Today, VC data provider Dealroom released its inaugural Thoroughbreds 100 report, a list of the 100 most promising tech scaleups in EMEA, with revenues of $100 million+.  This ranking shows the tech companies with the most momentum, growth and team strength. The ranking now includes Thoroughbreds ($100 million+ revenues) and Colts ($25–100 million revenues) alongside Unicorns.  The Thoroughbreds 100 EMEA represent the companies with the most momentum in 2025, out of over 700 Thoroughbreds across EMEA, with 38 created in the last two years alone. Thoroughbreds now account for 27 per cent of EMEA’s $5.6 trillion tech ecosystem. Europe underrepresented: only Phoenix Court and Index Ventures among the global Top 20 Investors are ranked by the number of high-growth companies in their portfolios, with additional weight for those backing them earliest at Seed and Series A, when data is scarce and risk is highest. Significantly, Phoenix Court, Index Ventures, and Point Nine are the only European funds in the global top 20, led by Y Combinator and Sequoia.  Phoenix Court is recognised as the region’s #1 investor in Thoroughbreds, Colts, and Unicorns for consistently backing high-revenue tech companies from Seed stage and in the top 0.01 per cent of funds globally.  Index Ventures secured second overall, while Point Nine, the Germany-based Seed investor, achieved third position.  As investor focus shifts from speculative valuations to proven performance, this new measure of success reflects a wider shift across fast-growth tech companies towards sustainable growth and financial discipline.  Driving economic prosperity As more companies stay private for longer, the focus is on driving economic prosperity through improved productivity, job creation, and tax contributions. Thoroughbreds 100 EMEAs collectively generated $168 billion in combined revenue over the past year and provided 367,000 jobs across the region.The UK is the lead country for Thoroughbreds 100 (22), followed by Germany (17) The top three sectors are: Fintech (30 companies) – including Revolut (UK), Wise (UK), and Trade Republic (Germany) Enterprise Software (25 companies) – including Mistral AI (France) and Bending Spoons (Italy) Health & Biotech (14 companies) – including Alan (France) and Flo Health (UK) Europe’s $57 billion scaleup funding gap Within EMEA, the report cites the importance of "New Palo Alto" region – an interconnected network of innovation ecosystems within a five-hour train ride of London (including London, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels). It's the most productive region for Thoroughbreds in EMEA, home to over 250 Thoroughbreds and nearly 800 Colts, underlining its position as the world's second most productive innovation cluster, surpassed only by the Bay Area.  Seven of Europe's 10 most valuable tech companies founded after 1990 originated from this ecosystem, including Booking.com, ASML, Adyen, Arm, Revolut, Tide, Wise, and Monzo. However, the EMEA region faces an estimated $57 billion scaleup funding gap according to Dealroom, compared to the Bay Area. Unsurprisingly the report asserts that while Europe consistently nurtures innovative companies, long-term value creation could be significantly accelerated with a more plentiful supply of local capital at later growth stages. This represents a substantial, largely unaddressed investment opportunity for asset allocators and institutional investors, with nearly 2,000 venture-backed companies in EMEA now generating revenues of $25 million or more.Yoram Wijngaarde, Founder and CEO of Dealroom, said: “Venture has long been measured by promise, but performance comes from proof. That’s why our 2025 ranking includes a focus on Thoroughbreds: companies generating $100 million+ in ARR, rooted in strong customer demand and lasting value. These aren’t speculative bets; they’re regional assets.  By prioritising tangible impact and sustainable growth, we offer unprecedented clarity for founders, LPs, and policymakers on where resilience lies and the investors that are truly bending the curve. Europe is no longer merely emerging; it is a demonstrable engine room for national, regional, and global champions." According to Saul Klein, Co-founder and Executive Chair at Phoenix Court, venture capital has been gripped by unicorns for over a decade.  “But the real test of a company is not valuation, but fundamentals. The definition of success has changed. Europe has the raw ingredients to create the companies that matter, and it's encouraging to see 38 new Thoroughbreds created in the past two years. The challenge is not building them, but scaling them. What’s needed now in Europe is the long-term conviction at growth - so that the value created here stays here and compounds for the next generation.”

Europe boasts a “swarm” of global-scale AI companies, according to a leading VC, who said Europe was well-placed to take a key role in the AI investment boom. Ziv Reichert, partner at LocalGlobe, the London-based investor which has backed Mistral and Wise, was speaking on the Tech.eu podcast, alongside Bobby Jackle, partner, Visionaries Club, the early-stage European VC.While the US and China appear to be dominating when it comes to frontier AI labs, observers think that Europe can make hay in the application layer of AI, which has seen billions of pounds invested in it across the world.Reichert pointed to the likes of Synthesia, Lovable and N8n as examples of application-layer European startups with a “global-scale”.Jackle said: “If I look at the application layer, I think there is a huge possibility and room for growth in Europe. “I think many of these companies will be European-specific but I think then there is also the chance for some of them to really become global companies.”The pair discussed a range of issues, including their consumption of AI tools; how their respective VC firms were leveraging AI; AI’s impact on company profits; why AI is a big driver of SaaS adoption; and sifting through the AI hype when making investments.Reichert said: “This is something that as an investment team we are increasingly speaking to founders about. “It is something we assess when we meet a company for the first time, it’s like ‘how do they think about scaling the origination alongside AI?’ The reality is you probably need a leaner team going forward than you would have two or three years ago.” Image: Pixabay

Conversational AI startup Vox AI has raised $8.7 million in Seed funding to accelerate the rollout of its autonomous, multilingual voice platform built specifically for the quick service restaurant or "drive thru" industry. The round was led by global venture capital firm Headline, with participation from True, Simon Capital, and returning investor Souschef Ventures. This brings the company’s total funding to $10 million. Vox AI is taking aim at the $1 trillion global QSR market, which continues to struggle with persistent labor shortages, high employee turnover, and rising wage costs. The startup’s solution offers AI-driven voice interaction for drive-thru, mobile ordering, and in-restaurant operations, positioning voice technology not as a feature, but a full-stack platform shift. “Vox AI is pushing voice technology far beyond generic Natural Language Processing. We’re not just improving voice technology. We’re building a new industry standard for how guests interact with fast-food chains and QSR brands they love and how restaurant staff run them,” said Maurice Kroon, co-founder and CEO of Vox AI. “Our goal is to make voice the de facto interface for every QSR location without the need to upgrade their current hardware.” Unlike general-purpose voice assistants, Vox AI’s platform is tailored to the fast-paced, acoustically complex environments of QSRs. Its system operates 24/7 in over 90 languages and dialects. “Vox AI delivers something the QSR space has never had before: autonomous, intelligent, real-time voice interaction at a global scale. It’s not a feature, it’s a platform shift,” said Dominic Wilhelm, Partner at Headline. “We are thrilled to partner with the Vox AI team to power the future of drive-thru and QSR ordering to not only improve companies’ bottom lines, but also reduce employee turnover and improve customer satisfaction.”

