Budapest-based Giggle, a staffing platform connecting blue-collar workers with shift-based roles, has raised an undisclosed funding round to support its expansion into the Romanian market. The round was led by OXO Labs, part of O3 Partners and the family fund of Romania’s Catalyst NXT Ventures, headed by former Hungarian finance minister Peter Oszkó, alongside three additional investors. Founded in April 2022 by Ádám Birizdó and Ádám Sebestyén, Giggle operates a mobile-first workforce marketplace that connects businesses with pre-screened gig workers for short-term, shift-based roles. The platform is designed to address labour shortages and fluctuating staffing needs, particularly in sectors such as hospitality, retail, and logistics. Through the app, employers can post individual shifts with transparent pay and scheduling details, while workers can browse opportunities and apply in just a few clicks. Giggle’s model breaks traditional jobs into discrete, on-demand shifts, helping companies reduce recruitment time and costs while giving workers greater flexibility over when and how they work. The platform integrates ratings, profile verification, and full administrative support to streamline workforce management and improve matching quality between employers and candidates. Positioned within the growing gig economy, the company aims to modernise temporary staffing across Central and Eastern Europe by combining marketplace technology with workforce management tools. When thousands of packages are delayed due to staff shortages, the need for flexible workforce solutions becomes undeniable. Through Giggle, partners can access additional capacity within hours, said co-founders Ádám Birizdó and Ádám Sebestyén. The model has gained traction, with 180,000 users registered within three years and nearly €5 million in transactions completed in 2025. According to company data, 70 per cent of workers on the platform are seeking supplementary income, reflecting broader trends driven by economic uncertainty and rising demand for flexible work across the region. With the new funding, Giggle plans to strengthen its presence in its existing markets over the next two years while preparing for broader regional expansion.

Scopely, one of the world’s leading mobile gaming companies, has reached a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in the Istanbul-based studio behind Pixel Flow!, marking a new unicorn success story from Türkiye. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the multi-year, performance-based deal is reported to value the company at over $1 billion. Launched at the end of 2025 by founders Kübra Gündoğan (CEO) and Emre Çelik (CTO), the hybrid-casual puzzle game Pixel Flow! has gained significant traction within its first year, supported by its puzzle mechanics and hybrid monetisation model, combining in-app purchases and advertising. The game quickly surpassed 10 million players and, over the past 12 months, has been the only casual title to rank among the top 20 highest-grossing mobile games in the United States on a monthly basis. Tim O’Brien, Chief Revenue Officer at Scopely, highlighted the team’s creative approach, rapid iteration cycles and early commercial traction, noting that the investment aligns with Scopely’s strategy of partnering with high-performing studios worldwide. Studio CEO Kübra Gündoğan said the game was built on a vision to deliver a genuinely original experience and noted that strong player feedback has been a key motivator for the team. The strong feedback from players has been incredibly motivating for our team. Scopely’s global scaling expertise will support our growth while preserving our creative independence. she said. The approximately 20-person team will continue operating from Istanbul, further reinforcing Türkiye’s position as a dynamic game development hub in the EMEA region. The studio previously completed a seed funding round with participation from Arcadia Gaming Partners and e2vc. Akın Babayiğit, Managing Director of Arcadia Gaming Partners, described the transaction as one of the most notable success stories in the Turkish gaming sector in recent years. Overall, the partnership is viewed not only as a successful exit but also as a signal of the Turkish gaming industry’s expanding presence on the global stage.

