It’s not every day that I write about a colleague’s startup. Today, HomeTruth, a home finance tech startup, has emerged from stealth with a $4 million valuation, having graduated from proptech VC STYX’s living lab and an undisclosed initial investment.  HomeTruth addresses a £60 billion UK market plagued by inefficiencies and lack of trusted property data. The startup is led by fellow Tech.eu journalist and entrepreneur Monty Munford, so we sat down to discuss all things proptech and how his own frustrations as a homeowner inspired him to found a startup.  The biggest purchase of your life has the least transparency When Munford bought a house in Hastings a couple of years ago, he quickly realised how little reliable information exists for the biggest purchases most people ever make. The only data he could access was what the seller had originally paid — and by the time he moved in, it became clear that many of the promised renovations, from roof work to underfloor heating, had never been done, and there was no data available to work out what had been done and when. He recalls:  “Between completion and moving in, I discovered that most of what she’d claimed about the home—renovations, the roof, underfloor heating—was untrue. It took me two years to sort it all out.” During that time, his friend Jason Ryan, visited and asked what he was working on. Munford said, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were a logbook for homes?” Something where a homeowner could say, “Yes, I’m verified,” and show a trusted record of money spent on improvements—£10,000 on solar in 2023, £4,000 on carpets in 2024, and so on. It would create upside for sellers and safety for buyers.” From navigating insurance to securing mortgages, homeowners face a fragmented ecosystem where transparency is scarce and information is asymmetric.   Munford asserts: “Buying a home should be a celebration, not one of the most stressful experiences of your life. The process today is archaic and opaque, and it affects the biggest financial decision most people will ever make. We want to bring accuracy, transparency and truth into that journey—and provide the property industry with the data intelligence it desperately lacks.” In response, HomeTruth is developing a platform which aggregates public and licensed datasets to build a foundational ledger covering more than 28 million UK homes. Even at its earliest stages, the startup has been laser-focused on developing a digital solution with commercial viability.   The duo started testing the concept and realised pretty quickly that there was a meaningful gap in the market for this kind of verified data layer.  And it went beyond having proof of renovations and building works to gaining insights into how a homeowner could benefit from making changes to their homes that would improve their resale value.  HomeTruth’s AI Advisor puts verified property insights in one place HomeTruth has developed a platform that engages homeowners through a free HomeTruth AI Advisor, enriching the ledger with consented, ground-truth data while offering proactive insights, secure storage and guidance. The Advisor helps homeowners understand their home’s true value, risks and opportunities while enriching the data ecosystem for insurers, as every single homeowner inquiry enhances the HomeTruth database. HomeTruth uses surveyors' reports and energy certificates to forecast the impact of specific improvements on the value of a property.  People typically move every three to five years, so rather than short-term subscriptions, HomeTruth is building something that supports that entire journey. In terms of UX, a user would upload all relevant property documents — energy certificates, land registry information, utility data, renovation records, neighbourhood price changes, and so on.  By sharing their data, homeowners get immediate value: accurate responses, better estimates, and a more transparent experience. According to Munford, “HomeTruth exists specifically to avoid hallucination and provide verifiable, property-specific truth.” Users can ask the advisor questions like: “If I spend £8,000 on solar, how does that impact my home value?”“What are the projected energy bills for the next two years?”“What should I fix before putting the home on the market?”They get an instant, tailored, reliable answer." The real value is the dataset”: How HomeTruth unearthed a massive B2B opportunity HomeTruth’s turning point came when the team realised that the real breakthrough wasn’t just answering homeowners’ questions—it was the unprecedented dataset those questions created, revealing a far larger B2B opportunity than they initially imagined. Munford explained: “We realised that homeowners might ask thousands of questions about their properties — about energy prices, renovation ROI, local price movements — and our LLM could respond in real time based on a mix of verified documents and aggregated datasets.” “But the real value wasn’t just the answers—  it was the dataset generated by millions of these questions. The property-related queries people ask form an extraordinary, real-time window into the housing market.” This made the startup realise that their market opportunity was a lot bigger than the buyers and sellers themselves — insurers, banks and major stakeholders in the property transaction chain have a far more urgent need for this intelligence than individual homeowners.   “They struggle with opaque risk, outdated valuations and inconsistent documentation. The entire home insurance market, in particular, is fundamentally broken,” asserts Munford.  By combining verified property data with homeowner engagement, HomeTruth provides insurers, lenders and homeowners with accurate and actionable insights. The platform is designed to reduce mispricing, prevent fraud and improve customer experiences across the property ecosystem. “This is for anyone who needs real-time, high-quality property data to make better decisions. We’re starting with the UK, but the problem is universal.” HomeTruth is fixing a system-wide data failure Styx is a European early-stage VC and accelerator focused on PropTech, Smart City and ConTech startups. Styx invests in visionary entrepreneurs reshaping the built environment across Europe. According to Florian Fischer, STYX Co-Founder and Chairman:  “HomeTruth is tackling one of the most complex and opaque experiences in modern life; homeownership. Banks, insurers and homeowners alike are operating in the dark, making decisions on incomplete or outdated data that ultimately leads to mispricing, inefficiency and frustration across the entire sector. We’re proud to help such an accomplished founding team kick off their venture through the STYX Living Lab. We look forward to working with Monty and Jason as they transform how homeowners, insurers and lenders engage with property intelligence.” HomeTruth’s next hires: A CEO and curious builders  In addition, HomeTruth Co-founders Jason Ryan and Monty Munford are looking to bring in curious minds and a CEO who sees the opportunity and wants to fix a broken system with technology that empowers every homeowner in the UK. Munford admits, “I’m not a CEO — I’m the front man, the storyteller, the connector. Now we need an operator who believes in the mission and can execute.” From journalist to founder: why experience matters in tech Munford has had careers across journalism, advising startups, and now founding his own. I wanted to know what’s been the biggest learning curve? He shared: “Moving away from being known primarily as a journalist has been a journey. I’ve helped nearly 50 companies raise a combined €1.6 billion over the years, and I’ve always wanted to apply that knowledge to something of my own. People assume journalists shouldn’t build startups. I disagree — journalists are curious, sceptical, analytical. Those are incredibly useful traits. But you need a community that supports you rather than pigeonholes you, and I’ve been lucky to have that. The biggest lesson is that a lifetime of curiosity and experience absolutely can translate into a meaningful company.” Lead image: Freepik.

