Prosper AI an AI platform that runs the entire patient journey, today announced a $30 million Series A financing led by Andreessen Horowitz (“a16z”), with participation from Base10 and continued support from Emergence Capital, Y Combinator, and Company Ventures. Every patient appointment depends on workflows that occur before and after care is delivered, from scheduling and insurance verification to patient billing and collections. Historically, these processes have been fragmented across disconnected teams and point solutions, creating $450 B in administrative waste and making healthcare more expensive and less transparent for patients.   Where first-generation healthcare AI stopped at scheduling, Prosper AI manages the broader patient journey. The platform answers patient calls, schedules appointments directly in the EHR, verifies insurance benefits, automates patient billing, and contacts insurers on the phone when additional information is needed. By automating the patient journey end-to-end, Prosper AI helps providers lower administrative costs by +40% while giving patients visibility into their coverage and financial responsibility before care is delivered. The result is a single platform that manages both patient and payer workflows from appointment request through reimbursement. “Healthcare providers don't want separate tools for scheduling, insurance verification, and billing,” said Xavier de Gracia, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Prosper AI. “They want a single platform capable of managing the workflows that determine whether care happens and whether providers ultimately get paid. That's what we've built, and it's why providers, health systems, and healthcare technology companies are choosing Prosper AI.” The financing follows a period of rapid adoption and market acceleration for the Spanish-founded company.   Since its last funding announcement six months ago, Prosper AI has grown revenue 5x, added more than 40 healthcare organisations as customers, expanded across more than 150,000 healthcare providers, and become the platform powering more than $1.3 billion in patient care.  "AI should make healthcare infinitely accessible," said Jay Rughani, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. "Prosper AI stood out because of the scope of their ambition: they want to eliminate every administrative friction point between a patient and the care they need. What convinced us was the pattern we kept hearing from customers — providers would deploy Prosper AI for scheduling, then quickly ask them to take on insurance verification, then billing, and so on. That pull-through only happens when your technology can consistently guide patients through the care journey end-to-end. It's no surprise Prosper AI is winning the vast majority of competitive evaluations they enter."    Adeyemi Ajao, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Base10 Partners, shared: “Prosper AI is leveraging agentic AI to transform the way provider groups and hospitals engage with patients, driving not only savings, but increased revenue and better patient experience".   With the new funding, Prosper AI will expand its engineering and customer-facing teams, deepen integrations across the largest EHR platforms, and accelerate adoption across provider groups and health systems.  

Grid.online, the Czech company building shared infrastructure for first- or last-mile parcel delivery, has raised €4 million after scaling parcel volumes more than 10× in its first year, surpassing 1 million deliveries through the network.  The round is led by Amsterdam-based DFF Ventures and co-led by Polish fund Movens Capital, with participation from angel investors from the early team of Finnish delivery unicorn Wolt and continued backing from existing investors Reflex Capital and J&T Ventures. Last-mile delivery is going through the deepest structural change in a generation. Being seized by large platforms, it can swing by 50 per cent or more in a typical week, and the underlying delivery mix is also shifting — home delivery is giving way to locker and pickup-point networks, which require different setups, vehicle types and pricing.  A fleet correctly sized for last year's mix is structurally wrong for this year's. These are pressures that the entire industry feels, regardless of operator size. Add constant price wars to the mix, and you get the reason why industry margins are getting lower year by year. The solution: neutral shared infrastructure for local parcel delivery. grid.online was founded in 2025 by repeat founders Ondřej Krátký and Patrik Raš, building on several years of prior research and development. Through grid.online's API, multiple parcel carriers tap into the same network of flexible local couriers to absorb the overflow of their delivery demand. Each carrier keeps its own core fleet, customer relationships and brand, and uses the grid to flex up and down as demand and delivery mix move.  The grid does not compete with its carriers — it helps them utilise their captive fleets to the maximum and cover the rest.  In its first full year, grid scaled parcel volumes by more than 10× and is becoming the neutral infrastructure layer that leading parcel carriers in the Czech market are working with. The network connects 1,000–2,000 active couriers, with several thousand more on a waiting list. Existing clients are deepening their grid.online integrations — work that takes time, but is already unlocking efficiencies and customer value. Ondřej Krátký, CEO and founder, grid.online shared: "We built grid.online on the trust of our early clients and couriers, who saw what we saw: that e-commerce delivery is heading toward more vehicles on the streets and tougher economics unless the industry builds a shared alternative. The €4 million lets us keep building that alternative with them — a grid that works economically for carriers and couriers alike, and powers the future of e-commerce." Hidde Hoogcarspel, Founding Partner, DFF Ventures, admits, "We said we would not invest in logistics, especially last-mile, but the model of the grid changed our mind." "Most early-stage logistics companies grow by spending. Grid.online grew 10× while having strong unit economics — that almost never happens, and when it does, it means the model is structurally sound. They're building it to last."   Łukasz Lewandowski, Investment Director, Movens Capital, shared: "Grid.online solves a problem every parcel carrier in Europe is feeling, with the durable economics of shared infrastructure rather than the high burn math of gig-economy delivery. The neutrality of the platform is what makes it work for carriers at scale — this is the kind of category-defining bet our fund exists for." The €4 million will deepen the network's capacity and resilience and expand the engineering and product automation teams that scale it — laying the foundation for international growth in due course.

A Netherlands-based firm which makes specialised measurement and inspection technology used in chip manufacturing has raised $380m in new funding, valuing it at $1.6bn, it said today. The Series D round in Nearfield Instruments was led by new investor US investing giant Fidelity, along with Singapore state fund Temasek, deeptech VC Walden Catalyst, European VC Innovation Industries, asset manager M&G Investments, and the Dutch national finance investor Invest-NL.  Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) participated in the round as a new investor, while other investors included TNO Ventures and ING. Rotterdam-based Nearfield Instruments said the round is the largest ever deepdech funding round in the Netherlands. In July last year, it raised $148m from Temasek and Walden Catalyst. Founded in 2016 as a spinout from the Dutch research institute TNO, Nearfield Instruments makes specialist tools that help chipmakers inspect and control the making of chips, which is crucial for the next generation of semiconductors. The company says the funding will be used to help fund innovation, boost production capacity, and deepen collaborative R&D with semiconductor manufacturers. Doctor Hamed Sadeghian, co-founder and CEO, said: “This highly successful funding round marks a defining moment in our journey and reflects the growing strategic importance of metrology and inspection in the era of AI-driven semiconductor innovation.”