Behind every brightly coloured garment lies a largely invisible cost. Dyeing synthetic fibres can account for up to 60 per cent of the total energy used in textile production, while the global dyeing industry is responsible for nearly 20 per cent of water contamination and around 5 per cent of greenhouse-gas emissions. In a sector built on heat-intensive petrochemical chemistry, French startup Everdye believes it has found a radically different path. The company has developed a new dyeing process that can cut energy consumption by up to 8x — without requiring dye houses to overhaul their machinery. I spoke to CEO Philippe Berlan and CTO Dr Amira Erokh to learn more. From discovery to industrial opportunity Everdye’s founding traces back to the doctoral research of co-founder Dr Amira Erokh. During her PhD, conducted across universities in Tunisia, Portugal, and France, she participated in a NATO-backed project to develop fabrics resistant to biological attack. CEO, Philippe Berlan, explains: “During that research, she made a discovery that wasn’t part of the original objective. At the time, she didn’t yet know what the practical application could be, but the chemistry behind it later became the foundation of Everdye.” After completing her PhD, Erokh worked in the paint industry in Tunisia before relocating to France for personal reasons. There, she joined an entrepreneurship programme that helped her translate scientific insight into an industrial opportunity. Through extensive conversations with textile industry collaborators, she realised her chemistry could be adapted for dyeing. She began experimenting at home — literally in her laundry room — building the first working prototype there. Everdye was formally founded in 2021, secured early funding in 2022, and began structuring its industrial development soon after. From investor to CEO Berlan initially joined the company as an investor before stepping in as CEO. “When the team needed more senior management with industry experience, it made sense for me to step in. I came from the fashion and textile world, so joining Everdye was a way to help transform the industry from the inside.” Why does conventional dyeing consume so much energy? Traditional textile dyeing relies on forcing chemical bonds between dye molecules and fibres. These strong carbon bonds do not form spontaneously. To make the reaction happen, manufacturers use high heat — often around 130°C — along with petrochemical-based auxiliaries. Deep colours such as black can require six to seven hours of processing. Berlan explained: “This heavy heating leads to enormous energy consumption and large greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the dye bath becomes contaminated with toxic residues, and in many regions wastewater is released directly into rivers or oceans without proper treatment.” The environmental burden is therefore twofold: high emissions from heating, and water pollution from chemical discharge. A magnet-like mechanism at room temperature Everdye’s process takes a fundamentally different approach to traditional dying. During the standard bleaching step — required before dyeing — fibres naturally develop negatively charged sites. Instead of counteracting that chemistry, Everdye harnesses it. Everdye’s pigment functions almost like a magnet. A pretreatment creates negatively charged anchoring points on the fibres' surfaces; the pigment, which carries a positive charge, instantly locks onto these points. Through electrostatic attraction, the pigment naturally attaches to the fibre at room temperature. Then, during the drying stage — already part of any dyeing process — polymerisation locks the pigment permanently into the fibre. The final attachment strength is comparable to that of conventional dyeing, without the need for prolonged high heat or toxic chemical additives. "The industry needs disruption, not nostalgia” Before petrochemical dyes, textiles were coloured using natural pigments derived from plants, insects, and minerals. While these methods were less industrially intensive, they were difficult to scale and often lacked durability. Berlan is clear that Everdye is not attempting to revive historical techniques. “When petrochemical dyes appeared, they solved the performance problem. They delivered strong, stable colours at an industrial scale. At the time, the environmental consequences were not understood. Today, the entire textile industry is built around that petrochemical model. Our goal is not to go backwards to historical dyeing. We are creating a new chemistry that combines industrial-quality performance with a radically lower environmental footprint. The industry needs disruption, not nostalgia.” The environmental and economic value Everdye’s modelling shows energy reductions of 80–90 per cent compared to conventional dyeing. Production cycles can be three to four times faster. Toxic wastewater treatment is largely eliminated. Depending on the benchmark process, greenhouse-gas emissions can be reduced by 60 per cent to nearly 99 per cent. Unlike conventional methods that rely on hours of high-temperature treatment, Everdye’s process works rapidly at ambient temperature, significantly reducing both energy costs and greenhouse-gas emissions. All pigments developed by the company are bio-sourced, produced exclusively from plant-based or mineral raw materials. The result is almost clean water at the end of the dyeing cycle. This delivers several major advantages: A massive reduction in water and energy consumption. Fewer chemical residues. Richer, longer-lasting colour. A simplified dyeing process. Long-term, cost parity is central to the strategy. “Our objective is cost parity,” explained Berlan. “Today green solutions often carry a premium. As we scale production, pigment prices will fall, while operational savings — energy, labour, and water treatment — rebalance the economics." The total process becomes competitive, not just environmentally but financially. Easy incorporation into existing production lines The startup’s primary customers are dye houses. The market is highly fragmented globally, so the company is focusing first on Europe to strengthen the technology and gain operational experience before expanding. A critical advantage is that no new capital equipment is required. Berlan explains: “Dye houses don’t need capital investment. They simply adjust process parameters. With minimal training, they can integrate the technology into their existing production lines.” The company also collaborates directly with apparel brands facing increasing pressure to decarbonise supply chains.  Technical complexity and measured scaling Textile dyeing is among the most technically complex manufacturing processes. Different fibres, colours, and machine types each represent separate technical variables that must be validated independently. “Textile dyeing is extremely complex. You have different fibres, colours, and machinery types — each combination is a separate technical challenge,” says Berlan. Everdye currently offers primary colours, enabling a wide range of shades. Deep black — one of the most technically demanding pigments — remains under development. The pigments are already ready for cellulosic fibres such as cotton, hemp, and linen. Polyester — the world’s most widely used fibre — is in advanced development. The company supports garment dyeing and roll dyeing, while a soluble pigment format for jet dyeing is being developed with strategic partners. The focus is on reliability over speed. “The priority is quality and reliability. We want smooth adoption and industrial confidence. Entering this market requires delivering consistent performance.” According to Berlan, the biggest barrier facing the sector is cultural and financial rather than technical. “This is a traditional industry, and change takes time. Factories operate on long-established processes and spreadsheets that favour legacy systems.” But the environmental and social cost of current dyeing practices is becoming impossible to ignore. Many communities are directly harmed by toxic discharge. The pressure to transform is increasing from regulators, brands, and consumers, and EverDye offers a viable way forward.  Lead image: Everdye CEO Philippe Berlan and CTO Dr Amira Erokh.

eBay has made a “strategic investment” in UK open banking fintech TrueLayer, the UK fintech announced today. eBay has made the investment through its VC arm, eBay Ventures, joining existing TrueLayer investors Stripe, Tiger Global, Tencent and Temasek. TrueLayer did not provide details about the size of the investment. TrueLayer said: "For TrueLayer, it represents both a commercial and strategic leap forward - one that underscores how execution and innovation continue to set the company apart.” TrueLayer last publicly raised in 2024, raising a $50m round, in a funding round that lost it its unicorn status, according to reports. Today's investment was announced as TrueLayer announced an open banking payment partnership with eBay at online checkout, as an alternative to card payments. TrueLayer's other merchant partners include Amazon and Ryanair. Francesco Simoneschi, CEO and co-founder, TrueLayer, said: "By integrating directly into eBay’s checkout, we’re enabling instant, bank-authenticated payments at scale that allows merchants to benefit from a faster and more streamlined payment experience. This is another step towards a real-time payments ecosystem that aligns with modern consumer expectations.” Avritti Khandurie Mittal, vice president of product for eBay services, said: “Pay by Bank represents an important step in diversifying our payment mix with a secure, real-time way for buyers to pay directly from their bank accounts.” In the year ending 2024, TrueLayer’s revenues came in at £20.3m, compared to £12.4m in 2023. TrueLayer made a pre-tax loss of £38.6m in 2024, a reduction on the £55.6m loss it made in 2023.

