What began as a simple walking route created by a frustrated parent has grown into a global movement platform. In Lithuania, Walk15 has reached around 31 per cent of the population. Last year, it generated around €1 million in revenue. Founded by Lithuanian entrepreneur Vlada Musvydaite Vilciauske, Walk15 is rethinking how people engage with health, sustainability, and community, by turning steps into currency. From one route to a platform Vilčiauskė was born in Ukraine, but lived most of her life in Vilnius.  She was originally an athlete, a 400-metre runner, and became a Lithuanian and European-level champion. “Sport has always been part of my life,” she recalled. “My mother was a 100-metre champion, and my father ran 800 metres. So I was almost like a 'designed' 400-metre runner. Growing up, everything felt like a competition. But the most important lesson came from my mother — she always told me that the most important thing in life is whether you are happy, not how much money you make. That philosophy stayed with me, and it’s one of the reasons I created Walk15.” The idea for Walk15 emerged from a very simple, personal problem. As Vilčiauskė recalls: “In 2016, I felt like a bad mother because I didn’t know where to walk with my kids.” So she created a 15,000-step walking route together with a woman from a regional park. In the process, she realised that walking with a clear goal transforms the experience. “You stay engaged, you stay motivated,” she says. One participant even lost 15–20 kilos simply by following the route—“that was a big moment for me.” It also raised a new question: how could she share this with others? The answer was to build an app, initially centred on that single 15,000-step route. “Maybe one day it will be international… so let’s call it Walk15.” After the app, they started organising physical walking events where people could come with their families, friends, or dogs and walk 15,000 steps together. How Walk15 turns steps into value From a user perspective, the app is  simple: you connect your phone or wearable device, your steps are tracked—without collecting location data—and they accumulate in a digital “step wallet.” Users can then join challenges created by companies, cities, or organisations, ranging from workplace wellbeing initiatives to large-scale public campaigns, all designed to motivate participation rather than competition. Why motivation — not tracking — is the core product Vilčiauskė quickly realised something important: motivation is everything. “You can promote anything, but if people are not motivated, it doesn’t work.” So she created the idea of a “steps market” where you could exchange your steps for something tangible, like fruit or vegetables. With the steps market, everyday movement becomes something valuable: users can exchange steps for rewards such as discounts, products, or experiences — for example, trading 20,000 steps for a grocery discount on healthy items, or unlocking perks like airport fast-track access and discounts at Adidas through challenge milestones. A platform for companies, cities, and communities Walk15’s aim is to motivate people — “especially children and teenagers, where around 80 per cent don’t move enough every day,” shared Vilčiauskė. However, the startup also has a clear business model. Companies and organisations pay to create step challenges for their employees or communities. Behind the scenes, the platform operates primarily as a B2B and B2G solution, enabling organisations to run customised, goal-driven campaigns that combine health, sustainability, and behavioural change at scale. In just five years, the team has impacted over 1,500 companies and 1,000,000 app users worldwide, helping them improve their well-being, change mobility habits, and create a positive environmental impact, and has expanded with an additional company formed in Berlin. Walk15 recently launched a large initiative with the European Central Bank. People walk while receiving educational content, such as financial literacy topics explained in a simple, accessible way. At the end, users from different countries compete based on total steps. Walk15 also creates community-driven initiatives, like: Walking challenges that support animal shelters Dog-walking competitions Campaigns tied to donations Vilčiauskė is at pains to clarify that Walk15 is not a step counter. “We are a motivation and initiative platform. What we realised is that every organisation — whether it’s a company, a city, a sports club, or even a government — has the same challenge: how do you engage people?” In response, they created initiatives that allow people to walk for the city, school, or cause. It works like a social platform — but instead of posting, you participate by moving. Vilčiauskė asserts, “For me, this is very important because it connects movement with education. I always say: 10,000 steps are for your health, 5,000 steps are for your education. This is where we can really create impact.” The challenge of categorisation But scaling the platform hasn’t been without its challenges. For Vilčiauskė, the biggest challenges have been fundraising and positioning. “We are not a typical SaaS company, and we’re not a simple consumer app either. That makes it difficult for some investors to categorise us. Some see us as a community project, others as a health app — but we’re building something different. That said, we do have investors who believe in the long-term potential.” A global movement, one step at a time Walk15 is further building out its B2B platform to integrate AI, so companies can automatically create campaigns. “For example, an HR manager could request a challenge, and our system would generate everything — from messaging to engagement. We already know what motivates people, so we can use that data to improve outcomes,” explained Vilčiauskė. It is also working to further support NGOs with donation features so that people can contribute to causes through their activity. Long-term, Vilčiauskė wants to create a global movement. “We want people everywhere to move more, feel part of a community, and contribute to something meaningful. It’s not about walking 15,000 steps. It’s about taking the first step—and changing behaviour over time.”

Interloom, an enterprise operations platform that captures expert knowledge and converts it into a persistent memory layer for AI agents, has closed a $16.5 million seed funding round. The round was led by DN Capital, with participation from Bek Ventures and existing investor Air Street Capital. The company addresses a key limitation in enterprise AI adoption: the lack of operational context. While AI agents can process information, much of how work is actually performed remains undocumented. Interloom’s platform captures this knowledge from real-world workflows, enabling both employees and AI systems to access past resolutions and apply them to new cases. Fabian Jakobi, founder and CEO of Interloom, said that as AI agents move into operational roles, their effectiveness is limited without access to company-specific knowledge, reducing their ability to provide accurate responses or enable automation. We ground their decisions in successful resolutions from the past, ensuring their work is guided by real operational experience and governed through expert oversight, creating a memory that stays with the company. Jakobi added. Interloom builds a continuously evolving “context graph” that stores decisions and outcomes from past work. This allows AI agents to operate based on accumulated experience rather than static documentation, supporting more effective automation of complex processes. The platform also addresses knowledge loss driven by workforce changes by preserving expertise within the organisation. With the new funding, Interloom plans to further develop its platform and expand its capabilities in enterprise AI and workflow automation.

Job search platform Adzuna has acquired the jobs businesses of Trovit and Mitula, two market-leading search engines operated by the Lifull Connect group. The acquisition marks Adzuna’s third acquisition in four years, further strengthening its position as one of the world’s leading global job search platforms. Founded in 2006, Trovit and Mitula operate in more than 50 countries, centralising thousands of classified ads spanning jobs, real estate, and cars, with a strong presence in key European and international markets. The acquisition strengthens Adzuna’s footprint in high-growth international markets, including Spain and Italy.  For Trovit and Mitula Jobs’ global user base, the Adzuna acquisition brings continuity while introducing a smarter job search experience through its groundbreaking AI search technology and a suite of AI tools. For employers, the acquisition brings a wider audience and more quality applications worldwide. Doug Monro, CEO and co-founder of Adzuna, comments:   “We are excited to welcome users from the Trovit Jobs and Mitula Jobs to the Adzuna group. This acquisition represents a significant step forward in our strategy to grow our global portfolio and deliver smarter job search at scale.  The acquisition gives us the ability to connect millions of extra jobseekers in Europe, the US, Asia and Latin America with the right opportunities using our AI search and tools, delivering even more high-quality matches and greater hiring efficiency for employers." Carlos Ruiz Comes, Vertical Search General Manager from Lifull Connect, shared:   “Adzuna has established itself as a global leader in online job search, and I firmly believe that Trovit Jobs and Mitula Jobs users will benefit from Adzuna’s technology and recruitment expertise and continue to grow and innovate under its leadership.”

