The NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) today announced the appointment of Erin Hallock as Partner, reinforcing the Fund’s mission to accelerate the industrial adoption of deeptech and frontier technologies that are critical to the Alliance’s security, resilience, and long-term innovation capacity. The NIF is the world’s first multi-sovereign venture capital fund, established by NATO Allies to invest in early-stage startups and deep tech companies whose innovations can enhance operational readiness, resilience, and technological sovereignty. Through its investments, it aims to build the Alliance’s long-term capacity to adopt and scale critical technologies, ensuring they are available when and where they are needed most. Erin joins NIF from bp Ventures, where she led the full investment lifecycle in digital technologies, deep tech, and exploratory ventures as a Managing Partner.  Her portfolio work included guiding companies through regulatory, operational, and market integration challenges — skills directly aligned with the Fund’s focus on enabling dual-use technology adoption across the defence, security and commercial sectors.“We are thrilled to welcome Erin to the partnership,” said Professor Dame Fiona Murray, Chair of the Board of the Directors of the NATO Innovation Fund.  “Her track record in deep tech investing, combined with her operational acumen, will help the innovators we are backing move beyond proof-of-concept to industrial-scale deployment. This is necessary to close the innovation-to-adoption gap and deliver technologies that strengthen the Alliance’s technological edge.” “Joining the NATO Innovation Fund is an extraordinary opportunity to help shape the future of NATO's technological edge,” said Erin Hallock, Partner, NATO Innovation Fund. “Deep tech holds the power to redefine what’s possible - strengthening our collective security, unlocking new engines of economic growth, and safeguarding the Alliance. I’m excited to work with visionary founders and investors to turn breakthrough innovations into lasting impact.”

A new report by NordicNinja, Europe’s largest Japan-backed VC and backers of fast-growing tech companies including Bolt, Starship and Varjo, and Dealroom reveals that €33 billion of Japan-linked capital has flowed into Europe since 2019 as investors double down on the region’s deep tech advantage. Further, investors are on track for a further €3B by the end of 2025. The report shows that since the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) came into force six years ago, bilateral annual trade between the two regions has exceeded €200 billion. Japanese capital in 6 per cent of all VC European investment  Japanese capital, whether direct or through a Japanese-backed fund, has participated in 6 per cent of all VC investment in Europe. That includes €3.5 billion worth of deals in 2024 alone, with a further €2.4 billion deployed in the first ten months of 2025. The UK’s gain The UK has attracted the majority of this funding, accounting for €14.9 billion of the €31 billion total since 2019, including €2.5 billion of 2024’s volume. Germany follows with €4.8 billion from 2019, followed by France with € 3.4 billion. Deeptech and AI startups the biggest winners Of last year’s total, a record 70 per cent went to deep tech and AI, almost double 2021’s previous high.  In fact, Japanese-backed investment into deep tech and AI broadly has doubled since 2023, with deep tech consistently ranking as the top segment for Japanese investors. Climate tech follows close behind, while Resilience has grown to take 23 per cent of the share. Growth investment in mega-deals  Japanese investment in Europe has also evolved from a handful of headline-grabbing mega-deals, driven by the likes of SoftBank, into a more diverse flow of capital. The number of rounds featuring a Japanese investor has jumped 5.9 per cent since 2022, rising to 140 rounds in 2024. Last year also saw a record number of early and breakout stage deals involving Japanese investors, which has continued into 2025. Recent highlights also show how this strategic breadth is being paired with impact – from tozero’s €11 million Seed in circular battery recycling (NordicNinja) to HIVED’s €38 million Series B in zero-emission delivery (NordicNinja, Yamato Holdings and Marunouchi Innovation Partners). This focus aligns with Japan’s strategic priorities of securing supply chains, strengthening industrial leadership and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy. With Europe producing over twice as many VC-backed startups and more than four times as many unicorns per capita as Japan, investing in Europe offers access to innovation that complements Japan’s industrial base. Symbiotic by design Corporates are not only investing in European tech, they’re increasingly active acquirers and partners. 2023 marked a record year, with 15 European VC-backed startups acquired by Japanese firms, from Asahi Kasei’s $1.3 billion purchase of Calliditas in pharma to Mitsubishi’s acquisition of Scibreak in grid hardware. This is on track to reach eight in 2025, double 2024’s figures. At the same time, cross-continental partnerships are now translating European innovation into global scale. In mobility, Wayve’s collaboration with Nissan and investment from SoftBank is bringing autonomous-driving systems to Japan’s roads. In robotics, the UK Atomic Energy Authority and Japan’s Fukushima Institute are creating robots for extreme environments. Meanwhile, IQM and TOYO Corporation, and Quantinuum and Mitsui & Co., are advancing quantum computing and distribution in the Asia-PaciAccording to Tomosaku Sohara, Co-founder and Managing Partner from Japan-Europe VC, NordicNinja,this is not capital tourism: “Japan has a long tradition of building enduring partnerships rather than one-off transactions. We see a rare window to turn cross-border collaboration into lasting strategic advantage. When Europe’s entrepreneurial drive meets Japan’s engineering excellence and industrial networks, scalable and resilient solutions emerge. At NordicNinja, we exist to make that bridge tangible, turning collaboration into long-term impact innovations.” Timo Toikkanen, CEO of virtual and mixed reality company Varjo, said: “Europe is where deep tech innovation takes shape, and Japan is where precision and scale turn that innovation into operational strength. For Varjo, bridging these capabilities means advancing mission readiness and transforming how modern defence forces can train and operate through mixed reality.” Aaike van Vugt, co-founder and CEO of advanced materials and deep tech startup VSParticle, said: “Europe has the science, Japan has the industrial scale. By connecting the two, we can accelerate the journey from breakthrough research to global production.” Sarah Fleischer, co-founder and CEO of battery recycling startup tozero, contends that Japan understands better than most the strategic importance of critical raw material independence for resilient supply chains: Partnering with Japanese investors gives us not only capital but also deep industrial know-how and a bridge into global markets that are critical for scaling deeptech technologies.”