Tingit, a startup transforming how we repair fashion and electronics, has raised €1.5 million investment round to take its AI-driven repairs platform across the European Union.  Led by Coinvest Capital and joined by Firstpick, NGL Ventures, and previous investors Heartfelt (Germany), BADideas (Latvia), and Purpose Tech (Czech Republic),  the funding marks a major step toward making high-quality repair a seamless daily habit rather than a logistical headache. Tingit’s mission is to make repairing items a seamless daily habit. The company’s primary technological focus is an AI-driven algorithm that automatically detects damage in a user-uploaded photo, instantly matches it with the right expert, and provides an accurate price and timeline estimate. With Tingit, a user simply uploads a photo or video of the damaged item and receives a repair quote after the AI and craftsmen have evaluated the work. Items are sent via parcel lockers using a label generated by the platform. "We want users to get offers even for very niche repairs anywhere in the EU. We’re starting to collaborate with fashion brands and e-commerce platforms so that Tingit becomes a natural part of the commercial infrastructure — it is what we call a ‘longevity protocol’ for your belongings," says Indrė Viltrakytė, CEO and co-founder of Tingit. She shares that the idea for Tingit was born in the ultimate startup fashion -  at a café: "The zipper on my handbag broke, and I suddenly realised I’d have to spend hours getting it fixed. I’d have to drive somewhere, negotiate, pay in cash, then drive back later to pick it up... A digital process just seemed so much simpler, and that intuition proved to be right." Since its launch in 2024, Tingit has raised a total of €2.02 million in external funding. In its first year, the platform successfully established itself in Lithuania and expanded into France; its network now connects over 100 skilled makers across Lithuania, France, and Poland.  To date, more than 14,000 customers have used the platform to appraise items valued at over €9 million — ranging from €20 sneakers to a €15,000 Hermès handbag.  While shoe and handbag restorations are currently the most popular, Tingit is seeing a surge in requests for household appliances, audio equipment, eyewear, and luggage. The founders encourage professional repairers interested in growing their businesses to join the network. Viktorija Trimbel, Managing Director of Coinvest Capital, shared: "At Coinvest Capital, we are always glad to support original ideas; in this case, Tingit has not only successfully brought its vision to market but has also begun to dictate new trends in consumption culture."  Tingit’s mission is both environmental – preventing overconsumption – and emotional. While repairing saves money and reduces the carbon footprint, users often simply want to preserve items tied to meaningful memories. 

Plato, an AI-based operating system for wholesale distributors, has closed a $14.5 million seed funding round led by Atomico, with participation from existing investors including Cherry Ventures. The distribution sector is under increasing pressure from labour constraints, low margins, economic uncertainty, and rising digital expectations from B2B customers. Plato aims to address these challenges by replacing manual sales and ERP workflows with AI-driven automation designed to improve operational efficiency and commercial performance. Founded by Benedikt Nolte, Matthias Heinrich Morales, and Oliver Birch, Plato develops AI-native software that automates core workflows across sales, quoting, and ERP operations for distribution businesses. By unlocking and structuring data within legacy ERP systems, the platform reduces manual work and enables sales teams to operate more proactively, supporting efficiency and revenue growth. Key capabilities include AI-driven sales intelligence to identify customer risks and opportunities, automation of repetitive processes such as order handling and internal communication, and industry-specific software tailored to wholesalers managing large and complex product portfolios. Commenting on the company’s origins, CEO Benedikt Nolte said Plato was built after experiencing the challenges faced by distribution businesses firsthand, leading the team to rethink industry workflows in collaboration with experienced technologists. He added that the company is developing an AI operating system for distributors, starting with intelligent sales automation. Plato has gained early traction, signing several large European distribution companies with six-figure average contract values. The new funding will be used to expand the platform’s functionality into areas such as customer service and procurement, as well as to support international expansion.

SportIQ, a company that develops smart basketballs and in-app shooting coaching technology, has raised a total of $6.2 million in a Series A funding round completed in two closings. The latest closing included $3.2 million in new funding from KB Partners, Koppenberg Management, Match Ventures, and a group of high-net-worth individuals and family offices. Read our earlier interview with Erik Anderson, CEO of SportIQ. The company develops connected sports balls that combine sensors, analytics, and AI to support performance tracking. Its sensor system and analytics app, which are covered by multiple patents, are used in the Spalding TF DNA basketball. The system uses a sensor embedded in the ball’s valve to track shooting performance, collecting data such as shooting position, power, angle, and technique. This data is analysed through a companion mobile app, which provides feedback and training recommendations intended to support players across different skill levels. The product combines the connected basketball with a subscription-based app designed to support skill development through data-driven coaching. We are partnering with the biggest brands in sports to bring intelligence directly into the ball without changing how the game is played. Our in valve sensor is completely invisible to athletes, which unlocks new consumer and professional applications that were not possible before. This is how every sports ball becomes smart, said Harri Hohteri, CPO and Founder of SportIQ. SportIQ plans to expand its product range and platform into additional use cases, including new basketball products and applications for other sports where its sensor system can be adapted. The funding will support market expansion, platform development, and new applications for professional leagues beyond basketball.

Stockholm-based Agaton, an agentic AI platform that uses voice analysis to help enterprise sales teams identify and act on opportunities in customer conversations, has emerged from stealth and raised $10 million in total seed funding. The round was co-led by Inception Fund and Alstin Capital, with participation from seed+speed Ventures and Foundry Ventures. Additional investors included founders and operators such as Peter Sarlin, Kieran Flanagan, Sebastian Knutsson, Lukas Saari, and Guillermo Flor. Agaton’s platform is designed to help enterprises analyse unstructured customer conversation data across sales and customer service interactions. Using AI, the system identifies behavioural patterns and sentiment signals with the aim of supporting workflow automation and improving organisational decision-making. The platform addresses a common challenge, as many companies still rely on sampled data, market research, or analytical models to guide decisions. By analysing customer interactions in real time and combining quantitative and qualitative insights, the system is intended to help organisations identify buying signals, inform product and pricing decisions, and improve the training and management of customer-facing teams. Unlike traditional conversation intelligence tools that focus primarily on transcription, Agaton’s system is designed to detect sentiment changes, highlight potential sales opportunities, provide coaching insights, and support quality assurance processes. According to the company, early customers have used the platform to gain broader visibility across customer interactions and support frontline teams with AI-driven guidance. Andreas Kullberg, CEO and Co-founder of Agaton, said the company aims to help sales teams operate more effectively through AI. The companies winning today aren't those with the biggest sales teams; they're those with the smartest ones, augmented by AI that transforms every customer interaction into strategic intelligence. This funding accelerates our mission: making enterprise sales and service teams genuinely unstoppable. The funding will be used to accelerate go-to-market efforts, expand AI capabilities, and support further product development. Over the coming year, Agaton plans to expand its team and establish additional international hubs to support a growing global customer base.

