MyC, a software platform dedicated to managing employee health in industrial, multi-site, and high-risk environments, announces a €10 million funding round led by Hi Inov. and including IXO and existing investors, Elaia and OSS Ventures- In many high-risk sectors, such as energy, industry,  maritime, defense or specialised medical services, employee health management still largely relies on fragmented tools that are poorly suited to multi-site and international environments.  MyC addresses these challenges by providing an operational response tailored to such contexts. Its platform covers both occupational health and first-line medical care, while ensuring a high level of security and compliance with international standards. It improves  operational efficiency through process automation, including pharmaceutical management, medical records management with specialist consultations, and regulatory  reporting. Designed to operate in complex conditions, including limited connectivity, the platform enables rapid, large-scale deployments.  Founded in 2020 by Dr Laurent Bonnardot, an ENT physician and emergency doctor with extensive experience in isolated and complex environments, and Benjamin Crevant, an entrepreneur from the industrial sector, MyC develops a cloud-based platform that centralises and secures employees’ medical data.  According to Dr Laurent Bonnardot, co-founder of MyC: “For more than twenty years, from industrial sites to offshore platforms, I managed employee health using fragmented systems. Even the world’s largest organisations lacked truly fit-for-purpose tools. MyC was born out of this frustration: providing international  companies with a single platform capable of covering all their needs, from on-site medical  follow-up to multi-country regulatory compliance, where traditional solutions fall short." MyC addresses a structural challenge for many organisations: gaining access to a reliable,  secure and actionable view of employee health in complex, highly regulated environments,”  says Valérie Gombart, co-founder and Managing Director of Hi inov. “The platform combines strong domain expertise rooted in medical field experience with a robust SaaS technology designed for international deployment. This investment fully aligns with our  strategy to support European B2B companies delivering tangible operational value to  essential industries.”  With this funding round, MyC plans to strengthen its product roadmap and scale its sales and marketing teams to support broader adoption among international enterprise clients. 

A London-based startup that automates R&D tax credits for tech companies has emerged out of stealth, with $1m in pre-seed funding, including backing from Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z’s) accelerator. TaxNova has raised funding from a16z’s accelerator, a16z speedrun, early-stage angel fund, s16vc, accelerator Karaoke Club, and more than 20 CTO and CFO operators and investors from Revolut, digital whiteboard maker Miro, and other tech firms.  TaxNova has also entered into a16z’s accelerator programme.   R&D tax credits are government incentives that lower a company’s tax bill. Companies in the UK claimed £7.6 billion in R&D tax relief in 2023-24, figures show. TaxNova says the existing process for claiming R&D tax credits is long-winded, saying companies must gather documented qualified research expenses and supporting records to apply, which often requires engineering teams to reconstruct months of work from memory.   It says that most rely on inefficient processes, running an increasing risk of audit from tax authorities and wasting engineering time. It also says that tech companies are missing out on billions of pounds of unclaimed tax credits. TaxNova says its solution can speed up the claims process from months to weeks. Its solution is to connect directly to the tools engineers already use, including GitHub, Jira, Linear, Slack, and Notion, to automatically pull out the qualifying R&D work.    The platform leverages AI to identify projects, calculate eligible costs, and produce audit-ready documentation without pulling engineers away from shipping.   It says that its tech creates an audit trail linking every claim back to source documentation. It works alongside existing tax advisers rather than replacing them and has concluded a partnership pilot with a top-5 R&D tax advisory firm, it says. The startup was founded by George Nichkov, CEO, a former consultant, and computer engineer, Marya Malykh, CTO. Nichkov said: “TaxNova AI-powered platform extracts data from your existing systems to maximise R&D tax claims without wasting engineers’ time. 75 per cent of time is lost on data collection and we’re solving this bottleneck."

Swedish VC Kinnevik has written down the value of its stake in Swedish green steel startup Stegra by half, citing the higher anticipated costs of a plant it’s building as it looks to become a major player in Europe’s green industrial transition. Kinnevik’s latest financial report reveals it has written down the value of its stake in Stegra by 49 per cent to 649 million kronor in the fourth quarter from 1.280 billion kronor in the third quarter. Kinnevik holds a three per cent stake in Stegra. Stegra, one of Europe’s highest-profile green industrial projects, is developing fossil-free steel using hydrogen.  The write-down comes as Stegra looks to complete $1.1bn in financing to complete the construction of the plant in northern Sweden, which will generate steel using hydrogen.   Kinnevik said: “Stegra’s funding round is progressing positively but is still ongoing. Recent company developments have been positive, including the signing of a significant multi-year contract with ThyssenKrupp Materials Services, and continue to reinforce our underlying business case.    “However, the current funding round reflects a higher project cost than previously expected and is likely to cause meaningful economic dilution of our existing investment in the company.    “This expected dilution is what drives the write-down of our shareholding in the quarter, which remains sensitive to the successful conclusion and final outcome of the ongoing funding round.”   The Stegra plant had been due to open this year but has now been delayed until 2027.   Stegra has raised €6.5bn from investors, including Mercedes-Benz, Siemens, the Agnelli family, and the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC.   According to the Financial Times, Citigroup wants to stop being a lender to Stegra over concerns about its future.   Stegra is part of Kinnevik's climate tech portfolio, which also includes Agreena and Aira.  Kinnevik CEO Georgi Ganev described the performance of many of its climate tech investments as "unsatisfactory". Photo: Stegra