Lithuanian medtech robotics company Sentante has successfully demonstrated a first-of-a-kind remote stroke procedure in Scotland — performed by specialist surgeons guiding the interventions from different hospitals in Florida, USA and Dundee, Scotland. Full end-to-end thrombectomies were performed on perfused non-living subjects with procedure-authentic pathology in the Image Guided Therapy Research Facility (IGTRF) Image Guided Therapy Research Facility (IGTRF) at the University of Dundee.  I spoke to CEO Edvardas Satkauskas to learn more.  Reinventing vascular care through remote robotics Sentante is a medical robotics company founded in 2017, building a haptic, device-agnostic endovascular platform that enables clinicians to perform complex vascular procedures remotely with full tactile feedback.  Designed to integrate with existing cath-lab infrastructure, Sentante aims to expand access, improve clinician safety, and elevate procedural consistency across peripheral vascular, neurovascular and cardiovascular applications. Closing the distance gap in time-critical stroke treatment   Satkauskas asserts that vascular or remote stroke procedures are one of the areas where remote intervention could bring the biggest benefit, because time is critical.  “The sooner you intervene, the better the patient outcomes.”  According to Satkauskas, for an ischaemic stroke, the difference between walking out of the hospital and a lifetime of disability can be just two to three hours. “Today, patients are often transported long distances to reach one of a limited number of thrombectomy centres.” The remote stroke procedure proves the potential of Sentante’s technology to save the lives and prognoses of patients suffering stroke episodes in remote settings; at present, only 212 patients received a Thrombectomy across Scotland in 2024. This represents only 2.2 per cent of the total number of people who had an ischemic stroke. Aiming for gold While medical robotics is a rapidly evolving field with numerous surgical robots currently being tested or showcased for remote interventions, according to Satkauskas, in the endovascular space, while several companies have attempted to introduce robotics, it’s challenging because one must control soft, flexible, and long instruments across diverse procedures.  “It’s complex. That’s why there’s no 'gold standard' robotic system yet in this field. But we’re working to bring that.At the same time, vascular procedures are among the least robotised today. There’s a huge need, but nothing truly usable yet. This is where Sentante aims to transform the way such patients are treated.” Sentante started prototyping after meeting a vascular surgeon—who is still a practising vascular surgeon — who had the idea and clinical need for this technology in his daily practice.  Satkauskas explained: “It came directly from a clinical problem. But, you know, it’s one thing to need something — like saying “we need flying cars”—and another thing to actually build it. We had an excellent technical team, we began prototyping, and at some point, we saw that yes, this could become a very exciting technology with real impact. And here we are, seven years later, treating patients.” Bringing “hands-on” precision to remote robotics With Sentante, the specialist comes to the patient over a secure network, and performs the entire procedure remotely—with the same tactile feel and control they have at the bedside. Surgeons are guided by two senses: visual—through X-ray imaging — and tactile — what they feel with their hands. According to Satkauskas: “If you take away one of those, you lose critical information.  For us, haptics were a must-have. We built the entire technology around it.” And the best way to perceive that feedback—which is digitally transmitted—is to perform the procedure the same way as in a manual operation.  Satkauskas contends that if you push a guidewire or catheter and feel resistance, you can interpret it immediately. “A joystick wouldn’t give the same understanding. Any vascular surgeon will tell you that they often anticipate what is happening before they see it on the screen, based on how it feels and how tension builds inside the vessel. Good physicians combine action, perception, and visualisation using both senses. If you give them a robot they can “control” but without tactile information, it becomes more like a video game — not a procedure. Without sensing what you’re doing, you risk injury because robots can be strong.” Further, the platform can be used for many diverse procedures: peripheral vascular, stenting, coiling, and embolisation. In most cases, the physician would control the robot from a control room. But that already brings major benefits: doctors avoid harmful X-ray exposure and no longer need heavy lead aprons, which cause back pain, orthopaedic issues, cataracts, cancer risks, and more. It also brings accuracy, precision, stability, safety, and fewer human-error-induced mistakes. “Once you can do the entire procedure from a room, that room can be in another hospital — then you can treat stroke patients remotely. And that’s what we demonstrated in this experiment,” shared Satkauskas. In terms of the demonstration, two distinguished operators performed remote stroke interventions. World-renowned endovascular neurosurgeon Ricardo Hanel, MD, PhD, co-medical director of the Stroke & Cerebrovascular Centre performed the transatlantic procedure, operating from Baptist Medical Center, Jacksonville on a unique, perfused human cadaver model located at Dundee University in Scotland. Professor Iris Grunwald, MD, PhD, an interventional neuroradiologist, also performed a remote stroke thrombectomy in the same location from a remote hospital in Dundee. She is a global leader in interventional stroke treatment training and pioneered the use of AI in diagnostic stroke imaging: “We were honoured to be a test site for this groundbreaking use of remote robotic technology," said Michael A. Mayo, DHA, FACHE, president and CEO of Baptist Health. "Dr Hanel and the team here at Baptist Health provide world-class neurosurgical interventions each day, and the potential for these life saving procedures to be delivered in a timely manner can bring new sources of hope and healing to a countless number of patients.” The University of Dundee is the official global training centre of the World Federation for Interventional Stroke Treatment (WIST), housing a unique surgical environment with human models for research and device testing under authentic conditions - before moving into patient trials. Solving latency in life-critical remote procedures As part of the demonstration, the procedure also evaluated network performance and latency over the transatlantic link, with Sentante partnering with Mischa Dohler, VP of Emerging Technologies at Ericsson, to establish multi-path connectivity and maintain a stable, secure connection for mission-critical use. As part of the Nvidia Inception Program, Sentante took advantage of state-of-the-art technologies purpose-built for developing healthcare robots, supporting low-latency robotic applications and future developments of autonomous robotic systems and Physical AI.  Sentante has developed a proprietary sensory system embedded in both the bedside robotic unit and the remote control station, enabling the transmission of high-resolution data multiple times per second. This architecture ensures that clinicians receive highly accurate, real-time feedback throughout the procedure. “If the two units are hard-wired, there is virtually no latency,” Satkauskas explained.  “Over the internet, of course, latency appears — but the real question is: what level is acceptable, what is noticeable, and what could impact safety? These are not high-speed movements, and in most of our testing, doctors don’t perceive any delay at all.”   Only when the connection quality drops significantly does latency become noticeable — but even then, it doesn’t affect the safety or efficiency of the intervention.  The company has also tested the tolerance limits.  “Latency is inherent to remote procedures, but we have several technological safeguards and solutions in place to manage it effectively.” Sentante has also completed a clinical trial in peripheral vascular interventions using the same core platform operated from a control room adjacent to the theatre. Sentante’s robotic system is currently advancing through regulatory pathways for peripheral vascular interventions, with market entry targeted for 2026. The aim is to help tackle growing workloads, staffing shortages, occupational hazards for clinicians, and variability in care quality. Remote stroke thrombectomy remains in the pre-clinical phase and is not yet approved; it will follow a parallel regulatory pathway as an extension of the platform, with the long-term goal of significantly improving patient access to timely stroke treatment. “ Remote stroke treatment is one of the strongest real-world cases in medical robotics,” said Satkauskas. “You need precision, stability, safety and teleoperation all at once. Our platform was built from day one to deliver exactly that.” Professor Iris Grunwald described the technology as a breakthrough for stroke care. She highlighted the realism of the procedure and its potential to reshape access to life-saving treatment. “This is one of the most exciting innovations in stroke intervention in the last decade,” she said. “What amazed me most was how tactile the experience was — my hands felt exactly as they would during a conventional thrombectomy. Remote robotics has the power to decouple expertise from geography, enabling specialists to perform complex neurovascular procedures from thousands of miles away.” Ricardo Hanel, MD, PhD, added: “Tele-neurointervention will allow us to decrease the gap and further our reach to provide one of the most impactful procedures in humankind—the thrombectomy — to more people. To operate from the US to Scotland with a 120 millisecond (blink of an eye) lag is truly remarkable.” Lead image: Sentante.