French defencetech EGIDE has raised an €8 million seed round.  The round was co-led by Expeditions, Eurazeo, and Heartcore Capital, with participation from Galion.exe and Kima Ventures.  Founded in 2025 by former MBDA aerospace and defence engineers Simon Calonne and Florian Audigier, EGIDE was created to address the rapidly growing threat posed by cheap mass-produced drones and strike munitions, which are increasingly challenging traditional defence systems. Calonne is an aerospace engineer specialising in Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC), while Audigier is a pyrotechnical engineer with extensive experience in warhead design. At the core of the company’s approach is the development of a new kind of electrically propelled interceptor and Mystique, a hardware-agnostic software platform that leverages distributed sensors, AI-driven detection, and layered interception systems. This munition architecture enables reactive iteration against evolving targets and faster integration across different weapon platforms and missions, while reducing the cost and complexity associated with traditional defence systems.  As defence leaders gather at the Paris Defence and Strategy Forum this week, boosting Europe’s arsenal is top of the agenda. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Iran conflict have shown how quickly cheap drones can overwhelm legacy defence systems. Europe and its NATO allies must transition from limited, high-cost interceptors to a new generation of adaptable, scalable systems capable of countering constantly evolving threats. EGIDE aims to lead this shift by building affordable, integrated defence systems designed for modern battlefields and for protecting critical infrastructure. According to Simon Calonne, Co-founder of EGIDE, low-cost drones are fundamentally transforming modern warfare. Systems designed to intercept a small number of high-value threats are now being confronted with large volumes of inexpensive and highly adaptable aerial systems: "At EGIDE, we are building a new generation of scalable and affordable defence capabilities designed to meet this challenge. Our ambition is to build a European leader in mass-affordable interceptors capable of protecting forces and critical infrastructure against evolving aerial, sea and ground threats. This funding allows us to accelerate the development of our interceptors and Mystique, and build the team that will help reshape Europe’s defence architecture.” According to Dr Mikołaj Firlej, Co-Founder and General Partner at Expeditions,  Europe is entering a decisive moment in the rebuilding of its security architecture. "The rapid proliferation of low-cost drones is transforming the character of warfare, exposing critical vulnerabilities and unsustainable economics associated with legacy defence systems." Simon, Florian and the EGIDE team are addressing this challenge by developing scalable defence capabilities built specifically for the realities of modern conflict. At Expeditions, we back founders rebuilding the technological foundations of European security, and EGIDE is exactly the type of company we believe will play a defining role in that transformation.” Thomas Turelier, Managing Director at Eurazeo, commented:  “Strengthening Europe’s sovereignty and resilience is a strategic priority in today’s environment. EGIDE’s approach to cost-efficient interceptors that can be integrated across air, sea and ground missions reflects this broader dynamic. Simon, Florian and the team bring a rare depth of experience in the technologies that will be key in safeguarding Europe’s security, and we’re proud to support them as they build the next generation of defence systems.” The company will use the new funding to accelerate the design and production of electrically-propelled interceptors and the development of its Mystique operating platform.  EGIDE will look to expand its engineering team, bringing together the best talent from across Europe with expertise in electric propulsion, aerodynamic and warhead design and software engineering. 

Stockholm-based Newly (formerly Natively), a mobile app development company, has raised over $2 million to date in funding to accelerate its growth and broaden access to native app development. The round was led by PSV Tech, with participation from Karaoke Club, Wave Ventures, Inception Fund, Foundry Ventures, Tiny Supercomputing Investment Company, and a group of prominent angel investors, including Fredrik Björk, Mattias Miksche, Sebastian Knutsson, Peter Carlsson, Joseph Michael, Wilhelm Bohlin, Alfred Wahlforss, and Mandeep Singh. While AI has significantly simplified web development, making it easier than ever to launch landing pages, SaaS tools, and online stores, native mobile development has remained comparatively inaccessible. The complexity of building for iOS and Android, navigating app store requirements, and maintaining performance at scale has continued to limit development to specialised teams. Newly aims to address this gap by enabling users to build, iterate, and launch fully functional, compliant mobile applications without coding. Its platform combines agentic AI systems with advanced mobile-native tooling, allowing teams to move from concept to an App Store–ready product significantly faster and at lower cost than traditional approaches. Founder and CEO Timothy Lindblom describes the shift as one that reduces development timelines “from months to hours”, reducing friction between idea and execution. He notes that native mobile apps have historically been out of reach for many founders due to cost and complexity, a barrier that Newly seeks to remove. The company plans to use the new funding to further develop its platform and expand beyond mobile into other native formats, including desktop software, augmented reality experiences, and wearable applications.

Air Street Capital, founded by Nathan Benaich, has raised $232M for Fund III — making it the largest solo GP venture fund in Europe.  The fund invests in AI-first companies in North America and Europe. The firm will lead early-stage rounds with cheques ranging from $500,000 to $15 million, alongside select growth investments of up to $25 million. Founded in 2019, Air Street was built on a conviction formed years earlier — that AI would become a fundamental driver of technological progress. According to Benaich: “When I started investing in 2013, deep learning was largely confined to research labs. Yet I was convinced… the most important technology companies of our generation will be built AI-first. AI is a force multiplier for technological progress, and everything around us is ultimately a product of intelligence.” From solo GP to Europe’s largest With Fund III, Air Street is now the largest solo GP venture firm in Europe — a structure designed to enable faster, high-conviction decision-making. “This structure enables high-conviction investing with a single decision-maker and significant capital to support the most ambitious teams.” Over the past decade, the firm has backed companies across multiple domains: Software: Synthesia, Black Forest Labs, Poolside Science / Biotech: Profluent, Enveda Biosciences Physical AI / Infrastructure: Wayve, Sereact, Lambda, Crusoe Defence: Delian Alliance Industries These companies reflect a broader shift: "AI is no longer just augmenting products — it is enabling entirely new categories. AI is not simply improving the status quo but enabling entirely new kinds of products and companies to be built.” Air Street has also built a wider AI ecosystem through initiatives like: The State of AI Report The RAAIS (Research and Applied AI Summit) A global AI network of ~3,000 researchers and builders The firm has also engaged in policy and ecosystem-building efforts, including reforms to university spinout frameworks that the UK government has adopted. “Our third epoch begins today” With Fund III, Air Street is positioning itself for what it sees as a defining moment in technology. Benaich shared:  “Fund III launches into what I believe is the most transformational period in technology of our generation. Capabilities that seemed like magic a decade ago are now real, usable, and creating enormous value. Air Street is built for exactly this moment.”

360 Capital, a European venture capital firm, has closed €85 million for Poli360 2, its new technology transfer fund targeting a total size of €100 million. The fund focuses on early-stage deeptech startups.  Poli360 2 is classified as an Article 8 fund under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). Its investor base includes the European Investment Fund, CDP Venture Capital, Italian pension funds, family offices and corporate investors such as Brembo, MBDA and Lucchini RS. Poli360 2 continues the strategy established by Poli360 1, which has supported a portfolio of 20 companies, including Energy Dome, Isaac, Phononic Vibes, PhotonPath, Inxpect and Equixly. The new fund will invest in collaboration with leading universities and research centres, with plans to complete 20 to 25 investments. At least 80 per cent of the capital will be deployed in Italy, with the remainder allocated to opportunities across Europe. The fund’s investment strategy focuses on two main areas: Industry Automation and Sustainability. Industry Automation includes fields such as robotics, Industry 4.0, semiconductors, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, IoT, infrastructure, industrial machinery and information technology. In Sustainability, the focus is on new materials, energy transition and the circular economy. According to Alessandro Zaccaria, Partner at 360 Capital, the fund reinforces the firm’s commitment to translating research from Italy and across Europe into globally competitive companies through collaboration with academic institutions, research centres, and founders. By working side by side with universities, research centres, and founders, we aim to support the next generation of deeptech companies shaping the technological landscape of the coming decade. said Zaccaria. Founded in 1997, 360 Capital operates from offices in Milan and Paris and invests in early-stage European startups across deeptech, climate tech and digital sectors. The firm has backed more than 170 companies and has recorded recent exits, including Preligens, acquired by Safran in 2024, and Exotec.