Copenhagen-based deep tech startup Acodyne has raised €2.5 million in pre-seed funding to scale its unmanned eVTOL cargo aircraft for heavy-lift logistics in defence, offshore, and remote operations.  The round, jointly led by Swedish defence VC Gungnir Capital and Danish PSV Hafnium, with participation from EIFO, SAP9 Group and GreenUP IV Invest, supports Acodyne’s contribution to European and NATO logistics resilience and to Danish industrial growth in defence-tech.  To find out more, I spoke with co-founders Mads Schnack, CEO, and Jasmina Pless, CCO. An autonomous eVTOL for heavy-lift logistics Acodyne is a Danish deeptech aerospace company developing autonomous eVTOL cargo aircraft for high-speed, heavy-lift logistics. Acodyne develops unmanned cargo aircraft for the most time-critical heavy-lift missions,  combining vertical take-off and landing with fixed-wing flight at jet speeds.  The company combines proprietary ducted-fan propulsion with an AI-driven autonomy stack to enable efficient delivery of critical goods in defence, offshore and remote environments. The platform is all-electric, modular and built to deliver payloads directly to forward drop-off points where helicopters are today the only fast option. Acodyne's aircraft are designed to carry payloads of between 100 and 500 kg, depending on the model, with a cruise speed of 450 km/h and a range of up to 500 km, extending to 1,000 km in hybrid configurations. A modular design with detachable wings allows the entire system to fit inside a standard 20-foot shipping container for easy transport and deployment.  Image: Render of E100 and E200 eVOL in offshore use. The platform is intended for a range of missions, including cargo delivery, airdrop operations, medical evacuation, and communications support, with a scalable architecture that could enable payload capacities beyond 500 kg within the next two years.  A team with deep roots in defence and aviation The company stands out for its team of domain experts.  Acodyne’s four co-founders bring backgrounds from the Danish Ministry of Defence,  Scandinavian Airlines, Cobham Aerospace Communications and DTU Space.  CEO Mads  Schnack has worked on counter-drone systems and JTAC at the Danish Ministry of Defence.  CTO Claes Nicolaisen is a helicopter and fixed-wing pilot with 25 years in aviation.  Chief Electronic Engineer Martin Arndt brings 25 years of experience in aerospace communications and aircraft systems certification.  CCO Jasmina Pless is a former economic diplomat who supported deep  tech companies in Silicon Valley. The wider team numbers ten.  Moving beyond helicopters In terms of market fit, Acodyne is initially targeting defence logistics, offshore operations, and remote and regional supply chains. In defence, resupply still relies on either slow land transport or helicopter missions that expose personnel and aircraft to threats. In offshore operations, a single missing component can halt production at hundreds of thousands of euros per day, and a helicopter is typically the only way to deliver it on time. In remote regions such as Greenland, where towns are not connected by roads, critical supplies can take days to arrive.  According to Pless: “Long-term, civil logistics is our primary focus. That's where we believe we can fundamentally change the way goods are transported.  At the same time, defence is both an important opportunity and a meaningful way to contribute to Europe's security. The defence sector also allows us to test and develop the technology in an environment that is currently less constrained by some of the regulatory hurdles facing civilian aviation. It creates a mutually beneficial collaboration where we can validate our platform while helping address real operational needs.” The company’s first aircraft will be fully electric and battery-powered; however, through discussions with defence stakeholders the company has identified strong demand for a hybrid version.  “In many operational environments, charging infrastructure simply isn't available,” explained Pless. “The hybrid approach would still rely on electricity for vertical takeoff and landing, but would use a kerosene-powered range extender during cruise flight. That allows us to significantly increase range while maintaining the benefits of electric propulsion where it matters most.”   The cargo-first approach to making eVTOLs work The eVTOL sector has a volatile history but is seeing renewed momentum in dual-sector use cases.  Pless attributes this largely to two major technology enablers that weren't available to the same extent a few years ago. The first is battery technology.  “Battery performance continues to improve rapidly, largely driven by the electric vehicle industry, and we benefit directly from those advances. The second is AI. AI is what makes a high degree of autonomy possible and practical. We have also deliberately chosen not to transport people. Many of the companies that came before us focused on passenger aircraft, and the certification requirements are understandably much more demanding. By focusing on cargo, we're removing a major source of complexity while still addressing a significant market need.” Acodyne is also entering the market at a time when the broader ecosystem for unmanned aviation is beginning to mature. EU initiatives such as U-space — a digital air traffic management framework for drones, designed to enable safe, automated, and large-scale unmanned aircraft operations alongside conventional aviation — are paving the way for unmanned aircraft to operate in regulated corridors across rural and inter-city routes in the future.  In parallel, NATO and the push for  European defence-industrial autonomy are driving public and private demand for unmanned platforms.  Together with rapid advances in AI and battery technology, that opens unmanned heavy-lift logistics as a new market category, with applications well beyond defence.  Building for a fully autonomous future While regulatory frameworks and airspace infrastructure are beginning to catch up, Acodyne's ability to operate at scale ultimately depends on another key component: autonomy. Regarding the platform, autonomy is handled by eTHOR, an AI flight stack developed in collaboration with DTU Compute.  Pless explained: “The system enables autonomous takeoff and landing, which is essential for operations beyond visual line of sight. Ultimately, we see a future where there is no human in the loop at all—not only in the aircraft itself, but also in ground handling. Our vision is for cargo drones to operate autonomously between logistics hubs, connecting directly to robotic cargo-handling systems.  We're preparing for a future that isn't fully here yet, but one that we believe is coming much sooner than many people expect.” Proving the transition to forward flight Pless sees the company’s biggest technical challenges as proving the transition from vertical takeoff to forward flight. “That's the part of the aircraft that we really need to demonstrate successfully. The good news is that none of the individual technologies is new. Every component and subsystem has been proven before. What we're doing is bringing those proven elements together in a unique configuration.” From demonstrator to operational platform  Acodyne is currently developing its first model (the E100), with initial flight tests planned before the end of 2026. The pre-seed funding supports prototype development and flight testing in real  mission environments, while laying the groundwork for scaling toward commercial operations.  According to Pless, the raise — although modest in aviation terms — is “sufficient for three prototypes, including some room for testing and, if necessary, crashing one or two along the way.” “This round gives us the runway to take Acodyne from a validated concept to a flight-tested platform,” she added. Will the infrastructure be ready? As cargo eVTOL developers move from prototypes to commercial deployment, a key question is whether the supporting aviation infrastructure will emerge at a similar pace.   The global vertiport market map and forecast 2025-2029 (published in 2025) identified 1,504 vertiports planned for development globally — however, fewer than 100 are earmarked for Europe, with none so far in the Nordics.  That said, Pless believes that as operators are obtaining licences to manage dedicated flight corridors connecting rural communities, hospitals and island populations, the ground infrastructure will follow at speed.  “Canada is one example where we're seeing strong progress.  We're seeing similar developments in parts of the Netherlands and Germany. As these corridors become operational, they create opportunities for companies like ours to work with local operators and demonstrate practical use cases.” But ultimately, right now Acodyne’s priority is getting the aircraft into the air. “Once we've demonstrated a flying prototype, we'll begin raising a significantly larger round to support the next phase of development,” shared Pless. "We're also actively looking for partners around the world — whether that's defence organisations, infrastructure operators or companies developing cargo corridors.” Schnack added in conclusion: “We see ourselves as a global company from the beginning. Our goal is to help make logistics more efficient through fast autonomous cargo aircraft. The faster an aircraft can fly, the more frequently it can operate and the more goods it can move. We're taking technologies that already exist and making them practical and valuable for real-world customers.” Why investors backed Acodyne According to Max Villman, Managing Partner, Gungnir Capital: “Acodyne is a fundamentally new take on unmanned military logistics: jet-class speed, helicopter-class payload, full ground-to-air autonomy, all-electric. It collapses one of the most expensive line items in modern operations, manned helicopter logistics, into a platform that needs no crew in the threat envelope. NATO needs resilient, scalable resupply that works.  This is exactly the kind of operationally driven defence-tech Gungnir Capital was built to back: technical teams solving real warfighter problems with hardware engineered to ship." Marianne Hyltoft, Managing Partner, PSV Hafnium, shared: “We backed Acodyne early, and it was their engineering progress, including independent third-party validation, that convinced us to help bring Gungnir and EIFO into the round." This funding takes Acodyne from a validated concept to a pre-production prototype and toward an aerial logistics network for defence, infrastructure and remote operations.