Stockholm-based Farang, an AI research lab developing next-generation foundational Large Language Models, has raised €1.5 million in seed funding. Farang has created a novel architecture for Large Language Models, competing with the existing transformer architecture used by current market leaders ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Instead of predicting text word-by-word, Farang's architecture comprehends the complete response first, like imagining a picture before painting it, and then translates that concept into words. While many recent AI models add reasoning steps to simulate “thinking time,” they still depend on word prediction. Farang’s approach carries out this reasoning internally through non-textual mechanisms, producing more coherent answers while sharply reducing computational demands. Emil Romanus, Farang’s Founder, comments: We're not building another application layer on top of existing models. We've developed a completely new foundational architecture that enables us to create specialised AI assistants that outperform current solutions in specific domains like programming and medicine, while using twenty-five times less computational resources. Based on current testing, we believe the percentage of resources used will decrease even further in the future. Farang is targeting the weak spots of today’s AI assistants, starting with specialised applications where they often fall short. These include support for specific programming languages and frameworks, niche medical fields, and internal company tools. Its first focus is React programming, aiming to deliver more optimized and iterative code than current large language models. The beauty of our architecture is that it enables us to create highly specialized models for niche use cases like untapped medical domain models that would be prohibitively expensive with traditional approaches, Romanus explains. We can analyse unstructured medical data or create programming assistants that truly understand specific frameworks, not just general coding patterns. Farang’s technology also enables organizations to deploy specialized AI models on-premises with full privacy controls. This is crucial for healthcare, legal, and financial firms handling sensitive data. Instead of sending proprietary information to external AI services, companies can train and run Farang’s models entirely in-house, ensuring data sovereignty. Romanus added: Our vision is that companies will have these specialized assistants running on their own infrastructure, integrated with their existing systems. A law firm could have an AI that understands its specific practice areas and case history, or a research hospital could have an assistant trained on their unique patient data—all while keeping that sensitive information completely private. An ambitious long-term vision While starting with niche applications to prove the technology, Farang has set its sights on becoming a market leader in artificial intelligence, ultimately aiming to compete with and surpass OpenAI in the general AI space. Romanus noted that the company is taking a different approach from big tech companies, adding: By proving our architecture works in specialized domains first, we're building the foundation to eventually challenge the current leaders across all AI applications. The round was led by Voima Ventures and the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund, with participation from prominent angel investors such as Tero Ojanpera (Co-founder of Silo AI), Nilay Oza, and Niraj Aswani (former founders of Klevu). Inka Mero, Managing Partner & Founder of Voima Ventures, commented: We look for exceptional founders and technologies that reset the curve—not just optimize around the edges. Farang showcases how Europe can step up in the global AI race, as its foundational architecture provides a true paradigm shift—specialized, efficient, and enterprise-grade from day one. Ion Hauer, Principal at APEX Ventures, said the firm is always looking at breakthrough technologies with the potential to reshape industries, and Farang stood out right away: For years, the industry has been making incremental improvements to the same Transformer foundation. What Emil and his team have developed represents a fundamental architectural leap—the kind of foundational change we believe will separate the next generation of AI leaders from today's incumbents. The funding will primarily be used to scale up its proof-of-concept models and invest in computing power required to train and fine-tune models for specialised areas such as programming and medicine.

London-based CRM startup Attio has raised $52 million in Series B funding to expand its CRM platform. The round was led by GV (Google Ventures), with participation from existing investors Redpoint Ventures, 01A, Point Nine, and Balderton Capital, bringing Attio’s total funding to $116 million. With the new funding, Attio plans to scale its engineering team, accelerate product development, and double down on go-to-market outreach. Investment will focus particularly on features that enhance agent collaboration, security and permissioning, and real-time intelligence. “CRM is one of the most important categories in B2B, but it’s been stuck in the past,” said Nicolas Sharp, CEO and co-founder of Attio. “AI-native CRM needs a completely different foundation — one that allows you to truly understand every customer, take action fast and gives you the freedom to build the exact go-to-market systems you need at scale. That’s what we’re building with Attio, and this funding will allow us to accelerate our vision.” Attio aims to upend that status quo by offering a fully AI-native alternative. Rather than layering AI onto an old architecture, the company has reimagined CRM from the ground up, building a platform where AI agents, human operators, and real-time data ingestion are core design elements. “Today’s go-to-market builders expect platforms they can shape to fit their vision, not rigid systems they’re forced to work around,” said Alexander Christie, CTO and co-founder of Attio. Attio is targeting users who want to design and iterate on their GTM stack quickly, without relying on third-party consultants or 12-month implementation cycles. A new generation of SaaS companies, particularly in AI, developer tools, and productivity software, are prioritising programmability and composability, giving users more flexibility to build software that matches their exact workflows. The company, which launched just two years ago has customers including Lovable, Granola, Modal, and Replicate. “This investment will accelerate the company’s mission to build the first AI CRM that understands every customer and gives teams the power to shape it exactly to their business,” said Attio in a statement. “With this funding, Attio will fuel a new generation of go-to-market builders.” As part of the round, Michael McBride, partner at GV and former Chief Revenue Officer at GitLab, will join Attio’s board of directors.

Finnish Open source enterprise database company MariaDB plc today announced it has acquired SkySQL, the company behind an AI-powered, serverless database-as-a-service (DBaaS) platform.  MariaDB originally developed SkySQL and, since being spun off as an independent entity in 2023, has significantly advanced its product offering. The acquisition of SkySQL enables MariaDB to meet customer and market expectations for greater flexibility and deployment choice, including a range of self-managed and fully managed cloud offerings. “Our customers have made it clear that they want flexibility, and they need powerful, reliable database solutions wherever their business takes them - on premises, in the cloud or in hybrid environments,” said Rohit de Souza, CEO, MariaDB plc.  “Acquiring SkySQL helps accelerate plans and adds further innovation to MariaDB Cloud. It’s a strategic investment in our customers and a decisive step to enhance our ability to provide the comprehensive, modern, world-class database platform our customers need to thrive and maintain a competitive edge.” Enterprises are increasingly shifting workloads to cloud-based database solutions to achieve greater scalability, cost efficiency and accessibility.  MariaDB Cloud provides a provisioned database, as a service, on all three major public clouds (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), along with a serverless mode for developers to instantly start building cloud-native and AI-driven applications without overspending. Further, integrated agentic AI capabilities help transform how developers interact with complex operational data. MariaDB Cloud will enable customers to consume MariaDB Enterprise Platform, the company’s flagship product, as a fully managed cloud option.  “SkySQL’s level of sophistication, from its built-in elasticity, advanced serverless technology, to its agentic AI capabilities, is extremely impressive,” said Vikas Mathur, chief product officer, MariaDB plc.  “By bringing SkySQL’s DBaaS into the MariaDB portfolio, we are immediately addressing our customers’ needs while also gaining a robust foundation to make MariaDB the default option for building GenAI applications.”  According to Jags Ramnarayan, chief technology officer, SkySQL:  “This acquisition is a major win for our customers who will now benefit from our joint efforts and faster innovation cycles. As a part of MariaDB again, we are now able to bring this capability to customers across the globe faster and more effectively.” The acquisition of SkySQL comes on the heels of MariaDB’s acquisition of Galeria Cluster in June 2025.

