London-based Diligent AI, a Y Combinator-backed startup developing autonomous AI analysts for financial crime compliance, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding. The round was led by Speedinvest alongside fintech investor Shapers, with participation from strategic angel investors including the CEOs and founders of N26, Allica Bank, IDnow, Billie and Cybersource (acquired by Visa). KYC and AML teams play a critical role in safeguarding the global financial system by verifying customer legitimacy, monitoring transactions and identifying potential fraud or money laundering. However, the expansion of sanctions regimes, rising fraud levels and the growing velocity of digital payments have significantly increased their operational burden. As a result, much of the work has become repetitive and time-intensive, with skilled professionals often focused on routine data gathering rather than deeper investigative analysis. Diligent AI addresses this challenge by replacing static compliance workflows with autonomous AI analysts designed to read, reason and investigate. Its agents automate routine KYC and AML tasks, including reviewing SMB risk profiles, analysing adverse media and resolving sanctions and payment screening alerts, reducing the need for manual information gathering and contextual analysis. Founded by Edoardo Maschio and Ahmed Gaber, Diligent AI develops AI agents that automate complex financial crime compliance processes such as AML screening and merchant due diligence, helping institutions reduce operational costs while improving risk detection. Edoardo Maschio, CEO and co-founder of Diligent AI, said the company is designing its platform specifically for analysts: When you strip away repetitive tasks - like clearing false positive alerts, searching corporate registries and public records, cross-referencing adverse media - you free up the human mind to focus on judgment and strategy. It’s decision-making instead of data processing. We’re not just making teams faster; we’re enabling them to do the job they were hired to do. The company’s agents are already deployed across financial institutions in Europe, the Middle East, the United States and Japan. Customers use the platform to resolve sanctions, PEP and adverse media alerts, conduct merchant risk reviews and streamline customer onboarding. Users report measurable operational efficiencies alongside improved decision consistency. Diligent AI plans to use the new funding to expand its engineering capabilities and accelerate the rollout of its agents across the UK and Europe as it continues to develop tools for financial crime compliance teams.

A British defence tech startup developing AI software which helps improve the deployment of drones when communication is lost in combat has raised over $2m in a seed funding round.   Mutable Tactics has raised $2.1m in a funding round, led by spacetech investor Seraphim Space, with funding also from the UK’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund, Koro, Entrepreneurs First and Transpose.    Mutable Tactics is building AI software, in what it calls the “decision-layer”, that sits between the human operator and a drone, helping defence forces leverage multiple drones simultaneously.    It says its software translates a commander’s instructions into actions, meaning that mixed fleets of drones can operate together as a coordinated team, rather than as individually piloted platforms.   It says it’s solving the problem of drone deployment relying on one operator controlling one system, which limits how many drones can be used effectively at any given time.    The startup said that in battle environments, where communications are disrupted, drone systems that depend on constant human control quickly reach their limits.   Mutable Tactics was founded in 2024 by former British Army officer Colin MacLeod and robotics AI specialist Enrique Muñoz de Cote.   The startup says it will use the funding to increase the size of its engineering team in Cambridge and speed up the development of its software.    It also says the funding will be used to validate its tech in collaboration with two European governments.   MacLeod, CEO and co‑founder, Mutable Tactics, said: “Increasingly, the constraint is no longer hardware but human attention. We can deploy more drones than ever before, yet we still ask operators to control them one by one, often in environments where communications are unreliable.    "True autonomy breaks that one‑to‑one link, allowing humans to supervise and direct teams of systems rather than individual machines. That shift is essential for supporting modern military missions, where scale, speed and resilience matter, and where operators must remain focused on intent and outcomes rather than manual control.”

GHARAGE Ventures has launched its €40 million Fund I, positioning itself as an independent venture capital platform focused on early-stage technologies shaping the future of global travel and retail. Anchored by Gebr. Heinemann, the firm plans to collaborate with additional strategic investors to support innovation across the travel and retail ecosystem. As air travel continues to grow, many operational areas across airports and travel retail remain under-digitalised. GHARAGE Ventures aims to invest in startups addressing this gap, with a focus on automation, AI-enabled operations, digital infrastructure, travel technology services, and logistics and supply chain innovation. The fund invests globally from seed to Series A. Emerging from the venture capital and innovation activities of Gebr. Heinemann, GHARAGE Ventures has built a network of operators, brands, technology partners and investors across the travel and trade ecosystem. With Fund I, the platform is now open to additional limited partners seeking access to emerging technologies, real-world testing environments and global market insights. Lennard Niemann, Managing Partner at GHARAGE Ventures, noted that significant parts of the airport and travel retail ecosystem remain structurally under-digitised: The fund brings together capital, operational know-how and immediate access to industry environments. This is exactly where long-needed innovation can be turned into scalable, profitable impact. Through Fund I, GHARAGE has already invested in several companies targeting structural challenges in the travel and retail sectors. Looking ahead, Fund I plans to make around 30 additional investments across the travel and trade value chain, backing companies that deliver measurable operational improvements. The fund’s focus remains on technologies that enhance efficiency and support sustainable growth across global travel and trade markets.

