Modernising enterprise middleware is no longer optional; it is the essential foundation for cost efficiency and AI-readiness. Organisations run hybrid estates of IBM MQ, Kafka, and other brokers, creating fragmentation that masks deep operational inefficiency and financial loss. Traditional reliability conceals waste, with manual reconciliation and oversized platforms eroding profitability. This contradiction demands a new operating model based on Assurance and Optimisation. Assurance provides the verifiable lineage necessary to prove transaction continuity across all platforms, transforming modernisation from a risk to a measurable process. Optimisation applies FinOps principles by rebalancing workloads, consolidating idle capacity, and aligning the right broker with the right workload. Crucially, this assured middleware layer acts as the control plane for autonomous operations. AI Agents and Machine Learning models are reliant on unified, high-fidelity data to function reliably and avoid generating fixes based on incomplete information (hallucination). Middleware assurance supplies this clean data, enabling safe autonomy and acceleration. Together, assurance and optimisation create the "Confidence Economy," providing the strategic agility, financial discipline, and demonstrable trust required to compete in the next era of digital business. The Modernisation Contradiction And the Cost of Fragmentation True modernisation isn’t just migration; it’s transformation with proof. Across industries, enterprises are re-engineering middleware, streaming, and B2B systems to meet new demands for speed, resilience, and compliance. Yet as platforms expand, visibility often disappears. Dashboards show uptime, but not completion. Transactions fail silently between systems, while teams spend hours reconciling what should already be clear. This lack of assurance has become one of the biggest barriers to modernisation. Every missed acknowledgment, delayed order, or failed integration adds operational cost and risk. Across industries, the hidden toll of fragmentation quietly drains between one and five percent of EBITDA each year. A new discipline is emerging to address this: assurance and optimisation. By validating transactions across hybrid estates and dynamically managing resources, enterprises can prove continuity, prevent outages, and modernise safely. Assurance provides trust; optimisation delivers efficiency. Together, they create measurable, auditable progress, the foundation of sustainable modernisation. When modern systems lose sight of themselves A payments queue freezes. Orders stall. The dashboards stay green, but something isn’t right. For one global bank, that silence delayed millions in transactions. Nothing had crashed; visibility had. Moments like this happen every day. Middleware and B2B systems are reliable, but the spaces between them are not. It is in those gaps that uncertainty and risk grow. That is why assurance has become the new foundation of modernisation. You cannot transform what you cannot prove. The invisible cost of hybrid middleware Every enterprise runs on a web of integration: IBM MQ for critical workloads, Kafka for real-time streaming, ActiveMQ and RabbitMQ for enterprise messaging, and EDI for partner transactions. MFT secures file transfers, while APIs and partner portals connect digital ecosystems across boundaries. It is a marvel of engineering, a living network of moving parts, and a minefield of complexity when even one link is blind. Each platform tells its own story, yet none see the full narrative. Operations teams chase missing acknowledgements across consoles. Skilled engineers act as detectives, piecing together data just to confirm what should have been self-evident: did the transaction finish? This work is invisible but expensive. Across industries, hidden reconciliation and compliance tasks consume thousands of hours and erode one to five percent of EBITDA. The price is not just financial; it is psychological. When people cannot trust their systems, every decision takes longer. Assurance changes that. It replaces guesswork with evidence and stress with calm predictability. Why monitoring is not enough Monitoring answers “Is it running?” Assurance answers “Did it complete?” A system can show perfect uptime while transactions quietly fail downstream. Monitoring tells you the engine is on; assurance tells you the car actually reached its destination. Assurance reconstructs every transaction across platforms, verifying that no messages were lost or duplicated. For regulators and auditors, it is proof of continuity. For operations, it is peace of mind. When visibility becomes verifiable, confidence replaces caution. Modernisation accelerates because teams can change without fear. This is the essence of sustainable modernisation, progress built on proof rather than assumption. From firefighting to foresight Every operations team knows the rhythm: an alert, an escalation, a late-night fix. Optimisation breaks that cycle. By analysing live flow data, enterprises can rebalance workloads automatically, consolidate idle queues, and make better use of existing licences. It is like turning middleware into an air-traffic-control system, every flight visible, every path adjusted before congestion forms. Through governed self-service, teams can act instantly but safely. A developer can replay or scale a queue inside policy boundaries. Automation handles the rest. Equally important, assurance