Graph Therapeutics, a next-generation techbio company developing precision medicines for inflammatory and immune-mediated diseases, has secured a new $5 million investment led by Daphni, the Paris-based venture capital firm. Daphni joins Graph's existing investor syndicate, which includes SquareOne, Merantix Capital, and NAVEC Investment Management. The company has also secured additional non-dilutive funding from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS). With this latest financing, Graph has raised more than $10 million to date, including equity investments and non-dilutive grant funding. Graph combines perturbation modelling of complex live patient samples, functional and multi-omics profiling, and advanced machine learning through its proprietary "lab-in-the-loop" AI platform to decode immune dysfunction at scale. By generating insights directly from real patient tissue, the company identifies disease mechanisms, novel therapeutic targets, and biomarkers that inform the development of differentiated therapies. Building on a platform that has been substantially validated and de-risked, Graph is advancing an internal pipeline of precision therapeutics targeting complex inflammatory and immune-mediated diseases. The company has significantly de-risked and validated its platform through clinically relevant biological models, creating a strong foundation for the development of novel therapeutic programs. The maturity of the platform also opens opportunities for strategic partnerships and out-licensing initiatives, extending the impact of Graph's technology beyond its internal pipeline. The new capital will support the advancement of Graph's internal drug discovery pipeline across multiple inflammatory and immune-mediated disease indications, while further expanding the company's platform capabilities and strategic partnership opportunities.

Superpal, a Vilnius-based AI startup, has raised €500,000 for its platform that serves as a fully autonomous AI coworker within a company’s Slack. FIRSTPICK led the round, with participation from the Outlast Fund. AI originally entered most workplaces as a thinking partner, helping with menial tasks like drafting emails, summarising meetings, and sometimes answering questions faster than a Google search. But for most businesses, that’s still where the story ends — a faster, smarter assistant that still needs a human to finish the job.   That gap is what Superpal, a Vilnius-based AI startup, is building to close.  Launching today, the platform enables users to deploy a single AI agent in a company's Slack that connects to over 1,000 tools and handles tasks end-to-end.  The agent maintains shared memory across the team, respects role-based access controls, manages privacy at the organisational level, and sees a task through from the first instruction to the final deliverable using real company data.   In practice, a team member types a request into Slack — to prepare a pipeline review, draft a weekly update, prepare a sales presentation before a call — and the agent does the rest. It connects to the tools already in use, gathers what it needs across the stack, and returns a finished output.    “Businesses don’t need another tool that helps them think,” says Martynas Čepas, co-founder and CEO of Superpal. “They need solutions that bring results. That’s what we built: a colleague that works inside the tools your team already uses, understands the context of your business, and gets things done.”   The founders are self-described AI tinkerers, always experimenting with the latest tools, and it was through that curiosity that the idea was born. “What we saw was a huge and ever-increasing gap between AI power users and everyone else. Hence, we sought out to bring the most state-of-the-art AI technology and to empower every business without the hassle of learning new skills. The choice to live inside the native communication channel, Slack, and create a coworker persona is a deliberate one. To be empowered by AI does not mean you have to be a technologist or a developer,” explained Čepas.   Of the company’s first three pilot customers, two wanted to invest. One — FIRSTPICK, a venture capital fund, became the lead investor in the pre-seed round. The other, a social media marketing agency, Caption, converted into a strategic advisor and an active ambassador for the product.  “Businesses are overwhelmed by AI tools that excel at individual tasks but fail to understand the broader context of how work gets done. Superpal takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of building another assistant, the team is building an AI coworker that understands the company context, works across tools, and delivers end-to-end outcomes. Having used the product ourselves, we believe this is what the next generation of AI adoption inside businesses will look like,” says Andra Bagdonaite, General Partner at FIRSTPICK.    Superpal enters a category that is currently attracting serious capital. Viktor.com, one of the most direct competitors in the autonomous agent space, recently closed a $75M Series A from Accel,  a signal that the market for AI employees is no longer speculative.   Superpal positions itself as the team-native alternative: equally capable in terms of output quality, but built from the ground up for the privacy requirements, access structures, and agent memory layer necessary for real companies.     Lead image: Superpal co-founder and CEO, Martynas Cepas; CTO: Gabrielius Mazeikis, CTO.

Talkin' Things, a European manufacturer of high-performance RFID inlays and custom-engineered smart tagging solutions, has secured growth debt financing from Orbit Capital to accelerate its next stage of expansion.  Talkin’ Things designs and manufactures advanced RFID and NFC tags for customers across multiple industries. Combining innovation, engineering expertise, and large-scale production capabilities in Poland, the company delivers reliable identification and traceability solutions to clients worldwide to solve complex traceability and identification challenges.  Manufacturing in Europe enables customers to benefit from faster design-to-prototype cycles, shorter lead times, and greater transparency throughout the production process, while helping to reduce supply chain complexity and exposure to geopolitical disruptions, which is particularly crucial in highly regulated or sensitive sectors.  The company operates in the premium RFID tag market, a specialised segment of the broader global RFID ecosystem valued at approximately $14.5–19 billion and growing at 8–14 per cent annually. The market is being driven by accelerating retail digitalisation, warehouse and logistics automation, increasing demand for real-time asset visibility, and growing requirements for product-level traceability across global supply chains.  The sector is also benefiting from significant regulatory tailwinds. New frameworks such as the European Union's Digital Product Passport and the US Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) are making traceability and product authentication increasingly important across  pharmaceutical, industrial, retail, and luxury goods industries.  As a result, demand for advanced RFID solutions continues to expand, particularly within specialised applications where performance, reliability, and customisation are critical.  According to Marcin Pilarz, founder and CEO of Talkin’things: “As customers increasingly seek secure, resilient, and traceable supply chains, the importance of locally engineered and manufactured RFID solutions continues to grow. This financing provides us with the resources to accelerate our growth, expand customer relationships, and further strengthen our position as Europe’s leading specialist provider of custom RFID inlays.” Wiktor Namysł, Partner at Orbit Capital, shared:  “Talkin' Things combines three trends we find particularly compelling: accelerating RFID adoption, growing regulatory requirements around traceability, and increasing demand for resilient European supply chains.  The company occupies a unique position as one of the few European manufacturers capable of delivering highly customised RFID solutions with both engineering depth and rapid turnaround times.” The backing reflects Orbit Capital's strategy of partnering with technology-enabled growing businesses — offering non-dilutive capital to accelerate the growth of tech companies that have reached the scale-up phase and are aiming for global expansion.  The financing will support the company’s continued operational expansion, strengthen its working capital, and accelerate execution of its growing commercial pipeline.  Lead image: Marcin Pilarz, founder and CEO of Talkin’things.