British self-driving startup Oxa has raised $103 million from investors to expand autonomous vehicle operations at ports, airports, warehouses and other industrial sites. The company said $50 million of its Series D funding came from the UK’s National Wealth Fund, with additional investments from chipmaker Nvidia’s venture arm NVentures and BP’s bp Ventures. The round brings Oxa’s total funding to more than $250 million. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Oxford, Oxa develops configurable autonomous driving software that can be integrated into different types of vehicles to automate repetitive driving tasks in industrial environments such as ports, airports, warehouses and manufacturing sites. Its technology combines autonomy software, modular hardware and fleet management tools designed to enable the safe and scalable deployment of driverless vehicles. Unlike many autonomous vehicle developers focused on robotaxis and passenger cars, Oxa concentrates on what founder Paul Newman calls “industrial mobile autonomy”, where environments are more controlled and involve fewer interactions with pedestrians and regular traffic. We think trying to do that in the passenger car space is super, super hard. In the industrial space, it's extremely clear what you need to do to make a product, Newman said. The company designs both the software and hardware required to equip vehicles with autonomous capabilities and says it can convert a heavy-duty port truck to autonomous operation in under a day. The funding will support expanding deployments with customers including DHL, BP and Vantec, and will also be used to roll out Oxa’s technology in projects the company plans to announce in the near future. Oxa CEO Gavin Jackson will speak at the Tech.eu Summit London 2026, taking place on 21–22 April at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre.

Norwegian energy storage scale-up Photoncycle has raised €15 million in Series A funding to address a key renewable energy challenge in Europe: enabling households to store surplus summer solar power for winter heating and electricity. The round was led by NordicNinja and Voima Ventures, with participation from existing investors Lifeline Ventures, Eviny Ventures, Luminar Ventures and Momentum. Photoncycle develops solid-state hydrogen energy storage systems that allow households and businesses to store excess renewable energy for seasonal use. Its patented technology converts surplus solar power into solid-state hydrogen stored underground and releases it later as clean heat and electricity when needed. The investment comes as Europe continues to face energy vulnerabilities exposed by the 2022 crisis. In 2025, the EU imported €396 billion in fossil fuels (about €880 per citizen), underscoring ongoing reliance on external supply. Winter risk remains high, with space heating accounting for 62.5 per cent of household energy use and natural gas still a major component. Photoncycle’s distributed, household-level seasonal storage is designed to reduce the volume of imported gas required to meet winter heating demand. At full industrial scale, the company’s proposed 1.4 TWh manufacturing facility would represent storage capacity equivalent to roughly 140,000 homes each storing 10,000 kWh of seasonal energy. Bjørn Brandtzæg, founder and chief executive of Photoncycle, said the company was focused on moving seasonal energy resilience closer to consumers: Europe is beginning to solve short-duration storage. The remaining gap is seasonal. If households can store summer energy for winter use, they reduce exposure to imported fuel and price volatility as well as to increasing grid costs for consumers. The company plans to offer its system through a subscription-based model covering solar panels, storage, servicing and access to energy trading markets, with the aim of lowering upfront costs for homeowners. By shifting summer solar energy into winter use, Photoncycle aims to provide households with more predictable year-round energy costs and reduced exposure to volatile gas markets. The new funding will support commercial rollout in Denmark and the Netherlands and finance the first phase of the company’s industrialisation plan, including the proposed 1.4 TWh annual manufacturing facility. Beyond its initial European markets, Photoncycle also sees longer-term expansion opportunities in regions such as Japan and the United States.

Startups Brilliant Labs, Neuphonic and TheStage AI today announced a strategic partnership to enable frontier AI in wearable technology without the latency and privacy compromises of cloud computing. Currently, AI inference, such as audio or image analysis, relies on models hosted in the cloud, creating unnecessary latency and risking user data exposure. This partnership addresses the issue by moving processing directly into consumer hardware, protecting sensitive point-of-view data and enhancing performance with faster response times. Brilliant Labs is gearing up for the launch of Halo, their latest smart glasses. In addition to on-device vision inference, Halo will use Neuphonic’s Conversational AI models on an inference engine built by TheStage AI. This architecture challenges the foundation of cloud-dependent offerings from giants like Meta and Snap, placing user privacy and latency at the core of the user experience. Brilliant Labs will release its groundbreaking AI memory feature through its open-source eyewear platform in one of the slimmest form factors available. Neuphonic will deliver the conversational interface, where their ultra-low-latency text-to-speech technology runs locally, turning the device into a conversational partner with human-like responsiveness.  Finally, TheStage AI will provide an automated inference engine that optimises AI models to run efficiently on the edge, ensuring instant processing without draining the battery. By combining these strengths, Brilliant Labs is delivering an unprecedented AI wearable experience to its customers where voice, vision, and sensor data is processed locally on the user’s device: no raw point-of-view data ever leaves the user’s phone or glasses. This architecture stands in stark contrast to cloud-dependent AI models that rely on remote inference for messaging, voice, and image analysis. Recent investigations have raised questions about whether major platforms have renege on their privacy promises. Those concerns only grow more acute as AI systems expand beyond text into always-on microphones and cameras. This partnership offers an alternative: intelligent wearables that keep sensitive visual and conversational data local, while delivering advanced AI through an open-source stack designed for transparency, trust, and independent scrutiny. “We believe in a privacy-first future for personal computing. AI glasses are soon going to be everywhere around us: always-on cameras and microphones capturing our lives. That’s either exciting or terrifying, depending on where that data lives and who is monetising it,” said Bobak Tavangar, CEO of Brilliant Labs and former Apple program lead. “I don’t want my children growing up in a world where that data is sold to the highest bidder. This partnership shows there’s a better way. And by embracing open source, we want people to understand how these systems work, build upon them, and ultimately foster trust. That’s the standard we think the industry should be held to.” “When you’re having a conversation, speed and privacy are everything. You cannot wait for the cloud to think,” said Sohaib Ahmad, CEO of Neuphonic. “We provide the 'voice' of this new ecosystem. By running our advanced speech models directly on Brilliant’s hardware, we’ve unlocked a conversational experience that feels real, immediate, and completely private.” TheStage AI ensures this heavy lifting happens smoothly. “Great hardware and great models need a bridge, and that is what we build,” said Kirill Solodskikh, CEO at TheStage AI. “Running conversational AI on a pair of glasses is a massive computational challenge.You have to manage peak memory, latency, and power consumption to make responses feel immediate. Our core technology, ANNA, optimises Neuphonic’s models and supporting components, including transcription, wake word, and diarisation, so they run efficiently on a smartphone paired with the glasses. Deploying the optimised models on GPU and NPU accelerators delivers the best performance possible on-device.” Looking forward, Brilliant’s Halo glasses will support: Context-aware, conversational AI that sees and hears in real time.  Private memory that indexes what the user sees and hears for later recall and personalised context. Vibe Mode, a natural-language interface that generates custom AI mini-apps on demand — from on-demand AI agents to enterprise workflows. All visual and audio inputs are processed on-device and converted into encrypted embeddings. Brilliant Labs’ Halo glasses with integrated Neuphonic voice AI will be available in Q1 2026 at $349.

