Ukraine and France are officially launching BRAVE FRANCE, a major joint defencetech initiative. Ukraine's state defence cluster, BRAVE1, alongside the French Defence Innovation Agency (AID), has established a joint €20 million budget — contributing €10 million from each side — to fund breakthrough military solutions.This joint grant program will unite Ukrainian and French companies to co-develop cutting-edge technologies that directly address our most critical frontline challenges. With individual grants reaching up to €1 million, the first call for projects will launch this September. The primary focus will be placed on advanced missile technologies, unmanned systems, and next-generation aerial countermeasures.All solutions developed through the program will undergo rigorous validation in real combat conditions via BRAVE1's Test in Ukraine platform. According to Mykhailo Fedorov, The Minister of Defence of Ukraine: "The deal represents a highly strategic, win-win format of international partnership: Ukraine gains immediate access to battlefield-changing European technologies, while France secures a unique opportunity to adapt its defence innovations to a high-intensity modern war." The agreement was signed today by AID Director Patrick Aufort and Brave1 Operations Director Iryna Zabolotna, with the participation of French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin.

Lithuanian defence engineering company PDKINEMATICS has raised a €2 million Seed round co-led by Coinvest Capital and Iron Wolf Capital.  The round also includes defence-focused angels and experienced founders from technology and high-growth industries. Modern drone warfare is at an inflection point. NATO allies are rapidly scaling drone capabilities as the foundation of their military posture, and the EU has launched the European Drone Defence Initiative as a strategic flagship under the Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030. Five European allies have already agreed to jointly develop UAV-based strike capabilities drawing on Ukrainian battlefield experience. Without precision guidance systems, however, their combat potential remains limited. PDKINEMATICS was purpose-built to develop, deliver and scale precision guidance capability at the speed and cost that modern drone warfare demands, bridging battlefield-validated technology into NATO defence supply chains.  The portfolio includes both end products and enabling technologies for precision guidance and strike systems, serving UAV manufacturers, defence integrators, and European armed forces. The company built significant operational momentum ahead of the seed round. It has already signed a strategic partnership with Bavovna.ai, one of Ukraine's largest bomber-class UAV manufacturers.  PDKINEMATICS’ systems are now integrated into Bavovna’s platforms and deployed in battlefield conditions. This has created a framework for the system’s deployment across Ukraine and NATO, with pilot milestones already completed on both sides.  Beyond Ukraine, the company has partnered with SiraLab, an Italian UAV manufacturer, as part of its European go-to-market strategy.  PDKINEMATICS’ systems were also selected for Iron Wolf 2026, Lithuania's largest international military exercises, validating its performance in a NATO-standard operational context.  According to Rapolas Markevičius, CEO and Co-Founder of PDKINEMATICS, the team began working on precision guidance for UAVs because the battlefield demanded something that did not yet exist: precision at altitude, at the cost and form factor of a mass-produced drone munition.  “The most capable guidance science in history was developed for large aircraft and expensive programmes that only superpowers could afford.  We are rebuilding it for the platforms that actually dominate today's battlefield, applying modern R&D on top of those proven guidance principles and packing them into manufacturable, deployable systems for modern UAV warfare. With this comes scale, deployment speed and cost-to-effect advantages for operators at significantly lower size and cost thresholds." Gannet, the company’s flagship product, is a low-SWaP-C (size, weight, power, cost) precision-guidance system for UAVs that enables operators to fly up to 700 metres, up to six times higher than with unguided munitions, without sacrificing accuracy.  In Ukraine alone, approximately 300,000 drone-deployed munitions are dropped monthly, almost all unguided. On top of this, the Gannet system is jam-resistant, platform-agnostic, capable of operating in challenging weather, and designed to integrate across diverse UAV types in under four weeks from handshake to first flight. Viktorija Trimbel, Managing Director of Coinvest Capital, co-founder and board member of Defence Angels European Network, said:  "Precision guidance is becoming the foundational capability of modern drone warfare, and PDKINEMATICS is building it at the cost and speed the market demands.  This company was first brought to our attention by experienced defence angels in our network. Together with the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union we invited the team to The Flaming Shield to stress-test the solution and gather direct feedback from military end-users. That is when we started putting the deal together.  This is exactly the kind of company the Baltic defence ecosystem needs to be producing: deep technology, battle-validated, and with a clear path to NATO-scale deployment.” Žygimantas Susnys, Founding Partner of Iron Wolf Capital, said: "Precision-guided systems are the future of modern warfare. The PDKINEMATICS team combines entrepreneurial drive with deep engineering talent and moves at the speed this moment demands. They have earned credibility in Ukraine, and we believe it positions them to become a defining defence technology company for NATO allies."  Alongside Gannet, PDKINEMATICS is developing a portfolio of proprietary engineered components for integration by UAV manufacturers: a proximity fuse for armoured-target engagement to be integrated into loitering munitions and interceptors, and a suite of counter-EW components. Looking ahead, the company aims to become a main precision guidance technology provider for NATO-aligned UAV manufacturers, bridging battlefield-validated technology from Ukraine into European defence supply chains.  A NATO member state naval deployment is already in the pipeline, marking the first naval application of the system and a landmark for Baltic defence technology. The capital will be used to scale manufacturing and expand deployments of the company’s precision guidance systems for UAVs across Europe and Ukraine.

