming a board-level priority. It protects profit, strengthens compliance, and restores trust across the digital supply chain. A growing movement Several enterprise platforms are now developing capabilities in this space, bringing together data correlation, lineage, and governance. One example is meshIQ, which has extended its operational intelligence suite to deliver cross-system reconciliation and assurance for hybrid B2B environments. While approaches may differ, the direction of travel is clear. Enterprises no longer just need to observe. They need to prove.

Most small and medium-sized businesses face a dangerous paradox: they need robust Identity and Access Management to protect their data and systems, but the traditional IAM platforms designed for enterprises — with their six-month implementations, mandatory consultant fees, and requirement to upgrade every software tool to expensive enterprise plans — aren't built for companies of their size. I came across Stackbob.ai during a recent visit to Lviv for the IT Arena conference. It's a Ukraine-founded startup that uses AI to help SMEs and mid-market companies overcome the cybersecurity poverty line, where IAM has traditionally been too complex, too slow, and too costly for anyone but large enterprises. The company won two prizes in the pitch competition at IT Arena 2025:  3rd prize in the Business Track and the most interesting startup of the IT Arena. It's built a cybersecurity platform that helps businesses manage employee access across all the software tools they use. I spoke to CEO Ole Shved to learn more.  From $100M exit team to starting over in wartime Ukraine According to Shved, everything really started ten years ago. He'd worked at several B2B startups and at his last company before StackBob, he met his current co-founder, Yarik Rozum, when he hired him as one of the lead engineers.  The duo worked together for about three years. That company—called Ad-Lib—was later acquired by Smartly.io for around $100 million.  He admits, "We were employees there, not founders, but it was still an incredible experience being part of an exit." At the end of 2021, Rozum went to work for a Seattle-based company, and while Shved (originally from Kyiv) was figuring out what to do next in Lviv, Russia's invasion of UK started. "When the war broke out, everything changed. We started helping people evacuate, driving them to the borders, and buying supplies for the army. For a while, I should go and fight, because everyone around me was so motivated. But there were long lines everywhere to join, and a friend of mine in Kyiv told me it was the same there. Eventually, when Kyiv became safer, I went back. When I got back to Kyiv, I met with Yarik again. He said, 'We've always wanted to do something together, and it turns out life is finite — you never know when you might die. Maybe we should do it now.' And that's how StackBob started." Breaking the "API and SSO tax" SStackbob's proprietary AI agents automate access and license management without SAML SSO or SCIM API integrations, cutting implementation from months to days and making enterprise-grade IAM affordable to companies that were previously locked out. tackbob's focus is on small and midsize businesses —" we call it breaking the cybersecurity poverty line, shared Shved.  "Those are the organisations that need protection and automation but can't afford or manage enterprise-level IAM systems." According to Shved, existing IAM platforms like Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, and others all share three significant issues because they're built on older generations of technology. "The first problem is what we call the API and SSO tax. If you're a midsize company and want to manage employee access centrally across all your tools, you have to upgrade every single one of those tools to its enterprise plan — because the connectivity features are locked there. So you pay for the most expensive plan just to get SSO access." "It's basically a massive vendor lock-in, he shared, asserting, "I sometimes call it a cartel." "It's even become standard advice for startups: 'Just add SSO and call it an enterprise plan, then charge two, three, or four times more. For midsize companies, it's ridiculous—they can't afford that. It's a huge burden." The second problem is the setup complexity. Implementing these systems takes months — sometimes six, nine, or even twelve months — and requires highly skilled engineers or consultants.  Shved shared that this is standard for many Series A or Series B companies. "And in the end, you still have parts of the stack that can't be integrated because there's no compatible protocol. So you end up managing some tools manually or using spreadsheets." So the team thought: How can we do this differently? How can we minimise our reliance on APIs and legacy protocols such as SAML or SCIM? From APIs to AI agents After several iterations, the idea emerged to utilise AI agents and browser automation for integrating and managing any web application.  "That means we don't need APIs at all, and the company doesn't need to upgrade to enterprise plans," Shved explained. "You simply invite our agent — just an email address—to your software tools. It acts as an AI administrator in the cloud and uses browser automation to perform actions like onboarding, , password resets, and permission changes, exactly as a human would do in a web interface." Closing the offboarding gap Critically, Stackbob also solves the problem of offboarding — I know I'm not the only one who has had access to an ex-employer's accounts months after leaving. Shved often finds that employees leave, but their accounts stay active across CRMs, analytics tools, or internal systems.  "It's a serious security gap, and most companies don't even realise it until there's an incident. Our agents automatically detect and revoke access across every integrated tool, without needing traditional IAM setup." The platform also addresses shadow IT — where employees use tools or apps without approval – by automatically discovering all the tools employees log into, "even the ones management doesn't know about. It gives full visibility." To achieve this, Stackbob built its own integration engine supported by a pretrained model that helps automate the process.  As a result, it can integrate all your applications — third-party, custom-built, or even legacy tools.  According to Shved, "as long as there's a browser interface for managing users, our agent can work with it. "If it runs in a browser, we can manage it" "Our marketing team likes to say we can integrate with more than 300,000 applications. It's probably true! Basically, if it runs in a browser, we can manage it." Stackbob started a little over three years ago and, in 2023,  joined the Techstars Seattle accelerator, which helped it expand into the US market and start signing US customers. Currently, the company is expanding into the UK and Nordic markets to strengthen its European presence, and with its growing customer base Ultimately, Stackbob is proving that there's significant demand for IAM solutions built for the 99 per cent of companies left behind by traditional platforms.