Zilch, the UK consumer lending fintech, has netted over $175m in an equity and debt funding round as it eyes acquisition targets. The funding round was led by KKCG, the Czech investment group, with participation from BNF Capital, the family office, and other strategic investors. The round includes an expansion of Zilch’s £100 million credit facility with Deutsche Bank, announced last year. Zilch said the funds will be geared toward marketing activity, as it looks to grow its brand, product development and to explore strategic M&A opportunities. Zilch, whose other investors include Goldman Sachs and eBay, has over 5m customers. Since launching in 2020, Zilch has established itself as one of the UK’s most valuable fintechs and before this funding round, it was valued at around £1.5bn. Zilch provides advertising-subsidised BNPL services and competes against the likes of Klarna and Clearpay. Zilch customers use a card to pay via debit or credit, which can be paid off in interest-free instalments. Philip Belamant, CEO & co-founder of Zilch, commented: “This funding reflects strong confidence in our team, strategy and execution, enabling us to continue scaling at pace. “In a market where many have found raising capital difficult, the network and strategic leadership of my co-founder, Sean O’Connor, have been instrumental in helping us achieve this outcome and we are excited for the year ahead.”

Ghent-based technology startup Introw has raised $3 million in a round led by Visionaries Club, with continued support from PitchDrive. The company previously raised €1 million from PitchDrive and angel investors, including Pieterjan Bouten (ex-Showpad) and Ewout Meyns (ex-HubSpot). Buyers increasingly expect personalised experiences, while outreach fatigue and stricter privacy rules are making direct sales less effective. As a result, more companies are adopting partner (indirect) sales models that leverage existing relationships, credibility, and customer access. Introw provides an AI-enabled partner portal for rapid onboarding, training, and activation. Unlike legacy systems that take months to implement, Introw connects quickly to a company’s CRM, giving partners the data and tools to accelerate deal cycles. By embedding partner workflows directly in the CRM, it reduces setup time from months to minutes and improves visibility across sales, partner, and operations teams. Real-time sync and performance tracking help organisations identify top partners, optimise engagement, and scale their channel with minimal overhead. Each day a partner lacks the right information means lost revenue. Where other partner portals take four to six months to launch, we do it in minutes, says CEO Andreas Geamanu. Since launching in 2023, Introw’s platform has facilitated tens of thousands of partner interactions and helped clients generate millions in additional pipeline. Visionaries Club partner Robert Jäckle highlighted that partnerships account for a large share of global B2B revenue, yet many teams still rely on spreadsheets and outdated tools. He said Introw is building a fast, simple, and intelligent partner system that turns partnerships into a meaningful growth driver. The new funding will be used to scale sales and marketing, particularly in the US, where adoption is accelerating, and to further invest in Introw’s AI-first product strategy.

Cronvall, a Finnish technology company digitalising industrial procurement, has raised €3.9 million from Greencode Ventures, Stephen Industries, Innovestor, and leading industrial family offices. Cronvall’s platform improves transparency, efficiency, and data use across supply chains. It enables construction and industrial firms to manage critical purchases, access a network of 150+ vetted suppliers, compare prices with full transparency, and handle everything from ordering to delivery tracking. The company serves more than 8,000 industrial and construction clients, from SMEs to publicly listed firms, and is on track to exceed €6 million in annual turnover, supported by strong growth in Germany, where revenue has increased more than fivefold in the past year. Founder and CEO Walter Masalin notes that procurement in these sectors is often fragmented, with limited access to current price and availability data and a single order requiring coordination with multiple suppliers and contacts. Cronvall eliminates the frictions and brings long-needed clarity to this process: one platform, transparent pricing, and a seamless procurement experience from start to finish. New reporting rules are also reshaping purchasing. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), for example, strengthens disclosure requirements. As a result, procurement is increasingly evaluated not only on price and quality but also on environmental and social sustainability. Cronvall aims to become a leading European platform for industrial procurement, connecting thousands of suppliers and buyers in a single, transparent, data-driven network. Masalin adds: Every avoided order error or redundant shipment means fewer trucks on the road and measurable CO₂ reductions. This proves that efficiency and sustainability can scale together. The investment will support Cronvall’s international expansion and its goal of modernising and digitalising industrial procurement across Europe, with a focus on improving efficiency, transparency, and sustainability in the sector.