and optimisation introduce governed self-service for developers and platform teams, empowerment with guardrails. They can provision, validate, and gain insights directly without routing every request through central service desks or ticketing queues. Role-based controls and compliance policies ensure every action remains auditable and within enterprise standards. That autonomy shortens response times, preserves specialist capacity, and keeps innovation flowing without compromising governance. At one multinational retailer, this approach reduced manual reconciliation by 70 percent and consolidated enough idle capacity to avoid more than €1 million in additional licence costs. The engineers did not just save money; they regained control. Once reconciliation was automated, engineers turned their attention to improving delivery. They built scripts to automate regression testing and refined deployment workflows that had previously required manual intervention. Routine queue-management requests that once took days to approve were completed instantly through self-service. The result was faster release cycles, fewer deployment errors, and more time spent enhancing products rather than maintaining processes. Optimisation transforms assurance from a mirror into a motor, always learning, always improving. Modernising without disruption Fear of disruption still holds many enterprises back. Every CIO imagines the same nightmare: a flawless migration that quietly drops a handful of critical transactions, discovered days later. Dual-rail validation removes that fear. It allows old and new systems to run side by side, comparing every outcome until results align. When both rails match, the switch is safe. Banks have used it to complete ISO 20022 migrations on schedule. Manufacturers use it to modernise ERP systems without breaking supply chains. Retailers use it to harmonise EDI and API ecosystems in the cloud. Modernisation does not have to mean risk. With assurance, transformation becomes a measurable process, one that proves itself in real time. Seeing the system as a story When assurance and optimisation come together, data turns into narrative. Every transaction becomes a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Orders, shipments, and payments connect in one verifiable thread. Operations can see where the plot slows, finance can see where value appears, and compliance can trace every step in the storyline. This flow intelligence gives enterprises something they have lacked for years: coherence. It transforms disconnected events into a single version of truth. Exceptions surface early. Patterns emerge. Predictive analytics turns hindsight into foresight. It is no longer about observing systems; it is about understanding them. Stories from the field Banking. A European bank used dual-rail validation to reconcile SWIFT MT and ISO 20022 messages automatically. The migration completed on time, with zero data loss and no regulatory findings. Retail. A global retailer unified its EDI and API flows under a single assurance layer. Chargebacks dropped 30 percent, and peak-season performance became predictable. Pharma. A life-sciences company implemented immutable lineage across its serialisation chain. Audit preparation fell from three weeks to three days, and inspections became a formality. Logistics. A transport provider linked proof-of-delivery events to invoicing. Dispute cycles shrank from 10 days to two, improving cash flow and customer satisfaction. Different sectors, one pattern: fewer errors, faster recovery, stronger trust. The confidence economy Every leader wants three things: control, proof, and peace of mind. Assurance and optimisation deliver all three. They reduce waste, prevent outages, and protect margin. Most enterprises see a return within nine months through reduced manual effort and smarter licence use. But the deeper value is cultural. Assurance creates psychological safety, the sense that systems will behave as expected. When teams feel safe, they innovate. When executives trust data, they decide faster. When regulators see evidence, they relax. Confidence is contagious. It spreads from systems to people. A growing movement Assurance and optimisation are now becoming mainstream priorities across digital operations. Vendors are extending platforms to combine observability, correlation, and analytics-driven automation, often with humans in the loop for critical decisions. One example is meshIQ, which provides cross-system visibility and assurance across hybrid middleware, streaming, and B2B environments. Its approach reflects a broader movement within modernisation, a shift from replacement to reinforcement, from migration to measurable confidence. Within meshIQ’s value framework, Modernisation represents a core pillar: enabling enterprises to evolve safely through visibility, analytics, and governance. By embedding assurance and optimisation into the modernisation journey, organisations can transform faster, reduce cost, and retain trust. Different technologies may take different routes, but the goal is the same, to make the invisible flows of digital business visible, reliable, and provable. About the author Andrew Mallaband is an enterprise technology strategist and contributor to research on middleware, operational intelligence, and modernisation assurance. He helps organisations and vendors develop strategies for visibility, automation, and governance in complex integration environments.