Copla, a European regtech company developing real-time compliance infrastructure for regulated financial services, has raised €6 million in a Series A funding round led by Baltic DeepTech & AI VC Iron Wolf Capital. US-based Operator Stack also participated, alongside existing investors including Specialist VC, SuperHero Capital, FirstPick, NGL Ventures, Loggerhead Partners, and a group of angel investors. The announcement comes as regulatory requirements for financial institutions in Europe continue to evolve. The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is now in force, key obligations under the EU AI Act are scheduled to take effect in August 2026, and the Cyber Resilience Act will apply from December 2027. At the same time, AI-related risks, including automated fraud and increasingly sophisticated social engineering attacks, are placing additional pressure on organisations to strengthen operational resilience, creating challenges for traditional compliance approaches. These changes present particular difficulties for fintechs and other regulated third-party providers that are scaling their businesses while building governance and risk functions with limited resources. According to the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), ransomware attacks in the European financial sector have disproportionately affected smaller and less-established service providers, accounting for 29 per cent of incidents, with data exposure and sale identified as common outcomes. For regulated financial services providers, gaps in cybersecurity and compliance can result in penalties, reputational damage, or, in severe cases, loss of licences. Copla’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) compliance platform is designed to help organisations interpret and implement regulatory frameworks such as DORA, the EU AI Act, and the Cyber Resilience Act. The platform converts regulatory requirements into guided workflows, tracks compliance activities on an ongoing basis, and stores supporting evidence to help organisations prepare for audits and manage operational risk while reducing manual processes. Regulation is getting sharper, but most compliance is still stuck in spreadsheets. We built Copla so compliance stays current by default, and so companies can grow with confidence instead of audit anxiety. This round gives us the momentum to make Copla the default compliance execution layer for regulated finance in Europe and beyond, said Aurimas Bakas, Co-founder and CEO of Copla. Instead of relying on static spreadsheets, the system maintains updated records of assets, vendors, risks, and controls in real time as regulations and business needs change. The company also provides additional support through in-house and fractional CISO expertise, along with a network of partners across Europe, to assist with audits, risk assessments, and regulatory processes. Founded in 2023, Copla was established by Aurimas Bakas (CEO), Andrius Minkevičius (CTO), who previously co-founded the core banking platform Paysolut, acquired by SumUp in 2021, and Nojus Bendoraitis (Chief Legal Officer), bringing experience across fintech, regulatory compliance, and cybersecurity. The new funding will support product development, team expansion, and international growth beyond the EU. It will also be used to expand product capabilities, including the rollout of Copla Bridge, a platform layer designed to help partners, consultants, and multi-entity organisations manage compliance across multiple companies from a unified view. Image: Photo by Judita Grigelytė ("Verslo žinios")

Vienna-based Flinn, a provider of AI-powered software designed to automate regulatory and quality processes in medtech, has raised $20 million in additional funding. The round was led by HV Capital, with participation from US-based healthcare investor BHI – Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments, alongside continued support from existing investors Cherry Ventures, Speedinvest, and SquareOne. The funding comes as healthcare systems globally face increasing pressure from ageing populations, more complex treatment approaches, and administrative challenges that are placing strain on public healthcare budgets. As costs rise, governments face growing difficulty managing expenditure, while patients may encounter reduced access to new treatments or higher out-of-pocket costs. Medical devices and pharmaceuticals can improve efficiency through areas such as automated healthcare, advanced diagnostics, and personalised treatments. However, innovation in these sectors is shaped by strict regulatory and quality frameworks. While these requirements are essential for patient safety, they can also extend development timelines and increase the costs of bringing products to market and maintaining compliance throughout their lifecycle. As compliance demands grow, many companies face rising operational complexity in managing regulatory and quality processes. Flinn aims to address these challenges through AI-based software that automates regulatory workflows, data evaluation, and reporting, replacing manual, document-heavy processes with more scalable systems. Bastian Krapinger-Rüther, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Flinn, said regulatory and quality requirements are increasingly contributing to costs across the medical product lifecycle. Our software replaces manual, document-heavy workflows with automated systems that scale across products, markets, and regulatory regimes. This additional investment enables us to extend that infrastructure across more lifecycle stages and support manufacturers operating globally, he added. By integrating automation into regulatory and quality functions, the platform aims to help manufacturers improve operational efficiency, shorten development timelines, and maintain compliance while supporting patient safety requirements. The approach is intended to reduce administrative burden and allow teams to focus more on product development and innovation. With the new funding, Flinn plans to expand its platform beyond existing regulatory and post-market solutions to cover earlier development stages as well as commercial processes, creating a unified compliance and quality framework across the full medical product lifecycle. The company also plans to use the funding to support international growth, including further expansion across Europe and entry into the US market.

Munich-based happyhotel, a revenue management software provider serving independent hotels and hotel groups across Europe, has closed a €6.5 million Series A funding round. The round was led by venture capital firm Reimann Investors, with participation from existing investors including the Start-up BW Innovation Fund (managed by MBG Baden-Württemberg), seed + speed Ventures, and family office Wecken & Cie. Founded in 2019 by Rafael Weißmüller, Sebastian Kuhnhardt, and Marius Müller, happyhotel develops revenue management software aimed at helping independent hotels and smaller hotel groups manage pricing strategies and improve revenue performance. The platform combines pricing algorithms, software tools, and analytical support to help users identify market trends and optimise distribution decisions. The funding comes as hotels face increasing pressure from rising costs, fluctuating demand, staff shortages, and growing reliance on online booking platforms, all of which can make profitability more challenging. happyhotel’s system supports hoteliers through automated price optimisation that combines artificial intelligence with human expertise. According to the company, the platform currently supports the distribution of more than 50,000 hotel rooms across 12 countries and manages hotel revenue exceeding €1 billion annually. Rafael Weißmüller, CEO of happyhotel, said the company is developing a system intended to automate revenue management activities. Our goal is to enable professional revenue management for every hotel and fully automate the selling of hotel rooms so hoteliers can focus entirely on their guests. The new funding will be used to accelerate expansion across Europe and further develop the company’s commercial AI agent.