Berlin road freight startup NexDash today announced €2.5 million in funding from EIT Urban Mobility. The investment is a pre-Series A commitment securing EIT Urban Mobility’s Series A participation. Road freight is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise. Heavy-duty trucks account for more than a quarter of road transport emissions in the EU, yet the industry remains highly fragmented, with thousands of small and medium-sized carriers operating diesel fleets under constant margin pressure. While electric truck technology is maturing and regulatory pressure is increasing, adoption remains slow. For most operators, the transition requires capital, operational expertise, and the ability to manage a fundamentally different fleet model. NexDash is building the foundation for a new generation of logistics: acquiring established mid-sized trucking companies, transitioning their fleets to electric vehicles, and operating them through its proprietary AI platform, NexOS.  The startup is spun out of Platform Horizons (P6N), the investment platform built by Michael Cassau, founder and longtime CEO of tech-rental unicorn Grover.  The collaboration with EIT Urban Mobility marks a key step in advancing sustainable logistics at scale.  By combining NexDash’s operational model with EIT Urban Mobility’s pan-European ecosystem and mission to foster greener, more efficient urban mobility, the initiative aims to accelerate the transition to zero-emission freight while strengthening supply chain resilience across Europe. "We welcome EIT Urban Mobility on board. Their investment fuels what we do best: electrifying freight - fleet by fleet, route by route, across Europe," said Michael Cassau, Founder and CEO of NexDash. "NexDash represents a new generation of freight operators in Europe, combining technology and operations to accelerate electrification at scale. We’re excited to back this strong team on their journey ahead,” said Johannes Kirschner, Investment Manager at EIT Urban Mobility. Following closely on the company’s first acquisition, March Transporte in Rheinbach (NRW), the newly secured funding will accelerate the conversion and expansion of its fleet across its core markets.

Solar Foods has secured €77.8 million in grant and loan financing to support the construction and commissioning of Factory 02. The funding package comprises a €39.6 million grant and a €38.1 million R&D loan, awarded under the company's participation in the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) programme, which was approved by the European Commission. Solar Foods has developed a proprietary microbe that feeds on carbon dioxide (CO²) and hydrogen to grow a high-protein food ingredient called Solein.  Detaching food from agriculture, Solein can be grown anywhere, taking just 0.1 per cent of the land and 1 per cent of the water that a similar amount of beef would. Solein is a nutrient-rich and versatile ingredient that can replace protein in virtually any food. Solein can also be used as a fortifier to complement the nutritional profile of various foods: it can be a source of iron, fibre and B vitamins, and it can also bring different techno-functionalities into food products. “We are pleased with Business Finland’s funding decision. Solar Foods has executed its financing plan, communicated in October last year, with determination, and this funding decision is a significant part of the total financing in line with the company’s strategy”, says Rami Jokela, CEO of Solar Foods. According to Lassi Noponen, Director General of Business Finland: “Our role is to raise the level of ambition in Finnish R&D by sharing risk with companies pursuing transformative innovations. Projects like this carry risks, but they are exactly the kind of high-ambition, high-expertise investments Finland needs to create entirely new industries and future growth.” Earlier this month, Solar Foods also announced that it had received an order for Solein from an unnamed US-based lifestyle company. The order will be used for product development, with the partner planning to launch consumer products containing Solein in the United States. The grant will be used for the implementation and ramp-up of Factory 02 in co-operation with strategic partners, as well as Solein’s large-scale commercialisation and the development of scalable business solutions and the expertise generated in the project. The loan is intended to be used to upscale and optimise Solein’s production process at Factory 02 and to achieve the targeted productivity, energy efficiency, and optimal product characteristics.

Tryll, the company behind an on-device AI engine for video games, has raised a $600,000 pre-seed round from Early Game Ventures, reaching a valuation of $6 million. The funding will be used to further develop the product and expand the company’s go-to-market efforts ahead of a broader launch. Alongside the funding announcement, Tryll has launched the closed alpha of Tryll Engine, its platform that enables game developers to run AI models directly on players’ hardware. By processing language models, speech recognition, and speech synthesis locally on a player’s device, the engine allows studios to build AI-powered game experiences without relying on cloud infrastructure or incurring per-message costs. Tryll Engine is designed to simplify the integration of AI into games. Through plugins for Unity 6 and Unreal Engine 5, developers can add conversational characters and voice interactions while running AI workloads locally on players’ GPUs. Commenting on the announcement, Aleksandr Glotov, CEO and co-founder of Tryll, said that one of the company’s goals is to reduce the technical complexity of implementing AI in games, allowing developers to focus on creating gameplay experiences rather than managing AI infrastructure: The catch is that the AI behind all this is hard to build and run, and that's exactly what we take care of at Tryll Engine. We handle everything on the AI side so developers can use it as creative material and stay focused on what only they can do - designing mechanics, inventing genres, working in prompts and systems instead of infrastructure. The company plans to continue developing its platform as it prepares for a wider release later this year and expands access to developers exploring new forms of AI-driven gameplay.