Last week, we tracked more than 55 tech funding deals worth over €504 million, and 3 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.

AI model giants should pay a content levy for selling their services in Europe with the money funnelled into Europe’s cultural sector, according to the boss of Europe’s leading AI model startup.   Arthur Mensch, the CEO and co-founder of Mistral, says such a levy would be a win-win for both the AI model providers, giving them legal certainty, and also creators, whose data the AI models are trained on, which would benefit from the levy.   AI model companies, which train their models on vast amounts of text, audio and video data, have been hit by complaints and legal challenges from creators and copyright owners.   In an op-ed in the Financial Times, Mensch writes that European AI model developers were at a disadvantage, operating under a “fragmented legal environment”, compared to AI developers in the US and China, who were “developing their models under permissive or non-existent copyright rules”. He says that the current copyright rules for European creators were also not working. Mensch says a “new approach” is needed, with his solution being a revenue-based levy, which would be levied on AI model companies which operate in Europe, "reflecting their use of content publicly available online". “Proceeds would flow into a central European fund dedicated to investing in new content creation and supporting Europe’s cultural sectors”, he says. According to one report, Mensch is calling for a contribution between one and five per cent of the revenues of AI model providers in Europe. This was not confirmed by Mistral.   Mensch writes: "At Mistral, we are proposing a revenue-based levy that would be applied to all commercial providers placing AI models on the market or putting them into service in Europe, reflecting their use of content publicly available online.   "Crucially, this levy would apply equally to providers based abroad, creating a level playing field within the European market and ensuring that foreign AI companies also contribute when they operate here.    "The proceeds would flow into a central European fund dedicated to investing in new content creation, and supporting Europe’s cultural sectors.  In return, AI developers would gain what they urgently need: legal certainty.  "The mechanism would shield AI providers from liability for training on materials accessible online. Importantly, it would not replace licensing agreements or the freedom to contract.    "On the contrary, licensing opportunities should continue to develop and expand for usage beyond training. The fund would complement, not crowd out, direct relationships between creators and AI companies.”   Under the EU’s current rules, AI companies can use copyrighted materials for text and data mining, including AI training, unless a creator has “reserved their rights". The EU is looking into a permanent solution to protect copyright from use by AI.

Big news this week as the European Commission presented its proposal for EU Inc., a new single set of corporate rules that will serve as the cornerstone and starting point for the EU's 28th regime. As a journalist, well, I’m pleased and frustrated all in equal parts. Earlier this week i called it a win because I think it would be a mistake for anyone to dismiss the challenge it took to get here. The announcement represents a major milestone for EU–INC, a policy movement backed by over 22,000 signatories, including Europe's leading founders, investors, and the broader startup community.  European bureaucracy moves at a glacial pace, and the journey here has been long and complex.  There are numerous wins — For example, entrepreneurs, founders, and companies will be able to found an EU Inc. company within 48 hours, for less than €100, with no minimum share capital requirement. There will be EU-wide employee stock option plans and increased digitisation. BUT there are a number of areas that sound like ideas rather than actioned items (dare I say the gap between aim and execution?), and worse, fundamental elements which stray from the original idea.  Instead of establishing a truly unified legal framework, the proposal defers interpretation to national courts—risking 27 divergent outcomes—relies on national registries rather than creating real ecosystem standardisation, and ultimately introduces further fragmentation at the very layer that should be harmonised.  Further, the call on Member States to only consider establishing specialised judicial chambers or courts to handle disputes related to EU Inc. company law is notably vague in both scope and implementation. I’m hopeful for better, but let’s watch this space.But that aside, this week, we tracked more than 85 tech funding deals worth over €4 billion and over 5 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. Alongside the week’s top funding rounds, we’ve highlighted key industry developments, as well as notable trends in European venture activity, investor moves and emerging sectors shaping the current funding landscape. 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 ??  Upvest raises $125M to strengthen its API-based investment platform ?? WorkFlex secures €37M to automate cross-border workforce compliance ?. Sequoia-backed Edra raises $30M Series A to turn enterprise data into self-improving AI agents ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ?? Nscale snaps up major US data centre site, American Intelligence & Power Corporation, inks AI compute deal with Microsoft ?? Amazon acquires Zurich-based Rivr, developer of stair-climbing robots for doorstep delivery ?? TMA acquires Amsterdam’s BrainsFirst to combine psychometrics with neuroscience-based talent insights ? Interesting moves from investors ? Partech’s €300M Impact Fund targets Europe’s next generation of industrial and climate tech leaders ?.Montis VC reaches €50M first close to back energy and industrial tech startups ?. Albion Venture Capital Trusts close £90M top-up offer as demand for UK innovation investments grows ? New €70 million GVC Gaesco fund targets InfraTech startups focused on energy, industry and digital infrastructure ?️ In other (important) news ?  UK government pledges £1BN quantum computing investment ??. EU Inc. marks major win for startups as Commission unveils 28th regime proposal ? Zopa reports third consecutive year of profit, says new current account topping expectations ?? Alpine Eagle scales Sentinel production with new Munich facility and European expansion ??. CiaoDott raises €1.5M pre-seed to bring vertical voice AI to Italy’s medical sector ??  Cleavr raises €1M to develop an AI solution for accounts receivable ?? Rhonexum secures $1M to scale cryogenic electronics for quantum computing ?? First Concepts raises $1M to develop AI-native OS for creative work ?? Noru raises €560,000 to develop an agentic compliance platform