Denmark’s largest startup organisation, TechBBQ, has received a strategic grant of €2 million (DKK 15 million) from the Danish Industry Foundation (Industriens Fond). Since its establishment in 2013, TechBBQ has become one of Northern Europe’s leading platforms for technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The flagship event in Copenhagen now serves as a central meeting point for entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders, and decision-makers from Denmark and abroad. Specifically, the grant has been awarded to the TechBBQ – Denmark’s Tech Lighthouse project, which aims to strengthen Denmark’s international visibility and position in technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and to build on the long-standing partnership between the Danish Industry Foundation and TechBBQ. The grant runs from 2026 to 2028 and amounts to DKK 5 million (approximately €670,000) annually. Support from the Danish Industry Foundation during the period 2023–2025 has been a key driver of TechBBQ’s international development.  “Denmark has a strong entrepreneurial environment, but must continue to remain visible and attractive in the international competition for capital, talent, and knowledge. TechBBQ plays an important role in bringing the ecosystem together and creating the international connections that Danish startups need. With this support, we want to help Denmark position itself more clearly as a leading tech and innovation nation,” says Thomas Hofman-Bang, CEO of the Danish Industry Foundation. “The support enables us to build on the results we have already achieved and further develop TechBBQ as a leading international platform that unites the Danish ecosystem around a shared ambition. Above all, the funds are intended to benefit Danish entrepreneurs by giving them better access to international investors, specialised talent, technological knowledge, and global networks,” says Avnit Singh, CEO of TechBBQ. At the same time, the contribution from the Danish Industry Foundation and the collaboration with Bella Centre Copenhagen — TechBBQ’s base since 2025 — mean that TechBBQ now has optimal conditions to bring together global perspectives and create stronger connections across the Danish startup and innovation ecosystem over the next three years.   Over the next three years, the funds will be used to further develop TechBBQ’s role as an international platform and to unite the Danish startup ecosystem, with a particular focus on attracting international investors, experts, and talent to Denmark. The 14th edition of TechBBQ will take place on August 26–27, 2026, at Bella Centre Copenhagen.

London-based Veremark has raised $26 million in Series B funding, led by Gresham House Ventures, with participation from existing investors Samaipata, ACF Investors, and Stage 2 Capital, alongside a multi-million dollar debt facility from Salica Partners. Founded in 2020, Veremark is a global workplace trust company that provides background screening, whistleblowing, and credential verification services through a single platform. Veremark supports organisations by conducting background checks for new hires and rescreening existing employees, helping employers manage compliance, risk, and workplace standards across multiple jurisdictions. As workforces become more global and dynamic, with shorter employment tenures and increased use of AI-generated or misleading candidate information, verification and identity checks have become more complex for hiring teams. In addition to pre-employment screening, Veremark has expanded its offering to support workplace integrity throughout the employment lifecycle. This includes an anonymous whistleblowing and speak-up platform, reporting tools, and a digital career passport, Verepass, which allows individuals to store, manage, and share verified credentials. Built on blockchain technology, Verepass is designed to reduce the need for repeated checks and streamline verification processes for employers. Daniel Callaghan, CEO and co-founder of Veremark, noted that organisations are increasingly adopting continuous approaches to managing employee conduct risk. He added: Veremark provides companies with enhanced confidence in who they are bringing into the business and enables multiple checkpoints to ensure their behaviours remain ethical and appropriate. We help companies reduce hiring risk, improve auditability and help protect workplace integrity beyond the point of hire. Our goal is to make trust something employers can evidence and manage in practice, combining secure global screening with tools that help protect people, surface concerns earlier and strengthen workplace standards. The investment follows a period of continued growth for Veremark, during which the company expanded its capabilities through the acquisition of Agenda Screening Services, a background screening provider offering a broad range of checks, including criminal, employment, sanctions, credit, and bankruptcy screening across more than 180 countries. The new funding will be used to support further product development, investment in AI capabilities, and continued expansion of the company’s global operations.

enclaive, a German cybersecurity company specialising in confidential computing, has raised €4.1 million in seed funding, with the round co-led by Join Capital and the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and supported by Auriga Cyber Ventures. Rising AI adoption, evolving data protection regulations, and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats have heightened security concerns around cloud computing. While cloud platforms offer scalability, many organisations remain cautious when it comes to migrating sensitive workloads. A particular challenge for security and compliance teams lies in protecting data during active processing. This stage of exposure can limit cloud adoption, especially in sectors such as the public sector, finance, healthcare, critical infrastructure, and AI, where even brief access to sensitive data can pose elevated risk. enclaive addresses this issue by enabling confidential computing across multi-cloud environments. Its platform allows organisations to deploy applications within secure enclaves, with the aim of protecting data throughout processing without requiring changes to existing code, tools, or operational workflows. Andreas Walbrodt, co-founder and CEO of enclaive, explained that the pace of cloud adoption has exceeded the level of trust many organisations have in existing security models, particularly as AI and sensitive workloads are increasingly deployed across multiple cloud environments. With enclaive, businesses don’t need to trust the cloud—their data, microservices, and AI models are shielded from unauthorised access at every moment. We’re making confidential computing accessible for any organisation, regardless of technical expertise, Walbrodt added. The platform is designed to support enterprise workloads such as Kubernetes clusters, virtual machines, and AI applications, using a modular and vendor-agnostic architecture intended to simplify deployment and operational control. The new funding will be used to support commercial growth, further development of the eMCP platform, expansion of engineering and operations teams, and initial international expansion.

