Checkout.com, the payments firm, is undergoing an employee share sale at a $12bn valuation, as it says it’s on course to be full-year profitable for the first time. The London-headquartered fintech told its around 2,000 staff today that they would be able to sell some of their shares back to the company, giving them the “opportunity to have liquidity”. Employee share sales are a popular mechanism used by companies to offer liquidity to employees amid the drying up of the IPO market. Checkout.com's $12bn valuation marks an uplift on its 2023 valuation of $9.35bn but is lower than its 2022 valuation of $40bn. Jenny Hadlow, chief operating officer, said: “It is an opportunity for us to give all the employees who made this growth possible an opportunity to have liquidity.” Checkout.com also put out figures regarding the performance of its business, saying it was on track to be full-year profitable for 2025, its first full year of profitability, helped by over 30 per cent year-on-year revenue growth. The revenue growth came from bringing on board new merchants, like eBay and Vinted, increasing volume from existing merchants, new product launches, and geographical expansion, such as recent launches in Canada and Japan. On its bid to be profitable, Hadlow said: “It definitely is something our merchants care about. And it is also an important statement to regulatory and external partners like banks that we work with.” Checkout.com also said it was on course to process more than $300bn in digital payment processing volume this year and was “regularly” doing over $1bn a day. Checkout.com, headed up by Swiss billionaire Guillaume Pousaz, has 19 offices and says it plans to increase headcount by 15 per cent this year. Checkout.com’s global parent company, Checkout Payments Group, does not disclose financial figures.

Malta’s flagship entrepreneurial event is back for its fifth consecutive year, celebrating its 5th anniversary this October. This year marks an important milestone: the festival’s 5th anniversary. What began as a small local gathering has grown into a key event on the European start-up calendar, attracting both international and local participants. The 2025 edition is set to be the most ambitious yet, bringing together founders, investors, and ecosystem players from across Europe and beyond. The highlight of the week will be the main festival days on 23rd and 24th October, when the community gathers for two packed days of content, exhibitions, and networking opportunities. The festival officially launched during the Spring Meet-Up in April, followed by a series of five lead-up events designed to build momentum. Among the special guests headlining the main stage this October are entrepreneur and digital creator Caspar Lee, British racing driver Nicolas Hamilton, and Malta’s own Gerada brothers, who will share their experiences with the start-up community. Building Momentum through Lead-up Events The festival’s roadshow has highlighted key themes shaping today’s entrepreneurial landscape. Empowered to Succeed, an event which celebrated female entrepreneurship with a candid panel discussion where women from different industries shared their victories and challenges. The Resilient Founder, hosted in Gozo, shifted the focus to mental health and well-being, combining an insightful panel with yoga, stretching, and creative painting sessions. Start-Up Ecosystem: Government Collaboration for Growth provided a platform for government agencies to explain how they are supporting start-ups across multiple sectors. The final pre-festival event, held in July, featured an exclusive interview with Daymond John, investor on Shark Tank. John shared his entrepreneurial journey and engaged in a lively Q&A session, while founders and ecosystem players used the occasion to network and explore new partnerships. A Festival Week packed with Opportunities Start-Up Festival Malta 2025 opens with a day dedicated to students, underlining the importance of creativity, innovation, and well-being among young people. The second day will spotlight the Start-Up Awards, recognising outstanding entrepreneurs and start-ups driving impact in Malta’s innovation ecosystem. A highlight of this year’s programme is the return of the Pitch Black Competition. Known for its minimalist, high-intensity format, the contest gives founders just a few minutes to convince a panel of judges. For 2025, a new semi-final round on 22nd October will feature 14 start-ups across pre-seed and seed categories. The top eight finalists will advance to the final on 24th October, where they will compete for significant prize packages. The pre-seed winner will receive support worth over €125,000. The seed winner will walk away with a package valued at more than €350,000. More than 40 mentors will participate, providing founders with feedback, visibility, and valuable connections, while a jury panel of local and internal experts will deliver expert evaluations and facilitate potential introductions to investors. Learn more here. Main Start-up Festival Days: 23rd and 24th October While the festival week offers valuable activities for students and award finalists, the main event takes place on 23rd and 24th October. These two days are the heart of the festival, featuring panel discussions with local and international experts, hands-on workshops, interactive exhibitions, and countless networking opportunities. With a strong focus on connections, the event attracts entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem leaders from Malta and abroad, making it one of the region’s most dynamic entrepreneurial gatherings. The 2025 edition is made possible with the support of Malta Venture Capital, Transport Malta, Residency Malta, and the Malta Tourism Authority. Why Malta Matters Malta has steadily positioned itself as a hub for start-ups in the Mediterranean, offering access to European markets, strong government backing, and a growing base of founders and investors. The Start-Up Festival reflects this evolution: from a modest gathering of local entrepreneurs, it has matured into a platform that bridges Maltese talent with international opportunities. How to Join Whether you are looking to launch, scale globally, or invest in the next big idea, Start-Up Festival Malta 2025 offers the perfect chance to connect under the Maltese sun with innovators and decision-makers. For registrations, updates, schedules, and further information, visit www.startupfestivalmalta.com and follow the festival on social media.

The Arsipa Group has acquired Berlin-based tech startup Bloom, strengthening its position in occupational safety and introducing a digital-native compliance platform in Germany and Austria. Bloom translates complex legal requirements into intuitive software workflows for mid-sized companies. Capabilities include digital health records, mental-health risk assessments, digital first-aid logs, and digital mental-health services. With integrations to more than 50 HR systems, including Personio and SAP, Bloom helps reduce data silos and supports a more connected, efficient software environment. Arsipa operates a nationwide network of safety specialists and company physicians, delivering comprehensive on-site support and cross-industry expertise. This in-person capability complements Bloom’s digital strengths and positions the combined organisation to drive innovation in occupational safety. Arsipa also offers SaaS ERP solutions that streamline medical, safety, and administrative workflows. Integrating Bloom adds a customer-facing layer to the Ginisuite ecosystem, holistically mapping occupational safety and uniting on-site support with administrative simplification and automation. With this acquisition, Bloom and Arsipa plan to deliver an end-to-end platform, from translating legal requirements into software to providing on-site specialist support, by fully integrating their technologies into a seamless, silo-free solution. Bloom will continue to operate as an independent brand led by its founders, Viktoria Lindner and Leonie Ellerbrock. 