Finnish infrastructure software technology company Groundhawk has raised €2 million in Seed funding to transform how underground utilities are mapped and documented.  As Europe invests heavily in electricity grids, fibre networks, EV charging and renewable integration, a critical weakness remains: underground infrastructure is still documented using outdated, post-construction surveys and estimates. The result is over €100 billion in annual global damage, project delays, and safety risks caused by inaccurate mapping.  Groundhawk replaces analogue documentation with real-time, AI-powered 3D capture, allowing construction crews to record precise underground data while trenches are open, creating digital records with centimetre-level accuracy, instantly synced to the cloud. The company’s technology combines high-precision satellite positioning, 3D scanning, and AI analytics to embed quality assurance directly into the construction workflow.  By capturing accurate depth measurements, installation details, and visual documentation while trenches are still open, Groundhawk enables crews and project managers to verify that cables, ducts, and connection points are installed correctly before the site is closed. This real-time capture transforms documentation from a passive record into an active quality-control tool, allowing issues to be identified and corrected immediately rather than discovered weeks later during post-build surveys. “Groundhawk is so user-friendly that anyone already on site with the device can handle the cable mapping. If you can shoot a video with your mobile phone, you can use Groundhawk. This accelerates the entire project,” says Christoffer Winquist, CEO and co-founder of Groundhawk. All data synchronises in real time to a cloud platform, giving network owners precise visibility and an accurate map of their entire new underground network. This approach delivers up to 50 per cent cost savings on surveying while providing project managers with immediate visibility into contractor progress and quality compliance. Groundhawk serves network owners, prime contractors, and subcontractors across fibre and electricity infrastructure projects. Customers include major Nordic and European infrastructure contractors such as Eltel Networks, Voimatel, Elvera, and Signal Group, which serve network operators including Telia, Telenor, Caruna, Global Connect, E.on, and Valokuitunen. The round was led by investors Greencode Ventures and 2C Ventures.  According to Ines Bergmann-Nolting, Managing Partner at Greencode Ventures, the Groundhawk team brings an exceptional combination of profound sector insight and deep technical expertise, and their strong early traction convinced us to invest. “As networks expand and regulations tighten, Groundhawk becomes the essential interface between physical construction and digital infrastructure."  The €2 million seed funding will support several strategic priorities: building a scalable B2B sales organisation across Germany, the UK, Benelux, and Nordic markets; expanding the engineering team to advance the AI and spatial intelligence capabilities; and developing new product features that extend from build-time documentation into planning support and predictive quality assurance.  Lead image: From left: Otto Salminen, Otto Virta, Christoffer Winquist, and Jonne Davidsson. Photo: uncredited. 

AI patent platform DeepIP has raised $25 million in Series B funding, bringing total capital raised to $40 million. DeepIP is a workflow-native AI platform built to support patent professionals across the full patent lifecycle — from early innovation through enforcement and portfolio evolution.  Designed to integrate directly into existing workflows, DeepIP helps both law firms and in-house IP teams manage complex patent work with greater continuity, quality, and collaboration.  Teams can adopt AI without changing their tools or processes. As a result, customers see up to 20 per cent higher adoption and 40 per cent higher usage compared to standalone AI tools. The platform is already trusted by leading patent law firms and corporate IP organisations across Europe and the United States, including Greenberg Traurig, Mewburn Ellis, Dexcom, and Philips.  DeepIP was founded in 2024 by François-Xavier Leduc and Edouard d’Archimbaud, the CEO and CTO, respectively, of Kili Technology, an AI scale-up that has delivered AI solutions to Fortune 500 companies worldwide since 2018 and will continue as a standalone company with its own revenue streams. “The first wave of AI in patent practice focused on speeding up individual tasks,” says François-Xavier Leduc, CEO and co-founder of DeepIP.  “But patent work is cumulative. It spans years, teams, decisions… We built DeepIP to be the system where that work lives, with AI embedded throughout the workflow so professionals don’t have to manage fragmentation or carry context manually.” DeepIP’s goal is simple, says Leduc: “Bring AI at every step of the patent lifecycle” The funding was co-led by Korelya Capital and Serena, with participation from Balderton and Headline. “DeepIP has built the modern end-to-end infrastructure for the new era of IP. Leveraging deep vertical expertise and native workflows that meet users where they are as compounding moats, the team has built an emerging global category leader in a matter of months,” says Paul Degueuse, Partner at Korelya Capital.  “IP sits at the core of how innovation becomes value, while AI is transforming the way we invent. The patent lifecycle needs to catch up. It's overdue.” “DeepIP has reached a major milestone since its Series A, increasing revenue by tenfold in the last 18 months and rolling out an AI-native platform now adopted by leading players and embedded at the heart of patent professionals’ daily workflows,” says Olivier Martret, Partner at Serena.  “We strongly believe this platform positioning is essential to establishing a new standard and helping structure what remains a highly fragmented global market for AI applied to patents.”