Experts in healthcare and financial services have secured £2.5 million in seed funding to fund a startup geared towards providing health and wealth products for the over 60s.   The funding round in UK-based Lateral was led by UK fintech investor Augmentum with support from Triple Point and TinyVC. Lateral, which is a nine-strong team, believes it has spotted a gap in the market, namely the over 14m people who are over 60 in the UK who are in need of healthcare and financial wellness guidance. The funding will be used to support the rollout of Lateral’s first product, the Lateral Health Plan, which combines financial cover for private healthcare, care navigation, and "stay-healthy benefits" in one policy. Lateral says central to the plan is a nurse-led navigation service designed to help users make informed decisions and get the most from their healthcare, including NHS and private options. Run by qualified case-management nurses, the service includes NHS and private care, and offers personalised support to help members understand their diagnosis and explore the best treatment pathways, the startup says. Its founders say one of the plan’s key attractions is that it will focus on simple and transparent pricing. The startup was founded by Laura Ashforth, former managing director, insurtech unicorn Zego, and Steven Mendel, co-founder and ex-CEO of pet health unicorn ManyPets.   Ashforth said: “We’re on a mission to empower over 60s to live well for longer, helping them navigate the complicated world of retirement by offering them an affordable range of products expertly created just for them. “Many people find the health system increasingly hard to navigate as they get older. Lateral is designed to help members understand their options and make informed choices about care, while also embedding evidence-based preventative approaches, such as an annual health check, to support proactive engagement with their health.”   Mendel, executive chair, added: “People are living longer and with more active lives, yet the systems designed to support them haven’t kept up. For far too long, insurers have viewed people over 60 as old, immobile, and liable to injury. "The reality is that many people in their 60s and 70s are fitter and more active than ever. For them, retirement is a chance to do more, not less.” IMAGE: Lateral

SmartyPlants, a UK-based technology startup focused on plant care, has received £190,000 in funding from the British Design Fund (BDF) to support the continued development of its smart sensor system for houseplants. Caring for indoor plants can be challenging due to factors such as inconsistent watering, unsuitable light conditions, and limited visibility into plant health. SmartyPlants aims to address these issues by providing data-driven insights that help users better understand the conditions their plants are experiencing. Founded in 2023 by Ben Beavers, the company develops smart sensors that monitor key environmental and soil factors, including soil moisture, light levels, temperature, humidity, and nutrient availability. Used alongside a companion mobile app, the system delivers real-time information to support more informed plant care decisions across a wide range of indoor plant types. The company’s approach focuses on simplifying everyday plant care by reducing guesswork and providing clearer guidance. By translating sensor data into accessible insights, SmartyPlants seeks to help household plant owners manage their plants more effectively and respond to changes in growing conditions in a timely manner. According to founder Ben Beavers, the company was established to make plant care more straightforward for consumers who want their plants to thrive but lack clear, practical information. The technology is designed to give users greater clarity and confidence in their day-to-day care routines. With the new funding, SmartyPlants plans to further refine its technology and software in line with its goal of making plant care more intuitive and reliable for everyday users.

London-based Polaron, an AI-focused startup developing tools for materials science, has raised $8 million to support the development of an intelligence layer for materials research and development. The funding round was led by Racine2, with participation from Speedinvest, Futurepresent, and a group of angel investors from the industrial AI sector. Despite widespread automation in manufacturing, understanding material behaviour still relies heavily on manual analysis, fragmented tools, and trial-and-error methods. At the core of this challenge is the relationship between processing, structure, and performance, with microstructural features, observable through microscopy, playing a key role in determining material properties and manufacturing outcomes. Polaron addresses this gap by training AI models on microscopy images alongside measured material properties, enabling automated interpretation of microstructure and clearer links between processing decisions and performance outcomes. The platform automates material characterisation, significantly reducing manual analysis time, while also enabling capabilities such as three-dimensional reconstructions from two-dimensional images and the identification of complex microstructural features. Building on these capabilities, Polaron’s design layer applies generative methods to explore process-structure-property relationships. This allows engineers to identify optimal material configurations and the processing conditions required to achieve them, supporting the transition from laboratory research to industrial-scale manufacturing across metals, ceramics, polymers, and composite materials. Commenting on the company’s direction, Isaac Squires, CEO and co-founder of Polaron, said: For 150 years, industry has used machines to shape materials. Now, we are teaching machines to understand them. Polaron is building an intelligence layer powered by the world’s materials data for faster discovery, better design and a new generation of advanced materials. The new capital will be used to expand Polaron’s engineering team, accelerate the rollout of its generative design tools, and support growing demand from customers across the automotive, energy, and other industrial sectors.

UBEES, a company specialising in beekeeping applications for regenerative agriculture, has closed an €8 million Series A funding round, co-led by European funds Starquest and Capagro, with participation from Newtree Impact. The financing will support the company’s efforts to further integrate pollination into agricultural practices and value chains. Although a large share of food crops depends on pollination, it is often not fully incorporated into agronomic planning or operational decision-making. UBEES seeks to address this gap by developing structured pollination programmes designed to support both farmers and brands as part of their production systems. Founded in 2017, the company designs its programmes based on analysis of pollinators and their environments, combining beekeeping expertise, agronomic data, and field-level support. UBEES uses connected beehives equipped with sensors and analytical tools to monitor pollinator health and environmental conditions. The data collected (covering factors such as productivity, crop quality, biodiversity, and carbon footprint) is used to inform recommendations aimed at optimising agricultural practices and assessing ecosystem health. Beyond its technology, UBEES supports clients throughout the full project lifecycle, from programme design to on-the-ground implementation. The company operates in more than fifteen countries across five continents and works with organisations in sectors including agri-food, cosmetics, and energy. Its activities are focused on improving agricultural productivity and production stability, supporting biodiversity preservation, and contributing to income generation for smallholder farmers. According to CEO Louis Delelis-Fanien, the funding represents an important milestone for the company and reflects its progress in positioning pollination as a scalable and economically viable component of agricultural systems, with the potential to support more resilient and productive farming practices. With the new funding, UBEES plans to expand its operations in Latin America and Africa, key regions for crops such as coffee, berries, avocados, and cocoa, while continuing to strengthen its presence in Europe and the United States. The company also intends to further develop the embedded technologies in its connected beehives to enhance pollinator monitoring and data quality, as well as to strengthen its impact measurement capabilities across agronomic, environmental, and economic dimensions. In parallel, UBEES aims to build an international network of trained and supported farmers, creating additional income opportunities through beekeeping and improved access to agronomic data.