Nscale, a less than two-year-old UK data centre startup which is key to Silicon Valley’s plans to build UK AI infrastructure, has raised $1.1bn in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Aker, the Norwegian energy infrastructure group, with participation from several other firms including Nokia and Nvidia. Nscale currently works with Aker, developing OpenAI’s AI data centre in Norway, called Stargate Norway, and its UK equivalent Stargate UK. Nscale said the funding will be used to deploy large-scale AI infrastructure across Europe, North America and the Middle East, helping projects like Stargate Norway and also the UK Stargate project. In total, Nscale has raised nearly $1.3bn including the Series B round. “We are building the AI-native Infrastructure platform of tomorrow,” said Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale. “AI is reshaping industries, economies, and national strategies – but it cannot happen without the physical backbone: the data centres, the GPUs and the software to orchestrate them. "We are building a vertically integrated, AI-engineered foundation designed to power the next generation of technological change, enabling industries and innovators across the globe to achieve what today feels impossible.   “We are creating one of the largest global platforms of its kind – purpose-built to meet surging demand and unlock breakthroughs at unprecedented scale. "This allows Nscale to provide our customers access to scarce, and highly sought after, compute capacity and rapidly accelerate the build-out of secure, compliant and energy-efficient AI infrastructure." Nscale, which pitches itself as a "hyperscaler engineered for AI", was named as a key local AI infrastructure partner for OpenAI, Microsoft and Nvidia, which announced significant investments into the UK AI ecosystem last week, coinciding with the visit of President Trump.

Today, PostScriptum – the original cradle for Silo AI, acquired by AMD in 2024 in Europe’s largest AI acquisition – launches its build leg with NestAI emerging as Europe’s innovation lab to build next-generation technology.  NestAI brings together some of the world’s leading minds to form a next-generation innovation lab. In just a few months of stealth-mode operations, the team has expanded to nearly 50 world-class AI scientists and engineers, with 20+ PhDs and drawing experience from globally renowned organisations.  In 2025, NestAI recruited a team with an Intel pedigree, consisting of nearly 20 senior engineers with end-to-end physical AI capability, combining deep AI/ML expertise with hardware, firmware, RF/communications, mechanics, and software skills. Since then, Nest AI has added key talent with a background in top AI, tech and defense companies worldwide, including Palantir, Kongsberg, Saab, Xiaomi, Microsoft, Huawei, HP, Intel, Patria, Sensofusion, Nokia, MIT, UC Berkeley and many more. NestAI plans to grow the team to 100 world-class AI scientists and engineers within the coming 6 months.  Forming the NestAI platform team, the initial team members have experience in delivering mission-critical AI devices, robotics and autonomous systems, and enabling mission-ready prototypes within months. Backed by PostScriptum, all activities are aligned with its mission for long-term, balanced growth, while NestAI launches as an innovation lab designed to build boldly, with the aim to develop technologies that will shape the future. While the company identifies as a multi-domain lab, its first focus is robotics and unmanned vehicles — applied in logistics, inspection, surveillance, security, and defence.  PostScriptum grows Europe’s AI-native portfolio PostScriptum aims to be a generational AI company that develops digital category leaders with AI at the core. PS is dedicated to supporting, building, and investing in digital companies to help them become AI-first and reach their full potential. In 2024, Foundation PS announced a donation of 13 PS Fellow professorships to leading Finnish universities, forming the initial professorships of the ELLIS Institute Finland. PostScriptum has built a fast-growing portfolio of companies with AI at their core, strengthening the European ecosystem of AI-first and AI-native companies.  To name a few, the Swedish app-building AI platform Lovable has accelerated from early product to broad adoption, achieving record-breaking ARR growth from 0€ to 100M€ in just 8 months. While being under construction, the portfolio also includes companies like: Legal AI company Legora (SWE), End-to-end weather foundation model builder Secondlaw (UK), Tabular foundation model builder Prior Labs (GER), Near-future quantum algorithm developer QMill (FIN), Agentic AI R&D lab Tzafon AI (SWE), Mobile AI agent company Droidrun (GER), AI lab Bottlecap AI (CZE), State-of-the-art AI simulation company AILiveSim (FIN), AI for life sciences company Visium AI (SUI), and several that will be disclosed later. 

Nscale, a less than two-year-old UK data centre startup which is key to Silicon Valley’s plans to build UK AI infrastructure, has raised $1.1bn in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Aker, the Norwegian energy infrastructure group, with participation from several other firms including Nokia and Nvidia. Nscale currently works with Aker, developing OpenAI’s AI data centre in Norway, called StarGate Norway, and its UK equivalent Stargate UK. Nscale said the funding will be used to deploy large-scale AI infrastructure across Europe, North America and the Middle East, helping projects like Stargate Norway and also the UK Stargate project. In total, Nscale has raised nearly $1.3bn including the Series B round. “We are building the AI-native Infrastructure platform of tomorrow,” said Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale. “AI is reshaping industries, economies, and national strategies – but it cannot happen without the physical backbone: the data centres, the GPUs and the software to orchestrate them. "We are building a vertically integrated, AI-engineered foundation designed to power the next generation of technological change, enabling industries and innovators across the globe to achieve what today feels impossible.   “We are creating one of the largest global platforms of its kind – purpose-built to meet surging demand and unlock breakthroughs at unprecedented scale. "This allows Nscale to provide our customers access to scarce, and highly sought after, compute capacity and rapidly accelerate the build-out of secure, compliant and energy-efficient AI infrastructure." Nscale, which piches itself as a "hyperscaler engineered for AI", was named as a key local AI infrastructure partner for OpenAI, Microsoft and Nvidia, which announced significant investments into the UK AI ecosystem last week, coinciding with the visit of President Trump.