London-based Adclear, an AI compliance platform, has raised an oversubscribed £2.1 million seed round led by Outward VC, with participation from AFG Partners and Tenity. Angel investors include Clearscore founder Dan Cobley and Coinbase MD Keith Grose (via the a16z Scout Fund) alongside the Ventures Together community. Haatch and Force Over Mass Capital also joined the round after backing the company at pre-seed. Adclear provides an AI-driven platform that automates compliance reviews for financial marketing content and product updates. Banks, fintechs, and crypto/trading platforms use it to check that customer communications meet applicable regulations while maintaining an audit trail for compliance teams. Users can submit social images, video assets, emails, articles, Google and Meta ads, websites, product screens, and more. The system returns rapid, detailed guidance on required changes to achieve compliance. The company is also developing tools to support the full FinProm approval lifecycle, including post-publication monitoring of affiliates, partners, and financial influencers. Doni Hoti, CEO and co-founder of Adclear, comments: In the world of AI-powered marketing, teams are able to create, personalise and disseminate more content, more quickly than ever before. But if brands in the finance space want to 10x their marketing, they need powerful tools to ensure it doesn’t become a regulatory nightmare. Adclear’s AI enables compliance to move at the same speed as creation, unlocking a new frontier for communications innovation whilst removing a major burden from marketing and compliance teams alike. On average, the platform reduces review time by 88 per cent, streamlining the traditionally lengthy and iterative compliance review process for marketing materials. This allows brands to maintain the pace of modern marketing while minimising risk and freeing legal and compliance teams from repetitive manual review tasks. Founded by Doni Hoti, Joe Jordan, and Cameron Ward, and launched in 2024, Adclear’s AI-powered compliance platform is already used by marketing teams at banks and fintechs, including Lloyds Banking Group, PensionBee, Plum, Yonder, InvestEngine, ActivTrades, and Trade Nation. After establishing a strong position in the UK, supporting brands with FCA, ASA, and other regulatory requirements, the company has extended its platform to cover EU and US-regulated markets, with APAC and MENA regions scheduled to follow in the coming months. Adclear will use the funding to expand the team, grow the presence in markets outside the UK, and introduce new products and services.

Skycore Semiconductors, a startup specialising in Power Integrated Circuit (IC) technology for AI data centers, has raised €5 million in seed funding. The round was led by the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund, with participation from First Momentum, Mätch VC, and Balnord. Founded in Denmark, Skycore has built a silicon-validated Power IC platform for applications requiring very high power density and efficiency, targeting the power-infrastructure challenges of emerging 800V high-voltage direct current (HVDC) architectures. Its solutions deliver high power density and efficiency in compact, flat form factors, addressing a key bottleneck in scaling AI infrastructure. The company holds six patent families and is developing 800V HVDC power architectures for future AI facilities. Skycore Semiconductors’ CEO and co-founder, Pere Llimós Muntal, stated that scaling AI compute infrastructure will require a fundamental shift in data centre power systems, with 800V HVDC architectures marking the first step toward that transformation. Our Power IC technology platform delivers power solutions with extreme power density and efficiency in flat, compact form factors, all essential to enable HVDC architectures. We design our solutions to be inherently scalable to meet the evolving demands of future power architectures. Skycore’s eight-person team plans to expand gradually while bringing its Power IC solutions to market in collaboration with strategic partners. The company is preparing its first commercial products and aims to capture the growing demand for AI data centre power solutions. Its long-term vision is to lead in Power ICs for high-voltage architectures across AI data centres and other high-power applications.

European venture firm Backed VC has closed its third fund, Backed 3, at its $100 million cap, alongside making its 100th investment.  Backed partners with outlier founders building generational frontier technology companies, who have made a fundamental technological or conceptual breakthrough. It leads Pre-seed or Seed stage rounds with investments between $500k and $5 million. A history of high-performing startups The announcement follows two high-performing first funds  – Backed’s first fund is a top decile fund and returned a further 35 per cent of capital to investors in October 2025. Now, Backed is scaling its ambition with Backed 3 — a larger fund, increased presence in the US and an expanded global events strategy.  Close to 50 per cent of Backed 3 was committed from 10 leading institutional Fund of Funds, with new investors such as Isomer Capital and Wunderland Capital. Backed 3 also now counts over 50 family offices and entrepreneurs as investors, including founders from Backed’s existing portfolio. Backed 3 will focus on three areas of frontier tech, in which Backed has previously seeded unicorns: AI-native therapeutics, blockchain and banking infrastructure and manufacturing automation. This fund has already reinvested in 6 of its strongest founders from previous funds. The firm partnered early on with the founders of companies such as Invisible Technologies, Thought Machine, General Intuition, and Flow Engineering – all of which have raised $20 to $150 million in follow-on funding rounds in the last quarter from Tier 1 US firms, including Sequoia, General Catalyst, Greycroft, and Khosla. 100 early-stage investments as portfolio yields five unicorns Backed are now at a landmark 100 Pre-Seed or Seed investments, of which five companies have already achieved unicorn status with valuations above $1 billion, and eighteen have reached an enterprise value of over $100 million.  Backed has a 90 per cent investment follow-on rate from Seed, measured by the companies closing a subsequent funding round, becoming profitable or being acquired. The intersection of venture capital and events Since its inception in 2016, Backed has differentiated itself by operating at the intersection of venture capital and events to gather the entrepreneurial community. Backed runs an extensive VC event programme globally, with 40 events per year, hosting over 4000 founders and investors. During Slush next week, Backed will host six separate events for 2000 guests. Andre de Haes, Co-Founder at Backed, said: “Backed partners with founders striving to build the first trillion-dollar European businesses, in spaces where most do not dare to build. Over the last decade, we have built a community of humans who have the audacity to take on companies like Nvidia, Google and Goldman Sachs. Their boldness has led to their success. It has created a flywheel, where our founders are now investing as LPs back into our new fund.” Alex Brunicki, Co-Founder at Backed, shared: “We want to support generational European founders building companies that will stand the test of time, who are choosing to build their businesses where they are most primed for success, not for convenience." For Aerska, Comind, and OchreBio, that is the UK and Europe. But for Flow Engineering, General Intuition and Invisible, that is the US. And we are developing our firm to support exceptional people wherever they choose to build.’ Lukas Bennemann, Founding Partner at Wunderland Capital, said: "Backed has built an exceptional reputation among founders and has matured impressively, showing a repeatable edge at the intersection of technical and scientific breakthroughs.  The team genuinely radiates something special — they connect with founders on a deeper level, which truly matters in the highly competitive seed landscape. You can tell who a ‘Backed Founder’ is, showing clearly the culture and focus of the team. Their relentless drive to achieve the best outcomes continues to make them stand out in the European VC landscape." Pim de Witte, CEO at General Intuition, shared: “Alex was truly the first to believe and Backed supported us from the very start of our journey through some very difficult moments. They are relentless in support of founders and fight when it matters most. It is fair to say, General Intuition might not exist without them. They are world-class, early-stage investors.” Lead image: Backed VC. Photo: uncredited.