The Tech.eu Q3 2025 Report reveals that European tech companies raised €21 billion across over 900 deals during the third quarter of 2025. Approximately 14.1 per cent of these companies successfully closed seed rounds, amounting to over half a billion euros (€587.8 million). Today, we share the list of the 10 largest seed rounds among European tech companies that were completed in Q3 2025. Amount raised: €25M Donut Lab is a company that offers a full-stack EV hardware platform featuring modular, plug-and-play components including in-wheel motors, batteries, compute units, and software. Their in-wheel “Donut Motors” deliver high torque and power density, eliminating the need for traditional drivetrains. The platform is designed for electric mobility across land, air, marine, and robotics markets. Donut Lab’s modular approach reduces development complexity and accelerates time to market. In July, the company raised €25 million in seed funding, supporting the validation of Donut’s drivetrain-free architecture, engineered for flexible use across land, sea, and air applications. Amount raised: $27M Tulum Energy is a climate-tech company developing a methane pyrolysis platform to produce “turquoise” hydrogen and solid carbon from natural gas or biogas, without CO₂ emissions. The technology repurposes electric arc furnaces commonly used in steel production to crack methane molecules thermally, enabling a scalable, energy-efficient route to hydrogen. Tulum aims to bring hydrogen production costs down to parity with conventional grey hydrogen, positioning its technology as a viable, lower-emission alternative in heavy industries. In July 2025, the company secured a $27 million seed round to build a pilot plant in Pesquería, Mexico, within Ternium’s industrial complex. Amount raised: $26M Arago is a Paris-based AI and computer hardware company developing an energy-efficient photonic AI processor that uses light instead of electricity, paired with a full software stack for standard framework compatibility. The approach targets data centres and edge AI with high throughput and significantly lower power consumption. Arago raised $26 million in seed funding in July to accelerate the commercialisation of its photonic processor, codenamed “JEF”. Amount raised: $25M Maisa is an enterprise automation company building accountable AI agents that execute complex, decision-heavy workflows with full traceability. Its platform provides a “Chain of Work”, a step-by-step, auditable record of every action, decision, tool, and rule used, so teams can deploy digital workers that are explainable and compliant rather than black boxes. Maisa is model-agnostic and offers developer docs and a studio for building agents, alongside its research into the Vinci Knowledge Processing Unit (KPU) to improve reasoning and tool use at inference time. Following a $25 million seed round closed in August, the company launched Maisa Studio, a model-agnostic, self-serve platform that enables users to deploy digital workers trainable through natural language. Amount raised: €21M Paid is a business engine built for AI agents, managing pricing, subscriptions, margins, billing, and renewals with minimal integration. It allows agent companies to monetise automatically, track per-agent profitability, and implement outcome- or usage-based pricing models without building custom billing infrastructure. The company aims to help AI agent developers capture more value and scale revenue operations. The company closed a €21 million seed round in September to further develop its results-based billing infrastructure for AI agents and expand its offering to more enterprise customers. Amount raised: $20M Motor Ai is a Berlin-based startup working to accelerate the development of autonomous mobility systems. It offers an operating system for robots and vehicles that handles perception, planning, and control, enabling developers to build and deploy autonomous agents. Motor AI combines modular software architecture with real-world data to support robotic delivery, autonomous shuttles, last-mile logistics, and mobility applications. MOTOR Ai closed a $20 million seed round to deploy its certified, neuroscience-based autonomous driving technology, beginning with public road trials in Germany. Amount raised: $18M THEKER Robotics is a company specialising in AI-driven inspection robotics and infrastructure solutions. Its technology enables autonomous visual inspection of industrial facilities such as pipelines, bridges, and offshore equipment using drones and robotic platforms. THEKER Robotics integrates advanced perception, simulation, and automation to improve safety, reduce downtime, and lower inspection costs. In July, the company raised $18 million to advance AI-driven industrial automation. Amount raised: €12M Kongsberg Ferrotech provides robotic solutions for inspection, repair, and maintenance (IRM) of underwater infrastructure in the energy and maritime sectors. Using remotely operated robots, it offers all subsea IRM services in a single operation. Since 2021, it has been collaborating with Equinor, SINTEF, and Gassco to develop in situ 3D metal-to-metal printing for underwater repairs. In July, the company raised €12 million to advance its technology for improving the repair and maintenance of critical underwater infrastructure worldwide. Amount raised: €11M Brainr is a company that develops AI agents to review, verify, and summarise video content at scale. Its system uses multimodal reasoning across video, audio, and visual metadata to automatically detect events, anomalies, and quality issues. Clients in media, sports, and brand safety use Brainr’s agents to streamline monitoring workflows, reduce moderation costs, and enhance trust in content. With €11 million raised in September, BRAINR plans to support key growth initiatives, including international expansion to new regions and facilities, and to accelerate its research and development in artificial intelligence. Amount raised: $12M Conduct.ai is a startup developing autonomous agents for workplace automation. Its platform enables users to deploy AI agents that execute multi-step workflows, such as document review, data entry, or complex decision paths, and integrates with enterprise systems and business tools. Conduct.ai emphasises transparency, audit Trails, and user control, aiming to give organisations scalable, responsible automation. In September, Conduct closed a $12 million seed round and emerged from stealth with a mission to lead the largest transformation in enterprise IT by modernising legacy ERP systems