VDS 2025 unveils its international keynote speakers, consolidating its position in its eighth edition as one of Europe’s most relevant tech events. Under the theme “Collaborate Today. Transform Tomorrow” and with Symbiosis as its narrative axis, the annual gathering organized by Startup Valencia invites a shared reflection on how technology, connected to human purpose, can provide real answers to the world’s most pressing challenges. The summit will bring together some of the most influential voices in global innovation and culture. Among them, Kelly Rutherford, Hollywood actress, startup investor and style icon known for her role as Lily van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl and as Megan Lewis in Melrose Place, will address topics related to lifestyle, wellbeing and social leadership. Sol Campbell, renowned captain and legend of English football, Premier League champion and three-time World Cup player, will take the VDS 2025 stage to share his experience of resilience and winning mindset as inspiration for entrepreneurs, leaders and innovators. From the Netherlands, Gillian Tans, former CEO and Chairwoman of Booking.com, who led the platform’s global expansion to become the world’s largest online travel company, will also join. She is recognized as an international reference in business leadership, scaling growth and digital transformation. More than 12,000 attendees from 120 countries will take part in VDS 2025, alongside over 3,000 startups, 1,500 corporations and 800 investors. Confirmed visionaries include Aubrey de Grey, gerontologist and President of the LEV Foundation, pioneer in longevity therapies; Minh Le, creator of Counter-Strike, one of the most influential video games in history, who will share his vision on the future of gaming and esports; Ana Peleteiro, VP of Data & Applied AI at Preply, promoting the “Human-first. AI-enabled” artificial intelligence strategy; Enrique Linares, co-founder of Letgo and partner at Plus Partners; Gwen Kolader, VP Global Head of DE&I at Hexaware Technologies, a leading Indian multinational operating in 30 countries; and Ella McCann-Tomlin, VP ESG at Mews, who will showcase how to integrate sustainability and corporate governance in tech expansion. Diversity, inclusion and equity will also play a central role in this edition, with speakers and themes reflecting a plural vision of innovation. Unicorns, investors and trendsetting scaleups The stage will also host leading unicorns and global companies. Sergio Furio, founder and CEO of Creditas, Latin America’s fintech unicorn leader; Laura Urquizu, CEO of Red Points, a SaaS scaleup at the forefront of online brand protection; and Sacha Michaud, co-founder of Glovo, the on-demand delivery platform with operations in more than 20 countries and millions of users. Alongside Glovo, Letgo and Creditas, the unicorn Remote will also be represented at VDS 2025 by Anastasia Pshegodskaya, Director of Talent Acquisition. As a showcase for startups that have successfully scaled, VDS will feature renowned international scaleup leaders such as Roman Orus, co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Multiverse Computing; Iñaki Berenguer, CEO and founder of LifeX and founder of Pixable, Contactive and CoverWallet; Jaime Bosch, co-founder & CEO of Voicemod; Ezequiel Sánchez, Executive Chairman of PLD Space; Marcos Valera, GTM at ElevenLabs; Hugo Arévalo, co-founder and Executive Chairman of ThePowerMBA; David Bäckström, CEO of SeQura; Álvaro Martínez, CEO of Luzia; and Nico de Luis, founder & COO of Shakers. The summit is expected to attract over 800 international investors managing more than €300 billion in assets. Among the global funds already confirmed are Fridtjof Berge, co-founder & Chief Business Officer of Antler, and Jacky Abitbol, Managing Partner at Cathay Innovation. Leading corporations, funds and accelerators such as JME Ventures, Kibo Ventures, Kfund, Seaya Ventures, Adara Ventures, Banco Santander, GoHub Ventures (Global Omnium), BStartup (Banco Sabadell), Wayra (Telefónica Group), Elewit (Redeia, Red Eléctrica Group), Plug and Play, HP, BBVA Spark, Angels Capital, CaixaBank DayOne, Naturgy, and Google for Startups, among many others, will also be present. Among the major corporations confirmed are Just Eat, Hitachi and WhiteBIT, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms and an official sponsor of FC Barcelona. Collaboration and transformation The content of VDS 2025 will be structured around seven major themes: Smart Cities & Digital Infrastructure, Next-Generation Consumer Tech, Talent & Future of Work, HealthTech & Longevity, Future of Energy & GreenTech, DeepTech & Scientific Innovation, and Aerospace Industry & Cybersecurity. These areas will explore how collaboration among entrepreneurs, corporations, investors and public institutions can generate transformative impact. The approach is inspired by the spirit of cooperation that emerged in Valencia after the DANA storm in October 2024, a reminder of the need to align innovation with service to society. Sustainability will also be a key pillar of VDS 2025, with discussions ranging from the future of energy to the responsible use of technology. As every year, VDS 2025 will count on strong institutional presence, with the participation of Spain’s Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, the Mayor of Valencia, Mª José Catalá, and the Regional Ministers of Innovation and Finance of the Generalitat Valenciana, consolidating the summit as a benchmark for public-private collaboration. On October 22 and 23, Valencia will become the global stage for the conversations shaping the future of tech innovation.

Coming out of stealth mode, semiconductor cooling startup Corintis has today announced that it has raised a $24 million Series A to address the problem of liquid cooling at scale. To date, the company has raised $33.4 million in total. The growth of AI is hampered by computational power. Increasing demands for AI to become ever more powerful and ever more accessible have placed a requirement for there to be ever more powerful computer chips. However, increasingly powerful chips produce more heat, making cooling a key bottleneck. The early versions of OpenAI’s ChatGPT were trained on NVIDIA chips, which used 400W of power. However, only 4 years later, new GPUs and AI accelerators are already looking to increase the power requirements by 10x, which requires liquid cooling. NVIDIA’s recent adoption of liquid cooling for its latest generations of data centre GPUs has highlighted this key demand. Based on research conducted at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, Corintis was co-founded by Dr Remco van Erp (CEO), Sam Harrison (COO) and Prof Elison Matioli (Scientific Adviser). Corintis’s technology focuses on microfluidic cooling. Optimised micro-scale liquid cooling for computer chips in data centres, which are used for advanced computation, including for generative AI. According to Remco van Erp, co-founder and CEO of Corintis, every chip is unique.  “It’s like a cityscape with hundreds of billions of transistors, connected by countless wires. Cooling today is not adapted to the chip, relying on simplistic designs where several parallel fins are carved into a block of copper with a blade.  But just like in nature, the optimal design for each chip is a complex network of precisely shaped micro-scale channels that are adapted to the chip and guide coolant to the most critical regions. Finding the right design per chip to create increasingly better cooling systems under short timelines is a challenge that will only get harder.” Thermal engineers need to pull a rabbit out of a hat on a daily basis to make sure chips don’t overheat and break, and that’s where Corintis comes in. The company aims to unlock 10x better cooling to enable the future of compute, in a short cycle time, and while leveraging the existing infrastructure investments in a data centre today.” Corintis’ solution relies on two main elements to achieve its mission of 10x better cooling: Firstly, “co-designed microfluidic cooling”.  Corintis develops best-in-class simulation and optimisation software and new manufacturing methods to design micro-scale optimised liquid cooling, or Microfluidic cooling, that is adapted to the chip to bring the right liquid to the right location. This can be supplied as either a drop-in replacement to any liquid cooling system today, or integrated together with the chip, as "co-packaged cooling", to reach up to an order of magnitude increase in cooling performance. Their technology also enables data centres to reduce their water consumption, a key ecological concern of AI technologies. Corintis’ platform builds a bridge between chip and cooling design, enabling chip designers to build the next generation of AI chips with superior thermal performance. The technology platforms the company has already developed include Glacierware, to help automate the design of cooling systems, a copper microfluidic manufacturing facility to manufacture cold plates with features as small as a human hair in high volume, and its Therminator platform, allowing chip companies to physically emulate next-gen chips with millimetre accuracy on silicon test chips before production to validate their cooling solution ahead of time. In addition to having several major American tech giants as customers, the company already enjoys a partnership with Microsoft to help bring this cutting-edge technology to the real world. Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that in collaboration with Corintis, it has successfully achieved a breakthrough by developing an in-chip microfluidic cooling system that can effectively cool a server running core services.  Tests showed that microfluidic cooling embedded inside the chip removed heat a staggering three times better than the most advanced technology commonly used today. “The thermal margin is translated at the software layer to yield more performance and overclocking potential. It also enables new 3-D architectures for chips that are not possible today due to thermal limitations of stacking high-power SoCs without inner layer cooling,” said Husam Alissa, director of systems technology in Cloud Operations and Innovation at Microsoft, on the recent breakthrough. BlueYard Capital led the funding with participation from Founderful, Acequia Capital, Celsius Industries, XTX Ventures, among others. Corintis also announces that it will be opening multiple US offices to better serve its American customers in addition to an Engineering office in Munich, Germany. As part of this funding, Chairman of Walden International and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has joined as a board director and investor prior to becoming Intel CEO, in addition to Geoff Lyon (former CEO & Founder of CoolIT), also joining the board. With this addition to the board, Corintis doubles down on building a bridge between the worlds of semiconductor design, manufacturing, and chip-cooling. Lip-Bu Tan added: “Cooling is one of the biggest challenges for next-generation chips. Corintis is fast becoming the industry leader in advanced semiconductor cooling solutions to address the thermal bottleneck, as made evident by its growing customer list.” David Byrd, general partner at BlueYard Capital, added: “AI’s insatiable demand for compute is pushing chips to unprecedented power densities — Corintis is unlocking the next wave of performance by making cooling a design feature, not an afterthought.” The company has already manufactured over ten thousand cooling systems, with deployments running in data centres on leading-edge AI chips. It has already achieved 8-digit cumulative revenue since its incorporation. It is on track to more than 10x this with its early deployments.   With new funding, the company aims to scale its already sizable team of 55 employees today to over 70 by the end of the year and expand its manufacturing footprint further, targeting a capacity of exceeding one million microfluidic cold plates annually by 2026. Lead image: Corintis founders: Sam Harrison, co-founder, COO- Left, Remco van Erp, CEO - Right. Photo: uncredited.