Bitpanda, the crypto exchange backed by Peter Thiel, is snubbing London as a potential IPO destination, preferring New York or Frankfurt instead. Bitpanda co-founder and CEO Eric Demuth cited the lack of liquidity in share trading as the reason for not wanting to IPO in London, despite the crypto exchange’s recent UK expansion. The Austrian crypto outfit is currently considering a listing. Speaking to the Financial Times, Demuth said: “Currently, everybody’s moving away from the London Stock Exchange. Currently, liquidity-wise, the LSE is not doing too well. I hope that it gets better but over the next few years, I think the LSE is struggling a bit." He said that Bitpanda would instead IPO in New York or Frankfurt, but that a final decision on timing or location had not been made. His comments come amid a dearth of London IPOs, with fundraising from London IPOs in the first six months of the year slumping to a 30-year low. Bitpanda, which is backed by Thiel's Valar Ventures and London-based VC Hedosophia, is the latest tech company to snub a possible London listing. In June this year, Wise, the money transfer app, said it planned to move its primary listing to the US, while Revolut has also rejected a London listing, with its CEO, Nik Storonsky, saying it was “not rational” to float in Britain, given the advantages of the US public markets. Meanwhile, crypto firms Figure Technology Solutions and Gemini have recently filed to list in the US. In February this year, Bitpanda announced a major UK rollout.

Czech retail tech startup Buylo has raised €640,000 in funding from Purple Ventures, aiming to bring its RFID-powered checkout and inventory automation technology to a broader international market. The new funding will be used to support international expansion, product development, and hiring across technical and sales teams. Buylo also plans to launch specialised modules for fashion retail and budget-friendly versions of its platform for smaller businesses. The startup, headquartered in Brno, says it’s building a smarter, faster alternative to traditional checkout and inventory systems, promising a 10-second self-checkout experience and automated store operations. Founded within the Industrial IT Group, Buylo is targeting medium-sized retailers that lack the resources to develop such solutions in-house. The company’s platform leverages RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags, sensors, AI and self-checkout technology to speed up transactions, minimize theft, automate stock tracking, and even deliver personalized shopping experiences in physical stores. “We want to help retailers streamline operations and make shopping easier and faster for customers. Buylo is not just about cost savings; it’s about making retail data-driven, personalized, and transparent for both retailers and customers. I believe RFID is the future of retail and will soon be implemented by all major market players,” said Josef Voda, co-founder and CEO of Buylo. “Moreover, Buylo is not only effective for sales floors but also a strong tool for managing back-of-house operations. Thanks to this, we are expanding our client portfolio both in the Czech Republic, where we are currently implementing our solution for clients like Angry Beards, and abroad, where we’re also growing rapidly.” Buylo is entering a market that is growing at a rapid pace. The global retail automation sector was valued at $24 billion in 2023, and is forecasted to grow to nearly $72 billion by 2034, according to Precedence Research. The European market alone is projected to reach $6 billion by 2030, with factors such as labor shortages, cost-reduction pressures, and increased customer preference for self-service driving adoption. With the Czech non-food retail market estimated at €28 billion and the European market at around €86 billion, Buylo is positioning itself as a cost-effective solution for mid-sized retailers aiming to keep pace with the digitisation of commerce. Buylo’s advantage lies in offering enterprise-level technology to smaller players: businesses that often cannot afford to build in-house systems like those used by retail giants such as Zara or Decathlon. The startup has already established a presence beyond the Czech Republic, working with clothing chain Numero Uno in Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria, and with YOYOSO in Slovakia. It has also expanded to the U.S. through a Czech innovation incubator. “I never liked traditional self-checkouts where the customer essentially becomes the cashier. I thought, there’s a simpler way. It soon became clear it wouldn’t be that easy, and many people tried to dissuade me. But that only made me more determined,” said Voda. “Thanks to RFID, we’re not only eliminating unfriendly user experiences at self-checkouts but also dramatically increasing the efficiency of entire store operations.”