Founded in Kyiv in 2008, MacPaw has grown into a global technology company building a digital ecosystem designed to supercharge productivity for Mac users. With an office opened in Boston in 2023 and others and across the EU, the company is evolving beyond standalone utilities into a unified software experience blending system care, cybersecurity, app discovery — and increasingly — AI. Its best-known products, including CleanMyMac, Setapp, and ClearVPN, have long focused on simplicity and design. I spoke with CEO Oleksandr Kosovan, who says the company is undergoing a “total transformation” into an AI-first organisation. “That means two things. First, we are developing AI products that utilise large language models for our customers. Second, we are adopting AI internally — working with AI agents, automating processes, writing code with AI, and integrating it across workflows. So we are in the process of a total transformation.” AI as an opportunity — and a threat Kosovan argues that while Apple provides an excellent ecosystem for developers, AI is changing how people consume software. “There’s a decline in traditional search traffic, as users spend more time with chatbots like ChatGPT. In some cases, users may not need an app — they can solve tasks via AI. This is both an opportunity and a threat. The final user experience model is still evolving, and we want to be one of the alternatives people can choose.” Enter Eney In 2025, MacPaw released a beta version of Eney, an AI assistant — or what the company calls a “Computerbeing” — designed to change how Mac users interact with their devices. Built for everyday users rather than technical specialists, Eney aims to transform complex digital tasks into simple, conversational experiences. Instead of switching between multiple applications, users can rely on Eney to complete tasks through natural language prompts, creating a more streamlined and personalised workflow. At its core, Eney is designed as a human-like digital companion that helps users navigate their digital lives more intuitively. By removing friction from everyday processes, the assistant seeks to make routine interactions faster and more effortless. Kosovan explained: “We’re trying to do as much as possible directly on the user’s device to guarantee strong privacy. In some cases, this also enables faster operations. The goal is not only to allow users to speak with the assistant, but to execute actions on their devices.” Eney is currently available in closed beta exclusively through Setapp, with a broader public release planned later this year as the product continues to be refined Reinventing Setapp for the AI era  Today MacPaw announced new purchase options on Setapp, introducing single-app subscriptions for more than 60 applications. “We know people use apps differently,” says Kosovan. “Expanding into single-app models is our first meaningful step toward transforming Setapp into an open ecosystem marketplace — where users can discover and use third-party tools and AI-powered solutions.” AI is already unlocking new functionality. For example, CleanMyMac can analyse system logs and explain issues in natural language. “With a product like CleanMyMac, users could say, ‘Help me clean my Downloads folder,’ and the system can respond conversationally and execute actions. These are new possibilities enabled by large language models.” However, not every app is an obvious fit. Applications working with textual data — logs or documents — benefit most from LLM integration. “Tools like video compression or audio conversion rely on conventional algorithms. LLMs won’t replace those core functions,” he says. MacPaw plans to extend single-app subscriptions beyond Setapp Membership later this year. For Mac afficandos. MacPaw's vintage Apple museum is a delight. I visited their office in Boston Cambridge in 2024 and was pleased to see it extended Stateside. Moonlock and the rise of Mac cybersecurity As Mac adoption grows, so too do cyber threats. Moonlock is a Mac protection and antivirus app built for individual Mac users. Its detection engine has powered CleanMyMac’s malware removal module since 2023, protecting millions of users. The app’s malware database is continuously updated through hands-on research by Moonlock Lab, MacPaw’s in-house team of malware investigators, who track emerging macOS threats. Its launch comes amid rising Mac-targeted threats: malware detections increased 20 per cent in 2024 compared to 2023, while 66 per cent of Mac users report encountering a cyber threat in the past year. The long-standing perception of Macs as malware-free is no longer accurate. In 2025, the product expanded with the launch of “VPN for Home,” introducing router support that allows households to secure all connected devices through a single account — without installing the app on each device individually. To further strengthen safe browsing, the team launched ClearWeb, an ad-blocking Chrome extension that creates a cleaner and more secure online experience. One of its key advantages is the ability to block ads within videos, including on YouTube. How ClearVPN became critical infrastructure in Ukraine In February 2026, ClearVPN introduced Kid Safe Mode — a dedicated browsing profile designed to protect children online. With a single tap, it activates enhanced protection, filtering harmful content and preventing risky connections. Since February 2022, ClearVPN’s role has extended beyond technology. Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, MacPaw made ClearVPN free for all Ukrainian citizens, recognising the urgent need for secure and uninterrupted access to trusted information. The product has helped thousands of Ukrainians — including those in temporarily occupied territories — access independent news and reliable updates. As attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure continue, with power outages in Kyiv sometimes lasting more than 24 hours, many residents rely on public Wi-Fi networks to stay connected. In these conditions, VPN protection becomes even more critical due to the heightened security risks of public networks . MacPaw remains committed to providing ClearVPN free of charge to Ukrainians for as long as it is needed. Four years Into war, MacPaw keeps shipping — and scaling globally Before the invasion, MacPaw had already developed a crisis response plan covering power outages, air raids, cyberattacks, and supply chain disruptions. “Last year, during a missile strike near our office, those drills helped a lot,” Kosovan says. “When people are in shock, having a step-by-step procedure allows them to act correctly.” To monitor team safety, MacPaw continues to use Together App, a tool created by its engineers during the early months of the invasion to quickly confirm employees’ safety following missile or drone attacks. “After rocket strikes in Kyiv, we conduct daily check-ins to ensure everyone is safe.” Despite the extraordinary circumstances, Kosovan describes his role as largely consistent with that of any global CEO. “I focus on the business, customers, products, and internal transformation,” he says. “The main difference is security. After rocket strikes in Kyiv, we conduct daily check-ins to ensure everyone is safe.” The prolonged strain, however, is undeniable. Reflecting on the persistent air raids and disrupted sleep cycles, he acknowledges the toll: “Unfortunately, we are getting used to it. That’s very sad, but it’s our reality.” Productivity has inevitably been affected. “Sleep deprivation and prolonged stress affect people physically and mentally,” Kosovan admits. In response, the company introduced unlimited vacation and expanded mental health support. “But continuing to work on meaningful goals helps. The tech industry is moving very fast — especially with AI — and we must keep up.”  Due to ongoing security risks, office attendance is not mandatory. The company employs around 300 people in Kyiv and approximately 200–250 team members abroad, and continues to hire Ukrainians both domestically and internationally. Four years into the full-scale war, the company remains operational in Ukraine while expanding internationally. In 2023, MacPaw opened its first US office in Boston.  Since its founding in 2008, the company has built products for users worldwide — and continues to update and maintain them without interruption.   At the same time, its corporate social responsibility efforts have intensified. Since 2022, MacPaw has donated more than $13 million to initiatives supporting Ukrainians affected by Russian aggression, including humanitarian aid, restoring access to education, and promoting inclusion. Rethinking Ukrainian tech Kosovan asserts that Ukrainian tech is much larger than people think. “Many companies register abroad — Delaware, Cyprus — for security reasons. So users don’t realise they’re Ukrainian-made. There’s also a strong Ukrainian diaspora of engineers and founders worldwide. I’m proud of that heritage.” Four years into the full-scale war, MacPaw remains operational in Ukraine while expanding globally. Its strategy is clear: simplify software for everyday users, embed AI at every level of the organisation, and redefine how people interact with their computers. If successful, Eney — the “Computerbeing” — could mark MacPaw’s next evolution: from utility maker to architect of a new human-computer interface paradigm.

