One of the UK’s most hyped AI startups has nearly doubled its valuation to $4bn in just 12 months, following a $200m funding round. The $200m Series E funding round in Synthesia was led by existing investor Google Ventures, Google's VC arm, with participation from Evantic, the venture fund founded by former Sequoia partner Matt Miller, and Hedosophia.  Other existing investors NVentures, Nvidia’s VC arm, Accel, Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), PSP Growth, Air Street Capital, and MMC Ventures, also participated. As part of the deal, Synthesia, which makes AI-powered corporate videos, is allowing employees to sell a percentage of their shares through a partnership with Nasdaq. Synthesia, founded in 2017, has become something of a talismanic company in the UK’s burgeoning AI scene. It was last valued at $2.1bn in January last year, following a $180m funding round. The startup develops digital avatars which are deployed for corporate clients, such as to help explain health and safety in the workplace. The startup plans to use the funds on building new interactive AI agents for companies to use for employees and marketing videos, according to The Times. Synthesia's customers include SAP and Microsoft. Headquartered in London, Synthesia also has offices in New York, Munich and Zurich. Victor Riparbelli, Synthesia’s co-founder and CEO, said: “Synthesia was founded on two core beliefs: first, that AI will bring the cost of content creation down to zero. And secondly, that AI video provides a better, more engaging way for organisations to communicate and learn. “This funding round is about scaling that vision. We see a rare convergence of two major shifts: a technology shift with AI Agents becoming more capable, and a market shift where upskilling and internal knowledge sharing have become board-level priorities. "We intend to build the defining company at that intersection, by combining our know-how in AI video with our ability to build and integrate AI technologies into products and services that solve real business needs.”

London-based MyARC, a platform that enables fitness creators to train their communities at scale, has secured more than $2 million in funding, with participation from Araya Ventures, Morgan Stanley, Techstars, and G Fund. Alongside the funding, the company has launched a next-generation version of its platform aimed at supporting the operation, monetisation, and growth of creator-led fitness businesses. Founded by Peter Monteza, together with co-founders Nikhil Shah and Arohan Subramonia, MyARC seeks to address structural limitations in the fitness industry, where creators have traditionally relied on static programmes or one-to-one coaching models that are difficult to scale. The platform is designed to help creators deliver personalised training and nutrition plans that adapt to individual user goals, lifestyles, and preferences while remaining scalable. The platform supports this approach through tools that automate the personalisation of training programmes, recipes, and nutrition plans, enable the launch and management of branded fitness applications without coding, and support subscription-based monetisation models that combine challenges, workouts, and meal planning. Automation features are also used to facilitate ongoing community engagement and operational efficiency. The traditional online fitness model has left creators trapped between low-value generic products and unsustainable personal coaching. With this platform, they can scale their impact and income without sacrificing quality, explained Monteza. Over the past two years, MyARC reports that creators using the platform have generated material revenue, with several reaching seven-figure earnings and average annual creator income in the high six-figure range. The platform supports a global user base with thousands of daily active users, who together have completed hundreds of millions of minutes of training. The funding will be used to support continued product development, expand creator tools, and advance the company’s global growth plans.

Copenhagen-based AI SaaS company Kime has raised €2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by PSV Tech, with participation from Nordic Makers and a group of angel investors based in Copenhagen and Stockholm. As user behaviour shifts away from traditional search engines toward AI assistants that provide a limited number of direct answers, brand visibility is increasingly shaped by how large language models select and prioritise information. Recent research from McKinsey indicates that AI-based search is becoming an important entry point to online decision-making and is expected to influence a substantial share of consumer spending. Despite this change, many companies have limited insight into whether their brands are mentioned at all when users ask AI assistants for recommendations, comparisons, or purchasing advice. Kime aims to address this gap by tracking how brands are represented across major AI platforms, including which brands are cited, their relative positioning, associated sentiment, and the sources used to generate responses. The company refers to this emerging discipline as generative engine optimisation (GEO), reflecting a shift from ranking in traditional search results toward visibility within AI-generated answers. According to founder and CEO Vasilij Brandt, marketers are increasingly focused on understanding how their brands appear in AI assistants, and Kime’s objective is to make that visibility measurable and actionable. Since launching, the company has seen early commercial traction. In November, Kime conducted more than 60 product demonstrations, primarily with senior marketing leaders and executive teams. It has also expanded its product to include an agency-focused module that enables agencies to analyse AI visibility across their client portfolios. The platform is currently used by brands across multiple industries and is also deployed through agency partnerships. In its current phase, Kime is focused on analytics, offering dashboards that show brand visibility across prompts and AI platforms, competitor benchmarking, sentiment, share of voice, and the domains and publications informing AI responses. Looking ahead, the company plans to develop the platform into a broader layer for AI marketing, giving teams a centralised way to manage and optimise their presence across multiple AI assistants as the LLM landscape continues to fragment.

Last week, we tracked more than 70 tech funding deals worth over €2.7 billion, and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.

Orbital, an AI platform for real estate law, has raised $60 million in a Series B funding round to support continued growth in the US and UK. The round was led by Brighton Park Capital and included participation from investors across the legal and real estate sectors, including REV, The LegalTech Fund, Moderne Ventures, and Grosvenor Group. Existing investors JLL Spark, Outward, and Seedcamp also participated. Orbital develops AI technology tailored to the specific requirements of real estate legal work, an area that has seen relatively limited coverage from broader legal technology platforms. By combining AI designed for real estate law with spatial visualisation, mapping, and property data, the platform automates document-intensive legal processes and supports more efficient transaction workflows. The company was co-founded in 2018 by Will Pearce and Ed Boulle. Its platform supports hundreds of thousands of residential and commercial real estate transactions each year for thousands of property professionals, including law firms, in-house legal teams, developers, title companies, and real estate investment trusts. Orbital’s customer base includes large international law firms and multinational companies across the real estate sector. Will Pearce, Orbital's CEO and co-founder, noted that although real estate is the world’s largest asset class, the legal processes that support it are still largely manual, fragmented, and opaque, with many practices having changed little for more than a century. Orbital is changing that with AI purpose-built for real estate, making transactions more transparent and reliable for all parties. With the new funding, the company plans to expand across the wider real estate ecosystem and increase investment in product development, with the goal of creating a single, secure workspace for real estate legal work across the full asset lifecycle. Following the opening of its New York office in 2025, Orbital plans to grow its team and establish additional US hubs to better support customers.