Italy-based CommerceClarity, a composable AI operating system for e-commerce, has closed a €2.7 million pre-seed round led by IFF (Koinos Capital) and Entourage, with participation from Redstone and Euregio+ (Alpine VC), Vento (Exor), Ithaca Investment, and Vesper Holding. CommerceClarity tackles one of digital retail’s biggest challenges: increasingly unmanageable product-assortment workflows. McKinsey estimates AI agents could mediate up to $5 trillion in global retail sales by 2030, yet many teams still rely on spreadsheets, copy-paste processes, legacy IT, and incomplete product data, complexities that will intensify as AI agents influence discovery and purchasing. Built on a composable architecture, CommerceClarity automates catalogue data ingestion, enrichment, and validation, transforming unstructured information into structured, AI-readable, performance-optimised content for each market and channel. As the complexity of product data keeps growing and AI agents begin influencing what people buy, e-commerce needs intelligent infrastructure to remain visible, discoverable, and competitive, said co-founder and co-CEO Federico Sargenti, noting the platform stems from inefficiencies the founding team experienced first-hand in e-commerce operations. Founded in 2024 by Federico Sargenti, Daniele Vella, Michele Sampieri, and Alessandro Angelini, and drawing on experience at Amazon, Everli, and Bain & Company, the company now works with over 40 retailers and brands, including Nestlé Purina (pet food), Arcaplanet (pet care), Cisalfa (sporting goods), 1000Farmacie (pharma), and Caddy’s (home & personal care). Its technology is designed to cut operational costs by up to 90 per cent, lift traffic and sales by up to 30 per cent, and reduce time-to-market from weeks to hours. The new funding will advance CommerceClarity’s infrastructure for the agentic future of e-commerce and support international expansion, with offices in Milan, Rome, and London.

Finnish venture capital firm Vendep Capital has closed €80 million for its fourth fund to support early-stage SaaS founders in the Nordics and Baltics during the AI era. The fund is backed by Nordic and European investors, including Tesi (the Finnish state-owned investment company) and Pension Insurance Company Elo, alongside family offices and angel investors. The vehicle has reached its target size, though fundraising will remain open to new investors for a short period. Since 2013, Vendep has built a strong SaaS investing track record in the Nordics, backing companies such as AlphaSense, Hostaway, Leadfeeder, and Happeo. The firm focuses on early-stage B2B SaaS (from pre-seed to Series A) with a particular emphasis on AI-first products, and is recognised as a specialist SaaS investor in Northern Europe. We are excited to continue our work. The Nordics and Baltics offer one of the most thriving environments globally for building category-defining software companies, and Vendep is uniquely positioned to partner with the next wave of founders driving that growth, said Sakari Pihlava, Founding Partner at Vendep. The new fund arrives at a pivotal time for SaaS. Sami Ahvenniemi, General Partner at Vendep, commented that while SaaS may not be viewed as the flashiest investment theme, it has continued to outperform thanks to predictable recurring revenues and strong margins. He added that AI is ushering in the most dynamic phase for the model, noting that the most significant AI products today are delivered and monetised as SaaS. Fund IV will invest in around 20 early-stage SaaS startups across the Nordics and Baltics, from pre-seed to Series A, with initial investments ranging from €0.1 million to €3 million. Vendep also provides follow-on funding to support portfolio companies as they scale toward global market leadership.