Copenhagen-based enterprise software company Arkyn has closed a €4 million financing round co-led by Compounding Capital and Trifork Labs. As part of the round, Kasper Grundtvig Knokgaard, owner of Compounding Capital, will join Arkyn’s Board of Directors to help shape the company’s growth strategy. Arkyn provides a digital platform for service and asset maintenance on SAP, integrating real-time ERP data into maintenance workflows, asset utilisation, and performance metrics. The solution is delivered through a modern frontline app suite fully integrated with SAP, from planning through execution and reporting, to support data-informed decisions, optimise maintenance strategies, improve asset performance, and increase reliability in the field and at the plant. Founded in 2020 by the partners behind Trifork Smart Enterprise (formerly Invokers), Arkyn builds on years of SAP mobile development experience. Its product suite includes tools for work-order management, asset history, time registration, and digital forms, all backed by the FastCloud middleware for real-time SAP interaction and rapid deployment (typically 2–4 weeks) across on-premise and cloud back ends. Arkyn’s partner-centric model includes collaborations with SAP platform partners, system integrators, and resellers. The platform serves large enterprises in asset-intensive industries such as manufacturing, utilities, transport, and oil and gas, helping empower frontline workers, improve data quality, reduce administrative burden, and accelerate maintenance workflows. The new financing will support Arkyn’s international expansion and product development, with a focus on AI-enabled features that further optimise planning and field execution.

October 2025 closed with €8.3 billion raised across 342 deals, slightly softer than September, down 1.2 per cent in value and 6.8 per cent in deal count. Year over year, activity was markedly stronger: investment volume more than doubled, and the number of deals rose 8.2 per cent versus October 2024 (€4.0 billion across 316 deals). Funding was broadly spread but led by ?? Finland (€1.63 billion), followed by ?? the UK (€1.55 billion), ?? Germany (€1.40 billion), ?? Italy (€842.5 million), and ?? France (€738.6 million). Together, these five made up about 56.6 per cent of the total capital. By sector, healthtech dominated with €1.7 billion, ahead of fintech (€1.1 billion) and software (€928.2 million), which together represented 44.9 per cent of the month’s volume. Giovanni Canetta Roeder, Founder & Managing Partner at Planven, commented on the October numbers within the European tech investment landscape in our October Tech.eu Pulse, a compact version of the monthly report: As a scale-up Pan-European investor, we partner with founders at the stage where the challenge shifts from building a product to building a global company. That means international expansion, go-to-market acceleration, and leadership scaling.Our focus is helping European companies become global category leaders, not regional players. For his more detailed review and in-depth analyses of the European tech ecosystem, including industry and country performance, exit activities, and more, check out our October report. Here are the 10 largest tech deals in Europe from October, accounting for approximately 56.6 per cent of the month’s total funding. Amount raised: $1B Nokia is a B2B networking technology company that empowers industries and enterprises with high-performance, secure, and intelligent networks. The company draws on its heritage of innovation to develop future-proof solutions spanning cloud and digital infrastructure, mobile and fixed access networks, and enterprise edge computing. Nokia has entered a strategic partnership with Nvidia, which includes a $1 billion equity investment from the US company. The collaboration focuses on applying artificial intelligence to enhance telecommunications networks and data centre development. Amount raised: $900M Oura Health is a health-technology company specialising in advanced wearable devices and insights. Founded in Finland, the company’s mission is to make health a daily practice, and it combines thoughtful design with cutting-edge sensors to create its flagship product, the Oura smart ring. The Oura smart ring tracks a wide range of biometric signals, sleep quality, readiness, activity levels, heart rate, body temperature, and stress metrics, providing users with personalised data and actionable insights via a dedicated mobile app. With a strong focus on data privacy and research-driven development, Oura maintains compliance with stringent standards and employs an interdisciplinary science team to ensure accuracy and trustworthiness. Oura has raised over $900 million in a new funding round, valuing the startup at “approximately $11 billion”, as reported. Amount raised: €700M Enpal is a Berlin-based German greentech company founded in 2017, offering integrated renewable-energy solutions for homeowners. The company provides solar-photovoltaic systems, battery storage, EV-charging wallboxes, heat pumps and a smart energy-management platform, all bundled into an all-in-one service. With a mission to make green energy accessible and affordable, Enpal lets customers rent or buy systems starting with no upfront deposit, aiming to reduce energy bills and reliance on fossil-fuel electricity. Enpal secured a €700 million ABS facility with M&G for residential solar and heating loans. Amount raised: $710M Bending Spoons is an Italian software company headquartered in Milan, founded in 2013. The company develops and publishes high-volume mobile applications and undertakes strategic acquisitions of established digital products. francescatabor.com Known for its data-driven approach to app monetisation, Bending Spoons builds commercially strong, subscription-oriented businesses rather than chasing rapid, VC-fuelled growth. Bending Spoons raised $710 million at $11 billion valuation, one day after buying AOL. Amount raised: €400M Younited is a fintech company specialising in instant consumer credit. Licensed as a credit institution under the supervision of the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) and the European Central Bank, the company leverages a data-driven technology platform, open banking APIs and artificial intelligence to deliver seamless credit and payment solutions to households and merchants alike. Based in Paris, France, Younited now serves customers across multiple European countries (including France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal) and supports both direct-to-consumer lending and partner integrations for retailers and banks. The company secured €400 million warehouse financing from Citi to expand consumer credit in Europe. Amount raised: $433M Nscale is a company that specialises in high-performance computing and AI infrastructure. Nscale offers a vertically-integrated platform delivering GPU-cloud services, private AI clusters, and “AI-factories” powered entirely by renewable energy, designed for large-scale AI training, fine-tuning, and inference. The company’s emphasis is on sovereignty, control and sustainability, allowing enterprises and governments to deploy AI workloads in data centres owned and operated by Nscale, meeting both performance and governance requirements. Nscale has closed a $433 million funding round, just days after bagging a $1.1 billion funding round. Amount raised: €308M Tubulis is a Munich-based German biotechnology company developing next-generation antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of solid tumours. Using proprietary platform technologies, including their “P5” conjugation chemistry and the “Tubutecan” linker-payload system, Tubulis designs highly stable, high drug-to-antibody-ratio ADCs aimed at improving delivery and reducing off-target toxicity. Tubulis has raised €308 million in a Series C funding round to advance the clinical development of TUB-040, its lead antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting NaPi2b, an antigen highly expressed in ovarian cancer and lung adenocarcinomas. Amount raised: €300M Return (formerly SemperPower) is a Dutch-based independent large-scale energy storage company headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The company develops, owns and operates utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) across Europe (including the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Spain) to help balance grids, integrate renewable energy and enable electrification. Its mission is to “make clean energy work for everyone” by providing flexible, smart, efficient storage infrastructure and enabling customers like grid operators, utilities, major consumers and traders to access storage-as-a-service. Return raised €300 million in growth capital to scale battery storage capacity. Amount raised: $200M Synthesia is a London-based AI company founded in 2017 that offers a platform enabling users to create professional-quality videos using synthetic avatars, voiceovers and text-to-video tools, without needing cameras, microphones or studios. The platform supports over 140 languages, is designed for enterprises (including much of the Fortune 100) and emphasises both rapid video production and responsible AI usage. Synthesia has closed a $200 million funding round that has valued it at $4 billion, as reported. Amount raised: $180M n8n is a Berlin-based software company founded in 2019 that provides a fair-code workflow automation platform. Its platform enables technical teams to build and automate complex, multi-step workflows by connecting apps, APIs and cloud services through a visual node-based interface, while also allowing custom scripting for added flexibility. The company supports both self-hosted and cloud-hosted deployments, making it suitable for organisations with heightened data control or governance requirements. N8N raised $180 million to expand its engineering offering, continue development of new features, and grow the team to support international expansion.