A London-based AI startup founded by three former Palantir employees, which is looking to modernise ERP systems, has raised $60m in new funding. The Series A investment in Conduct was co-led by new investors Index Ventures and Iconiq, with a strategic investment from another new investor, SAP, with participation from existing investors Creandum, Lucid Capital and Booom. Conduct has raised around $72m in total, following a $12m seed round last year. Conduct is an enterprise AI startup that helps companies understand, operate and modernise complex legacy ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, particularly SAP ones, which is the dominant ERP provider. Its software analyses code and configurations across enterprise systems, then uses AI to leverage that data to help companies better understand ERP systems, speed up software changes, support SAP migrations, and cut IT maintenance, it says. Conduct’s customers include Daimler Truck, Heidelberg Materials, and DHL. The 2024-founded startup says it will use the new funds to expand engineering and go-to-market teams among other areas. Conduct employs around 35 people in London and is hiring in the US. Jan Philipp Haas, CEO and co-founder of Conduct. “Every major enterprise is being asked where its AI results are? "The honest answer, in most organisations, is that the systems AI needs to work on today cannot be fully comprehended by humans. “Decades of customisation have made them opaque, even to the people running them. "The same opacity that slows people down stops agents entirely, because an agent can only act on a system it understands. Conduct makes those systems legible and operable. That is the foundation everything else depends on."

Flagright, the AI operating system for financial crime compliance, has raised a $12.5 million Series A funding round led by Infinity Ventures, with participation from Sella Bank and continued backing from existing investors including Frontline and Y Combinator. The funding will support Flagright’s continued growth as it expands explainable AI capabilities across compliance operations and strengthens its presence in the United States market. Financial institutions are facing growing pressure to manage increasing transaction volumes, evolving financial crime threats, and rising regulatory expectations, while AI is rapidly becoming part of everyday compliance operations. Yet much of the existing compliance infrastructure was not built for this environment. Many organisations still rely on rigid legacy systems or fragmented point solutions that create operational complexity and limit adaptability. Flagright was built to address this challenge. The company provides a unified AI operating system for financial crime compliance that brings together transaction monitoring, watchlist screening, risk scoring, case management, AI forensics, investigations, and governance workflows within a single platform. By combining enterprise-grade compliance infrastructure with explainable AI, Flagright enables compliance teams to improve alert investigations, optimise monitoring systems, strengthen decision-making, and enhance operational efficiency while maintaining transparency, auditability, and human oversight. Baran Ozkan, co-founder and CEO of Flagright, said: The financial crime compliance stack is being rebuilt, and Flagright is the company to define the operating system layer for this category. Regulated financial institutions need a system that gives them speed, control, explainability, and auditability in one place. This round helps us accelerate our position as the enterprise standard for financial crime compliance by expanding explainable AI use cases across compliance operations and increasing our US market presence. Highlighting the role of explainable AI in modern compliance operations, Madhu Nadig, co-founder and CTO of Flagright, said financial institutions increasingly require integrated systems that bring together monitoring, screening, investigations, governance, and AI within a single environment. We are building the system of choice for sophisticated institutions that need AI they can trust, audit, and operationalise at scale. Today, Flagright serves more than 100 fintechs and banks across 30 countries. Its unified platform brings together transaction monitoring, watchlist screening, investigations, and governance in a single audit-ready system. Designed for modern compliance teams, it combines no-code controls, dynamic risk profiling, and explainable AI to support efficient, transparent, and governed compliance operations. As the industry moves toward a more unified and intelligent compliance infrastructure, Flagright aims to help shape the next generation of compliance technology. The new capital will support that effort by expanding AI capabilities across investigations, alert intelligence, rule optimisation, decision support, and audit-ready workflows, while growing its enterprise presence among banks, fintechs, credit unions, and other regulated financial institutions seeking to modernise legacy or fragmented compliance infrastructure.

