Last week, we tracked more than 85 tech funding deals worth over €4 billion, and over 5 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.

This week, we tracked more than 85 tech funding deals worth over €4 billion and over 5 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. Alongside the week’s top funding rounds, we’ve highlighted key industry developments, as well as notable trends in European venture activity, investor moves and emerging sectors shaping the current funding landscape. 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 ?? Nvidia-backed Nscale raises $2B, appoints Sheryl Sandberg, Nick Clegg to board ??  Yann LeCun’s AI world model startup Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) raises more than $1B ??  Legaltech Legora raises $550M Series D at $5.55B valuation to accelerate US expansion ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ??  Legora makes first acquisition, as it expands North America presence ??  Energy Aspects to buy Paris-based Kayrros to add satellite and geospatial analytics capabilities ?? ŌURA acquires Helsinki-based gesture-tech startup Doublepoint to expand wearable AI capabilities ??  Expense management startup Ramp takes on rival Brex with European acquisition ? Interesting moves from investors ? Deep Science Ventures launches new doctoral cohort to turn science into startups ?. Elaia closes €134M fund DTS3 to back Europe’s next generation of breakthrough startups ?.Samaipata launches €110M Fund III to back Europe’s next generation of AI-native startups ?️ In other (important) news ? Here is what to expect at the Tech.eu Summit London 2026 ??. EU–INC campaign warns: Without a pan-European standard, founders will keep choosing Delaware ?? February 2026's top 10 European tech deals you need to know about ??. Ukraine launches world-first programme giving startups access to real war data for AI training ?? Hosel raises £500,000 pre-seed to create the 'Vinted for golf' ??. Vasuqi received €500,000 in convertible loan funding from BioInnovation Institute through Venture Lab programme ??. Defencetech Black Forest Systems raises $400,000 to scale infantry drone platform ??  SignaCor Therapeutics lands €288,000 investment as pat of €1.1M seed round ??  Mental health startup Bliss raises $270,000 to build culturally intelligent AI for therapy

US expense management startup Ramp today signified its European ambitions, acquiring a London and Stockholm-based payment outfit, as it takes on US rival Brex which is also making a play in Europe. Ramp, valued at $32bn, has snapped up fintech Billhop, a deal that will see Ramp open its first international offices, in London and Stockholm. Billhop, which employs around 15 people, is a payment infrastructure fintech operating across the EEA and UK. Billhop, founded in 2012, is headquartered in Stockholm. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Its tech allows the speedy payment of business invoices, even where suppliers do not accept cards Billhop holds a Payment Institution licence from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen), which gives it passporting rights across the EEA. Ramp offers an all-in-one solution combining payments, corporate cards, vendor management, procurement, travel booking, and automated bookkeeping. Nearly half of Ramp customers transact internationally across more than 180 countries every week. By acquiring Billhop, Ramp says it’s strengthening its ability to support businesses across the UK and EU. New York-headquartered Ramp, which has over 50,000 business customers, says it will begin onboarding businesses headquartered in the UK and EU directly this summer. Eric Glyman, co-founder and CEO of Ramp, said: “We’ve spent years building Ramp into something the most ambitious US companies rely on. This summer, for the first time, companies headquartered in the UK and EU will be able to use Ramp directly. In their first year, the median Ramp customer saves 5% and grows revenue 16%. Europe is home to extraordinary companies. We can't wait to get to work." Niklas Bothén, CEO of Billhop, said: "Our mission at Billhop has always been to remove friction from B2B payments and make it easier for businesses to manage their spend. Joining Ramp allows us to realise that vision at a much larger scale. Together, we can help companies move money across countries and currencies faster, more intelligently, and with less complexity." Ramp is pitching itself up against Brex, which was recently acquired by US financial services giant Capital One for $5.15bn. Prior to being acquired by Capital One, Brex announced it was expanding into Europe, having bagged a licence that allows it to serve European-headquartered businesses and is planning to roll out its services across the EU and the UK.