Venture firm 2150 today announced the final close of its €210 million second fund, bringing total assets under management to €500 million.  The fund remains focused on backing technology companies seeking to reshape our cities and the industries that power them.  I spoke to partner and co-founder Christian Hernandez to learn more.  Building a climate Fund around cities and industry 2150 is built on the belief that cities drive the majority of global prosperity and represent the greatest opportunity for sustainable progress. 2150 backs founders developing transformative solutions across energy, industrial decarbonisation, advanced manufacturing, mobility, and urban systems.  Why LPs re-committed in a tough climate fundraising market When asked what convinced limited partners to commit such a large amount in a difficult fundraising environment for climate funds, Hernandez points first to continuity. “Raising money for Fund I happened in a very different market,” he said. “We were lucky to have large institutional anchors back then, and the important part this time was getting those anchors to recommit.” The second fund from 2150 garnered a broad international participation from financial institutions and family offices. Investors include Viessmann Generations Group, Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker, Novo Holdings, the Danish sovereign fund EIFO, Security Trading Oy,  Islandbridge Capital, Fund of Funds Carbon Equity, and the US-based Church Pension Group. Proving the investment model with a transatlantic portfolio Beyond repeat investors, a second group of LPs came in only after the firm could demonstrate a real operating track record. “In a first fund, you’re selling a vision and a team,” Hernandez explained. “People wanted to see that we could actually find deals, win deals, and that those deals could progress — with follow-on rounds of real scale. That validation matters.” Since Fund I, the firm has built a transatlantic portfolio despite having no permanent US presence, with companies now operating at meaningful scale. “We’ve proved that we can win deals in both Europe and the US. The portfolio has an aggregate run rate of around a billion dollars and about 4,500 employees. Some of these companies are already very significant businesses.” Demonstrating a deep, repeatable pipeline was also critical. By the time Fund II launched, the team had already completed seven investments. “That helped convince new groups that this wasn’t just one good vintage, but a sustainable platform,” shared Hernandez.  Those new backers include a Finnish family office; specialist climate investors such as Carbon Equity; and, for the first time, a major US institutional LP. “Our first US institutional investor is Church Pension Group, a $17.5 billion pension fund for the Episcopalian Church,” Hernandez noted. “They evaluated us first as a venture fund, and then on impact. They’ve been in venture for a long time and invest in many of the marquee names, but there’s also a strong moral compass behind how they deploy capital.” With just 34 limited partners in a €210 million fund, ticket sizes are unusually large for the sector. “We only have about 34 LPs,” he said. “So if you divide 210 by 34, the median cheque is pretty high.” The importance of backing scalable climate solutions 2150 backs founders scaling economically competitive climate solutions. Fund I portfolio companies include 1Komma5º, Vammo, and Blue Frontier.  Secondly, 2150 has always focused on the industrial side. According to Hernandez: “The first thing that never existed is going to be expensive. It’s literally cobbled together by hand. My partner Christian Jölck was in industry before, building stuff in factories. I worked in electronics. We always asked: at what point does this become price-competitive with what it’s replacing? Is it unit one? It might not be unit 20. Is it unit 100 or 1,000? How do they get there, and how much is it going to cost? Do they need to build their own factory or can they outsource manufacturing?” A third factor, Hernandez added, was demonstrating that the portfolio’s growth was not driven by equity alone. For every euro of venture capital raised, the companies have attracted an additional €0.75 in debt or other forms of non-dilutive financing. “That’s working capital, that’s factory build-out, that’s financing products for customers,” he said. Unlike pure software startups, capital-intensive climate and industrial technologies must be designed from day one to access these alternative funding sources. “If you’re doing hard tech, you have to think about this other type of capital from the start,” Hernandez explained. “It can’t just be venture equity.” That discipline also shaped how the firm positioned itself to investors. Rather than relying on the idea of a “green premium,” 2150 focused on backing technologies that win on fundamental economics. “There was no green premium in 2021,” Hernandez said. “Nobody was going to pay three times more for something just because it was better for the planet. It had to be cheaper, faster, better, or cheaper to own over time. That’s always been the core focus of the solutions we back.” Over the last year, Hernandez has seen software for commercial and industrial energy management as the fastest way to scale, noting, “We’ve probably seen two dozen companies in that space, many in Germany.”   These startups focus on optimising energy use across factories, logistics centres, and cold-storage facilities, often applying AI to fine-tune complex industrial processes. “It’s about how you use algorithms to make industrial systems run better, or to control robots and machinery more efficiently,” Hernandez explained. “That’s less the case for areas like cement, cooling hardware, or other deep industrial technologies,” he said.. 2150 often co-invests with firms like Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners, who are willing to go down the hard-tech path. 2150 is intentionally a Series A investor.  Hernandez explained: “It doesn’t have to be revenue, but it has to be a product we can touch, pilots deployed, maybe some ARR, and most importantly, the team: the PhD, the commercial lead, and often someone who can talk to banks for debt. Two brilliant minds spinning out of Imperial with something that might commercialise in five years is probably not for us. Our bias is to have an impact today with solutions that can scale today.” Investing for impact now 2150’s second fund is structured as an Article 9 fund under the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) — meaning every investment must qualify as environmentally sustainable under that strict regulatory regime.  Hernandez explained that it's an EU regulation to avoid greenwashing. “Article 8 is light green, Article 9 is dark green. Everything you invest in has to have a positive planetary or societal impact. You have to report annually. There are exclusions: no extractives, no weapons, no significant harm. It limits dual-use technologies. We were one of the first VC funds to choose Article 9, and it matched our mission.” In terms of sustainability priorities, cooling stands out as one of 2150’s biggest focus areas. By 2035, global energy demand for cooling is expected to exceed that of data centres, making it a critical and fast-growing source of emissions and infrastructure strain. Water is another major theme, spanning challenges from floods and droughts to contamination by PFAS and microplastics.  Further, “demand drivers like sustainable aviation fuel mandates, data centre energy costs, carbon pricing, and industrial partnerships are becoming very important,” shared Hernandez. 

This week, we tracked more than 70 tech funding deals worth over €2.7 billion, and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. Alongside the week’s top funding rounds, we’ve also curated the most important industry stories you need to know. This week saw the launch of EU Inc at the World Economic Forum in Davos in response to months of lobbying and a policy movement backed by over 22,000 signatories, including Europe's leading founders, investors, and the broader startup community. Its co-initiator, Andreas Klinger, also launched his third investment fund at PROTOTYPE to back startups in robotics, automation, and physical or frontier AI. 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 ?? Cloover secures over $1.2B to develop an AI operating system for energy independence ?? Accounting software platform Pennylane raises $200M ??  Language learning edtech Preply hits $1.2B valuation with $150M Series D ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ?? Tourmanagement BV acquires Beatswitch in live music software deal ??. AB Tasty merges with its Indian rival VWO ??  The American company ClickHouse is acquiring the Berlin-based startup Langfuse ??. IN4 Group makes swoop for Midlands apprenticeship provider ? Interesting moves from investors ? Vanagon Ventures closes €20M Fund I to back deeptech startups ? PROTOTYPE Capital launches Fund III and hits 5.6x returns by backing "crazy ideas" ?  Ananda Impact Ventures secures €73M first close for fifth Core Impact Fund ? Vi Partners marks 25 years with first close of €161M new venture fund ??. Metavallon VC launches €5m “Brain Gain” fund to reverse Greece’s tech talent exodus ?️ In other (important) news ??  The European Commission launches EU Inc., the long-awaited ‘28th regime’ for startups ??. Tech “trailblazers” to get visa reimbursement fees, as government says Britain is "haven of stability" for startups ??. The Estonian Startup Awards mark a milestone night for Estonia’s startup ecosystem ? Recommended reads and listens ??. Profile: The Danish fintech boss who says “no” a lot ??. Building a European digital stack: The alternatives to US big tech you should know ⚡.Soldera’s 10x growth story: building the Stripe for renewable energy ? European tech startups to watch  ?? Medtech Cancilico closes €2.5M round to advance AI in oncology ??  Anzen Industries raises $2.2M for chemical production innovation ??  Allocation Strategy secured £1.6M to advance asset allocation technology ??  Lovinn receives €300,000 investment