It’s the week after Italian Tech Week and the likes of Jeff Bezos have packed up their private jets and zoomed back to wherever the Tech Bros go next. The Jet Set are always on the move, but sometimes it’s better to go to a place after they’ve left. So it was in Turin last week, lying provocatively in the foothills of the Alps to the north-west of the city. The sun was out and the atmosphere felt Himalayan. Fresh air and the days that autumn sometimes delivers. Crisp and optimistic, beautiful and powerful. Bezos spoke the previous week about AI while President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen effused about the European tech ecosystem, perhaps over-effused about it, but maybe that was the point. As China and the US apparently race ahead, it is sometimes wise to listen to Aesop and the tale of the hare and tortoise. Slow and steady regularly wins that race. Italy often gets overlooked when it comes to that ecosystem of Europe. London, Paris and Berlin abound, and the likes of Lisbon, Madrid, and Stockholm make it on to the PowerPoint slides of venture capitalists everywhere. But Italy, quietly and historically, has great DNA when it comes to the history of global technology. Because before Silicon Valley, before the Valley was Silicon, before the word ‘startup’ was even coined, there was Olivetti. The House of Olivetti Olivetti was not merely a company; it was an idea dressed in steel and typewriter ribbon. Founded in 1908 in Ivrea, a small town an hour north of Turin, Olivetti made machines that looked and felt like the future. Sleek, ergonomic; sensual even. They were Italian design meeting industrial modernity, la dolce vita for the office desk. In an era when machines were built to intimidate, Olivetti built machines to seduce. The Lettera 22 typewriter, still a design classic, was so elegant it made Hemingway switch from pen to typewriter keys. Its lines were the Ferrari of the literary world. The Valentine, designed by Ettore Sottsass in 1969, turned the typewriter into pop art, bright red plastic and portable, a statement of joy in a world of grey. But beauty wasn’t the only thing Olivetti understood. They were a company decades ahead of their time in understanding the human side of technology. Adriano Olivetti, the founder’s son, believed that capitalism could be compassionate. Workers were given healthcare, housing, cultural activities - an ecosystem before ecosystems were fashionable. And when the computer age came calling, Olivetti didn’t shy away. They built one of Europe’s first commercially available electronic computers, the Elea 9003, in 1959, designed by architect-engineer Mario Tchou. It was modular, modern and magnetic. Italy, not California, had the world’s first programmable transistorised computer. For a brief, incandescent moment, Europe had its own Silicon Valley in Piedmont. But the dream was fragile. Tchou died in a car accident in 1961, and Adriano Olivetti had passed away the year before. Without its visionaries, Olivetti faltered. The Americans came, the Japanese came, and Ivrea became a footnote. But DNA, as any biologist or investor will tell you, doesn’t disappear. It mutates. It re-emerges and Ivrea wasn’t a footnote at all because it gave rise to the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (also known as Interaction Ivrea or IDII), which brought together the founders of Arduino… and the reason I’ve flown into Turin. From Typewriters to Tinkerers Fast forward six decades, and Italy’s technological pulse beats again. Not in the boardrooms of multinationals, but in the workshops and labs of a new kind of maker, the open-source engineer. And like Olivetti, this rebirth began not in a metropolis but in a small town with a big idea. In 2005, in Ivrea, yes, the same Ivrea, five academics at the Interaction Design Institute created Arduino. Named after a local bar, the project aimed to make electronics accessible to artists, designers, and anyone with curiosity and a soldering iron. It also makes for a cracking founders’ story. Arduino’s open-source microcontroller became the democratisation of hardware. Suddenly, creators didn’t need to work for Intel or Apple to build something smart. They could be a teenager in Naples, a teacher in Nairobi, or an engineer in Nagoya. If they had an idea and a USB cable, they could prototype the future. Arduino became the quiet backbone of the maker revolution, powering everything from drones to 3D printers to wearable tech. Its ethos was pure Olivetti: design for humans, technology for all. And last week, in the autumn of 2025, history looped back on itself. The Qualcomm Connection Qualcomm announced its acquisition of Arduino last week, in a move that surprised some but made perfect sense to anyone who’s followed both companies closely. The announcement was made to the press in the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile, another stunning example of Italian design. Later that afternoon, the buoyant founders of Arduino invited their fans to watch a two-hour show of the company where much whooping ensued. When people love Arduino, they really love Arduino. For Qualcomm, the deal is about cementing dominance in the edge-computing and IoT markets. For Arduino, it’s the next evolutionary step, from a homespun and beloved open-source ecosystem to a scalable industrial force. But there’s a poetic resonance too. Once again, a company born in Ivrea finds itself at the crossroads of design and computation, of Europe and America, of idealism and industry. Qualcomm’s CEO, Cristiano Amon, was quick to praise Arduino’s ‘deep community roots and agile innovation culture’, but beneath the corporate phrasing lies something more symbolic. Arduino represents a continuity of European ingenuity that refuses to die, even when the capital, headlines, and hype migrate elsewhere. This acquisition, if handled wisely, could turn Arduino into the beating heart of Europe’s next industrial renaissance. Picture the combination: Qualcomm’s chip architecture and global reach married to Arduino’s ecosystem of millions of developers, educators and makers. Everybody wins. Europe’s Eternal Autumn Turin in autumn is a metaphor for Europe itself, mature, reflective, quietly confident. The leaves turn gold not because they’re dying, but because they’re transforming. Europe has long been accused of being the old continent, content to watch the technological revolutions happen elsewhere. But maybe, just maybe, that’s changing. The EU’s newfound assertiveness on AI regulation, digital sovereignty and semiconductor independence, backed by initiatives such as the Chips Act, suggests a Europe finally aware of its strengths. Italy, in particular, has a knack for reinvention. Its art, architecture and cuisine have evolved for centuries without losing their soul. Now, its technology seems poised to follow suit. From Olivetti’s typewriters to Arduino’s microcontrollers, the country’s influence has always been about elegance meeting engineering. As the world wrestles with the ethical and existential questions of AI, it’s worth remembering that innovation doesn’t just happen in code; it happens in culture. And culture is something Europe has in abundance. The Long View If Adriano Olivetti were alive today, he might smile at the symmetry. The machines have changed, no more typebars or ribbons, but the principles haven’t. Design still matters. Accessibility still matters. Human-centred technology still matters. Arduino’s story, culminating (or perhaps beginning anew) with Qualcomm, is proof that Europe’s technological past is not a museum piece but a living continuum. It’s not nostalgia; it’s lineage. Maybe it takes an American acquisition to remind Europe of its own potential. Or maybe this time, Europe will take the lesson and build something lasting again, something that doesn’t just compete with Silicon Valley but complements it, offering a different vision of what technology can be. As the mist rolls down from the Alps and the streets of Turin glow in the soft light of October and the Arduino fanboys and fangirls leave the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile, it’s been a very good day. Because autumn, after all, isn’t the end of something, it’s the preparation for renewal. And in that sense, Europe’s best season may just be beginning. Maybe that’s what Ursula von der Leyen was really trying to say last week.