A tax on the assets of wealthy founders who build businesses in the UK then leave the country would tell entrepreneurs that “their ideas and innovations aren’t welcome" in the UK, over 150 founders and investors across the UK ecosystem have warned.The warning from founders and investors representing more than £10 billion in UK economic value follows rumours that the UK chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering a 20 per cent "exit tax" on the assets of wealthy founders who build businesses in the UK then leave the country for tax reasons. Those who have signed the letter include the founders of AI talent management platform Beamery and fintech Cleo and funds such as Dawn Capital and Harry Stebbings' 20VC. The chancellor believes the move will raise around £2bn to help plug a gap of up to £30bn in the public finances.The letter, written by lobby group the Startup Coalition, says: “We share the Government’s ambition for growth and sound public finances. Progress on these will only be achieved by making the UK the best place to scale the next generation of global companies, not by punishing those who choose to leave. “At a time when founders are being courted around the world, we should be building bridges, not walls. We should attract talent and capital, pool investment, and deliver policies that lower barriers and give globally minded founders every reason to build in the UK and scale to the world.”The letter highlighted the “painful burden” of taxes already shouldered by founders, including a rise in Capital Gains Tax.It added: "We should be under no illusions that these changes have made global tech founders and investors question the competitiveness of the UK. Instead of rebuilding trust with entrepreneurs, a potential exit tax sends the opposite message: the beatings will continue until morale improves.” Stebbings told the Times the tax would be the “final nail in the coffin” for founders.He said: “It shows the complete lack of understanding that we have already lost the most wealthy people, and this will be the final nail in the coffin that will make those few stragglers who remain — including me — leave.”In October this year, it was revealed that Nik Storonsky, the co-founder and CEO of Revolut, had abandoned the UK for the United Arab Emirates following rule changes around tax breaks.

Last week, we tracked more than 60 tech funding deals worth over €848 million, and over 15 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.

Swiss-based YQuantum has received €161,000 (CHF 150,000) from Venture Kick to develop miniaturised hardware components for the next generation of quantum computers. Quantum computers offer substantial potential in drug discovery, materials science, and finance. Achieving this requires reliable control of thousands of quantum bits (qubits). Today’s systems often rely on bulky, complex hardware, which constrains scalability and delays commercial deployment. YQuantum develops miniaturised, high-performance cryogenic hardware aimed at improving scalability. Its components support high-fidelity superconducting and spin-qubit operations, enabling the construction of larger and more stable quantum processors. By reducing size and improving efficiency, YQuantum seeks to move quantum computing hardware from research settings toward practical use. YQuantum serves a broad range of customers advancing quantum systems, from academic labs researching new qubit architectures to startups and major technology firms scaling their platforms. The quantum hardware market is expected to expand rapidly in the coming years, driven by increasing investment and technological progress across the ecosystem. Projections suggest it could reach several billion euros as quantum computing moves from research to commercialisation. The new funding will strengthen YQuantum’s technology base and accelerate the commercialisation of next-generation products, while supporting R&D expansion, business development, and customer engagement.

Stuttgart-based proptech startup dotega has raised €1.3 million in a pre-seed round from High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and experienced proptech investors, including the founders of Casavi. In Germany, about 10 million residential and commercial units are organised as homeowners’ associations (WEGs), a large market with limited digital adoption. Dotega addresses this gap with a scalable platform for complete, legally compliant self-management of small owners’ associations. The company’s intuitive web app covers core functions such as automated annual statements, legally compliant draft resolutions, transparent financial plans, and digital owners’ meetings. The platform is built on three principles: legal compliance, ease of use, and independence from traditional property managers. It handles key commercial and technical tasks, from billing to meetings, and adds guidance for renovation, value preservation, and energy-efficiency measures. According to Niklas Mocker, co-founder and managing director of dotega, this funding serves as a clear validation of the company’s approach, demonstrating both the relevance of its solution to a real market need and the confidence it has earned from leading investors. With the support of HTGF and experienced proptech investors, we can accelerate growth, scale our product, and establish self-management as a real alternative to traditional property management. The capital will support the digital transformation of self-managed homeowners’ associations in Germany and fuel further expansion of dotega’s platform for smart, compliant self-management.

With deal count down 6.8%, Europe still saw 14 nine-figure raises — headlined by Nvidia-Nokia’s €1B AI telecom partnership and Oura’s €900M boost.Click to read the rest of the news.

At Tech.eu, we keep track of the investment landscape with data-driven insights. Our Tech.eu Insiders enjoy unlimited, exclusive access to all our content, including market-intelligence analysis, reports, articles, and useful insights on tech trends and developments.  But we know that a lot of folks interested in tech might not have the funds for a subscription. In response, we're offering compact versions of our monthly reports to all of our readers.  Our versions offer a glimpse into the valuable insights provided by our monthly reports, covering key investment trends, notable company activities, and emerging industry sectors. Download the September Tech.eu Pulse today.

This week, we tracked more than 60 tech funding deals worth over €848 million, and over 15 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. In addition to this week's top financials, we've also indexed the most important/industry-related news items you need to know about. If email is more your thing, you can always subscribe to our newsletter and receive a more robust version of this round-up delivered to your inbox. Either way, let's get you up to speed. ? Notable and big funding rounds ?? Used car platform Spotawheel bags €300M in equity and debt ?? Upway raises $60M to refurbish 1 million e-bikes by 2030 ?? Reflex Aerospace secures record €50M as satellites deemed Europe’s “Achilles heel” ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers   ?? Homemove acquires Home.co.uk, merging AI-driven moving tools with trusted market data ??US-based company acquires AI sign.mt language translator ?? GigRadar acquired the Ukrainian freelance community Top Rated Club ?? Latvia's Mapon shifts gears into Ireland, acquiring Fleet DATA to power European expansion ? Interesting moves from investors ?  Europe’s founders unite: new Fund aims to build Europe’s first trillion-dollar tech giants ?  Aspirity Partners closes debut €875M Fund to back Europe’s next B2B tech champions ?  Armilar Fund IV hits €120M first close to invest across Iberia and Europe ? Balnord unveils €70M fund for frontier and dual-use tech across the Baltics ?? Froda teams up with Triffin to provide £100M in growth capital for UK consumer brands ?️ In other (important) news ?? Bulgarian unicorn Payhawk plays down Brex's European challenge ?  Anthropic to open offices in Paris and Munich ?? Circus Defence makes first deployment with BRAVE1 in Ukraine — a world first for autonomous defence ⚛️ UK signals "Quantum Decade" with new investments and deals to fast-track real-world quantum adoption ? Recommended reads and listens ? Europe’s AI ecosystem: Rapid growth and rising global ambitions ? Agate Sensors wins Swedish defence contract for physiology monitoring ? Europe’s urban shared mobility needs a brain — SWITCH built one. ?? Can SET University become Ukraine’s founder factory? ? Collo's deeptech fix for the food & beverage industry’s water waste problem ? European tech startups to watch ?? Leil lands €1.5M to make hyperscale storage infrastructure accessible for all ?? Motley raises $1.5M and launches AI business reporting platform ?? Vigilant AI.ai lands £585,000 pre-seed for compliant "AI Teammates" ?? FireDrone gets €161,000 from Venture Kick for heat-resistant drones ?? Pasqal secures strategic investment from LG Electronics to unlock real-world quantum advantages for product innovation

