This week sees the publication of the 4th annual Berlin Salary Trends report, published by Handpicked Berlin in partnership with Ravio and Factofly.   The 2026 edition is based on 4,627 cleaned responses from Berlin tech professionals (a 2.5× increase on last year's sample) of whom 4,138 are full-time employees.  Some of the key findings: AI roles surge into Berlin’s top pay tier as salaries rise The compensation data underlines the AI story. AI & Machine Learning Engineering debuts in the top 3 paid roles at a median of €95,000 (n=43), behind only Engineering Leadership (€115,000) and Legal & Compliance (€99,000). General Software Engineering sits at €88,000.  The median full-time salary across the dataset climbed to €80,000, up 4.6 per cent from €76,500 in 2025, recomputed on the full-time subset for a like-for-like comparison.  The average rose to €83,949 (+3.5 per cent).   For the first time, the report includes comparative benchmark data from Ravio, placing Berlin's self-reported numbers alongside live European market benchmarks.  The picture is "comparable, not premium": at the median, Berlin essentially matches Europe across executives (€179,515 vs €182,160) and managers (€115,345 vs €114,195), while Berlin Professionals earn slightly less than the European median (€83,950 vs €86,595).  That said, the self-reported data does not reflect the reality for most Berliners. The average gross salary is around €4,000 per month, significantly lower than tech benchmarks, reinforcing concerns about affordability and ongoing gentrification. AI is boosting productivity in Berlin — and amplifying job security fears However, one of the surprising findings is that Berlin tech workers are using AI more than their employers ask them to, and they're nervous about what that productivity means for their jobs.  87.5 per cent report using AI tools personally, 84.7 per cent say it has made them more productive, and only 7.6 per cent of their employers have no clear AI policy.  Yet 61.2 per cent are worried AI will affect their job security; only 22 per cent are unconcerned.  Berlin’s gender pay gap narrows on paper — but structural disparities persist Further, the gender pay gap narrowed but did not close. Women earn €70,000 at the median vs €85,000 for men — a raw gap of 17.6 per cent, down from 20 per cent+ last year.  After controlling for experience, role family, seniority and company size in an OLS regression, the gap shrinks to 6.6 per cent (n=3,955, p

Google DeepMind alumni have founded dozens of European startups or plan to launch startups in the past 18 months, new data shows. Ex-DeepMind luminary David Silver captured headlines last month when his new UK AI lab Ineffable Intelligence landed a massive $1.1bn seed funding round. But data shows that Silver is one of 112 alumni of DeepMind, which was founded in the UK, who in the past 18 months have launched a startup or are believed to be launching one. Many of the startups are focused on AI. The data has been sourced from Evertrace, a data firm which helps VCs and investors with investment decisions. Evertrace gathered the data from a range of public sources, including Companies House, patents and research grants. DeepMind doing for AI what Klarna and Spotify did for European tech Jacob Houlberg, Evertrace co-founder, said: “We are seeing that DeepMind is doing for AI what Klarna and Spotify did for European tech. “It's compounding into a founder factory. David Silver is the headline, but the pipeline behind him is the real story."   Of the 112 new startups identified, 70 have been identified as being in the US, 28 in the UK, three in Spain, two in Switzerland, Germany and Canada and one in Austria, Poland, Hong Kong, India and South Korea. Thirty-eight have started a new company, while 74 have moved into a "stealth" role. The startups identified each have a LinkedIn company page and an active website. A “stealth” role is a term typically used when an individual is launching a new startup, although Tech.eu has not ascertained fully whether each "stealth” role equates to a new startup.   One of the most prominent names identified is Saining Xie, an ex-DeepMind scientist and computer science professor at NYU, who began the research project that spawned the diffusion transformer in 2022.  Xie is now the chief science officer and co-founder at Advanced Machine Intelligence, the high-profile AI world model startup founded by former Meta chief scientist Yann LeCun.   Another DeepMind heavy-hitter is senior researcher Wojciech Marian Czarnecki who has joined Ineffable Intelligence as chief scientific officer, though he did not make the list as he is not a founder.   Meanwhile, ex-DeepMind scientist and Stanford professor of psychology and computer science Noah Goodman is the co-founder of US AI startup Humans&, which wants to empower people rather than replace them and which raised $480m in a seed funding round earlier this year.    UK startups   In the UK, examples include former DeepMind scientist Olivier Henaff, who is now the co-founder of Cursive, an AI foundation model startup. Cursive recently received backing from the government-backed VC fund Sovereign AI. Meanwhile, a trio of former DeepMind interns have set up tech companies.    Guanming Wang has set up vision-language-model AI startup General Instinct; Arhaan Shaikh has co-founded healthcare data infrastructure startup Wizzaid; and Abdul Raheem Nazir has co-founded tech research startup Experiqlabs.   Another notable DeepMind reinforcement learning researcher, Edward Hughes, is in a stealth role.   Across Europe   Across Europe, Alexander Taboriskiy, a former software engineering lead on Gemini at DeepMind, is the CEO and co-founder of Zurich-based Mentiora, which is building a “next-gen” AI platform.   Former DeepMind consultant Angelos Chionis has founded Paris-based FormalistAI, an AI legal outfit, and Ann-Kristin Balve, who received a scholarship from DeepMind, co-founded Munich-based defence tech startup Omnisent.   In the US   In the US, examples include former DeepMind Gemini scientist Pierre-Alexandre Kamienny, who is the co-founder of Kinro, which is building AI sales agents and Pouya Samangouei, former DeepMind search engineer, who has founded AI agent platform ROI-AI.

