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In December eight companies raised over €100m, with two €500m rounds highlighting continued appetite for category-defining businesses.Click to read the rest of the news.

A UK AI firm that advises OpenAI and other frontier AI model companies on AI safety is to be acquired by IT consulting giant Accenture.Faculty, which also worked with Vote Leave on the Brexit referendum, was co-founded in 2014 by Marc Warner, its current CEO, who is also a former government AI adviser. The acquisition of Faculty comes as Accenture undertakes an aggressive AI push, as it looks to cash in on robust demand for its AI-driven IT services. Multinational giant Accenture, founded in the US, said the acquisition would help its clients with “safe and secure AI solutions”. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture, said: “With Faculty, we will further accelerate our strategy to bring trusted, advanced AI to the heart of our clients’ businesses." Manish Sharma, chief strategy and services officer at Accenture, added: “Together with Faculty we will assemble a powerhouse of talent helping clients make AI work in the real world.“This will help our clients stay competitive, pursue sovereign solutions, and reinvent their operations with transparency and resilience at a critical time.”  Warner said: “Our vision has always been a world in which safe AI delivers widespread benefits to humanity. We have spent the last ten years supporting our clients to bring this world about, step by step. “As AI advances rapidly, the ambition of our clients is now, rightly, no less than the reinvention of their business. I am delighted that by teaming up with Accenture, we have everything in place to support AI transformation from start to finish.”The deal will see Faculty’s 400-plus staff joining Accenture, while Warner, in addition to his role as CEO of Faculty, will become chief technology officer of Accenture. Faculty’s services include AI strategy and AI safety. Its client roster includes Anthropic and OpenAI, checking the safety of their models before they are released, as well as working with the UK government on a project to help develop AI to handle teacher lesson plans and mark homework.  Accenture and Faculty have worked together since 2023. The deal announcement highlighted that Faculty's enterprise decision intelligence product will now be part of Accenture’s suite of products that help organisations with their AI offerings.Accenture and Faculty are already working together to support life sciences companies, such as Novartis, to use FrontierTM to transform the economics of clinical trial planning. In 2021, Faculty raised £30 million ($42.5. million) in growth funding from the Apax Digital Fund. It has raised around £40m in total and is also backed by LocalGlobe.

Industrial data management platform United Manufacturing Hub (UMH) has raised €5 million in funding to accelerate its mission of building the foundational data layer for global manufacturing.  The round was led by KOMPAS VC, with participation from seed + speed Ventures, Sustainable Future Ventures, Archimedes New Ventures, and renowned industry angels, including Jan Oberhauser (Founder & CEO of n8n) and Jeff Hammerbacher (Founder of Cloudera), amongst others. Manufacturers are investing heavily in digital tools and AI-driven automation. But progress stalls because data is trapped in proprietary systems and scattered across machines, processes, and applications.  UMH unifies industrial data into a real-time data hub, called Unified Namespace, replacing fragile point-to-point integrations with a scalable, interoperable structure. The platform connects machines, sensors, and IT systems through standardised interfaces, then cleans and contextualises their data – creating a single source of truth that any application can use without custom integration work.   On top of this foundation, UMH delivers ready-to-use capabilities: operational KPIs, energy and resource tracking, condition monitoring, alerting, and industrial AI applications. Customers typically go from setup to measurable business impact in weeks. Leading industrial organisations from various industries, including HiPP, Edeka, and Böllhoff, are already using UMH to digitise their factories. "Instead of spending months building data infrastructure from scratch, we were up and running in no time," said Lutz Hermanns, Head of PDA & Supply Chain at Böllhoff who leads Böllhoff’s Digital Manufacturing. "We now connect new data sources and build digital use cases in hours instead of weeks." “Every factory runs on decades-old software – Data is trapped in proprietary protocols, siloed by vendors, missing the context that real use cases and AI depend on,"  said Alexander Krüger, CEO & Co-Founder of UMH. "We're building the open-source data infrastructure layer that finally makes industrial data available in the quantity and quality it needs to be – ready for what comes next. This round lets us double down: wider connectivity, greater scale, pool and a product that works for data engineers and shop floor engineers alike." “Industrial AI will only scale once factories have a reliable, shared data foundation - and in manufacturing, that data lives on the factory’s shopfloor. UMH is building this foundation by turning fragmented factory data into accurate, contextualised input for modern analytics and intelligent systems, unlocking a step-change in innovation speed, giving European manufacturers the data backbone they need to compete globally,” said Andreas Winter-Extra, Partner Kompas VC "In areas like ERP, CRM, or HR management, billion-dollar companies have emerged. In digital manufacturing, such a player is still missing. That's exactly our mission: We want to build the world's leading Industrial Data Company," says Niklas Hebborn, Chief Commercial Officer at UMH and former Partner at Freigeist Capital, where he was an early pre-seed investor in UMH.  The fresh capital will be used to strengthen UMH’s open-source platform, accelerate product development, including broader connectivity, advanced data modelling and AI agents.

The UK Government has unveiled a £210 million cyber action plan to secure online public services and protect people’s data as more services move online.  The plan aims to strengthen defences across departments, respond faster to cyber attacks, and support digitisation that could save up to £45 billion in productivity savings while cutting queues and paperwork. Driven by a new Government Cyber Unit, the plan will rapidly improve cyber defences and digital resilience across government departments and the wider public sector, so people can trust that their data and services are protected.   It underpins UK Government plans to digitise public services. This will make more services accessible online, reduce time spent on phone queues and paperwork, and enable citizens to access support without repeating information across multiple departments. This approach could unlock up to £45 billion (note) in productivity savings by using technology effectively across the public sector.  Released as the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill has its Second Reading in the House of Commons, the Bill sets out clear expectations for firms providing services to the government to boost their cyber resilience. From energy and water suppliers to healthcare and data centres, strong defences throughout supply chains will help keep the water running and the lights burning - facing down the cyber attackers who want to grind our country to a halt.    The plan aims to foster clearer visibility into risks and stronger cross-departmental collaboration on severe and complex risks. It will also drive a faster response to threats and incidents, and an overall higher resilience across government, with targeted measures to close major gaps and protect critical services. Digital Government Minister Ian Murray said:  “Cyber-attacks can take vital public services offline in minutes – disrupting our digital services and our very way of life.   This plan sets a new bar to bolster the defences of our public sector, putting cyber-criminals on warning that we are going further and faster to protect the UK’s businesses and public services alike.  This is how we keep people safe, services running, and build a government the public can trust in the digital age." Further, a new Software Security Ambassador Scheme will now help drive adoption of the Software Security Code of Practice, a voluntary project designed to reduce software supply chain attacks and disruption. Among others, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Sage, Santander and NCC Group will come on board as the scheme’s ambassadors, championing the Code across sectors, showcasing practical implementation, and providing feedback to inform future policy improvements.  Thomas Harvey, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Santander UK said: "We are pleased to be an ambassador for the UK government’s Software Security Code of Practice and it reflects our broader commitment to collective resilience. By advocating for these standards we’re not just protecting Santander and our customers, we are helping to build a more secure digital economy for everyone." According to Jason Soroko, Senior Fellow at Sectigo,  2025 was “brutal” for cyber defence. He believes 2026 will be worse. “Attackers are now deploying AI at a speed defenders simply haven’t matched. It’s an asymmetry that widens by the month.” Soroko argues that many organisations are still failing at the basics. “Defenders have been slow to adopt stronger authentication — it’s like refusing to put better locks on the doors. Attackers take full advantage of that.” While passwordless systems are increasingly critical, he warns that passkeys remain difficult to deploy in centralised enterprise environments, leaving “gaps everywhere.” The result, he says, is a familiar but accelerating pattern: ransomware payouts continue to rise, attack surfaces keep expanding, and security teams struggle to keep pace. “Without coordinated collaboration between vendors, the curve bends in the wrong direction.” Looking ahead, Soroko predicts a turning point that the industry won’t welcome. “2026 will mark the first publicly acknowledged Fortune 500 material breach caused by prompt injection.” As organisations rush to deploy LLM-integrated systems, he warns that many will do so without adequate safeguards. “Adversaries will learn how to coerce those models into executing harmful internal commands or leaking sensitive data. The industry still treats prompt injection like a clever party trick rather than a real security class. It’s not.” Critically, attackers won’t need to compromise the model itself. “Even without ‘attacking the model,’ they can weaponise its instructions — and organisations aren’t ready for that.” To counter this, he argues, defensive thinking will need to evolve quickly. “Model-signing and treating small models like firmware will emerge as essential controls. Anything less leaves enterprises dangerously exposed.”