NeuralTrust, a platform for securing AI agents, has raised a $20 million seed financing round, led by Alstin Capital, with participation from VentureFriends, Seaya, Kibo Ventures, Banc Sabadell, EA Ventures Plug and Play Fund, and Finaves, the venture capital fund of IESE Business School. NeuralTrust also receives public support from the European Innovation Council and Spain’s State Research Agency (AEI). The investment comes as enterprises expand the use of AI agents across business functions. As these systems are deployed across multiple teams, platforms, and vendors, organisations are placing greater emphasis on visibility, governance, and security. Industry analysts expect governance and oversight requirements for AI agents to become increasingly important as adoption continues to grow. Founded by Joan Vendrell (CEO), Victor Garcia (CTO), and Alejandro Domingo (COO), NeuralTrust provides a unified platform that enables organisations to discover, monitor, govern, and secure AI agents across their environments. The company currently inspects millions of AI agent interactions every day. Approximately 1.2 per cent of these interactions require intervention, including attempts to extract sensitive data, manipulate tools, or bypass operational controls. These threats are identified and mitigated in real time. Joan Vendrell, co-founder and CEO of NeuralTrust, said that as AI agents become increasingly integrated into enterprise operations, organisations are working to establish the controls and governance mechanisms needed to support their use. He added: Our mission has not changed since day one: turn AI security into a strategic advantage for the enterprises that will define the next decade. NeuralTrust’s platform combines three products: TrustGate, which manages agent traffic across models and tools; TrustGuard, which provides runtime security for AI agents; and TrustLens, which offers visibility into agent deployment and behaviour. Together, they provide a unified approach to AI agent governance, security, and monitoring. The company also contributes to AI security research and has identified and documented new attack techniques, including the multiturn jailbreak method known as “Echo Chamber” and the multimodal attack vector “Semantic Chaining,” both of which have been incorporated into the OWASP AI Security Project taxonomy. The new funding will be used to further integrate the company’s platform, expand its engineering team, and broaden support for the growing range of AI models, tools, and platforms being adopted by enterprises.

Good Tape, the Copenhagen-based creator of the novel security-first AI-powered transcription tool, has announced today the launch of its global initiative Names. The Names  campaign signifies Good Tape’s transition from a transcription utility into a champion for physical safety, mental health and professional integrity of journalists and truth-tellers worldwide. The campaign arrives at an era where press freedom faces growing challenges. According to the data from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a record number of 129 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide in 2025  — with Israel responsible for 2 of 3 deaths — more than any other year since the CPJ began collecting data in 1992.  Entering mid-2026, that number reached over 140 deaths since 2025 started, marking the second consecutive year-on-year record for press deaths in modern history.   Beyond physical fatalities, global media workers also experience severe censorship, surveillance, and a staggering 85 per cent rate of impunity for crimes committed against them. "When there's an increase in the killing of the ones that are out there trying to tell us the truth of what's going on, that's much bigger than anything we can do," shares Lasse Finderup, CEO and co-founder of Good Tape.  "The journalists that are on the front lines are not there for any reason of their own. They're there to do good... they're actually there to help and to inform and to bring a message on. So for those to be targeted and to be killed is tough. We need to protect journalists, because they are the truth tellers”. Founded in 2022, Good Tape has already been trusted by 2.97 million users worldwide while having transcribed more than 14 million files. Good Tape is renowned for its exceptional security, accuracy, and user-friendly interface. Check out an earlier interview with  Lasse Finderup, CEO and co-founder of Good Tape. To bring justice to those truth-tellers who are forever silenced, Good Tape has released an unconventional 8.5-minute video statement on YouTube and other Social Media channels, in which Good Tape CEO Lasse Finderup, alongside award-winning war correspondent and author Nagieb Khaja, reads aloud the names of journalists killed in the line of duty since 2025.   "Behind every name there is a person with a family, with a life, with beloved ones who are left... and behind every name you have a person who has risked their lives, and paid the ultimate price for telling us about what is happening”, said Nagieb Khaja, award-winning war journalist and documentary filmmaker.  "They're not in it for the money. They're not in it for fame. They're in it to convey the truth, showing how the world looks like. And if we don't understand how the world looks, we won't be able to act on it in the best way." As an extension of this campaign, Good Tape has introduced the Good Tape Grant. This new micro-funding initiative provides up to €500 in support to independent journalists and storytellers, along with the opportunity to have their pieces published on Good Tape’s homepage, which is visited by millions of people worldwide. While designed to fill the gap and primarily to empower media workers in developing countries, the grant is open to anyone who is working on a meaningful story and lacking the funds. With the Names campaign, Good Tape also honours, acknowledges and encourages its global community to support the vital work of NGOs International Media Support, The Rory Peck Trust and the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma, which support media workers with emergency financial aid, mental health care, professional development in crisis and life-saving safety training.