Despite efforts to reduce water consumption, the beverage industry is known for its resource-intensive nature: for example, producing each litre of Coca-Cola requires up to 1.8 litres of water, and in dairy, this ratio is twice as high.  Both industries mainly rely on legacy sensor technology and measurement principles developed in the 1800s to distinguish between different liquids in the production process. Finnish deeptech startup Collo wants to change this. Developed after years of scientific research at Tampere University, the company has developed IoT analysers for optimising industrial liquid processes (and a corresponding platform), helping cut liquid losses in beverage and dairy production. Its tech is trusted by industry giants like Danone, Fonterra and Valio. I spoke to CEO Jani Puroranta to learn more. The three pain points that sparked Collo's RF innovation According to Puroranta, the company spun out an original science project where some big companies had identified the need for new types of analysers in their processes. The major things they were struggling with were, first of all, fouling — the accumulation of unwanted material on solid surfaces.  "In many processes, you get fouling, and on optical devices especially, it's a challenge because for one or two weeks it works nicely, but then it starts to drift as fouling accumulates.  Eventually, you need to either recalibrate or clean it, and you can't rely on those instruments all the time. The second challenge was that instruments are often very specific to the location where they are used. In one place it works, but at the next station in the process, it may not work. Then at the third stage, you need another analyser. It becomes a game of mixing and matching." Then there's the need for predictive maintenance, rather than having a maintenance person go through the plant, check instrumentation, and follow a maintenance schedule. Puroranta contends, "Wouldn't it be better if the instrument could tell you when it needs service? That was a challenge." When asked why such a critical solution hadn't already been developed by the giants of the food and beverage world, Puroranta contends that genuine breakthroughs like this rarely originate inside large corporations.  "They typically come from universities, where researchers test unconventional ideas, like a completely new method for liquid measurement that falls outside the industry's standard playbook," he explained. "Once a technology shows real promise and reaches industrial validation — around Technology Readiness Level 6 to 8 — that's when the big players start paying attention. That's where we are now: the technology is proven in live environments, we're shipping to customers, and continuously improving with each deployment." The RF breakthrough lets factories see inside their pipes in real time Collo uses radio-frequency (RF) sensing to analyse the behaviour and composition of liquids in real time. Instead of relying on traditional measurements like temperature, flow, or pH, Collo sends low-power RF signals through the liquid and measures how the signal changes as it interacts with the fluid.  Different liquids – and changes within the same liquid – affect the RF signal in unique ways (a kind of "liquid fingerprint").  By interpreting these RF responses, Collo can detect transitions between products, levels of dilution, residue during cleaning, and other subtle changes that standard sensors can't capture. This allows manufacturers to track what is happening inside pipes and tanks with high precision, enabling better optimisation of product pushouts, cleaning processes (CIP), and overall process efficiency. A three-layer platform bringing "liquid intelligence" to the beverage and dairy industries After the original project, the tech turned into a startup, and according to Puroranta, "Over the past years, it's become evident that this technology works particularly well in the food and beverage environment, tackling the challenges customers have there today. Dairy is a big vertical for us, beverage bottling plants as well." Collo offers three core products that together deliver end-to-end "liquid intelligence" for industrial processors. Collo Insights is the analytics and visualisation layer, turning complex liquid behaviour and sensor data into clear, actionable insights for operators to optimise processes, reduce losses, and monitor batch consistency in real time.  Collo Connect integrates this intelligence directly into plant automation systems such as PLCs and SCADA, enabling precise, data-driven control of flow rates, transitions, and CIP sequences so processes can adjust automatically based on live liquid composition.  Complementing these, the Collo Lab Analyser is a portable device for real-time liquid analysis in labs, pilot sites, or on the production floor, supporting R&D, quality control, and new product development through rapid testing and benchmarking. With Collo's tech, the primary goal is automation. Its instrument sends an automation signal to the plant's SCADA system, which then determines when to turn valves to eliminate losses that can be identified in the process. The automation connection is key. However, on the back of this, the company can also conduct cloud data analysis. "Or if the customer doesn't want any cloud connection, we can collect the data on site and do the final analysis separately," explained Puroranta.  "Then we walk the customer through their process: for example, if there's a sudden spike in the loss of raw milk somewhere, we can show that now it's going into the drain, and when it went into the drain, we can go back in the process and see which valve turned at the wrong time." The hidden drain on profits: product changeovers and cleaning waste The main applications for Collo's tech are so-called push-outs.  "When you make product changes, you push the previous product out with water and then bring in the next product. The water needs to go to the drain, but sometimes you lose some of the product, or you may be too aggressive in the push-out, trying to save product, and end up diluting it instead. We help get that timing right," he explained. Further, when workers clean the pipes with acids and caustic chemicals, they need to flush them and determine when it's the right time to start production again.  Collo's tech can save huge amounts of water by dynamically determining when the pipe is truly clean and when you can move to the next stage. And the impact is profound. Customers like Coca-Cola, which have publicly announced for years their targets for reducing water use, currently  use 1.8 litres of water for every litre of Coca-Cola they bottle.  Additionally, when considering product losses in dairies, according to Puroranta, there are approximately 12,000 dairies in the EU, which process 160 million tonnes of raw milk annually: "On average, 4 per cent of that gets lost. That ends up practically in the drain. That's almost €1 billion annually lost in the drain. Additionally, there's an extra half billion in wastewater management costs, as it needs to be treated — it cannot simply be poured into the sewer.  You need to add polymers, flocculants, and so on. This means big investments for water treatment plants. Just getting the extra milk out of the water is a big cost, and of course, there's the environmental impact as well." Reducing the average from 4 per cent to 3 per cent — a 25 per cent decrease — results in more than a billion euros saved annually across the industry. In other words, even incremental waste saving has a massive (excuse the pun) flow-on effect.  Augmenting with smarter sensors and self-learning models Crucially, Collo tech augments existing supply chain set-ups, reducing the cost of replacement. Puroranta asserts, "We're not expecting customers to replace anything. Usually, they've gone through the process of identifying that they can't live with a no-parameter setup, which is usually time- and flow-based: just looking at the clock and turning the valve. That's wasteful. Then they add a conductivity instrument or some optical devices to monitor what's going on. With that, they get down from, say, 7 per cent loss to 5 per cent, maybe close to 4 per cent. But how do you get better than average? Then you need new technology. That's where we come in." Collo's instrument stands out because it measures nine variables, including temperature for temperature compensation.  "How do you turn nine variables into a signal that automation can use? Because automation can only use a monotonic one-dimensional signal that goes up or down. It can't use nine-dimensional signals," shared Puroranta. "For that, we use machine learning models. We have developed about a dozen different algorithms depending on the liquid type and the problem you're trying to address. Are you doing push-outs? Cleaning in place? Product quality? That's also an aspect — we do raw milk quality fingerprinting. We convert those nine variables with machine learning models tailored, if needed, to the customer process. They are trained on the actual data on the customer site, and we turn that into an automation signal." "The algorithms are also self-learning," explained Puroranta. "Sometimes it needs more work if it's a very special product. For example, we have customers using it for other purposes like measuring the viscosity of resin. Then we need to do some lab analysis to correlate it with our data and refine the machine learning models." In August last year, the startup raised €5 million.   "There are 12,000 dairies in Europe. That's thousands of addressable customers," shared Puroranta. Further, Collo's technology has numerous applications in liquid processes beyond the beverage industry, including oils, resins, and ceramics, as well as mining processes and mineral processing.