London-based Refute, an AI-powered counter-disinformation company, has raised £5 million in seed funding in a round led by Amadeus Capital Partners, with participation from Playfair, Episode 1, Osney Capital, and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF). The funding comes amid an evolving threat environment in which malicious actors are increasingly combining automated networks, influencer activity, and AI-driven tools to conduct coordinated disinformation campaigns. These efforts are no longer limited to governments and public institutions, but are increasingly directed at commercial organisations. Since emerging from stealth and closing a pre-seed round in 2024, Refute has developed AI-based capabilities that are now used by both commercial and public-sector clients. Its platform is designed to identify early indicators of online manipulation and to provide near real-time intelligence and response recommendations. The company reports a rise in disinformation activity affecting clients in higher-risk sectors. During recent European elections, including in Romania, Refute identified more than 32,500 inauthentic TikTok videos linked to coordinated influence operations targeting expatriate communities. In the mining sector, its monitoring has indicated that approximately 40 per cent of tracked sites have been subject to activity associated with misleading or inauthentic actors. Such campaigns are intended to influence online discourse and undermine institutional credibility, creating potential risks for organisations, reputations, and market stability. According to Tom Garnett, CEO and co-founder of Refute, Europe is facing an unprecedented level of hybrid warfare: Disinformation is no longer just a peripheral nuisance, but now a reputational threat and strategic weapon targeting nations, institutions and corporations alike. Refute was created to meet this moment. We help governments and commercial organisations strengthen their resilience, protect their operations, and outpace their adversaries to function in an increasingly hostile information environment. Refute plans to use the new funding to further develop its technology and support its efforts to help organisations and democratic institutions address the growing challenges posed by hybrid warfare and disinformation threats.

Swedish AI company Berget AI has raised €2.1 million (SEK 24 million) in funding. The investment comes at a time when AI is rapidly becoming critical infrastructure, while increasing regulatory requirements, geopolitical tensions, and the EU’s new AI legislation are driving growing demand for local control of data and AI workflows.  Berget AI was founded by Christian Landgren, a well-known digital entrepreneur and activist, and Andreas Lundmark, who brings extensive AI experience from Boston Consulting Group. The company is developing a service that enables organisations to build AI applications using open language models operated on sovereign infrastructure in Sweden, ensuring that sensitive data does not leave national borders and remains under European jurisdiction.  The company positions itself toward developers who want to get started quickly without managing infrastructure, offering a modern alternative to both US hyperscalers and complex on-premise solutions. By delivering a turnkey full-stack AI platform, Berget AI enables organisations to combine ease of use with data sovereignty, open technology, and sustainable operations.  According to Andreas Lundmark, co-founder of Berget AI, more and more organisations do not want to place sensitive data in global cloud platforms.  “We offer an accessible alternative that provides full control without requiring customers to build and operate their own infrastructure.” The company’s first service was launched shortly before summer 2025 and has attracted strong interest from customers who prioritise sovereignty and data control.  “We have seen that our offering addresses a very real market need and that this topic is high on the agenda in both Sweden and Europe. We have not actively pursued sales so far, but now is the time to accelerate in order to capture the strong demand we are experiencing. Several new services are currently under development.”  With the EU AI Act and stricter requirements for transparency, traceability, and data governance, the conditions for how AI is built and deployed in Europe are changing. Public sector organisations and regulated industries are increasingly demanding solutions that keep data and models within EU jurisdiction.  “Sovereignty is moving from being a policy discussion to becoming a concrete and practical requirement for development teams. Our platform is built for this reality: local operations, open models, and technical control from day one,” says Christian Landgren, Co-founder of Berget AI. The funding round was led by Luminar Ventures together with Wellstreet and Norrsken Evolve.  “Berget AI addresses a structural problem in Europe’s AI ecosystem: the lack of sovereign and scalable infrastructure. The team combines strong technical expertise with perfect timing,” says Jacob Key, General Partner at Luminar Ventures.  “Open and sustainable AI infrastructure is crucial for Europe’s long-term resilience,” says Rebecca Löthman Rydå, General Partner at Norrsken Evolve.  The newly raised capital will primarily be used to accelerate product development and scale sales operations. 