Stripe-backed UK open banking startup TrueLayer says it processed 188m transactions in 2024, an 84 per cent increase on 2023, but cut staff numbers as it looked to move to profitability.TrueLayer, which is also backed by Tiger Global, leverages open banking technology which allows customers to make online purchases as an alternative to card giants Visa and Mastercard.TrueLayer’s customers include Just Eat Takeaway, Revolut and Coinbase.In the year ending 2024, 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.Headcount in 2024 was 259, compared to 346 the previous year. A big chunk of the headcount reduction is due to job cuts, thought to number 79, that TrueLayer carried out in September last year. The job cuts have been previously reported, and came before TrueLayer announced a $50m funding round. Mo Mirza, TrueLayer CFO said: “In Q4 2024, we took measures to increase our velocity towards profitability, including through streamlining operational costs and reducing headcount. “These actions have significantly reduced our burn rate, but as these actions occurred late in the year, the full impact will be reflected in our 2025 financial results.”Key metrics, highlighted by Francesco Simoneschi CEO & co-founder, included e-commerce adoption of its technology, called pay by bank, increasing five-fold year-on-year, saying total payment volume increased to over $56bn in 2024, nearly doubling on the year.TrueLayer, founded in 2016, said that total payment volume in April this year was over $10bn.It said its priority in 2024 was bringing pay by bank to e-commerce, and pointed to it now working with Ryanair and Lastminute.comTrueLayer said it ended 2024 with £46.4m in cash on its balance sheet, a figure it said which did not include an unused debt facility from Blackrock. TrueLayer's valuation fell by around 30 per cent to around $700m following its $50m funding round, according to Bloomberg.

Berlin-based Optimeleon, an AI-based platform for conversion optimisation of webpages, has completed a pre-seed financing round of €1.5 million. The round was led by venture capital firms Caesar Ventures and Adesso Ventures, with participation from prominent business angels Felix Jahn (Home24, McMakler), Valentin Dushe (Vergleich.org), Artjem Weissbeck (Kapten & Son), and other tech and marketing backers. Optimeleon is an AI platform that automates web page conversion optimisation. Instead of weeks spent building complex variants and running manual A/B tests, Optimeleon’s proprietary multi-agent AI analyses a site’s structure and content, generates tailored versions for specific segments, and allocates traffic in real time to the best-performing option. This approach delivers sustained conversion lifts within weeks while requiring far less traffic than traditional methods. In pilots with e-commerce and insuretech companies, it delivered average conversion lifts of 10–20 per cent while testing hundreds of variants with far less effort and traffic than conventional methods. Maximilian Kolb, Co-founder of Optimeleon, noted that they had often encountered the same issues themselves: lengthy testing periods, high opportunity costs, and extensive manual effort. With Optimeleon, we enable companies to dynamically optimise their web pages with significantly less effort. Compared to traditional A/B testing, our technology allows marketing teams to achieve conversion lifts around five times faster – usually within a few weeks. The company was founded by Maximilian Kolb, Nicolas Mesa, and Abhiraj Padhye, who bring deep expertise in performance marketing, conversion rate optimisation, AI, and scalable software development. Backed by the new funding, Optimeleon plans to enhance its product and speed up market entry in the DACH region, bringing advanced AI-driven conversion optimisation to growth-focused companies.