Helsinki-based CHAOS, a data-intelligence company focused on reinventing the global real estate industry, has raised €2 million in a new funding round with participation from Swedish investment company Nidoco and Finnvera, a state-owned Finnish financing institution. Founded in 2017, CHAOS aims to modernise the real estate sector with advanced location intelligence and AI-driven insights. The platform aggregates and interprets fragmented data, including neighbourhood growth, population movements, business performance, and service needs. It then turns this information into actionable insights that help developers, investors, planners, and retailers decide where to invest, what to build, and how to support thriving communities and successful businesses. By providing better access to understandable data and actionable insights, our platform empowers the real estate industry to make more profitable and human-centric decisions, said Natalia Rincón-Eriksson, CEO and co-founder of CHAOS. The platform’s AI capabilities help users navigate complex datasets, compare neighbourhoods and access localised insights on demographics, services and assets. Rather than simply summarising data, it delivers AI-generated recommendations across the asset lifecycle, from initial investment and property management to divestment. Designed for ease of use, it offers unified location analytics and dashboards with forecasting and simulation tools, plus flexible, pay-as-you-need pricing to support adoption across corporate teams. The new investment will support expansion across the Nordics and the DACH region and further development of CHAOS’s AI-driven solutions for real estate investors, property developers and retailers.

Swedish autonomous truck startup Einride is to go public in the US via a SPAC, valuing it at $1.8bn. Einride plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange via a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company), a vehicle which is designed as an alternative route for companies to go public without the expense and hassle of going through a conventional IPO.The SPAC merger, with Legato Merger Corp, will see Einride valued at $1.8 billion in pre-money equity, with the deal expected to be completed in the first half of 2026. Einride said the deal was expected to generate around $219 million in gross proceeds before accounting for potential redemptions of Legato’s public shares, transaction expenses and any further financing. Einride said it was also looking for up to $100m of private investment in public equity capital to speed up growth.The announcement follows weeks after Einride raised around $100 million in funding from existing investor EQT Ventures and quantum firm IonQ.Founded in Sweden in 2016, Einride has the bold ambition of disrupting the freight industry with electric and self-driving vehicles. It is developing and operating a new freight ecosystem, which includes one of the world’s largest fleets of heavy-duty electric trucks, cutting-edge autonomous technology and the proprietary Saga planning optimisation platform. The Swedish startup, which has also has a US headquarters in Texas, also raised $500m in 2022.Roozbeh Charli, CEO of Einride, said: "Today marks a defining moment for Einride and for the future of freight technology. “We’ve proven the technology, built trust with global customers, and shown that autonomous and electric operations are not just possible, but better. "This transaction positions us to accelerate our global expansion and continue to deliver with speed and precision for our customers. The foundation is built, the demand is clear, and our focus is on execution and delivering the future of freight.”Eric Rosenfeld, chief SPAC Officer of Legato, said: "This transaction with Einride aligns with our vision to bring industry-leading, innovative technology to the public markets."Einride's proven customer relationships, regulatory achievements, and technology platform position the Company to be a leader in the transformation of the freight industry. "We believe that the market fundamentals are strong, the timing is right, and Einride has the operational excellence to capitalise on this massive shift in how goods move around the world."

Paris-based AI platform Paage has raised $2.2 million in seed funding led by Aglaé Ventures, Kima Ventures, and Cassius, with participation from angel investors including Alexandre Eruimy (former CEO of PrestaShop), Felix Malfait (co-founder of Twenty), Darren Lachtman (Goldenset Collective), and Enzo Mattioli Ferrari (CEO of Ferrari Family Investment). As creators increasingly move away from traditional marketplaces, many now build and sell directly through their social platforms, engaging audiences through authenticity, trust, and personal connection. Paage positions itself at the centre of this shift as an AI-powered cockpit for social commerce, allowing creators and brands to centralise content, offers, payments, and audience management in one place. The platform helps users turn followers into customers and maintain ownership of their audience and data, reducing dependency on third-party platforms. Founded in 2025, Paage was created to make online creation and selling simpler and more accessible. The company believes that millions of ideas never come to life because creating online remains overly technical. With Paage, users can describe what they want, whether a page, product, or design, in natural language, and the platform generates it instantly. Its AI agent assists with structure, copy, and design, helping transform ideas into elegant, interactive pages. Co-founder Jean Ronin describes Paage as “a clear, inspiring space where people can create and exist on their own terms,” emphasising that its AI enhances creativity rather than replacing it. The company calls this approach augmented autonomy, technology that supports individuality, helping creators work faster while staying authentic. Nicolas Garcin, co-founder of Paage, noted that while social commerce is already well established in the US, it is only beginning to gain momentum in Europe. “Paage bridges the two worlds - the spontaneity of social creation and the independence of running your own business. AI shouldn’t box creators into templates; it should help them think clearer and stay true to their voice. In less than a year, Paage has grown to 100,000 users across more than ten countries, serving artists, musicians, coaches, freelancers, and brand founders who use the platform as their digital home base. The new funding will accelerate Paage’s AI and product development, strengthen its design and engineering teams, expand integrations across payments, CRM, e-commerce, and email marketing, and support its international growth.

DataCamp, a Belgium-founded online learning platform, has acquired Dubai-based Optima, an AI-native platform for building data and AI skills. As AI adoption accelerates, companies must continually upskill their teams. DataCamp helps individuals and organisations build capabilities in data science, analytics, and AI through interactive courses, real-world projects, and industry-recognised certifications across Python, R, SQL, Power BI, Tableau, machine learning, and cloud computing. It pairs foundational concepts with hands-on practice using new AI tools. Optima’s AI-native system adapts in real time, adjusting pacing, explanations, and feedback to each learner’s profile. Its technology already powers key curricula on DataCamp, and premium subscribers can choose the AI-native experience in many top courses. DataCamp will expand the integration across its platform over the next six months, enhancing both existing content and new offerings. Jonathan Cornelissen, DataCamp’s co-founder and CEO, said the company is moving beyond the traditional model of static, one-size-fits-all online learning: The field of data and AI is evolving faster than ever, and DataCamp is focusing on dynamic, human-centred learning to help people and organizations thrive amid upheaval. With the Optima team now part of DataCamp, we’ve never been better placed to redefine how organisations move their people along the learning curve. Optima founder and CEO Yusuf Saber will join DataCamp as Chief AI Officer, and the rest of Optima’s team will also join the company. This acquisition will further reinforce DataCamp’s position as a partner for organisations aiming to strengthen and future-proof their workforce.