Last week, we tracked more than 65 tech funding deals worth over €1.1 billion, and over 15 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.

London-based AI home care platform Gladys has raised £1.5 million in seed funding led by Cornerstone VC, with participation from Exceptional Ventures, Embryo Ventures, Ufi Ventures, Houghton Street Ventures, and Conduit EIS Impact Fund. Gladys connects families with local caregivers and helpers through a streamlined, AI-supported experience, enabling direct matching and coordination without traditional intermediaries. Co-founded by Georgina Robinson and Alex Sorisi, the company focuses on simplifying access to support, improving care quality, and solving the logistics needed to deliver home care at scale, reducing client costs and increasing carers’ earnings. The platform matches people seeking care with top local carers across the UK, offering high-quality support at fair prices, alongside industry-leading pay and career-development tools for carers. According to co-founder and CEO Georgina Robinson, Britain’s care system is fundamentally broken, and incremental fixes aren’t enough, with preventable deaths continuing as carers remain underpaid and undervalued. Gladys is using this investment to supercharge its technology and deliver the service we’d want for our loved ones. To date, Gladys has delivered care across a 20,000 km area and supported tens of thousands of hours of independent living. Its AI-powered agents simplify finding and managing community care and help carers earn up to 65 per cent more than typical agency rates. The new funding will support a national rollout, deployment of AI back-office agents, and investment in trusted local care communities, with the goal of delivering hundreds of thousands of hours of support by the end of 2026.

Resistant AI, a provider of native artificial intelligence models for financial crime and fraud prevention, has raised $25 million  Series B funding.  Resistant AI produces document fraud detection and transaction monitoring models that make fintech AI and automation systems resilient to manipulation and attack — without replacing their existing tech stack. Resistant Documents checks any document, from anywhere, for fraud and authenticity in seconds, while Resistant Transactions upgrades existing rules-based transaction monitoring systems with over 80 models targeting advanced fincrime typologies.  Its customers include Dun & Bradstreet, Payoneer, Close Brothers, AXA, PennyMac,  Bank of Valletta and Finom. Investors include DTCP, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Index  Ventures, Notion Capital, and more. The new funding comes as the anti-fraud and regtech market is being transformed by fully native or bolted-on agentic solutions that replace static workflows with cheaper, smarter adaptive ones.  However, these LLM-based agents are structurally unable to perform the quantitative risk analysis needed to combat fraud and finance crime, suffer from high systemic hallucination rates of 10-30 per cent, and have proven extremely difficult to keep secure from adversarial manipulation.   Resistant AI aims to protect and empower these AI agents and their overwhelmed fraud,  risk and compliance teams. Its machine learning models detect fraud in documents, transactions, and behaviours, and can leverage signals from the rest of the customer’s risk tech stack. This unique approach creates unparalleled uplifts in recall, precision, and contextual decision-making in detecting sophisticated financial crimes such as real-time payment (APP) fraud, synthetic corporate identity fraud, money muling, generative AI document fraud, and complex money laundering schemes.   Since its $27 million Series A, Resistant AI’s ARR has increased 10x, while its customer base has grown 4x, with over 150 million documents verified, and the number of transactions analysed for fraud and AML has grown 100x as demand for advanced fraud detection capabilities across the financial services sector soars.  Martin Rehak, CEO and Founder of Resistant AI, said, "The financial crime landscape has fundamentally changed with the deployment of LLMs and AI agents in risk prevention settings, and the weaponisation of generative AI by fraudsters.” “Our fraud and finance crime models offer any institution the tools to empower both their human and agentic co-pilots to combat these AI-powered threats at scale. This funding, combined with our near-term  path to profitability, allows us to accelerate our mission of protecting the global financial  system from increasingly sophisticated criminal networks."  DTCP led the round, with strong participation from existing investors including GV, and Notion Capital, who are doubling down on their investment.  Michael Rager, Partner at DTCP Growth, comments: "Resistant AI represents the future of financial crime prevention, with their in-house built multi-model approach to fraud detection marking a paradigm shift in how financial institutions can protect themselves and their customers. We look forward to partnering with Martin and the Resistant AI team to  support the business in its next stage of growth."  The company, which was breakeven in September, will use the capital to solidify its position as a profitable EU AI champion by expanding its document fraud detection and transaction.