Europe’s startup community is urging the European Commission to ensure that its upcoming proposal for a new pan-European company framework delivers on its promise of a true “28th regime”. Today, EU–INC, Allied for Startups, and the European Startup Network released a joint statement on behalf of the European startup ecosystem calling for a genuine European corporate standard designed specifically for startups. The initiative stems from EU–INC, which began as a grassroots proposal from founders, investors and operators across the continent. The European Commission is expected to publish its proposal on March 18, as part of a broader effort to make Europe “the best place in the world to build a company”. However, according to the statement, documents leaked this week suggest that the current proposal may fall short of that ambition and goes entirely against the intention of the 28th regime. The error of creating of "27 different variations of EU–INC," According to the organisations behind the statement, the leaked proposal appears to stop short of establishing a truly independent European company form. Instead of creating a centralised system, the draft reportedly defers legal interpretation to national courts and company registration to national registries. Such an approach would effectively produce 27 different variations of EU–INC, depending on national legal systems and administrative practices. By routing disputes through national courts and filings through local registries, the framework risks entrenching the fragmentation it was meant to eliminate. This approach may represent a political compromise designed to avoid the unanimity vote required among EU member states to establish a fully independent European regime. The Delaware benchmark For the startup ecosystem, the benchmark for success is straightforward: whether the new structure can provide the same level of legal certainty as a Delaware Inc, which has become the global default for venture-backed startups. “The test was always simple: does it provide as much legal certainty as the Delaware Inc?” the statement notes. “If not, founders and investors will continue to use Delaware Inc as a global investment standard. Europe needs a pan-European alternative to stay competitive in a world of giants.” Today, many European startups choose to incorporate in the United States to access a widely recognised corporate framework familiar to global investors. A pan-European structure could help keep more companies — and their economic value — within the European ecosystem. More than 24,000 members of the startup ecosystem have signed on to support the idea of a single, autonomous corporate structure that would allow European companies to incorporate and scale across the EU without navigating a patchwork of national systems. What a true EU–INC should look like The letter urges the Commission to bring forward a real EU–INC that is a true, central, independentEuropean company form, with: A common EU registry and real-time database, rather than legacy software (BRIS)that duct-tapes together 27 nationally diverging systems. A central court for dispute resolution, rather than leaving dispute resolution to 27Member States and their different business practices. A true, new blank-sheet-of-paper solution for the future of Europe’s innovation An economy that can act as a standalone jurisdiction. The document concludes: "A true 28th regime would send an unmistakable signal to founders and investors everywhere:Europe is serious and understands the power of pan-European standards. We remain ready and willing to engage directly with the Commission to help shape a proposalthat delivers on that promise." The statement is signed by EU–INC, Allied for Startups and the European Startup Network on behalf of the European startup ecosystem. Stay tuned for more coverage next week. 

In another life, when I ran an NGO, one of my more arduous tasks was applying for tenders. While tenders can create huge financial opportunitiesffor startups, SMEs and NGOs, they are complex and incredibly time-consuming. It’s not only about filling in a form but also about providing project proposals, budgets, documentation, financial statements, timelines, and other items that may vary by provider.  But now a startup has found a way to reduce complexity and eliminate the common errors that put your application at the bottom of the pile or exclude it altogether.  Tendermore is a Norwegian startup building SaaS software that automates and simplifies the process of finding and applying for public and private tenders. The company focuses on helping businesses—particularly SMEs and startups—navigate the complex procurement landscape. I spoke to CEO Sebastian Mandal and COO Eivind Wassend to learn more. From door-to-door sales and coding to tackling the tender problem Both founders come from different backgrounds. Wassend has been in sales since he was 12, starting with newspapers and later selling alarm systems door-to-door.  At one point, he was ranked the best alarm salesperson in Norway. Mandal started coding at 12, which evolved into machine learning and AI —” before the hype cycle”, he stressed —  and building software. Following a shared stint at a now-defunct startup, they decided to merge their complementary knowledge sets into a consulting practice.  Mandal shared: “We ended up running around 50 workshops with construction companies, examining their biggest pain points. Almost every single one mentioned responding to tenders.”  