Last week, we tracked more than 60 tech funding deals worth over €585 million and 3 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. ? The top three industries that raised the most were analytics (€862.2 million), quantum (€415.7 million), and travel (€258.1 million). At the country level, ?? the UK took first place (€183.3 billion), followed by ?? Finland (€84.8 million) and ?? France (€83.4 million). ❗ Now, let's get you up to speed on everything that happened last week, including your handy.csv file, allowing for an even more in-depth analysis. Have a great week! Funding deals by amount FINLAND: Solar Foods wins €77.8M funding package for Factory 02 expansion UK: As AI agents become employees, NewCore emerges with $66M to give them identities UK: Former Palantir employees raise $60M for AI enterprise startup Conduct FRANCE: Comand AI raised €32M to scale UK: Undo secures €31M to bring runtime context to AI-assisted software engineering DENMARK: Festina Finance secures over €25M to modernise pensions and life insurance platforms UK: Monument scores £18M seed for cloud banking platform FRANCE: PROPHESEE raises €20M: behind Mantara, the emergence of a multi-billion dollar European market SPAIN: Orbio raises $21M Series A to bring AI workforce management to the world's frontline workers SPAIN: NeuralTrust closes $20M to expand AI agent security platform NETHERLANDS: Ingredients startup Vivici secures €12.5M EIC backing to scale animal-free dairy proteins FRANCE: Luni receives $14M in user acquisition financing GERMANY: Cortea raises €12M seed round to build AI quality layer for audit firms FRANCE: Rocapine raises $13M Series A to scale its wellness app portfolio UK: Frontier Health raises £10M for NHS AI agent startup GERMANY: Flagright secures $12.5M Series A to scale AI compliance platform BELGIUM: Warren raises €10M to reshape retirement savings DENMARK: Kvasir Technologies fuels growth with €10M round BELGIUM: Rainbow Crops raises €9.7M to scale AI-powered crop engineering UK: Poland invests $11M in ElevenLabs and launches AI Lab Poland to grow its next generation of AI startups UKRAINE: Cargofy lands $6M to scale AI workers for logistics SPAIN: Klarna backer Creandum puts $10M on Causa Prima to fix the one B2B payments problem software never solved SWEDEN: Lightbringer raises $10M to scale AI-powered patent services FRANCE: Green-Got raises €8M in 52 minutes to build its sustainable neo-bank SPAIN: Gate2Brain secures €7M to advance brain tumour candidate POLAND: Microamp raises €6.5M to support European 5G and 6G network technology AUSTRIA: GATE Space receives €6.3M from the European Commission GERMANY: CollimateHealth raises €6M in seed funding FINLAND: eMabler secures €5.5M to scale EV charging software CZECH REPUBLIC: Sloneek raises $6M to turn HR software into AI agents SWITZERLAND: $5M to accelerate the launch of TVL Capital’s chain-traded products SPAIN: Optiak closes €4M pre-seed funding SPAIN: TRAK raises €3.7M to accelerate the expansion of its 100% digital physical rehabilitation clinic TÜRKİYE: Revo Capital leads Turbo Law's $3.8M seed round to expand litigation platform GERMANY: Seqana secures €3.2M to quantify soil health using satellite imagery and machine learning SWEDEN: Vaja raises €3.1M in seed funding GERMANY: Qorelo raises $3.5M to streamline SAP migrations ITALY: Soource raises €3M to help procurement evolve from "copilot” to "autopilot” model AUSTRIA: Deeptech startup Somereality receives €3M investment GERMANY: GF BRYCK Ventures, Robin Capital, and others have invested €3M in reltix GERMANY: NexDash secures €2.5M from EIT Urban Mobility to accelerate electric freight expansion LITHUANIA: PDKINEMATICS raises €2M for drone guidance technology UK: Houdini Bio emerges from stealth with €1.7M to tackle DNA silencing in gene therapies DENMARK: Franklin raises €1.6M to introduce agent-based financing in e-commerce ITALY: Bestie Bite raises €1.5M to accelerate US expansion FINLAND: Open-source startup GitHits closes €1.5M to in pre-seed funding for product development BELGIUM: Adomate raises €1.4M to help marketers create AI-powered social media ads at scale ITALY: Sirius Game closes €1.3M round to expand game-based learning SWITZERLAND: Rflect has closed a seed round of €1.1M GERMANY: toern receives a €1M investment SWITZERLAND: OneSoil secures €1M to expand AI-powered farming assistant GERMANY: WhyBrilliant raises €1M to scale AI job matching, backed by Merantix TÜRKİYE: Poltio, a company that provides e-commerce shopping assistant solutions, has received a $1M investment SWITZERLAND: Healthtech Computer Vision raises €758,000 for expansion GERMANY: Tryll launches AI gaming engine alpha and secures $600,000 pre-seed funding SWEDEN: Valkyr Defense Systems secures €360,000 to advance autonomous anti-drone technology for Nordic defence SWITZERLAND: Venture Kick backs Minysa with €163,000 for GaN chip development SPAIN: Sincrolab receives €100,000 from Eoniq.fund SWITZERLAND: SmartHelio secures strategic investment from quantumEDGE Ventures AUSTRIA: Cybersecurity startup Airgapnet receives multi-million euro investment Exits and M&A activity GERMANY: DeepL acquires US audio stadium streaming business Mixhalo UK: The Citation Group has announced the acquisition of PayCaptain NETHERLANDS: Wise acquires expat information business Expatica

An early backer of Revolut and Synthesia has raised $320m and is deploying the capital across two funds, as it looks to discover the top European companies of the future. London-headquartered Seedcamp, one of Europe's most well-known VCs, is also upping its presence in the US, as it looks to give the European companies it backs the best chance of success, it says. Seedcamp is allocating $220m for Seedcamp VII, its seventh first-check fund. Another $100m is being deployed across its Select fund, which is its second growth fund, which focuses primarily on backing startups as they scale toward Series B and beyond. Since launching in 2007 with a $2.5m first fund, Seedcamp now manages over $1bn in AUM (Assets Under Management) and says it has delivered some of the strongest venture fund returns in Europe. For example, it says Seedcamp Fund III has now returned over 13x DPI (Distributed to Paid-In Capital) to its Limited Partners. DPI measures how much a fund returns to investors. Seedcamp, which mainly invests in Eurpoe and Israel, said it's also expanding its team in the US, as a key pillar of Fund VII is creating what it's calling a "Transatlantic Bridge" between European founders and the US market, with a dedicated New York office. Seedcamp, which has also invested in Wise and UiPath, says this will give founders direct access to US capital, commercial and technical hires, and the customer networks they need to scale into the US market from day one. Seedcamp Select fund is also based in New York. Seedcamp said that at Series B and beyond, founders need scale capital, and New York is one of the major hubs for it. It added that being on the ground in New York means Seedcamp can connect its companies to that capital. Sia Houchangnia, partner at Seedcamp, said: "There was a time when European founders waited for permission to dominate global markets. “That era is over. Whether it’s a teenage dropout in Warsaw, a repeat founder in Paris, or a deeptech spinout from Zurich, the level of ambition is immediate and total. We’ve expanded our team and US presence to match that drive."