Healthcare-focused voice AI startup Vocca has raised $5.5 million in seed funding to help overburdened medical practices manage their phone lines more efficiently. The round was co-led by Speedinvest and firstminute capital, with participation from Kima Ventures, FJ Labs, Sequoia Scout (Roxane Varza), and prominent angels including the founders of Alan, Datadog, Deel, Jellysmack, and Mistral. Vocca’s platform uses AI-powered voice agents to answer and make phone calls on behalf of healthcare providers, booking appointments, sending reminders, handling patient queries, and integrating directly with medical scheduling software. It’s designed to tackle a long-standing problem in healthcare: the administrative strain and financial cost of poor phone communication. Despite the rise of digital tools, the telephone remains the primary channel for booking medical appointments, accounting for over 70 percent of all patient scheduling, according to industry estimates. But healthcare phone systems are chronically overloaded. Vocca’s AI agents are purpose-built for healthcare and trained on medical vocabulary and specialist workflows. The startup claims its agents are capable of understanding and resolving nuanced requests from patients, while directly interfacing with existing appointment and EHR systems. Founded in 2024 by Eliott Hoffenberg and Hugo Danet, Vocca is part of a new wave of AI-first startups targeting operational inefficiencies in healthcare, one of the world’s most complex and regulation-heavy industries. With fresh capital in hand, the company plans to triple its team and expand across both the U.S. and Europe, aiming to equip 10,000 healthcare providers by 2026. Vocca also plans to develop specialty-specific workflows across disciplines like dermatology, dentistry, gynecology, and mental health. Privacy and regulatory compliance are core to Vocca’s product. The platform is fully compliant with GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2, ensuring it can meet the high bar of data protection required in medical settings. Investors backing Vocca see the company as not only a time-saver, but a way to modernise the patient experience and address staffing shortages in primary care. Vocca’s raise comes amid increasing investor interest in AI tools that support healthcare operations, rather than just diagnostics or clinical decision-making. Startups automating administrative tasks, such as Suki, Nabla, Ribbon, and Ambience Healthcare, are gaining traction as hospitals and clinics look to improve efficiency without adding headcount. In that context, Vocca’s positioning around AI reception fills a critical gap in the patient journey: the very first interaction. By turning phone conversations into structured workflows, it promises both cost savings and better patient outcomes, a compelling value proposition for overburdened healthcare systems worldwide.

AI-native finance platform Light today announced $30 million in Series A funding. The funding brings Light's total raised to $43 million. Founded in 2022 by serial entrepreneur Jonathan Sanders, Light solves a critical problem: providing finance tools able to keep pace with hypergrowth companies that are scaling much faster than traditional SaaS businesses. While competitors add AI features to decades-old architecture, Light built its entire platform with AI at the core to be organic software that evolves and improves over time – from database design to user experience. The result is dramatic. Where legacy systems fail at processing 1 million records, Light handles 280 million in under a second. Balance sheets generate instantly. Multi-entity accounting, global payments, and expense management happen automatically across jurisdictions. The platform's AI matches human accuracy while catching errors that professionals often miss. "We're not patching old systems with chatbots," said Jonathan Sanders, founder and CEO of Light. "We built finance software from scratch for how companies actually operate today. Companies shouldn’t have to spend $50,000 and 5 months just to expand into a new country. With Light, it happens instantly. ERP was built for factories. Light is built for the fastest-growing companies of the 21st century."   The investment comes as the company reports 30x growth over the past 12 months, with customers reducing finance operations time by 84 per cent after switching from legacy ERPs. Light's approach has attracted category leaders experiencing explosive growth. Lovable, Sana, and Legora are among the hypergrowth companies that have replaced their fragmented finance tools with Light's unified platform. These businesses needed more than incremental improvements – they needed infrastructure capable of scaling at their speed without adding headcount or complexity. The platform already partners with established financial infrastructure including JP Morgan, Adyen, and BDO, ensuring enterprise-grade reliability while delivering startup-speed innovation. Light's engineering team, drawn from Spotify, Google, Klarna, AWS, Booking.com, and Shopify, has built a system that's primed for global companies rather than forcing businesses into rigid workflows. Balderton Capital led the funding, which included Atomico, Cherry, Seedcamp, and Entrée, alongside notable angels, including Thomas Wolf (Co-founder and Chief Science Officer, Hugging Face), Charles Songhurst (Board Member, Meta), and several customers-turned-investors.  “We’ve seen countless finance platforms over the years, but almost all of them tweak at the edges,” said Rob Moffat, Partner at Balderton Capital. “Light is the first to throw out the old playbook. By rebuilding the general ledger from scratch instead of bolting onto legacy systems, they’ve unlocked the full power of AI. The result isn’t just faster, it’s a step-change. This is the financial platform hypergrowth companies have been waiting for.” The Series A funding will accelerate Light's geographic expansion by setting up a new office in New York to meet client demand. The company plans to triple its engineering team by Q2 2026, launch a process optimisation workbench and further build out the deployment department.

Spanish startup Orbio has raised $7.6 million in fresh funding to scale its AI-native human capital management (HCM) platform. The round was led by existing investor Visionaries Club, with participation from Plus Partners, Enzo Ventures and 2100 Ventures. The capital will be used to support international expansion, grow the company’s AI engineering team, and accelerate product development. Founded in early 2025, Orbio aims to streamline HR operations through AI agents that automate tasks such as hiring, onboarding, and retention. The company’s technology operates continuously and autonomously, positioning itself as an alternative to the fragmented landscape of existing HR tools. Since launching in June 2025, Orbio says its platform has facilitated over 60,000 interviews for clients including AT&T, Verisure, Honest Greens and Spanish food delivery startup Vicio. The company reports that customers have seen 80 percent faster hiring cycles, a 20 percent reduction in early employee turnover, and 99 percent candidate satisfaction during the interview process. The startup currently operates in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, the UK, Italy and the United States, with plans to expand further across Europe and Latin America. Orbio enters a crowded HR tech space at a time when enterprises are rethinking workforce management and looking to consolidate toolsets. Companies like Personio, Deel and HiBob have gained traction in Europe with platforms that integrate payroll, performance management and employee engagement. Orbio aims to differentiate itself by building natively on AI rather than retrofitting automation into existing systems. With global HR software spending projected to exceed $40 billion annually by 2027, investors are betting that AI-native systems will become a key part of how companies scale hiring and workforce management efficiently. Whether Orbio can compete with more established HCM players remains to be seen, but early signs of traction suggest growing demand for end-to-end AI solutions in HR.

Dutch challenger bank Bunq is ramping up its crypto offering across the EU by launching a product that allows crypto holders to earn payouts for helping validate transactions on a blockchain. Bunq launched its crypto offering across the Netherlands, France, Spain, Ireland, Italy, and Belgium in April this year. It is now launching flexible staking across the Netherlands, France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Germany, and the wider EEA region. Staking is a way for investors to earn a passive yield on their crypto holdings by allowing them to earn payouts for helping validate transactions on a blockchain. Flexible staking means crypto holders don't have to lock up their crypto assets for a specific time and can withdraw them at any time. Bunq, which has over 17m users across Europe, is launching its staking product with crypto exchange Kraken, with whom it partnered on its crypto launch in April this year. Bunq says users can earn up to 10 per cent annually on cryptocurrencies by helping to validate transactions on blockchain networks. “Our users have been asking for a simple way to grow their crypto,” says Joe Wilson, chief evangelist, Bunq. “With flexible staking, they can now earn on the crypto they already own while keeping the freedom to buy, sell, or unstake anytime. We’re proud to be the first neobank to bring this to Europe.” Bunq users can trade over 300 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Bunq says users can open an account in seconds.