Over Paddy's weekend 2026, a friendly Northern Irish "woman" called Rachel rang more than 3,000 pubs across all 32 counties to find out the price of a pint of Guinness. Over 1,000 gave a price.  Only a handful seemed to realise Rachel was an AI voice agent.  A data gap 14 years in the making Ireland’s Central Statistics Office stopped tracking pint prices 14 years ago, leaving no comprehensive dataset since. In response, Matt Cortland created the “Guinndex,” using AI to rapidly collect and analyse pint prices across Ireland, where costs have become increasingly inconsistent. The result is what he claims is the most complete index of pint prices to date—an effort to bring transparency and potentially help normalise the price of a Guinness. From pub owner to AI engineer Matt Cortland is an American AI engineer based in London who previously lived in Ireland for several years. A former US-Ireland Alliance Scholar (George Mitchell Scholarship), he holds a Master’s degree in Creative Digital Media from TU Dublin (formerly DIT). Earlier in his career, he founded and operated a global pub and entertainment company spanning Ireland, the UK, and the US, including a chain of IoT-enabled “wizard bars” where he created working magic wands.  He has since transitioned into AI engineering and private consulting, developing his own AI projects while building AI products and tooling for companies, several of which are based in Dublin. "I'm a former pub and bar owner, so I know what it's like to be on the other end of customer pricing calls," said Cortland. "But I also know what it's like to be on the consumer end and paying a kidney for a pint. I apologise to everyone I tortured over Paddy's weekend. Rachel just wanted a wee drink." Designing a believable pub caller Cortland named the AI agent “Rachel” and trained her to be friendly, direct, and—if questioned—transparent. She explains she’s “putting together a wee price comparison list” and confirms she is an AI if asked. The calls were made through ElevenLabs’ conversational AI platform and Twilio for telephony, using an old Irish SIM.  The phone numbers come from the Google Maps API, publicly available numbers for each venue.  Cortland indexed over 5,200 pubs across all 32 counties using Google's Places API.  He explained;  “Over Paddy's weekend, Rachel called the 3,000+ of those that had phone numbers listed. 2,052 answered the phone, and over 1,000 gave a verified price, which I then extracted from the call transcripts using Claude AI.  The whole thing cost about €200 to run plus a lot of my time.” Getting the voice right proved critical, with much of the work focused on refining Rachel’s accent, tone, and personality. Cortland tested dozens of options before landing on a Northern Irish accent, inspired by Rachel Duffy from The Traitors, which he felt sounded the most natural in conversation. “Duffy was the first female traitor to win the show, and she was just so good,” he said. “She played an absolute blinder. That’s what I wanted — someone warm, someone you’d believe. A Northern Irish accent that makes ‘we were lookin’ to come in for a wee drink’ sound completely natural.” The script itself went through multiple iterations. Early versions had Rachel confirming the price back—“Grand, so that’s six seventy, is that right?”—but this extended calls and gave people time to grow suspicious. “The final version keeps it simple: ask the question, say ‘thanks very much,’ hang up. The transcript captures everything,” Cortland says the biggest challenge wasn’t technical infrastructure, but making the agent feel human—particularly in an Irish context. “Funnily enough, for the Irish market, it was training her to have banter, which she really struggled with,” he said. “Should have made her American.” How did the staff react?  Few people Rachel spoke to realised they were talking to an AI agent. The calls produced dozens of memorable exchanges. When questioned, Rachel told them truthfully that she was putting together a wee price comparison list. Most people accepted that and moved on. At Malzard's Pub in Kilkenny, the bartender laughed and offered to buy the round: "They're normally 6.20, but if you can't afford one, we'll buy you one. We'll look after you." At Doogies in Northern Ireland, the bartender opened with: "Twenty-five pound. But if you're coming in for a wee drink, I'll give it to you for a fiver." At McIntyre's Bar in Donegal, the bartender launched a full interrogation: "Five eighty. What time is it? How many are coming? Where are you coming from? What part of the country are you from? Who's this I'm speaking to?" At Drumlane Bar in Cavan, the person who answered was in the kitchen: "I'm in the kitchen. I don't work in the bar at all." He went behind the bar to check. Five sixty. At Beaufort Bar in Kerry, the bartender played coy: "It's far too cheap. You'll have to come in to find out the price." Rachel persisted. Five sixty. At Buddy's Bar in Tipperary, Rachel asked the price. The bartender asked her name. Rachel said she was just putting together a wee price comparison list. "Fuck off." Fair. At The Plough in Curraglass, Cork, the bartender refused to give the price no matter how many times Rachel asked: "You'd have to call in and I'll tell you." Rachel said she couldn't do that. "Ah, well done. You'll never know, though, will you?" At The Linen House in Lisburn, Rachel got trapped in a Premier Inn phone system. Two AI systems talked past each other, neither able to help the other. Rachel said "Oh, dear" four times. The virtual receptionist kept apologising. Nobody got a pint price. Pat Hayes, owner of The Arch Bar in Thurles, Tipperary, was one of the thousands of people who picked up Rachel's call over the weekend. When he later found out he'd been chatting to an AI, he took it in good spirits. "It was a good laugh. I had no idea it wasn't a real person," said Hayes. "But look, knowing the price of a pint is important. People want to know what they're paying before they walk in the door. If someone's putting together an index of every pub in the country, fair play to them. It's good for the customer and it keeps us all honest." AI and the pub Beyond the novelty of calling pubs, the project also highlights where AI is beginning to have real-world impact. The Guinndex arrives at an interesting moment. Earlier this month, Anthropic published research showing that bartenders, cooks, and dishwashers are among the 30 percent of occupations with zero exposure to AI automation. Computer programmers, by contrast, are the most exposed at 74.5 per cent. "AI isn't coming for the person behind the bar," said Cortland.  "As a former bar owner, I know this.  AI can't (yet) pour a pint, it can't read a room, it can't tell when someone's had enough. But it can call pubs on a weekend and tell you where to find a decent pint for under a fiver. The physical work is safe. The information layer on top of it is where AI lives and where we all should be aware."  How much is a pint of Guinness these days, anyway? The national average price of a pint of Guinness is €5.95. The most common price is €5.50. But where you drink matters enormously. Dublin is the dearest county by a wide margin, averaging €6.75 a pint. The cheapest pints are in the west and midlands, with Laois at just €5.38. The gap between Dublin and the cheapest county is €1.37 per pint. The cheapest pint in the entire index is €3.00 at Glynn's Bar in Dunmore, Galway, although he may have just been taking the mickey. The most expensive is €10 at The Auld Dubliner, Dublin, which, incredibly, seems to be accurate. Despite the rising cost of a night out, the Guinndex unearthed 12 places across Ireland where you can still get a pint for a fiver or less, including one in Dublin. Dublin doesn't fare well on any measure. Of the 46 pubs in Ireland with a perfect 5.0 Google rating, not a single one is in Dublin. They're in places like Augher (Tyrone), Kilmakilloge (Kerry), and Rathdowney (Laois). The CSO tracked pint prices from 2001 to 2011, then stopped. In the 14 years since, the price of a stout has jumped from €3.93 to €5.95 (+48 per cent). The Guinndex fills the gap. Not a stunt, but a dataset: the mission to map — and lower — the price of a pint Cortland asserts that Guinndex is definitely a data project rather than an effort to test the vulnerability of humans in identifying AI: “I want to see if we can collectively drive down the cost of a pint across Ireland. Rachel unearthed the first 1,000+ pint prices, but there are still over 4,000 to find. Those will need to come from people who log the cost using the "Contribute" button at guinndex.ai, which instantly updates the index and prices on the site.” He believes that if enough people get involved, he can map the country and stabilise the price.  “Or at the very least, unearth some really good gems and places where you can still get a pint for a fiver or less (spoiler, there are 19).” Cortland admits he’s a “real AI and data nerd” and thought this would be both a practically useful and really fun project.  “Honestly, the main goal of this is to help make a pint of Guinness affordable again. If enough people contribute prices, we can map the whole country and start to bring down the price to something reasonable.  I will say that this is part of something bigger I'm working on, but that's for another day. For now, go contribute to your local.” Search the Guinndex and help it grow The project is now evolving into a crowdsourced platform, encouraging people across Ireland to contribute local pint prices.  The full dataset is live at guinndex.ai. Search by county, town, or pub name to find the price of a pint near you. The site includes an interactive map, county-by-county breakdowns, and the ability to compare prices across the country. Anyone can hit the “Contribute” button on the site to submit the price of their last pint, flag a correction if a price is wrong, or share photos of pints and pubs for the Guinndex social media channels. Pub owners who want to update their listing can also message to make an amendment with the “Contribute” button on the site. Cortland concludes: " If you're sitting there with a pint right now, tell us what you paid."