Locai Labs today launches Locai, a general AI assistant powered by Locai L1-Large, the UK’s first foundational large language model (LLM), marking a watershed moment for British technology and the nation’s role in the global AI race. For years, the development of advanced AI has been dominated by the US and China, whose tech giants have benefited from vast data centre infrastructure and investment. Britain, by contrast, has faced a chronic shortage of domestic computing power. Now Locai, an AI assistant designed and built in the UK and backed by former science minister Lord Drayson, is taking on global rivals including GPT-5, Claude, DeepSeek and Gemini, outperforming them on the key measure of conversational ability and human preference whilst delivering top-tier results across mathematics, scientific reasoning, and instruction-following benchmarks. Specifically, Locai L1-Large surpasses GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen and Mistral to claim the #1 rank on Arena Hard v2, the industry’s leading benchmark for conversational ability and human preference, whilst delivering top-tier results across mathematics, scientific reasoning, and instruction-following benchmarks. Founders James and George Drayson have developed a new vision for “community AI,” combining self-learning technology with a decentralised, community-powered architecture to create high-performance AI that can be scaled sustainably. George Drayson has invented a technology called “Forget-Me-Not” that solves one of AI’s most persistent challenges: catastrophic forgetting - the tendency for models to lose previously learned knowledge when trained on new information. This means Locai Labs’ AI models can evolve independently without armies of human trainers or access to huge data-sets; Locai L1-Large teaches itself and constantly improves without human input, generating its own training data and never forgetting what it has learned. The result is faster progress and lower costs in model post-training, while preserving accuracy and safety. Tackling Britain’s data centre deficit  Traditional AI models demand enormous, energy-hungry data centres - an approach that is both costly and environmentally damaging. Locai Labs has taken a different path. As user numbers grow, Locai will scale through a community-driven blockchain network, allowing users themselves to contribute computing resources and shape the development of the model in future. This crowdsourced model means Britain will be able to compete in AI by offering a sustainable and decentralised alternative that is unique on the world stage. James Drayson, CEO of Locai Labs, said: “Britain doesn’t need to outspend the world to lead in AI - we need to outthink it, because we won’t win the AI race simply by building bigger data centres. Our approach has created an AI that has taught itself to be safer, more conversational and more intelligent, and that will scale sustainably through the power of its users. “It’s not just a new model, it’s a new way forward for AI and for the UK and gives consumers and organisations access to a British-built, sovereign, high‑performance AI without the usual trade‑offs.” The founders of Locai, from left to right, George Drayson, James Drayson, and Sujith Aleshwaram.

Today, open source cryptography company  Zama and Web3 venture builder PyratzLabs announced a €2 million investment and the creation of Zaiffer.  This joint venture is dedicated to building the future of confidential, compliant, and composable decentralised finance across Ethereum-compatible blockchains. Zaiffer introduces confidential tokens (cTokens), which conceal on-chain amounts while preserving sender/receiver audit trails and enabling selective disclosure for exchanges, auditors, or regulators. The approach redefines confidentiality as a right within DeFi while ensuring compliance with global standards. “Our mission has always been to help builders scale the next generation of Web3 companies,” said Bilal El Almay, co-founder and CEO of Zaiffer.  “Think of Zaiffer as the VPN for on-chain finance: confidentiality you can turn on or off, without leaving DeFi or changing wallets. It is a protocol that balances innovation, compliance, and usability. We are proud to partner with Zama to help bring confidential DeFi to market.” While blockchain transparency underpins trust, it also exposes balances, trade sizes, trade strategies, and treasury moves. This leads to exploitation, copy-trading, targeted liquidations, and corporate data leakage. For institutions, the absence of confidentiality remains a critical barrier to adoption. Existing confidentiality approaches fall short. Privacy coins operate on isolated networks, mixers break audit trails and face regulatory challenges, and confidentiality-focused technologies like ZK often require new infrastructure and introduce usability hurdles. Zaiffer closes this gap with a universal, audit-ready confidentiality layer for all EVM tokens and DeFi applications. Zaiffer’s core innovation is the Confidential Token Standard, developed with Zama and OpenZeppelin. Any ERC-20 or EVM-compatible token can be Shield (wrapped) into its confidential version (e.g., USDC → cUSDC, ETH → cETH, WBTC → cWBTC). Key properties of cTokens include: Hidden amounts: On-chain transfers show encrypted values while preserving sender/receiver links. Owner visibility: Users can selectively reveal balances or transactions for record-keeping purposes. Selective disclosure: Users may grant time-limited access to third    parties for compliance or audits. Because cTokens remain interoperable with existing DeFi apps, Zaiffer enables confidentiality without the need for new wallets, bridges, or fragmented liquidity. According to Rand Hindi, CEO of Zama, Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is ready for mainstream applications.  “With Zaiffer, we demonstrate FHE’s ability to power real-world financial infrastructure, combining confidentiality with regulatory compatibility. This is a turning point for blockchain adoption.” Zaiffer leverages Zama’s FHE protocol, a decentralised set of computation nodes that process encrypted values without ever decrypting them. Currently, each encrypted transaction is completed in less than 5 seconds. This ensures confidentiality at the protocol level while supporting: Confidential payrolls and (cross-border) payments. Private swaps and OTC trades that conceal trade sizes. Treasury management and fund strategies shielded from competitors. Lead image: Freepik.