Today, as the National Quantum Technologies Showcase brings thousands of researchers, investors, and global policymakers together in London, the UK government is taking another step forward to unlock quantum’s vast potential to drive economic growth and national renewal, and help tackle major challenges like health and climate change. It announced a raft of announcements backed by millions of pounds worth of funding. This includes the announcement of 14 projects sharing £14 million through Innovate UK’s Quantum Sensing Mission Primer awards, to support the development of next -generation sensors that could be used in healthcare, transport, and defence:  Gravity Cartography Mission (GCM) - Mobile Networked Quantum Sensors for Resilient Critical Infrastructure and Mapping at Scale; Delta G Limited; £1,364,536. For work on a ‘quantum gravity gradiometer’ that can detect underground objects and tunnels, without the need for excavation works, and unaffected by issues like vibration and noise often seen on construction sites. TimeLink; Xairos UK Limited; £1,396,392. Developing a quantum timing unit. Navigation, financial transactions, and even ATMs all rely on an uninterrupted timing signal – usually coming from satellites, which can be disrupted or spoofed. A quantum-based solution would be immune to this sort of interference. Rail Quantum Inertial Navigation System (RQINS) – Product Maturity Roadmap Development; Monirail Ltd; £1,263,818. Developing a quantum navigation system for use on the London Underground, and potentially the wider national rail network, to help trains run on time. Quantum Sensor for Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry – enhanced speed & sensitivity for healthcare analysis; NPL Management Limited; £649,307. For the development of super-sensitive quantum sensors, to speed up the testing of blood samples for signs of cancer and other diseases. Q-ASSET Quantum-All Solid State Enhanced Timing; Nascent Semiconductor Limited; £1,331,496. Developing a compact and highly accurate quantum clock to provide a resilient alternative to satellite signals, for critical national infrastructure that are dependent on timing information. Quantum eye scanning to eliminate backlogs in the NHS’s busiest outpatient speciality; Siloton Limited; £703,858. For work on a quantum eye scanner that promises to be far more portable than the OCT machines currently used in hospitals, as well as affordable. A Roadmap to Clinical Adoption of Quantum-Enabled Brain Imaging; Cerca Magnetics Limited; £1,488,588. To design the first quantum brain scanner for use in diagnosing epilepsy. This approach could vastly outperform conventional methods. Infra-red Single Photon Imaging, Ranging and Sensing (InSPIRS); Toshiba Europe Limited; £856,068. To develop new semiconductor components for quantum sensors and navigation systems, that operate 10 times faster than those currently on the market. QuDiFi: Quantum Radio Frequency sensor system for Direction Finding; ColdQuanta UK Limited; £1,402,428. To develop a prototype quantum system for detecting radio signals, of particular use for defence. Single-Photon Raman Tritium Analyser; Curtiss-Wright Wimborne Limited; £854,810. Developing a new type of quantum sensor for use in nuclear fusion reactors – which could be a crucial missing link in making fusion reactors commercially viable. AQlock 2; AQuark Technologies Limited; £1,399,573. Developing a quantum atomic clock for use by the telecoms industry – offering a resilient alternative to satellite signals that can be blocked, or affected by space weather. SrROCK (Strontium - Ruggedized Optical Beam Clock); Quantum Fabrix Limited; £705,509. Developing a ruggedised and compact quantum atomic clock that could be used in a variety of challenging settings. Single-photon flash LIDAR in the middle-infrared spectral region for imaging in challenging environment; Fraunhofer UK Research Limited; £814,578. Developing a new type of laser-based quantum sensor that still works effectively in smoke or fog – of use in transport, defence and elsewhere. SPECTRA; British Telecommunications PLC; £539,586. To develop a quantum radio signal receiver, which would be immune to many means of blocking and spoofing. Besides the Innovate UK Quantum Sensing Mission Primer awards, today’s package of support for the UK’s quantum pioneers includes: Launching the new Quantum Centre for Nuclear Defence and Security at AWE. This will support AWE together with the University of Strathclyde to bring quantum computing and sensing to bear in nuclear science and technology that is vital to the UK’s security. A £300,000 government investment will relaunch the Scotland–California SU2P quantum and photonics partnership, linking leading researchers from Strathclyde, St Andrews, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow with Stanford and Caltech to accelerate commercialisation and investment. The signing of a MOU between the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC), and Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology to enable easier UK-Japan collaboration in quantum computing research, as well as talent exchange The successful deployment of all 7 quantum computing testbeds – operationally-ready pieces of quantum-computing hardware – at the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) this year, which have been delivered with £30 million support through Innovate UK. These will enable businesses to demonstrate and validate new quantum computing technologies and increase market readiness. The launch of the National Metrology Institute – Quantum (NMI-Q) at the National Physical Laboratory, earlier this week. NMI-Q is a partnership for quantum R&D across the G7 plus Australia, which the UK will co-chair with the US in its inaugural term. The recent launch of a joint UK-Canada funding call, to support shared work demonstrating quantum communications either over land, or in space. This is being backed with nearly £3.5 million from Innovate UK. The forthcoming launch of the UK-Singapore quantum satellite SpeQtre, set to lift off 10 November. This mission aims to prove the feasibility of ultra-secure quantum-encrypted communications in space. Science Minister Lord Vallance said: "Quantum technologies are changing the world – from ultra-sensitive sensors to help diagnose diseases through to the potential of a new type of computer that can do things in seconds that would take today’s computers decades to compute. The UK already has considerable strengths and lots of exciting new companies have sprung up in the UK. The funding and agreements being announced today aim to support this exciting and important growth area right across the country." According to Jonathan Legh-Smith, Executive Director of UKQuantum, the achievements of the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme over the last 10 years have positioned the UK as one of the world’s leading quantum nations.  “Our companies have developed world leading technologies across the whole quantum domain -– including sensing, imaging, clocks and computing – with strong engagements across sectors such as transport, finance, telecommunications and defence. The announcements today demonstrate the translation of innovation to commercial reality is already well underway in the UK.” This is yet another step forward in the government's efforts to unlock the real-world benefits of quantum, underpinned by the £670 million for quantum computing announced in the Industrial Strategy – one of the largest and longest-term commitments made to this technology, of any government in the world. The government predicts that by 2045, quantum technology could contribute £11 billion to the UK's GDP and create over 100,000 jobs. Lead image: Freepik.