Featherless.ai, a platform for running open-source AI, has secured $20 million in Series A funding to give enterprises a new path to AI independence. The round was co-led by AMD Ventures and Airbus Ventures, with participation from BMW i Ventures, Kickstart Ventures, Panache Ventures, and Wavemaker Ventures. Featherless.ai is a serverless inference platform. Its goal is to make all AI models available for serverless inference. It offers a production-ready alternative to proprietary compute environments. The platform is built on deep research. The founding team created RWKV, a breakthrough open-source architecture designed to challenge the traditional dominance of transformers. Currently cited as the fastest-growing Hugging Face inference partner, Featherless.ai supports over 30,000 open models across language, vision, and audio, enabling developers to deploy production-grade AI instantly. It is a neutral layer for AI, unaligned with any hyperscaler, chipmaker, or proprietary ecosystem. By hosting its core infrastructure in the US and EU and maintaining a global team across Canada, Europe, the US, Singapore, and Australia, Featherless.ai is meeting a critical demand for sovereign AI that respects jurisdictional boundaries and data privacy. A core part of the Featherless.ai mission is hardware diversity. Through a strategic collaboration with AMD, Featherless.ai ensures that the world’s most popular open-source models run natively on AMD ROCm. This provides a competitive, auditable alternative to proprietary hardware systems, giving businesses a structural cost advantage. Featherless.ai also aims to protect the industry from the dangers of AI monopolies. By ensuring that state-of-the-art models remain accessible beyond proprietary ‘walled gardens’, Featherless.ai enables developers to build the next generation of applications with greater creative flexibility. According to Eugene Cheah, CEO and co-founder of Featherless.ai, when a few dominant players control the entire stack, it stifles competition and limits what developers can imagine. “We’re building the infrastructure that makes open-source AI practical and reliable at scale, ensuring that enterprises can build on a foundation they actually own rather than one they merely rent. This investment signals a turning point in the AI market. While the first wave of adoption was defined by proprietary, closed-door ecosystems, we provide a neutral ground for a second phase where companies can own and run their own models without being tethered to a single cloud provider or a restricted tech stack.” Sagi Paz, Head of AMD Ventures, said: “Featherless.ai is at the forefront of a critical new phase in the development of the AI industry. By providing a strong foundation for open-source AI, it helps expand access and supports a more competitive and diverse ecosystem. We are delighted to support Featherless.ai on their journey.” Kasper Sage, Managing Partner at BMW i Ventures, said: “As AI adoption accelerates, enterprises want more control over performance, cost, and where their data lives. Featherless.ai is making leading open models production-ready at scale. Being able to use a variety of different models is key for future enterprise AI use cases." Featherless.ai will use the capital to scale its global infrastructure, launch a dedicated marketplace for specialised open models and deepen its technical integration with diverse hardware architectures to continue driving down the cost of AI inference. Lead image: Eugene Cheah, CEO and co-founder of Featherless.ai.

There is something faintly gladiatorial about startups being ushered into Westminster, whether the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Not literally, of course, there are no lions behind Select Committee doors, but the dynamic is unmistakable… there’s going to be a fight of some kind. These founders, often operating at pace and under pressure, exchange their pitch decks for policy briefings (and excellent canapes) as they step into a political arena to explain how regulation shapes their ability to build and scale. All the while being watched over some of the most ancient symbols of democracy and status. Global App Economy Conference Earlier this month in London, that dynamic was on full display. As part of ACT's Global App Economy Conference (GAEC), 36 founders and startup leaders representing 30 UK companies gathered to engage directly with MPs, Peers, government officials… and this writer. For nearly two decades, (GAEC) has brought its startup and small tech members together for three days of founder-to-founder networking and direct engagement with policymakers on the rules shaping the digital economy. By giving startups, scaleups, and tech-driven small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access and resources to share their stories directly with policymakers, its members can advocate for clear, streamlined rules that allow innovative companies to build and scale across borders as can be read in this 2026 UK policy document. Policy is critical Their objective is straightforward, if not simple: to ensure that the policy environment evolves in a way that supports, rather than constrains, innovation. This is where policy becomes critical. The UK is rightly regarded as a vibrant and diverse startup ecosystem. It generates substantial economic output and supports more than 400,000 jobs. Yet while the country has proven highly effective at fostering early-stage innovation, the transition from startup to scaleup remains a persistent challenge. The founders participating in this month’s discussions were not advancing abstract concerns. Their priorities are concrete and pragmatic: improving access to finance, clarifying regulatory frameworks, reducing legal uncertainty and preserving the competitive dynamics of digital markets.  These are not new requests, but they remain unresolved in ways that materially affect growth trajectories. Access to capital is a case in point. The UK benefits from deep pools of investment, yet founders frequently encounter difficulties securing the right type of funding at the right stage.  Capital is not evenly distributed Early-stage capital can be unevenly distributed, particularly outside London, while growth-stage financing often leads companies to seek investment abroad. This creates a structural challenge: a strong pipeline of startups that struggles to convert into globally competitive scaleups. Intellectual property frameworks present another layer of complexity. Standard-essential patents (SEPs), while technical in nature, are increasingly relevant for companies operating in fields such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. For smaller companies such as SMEs, the current system can appear opaque and disproportionately litigious. Calls for greater transparency and reduced litigation costs are calls for a more accessible and predictable operating environment. Artificial intelligence regulation adds further nuance. The UK has signalled its intention to adopt a risk-based approach, seeking to balance innovation with appropriate oversight. In principle, this is a constructive direction.  Compliance needs to be unambiguous In practice, however, implementation will determine its effectiveness. Ambiguity around definitions of risk, compliance requirements, and enforcement mechanisms can introduce uncertainty, particularly for startups that lack the resources of larger organisations. Overly complex or burdensome frameworks risk consolidating innovation within a smaller number of well-capitalised firms. The structure of the digital marketplace is also under scrutiny. Policymakers are increasingly focused on addressing the dominance of large technology platforms, often through broad regulatory interventions.  While the intent is to promote fairness and competition, there is a risk that such measures may inadvertently impose disproportionate burdens on smaller companies. Startups operate with limited margins for error; regulatory shifts that lack precision can create additional friction at critical stages of growth. Strong encryption is essential Privacy and security considerations, particularly around end-to-end encryption, represent another area of tension. Governments continue to weigh public safety concerns against the need to protect user data. For startups, especially those operating in sectors such as health technology, financial services and communications, strong encryption is not merely a technical feature but a cornerstone of user trust. Weakening these protections could have far-reaching implications, both for individual businesses and for the broader digital economy. Taken together, these issues illustrate a broader point: the relationship between startups and policymakers is often shaped less by intent than by execution. Governments rarely set out to hinder innovation. However, complexity, ambiguity, and incremental policy decisions can collectively create an environment that is difficult for small companies to navigate. Against this backdrop, the importance of direct engagement becomes clear. Bringing founders into conversation with policymakers serves multiple purposes. It provides legislators with practical insights into how regulations operate in real-world contexts, moving beyond abstract conceptions of “the tech sector.”  Entrepreneurs need clear parameters At the same time, it offers entrepreneurs a clearer understanding of the constraints and trade-offs inherent in policymaking processes. While such dialogue does not eliminate disagreement, it can lead to more informed and balanced outcomes. There are indications that UK policymakers are increasingly receptive to this approach. The language of a 'collaborative, pro-growth regulatory framework is becoming more prominent, suggesting a recognition of the need to align policy with the realities of innovation-led growth. Whether this rhetoric translates into substantive change will depend on the consistency and clarity of future actions. For founders, this remains an open question. Nevertheless, the presence of startup leaders in Westminster this month reflects a broader shift. Rather than operating at a distance from policymaking, they are seeking to participate in shaping the environment in which they operate. This is not simply advocacy; it is a recognition that regulatory frameworks are integral to business outcomes. The UK does not lack entrepreneurial talent or ambition. Its challenge lies in ensuring that these strengths are matched by a policy environment that enables companies to scale effectively. Misalignment between intent and implementation can undermine even the most promising ecosystems. If last month's discussions in the UK parliament achieve progress, it is likely to be incremental rather than transformative. However, even modest improvements in clarity, access, and proportionality can have meaningful effects over time. For the startups involved, the objective is not preferential treatment or reduced scrutiny. It is the creation of conditions in which innovation can develop without unnecessary obstruction. They do not require government endorsement or even a gilded invitation to enter the Houses of Parliament; they require a framework that allows them to grow.