Today, 01C announced the launch of Amara, an AI-powered platform that enables designers, game developers and 3D artists to create and iterate complete 3D environments in seconds using simple text prompts.  London-based 01C was founded by National Film and Television School graduates Ashkan Dabbagh, Rupert Aspden, and James Elkin, and now includes AI researchers and game industry veterans. In June 2025, the company raised €500,000 in funding backed by EWOR, a radically selective fellowship backing the world's top 0.1 per cent founders, built and led by unicorn builders, I spoke to CEO Ashkan Dabbagh to learn more.   Turning hours of asset work into instant environments The platform targets one of the biggest bottlenecks in development: environment creation. Tasks that once required hours of manual asset placement, lighting, and refinement can now be completed in seconds through conversational AI. Built natively for Unreal Engine, Amara ncludes a 3D Mesh Generator — a generative AI system that produces production-ready assets on demand and plugs directly into existing workflows. According to Dabbagh, the company’s key differentiator is its refusal to lock developers into a new ecosystem. While many competing tools require teams to abandon their engines and rebuild inside proprietary platforms, 01C is designed to integrate with existing pipelines. “We’re focused on helping people already using game engines like Unreal work faster,” he says. “We don’t want them to change their tech stack. We want to integrate into their workflows. Long term, we have a bigger roadmap, but this is the first step.” 01C lets users turn photos or text prompts into 3D assets. “You can use it for games, animation, printing — anything,” Dabbagh explains. “The app lets you speak or type to create 3D environments, similar to prompting ChatGPT, except it generates interactive worlds.” “We’re accelerating existing workflows the way Cursor did for coding. Amara empowers creatives to explore countless scene variations in the time it previously took to build one — enabling faster iteration and better final products.” Why native 3D matters more than video While video-based generative systems can produce visually impressive results, Dabbagh argues they fall short in interactive reliability. “You can’t use video consistently with interactive systems,” he explains. In interactive video models, each frame is regenerated in real time, which introduces instability. A user might look away and return to find subtle differences in the scene because the system is recreating pixels rather than maintaining persistent objects. For game development, that lack of permanence is a dealbreaker. According to Dabbagh, every asset in a playable environment needs stable physics and predictable behaviour.  “Game development requires permanence. Every asset needs physics and reliability. You can interact with it without regeneration errors,” he says, adding that current video approaches simply cannot guarantee that level of consistency. He sees interactive video as suitable for lightweight or experimental experiences, but not for large-scale productions.  “Interactive video is fine for small indie experiences or casual fun, but you can’t build something like the next Call of Duty on that foundation. The physics simply doesn’t work.” Lessons from early access Before launching its platform to the public, AMARA was used internally for creating over 10 viral campaigns and featured on projects including for McLaren, eBay, Twix, Starcloud, with over 40 million views. All growth was achieved organically through word of mouth and returning customers. According to Dabbagh, before today's public launch, the team had a slightly different engine version.  Designers liked it, but startups and tech companies didn’t want to operate it themselves — they preferred experienced professionals to use it.  “That showed us we’re not replacing designers. Creative storytelling is still valuable and necessary.” Another takeaway is that no product launches perfectly. Early access is about gathering feedback, understanding real demand, and killing features that don’t matter.  “It helps you discover what problems actually exist, " shared Dabbagh.  Levelling the playing field for smaller studios 01C has applicability across a variety of design environments.  For example, it offers a competitive advantage to smaller indie game studios: “Large studios have resources. Smaller teams want AAA quality but don’t have the budget,” explained Dabbagh.  “If something takes two weeks manually and we reduce it to two days, that’s a massive time and cost improvement. We give small teams the flexibility to produce higher quality work with fewer resources.” This extends to film and television. Dabbagh studied AI at Oxford and has built a career in technical roles at Warner Bros. and Amazon Studios. He also served as a production manager at DNEG, the visual FX firm behind Interstellar and Dune. On film sets, if directors change their minds, it often takes hours or days to rebuild environments. You stop production and reshoot later. “With our tools, directors could change environments live on set. They see something on the volume, don’t like it, and modify it instantly. That level of flexibility wasn’t possible before. It makes production interactive.” “We’re not replacing creators” From here, 01C plans to onboard major B2B clients, prepare for another fundraising round, and triple the company's size. It's also expanding beyond Europe and the US  According to Dabbagh this is an exciting moment for creativity. "There’s a lot of noise around AI, but the important part is enabling people to tell stories faster — not just one-off outputs, but worlds you can return to and evolve episodically. Another key difference between us and some world-generation models is editability. Some tools generate beautiful results but flatten everything into one object. You can’t extract or manipulate individual assets. We generate true objects you can interact with.” Dabbagh believes that creativity should stay human-driven.  “Autonomy should come from the technical execution side, not storytelling.” Long term, the goal is to remove friction. A creator should say what world they want and see it instantly.  “It keeps them in a flow state, " explained Dabbagh.  “I compare it to painting as a child — there’s no barrier between the idea and the paper. Today, every asset interrupts the creative momentum. We want to eliminate that interruption. It’s not replacing creators. It’s changing the type of effort required.”