This week saw the  official launch of Cyber Alloy, an independent connecting network organisation designed to bring together companies, governments, knowledge institutions, venture capitalists, and security specialists in a unified effort to build a cyber-resilient ecosystem. It aims to transform the cybersecurity landscape by harnessing collective intelligence, shared insights, and collaborative innovation. In a world where digital threats evolve at an unprecedented pace, CyberAlloy exists to make organisations stronger together against digital threats by connecting knowledge, people, and technology within a trusted ecosystem.  It aims to relieve CISOs and their teams by bringing together insight, expertise, and solutions, enabling them to act faster, better, and with greater confidence. By enabling collaboration where it currently stalls, fragmented efforts are transformed into collective defence. “ Cybersecurity is no longer an individual battle; it is a shared mission,” said Aernout Reijmer, CEO of CyberAlloy. “We envision a connected, secure world where trust and collaboration drive cybersecurity innovation. By building bridges between all levels and sectors, we make cyber resilience accessible and achievable for everyone.” A defining feature of CyberAlloy is its role as a neutral, independent platform for trusted collaboration. “Data plays a crucial role in understanding and anticipating cyber threats,” says Lizzy Klijs, Trusted Data Advisor and Chief Data Officer at CyberAlloy. “When organisations collaborate and responsibly share insights, they gain a clearer, more complete view of risks. CyberAlloy creates the governance, trust, and structure needed to turn data and collective intelligence into faster decisions and real-world impact, in which the risk is mitigated faster.” By enabling organisations to share real-time threat intelligence and align people, processes and technology, CyberAlloy brings together the “good” network—making defence as fast, smart and scalable as attack. 

For more than a decade, Europe has relied on US Big Tech for the core layers of its digital economy — from cloud infrastructure and productivity software to search, social platforms, and, more recently, foundation models.  But as regulation tightens, geopolitics hardens, trade tensions and tariffs reshape global supply chains, and AI becomes strategic infrastructure, that dependence is no longer seen as just a commercial issue.   Last week, the European Commission launched a fresh consultation on open source, signalling its ambition for Europe’s developer communities to move beyond simply reinforcing US platforms and instead help build and maintain the core digital infrastructure on which Europe’s long-term technological independence will depend. Solutions built by Europeans for Europe are not just about innovation but also about representing local values around privacy, sovereignty, resilience, and industrial capability.  And when it comes to replacing Big Tech, many layers of the stack, Europe already has new and established credible players, ready to deliver efficient, responsible, and privacy-respecting digital services to European users. I’ve written this as a living guide that will be regularly updated. Many of the companies naturally span more than one category. Feel free to message me to add your company.  Core internet infrastructure and cloud (alternatives to AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, etc.) Crypt.ee (Estonia) DNS4EU (Czechia) a privacy-compliant DNS resolver alternative to Google Public DNS and Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 — keeping internet name resolution inside the EU. Evroc (Sweden) hyperscale cloud Exoscale (Switzerland) Hetzner (Germany)  IONOS Cloud (Germany) – enterprise + public sector Open Telekom Cloud (Germany) Public cloud computing service provided by Deutsche Telekom AG OVHcloud  (France)  Scaleway (France)  UpCloud (Finland) AI & Foundation Models (alternatives to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and more) Aleph Alpha (Germany) – enterprise + government-grade AI Dataiku (France) DeepL (Germany) – AI language models & translation eTranslation (European Union) Internxt AI (Spain) conversational AI LightOn (France)  enterprise GenAI Mistral AI (France) frontier LLMs, open and sovereign Noxtua (Germany) Europe's first sovereign Legal AI Silo AI (Finland, now part of AMD) Tilde (Latvia) an open-source foundational LLM with over 30 billion parameters designed for Baltic and Eastern European languages Developer and work platforms  Capacities (Germany) digital information management  Firebase (Armenia/US) GitLab (Ukraine-founded, now global) Lovable (France) Vibe coding   Infobip (Croatia)  CPaaS, messaging, voice, APIs, etc Krock.io  (Estonia) A cloud-based media review, creative collaboration, and project management platform for video production teams, agencies, and content creators. Collaboration and Chat (alternatives to Slack, Teams, Zoom etc.) Element (UK) decentralised secure messaging Jitsi (France) video conferencing Nextcloud Talk (Germany) Olvid (France) private text messaging) Wire (Switzerland) enterprise secure comms Email & Productivity (alternatives to Gmail, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365) Infomaniak (Switzerland) Full productivity and cloud Nextcloud (Germany) Self-hosted Workspace alternative OnlyOffice (Latvia) Proton (Switzerland) Mail, Calendar, Drive, VPN Tutanota (Germany) encrypted email Search & Browsing (alternatives to Google, Chrome etc) Brave (EU-founded, now global, privacy browser) Ecosia (Germany) – climate-focused search   Mojeek (UK) Qwant (France) Startpage (Netherlands)  Vivaldi (Norway) VPN Nym (Switzerland) Maps and Location (alternatives to Google and Apple Maps) OpenStreetMap (EU-led open infrastructure)  Organic Maps (Estonia) Consumer marketplaces (alternatives to Amazon, Ebay etc.  BackMarket preloved consumer electronics  Bought (Finland) pre-loved clothing BuyCycle (Germany)  e-bikes Codressing (Germany) buy, sell, and rent clothing Faircado (Germany) A browser extension that automatically suggests better second-hand alternatives when you shop online Liki24 (Ukraine) pharmaceutical, health and wellness products NOLD (UK) pre-loved clothing  OnBuy (UK)  retail marketplace  Swappie (Finland) refurbishes and resells iPhones and iPads.  Uphavin formerly El Green Mall) Germany ecofriendly marketplace Valyuu (The Netherlands) preloved consumer electronics Vinted (Lithuania) preloved clothing, goods and more Social & Content Platforms (altneratives to X, Meta, YouTube etc) Daily motion (France) YouTube alternative  Lemmy  Reddit alternative Mastodon (Germany) Open Vibe (Czechia)  PeerTube (France) YouTube alternative   Consumer hardware Nothing (UK) Smartphones, headphones, earbuds and more Murena (France)  Fairphone (The Netherlands)  Repairable smartphones and accessories Speaking of sovereign tech, I also want to do a call out to the open-source world’s most successful government interventions: the German Sovereign Tech Agency.  Through its Sovereign Tech Fund, a public-sector investment initiative launched in October 2022 and managed by the Agency as a subsidiary of SPRIND under the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Germany has created a blueprint for how states can strategically support digital sovereignty at the infrastructure layer.  Financed by the federal government and operating under public procurement law, the fund targets foundational open-source base technologies: the low-level libraries, tools, protocols, and frameworks that underpin most of today’s digital systems.  In its first two years alone, it invested €23 million across more than 60 projects worldwide, treating open digital infrastructure not as a by-product of innovation, but as a critical public good.