This week CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, kicks off in Las Vegas.  It's a truly mammoth event, encompassing a myriad of venues and side events.  While there’s the usual suite of wearables and gadgets sure to end up in your junk drawer within the year due to product failure or inactivity, there’s a whole lot of practical tech that you’d actually buy worth checking out. IoT, in particular, while ubiquitous in its quiet reach, has seen a sizable boost in capacity due to advancements in AI, hardware, and edge intelligence, but there’s also plenty happening in battery, industrial tech, and robotics. And Europe is showing up with the intent to demonstrate how connected hardware is maturing into real-world infrastructure.   Allergen Alert (France) Allergen Alert is a portable device that directly detects allergens or gluten in a meal with laboratory-level precision. It enables people with food allergies or celiac disease to test their food autonomously, wherever they are. Unlike barcode scanners or apps attempting to interpret a photo of a dish, this pocket-sized mini-lab relies on a patented, single-use pouch derived from bioMérieux’s laboratory technologies, which miniaturises and automates every step of a professional analytical test.  How it works: Collect a food sample, insert the single-use pouch into the device, and press the button to start the analysis. Within minutes, you’ll receive a clear, easy-to-understand result indicating whether an allergen or gluten is present. The mini-lab is being developed in collaboration with allergists, allergy patients and advocacy groups, as well as experts in food safety and the restaurant industry.    Thanks to automated sample preparation, future applications could extend well beyond allergens, including broader food analysis, water testing, environmental monitoring, and more.  .lumen (Romania) .Lumen is a Romanian deeptech startup creating mobility and independence for people who are blind or severely visually impaired by applying autonomous-driving-inspired AI tech to pedestrian navigation challenges.  .lumen Glasses for the Blind is a wearable navigation system described as the world’s first technology to replicate the functionality of a guide dog through AI-driven guidance.  These smart glasses combine multiple cameras, inertial sensors, GNSS localisation (e.g., GPS), and advanced onboard processing to interpret the environment in real time. Using a patented haptic feedback interface on the forehead and complementary audio prompts, the system subtly “guides” the user by indicating safe walking paths, detecting and helping avoid obstacles at and above ground level, and steering toward specific destinations.  The product has been tested by hundreds of visually impaired users across more than 40 countries and is engineered for durability and everyday use. Ongoing software updates aim to expand capabilities, including guided navigation to saved addresses and new destinations.  Its glasses were named a CES 2026 Innovation Awards Honoree in the Accessibility & Longevity category. Kuube (Hungary) Image: Kuube ECO bench. Kuube is a Budapest-based smart street furniture company focused on sustainable, solar-powered solutions that transform public spaces into connected, service-rich environments. The company designs and manufactures a range of street furniture that combine renewable energy with digital services such as free Wi-Fi, USB and wireless device charging, environmental sensors, and digital displays. From  Kuube PLUS, a large eight-seater with Wi-Fi, multiple charging options, environmental monitoring, and digital displays to Kuube BOOK, a solar-powered public book exchange that fosters community engagement, these products merge functionality, sustainability, and community value in public infrastructure.    Swistor (Switzerland)  Swistor is an EPFL spin-off developing high-performance supercapacitors that are fast-charging, long-lasting, and environmentally friendly.  It uses nanostructured carbon-based electrodes and advanced materials to create energy storage devices that can deliver high power density, rapid charge/discharge cycles, and slow degradation over time—addressing key limitations of traditional lithium-ion batteries such as slow charging, limited lifetime, and reliance on scarce materials like lithium and cobalt.  Swistor’s products are designed to complement or potentially replace conventional batteries in applications ranging from portable electronics and IoT sensors to higher-power systems such as renewable energy integration or grid support, with a B2B focus and customizable solutions for partners. Tinental  (Italy) Startup Tinental seeks to make energy optimisation and predictive maintenance accessible and profitable for industrial operators by using AI, digital-twin modelling, and IoT.   The company has created Caleno Energy, a plug-and-play IoT device that integrates with existing motor-driven machinery (such as pumps) via variable-frequency drives (VFDs) to dynamically match machine output to actual system demand, significantly reducing energy waste by up to 60 per cent while maintaining the same production output. It installs quickly with zero downtime and no need for additional sensors. Further, Caleno Predict is a predictive-maintenance solution that uses AI and certified analyst support to detect anomalies, deliver actionable maintenance guidance, and minimise unplanned downtime and recurring faults. Together, these tools help industries optimise energy use, reduce costs, and extend asset lifespans. UTU (Ukraine) UTU is a Kyiv-based Ukrainian company developing industrial 3D printing technology for construction. It designs and builds large-scale concrete 3D printers that can be deployed directly on construction sites to print structural walls and building elements layer by layer, significantly reducing construction time, labour needs, and material waste compared to traditional methods. The startup is the first Ukrainian company to build and 3D print a residential house in Ukraine using its own technology. This project was completed in a remarkably short timeframe (reported around 58 hours).

A UK social and community networking app has raised a “major seven-figure investment”, its co-founder has announced, as it looks to scale globally. Cliq, founded in 2023, allows users to connect with like-minded individuals, join interest-based communities, and attend local events.  It was founded as a counterpoint to typical social media platforms. Users can join communities focused on their interests and hobbies, such as exercise, reading, and faith-based groups. The idea is that users meet in person and build friendships, amid figures showing a rise in loneliness levels. Cliq bills itself as a social networking app, with a focus on meeting in person, as opposed to a social media app. To date, it has amassed over 100,000 users, with its key markets being the UK, US, Australia, and Bali. Nicola Gunby, co-founder and chief marketing officer, said: “Cliq has raised a major seven-figure investment to scale globally. “Two years ago, we set out with one mission: to challenge the social networking industry and build something that gets people off their phones and back into real life. “With £0 spent on marketing and hundreds of thousands of users already connecting both online and offline, Cliq has quickly become one of Europe’s fastest-emerging social apps. "This investment brings us one step closer to taking that mission worldwide and accelerating real-life connection for more people than ever.” Gunby did not reveal the specific amount raised to Tech.eu. The funding has been raised from VC Artesian, along with funding from a family office and some angel investors, Gunby said. Gunby, who founded the startup with her partner Jason Iliffe, added that the funds will be used to grow and scale the startup. The startup has previously raised over £500,000.