AI is rapidly permeating every corner of technology and society. Yet AI visions, tools, and applications are overwhelmingly shaped and created by a small, privileged section of the population.   Despite representing slightly more than half of the global population, women are severely underrepresented in the AI field, constituting just 29 per cent of the AI-skilled workforce, 22 per cent of product, engineering, and science roles, and only 10 per cent of AI executive leadership. Dr Julia Stamm, founder of She Shapes AI, wants to change this. She's created a global initiative dedicated to identifying, celebrating, and amplifying the work of female leaders who are using artificial intelligence for social good.  I spoke to her to learn more.  A career at the crossroads of science, policy, and tech Dr Julia Stamm has held senior positions in organisations such as the European Cooperation in Science and Technology, the European Commission and the G20.  Before founding She Shapes AI, Stamm was the inaugural CEO of The Data Tank, a non-profit data-for-good startup in Brussels that harnesses data for societal benefit. She was also the founding director of the Global Solutions Initiative in Berlin, supporting the think tank work of the G20 to address global challenges through policy recommendations and is a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the Arts), London, and a Fellow at the Centre for Digital Governance of the Hertie School, Berlin.  Flipping the script: from problems to futures In 2019, Stamm founded The Futures Project, a global initiative to ensure that future-focused innovation and technology meet real societal needs.  She recounts that its mission was to create shared visions of the future and then use innovation and tech to achieve them—intentionally and ethically.  "We flipped the typical 'solution in search of a problem' mindset. Instead, we asked: What's the future we want? And how do we use innovation to get there responsibly?" Stamm received the Digital Female Leader Award in the Global Hero category for her pioneering work in innovation and technology for impact. She Shapes AI is a young, bootstrapped organisation which focuses almost exclusively on women — female founders, entrepreneurs, and leaders. When women build tech, responsibility and care come first In Stamm's experience, when women build technology, they often prioritise responsibility, care, and sustainability.  However, when AI is designed from a predominantly male perspective, the consequences scale dramatically. Women are already more likely to experience recruitment bias from recruitment tech, suffer the effects of diagnostic and pain prediction models trained on male data, experience sexism in financial credit, and be disproportionately targeted by deepfake technology.  Stamm contends, "if AI is truly going to benefit society, we need broader input. We must diversify who's developing the tools and how they're being developed." And, while there's plenty of attention given to data bias when it comes to training LLMs, Stamm sees a broader issue:   "Who's building the tools? Who's asking the questions? Who's deciding what gets measured?" We need women at every level: in development, leadership, and funding." Diverse perspectives change the entire trajectory of a project. "That's the kind of thinking we need. There's this huge promise that AI will benefit all of humanity. But who gets to define what that means? Who decides what the future looks like? It shouldn't be just a handful of people in Silicon Valley.  Women tend to ask better questions. They start with the problem and try to understand it deeply—rather than building a flashy solution and hoping to find a use for it." Beyond the same six names When Stamm first entered the field, she kept seeing the same six women on every "Women in AI" list.  She asserts, "That's simply not true. There are so many brilliant women doing extraordinary things — we just don't hear about them. So part of our mission is to identify them, put them in the spotlight, and support them — not just with applause, but with tools, funding, and visibility." SheShapes AI is global, but some of the standout European women in AI for me include: Anita Schjøll Abildgaard, CEO iris.ai, Alicia Combaz (Germany), founder and CEO of Make.org, Dr Luise Frohberg, founder of Taara Quest, Goda Go, founder of AI Productivity Hub, Tabitha Goldstaub, co-founder of CognitionX and CogX, Dr Sasha Luccioni, AI & Climate Lead at Hugging Face, Stacy Pavlyshyna,  Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation & Tech Entrepreneur and Co‑founder of Awesomic. Shaping the narrative of AI leadership She Shapes AI addresses inequality in three interconnected ways:  1. Visibility and Voice:  Through its flagship She Shapes AI Awards, She Shapes AI spotlights women leaders across diverse fields such as democracy, peace, and nature. These awards not only celebrate individual achievement but also broaden the public's understanding of who is building the future of AI and for whom. Visibility helps to challenge outdated narratives about innovation and leadership.  2. Ecosystem Building: She Shapes AI creates international, cross-sector networks that connect women working across AI's many domains from academia to civil society, from startups to government.  Through community-building, mentorship, and thought leadership, She Shapes AI fosters spaces where women can collaborate, exchange knowledge, and drive systemic change together. Stronger networks lead to stronger opportunities.  3. Funding Opportunities and Pathways: Access to funding remains one of the greatest barriers to scaling women-led innovation. Importantly, Stamm wants to shift mindsets beyond the notion of women as NGO founders. She contends: "We're not a non-profit. I want to dismantle the idea that women-led or impact-driven work must be unpaid or charitable. You can do good and make a profit. It's not either/or. We also want to push harder on AI for real-world problems—climate, democracy, education, and healthcare. And we need to change how money flows. If capital keeps going to the same types of founders building speculative tools with no business model, we're missing the real potential of AI." Real ROI exists beyond equity   Stamm wants a shift in the funding landscape so that women-led, impact-driven AI becomes a viable investment category. She also wants to shift the language: "It's not just about equity — it's about ROI. These women are solving real problems in viable markets. Ignoring them is a missed business opportunity." She Shapes AI works with women everywhere — not just in the big cities or traditional innovation hubs.  Stamm detailed: "We've seen incredible work from the Philippines, Latin America, and across Africa. Innovation is everywhere, but access isn't. That's why we're building a global council and connecting with local ecosystems to find and support these women." There's also this assumption that women are "lagging" in AI, which feels overly simplistic. Stamm suggests that such research misses the point, contending that instead of asking why women aren't using these tools as much, maybe we should consider that they're being more thoughtful.  "Women often ask: Do I really need this? What are the risks? That kind of reflection should be valued—not framed as a deficit."

Swiss-based AI startup Zenline AI has secured $1.6 million in pre-seed funding to bring intelligent assortment decision-making to European retail. Zenline AI develops artificial intelligence that combines margin data with market trends to deliver automated, product-level recommendations, from pricing actions to assortment consolidation. Retail teams use Zenline to support new product launches, rationalisation efforts, and the ongoing optimization of existing listings. Arber Sejdiji, CEO of Zenline AI, shared: We build AI agents that think like assortment decision-makers, but operate in seconds. Our mission is to empower European retailers to compete profitably again. Given how critical and shopper-centric assortment is, a retailer can win by increasing its top line and building a competitive edge against Amazon and Temu, because customers will easily find what they are looking for, consciously or not. The co-founder combines retail expertise with AI acumen, shaped at BCG, P&G, ETH Zurich, and the University of Cambridge. Since early 2025, European retailers have been using Zenline AI, which now analyses more than one million SKUs. Its focus is on speed, delivering rapid insights and execution. Zenline’s AI agents generate actionable recommendations for each product or category, drawing on margin data, competitive signals, social trends, and shopper behaviour. The system pinpoints assortment gaps, flags cannibalisation risks, and suggests concrete optimization steps. Built in collaboration with retail teams, Zenline’s AI works even without internal retailer data, ensuring a strong operational fit. The round was led by Seedcamp, with participation from Yellow, First Momentum, and Arc Investors. Zenline’s mission is to help European retail compete again by enabling smarter, AI-driven assortment decisions. Sia Houchangnia, Partner at Seedcamp, said: Zenline hits a nerve in retail tech. The future of category management is AI-powered. Until now, retailers lacked the foundation to make the most important decisions: what a strong assortment actually looks like. The team combines deep expertise in agentic systems and retail, and we’ve been genuinely impressed by their speed of execution. They have rethought assortment logic from the ground up to deliver immediate value to their first customers. This is exactly the kind of talent and solution coming out of Europe that we’re excited to back. With the new funding, Zenline plans to accelerate product development, refine its AI model, and expand into additional verticals.

