Outlast Fund, a Baltic-Nordic VC fund, has closed its first fund at €21M to invest in Pre-Seed and Seed-stage startups from the region.  The fund is based in Riga and Stockholm, and aims to be the first cheque in backing founders building solutions that are built to last, with initial pre-seed tickets of up to €250,000 and €1.5M Seed rounds. The fund looks to scour the edges to uncover the most promising founders in the Baltics and Nordics, and is prepared to invest in them at the earliest stages to help them build enduring companies. The fund is particularly keen to keep an eye out for serial entrepreneurs with a proven track record, ready to back them as early as the idea stage.  Outlast Fund also invests in first-time founders who possess unique and specific insights within their chosen verticals. However, a trait that they look for in all cases is an obsessive drive to solve their customers’ most pressing problems. Regardless of whether the founders are better suited for building lean teams with the help of angels, microfunds, and syndicates, or if they are eyeing large rounds from the get-go, Outlast Fund is ready to support from the first cheque, rather than jumping in at the middle. “At Outlast Fund, we believe that the real breakthroughs happen at the edges. This fund is built for the outliers. Rather than competing in the crowded middle, the focus is on being the very first cheque – either assembling a syndicate around an overlooked gem or partnering early with founders chasing global scale,” said Marija Rucevska, Outlast Fund co-founding GP With Stockholm as home of some of Europe’s most exciting startups at the moment, the decision to bridge the Baltic countries, one of the world’s fastest-growing startup hubs and a veritable treasure trove for future success stories, makes sense to infuse the up-and-coming region with the experience and ambition of Sweden. "Having spent a decade as an investor collaborating with founders and startups in Stockholm's venture ecosystem, I recognise a remarkable resemblance between Riga's current landscape and the early days of the Stockholm scene,” shared Kristaps Prūsis, Outlast Fund co-founding GP. Outlast Fund is founded by four GPs with extensive founder, operator, and investor experience. The team is made up of Egita Polanska, operator leveraging investor experience at leading accelerators TechStars (Seattle, USA), and Startup Wise Guys, Marija Rucevska, founder at Helve and TechChill, Mikaela Pedersen, an experienced operator and a founder with an exit under her belt, and Kristaps Prusis, founder with exits and investor who previously founded VNTRS (50 investments, 5 exits).  While the fund is generalist and industry agnostic, the GPs’ networks and expertise can act as multipliers in some sectors in particular, which they are keen to place a focus on. Those include B2B SaaS, digital health, and fintech, supporting founders who are obsessed with solving real-life problems for their customers, often by leveraging the latest technologies. The fund has kickstarted its activity by investing in 5 startups even before the fund was closed. Those include: Handwave (Latvia), a biometric authentication platform, Convershake (Latvia), an AI-powered SaaS for contact centres, MIA Health (Norway), a data-driven digital health companion turning heart-rate data into lifelong cardiovascular fitness, Aggregate Markets (Estonia), a next-generation marketplace for construction aggregates, and Vitala (Sweden), reimbursable exercise prescriptions for chronic care management. Outlast Fund is backed by anchor LP ALTUM, the Latvian Development Finance Institution, the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERAF), and various high-net-worth individuals and family funds, including the likes of such operators as Davis Siksnans (CEO of the first Latvian unicorn, Printful), Andrius Biceika (who scaled and built Revolut, member of the Supervisory Council at Revolut Europe Holdings), and Gravity Team (one of the top algorithmic market makers and liquidity providers in the crypto space globally).

Seapoint, a financial platform for European startups, has raised $3 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Frontline Ventures with participation from Tapestry VC and former COOs of Stripe, Revolut, Tide, and Tines. Seapoint is building a unified financial platform for growing European companies, combining business accounts, corporate cards, payments, and treasury management in one place. Its AI automates time-consuming finance tasks, processing invoices from email, managing payroll, categorising expenses, and generating reports, so work that once took hours happens in the background. This approach addresses a gap in the market, as mid-market firms with 10 to 250 employees are often too large for consumer-focused neobanks yet not large enough for traditional corporate banking. In interviews with more than 50 VC-backed founders, Seapoint found that financial stacks are fragmented, manual, and costly, with companies typically using four to six tools, managing multiple bank accounts, relying heavily on accountants, and earning little or no interest on deposits. By bringing these tools together and automating workflows, Seapoint seeks to lower costs, provide greater clarity, and turn savings and interest into additional months of runway. Seapoint Founder and CEO Sean Mullaney was previously European CIO at Stripe, CTO at AI unicorn Algolia, and has advised the ECB and the Bank of England. He’s joined by former colleagues from Stripe's European payments team and executives from Tide. Many on the team, including Mullaney, are ex-founders who’ve experienced the problem first-hand. AI can transform finances for scaling companies. Within minutes, Seapoint connects to a company's bank accounts, its accounting software and email. At which point we can give them a real-time view of their business, automate bookkeeping, pay invoices and manage payroll.  Seapoint is broader and more powerful than traditional banking. And it puts founders back in control of their finances, commented Mulllaney. After nine months in development, the company has rolled out a private beta already in use by dozens of VC-backed startups. The startups across the UK and Europe can sign up for the beta program at seapoint.co.