UK-based Antiverse, a biotech company developing AI-designed therapeutic antibodies for hard-to-target disease targets, has closed a $9.3 million Series A round led by Soulmates Ventures, with participation from Innovation Investment Capital, DOMiNO Ventures and existing investors DBW, Kadmos Capital and i&i Biotech Fund. The financing brings Antiverse’s total capital raised to more than $20 million. One of the major challenges in modern medicine is the treatment of diseases linked to so-called undruggable molecular targets. Drug discovery in this area remains difficult, with attrition rates of around 90% for candidates entering clinical trials. Antiverse is addressing this gap through an AI-led computational platform designed to generate therapeutic antibodies against complex targets such as G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels, which are implicated in conditions including cancer, neurological disorders and rare genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis. The company combines machine learning with in-house laboratory validation to generate and test antibody candidates. Its models design antibodies for specific disease targets, which are then built and evaluated using proprietary cell systems that replicate how the target proteins appear in the human body. Candidates showing promising results are subsequently advanced toward clinical development. Antiverse has also entered into a research agreement with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to design antibodies targeting the extracellular region of the CFTR protein, a historically challenging target. Under the collaboration, the company will apply its AI-driven platform to accelerate the evaluation of new therapeutic approaches. Through this combined AI-and-lab approach, Antiverse aims to improve antibody discovery efficiency for complex disease targets by enabling faster iteration between computational design and experimental validation. The new funding will enable Antiverse to scale its AI-powered antibody discovery platform for pharmaceutical and foundation partners through collaborative programmes. It will also support the expansion of the company’s internal drug pipeline and advance lead antibody programmes toward in vivo efficacy studies. Photo credit: Kevin Trimmer

BioInnovation Institute (BII), an initiative of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, has awarded an additional €1.3 million in follow-on funding to five portfolio startups, bringing total support per company to up to €1.8 million. The funding is intended to support product development, operational scaling and progress toward market deployment across healthtech, agritech, climatetech and deeptech. The announcement follows a recent commitment by the Novo Nordisk Foundation of up to €736 million (DKK 5.5 billion) to BII, enabling the Copenhagen-based institute to expand into new strategic areas and geographies while supporting a larger number of entrepreneurs and startups across Europe. Established in 2018, BII is a non-profit life science incubator that supports early-stage research and startups with funding, facilities and business support to help translate scientific discoveries into viable companies. The latest funding is being deployed through BII’s Venture House programme as part of its broader mission to translate cutting-edge research into commercially viable solutions with societal impact. The five supported startups are: Synuca Therapeutics - The first company funded through the DKK320 million innovation partnership with Lundbeckfonden/Lundbeck Foundation. It develops a first-in-class disease-modifying therapy for Parkinson’s disease and related brain disorders.  Gefjon Pharma - Building an outer membrane vesicle (OMV) platform to produce cost-effective vaccines and therapeutics, initially targeting E. coli infections in poultry to reduce antimicrobial use. MicroMiner - Advancing recycling technology to improve the sustainability of EV batteries as it transitions from research to deployable solutions. DARERL - Developing a SaaS platform that provides high-fidelity digital human anatomy models to support the design and validation of wearable and medical devices. Diasense - Industrialising a quantum diamond microscope to deliver real-time diagnostics and process insights for next-generation semiconductor manufacturing. Commenting on the announcement, Trine Bartholdy, Chief Business Officer at BII, said: All five companies clearly reflect BII’s mission to enable novel solutions that benefit human health, planetary health and societal resilience. We are proud to continue supporting them through our Venture House program and help bring them closer to external investment and commercialisation. Each of the five companies had previously received €500,000 from BII and will use the additional funding to advance key milestones, ranging from lead optimisation in neurodegenerative disease research to scaling vaccine production and industrialising quantum diagnostic tools.