Previse Systems, a leading provider of next-generation Energy Trading & Risk Management (ETRM) software, has secured growth capital from Lightrock to accelerate its expansion and support the rising demand from energy companies facing increasingly complex market exposures. Previse Systems provides a modern, cloud-native ETRM solution designed for the demands of today’s energy markets. Rapid load growth, renewable intermittency, and bi-directional generation have driven greater price volatility and sharply higher intraday trading volumes. To stay competitive, energy companies now need to process and respond to massive data sets in real time, both to capture opportunities and to manage risks. Previse Coral addresses this challenge with a scalable, high-performance architecture that adapts to different portfolios and operating models. It enables market participants to process extreme intraday trading volumes, launch new products quickly, and manage the heavy data demands of volatile markets, while keeping infrastructure costs and operational complexity low. Asbjørn Hansen, Chief Executive Officer of Previse Systems, commented: The partnership with Lightrock marks a significant milestone for Previse Systems. Their investment underscores the confidence in our innovative technology and our ability to address the complexities of modern energy markets. With this support, we are well-positioned to enhance our capabilities, scale our solutions, and provide unparalleled value to our clients as they navigate the challenges of the energy transition. Lightrock has provided equity financing in return for a minority stake in Previse Systems. This strategic investment will strengthen the company’s ability to deliver innovative solutions, mature its operations, and expand its market presence. Lightrock will utilise its networks and value creation capabilities to support Previse Systems' growth in close collaboration with the company’s founders, who retain control of the business. Nigel McCleave, Partner at Lightrock, commented: We were drawn to Previse because of the market opportunity, differentiated technology platform, and success working with a diverse set of impressive customers. However, what excites us most is the quality of the team, their collaborative and transparent approach, and their core commitment to put customers first. We look forward to supporting them as they continue building Previse’s next chapter. Founded in 2019 by ETRM industry veterans, today Previse Systems already serves more than 20 customers, among them top-tier energy companies. With the funding from Lightrock, Previse aims to double down on its product development and partnership with existing clients, expand its reach across new product lines, and strengthen its operational and geographic footprint. 

London-based AI-powered travel agency Holiwise has raised a €1.45 million pre-seed in an oversubscribed round backed by senior executives from global firms including Bank of America, Barclays, Google, and Goldman Sachs. The raise was led by Bobby Previti (Head of SSA & Covered Bond Trading at Bank of America), and joined by Ulf Nilsson (Nordics & Eastern Europe CEO at DHL), who is also joining Holiwise’s board, Sabri El Jailani and Filippo Zorzoli (Barclays Investment Bank), and Houman Ashrafzadeh (Founder of Padium and Co-founder of Urban Greens). Unlike traditional travel agencies that rely on human agents, or online travel agencies that force travellers to piece together fragmented bookings, Holiwise uses proprietary deep learning and dynamic packaging models to create personalised trips in seconds. Users can personalise trips by mood, budget, location or timeframe, and book entire packages, including flights, accommodation and activities, with a single click. Holiwise was created to solve the frustrations of fragmented and time-consuming travel planning. The founding team, with backgrounds in finance, software engineering, and product development at global companies, set out to combine the scale of technology with the personalisation of a human travel agent. Drawing on extensive travel experience and strong technical expertise, they built Holiwise to reinvent how premium trips are discovered, planned, and booked. Albin Eriksson Lippe, CEO and Co-Founder of Holiwise, shared: We’ve identified a clear gap in the market between mainstream online travel agencies and high-end travel concierges. Premium travellers are underserved, often forced to choose between impersonal, self-serve booking platforms or expensive concierge services that are slow to access. Holiwise is building an AI travel agent that combines the convenience of technology with the quality of a tailored luxury experience. It can instantly plan and book complete personalised itineraries, including synchronised flights, premium stays, and curated experiences for individuals or groups. For discerning travellers, startups, and SMEs, Holiwise also offers a complimentary invite-only premium membership. Premium members gain access to a private platform with insider rates on more than one million global stays, often at prices far below mainstream sites. They also benefit from priority concierge support for flights, accommodation, restaurants, and more, plus tailored travel recommendations powered by Holiwise’s models. The platform is already live with tens of thousands of monthly users, with over 80 per cent of customers returning to book again. Bobby Previti, lead investor, comments: I agree with the founders’ vision that there is a gap in the market for premium travellers. Holiwise is taking an innovative approach to solve the problem, with an exceptional team that understands the problem well. I strongly believe that the team is in the right place at the right time, working towards a vision that I’m keen to support. The pre-seed round comes as Holiwise integrates with major travel industry platforms, including HBX Group, a leading B2B traveltech ecosystem, and Amadeus, the world’s largest global distribution system. These partnerships give users real-time access to flights, stays, and experiences across more than 10,000 destinations. The new capital, combined with these partnerships, will accelerate the development of Holiwise’s AI travel agent and dynamic packaging models, expand platform features, and scale its premium concierge service.

OrganOx, the Oxford-based medtech company behind pioneering liver perfusion technology that has transformed transplant outcomes worldwide, has been acquired in a deal valued at approximately $1.5 billion. The transaction also delivered BGF’s biggest return to date, generating £175 million in proceeds, a 10x money multiple on its original investment, and an IRR of around 69 per cent. Founded out of the University of Oxford, OrganOx developed the world’s first fully automated device for liver preservation, metra, which enables donor livers to be maintained in a functioning state outside the human body for up to 24 hours. The technology, used in more than 6,000 liver transplants to date, has significantly increased the number of viable organs available for transplant and improved patient outcomes. With BGF’s support, OrganOx has scaled into a world-leading medtech company. Following its acquisition, it will continue to operate from Oxford as a standalone division of global healthcare group Terumo Corporation. Tim Rea, co-head of early stage investing at BGF and a member of the OrganOx board since 2019, said: OrganOx has transformed liver transplantation and built a world-class position in medtech. In a sector where institutional capital is constrained, this exit highlights the importance and potential of patient growth capital, and a willingness to back innovation before it is de-risked — something many investors find difficult to do in this still nascent market. BGF was built to deploy capital into underserved parts of the investment market. In early stage medtech, we have gone further by deliberately backing companies with significant hardware and manufacturing complexity. Our capital and commercial expertise made us ideally placed to take on this challenge and OrganOx is a powerful example of why that strategy matters. BGF first invested in OrganOx in 2019 and has provided seven rounds of investment, including a £20 million commitment earlier this year. BGF participated in each of the funding rounds following its initial investment and is the company’s largest shareholder. Other early backers of the company included Longwall Ventures and Oxford Investment Consultants. In its later growth stages, the company secured backing from Lauxera Capital Partners (US/FR), HealthQuest (US), and additional supporters. Oern R. Stuge, MD, MBA, and Executive Chairman of OrganOx, said: Today’s announced transaction is expected to expand the adoption of our transplantation technology platform by leveraging Terumo’s global infrastructure to benefit more patients around the globe. Thank you to BGF who have shown conviction and support as an investor and board member since their first investment. Their capital and leadership have enabled the value creation inherent in today’s announced $1.5bn transaction. Andy Gregory, CEO of BGF, said that achieving a ten-figure valuation marks one of the UK’s largest medtech exits. He highlighted the OrganOx team’s remarkable achievement and stressed that the success is all the more significant because it directly benefits patient outcomes: By combining early and growth-stage investing across multiple sectors, BGF has created the right blend to deliver strong, sustainable and repeatable returns. Our ambition now is for more capital to flow into the UK’s most promising companies — whether through co-investments with international, specialist investors, or domestic sources.