Today, fintech investment firm Shapers announces the successful launch of $75 million fund I.   The news coincides with a milestone for one of its portfolio companies, Finary, which has just closed a €25 million Series B. I have to say it’s rare that an investor shares the limelight in this way, and it says a lot about the founders of Shapers and the community focus they have in the startup ecosystem.  Philippe Teixeira da Mota is the co-founder of Shapers and an investor focused on fintech, insurtech, and high-growth technology companies across Europe and beyond. I spoke to him to learn more.  From the growth grind to independence da Mota began his career in investment banking at J.P. Morgan before moving into venture capital, building a track record of backing category-defining companies. He was previously the first employee at Hedosophia where he spent 9 years investing in fintech, opening offices around the world and experiencing heavy success. However, da Mota admits that the more the company grew,  the less fun he was having. He explained: “My role became more managerial than pure investing, which is what I really like. At one point, I was on the board of 21 companies — which, looking back, was way too much. That’s one of the problems in this industry.” This was a big motivation for da Mota to start his own firm:  “I’d learned the craft, enjoyed it, but I wanted something smaller, nimbler, and more focused rather than a bigger, fast-scaling firm. I felt I had the experience, the network, and that it was the right time, both for me and for the ecosystem,” he shared.  The other motivation was personal — his co-founder is his brother Thomas, who spent the majority of his career at Bain. They’ve already worked together on different companies and investments, but both felt it was the right time in their lives to work side by side.  “So that’s how it came together — we wanted to build a startup, except in this case, the “startup” is a fund where we get to work with other incredible entrepreneurs on a daily basis.” Finary’s founder thought like a media operator But back to Finary. Da Mota revealed that he first backed Mounir Laggoune — CEO of Finary — as an angel investor in 2020, when all he had was an MVP, “and today I’m doubling down again as he raises a €25 million Series B.” Da Mota was immediately drawn to Finary “because of his energy and vision to democratise access to a private-banking-like experience.” “Mounir also understood better than anyone that to succeed, he needed not only to build a fintech company, but also a media company and a differentiated, scalable customer acquisition strategy.  I wrote an angel cheque after that first meeting and later led the Series A while at Hedosophia.” According to da Mota, he remains a huge believer in Mounir’s vision, and AI now “makes it clearer than ever that the Finary team will succeed.  “And the results speak for themselves: Finary is now one of Europe’s fastest growing fintechs with 600k users, 3x YoY revenue growth and a unique media-led growth playbook.” Shapers: do one thing, do it well  Shapers is a hyper-focused and concentrated fund.  “We do one thing only, and we hope to do it really well: early-stage fintech investing in Europe, shared da Mota.“That’s my bread and butter. It’s where I have the strongest network and where we see a huge opportunity." "We’re relatively more bullish on B2B than B2C — a lot of B2C has already been built in Europe. But our definition of FinTech is broad, so we can look at both, and we don’t shy away from less trendy sectors.  We can invest from pre-seed through Series B, but our sweet spot is seed and Series A.” Shapers’ check sizes typically range from $500,000 up to $4–5 million. da Mota admits, “with a $75 million fund, we’re relatively small compared to many of our peers, so we’re very collaborative — we like to co-invest and bring something additional to the table.” In terms of sourcing, Shapers has two main approaches. One is thematic, in-house work: “We’re a team of three, and one of us, who joined from a consulting background, leads a lot of that. We look at exciting spaces, then within those, identify promising teams and actively pursue them." The other is more opportunistic — following great founders via personal connections.  The “Shapers Club” advantage da Mota sees its LP base as one of the unique things about Shapers — over 60 fintech founders and operators are investors in the fund, including from the likes of Qonto, Wise, N26, Bitpanda or Affirm, some large global banks and “GPs of some of the VC funds we respect the most,” like Creandum, Hedosophia, Local Globe, Motive Partners or Valar Ventures, alongside more traditional and institutional limited partners. Da Mota likes to call his network the Shapers Club. “It's one of the things we invest the most in, as it brings so much value to our portfolio. Out of the eight deals we’ve closed so far, three came directly from them. So, we work extremely closely with that network, as well as with other VCs.” So far, the UK and France have been Shapers' most active market, but the firm has also completed deals in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. And, because Shapers is a specialised fund, it often partners with generalist or US funds that tap into local knowledge. Funding the next decade’s giants According to da Mota, Shapers is looking for “the best founders who can build the giants of the next decade.” In the last 18 months Shapers has made 8 investments: Deblock, Diligent, Chift, Ember (already acquired by Starling), Ferovinum, Finary, and Klearly – plus one still unannounced. The firm is always on the lookout for exceptional talent across the fintech ecosystem and is particularly interested in:  Wealth management, Payments, Regtech — “particularly with the rise of AI,” Crypto and stablecoins. — The firm has already invested in all three of the first categories, and is actively spending time in crypto and stablecoins. When it comes to stablecoins, da Mota asserts that few people saw how fast it would move: “With regulatory shifts in the US and big moves like Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge, the space has been validated in a big way, drawing in lots of great talent and capital.” While he concedes that some dismiss it as regulatory arbitrage, “there’s real value in the speed and cost savings, especially if you stay on-chain." "On-ramps and off-ramps are still expensive, but companies in this space are growing phenomenally quickly. At Shapers, we backed Deblock in the crypto space, and stablecoins are a big part of the thesis there.” Beyond equal strength in teams But ultimately, when it comes to portfolio companies, according to da Mota, it’s about backing phenomenal talent. In larger founding teams of three or four, there’s usually one or two exceptional individuals.  “We don’t stress if not everyone is equally strong. What matters is whether the CEO or key founder has what it takes. We spend a lot of time trying to understand what drives them — is it vision, a chip on the shoulder, money, fame, power? That’s critical.” Further, the industry they’re tackling needs to be “directionally correct — big enough to create one giant, or so large it can support multiple large winners, and the team must be capable of attracting the right talent, because these companies succeed or fail based on who they can bring in." Shapers’ launch comes at a moment when Europe’s fintech ecosystem is maturing, but still hungry for specialist backers who combine deep networks with founder-first conviction. da Mota’s journey — from helping scale Hedosophia to starting a leaner, more focused fund with his brother — mirrors the kind of founder story he now looks to invest in: driven, nimble, and ambitious. Lead image: Shapers, together with its portfolio companies, LPs, and extended network.

Oslo-based Sonair, a sensing technology company, has raised $6 million from a group of existing and new international investors, including Copenhagen-based Scale Capital and Norway’s state-backed Investinor, with continued support from RunwayFBU (part of the Aker group), SINTEF, and ProVenture. Sonair is a sensing technology company focused on making autonomous machines safer, smarter, and more cost-effective. Its patented ADAR (acoustic detection and ranging) sensor, the first safe 3D ultrasonic sensor for robots, delivers precise, real-time 3D spatial awareness to support safe operation in shared human–machine environments. The technology originates from SINTEF, a leading Norwegian research institute. For robots to operate alongside humans, safety has to be built in from the start. ADAR gives manufacturers a straightforward and more affordable way to achieve that, said Knut Sandven, CEO and co-founder of Sonair. Sonair’s patented ultrasound technology is designed to provide precise 3D perception at a lower cost than LiDAR. Following pilots with more than 30 companies, the initial focus is on autonomous mobile robots in logistics and manufacturing, a segment projected to reach $15.6 billion by 2030. Growing warehouse automation, labour constraints, and evolving safety requirements are increasing demand for systems that enable people and robots to operate in close proximity. ADAR combines safe 3D object detection, full vertical field of view, and low computational needs to support safer robot navigation without adding significant complexity or cost. Sandven added: If a robot can’t operate safely around people, it won’t be widely adopted. We’re giving manufacturers a tool they can trust, one that helps them meet the highest safety standards without slowing down innovation. One of Sonair’s customers, Fuji Corporation in Japan, is developing autonomous robots for use in retail settings. In Europe, another customer is building cleaning robots for commercial buildings. In both applications, safety is a key requirement since the robots are designed to operate in close proximity to people. Following its launch earlier this year, ADAR is now shipping to manufacturers across Asia, Europe, and North America. The new funding will support expansion into global target markets and efforts to establish a new category in robotic perception.