Starling Bank is rolling out what it says is the “UK’s first agentic AI financial assistant”, as it looks to leverage the new technology to help improve day-to-day banking. The UK challenger bank, which has nearly five million customers, said that Starling Assistant can help its customers manage day-to-day finances, share personalised financial insights and give general banking guidance. The assistant responds to voice and natural language prompts before carrying out banking tasks on the customer’s behalf, from setting up personalised saving goals to organising bill payments.   Examples of what it can do include if a customer is planning a holiday, they could say: "I need to save £500 for a trip to Paris in July. How much do I need to save monthly and can you set up automatic transfers to a dedicated space?" Or if a customer wants to perfect their payday routine, they could say: "Set me up with dedicated spaces for my groceries, bills, travel and eating out" and then specify how much to transfer to each space on pay day.     Harriet Rees, Starling’s group chief information officer, said: “It’s time to embrace a new era of banking, one that’s powered by agentic AI.  "At Starling, we want to encourage our customers to trust that AI can help them with money management and we’re excited to be pioneering the use of this cutting-edge technology to help people be good with money.”    The assistant is built on Starling’s proprietary tech platform using Google Gemini and Google Cloud technologies.   Previously, Starling has launched several generative AI tools, including Spending Intelligence, which lets customers ask natural language questions about their spending habits, while Scam Intelligence helps detect online marketplace scams.   Many fintechs and neobanks are using or experimenting with generative AI tech. Across Europe, Klarna uses it for customer service purposes while Bunq launched its AI assistant in 2024. Danish challenger Lunar says its GenAI-powered voice assistant will handle around 75 per cent of customer calls over time.   Meanwhile, Revolut is exploring a push into the AI agent space, aiming to use the technology to automate everything from customer service to sales.

Montis VC has launched a new venture capital fund, securing €50 million at first close. The fund is backed by the European Investment Fund through the REPowerEU programme, the Polish Development Fund, and a group of family offices and private investors from across Central and Eastern Europe. The fund will focus on early-stage startups at the pre-seed and seed stages, targeting around 20–25 companies developing technologies across energy, industrial transformation, and artificial intelligence. Its strategy reflects broader shifts in the European economy, where demand is growing for solutions that improve productivity, support industrial innovation, and contribute to the energy transition. Montis VC aims to invest in scalable companies with the potential to compete globally, particularly in areas where AI can accelerate development and enhance real-world impact. We invest in founders who want to build the future of the European economy through technology and energy efficiency, particularly in areas such as the energy and industrial transition, where AI can drive innovation and scale, said Michał Gawęda, Partner at Montis VC. The fund builds on the track record of the team behind Montis Capital, which has invested in companies operating at the intersection of technology and industry since 2019. With the new fund, Montis VC plans to increase both the size of its investments and its level of involvement, with initial tickets ranging from €0.5 million to €2 million and additional capital reserved for follow-on rounds. Led by an international team with experience in venture investing, industry, and entrepreneurship, Montis VC is supported by a network of venture partners who will contribute to deal sourcing and help portfolio companies expand into global markets. The fund will take an active approach in working with founders, supporting strategy, international expansion, and preparation for future funding rounds, as it continues its fundraising process.

Eternal.ag, a startup building autonomous harvesting robots for greenhouses, today announced it has raised €8 million in funding from Simon Capital, Oyster Bay Venture Capital, EquityPitcher Ventures and Backbone Ventures.  Eternal.ag is developing fully autonomous robots that perform greenhouse crop work without human operators. Greenhouses are increasingly essential for securing the year-round supply of fresh fruit and vegetables, being far more resilient to seasonal weather, climate change, land shortages and pests than outdoor farming. However, greenhouse labour availability is falling rapidly — in Europe, by as much as 30 per cent since 2010 — and forecasts say this trend will continue, leaving growers with structural staffing shortages. By automating physically demanding harvesting work, eternal.ag’s robots enable greenhouses to operate reliably and continuously, even when labour is unavailable or inconsistent. By 2040, the company envisions fully automated greenhouse operations powered by robotics, requiring no manual operations. Eternal.ag’s first commercial product to launch is Harvester, a fully autonomous harvesting robot designed for tomato greenhouses. Harvester operates up to 22 hours a day consistently and works as part of an intelligent AI-powered system to ensure the quality of produce and cut. Built as a modular system, the platform is designed to expand over time with additional robotic functions to better serve broader greenhouse operations. “Autonomous robots only work if they can handle real-world variability between plants, layouts, and daily operations,” said Renji John, CEO and co-founder of eternal.ag.  “We develop and validate our robots using simulation-first development. That allows us to train, test, and fail safely in virtual greenhouses — cutting iteration cycles from months to days. Once deployed, every robot action feeds data back into the system, which is designed to learn, improve and scale.” “Climate change, labour shortages, and rising demand are pushing food production to its limits,” said Niklas Leske, Principal at Simon Capital. “Greenhouse horticulture is one of the most efficient and sustainable ways to grow fresh produce year-round. Yet, labour shortages put the industry at risk, and robotics is the only future-proof solution to build a decentralised, resilient food supply chain for the next generation. eternal.ag’s experienced team has a deep understanding of what growers are up against and has developed a solution to tackle this in a sustainable and measured way.” Founded by Renji John and Sherry Kunjachan, eternal.ag has built a team of 26 employees so far, working across Europe and India, with headquarters in Cologne and offices in Bengaluru.  The new funding will be used to accelerate product development, expand commercial deployments across Europe, and extend to additional crop types.

Today, startup Edra announced $30 million Series A led by Sequoia, which included investment from 8VC and A*z.   Edra builds AI agents that learn how a business operates, then automate the work. Its AI agents reverse-engineer how a business actually runs from existing systems and create executable knowledge: structured, white-box instructions that agents can act on. Instead of asking humans to document processes, Edra analyses the data a company already generates. Through support tickets, emails, logs, and chat histories, it creates a living knowledge base that reflects how the business actually runs, not just how it was supposed to run on paper. As people use it, the system learns and improves on its own while remaining transparent and editable.  Founded by Croatian Eugen Alpeza and Greek Yannis Karamanlakis (former leaders of Forward Deployed AI Engineering at Palantir, which they started in the London office). They spent years inside large enterprises watching that exact failure mode play out.  Edra builds a Living Playbook by connecting to a customer’s existing systems within minutes and ingesting standard operating procedures, tickets, and communications without manual configuration. From there, it continuously learns from actual employee behaviour and surfaces suggested improvements. Unlike static documentation or knowledge bases, Living Playbooks evolve as the business changes. The pattern is proving out across industries where process knowledge determines competitive advantage. They're already in production at HubSpot, ASOS, and Cushman & Wakefield. The HubSpot numbers are notable: Edra analysed 150,000 support conversations, surfaced 600+ knowledge base updates, and cut human handoffs by 12 per cent. The first successful use cases are around automating IT service management and customer technical support, where the data is rich, and the pain is acute.  The same engine now powers sales enablement, learning from call transcripts to build a searchable precedent for revenue teams and other operational functions. Anywhere work is digitally captured, and resolution requires judgment, the playbook can be extracted and systematised. According to Sequoia partner Luciana Lixandru:  “As always, our investments are all about people. When I first met Eugen and Yannis, what struck me was not only what they had built, but how they work together. Eugen is one of the most commercially gifted people I have met—someone who earns the trust of sceptical buyers and makes them believe. Yannis is technically exceptional, the kind of partner who makes the hardest things feel solid. Their dynamic as a founding duo is a genuine superpower.”

Cleavr, an AI solution dedicated to autonomous accounts receivable management, has raised €1 million in a funding round backed by Kima Ventures, Better Angle, Raphaël Nahum (CFO of Pennylane), Régis Samuel (CEO of MyUnisoft), and Olivier Brourhant (CEO of Mantu). The company develops an AI solution designed to support finance teams across the full accounts receivable cycle, addressing persistent challenges around late payments and cash flow management. Payment delays remain a widespread issue, with many companies experiencing regular financial losses due to unpaid invoices. Cleavr’s platform automates a large portion of the collection process, handling tasks such as reminders, reconciliation, and dispute management. Unlike traditional tools that rely on fixed workflows, the system uses AI to manage multi-channel communication, identify the appropriate contacts, process payment commitments, and escalate cases when needed. Our ambition is simple: to give every company the collection rigor of a large finance department. By taking charge of most tasks, our AI ensures systematic follow-up of invoices and allows teams to focus on higher-value cases, said Baptiste Nassoy, CEO and co-founder of Cleavr. The platform integrates with existing accounting and ERP systems, enabling companies to track overdue invoices, interact with debtors, and adapt communication strategies over time. By automating follow-up and maintaining consistent engagement, Cleavr aims to improve collection efficiency without requiring dedicated teams. Already adopted by around fifty clients, the solution supports the majority of the collection cycle and is designed to help companies reduce delays and improve cash flow management. The new funding will be used to accelerate deployment in France and support expansion into European markets, with international rollout planned from 2026.