Bunq, the Dutch challenger bank, has been hit with a €2.6 million fine for “serious deficiencies” in its anti-money laundering controls. Bunq is the latest challenger bank to be hit with a fine relating to anti-money laundering control failings, following Monzo and Starling Bank. The Dutch central bank (DNB), which imposed the fine on Bunq on May 6, said: “DNB imposes an administrative fine because Bunq did not sufficiently follow up on signals and irregularities in four customer files, resulting in money laundering risks not being detected or not being detected in time.” Bunq, which has over 17m users, said it did not agree with the decision and has made a formal objection. The four cases relate to a period between January 2021 and May 2022, as the bank probed Bunq’s compliance with the Dutch Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act. The DNB said the high-risk files examined showed that Bunq was deficient in following up on its transaction monitoring alerts.  As a result, it said, signals of possible financial crime were not investigated in sufficient depth, if at all.  The bank said Bunq was also unable to demonstrate why transactions with similar characteristics were reported to the country’s financial intelligence unit in one case and not in the other.  As a result, the bank said there was a risk that unusual transactions were not detected, or not detected in time and that they were not reported, or not reported in time.  The bank said the fine was due to Bunq’s “non-compliance”. The bank said that between 2018 and 2023, it carried out several examinations into Bunq’s compliance with the Act, where various instances of non-compliance with the Act were identified. The bank said it had already taken enforcement action on several occasions, including imposing a fine on Bunq, but it had not resulted in sustained compliance with the Act by Bunq.Bunq said: "At Bunq, we take our role as gatekeeper very seriously. We use the most advanced technology and continuously strengthen our systems - including in response to these 4 cases from 2021–2022. “That being said, we don’t agree with DNB’s decision and have formally objected. Since this is now an ongoing case, we can’t comment further, but we remain confident in our position."

Paragraf, the UK-based company leading the way in mass-producing graphene-based electronics using industry-standard semiconductor processes, has completed a $55 million Series C funding round. The funding will speed up the scaling of Paragraf’s manufacturing capabilities and increase production capacity, paving the way for graphene electronics to enter mass markets. Paragraf’s technology fits smoothly into the existing semiconductor ecosystem, offering customers ready-to-use solutions as well as a platform for developing custom applications tailored to their needs. Graphene’s unique properties enable devices to perform faster, more accurately and with lower energy consumption than silicon-based alternatives, especially in extreme environments, from cryogenic systems in quantum computing to high-temperature and high-radiation applications in an array of industries. In molecular sensing, Paragraf’s Graphene Molecular Sensors (GMS) are being developed for liquid and gas detection, enabling early disease diagnosis as well as applications in healthcare, agritech, food production, chemical manufacturing, and consumer products. More broadly, graphene-based technologies are unlocking new possibilities across many sectors. Dr Simon Thomas, Co-Founder and CEO of Paragraf, said:  This investment is a strong signal of confidence in Paragraf and our mission in the face of global economic uncertainty. This new funding will enable us to expand production of faster, more energy-efficient technologies to the scale required by major commercial opportunities. In what is a particularly challenging funding environment, we’ve attracted strong interest and are pleased to have secured the backing of both new and existing partners who share our vision for transforming electronics with graphene. The company runs three facilities, two in Cambridgeshire, UK, and one in San Diego, US, following its 2023 acquisition of a US company. Paragraf is now expanding its presence across the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. 

The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group has launched the TechEU Platform (this initiative is unrelated to Tech.eu), a new programme dedicated to accelerating innovation across Europe. The Platform will connect start-ups, scale-ups, and innovators with the right mix of financing and expertise to drive growth and bring breakthrough technologies to market. Offering a full suite of financial instruments and advisory services, TechEU is designed to support high-risk projects at every stage, from early idea to commercialization. Backed by a fast-track financing system, the programme aims to mobilise €250 billion in investment by 2027 and ensure that businesses receive timely responses to their financing proposals. As a one-stop shop, the TechEU Platform gives entrepreneurs streamlined access to capital and expert guidance to turn innovation into impact. The new TechEU Platform features an Investment Readiness Checker, an easy-to-use online tool that helps European start-ups and scale-ups in cleantech, life sciences, and digital technologies discover how the EIB Group can support their growth. Launching on 27 August, the Checker is the first step in a platform that will expand with more ecosystem partners and financing options. Merete Clausen, EIF Deputy Chief Executive, shared: One of our top priorities is ensuring that European innovators receive the financing they need to start up, scale and thrive in Europe, driving growth across the European economy. That’s why we are launching the TechEU Platform, which will streamline access to a variety of financing instruments.  As one of the largest financing initiatives for innovation in Europe, the programme is designed to ease funding constraints for scale-ups and to support around 1,000 additional innovators and tech champions each year. Backed by €70 billion in EIB Group equity, quasi-equity, loans, and guarantees between 2025 and 2027, TechEU is expected to mobilise at least €250 billion in investments across the continent. The Platform also serves as a comprehensive resource for companies, streamlining access to all EIB and EIF financial support tools throughout the innovation growth cycle, including advisory services provided before initial public offerings (IPOs). The TechEU Programme focuses on cleantech, health tech, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, defence, space tech and critical raw materials. The first wave of financing concentrates on cleantech, aiming to mobilise €18 billion in investments and reinforcing Europe’s leadership in this sector.