One of the leading voices in the UK tech scene today hailed a flurry of US AI investment commitments to the UK, calling it a “much-needed step change” in UK and US relations but warned the UK was in danger of becoming AI "users, not makers". Brent Hoberman, the co-founder of lastminute.com and executive chairman of Founders Forum Group, made the comments as Nvidia and Microsoft become the latest US tech giants to pledge significant AI investments into the UK. Posting on LinkedIn, Hoberman said: “Make no mistake, we need these kinds of deals with our biggest tech giants. This is a significant investment, and the impact will be felt. “But here’s the next challenge...how we make sure UK startups and scaleups actually benefit from these deals?” He said in AI, the UK was at risk of becoming “users, not makers", saying the UK should take lessons from Europe, pointing to France backing Mistral and Germany backing Helsing. He said the UK procurement system still favoured the same global platforms. Hoberman was echoing comments made in a FT comment piece by Mike Bracken, the UK government's former chief digital and data officer. Hoberman urged UK private and public partnerships to prioritise talent and deploy capital at scale. He added: “The real opportunity is in what we build next. Data centres yes, but also new national champions." Meanwhile, hailing Nvidia's investment into the UK, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said: “The United Kingdom is building the infrastructure for the AI industrial revolution." His comments came as Nvidia and Microsoft became the latest US tech giants to pledge major AI investments into the UK. US chip giant Nvidia said that, along with its partners NScale, CoreWeave and others, it was investing up to £11bn in UK AI factories, deploying 120,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, which Nvidia said represented the largest infrastructure rollout in the UK’s history.  The infrastructure will be behind initiatives like OpenAI’s Stargate UK. Meanwhile, Microsoft is investing up to $30bn in the UK’s AI infrastructure from 2025 to 2028. This includes $15 billion in capital expenditures to build out the UK’s cloud and AI infrastructure and will be used to help build the UK’s biggest supercomputer, in partnership with Nscale. Billions of AI investment in the UK have been pledged by US tech firms, coinciding with the visit of President Trump.Investments include OpenAI, Nscale and Nvidia announcing a UK version of Stargate, a sovereign AI infrastructure version of OpenAI’s mammoth Stargate project. The UK and US have also inked a “tech prosperity deal” focused on developing the fastest-growing technologies like AI, quantum and nuclear.Professor Sebastian Weidt, CEO and co-founder, Universal Quantum, said: “It is encouraging to see quantum computing recognised at the highest levels of government. International collaboration will be vital in accelerating progress on one of the defining technologies of our age, yet Britain must not allow itself to become dependent on foreign partners for access to it.“History reminds us that alliances cannot substitute for sovereign capability. The UK has already established itself as a global leader in quantum computing, a field that will underpin the resilience of our economy and the security of our critical infrastructure. "Government now has a clear opportunity to safeguard sovereignty by ensuring that homegrown companies receive the long-term support required to remain both independent and globally competitive.”

Decentralised AI is no longer just the preserve of Web3 dreamers. It has become one of Europe’s most significant bets in shaping a future that balances technological progress with privacy, sovereignty and democratic accountability. Rather than entrusting centralised servers owned by US or Chinese giants, decentralised AI distributes intelligence across a mesh of nodes, letting data remain local and under the control of its rightful owners. In Europe, this approach resonates deeply. GDPR has set a global benchmark for data rights and regulators are doubling down on platform accountability. Against this backdrop, decentralised AI is not a curiosity; it is a necessity. The question is who will lead the charge. A field of rising contenders Across the continent, a growing constellation of startups are experimenting with different aspects of decentralised AI. SingularityNET, with roots in the Netherlands, is building a decentralised marketplace where developers publish AI services on-chain. Its tokenised economy lowers entry barriers for smaller providers and challenges the centralised control of Big Tech, making it a key player in Europe’s effort to democratise AI. Flower Labs in Germany leads in federated learning, enabling model training across distributed data without sharing it. This helps European organisations innovate while staying compliant with GDPR and other privacy regulations, making Flower a cornerstone for privacy-preserving AI. Bitfount, from the UK, focuses on healthcare and life sciences, letting researchers analyse sensitive data without moving it. This accelerates clinical research while protecting patient privacy, showing how decentralised AI can unlock value in highly regulated sectors. Neuron, also UK-based, builds infrastructure for machine-to-machine communication using blockchain and AI. Its technology underpins secure, decentralised networks for IoT and automation, supporting Europe’s goal of open and sovereign digital infrastructure. Europe's reference point Gaia has become one of several reference points for decentralised AI in Europe. While its rivals focus on discrete verticals such as factories, marketplaces, chatbots and mesh infrastructure - Gaia offers a comprehensive and modular platform that unites these approaches into a coherent system. While the previously mentioned companies are important, each moves the field forward in their own unique way. But none as yet offers the breadth and cohesion that Gaia has begun to deliver. It provides the orchestration layer that turns fragmented innovation into a functional ecosystem. Recently profiled in Forbes, Gaia is delivering building blocks across compute, identity, data rights and payments. These modules allow developers to assemble AI agents with precision and flexibility, a critical differentiator in a landscape often constrained by siloed tools. From pilot projects to market traction What sets Gaia apart is its movement from concept to deployment. Its technology is already being piloted by European telcos to run predictive maintenance and edge-based personalisation across tower clusters. These real-world implementations demonstrate that decentralised AI is not just possible, but scalable. “At Gaia, we’re building Europe’s decentralised AI backbone - scalable, modular and sovereign. Our mission is simple: prove that AI can be powerful and accountable, uniting innovation with trust so Europe leads not by copying Silicon Valley, but by setting its own standard,” said Shashank Sripada, Co-Founder, Gaia. Addressing the hard problems Decentralised AI is difficult. Latency, adversarial attacks and governance incentives are not abstract risks, they are daily realities. Gaia’s statistical consensus and validation system addresses synchronisation across thousands of nodes. Its secure multiparty computation reduces the risk of poisoned models. And its token-credit system provides transparent incentives that scale better than ad hoc reputation systems. Rivals are grappling with these issues individually, often with elegant but partial solutions. Gaia’s achievement is that it brings these answers into a unified, production-ready stack. Why it matters for Europe Europe’s competitive advantage will not be built by cloning Silicon Valley. It will be defined by technologies that enshrine transparency, privacy, and collaboration. This coherence matters. Without it, Europe risks a splintered patchwork of promising projects that never scale beyond their niches. Gaia offers a focal point for Europe’s ambitions: a decentralised AI ecosystem that is usable, compliant and capable of achieving critical mass. A constellation with a centre The story of decentralised AI in Europe is not a zero-sum contest. But the centre of gravity is Gaia, which is betting on a decentralised future. In reality, it is more than a gamble. With modular infrastructure, regulatory foresight and real-world traction, Gaia is a conductor in a symphony of decentralised innovation. And in that orchestra, the rivals may play their instruments with virtuosity, but for now Gaia is holding the baton. Let the band play on.