As of late 2025, 88% of organizations are using AI in at least one business function, up from just 55% in 2023. But while this is the case, only 7% have fully scaled AI across their organization, while 62% are still experimenting or piloting. Most companies are drifting with AI—using tools because they’re available or trendy, not because they’re part of a coherent strategy. While some may hope that the AI wave will pass, the truth is the opposite: AI is here to stay. Companies that don’t embrace AI will likely fall behind. But the companies that are building intentionally will pull ahead. Gartner predicts that by 2028, organizations with sustained AI-first strategies will achieve 25% better business results than their peers. As we enter 2026, the window to move from drifting to building is closing. It’s a certainty that AI will reshape your industry—the only question is whether you’ll direct that change or react to it. Why strategy can’t wait Many organizations still question the need for an AI strategy. They don’t see direct applications, are concerned about the unknowns, or think AI is only for coding. But AI is already embedded in industries far beyond traditional tech. In healthcare, for example, AI systems can already examine stroke patients’ brains with twice the accuracy of human professionals and detect epilepsy lesions that radiologists miss. In education, 57% of higher education institutions are prioritizing AI for digital acceleration and personalized learning. Here’s an uncomfortable truth: your organization is already using AI, whether you have an AI strategy in place or not. Many employees are using AI tools to complete their work. Some are using approved tools according to clear protocols. Others are pasting proprietary data into the free version of ChatGPT and copying the results blindly. The absence of a strategy creates two problems. First, employees using AI haphazardly create security vulnerabilities, compliance issues, and what’s now called “workslop”—low-quality output that looks professional but lacks depth and substance. Second, employees who should be using AI aren’t, either because they don’t know which tools are approved or because they fear being replaced by them. Strategy solves both problems. It channels AI use toward value creation while establishing guardrails. It helps employees transform anxiety into capability. And most importantly, it purposefully redefines what good work means in your organization—because AI is already redefining roles, whether you acknowledge it or not 3 strategic imperatives for 2026 Building an intentional AI strategy requires more than just declaring “we’re AI-first” on your homepage. It requires structural changes across three key dimensions: 1. Treat AI as infrastructure, not innovation. The first mistake organizations make is treating AI as something special—like a center of excellence. This thinking leads to AI remaining peripheral. Instead, AI must become infrastructure: as unremarkable as email, as essential as your Slack channels. Your leadership team should actively identify processes to automate, not to reduce headcount, but to redirect human effort toward higher-value work. When AI handles the routine tasks, your people can focus on the complex, creative, and strategic work that actually moves your business forward. This shift must come from a cultural change. Software engineers should reach for AI coding assistants by default. Finance teams should assume AI will flag anomalies in real-time. Support teams should expect AI to handle basic questions. The goal is to make AI invisible, not impressive, as it’s woven into how work gets done every day. 2. Establish baseline AI competency standards. You wouldn’t hire engineers who can’t use version control. You shouldn’t hire engineers who can’t effectively use AI coding tools. As AI streamlines routine coding tasks, the role of software developers is evolving. Developers who master AI tools can focus on architecture, complex problem-solving, and work that requires deep contextual understanding—the work AI can’t handle. Developers who don’t will struggle to keep pace. Having baseline standards doesn’t mean everyone needs to be an AI researcher. It means establishing basic competencies: understanding which tasks AI excels at, how to write effective prompts, how to validate AI output, and when to override AI recommendations. These should be hiring criteria, onboarding requirements, training mandates, and promotion considerations. The alternative is a growing skills gap within your own organization, resulting in team members who’ve embraced AI becoming more productive, while those who haven’t struggle with the basics. 3. Implement guardrails before incidents happen. AI offers organizations transformative productivity and efficiency gains. It also introduces serious risks: copyright infringement lawsuits, data leakage, hallucinated information presented as fact, and security vulnerabilities, to name just a few. The question isn’t whether these risks exist, but rather whether you’ll address them proactively or reactively. Being reactive is expensive. It means learning about data leaks from customer complaints, discovering copyright issues through legal threats, or finding that proprietary code was used to train external models after the fact. Being proactive means establishing clear policies now: which AI tools are approved, what data can be shared with them, how to verify AI-generated output, and what happens when the policies are violated. This requires training employees not just on how to use AI, but on how to use it responsibly within your organization’s risk tolerance. Guardrails, when properly designed and implemented, aren’t about limiting AI use, but about enabling it safely at scale. Building, not chasing Becoming AI-first requires changes that feel difficult because transformation of any kind is challenging. But organizations that invest in deploying AI capabilities to existing operations are fundamentally redesigning how work gets done. At MacPaw, we don’t treat AI as an add-on or a trend to ride. It’s the foundation of how we build products, support customers, and operate as a company. This didn’t happen because AI became fashionable. It happened because we recognize that the companies that integrate AI deepest and earliest will have compounding advantages that competitors can’t easily replicate. The difference between 2026 and 2025 won’t be more AI tools; rather, it will be which organizations stopped drifting and started building. The strategy you implement now determines which category you’ll be in. By Volodymyr Kubytskyi, Director of AI at MacPaw

UK-based qualitative analytics startup WholeSum has raised £730,000, combining grant funding from Women TechEU with a pre-seed round led by Twin Path Ventures. The round also included participation from SFC and strategic angel investors via Ventures Together, including founders and operators from JustPark, Episode 1, ClearScore, and Prolific. A significant share of organisational data is unstructured, yet many teams lack consistent methods for analysing large volumes of text. Key information is often found in transcripts, open-ended survey responses, online discussions, and customer feedback, while analysis frequently relies on time-intensive manual processes or automated summaries that are difficult to verify or reproduce. WholeSum provides an AI-based analytics layer for qualitative data, converting large amounts of free text into statistically supported, auditable outputs. Founded by Emily Kucharski and Dr Adam Kucharski, the company combines experience in commercial and public sector insights with expertise in statistical inference and machine learning. The platform is designed for direct API integration and produces quantified, reproducible insights that can be incorporated into existing analytics workflows. Tasks that would typically take weeks of manual analysis can be completed more quickly and then examined further using statistical tools to support decision-making. Through collaborations with organisations including Imperial College London and Female Founders Rise in partnership with Barclays, WholeSum has found that high-value insights are often contained within unstructured data rather than simplified survey metrics. However, identifying these insights consistently and at scale has historically been difficult. John Spindler, Partner at Twin Path Ventures, said that qualitative analysis has long depended on manual processes and inconsistent approaches. He noted that WholeSum introduces a more systematic and automated framework and described the platform as an important foundation for how qualitative evidence may be produced and relied upon in the future. The platform is primarily aimed at sectors such as research, healthcare, and financial services, where reliable qualitative evidence plays an important role in decision-making and outcomes. According to internal evaluations, WholeSum demonstrates improved performance compared with several established reasoning models on certain datasets, offering faster processing and lower theme attribution error while maintaining reproducible results. The company plans to use the new funding to advance product development, expand its science and engineering teams, and scale early enterprise deployments.

Hybrid-casual puzzle game Pixel Flow has closed a seed round with participation from Akın Babayiğit and e2vc. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. Three months after launch, the game has reached seven-figure daily revenue and entered the Top 25 of the US App Store Top Grossing chart, reflecting the team’s accelerated scaling efforts and the commercial potential of the hybrid-casual category. Pixel Flow was developed by Kübra Gundogan and Emre Çelik, an Istanbul-based team previously involved in the game Twisted Tangle. Drawing on their experience in product development, go-to-market execution, and scaling within the hybrid-casual category, the team has supported the game’s early adoption and growth. Co-founder and CEO Kübra Gundogan said the project emerged from the team’s long-term focus on creating original game mechanics. She noted that the game’s reception reflects their analysis of player behaviour and the insights derived from that work, and that Pixel Flow represents a new core mechanic and design direction for the team. Commenting on the investment, Akın Babayiğit said that Pixel Flow has attracted strong attention across the industry, describing it as a notable recent success from the region and pointing to both its performance metrics and the originality of its core mechanic. Following the investment, the team expanded its scaling efforts, indicating that hybrid-casual games can reach wide audiences while generating sustainable revenue.