Cambridge-based Bindbridge has secured $3.8 million in early-stage funding from Speedinvest and Nucleus Capital to advance next-generation crop protection aimed at improving crop resilience and agricultural productivity. Traditional crop protection methods face growing constraints due to environmental persistence, human health concerns and rising herbicide resistance, leaving farmers with fewer effective options as global food demand increases. The UN estimates that plant pests destroy about 40% of crops each year, with plant diseases costing the global economy more than $220 billion. At the same time, the agrochemical sector is under pressure to deliver more precise, biologically based solutions while meeting stricter safety and regulatory requirements. Bindbridge is addressing this challenge with a new R&D approach for the global agrochemical industry, where bringing a new active ingredient to market can take more than a decade despite significant annual research spending. Its BRIDGE platform uses AI to identify and design molecular glues that target and degrade specific proteins in weeds or pests by leveraging the plant’s intracellular protein control system. The approach aims to reduce development time and costs while enabling more effective herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and sprayable plant traits, such as improved nutrient use efficiency, heat tolerance and carbon sequestration. The company’s AI discovery platform aims to support the development of safer and more effective herbicides and next-generation crop protection agents while reducing development time and cost. It also opens the door to new sprayable plant traits, including improved nutrient use efficiency, heat tolerance and carbon sequestration. George Crane, CEO and co-founder of Bindbridge, said the agricultural industry is facing growing pressure to improve both performance and sustainability: The agricultural industry faces significant performance and sustainability challenges which is driving demand for more efficient products. Yet there’s no affordable, rational, or systematic way to discover molecular glues that are the foundation for such products. We’re changing that. We’re using the power of AI to rapidly and accurately derive new molecules that can change farming’s future. Bindbridge was founded in March 2025 by Cambridge University researchers Dr George Crane, Dr Alex Campbell and Dr Simeon Spasov. Over the next 12 months, the company plans to partner with agrochemical companies on targeted protein degradation co-development projects and begin lab testing its first agricultural molecular glues. The new funding will support platform development, team expansion and the company’s broader growth initiatives.

Paris-based baCta, an industrial biotech startup developing an AI-powered bioproduction platform for industrial ingredients, has closed a €7 million seed funding round led by LocalGlobe and Daphni, with participation from OVNI Capital and several business angels, including founders of Phagos, Genomines and Mistral AI. Read our earlier interview with Mathieu Nohet, CEO and co-founder of baCta. Demand for industrial ingredients is rising, but current production methods, such as extraction from limited natural sources or petrochemical synthesis, remain costly, seasonal and exposed to geopolitical and climate risks. While bioproduction offers an alternative, developing high-yield industrial strains has traditionally been a slow and expensive trial-and-error process. Founded by Mathieu Nohet and Marie Rouquette, baCta aims to address this challenge by enabling more sustainable production of high-value molecules. The company uses AI and precision fermentation to program microorganisms as molecular factories for industrial ingredient manufacturing. Its baCtaForge platform combines advances in synthetic biology, robotics and generative AI to explore genomic regions, long-range interactions and regulatory pathways often overlooked by conventional engineering. The platform applies bio-based reinforcement learning to reduce development time and costs. Commenting on the development, Mathieu Nohet, founder and CEO of baCta, said the industry is entering a phase in which microorganisms can serve as programmable molecular factories capable of producing organic molecules at a commercial scale. The new funding will be used to scale up production by validating industrial processes at pilot and commercial stages, leveraging a strategic partnership with a French industrial player to access production capacity, and initiating commercialisation. The company also plans to expand baCtaForge’s capabilities to additional high-value ingredients.

Milan-based Qura, an AI-powered full-stack health platform, has closed a €1.5 million pre-seed round led by United Ventures, with participation from Vento, Italian Angels for Growth (IAG) and several individual angel investors. An estimated one in five adults experiences persistent subclinical symptoms, such as chronic fatigue, hormonal imbalances, digestive issues or unexplained hair loss, that fall short of acute illness but still affect quality of life. Traditional primary care is not well designed to manage these conditions or support early intervention: consultations are brief, diagnostics are limited, and patients often navigate multiple specialists without a coordinated care plan. At the same time, Europe’s health check-up market is projected to reach €18.6 billion by 2030, reflecting growing emphasis on prevention. However, healthcare delivery remains largely focused on acute care, leaving non-emergency needs underserved and often financed out of pocket. Qura aims to address this gap with an integrated care pathway. Members complete comprehensive blood testing through partner laboratories, followed by AI-driven analysis and a 45-minute consultation with a dedicated physician. Each user receives a personalised health plan outlining immediate actions and longer-term monitoring, supported by ongoing follow-up and medical guidance. The company’s hybrid care model keeps physicians at the centre while AI supports efficiency and personalisation — an approach intended to strengthen trust, adherence and quality of care. From an infrastructure standpoint, Qura is prioritising regulatory alignment by building an EU-native platform that is GDPR-compliant, medically validated and integrated with local laboratory networks. Virginia Gambardella, CEO and founder of Qura, said health is often treated as an emergency rather than a priority: Millions of people know something is off, but the current system doesn’t give them the tools or the guidance to act. Qura changes that - we combine the precision of AI with the trust of a real doctor to help people stay well, not just get better. The new funding will be used to expand hiring across medical, engineering and operations teams, invest in digital marketing and community-led growth, advance Qura’s AI health intelligence capabilities, and prepare for expansion into additional European markets.