Berlin-based startup Nosh.bio is debuting its Koji-based hybrid mince in partnership with Speisemanufaktur Adlershof, marking the product’s first public showcase. This week, the hybrid mince is featured in the cafeteria's menu in a variety of familiar dishes — including burgers, meatballs, and lasagna, showing both its adaptability in different culinary formats and its suitability for large-scale food production, with meals available to the public. There's no shortage of startups trying to reinvent meat – from Project Eaden to Umiami, Enough, and Mycorena to various cell-cultivated (lab-grown) meats. But it's an industry where startups often struggle to bring their products to market successfully.   From reBuy to rethinking meat: Why Tim Fronzek co-founded Nosh.bio I visited Nosh.bio to try their ingredients firsthand and speak with co-founder and CEO Tim Fronzek. In the process, I not only sampled some impressive food but also came away with valuable insights — almost a playbook — on what it takes to succeed in the alt-protein space. Fronzek brings over 15 years of management experience, having served in various C-Suite roles, notably co-founding reBuy.com, which achieved €200 million in net sales with a team of 600 employees. He admits that while the work was rewarding, he decided to move on after realising he was more of an entrepreneur than a manager.  During a year off to spend time with his family, he reflected on what to do next, asking himself, "Where can I have the biggest impact?" After screening different industries by footprint and scalability, food emerged as the most urgent and impactful, inspired by a friend in the alternative protein space who highlighted the profound impact of food choices on the environment. In collaboration with Brazilian microbiologist Felipe Lino, Fronzek co-founded Nosh.bio in early 2022.  The company aims to deliver a scalable ingredient solution that enables manufacturers to create affordable, nutritious and delicious food in an environmentally friendly way.  And here's how it's setting itself up for commercial success, with some great insights for others in the foodtech space: Do extensive market research from the get-go  Before founding Nosh.bio, Fronzek and Lino spent nearly a year speaking with over 100 experts — scientists, corporates, startups, investors, and consumers.  Most households won't pay a premium or sacrifice taste, so the challenge was clear: create affordable, mass-market-ready, sustainable alternatives. Think commercially, not just social and environmental impact While most alt-protein startups focus on plant substitutes as their end product, such as veggie nuggets or patties, Nosh.bio opted for a different approach, creating hybrid products that combine meat and alternative proteins to allow flexitarians and omnivores to reduce their meat consumption without eliminating it entirely.   While a vegetarian himself, Fronzek shared, "Flexitarians and omnivores are a much larger market than strict vegans, so blending allows us to maximise impact quickly." According to Fronzek: "Our goal isn't to eliminate meat but to reduce its quantity and improve quality. That's the change Nosh.bio is working to enable. Nosh. bio's hybrid mince has been developed from the outset to match and surpass pure beef in key areas: cheaper than beef, it retains the flavour and mouthfeel with improved juiciness and delivers 30 per cent less cholesterol, increased dietary fibre, and high levels of protein. " A Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of Nosh. bio's protein found that it uses 99 per cent less land and water than beef protein and produces 90 per cent less CO2.  In Europe, nine major supermarket chains have pledged to achieve a 50:50 plant-animal protein ratio by 2030. With many consumers reluctant to adopt a 100% plant-based diet, blended formats like Nosh are gaining popularity and offer a realistic path to achieving these goals. Strategic ingredient decisions leads to speed Nosh.bio made a strategic decision to work with a microorganism that isn't classified as a novel food in Europe, allowing it to be used without going through the lengthy regulatory approval process that can otherwise take years. Specifically, Nosh.bio uses the microorganism Koji, known in Japan for sake, miso, and soy sauce. It creates a high-protein ingredient for blended meat products.  The protein itself is derived from the fermentation of the mycelium of non-GMO Koji fungi, grown using only water and natural inputs. It's highly versatile with applications ranging from meat and seafood to confectionery, dairy and bakery products, meaning there are endless opportunities.  The fermentation process uses agricultural side-streams as feedstock. It can be carried out in existing fermentation facilities (such as a former brewery in Dresden) to enable rapid scaling while keeping downstream prices low. Its use meant the company could commercialise quickly without waiting years for regulatory approvals. But, Fronzek admits, it also meant no patents on the strain itself, which put off some investors:  "Fortunately, in the end, we found the right backers who valued speed to market." Disrupt the supply chain  While many in the alt-protein space focus on B2C products, such as patties that you can purchase at the supermarket, Nosh.bio took a different approach: B2B. Nosh.bio partners with food manufacturers to overcome the taste, texture, and price challenges, especially in hybrid and plant-based applications. With a focus on industrial readiness and cost-effective scale-up, the team is helping accelerate the shift toward more sustainable, consumer-ready products. According to Fronzek: "We wanted focus. Building a consumer brand requires total attention and cash, and so does developing deep tech. Trying to do both risks failure. By being B2B, we let established producers with existing production, retail networks, and brands use our ingredient. That way, we can concentrate on technology and impact while leveraging their reach." Make change happen from within    Nosh.bio joins companies such as Enough, Mosa Meat, and the Vegetarian Butcher, who have all received investment from the meat industry.  According to Fronzek, the company has received minor criticism for this, contending that while sustainability opens doors, "the real selling points are taste, texture, health benefits, and better margins."  "The reality is food startups can't disrupt without working with established players. They control distribution, regulation, and consumer trust. If we want real impact, we must collaborate with them. The biggest meat producer in Europe is already both a customer and an investor. We're preparing retail launches in Germany with their support." A dual approach to scale Nosh.bio has developed a dual approach to scaling production. Its contract manufacturing partner can already produce up to 10 tons per week, with the capacity to scale further. At the same time, Nosh.bio is retrofitting a decommissioned brewery in Germany for its own production. This strategy spreads risk, lowers capital expenditure, and provides greater flexibility. Further, both the CMO and the company's largest customer are also shareholders, ensuring aligned interests. Create a great-tasting product I like fermented food, hailing from the land of Vegemite — a sandwich spread created from beer sidestreams — so I was curious to see what Nosh-bio tastes like, when combined with beef mince. Honestly, it's as you might expect, a nice umami addition, tasty and hearty enough that the reduced meat isn't missed, and interesting enough that people would want to eat it again.  Great science isn’t enough in alt-protein In conclusion, I asked Fronzek what advice he would give to startups in the alt-protein space.  He contends,  "Fundraising is unavoidable, and in food tech, investors want to see a clear path to commercialisation," he said. "Great science isn't enough. Many promising startups fail because they can't bring products to market. Our products were ready in terms of taste and texture two years ago, but scaling from the lab to industrial production and navigating slow B2B adoption cycles took far longer than I expected. My advice: focus on building superior products, not just incremental improvements." From here, Nosh.bio aims to expand into retail with co-branded products and scaling food service partnerships.  Fronzek asserts:  "While chefs appreciate how easily our ingredient fits into their menus, reaching retail shelves is key to making a broader impact."