Meta-Flux, a Dublin-based biotech startup, has raised €1.8M in Seed funding to expand its decision-support platform for preclinical drug development, bridging the gap between preclinical research and clinical application.  Acting as an “AI biologist,” the platform analyses complex biological, clinical, and experimental datasets to help scientists test hypotheses, identify promising therapeutic pathways, and make faster go/no-go decisions.  Specifically, Meta-Flux combines data from genes, proteins, and metabolic pathways, applying biological reasoning with AI to reveal how biological systems function as a whole.  By turning vast amounts of data into clear, actionable insights, Meta-Flux helps researchers reduce wasted effort, lower costs, and accelerate the development of new treatments. This systems-level view helps drug developers discover better treatments faster, avoid costly dead ends, and bring medicines to patients sooner. “Bringing a new drug to market is slow, expensive, and uncertain. Too often, promising drugs fail because researchers can’t clearly predict how they’ll behave,” said founder Lee Sherlock.   “A lot of drugs end up failing because they have the wrong application. Our goal isn’t just to get more drugs to market, but to make sure the ones that do actually help the right people. Once you have that drug and once you have the target, we help you figure out what application you should go after, what particular type of disease, what subtype of that disease, and what patients you’re going to be treating.” The round includes backing from senior executives at Pfizer, Merck, and Gilead Sciences, along with technology leaders from Google, Amazon, and Indeed. “In a market saturated with AI claims, Meta‑Flux stands out because it delivers actionable answers,” said Fernando Ferrer, a data engineering leader and investor in Meta-Flux. “Their platform gives scientists a way to cut through the noise and accelerate the path from development to decision.” A senior director in R&D at Gilead Sciences, also an investor in Meta-Flux, added: “Over the next 12 to 18 months, I expect AI to transform preclinical research, accelerate discovery, improve prediction accuracy, and reduce costs. The key for big pharma is identifying valuable AI partners in an increasingly crowded space, those who marry deep biological insight with advanced modelling to address focused, high-impact questions. Meta-Flux exemplifies this biology-first approach, zeroing in on niche scientific challenges that unlock outsized commercial value and turning AI’s promise into tangible breakthroughs.” Meta-Flux recently completed Techstars Chicago (powered by J.P. Morgan), MassBio DRIVE in Boston, and the NDRC Accelerator at Dogpatch Labs in Dublin, programs that connect emerging techbio companies with pharma mentors and investors. The company is now building out its team to support pharmaceutical collaborations across the EU and the United States. Lead image: Meta-Flux. Photo: uncredited. 

This week we tracked more than 65 tech funding deals worth over €1.1 billion, and over 15 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 ?? Hyped AI business automation startup n8n raises $180M, valuing it at $2.5BN ?? Biotechnology startup NanoPhoria received €83.5M in investment ??  FBI cyber threat adviser Filigran raises $58M ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ?? Qualcomm acquires Arduino to supercharge the global maker movement ? SoftBank bets on “Physical AI” with $5.4B acquisition of ABB’s robotics division ?? Helsing acquires Australian manufacturer of underwater drones ?? Tax System acquires AI vendor Loctax ? Interesting moves from investors ? From community roots to AI ambitions: byFounders shapes the 'New Nordics’ next chapter ?? Deep Tech Momentum secures €1M to accelerate Europe’s sovereign tech ambitions ? 4Founders Capital successfully closes its third fund with €70 million, exceeding its initial target ?️ In other (important) news ?? Europe’s tech rebounds to €21B in Q3 2025 — but fewer deals signal a more selective market ?? The biggest European semiconductor deals in H1 2025 ? ChatGPT has more than 800 million weekly active users, says Altman ? Recommended reads and listens ?? Bologna Gathering showcases Italy’s rising innovation momentum ? LIfT BioSciences is engineering the body’s oldest defenders to fight cancer ♀️  Sylvia Health takes on a global women’s health crisis ♀️ Choice and SilMach unveil world’s first wireless micromotor-powered contraceptive implant ? European tech startups to watch ??  Ewake secures €2M to boost software reliability with AI agents ?? Datamonk raises €1.6M pre-seed to speed imaging data migrations with agentic AI ?? Austrian startup newsrooms raises €750K to transform AI-driven content creation ?? BiMA raises €500K for screen-free projector bringing mindful entertainment to children ?? Crasner Ventures backs British legaltech NuCAS