In the first half of 2025, European tech companies raised €33.7 billion across 1,941 deals. Energy tech stood out, closing 110 deals (about 5.7% of activity) worth €3.5 billion (roughly 10.4% of total funding), underscoring the sector’s growing role in Europe’s shift to a sustainable economy. Energy financing followed a clear two-track pattern. On one track, mature, revenue-backed businesses drew large checks to deploy infrastructure at scale (especially motorway fast-charging networks and grid-level batteries), often funded with debt and project finance suited to predictable cash flows. On the other hand, capital backed the next wave of decarbonization, including hydrogen (from production to refuelling), sustainable aviation fuels, and e-fuels for hard-to-electrify sectors, as well as a broadening battery ecosystem that spans new materials, analytics, and circularity. The ten largest energy deals of the first half of the year capture this balance, pairing the immediate rollout of clean infrastructure with longer-term bets on breakthrough technologies. Amount raised in H1 2025: €600M IONITY is a European electric vehicle charging network offering fast, reliable, and accessible high-power charging across Europe. Its network spans 776 locations across 24 countries. Through its app and subscription models (e.g. IONITY Power, Motion, and Go), the company enables EV drivers to charge efficiently and cost-effectively. In May, the company secured €600 million in funding to accelerate its growth, aiming to expand to over 13,000 charging points by 2030 and deliver a far more extensive energy supply network. Amount raised in 2025: €400M Green Flexibility develops, builds, and operates large-scale battery storage systems across Europe, managing projects end to end, from site selection through long-term operation. As a pioneer in grid flexibility, it integrates local grid requirements and energy market strategies to stabilise supply, absorb excess renewable power, and support sustainable grid infrastructure. Their team draws on over 100 years of cumulative energy sector experience to deliver stable, flexible, and efficient energy solutions. In January, Green Flexibility received over €400 million in funding to help meet the increasing demand for grid stability and flexibility through battery storage and to actively drive the energy transition. Amount raised in 2025: €350M Lion Storage develops, builds and manages utility-scale battery energy storage systems connected directly to high-voltage grids. Its systems, typically sized at 100 MW+ and lasting ~4 hours, help balance the grid, support congestion control, shift renewable energy from surplus to demand times, and stabilise power supply. Based in The Hague, Netherlands, the company is deploying a portfolio of projects exceeding 1 GW in capacity. Lion Storage secured €350 million in February to finance “Mufasa,” one of Europe’s largest battery storage projects. Amount raised in 2025: £300M Believ is a UK-based electric vehicle charging operator dedicated to building a reliable, accessible public charging network powered by 100% renewable energy. Founded in 2021, the company works with local authorities, businesses, and landowners to deploy charging infrastructure at zero cost to taxpayers. Believ offers fast and rapid charging options across the UK. In June, Believ secured a £300 million investment facility to install at least 30,000 charge points, boosting access to public EV charging across the UK. Amount raised in 2025: €250M SkyNRG is a leader in Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), working to accelerate aviation’s shift towards low-carbon fuels. The company sources, blends, and distributes SAF globally and is developing dedicated production plants in Europe and the US to scale capacity. Certified by RSB and CORSIA, and operating under rigorous sustainability oversight (including an independent Sustainability Board), SkyNRG is committed to enabling the aviation industry’s 2050 net-zero goals. In May, the company secured €250 million to build SAF plants in the Netherlands, Sweden, and the US. Amount raised in 2025: €200M Sunfire is a company focused on green hydrogen technologies and electrolysis solutions. They develop and manufacture both alkaline (AEL) and solid oxide (SOEC) electrolyzers under their HyLink product line, targeting industrial transformation toward a fossil-free energy system. Their offerings aim to help decarbonise heavy industry, integrate renewable power, and scale up hydrogen production for energy and chemical sectors. In January, Sunfire received €200 million to develop the hydrogen market. Amount raised in 2025: €149M Lhyfe is a European pioneer in green hydrogen, producing and supplying renewable hydrogen with zero CO₂ emissions. Founded in 2017 by Matthieu Guesné, it deploys modular production units (onshore, on-site, offshore) directly connected to renewable energy sources to serve mobility and industrial needs. Its ambition is to reverse the fossil-based model and become a “green unicorn” by avoiding the emission of 1 billion tonnes of CO₂. In April, Lhyfe received a €149 million grant from the French government for its future green hydrogen production plant located near the Grand Canal of Le Havre. Amount raised in 2025: €130M Proxima Fusion is a fusion energy company building the first generation of commercial fusion power plants using quasi-isodynamic (QI) stellarators. Leveraging advances in magnetic confinement, high-temperature superconductors, and simulation-driven design, Proxima aims to bring fusion energy onto the grid safely and continuously. Its roadmap includes the Stellaris power-plant concept and a demonstration stellarator, Alpha, targeted to achieve net energy by 2031. Proxima Fusion secured €130 million in Series A funding in June, which will be used to advance the company’s stellarator technology and speed up development of the world’s first commercial fusion power plant. Amount raised in 2025: €108M Qvantum is a company that designs and manufactures advanced heat pumps and energy systems to promote sustainable, fossil-free living. Their products use ultra-low GWP refrigerants and are built for residential, light-commercial, and multi-unit applications (e.g. the QA, QH, and QE series). With sustainability at its core, Qvantum aims to provide heating, cooling and hot water solutions with low environmental impact. Qvantum closed a €108 million Series C funding round in January, enabling the company to move into its next phase of expansion. Amount raised in 2025: €70M Ineratec is a company that designs, builds, and operates modular power-to-X plants to convert renewable hydrogen and captured CO₂ into carbon-neutral e-fuels and e-chemicals. The company aims to replace fossil crude by enabling scalable synthetic fuels (e.g. e-SAF, e-diesel, methanol) for transportation and hard-to-decarbonise sectors. In January, the company secured a €70 million funding package to support its carbon-neutral e-fuel plant in Frankfurt, set to become Europe’s largest upon opening in 2025, as well as additional R&D initiatives.