EvoluteIQ, a native AI platform, secured $53 million in minority growth capital from Baird Capital to accelerate global expansion and strengthen its leadership in enterprise-grade agentic AI automation. Baird Capital’s Daina Spedding and Mark Donnelly will join the EvoluteIQ Board of Directors. Founded in 2019, EvoluteIQ develops the EIQ platform for automating complex business processes. Built on its Agentic Mesh Architecture (aMa) and an AI Workbench, EIQ orchestrates end-to-end workflows across sectors such as banking and financial services, insurance, healthcare, telecommunications, and manufacturing. The AI-native platform unifies process orchestration, data integration, and generative-AI–assisted decisioning in a single Low-Code/No-Code/Pro-Code environment, replacing fragmented toolchains. Designed for complex, regulated organisations, EIQ enables teams to design, deploy, and scale AI-enabled business processes with greater speed, security, and cost efficiency. The platform is used by some Fortune 500 enterprises to automate workflows and improve operational resilience. Sameet Gupte, Co-founder and Chief Executive at EvoluteIQ, commented: The Agentic AI market represents a fundamental shift from reactive automation to proactive, intelligent orchestration. Baird Capital’s expertise in scaling technology companies, network, and global resources will help us accelerate our journey as we focus on driving transformative growth through outcome driven agentic models. This funding will enable the company to accelerate its global expansion and strengthen its leadership in enterprise-grade agentic AI–driven automation.

Germany-based AI compliance platform Kertos has closed a €14 million Series A to redefine AI-native compliance in Europe. The round was led by global fintech investor Portage, with continued participation from existing backers Pilabs, Redstone, 10x Founders, and seed+speed Ventures. Kertos is a European compliance engine that pairs a powerful operating system with AI-native automation and on-demand expert support. It integrates with your tech stack, automatically discovers assets, surfaces real-time insights, assesses risk, and automates the end-to-end workflow, from document drafting and evidence collection to continuous monitoring, reducing the time and effort required to stay compliant. By streamlining repetitive, complex tasks, Kertos’ AI agents make compliance effortless and enable audit readiness in days. Kertos co-founder Dr. Kilian Schmidt said the company’s OS and AI agents now automate the entire compliance workload, turning compliance into a strategic lever for European businesses. He added that the platform delivers at scale, eliminating busywork, reducing costs, and providing the infrastructure Europe needs to achieve operational excellence and meet leading European and global frameworks. As Europe’s regulatory landscape grows more complex, Kertos leads with a Europe-first approach, delivering end-to-end compliance, from asset discovery and regulatory mapping to certification and continuous audit readiness, for businesses of every size. Startups and scale-ups get compliant fast to unlock enterprise deals, mid-market firms automate manual work to fuel growth, and large corporates replace fragmented processes with AI so teams can focus on strategy and governance.

Finnish startup Time Atlas Labs, which helps people track and learn from life’s most important moments, has raised €1.8 million in growth funding led by Lifeline Ventures, with participation from a syndicate of angel investors including Duolingo co-founder Severin Hacker and Linear’s Tuomas Artman. While many apps track parts of life, such as workouts, health metrics, or diet, none capture the full picture or help users learn from past events and patterns. This gap inspired Time Atlas Labs to create Time Atlas, its Active Life Tracking app. The platform builds a private, continuous timeline of a person’s life by linking activities with context, enabling users to revisit experiences and uncover meaningful patterns. Founded in 2024 by Aapo Kyrölä, Markus Stenberg, and Juho Pennanen, the company was born from Kyrölä’s realisation that he couldn’t remember many key moments from his first year of fatherhood. Privacy is a central principle for Time Atlas Labs. Unlike other tracking tools, it never shares data with third parties. Users can choose to share information with close contacts, but only on an optional basis. Time Atlas goes beyond fitness and sleep tracking by creating a private life timeline that connects activities, places, and personal notes, helping people recall and reflect on meaningful experiences. Various types of life tracking have been around for years, but they’ve always been segmented to specific activities. What we’re building at Time Atlas Labs takes all of these moments and lets people see connections between their actions and use them to understand themselves, said Aapo Kyrölä, CEO and co-founder. The health and wellness tracking market is projected to more than triple by 2034, while life tracking overall has surged in recent years, largely through sports and sleep technologies. Time Atlas Labs represents the next evolution of this space, offering a single platform that maps an entire life of activities and enriches them with comments and journal entries that bring depth and context to each moment. The new funds will be used to further develop and grow its Active Life Tracking app, Time Atlas.

Belgian company SEQUESTO, a scale-up transforming how organisations handle tenders, RFIs, and RFPs, has secured a strategic €2.5 million investment from Smartfin and Newion. Founded in 2020, SEQUESTO is an AI-first platform that uses agentic workflows to automate repetitive, error-prone tasks across the entire RFx lifecycle, thereby enhancing tender teams’ efficiency and win rates. As tenders grow in number and complexity, and AI breakthroughs emerge, the global market for RFP optimisation software is accelerating. Yet for most organizations, responding to RFPs, RFIs, and other complex procurement procedures remains largely manual, slow, and costly, with frustratingly low win rates. Unlike legacy players that deliver only incremental improvements, SEQUESTO reimagines the entire RFx lifecycle with advanced AI, setting a new standard in the market. Its impact extends well beyond time savings, as SEQUESTO consistently reduces content management costs, accelerates time to value, and improves win rates on complex bids. Now an international scale-up, SEQUESTO operates across key European markets and the United States, serving fast-growing SaaS firms and highly regulated enterprises alike. The new funding will support SEQUESTO’s international expansion and further develop its market position.