BAE Systems is committing €50 million to VC funds focused on backing European defencetech startups. The investments will expand on the Company’s longstanding approach to investing in future technology and forms the second stage of its recently announced Launchpad programme, which aims to accelerate disruptive innovation. Launchpad aims to address the challenge of moving defence technologies beyond prototype development by funding early-stage ventures or spinning them out as independent startups. This aligns with key priorities across Europe and the UK.  The programme is designed to leverage BAE Systems’ position as a technology innovator to support national priorities, including rapid technology incubation, sovereign capability and economic growth.  It also provides startups with access to customers across a broader range of sectors, like energy and advanced manufacturing. €25 million will be invested in two funds led by Expeditions and Lakestar, who are both working to help shape the future of European defence innovation by backing founders and technologies that aim to deliver next-generation capabilities for allies across the continent. According to Dave Ewing, Head of Technology Commercialisation at BAE Systems, the company has always valued the capabilities and ingenuity that early-stage founders bring to the table. “Building on our long-standing investment in innovation, we recently set up Launchpad as a win-win, aiming to spin out some of our own defence technologies to commercial markets while also backing start-ups who can bring something new to defence. This latest step means we’re full steam ahead on making that a reality.” Klaus Hommels, Founder and Chairman of Lakestar, said: “Europe is at a pivotal moment in redefining its security and technological sovereignty, and supporting the next generation of defence-tech founders will be critical to that effort. BAE Systems’ investment is significant as it brings together capital, deep sector expertise and access to markets to accelerate the development and deployment of the capabilities Europe needs to remain secure in an increasingly complex world.” According to Dr Mikolaj Firlej, co-founder and General Partner of Expeditions: “European defence-tech can drive the most transformative shift for our continent in a generation and Expeditions has been investing with this conviction for years. Our security can no longer be assumed; it has to be built. Its architects will be the founders deploying innovative products at scale, in weeks and months rather than years, drawing on lessons from the frontline.”   

HR SaaS startup Sloneek has raised $6 million in a new funding round led primarily by Orbit Capital and Venture to Future Fund, significantly exceeding the company’s original target. The investment will support Sloneek’s expansion into new European markets, the development of local integrations, and the completion of its AI capabilities as it evolves into an agentic HR platform. The funding comes as demand for digital HR systems and AI-powered workplace tools continues to grow across Europe. The European HR software market exceeded $4.8 billion last year and is projected to nearly double by 2033, driven by increasing adoption of cloud-based HR systems and AI-enabled workflows. Founded in 2019, Sloneek has evolved from a regional HR tool into an AI-powered platform serving companies across Europe. The company was among the early adopters of generative AI in HR, integrating AI natively into its product in 2023, which accelerated customer adoption and supported international expansion. At the core of the platform is Sloneek Intelligence, an AI-powered HR agent designed to automate routine tasks and provide HR teams with a unified view of their workforce. The platform enables organisations to manage employee data, workforce planning, talent management, and analytics within a secure environment designed for sensitive HR information. The company’s long-term vision is to create an HR platform that can be controlled naturally through chat or voice commands and integrated across workplace tools and AI systems. We want to be the first agentic HR platform that you can control entirely by voice or written commands. The trend is clear: in a few years, no one will think of Sloneek as an application - they will think of it as a partner wherever it is needed. Embedded in email workflows, in the tools people use every day, natively integrated into AI solutions and company-wide data, says Filip Lukáč, CEO and co-founder of Sloneek. Today, Sloneek is used by more than 500 enterprise customers across 25 countries, collectively managing HR processes for approximately 50,000 employees. Customers include Grant Thornton, MAN, WPP Media, and Twisto. Annual recurring revenue currently stands at €2.5 million, having more than doubled over the past year. A significant portion of the new funding will be used to expand into the United Kingdom and Poland, where Sloneek plans to establish dedicated local go-to-market teams. The company also intends to deepen integrations with key market players, enabling HR data to flow across the employee lifecycle, from recruitment to payroll.

Belgian agritech startup Rainbow Crops has raised €9.7 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round to advance its crop engineering platform, expand its application across multiple crops, and grow its scientific and technical teams. The round was led by Italian venture capital firm LIFTT and its investment vehicle LIFTT EuroInvest. Existing investors AIF (Agri Investment Fund), PINC, and VIB also participated, alongside new investors Corteva, through its Corteva Catalyst investment platform, and Maia Ventures. Founded to address some of agriculture's most pressing challenges, Rainbow Crops develops technologies aimed at accelerating the creation of higher-performing and more resilient crop varieties. As climate volatility increases, input costs fluctuate, and regulatory changes support wider adoption of gene editing technologies, crop developers face growing pressure to improve productivity and predictability while shortening development timelines. To address these challenges, Rainbow Crops has developed Trait Foundry™, a platform that combines artificial intelligence, multiplex genome editing, precision breeding, and automated phenotyping. The platform is designed to identify and evaluate combinations of genetic variants associated with complex agronomic traits such as yield and stress resilience. By integrating genome editing with breeding approaches, Rainbow Crops aims to accelerate the development of improved crop varieties while enabling the exploration of multi-gene traits at scale. The company has already demonstrated proof of concept in corn. The new funding will support the development of the company's AI-assisted multiplex genome editing capabilities, the deployment of its platform across additional crops, and the expansion of its scientific and technical teams.