Invest Europe has published the seventh edition of its Private Equity at Work report, highlighting continued job creation by private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC)-backed companies across Europe. The report shows that PE- and VC-backed businesses increased employment by 4 per cent in 2024, marking the seventh consecutive year of net job growth and outperforming overall European employment trends. In total, these companies created 295,312 net new jobs during the year, roughly equivalent to the working population of Riga. Job creation was recorded across all regions, ranging from 2.3 per cent growth in the Nordics to 5.6 per cent in Central and Eastern Europe, with several countries reporting significantly higher increases, including Belgium (11.9 per cent), Bulgaria (11.6 per cent), Poland (11.1 per cent), Austria (10.7 per cent) and Greece (9.7 per cent). Source: Invest Europe, Private Equity at Work report By the end of 2024, PE- and VC-backed companies employed 11.4 million people across Europe, representing around 5 per cent of the continent’s total workforce of 244 million. Employment was concentrated in major markets, with more than 3 million workers in France, 2.38 million in the UK and 1.45 million in Germany, together approaching the combined working populations of Finland and the Netherlands. Source: Invest Europe, Private Equity at Work report The report also highlights sector and investment-stage dynamics. Key industries such as ICT, Energy & Environment, and Financial & Insurance Activities all recorded job growth above the 4 per cent industry average. Venture-stage companies led with an 8.7 per cent increase in employment, followed by growth-stage firms at 4 per cent and buyout-stage businesses at 3.8 per cent. Eric de Montgolfier, CEO of Invest Europe, said: When we first published Private Equity at Work, our aim was to show that private equity and venture capital-backed companies create jobs, rather than destroy them. We have unambiguously proved our point. Today, what also emerges is how our industry supports people and communities, while developing skills for a more innovative, competitive and sustainable Europe. The findings also challenge common assumptions about workforce reductions following investment. Companies backed by PE and VC firms recorded a 35 per cent job creation rate in their first year of ownership, reflecting the hiring needed to support expansion and strategic execution. While job growth moderates over time, it remains positive, with a 10 per cent increase still recorded in the fifth year of ownership.

Mosaic SoC, which builds dedicated perception chips that bring spatial intelligence to energy-constrained devices, has raised a $3.8 million Pre-Seed round led by Founderful with participation from Kick Foundation. The next wave of consumer devices won't capture the world; they'll understand it. Spatially aware AR glasses, always-on computer vision, and persistent AI features all depend on something most hardware still can't deliver: real-time perception within a tiny power budget. Today, those capabilities are largely confined to systems that can afford power-hungry application processors and often GPUs, putting truly wearable form factors out of reach.  Devices are gaining cameras and sensors faster than they're gaining the intelligence to use them. The compute needed to interpret those signals still sits behind heavy processing stacks that drain batteries and force compromises in size, heat, and industrial design.  For Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) building next-generation AR and mobile hardware, adding more compute often means adding more complexity. Mosaic SoC takes a different approach: a dedicated perception chip that provides a baseline layer of spatial intelligence, with a full application layer that ODMs can integrate and build on.   The company was founded by duo Moritz Scherer and Alfio Di Mauro, both PhDs from ETH Zurich with deep expertise in system-on-chip architecture.   “Spatial intelligence shouldn’t require an application-class processor and a GPU,” said Alfio Di Mauro, CEO and co-founder of Mosaic SoC. “We built Mosaic SoC to deliver real-time perception at a fraction of the energy, so battery-powered devices can understand their environment without compromising form factor.”   Mosaic SoC builds integrated circuits that process visual and positional sensor data to give devices a real-time understanding of where they are and what's around them. The company describes it as turning space into signals. The Mosaic SoC chips are designed to be small enough and efficient enough to make smart glasses indistinguishable from regular glasses, while still delivering full spatial awareness. The goal is to unlock device form factors that until now simply weren't viable.  The chip lets a device build a local map of its surroundings and the objects within them, enabling features like recalling where an item was last seen or generating a floorplan on the fly. In smartphones, Mosaic SoC can act as a co-processor for the front camera, running always-on tracking and classification at a fraction of the power. That means a device can trigger recording only when a specific event occurs or a certain object appears, delivering continuous awareness without draining the battery.    Mosaic SoC’s core differentiation is architectural. Where competing approaches rely on single- or dual-core ARM-based designs, Mosaic SoC uses a proprietary multi-core architecture with eight or more cores, engineered to maximize performance per watt and make always-on perception viable in energy-constrained devices. But the company sees hardware as just the starting point.  In its first year, Mosaic SoC has already generated meaningful revenue through NRE contracts with ODM partners. As its chips reach the market, the company expects its revenue profile to shift from engineering engagements toward scalable product revenues tied to chip sales.     Antonia Albert, Investor at Founderful, added: “The next billion smart devices will see and understand the world around them. Mosaic SoC's product is the chip that makes that possible at scale. Moritz and Alfio have the architecture, the platform vision, and the team to make it happen. We are proud to back them with Founderful on their journey to define the spatial computing era.”   Mosaic SoC is building AI deployment toolchains and compilers that let firmware developers fully leverage the architecture, with plans to evolve from a chip provider into a platform supplier where applications are developed, deployed, and optimised around its silicon. Lead image: Mosaic SoC founders Alfio Di Mauro and Moritz Scherer, CREDIT Daniel Kunz.