ClearScore, the London-based fintech that provides credit score services, has acquired UK mortgage platform Acre Platforms, as it looks to diversify its offering. The move marks ClearScore’s first move into mortgages and follows its move last year into secured loans with its acquisition of Aro Finance. London-based ClearScore also acquired Edinburgh-based online personal budgeting service Money Dashboard in 2022. Acre bills itself as an end-to-end mortgage platform for brokers. ClearScore says the purchase of London-based Acre, which has 47 staff, for an undisclosed amount, will mean it can route mortgage demand from its millions of users into Acre’s mortgage broker ecosystem. ClearScore says it will leverage Acre's tech across its businesses in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Justin Basini, co-founder and CEO of the ClearScore Group, said: "The acquisition allows us to accelerate our mortgage strategy with Acre technology powering our home lending business and helping us deliver compelling new experiences for our users.” Justus Brown, CEO, Acre, said: "Our data-driven approach has led us to building a platform that’s transformed brokers' businesses in the UK. Joining the ClearScore Group is an exciting next step in our evolution that allows us to accelerate our drive to become the leading tech platform for the mortgage industry."

The CEO of Danish payment unicorn Flatpay is not a "yes" man. Sander Janca-Jensen says: “We say 'no' a lot. We pride ourselves on saying ‘no’ internally.” Examples of Flatpay’s thumbs down mentality include saying “no” to new business opportunities, "no" to new distribution channels, "no" to potential new customers, and "no" to new tech. The 36-year-old father of two has also recently said “no” to eating candy (“one of the best decisions in my entire life”). It’s not that Janca-Jensen is a naysayer; it’s that he doesn’t want Flatpay to spread itself too thin because, as he says, everything comes with an opportunity cost. “We don’t try to be something for everybody,” he points out, speaking over video.  Flatpay becomes a unicorn Flatpay became Denmark’s latest unicorn last year (following the likes of Lunar, Pleo and Tradeshift) after landing $170 million in funding, reaching the $1bn valuation accolade in only three years. At the time Janca-Jensen pointed out that Flatpay was one of the few “non-AI” European startup unicorns.  Valuing Flatpay at $1.7bn, the funding round was led by AVP, the European and North American investor and Smash Capital, the backer of consumer internet and software firms, with other investors including Hedosophia, Seed Capital, and Dawn Capital. Flatpay’s offering Flatpay offers payment hardware and software for small and medium-sized merchants, such as retailers and restaurants, including payment terminals, all-in-one point of sale systems, and online payment solutions. As it says on the tin, Flatpay’s USP is the flat transaction rate it charges merchants for the use of its kit. It primarily targets brick-and-mortar merchants, which make up around 95 per cent of revenues, with online merchants the rest. Flatpay says it has around 70,000 customers (up tenfold from early 2024) and Janca-Jensen says Flatpay is adding between 10 and 15 per cent new customers each month. It operates across its native Denmark, which accounts for around 25 per cent of revenues, as well as Finland, Germany, Italy, France, the UK, the recently-launched Netherlands, and is planning one unnamed new market for 2026. Recruitment charge It employs around 1,500 staff, or “Flatplayers”, and, says the CEO, is now on a manic recruitment drive, employing nearly 200 people a month. Along with its flat fee, merchants are also enticed by its daily settlements, 24/7 customer service and “old school” in-person sales calls to sell its payment kit, he says. He says: “Ninety-nine per cent of the cases we are going there in person, having a meeting with the person who owns or manages the store, and then we sign a contract at that meeting, we then come back with the same person and install the physical product.” Moving into banking services and ambitious ARR targets Janca-Jensen, who lives in Copenhagen, reveres the metric du jour, ARR (annual recurring revenue), posting on LinkedIn last year that Flatpay had topped €1m ARR in one day.  In 2025, its ARR quadrupled from €35m to €135m, while a €400m ARR is the ambitious goal for 2026. How will Flatpay reach this target? He says: “The business is very stable. That means we don’t have to do much better than we are already doing. Of course, we will have to grow the sales force over the year. “This year is about basically three things: making sure we get the Netherlands off well and we open our eighth market successfully. Then it’s about scaling in the market where we are. And we want to go out and build the product." Soon-to-launch “light” banking services for merchants, such as business accounts, cards and expense management, as well as software to help merchants build their brands, could provide fresh revenues. Managerial style and relationship with co-founders Flatpay has four co-founders: Janca-Jensen, Rasmus Hellmund Carlsen (head of marketing), Peter Lüth (CTO), and Rasmus Busk (head of international), all of whom have worked together in the past co-founding startups. He says: “There have never been any founder-related issues. It also means we run the business together. I am obviously the CEO, but it doesn’t really matter too much that I have the title of CEO, because we try to be aligned on the direction of the company.” Janca-Jensen says the co-founders are keen to push autonomy down through the startup. He says his strengths are on the commercial side of the business and scouting talent. Being self-critical, he says he can be a “pain in the arse” and can micro-manage too much. Focused approach Fundamental to Flatpay’s success has been eschewing a scattergun approach, launching multiple products, going after new markets willy-nilly, and being wooed by new tech. Janca-Jensen says: “We try to limit the number of things we do at the same time." Likewise, the startup does not like to get too far ahead of itself. “I don’t spend too much time on building the vision for the next five years,” he adds, pointing out that there are too many variables to think that far ahead. Competitors and challenges Flatpay has a big opportunity, playing in a multi-billion-dollar market in Europe alone, where many merchants are locked up with legacy players which dominate the market. That said, it is going up against hyper-competitive businesses like Square, SumUp and Dojo. One recent big deal in payments has been Mollie buying GoCardless. “I don’t know who got the better end of that deal,” he rues. Other challenges facing Flatpay include a possible cyber-attack and, says the CEO, a Covid repeat, which would “really suck”. Virtues of being a Danish startup The advantages of being Denmark-headquartered are that the Danes are digitally savvy, with a strong pool of talent, he says. However, looking ahead, which is not the Flatpay way, he says that “Denmark is potentially not the most sexy stock market to list in”. Denmark has long been outshone by its neighbour, Sweden, AKA Silicon Valhalla, as a startup hub. Given the relative similarity in population sizes: Denmark, around six million, Sweden, around 10 million, Janca-Jensen says it’s not wrong to compare the two countries. He says: “The biggest difference between Sweden and Denmark is that they have been very successful in the past on building phenomenal companies. And there is a lot of very smart people there. “There is also a lot of capital from people who have been successful over the past that can be put back into the ecosystem.” Outside work Janca-Jensen, who lifts weights three times a week and looks ripped, is something of a fitness fanatic, clocking up 10,000 steps a day, wearing and sleeping with his Oura ring. “If you don’t measure stuff, you can’t manage stuff,” he opines. And why was cancelling candy such a good move? It helped with both weight loss and controlling his energy levels, he says.