Over the past five years, several major micromobility operators have exited European markets or specific cities due to regulatory changes, financial pressures, or strategic pivots. Bird pulled out of Germany, Sweden, and Norway in October 2022. Spin, which Ford later sold to TIER, withdrew from Germany, Spain, and Portugal in early 2022. Superpedestrian, operator of the LINK brand, shut down globally in late 2023 and officially dissolved its European entity in July 2025. Paris banned shared e-scooters in September 2023, prompting Lime, Dott, and TIER to leave, resulting in the removal of 15,000 e-scooters; Madrid followed suit in October 2024, affecting the same operators; and in Brussels, Lime suspended operations in mid-2025 after a licensing ruling. But what happens to the fleets afterwards? It's a problem Max Schalow knows first-hand. In a fast-changing micromobility landscape shaped by regulation, market exits, and circular economy pressures, Max Schalow stands out as a young entrepreneur who has navigated nearly every part of the value chain — from launching shared mobility services and building legal vehicles, to creating secondary markets and exploring new geographies. From student to startup founder Schalow's mobility journey began in 2019 in the Netherlands, a time when e-scooters were banned from use on public roads. He recalled: "If you rode one, you could get a €400 fine. We wanted to introduce scooter sharing in the Netherlands, but to do this, we needed to obtain a legal scooter first. So then we had to become a manufacturer. After setting this up for a year, going through the developments and everything, we saw it was going to take a little bit longer than expected." Never one to sit idle, Schalow seized the chance to launch an e-bike sharing venture, co-founding Bondi with fellow student Chingiskhan Kazakhstan during their first year at the University of Applied Sciences of Arnhem and Nijmegen. Developed during their studies with €135,000 from the Gelderland Valoriseert program, Bondi introduced sustainable e-bike and e-scooter sharing in Dutch cities and grew to a 10-person team. Schalow modestly recounted: "It was an opportunity to build up a customer base, get the brand out there, learn how to do the operations and everything else. We ran that for two years and scaled that to eight cities." However, the duo decided to focus on manufacturing the e-scooter.  Selling off e-scooters was hard — so they built a marketplace But Schalow discovered it was not easy to sell their existing fleet of electric vehicles: "We just reached out to everyone. So first, the big companies — because we thought, okay, they probably want vehicles for a good price or like the ones that are close by. But in the end, we started reaching out to all these small operators who have fewer vehicles.Ultimately we went through a painful process of trying to find buyers. But a lot of operators don't know who to reach out to." Enter Fleetser, a curated marketplace for buying and selling (new and used) mobility fleets — primarily e-bikes, e-scooters, and other shared micro-mobility vehicles.  The platform positions itself as a more efficient, transparent way for mobility operators to offload or replenish inventory.  The team's experience operating in the shared mobility sector gives them domain credibility in matching buyers and sellers, and they have sold over 6,000+ vehicles to date," offering support such as payment, transport, and software to smooth the process.  It's a fairly simple process: you specify what you want to buy or sell via a form, they connect you to interested parties, and then you arrange pickup/shipment (which they can assist with Circular mobility meets market opportunity "We're literally getting new offers every day. We've got a lot of buyers, shared Schalow.  "We have a big mailing list, and sometimes we can sell them already within two days of the listing going up." The 2010's were abundant with stories of e-bike graveyards following the demise of operators and fleets.  The 2020s have brought greater awareness of circularity and recycling, but Schalow notes that many fleet companies still scrap unused vehicles for little to no return. "It's surprising how many operators have hundreds, if not thousands, of vehicles just standing around," Schalow says. "They don't have time to repair them, they lose their city license, or they run into cash-flow issues.Typical fleet sales range from 200 to 500 vehicles. Before Fleetser, owners would often offload their e-scooters and e-bikes for "peanuts." Schalow explains, "A lot of the time, we can actually sell them for a much higher price. A guy we just helped today had his fleet sitting around since winter. That's a real shame — and not good for the scooters either. If they're left idle too long, the batteries start to degrade." Fleetser's buyers fall into two main groups. The first are small operators looking to establish their own fleet affordably, since buying new vehicles is expensive. The second are mid-sized operators with 1,000 to 5,000 vehicles who need to expand for the summer season. Larger operators also purchase, but typically only specific models they already use and maintain. While Fleetser has sold fleets to the US and South America, there's definitely potential worldwide.  "I spoke to somebody recently in Japan — he has 40,000 vehicles. It could be done everywhere, really," shared Schalow. Legalising e-scooters in the Netherlands In July, the next evolution of Schalow's micromobility dream came true with the launch of e-scooter SELANA Alpha on July 1, 2025, which secured RDW approval and became the first fully legal e-scooter in the Netherlands. Priced at around €1,900, the Alpha is built for urban mobility with a 250 W motor, a top speed of 25 km/h, and a range of up to 60 km on a single charge. Key features include a mechanical drum and regenerative braking, LED lights with turn indicators, 10-inch pneumatic tyres, an NFC keycard unlocking system, and a digital IoT display. SELANA also offers a two-year limited warranty plus insurance and registration support, making road legality seamless. In the meantime, Fleetser has expanded its reach to South Africa, where the company is exhibiting at Smarter Mobility Africa. "We have already shipped vehicles to various countries in Africa and are getting more and more requests," said Max Schalow. While the African market differs significantly in terms of infrastructure and mobility needs, he sees "a big opportunity for bringing electric two-wheelers to more cities." Reflecting on their trip, he added, "It's been an interesting first day at the conference — and we saw some sleepy lions the day we arrived. Can recommend a visit to South Africa."

Santander has confirmed that Openbank, its digital banking platform, will soon enable cryptocurrency trading in Spain. The service, which is already available in Germany, will launch in the coming weeks and allow customers to invest in cryptoassets starting from just 1 euro. The initial rollout will support five digital assets: Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Polygon and Cardano. Transactions will carry a 1.49 per cent fee, with a minimum charge of 1 euro, and there will be no custody fee. The service will operate under the European Union’s MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) regulation, which came into full effect earlier this year. Speaking at Merge Madrid 2025, Coty de Monteverde, Group Vice President of Crypto and Blockchain at Banco Santander, said: “We have already launched crypto trading with Openbank in Germany, and in a few days or weeks, we will do the same in Spain.” De Monteverde described the approach as gradual: “We are entering gradually: we start with a few tokens and, once we learn, we will add new functionalities when regulation allows.” The integration of crypto into Openbank’s investment platform will enable users to manage both traditional and digital assets within a single, regulated banking environment. Santander aims to meet growing customer demand for secure and compliant access to crypto investments through a familiar financial institution. The announcement was made during a panel titled “Bank Strategies for Crypto in Spain and Latin America”, which included representatives from Börse Stuttgart Digital, Bancolombia’s Wenia, and Binance. The discussion highlighted the varying strategies banks are adopting under MiCA, from launching their own stablecoins to forming partnerships with established crypto platforms. The launch comes as European banks increasingly move to integrate digital assets into their core offerings, following the implementation of MiCA, which provides a unified regulatory framework for cryptoasset services across the EU.