In response, the duo decided to stop consulting and focus on solving the problem around tenders.  The challenges of applying for tenders  According to Mandal, the traditional tender process is often painstakingly slow and complex. “You have to understand every requirement before you even start writing,” he explains. “If you miss one detail — even a small one buried deep in a long document — you can lose the entire tender after spending days or even weeks preparing the submission.” Language and terminology add another layer of difficulty. Even when a company is technically qualified, the way responses are framed can determine the outcome. “If you don’t respond in the right way, or use the right framing, you can still lose the bid,” Mandal says. When Tendermore launched its MVP, the team discovered that writing proposals was only part of the challenge. Many companies also struggled to determine which tenders were actually worth pursuing. “What we learned early on is that companies also need help identifying which tenders are relevant to them in the first place,” he adds. “They don’t want to spend time preparing a bid for something they’re not pre-qualified for.” In Mandal’s view, the core problems come down to two factors: the significant time and effort required to prepare bids, and the difficulty of identifying tenders that a company realistically has a chance of winning. On average, a tender today can take 30 to 40 hours. For larger organisations, it can be almost continuous work because different departments are handling different parts of it. While its early days to measure win rates as the sales cycles and tender processes are often longer than the amount of time Tendermore has been working with some of these companies,  Wassend revealed that  “based on the beta and MVP, we’ve seen around a 60 per cent reduction in the time spent across the process — from analysing and refining through to responding.” How Tendermore works Tendermore was designed by closely observing how companies already manage tenders. “We saw how customers structure their work — the spreadsheets, the requirement lists, the way they prepare answers,” Mandel said. “So we built AI into that existing workflow instead of forcing them into something unnatural.” Tendermore connects to a company’s existing data sources — including Google Drive, SharePoint, previous tender submissions, pricing data, equipment lists, and other internal documents — and analyses them to build a structured knowledge base. Accuracy is critical in tender applications, so the platform is built around a sophisticated retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system that ensures responses are grounded in verified company data rather than generic outputs. Tendermore also structures responses using a requirement matrix, where each tender requirement is broken out and matched with a short factual answer. The platform’s analytics help companies discover tenders they are likely qualified for. It then analyses the tender requirements, highlights what is being asked, identifies relevant internal information, and flags any gaps that still need to be filled. From there, the system generates the proposal. To avoid generic AI-sounding submissions, Tendermore uses a brand analysis engine that learns a company’s writing style so the final output reflects its voice, making the tool feel like an extension of the organisation rather than a generic AI writer. A human-in-the-loop approach  Accuracy is critical in tender submissions, so Tendermore was designed to minimise the risk of AI hallucinations. Mandal explains that the company is strict about promoting its agents never to hallucinate. In the early days it had things like web search in the system, but that actually increased the risk because it could pull in outside information and confuse what belonged to the company and what didn’t. So we removed that and made the system rely only on the company’s internal knowledge base. We also turn the temperature down so it has less creative freedom. If it can’t find a basis for a claim, it leaves that blank or flags it instead of making something up.“If we can fill that in automatically, great. If not, the user can step in. “Then the AI mainly helps turn that factual structure into polished language. So the focus is really on making facts shine, not inventing them.” Despite the company’s long-term ambitions for automation, the founders believe human oversight remains essential. “We’re very AI-first, and our long-term vision is to automate much more of the process,” said Wassend. “But today, human-in-the-loop is the best approach. People still need to trust the system, and that trust has to be built step by step.” The cross-sector opportunity So far, the startup has gained the most traction with consultancies, contractors, and the hospitality sector. In sectors like construction, tenders form the basis of revenue, with some handling several each month. In hospitality, it depends on the season and the volume of events or development activity. In consulting, it can be for major client projects or government contracts. According to Mandal, “Hotel groups also deal with large RFPs  (Requests for Proposals), for example, when developers are deciding which hotel brand to place in a new building or estate.” The team was surprised by how big the private tender market is. It was initially thought that public tenders would be the main opportunity, but companies revealed they handle two to four times as many private tenders as public tenders.  “That really changed how we thought about the market,” shared Mandal.  According to Wassend, the startup is also seeing interest in API-based distribution.  “Some consulting firms want to embed our functionality into software they already provide to clients, rather than using a standalone platform. So that’s becoming a secondary offering for us.” Tendermore raised $400,000 in a round led by Antler in October 2025. The company brought in Ymir Egilson as CTO, formerly the youngest tech lead in Visma’s history- According to Mandal: “He loves building. He wants to shape products and ship things with people who are hungry and moving fast. Eivind and I are very execution-focused, and I think that energy mattered. We’re out there doing the outward-facing work, which means he can focus on what he does best.” Tendermore is also looking beyond Europe to Asia because it has become clear that many companies don’t know what opportunities exist outside their own countries.  “If we integrate with tender portals across different regions, we can help match companies with international tenders as well. That’s something we see as a really strong future differentiator,” shared Mandal. Future features will enable discovery, evaluation, and management of both private and public tenders in one place. Wassend contends, “So many people struggle with tenders, and smaller companies are at a real disadvantage comparedtz5e43w with large enterprises that can throw whole teams at the process. In a lot of smaller companies, the CEO is doing it all day and then all night, on top of everything else. My goal is to enable anyone to respond to tenders. Sebastian’s focus is on building the best AI in the world for that. We’re very aligned on that mission.” Mandal agrees. “Accessibility is the driving force for us. No matter what kind of company we built, we wanted it to make opportunities more accessible. That’s really what motivates us.”

Dutch chipmaker Axelera AI is hoping to benefit from European businesses wanting to run AI systems locally, amid data security concerns, a push towards European sovereignty, and geopolitical tensions. Axelera AI, founded in 2021, is one of the few European challengers challenging the dominance of US chip market leader Nvidia. In the US, the likes of Amazon and Google also design their own chips. Axelera AI makes chips and software for inference, the computing process of running an AI model, as opposed to training an AI model, which has become increasingly important as more enterprises embrace AI. Nvidia last year acquired assets from Groq, a key player in the inference market. Axelera AI’s chips are designed for use on edge devices, such as mobile phones and smart cameras, as it looks to make AI more energy efficient by processing data directly on devices rather than relying on large data centres. Axelera AI recently announced that it had raised more than $250m, with backing from new investor BlackRock. It has raised more than $450m to date, from a mix of European and US investors, and employs more than 200 people. It has two chips on the market, one called Metis, another called Europa, and a third to come called Titania. Fabrizio Del Maffeo, CEO and co-founder of Axelera AI, said: “Sovereignty is extremely important, because we can answer the needs of Europe. But I started this company not because of sovereignty. A company can’t survive only on the concept of sovereignty. Definitely, we want to play in this sovereignty moment, particularly with a lot of tension around the world and the need for local technology.” But he said Axelera AI wants to be a global player, pointing to its growing presence in North America and footprint in India and China. The startup’s 350 enterprise customers encompass sectors including defence, retail, robotics and agriculture. Sectors like defence, robotics and cyber lend themselves to processing data locally. Axelera AI says it’s a must in defence, for privacy, security and resilience reasons. Del Maffeo said: “There are some sectors where there is more sensitivity, like the defence sector.    “It’s a sector, where more and more companies want to be free, have local technology, stay close to customers; it is considered very important.” In defence, for instance, edge computing means that military units can operate when major communication links are jammed or cut and allows anonymous teams, such as drone swarms, to coordinate manoeuvres without relying on distant servers. Meanwhile, Del Maffeo has called on European governments and European businesses to be more willing to buy emerging tech, taking a lead from the US. He said: "It is the fact that new technologies are adopted immediately by the government. It was the first customer of Intel, it was the first customer of SpaceX. The government is the first customer. Without the commitment of NASA, SpaceX would fail, it would just crash. We miss this in Europe. We don’t have the European DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency). We don’t have the government as a first customer. And we don’t have corporations as the second customer. Corporations in Europe wait for the technology to mature. American corporations adopt technologies." While a future IPO is not imminent, Del Maffeo would not want to be wedded to a particular IPO market. He said: “I think we should be very pragmatic and understand where we can create more value for our shareholders, create more value for the community, and have more access to capital. I don’t buy this idea that we are European, we go in Europe, we should be open.”