SPRIND has launched the Next Frontier AI challenge, inviting up to ten teams from across Europe to develop new approaches that expand current paradigms in artificial intelligence. The selected teams will receive seed funding from SPRIND totalling €125 million. To date, the most capable AI models have come almost exclusively from the US and China. In Europe, there are hardly any companies that can compete at this level. This leaves Europe at risk of falling behind in one of the most important future technologies and of cementing technological dependencies. "Europe produces top AI talent, but has so far failed to translate technological expertise into world-leading AI companies. The 'Next Frontier AI' Challenge aims to create an environment in which technological expertise, entrepreneurial excellence and funding combine to ensure the next generation of leading AI companies comes from Europe," explains Jano Costard, Head of Challenges at SPRIND. SPRIND is looking for approaches that go beyond simply improving existing AI models or their practical application.  The new SPRIND Challenge aims to catalyse the development of significantly more efficient training methods, novel architectures, disruptive agent-based systems or new concepts of intelligence. The technologies developed should be broadly applicable and commercially viable. Teams will be supported with seed funding for up to 24 months and by integration into networks of stakeholders in areas such as compute infrastructure, industry and finance. The Challenge rolls out across three stages. In the first stage, beginning in July 2026, teams must provide technical proof of their concepts. After seven months, a jury selects the best six teams for the second stage. In the third and final stage, three teams remain. By the end of June 2028, they should be in a position to raise up to one billion euros in additional capital. Teams from across Europe can apply until 1 June 2026. The ten winning teams will be selected on 24 and 25 June.

Legora today announced a $50 million extension of its previously announced Series D financing, bringing the total round to $600 million in equity and valuing the company at $5.6 billion post-money. The extension adds Atlassian and NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm) as corporate investors, alongside new financial investors, including Airtree, Barclays, Geodesic, Insight, Liberty Global and Nikesh Arora. The extended funding round follows a period of rapid growth. Legora recently surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue – placing it among the fastest-growing enterprise software companies in history.Over the past year, Legora has scaled from 40 to 400 employees and expanded its customer base from 200 to more than 1,000 organisations across 50+ markets. It now serves tens of thousands of legal professionals at major corporate legal departments, such as Barclays, as well as leading global firms, such as White & Case, HSFK, and Linklaters. Corporate legal departments now represent one of Legora's fastest-growing segments, with adoption accelerating over the past year as in-house teams look to bring the same AI capabilities their outside counsel are already using. Across deployments, customers are seeing measurable impact, including, among law firms surveyed, an average of 4.3 non-billable hours saved per lawyer per week and 42 per cent reporting new work won as a direct result of using Legora. As AI agents move from passive assistants to systems that can act on behalf of users, using tools and completing workflows, the software model is beginning to shift from SaaS (Software as a Service) toward AaaS (Agent as a Service). For legal teams, this means moving beyond isolated use cases to integrated systems that combine firm data, jurisdictional knowledge, and intelligent agents. “Enterprise AI is now entering a new phase,” said Max Junestrand, CEO and co-founder of Legora. “Foundation models are improving rapidly, but the real breakthrough is in how they’re applied, where AI doesn’t just assist, but executes autonomously with the right level of human oversight. With the support of our investors and customers, we’re building a full agentic operating system for legal work.” "As a leader in Legal AI, Legora is showing how deeply integrated, context-aware AI can transform complex workflows. We see strong alignment with Atlassian’s vision for AI-powered team collaboration and look forward to supporting their continued expansion", said Sarah Hughes, Atlassian Head of Corporate Development and Product Partnerships.

In 2025, Europe’s software ecosystem raised €8.1 billion and grew more focused, selective, and AI-driven. While overall funding remained below peak levels, capital concentrated around a smaller number of scale-stage companies, with large rounds going to players like Bending Spoons, Your.World, and Brevo. These deals underscored a growing preference for proven business models, profitability, and consolidation strategies. At the same time, artificial intelligence became a core component of modern software development. New products were increasingly designed with AI capabilities from the outset, integrating automation and data-driven functionality across a wide range of use cases, from general enterprise solutions to specialised industry tools. This reflects a broader shift toward more intelligent, adaptive software, moving beyond traditional SaaS models. The ecosystem remained anchored in key hubs including the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands, with strong activity across both scale-ups and early-stage startups. Beneath the headline rounds, early-stage funding stayed resilient, particularly for vertical software targeting regulated and operationally complex industries. Overall, 2025 marked a transition to a more mature European software market, defined by disciplined investment at the top and a broad base of AI-native innovation underneath (for more detailed analyses of the European technology ecosystem, check out Tech.eu’s annual report: European Tech 2025 – The Big Picture). Here are ten software companies that raised the most in 2025. Amount raised in 2025: €1.1B Bending Spoons develops, acquires, and scales consumer software products across a range of digital categories. In 2025, the company secured approximately €1.1 billion across two corporate financing rounds to support the expansion of its product portfolio. Amount raised in 2025: $1B Grammarly provides an AI-powered writing assistant designed to improve clarity, accuracy, and tone across documents, emails, and messages, offering tools for grammar, spelling, style, and overall communication used by individuals and teams. The company has secured $1 billion in financing to scale its sales and marketing efforts, pursue strategic acquisitions, and expand the reach of its AI productivity platform. Amount raised in 2025: €800M Your.World operates a platform that acquires, develops, and scales online services companies, offering solutions in web presence, cloud, productivity, security, and digital transformation to support business growth. It serves over one million customers through a portfolio of brands and a serial acquisition model focused on long-term value creation. The company raised €800 million to support acquisitions and strategic investments aimed at strengthening its market position and expanding its presence. Amount raised in 2025: €500M Brevo offers an all-in-one customer communication and marketing platform, enabling businesses to manage email, SMS, chat, CRM, and automation tools to engage customers and streamline workflows. The company secured €500 million in funding, reaching a unicorn valuation. The investment will support further acquisitions and expansion in the US market. Amount raised in 2025: €470M Lovable provides an AI-powered no-code platform that allows users to build applications and automate workflows using natural language, making software development more accessible to non-developers. The company raised approximately €470 million across multiple funding rounds, including a $330 million Series B in December, which valued it at $6.6 billion. The funding will support product development, expansion, and broader adoption of its platform. Amount raised in 2025: $200M Shop Circle is a software company that acquires, builds, and scales e-commerce applications for online businesses. Its platform provides a suite of tools that help merchants manage operations, optimise performance, and grow their digital stores. The company combines AI-driven technology with operational expertise to integrate and expand software products, enabling businesses to streamline workflows and scale more efficiently. In 2025, Shop Circle secured $200 million across three rounds to position itself as a European alternative to venture capital funding. Amount raised in 2025: €137M Xelix is a London-based enterprise software company that provides an AI-powered platform for automating and optimising accounts payable processes. Its solution integrates with existing finance systems to enhance controls, prevent payment errors and fraud, and streamline tasks such as supplier reconciliation and vendor management. In 2025, Xelix raised €137 million to tackle invoice fraud and overpayments with AI-driven solutions. Amount raised in 2025: $135M Talon.One is an enterprise software company that provides an incentives engine for managing loyalty programmes, promotions, and gamified rewards. Its platform enables businesses to design, run, and optimise personalised customer engagement campaigns across channels using real-time data. The solution is used by retailers, airlines, and other global brands to improve customer retention, increase lifetime value, and drive revenue growth. Talon.One secured $135 million in 2025 to accelerate the ongoing innovation of its platform and strengthen its market position in the US, UK, Europe, and APAC. Amount raised in 2025: €100M NestAI is a physical AI lab that develops adaptive intelligence systems for unmanned operations, with a focus on defence and critical infrastructure. Its platform combines real-world data, simulation, and modular architecture to enable AI systems that continuously learn and adapt in changing environments. The company works on applications such as autonomous systems and decision-support tools designed for complex, high-stakes operational settings. In 2025, NestAI secured €100 million in funding to establish a physical AI lab and develop autonomous systems and command-and-control solutions for the defence sector. Amount raised in 2025: $110M Ascendx Cloud develops and scales CRM-focused applications designed to enhance sales, service, and operational workflows. Its platform helps organisations unlock greater value from CRM data through automation, data management, and AI-driven insights. The company builds and acquires SaaS products within the CRM ecosystem, supporting businesses in improving efficiency and driving growth through better use of customer data. In 2025, Ascendx Cloud secured $110 million in growth-stage funding to support the company’s expansion in the US and finance acquisitions to strengthen its AI-driven CRM application suite.