Zurich-based AI company Albatross has raised €10.5 million in new funding to develop a real-time product and content discovery platform that learns, reasons, and adapts as users interact. The round was led by MMC Ventures with participation from Redalpine, Daphni, and strategic angels. This brings Albatross’s total funding to €13.5 million, following a €3 million foundation round in September 2024 led by Redalpine. Founded in 2024 by former Amazon AI leaders Dr Kevin Kahn and Dr Matteo Ruffini, together with serial entrepreneur Johan Boissard, Albatross focuses on what the team views as a key missing piece in the AI landscape. While much of the industry is centred on large language models that generate content, Albatross is developing a complementary pillar: understanding how users perceive and interact with content in real time. The platform is built on transformer-based architecture with sequential embedding models trained directly on live events. Traditional recommendation systems are typically batch-trained and rely on factors such as popularity, similarity, or historical user behaviour, making it difficult to fully capture real-time intent. Albatross replaces these systems with AI that learns continuously from live behaviour, updating in milliseconds as users browse, search, and explore, without manual intervention or retraining. The platform is designed to adapt instantly to changes in user behaviour, enabling more responsive and context-aware recommendations. The platform is already serving billions of live events and tens of millions of predictions each month across marketplaces, retail, and travel platforms worldwide, processing around one hundred million products and tens of millions of users. “Our system perceives and adapts instantly, so every search and feed reflects the user’s intent at that very moment,” said Dr Kevin Kahn, Co-founder and CEO of Albatross. From our conversations with a broad range of CEOs, we know they all want to adopt AI, but most efforts fail because they treat it as an add-on. The real opportunity is to rethink how experiences are shaped - to make every interaction intelligent, adaptive, and alive. That’s what Albatross does: it learns and reasons in real time, understanding intent the moment it happens. Albatross’s two flagship products, the Real-Time Discovery Feed and Multimodal Search, are designed to give companies of all sizes access to recommendation technology previously available mainly to large global platforms. The Discovery Feed curates products and content dynamically, while the Multimodal Search engine refines results based on changing user intent and can connect in-store and online journeys using contextual and image-based inputs. The platform is built for enterprise environments and is designed to operate with very low latency. Early pilots have reported triple-digit increases in engagement in engagement and product discovery. Integration typically takes less than seven weeks from contract to deployment, and the system is built to handle billions of data points. As content and commerce expand rapidly, discovery is becoming a central challenge in the digital economy. Albatross aims to make digital experiences more adaptive by enabling people to find relevant products and content in the moment.

French accounting software platform Pennylane has launched in Germany, its first overseas market, and is targeting 100 hires in the country next year.Founded in 2020, unicorn Pennylane is a financial management and accounting platform for startups, SMEs, and their accountants across Europe. It sells itself as an “all-in-one” accounting and financial management platform that centralises the financial function of businesses and their accountants in one shared workspace, enabling them to work closer together.It centralises accounting, expense management, invoice and financial reporting into one shared workspace. By doing so, it says it frees up accountants from data chasing. It is also leveraging GenAI while its API ecosystem, featuring integrations with the likes of Shopify and HubSpot, helps its clients work flexibly across different systems, it says.Pennlylane employs more than 900 people and works with over 6,000 accounting firms and over 600,000 SMEs in France, it says.In Germany, it will go up against German powerhouse DATEV, which dominates the accounting software landscape. Pennylane is locating its German HQ in Munich and also has an office in Berlin, as well as sales executives dotted in cities like Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and Cologne.Tobias Janiesch, who is heading up Pennylane’s German operations,  said one of the reasons for choosing Munich as its German HQ was being close to lead investor Sequoia.He said: “Sequoia is in Munich, one of our lead investors, so it made sense to be closer. And the Munich ecosystem in tech with OpenAI there is also growing."On why Germany is a potentially ripe market for Pennylane, he said: “It’s a big market, with 80,000 accountants. Germany is one of the most complex accounting markets in the world - yet also one of the slowest in terms of digitalisation." Future possible international launches include Poland, Spain and Belgium but unlikely the UK, where Sage and QuickBooks dominate, Janiesch said. Earlier this year, Pennylane raised €75m in a funding round co-led by Sequoia Capital, Alphabet’s CapitalG, and Meritech Capital Partners, with DST Global also participating.