Fleet, a French scale-up specialising in IT fleet management, equipment, and security for SMEs, announces the entry of ISAI Expansion into its capital through its ISAI Expansion III fund at a €100 million valuation.  After seven years of existence and having been entirely bootstrapped to date, Fleet is opening its capital to external investors for the first time. This primary LBO transaction provides liquidity to the two founders, Sevan Marian and Alexandre Berriche, as well as to employees, while preserving a majority-independent shareholding structure.  I spoke to co-founder and CEO Sevan Marian to learn all about it. From a leasing startup to a global IT operations platform for SMEs Founded in April 2019, Fleet initially developed around a leasing offering that enabled SMEs to spread their IT investments over time.  The company has gradually expanded its positioning to support SMEs with 5 to 500 employees, often with a strong international footprint, built around three core pillars: IT procurement, with deliveries to over 120 countries in under 48 hours, day-to-day IT fleet management, and cybersecurity.  The more complex the hiring process is — remote teams, multiple geographies, cross-border employees—the more valuable Fleet becomes.  “Growth creates operational complexity, and we remove that friction,” explained Marian. An international playbook Fleet delivers in roughly 20 countries spanning India, Asia, and Africa, and operates across Europe and the US — a structure Marian says strengthens its cross-border positioning. “We see more US companies operating in Europe and Indian companies choosing us because we specialise in cross-border setups. Internationalisation has been a major driver.” Alongside its geographic expansion, the company has become more sales-led. “We invested in building the team and improving execution on that side,” he adds. Marian argues the company occupies a unique position in the market. “Fortunately, Fleet doesn’t have direct competitors offering an international solution that combines leasing, financing, purchasing, warranty, insurance, and cybersecurity in one platform. I don’t think there’s another player delivering that full stack across so many geographies.” In 2025, the company recorded growth of over 90 per cent, while maintaining a profitable model and a deliberately lean organisation.  Marian attributes the company’s growth to disciplined execution and a deliberate push into international markets. “It was mainly execution.” “We expanded into multiple geographies and built a playbook for international expansion that works. Now we can replicate it market by market, and that’s given us a growing footprint. We believe we’ve reached strong product-market fit. Every time we open a new market, customers respond very well.We don’t face much direct competition, and our retention is strong — customers stay with us and keep adding equipment and licences.” Bootstrapping is a strategy, not an ideology Marian says the decision to bootstrap versus raise venture capital ultimately comes down to business fundamentals and founder priorities. “Bootstrapping isn’t for everyone, just like venture capital isn’t for everyone", he contends.   “It depends on your business model. You have to ask whether your company can generate the cash flow required to sustain growth.” He argues that venture capital is best suited to companies designed for extreme scale. “VC makes sense when you’re building something that could reach billion-euro scale — typically a highly scalable tech platform with recurring revenue and strong margins.” Bootstrapping, by contrast, follows a different timeline and philosophy. “It’s about strong cash flow, good margins, and long-term value creation. You may not build a billion-euro company in ten years — maybe in forty. It’s a different path, but it’s a great one.” Marian stresses that the choice is not ideological. “I’m also a venture investor myself, so I don’t see VC as bad. The key is deciding what you’re optimising for. If you bootstrap, your model must support operations and growth through working capital and healthy margins. You also need clarity on product-market fit early.” Today, Fleet employs 45 people across Paris and Barcelona, serves nearly 2,000 clients — including Swedish unicorn Lovable, restaurant group Nouvelle Garde and Les Merveilleux de Fred — and operates actively in around ten European countries as well as in the United States.