5G companies Firecell and Accelleran today announce a merger to create a complete private 5G solution for industrial autonomy, critical infrastructure, and defence connectivity. The merger is backed by a €7.9 million investment round led by existing investors Matterwave Ventures, BPI France, Qbic, and Cogito Capital Partners.  The merger brings together Firecell's core network and NMS (Network Management System) with Accelleran's programmable RAN, management, and AI capabilities into a pre-integrated sovereign private 5G solution. The company’s offering targets ports, factories, defence installations, and logistics facilities, where connectivity is critical for operations.  The industrial sector is moving from monitoring equipment to running fully autonomous operations. Robotic arms, AGVs, drones, and remote-controlled machinery require deterministic connectivity – a dropped connection, for example, can halt production and expose workers to safety risks. Private 5G addresses this, but deploying it today typically means assembling components from multiple vendors, each with its own release cycle, support path, and integration requirements. Firecell’s new platform delivers: Global spectrum coverage: support for all FDD and TDD bands, ensuring seamless deployments worldwide. High-performance connectivity: sub-millisecond latency supporting thousands of concurrent IoT devices with dedicated network slicing and Voice over NR and mission-critical push-to-talk capabilities. AI-driven network intelligence: real-time optimisation of network capacity and energy through programmable xApps and rApps intelligent controllers100 per cent. European-developed software: full on-premise deployment, providing full data autonomy and sovereignty for defence and critical infrastructure. The combined company will operate under the Firecell name and brand with Claude Seyrat as designated CEO and will double its engineering and commercial footprint, with teams across France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Poland, and deployments in Europe, the United States, and Asia. "Industrial operations are deploying robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles at scale, and they need predictable connectivity, not a patchwork of vendors," said Claude Seyrat, CEO of Firecell. "As private 5G projects evolve toward multi-site deployments – smaller in scope but growing in number – system integrators need a single reference solution they can standardise on. This merger gives them exactly that: one efficient, hardware-agnostic offering so they can focus on delivering high-value applications and ROI to their customers, not on integration work." "We’re witnessing a fast-growing private 5G demand across ports, airports, mines, defence installations, and utilities," said Robert Gallenberg, Partner at Matterwave Ventures. "This merger creates a credible European alternative – a complete, sovereign platform that system integrators can build a private 5G practice around. The single-stack approach, combined scale, and five-country footprint positions Firecell as an upcoming European leader in this market." The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including shareholder approvals, regulatory clearances, and execution of definitive agreements. Completion is expected by the end of Q1 2026.

European sovereign legal AI Noxtua has introduced the market’s first Europe License, enabling legal professionals to access multiple European jurisdictions through a single interface with a single license, and to seamlessly cross-border legal work in a consistent Legal AI workspace. Europe's legal landscape is characterised by distinct legal systems, languages, and traditions that shape the daily work of law firms, legal departments, public institutions, and the different judicial systems.  The Noxtua Europe License is designed for legal professionals at international law firms, companies with subsidiaries in multiple European countries, and European public institutions with cross-border mandates, handling matters across multiple jurisdictions. Legal professionals can conduct research, analysis, and document drafting across multiple European jurisdictions in one interface (starting with the DACH region), a capability previously unavailable in the market. According to Dr Leif-Nissen Lundbækm, CEO and co-founder of Noxtua, Europe’s strength lies in its alliances, and many legal professionals need reliable cross-border legal information.  “We combine these two in our new Europe Licence, with which we’re taking the next logical step in our European expansion. Legal professionals working across borders no longer need to navigate separate systems for each jurisdiction. This is what sovereign European Legal AI can deliver, a practical solution built on the foundation of strong publisher partnerships.” Prof Dr Klaus Weber (Member of the Executive Board of the C.H.BECK Media Group) shared: “Although European legal systems share common constitutional values, they differ in their laws, traditions, and requirements. Noxtua's European Licence combines all of this: through close cooperation with publishers in different countries, the specific differences between jurisdictions are taken into account, allowing lawyers to access a wealth of legal data and expertise via a single interface. With this cooperative approach, we are at the forefront of developments in the field of legal AI and are strengthening Europe's diverse publishing landscape in the age of AI." This new licensing model builds on Noxtua's established partnerships with leadinglegal publishers from the continent, such as: C.H.BECK(Germany),  MANZ (Austria),  Helbing Lichtenhahn (Switzerland), Wydawnictwo C.H.Beck (Poland),  Nakladatelství C. H. Beck (Czech Republic), and Nakladateľstvo C. H. Beck (Slovakia), with additional publishing partners across Europe to follow. Check out an earlier interview with Noxtua CEO and co-founder Dr Leif-Nissen Lundbæk and Dr Oliver Hofmann, Head of Legal Tech at C.H.Beck. Noxtua is a European project from infrastructure to AI architecture, with a clear focus on data privacy, transparency, and the rule of law. All data is processed exclusively in high-security data centres operated by European partners such as IONOS and the Open Telekom Cloud. The legal AI workspace meets the stringent local professional, criminal, and data protection requirements for legal professionals and is certified according to BSI C5, ISO 42001, ISO 27001, ISO 9001, and additional standards. The beta phase of Noxtua’s Europe license will be made available free of charge to all existing users of Noxtua’s country-specific Legal AI Workspaces in stages over the next few days. 

Munich-based EV charging technology company HeyCharge has been awarded a €2.5 million grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator. The company, backed by BMW i Ventures, Statkraft Ventures, and Y Combinator, has raised €6.3 million in private funding to date. The funding comes as EV charging access in residential and workplace settings remains a challenge despite the expansion of public charging infrastructure. Around 200 million people in Europe live in multi-unit residential buildings, many of which include underground or semi-underground parking areas where mobile and Wi-Fi coverage can be limited. Conventional EV chargers typically rely on continuous internet connectivity for authentication and billing, which can reduce reliability in these environments and increase installation costs due to additional communication infrastructure requirements. HeyCharge’s SecureCharge platform is designed to address these limitations through offline operation using one-time cryptographic tokens generated on a user’s smartphone for authentication. According to the company, this approach allows chargers to function without continuous connectivity and can reduce installation costs by removing the need for additional communications infrastructure. Commenting on EV charging challenges, Chris Cardé, founder and CEO of HeyCharge, said that underground parking areas can create difficulties for chargers requiring continuous internet access. Our technology works 100 per cent reliably even in underground garages, and because we’ve eliminated the need for communications infrastructure - the cabling, the specialist labour, the ongoing maintenance - we cut installation costs by more than 40 per cent. That’s how you democratise home charging. HeyCharge’s co-founder and CBDO Dr Robert Lasowski said the grant reflects confidence in the company’s approach and will support scaling the technology from existing deployments to wider adoption across Europe. The grant will support the SecureCharge FLEX project, accelerating development, certification, and large-scale pilot deployments of HeyCharge’s EV charging platform across multiple European countries. The company said the project is intended to improve EV charging access in apartment buildings by addressing reliability and installation cost challenges.