Paris-based wellness venture studio Rocapine has raised a $13 million Series A round led by Educapital, with participation from Daphni, Ring Capital, Centre Court Capital, Athletico Ventures and Better Angle. The round also included backing from prominent founders and operators across health, consumer apps and mobile gaming, including Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve (Alan), founders from Yubo and Opal, and entrepreneurs behind companies such as Photoroom, Madbox and The Sandbox. Founded in late 2024 by Stanislas Marchand, alongside Jean-Gabriel Boinot-Tramoni and Sammy Teillet, Rocapine is building a new generation of wellness apps designed to improve daily life. The company’s mission is to create products that support healthier habits and deliver lasting value, rather than optimising for engagement or attention. As digital technologies become increasingly embedded in everyday life, digital wellbeing has become an area of growing interest. DataReportal 2025 estimates that the average person spends 5 hours and 16 minutes per day on a smartphone, amounting to roughly 15 years over a lifetime. At the same time, public discourse around the effects of technology on health and behaviour has intensified in recent years. Technology was supposed to make us smarter, healthier and more connected. Instead, too much of it has become addictive, extractive and exhausting. Our phones now track the stress, the sleep loss and the racing heart rates they ironically cause, and still the system pushes us to scroll more. Rocapine was founded to change that, says Stanislas Marchand, co-founder and CEO of Rocapine. Rocapine describes its approach as building products that “hold instead of hook.” Its apps are designed to become part of users’ daily routines by delivering tangible benefits rather than engineering compulsion. The company has already launched apps across women’s health, addiction therapy and nutrition. These include Harmony (focused on cycle tracking and women’s wellbeing), That Girl (which helps users build healthier habits), and Unchaind (designed to help people break free from compulsive behaviours). The new funding will support Rocapine’s next stage of growth, including turning early successes into category leaders, scaling its testing engine to 400 apps this year, and strengthening the AI, data and marketing infrastructure underpinning its portfolio.

Berlin-based hiring platform WhyBrilliant has launched publicly with €1 million in pre-seed funding from Merantix. The company is developing an AI-powered recruitment platform designed to help professionals find suitable roles through conversational AI rather than traditional job applications. WhyBrilliant was founded by Patrick Böert and Aleksander Heimrath in response to growing frustrations with conventional hiring processes. As recruitment increasingly relies on automated screening tools, candidates often face lengthy application processes with limited feedback, while employers struggle to identify suitable talent efficiently. The company takes a different approach to hiring by reversing the traditional application model. Instead of candidates searching and applying for jobs, WhyBrilliant uses a pair of AI agents to represent both sides of the recruitment process. One agent engages with candidates to understand their skills, experience, and career goals, while another works with employers to understand hiring requirements. Candidates are only introduced to hiring teams when a strong match is identified. Every job platform built in the last twenty years asked candidates to do more — more applications, more keywords, more tailoring. We think that's the bug, not the feature. On WhyBrilliant, talent doesn't apply. Jobs are delivered to them and companies can request a meeting. That inversion changes everything downstream — who has leverage, who does the work, what "match" actually means, said Patrick Böert, co-founder & CEO of WhyBrilliant. The company has spent recent months building its talent network, attracting more than a thousand mid-career technology professionals across Germany, including senior specialists, lead-level operators, and first-time managers. WhyBrilliant's platform is built around two AI agents: Nova, which represents job seekers and continuously searches for relevant opportunities, and Atlas, which supports employers by helping create pre-screened candidate shortlists. The company operates on a success-based model, generating revenue only when a hire is completed. The new funding will support further product development, platform expansion, and the growth of the company's talent and employer network as it seeks to reshape how professionals and companies connect in the hiring process.

Swedish legaltech startup Lightbringer has raised $10 million in Series A funding to accelerate the development of its AI-powered patent platform and support its expansion into the US market. The round was co-led by London-based 6 Degrees Capital and Amsterdam-based Newion. Following the investment, Thomas Olszewski, Partner at 6 Degrees Capital, and Dorus Olgers, Partner at Newion, have joined Lightbringer's board. Founded in 2023, Lightbringer aims to simplify and accelerate patent protection for startups and SMEs. Its platform combines intellectual property strategy, patent filing, and portfolio management in a single offering, automating processes that have traditionally been handled by external law firms. The platform combines agentic AI with oversight from expert patent lawyers to reduce patent filing timelines from around two months to just a few days, while lowering costs through a fixed-price subscription model. Lightbringer operates in a market where many companies continue to face challenges protecting intellectual property due to lengthy, expensive, and complex patent processes. The company argues that traditional patent services remain heavily dependent on manual collaboration between technical teams and legal specialists, creating barriers for innovative businesses seeking to secure and commercialise their inventions. These challenges are further compounded by a global shortage of patent lawyers with expertise in highly specialised technical fields. While many AI solutions in the patent industry focus on improving productivity for legal professionals, Lightbringer has positioned itself differently. The company has developed an AI-native platform designed to handle much of the patent process directly, enabling businesses to secure intellectual property more quickly and efficiently. The new funding will be used to expand Lightbringer's presence in the US and further enhance its AI-powered patent platform for deeptech companies. Check out our earlier interview with Dominic Davies, CEO and co-founder of Lightbringer.   