Today sees the release of the Linux Foundation’s World of Open Source Europe Report 2025.  The report spotlights emerging trends and priorities in the European open source software (OSS) ecosystem, drawing on a quantitative survey and 14 qualitative interviews with experts from private companies, government agencies, and non-profit organisations.  The study surveyed 316 European participants from a broad mix of organisations, ranging from micro-enterprises (20,000). Respondents came from IT providers (39 per cent), industry-specific end users (42 per cent), and academic, non-profit, or government bodies (19 per cent). Most held IT-related roles (66 per cent), with cross-industry IT vendors making up the largest group (29 per cent). The findings reveal an ecosystem in transition, where OSS adoption is widespread yet organisational open source maturity varies significantly, and where shifting geopolitical realities have elevated OSS from a technical consideration to a strategic imperative for digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy. I spoke to Gabriele Columbro, General Manager of Linux Foundation Europe, to discuss some of the themes and findings of the report, as well as the broader ecosystem and the opportunity for European open source innovation. European organisations exhibit a spectrum of open source maturity levels  While European organisations show a growing awareness of the benefits of OSS, in practice they exhibit a spectrum of open source maturity levels. 14 per cent are very active and 28 per cent are moderately active in contributing to the OSS projects they depend on, while 30 per cent of organisations are passive consumers who use OSS but do not contribute back or rely on third-parties. Research last month highlighted that the chronic under-investment in open source technologies creates systemic risks, exposing Europe to (amongst other things) cybersecurity threats, supply chain vulnerabilities, and strategic dependencies on non-European technology providers. Too many critical projects are maintained by one or two people, often unpaid.  We’ve seen efforts like Germany’s Sovereign Tech Agency or our Alpha-Omega project under the OpenSSF to spread the burden. Now, experts are calling for an EU-level sovereign tech fund — something the Linux Foundation has supported. According to Columbro: “Consolidation is key. Fragmented efforts need to be pulled together because ultimately we’re all sustaining the same critical infrastructure.” Canonical offers a way forward. It launched a “giving back” fund in April 2025, which is committed to donating $120,000 over 12 months to smaller OSS projects that they depend on using thanks.dev.  Europe loves open source in principle — but the money still flows to the US Companies invest in OSS through various mechanisms, including employing OSS contributors and maintainers, FOSS Funds, and sponsoring foundations, among others. However, despite the critical importance of OSS to companies, commercial investments in OSS remain limited. Columbro is based in San Francisco, where he contends the commercial open source model is well understood in the US:  "Companies with this model get superior exit valuations — about 7x at IPO, 14x in M&A. Around 12 per cent of commercial open source companies reach IPO, which is higher than their proprietary counterparts. That’s why 65 per cent of VC-backed investment in open source still happens in the US, not in Europe.” Columbro sees a number of reasons for this. First, history: the US has a tradition of risk-taking and 20 years of proven returns on commercial open source.  Second, the policy and fiscal climate: most exits still happen in the US, so European founders often move their companies there. And third, there’s a cultural gap: “Europe loves open source in principle, but executives don’t always see its strategic value.” Key barriers to OSS adoption and contribution The report shows that 86 per cent of employees love and contribute to open source, but only around 60 per cent of executives recognise it strategically. That’s a big organisational gap. So what contributes to this lack of adoption and contribution? According to the Linux Foundations research, its combination of economic, legal, and technical barriers. The key barriers for OSS adoption are the lack of technical support (40 per cent), licensing and intellectual property concerns (35 per cent), and a lack of understanding of the non-technical value of OSS (34 per cent).  Meanwhile, the key barriers for contributions to OSS projects are legal and licensing concerns (31 per cent), uncertainty about the return on investment (ROI) of contributing to OSS projects (28 per cent), and the fear of leaking proprietary intellectual property (24 per cent). According to Columbro,  building credible commercial endeavours on top of open source is essential if Europe wants to be a strong player in the digital autonomy conversation. “There’s progress — continuous investment and encouraging trends — but also real gaps. Executives don’t always fully grasp the strategic value of open source, and investment levels are still lacking.” Top-down championing of OSS by senior decision-makers, particularly in the C-suite, and the implementation of a formal OSS strategy are key enablers of organisational OSS adoption and contributions. Significantly, 76 per cent of respondents say that engaging in OSS projects better positions their organisation to attract technical talent. Researchers contend that organisations that publicly embrace OSS find themselves better positioned to attract top-tier technical talent, as well as attract and retain talent in organisations in non IT-native sectors. Talented developers gravitate towards open source-friendly organisations, enhancing these companies’ technical capabilities and open source maturity. A handful of sectors and industries are leading the way  Companies in a number of trailblazer industries — including telecommunications, energy, and financial services — have embraced OSS as a strategic advantage, where they not only contribute to OSS projects that they depend on but proactively collaborate together on the development of OSS, open standards, open data, and increasingly also on open AI models. Europe doesn’t yet have an OpenAI-scale champion Europe’s open source startup ecosystem demonstrates remarkable vitality, particularly in the AI sector. Paris has emerged as an open source startup hub, with startups like Mistral AI, Probabl, and Plakar exemplifying the talent and entrepreneurial spirit of France and more broadly Europe’s open source community. However, the European innovation finance ecosystem presents substantial barriers to the scaling up of open source startups.  Columbro contends that the AI race is moving so fast that Europe might be better served leapfrogging. Foundational models may well become commoditised. Even OpenAI, after Sam Altman said he might be on the “wrong side” of open source six months ago — has released some open models. The real question is: where in the value chain is the real value? “Digital sovereignty doesn’t mean “not built here.” It means “not marketed and commercialised here.” That’s the bigger issue — Europe buys American, not European, even when open source is available. So the opportunity is in building higher-level tools and services tailored to European needs: multilingual capabilities, cultural differences, regulatory requirements. That’s where Europe can truly differentiate.” Can we stop European open source startups from being absorbed into the US? Columbro asserts that we need to catalyse a broader championing of open source — but not in a self-serving way, and not by splitting it into “European open source” versus “American open source” or “Chinese open source.”  “Open source is one of the few truly global ways to collaborate left, even as policy debates heat up.” Second, consolidation. Europe has an amazing SMB ecosystem, but to credibly compete with global giants, we need fewer fragmented efforts and more scale. According to Columbro, if you’re a large enterprise buyer, it’s easier to purchase from a big American vendor than manage a supply chain of dozens of smaller European players. Third, investment. Some European VCs are investing in open source, but it’s nowhere near as sustained or consolidated as it needs to be. Finally, there’s policy. Fiscal and regulatory frameworks matter and if founders don’t see a clear, attractive path to exit in Europe, they’ll continue moving abroad.  “Europe doesn’t need to rebuild everything, but it does need to consolidate technologies and pool investments so startups can credibly compete. And of course, fiscal policies must give founders a reason to scale here rather than relocate-" Fragmenting open source by region risks weakening Europe’s strategic advantage The Linux Foundation is known for community building and, in doing so, provides critical lessons for the wider European tech ecosystem. Columbro contends that successful projects balance different constituencies. Open source wouldn’t be where it is today without individual contributors driven by passion and technical excellence— but also without companies contributing developers, resources, and funding. Sometimes these groups have different motivations.  “Our role at the Linux Foundation is to provide governance structures that keep the playing field level and make sure both sides see value. Increasingly, governments and the public sector also need to be part of the equation, especially in the context of digital sovereignty.” Second, scarcity drives collaboration. He recounts that when he started talking to Wall Street ten years ago about sharing intellectual property, the reaction was… less than warm. But as pressures from big tech, fintech, and crypto increased, banks realised open source was essential to their digital transformation — just like cloud and AI. "Europe can apply the same lesson. Even if it doesn’t have a big tech scene like the US, it has global vertical industries—finance, telecom, and automotive. These industries are cornerstones of Europe’s economy and have global reach. If they invest more heavily in open source and partner with startups and SMEs, Europe could create a much stronger ecosystem.” And one important reminder: these industries are global “Deutsche Bank, for example, won’t use “European open source” in Europe and “American open source” in the US. Fragmenting open source by region only creates more complexity. Keeping it global is key."