BNVT Capital today announced the launch of its debut $150M fund to invest in AI-first and technology-driven companies solving humanity’s most pressing challenges. BNVT’s approach is built on a groundbreaking study, “Benevolent Disruption: The Fortune in Solving the World’s Biggest Problems”, co-authored with Professor Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School and VenCap International PLC (a large VC allocator) and academics at MIT and Oxford University.  Drawing on proprietary data on 500+ VC funds and 14,000 companies, over the last 40 years, the study unveils an enormous source of investment value: just 30 per cent of venture-backed companies tackle big problems and these have historically delivered 51 per cent higher returns compared to their peers. BNVT Capital was founded by Managing Partners Rory Mounsey-Heysham (ex-Gates Foundation) and Chris Corbishley (ex-Hedosophia)..  The funds' origins stemmed from Rory observing the outsized returns Bill Gates was generating from investing in solutions to global problems, and then Chris witnessing the same pattern play out in his own portfolio at Hedosophia.  The fund has already invested in 11 companies across Europe and the US, including Swap Commerce https://www.swap-commerce.com/ (UK), Cloover (Germany), and Dawnguard (Netherlands), co-investing alongside global firms such as TPG, Iconiq, Lowercarbon, and QED. Rory Mounsey-Heysham, managing partner at BNVT Capital, said:   “LPs and entrepreneurs are crying out for investors who see the world’s biggest challenges not as a moral quandary, but as vast untapped markets. A big problem is simply a big market waiting to be served.” Chris Corbishley, managing partner at BNVT Capital, said: “Investors have missed a striking pattern in their own data. For too long, investors have been backing fads, not needs - distracted by incremental technologies making life marginally faster, cheaper, or easier. Venture capital is about swinging for the fences—backing solutions that can reshape society for the better. That is what Benevolent Disruption is about.” The fund’s thesis has garnered support from leading entrepreneurs and investors, including founders and leaders from Shopify, Google, Octopus Energy, and Remitly, as well as institutional backing from Starwood Capital, Investcorp, TPG, and other prominent investors. As part of the announcement, BNVT Capital is launching the Benevolent Disruption platform and community.  BNVT Capital plans to expand its portfolio to 25–30 companies globally in the coming 2 years, continuing to prove that solving the world’s biggest problems provides one of the most lucrative opportunities in venture investing. Lead image: Chris Corbishley and Rory Mounsey Heysham. Photo: uncredited.

suena energy, a technology company specialising in algorithmic optimisation and trading for energy storage systems and renewable energies, has successfully closed an €8 million Series A funding round.  suena energy’s proprietary Energy Trading Autopilot enables fully automated, AI-driven trading of flexibilities across all relevant power and ancillary service markets.  Using real-time data and forecasts, the platform generates optimal dispatch schedules to maximise revenues while minimising risk and battery degradation. A key focus of the growth strategy is the rapidly expanding market for co-located storage. These projects not only offer operational synergies and new revenue models but also require strong technological, regulatory, and economic integration. suena energy addresses this complexity with a software approach that can flexibly adapt to market and project conditions, helping customers to develop storage projects quickly, efficiently, and profitably – for a resilient, decentralised, and decarbonised power system. Dutch energy company Eneco led the round through its investment arm Eneco Ventures. It was joined by impact venture capital fund InnoEnergy and existing investors InnoEnergy, J.O.S.S., Santander, and Energie 360°.  “This funding round marks a strategic milestone for us, enabling us to take our business model to the next level – with strong partners at our side who share our vision”, said Lennard Wilkening, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of suena energy. “Eneco Ventures and 4impact are highly complementary to our existing investor base. Their strategic-operational and digital technology expertise brings us closer to our goal of becoming a leading provider of intelligent flexibility trading in Europe.” Till Wyszynski, Investment Director at Eneco Ventures, shared: “suena energy impressed us with its outstanding team, innovative trading platform, and clear vision. The ability to optimise complex assets like the combination of renewables and storage in real time is a crucial element of the energy transition. suena energy has the potential to become a market leader in this space.” According to Pauline Wink, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of 4impact capital: “We are deeply impressed by Suena Energy’s focus on optimising co-located storage and renewable energy – an increasingly vital component of the energy transition – as well as the strength and complementarity of its founding team. The team has secured key customers, developed clear growth plans, and achieved significant progress.” suena energy will use the fresh capital to strengthen its position in the rapidly growing energy storage market, with a focus on international expansion, scaling its business model, and optimising the co-location of storage systems with renewable energy assets.  Lead image: suena energy. Photo: uncredited. 

CoreWeave and Salesforce are the latest US tech firms to pledge significant AI investments into the UK, which are coinciding with President Trump’s visit to the UK. CoreWeave, which provides cloud computing services to companies building AI models, today announced the next $1.5bn phase of its £2.5bn investment in AI data centre capacity and operations in the UK.CoreWeave says its investment will provide AI labs, enterprises, the public sector, research institutions and startups with AI infrastructure. It also said it will help create jobs across engineering, operations and related services.“Our investment in the UK will establish one of the world’s largest concentrations of state-of-the-art, sustainable compute, unlocking new opportunities for innovation, economic growth, and scientific discovery,” said Michael Intrator, co-founder, chairman and CEO of CoreWeave.As part of this investment, CoreWeave is partnering with Nvidia and DataVita, the Scottish data centre firm, in Scotland, which will deploy Nvidia GPUs, which are backed by” entirely by renewable energy, and leveraging state-of-the-art closed-loop cooling technology to minimise water consumption”.In January this year, CoreWeave opened its first two data centres in the UK, the first outside of its native US. The US tech firm opened its European HQ in London in 2023.Meanwhile, US software giant Salesforce, whose UK arm axed more than 450 jobs in 2024, said it is increasing its investment to $6bn in its UK business through to 2030. This marks an extension of Salesforce's $4bn five-year investment in 2023 in the UK.Salesforce’s investment includes the UK becoming its AI hub for Salesforce UK and Europe, with new R&D teams, a previous $4 billion commitment, and the establishment of its first AI Centre in London. It is also investing in UK companies that are building in AI.“We are doubling down on our long-standing commitment to the UK with this significant investment,” said Marc Benioff, chair and CEO, Salesforce.Salesforce has operated in the UK for around 25 years. Google has also announced a significant investment in UK AI, with OpenAI and Nvidia also expected to confirm investments.