Menotracker, the AI-powered menopause-tracking app, has launched in partnership with the privacy technology company ConsentKeys consentkeys.com to become the first and only women’s health application that will never store users’ personal data. The Menotracker app transforms perimenopause and menopause symptoms into personalised insights and support.  I spoke to the startup’s CEO, Sonja Rincón, to learn all about it.  “I’m a very angry perimenopausal woman” The company’s origin is deeply personal. The whole idea of the company came about because, according to Rincón,”I’m a very angry perimenopausal woman. That’s honestly the truth.” Rincón has a background in law but felt unfulfilled. In 2024, one of her friends started having hot flashes, and she remembered thinking, “Isn’t she too young for that? So, she started researching. Before that, she’d never heard of perimenopause. Perimenopause is the transition from the fertile years of your 20s and 30s, when the ovaries produce high levels of the female hormones (Estrogen and Progesterone) during each cycle, to menopause, when ovulation and periods stop permanently. Perimenopause lasts on average around five years, but this can greatly vary from woman to woman. The average age of the final period is between the age of 45 and 55 years. However, symptoms of perimenopause can start in the late 30s to early 40s.  The invisible load women carry Perimenopause is accompanied by a wide range of physical, emotional, and cognitive changes. When Rincón began researching it, she discovered that the transition can include as many as 100 possible symptoms, from hot flushes to sleep disturbances, joint pain, brain fog, and weight fluctuations, meaning that alleviating symptoms requires a comprehensive, personalised approach.  Compounding the impact, it often occurs when women are at their peak earning years, while simultaneously managing the pressures of parenting and caring for ageing parents. Rincón shared: “Around the same time, that same friend didn’t get a promotion because her employer said she looked unprofessional and wasn’t taking care of herself. That really upset me.” By then, she realised she’d been in perimenopause herself for years. “I’d been given all kinds of treatments, but nobody connected the dots. It’s a very typical story.” Reduce medical gaslighting with data Menotrack allows users to track symptoms, connect wearables such as smartwatches, and generate reports showing correlations between lifestyle factors and symptoms.  “You have to be the CEO of your own health, asserts Rincón.  “One of my main goals is to reduce medical gaslighting. Advocacy is easier when you’re prepared. Most doctor visits are short. When you walk into a doctor’s office with structured data, it’s harder to dismiss you.” Rincón loves data because it gives you an objective overview.  “I grew up with computers, I’ve always followed tech and AI, I build things with no-code tools — so I assumed something like this must exist. But I couldn’t find anything that truly worked the way I wanted.” While there are many women’s health trackers, most are basic. Rincón explained that typically, “You can log things, but you can’t really use the data to understand your health.  And often, the company benefits more from your data than you do. That didn’t sit right with me.” The startup has a menopause expert advisory panel that helps design the reporting structure so it’s meaningful to both patients and clinicians. Another major goal is diversity in research. “Most menopause research represents white women. We already know medications can behave differently depending on skin colour or genetic background. We need better datasets to understand why symptom patterns vary.” Privacy protection is critical  Menotracker is launching with what may be the most comprehensive privacy protection in femtech - and unlike other free online services, where people are the product, Menotracker’s users are fully protected. Recent high-profile cases have exposed how intimately sensitive health information is routinely exploited: period tracking app Flo Health and its partners Google and Meta recently settled for $56 million after being found liable for sharing users’ menstrual and sexual health data without consent. More alarmingly, prosecutors in several US states have already used period tracking data, search histories, and text messages as evidence in abortion-related criminal cases. Further, in the US, companies can legally collect, store and sell women’s health data to data brokers, who then make it available to advertisers, insurance companies, employers and law enforcement. Period tracking apps are not covered by HIPAA, and data brokers can sell location information about anyone who visits an abortion clinic to anyone with a credit card.  Menotracker’s privacy-first approach addresses systemic vulnerabilities head-on.  By partnering with ConsentKeys' proprietary privacy-first authentication system, users are assigned pseudonymous identities with unique credentials for the platform. Even in the event of a data breach, stolen information would contain only dummy data that cannot be traced to real individuals. Crucially, Menotracker itself cannot access users' true identities, making it technically impossible to sell, share or be compelled to hand over personal health information to third parties. "Women tracking intimate symptoms like incontinence, vaginal dryness, or mental health changes need absolute confidence that their data cannot be accessed by employers, insurance companies, or governments," said Rincón. "This partnership means we've designed our system so that we literally cannot compromise user privacy – because we don't have access to real user information ourselves." According to Kris Constable, Founder of ConsentKeys, the real user information is encrypted and distributed across multiple jurisdictions in a way that would require years of legal process for anyone – including governments – to even attempt to access.  “We've coined the phrase 'privacy is consent' because women deserve the opportunity to choose how their information is being used, something that's rarely offered in the tech world." Developed in partnership with over 200 perimenopausal women and certified menopause specialists, Menotracker captures the full spectrum of menopause symptoms, from hot flushes and night sweats to under-discussed experiences such as word-finding difficulty or a burning mouth sensation. Real verified information  The platform includes medically reviewed content, community support, visual symptom summaries, and doctor-ready reports, all while ensuring complete anonymity.  “There’s so much misinformation online,” asserts Rincón. “Women in perimenopause are a target group for people selling miracle supplements. I want evidence-based information available in one place, free and accessible. Fitness, sleep, nutrition — these things matter enormously. I’ve been experimenting on myself. Following a science-based fitness program improved my brain fog and sleep within months. Women deserve to know these options exist.” Menotracker is building partnerships, mostly in the UK, Canada, and the US.  Rincón describes her home country of Austria as a desert of information about perimenopause and menopause: “Awareness has improved slightly in the last two years, but it’s still minimal.”It’s been much harder in Austria and Germany. There’s not enough pressure yet. Women are still expected to suffer quietly.” The economic case for menopause support Further, untreated perimenopausal symptoms cost economies billions. Deloitte Canada estimated $3.5 billion annually. The UK estimates that around one billion workdays are lost. This isn’t just a health issue — it’s an economic one. Rincón asserts: “Employers don’t act because of charity. They act because it affects productivity and retention. The UK is ahead because policy pressure forced the conversation. We’re working on partnerships with organisations that certify menopause-friendly workplaces. Awareness in the DACH region is still far behind.” Privacy as principle: the investor divide in Femtech When it comes to funding, Rincón says, finding investors isn’t the problem — it’s been more challenging to find investors who align with values.   According to Rincón, “Many asked, 'If you don’t sell data, how do you make money?” That question alone shows the mindset. We could have raised earlier, but I refuse to compromise on privacy. If competitors want to sell women’s data, they can. We won’t. I only want partners who understand that protecting women’s health data is non-negotiable.” In the long term, Rincón wants women everywhere to have access to quality healthcare, regardless of where they live.  “English-speaking markets are our starting point because it’s financially realistic for a startup. But the long-term vision is global. I want transparent information, inclusive research, and technology that helps women understand their bodies without fear. That’s the mission.” The app is available in 177 countries and 41 languages, providing free access to AI-powered symptom analysis and medical-grade educational content.  For Rincón, the goal is simple: technology that helps women understand their bodies without fear — and without being treated as data products.

Last week, we tracked more than 70 tech funding deals worth over €710 million, and over 15 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.

London-based Incard, a financial platform for high-growth digital companies, has raised £10 million in Series A funding led by Smartfin, with participation from Founders Capital, MountFund, and angel investors. Incard was founded to address limitations in traditional business banking, which often requires founders to manage cash flow, invoicing, and spending across multiple disconnected tools. Created by entrepreneurs Theo Cesarini, Soraya Tribouillois, Liam Seskis, and Matteo Martino, the company launched its platform in 2024 to consolidate these functions into a system designed to scale with growing digital businesses. Incard’s financial operating system integrates banking, payments, and financial tools into a unified platform, centralising financial operations, providing real-time cash flow visibility and spend insights, and supporting industry-specific workflows and add-ons. Theo Cesarini, CEO of Incard, said the company has built a control layer for the financial stack of high-growth digital businesses and is now focused on making the platform available to more companies so they can better manage, automate, and optimise their finances. The Incard platform provides access to business banking, corporate cards, and connected bank accounts through a single interface. Companies can extend the platform with tools from the Incard App Store based on their industry and stage of growth, including invoicing, spend management, treasury, working capital, and other financial capabilities. Incard has gained adoption among high-growth digital businesses across the UK and Europe, particularly those with high advertising spend, foreign exchange exposure, and multi-entity structures. With the new funding, Incard plans to expand into additional markets, including Europe and the US, enhance its product offering, and invest further in automation, AI-driven financial workflows, and team growth across engineering, compliance, and product development.