The US AI lab behind the chatbot Claude is opening offices in Paris and Munich, as it looks to grow its European footprint. San Francisco–based Anthropic has also made a number of personnel appointments across Europe, where it employs nearly 200 people. The new Paris and Munich offices build on Anthropic’s existing EMEA headquarters in Dublin and offices in London and Zurich. Outside of the US, it also has offices in Tokyo, Seoul and Bengaluru. Separately, Guillaume Princen, who joined Anthropic earlier this year as head of EMEA, has been appointed EMEA head of startups, mid-market and digital native businesses. Thomas Remy, a former Google executive, has been appointed head of EMEA South, while Pip White, a former HP executive, has been appointed head of UK, Ireland, and Northern Europe.  The San Francisco-based firm, valued at $183bn in September this year, says that Europe is now its fastest-growing region in terms of revenue, but did not divulge specific numbers. Examples of European firms working with Claude include L’Oréal, BMW, SAP, Lovable and N26. Chris Ciauri, Anthropic’s managing director of international, said: “The business leaders I speak to are clear-eyed on both the immense opportunity that AI development represents and the critical importance of safety, reliability, and public trust. "With a bigger, broader, and highly specialised leadership team, we’re doubling down on sustained EMEA growth and building the team our European users need.”

Cities are under mounting pressure to manage an increasingly complex mobility landscape. Shared e-scooters, bikes and cars, on-demand delivery fleets, EV-charging needs, shifting commuter patterns, and new regulations have made urban transport harder to plan and optimise than ever.  Operators are often left juggling siloed data, unpredictable demand, and costly manual decision-making, while city authorities struggle to design infrastructure that keeps pace with real behaviour on the ground.  SWITCH (short for "Street Witch) is an Italian startup that provides agentic AI that can simulate, forecast, and act in real time, helping mobility and logistics stakeholders move from reactive operations to intelligent, data-driven systems that run efficiently and serve cities better. I spoke to SWITCH CMO Simone Ridolfi at the recent Bologna Gathering to learn more. From the Rome car-sharing App to AI mobility intelligence SWITCH was founded in February 2020. It originally started as a consumer app in Rome, to match demand and supply, enabling users to  "switch" cars with people. Then COVID hit. And while everything stopped, the team used that time to listen to operators and pivot their app to cater to people eschewing public transport for car sharing and micromobility.   Ridolfi says the turning point came when the company hired specialised talent — including a Chief AI Officer — and doubled down on solving operators' real-world problems with AI and data. "We never stopped talking to operators. That's how we built what they actually needed," he says. Inside SWITCH's AI toolkit In response to industry needs, SWITCH has developed a suite of AI tech, including: Urbiverse, a simulation and synthetic-data engine for "what-if" modelling, fleet sizing, and infrastructure planning such as parking hubs and EV-charging networks. Urban CoPilot, an operations-optimisation platform that supports demand forecasting and fleet rebalancing; SWITCH AI Agent, which connects planning and operations through real-time forecasting, simulation, and autonomous or semi-autonomous decision-making. The power of open data Cities generate a significant amount of open public data, including street layouts, traffic flows and congestion, parking information, and event details. "If you have a strong model to predict demand and use all this open data, the value becomes very interesting," contends Ridolfi. The startup works with shared mobility operators, carpooling platforms and Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) services —primarily in micromobility, but also increasingly in car-sharing. Currently almost all shared mobility providers use historical data models, but they're not very precise — or they rely on gut feeling.  "For example, they think, 'Okay, let's put all the scooters in the city centre because a lot of people go there.' That might work for one day, but if you distribute scooters across the city based on predicted demand, you'll get more rides. We help them do that and calculate the impact. On average, we see a 25 per cent increase in operational efficiency," shared Ridolfi.  "We help operators forecast future demand with much greater precision," Ridolfi explains. "If you know what the next weeks or months will look like, you can plan and operate far more effectively." Further, a car-rental operator might use their demand-forecasting module to decide how many vehicles to buy/position in different zones, when to offer discounts, and when to relocate vehicles. SWITCH also uses flight event data — arrivals and departures — to predict demand so providers know how many cars to position at airports. Real-time data responsiveness  SWITCH's AI agent that connects a company's data with external platforms and with its demand prediction and optimisation models. You can receive data in a minute, and two minutes later, you'll get suggestions on what to do. "So you can ask it — like you do with ChatGPT — things such as: "What do I need to do next month to reach €1,000 more revenue?" or "Which areas will be affected by Sunday's strike?" The agent analyses everything and provides recommendations." A shared mobility provider can use SWITCH's demand prediction to understand demand concentration in different city zones to know where to place scooters. Its rebalancing and forecast tools can guide them to proactively move vehicles to high-demand spots, avoiding oversupply/undersupply. For a new mobility launch, that means knowing how many vehicles to deploy, how many rides to expect, and when you'll hit break-even.  Crucially, SWITCH can also help companies determine whether to enter a new market. For example, one micromobility company wanted to operate in a city in Norway. According to Ridolfi, "there are tenders, but they didn't know if they would be profitable — how many competitors, how many rides, etc.  "We built a dashboard to assess whether entering that market made sense. Ultimately, they decided not to enter. So we saved them money and risk because they knew in advance what could happen." It would have been beneficial in Berlin, which at one point had seven different e-scooter and e-bike operators competing for the same streets. Although operators are reluctant to share vehicle utilisation data, research indicates a single shared e-scooter is often used fewer than three times per day, for trips averaging under 1.5 km. That means long periods of idle time and significant public-space clutter relative to actual mobility output. Urbiverse powered a launch with shared mobility operator Wayla by modelling every key dimension of their rollout — from fleet size and vehicle placement to ride volume and profitability. The simulation, built on real-world data and dynamic modelling, delivered 92 per cent accuracy when compared to actual launch outcomes.  This level of precision enabled the operator to transition from guesswork to a data-driven strategy, significantly reducing risk and refining deployment decisions. Data-Driven policy (and clarity) for cities and operators Further, SWITCH's Urbiverse platform enables local governments to optimise shared mobility fleets, strategically place micromobility hubs and EV charging stations, and simulate policy impacts before implementation.  By generating synthetic data when real-time data is unavailable, Urbiverse ensures officials can make informed decisions despite data gaps. Urban Copilot enhances Mobility-as-a-Service by predicting fleet availability so vehicles are in the right place at the right time. Another point is policy. Ridolfi contends that "cities need time to understand the impact of micromobility — but often they don't have the tools to measure it." Take London, where public e-scooters have been in trial phase since 2028 and are set to run until 2028. Yet mobility providers invest now, and then one day the city might say "No more scooters," like in Paris, leaving dozens of vehicles to be sold. "With SWITCH tools, operators can also become part of the city's planning process. They can be proactive, not reactive," shared Ridolfi. "For example, the city might say, 'No free-floating scooters," and instead require hubs. Using our tools, you can plan hub placement based on real demand. In Turin, we worked with the city to study where bike hubs should be placed so that bikes don't interfere with traditional mobility and still satisfy citizens' needs." SWITCH raised €600,000 from private investors in January, including EIT Mobility and Berkeley SkyDeck — the startup was part of Berkeley SkyDeck's first acceleration program in Milan — as well as around €400,000 in public grants since its inception. The startup is currently part of the NVIDIA Inception Program. And, as its reach expands, the days of idle scooters, underused fleets and reactive policy may finally be numbered. Lead image: Freepik.