UK market data and intelligence provider Energy Aspects has agreed to acquire Paris energy analytics and satellite data company Kayrros. The acquisition supports Energy Aspects’ growth strategy and will expand its data and analytics capabilities.  By combining Energy Aspects’ market expertise and analysis with Kayrros’ capabilities in satellite-based monitoring and advanced analytics, the combined group will strengthen its position as a leading source of energy market data and analytics. Kayrros’ strengths in geospatial proprietary data and machine learning will enhance Energy Aspects’ offering, enabling clients to benefit from more timely, actionable intelligence across the energy value chain. Such earth observation capabilities have proven particularly valuable during periods of heightened geopolitical uncertainty, including recent events in the Middle East, where rapid and unbiased geospatial data is critical for accurate market analysis. Fredrik Fosse, CEO of Energy Aspects, said: “The future of energy market intelligence will be shaped by data, technology and advanced analytics. Bringing Kayrros into Energy Aspects allows us to combine our deep market expertise with world-leading satellite and geospatial data capabilities. Together we will accelerate innovation and deliver a new generation of data-driven insights to clients across energy and financial markets.” According to Antoine Rostand, President and Co-founder of Kayrros, joining forces with Energy Aspects marks the start of a decisive new chapter for Kayrros. "We share a firm belief that better data makes for better decisions, and together we will move faster to provide more exact, more actionable energy intelligence. This will greatly improve our ability to innovate at speed and redefine what clients can expect from energy data and intelligence.” Upon completion of the transaction, the combined group will serve clients across energy and financial markets with a broader suite of proprietary data and technology-driven intelligence products.

Berlin-based Tower has raised €5.5 million across pre-seed and seed funding rounds to develop its approach to data engineering in the AI era. DIG Ventures led the pre-seed round, while Speedinvest led the seed round alongside existing investors. Additional participants include Flyer One Ventures, Roosh Ventures, Celero Ventures, and Angel Invest, as well as angel investors such as Jordan Tigani, Olivier Pomel, Ben Liebald, and Maik Taro Wehmeyer. As AI reshapes the competitive landscape around data ownership, companies increasingly need access to fresh, reliable business data to power trustworthy AI systems. Open data storage architectures play a key role in enabling this shift, allowing organisations to retain control of their data while supporting modern analytics and AI workloads. Tower provides infrastructure that helps companies manage analytical storage and processing while maintaining full ownership of their data. Its platform brings storage and compute together in a single environment, giving data engineering teams the tools needed to build and operate advanced analytics systems. Founded by former Snowflake engineers Serhii Sokolenko (CEO) and Brad Heller (CTO), the company focuses on what it describes as the “last mile” of development. AI-powered coding assistants enable data teams to generate applications and pipelines faster than ever, Tower provides an environment where humans and AI agents can collaborate to transform AI-generated code into reliable, production-ready systems. According to Sokolenko, AI coding assistants have significantly accelerated the development process, shifting the primary challenge toward deploying systems in production. While builders can quickly generate pipelines and agents, they still need infrastructure capable of running them reliably using real company data. Tower exists to turn those ideas into production systems, powered by information unique to each company instead of public and very dated internet archives. he said. The platform uses the Apache Iceberg open table format, ensuring compatibility with major data platforms and leading data engine vendors. This approach allows organisations to retain control of their data while ensuring AI systems can access up-to-date, company-specific information needed for accurate analysis and decision-making. The company plans to use the new funding to expand its go-to-market team and further develop the capabilities of its platform.