This week, we tracked more than 60 tech funding deals worth over €585 million and 3 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 ?? Solar Foods wins €77.8M funding package for Factory 02 expansion ??  As AI agents become employees, NewCore emerges with $66M to give them identities ??  Former Palantir employees raise $60M for AI enterprise startup Conduct ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ??  DeepL acquires US audio stadium streaming business Mixhalo ?? The Citation Group has announced the acquisition of PayCaptain ??  Wise acquires expat information business Expatica ? Interesting moves from investors ? Anterra Capital reaches $100M first close for Fund III to back next-gen food and agritech innovation ? Wave Ventures marks decade with €10M fund and founder grants ? EXANTE launches €1M fund to support critical open-source infrastructure ? BAE Systems launches €50M push to help European defence startups scale ? Earlybird and AVP launch E2D, a €500M defence and dual-use growth fund ?  Ukraine and France launch €20M BRAVE FRANCE fund to accelerate battlefield innovation ?? Danish startup Good Tape launches ‘Names’ campaign honouring journos killed in the line of duty ?? Ukraine launches TrophyLab, turning captured Russian weapons into a battlefield R&D platform ⚛️  Silicon photonics firms warn Europe lacks infrastructure to turn research into commercial success ? European tech startups to watch  ?? Sirius Game closes €1.3M round to expand game-based learning ?? OneSoil secures €1M to expand AI-powered farming assistant ?? WhyBrilliant raises €1M to scale AI job matching, backed by Merantix ?? Tryll launches AI gaming engine alpha and secures $600,000 pre-seed funding ?? Venture Kick backs Minysa with €163,000 for GaN chip development

According to the chief surgeon of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, colonel of the medical service Kostyantyn Humenyuk, the main cause of death on the battlefield is bleeding. If a large artery is damaged, the injured person often dies before receiving help. Severe bleeding from arms or legs can kill within minutes, and a tourniquet is often the fastest way to control it. Tourniquets are widely regarded as lifesaving in both battlefield and civilian emergency medicine, but users struggle to use them correctly.  Norwegian startup Aristeia is developing a next-generation emergency tourniquet designed to make it faster, easier, and less painful to stop life-threatening bleeding for both professional first responders and non-medical users. On my trip to Kyiv earlier this year, I sat down with Aristeia founders Gard Fostad Moe (CEO) and Hsin Chen (COO) to learn all about it.  Image: Aristeia founders Hsin Chen (COO) and Gard Fostad Moe (CEO). From a napkin sketch to a medical device Moe describes himself as a “hillbilly biophysicist from a small village with an interest in engineering, physics, and mathematics.” The idea for the tourniquet began at university, with the initial concept sketched on a napkin.  Gard actually worked on cancer drug delivery systems for his Master’s degree but admits, “I've always enjoyed building things and solving practical engineering problems. While I'm not a mechanical engineer myself, I enjoy approaching technical challenges from a physics perspective and then working with specialists who can help turn those concepts into reality. This project gave me the opportunity to work on something tangible that could potentially save lives.” Chen joined Aristeia in 2018. My background is in health economics, and I've been involved in helping bring the concept from development towards commercialisation. Rethinking the tourniquet Following a decade of R&D, the concept for the tourniquet is straightforward. The device is placed around the limb and pressure is applied by pulling the mechanism. It's extremely fast to deploy. Within just a couple of pulls, you can reach enough pressure to stop arterial blood flow in an arm.  While the engineering principle itself is relatively simple, developing a device that can safely manage those forces and remain reliable in life-threatening situations is very challenging. Most tourniquets in use today rely on what's known as a windlass mechanism — essentially a rod that is twisted to tighten the strap. One common failure point is that users either don't secure the device properly or can't generate enough pressure. Conventional designs also require significant physical strength to operate. Hsin explained:  “Traditional tourniquets require a lot of force, particularly as you continue tightening them. In an emergency situation, simplicity matters. The easier a device is to operate, the more likely it is to be used correctly.” Our device incorporates a transmission system that makes it much easier to generate and maintain the required pressure. Users can achieve effective occlusion with considerably less effort." Developed with the Norwegian Armed Forces Aristeia began working with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) and the Norwegian Armed Forces early in the company's development, after both organisations identified capability gaps in existing haemorrhage-control equipment. According to Moe, the partnership with FFI played a key role throughout the development process. "We worked closely with FFI from the very beginning. Prototyping was carried out using their advanced facilities, and we adopted many of the same testing and verification methods used in the United States. That was important because it allows our results to be benchmarked against international standards and makes them easier to compare and communicate globally." The company recently completed another major testing phase. The next step is to place units in the hands of end users, including partners in Ukraine, and gather operational feedback. Why Aristeia chose a mechanical approach Notably, Aristeia is a mechanical device, unlike sensor-equipped tourniquets in development in places like North America, Israel, and Turkey that can measure pressure, detect pulse cessation, log application time, and transmit data digitally.  But Moe believes that future tourniquets will likely incorporate sensors and monitoring capabilities.  “Continuous monitoring of pressure and patient condition could become increasingly important, particularly in situations where medical personnel cannot continuously observe the casualty. But our immediate focus has been on creating a simple, highly effective mechanical solution.” Could tourniquets become as common as AEDs? Significantly, Aristeia’s tourniquet requires minimal training, and the team is equally interested in civilian applications — emergency services, police, firefighters, ambulances, first-aid kits, public spaces, and potentially even vehicles. According to Hsin: “The product has the potential to change how tourniquets are used beyond military settings. The easier you make emergency equipment to operate, the more useful it becomes for everyday emergency preparedness. In many ways, we see parallels with automated external defibrillators (AEDs). Tourniquets could become similarly accessible emergency devices in locations where large numbers of people gather.” The challenge of scaling production Aristeia is experiencing a common challenge familiar to hardware startups. From here on, Moe sees manufacturing as the company’s biggest challenge, admitting that the company has reached a stage where the technology is mature enough to make scaling production viable, but that this requires a completely different level of capital.  “We are moving beyond what can realistically be funded through angel investment and into a phase where institutional investment becomes necessary. Manufacturing a mechanical medical device at scale is significantly more complicated than many people realise. The device only becomes commercially viable at meaningful production volumes.” But Aristeia's immediate priority is to deploy units, collect feedback, and continue the validation process. Moe explained:  “We want to make sure the device performs reliably across a wide range of real-world scenarios. That's why direct engagement with end users is so important. We're also eager to connect with additional medical, military, and emergency-response communities internationally. The more perspectives we can gather, the stronger the product will become.”