Mycoverse, an agritech spin-out from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) developing fungal-based biological crop protection, has raised €2.4 million in pre-seed equity funding. The round was co-led by Future Food Fund and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), with participation from PINC, the venture arm of Paulig, bringing the company’s total funding to €4.3 million. The crop protection landscape in Europe is evolving in response to regulatory changes and growing demand for more sustainable agricultural practices. At the same time, farmers continue to require reliable and cost-effective tools to manage persistent disease pressures. Potato late blight remains a major challenge and represents an estimated $1.9 billion global market, underlining demand for innovative bio-based solutions that can support crop resilience while reducing environmental impact. To address this need, Mycoverse is developing fungal-based biological crop protection solutions using an AI-driven discovery platform and advanced fungal production technology. The company focuses on identifying promising fungal strains and developing bioactive solutions designed to replace chemical pesticides while integrating into existing farming systems. Its platform is built to support scalable, data-driven applications across multiple crops, with an initial focus on potato late blight and potential future use in grapevine. The company reports that its lead candidates have demonstrated strong performance in greenhouse trials. The new funding will support the development of Mycoverse’s first solution targeting potato late blight, one of Europe’s most destructive crop diseases, as the region faces increasing pressure to reduce reliance on chemical pesticides.

Berlin-based Flink, a quick commerce operator active in Germany and the Netherlands, has secured around $100 million in new growth capital. The round was led by Prosus and other existing investors, with Btomorrow Ventures, the corporate venture arm of BAT, also participating. Founded in 2021, the company operates a network of local fulfilment hubs that enable rapid delivery of everyday groceries and household essentials through its mobile app. Flink focuses on high-frequency top-up shopping missions, combining a curated product assortment with short delivery times supported by in-house logistics and operations infrastructure. Over the past two years, Flink has refined its operating model with a focus on operational discipline, unit economics and cost control. The company reports that it is now operating profitably at the EBITDA level. Commenting on market developments, Julian Dames, CEO of Flink, said the quick commerce landscape has fundamentally evolved: Quick commerce works when it is built on operational discipline and realistic customer expectations. Our strength lies in combining profitable operations with true on-demand delivery - a model that clearly differentiates us in the market. Flink’s model centres on frequent, high-quality top-up shopping missions, reflecting local customer behaviour. The company reports an average basket size of more than €45 and an average delivery time of approximately 30 minutes. Looking ahead, Flink plans to open additional hubs in selected German regions in 2026, focusing on areas that meet strict profitability and density criteria. The new funding will strengthen the company’s financial position following a period of consolidation in the European online grocery sector and provide additional flexibility to support targeted expansion in its core markets.

The newly released Female Innovation Index 2026, Europe’s largest report examining the innovation and funding pipeline driven by female entrepreneurs, shows that female founders across the region are scaling more rapidly, raising larger rounds and increasingly adopting AI. Produced in partnership with more than 35 private equity and venture associations and leading European venture ecosystem players across 20 countries, the latest edition delivers over 150 insights into the female innovation funnel in Europe. According to the report, 1,307 European female-founded startups raised €7.5 billion across 1,376 deals in 2025, marking a three-year high and a 19 per cent year-on-year increase. This growth broadly tracks the overall European VC market, which rose 18 per cent over the same period. AI becomes a central growth driver The report reveals that AI continues to play an increasingly important role in female-led innovation. In 2025, companies leveraging AI captured 22 per cent of all venture capital and 25 per cent of all rounds raised by female-founded startups. Among funded female-founded AI companies, 47 per cent operated at the application layer, with security (18 per cent), health (16 per cent), robotics (11 per cent) and fintech (10 per cent) attracting the most investment. Source: Female Innovation Index 2026 Survey data from the Female Innovation Index 2026 indicates that AI is widely viewed as a key business enabler: 86 per cent of female founders report using the technology, and 90 per cent say it has made building their businesses easier over the past year.  Beyond AI, deeptech remains a major focus area, accounting for 34 per cent of total venture capital raised by female-founded startups in 2025, up one percentage point year on year. Within deeptech, drug discovery attracted the largest share at 20 per cent. Agata Nowicka, founder of Female Foundry and author of the Female Innovation Index, said: This has been a remarkable year for female entrepreneurs in Europe. Female founders across all industries are no longer simply experimenting with AI — they are embedding it at the core of their value creation. With an unprecedented number of female-founded companies reaching unicorn status and a surge in M&A activity, we are witnessing a generational shift in how women build, innovate, and scale across Europe. Health leads sector performance Health further strengthened its position as the leading sector for both company creation and funding among female-founded startups in Europe in 2025, capturing 37 per cent of total capital raised (€3.6 billion), up 75 per cent year on year. Fintech followed with 12 per cent (€0.9 billion), down 10 per cent, while energy accounted for 7 per cent (€506 million), declining 15 per cent from the previous year. Source: Female Innovation Index 2026 Larger rounds and stronger progression Funding rounds for female-founded startups continued to grow in size, particularly at later stages. Average round size increased 12 per cent year on year, with Series B and Series C showing the strongest growth at 26 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively. More Seed-stage female-founded companies progressed to Series A than the broader European startup population, and deal activity increased across all stages, especially at Seed, Series A and Series B. Female-founded companies also outperformed the European average at Series A in funding success. Record unicorn creation and regional leaders In 2025, female-founded companies in Europe achieved a record level of unicorn creation. Five companies reached unicorn status, bringing the regional total to 29, the highest recorded to date. A further 21 companies are approaching unicorn status, representing a 50 per cent increase and another record high. Geographically, the UK, Finland and France lead in total funding for female-founded companies, while Finland, Czechia, Luxembourg and Spain record the highest national shares of venture capital allocated to female-founded startups. Source: Female Innovation Index 2026 For more information, the full report is available here.