Estonian-Dutch deeptech startup Spiral Hydrogen has raised €2.7 million in pre-seed funding to advance its bubble-free electrolysis technology, with backing from byFounders, Norrsken Evolve, and Superangel, alongside €0.7 million in grants. Founded by Juri Volodin and Fedor Stomakhin, the company combines expertise in electrochemistry, energy systems, and software engineering. Spiral Hydrogen is developing a rotating, bubble-free electrolyser designed to improve the efficiency of green hydrogen production. Conventional systems can lose a significant share of input energy due to gas bubbles forming on electrodes, limiting reaction efficiency. Its approach removes this constraint by routing gases through a porous electrode into a dedicated channel, enabling efficiency levels above 90 per cent and lowering the cost of hydrogen production. Our technology solves one of the industry’s most persistent challenges - gas bubbles - and enables efficiency levels that could make green hydrogen commercially viable at scale, said Juri Volodin, founder and CEO of Spiral Hydrogen. The new funding will support the transition from laboratory development to pilot deployment. The company plans to build its first pilot electrolyser at the Port of Rotterdam in partnership with SwitcH2, with completion expected within the next two years. The pilot is intended to validate the technology under real-world industrial conditions and inform the development of a first commercial unit. By improving efficiency and reducing both capital and operating costs, Spiral Hydrogen aims to make green hydrogen competitive with fossil-based alternatives, supporting decarbonisation across sectors such as refining, fertilisers, steel, and heavy transport.

Hands-free EV charging company Rocsys has introduced the Rocsys M1, a hands-free charging solution designed specifically for robotaxi depot operations. The system is positioned as the first system capable of serving multiple bays simultaneously in robotaxi environments. As part of a broader autonomous depot platform, the M1 is currently in pilot deployment, with large-scale rollout planned for 2027. To support its growth strategy, Rocsys also secured a $13 million Series A extension led by Capricorn Partners, with participation from Scania Invest, Forward.One, SEB Greentech Venture Capital and Graduate Ventures. This brings the company’s total funding to $56 million to date. The launch comes amid accelerating demand for autonomous mobility. The global robotaxi market is projected to reach $45.7 billion by 2030, increasing fleet utilisation and placing growing pressure on depot infrastructure. Manual charging, repeated thousands of times daily, has emerged as a key operational bottleneck, introducing cost, inefficiencies and safety risks that limit scalability. Rocsys aims to address this challenge by automating charging processes, improving fleet uptime and overall productivity. Technically, the Rocsys M1 features a modular, multi-bay architecture capable of serving up to 10 charging bays with a single system. Flexible mounting options, including overhead, ground and roof configurations, allow integration into a wide range of depot layouts while preserving space for parallel operations. In a 50-bay depot, Rocsys estimates the system can boost operational efficiency by up to 75 per cent and deliver up to $1.7 million in annual savings. Built on more than six years of real-world operational data, the system is designed to perform reliably across varying lighting, weather and vehicle positioning. Combining AI-driven computer vision with motion intelligence, the M1 achieves a plug-in success rate of over 99.9 per cent and is fully interoperable across EVs, chargers and connector types, enabling deployment without costly retrofitting or vendor lock-in. As part of the broader Rocsys platform, the M1 integrates hardware, software and services into a connected ecosystem. This includes operational monitoring through the Rocsys Portal, API integrations with customer systems and remote support services, ensuring vehicles remain charged and ready without manual intervention. Crijn Bouman, CEO and co-founder of Rocsys, said the system addresses a critical gap in autonomous mobility infrastructure: Autonomous vehicles are growing rapidly, and infrastructure must keep pace. Without hands-free operations, autonomy stops at the depot. Based on a platform designed to extend beyond charging to automated interior cleaning and inspection, the Rocsys M1 introduces smart charging infrastructure for continuous, real-world use at scale, validated by signing a major robotaxi deal. It enables operators to run mixed fleets autonomously, reliably and without interruption. This is the missing link for robotaxi operators to move from pilots to global deployment. The newly raised capital will support the company’s next phase of growth, focusing on scaling both its technology platform and market presence. Rocsys plans to accelerate development and deployment of the M1, expand pilot programs into full commercial rollouts, and strengthen operations across North America and Europe. Investment will also go toward advancing its AI-driven software, expanding its service ecosystem, and supporting integrations with fleet operators and infrastructure partners.