Global prime broker EXANTE has launched Gecko Fund, a €1 million grant programme designed to support open-source software projects that play a critical role in trading systems, financial data infrastructure, and broader financial technology ecosystems. The initiative aims to provide direct funding to maintainers of widely used but often underfunded open-source technologies, including APIs, developer tools, core infrastructure libraries, and projects that support modern financial services. The launch comes amid growing concerns about the sustainability of open-source software. While businesses increasingly rely on open-source technologies, many of the maintainers behind critical projects continue to operate with limited financial support. This has increased concerns around software resilience, cybersecurity, and operational risks, particularly as AI accelerates the discovery and exploitation of vulnerabilities. Gecko Fund will focus on established open-source projects that are widely adopted but receive limited funding relative to their importance. Priority areas include Erlang/OTP, Scala, Java and JVM technologies, JavaScript, developer tooling, and core infrastructure software, although applications from other projects relevant to the financial ecosystem will also be considered. The programme has already awarded its first grant, providing €10,000 to Kryo, an open-source Java serialisation framework widely used in high-performance data processing and trading environments. Our goal is not simply to fund software. It is to strengthen the communities and maintainers behind the infrastructure that modern finance depends on every day. We believe the industry that benefits from these tools should play a role in sustaining them, said Anatoly Knyazev, founder of Gecko Fund and co-founder of EXANTE. Applications will be reviewed on a quarterly basis, with grants ranging from €10,000 to €150,000 depending on a project's adoption, impact, funding needs, and relevance to the financial sector. Individuals, project teams, communities, and organisations are eligible to apply.

Nordic venture capital firm Wave Ventures has announced the final close of its third fund at €10 million, marking a significant increase from its previous €2 million fund and a decade since it was founded as a student-led initiative in Helsinki. Fund III is managed by a team composed entirely of investors aged 25 and under and is backed by founders, operators, and investors from companies including Spotify, Wolt, Slack, Bolt, Oura, Nokia, Supercell, GANNI, and Voi, alongside European early-stage venture capital firms and family offices. Founded in 2016, Wave Ventures focuses on angel and pre-seed investments and is often among the first institutional investors backing Nordic startups. To date, it has made more than 50 investments, including companies such as Inven and Tzafon. In 2024, Wave backed three of the five Nordic startups accepted into Y Combinator. With the new fund, Wave plans to expand its investment activity across the Nordics, investing up to €300,000 in early-stage companies and backing between 10 and 20 teams annually. Alongside the fund close, Wave Ventures has launched the Wave Rebellion Grant, a €240,000 programme designed to support early-stage founders across the Nordics. The initiative will provide grants and partner credits to selected entrepreneurs, with support from AWS, Anthropic, Lovable, Modal, and Verda. The programme is aimed at founders at the earliest stages of company building, including those who are pre-idea, pre-funding, or just beginning their entrepreneurial journey. Some of the most exceptional founders don't fit neatly into existing startup programs, accelerators, or university tracks. Venture capital often relies on pattern matching, but the best founders rarely look obvious before their breakouts. The Rebellion Grant is our way of supporting them earlier, said Johannes Korpela, CEO, Wave Ventures. Beyond its investment activity, Wave Ventures has also played a role in developing the Nordic startup ecosystem through its talent network. Alumni of its rotation-based investment programme have gone on to found startups, investment firms, and entrepreneurial communities across Europe, including Founders House, a startup hub operating in Helsinki and Stockholm.

Finnish EV charging software company eMabler has raised €5.5 million in Series A funding to support its expansion across Europe and further develop its grid-aware charging platform. The funding round was led by Greencode Ventures, with participation from Swiss Post Ventures, Rethink Ventures, and Helkama Kiinteistöt. The financing package also includes a €1 million Digitalisation and Innovation Loan from Finnvera, supported by the European Investment Fund and the InvestEU Guarantee Programme, alongside a €1 million grant and loan package from Business Finland's Young Innovative Company programme. eMabler provides a software platform that enables retailers, energy companies, parking operators, and other businesses to integrate EV charging directly into their own digital services, applications, and loyalty programmes. Rather than relying on standalone charging apps, the company focuses on embedding charging into existing customer experiences. The approach has gained traction across the Nordics. Finland's largest retailer, S Group, operates its ABC Charging network on eMabler's platform, while customers including Neste, AimoPark, TimePark, and EasyPark use the company's technology to combine charging with services such as fleet management, parking, and customer loyalty programmes. As EV adoption grows, eMabler also sees charging infrastructure becoming an increasingly important part of the energy system. The company is developing software that helps operators optimise charging based on electricity pricing and grid conditions, enabling EV charging networks to function as flexible energy assets while improving operational efficiency. The Nordic market has reached a level of maturity where standalone, vertical-specific charging propositions no longer make sense. End-users want charging built into the apps and services they already use. We’ve proven that when you make charging a native part of a brand’s core offering, you win the market. This round allows us to meet the surging demand for this integrated model to a much broader European market, says Juha Stenberg, CEO and co-founder of eMabler. The new funding will be used to accelerate eMabler's expansion into Central Europe, with a particular focus on Germany and the UK, while supporting the continued development of hardware-agnostic, grid-aware charging solutions.