An Oxford-headquartered spacetech startup says it's gearing up to manufacture up to 200 satellites a year, as it looks to offer European governments and businesses an alternative communication channel to Elon Musk’s Starlink. Open Cosmos is launching a satellite network, called ConnectedCosmos, that will provide sovereign communication as an alternative to “transcontinental mega-constellations”, the startup said. The startup, founded in 2015, designs, builds and operates satellites that collect critical data to address global challenges like connectivity and climate change.   Founder and CEO Rafel Jordà Siquier said it was gearing up to build up to 200 satellites a year, from its main hub in Harwell, near Oxford, according to the Daily Telegraph.   He told the Daily Telegraph: “We have the ability to deliver up to 150, soon close to 200 satellites per year. In Harwell in particular, we now have the capacity for manufacturing on average a satellite every three days.”   The startup is pitching its offering as a European alternative to European businesses and governments, which use Starlink, the satellite network developed by Musk's spaceflight firm SpaceX. The startup's plans also come amid EU officials having reservations about its reliance on Starlink, which has been used by Ukrainian civilians, government and military since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, given its concentration of power in the hands of one individual. Siquier said: “ConnectedCosmos represents a leap forward for Europe in building a resilient, secure and autonomous connectivity capability - giving nations and partners a reliable alternative for true sovereignty in orbit. "By combining secure space-based communications with real-time Earth Observation intelligence, we are moving beyond connectivity alone and delivering actionable resilience. "This combination is what separates us from the crowd - adding the extra layer of context and insight to transform our offering into a unique service. “In a world where infrastructure can be disrupted, jammed, or compromised, our constellation ensures that critical data remains secure, trusted, and immediately usable. With ConnectedCosmos, we are delivering to the world an alternative that matches technological excellence with strategic autonomy.”   Open Cosmos, which has expanded into Portugal, and Spain, has secured contracts worth tens of millions of pounds. Its investors include ETF Partners, Accenture Ventures and Wise founder Taavet Hinrikus and has raised over $63m in total.

Zurich-based Fainite AG has received €165,000 (CHF 150,000) from Venture Kick to advance physics-based simulations and expand access to advanced engineering analysis across a wider range of applications. Modern hardware development and material testing rely heavily on physics-based simulations for design, validation, and manufacturing. However, these simulations are often time- and compute-intensive, increasing engineering costs and slowing product development. As a result, engineers frequently simplify models, limiting their ability to reflect real-world conditions and constraining product performance when extensive testing becomes too costly. Fainite is addressing this challenge with a physics-aware AI platform designed to accelerate and streamline simulation workflows. The platform enables engineers to run simulations faster, set up new workflows in minutes, and intelligently reuse prior results using deep learning and physics-informed models. An integrated AI agent guides users through complex tasks and provides expert recommendations, making advanced analysis and design exploration more accessible while preserving core physical principles. The company aims to support the approximately 9 million hardware engineers affected by these bottlenecks, initially focusing on complex engineering problems that general-purpose AI models are not well-suited to address. The new funding will support the expansion of the technology into additional engineering domains and applications, accelerate the launch of a scalable next-generation platform, and strengthen the team and go-to-market efforts to drive enterprise adoption.

Onetag, a global programmatic ad exchange and smart curation platform, announced the acquisition of Aryel, an Italian adtech company focused on immersive and interactive advertising experiences. As advertisers place greater scrutiny on the ROI of their ad spend while seeking simpler workflows and clearer performance signals, the limitations of fragmented buying models and undifferentiated curation layers have become increasingly apparent. Onetag’s strategy aims to address this shift by redefining how value is created, exchanged, and measured across the open internet. Commenting on the acquisition, Filippo Gramigna, Co-CEO of Onetag, said the industry needs a stronger value exchange rather than additional complexity: With Aryel, we’re unifying quality media, creative technology, unique data and AI-driven decisioning into one solution, making it easier and quicker for brands to achieve real business outcomes, with simplicity and ease. Through the integration of Aryel, Onetag brings together three core capabilities within a single proprietary platform: access to quality media via a global exchange connected directly to premium publishers; immersive, high-impact creative formats designed to drive meaningful user interaction; and AI-driven decisioning focused on optimising campaigns toward concrete business objectives rather than surface-level metrics. Delivered through a unified self-service solution, the platform is intended to reduce operational complexity, support broader adoption, and enable buyers and advertisers to achieve measurable outcomes. Mattia Salvi, CEO of Aryel, said the company was established to move digital advertising beyond passive impressions, adding that its immersive formats are built to capture attention, encourage interaction, and generate meaningful signals while maintaining a positive user experience. He noted that, as part of Onetag, this creative intelligence is now integrated directly into media delivery, allowing each interaction to contribute to performance metrics and measuremen. The combined technology is supported by large-scale proprietary data spanning audiences, performance insights, and user interactions. This foundation powers Onetag’s AI-driven decisioning layer, enabling buying strategies aligned with business outcomes such as consideration, engagement, and conversions, while linking media quality, creative effectiveness, and measurement within a single framework. With this acquisition, Onetag advances its shift from fragmented digital advertising transactions and inconsistent user experiences toward a more unified value exchange focused on quality, intelligence, and measurable outcomes.