UK-based maritime defence startup Online Oceans has raised £4 million in funding to scale its autonomous surface vessels and fleet software platform. The round was led by Seraphim Space, with participation from investors including Peter Rive, Frank Thieser, Florian Seibel, and Koro Capital. Founded in 2025 by George Morton and Alistair Douglas, Online Oceans is developing autonomous systems designed to enable persistent maritime coverage. Its offering combines Scout, a compact solar-powered autonomous surface vessel, with Tether, a cloud-based command-and-control platform that allows operators to manage missions, monitor assets, and access data in real time. The company is targeting use cases including anti-submarine warfare, protection of subsea infrastructure, border security, and counter-drug smuggling. Its platform supports dense, continuously connected fleets, offering an alternative to traditional approaches that rely on costly crewed vessels or limited autonomous deployments. Commenting on the need for more cost-effective maritime monitoring, George Morton, founder and CEO of Online Oceans, said: We built Online Oceans to provide a more practical and scalable way for governments and operators to monitor critical waters, protect infrastructure, and maintain awareness over extended periods. The new funding will be used to scale manufacturing, support deployments, and expand the company’s ability to meet growing demand across defence and commercial markets. While building from Europe, Online Oceans is positioning itself to address global demand for persistent maritime monitoring and infrastructure.

London-based ManaMind has raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round to advance its AI-driven game testing platform. The round was led by Sure Valley Ventures, with participation from EWOR, Ascension, SyndicateRoom, and Heartfelt. Founded by Emil Kostadinov and Sabtain Ahmad, ManaMind is developing autonomous AI agents designed to replace repetitive manual quality assurance (QA) processes in game development. As games grow in scale and complexity, testing has become an increasingly resource-intensive part of production, often requiring significant time and cost to ensure a polished player experience. The company’s system continuously plays through games to detect bugs, generating actionable reports and enabling teams to focus on resolving issues rather than documenting them. By running testing in parallel with development, the platform aims to support faster release cycles and improve overall software quality. Emil Kostadinov, CEO and co-founder of ManaMind, said that game development should prioritise human creativity over repetitive testing tasks: We're automating the manual, time-consuming parts so studios can focus on building amazing worlds. We've developed our own proprietary visual model specifically for virtual environments because gaming demands that level of precision. Gaming is our launchpad, but our vision is to build the autonomous testing layer for all software and, ultimately, robotics. ManaMind has already established design partnerships with Included Games and Crazy Labs, reflecting early demand for AI-native testing infrastructure within the global games industry. The funding will be used to expand the company’s technical team, accelerate development of its proprietary models, and support growth across key markets. While gaming is its initial focus, ManaMind aims to extend its autonomous testing approach to broader software and robotics applications over time.

Earlybird VC has closed its eighth early-stage fund at €360 million, marking the largest raise in the firm’s history and reinforcing its fundraising momentum, which it has maintained through both bull markets and downturns. Backed by a mix of large institutions and family offices, the fund continues a nearly three-decade track record of raising new capital every three to four years without exception. Across its technology investment strategies — including Earlybird Health and multiple growth vehicles — the firm now manages €2.5 billion in assets. I spoke to Partner Dr Andre Retterath to learn more. Dr Andre Retterath joined Earlybird VC’s Munich office in 2017, where he leads the firm’s AI and infrastructure investment practice, focusing on frontier models, developer tools, and software infrastructure. He sits on the boards of companies, including Aleph Alpha, Energy Robotics, Ethon.AI, Sintra AI, spAItial, and SLNG, among others, and leads Earlybird’s Flywheel team supporting portfolio growth across engineering, marketing, and community. Early bets from Fund VIII The first deployments from Fund VIII reflect Earlybird’s focus on AI infrastructure, vertical applications, and foundational technologies emerging across Europe. From the new fund, Earlybird has already backed promising companies such as Black Forest Labs, SpAItial AI, Sintra, Arago, Porters, and Rivia. A number of stealth and new investments will be announced. Where value is really accruing in the AI stack Earlybird invests across AI applications, infrastructure, and foundational models, and I was interested in where they see the most value accruing in the AI stack right now. According to Retterath, Earlybird’s thesis has evolved quite significantly over the past few years. He contends that if you look at the application layer, many companies operate with very thin margins — often negative. “Foundation models tend to sit somewhere in the 30 to 50 per cent range. But when you move further down the stack, into infrastructure and hardware, margins are materially higher — Nvidia is the obvious example, running at 70–75 per cent.” The deeper you go in the stack, the higher the barriers to entry and the stronger the defensibility. He asserts: “At the application layer, it has never been easier to build a product — you can spin something up over a weekend. The constraint has shifted from building to distribution. So while applications are noisy and highly competitive, infrastructure offers stronger moats. The risk at the top of the stack is that you can be replaced very quickly — sometimes within weeks.” How Earlybird built an edge by backing deeptech before it was obvious That same logic — favouring deeper, more defensible layers of the stack — has long shaped Earlybird’s investment strategy. It’s what led them to recognise Isar Aerospace long before space tech was on the radar, and to Marvel Fusion when laser-based nuclear fusion was mentioned only in academia. Both are now benchmarks of European frontier technology. Retterath attributes this to the firm's approach to technology. It's always focused more on technology-differentiated businesses than on purely business-model innovation. Many of the Earlybird partners come from technical backgrounds in areas like  aerospace and industrial engineering, which shapes how they see opportunities. Before joining Earlybird, Retterath worked as a process automation engineer at ThyssenKrupp and as a management consultant with GE North America. He holds a PhD from the Technical University of Munich, focused on machine learning and venture capital, alongside degrees in management and mechatronics, and has studied at Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. That technical grounding shapes how Retterath identifies and backs complex, high-barrier technologies ahead of the market. He contends that Earlybird started building its AI investment practice years before it became mainstream: “There are two ways to differentiate: through technology and through the business model. We are probably 90 per cent focused on the former and 10 per cent on the latter. That’s why we’ve consistently leaned into specific sectors, industries, and technologies very early on. That allowed us to develop conviction early. " To Retterath, early investment is crucial to accessing founders: “In highly competitive rounds, founders don’t just choose capital — they choose partners. If you’ve built credibility over time, founders will come to you earlier.” ​ Retterath invested in DeepCode, a Swiss startup using machine learning to analyse code and automatically detect bugs, vulnerabilities, and performance issues, which was later acquired by Synk in 2020. Further, he closely tracked the foundation space, which led to an early investment in Aleph Alpha. Through that network, he also learned that Matthias Niessner was leaving to start Black Forest Labs — an opportunity Earlybird would go on to back at a very early stage in 2024. Earlybird restructures for generational continuity and long-term independence Building challenger companies takes decades, and Earlybird VC is reshaping its own structure accordingly. With the close of Fund VIII, the firm has implemented what it calls a “perpetual active ownership” model — a generational approach designed to ensure long-term continuity without external ownership. Nearly three decades after founding Earlybird, co-founders Dr Hendrik Brandis and Dr Christian Nagel, alongside partners Paul Klemm, Tim Rehder, and Dr Andre Retterath, have formalised a structure in which ownership remains exclusively with active partners and is continuously passed on to the next generation. As part of the transition, Jochen Küst also assumes the role of Operating Partner in addition to his CFO responsibilities. At a time when several European VC firms are exploring partial exits or external ownership, Earlybird is taking a different route. The firm will not be sold, nor will it bring in outside shareholders. Instead, ownership is tied directly to operational responsibility: once a partner steps back, their shares are transferred to the remaining partners. For Retterath, the model is as much about access and incentives as it is about governance. “In many VC funds, becoming a partner requires significant GP commitment, which often means you need to come from a wealthy background or have already made money. That creates a structural barrier.” Earlybird’s approach removes that constraint. The firm aims to ensure that ownership is not gated by personal wealth, but instead tied to merit and long-term contribution. “We want to enable the best investors — no matter their background, education, or gender — to be in a position to build Earlybird.” The second issue is retention. Without a clear path to leadership, top investors eventually leave — a pattern seen across more established firms. “If you can’t present a clear trajectory — how someone becomes a true leader and eventually runs the firm — they will leave. You can only do that so many times before it becomes a problem for the firm and its LPs.” The model emerged from a broader reflection on succession — a topic Retterath argues is still largely unresolved across European venture. After benchmarking around 15 leading firms, he discovered that to no surprise, “there was no blueprint.” “Most firms haven’t really solved this. Often it’s still one or two founding partners in the driver’s seat, without a clear transition plan.” That led to a fundamental question: Should Earlybird eventually be sold — or built to endure? “Do we want to be sold — like many firms have been — or do we want to create something that lasts? A firm that’s always on?” The answer was clear: “We want to create a legacy. We do not want to sell Earlybird — and we expect that it never will be.” Under the perpetual ownership model, only active general partners can hold equity. There is no buy-in requirement, and equally, no ability to cash out. Ownership is passed forward — not monetised. “As long as you’re an operational general partner, you can be an owner. Once you retire, you step out and hand over your shares to the next generation.” The result is a structure designed to align incentives across decades — not fund cycles — while giving rising investors a clear path to leadership. “For the next generation, this creates real clarity. They know exactly what they are working towards — becoming an entrepreneur leading the firm.” In an industry often defined by short-term cycles and opaque partnership dynamics, Earlybird is making a deliberate bet: that long-term ownership, clearly structured succession, and open access to partnership will be a competitive advantage — not just for the firm, but for the founders it backs. Scaling into the next phase of European tech Fund VIII builds on decades of experience and an AI-native team with boots on the ground across Europe’s major hubs. “The majority of our LPs have backed us across several fund generations, and with our perpetual ownership model in place, it’s our mission to keep evolving without losing sight of the principles that have brought us to where we are today," shared Retterath. Europe is entering a new chapter, with AI accelerating the transformation of entire industries. Earlybird embarks on a new era that combines three decades of experience with a next generation of partners ready to back exceptional teams across AI applications, software infrastructure, and deeptech. ​ Retterath is bullish about Europe's future. He contends that the geopolitical developments that have forced Europe to take sovereignty more seriously are creating momentum across technology, infrastructure, and capital. “Europe has the talent, the research base, and increasingly the capital to build globally relevant companies. Historically, European startups have also been more capital-efficient, which is an advantage. So overall, I think we’re entering a very strong phase for the European ecosystem.”