A new 2025 Globalscape report from Accel, published today, finds that AI models and AI-native applications are driving record funding in 2025, with total investment projected to reach $184 billion, nearly 80 per cent higher year over year. The report finds that AI is fueling record activity in public and private markets despite geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty. It also highlights the rise of a $5 trillion market leader and a concentrated group of large-cap technology firms that together represent roughly half of the Nasdaq Composite Index. Their combined operating cash flow, estimated at about $0.6 trillion in 2024, positions them to keep funding the substantial investments needed to stay competitive in AI. Beyond models and infrastructure, performance among $100+ billion cloud companies is mixed. Several large providers are beginning to see AI-related gains, while others remain more dependent on broader enterprise adoption of agentic automation. Overall, the outlook for software remains constructive. Accel’s Globalscape Public Cloud Index is up 25 per cent year over year, and the tech IPO market has begun to reopen. As agentic adoption approaches the S-curve inflexion point in the coming years, larger cloud providers may regain momentum by using existing platforms to deploy and orchestrate new agentic workflows, the report says. Source: Accel 2025 Globalscape report AI-native applications are accelerating investment As established vendors invest in agentic capabilities, a new cohort of AI-native applications is scaling rapidly. Combined financing for these apps and for AI models is pushing venture investment in cloud and AI across the US, Europe, and Israel to record levels. In 2025, funding in these regions is projected to reach $184 billion (nearly 80 per cent higher than in 2024). European application companies are raising rounds comparable to US peers, with notable examples including ElevenLabs (London), Helsing (Munich), Lovable (Stockholm), n8n (Berlin), and Synthesia (London). Source: Accel 2025 Globalscape report The race for compute The rapid expansion of AI-native applications, alongside expected growth in enterprise agentic deployment, is accelerating demand for AI infrastructure. Current estimates indicate that roughly 117 GW of additional AI data-centre capacity will be needed by 2030, comparable to the combined power use of the UK, Italy, and Spain, and could require about $4 trillion in capital expenditures over the next five years. Commenting on the report, Philippe Botteri, Partner at Accel, said AI is driving a profound global transformation marked by an unprecedented pace of innovation and scale. He added that meeting this shift will require significant investment, around $4 trillion over the next five years, to build accelerated-computing data centres to power the next generation of AI-native applications and agentic workflows. For more detailed insights and data, the full Accel 2025 Globalscape Report: Race for Compute is available for download here.

A Swedish startup leveraging AI to improve sales productivity has raised €600k pre-seed funding, backed by high-profile names across Europe's tech ecosystem. The funding round in Spiich Labs was led by Ampli Ventures, with backing from Tandem Health CEO Lukas Saari and Creandum co-founder Stefan Lindeberg. One of the founders of Lovable and a European OpenAI executive are also backing the startup. Johan Torssell, CEO and founder of Stockholm-based Spiich, claimed he turned down a role at Palantir to launch the startup. The startup says its AI assistant automates CRM updates, meeting preparations, and follow-ups. It says its first AI assistant eliminates over eight hours of weekly admin work. The assistant integrates natively with HubSpot, and Google Workspace, allowing reps to update CRM records through text or voice commands from anywhere. It automatically generates daily meeting briefs by synthesising CRM data, email threads, and company research, then drafts personalised follow-ups based on conversation context. The startup says it already has customers in five countries.Torssell said: "I turned down Palantir to build Spiich after watching startup founders and their sales teams lose entire days to admin work that could be automated."Sales reps should be building relationships and closing deals, not populating fields in a CRM. We built the product that we wished existed - one that works wherever the sales rep is, through simple conversation. The traction in our first four months proved the market was desperate for this, and we’re just getting started."

Berlin-based CERPRO, a startup for industrial quality assurance, has raised around €2 million in a pre-seed funding round. The round was led by seed+speed Ventures, with D11Z as co-lead, and participation from EIT Manufacturing and Techstars. In many factories, engineering, quality assurance, and production still operate in silos. Documentation for incoming inspection and quality control is often created and checked manually in paper binders or Excel, leading to months-long backlogs. With labour gaps, higher costs, and stricter standards, manufacturing needs automated, measurable workflows. Compounding the issue, up to 30 per cent of production problems originate not on the shop floor but in insufficiently specified technical drawings. Founded in 2023 by Frederik Frei, Sascha Müller, and Henrik Pitz, CERPRO is building an intelligent platform to standardise and automate quality processes. Its first product, QualiSpec, automatically detects, interprets, and structures features from technical drawings to generate digital inspection plans in a fraction of the time. Since launching in December 2024, more than 100 SMEs in aerospace, medical devices, and mechanical engineering have adopted the software, reporting over 80 per cent faster quality processes, markedly fewer errors, and implementations completed in days. Beyond speeding inspection, CERPRO is extending its AI from inspection into design and engineering to flag potential issues earlier, shifting teams from reactive checks to predictive quality. The company’s roadmap connects quality data across OEMs and suppliers to create a shared foundation for transparency and traceability. Frederik Frei, CEO of CERPRO, said: Few areas in manufacturing are as data- and documentation-driven as quality assurance, which makes it perfectly suited for the use of AI. Together with our new partners, we aim to scale our technology across the industry and establish it as the unifying quality standard between OEMs and suppliers. The new capital will accelerate product development (including design-for-manufacture and predictive capabilities), expand sales, and scale CERPRO’s European market presence and partnerships, establishing a standardised, legally compliant quality workflow that links stakeholders across the supply chain.