Cleavr, an AI solution dedicated to autonomous accounts receivable management, has raised €1 million in a funding round backed by Kima Ventures, Better Angle, Raphaël Nahum (CFO of Pennylane), Régis Samuel (CEO of MyUnisoft), and Olivier Brourhant (CEO of Mantu). The company develops an AI solution designed to support finance teams across the full accounts receivable cycle, addressing persistent challenges around late payments and cash flow management. Payment delays remain a widespread issue, with many companies experiencing regular financial losses due to unpaid invoices. Cleavr’s platform automates a large portion of the collection process, handling tasks such as reminders, reconciliation, and dispute management. Unlike traditional tools that rely on fixed workflows, the system uses AI to manage multi-channel communication, identify the appropriate contacts, process payment commitments, and escalate cases when needed. Our ambition is simple: to give every company the collection rigor of a large finance department. By taking charge of most tasks, our AI ensures systematic follow-up of invoices and allows teams to focus on higher-value cases, said Baptiste Nassoy, CEO and co-founder of Cleavr. The platform integrates with existing accounting and ERP systems, enabling companies to track overdue invoices, interact with debtors, and adapt communication strategies over time. By automating follow-up and maintaining consistent engagement, Cleavr aims to improve collection efficiency without requiring dedicated teams. Already adopted by around fifty clients, the solution supports the majority of the collection cycle and is designed to help companies reduce delays and improve cash flow management. The new funding will be used to accelerate deployment in France and support expansion into European markets, with international rollout planned from 2026.

Today, counter-drone defence technology company Alpine Eagle announced it is scaling production of its Sentinel system. Alpine Eagle develops counter-drone (counter-UAS) systems designed to detect, track, and neutralise hostile drones, including increasingly sophisticated autonomous swarms. Its technology combines multiple sensing modalities —such as radar, radio-frequency scanning, and optical or infrared cameras — to identify aerial threats early, classify them using AI, and monitor behaviour in real time. Rather than relying on a single interception tool, the system fuses these inputs into a unified operational picture, enabling faster, more precise responses. Central to this approach is Sentinel, the company’s flagship platform. A software-defined, layered defence system, Sentinel integrates sensing and interception into a single operational network. It combines Alpine Eagle’s airborne radar and sensor network with a scalable defence architecture to track threats across wide areas and neutralise them using airborne interceptors. Alpine Eagle is now participating in a defence innovation programme in the Netherlands, and over the past year, it has also conducted counter-drone trials in Ukraine and participated in Project Vanaheim, a counter-UAS trial involving the US and UK armed forces. To understand the company’s growth and positioning, I spoke to Jan-Hendrik Boelens, co-founder and CEO of Alpine Eagle. Scaling across Europe after Bundeswehr launch The company has seen accelerating demand across Europe. Sentinel was first deployed with the German Bundeswehr in 2024 as a launch customer, and Alpine Eagle has since secured contracts with three new European customers and has expanded to the UK and the Netherlands.  Alpine Eagle has expanded its team from 12 employees in 2024 to 50 in 2026, with plans to reach 100 employees this year as production scales. Drone warfare is reshaping defence economics Drone warfare reshapes modern air defence — from Ukraine to the Middle East — driving governments to prioritise systems that can be produced and deployed at scale and at lower costs than legacy defence platforms. For Boelens, Ukraine has been the proving ground. “It has shown what large-scale, drone-saturated warfare actually looks like and how quickly existing air defence systems can be stretched. The Middle East escalation is reinforcing that lesson in real time, particularly around the economic imbalance of defending against large volumes of low-cost drones.” At the same time, Europe is increasingly seeing drone incursions around critical infrastructure, airports and military sites. “That’s turning what was once seen as a battlefield problem into a domestic security issue.” Alpine Eagle’s technology has already been tested in operationally relevant environments, including trials conducted in Ukraine, where counter-drone systems face constant pressure from mass drone attacks and must function reliably under disrupted GPS conditions.  The cost asymmetry driving urgent procurement Recent conflicts have underscored the urgency of scalable counter-drone capability. Large-scale drone strikes in Ukraine and across the Gulf show how inexpensive drones can overwhelm traditional air-defence systems and force defenders to expend far more costly interceptors. In recent attacks in the Middle East, analysts estimate that defenders spent over $1.5 billion intercepting drones that attackers may have cost around $250 million to launch. This imbalance is accelerating demand for systems designed to counter large volumes of low-cost threats. Together, these dynamics are driving a shift from experimentation to procurement. Governments are no longer asking if they need counter-drone capability, but how quickly they can deploy it at scale. Scaling production for rapid deployment According to Boelens, defence ministries are increasingly looking for systems that can be delivered quickly and scaled as operational demand grows.  To support scalable production, Alpine Eagle integrates its technology with the DeltaQuad Evo, a UAV platform developed by Dutch manufacturer DeltaQuad. The partnership gives Alpine Eagle immediate access to industrial-scale manufacturing capacity while reinforcing a resilient European supply chain. By combining proven hardware with its proprietary sensing and defence software, the company can deliver deployable counter-drone systems significantly faster than traditional defence programmes. “We integrate the DeltaQuad Evo UAV platform, produced by our partner DeltaQuad,” shared Boelens. “This means the facilities, permits, and production processes are already in place in the Netherlands. As a result, we can scale output rapidly — from several hundred units to more than a thousand per month.” Alpine Eagle can deliver operational capability within approximately four weeks of contract signature. This is enabled by a robust supply chain and strong component availability, combined with systems designed for rapid deployment. With a small footprint, self-sustaining logistics, and minimal training requirements, customers can move from delivery to operational use almost immediately. “Rapidly deployable, for us, means weeks — not months," explained Boelens.   “With supply chains secured and production ready, we can deliver within around four weeks of contract signature, and systems can be brought into operation almost immediately with minimal training.” The company is also planning to open a 2,000-square-metre production facility for its own-developed interceptor near Munich, supporting its next phase of industrial scaling.  Why European defence supply chains are being rebuilt Alpine Eagle has made European supply chain sovereignty a core strategic priority, deliberately sourcing and manufacturing a significant share of its system within Europe. Boelens shared: “Wherever possible, we prioritise European partners across our supply chain. That’s a deliberate choice.” The shift reflects a broader recalibration across the defence ecosystem, as recent shocks — from COVID-19 disruptions to the war in Ukraine, rising trade tensions, and the expanding conflict in the Middle East — have exposed the fragility of global supply chains. Counter-drone defence as a coordination problem, not a hardware race What sets Alpine Eagle apart is its software-defined, networked approach to defence. Instead of treating counter-drone protection as a standalone hardware problem, the company frames it as a coordination challenge, linking distributed sensors, AI-driven decision systems, and response mechanisms into a scalable defence network. This allows it to handle large volumes of simultaneous threats, particularly in swarm scenarios where autonomy exists on both sides.  With multiple players in the counter-drone  space — both incumbents and startups — Boelens sees Alpine Eagle’s biggest advance as a combination of software and speed of deployment, rather than any single factor. The core challenge in counter-drone defence is not just intercepting a single threat, but managing large volumes of targets in real time. That requires software that can fuse sensor data, prioritise threats and coordinate responses across systems. At the same time, defence customers increasingly need solutions that can be deployed quickly. "By building on existing hardware platforms and focusing our innovation on the software and sensing layer, we can field systems faster than traditional defence programmes.” A fragmented market moving toward integration According to Boelens, the counter-drone market is still highly fragmented. He explained, “You have companies focusing on individual components — sensors, electronic warfare, interceptors — and others building more integrated systems. That reflects how quickly the space has evolved and how many different approaches are being tested in parallel.” In the near term, Alpine Eagle expects continued proliferation, particularly as new technologies are validated in Ukraine and other operational environments. Over time, though, Boelens predicts there will likely be consolidation around integrated architectures.  “Counter-drone defence is ultimately a systems problem — detection, tracking, decision-making and interception all need to work together seamlessly. Alpine Eagle’s focus is on that system layer: building an architecture that can integrate sensors and effectors into a coherent, scalable network.” When swarms become the norm: defence as a coordination problem As drone warfare evolves toward fully autonomous, AI-coordinated swarms, counter-drone defence is shifting from hardware to systems-level thinking—where coordination, speed, and scale matter more than any single platform. Boelens argues that the challenge fundamentally changes in nature. “It becomes a network problem rather than a platform problem.” Defending against autonomous swarms requires the ability to detect, classify, and respond to large volumes of coordinated threats simultaneously, often with minimal human intervention. This demands distributed sensing, real-time data fusion, and AI-supported decision-making operating in parallel. “No single interceptor or sensor will solve that challenge. You need layered, software-defined networks that can scale across large areas and adapt in real time.” Autonomy on both sides of the battlefield As autonomy advances, it will define both sides of the battlefield—offence and defence alike—raising the stakes on coordination and system integration. “Autonomy will exist on both sides. The advantage will come from how effectively systems can coordinate at scale.” As counter-drone technologies mature, the question for Boelens is not which systems disappear, but how the air defence stack is rebalanced. Rebalancing the air defence stack for the drone era Rather than rendering existing systems obsolete, Boelens argues the shift will redefine their role within a layered architecture. “It’s less about systems becoming obsolete and more about how they are used.” High-end air defence platforms such as Patriot or THAAD will remain critical for countering aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic threats. But they are fundamentally ill-suited — both technically and economically — to address large volumes of small, low-cost drones. “Using multi-million-dollar interceptors against low-cost drones is not sustainable at scale. What changes, then, is not the relevance of these systems, but the burden placed on them. Tasks they were never designed for—such as countering drone swarms — will increasingly be offloaded to new, lower-cost layers. In the future, high-end systems will be complemented by scalable counter-drone layers, allowing them to focus on the threats they were built to defeat.” Boelens concludes: "I’m incredibly proud of what the Alpine Eagle team has achieved over the past year. The reality is that threats facing Europe are higher than they have been for decades and drones are transforming the battlefield faster than traditional defence systems can adapt. Our mission is to ensure democracies have the tools they need to defend their airspace in this new era of warfare.”