Late last year, I predicted that those looking for Europe’s next major tech hub should have Poland firmly on their radar for 2026. One of the reasons lies just across its eastern border. Over 500,000 Belarusians have fled since the contested 2020 presidential election — driven out by political repression, geopolitical tension, and regional conflict. A significant share were the entrepreneurs, developers, and founders who had built the country's thriving tech sector. This triggered one of the largest forced entrepreneurial migrations in modern Europe — and Poland became its main landing zone, with Belarusians quietly reshaping its tech sector ever since. From repression to relocation: How over 7,000 Belarusian companies are powering Poland ​ According to the Association of Belarusian Business Abroad (ABBA), there are over 9,300 companies with Belarusian shareholders across the EU, with around 80 per cent of them in Poland, implying roughly 7,500 in Poland and around 2,300 in other EU states (many in the Baltics and Lithuania). ​ Following the 2020 election, migration was further aided by Poland’s Business Harbour, a government programme offering Belarusian IT professionals, startups, and tech companies a simplified path to relocate to Poland, with a special visa that allowed holders to work without a separate permit, start businesses, and bring family members. The programme was created in response to political repression in Belarus, helping talent continue their careers in a safer, pro-business environment while supporting Poland’s tech sector. At its peak, over 55,000 visas were issued. Behind these numbers are individual stories of flight and rebuilding. From Minsk to Warsaw: A founder in exile To understand how this influx is reshaping Poland’s tech and startup ecosystem, I spoke with Belarusian and Warsaw resident Dzmitry Danilchuk, former Head of the Belarus Business Centre and now startup entrepreneur at Rainbow Weather. Danilchuk left his home in Minsk following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, relocating to Warsaw. Like many Belarusians who had been active in the protest movement, he is registered as a refugee. “We are usually people who were quite actively involved in political activism and demonstrations inside Belarus,” he said. “I got unlucky because I was filmed by a TV camera once during an anti-Lukashenko protest. The journalists named me in their publication.” An economist by training, Danilchuk was also a lecturer at a Belarusian university. The public exposure triggered intense scrutiny and, ultimately, made it unsafe for him to remain in the country. Building an ecosystem in exile For Danilchuk, leaving Belarus meant shutting down two businesses and starting over professionally. Through friends, he was introduced to the Polish Business Union — the country’s largest business lobby — which had received significant USAID funding to support the relocation of Belarusian companies. It's the Belarus Business Centre, run by the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers (ZPP), which provides information support, consulting, and legal guidance to Belarusian firms operating in or moving to Poland. Danilchuk went on to lead the Union’s business support centre for exiled Belarusian companies for three years, before stepping down about a year ago to return to startup life. Inside the rise of BelTech Global Upon moving to Warsaw, Danilchuk and others saw the need for a platform not only to integrate into new ecosystems, but also to “avoid losing national identity — to give people a place to meet, collaborate, and build together.” They founded BelTech Global, the largest international tech conference for the Belarusian business community abroad. The event gathers Belarusian entrepreneurs, startups, and CxOs, and connects them with international investors, business partners, and clients. With BelTech, the team worked hard to move away from grants. In its first year, it received USAID support, but from the second conference onward, it was fully funded by Belarusian businesses in exile. How Belarus built a tech powerhouse First, to understand the last few years, you have to take a step back in history. Danilchuk explained that Belarus’s business landscape is historically unusual. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the country never underwent full-scale privatisation, largely because President Alexander Lukashenko opposed it. Yet more than 60 per cent of Belarus’s GDP is now generated by the private sector — a rare global case in which a majority-private economy emerged without a formal privatisation process. Around 20 per cent of output comes from public healthcare and another 20 per cent from public education, leaving roughly 60 per cent produced by private enterprise. A history of entrepreneurship Before Soviet rule, Belarus had a strong tradition of entrepreneurship, particularly among Jewish communities, as it lay within the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire. However, both the Empire and, later, the Soviet system largely dismantled private business. Despite this, a resilient entrepreneurial culture re-emerged after 1991. The key catalyst was the Belarus High Technologies Park, created in 2005 as a special nationwide regime with generous tax breaks and lighter regulation for IT firms. It boosted the sector’s share of GDP and pushed computer-service exports into the billions of dollars, while a handful of globally used products and startups reinforced the image of a modern tech hub inside an otherwise tightly controlled, state-dominated system. This was underpinned by a strong mathematics and engineering education inherited from the Soviet period, which later enabled Belarus to become a major outsourcing and offshoring hub, comparable to Ukraine and, to a lesser extent, Moldova. Belarus’ technical foundation helped power the growth of the country’s IT and services sectors over the next couple of decades. Even in the absence of market reforms and amid persistent political and economic pressure, Belarus produced highly successful companies like Wargaming, Viber, MSQRD (acquired by Facebook) and EPAM. How Belarus became the ‘Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe’ in the 2010s Danilchuk and others characterise the 2010s as Belarus’ golden era. Despite the restrictions imposed by Lukashenko’s regime, the criminal cases against entrepreneurs, and constant tax pressure, the country was still being called the ‘Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe’ for its strong, export‑driven IT sector on top of its Soviet‑era strengths in mathematics and engineering. A steady flow of well‑trained developers, relatively low wages, and a focus on foreign clients — mainly in the US and EU — turned the country into a competitive outsourcing hub despite having a small domestic market. A “new middle class” formed in the 2010s, including entrepreneurs, private-sector and IT workers and in 2013 startup hub Imaguru was founded in Minsk and became one of Eastern Europe’s leading startup hubs. But all of this was about to change. The rise and repression of Belarus’ entrepreneurial opposition Belarus’s 2020 presidential election and the ensuing protests marked a shift in the state’s relationship with the private sector. For the first time, leading opposition figures came from business and the tech ecosystem, notably Viktor Babariko, the former head of BelGazPromBank, and Viktor Tsepkalo, a former diplomat and one of the founders of the High Technology Park, challenging long-time president Alexander Lukashenko. As protests spread and even calls for strikes emerged, the authorities increasingly framed the independent private sector as a threat and responded by tightening control, shutting down media and NGOs, and escalating pressure on business with renewed anti-bourgeois rhetoric. Thousands of people were charged and some imprisoned for being entrepreneurs, journalists, or NGO staff. ​ In 2021, the Belarusian regime shut down Imaguru in Minsk. Despite this, Imaguru continued supporting the Belarusian community online and abroad. However, the regime escalated its repression, designating Imaguru as an "extremist" formation. ​ This led to criminal cases against its founders, property seizures, and a trial in absentia, which sentenced founder Tania Marinich to 12 years and a cofounder, Anastasiya Khamiankova, to 11 years of imprisonment, and a combined $160,000 in penalties.  The crackdown has extended far beyond business. Over the last year, contributors to the Belarusian-language Wikipedia have been arrested, detained, and intimidated as part of the government’s broader crackdown on independent media and civil society, with some sentenced to prison. Recently in Belarus, at least seven amateur (ham) radio operators have been arrested, and three reportedly threatened with the death penalty after state media accused them of “intercepting state secrets” and engaging in “espionage” and “treason” despite a lack of evidence. According to activists, these charges, including conspiracy and alleged extremist activities, highlight the authoritarian regime's ongoing efforts to undermine freedom, innovation and autonomy. From outsourcing hub to global scaleups Across sectors, the Belarusian tech diaspora has been especially successful in health and fitness, producing globally scaled companies such as Flo Health and AI-driven coaching platform Zing Coach. There’s also NAV8 with dog training Woofz, which successfully scaled from $5.2 million to $20 million in revenue in one year and reached profitability without VC funding, as well as unicorn SaaS company PandaDoc and mobile games publisher AB Games. The largest private equity fund to emerge from Belarus is Zubr Capital. Still operational but now keeping a low profile to reduce the risk of asset seizure, the firm primarily invests internationally, with a particular focus on backing Belarusian-founded teams and positions itself as a bridge helping regional startups scale into global markets. And Poland-based Belarusians are stepping up for their local and diaspora innovators. At Web Summit, Belarusian founders even funded a national stand — the only one not funded by a government, but by the community itself. “We want to be visible as Belarusians, but not as representatives of the regime,” explained Danilchuk. Entering the Renaissance phase Danilchuk asserts that while the last five years have been a phase of relocation and survival: “We are now entering that Renaissance phase. Companies have re-registered, rebuilt, and settled. Now it’s time for growth again. Despite exile, the Belarusian tech ecosystem continues as a transnational community.” That said, whether Poland will remain the first-choice destination for relocation will depend, above all, on migration rules for Belarusian entrepreneurs — which many still consider overly restrictive—as well as on access to financing in the Polish market and on the broader geopolitical stability of Poland and Eastern Europe. The suspension of the Poland Business Harbour programme, which had provided a fast-track pathway for Belarusian tech talent and founders, has added further uncertainty. Yet the Belarusian diaspora has repeatedly shown remarkable commercial success. Despite political exile, regulatory hurdles, and shifting policies, Belarusian founders continue to build, scale, and internationalise startups, drawing on deep technical talent, tight-knit networks, and an entrepreneurial culture forged in adversity. But if the last five years have shown anything, it's that Belarusian founders don't wait for ideal conditions. They build anyway.