Cambridge University spin-out Trismik has just emerged from stealth with a £2.2 million Pre-Seed round to tackle this very problem and it’s doing so with a science-backed approach borrowed from human IQ testing. At a time when traditional benchmarks like MMLU and GSM8K are saturating — with many leading models scoring above 90 per cent; Trismik is offering a rethink of how we measure AI capabilities.  The team is applying Item Response Theory and Computerised Adaptive Testing — foundational methods in psychometrics — to LLM evaluation. This, they argue, enables faster, more scalable insights into what a model can actually do. According to Professor Nigel Collier, NLP researcher at Cambridge and Trismik’s Chief Scientific Officer, if we want to trust AI, our methods have to be as rigorous as our ideas. "Benchmark saturation is creating problems in every domain, from general knowledge, to reasoning, math, and coding. Scientists, researchers and technical teams face mounting pressure as evaluation is exploding in importance and has become essential for tying AI to trust.We need an evaluation framework that scales and can support this." Trismik’s platform adapts evaluation difficulty in real-time based on model responses — similar to how human aptitude tests tailor question sets to estimate intelligence. This technique allows the system to deliver near-identical accuracy rankings with a fraction of the questions. Early results suggest promising efficiency: adaptive tests matched traditional evaluation rankings with Spearman correlations over 0.96, while requiring just 8.5 per cent of test items.  According to the company, this could cut evaluation costs by up to 95 per cent — a major incentive for teams spending six figures monthly on GPU compute just to assess their models. This scientific approach is rooted in Professor Collier’s decades of research. Having published over 200 papers in NLP and AI, Collier has shifted focus to ensuring AI systems are measurable, explainable, and ultimately, trustworthy. His collaboration with CEO Rebekka Mikkola — a repeat founder with experience in enterprise AI sales — began in 2023 through a Cambridge Enterprise-backed design partnership with a major UK telco. The team was later joined by Marco Basaldella, a former Amazon scientist and TEDx speaker, as CTO. With new regulatory frameworks on the horizon — from the EU AI Act to sector-specific compliance regimes — the demand for precise, transparent evaluation is intensifying. At the same time, AI development cycles are accelerating, putting pressure on teams to ship faster while ensuring models are safe, aligned, and effective. Generic benchmarks are falling short of these needs. According to Trismik, they fail to reflect proprietary data distributions and domain-specific tasks. Worse still, traditional evaluations are static — offering no way to adapt over time as models evolve or shift objectives. The funding round was led by Twinpath Ventures, with support from Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Parkwalk Advisors, Fund F, Vento Ventures, and angel network Ventures Together. A “The AI evaluation market is at an inflection point. Every AI team we speak with is drowning in evaluation overhead, it has become the hidden bottleneck preventing teams from shipping faster and with confidence,” said John Spindler, from lead investor Twinpath Ventures. “Trismik's approach is compelling because it applies proven scientific methods from a completely different domain to solve this problem. When you can reduce evaluation time by two orders of magnitude while actually increasing measurement precision, you fundamentally change what's possible in AI development cycles.” Trismik will now begin rolling out its LLM evaluation platform to AI builders. The product currently supports classical and adaptive testing across datasets related to factuality, alignment, reasoning, safety, and domain knowledge, offering a lightweight interface for fast experimentation. The company envisions the platform evolving into a broader environment for LLM experimentation — incorporating fine-tuning, prompt engineering, compliance tracking, and performance visualisation. “Trismik exemplifies Cambridge’s continued contribution to global AI development, with the team combining world-class academic credentials and practical industry experience that has given them the unique authority to define how AI capabilities should be measured,” said Dr Christine Martin, Head of Ventures at Cambridge Enterprise. “By solving a pivotal challenge in AI adoption, Trismik is positioned to drive trust at scale — we’re excited to support their journey to market.” The capital will go toward launching Trismik’s adaptive AI evaluation platform, which aims to replace slow, expensive benchmarking with fast, statistically precise assessments. Early access to Trismik’s platform is available via its website, with adaptive testing capabilities already validated across seven models and five benchmark datasets. The team plans to publish further technical results and case studies later this year. Enterprise users will begin onboarding toward the end of 2025, with a full enterprise solution expected to launch in early 2026.

Polish language-learning app BeeSpeaker has raised €2 million in seed funding to enter new markets, introduce additional languages, and improve its AI-powered experience. The round was led by Movens Capital with participation from SpeedUp Venture Capital Group and several international angel investors. Despite 230 million app downloads and $60 billion spent on language learning each year, most of the world’s 1.5 billion learners still can’t hold a conversation. Many recognise words but struggle to speak, because traditional apps emphasise grammar drills and tap-based games, while speaking is the skill learners find most challenging. BeeSpeaker takes a different path. It mirrors a personal tutor with short videos of native speakers followed by spoken practice. Every exercise requires users to talk out loud, AI assesses pronunciation, replies conversationally, and adapts difficulty to each learner’s progress. The result is tutoring-grade speaking practice at a fraction of the cost of live lessons. BeeSpeaker produces its content in-house, focusing on immersive, interactive formats. Learners practice with native-speaker short videos and conversational prompts that simulate real situations (e.g., ordering food or job interviews). Advanced users can hold free-form AI conversations, while beginners follow structured, video-led lessons. The company has adopted AI early and is testing AI-generated video tutors to scale content production. Karol Wegner, co-founder and CEO of BeeSpeaker, explained the core insight behind the product:  Most learners don’t want to become grammar experts. They want to feel confident speaking. There's a growing consensus among language experts that the most effective approach mirrors how children learn: listening, repeating, and trying without fear. We built BeeSpeaker around that principle from day one. You're talking aloud and having real conversations, not tapping through flashcards. With this new round, BeeSpeaker will expand into eight new markets while reinforcing its presence in eight others where revenue goals have already been achieved. The company also plans to introduce new languages, beginning with German and French, after the recent launch of its Spanish course. Looking ahead, BeeSpeaker aims to build its position in the language-learning market, focusing on continued growth and advancing its mission to make spoken language learning more effective and accessible.