German e-mobility technology startup Pionix has raised over €8 million to scale its open-source-based products for the global e-mobility industry. The late seed round was led by Ascend Capital Partners, with participation from Start-up BW Seed Fonds (managed by MBG Baden-Württemberg), Pale Blue Dot, Vireo Ventures, Axeleo Ventures, and additional investors. Despite rapid development across e-mobility in recent years, EV charging remains fragmented. A growing ecosystem of hardware and software providers relies on proprietary, closed systems that often do not communicate smoothly with one another. This lack of interoperability has contributed to reliability issues, inefficient infrastructure maintenance, and charging session error rates of up to 25 per cent. Founded in 2021, Pionix provides products that offer a shared software foundation for EV charging technologies, with the aim of improving reliability, interoperability, and long-term compatibility of charging infrastructure. In response to industry-wide challenges, Pionix initiated and has been a key contributor to EVerest, an open-source software platform that serves as a common base for charger manufacturers, charging operators, automakers, and fleets. EVerest is designed to reduce compatibility issues and support faster innovation across the EV charging ecosystem. EVerest has evolved into a major open-source initiative in cleantech, with support from around 600 contributors across more than 70 organisations, and is used to power hundreds of thousands of chargers worldwide. Pionix founder and CEO Marco Möller noted that reliability is essential for the e-mobility transition and that the current landscape of incompatible systems and high error rates has hindered progress. He added that open-source technology provides a sustainable way to address these challenges. With EVerest at the core and our Pionix Cloud services and ChargeBridge hardware on top, we make it radically simpler to build, integrate and operate chargers that just work - every time. That’s what the industry needs to deliver a transition that sticks. Pionix will use the new investment to address fragmentation in the EV charging sector by delivering open, modular enterprise products for both software and hardware. The company also plans to accelerate the growth of the EVerest open-source ecosystem, working with its global community to deepen collaboration and support future initiatives that will shape the development of EV charging.

London-based Planet Smart has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to launch its first product. The round was led by General Inception and Vertical Venture Partners, with additional support from Innovate UK and the Undaunted Accelerator, and marks the company’s official launch after two years of scientific development. Planet Smart is a deep tech startup developing biomaterials to reduce environmental impact. Its flagship product, PlanetSorb, is a naturally biodegradable, high-performance superabsorbent polymer (SAP) designed to replace fossil-based plastics used in nappies, sanitary products and other applications such as agriculture, packaging, and mining waste management. The material is reported to biodegrade within six months without leaving microplastics, while absorbing more than 1 litre of liquid per gram (up to twice as much as conventional SAPs) at a comparable cost. This higher performance means manufacturers can use less material to achieve the same result, enabling thinner and more comfortable products. The company’s technology is based on poly-amino acids that naturally degrade in soil or landfill, positioning PlanetSorb as a potential solution for an industry facing growing regulatory and market pressure. The global hygiene sector is estimated to discard around half a million disposable nappies and pads every minute, and measures such as the EU ban on intentionally added microplastics and upcoming deforestation regulations are prompting large manufacturers to seek scalable, biodegradable alternatives. Planet Smart has signed three letters of intent with leading hygiene manufacturers and secured two purchase orders from European brands. Independent lab-scale testing indicates that PlanetSorb is non-toxic, dermatologist-approved, and achieves high absorbency and liquid retention compared with industry benchmarks. Beyond hygiene, the company sees potential for its biodegradable absorbents in agriculture, wound care, food packaging, and mining waste management, any area where materials are required to absorb, hold, or manage liquids. With the new funding, Planet Smart plans to scale up from its current lab operations and run pilot trials. Looking ahead, the company aims to reach a production capacity of one kilotonne of PlanetSorb, equivalent to around 45 million nappies, by the end of 2028 and intends to raise additional funding in 2026 to expand manufacturing and establish licensing partnerships with global brands. 