In 2025, European tech companies raised more than €2.4 billion in seed funding, representing 3.3 per cent of the total €72 billion raised across the sector. While seed rounds accounted for a relatively small share of overall capital, they made up 14.2 per cent of all tech deals, highlighting the ongoing role of early-stage investment in the European tech ecosystem. The largest seed rounds were concentrated in a limited number of countries, most notably the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the Nordic region. By industry, software and artificial intelligence led both in deal count and in the largest round sizes, reflecting continued investor interest in scalable, AI-driven businesses. Fintech, healthcare, and climate and energy followed with steady seed activity across several markets. Deeptech, robotics, semiconductors and quantum appeared less frequently, but indicate growing interest in more capital-intensive, long-term technologies. Below, we highlight 15 companies that closed the largest seed rounds in 2025. Amount raised in 2025: $70M Gradium is an AI technology company that develops advanced audio language models to power natural, expressive, and ultra-low-latency voice interactions at scale. Its platform unifies capabilities like real-time speech generation, transcription, transformation, and dialogue into a single neural architecture designed for seamless, human-like voice experiences. Gradium’s technology supports high-quality text-to-speech and speech-to-text in multiple languages and is built to enable scalable voice applications across industries. Gradium raised $70 million in seed funding to advance and scale its audio language models, with a focus on delivering natural, expressive, ultra-low-latency voice interactions. Amount raised in 2025: $41M Mirelo AI is a German artificial intelligence company that develops cutting-edge generative audio technology to bring sound and music to silent video content. Through its platform, creators can upload videos and instantly generate perfectly synchronised sound effects, ambience, and music, with intuitive controls to fine-tune the results. Built on advanced foundational AI models and accompanied by APIs for integration into other products, Mirelo addresses a long-standing gap in audiovisual production by automating and enhancing the creation of immersive audio for video, games, films, social media and other media formats. Mirelo has raised $41 million in a seed round to accelerate the growth and development of its AI-driven audio technology. Amount raised in 2025: €25M Donut Lab is a technology company redefining electric mobility with a unified platform of high-performance EV components. It develops advanced in-wheel electric motors, production-ready solid-state batteries, integrated control hardware, and software that simplify and accelerate electric vehicle design and manufacturing for automotive, powersports, industrial, and other sectors. Donut Lab’s innovations aim to boost efficiency, reduce complexity, and unlock new possibilities in electrification across land, sea and air. Donut Lab has raised €25 million in seed funding to expand R&D, scale manufacturing and operations, grow its international team, and accelerate commercial partnerships to bring its plug-and-play electric mobility components to market across multiple industries. Amount raised in 2025: $27M Tulum Energy is a climate-tech startup developing a scalable and cost-effective way to produce clean (turquoise) hydrogen using methane pyrolysis. The process splits methane into hydrogen and solid carbon without CO₂ emissions, helping hard-to-decarbonise industries like steel, chemicals, and refining transition to lower-carbon energy. Tulum Energy has secured $27 million in seed funding to develop hydrogen production technology based on methane pyrolysis. Amount raised in 2025: $26M Arago is a deeptech company developing a new class of energy-efficient AI processors powered by light to address the growing computational and power challenges of modern artificial intelligence. Arago’s proprietary photonic processor uses light (photons) instead of traditional electronic transistors to deliver high-performance AI compute with significantly lower energy consumption, while remaining compatible with existing AI software and infrastructure. Arago raised $26 million to accelerate the commercialisation of its photonic processor, codenamed “JEF”. Amount raised in 2025: $25M Maisa AI is an enterprise AI platform that helps large organisations automate complex, knowledge-intensive business processes by creating and deploying AI-powered “Digital Workers.” Unlike traditional automation or generative models, Maisa’s system focuses on traceable, reliable, and auditable execution of workflows, enabling non-technical teams to build and scale intelligent automation using natural language. Its technology is designed to reduce errors and improve compliance across regulated industries while unlocking measurable operational efficiency. Maisa AI secured $25 million in seed funding to expand the team and to scale out the self-serve platform, Maisa Studio. Amount raised in 2025: €21M Paid.ai is a technology company building an all-in-one revenue engine tailored for AI agents, software agents that act autonomously to perform work for businesses. Its platform helps companies track AI-related costs, manage pricing and subscriptions, automate billing and payments, and report on margins and value delivered by AI agents, replacing legacy SaaS billing systems that aren’t designed for AI-driven products. Paid.ai enables flexible, outcome-focused monetisation and financial operations for organisations deploying autonomous AI workflows. Paid.ai raised €21 million in seed funding to develop its results-based billing infrastructure using AI agents and expand its reach to more corporate clients. Just a few months before, the company closed a €10 million pre-seed funding round. Amount raised in 2025: €20M Vertical Compute is a deeptech semiconductor company developing next-generation vertically integrated memory and compute technologies to overcome the performance and energy bottlenecks in AI and data-intensive computing. Its proprietary chiplet-based approach brings data much closer to processing, unlocking faster, more efficient hardware that can better support large-scale AI and advanced applications. Vertical Compute raised €20 million in seed funding to tackle AI chips’ memory bottleneck. Amount raised in 2025: $23M DePoly is a climatetech company developing a novel chemical recycling process that breaks down PET plastics and polyester waste into high-quality raw materials used to make new plastics, helping reduce landfill, incineration, and dependence on fossil fuels. Its technology can handle dirty, mixed or difficult-to-recycle streams and aims to support a truly circular plastics economy by converting waste back into materials that meet industry standards. DePoly secured $23 million in seed to launch a PET recycling plant in Switzerland. Amount raised in 2025: $22M Noah is a fintech company building API-first payment infrastructure that enables businesses to move money across borders instantly, transparently and at lower cost by combining traditional fiat systems with stablecoin technology. Its platform supports real-time settlements, multiple currencies, and compliant global payment rails, helping companies simplify international money transfers and access the global financial system more efficiently. Noah has raised $22 million in seed funding to build foundational infrastructure for fast, compliant, and cost-effective global payments using stablecoins. Amount raised in 2025: $21M THEKER Robotics is a robotics and artificial intelligence company that builds intelligent automation systems capable of operating in complex, real-world industrial environments. THEKER combines deep learning, computer vision and adaptive robotics to automate tasks across sectors like waste management, logistics, food and manufacturing, offering customizable “robots as a service” that can recognise diverse objects and work reliably without extensive reprogramming. THEKER closed a $21 million seed round to expand its technical team, scale its production capacity, and strengthen its international presence. Amount raised in 2025: $20M Endra is an AI-powered platform specifically built to modernise mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineering design. Using advanced artificial intelligence, generative design, and automation, Endra transforms traditionally manual workflows (such as system layout, 3D modelling, documentation, and code compliance) into fast, automated processes that integrate seamlessly with tools like Autodesk Revit. The platform helps MEP engineers and design firms generate coordinated 3D/2D models, schedules, diagrams, and other documentation with drastically reduced turnaround times, boosting productivity and reducing repetitive work. Endra closed a $20 million seed round (following a €3 million pre-seed completed a few months earlier) which will be used to support the company’s next phase of growth. Amount raised in 2025: $20M Jack & Jill is a startup building an AI-powered recruitment platform that uses conversational agents to streamline hiring and job search. Its system pairs two AI agents, Jack, who engages job seekers in dialogue to understand their skills and goals and recommends relevant roles, and Jill, who works with employers to profile open positions and match them with well-suited candidates. The platform aims to make recruitment more efficient, personal and scalable than traditional job boards or agencies by automating screening, matching and introductions at scale. Jack & Jill has secured $20 million in seed funding to expand its AI-powered recruitment platform to the United States. Amount raised in 2025: $20M MOTOR Ai is a tech company developing Level 4 autonomous driving software that is designed to be safe, explainable and compliant with European safety standards. Instead of relying on massive training data, its AI uses cognitive-inspired reasoning to perceive and understand complex traffic situations, enabling vehicles to make transparent decisions in environments they haven’t seen before. MOTOR Ai’s technology targets public transport and urban mobility solutions with the goal of certified, scalable autonomous mobility. MOTOR Ai closed a $20 million seed funding round to bring its certified, neuroscience-driven technology into full deployment, starting with German public roads. Amount raised in 2025: $20M Octonomy is a company that builds intelligent AI agents to automate complex business support and service processes with human-level accuracy. Its platform understands technical documents, ERP/CRM systems, and workflows to deliver reliable end-to-end resolutions, reducing manual effort and enabling teams to scale without growing headcount. Designed for enterprise environments, Octonomy’s technology aims to make expert knowledge operational and automate work that traditional AI often fails to handle. Octonomy completed a $20 million seed round to accelerate the development and deployment of Octonomy’s agentic AI platform for complex service workflows.