There are around 350,000 people diagnosed with primary brain cancer every year, and 250,000 people die from it. Despite decades of progress in medicine, the tools primarily used to access, diagnose, and treat the brain remain limited — until now. Robeauté is a Paris-based MedTech startup developing a new class of therapeutic microrobots designed to diagnose, treat, and monitor the brain with unprecedented flexibility. Operating at the intersection of robotics, physics, materials science, chemistry, biology, and medicine, the company has developed a modular medical device built around a universal robotic core with interchangeable micro-extensions. I spoke to co-founder and COO Joana Cartocci to learn all about it.  From targeted drug delivery to live data collection Roughly the size of a grain of rice, Robeauté’s microrobots can navigate curved, non-linear paths through the brain’s extracellular matrix, safely reaching multiple sites of interest. Depending on the pathology, each device can be equipped for a specific mission — delivering therapeutic molecules, implanting electrodes, or collecting cellular and live data via embedded sensors. This modular architecture allows a single platform to be adapted across a wide range of clinical applications, from tissue sampling and targeted drug delivery to electrode implantation and real-time data collection from deep within the brain — opening new possibilities for both treatment and understanding of complex neuropathologies. From extreme environments to the human brain Robeauté’s founder, Bertrand Duplat, spent more than 30 years working in robotics, including at McGill University and the European Space Agency, specialising in robots designed for extreme environments. Earlier in his career, he also founded 3D software company Virtools, which Dassault Systèmes later acquired. After decades working on undersea, nuclear, space, and archaeological robotics, Duplat decided to apply his expertise to medicine — a decision catalysed by his mother’s diagnosis with glioblastoma. He went on to found Robeauté with co-founder Joana Cartocci, an operations specialist. “He had been doing robotics for 30 years in extreme environments and decided to put that experience to good use,” Cartocci said. “That’s around the time we met. He asked me to join and lead operations — everything that’s not scientific — and we’ve been at it since 2017.” Why most academic microrobots never leave the lab  Crucially, Cartocci comes from an operational background. She notes that a lot of founders spin out of labs and struggle with the transition to entrepreneurship. "It’s a completely different skill set. Time management, identity, and team alignment — those things make or break a company. My role is to take that weight off my co-founder so he can focus on what he does best: the technology. And get it to patients as fast as possible.” Designing for control, not magnets According to Cartocci, in most academic labs today, microrobots remain largely passive tools — probes or magnetic particles set in motion by very large external electromagnetic coils. “It’s extremely hard to scale,” Cartocci explained, “and it doesn’t give surgeons much confidence when it comes to control.” Robeauté takes a fundamentally different approach. Its system is built around a tiny, active device composed of two parts: a carrier and an extension. It has over 50 patents. “The carrier contains our core technology,” Cartocci said. “It’s what allows the robot to move non-linearly through the brain, while being continuously tracked with ultrasound, so we always know exactly where it is.” The extension, meanwhile, is what defines the medical task itself. “That’s where you specify the pathology or the intervention,” she explained. “It could be a biopsy tool, an electrode, a drug-delivery mechanism — whatever needs to be delivered locally. It’s about the ability to reach multiple sites through non-linear routes and to do so with the right level of accuracy. That fundamentally changes how neurosurgery is performed today.” The benefits of not being first  Other companies that have tried to industrialise this academic approach— passive probes moved electromagnetically. “They started before we did, so they had a first-mover advantage, but they’re struggling now, " shared Cartocci “They’re not bankrupt, but they’re on the downfall. Our approach is entirely different, and we were always very clear about what we deliberately didn’t go for, because we knew it wasn’t the right solution.” There are also companies doing microrobotics in vascular environments rather than directly in brain tissue. But none are at the maturity level of Robeauté, particularly in regulatory engagement and strong relationships with surgeons. Why incremental innovation isn’t enough Cartocci speaks of the urgency of the kind of medtech her company is developing against companies which add incremental value which are hard to mobilise real change around. "Being less disruptive means adding even less value.  At Robeauté, we’re clearly in the transformational category. People are dying.  The unmet need is enormous. A billion people are affected by brain disease. The drug market alone is around $72 billion. Electrodes are now valued in the trillions if you include healthy patients. The biopsy market is $4 billion. Brain–computer interfaces are now in the multiple billions. There’s so much that requires precision — having one tool that opens all doors — that unlocks a completely different way of performing brain surgery. We see tremendous excitement from the medical profession.” Finding the right investors by letting go In January 2025, Robeauté raised $28 million in funding. Cartocci describes the fundraising experience as “traumatic.”She admits. “It’s brutal. But at some point, you reach a kind of surrender. You know your company, your value, your pitch — and the more you try to control things, the more frustrating it becomes. When you let go and surf the waves, you find the right people. I spoke to another founder recently who described it as “conjuring destiny.” That resonated. You prepare, you show up, you’re relentless. You don’t take rejection personally. Everyone comes with their own constraints.” Her biggest takeaway was learning to enjoy speaking to investors — understanding their language. “That wasn’t always the case.” Following funding, Robeauté doubled its team, which, according to Cartocci, felt incredible:  “Before, it felt like we were constantly being held back. Now there’s space for iteration, greater experimentation, error, and proper building.  Europe’s regulatory fragmentation problem The company opened its US subsidiary, which is critical for go-to-market and clinical trials. The US will be its first market, which   Cartocci attributes primarily to regulations: “In the US, you co-create your regulatory strategy with the FDA. In Europe, you complete everything, submit the file, and wait a year with no feedback. For a platform technology like ours — moving from one indication to another — the US model makes a huge difference. Once you have FDA data, it becomes a blueprint for Europe.” She also highlighted Europe’s fragmentation as problematic — “It would take as much time and money to open France as it would to open the entire US.” That said, Robeaute is European, and as  Cartocci shared, “we care deeply about bringing this back here. Our investors believe in Europe and don’t want to just flip everything to the US. Healthcare values matter. If we don’t feed technology back into public systems, we push them toward the American model — and that’s a failure.” For Cartocci, commercial brain microrobots are closer than they’ve ever been. “We need collective effort — investors, developers, regulators — to make sure these solutions reach the market. We’re also hiring: scientific and technical roles, quality and regulatory roles, US go-to-market roles, and engineering roles. It’s a great time to watch — or join — the company.” The company's next goal is first-in-human studies by the end of 2026. Lead image: Robeauté. Photo: uncredited. 