Berlin-based Peec AI, a marketing platform built for the era of AI search, has raised a $21 million Series A round led by European VC firm Singular, with participation from Antler, Combination VC, identity.vc, and S20. The round follows Peec AI’s seed financing led by 20VC in July 2025 and brings the company’s total funding to $29 million. As AI search becomes a key discovery layer for both consumers and B2B buyers, many marketing teams still lack visibility into how their brands are represented across different platforms (such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini), which sources drive that representation, and how they can influence it. Peec AI is designed to address this gap. Although AI search may appear simple on the surface, delivering accurate, contextual, and reliable results at scale is technically complex. Peec AI’s platform is built on a proprietary data pipeline that tracks source influence, visibility, and sentiment across major AI engines in real time. This infrastructure supports a user-friendly interface while relying on advanced engineering and data systems. Co-founders Daniel Drabo, Tobias Siwonia, and Marius Meiners have focused on combining data depth, quality, and product design to provide marketing teams with clearer insight into their performance in an AI-driven landscape. The platform enables marketing teams to see how their brand appears in AI-generated answers, understand which sources contribute to those results, and identify which actions can affect visibility, sentiment, and reach, all within a single environment. Since launching in February 2025, Peec AI has onboarded more than 1,300 brands and agencies across different sectors and markets. As adoption grows, one of the main challenges in this emerging category is balancing analytical depth with ease of use. Peec AI is designed to keep complex data accessible, helping teams move from insight to action with minimal friction. By emphasizing product design and data accuracy, the company aims to help marketing teams work more efficiently, make informed decisions, and remain visible as AI search reshapes how brands are discovered. We are obsessed with precision. Clean data, clear workflows, and a UI that teams actually love to use. Our job is to help marketers win where AI is shaping the narrative, without adding complexity, said Marius Meiners, Co-founder and CEO of Peec AI.   With the new funding, Peec AI plans to open offices in New York, hire more than 40 additional team members over the next six months, and expand its offering beyond analytics to build a broader marketing software stack for the AI era.

Newcastle-based biotech InvenireX has secured £2 million in Seed funding to accelerate commercialisation of its DNA nanotechnology platform that can detect disease at the earliest biological stages.The round is led by DSW Ventures, with participation from XTX Ventures, Cambridge Technology Capital and angel investors with biotech experience, and includes grant funding from Innovate UK. Founded in 2023 through Conception X, InvenireX builds on Dr Dan Todd's PhD research at Newcastle University, and was born to address a fundamental limitation in modern science: molecular detection has barely advanced in the past 40 years. Check out our earlier interview with Dr Riam Kanso, CEO and founder of Conception X  Current methods, such as PCR, were designed for different purposes and repurposed for disease detection, but require extensive sample preparation that can lose up to 50 per cent of the molecular markers being sought, making early signals effectively invisible. InvenireX's platform uses programmable DNA nanostructures, or "Nanites", to capture specific genetic markers inside custom microfluidic chips. A proprietary AI-powered reader then identifies and quantifies targets in real time, enabling the detection of disease markers at concentrations existing methods cannot capture.  In pilot testing, InvenireX has demonstrated 200-fold greater sensitivity than qPCR and 60-fold improvement over digital PCR, while reducing both time and cost per test each by half, with quantitative results available in minutes rather than hours or days.   The implications are wide-ranging: tumours as small as one millimetre could be detected up to a decade earlier than currently possible, vaccine manufacturers could verify the presence and concentration of active ingredients for the first time at production scale, and researchers could discover biological markers previously impossible to detect. "Our machine could pick up cancer, HIV or sepsis earlier – any disease with a nucleic acid trace," InvenireX CEO and founder Dan Todd says. "We're made of DNA – that's the source code. If you can pick up traces of faults and errors in that code, you can detect problems across the board before symptoms appear. We've built the ultimate needle-in-a-haystack detector – a tool that we can put in the hands of scientists to enable the discoveries of tomorrow.” Jonathan O’Halloran, founder of molecular diagnostics PCR company QuantuMDx and angel investor in InvenireX, said: “There are moments in your life that make you tingle. The first one for me was watching Craig Venter announce the first draft of the human genome, then next was hearing about Solexa, then Oxford Nanopore’s DNA sequencing technologies. Most recently, it was listening to Dan Todd describe InvenireX’s technology. I believe it’s the UK’s next big technology.” InvenireX has completed a successful pilot with a diagnostics company that has committed to purchasing the first instrument, with further pilots underway in vaccine manufacturing and infectious disease diagnostics. The funding will support team growth and expanded pilot programmes.