Agileday, a Finland-based technology company developing an operating platform for professional services, has closed a €6.4 million Series A funding round led by Newion, with participation from Specialist VC, Vendep Capital, and Business Finland. Founded in 2022, Agileday was established by Jaakko Hartikainen, Mikko Virtanen, Jaakko Hallavo, and Hannu Kärkkäinen. Drawing on their experience working together at Tieto, the founders identified common scaling challenges in professional services organisations, which informed the development of a people-focused and transparent operating model that underpins the Agileday platform. Agileday’s professional services automation (PSA) platform integrates talent management, resource allocation, timesheets, and project financials into a single operating system for services firms. Positioned between CRM and financial systems, the platform connects sales pipeline, project delivery, and financial data in real time, with artificial intelligence supporting coordination across functions. By reducing silos between sales, delivery, and finance, Agileday enables professional services companies to improve visibility, execution speed, and operational efficiency as automation and AI reshape the sector. Jaakko Hartikainen, co-founder and co-CEO of Agileday, said: By unifying sales, project, and financial data together with people’s skills and interests into one transparent platform, we help companies grow faster while creating the work-life people deserve. Agileday works with more than 70 service companies globally, ranging from fast-growing consultancies to publicly listed enterprises. With the new funding, the company plans to scale its technology platform and accelerate growth across Europe and North America.

A hospitality management software provider, Mews, has raised $300 million in a Series D funding round led by EQT Growth, with new investors Atomico and HarbourVest Partners, and participation from existing investors Kinnevik, Battery Ventures, and Tiger Global. The round values the company at $2.5 billion. The investment follows Mews’ fourteenth acquisition, DataChat, a generative AI analytics platform, and builds on earlier funding, including a $75 million raise in March 2025 to support geographic expansion. Mews provides a cloud-native operating system for hospitality that integrates revenue management, operations, and the guest journey. Its platform includes property management (PMS), point-of-sale (POS), revenue management (RMS), housekeeping, payments, and guest-facing tools, enabling automation and operational efficiency across hotel functions. The platform is used by more than 15,000 properties worldwide, supporting task automation, guest personalisation, and revenue growth through a single system. Matt Welle, CEO of Mews, said the company is building an operating system that reshapes how hoteliers engage with guests by managing operational complexity so teams can focus on delivering more enjoyable, profitable, and rewarding hospitality experiences. Following a year of strong growth, the funding further supports Mews’ position in the hospitality technology market. In 2025, the company reported more than 132,000 monthly active users across 85 countries, 42.3 million checked-in reservations, $19.7 billion in platform transaction volume, and $537 million in additional revenue generated for hoteliers through its Mews Spaces feature. Commenting on the investment, Richard Valtr, founder of Mews, said hospitality is an industry centred on delivering experiences rather than just services. The validation for our product from the market is clear, in both the US and Europe, and it is great to see how we are now powering ahead of any other hospitality company in terms of AI and agentic hospitality. It’s an exciting time to reinforce our vision of making Mews hotels the most profitable in the industry, Valtr added. Kirk Lepke, Partner at EQT Growth, said Mews is developing a modern, AI-enabled hospitality operating system designed to address fragmentation across the industry. Looking ahead, Mews plans to further scale Mews Payments and its broader fintech infrastructure by embedding commerce more deeply into hotel operations. The company will also continue its international expansion across North America and Europe, while entering additional markets. The funding will also support continued investment in artificial intelligence, with agent-based systems integrated across the platform to automate complex workflows, reduce staff workload, improve guest experiences, and accelerate product development and deployment.