Anterra Capital, a specialist venture firm investing in food and agriculture, today announced its $100 million first close of Fund III. Founded in 2013  with offices in Amsterdam and Boston, the firm manages over $500 million across three funds. Anterra invests in and builds companies that apply life-science and software innovations to food and agriculture.   The Fund III's first close marks an important milestone for Anterra. The firm was built on the conviction that the tools that had already transformed other industries — life science tools that reshaped human health, and software that rewired sectors from logistics to financial services — would eventually transition to, and transform, food and agriculture.   “The firm has now successfully navigated two capital cycles in food and agriculture,” said Maarten Goossens, Partner at Anterra Capital.  “Each one rewarded the same discipline: backing companies that deliver real returns for their customers and to their investors. What's different this time is that the real-world industries we operate in — large, complex and historically resistant to change — are now ready to be rewired, and the tools to do it have arrived.”   Food and agriculture remains the largest industry on the planet, roughly $10 trillion in size, employing around 1.3 billion people, nearly 40 per cent of the world's workforce. It is also where a set of structural forces converges — margin volatility, food security, climate and water constraints, tightening regulation, and health outcomes increasingly tied to what the system produces — each a reason the old way of operating no longer holds. Global investment in food and agriculture technology surged to a historical peak of nearly $52 billion in 2021 before falling back to roughly $16 billion — 2016 levels. Much of that generalist capital backed ambitious, capital-intensive bets that failed to scale: indoor vertical farms, plant-based processed meat alternatives and 10-minute grocery delivery.  Anterra took a different approach — backing science-backed companies built on real unit economics and designed to scale through existing industry channels. That retreat of capital from hype back to fundamentals is precisely what now opens the door for disciplined specialists. Anterra's investment thesis has been consistent across two funds — and with valuations reset and AI now changing the economics of building in both software and biology, the moment has finally arrived to deploy it at scale.  "We've spent twelve years and two funds proving you can build category-defining companies in food and agriculture — and generate real returns doing it," said Brett Wong, Partner at Anterra Capital. "What's changed is that the world has finally caught up to that thesis. The technology is here, the valuations make sense, and the founders building in this sector are the best we've ever seen. This is the most exciting moment in our firm's history, and Fund III is how we intend to make the most of it."       Lead image: Anterra Capital partners. Photo: Anterra Capital.

Spanish AI workforce platform Orbio today announced a $21  Series A led by Dawn Capital, alongside existing investors including Visionaries. 80 per cent of the world’s workforce operates on the frontlines of essential industries: the 2.7 billion healthcare workers, retail associates, warehouse operators, hospitality staff and logistics drivers who keep economies running. The difference between a staffed shift and an unstaffed one directly impacts revenue, customer experience and operational performance. Yet most enterprise software built over the past two decades was designed for desk-based knowledge workers.  Frontline employees are often deskless, without corporate email addresses, and are reached through messaging and phone calls rather than software logins.  As a result, frontline hiring and workforce management still relies heavily on fragmented manual processes, spreadsheets and large operational teams, consuming significant time and costing organisations billions every year. Orbio is building an AI workforce platform designed for frontline industries. Its agents can conduct interviews, assess candidate fit and motivation, guide new hires through onboarding, monitor engagement and churn signals, and remain in contact with employees throughout their lifecycle — from first application through to tenure and exit. For employers, this creates a fundamentally new operating model: the ability to engage and support frontline workforces 24/7 while delegating large parts of workforce operations to AI agents. The result is faster hiring, lower administrative burden, improved retention and a more resilient operational workforce. “This is not a talent shortage problem, it’s a talent allocation problem,” said Sergi Bastardas, co-founder and CEO of Orbio. “The people are there. The work is there. What’s been missing is the ability to connect frontline workers with opportunities quickly, consistently and at scale."With Orbio, candidates can be contacted within seconds, onboarding can happen in hours rather than days, and employers can stay continuously connected with their workforce. The result is faster hiring, lower attrition and smoother operations, while workers get a better chance to start, stay and grow.” "What stands out about Orbio is the speed at which customers have completely rebuilt their operating models around it,” said Henry Mason, Partner at Dawn Capital.  “In a matter of months, some of the world's largest employers have embraced AI-first frontline workforce management with Orbio at the core, replacing labour budgets in a permanent way." Orbio already serves customers across Europe, the US and Latin America.  Orbio already works with global enterprise customers including Poke House and YUM! Brands (which owns brands including KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut).  In the United States, Orbio also works with The Stepping Stones Group, a US behavioural health provider serving children with autism and other special needs. What started as a small pilot has grown eightfold and now runs across the company's entire US operations.  Orbio took over interview scheduling entirely on day one, freeing up the team that had handled it. 20 per cent more candidates make it through to a hire, and Stepping Stones' own managers say the calibre of those hires has improved. The share of candidates who book an interview has climbed from 65 per cent to 85 per cent, and candidate satisfaction sits consistently above 98 per cent.  The new capital will fund further expansion alongside continued development of Orbio’s AI agent suite across the full employee lifecycle.