In 2025, the European Space Agency turned 50. Founded on 30 May 1975, when the ESA Convention was signed by ten Member States, it has since grown into a pan-European institution spanning 23 Member States, three Associate Members, and a widening network of international cooperation agreements. Anniversaries are good moments for celebration — but also for taking stock. ESA’s last five decades have been defined by scientific ambition, industrial development, and European cooperation. Its next chapter will be shaped just as much by commercial competition, geopolitics, and the very down-to-Earth reality that space is now critical infrastructure: for connectivity, navigation, climate monitoring, security, and more. To understand what this shift looks like in practice, I spoke with founders and operators working with ESA across manufacturing, sustainability, launch, Earth observation, and space traffic management. From components to full systems — and the leap to GEO Image: Swissto12. For Emile de Rijk, CEO of SWISSto12, ESA’s role is clearest when you look at how European companies move up the value chain: from specialist components to full, commercially viable systems. SWISSto12, founded in 2011 as a spin-off from Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology, was an early adopter of 3D printing for RF and antenna products. Over time, it expanded into complete satellite communications systems — user terminals for aircraft, ships, vehicles, and ground stations. Then came a bigger pivot: geostationary orbit. GEO is the connectivity sweet spot — satellites appear fixed from Earth and cover vast areas — but historically it has been the domain of enormous, bespoke platforms with eye-watering price tags. SWISSto12’s answer was HummingSat, a compact, lower-cost GEO platform aimed at making that orbit commercially accessible. ESA, de Rijk told me, has been part of the story for a decade. “Every time we took a step forward — towards more integrated, complex products — ESA was there to co-fund developments and provide technical expertise,” he said. “The most significant example is HummingSat. Building a geostationary satellite is a massive undertaking. ESA supported us with funding and assigned a team of around 20 people who are deeply involved on a daily basis.” That support, he added, helped SWISSto12 win its first commercial satellite contracts — and he’s clear about how he views the relationship.  "We’ve always treated ESA as a partner. We work together on new technologies with the shared goal of bringing them to market.” De Rijk also credits ESA with becoming more pragmatic about how different missions should be run. “If you’re launching a deep-space mission, you only get one shot — so the process must be conservative,” he said. “But for a low-cost CubeSat tech demo, you can move fast and take risks. ESA has done a good job of categorising missions and adapting accordingly. It’s no longer one-size-fits-all.” Making space matter on Earth: sustainability and downstream demand That idea — that space is increasingly about real-world outcomes — sits at the centre of Daniel Smith’s work. Smith is a founding director of five space companies and Scotland’s first sector-specific Trade & Investment Envoy for Space. Through comms and marketing intelligence agency AstroAgency, he has worked with ESA on space sustainability and downstream applications. AstroAgency was the first UK commercial space company to sign ESA’s Statement for a Responsible Space Sector, and later partnered with ESA’s Space Sustainability team after delivering Scotland’s Space Sustainability Roadmap. For Smith, ESA’s influence is often most powerful in the “non-funding” category: convening, credibility, and doors opening. “Initiatives like the Responsible Space Statement open doors, promote best practice, and engage key stakeholders — including other space agencies,” he said. “ESA helps remove barriers to entry and supports commercialisation, not just for space companies, but for adjacent industries and society more broadly.” AstroAgency’s mission is to shift how the sector talks about itself. “We’re shifting perceptions away from deep-space exploration and towards Earth observation and satellite data applications — in maritime, agriculture, energy, forestry, finance, and conservation.” The company has supported more than 20 Earth observation businesses across ESA member states, helping them translate technical capability into language that makes sense to non-space buyers. “Often, that means leading with end-user benefits — and only later mentioning that the data comes from space,” Smith said. And in his view, that downstream market is where the real growth is. “ESA has a critical role in pushing this narrative forward,” he said. “With the geopolitical climate and the importance of Earth observation for defence — particularly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — ESA’s ability to catalyse collaboration across member states has never been more essential.” ESA as enabler — and as an anchor customer for data Image: SatVu releases first-of-its-kind thermal image revealing true operational activity inside major US data centre by SatVu. A similar point comes through from James O’Connor, Head of Imagery at  SatelliteVu (SatVu) After HotSat-1 launched, ESA ran a data evaluation exercise to validate the accuracy of the pipeline, and later purchased archive imagery to make freely available to researchers through an announcement of opportunity. From O’Connor’s perspective, ESA has increasingly signalled that it wants to be part of enabling commercial EO providers — including through anchor-style contracts. “Programs like Copernicus Contributing Missions and Third Party Missions show real commitment to enabling commercial data providers,” he said, although he noted decision-making can still feel opaque or slow. He credited ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher with cutting the time from announcement to award, and wants to see commercialisation become more explicit alongside science. “ESA member states have world-class talent in Earth observation. Identifying commercialisation targets that complement Copernicus should be front and centre — so applications like disaster response are fully covered beyond the Sentinel missions.” Launch is different: risk, tempo, and the need for early demand. If “anchor customer” matters in data, it’s even more existential in launch. Stage 1 static fire at Andoya Spaceport by Isar Aerospace. Stella Guillen, Chief Commercial Officer at Isar Aerospace, argues that ESA support is important — but the mechanism has to match the market. “ESA’s support can be crucial for startups entering the market and scaling,” she said. “But negotiations around funding, programmes, and service agreements need to keep pace with commercial realities.” Isar Aerospace, founded in 2018 as a Technical University of Munich spin-off provides cost-efficient, flexible launch services for small and medium satellites and constellations. For Guillen, ESA’s most valuable role would be to take early, calculated risk as a customer. “Acting as an anchor customer — willing to accept higher risk in early maturation phases — is especially important for launch companies,” she said.“It helps us build credibility with other stakeholders.” And she’s blunt about where leverage sits for emerging players. “Funding has traditionally focused on technology development. But for companies like ours, the biggest lever is customer agreements.” Space traffic management: credibility, validation, and a faster ESA Image:OKAPI:Orbits. As orbit gets more crowded, OKAPI:Orbits sits in the infrastructure layer of the space economy: the tools that help keep satellites safe and space usable. Founded in 2018, the company uses AI-driven data fusion to predict and manage orbital risks — from collision avoidance to interference. CEO Kristina Nikolaus said ESA has played a meaningful role in both development and validation through ESA BIC, the General Support Technology Programme (GSTP), and ESA COSMIC (Competitiveness). “The processes are generally clear and transparent,” she said. That support comes amid a step change in ESA’s overall ambition. In November, ESA Member States committed a record-breaking €22.1 billion in funding, significantly expanding Europe’s space technology agenda. Central to this is the enlarged GSTP, which secured around €5 billion for technology development — a 70 per cent increase on the previous cycle — spanning everything from early-stage research to in-orbit demonstration. The programme also introduced a new Resilience and Security Component, reinforcing Europe’s focus on sovereignty and operational robustness. “GSTP can be slow — that’s expected — but COSMIC was significantly faster,” Nikolaus explained. Coordination can be a headache, Nikolaus noted, with multiple points of contact across ESA and national agencies — but the credibility payoff is real. “ESA contracts helped us build trust in the industry,” she said. “COSMIC allowed us to benchmark against ESA standards and publish our results, which were very positive.” She also sees ESA evolving. “Newer programmes like COSMIC show a real shift towards agility,” Nikolaus said. “For companies operating in the institutional space sector, ESA engagement remains a strong asset." Inside ESA: sovereignty, fragmentation, and learning from New Space From within ESA, Polyzois Kokkonis, Future Programs Officer frames the agency’s role in terms of sovereignty — not only ownership, but capability. “A country may not own satellites outright, but it must be able to build and maintain them. ESA focuses on ensuring European industry has that capability.” He also pointed to the growing “democratisation” of space, driven by New Space trends such as smaller satellites, cheaper launches, and commercial off-the-shelf components. “This makes space more accessible, creating new opportunities for startups and smaller nations.”  But he also flags Europe’s structural disadvantage: fragmentation. “The US benefits from a unified market and consistent regulation,” he said. “Europe doesn’t — which makes scaling harder.” However he contends that the learning curve has shifted in Europe’s favour. “Reusable rockets are now proven, for example. That reduces uncertainty. Europe can learn from those who went first, adapt to its own needs, and move faster. At ESA, the job is to hold all the pieces together — launch, satellites, ground, data — while ensuring Europe can compete in a space economy no longer defined solely by institutions." At 50, the European Space Agency as an organisation characterised towards impact on Earth, commercial enablement, and strategic resilience. Whether helping companies climb the value chain, acting as a first customer for data and services, or translating space capabilities into downstream applications that matter to non-space users, ESA has become a critical bridge between public ambition and commercial reality. At the same time, geopolitics has sharpened ESA’s role in resilience and security. Space is now critical infrastructure, underpinning climate monitoring, crisis response, defence, connectivity, and economic stability. The scale-up of programmes like GSTP, the creation of dedicated resilience and security components, and faster, more agile mechanisms such as COSMIC reflect a clear shift: Europe is no longer just investing in space excellence, but in space capability as sovereignty. ifty years on, ESA’s relevance is not just intact; it is increasingly grounded — in Earth’s needs, Europe’s competitiveness, and the security of the space environment itself. Image: Europe at night from space. Photo: ESA. 

GameByte, an AI-powered game creation platform, has raised $1 million at a $10 million valuation from Webrazzi GSYF, the venture arm of Tech.eu’s parent company, Webrazzi. The investment adds GameByte to the fund’s portfolio and was completed with legal support from Arıkan Law Firm, representing Webrazzi GSYF. The fund was established in partnership with İş Portföy and has previously invested in Parny and Next Big App. Founded in January 2025 by Can Erdoğan (Co-Founder & CEO), Oğuz Sandıkçı, and Fırat Gürsu, GameByte enables mobile game studios to transform text-based ideas into playable games and advertisements within minutes. By removing the need for manual coding, the platform accelerates prototyping, testing, and performance evaluation. The platform generates complete playable experiences, including in-game objects, animations, visual assets, interactions, and overall game flow, rather than limiting output to basic prototypes. This approach enables developers to achieve substantial time and cost efficiencies compared with traditional development methods. Commenting on the investment, Can Erdoğan said: This is just the beginning. We’re scaling GameByte as a platform that makes game creation as easy as writing a prompt—and accessible to everyone. We’ll use this investment to expand our system and open GameByte up to anyone around the world who wants to make games. Over the long term, the company plans to enable the creation of release-ready games using text prompts while expanding support for additional genres and platforms. The platform also continuously improves output quality by analysing performance data and refining its production models. GameByte additionally plans to support live-operations management in the future, including the scalable production of post-release content such as events, new levels, quests, and seasonal updates through the same technology infrastructure.