enaDyne, a startup specialising in fully electric, non-thermal plasma catalysis for sustainable chemical production, has raised €7 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Amadeus APEX Technology Fund (a collaboration between Amadeus Capital Partners and APEX Ventures) and Energy Capital Ventures, with participation from Antares Ventures, Possible Ventures, and returning business angels Wolfram Drescher, Andreas Werne, and Sven Sieber. Founded in 2021 by Philipp Hahn, Christian Koch, Martin Drößiger, and Torsten Lorenz, enaDyne brings together expertise in plasma physics, catalysis, engineering, and materials science. The company has developed a reactor technology that converts CO₂ and other process gases into chemicals such as syngas, methanol, and ethylene. Its modular, containerised systems can also reduce hard-to-abate emissions, including CF₄ and PFAS, providing a more sustainable option than conventional production routes. By integrating proprietary electrodes with plasma-active catalysts, enaDyne enables on-site, scalable production that reduces both process emissions and persistent pollutants, offering a practical pathway to decarbonise chemical manufacturing. Current results show CO₂ conversion rates above 70% with competitive selectivities, while the modular architecture supports rapid deployment and scaling across industrial applications. According to co-founder and CEO Philipp Hahn, the company’s approach reimagines chemistry itself: We can switch our reactors on and off like a light switch, deploy them anywhere renewable energy exists, and serve both conventional syntheses and the valorisation of waste CO₂, producing the exact chemicals our customers need. This funding gives us the resources to prove that sustainable chemistry isn’t just possible—it’s inevitable and profitable. The fresh capital will be used to build and deploy a 20-foot modular pilot plant at an industrial customer site by mid-2026, develop the first commercial product for plasma-based PFAS abatement, and establish a scalable production value chain. Looking ahead, enaDyne’s long-term ambition is to become the global platform for non-thermal plasma-based chemical synthesis, with the goal of deploying tens of thousands of containerised units by 2050.

Firehawk Aerospace has closed an oversubscribed $60 million Series C funding round, securing a strategic European investor as it looks to scale its breakthrough 3D-printed energetics technology. The raise, led by 1789 Capital, whose partners include Donald Trump Jr., marks a key milestone in the startup’s transition from R&D to full-scale production. Among the new investors is Presto Tech Horizons (PTH), a defense-focused fund jointly established by Czech venture capital firm Presto Ventures and industrial conglomerate Czechoslovak Group (CSG). PTH’s investment signals growing European interest in ensuring defense supply chain sovereignty, especially around munitions and energetics production. Firehawk Aerospace has developed the world’s first scalable method for 3D printing solid rocket propellants. Traditional methods, which involve casting and curing propellant over weeks or months, are slow, hazardous, and inflexible. Firehawk’s additive manufacturing approach radically shortens this process, reducing production times by over 99 percent, the company claims. “The conflict in Ukraine proves that while drones give warfighters a decisive edge, munitions like missiles and rockets are the core of combat power,” said Will Edwards, CEO of Firehawk. Presto Tech Horizons’ investment is not just financial, it represents a strategic bridge between American innovation and European industrial capacity. With defense supply chains under pressure due to the war in Ukraine and broader geopolitical uncertainty, the deal highlights a growing push within Europe to onshore or nearshore critical defense production, particularly for energetics and munitions. “The current geopolitical situation underscores the need to invest in innovative defense technologies,” said Michal Strnad, Chairman of the Board and owner of CSG. “Firehawk can play a crucial role in the future of not only rocket propulsion, but also ammunition production. This innovative project can strengthen cooperation between leaders of the American and European defense industries.” According to Presto Tech Horizons, Firehawk’s technology enables not just rapid scaling of existing systems, but entirely new forms of decentralized production, something highly relevant to NATO countries seeking to improve defense resilience. This Series C round marks Firehawk’s most significant capital raise to date. While exact figures from PTH’s contribution weren’t disclosed, the round, also backed by Draper Associates, Decisive Point, Stellar Ventures, and other VCs, will support Firehawk’s expansion from prototyping to large-scale manufacturing. The company, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is building a 340-acre production facility in Lawton, Oklahoma and has testing operations in West Texas, including access to a 30-square-mile private launch range. Firehawk’s pitch to the market is bold: faster production, safer handling, and supply chain flexibility that can meet modern military needs at scale, including in allied countries looking to strengthen their domestic defense industrial base. The deal positions Firehawk’s technology to begin scaling in Europe, particularly as EU and NATO member states increase joint investments in defense and resilience technologies.

A few years ago, I attended a hackathon with a difference: a policy hackathon. One of the most interesting outcomes was a policy to cover border crossings for autonomous vehicles, and now it's become more relevant than ever as today mobility technology company Einride, provider of digital, electric and autonomous solutions for road freight, announced a historic milestone: the successful cross-border operation of a cabless electric autonomous vehicle without a human driver onboard.  The autonomous border-crossing took place at the Ørje border crossing, and marks the world-first cabless electric autonomous crossing of a country's border. Autonomous cross-border vehicle operations are challenging due to differing national regulations as well as technical barriers such as inconsistent road signage, and customs procedures. This significant achievement represents a major leap forward for autonomous cross-border operations, building on Einride's extensive background in industrial freight. Tolletaten, the Norwegian Customs, is supporting the initiative due to the high relevance of automating this use case for their future operations.  To address the complexities of international border crossings and handle tasks typically managed by a human driver, Einride integrated its systems with Norway’s digital customs solution (Digitoll) through its partner Q-Free, digitally declaring goods in advance to create a seamless border customs clearance process. Einride showcased the broader capabilities of its electric autonomous technology through the seamless integration of its advanced hardware and software. This included the Einride Driver (the company’s proprietary Autonomous Drive Stack), its purpose-built cabless autonomous vehicle, and a Control Tower (an intelligent platform for fleet management and oversight), highlighting how the technology can improve safety, efficiency, and sustainability in road freight. This world-first cabless electric autonomous border-crossing demonstration is a key component of the EU co-founded MODI project. The MODI project aims to enable the safe roll-out of heavy-duty autonomous transportation across a wide variety of market applications, improving the transport and logistics industry by accelerating the introduction of Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) solutions. "We are immensely proud to have completed the world's first cabless, electric, fully autonomous cross-border delivery," said Henrik Green, CTO and General Manager for Einride Autonomous Technologies.  "We are dedicated to continuously extending our capabilities into new applications, showcasing how autonomous technology can enhance transportation safety, efficiency, and sustainability. The MODI project perfectly embodies this commitment, assisting in the realisation of EU value-based objectives by thoughtfully balancing safety with innovation." The autonomous border crossing is a joint effort between Swedish and Norwegian project partners, including Statens Vegvesen, SINTEF, Q-Free, Trafikverket, and Østfold kommune, conducted on behalf of PostNord, which annually ships nearly 200 million parcels across the Nordic region. “At PostNord, we are committed to exploring innovative solutions that make logistics more sustainable and efficient. Taking part in this historic milestone with Einride demonstrates how autonomous and digital technologies can reshape the future of transport, reduce emissions, and improve safety. This achievement is not just about crossing a border – it’s about entering a new era for the logistics industry”, said May-Kristin S. Willoch, Head of Environment & DPO, PostNord Norway.