Cleo Labs, a Paris-based company specialising in product regulatory compliance, has raised €1.5 million in a funding round to accelerate the development of its AI-powered platform for international compliance. The round was led by Larry Berger, with participation from Kima Ventures, Financière Saint-James, and several angel investors, including Boris Paillard (Le Wagon), Ambre Soubiran (Kaiko), Stéphanie Zolesio (Casino), and Charles Sutton (Datascientest). The round also includes a scout ticket from the Accel fund. The company operates in a growing regtech market, where businesses face increasing complexity in navigating fragmented and evolving regulatory requirements across different countries. Managing compliance remains a significant challenge, with many organisations still relying on manual processes and limited tools despite the high costs associated with non-compliance. Founded by Naomie Halioua and Anaelle Guez, who bring together expertise in both technology and legal compliance, Cleo Labs has developed an AI platform designed to automate regulatory compliance for companies selling physical products internationally. Its system continuously monitors regulatory developments across multiple jurisdictions and provides structured insights to help teams manage requirements, anticipate changes, and reduce time to market. Our ambition is to transform regulatory compliance - currently seen as a constraint - into a strategic lever for companies. Thanks to AI, it becomes possible to anticipate rather than react, says Naomie Halioua, co-founder of Cleo Labs. The platform supports both pre-launch and ongoing compliance by generating tailored regulatory checklists for each product and market, while continuously monitoring regulatory updates and providing real-time alerts with business impact analysis. This enables teams to process larger volumes of regulatory requirements without additional resources, streamline compliance timelines, and identify risks earlier in the product lifecycle. The new funding will be used to enhance the platform’s capabilities, expand its feature set, and support commercial growth in Europe, while laying the groundwork for further international expansion, including the United States.

London-based Dex, an AI-powered recruitment platform, has raised $5.3 million in a seed funding round led by Notion Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun programme, Concept Ventures, and angel investors including individuals from OpenAI and other organisations. The round follows a pre-seed round raised in 2025, bringing the company’s total funding to $8.4 million. Dex focuses on connecting software engineers with relevant job opportunities through an AI-driven approach. Its product operates as an AI “talent agent”, engaging users in detailed conversations to understand their experience, motivations, and career goals. The platform then matches candidates with suitable roles, while also supporting them with research, compensation benchmarking, and interview preparation through a conversational interface. On the employer side, Dex gathers insights into hiring teams, role requirements, and performance expectations. When a strong mutual fit is identified, the platform facilitates direct introductions between candidates and hiring managers. Commenting on the limitations of current hiring systems, Paddy Lambros, CEO and founder of Dex, said that recruitment processes frequently underperform, while AI has not yet delivered substantial improvements. We’re currently seeing an AI ‘arms race’ to the bottom, with companies being flooded by AI-generated applications, while individuals are often subjected to inhumane and unethical screening. Dex offers an alternative. The funding comes at a time when the global recruitment industry is facing growing pressure to evolve, with traditional hiring processes often criticised as inefficient and heavily reliant on manual decision-making. Dex positions itself as an alternative, aiming to improve how talent and opportunities are matched through AI. Dex plans to use the new funding to further develop its product and expand its go-to-market strategy. While currently headquartered in London, the company is preparing to expand into the US, targeting technology hubs such as New York and San Francisco. The company’s broader goal is to improve how individuals find meaningful work by aligning opportunities with their skills, ambitions, and values, while offering tools that support both candidates and employers throughout the hiring process.