Today, counter-drone defence technology company Alpine Eagle announced it is scaling production of its Sentinel system. Alpine Eagle develops counter-drone (counter-UAS) systems designed to detect, track, and neutralise hostile drones, including increasingly sophisticated autonomous swarms. Its technology combines multiple sensing modalities —such as radar, radio-frequency scanning, and optical or infrared cameras — to identify aerial threats early, classify them using AI, and monitor behaviour in real time. Rather than relying on a single interception tool, the system fuses these inputs into a unified operational picture, enabling faster, more precise responses. Central to this approach is Sentinel, the company’s flagship platform. A software-defined, layered defence system, Sentinel integrates sensing and interception into a single operational network. It combines Alpine Eagle’s airborne radar and sensor network with a scalable defence architecture to track threats across wide areas and neutralise them using airborne interceptors. Alpine Eagle is now participating in a defence innovation programme in the Netherlands, and over the past year, it has also conducted counter-drone trials in Ukraine and participated in Project Vanaheim, a counter-UAS trial involving the US and UK armed forces. To understand the company’s growth and positioning, I spoke to Jan-Hendrik Boelens, co-founder and CEO of Alpine Eagle. Scaling across Europe after Bundeswehr launch The company has seen accelerating demand across Europe. Sentinel was first deployed with the German Bundeswehr in 2024 as a launch customer, and Alpine Eagle has since secured contracts with three new European customers and has expanded to the UK and the Netherlands.  Alpine Eagle has expanded its team from 12 employees in 2024 to 50 in 2026, with plans to reach 100 employees this year as production scales. Drone warfare is reshaping defence economics Drone warfare reshapes modern air defence — from Ukraine to the Middle East — driving governments to prioritise systems that can be produced and deployed at scale and at lower costs than legacy defence platforms. For Boelens, Ukraine has been the proving ground. “It has shown what large-scale, drone-saturated warfare actually looks like and how quickly existing air defence systems can be stretched. The Middle East escalation is reinforcing that lesson in real time, particularly around the economic imbalance of defending against large volumes of low-cost drones.” At the same time, Europe is increasingly seeing drone incursions around critical infrastructure, airports and military sites. “That’s turning what was once seen as a battlefield problem into a domestic security issue.” Alpine Eagle’s technology has already been tested in operationally relevant environments, including trials conducted in Ukraine, where counter-drone systems face constant pressure from mass drone attacks and must function reliably under disrupted GPS conditions.  The cost asymmetry driving urgent procurement Recent conflicts have underscored the urgency of scalable counter-drone capability. Large-scale drone strikes in Ukraine and across the Gulf show how inexpensive drones can overwhelm traditional air-defence systems and force defenders to expend far more costly interceptors. In recent attacks in the Middle East, analysts estimate that defenders spent over $1.5 billion intercepting drones that attackers may have cost around $250 million to launch. This imbalance is accelerating demand for systems designed to counter large volumes of low-cost threats. Together, these dynamics are driving a shift from experimentation to procurement. Governments are no longer asking if they need counter-drone capability, but how quickly they can deploy it at scale. Scaling production for rapid deployment According to Boelens, defence ministries are increasingly looking for systems that can be delivered quickly and scaled as operational demand grows.  To support scalable production, Alpine Eagle integrates its technology with the DeltaQuad Evo, a UAV platform developed by Dutch manufacturer DeltaQuad. The partnership gives Alpine Eagle immediate access to industrial-scale manufacturing capacity while reinforcing a resilient European supply chain. By combining proven hardware with its proprietary sensing and defence software, the company can deliver deployable counter-drone systems significantly faster than traditional defence programmes. “We integrate the DeltaQuad Evo UAV platform, produced by our partner DeltaQuad,” shared Boelens. “This means the facilities, permits, and production processes are already in place in the Netherlands. As a result, we can scale output rapidly — from several hundred units to more than a thousand per month.” Alpine Eagle can deliver operational capability within approximately four weeks of contract signature. This is enabled by a robust supply chain and strong component availability, combined with systems designed for rapid deployment. With a small footprint, self-sustaining logistics, and minimal training requirements, customers can move from delivery to operational use almost immediately. “Rapidly deployable, for us, means weeks — not months," explained Boelens.   “With supply chains secured and production ready, we can deliver within around four weeks of contract signature, and systems can be brought into operation almost immediately with minimal training.” The company is also planning to open a 2,000-square-metre production facility for its own-developed interceptor near Munich, supporting its next phase of industrial scaling.  Why European defence supply chains are being rebuilt Alpine Eagle has made European supply chain sovereignty a core strategic priority, deliberately sourcing and manufacturing a significant share of its system within Europe. Boelens shared: “Wherever possible, we prioritise European partners across our supply chain. That’s a deliberate choice.” The shift reflects a broader recalibration across the defence ecosystem, as recent shocks — from COVID-19 disruptions to the war in Ukraine, rising trade tensions, and the expanding conflict in the Middle East — have exposed the fragility of global supply chains. Counter-drone defence as a coordination problem, not a hardware race What sets Alpine Eagle apart is its software-defined, networked approach to defence. Instead of treating counter-drone protection as a standalone hardware problem, the company frames it as a coordination challenge, linking distributed sensors, AI-driven decision systems, and response mechanisms into a scalable defence network. This allows it to handle large volumes of simultaneous threats, particularly in swarm scenarios where autonomy exists on both sides.  With multiple players in the counter-drone  space — both incumbents and startups — Boelens sees Alpine Eagle’s biggest advance as a combination of software and speed of deployment, rather than any single factor. The core challenge in counter-drone defence is not just intercepting a single threat, but managing large volumes of targets in real time. That requires software that can fuse sensor data, prioritise threats and coordinate responses across systems. At the same time, defence customers increasingly need solutions that can be deployed quickly. "By building on existing hardware platforms and focusing our innovation on the software and sensing layer, we can field systems faster than traditional defence programmes.” A fragmented market moving toward integration According to Boelens, the counter-drone market is still highly fragmented. He explained, “You have companies focusing on individual components — sensors, electronic warfare, interceptors — and others building more integrated systems. That reflects how quickly the space has evolved and how many different approaches are being tested in parallel.” In the near term, Alpine Eagle expects continued proliferation, particularly as new technologies are validated in Ukraine and other operational environments. Over time, though, Boelens predicts there will likely be consolidation around integrated architectures.  “Counter-drone defence is ultimately a systems problem — detection, tracking, decision-making and interception all need to work together seamlessly. Alpine Eagle’s focus is on that system layer: building an architecture that can integrate sensors and effectors into a coherent, scalable network.” When swarms become the norm: defence as a coordination problem As drone warfare evolves toward fully autonomous, AI-coordinated swarms, counter-drone defence is shifting from hardware to systems-level thinking—where coordination, speed, and scale matter more than any single platform. Boelens argues that the challenge fundamentally changes in nature. “It becomes a network problem rather than a platform problem.” Defending against autonomous swarms requires the ability to detect, classify, and respond to large volumes of coordinated threats simultaneously, often with minimal human intervention. This demands distributed sensing, real-time data fusion, and AI-supported decision-making operating in parallel. “No single interceptor or sensor will solve that challenge. You need layered, software-defined networks that can scale across large areas and adapt in real time.” Autonomy on both sides of the battlefield As autonomy advances, it will define both sides of the battlefield—offence and defence alike—raising the stakes on coordination and system integration. “Autonomy will exist on both sides. The advantage will come from how effectively systems can coordinate at scale.” As counter-drone technologies mature, the question for Boelens is not which systems disappear, but how the air defence stack is rebalanced. Rebalancing the air defence stack for the drone era Rather than rendering existing systems obsolete, Boelens argues the shift will redefine their role within a layered architecture. “It’s less about systems becoming obsolete and more about how they are used.” High-end air defence platforms such as Patriot or THAAD will remain critical for countering aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic threats. But they are fundamentally ill-suited — both technically and economically — to address large volumes of small, low-cost drones. “Using multi-million-dollar interceptors against low-cost drones is not sustainable at scale. What changes, then, is not the relevance of these systems, but the burden placed on them. Tasks they were never designed for—such as countering drone swarms — will increasingly be offloaded to new, lower-cost layers. In the future, high-end systems will be complemented by scalable counter-drone layers, allowing them to focus on the threats they were built to defeat.” Boelens concludes: "I’m incredibly proud of what the Alpine Eagle team has achieved over the past year. The reality is that threats facing Europe are higher than they have been for decades and drones are transforming the battlefield faster than traditional defence systems can adapt. Our mission is to ensure democracies have the tools they need to defend their airspace in this new era of warfare.”