Tonight marks the annual Estonian Startup Awards, where Triin Hertmann stepped into her new role as President of the Estonian Founders Society — and as the co-founder of a new local tech media platform, FOMO Observer, which officially launched this evening. While Estonia, particularly Tallinn, is known globally for its digital-first approach to every bureaucratic inconvenience, it’s been without a local tech media outlet of its own. So I spoke to Hertmann to learn more about the endeavour, the state of Estonia’s startup ecosystem, funding realities, geopolitics, and why the community needs more honest storytelling. Angel, operator, and ecosystem builder and now media co-founder Triin Hertmann is an Estonian entrepreneur, investor, and fintech leader with roughly 20 years of experience in technology, finance, and startup ecosystems. In 2011, Triin became the second hire at Wise (formerly TransferWise), where she built and led finance, payment operations, and global people teams as the company scaled from a startup into a major global fintech. After leaving Wise, she became an active angel investor and fund LP, focusing on early-stage companies, especially those with impact potential and female founders. She has invested in 35+ startups. Introducing FOMO Observer What’s clear to me is that Estonia needs a dedicated outlet for the local startup ecosystem. ​I often meet journalists from daily broadsheets and more mainstream publications at conferences. The problem is that at every event, you invariably find dozens of compelling stories worth pursuing. But broadsheets are limited in how often they can write about a given topic, even Estonia’s thriving startup scene. After exiting her own startup, Hertmann took time to focus on investing and giving back. During that period, it became very clear to her that there is a gap in Estonia for startup media. “Together with my co-founder, I kept hearing the same frustration: that the real stories of building companies — the struggles, the failures, the hard decisions — are rarely told. Most coverage focuses on funding rounds and success narratives. We want to create a more mature mirror for the ecosystem. Real people, real companies, real journeys. No halo effect, no empty hype.” Co-founded by Hertmann and seasoned journalist Tarmo Virki, FOMO Observer will offer some typical newscycle stories like funding announcements, but also focus on in-depth interviews, opinion pieces, and long-form storytelling. Hertmann asserts, “At one point, I was told by large media houses that 'nobody wants to read about startups. What they really meant was that it’s difficult to monetise through traditional subscription models.” “The media is part of the infrastructure of an ecosystem. If you remove it, you weaken the whole system. Our belief is simple: build something valuable for the community first, and the business model will follow.” Besides employing excellent journalists, including Fiona Alston, Teele Kaljuvee, and Tarmo Virki, the publication will also have one unfair advantage, according to Hertmann — its network. ​ “Many of the most experienced founders and operators in Estonia are close to us personally. We’ve invited them to become co-creators and contribute regularly. These are people with strong personal brands and decades of experience, writing not for PR, but to genuinely share what they’ve learned.” ​  Uniquely, the publication will be published in Estonian and in English, depending on the story and the speaker. The goal is to serve the local community while also making Estonia’s startup thinking visible globally. Founders recognising excellence in other founders The Estonian Startup Awards are, at their core, about founders recognising excellence in other founders and a fitting setting for the launch of FOMO Observer. The Awards are a community initiative co-organised by LIFT99, Estonian Founders Society, and Startup Estonia. Its sponsors and partners include Bolt, Coop Bank, Estonian Ministry of Defence, Nordic Ninja, PayPal, Plural, SkipEat, Specialist VC, Swedbank, TalentHub, Tallinn City and others. According to Startup Estonia, there are nearly 1,600 startups operating in Estonia today, but this year's winners were selected from 506 candidates nominated and chosen by members of the startup community themselves. Judging was conducted by a jury of 200+ Estonian startup founders. Among the award recipients, a big congratulations goes to the Founder of the Year, Kaarel Kotkas, CEO and Founder of Veriff! From funding winter to revenue maturity: Estonia’s startup ecosystem enters a new phase Hertmann characterises the local ecosystem as in an interesting point in time: “Estonia’s startup community is entering a new phase, and I’m excited to help guide it.” For three consecutive years, startup funding and deal volumes have stabilised or even declined slightly. But at the same time, she shared, revenues have grown significantly. Investor money is finally converting into real business results — into profitable, sustainable companies. “That’s a healthy shift. If you can grow with customer money, that’s the best capital there is." Unsurprisingly, due to  Estonia’s location and history, one of the strongest emerging areas is defencetech. Estonia has strong ties with Ukraine, robust European cooperation, and a growing community of founders, investors, and policymakers working in this space. “There is real momentum, and not just in building companies, but in building an ecosystem around them, ” shared Hertmann. In terms of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Hertmann asserts, “The right response is to keep building, keep growing, and keep strengthening our technological and economic base. Growth itself is a form of resilience.” AI is also booming — like every serious startup hub, Estonia is seeing a wave of new AI-native companies. “It’s still a very immature market and an immature technology in many ways,  admits Hertmann, “but the experimentation level is high, and the ambition is there.” Founders get busy in stealth mode Currently, much of the momentum in Estonia’s tech ecosystem is being driven by founders working largely out of the public spotlight. As Hertmann puts it, “What feels different now is how much is happening under the radar. In the past six months, especially, I’ve seen many teams building quietly, almost in stealth. With AI tools and no-code or low-code platforms, you no longer need a large engineering team or significant capital to get to market — two people and a dog can now build a real product.” As a result, she says, startups can reach customers without visibility, press, or even fundraising. “It’s a different startup society,” Hertmann adds. “My wish as president is to bring these builders out of the shadows and connect them to the community.”“I come from being a founder and an operator myself. Today, I have the privilege of supporting other founders not only with capital but also as an advisor and board member. This ecosystem is my home. Of course, I hope investments work out financially, but that’s not the primary driver. I genuinely love building companies and helping people grow. If value is created, everyone wins.” In terms of sectors of personal interest, Hertmann is bullish about energy:  “It’s the foundation of everything, and we’re seeing profound structural change there.”  She also continues to follow fintech closely because of her background in finance. At the same time, she prefers to have a niche rather than chase every trend, sharing: “One of the luxuries of being an independent investor is that I don’t have to follow the hype cycle — I can make decisions based on conviction, not FOMO.” That global mindset has always been one of our key advantages. What’s changing now is the diversity of what is being built. For a long time, SaaS was the dominant success story. But for Hertmann, “Now we see much more variety — deep tech, hardware, defence, energy, AI. The ecosystem is becoming more specialised and more complex, in a good way.” Estonia is more than the “land of unicorns” Hertmann admits that the‘land of unicorns” narrative of Estonia is a bit outdated. “Not because we won’t produce more unicorns, but because the conditions are different now. We’re no longer in the 2021–2022 environment of hyper-growth at any cost. What we’re seeing instead is more sustainable company building. The next generation of success stories will likely look different: slower, more capital-efficient, more revenue-driven, and hopefully more resilient.” Overall, Estonia is entering a new chapter. Less hype, more substance. More sustainability, more depth, more diversity in what is being built. ​ Lead image: FOMO Observer Team: First row - Aleksi Partanen, Triin Hertmann, Liina Laas, Kaidi Ruusalepp. Second row -  Allan Martinson, Fiona Alston, Kaari Kink, Tuuli Kaljuvee, Tarmo Virki and Kärt Siilats. Photo: Mario Pedanik.