Biotech company Artios today announced the successful close of an oversubscribed $115 million Series D financing.  Artios is pioneering next-generation approaches in the DNA damage response (DDR) field through its comprehensive anti-cancer approach and the deep experience of its team of DDR drug developers.  Artios’ mission is to develop new classes of medicines that exploit DDR pathways with the aim of improving outcomes for patients with hard-to-treat cancers. The company’s clinical-stage candidates, ATR inhibitor alnodesertib and DNA Polymerase theta (Polθ) inhibitor ART6043, as well as its pre-clinical programs, including DDRi-ADCs, are designed with differentiated pharmaceutical properties and novel biological approaches to precisely eliminate a cancer cell’s remaining survival mechanisms. There are currently no approved therapies specifically for patients whose tumours harbour ATM-deficiency, a population where alnodesertib has demonstrated durable responses across eight different solid tumours. The round was co-led by founding investor SV Health Investors and new investor RA Capital Management, with participation from new investor Janus Henderson Investors and broad support from Artios’ existing investors.  Other investors who supported the Series D round include Andera Partners, Avidity Partners, EQT Life Sciences, Invus, IP Group plc, M Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund, Omega Funds, Pfizer Ventures, Piper Heartland, RA Capital Management, Sofinnova Partners, and Schroders Capital. The Series D proceeds will expand the clinical evaluation of Artios’ lead program, alnodesertib, to enroll additional ATM-negative patients in each of second-line pancreatic cancer and third-line colorectal cancer, for which the program was recently granted US FDA Fast Track Designation.  The proceeds from the financing will also be used to initiate a Phase 2 randomised clinical trial for Artios’ second potential first-in-class candidate, ART6043, in patients with BRCA-mutant HER2-negative breast cancer who are eligible to receive a PARP inhibitor. “This Series D accelerates our potential path to registration for both alnodesertib and ART6043, broadening development for the next generation of DNA damage response (DDR) therapeutics to indications among the highest of unmet need across pancreatic, colorectal, and breast cancers, where median survival is often measured in months,” said Mike Andriole, Chief Executive Officer of Artios.  “As we address these indications and prepare for others, I would like to thank our existing investors, led by SV Health, for their ongoing support, and also our new investors, RA Capital Management and Janus Henderson Investors, for joining our mission to bring these potential medicines to patients as quickly as possible.” Nikola Trbovic, Managing Partner, SV Health Investors, added: “We are thrilled to have supported Artios’ evolution, from an early-stage DDR pioneer when we founded the company to the established company it has become, distinguished by a promising and differentiated pipeline. We look forward to continuing to do so as it deploys the Series D proceeds to drive late-stage development of alnodesertib as well as its pipeline. This financing, and the recent appointment of Mike Andriole as CEO, are exciting steps in Artios’ continued growth and its transition toward becoming a commercially oriented organisation.” Jake Simson, Partner, RA Capital Management, commented: “We are excited to co-lead this financing round to advance the next generation of DNA damage response therapeutics. Artios’ differentiated clinical programs, alnodesertib and ART6043, together have the potential to meaningfully expand the impact of DDR-targeted therapies. The rate and durability of responses observed to date for alnodesertib across a range of solid tumours and the early clinical results with ART6043 underscore the strength of Artios’ approach and ability to deliver novel, potentially first-in-class treatments for patients while building significant long-term value.”   Lead image: Freepik