Crasner Ventures has invested in newly launched NuCAS, a UK-based provider of alternative legal services founded by legal sector veterans Lucy Nixon and Richard Tapp. NuCAS aims to support law firms and in-house legal teams through its platform, offering a range of managed legal services that streamline day-to-day legal work. The company positions itself as an integrated partner rather than a traditional outsourcing or staffing provider. “Crasner Ventures will be able add significant value to NuCAS on multiple fronts given our unique experience and vast network within the legal industry,” said Nick Crasner, Founder of Crasner Ventures. “We see enormous potential for NuCAS to become a market leader in this rapidly expanding sector.” The global alternative legal services market is currently valued at $28.5 billion, with more than one-third of legal buyers planning to increase their spend on managed services. NuCAS has already secured its first major client, the corporate legal department of UK manufacturer Numatic International, known for its Henry vacuum range. Nixon and Tapp previously collaborated at Carillion Advice Services (CAS), one of the UK's early managed legal services providers. CAS was acquired by Clifford Chance in 2018, after which Nixon led the firm’s Northern Innovation Hub in Newcastle. Tapp, a former global general counsel at FTSE-listed companies, brings more than two decades of in-house legal leadership to the venture. “With Nick and Crasner Ventures’ backing, NuCAS has the opportunity to scale rapidly,” said Nixon, who will serve as Chief Executive. Crasner Ventures and NuCAS also emphasised a shared commitment to improving social mobility and inclusion in the legal profession. The company plans to offer experience and career opportunities to aspiring legal professionals from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. NuCAS will operate as an independent legal services provider based in the UK, with a focus on high data protection standards and conflict-free operations.

As the UK grapples with pressure on its health systems, food supply chains, and digital service delivery, one global tech player is scaling up solutions that change the game. Building on UK foundations The UK has long been a proving ground for global innovation. With an advanced health sector, one of Europe’s most ambitious net-zero agendas, and a digital economy undergoing constant reinvention, demand is growing for technology solutions, including AI, that are practical, scalable and human-centred. This makes the UK an ideal location for TELUS’ ongoing global expansion. Headquartered in Canada, TELUS is a global communications technology company that operates in more than 45 countries and serves over 200 markets. Here, it has a 20-year track record of investment through TELUS Health, TELUS Agriculture & Consumer Goods, and TELUS Digital, employing hundreds of people nationwide. TELUS is also a global leader in social capitalism, its purpose-driven model of combining business growth with lasting community investment. Building systems that last TELUS focuses on sectors where complexity runs deepest, and where technology can deliver the greatest benefits to society: Health: Scalable employee assistance programmes (EAPs), mental health services and digital health platforms that help business leaders and organisations take care of their greatest asset - their people. Food systems: Agriculture, farm management and compliance software that help farmers and agri-businesses stay sustainable, compliant and efficient, from seed to shelf. Consumer goods: Trade Promotion Management and Retail Execution software that helps manufacturers plan, execute, and optimise trade promotions to boost performance, visibility, and profitability at the shelf. Digital life: AI-powered solutions that deliver transformational, human-centered experiences, while safeguarding every interaction and transaction. Each of these pillars is already in motion in the UK. TELUS’ agriculture technology is supporting compliance for British farmers navigating regulations. Its health platforms are helping UK companies provide 24/7 wellbeing resources to thousands of employees. And its digital services are delivering workflow automation for clients in retail and logistics across the country. Growth with purpose What sets TELUS apart is how it combines commercial growth with community investment, grounded in the belief that business success and social good reinforce one another. This month, TELUS launched its first Community Board in the UK, committing £1 million by 2027 to grassroots non-profit organisations supporting disadvantaged youth in Greater London. The board will be made up of London-based leaders from business, entertainment or arts, and non-profit sectors. Their task: to direct support to non-profits delivering programs that support health, food production, education, the environment, and digital inclusion for youth. The funding is expected to benefit thousands of young people through dozens of grassroots non-profits across Greater London. “The TELUS Community Board model is unlike anything I’ve seen in UK philanthropy,” said Johnny Hornby, Founder & CEO of T&P and member of WPP’s Executive Committee. “It brings decision-making closer to the ground, ensuring local organizations, often overlooked by traditional funding models, get the support they need to thrive.” The first round of grant recipients include organisations such as: Lady Garden Foundation - expanding gynaecological cancer awareness and education among young women across Greater London; Orange Bow - providing young men with peer support networks and digital resources to address mental health and promote social connection; and The Amos Bursary - equipping students from low-income backgrounds with digital and employment skills for academic and professional success. Other grant recipients announced at the Board’s first meeting include Action Breaks Silence, Barnet Youth Zone, CAYSH, Club Soda, Dreams Come True Charity, Enter Tech Opportunities CIC, Future Men, PALS West Berkshire, Since 9/11, Stripey Stork, Success Club CIO, The Great London Friendship Project, The National Youth Theatre, Tomorrow’s Warriors Trust, and Treloar Trust. The TELUS Greater London Community Board is the company’s 21st board worldwide, builds on a 20-year track record of community-led giving. Since 2000, TELUS and its team members have contributed over £1 billion and 2.4 million volunteer days globally. Its Community Boards have supported more than 11,000 programs, enriching the lives of over 35 million children and youth. To mark the launch, TELUS team members joined grant recipients and guests for a TELUS Day of Giving, a hands-on volunteer event reinforcing the company’s guiding philosophy to ‘give where we live and work’. Guided by this philosophy, TELUS has been recognized as the world’s most giving company by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, a testament to its unique philanthropic model. What to watch next From crop analytics and AI-powered solutions to human-centred employee wellbeing services, TELUS works with UK organisations that want more than a vendor. The company’s blend of digital transformation and social impact meets the expectations of partners who share the belief that doing business and doing good go hand-in-hand. With roots in London, operations across health, agriculture, consumer goods and digital services, and a community model supporting young people, TELUS is committed to building technology that delivers both business value and social impact for years to come. Learn more about TELUS Health in the UK | Explore TELUS Agriculture & Consumer Goods | Discover TELUS Digital | Find out more about the Greater London Community Board Photo by Getty