Today, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is launching the TrophyLab platform — a secure space that provides verified users with access to information on modern Russian weapon systems. With this, Ukraine is opening a unique repository of real-world adversary technology to trusted partners, creating a battlefield-tested R&D resource unlike anything currently available in most Western defence ecosystems.  Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukrainian military personnel, scientific institutions, and research centres have been analysing captured equipment. They study components, technological solutions, and vulnerabilities to develop effective countermeasures more quickly. That knowledge is now being made available to those working to strengthen defence capabilities. Through the Trophylab platform, Ukraine will provide its partners with access to Russian technologies. Companies, research institutions, and governments in the free world will be able to conduct in-depth studies of Russian missiles and other weapons.  This will help accelerate the development of effective countermeasures and strengthen joint efforts in support of Ukraine’s victory. The platform provides access to the results of captured-equipment research for: Ukrainian defence technology manufacturers, Military units, Scientific institutions, International partners supporting Ukraine. Users will have access to technical documentation, research findings, and analytical reports on modern Russian weapons. In addition, the platform allows users to submit requests for physical examination of captured systems. Several modes of sample analysis are available, from non-destructive inspection to testing that involves full disassembly or destruction of the system. This enables engineers to test their solutions on real enemy equipment and significantly shorten the development cycle for countermeasures. Russia uses its full arsenal against Ukraine. Through initiatives such as the Ukrainian government's defence innovation cluster Brave1, Ukraine has actively engaged startups and international defencetech firms in developing and testing battlefield technologies. For defencetech startups, TrophyLab effectively opens a living laboratory of modern battlefield technology. Companies developing anti-drone systems, electronic warfare tools, autonomous platforms, sensors, and other military capabilities will be able to study the vulnerabilities of real Russian equipment and test their own solutions against it.  This could significantly shorten R&D timelines for areas such as electronic warfare, drone defence, sensor systems, communications security, and missile countermeasures, while giving startups access to resources that would normally be unavailable outside military and intelligence organisations. According to Mykhailo Fedorov, The Minister of Defense of Ukraine and Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine: “Every piece of Russian military equipment captured on the battlefield is not only a trophy. We are convinced that knowledge about an adversary’s technologies should not remain restricted. It must be used by those building defence systems. We are not only resisting these strikes — we are dismantling this weaponry piece by piece. What was meant to be their secret advantage is being turned into open knowledge for those defending democracy. The more Russia deploys its weapons, the more the world learns how to stop them.”

Research published this week by the CORNERSTONE Photonics Innovation Centre reveals that challenges with prototyping and access to scale-up infrastructure risk stalling the growth of the silicon photonics (SiPh) sector in key global markets if not urgently addressed, new market research.  The market research, conducted via OnePoll and featuring insights from 500 decision-makers based in the UK, US, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain who are currently developing/deploying SiPh chips or in the planning stages of doing so, identifies multiple barriers currently hindering the sector’s development.  In parallel, it highlighted clear job and revenue opportunities that will be created if these hurdles can be overcome, demonstrating clear benefits that will be realised if action is taken Silicon photonics – which integrates light-based components onto silicon chips – is increasingly being recognised as a critical part of national tech strategies. CORNERSTONE is an open-source, licence-free silicon photonics prototyping foundry, hosted at the University of Southampton in collaboration with the University of Glasgow and the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council, and funded by UKRI. Manufacturing access remains the biggest hurdle For companies looking to develop silicon photonics chips, being able to prototype quickly and cost-effectively is instrumental on the path to commercialisation. Yet lengthy turnaround times at many large foundries, alongside geopolitical factors such as tariffs, are slowing innovation on a global scale: 59 per cent stated their country lacks the infrastructure needed to progress from research to commercialisation, despite 67 per cent viewing scale-up infrastructure as key to bolstering sovereign tech capabilities. Two-thirds of respondents (66 per cent) report that manufacturing access is the primary roadblock to commercialisation. 27 per cent experienced lengthy foundry turnaround times19 per cent encountered restrictive foundry NDAs and license agreements. Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) said understanding the ecosystem and/or connecting with multiple supply chain partners presented a challenge. Clear cost of delays Due to these barriers, businesses are forced to cancel or delay their prototyping plans. 31 per cent of respondents globally report delayed product roadmaps, causing notable financial losses of $2.7 million on average for the same period. If these hurdles can be overcome, the opportunities are huge. Globally, almost half (48 per cent) of survey respondents state that they could begin generating commercial revenue 7–12 months earlier if prototyping cycles were accelerated by 25 per cent. Europe pushes for semiconductor sovereignty The findings come at a pivotal time for the silicon photonics sector. Governments around the world are increasingly looking to develop sovereign chip capabilities and recognising the strategic importance of silicon photonics in mitigating AI power consumption and supporting quantum strategies.  Already this month, the EU announced proposals for an EU Chips Act 2.0 to build Europe’s resilience and technological sovereignty in semiconductors.  With an average of 54 per cent of respondents across the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain believing the current EU Chips Joint Undertaking does not go far enough to support silicon photonics companies, the revisions are likely to be welcomed by the SiPh sector across the continent.   Quantum and AI hardware key drivers for future SiPh chip development In the UK, SiPh – and the technologies it enables – are also increasingly featured on the government agenda. Last week the UK launched its AI Hardware Plan, which specifically highlighted silicon photonics, and in March pledged £2 billion to strengthen its quantum capabilities, as it looks to establish leadership in the space. 64 per cent of UK respondents stated their organisation is currently developing silicon photonics chips for quantum technologies, and 56 per cent for AI hardware, highlighting the enormous potential of the technology to support sovereign tech strategies. However, for the UK to fully capitalise on the SiPh opportunity, investment in a domestic pilot line to bridge the gap between lab-scale prototypes and full-scale commercial production is critical.  Providing domestic scale-up infrastructure may also help retain specialists in a market where 42 per cent of UK businesses face skills shortages.   Currently, 24 per cent of UK respondents reported losing staff overseas, while 55 per cent said they personally plan to move abroad or have already done so. “The silicon photonics industry in the UK and abroad is on the cusp of landmark growth, yet our findings clearly show that there are barriers to scale-up which must be urgently addressed to support the sector’s development,” commented Callum Littlejohns, Deputy Director, CORNERSTONE. “At CORNESTONE, we aim to remove barriers to innovation, offering an open-source model to make silicon photonics accessible, and providing a rapid and flexible route to silicon photonics prototyping. But without critical scale-up infrastructure companies will hit a major roadblock to commercialisation.  As highlighted both in our market research and in the Council for Science and Technology’s letter to the Prime Minister in February, a pilot line is needed to support companies to scale-up and fully capitalise on the UK’s world-renowned R&D.”

Swiss electronics startup Minysa has secured €163,000 (CHF150,000) from Venture Kick to accelerate the development of its next-generation gallium nitride (GaN) control chips for high-performance power electronic systems. Founded by Salem Abid, Minysa develops GaN gate-driver integrated circuits that help manufacturers control GaN power devices more safely, efficiently, and compactly. The technology aims to reduce integration complexity while enabling smaller, cooler, and more reliable power systems for applications including satellite power conversion, motor drives, actuators, robotics, and industrial electronics. GaN-based power devices offer significant advantages over traditional silicon technologies, including higher power density, improved energy efficiency, and reduced heat generation. However, wider adoption has been constrained by complex control requirements, reliability challenges, and demanding qualification processes. The company's technology aims to address these barriers and support the deployment of GaN devices in high-reliability environments. The company is initially targeting the European space power electronics market, where efficiency, reliability, and technological sovereignty are increasingly important. Minysa has already built a customer pipeline in the space and high-reliability electronics sectors, including four space industry customers and two European Space Agency-funded programmes focused on power-management chips for power conversion systems and compact motor drives. The funding will support the development of Minysa's first GaN gate-driver ASICs for space and other high-reliability applications.