Workday, the enterprise AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Sana, a Stockholm AI company building the next generation of enterprise knowledge tools. Since its founding in 2016, Sana has developed intuitive workplace tools that elevate humans with AI. Sana’s core products, Sana Learn and Sana Agents, have already served over one million users across hundreds of enterprises. In addition to powering a new Workday experience, Sana will continue to develop Sana Learn and Sana Agents. As part of Workday, Sana will be able to accelerate its growth and deliver even more innovation to its customers at scale. “Sana’s team, AI-native approach, and beautiful design perfectly align with our vision to reimagine the future of work,” said Gerrit Kazmaier, president, Product & Technology at Workday.   “This will make Workday the new front door for work, delivering a proactive, personalised, and intelligent experience that unlocks unmatched AI capabilities for the workplace.” “Our focus has always been on creating intuitive AI tools that improve how people learn and work,” said Joel Hellermark, founder and CEO of Sana.   “I’m excited to bring these tools to 75 million Workday users and partner with Workday’s iconic team to launch a new era of superintelligence for work.” With Sana, Workday will create the work experience of the future, where enterprise knowledge, data and actions converge into one. Leveraging Workday’s unique data and context around people and money — as well as a rich ecosystem of builders and partners — the employee experience will become personalised and proactive, better anticipating employee needs based on their role, team, and projects.  For example, hiring managers will be able to generate tailored dashboards to monitor their live recruitment pipeline, automate the end-to-end performance review process, and receive proactive suggestions on onboarding new hires based on real-time performance data. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Workday’s fiscal year 2026, ending January 31, 2026, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Early-stage investment firm Anthemis and Cambridge AI Venture Partners (CAIVP), as well as a team comprised of industry experts Sir Andy Hopper, Prof Rob Mullins, Dr Gavin Ferris and Mike Halsall, today announce the launch of CommonAI, a collaborative engineering and computing platform for AI-enabled start-ups, enterprises, engineers, academics and investors. CommonAI combines the deep AI knowledge of CAIVP with the investment expertise of Anthemis to turbocharge the UK and European AI innovation ecosystem.  It seeks to tackle the key challenges and barriers startups and enterprises face, allowing them to innovate safely and cost-effectively, reduce their reliance on Big Tech and secure the strategic investment critical to seizing the AI growth opportunity. Through CommonAI membership, AI-enabled start-ups and enterprises will gain access to world-class IP, including models, weights, framework software, training data and hardware designs, while also gaining affordable access to critical GPU resources. Together, these capabilities will allow UK and European businesses to develop AI-enabled propositions that can successfully compete at a global scale. At the heart of the initiative is a non-profit engineering organisation – Common AI CIC – a UK community interest company that will co-develop foundational AI IP in partnership with its members.  The platform additionally provides access to CommonAI Compute Ltd – a facilitator of cost-effective GPU resource.  Both entities will be underpinned by a shared Digital Commons repository, providing world-class resources to ecosystem members under time embargo. According to Dr Gavin Ferris, CEO, CommonAI CIC, increasingly, AI startups and SMEs find themselves unable to assemble the computing power, technology and strategic resources necessary to successfully compete on the world stage: “CommonAI’s innovation platform, shared IP and industry expertise will play a critical role in levelling this playing field, unlocking new growth opportunities and protecting the long-term economic future of both the UK and Europe. ‘Structuring and governing our engineering organisation as an unconflicted Community Interest Company (CIC) ensures that the interests of our members are protected while encouraging collaboration and maximising the potential of the UK AI ecosystem.’ Sir Andy Hopper, Board Chair, CommonAI CIC contends that with Big Tech’s dominance over large-scale AI models and infrastructure, startups are being denied access to this burgeoning opportunity – and even larger enterprises face the challenge of balancing their innovation agenda with the resources required to power their core business: “By enabling ‘Virtual BigCos’ and unleashing the latent power of our entrepreneurs – and working in partnership with leading engineering talent, research institutions and universities – businesses of all scales in our economy can access the capabilities and expertise they need to thrive on the global stage.” Following the launch of the CommonAI platform, Anthemis intends to raise a “High Assurance AI” fund to invest in UK and European startups that are applying AI in highly regulated and complex industries such as financial services, healthcare, critical infrastructure and defence.  This is the first in a planned series of CommonAI-branded funds that aim to extend the traditional VC offering by providing portfolio companies access not only to capital but also to the transformative technology support of the foundational CommonAI platform. According to Anthemis Founder and Group CEO, Amy Nauiokas, the platform offers a space around which stakeholders can coalesce to deliver meaningful impact.  “We are building an AI ecosystem to drive forward action – one that clears the barriers to accessing the opportunities presented by a new wave of innovation and combines deep expertise, cutting-edge technology, cheaper compute and access to smart, supportive capital.Getting this right is critical to the UK and Europe’s economic future and we’re excited about the prospect of working alongside our partners and members to build the next generation of industry champions.’

Romanian-founded startup DRUID AI today announced it has secured $31 million in Series C financing to advance the global expansion of its enterprise-ready agentic AI platform under the leadership of its new CEO, Joseph Kim.  DRUID AI is an end-to-end enterprise agentic AI platform that enables rapid development and deployment of AI Agents to automate business processes and enhance access to enterprise knowledge. DRUID Agents deliver personalised, secure, and omnichannel experiences while seamlessly integrating with existing systems, apps, and RPA technologies—empowering businesses to operate smarter, faster, and more efficiently. Founded in 2018, DRUID AI has powered over one billion conversations across more than 4,000 AI Agents and supports 300+ clients globally. “This investment is both a testament to DRUID AI’s success and a catalyst to elevate businesses globally through the power of agentic AI,” said Kim.  “Customer success is what it’s all about, and delivering real business outcomes requires understanding companies’ pain points and introducing innovations that help those customers address their complex challenges.That’s the DRUID AI way, and now we’re bringing it to the world through this new phase of global growth.” Cipio Partners led the investment, with participation from TQ Ventures, Karma Ventures, Smedvig, and Hoxton Ventures. Roland Dennert, managing partner at Cipio Partners, explained: “DRUID AI aligns perfectly with our investment strategy – offering a differentiated, AI-based product in a vast and rapidly growing market.  Our investment will help accelerate DRUID AI’s expansion into the US and elsewhere, fuel further technological advancements, and strengthen its position as a global leader in enterprise AI solutions.”  Kim has more than two decades of operating executive experience in application, infrastructure, and security industries. Most recently, he was CEO of Sumo Logic. He serves on the boards of directors of SmartBear and Andela. In addition, he was a senior operating partner at private equity firm Francisco Partners, CPTO at Citrix, SolarWinds, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and chief architect at GE. DRUID AI is trusted by more than 300 global clients across banking, financial services, government, healthcare, higher education, manufacturing, retail, and telecommunications. Leading organisations such as AXA Insurance, Carrefour, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Georgia Southern University, Kmart Australia, Liberty Global Group, MatrixCare, National Health Service, and Orange Auchan have adopted DRUID AI to redefine the way they operate.