Euler, the Icelandic software startup, has closed a €2 million seed funding round co-led by Iceland’s Frumtak Ventures and Nordic industrial tech investor Kvanted. Frumtak Ventures Partner Ásthildur Otharsdóttir and Kvanted Partner Eerik Paasikivi join the Euler board. Valued at over $20 billion, the global 3D-printing industry is positioned to enhance production by enabling lighter, more complex parts, reducing material waste and emissions, and complementing traditional manufacturing. However, large-scale adoption has been constrained by challenges in meeting stringent safety and performance standards, particularly in regulated sectors such as aerospace and defence, where minor disruptions can cause print failures and, without real-time monitoring, defects are often detected only after production, leading to costly rework or scrap. Euler’s platform introduces automated, real-time monitoring that flags potential defects before they occur, helping manufacturers save time and resources and produce more reliable parts at scale. A spinout of the Technical University of Denmark, Euler applies deep AI and process expertise to enhance fault detection for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) and selective laser sintering (SLS). The system integrates with leading 3D printers, using built-in camera data and AI algorithms for analysis without additional, costly monitoring hardware. Additive manufacturing has yet to live up to its hype, despite its disruptive potential. Challenges around cost, scalability, and quality assurance remain. Euler is already helping manufacturers overcome these issues, and this investment will enable us to continue our growth and expand exponentially, solidifying additive manufacturing as a reliable production process, said Dr Eythor Runar Eiriksson, co-founder and CEO of Euler. Euler’s customers include Alloyed (the additive manufacturing startup), KMWE (serving aerospace, semiconductor, healthtech, and industrial markets), and research organisations such as the Danish Technological Institute and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology. In a white paper with the Danish Technological Institute, Euler reported a 77 per cent reduction in time spent on failed builds, and more than a 20 per cent increase in revenue through improved overall equipment effectiveness. Euler will use the investment to accelerate platform rollout, expand its team, and scale product development. The company has also begun protecting its core technology, initiating trademark registrations and filing three patent applications.

After years of R&D, energy startup Synergi today launched Finland’s first EV virtual power plant. Synergi is the first company in Finland to aggregate thousands of electric vehicles via its consumer app, effectively creating a virtual power plant that supports grid balancing when needed. For consumers, this means the ability to earn rewards with home EV charging. Synergi‘s free mobile app is already trusted by over 10,000 households.  Check out our earlier interview with Antti Hämmäinen, CEO and co-founder at Synergi. With the launch of its new smart charging service, EV drivers in Finland can now participate in grid balancing directly through their home charging and earn monetary rewards in return.  Smart charging automatically schedules EV charging during the cheapest and most grid-friendly hours, allowing drivers to earn rewards from home charging.   Synergi’s smart charging feature automatically schedules EV charging to the most affordable hours of the day when the grid is least congested.  Fine-tuning EV charging in real-time Traditionally, smart charging has optimised charging based on hourly market prices, but Synergi’s new service goes further by fine-tuning the charging of thousands of vehicles in real time – for example, by pausing or resuming charging when the grid is over- or underloaded. Drivers receive monetary incentives determined by two factors: the duration of charging and the total energy consumed (kWh). This structure rewards users not only for energy usage but also for providing grid flexibility by keeping their vehicles connected for extended periods.  “By becoming Finland’s first virtual power plant for EVs and launching a new smart charging service, we’re laying the groundwork for a model where households can play a more active role in the energy transition and benefit from smart and flexible electricity use. Across Europe, there are already many demand response solutions where households can earn tens of euros per month in rewards,” says Antti Hämmäinen, Founder and CEO of Synergi.  New solutions for energy transition  Enabling household flexibility is a critical part of the energy transition. As society becomes increasingly electrified and renewable energy sources become more common, the electricity grid requires more flexible consumption from all users. New solutions, such as Synergi’s software-based remote control of devices, make it possible to integrate household flexibility into grid operations. Promoting demand response among households also supports the use of renewable energy sources.  Piloted reward system improved the driver's charging experience  Synergi’s new smart charging service was piloted with over 100 EV drivers earlier this year. Pilot results demonstrated that the reward system improved the driver's charging experience and that grid balancing events did not interfere with their routines. It also encouraged them to plug in earlier and stay connected longer, helping to maximise the availability and capacity of energy flexibility. Users simply set a desired charging completion time in the app, and grid balancing happens automatically within that time window.  The Synergi app currently supports all major EV brands, including Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen, Volvo, Audi, Hyundai, ŠKODA, and more. Vehicles are connected via the manufacturer’s cloud services using the user’s credentials. Therefore, households do not need to buy special chargers or pay for costly installation work to start charging at home and earning rewards. Currently, grid balancing operates only by starting or stopping charging — energy is never fed back from the car battery into the grid. Rewards are available for EV drivers in Finland, but Synergi plans to expand the service to include heating, cooling, and home battery systems, with a broader rollout across Europe in the future.