The Austrian company newsrooms has secured pre-seed financing of €750,000 for its AI-supported content creation platform.  Founded in 2024, the platform describes itself as an "AI text manufacturing company" and enables users to quickly generate different formats, such as articles, press releases, social media posts, and even entire books from texts, documents, or audio recordings without prompting.  Its AI-supported tool helps communication departments, agencies, and editorial offices with efficient content production, creating time for strategy, creativity, and in-depth research.  Compared to other AI solutions, newsrooms stands out especially through its high language quality – the tool allows precise, individual linguistic adaptation for each user – as well as data security – all data is processed exclusively in the EU. Using newsrooms works entirely without prompts. Users can upload texts, documents, audio or video files, or compose content directly within the tool, which is then automatically transformed into various formats such as blog articles, press releases, or social media posts. This allows a text to be adapted to all communication channels with just one click.  The company was initially founded within Hermann Futter's Compass Group, then transferred to the founding team's ownership after a successful initial phase.  Futter remains on board as an investor, while Hansi Hansmann, with his Hans(wo)men Group joins as a new investor.  newsrooms.acquired Austrian tech media platform Trending Topics in June this year. Erek Stoisser, CEO and co-founder of newsrooms, shared: "With newsrooms, we are not only striving for a simplification of work processes, but a sustainable transformation of content production and journalism. Due to the high response in Austria, we are already planning expansion into other European markets in the coming months." In addition to Stoisser, an experienced PR and advertising professional, the founding team includes CTO Matteo Rosoli, Head of AI Alexander Maitz, and, since the acquisition of the online media Trending Topics, its founders Jakob Steinschaden and Bastian Kellhofer. "With this team, we precisely combine the expertise that our target groups need daily with the technical know-how that translates these requirements into practical solutions," says CEO Erek Stoisser.  Hansi Hansmann shared:  "I find the vision of newsrooms fascinating. In the future, just one person can take over the content creation of an entire publishing house. I find the quality of their work particularly convincing.  When Hermann Futter first told me about newsrooms, I absolutely wanted to be part of this idea. The communications industry is experiencing the second major disruption after search and social media. With new tools like newsrooms, this crisis-tested industry can now work efficiently and generate profits." According to Hermann Futter. "When I saw the tool for the first time, I immediately recognised the impact it would have on communication departments and the media industry. AI must be seen as an opportunity to produce content more efficiently and synergistically."

Lithuanian cybersecurity startup CBRX has raised a €540,000 pre-seed round from Coinvest Capital and partners including Scalewolf, Plug and Play Tech Center, and Firstpick. Coinvest Capital invested €270,000, marking its 80th deal and adding CBRX as the 51st company in its portfolio. CBRX simplifies cybersecurity for businesses and IT providers. Its AI-driven cloud platform strengthens threat detection, streamlines incident response, and protects against evolving attacks while automating monitoring, analysis, and customer support. Designed for today’s risks and tomorrow’s, the platform also enables managed service providers (MSPs) to become managed security service providers (MSSPs) with minimal investment. Kazimieras Sadauskas, CEO of CBRX, said the goal is to help providers transition from MSP to MSSP quickly, without upfront costs, complex infrastructure, or large specialist teams, so they can begin serving clients immediately. CBRX will allocate most of the new capital to expansion and technology development. The company plans to deepen its presence in Europe by growing its sales and partner network in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and the Nordics. It will also enhance its AI capabilities to further automate incident management and reduce human error. In parallel, CBRX will broaden the platform’s functionality so MSPs can deliver advanced cybersecurity services more efficiently. Team growth is planned as well, with priority hires in product development and AI.

Funding surges but deal volume shrinks, as big rounds in AI, telecom, and fintech drive Europe’s more selective, mature market.Click to read the rest of the news.

London-based software company Unaric has acquired US-based Salesforce independent software vendor (ISV) DESelect, marking its ninth deal in just two years. The transaction, which closed for an undisclosed eight-figure sum, strengthens Unaric’s position in the growing market for AI-driven tools built on the Salesforce platform. Founded in 2023, Unaric has pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy aimed at building a suite of AI-powered Salesforce applications. Its tools are designed to turn fragmented apps into integrated AI agents, helping Salesforce customers scale operations and improve performance across departments such as sales, marketing and payments. DESelect, which offers marketing optimisation tools for Salesforce Marketing Cloud, expands Unaric’s capabilities in data segmentation and audience engagement. The US company brings a strong enterprise customer base, including Motorpoint, Transport for London, Eroski and ShareNow, with sector reach across automotive, financial services, retail and the public sector. The acquisition comes as Salesforce continues repositioning itself from a customer relationship management (CRM) provider to what it calls a “digital labour platform,” driven by AI-enabled agents that operate across its cloud offerings. The shift is supported by Salesforce’s Agentforce strategy and a $6 billion UK investment pledge made earlier this year, positioning the country as its European AI hub. Unaric’s model feeds directly into that strategy by integrating and scaling previously disconnected applications. Unaric’s software consolidates and structures data from marketing, payments and telephony, with its existing Reports product already handling over 25 million calls, $2 billion in payments and 200 external data sources. DESelect will enhance this by making the data more actionable for marketers, particularly within Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which generates over $4.4 billion in annual revenue for Salesforce. Unaric’s founding team includes Peter Lindholm (formerly of OLX Autos), James Gasteen (ex-Precursive), Moritz Birke and Neil Crawford. The company has raised $35 million to date from investors including LocalGlobe, Concentric, FJ Labs and Atempo Growth, alongside angel investors such as OwnBackup’s Sam Gutmann and Hotjar’s Johan Malmberg.