European fintech showed resilience in 2025, recording increased investment levels compared to 2024, powered by the rise of technologies like stablecoins, embedded finance and AI. 2025 also witnessed plenty of fintech M&A activity, while excitement is growing around potential fintech IPOs in the years ahead. Here, fintech executives predict some of the themes we will likely see in 2026. Andrew Crocombe, head of embedded banking, ClearBank, said embedded finance will represent a big opportunity for businesses in 2026. He said: "Historically, firms looking to deliver embedded services have faced a compromise – work with a BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) provider offering agility or an incumbent bank with proven governance and control frameworks but lacking the real-time APIs they need. "Next year we expect next-generation, API-based banks to become the standard for embedded account and payments services, allowing corporates to create seamless experiences that deepen engagement, increase customer loyalty and drive new revenue streams. "By building on top of a regulated bank’s proven infrastructure, businesses can deliver competitive and compliant services and features without incurring the substantial cost of obtaining a banking licence. "It also means brands don’t need to compromise the quality of their services and maintain a customer experience consistent with their brand." Chris Mason, CEO, Orbital, says interoperability will define the success of stablecoins in 2026. He says: “The big problem facing stablecoins is interoperability. That is, most coins and chains can’t talk to each other.  "Many of the current launches are effectively closed-loop tokens, useful as internal ledgers but not interoperable to create a wider network that gives the scale and reach for mass adoption.  “Visa and Mastercard made global interoperability work, where others failed, by standardising roles and rules, then building shared networks that let thousands of banks, processors, and merchants transact as if they were on one unified system.” Mason has called on industry collaboration for stablecoins to succeed. He added: “History speaks for itself: real scale for stablecoins will only come from the network effect we see in existing payment systems. If this is to be achieved, it will require industry collaboration at a time when different power players are jostling for market position. "Whether competition can be set aside for collaboration will define the success of stablecoins in 2026.” Amid the rise of businesses looking to leverage AI, Andy Mason, chief operating officer, NatWest Boxed, says it will be people who give businesses the AI advantage in financial services. He said: "In 2026, people will be the true AI advantage in financial services, not models or tools. The industry has a greater challenge: how to successfully develop people, providing them with the skills to successfully use AI, and in doing so, reduce apprehension. The gap is now as much a cultural issue as a technological one. "The institutions making the strongest progress are those investing in AI-ready workforce initiatives. Formal AI literacy programmes, structured tool training, and clear guidance on responsible use are giving employees confidence and reducing resistance. "Crucially, these programmes show people how AI can augment their roles by reducing friction rather than replacing them." On dealing with staff apprehension about AI, Mason said businesses should embrace transparency and open communication. Hristo Borisov, co-founder and CEO, Payhawk, said that amid the rise in AI, “autonomous finance” will occur only in certain areas. Borisov said: “Autonomous finance implies systems making decisions and executing end-to-end. That will happen in pockets, under strict constraints, and mostly in lower-stakes domains. What will actually scale is controlled delegation. Software will do more work, but inside explicit authority limits. "If a system can touch the ledger or payment rails, you need human-in-the-loop supervision that can explain what happened, intervene fast, and shut it down when conditions change.” Further tapping into the AI trend, Mark Andreev, chief operating officer, Exactly.com, said 2026 will see the continued rise of agentic commerce. He said: "We anticipate that AI will likely play a vital role in helping users research and compare, and we may even see test runs of autonomous transactions, ushering in a new era where AI is a key driver of the shopping experience.” He also urged retail businesses to keep pace with consumer expectations. He said: "Retail leadership is also undergoing a transformation: digital businesses must keep pace with AI-driven consumer expectations, while bricks-and-mortar stores need to figure out ways to integrate AI to enhance in-store experiences." He added: “Shoppers are now demanding more than just a fast checkout and convenience – they expect transparency, security and a frictionless experience across channels that doesn’t involve a trade-off between safety and convenience."

The Artists Collective has officially launched as the UK’s first artist-led investment collective, following a period in which it quietly backed 20 early-stage technology companies. The platform brings together established cultural figures, including Maya Jama, Daniel Kaluuya, Jack Whitehall, Roman Kemp, and Tom Grennan, alongside experienced venture investors to support early-stage businesses. Its model combines capital investment with access to professional networks to provide practical support for founders. The collective was established by brothers Fergus and Ruari Bell, founders of The Players Fund, to enable longer-term collaboration between artists and founders and to improve founders’ access to the creative and entertainment sectors. The focus is on sustained engagement rather than short-term promotional activity. Ruari Bell, Managing Partner at The Artists Collective, commented: Artists want a trusted home to invest together, learn together and support founders where it actually counts. We aim to do the work quietly and let the results speak for themselves. We're bringing The Players Fund's approach to artists - pairing capital with targeted support that drives tangible results. TAC sits inside The Players Fund's ecosystem and invest alongside our athlete network. Investments are made through the personal portfolios of participating artists, with fund management provided by The Players Fund team. The collective typically invests between £50,000 and £300,000 in Seed and Series A companies across various sectors, including AI, B2B software, cybersecurity, fintech, healthtech, and media, with a primary focus on the UK and Europe. It has co-invested alongside firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, SV Angel, and Seedcamp. Participating artists support portfolio companies by facilitating introductions and commercial opportunities, helping to accelerate growth. The launch consolidates multiple artist investor groups into a single platform designed to support founders and promote greater artist participation in venture investing across the UK and Europe.

After a particularly spirited online conversation about whether tech media should still be covering funding rounds, I found myself reflecting on what we actually do — day in, day out — at Tech.eu. When I do workshops about talking to the media, I often talk about the story behind the news. Beyond funding, there’s a broader story of the people building tech, backing innovation, and questioning what comes next. As 2025 draws to a close, here’s a look back at some of the features you may have missed this year — the ones that go beyond the headline numbers and into the substance of Europe’s tech moment.   Can algorithms rule better than humans? Sensay Island resurrects Churchill, Gandhi, and Tesla to find out  What happens when philosophers, scientists, and leaders of the past are resurrected as AI agents and placed in charge of a tropical micronation? AI agents “lost” when patients ask medical questions, says healthtech boss Ali Parsa and Vladimir Lupenko discuss AI in healthtech. What will it take for nuclear to meet AI's surging energy demands? We asked European startups what they need to see to expedite development on SMRs and nuclear plants. HOLYWATER’s $70M ARR romance media empire is built with AI, offering a glimpse into the future of storytelling The Ukrainian startup reimagines romance fiction as a hugely successful franchise, but not all authors are swooning. UK at risk of becoming AI “users, not makers”, says Hoberman, as Nvidia and Microsoft pledge billions Google and Microsoft are amongst several US tech giants to pledge AI investments into the UK. The Twingo E-Tech is more than a car — it’s Renault’s blueprint for competing with China After the original was discontinued in 2024, the compact EV returns with faster development, lower costs, and a globalised R&D approach aimed at restoring Europe’s small-car market. Kinisi bets on simplicity over spectacle in the robotics race According to Kinisi Robotics founder Bren Pierce, staged demos and backflips don’t impress industrial buyers who need 24/7 reliability. The Seoul Statement paves the way for European AI standards The future of AI standards in Europe will be a framework agreed upon thousands of miles away in South Korea. How games are mobilising millions for climate action A United Nations project with Planet Play is combating climate change by engaging the world's games community to come together to fight climate change.