All3, a company developing a robotic platform for construction, has raised $25 million in a seed funding round led by RTP Global, with significant participation from SuperSeed and additional backing from Begin Capital, s16vc and VNV Global. The company is developing an integrated construction model that combines autonomous robotics, AI-powered design software, and robotic manufacturing. Its system includes a legged robot for on-site assembly, alongside tools that enable the production of custom components, with the aim of improving efficiency, reducing costs, and lowering the environmental impact of construction projects. Construction remains one of the world’s largest industries, with limited productivity gains over recent decades and continued reliance on manual labour. Existing prefabrication approaches have struggled to scale in complex urban environments, while All3’s approach is designed to enable automation without imposing design constraints. Rodion Shishkov, CEO and co-founder of All3, said the company was founded to develop robotics and AI solutions to address fundamental challenges in construction, adding that the seed round confirms its ability to tackle problems long considered unsolvable. Construction is the largest global sector yet to experience a productivity revolution, representing a trillion-dollar opportunity. With this funding, we'll scale deployment of our technology with one clear mission: to solve the housing crisis once and for all. The company has already seen early demand for its platform, having processed more than 100,000 square metres of residential projects through its design software, contributing to a growing pipeline of projects in Germany. The funding will be used to advance research and development in London and Belgrade and to deploy an initial fleet of robots on commercial construction projects in Germany, the company’s first launch market. All3 operates across Europe, with offices in Berlin and Zug, and focuses on applying robotics and AI to modernise construction processes at scale.

KOMPAS VC, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on physical industries, has announced the €160 million final close of its second fund. The fund attracted support from existing backers such as VKR Holding, as well as new institutional investors including Realdania. With Fund II, KOMPAS VC will continue investing in technologies aimed at improving productivity, resilience, and decarbonisation across sectors such as manufacturing, the built environment, energy, advanced materials, and logistics. These industries are characterised by complex infrastructure and legacy systems, where transformation is both necessary and challenging. The investor focuses on solutions that can be deployed in real-world industrial environments, including industrial AI, robotics, and cybersecurity. Its strategy centres on supporting technologies that integrate with existing workflows and enhance how companies design, operate, and maintain physical assets. Founded in 2021, KOMPAS VC invests from seed to Series B across Europe and North America, typically deploying initial cheques between €1 million and €5 million. With the new fund, KOMPAS VC plans to expand its investment and platform teams, strengthening its ability to support founders through domain expertise, industrial partnerships, and commercial access. The investment strategy focuses on three core priorities: increasing productivity, strengthening resilience, and enabling decarbonisation. In practice, this includes backing technologies that optimise industrial workflows, secure critical infrastructure, and support retrofit and electrification efforts. Sebastian Peck, partner at KOMPAS VC, said the focus is on addressing barriers to adoption in industrial environments, ensuring that innovations can scale effectively within complex, real-world systems: We prioritise understanding the operational friction from legacy infrastructure to complex buying cycles that often stall transformation. By solving these real-world constraints, we ensure our investments don't just offer performance gains, but actually scale within the industry. The fund is expected to support a portfolio of early-stage companies and has already made several initial investments across industrial technology, energy, advanced manufacturing, and data infrastructure. 

SPREAD AI has raised $30 million in Series B funding to support international expansion, enhance its platform capabilities, and strengthen its position across key industries. The round included new investors such as DTCP Growth, IQT, OTB Ventures, Salesforce, and Thesiger Capital, alongside angel investor Christian Schulz. Existing backers, including HV Capital and Nauta Capital, also participated. The investment deepens the company’s collaboration with Salesforce, combining SPREAD’s product data capabilities with Salesforce’s Customer 360 platform to help address the gap between customer expectations, engineering, and operational execution. SPREAD’s platform integrates and contextualises product-related data across the entire lifecycle, from design through to production and operations. By connecting structured and unstructured data across enterprise systems, it enables the creation of “Product Twins” that help engineering and operations teams understand dependencies, assess trade-offs, and make decisions more efficiently. The company works with global manufacturers across industries, including automotive, aerospace and defence, and industrial equipment, and reports that its platform has contributed to faster development cycles, improved troubleshooting times, and significant cost savings. Commenting on the round, Robert Göbel, co-founder and co-CEO of SPREAD, said: Working with Salesforce gives us the reach to bring Engineering Intelligence to the industrial companies that need it most: the teams developing, operating or servicing defence systems, vehicles, and industrial machinery. Together, we're making sense of industrial data scattered across a sprawl of legacy systems with our AI-native data foundation that lets engineering, sales and service teams decide and act with speed and confidence. This is Industrial AI delivering tangible impact. Philipp Noll, co-founder and co-CEO, added that the focus is on helping manufacturers operate more efficiently by providing an AI-native foundation built on existing engineering data and designed to support long-term performance. The investment comes as European policymakers place increasing emphasis on AI capabilities in strategic industries, with initiatives aimed at strengthening regional leadership in industrial AI. SPREAD is positioning its platform to support manufacturers globally with data-driven operations aligned with European standards for transparency and data protection.

The UK government will develop an AI hardware plan, the Technology Secretary announced today, just days after US AI giant OpenAI paused a major UK data centre project. The announcement of the plan emerged today as Liz Kendall said that AI sovereignty was not about “isolation” and trying to “pull up the drawbridge and go it alone”. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute, Kendall said: “We will continue to use the best technology and welcome inward investment because that’s what our public services and economy demand.” Her comments come amid government fears about the dominance of US tech giants, which control vast amounts of global tech infrastructure and compute power. The government recently announced the first investments from its £500m VC fund backing domestic AI startups. The government said it would announce the launch of its AI hardware plan at London Tech Week, which takes place in June. Kendall said the plan would help secure Britain’s capability in chips and the semiconductor technologies that underpin the full AI hardware stack. The government has already promised to buy emerging chip technology from British companies in a £100m bid to boost growth by supporting the AI sector. Kendall has previously said the government would offer guaranteed payments to British startups producing AI hardware that can help sectors such as life sciences and financial services.  Under a “first customer” pledge Kendall’s department will commit in advance to buying AI inference chips that meet set performance standards. The government is backing British strengths in the parts of the AI stack where it believes the UK has an edge, such as frontier research, compute and infrastructure, while working closely with other countries to shape the global AI ecosystem. Earlier this month, it was revealed OpenAI’s plans to bring its flagship $500bn AI data centre project to the UK have been put on hold, with the ChatGPT developer citing energy costs and regulatory issues as factors which have halted its plans.