Last week, we tracked more than 35 tech funding deals worth over €404 million, and over 15 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.

Danish startup Interhuman AI, a startup building the first social intelligence layer for AI systems, has raised a €2 million pre-seed funding round. Interhuman AI is creating a world where tech finally understands humans. Not just our words, but the millions of subtle signals beneath the surface.  This will transform the next generation of conversational AI by allowing it to develop human-like social awareness by understanding facial expressions, body language, and voice tonality.  Interhuman AI combines computer vision, audio analysis, psychology, and behavioral science to translate raw human cues into social signals. These signals can then be interpreted in context to make human-AI interactions more natural and meaningful. A smile while leaning forward can signal engagement, while the same smile paired with leaning back might suggest something entirely different. This social awareness can be added to any AI system by adding just a few lines of code.  In training and coaching, AI with social intelligence could feel more natural and personalised, adapting to each learner’s unique style and challenges. In digital health, it could respond with greater empathy, tailoring support to our needs in real time. In sales, it could help professionals understand not just what they say, but how they say it, offering feedback on clarity, confidence, and empathy. And in customer service, it could finally give us AI support bots that truly get us, responding better to frustration and hesitation. The global AI market is expanding rapidly. Yet while AI systems are becoming skilled at processing words, they miss up to 93 per cent of non-verbal communication. That’s a major gap, especially since half of the $757B AI market involves human-AI interaction, and 40 per cent of those interactions would improve if AI could understand non-verbal cues. Paula Petcu, co-founder of Interhuman AI, comments: The global AI market is growing fast. However, to realise the full potential of AI solutions, it needs to take into consideration all aspects of human behaviour. AI isn’t just about efficiency and workflow optimisation - it is about human interaction. Without the solution that we are building, we think that AI developers will continue to struggle to deliver impactful solutions that allow for human-Al understanding, resulting in failure and disappointment with what AI can do. The investment round was led by the Nordic VC fund PSV Tech, with participation from EIFO (Export and Investment Fund of Denmark), Antler, the Yope Foundation, and high-profile angels from Ada Ventures.  Alexander Viterbo-Horten, Partner at PSV Tech, comments: We’re only just beginning to see what happens when social intelligence is built into AI. This breakthrough has the potential to transform healthcare, education, and any sector where human-AI interaction matters. Research already shows that automating behavioral coding with AI makes mental health diagnostics far more reliable, while avoiding the bias that comes with manual coding. Interhuman AI is leading this shift with rare technical depth, scientific rigor, and the ambition to unlock this frontier. The investment in Interhuman AI is the third AI investment out of three in PSV Tech’s Fund II, which they launched in May this year. This only illustrates that Denmark and the Nordics are taking the lead on AI in Europe. Interhuman AI was founded in Copenhagen by a team that brings together deep AI expertise, startup experience, and strong academic research backgrounds. They are supported by advisors with expertise in psychology, user experience, business development, and artificial intelligence. Mathias Kaasgaard, Investment Manager at EIFO, said: Interhuman AI is not just another fast AI-language model business. It is the next and meaningful step in the evolving AI-industry. With its technology deeply rooted in the scientific discoveries in the AI and computer scientific environment at DTU, the company demonstrates what stronghold we have in the AI ecosystem in Denmark and how we can contribute to European innovation within new and transformative technologies. This is technology that will make a difference, and we believe that the founder team is extraordinarily well equipped to make it happen. That is why EIFO is in on this. Michael Wiatr, Partner at Antler, emphasized that Interhuman AI is adding a human dimension to artificial intelligence: In a world increasingly dominated by AI, empowering new technologies to understand the wealth of non-verbal communication that we take for granted will be transformational. Interhuman AI has a world-class founding team who combine technical expertise with a real passion and determination to make AI more socially aware. We are delighted to have backed them and have every confidence in their future success. The company will use this funding to build a platform and API to give companies access to their socially aware AI and models core. The investment will also be used to scale development and expand a team of AI engineers.

This week we tracked more than 35 tech funding deals worth over €404 million, and over 15 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. If email is more your thing, you can always subscribe to our newsletter and receive a more robust version of this round-up delivered to your inbox. Either way, let's get you up to speed. ? Notable and big funding rounds ??Fresh £125M for GoFibre to expand connectivity in rural Scotland ?? Investment app Midas lands $80M Series B, the country’s biggest fintech deal ?? Stark raises $62M for weaponised drone systems, backed by Sequoia and Peter Thiel ?? Loft Dynamics raises $24M Series B to redefine pilot training with VR simulators ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ??  Starling Bank snaps up UK accounting startup Ember ?? Advent to acquire Swiss chipmaker U-Blox in $1.3B deal ?? US quantum computing firm Strangeworks expands European presence with Quantagonia acquisition ?? Visma strengthens foothold in DACH with AI-driven acquisitions of milia.io and Taxy.io ? Interesting moves from investors ? Clean Growth Fund raises one-third of £150M fund target ? Norrsken Evolve launches €57M fund to back "impact tech" ?? Spintop Ventures strengthens Nordic expansion with new Danish office and Principal ?️ In other (important) news ? N26 co-founder Valentin Stalf exits CEO role following investor row ?? Brex aims to crack EU market with partnership-led approach ?Digital bank targeting Turkish diaspora to launch in UK ? Monzo mirrors Revolut and Klarna with plan to launch mobile service ? Recommended reads and listens ?? Doncaster is the UK's AI hub you've never heard of ? Why most AI drug discovery startups struggle — and how Turbine plans to beat the odds ☀️ Cyprus: A rising Mediterranean hub for tech and innovation ? Inside Nemo: the six-week sprint that turned inclusive banking research into a working fintech prototype ? European tech startups to watch ?? Seabound receives £1.1M grant from UK Government ?? Meshed raises £950,000 for AI insurance broker for SMEs ?? WePositive.Energy secures €350,000 to tackle grid congestion with AI ?? RedMimicry secures Seed funding to scale cyberattack emulation platform ?? Lignufy secures €40,000 investment to digitize timber trade in Europe