A Paris and New York-headquartered quantum technology VC firm has closed what it says is the “largest-ever” dedicated quantum fund. Quantonation Ventures, an early-stage fund focusing on quantum tech, has closed a €220m fund, with investment from Novo Holdings, the investment arm of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, electronics giant Toshiba and Vertex, the VC platform backed by Singapore state investor Temasek. The close of the fund comes amid an investment boom in quantum. The latest fund, which Quantonation says was oversubscribed, surpassed its €200 million target. It follows Quantonation's first €91 million fund. The latest fund, Fund II, invests in the pre-seed and seed rounds of deep physics and quantum tech firms, including companies engaging in molecular design, cybersecurity, and ultra-precise sensing. Quantonation is now the largest quantum fund globally on an AUM basis. Returning LP investors in the latest fund include Vertex and Fonds National d’Amorçage 2, managed by Bpifrance on behalf of the French State, along with new investors such as the European Investment Fund, Novo Nordisk and Toshiba. Since its launch in 2018, Quantonation has invested globally in more than 10 countries, backing companies in quantum computing, sensing, supply chains and broader deep-physics domains. Christophe Jurczak, managing partner, Quantonation, said: “Quantum has spent decades being described as five years away. That wasn’t a failure of physics, but of ecosystems. "What’s changed is alignment: hardware, software, supply chains, and industrial demand. Quantum is no longer a race to build one machine. It’s an interlocking stack, and that’s where durable value now sits.” Quantonation backs technologies that take time to scale, saying progress comes from multiple systems, not a single breakthrough.

Mondra, a Scope 3 SaaS company serving the retail sector, and inoqo, a European sustainability intelligence platform, have announced a strategic merger that will combine their operations into a single global organisation focused on decarbonisation and resilience in the food system. The merger strengthens the combined company’s operational presence in mainland Europe and is intended to support a broader international customer base, including grocery retailers, manufacturers, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands. The companies said the integration will combine inoqo’s European market expertise and impact data with Mondra’s technology to strengthen capabilities in areas such as product-level impact assessment, supplier engagement, and climate-related initiatives within retail organisations. The merged organisation will operate under the Mondra brand and maintain a globally distributed team with hubs in London, Vienna, and India. Integration efforts will focus on aligning product roadmaps and data systems to develop a single AI-powered platform aimed at improving transparency around environmental impacts and supporting net-zero objectives. Jason Barrett, CEO of Mondra, said the merger reflects the company’s efforts to support measurable sustainability outcomes across the food system, adding that combining technology and impact data is expected to help customers make more informed decisions. As part of the transaction, Markus Linder, founder and CEO of inoqo, will join Mondra’s leadership team to support international growth and strategic development.