A London-based startup founded by a former Palantir healthcare executive who worked in NHS hospitals during Covid has raised £9.7m in a funding round. The funding round in Frontier Health was led by Atomico, the European VC firm, with participation from XYZ Venture Capital and Firstminute Capital. Frontier Health, which has raised £11.9m in total, is leveraging AI to carry out administrative tasks which are burdening patient care in the NHS. The startup, founded in 2024, points to projected figures showing healthcare systems facing a 10m worker shortfall by 2030, saying that fixing the administrative burden behind patient care can reduce this worker shortfall. It was founded by Rachel Finegold, who worked as Palantir healthcare lead at 40 NHS hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic. She said she spent years working alongside NHS teams and saw first-hand how administrative bottlenecks impact patient outcomes. Finegold, its CEO, told The Times: “There physically weren’t enough administrators to support this integral machinery that needs to happen to keep patients moving through the system and to get patients their care.” Frontier Health has developed an AI agent, called Juno, which works with NHS administrative staff, helping teams navigate systems, complete routine tasks, such as booking appointments, identify risks, and keep patients moving safely through care. The tech will call on a human during a case if it does not understand something. According to its website, one client is East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. The startup will use the funding to try to increase its presence across NHS trusts and increase the size of its 12-strong team. Over 50 per cent of NHS trusts in England are using Palantir software to reduce waiting lists. However, the BMA has called for the NHS to ditch Palantir, citing its use by the US immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Atomico said: "As healthcare systems face growing demand and limited resources, we believe supportive AI can become critical infrastructure, augmenting frontline teams and improving care delivery."

European transportation companies attracted significant investment in 2025 as investors backed technologies reshaping how people and goods move. Funding was concentrated around electrification, autonomous systems, logistics infrastructure, and shared mobility, with companies developing EV charging networks, digital freight platforms, micromobility services, and next-generation transport technologies securing some of the year's largest rounds. Germany emerged as the leading hub for transportation investment, accounting for several of the largest deals, while the UK, Sweden, and Spain also saw strong activity. Debt financing played an important role alongside venture capital, particularly for asset-heavy businesses such as fleet operators and infrastructure providers. The year's largest transactions underscored a broader shift toward sustainable and software-driven transportation. From electric vehicles and cargo drones to rail freight and remote driving technologies, investors continued to support companies building the infrastructure and platforms powering the future of mobility (for more detailed analyses of the European technology ecosystem, check out Tech.eu’s annual report: European Tech 2025 -The Big Picture). Here are ten transportation companies that raised the most in 2025. Amount raised in 2025: €1B Finn is a car subscription platform that offers flexible, all-inclusive vehicle access as an alternative to ownership or leasing. Customers can subscribe to cars online with insurance, maintenance, and registration included in a single monthly fee. The company aims to simplify car ownership through a fully digital experience while promoting sustainable mobility through an expanding fleet of electric vehicles. FINN operates across several European markets and serves both consumers and businesses. In 2025, Finn secured €1 billion ABS financing for fleet expansion. Amount raised in 2025: €300M Spotawheel is a Greek automotive marketplace that uses technology to simplify the buying, selling, and leasing of used cars. The company operates a fully digital platform offering pre-inspected vehicles, transparent pricing, financing options, and doorstep delivery. Active across multiple European markets, Spotawheel aims to make used car ownership more accessible and trustworthy through data-driven processes and customer-centric services. In 2025, Spotawheel raised €300 million in equity and debt financing to expand across Europe and grow its used car subscription fleet as demand rises for flexible alternatives to car ownership. Amount raised in 2025: $200M Polestar is a Swedish electric vehicle manufacturer focused on premium electric performance cars that combine Scandinavian design, advanced technology, and sustainability. The company develops a range of fully electric vehicles and aims to accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility through innovation and transparency. Polestar has set ambitious climate goals, including reducing emissions across its value chain and advancing the development of climate-neutral vehicles. Polestar raised $200 million in 2025 to support working capital needs and general corporate purposes as it continues to expand its electric vehicle portfolio and global operations. Amount raised in 2025: $100M Einride is a freight technology company that develops electric and autonomous solutions for road transport. Its platform combines connected heavy-duty vehicles, charging infrastructure, and AI-powered software to help businesses optimise logistics operations and reduce emissions. Operating across Europe, the US, and the Middle East, Einride aims to accelerate the transition to more sustainable and efficient freight transportation. Einride raised $100 million to expand its Saga platform, scale autonomous vehicle deployments, and accelerate international growth amid continued investor interest in Nordic deeptech. Amount raised in 2025: £65M Connected Kerb is an electric vehicle charging company that develops and operates public charging infrastructure for local authorities, businesses, and communities. Its solutions combine charging hardware, software, and data services to make EV charging more accessible, reliable, and future-proof. Focused on on-street charging, Connected Kerb aims to accelerate EV adoption by expanding charging access for drivers without home charging options. Connected Kerb raised £65 million in 2025 to accelerate the expansion of its public EV charging network across the UK and support the deployment of charging infrastructure at scale. Amount raised in 2025: $85M Dott is a micromobility company that operates shared e-bikes and e-scooters in cities across Europe and the Middle East. Following its merger with TIER in 2024, the company has become one of the region’s largest micromobility operators, providing sustainable transport alternatives designed to reduce congestion and emissions. Dott works closely with cities to integrate its services into urban mobility networks and promote cleaner, more accessible transportation. In 2025, Dott raised $85 million in new funding to expand its fleet of e-bikes and e-scooters, refinance existing debt, and support general corporate growth. Amount raised in 2025: $60M Upway is a mobility startup that operates a marketplace for refurbished electric bikes, making e-bikes more affordable and accessible. The company sources, inspects, and refurbishes pre-owned e-bikes before reselling them with warranties through its online platform. By extending the lifecycle of electric bikes, Upway aims to accelerate e-bike adoption and support a more circular and sustainable mobility ecosystem. Upway raised $60 million in Series C funding in 2025 to expand its refurbishment network across Europe and the US, scale its circular mobility platform, and achieve its goal of refurbishing and selling more than one million e-bikes annually by 2030. Amount raised in 2025: $60M Vay is a German mobility company developing teledriving technology that enables vehicles to be remotely operated by trained drivers. Through its platform, users can summon electric cars that are delivered driverless and then driven manually by customers. By combining remote driving with autonomous mobility technologies, Vay aims to make transportation more convenient, efficient, and less reliant on private car ownership. In 2025, Vay secured a $60 million investment to expand its remotely operated vehicle service and scale its teledriving technology platform. Amount raised in 2025: €32.9M Helrom is a rail freight and technology company that enables truck trailers to be transported by rail without the need for specialised terminals. Using its patented wagon technology, the company helps shift long-haul freight from road to rail, reducing emissions while maintaining the flexibility and reliability of road transport. Through digital tools and integrated logistics services, Helrom aims to make rail freight more accessible and support the decarbonization of supply chains across Europe. In 2025, Helrom secured a €32.9 million green loan for the sustainable decarbonisation of rail freight transport. Amount raised in 2025: €30M Dronamics is a cargo drone company developing and operating long-range unmanned aircraft for same-day freight deliveries. Its flagship drone, the Black Swan, is designed to transport cargo over long distances more quickly, efficiently, and sustainably than traditional air freight. By building a network of drone operations and infrastructure, Dronamics aims to transform middle-mile logistics and improve access to remote and underserved regions. In 2025, Dronamics secured up to €30 million in equity funding to advance its cargo drone technology, scale operations, and accelerate the deployment of its drone logistics network across Europe.