This week, the Oscars celebrated some of last year’s most outstanding achievements in cinema. In the meantime, the tools behind filmmaking are undergoing a profound transformation. Media and filmtech startups have fundamentally changed how films are storyboarded, edited, soundtracked, and enhanced with special effects. AI is also reshaping how speech is generated and reproduced,  as well as how media is produced and consumed, transforming nearly every stage of the filmmaking pipeline. This shift is underpinned by a growing ecosystem of accelerators and innovation programmes focused on media and film technology via nitiatives such as IDA Hub, Cannes Next, and The TechMedia Hub Potsdam, alongside Berlinale EFM Startups, and Digital Catapul.  Major media companies such as Netflix and Disney also deliver dedicated programmes to explore emerging technologies shaping the future of storytelling. Here are some of the startups to have on your radar:  EpicFrames (Estonia) EpicFrames is building what it calls the workflow layer for AI filmmaking. While generative AI models have advanced rapidly, creators working in film, advertising, and branded content still rely on fragmented workflows across multiple tools to produce structured visual narratives.   EpicFrames allows creators to plan scenes, iterate visuals, and organise assets within a workflow that mirrors real filmmaking. Filmster Network (UK) Filmster Network is building a collaborative digital platform to help independent filmmakers plan, produce, and manage film projects.  Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Reading, the company aims to function as an “operating system for modern filmmaking,” giving creators tools to assemble crews, manage schedules and budgets, and coordinate production workflows without relying on traditional studio infrastructure. It also integrates production-management features such as script breakdowns, crew coordination, scheduling, and knowledge sharing across projects, helping independent filmmakers operate with efficiencies typically available only to large studios. Greenigma (Germany) Greenigma is a Berlin-based company that provides certified Green Consultants who work with film, television, advertising, and other cultural productions to integrate sustainable practices throughout the production lifecycle—from early script development to post-production reporting. Greenigma’s consultants support productions with practical measures such as energy and waste management, sustainable mobility planning, responsible catering and accommodation, and resource-efficient logistics.  The team develops sustainability plans aligned with ISO 14001 standards, tracks emissions during filming, and produces final environmental reports that can be submitted to funding bodies or used to measure a project’s carbon footprint.  Gretico (Spain) Gretico is a media-technology company building tools that allow films and live events to be streamed and projected directly in cinemas or temporary screening venues without the traditional distribution infrastructure.  It makes it easier to set up theatrical screenings anywhere, especially in places without permanent cinemas.  Speekz (Lithuania) Speekz is a new app that lets you listen and record synchronised audio commentary while watching movies, TV series, and eventually live sports, turning passive viewing into a shared interactive experience.  It’s a modern, social twist on the DVD-era director’s commentary — or TV programmes like Googlebox — except the commentary can come from anyone: your favourite comedian, a celebrity, or your best friend. Speekz secured $175K in funding after appearing on a local version of Shark Tank. Long-term, the company aims to build the world’s largest digital marketplace for commentary with a platform where anyone can earn by simply sitting on their couch watching TV and yapping into their iPhone.  team4set (Poland) team4set is a digital platform designed to help filmmakers find and assemble production crews.  It operates as a networking and hiring marketplace for the film industry, allowing users to create profiles that showcase their skills, experience, and portfolios. Producers and directors can search for collaborators such as cinematographers, editors, sound engineers, makeup artists or production assistants, making it easier to build teams for film projects. The platform is particularly aimed at students and early-career filmmakers who may struggle to access industry networks.