Genoskin, a Contract Research Organisation (CRO) developing ex vivo human skin platforms capable of testing injected drugs and implanted medical devices, today announces it has raised $8.7 million in its first funding round. Genoskin provides a scalable and sustainable alternative to animal testing. By leveraging donated human skin and its proprietary preservation technology, the company provides live immunocompetent *ex vivo *platforms that remain viable for up to seven days post-surgery, enabling more predictive, human-relevant testing than traditional animal or engineered models.  The models generate large-scale datasets through multiomics approaches, which are further analysed using AI and advanced bioinformatics to deliver meaningful insights into the toxicity and efficacy of tested products in humans.  Backed by a robust IP portfolio, an established tissue sourcing network and a proven scalable service model, Genoskin’s solutions deliver translational human-relevant insights that improve predictability and regulatory acceptance.  This combination gives Genoskin a unique competitive advantage in supplying biopharma, cosmetics and cell and gene companies with models that reflect human physiology, especially for skin-related delivery routes such as injectables, including vaccines and topically administered therapeutics. OCCTE (FPCI Occidev Impacts) led the investment round, alongside Captech Santé, GSO Innovation and CA Toulouse 31 Initiatives. It includes 5.4 million in equity investment and with $3.3 million (€3M) in non-dilutive financing in structured bank debt, provided by Bpifrance and local banking partners: BNP Paribas, Caisse d’Epargne Midi-Pyrénées and Crédit Agricole. “As a company built on ethical innovation, we are proud to offer sustainable, human-relevant alternatives to animal testing. This investment validates our strategy and reinforces our position as a leader in predictive immunotoxicology using live human skin models,” said Pascal Descargues, Ph.D., CEO of Genoskin.   “With the support of our investors, Genoskin is well-positioned to drive meaningful change in how biotherapies are developed, ultimately bringing safer treatments to patients worldwide.” “We are proud to support Genoskin, a company that perfectly embodies our mission to invest in local innovators delivering sustainable solutions with global reach. Genoskin’s technology offers an ethical, scalable alternative to animal testing and pursues a growth strategy that aligns strongly with our values of economic resilience and scientific impact,” said Julien Gomis, managing partner at OCCTE. “ Captech Santé is pleased to contribute to the financing of Genoskin, a company capable of setting new global standards in the development of injectable drugs and that already counts most major global pharmaceutical companies among its clients,” added Alexandre Demailly, investor at Captech Santé. As part of this round, Genoskin welcomes to its Board of Directors: Julien Gomis (OCCTE), Alexandre Demailly (Captech Santé), Emmanuelle Ostiari (OCCTE), and Anaïs Raluy (GSO/CAT31i). The financing will drive Genoskin’s next phase of growth and support further staff recruitment, with a view to doubling the size of the company within the next three years and to expanding Genoskin’s commercial presence in key global markets. This will include new strategic hires in Europe and Asia by 2026. Genoskin plans to launch new immune-centric service offerings by 2027 and strengthen its scientific and regulatory leadership with the development of biosimulation platforms and novel human immune models to reduce reliance on animal testing. Genoskin will also scale up operations through industrial automation and increased production capacity in both the US and France, by moving into its two updated and expanded facilities - in Salem, MA, in 2026 and in Toulouse, France, in 2027. This will double the production of skin models and launch the production of fresh human primary mast cells for next-day delivery in the US. Lead image: Freepik.

SEON, a Hungarian-American software provider focused on fraud prevention and AML compliance, has announced the close of its $80 million Series C round. The investment was led by Sixth Street Growth with participation from existing investors IVP, Creandum and Firebolt, and new investors including Hearst. This round brings SEON’s total funding to $187 million and accelerates adoption in North America alongside further global expansion. SEON will advance its AI-powered product development and support strategic talent acquisition. SEON’s fraud prevention solution analyses customer interactions daily for key fraud indicators. SEON’s platform enables customer onboarding, scalable compliance and advanced fraud prevention via its API. "Our mission has always been clear: to enable companies to prevent fraud without impeding legitimate growth," said Tamas Kadar, Co-founder and CEO at SEON. "This investment allows us to continue serving the critical market need for fraud prevention and AML solutions that can scale at the speed of modern digital commerce. With global fraud losses exceeding billions annually, we are tackling a fundamental challenge facing businesses worldwide." The startup's customers include Revolut, Plaid, Nubank, Afterpay, Spotify and Entain. As part of the investment, Michael Bauer, Managing Director, Sixth Street Growth, will join SEON's Board of Directors and Claire Zhang, Principal, Sixth Street Growth, will serve as a Board Observer. "Fraud is growing at an unprecedented pace in the age of AI, and businesses need better defenses. SEON has built a command center for fraud prevention and AML compliance that empowers organisations to combat bad actors without impeding real customer transactions," said Bauer. As fraud tactics become increasingly sophisticated and regulatory requirements intensify globally, there is a rising enterprise demand for unified solutions.

German-based BIOWEG, a company developing high-performance, biodegradable ingredients to replace intentionally added acrylic polymer based microplastics, has closed a €16 million Series A round. The round was led by Axeleo Capital - Green Tech Industry Fund, joined by the EIC Fund, NBank Capital, BonVenture, and seed investor Dr.-Ing. Frank Jenner. To date, BIOWEG has raised €22 million to accelerate market entry and expand its footprint across Europe. Founded in 2019 by Dr. Prateek Mahalwar and Srinivas Karuturi, BIOWEG utilises precision fermentation to convert food-industry byproducts into bacterial cellulose, which is refined using green chemistry into drop-in alternatives to fossil-based polymers. The company operates a pilot production facility in Quakenbrück with a capacity of up to six tonnes, alongside a material science, formulation, and applications lab on Bayer Crop Science’s campus in Monheim. As Europe phases out intentionally added fossil-based microplastics, supply chains in the personal care, home care, pharmaceutical, and agricultural sectors are undergoing rapid change. Companies now require compliant, high-performance ingredients manufactured at scale within the EU, a demand BIOWEG is uniquely positioned to meet while enabling straightforward reformulation. To support this transition, BIOWEG is designing a new plant that will scale from its current 6,000-litre fermentation capacity to large-volume production. Co-located with a major sugar producer in Germany, the facility will leverage feedstock synergies and reduce operating costs. Meanwhile, the company will upgrade its Quakenbrück pilot line to serve near-term customer orders during construction and expand its commercial, regulatory, and production teams to accelerate growth across the European market. Dr Prateek Mahalwar, Co-founder and CEO of BIOWEG, shared: Today’s funding allows us to move decisively into industrial manufacturing and to support customers as they transition away from microplastics. Our focus is on matching and expanding polymer-level performance with bio-based, biodegradable ingredients produced at European scale. The newly secured funding will drive scale-up, commercialisation, and the construction of BIOWEG’s first-of-its-kind bacterial cellulose plant in Germany. This step marks the transition from pilot to industrial production and positions the company to meet rising demand from industrial customers for sustainable, microplastics-free ingredients.