Ghent-based fintech startup Warren has raised €10 million in a seed funding round led by Motive Ventures, the venture arm of transatlantic investment fund Motive Partners. The round also included F Capital and follow-on investments from Entourage, Syndicate One, and 100IN. Founded to address shortcomings in Belgium’s supplementary pension system, Warren operates a workplace pension platform and financial coaching service designed to help employees better understand and grow their long-term savings. The company obtained an Institution for Occupational Retirement Provision (IBP) licence in 2025 and now manages its own pension fund, Warren Pension Fund OFP. The company believes that low yields, inflation, fees, and limited transparency can reduce the long-term effectiveness of traditional supplementary pension products. The vast majority of Belgians save for their retirement in financial products that erode their purchasing power year after year, even though retirement is by definition a long-term horizon. This is an enormous social problem whose severity remains chronically underestimated. It's not just about our pension. It's about our prosperity, today and for future generations, says Cedric De Vleeschauwer, co-founder and CEO of Warren. The company's pension fund invests through a diversified portfolio of equity and bond exchange-traded funds. According to Warren, employers can switch to the platform without increasing their existing pension budgets, while employees retain the full investment return, with no entry, exit, or assets-under-management fees. In addition to its pension offering, Warren provides a financial coaching platform that combines AI-powered guidance with access to human advisers. By integrating data from sources such as pension records, employee benefits, and banking information, the platform helps users make informed decisions about retirement planning, mortgages, insurance, and personal finances. According to the company, around 100 Belgian businesses, including Lighthouse, Yuki, Wintercircus, and Poppy Mobility, have adopted the platform, with thousands of employees actively using the service. The newly raised capital will support Warren’s continued expansion in Belgium and prepare the company for entry into additional European markets. The funding will also be used to grow its team, further develop its pension and financial coaching products, and scale its platform to serve a larger employee base across Europe.

Zurich-based agritech company OneSoil, which develops AI-driven solutions for precision agriculture, has secured €1 million in funding from existing investors, including Yury Melnichek, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Cyprus-based venture fund Melnichek Investments. Founded in 2017, OneSoil has developed a platform that enables farmers to monitor fields, analyse productivity, create variable-rate application maps, conduct soil sampling, and run field trials. Over the years, the company has built extensive expertise in satellite imagery analysis and accumulated large datasets that now underpin its latest innovation. The company recently launched AI Agronomist, an AI-powered assistant integrated into the OneSoil app. Designed to process large volumes of field data, the assistant provides farmers with daily summaries of field conditions through a natural-language chat interface. AI Agronomist can identify areas requiring attention, such as zones affected by flooding or at risk of pest outbreaks, and recommend appropriate actions. Farmers can also query recent field changes or compare seasonal performance, with the system generating responses based on satellite imagery and real-time observations. AI Agronomist is essentially an additional brain for a farmer that remembers everything, calculates quickly, and provides the information needed to make operational decisions, explained Stepan Zulynskyi, CEO of OneSoil. From a technological perspective, AI Agronomist operates as a multimodal AI agent that combines multiple large language models and vision-language models. The system integrates publicly available technologies with proprietary models developed by OneSoil to identify field boundaries, detect crops, and analyse productivity zones across agricultural areas. The assistant is trained on data accumulated by the company since its founding. The newly raised capital will support the further development of AI Agronomist, expanding OneSoil’s precision agriculture platform with AI-driven capabilities aimed at helping farmers make faster and more informed operational decisions.

Earlybird and AVP have announced the launch of E2D, a €500 million growth-stage fund focused on defence and dual-use technologies. The fund will invest in European defence and deeptech companies and represents a collaboration between the two firms. Its limited partners include major financial institutions and corporates, with a first close scheduled for June 30. The launch comes amid a significant increase in defence spending across Europe. France has committed €76 billion to defence investments, Germany €152 billion, while the European Union has outlined an €800 billion defence plan. Against this backdrop, E2D seeks to address a longstanding funding gap for European defence and dual-use companies, which have often relied on overseas investors to secure growth capital. AVP and Earlybird bring complementary capabilities to the partnership, combining AVP's growth-stage and transatlantic investment experience with Earlybird's long-standing track record in European deeptech investing. The fund's team includes investors who have been active in the defence and dual-use technology sector for more than a decade. European defence is at a historic turning point, requiring a new generation of technology champions to safeguard sovereignty. By partnering with Earlybird in this Franco-German alliance, we will be able to move fast and invest in the companies that will have the greatest potential impact. The best European defence companies need investors who bring real sector conviction and pan-European reach; that's exactly what this partnership delivers, said Benoit Fosseprez, General Partner at AVP. E2D plans to invest in approximately 20 companies, with an average ticket size of around €25 million. The fund will focus on growth-stage businesses operating across key domains including space, air, land, maritime, and subsurface technologies, supporting both defence-focused and dual-use applications. We look forward to backing the best European high-growth, deep tech companies that will be instrumental in closing defence capability gaps while also addressing commercial markets, delivering decisive and persistent operational gains to European armed forces as well as primes. This will foster a more resilient and sovereign European ecosystem and ultimately unlock superior value for investors, added Roland Manger, co-founder of Earlybird. Beyond capital, the partnership aims to provide portfolio companies with access to a network of technology experts, operators, defence leaders, military procurement channels, and major industry players. The fund is also supported by an international strategic committee comprising military and industrial leaders from NATO, armed forces, and leading European defence companies.

Legal technology startup Turbo Law has raised $3.8 million in seed funding in a round led by Revo Capital, with participation from existing investors Treeo VC, BridgeX Ventures, Alchemist Accelerator, Gokul Rajaram, and several technology executives and litigation partners across the United States. Founded in 2025 by Jay Sarmaz and Ozgur Bora Gevrek, Turbo Law develops an AI-powered litigation platform designed for defence law firms and insurance carriers handling complex legal matters, including medical malpractice, insurance defence, and tort litigation. The platform connects to existing case files and transforms large volumes of legal records into a structured, continuously updated view of a case, enabling legal teams to manage matters from initial review through resolution. Unlike general-purpose legal AI tools focused primarily on research and document drafting, Turbo Law is built specifically for defence litigation workflows. The platform helps attorneys analyse records, draft legal documents, identify key facts and inconsistencies, assess case exposure, and support strategic decision-making through a continuously updated view of each matter. Defence litigation is one of the most operationally complex areas of legal practice. Teams review enormous volumes of information, make high-stakes decisions under tight timelines, and reassess strategy every time new evidence arrives. The hard part is holding a single, accurate picture of the matter as it changes. We build that picture and keep it live, so attorneys spend their time on judgment and strategy instead of reassembling the record, said Jay Sarmaz, co-founder and CEO of Turbo Law. Turbo Law is designed specifically for legal workflows, incorporating privilege protection, ethical walls, full auditability, and enterprise-grade security for confidential matters, attorney work product, and sensitive client information. Developed in collaboration with legal professionals, the platform aims to reduce administrative burdens and allow attorneys to focus more on legal judgment and strategy. In its first year, the company has gained traction among US-based defence law firms, processing millions of pages of legal records and supporting more than 1,800 active matters. According to the company, firms using the platform have reduced non-billable work and improved operational efficiency across litigation workflows. The newly raised capital will be used to expand Turbo Law's engineering, product, customer success, and go-to-market teams, further develop the platform's capabilities, and accelerate adoption among defence law firms, insurance carriers, and litigation-focused legal organisations across the United States.