Klarna has struck a deal to allow its customers to make recurring payments by a new payment method heralded as the latest iteration of open banking, which is looking to compete with direct debit payments. The Swedish financial company is partnering with Sparkassen, Germany’s largest banking group, to launch Variable Recurring Payments, also known as VRPs, in Germany. VRPs have long been touted as open banking’s hot new initiative to rival direct debit payments. The deal with Sparkassen means that Klarna customers with an external Sparkassen bank account can set up an authorisation for Klarna to take recurring payments from their account, without needing to specify the value of the payment up front. Recurring payments for varying amounts can be made, without the customer needing to sign off each one. VRPs are expected to be used to pay for utility bills, subscriptions and other regular payments in a more flexible way. The move comes as Klarna looks to take market share from card giants Visa and MasterCard. Advocates of VRPs say its advantages over direct debit payments are that regular payments can be customised and are quicker and safer, with payments appearing immediately in accounts. Nicole Defren, head of northern and central Europe at Klarna, said: “VRP sets a new benchmark for digital payments for millions of consumers. "With Variable Recurring Payments, Klarna offers a modern, account-based alternative to traditional direct debits — secure, fast, convenient, and fully transparent. Together with the Sparkassen Finanzgruppe, Klarna continues to expand an innovative and future-ready payments network.”

Paris-based Upway, a platform for refurbished e-bikes, closed a $60 million Series C round led by A.P. Moller Holding, with participation from Galvanize, Ora Global, and renewed backing from Korelya Capital, Sequoia Capital, Exor Ventures, Transition, and Origins. Founded in 2021, Upway operates internationally and combines industrial expertise, proprietary technology, and a circular-economy approach. The company has refurbished and sold over 100,000 e-bikes and aims to return more than one million to the road by 2030. Its services also include financing, insurance, maintenance, and subscriptions. Its mission is to extend the life of e-bikes and make sustainable mobility widely accessible. According to co-founders Stéphane Ficaja and Toussaint Wattinne, Upway was built on the belief that sustainable light mobility depends on a circular model: We’ve built a strong industrial and technological foundation to give electric bikes a second life with the same quality and safety standards as new ones. We want to prove that performance, impact, and sustainable profitability can go hand in hand. Upway buys used e-bikes, refurbishes them in-house to rigorous standards, and sells them online with a one-year warranty and home delivery. The catalogue spans more than 200 brands and 2,500 models, typically priced about 45 per cent below new, often saving buyers over €1,000 per bike, and each unit undergoes a 50-point inspection by trained mechanics. Refurbished e-bikes can replace short car trips, helping reduce congestion and cut CO₂ emissions by up to 90 per cent per kilometre, while diverting thousands of bikes from landfill and supporting a circular economy. Regular e-bike use (around 15 km per day) is associated with a 40 per cent lower risk of heart attack and may help address obesity and air pollution. With the new financing, Upway plans to accelerate its industrial and digital growth by opening additional UpCenters in Europe and North America. The investment will also support the rollout of new digital services, including financing, insurance, maintenance, and subscription options, aimed at making electric biking simpler, more affordable, and more accessible to a wider audience.

Balnord, an early-stage investor focused on the Baltic Sea region, announced it has exceeded its €70 million fund target and is on track for a final close of €100 million by mid-2026. The firm targets companies advancing Europe’s technological reindustrialisation, investing in frontier and dual-use technologies with emphasis on space, healthcare, and industrial resilience. Europe is undergoing a significant reindustrialisation, with frontier-tech and dual-use companies likely to play an important role. Annual investment across the continent is estimated at around €1 trillion to address complex challenges and support this shift. Balnord anticipates that high-growth companies will emerge in this segment. We’re investing in the backbone of European industrialisation. We have already invested around €13M in 10 companies. The first four of them raised €40M in subsequent investment rounds, generating revenues of €35M this year,  commented Marcin P. Kowalik, General Partner at Balnord.  Balnord’s strategy is to support Europe’s technological autonomy and reindustrialisation across sectors, including space, healthcare, and industrial resilience. Drawing on its founders’ experience as entrepreneurs and operators, the firm plans to support teams from the first round through exit. The fund plans to invest in at least 22 companies, with initial investments ranging from €500,000 to €3 million, with follow-on investments of up to €12 million per company. Aleksander Dobrzyniecki, General Partner at Balnord, noted that the team has been collaborating for nine years, bringing together a group of mission-driven investors and operators united by a shared goal of supporting founders in overcoming their most difficult challenges. We’re backing resilient entrepreneurs who are raising the bar on ambition, aiming to build billion-dollar companies across the Baltic Sea Region—where we can make a GDP-level impact. We’re not just investing in companies - we back founders and help them build movements. Balnord has invested in 10 companies to date, seven of which are currently public, including ATMOS Space Cargo (Germany), Vitvio (Poland), Astrolight (Lithuania), Microamp (Poland), Port.app (UK) and Satim (Poland). The firm has co-invested with funds such as Expansion, Matterwave, APEX Ventures, Seraphim, OTB, Inventure, Voima Ventures, and Bek Ventures (formerly Earlybird Digital East). Limited partners include the European Investment Fund, PFR Ventures, and European family offices, founders, and private investors.

Cambridge Photon Technology (CPT), a deeptech spin-out from the University of Cambridge, has raised £1,556,000 in new funding to accelerate the commercialisation of its photon-multiplier technology.  As global solar demand accelerates and silicon PV nears its theoretical efficiency ceiling (around 28 per cent), new solutions that enhance output power without redesigning the solar panels are urgently needed.  CPT has developed a patented photon-multiplier technology that enables existing silicon solar panels to generate more power by converting wasted sunlight into usable light.  By converting each high-energy photon, normally lost as heat, into 2 infrared photons that silicon can absorb, CPT’s innovation can boost energy output by up to 15 per cent while remaining fully compatible with existing solar infrastructure. It represents the first demonstration of this photon-multiplication effect at scale. The drop-in solution fits into standard solar modules without any redesign or capital-intensive manufacturing changes, offering one of the most practical routes yet to increasing global solar efficiency. The £926,000 equity investment round attracted international backing from Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Spectrum Impact, Tybourne Capital, Providence Investment Company and SourceSquared. A £630,000 Clean Energy and Climate Technologies grant from the UKRI Innovate UK Investor Partnerships was also awarded, enabled by the participation of Cambridge Enterprise in the investment round. According to Dr Claudio Marinelli, CEO of Cambridge Photon Technology, the investment demonstrates strong private-sector confidence in CPT’s technology and vision: “Attracting backing from leading investors across the UK, India, and Asia underlines the global relevance of our approach and its potential to transform solar efficiency at scale. The Innovate UK programme provides a powerful layer of support, helping us bridge the gap between early-stage development and commercial readiness.” Chris Gibbs, Investment Director at Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, said: “Cambridge Photon Technology exemplifies the kind of transformative innovation needed to accelerate the global transition to sustainable energy and address climate challenges.” With this funding, CPT will expand its R&D operation in Cambridge, accelerate material testing with global industry partners, and prepare for a larger Series A raise ahead of pilot deployment. The company aims to bring its first product to market by 2028. Lead image: Cambridge Photon Technology.