European agritech demonstrated measured resilience and strategic maturity amid a still-cautious investment climate. Rather than broad, hype-driven expansion, the sector showed clear signs of consolidation, technical depth, and stronger alignment with real on-farm and food-system needs. More attention went to areas tied to efficiency and sustainability, using fewer inputs, improving animal and crop performance, and strengthening resilience to climate and cost pressures. Indoor and controlled-environment growing continued to develop, but with a stronger focus on energy use, automation, and making the economics work. Digital tools also shifted toward helping farmers make clearer decisions, rather than simply collecting more data. The following are the ten largest funding rounds in the European agritech industry during the first half of 2025. Amount raised in H1 2025: €39M First Water is an Icelandic aquaculture company developing sustainable, land-based Atlantic salmon farming in Þorlákshöfn. Using advanced closed-containment technology, clean subterranean seawater, and Iceland’s renewable energy, the company aims to produce high-quality salmon while reducing environmental impact. Its approach supports strong biosecurity, stable growing conditions, and responsible production as it scales its multi-phase facility for both domestic and international markets. In April, First Water secured €39 millon to promote sustainable salmon production. Amount raised in H1 2025: €13M Fyteko is an agri-biosolutions company founded in 2014 that develops bio-based plant solutions for more sustainable agriculture. Inspired by nature and backed by science, Fyteko builds proprietary, chemically pure biomolecules used in biostimulants and biocontrol to improve crop performance, strengthen drought/heat resilience, and reduce reliance on conventional chemicals. In February, Fyteko landed €13 million to create biomolecules that protect and enhance the world’s crops. Amount raised in H1 2025: €7.5M Doktar is an agricultural technology company leading digital transformation in farming. Founded in 2017, it combines proprietary software, IoT devices, hyper-local weather forecasts, satellite imagery, soil analysis, and AI-driven models to deliver data-driven insights from field to market. Doktar helps farmers, agribusinesses, and food companies optimise operations, reduce input costs, and support more sustainable and efficient agricultural production. In June, Doktar raised €7.5 million to expand its product portfolio and scale its holistic service model globally. Amount raised in H1 2025: €6M Agteria Biotech is an agricultural biotech startup on a mission to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by tackling methane from cattle, a major climate contributor. The company has developed AB-01, a patent-pending feed additive designed to significantly lower methane production in cows in a scalable, affordable, and science-backed way without disrupting normal digestion. Agteria collaborates with leading researchers and partners to bring its solution to market and support more sustainable livestock farming. Agteria Biotech raised €6 million in February to reduce methane emissions from cattle. Amount raised in H1 2025: €5M Avisomo is an agricultural technology company specialising in automated vertical farming and plant factory solutions designed to integrate with large-scale retail and food supply chains. Its modular systems enable cost-efficient, year-round cultivation of high-quality produce with minimal human interaction. Avisomo’s end-to-end solutions help reduce operational costs, improve scalability, and support sustainable indoor crop production. In January, Avisomo secured €5 million in funding to advance its indoor farming technology and support sustainable, large-scale local food production. Amount raised in H1 2025: €4.4M Biocsol is an agricultural biotechnology company focused on developing biological solutions for sustainable crop production. The company specialises in bio-based products that support plant health, improve resilience, and help protect crops while reducing reliance on conventional chemical inputs. By combining scientific research with practical agricultural needs, Biocsol aims to contribute to more efficient, environmentally responsible farming systems. In February, BiocSol raised €4.4 million to advance its R&D platform and to demonstrate global proof of concept for its first two biofungicide products. Amount raised in H1 2025: $4.3M Antler Bio is an agri-biotech company transforming dairy farming with its EpiHerd platform, which combines gene expression analysis and artificial intelligence to generate actionable insights at the herd and individual animal level. By linking genetics, environment, and farm management, the platform helps farmers improve milk yield, animal health, fertility, and longevity. Antler Bio’s approach enables earlier, more precise decision-making, supporting more efficient, profitable, and sustainable dairy production across Europe and beyond. In June, Antler Bio secured a $4.3 million investment to scale its world-first EpiHerd system. Amount raised in H1 2025: €3.5M Collie is an agritech company that uses artificial intelligence to improve demand forecasting and supply chain efficiency for fresh produce. Its AI-driven platform helps growers, distributors, and retailers better predict demand, reduce food waste, and optimise planning by turning complex data into accurate, actionable insights. By increasing transparency and efficiency across the value chain, Collie supports more sustainable and profitable fresh food systems. Collie secured €3.5 million investment in February for digital livestock management. Amount raised in H1 2025: €2.73M BlueRedGold is a company focused on producing premium saffron through controlled-environment agriculture and technology-driven cultivation methods. By growing saffron indoors under optimised conditions, the company ensures consistent quality, purity, and year-round production while significantly reducing water use and environmental impact. BlueRedGold combines agricultural innovation with full traceability and quality control, aiming to scale sustainable saffron production and make this high-value spice more accessible to global food, beverage, and wellness markets. In June, BlueRedGold raised €2.73 million for an automated saffron cultivation system. Amount raised in H1 2025: £2.1M Fotenix is a climate technology company developing advanced photocatalytic solutions to capture and convert carbon dioxide into valuable products. By combining proprietary materials science with scalable reactor systems, Fotenix enables carbon utilisation across industrial applications, helping reduce emissions while creating new economic value. The company’s technology supports the transition toward a circular, low-carbon economy by turning waste CO₂ into a resource rather than a liability. In April, Fotenix secured £2.1 million in new funding to help farmers detect disease and protect yields, weeks before symptoms appear.

At a recent live episode of a well-known fintech podcast in London, a tall, lean banking executive told a packed audience about a “complete geek” thing he likes to do when visiting a new city on a business trip. Richard Davies, the CEO of UK fintech Allica Bank, said he likes to hunt out the increasingly rare sight of physical bank branches. A three-day trip to Stockholm proved largely fruitless, spotting only one, said Davies, which he contrasted with US cities, where branches were left, right and centre whenever he stepped out of a hotel. While the host of the podcast gently mocked Davies over his bank branch hunting, it turns out that the 46-year-old CEO might have the last laugh. In an act of serendipity, Allica is now considering buying a bank in northern Europe. Davies' encyclopaedic knowledge of the European banking landscape could prove crucial. “It is quite a big decision for us," says Davies, sitting in Allica’s new two-floor London office, about the prospect of buying a bank. “It’s occupying a chunk of my time.” Allica is looking to go international, as it wants to mimic its UK success, which has seen it collect several “fastest growing" awards, be championed by chancellor Rachel Reeves, and become one of the few profitable global challenger banks. What is Allica Bank? While some people might mispronounce its name (some call it “Allishia”, Davies laughs), there is little ambiguity about Allica’s proposition: it is a business banking specialist. Allica targets the established SME sector (between five and 250 employees), offering them lending, such as commercial mortgages and equipment loans, and current and savings accounts. Although the SME sector is the backbone of the UK economy (making up over 99 per cent of businesses), the sector in recent times has been overlooked by the big banks, which have preferred to lend to big corporates amid risk concerns about lending to SMEs. In the slipstream, Allica has been making hay. Financial figures Top line figures show that Allica has lent over £3bn to businesses, boasts over £4bn deposits, and has amassed over 25,000 business customers. Its latest financials show pre-tax profits increased 86 per cent year-on-year to £29.9m, after hitting its first full year of profit in 2023, with revenue up 68 per cent on the year to £292.1m. Like other challenger banks, it makes money (over 90 per cent) by net interest income- the interest gains it makes between lending and deposits. Allica doesn’t position itself as a high-risk, high-margin lender and Davies says just one per cent of its loans have defaulted in the past 12 months, below the industry average of between two and two and a half per cent. Along with its spic and span new London offices, Allica also has offices in Manchester and Milton Keynes, employing over 800 people. Davies rings the changes Davies, a banking veteran, joined Allica in 2020, when it had a banking licence but little else. “It had made a couple of loans, but that was basically it," Davies told The Banker. Davies made changes, inculcating the organisation with a fintech-like ethos, bringing its third-party tech in-house, better remunerating engineers, while introducing Amazon-style cross-functional engineering/product “squads”. Another move to wrest more control was to do more direct lending and be less reliant on brokers. Fundraising Allica has raised over £390m to date, latterly a 2022 £100m Series C led by Netflix and Spotify backer TCV, with existing investors Warwick Capital Partners and Atalya Capital Management participating. New funding would “probably” only be undertaken should it go ahead with overseas expansion, but otherwise it will continue to run off its balance sheet, says Davies. He said: “I think it’s fair to say if we were to raise now, we would be in the unicorn territory.” European expansion In another nod to Amazon, Davies channels Jeff Bezos' “one-way door” mantra when discussing its plans to acquire a bank in northern Europe. Bezos famously simplified risky decisions into two camps: one-way door (irreversible) and two-way doors (reversible). An easier route for Allica to go international by passporting its UK banking licence was kiboshed by Brexit, while getting an international banking licence from scratch could take up to three years, Davies says. Allica is now deciding whether to green-light its international plans. He says: “Clearly buying a bank in Europe is kind of a one-way door thing. The small bank would give us the entry point. We would very much deploy our platform on top organically.” Allica has notched up three acquisitions to date, most recently embedded finance provider Kriya (now ensconced on the second floor of Allica’s offices), following that of Allied Irish Bank’s SME portfolio and bridging finance specialist Tuscan Capital. AI On AI, Davies does not have a Pollyannaish view but thinks it can be “very transformational” for parts of the business. He says: “If you go and blindly apply it to all use cases, you’ll cause a lot of damage.” On the customer service side, Davies says Allica has started “to play with agentic AI”. But the big productivity gains, he says, are likely on the engineering side, where AI coding will lead to cross-functional engineering roles replacing specialist roles. “We will keep growing our business a lot. We will probably grow the number of staff a lot less,” he says. CV Before arriving at Allica, Davies earned his banking stripes with stints at OakNorth, Lloyds, HSBC, Lloyds, and TSB. But arguably his biggest gig was at Revolut, where he was drafted in as chief operating officer in 2019, capturing national news headlines, amid concerns about its internal culture and governance. “A key role was professionalising and starting to enhance the governance controls,” he says of his time at Revolut. He only lasted one year at Revolut, saying the opportunity to run his own ship at Allica was too good to turn down (Davies can be seen chatting away in a recent video of a party celebrating Revolut’s 10-year anniversary). Working week Unlike Revolut’s Nik Storonsky, who reportedly has 42 direct reports, Davies has just 13, which, that said, is above the industry average of seven. The rhythm of his working week is partly dictated by weekly meetings with Allica’s “squads”, while fatherhood has meant he now prefers early morning to evening work. Davies also does his bit for the UK fintech industry, being a member of the UK unicorn council and a stalwart at fintech conferences. His strengths, he says, are “ high bandwidth”, while his weaknesses are “talking too fast” (a behaviour which media trainers repeatedly tick him off over). The budget As UK economic growth slows, Allica has been campaigning for reforms so that the regulatory environment does not inhibit debt provision. Allica says the UK economy is stalling, potentially because there is a £90bn lending gap in financing SMEs. Wearing his SME hat, Davies wasn’t impressed with the UK Autumn Budget, wanting an extension to the Growth Guarantee Scheme and highlighting an absence of further business rate discounts for SMEs. With his startup hat on, things were much rosier, with the chancellor's plans to increase access to the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) getting a thumbs up. The government, he says, “likes tech” but “I don’t think the government is particularly SME focused”. UK not "good jurisdiction" to IPO There has been much chatter this year about whether London has lost its lustre as Europe’s fintech capital. Davies thinks London is still the place to be, but is facing the same conundrum as other markets. He says: “I think the ultimate challenge for every country apart from the US is the public market, where the US is clearly the draw with Nasdaq.” There are “no firm plans” for Allica to IPO, he says, but he has a swipe at the UK as a listing destination. “Currently, the UK is not a good jurisdiction to list in, it's just a fact”, he says, pointing to the lack of growth investors and the shortage of liquidity in the market. The future The SME lending sector has seen a big shift in recent years, with startups now making up 60 per cent of the market, compared to 2019 when the four biggest banks made up 90 per cent of lending. But recent data show big banks are boomeranging back, a return welcomed by Davies. Davies says: "I think that is a good thing. The market needs a variety of players and SME lending is still flat. We alone are not going to change this industry.” Allica is targeting 10 per cent of the market by 2028. He adds: "That is not a small task, given we are just over five per cent now. We want to keep scaling across current accounts, across direct lending, across broker lending. Kriya is a very exciting business on the embedded lending side."