Shield Space, a defence technology startup developing systems to protect satellites from signal jamming and other threats, has raised £2 million to support its first orbital test flight. The round was led by the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II via Mercia Ventures, with participation from Twin Path Ventures, ROI Ventures, and P3A Ventures. Space assets are widely regarded as critical national infrastructure, supporting services such as communications and navigation. At the same time, incidents of satellite jamming have increased in recent years, alongside concerns about direct attacks by hostile actors. Additional risks include the rising number of counterspace systems in orbit and the growing volume of space debris. Founded in 2025, Shield Space is developing autonomous, AI-driven guidance systems that allow satellites to detect potential threats and manoeuvre to safety without requiring intervention from ground-based teams. This approach is intended to address growing risks in orbit, where response times are often constrained by reliance on manual control from Earth. Graeme Ritchie, CEO of Shield Space, said that space infrastructure underpins many aspects of modern life and that adversaries are increasingly seeking to take advantage of uncertainty and slow response times in orbit: Our ambition is to give the UK, NATO and its allies sovereign space capabilities to operate decisively in contested environments. The new funding will support Shield Space’s next stage of development, including preparations for its first orbital test flight. The company plans to use the capital to advance its autonomous AI guidance technology, establish new premises in Lincoln, and expand its team, strengthening its operational capabilities as it moves toward in-orbit testing.

This week, Metavallon VC launched a new  €5 million Pre-Seed brain gain fund. It aims to invest early in deep-tech startups founded outside Greece or in Greek university spin-outs, provided they commit to building R&D or product teams within the country.  With over €70 million in capital under management, Metavallon VC has invested in more than 35 startups since 2018. The fund is supported by EquiFund, a joint initiative of the European Investment Fund (EIF) and the Hellenic Republic, as well as HDBI (Hellenic Development Bank of Investments), drawing capital from both public and private investors.  The fund will deploy €200,000 to €400,000 per investment, focusing on pre-seed deep tech and life sciences startups.   The fund’s name reflects Greece’s decade-long “brain drain,” during which more than 600,000 highly skilled professionals left the country following the 2009 financial crisis. This trend has gradually begun to reverse, partly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as many Greeks abroad reassessed proximity to family and quality of life. Increased economic stability, new R&D tax incentives, and a more mature tech ecosystem have further attracted returning talent as well as international founders seeking to establish operations in Greece.   “We are not just targeting Greek founders abroad”, said Demetris Iacovides, Partner at the Brain Gain Fund. “There is already a clear movement among global deep-tech startups seeking to build scale R&D in European countries with a high-talent base in tech but without the cost overhead of Boston, London, or Berlin.”  Metavallon VC has led deep-tech investments, including Think Silicon, acquired by Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT), Seervision, acquired by Q-SYS, and Purposeful, acquired by PharOS. While Brain Gain operates as a separate fund, its foundation within Metavallon’s platform provides strong advantages in deal sourcing, local network access, and founder support infrastructure.   The Brain Gain Fund team welcomes discussions with Greek founders worldwide, as well as international deep-tech teams that view Greece as a strong base for R&D. Whether refining an idea, exploring a research breakthrough, or seeking early feedback, the team hosts weekly office hours and is open to connecting. 

Vi Partners this week announced the first close of its latest venture capital fund, targeting €161 million (CHF 150 million). It coincides with Vi Partners' 25th anniversary, marking a quarter-century of continuous venture capital activity.  Since its founding in 2001, Vi Partners has supported successive generations of entrepreneurs and contributed to Switzerland's development as a leading hub for technology and healthcare innovation.  Building on more than two decades of investment activity, the new fund will focus on Series A and early-stage investments across technology and healthcare. In technology, Vi Partners backs companies building mission-critical software and data-driven platforms across enterprise, AI, fintech, and industrial applications. In healthcare, the firm supports companies addressing material clinical and healthcare system needs across biotech, medtech, and digital health. This strategy builds on experience as an early partner to category-defining companies, including AMAL Therapeutics, Kuros Biosciences, Araris Biotech, and Oculis in healthcare, as well as technology leaders such as Nexthink, SumUp, and Unique.  “Over the past 25 years, we have consistently focused on identifying and supporting teams  with strong scientific and technological foundations, with the ambition to build outstanding  companies,” said Diego Braguglia, Managing Partner at Vi Partners. “This new fund allows  us to continue applying a disciplined, long-term investment approach, grounded in deep  sector expertise and close collaboration with entrepreneurs.”  “With this fund, we are entering the next phase of our investment activity and look forward to partnering with founders building category-defining companies out of Switzerland and  Europe,” said Olivier Laplace, Managing Partner at Vi Partners. “Our role is to be a  committed, hands-on partner from the early stages onward, combining capital with  experience, network, and long-term support.” 

Zurich-based Sparkli, an AI-based learning platform for children, has raised a $5 million pre-seed round to bring its multimodal learning engine to families and schools globally. While children today have broad access to information, many digital learning tools offer limited ways to explore complex ideas in engaging and age-appropriate formats. Sparkli aims to address this gap with a learning model designed for the developing brain. Using real-time multimodal AI, the platform enables children to create interactive learning experiences, turning questions into multidisciplinary, real-world learning journeys that support skills such as technology, design thinking, sustainability, financial literacy, and global awareness. Our goal is to build agency in the next generation. Sparkli is designed to turn screen time into an environment where curiosity and independent thinking can develop, said founder and CEO Lax Poojary. Sparkli’s approach focuses on three shifts in how children learn: moving from static curricula to real-time exploration, replacing passive content with interactive and multimodal experiences, and prioritising creativity and problem-solving over memorisation. These experiences are supported by a system that builds an evolving interest and knowledge profile for each child, enabling more personalised and adaptive learning over time. The company was founded by a team with backgrounds at Google Area 120, Search, and YouTube, alongside engineers and designers with experience in education and research, including contributors from ETH. The platform combines generative AI, pedagogy, motion design, and game mechanics, while incorporating safety measures and age-appropriate design for younger users. The funding will support the scaling of Sparkli’s generative learning engine and preparations for a private beta launch. The platform is currently being validated through a strategic pilot with a large international private school group, providing access to a network of more than 100 schools and over 100,000 students.

Leeds-based photonic computing company Optalysys has raised £23 million in a Series A extension round led by Northern Gritstone, with participation from imec.xpand, Lingotto Horizon, and the UK government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF). Optalysys is developing a photonic computing approach that integrates data movement and processing on a single chip, combining silicon photonics with digital technologies to increase computational capacity while improving energy efficiency. The company is building a programmable, high-density computing layer designed to support compute-intensive workloads, including generative AI and post-quantum algorithms, as part of next-generation cloud infrastructure. A key application is fully homomorphic encryption, which enables data to be processed while remaining encrypted and is increasingly relevant for secure cloud and enterprise environments. Early implementations of this technology are deployed in Optalysys’ LightLocker™ Node servers, which are designed to support encrypted blockchain applications. According to Dr Nick New, CEO and co-founder of Optalysys, photonic computing represents a major shift in the evolution of computing by enabling data to be moved and processed with significantly greater speed and efficiency. He added that the investment reflects the scale of the opportunity and supports the company’s ambition to bring photonic computing closer to mainstream adoption in cloud infrastructure. To support this next phase, the company will use the funding to accelerate the commercialisation of its proprietary photonic chips and further develop its programmable computing technology for AI, cloud, and security applications. In parallel, Optalysys plans to expand into the US, establishing a presence within the country’s photonics and semiconductor ecosystem to support wider market adoption.