London-based adeus, a legaltech company specialising in modernising will-writing and legacy planning, has launched adeus True Wills™, a service intended to help prevent wills from being lost, altered, or disputed after death. Founded in 2024 by entrepreneurs Nick Adams and Mark Hedley, the launch marks the first major product release from an innovation project supported by an Innovate UK Smart Grant, with additional products planned for release in the first half of 2026. Traditional paper wills can be lost, damaged, or challenged in court, potentially leading to stress and legal costs for families. adeus True Wills addresses these risks by creating a permanent digital fingerprint of a will using blockchain technology while remaining compliant with current UK law. According to Nick Adams, CEO of adeus, making a will is a significant step, yet paper-based wills are often more vulnerable than many people realise. True Wills removes the uncertainty. Your will is permanently protected, clearly time-stamped, and impossible to alter. This gives you peace of mind today and protects your loved ones from unnecessary conflict when it matters most, Adams said. The service is designed to work alongside a traditionally executed paper will signed and witnessed in accordance with current legal requirements. Once a will is created through the adeus platform, a unique digital fingerprint is generated and secured using adeus True Will Technology. The will document itself is not stored on the blockchain, only the digital fingerprint is recorded. This approach maintains privacy while providing cryptographic verification of authenticity. Because any change to the document would alter the fingerprint, potential tampering or forgery can be detected, giving families and executors verifiable evidence during probate and helping to reduce the likelihood of disputes. True Wills is an adeus trademark, and the company plans to offer the technology to independent will writers and solicitors in addition to its direct customers. For people with more complex needs who require expert legal advice, solicitors and will writers continue to do what they do best - taking instructions, drafting, and overseeing the signing of wills. We take care of the rest, ensuring their clients’ wills are protected with the same institutional-grade security, said Mark Hedley, COO of adeus. The launch comes as England and Wales prepare for significant reforms to will-making, with electronic wills expected to become legally valid in 2026 following the Law Commission’s recommendations in May 2025. adeus True Wills has been designed to adapt to this transition. While customers currently create digital wills that are executed using traditional wet signatures, the same platform is intended to support fully electronic will creation and signing once new legislation takes effect, without requiring users to start again. Hedley added that the company is building infrastructure for electronic wills ahead of legislative change, allowing customers to access True Wills protection now while preparing for future legal developments. adeus Wills are currently available in England and Wales, with the company planning to expand its product offering in 2026 as reforms around electronic wills progress.

A Berlin-based investment firm in the buzzy area of so-called “AI roll-ups” has emerged out of stealth, with an €80m target for its debut fund.   Tenet is set up by four executives with more than 25 years of investing experience across VC, growth capital, and private equity. Tenet is a VC-cum-private equity play, investing in “AI roll-ups” across Europe at the inception stage. The firm has raised around a third of its €80m target to date and plans to deploy cheques of around €5m. Tenet has already made its first investment, investing €5m in Taxforce, an AI-native German tax advisory platform. An “AI roll-ups” strategy can be described as a company acquiring several companies in a service sector, such as accounting, IT or insurance, and then leveraging AI to make the acquired companies more efficient.    It can be likened to a private equity model in some respects. Major US VC firms like General Catalyst, Lightspeed and Thrive Capital are making plays in “AI roll-ups”. Tenet is hoping to capitalise on what it sees as the tech adoption shortfall in Europe. It points to the major digital gap between the US and Europe, saying 60 per cent of small US businesses use vertical SaaS solutions, while adoption remains in the single digits in large parts of Europe.   Tenet backs founders at the inception stage to acquire and transform professional services businesses into scalable, AI-native platforms.    Martin Janicki, general partner, said: “SaaS has failed to reach the core of the European economy. While AI-powered productivity gains are real, they are currently hitting a wall of traditional sales methods and ineffectual implementation.    "We see a historic opportunity to solve our continent’s succession crisis at the exact point where the unstoppable force of AI meets the immovable object of the European SMB.”  Janicki, previously of Berlin-based VC Cavalry Ventures, set up Tenet, along with Alex Maly, previously of private equity firm Clearsight Investments, Sahil Patwa, previously of London-based investment firm Unbound, and Simon Lohmann, formerly of Atlantic Labs, the Berlin-based VC firm.   Maly adds: “AI roll-ups have been gaining attention as pioneering companies across Europe show remarkable progress. However, there is a realisation that neither classic private equity nor early-stage venture capital firms are the ideal launch pad for these platforms. "Private equity mandates typically require substantial scale and debt leverage at entry, while traditional VC firms often lack the expertise for establishing a buy-and-build platform. Tenet is purpose-built to fill that specific void at inception." Tenet is also supported by a network of advisors, including the founders of European AI roll-ups such as Arbio, Buena, and Zinco.

London-based SurrealDB, the company behind a multi-model, AI-native database, has raised an additional $23 million in Series A funding, bringing the round’s total to $38 million. Chalfen Ventures and Begin Capital joined existing investors FirstMark and Georgian in the extension, while Mike Chalfen of Chalfen Ventures will join the company as a director. The latest investment brings SurrealDB’s total funding to date, including seed financing, to $44 million. SurrealDB is a cloud-native, multi-model database designed for real-time and AI-native applications. The platform combines structured querying, graph traversal, embedded business logic, and AI-focused capabilities to simplify data infrastructure while supporting scalability and developer flexibility. The funding extension coincides with the general availability release of SurrealDB 3.0, which the company describes as its most stable, high-performance, and enterprise-ready version to date. Built in Rust, SurrealDB 3.0 is designed to unify multiple data models within a single platform, including relational, document, graph, time-series, vector, search, geospatial, and key-value data types. The system also provides real-time functionality intended to reduce the complexity and cost of operating multiple databases and integrating them through additional API layers. The release focuses on addressing challenges related to AI agent memory and context management, enabling models to maintain consistent information and manage relationships as data scales. SurrealDB 3.0 introduces features designed to support agent memory and context graphs directly within the database, helping data and logic remain closely integrated. The new funding will support continued product development and adoption, with a focus on reliability, performance, security, cloud capabilities, and enterprise readiness. SurrealDB also plans to expand its team to scale its cloud offering and strengthen support for production deployments.