Constructor Capital, the Swiss venture arm of the Constructor Group ecosystem, has closed its first fund at $110 million to invest in seed and Series A startups across deeptech, software, and edtech. The fund follows a science-focused approach to sourcing, due diligence, and company support, drawing on a network of more than 50 universities and a broad base of academic researchers. This enables Constructor Capital to assess complex technical research and support companies with advanced scientific and technological foundations that may be underserved by traditional venture capital. Operating within the broader Constructor Group, Constructor Capital is embedded in a global ecosystem that includes Constructor University, research laboratories, an equity-free accelerator programme, and platforms supporting research and applied innovation. This structure allows the firm to integrate scientific expertise directly into its investment process and support portfolio companies as they transition from laboratory environments to commercial markets. Commenting on the approach, Matthias Winter, Managing Partner at Constructor Capital, said that research institutions are producing technologies with significant future impact that often receive limited attention from venture capital. He added that the fund aims to bridge this gap by supporting companies as they move from lab to market, balancing academic insight with operational execution. The fund’s investment focus spans deeptech, software, and edtech. Constructor Capital plans to lead and co-lead seed and Series A investments, with typical investment sizes ranging from $1 million to $10 million, select investments of up to $15 million, and capital reserved for follow-on rounds. The fund invests globally, including in Europe, the US, the UAE, and Singapore. The portfolio already includes science-led companies operating at the forefront of advanced computing and systems, including QuEra Computing, which develops neutral-atom quantum computers, Lumai, focused on 3D optical computing architectures for more efficient AI inference, as well as AI infrastructure provider GCore, ERP platform Osome, and augmented reality company VitreaLab.

Barcelona-based Biorce, a health AI company focused on clinical trial design and execution, has closed a $52 million Series A round. The financing includes new investment from DST Global Partners, with existing investors Norrsken VC and YZR Capital increasing their participation, alongside Mustard Seed Maze. The round also includes angel investors such as Arthur Mensch, Albert Nieto, Paulo Rosado, and Nik Storonsky. Following the round, Biorce’s total funding has surpassed $60 million. Biorce is developing AI infrastructure to improve how clinical trials are designed and conducted, with its Aika platform at the core. Aika is an AI-native platform designed to reduce clinical trial preparation timelines and limit protocol amendments, supporting faster development of new therapies. In traditional trial models, protocol amendments often pause patient recruitment for an average of six weeks and can add between €500,000 and €1 million in costs per amendment. These challenges are frequently linked to difficulties in clearly substantiating trial design decisions to regulatory authorities such as the FDA and the EMA, which can lead to extended reviews, delays, and additional amendments. Pedro Coelho, CEO of Biorce, commented: Clinical trial delays and inefficiencies cost time, money, and ultimately lives. Our mission is to make trials faster, more reliable, and more accessible, so patients can benefit from new treatments sooner. Built on a dataset of approximately one million clinical trials, Aika is designed to help anticipate risks, reduce errors, and limit the need for protocol changes. The platform supports pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and contract research organisations in designing trials more efficiently while maintaining scientific standards and patient safety. Aika is already in use across multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, neurology, and rare diseases. Its therapy-agnostic design allows Biorce to apply AI across a wide range of clinical programmes and scale its approach to clinical trial design and management. Looking ahead, Biorce plans to expand its workforce and open a development and R&D hub in Austin, Texas, to support its activities in the US. In early 2026, the team intends to further develop Aika’s protocol intelligence capabilities and introduce additional modules, including tools for contract management, negotiation, budget planning, and operational execution, aimed at improving trial efficiency and patient access to new therapies.

This week, we tracked more than 70 tech funding deals worth over €710 million and over 15 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. Alongside the week’s top funding rounds, we’ve also curated the most important industry stories you need to know. 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 ??  RobCo raises $100M in Series C funding ??  Sokin eyes major expansion with £70M debt funding ??  Funnel secures $80M debt facility ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ?? Sword Health is acquiring the Munich-based health startup Kaia Health for US$285M ??  finanzen.net group snaps up AI investing startup Vickii ??. Scoro acquires Envoice to close the project cost visibility gap ?? Belgium-based team.blue acquires Windsor.ai ? Interesting moves from investors ? 2150 closes €210M Fund II, lifts assets to €500M to back urban and industrial climate tech ?  Voyager Ventures closes $275M Fund II, reaching $475M in AUM ? Footprint Firm closes €76M Article 9 deeptech Fund for the green transition ? b2venture closes €150M Fund V at hard cap to support the next generation of European tech leaders ?️ In other (important) news ? Qilimanjaro launches EduQit, a modular build-your-own quantum computer for education and research ⚖️ Legaltech Luminance unveils its biggest platform upgrade in a decade ??. Estonian Startup Awards 2025 show an AI comeback and DefenceTech momentum ??. Spotify confirms Turkish office opening ? Recommended reads and listens ⚡. Northvolt former CEO: "Emotionally tough" raising funds for new venture +? How Distance Technologies is giving armoured vehicle crews x-ray-like vision ??. More European SPAC IPOs to come, says Einride boss ?? $1M+ raise for construction startup Arctis AI led by former fencing champion Dila Ekrem ??. How Redwerk built a global software business without middle managers or venture capital ?. Reinventing the light switch as Europe’s missing energy interface ? European tech startups to watch  ??  Pallma AI closes $1.6M pre-seed round for AI agent security ??  InsiderCX fuels its AI-powered patient experience platform with €1.5M investment ??  Mos Health secures $1.1M to expand personalised health offerings ??  Opportunity Health raises €334,000 ??. Carne Group secures strategic investment from Permira at a €1.4B valuation