Voyager is an early-stage venture capital firm backing climate technology companies building the foundations of a decarbonised global economy. Founded four years ago by climate-tech investors and operators Sarah Sclarsic and Sierra Peterson, the fund was set up with an explicit ambition: to become the leading early-stage climate-tech VC operating across Europe and North America. Today, Voyager manages $450 million across two announced funds. It invests from Seed through Series A, writing tickets of up to €9 million as lead or co-lead. I spoke with Matthew Blaine, who leads Voyager’s European team, about how the firm has managed to raise and deploy significant amounts of capital while remaining deliberately lean. The value of a flat, independent structure Blaine said, there are different models for building a venture capital firm. “You can be very centralised, with one or two locations and a large junior team under a small number of partners,” he explained. “Or you can be flatter, with experienced hires who cover a lot of ground independently.” The firm has opted for the latter approach, operating with a fully remote team. “We like that because it gives us strong geographic coverage with a relatively small team,” Blaine said. Decarbonisation is a cross-sector “trillion-dollar commercial” opportunity  Blaine is quick to push back on the idea of climate tech as a narrow or self-contained industry. “I sometimes push back when people talk about “the climate-tech sector” or “the climate-tech industry,” because that conversation often very quickly narrows to carbon credits, carbon accounting, and what I’d call some of the more obvious or well-worn areas. That’s not really how we think about it.” Instead, Voyager sees decarbonisation as a trillion-dollar commercial opportunity over the next 30 years.  The firm invests broadly across sectors, from the future of compute to industrial and manufacturing applications. This includes areas such as novel chip designs as well as cooling, photonics, and AI for manufacturers.  Rather than being narrowly focused on a single industry, the firm prefers to remain flexible, looking for situations where “an exceptional team, a huge market, the right timing, and excellent technology come together.”  Where Europe stands out — and where it struggles In Europe, Blaine sees particularly strong momentum in energy and renewables, some progress in hydrogen, and growing headwinds in more crowded areas like carbon credits. “Europe is incredibly strong in the future of compute,” he said. “Across the geographies we look at — especially Switzerland and the ETH ecosystem — there’s fantastic innovation in photonics, chip design, and data-centre cooling.” Across Voyager’s two core markets, Blaine notes that much of the most exciting innovation in these areas is coming out of Europe. The challenge, however, is commercialisation. “These companies often need to sell into the US market,” he said. “That’s where we like to help as a transatlantic fund.” Another area where Europe consistently excels is climate software, particularly in energy management and grid orchestration. “When I reflect on the ten best deep-tech companies I’ve seen over the last three years at Voyager, probably eight or nine of the most impressive deep-tech companies were in the US,” Blaine said . “But on the software side, it’s almost the reverse: probably eight or nine were European.” He attributes this to Europe’s more complex and heavily regulated energy markets, which create fertile ground for sophisticated software solutions. “You see that in large rounds in Germany, in the UK, and across Europe — companies helping industrial, commercial, and consumer customers procure energy more efficiently and balance the grid to manage the intermittency of renewables.” Scale, ambition, and a mindset gap However, Blaine notes that Europe is a much younger startup ecosystem than the US.  “It’s easy to forget that Microsoft and Apple were founded in the 1970s, Amazon in the early 1990s. In Europe, the ecosystem only really got going around 2010. “ Even companies often seen as part of the old guard, like Monzo or Revolut, were only founded a decade later. “Building enduring enterprise value takes a long time.” He contends that Europe already leads in energy and grid-related software, as well as parts of the future-of-compute ecosystem. “Orchestrating huge numbers of connected devices — smart meters, heat pumps, storage systems — to balance the grid is something European companies are particularly strong at. What he’d like to see more of in Europe is ambition to build overwhelmingly dominant companies. While historically, Europe has always produced foundational companies, ARM and ASML, for example, are central to how the global economy operates.  What he would like to see more of, however, is ambition at the very top end. “Too often, success is framed as exiting at €1–2 billion. That’s a huge achievement, but I’d love to see more founders push beyond that. When Google tried to acquire Wiz for around $23 billion, and the founders turned it down because they saw a $100 billion opportunity, that level of ambition is still rare in Europe.” Part of the challenge, he argues, is structural. Many US investors invest globally, including heavily in Europe, while most European investors focus almost exclusively on their home market. “That can create a more myopic worldview, where people haven’t necessarily built or invested at global scale before. Sometimes the grass looks greener in the US, but there’s also less experience in taking companies from continental scale to truly global scale.” That’s where funds like Voyager try to help — providing a global perspective from the earliest stages, so companies are built for worldwide dominance rather than just becoming the European winner and exiting. European portfolio highlights Voyager’s European investments reflect this thesis across software, energy, and mobility. Some of the key examples: ENAPI (Germany) ENAPI is building a unified EV charging software platform that enables seamless data exchange and transaction clearing between charge point operators and eMobility service providers. Packfleet (UK) Image: Packfleet. Carbon-neutral courier startup Packfleet is operating an all-electric fleet and purpose-built routing software to deliver parcels efficiently and sustainably across the city.  InRange (UK) InRange is creating a double-sided marketplace to enable the development and use of solar assets near load centres. InRange matches owners of property capable of hosting solar installations with buyers seeking reliable low-carbon electricity, and manages the asset development, power sales and operation. ANNEA (Germany) Starting with wind assets, ANNEA enables renewable operators to minimise downtime from predictable failures and maximise electricity generation through automated control inputs. CarbonChain (UK) From source to shipment, CarbonChain's software tracks the emissions intensity of commodities and industrial inputs across supply chains. CarbonChain provides asset-level and cargo-specific emissions data to enable accurate systemic decarbonization from the ground up. Together, these investments underscore Voyager’s conviction that climate is not a niche — but the defining economic transformation of the coming decades. Lead image: Freepik.

Last week, we tracked more than 75 tech funding deals worth over €1.3 billion, and over 15 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.