Nursing care company voize  has raised $50 million in Series A funding led by Balderton Capital, with participation from existing investors HV Capital, Redalpine and Y Combinator.  The global nursing shortage has reached crisis point. The WHO predicts a global deficit of 4.5 million nurses by 2030 Nursing, as ageing populations and rising care demands stretch teams thin. Europe alone is short 1.2 million healthcare workers, whilst the US has an expected deficit of up to 450,000 nurses a year. Nurses lose 30 per cent of their time to admin work, costing $246 billion in labour across the US and Europe — the result: burnout, high turnover, and less time for patients – the heart of care. While many companies have built AI scribes for physicians, nurses — the backbone of healthcare — have been left behind. Their workflows are fundamentally different and too often overlooked, leaving them jotting vital notes on scraps of paper mid-shift. voize is changing that. Founded in 2020 by twin brothers Fabio (CEO) and Marcel Schmidberger (COO), alongside Erik Ziegler (CTO), voize was inspired by the brothers’ experience when their grandfather entered a nursing home. Seeing firsthand how much time nurses lost to admin sparked a mission to return time to frontline care. Developed hand-in-hand with nurses over tens of thousands of hours in care homes, voize’s AI companion doesn’t just document, it assists. voize listens as nurses speak during care, understands their notes, and handles admin like documentation and scheduling in real time. Seamlessly integrated with Electronic Health Records, voize fits naturally into nursing workflows, keeping nurses focused on patients, not paperwork. Image: voize. voize’s proprietary AI models are purpose-built for nursing, developed entirely in-house. They accurately capture complex medical language, understand regional dialects, and support non-native speakers, empowering every nurse to document with confidence. As well, unlike most AI models, voize’s system is so efficient that it runs locally on smartphones, with no constant internet connection required. This ensures high data protection and continuous, reliable care, even when wifi connectivity fails — a first in healthcare AI. Today, 1,100 care facilities in Germany and Austria, and more than 75,000 nurses save up to 30 per cent of their time each shift thanks to the AI. The impact is so profound that care homes now feature voize in job ads — making voize not just a tool, but a reason nurses choose where to work. Fabio Schmidberger, co-founder and CEO of voize, said: “Nurses enter the profession to care for people, and leave it because of all the admin work. For too long, they’ve had little technology designed to truly support them. At voize, we’re building AI that redefines what it means to care, where technology works in the background, and people come first. Seeing this come to life already across care homes and hospitals and hearing how nurses rediscover the joy in their jobs has been incredible." Daniel Waterhouse, General Partner at Balderton, said: “Nurses are the backbone of every healthcare system — yet too often, they’re overwhelmed by administrative tasks that pull them away from patients. voize recognised this disconnect and built a solution born from listening and understanding. Their AI companion doesn’t replace human care; it restores it, removing friction from documentation and empowering nurses to spend more time where they’re needed most.” The investment will accelerate voize’s expansion in Europe and entry into the US, and advance its mission to eliminate administrative burden in healthcare, giving nurses more time for what matters most: care. Lead image: voize founders: Erik Ziegler, Fabio Schmidberger, and Marcel Schmidberger. Photo: uncredited. 

Danish fintech Flatpay has become the country’s latest unicorn, after securing $170 million in funding. Flatpay co-founder Rasmus Hellmund Carlsen said Flatpay has become the fastest firm in Denmark to reach unicorn status, reaching the milestone in three years. Flatpay is now valued at $1.7bn following the funding round, it said, with the latest round led by AVP, the European and North American investor and Smash Capital, the backer of consumer internet and software firms. Other investors in the round were existing investors Hedosophia, Seed Capital, and Dawn Capital. The Danish fintech, which provides payment software for SMBs, last raised funds in 2024, when it secured a €45m ($52m) Series B round two years after its founding in 2022. Flatpay offers businesses a point of sale and payment solution. It says its no setup fees for terminals, no subscription fees, flat rate for all card types, alongside its data dashboards, sets it apart from rivals. Flatpay, which says it has more than 60,000 customers and employs more than 1,500 staff, says it is on track to hit $500m in ARR by the end of next year. Carlsen added: “Three years ago, Flatpay was an idea shaped by a clear ambition: build a payments company that puts small businesses first — with simple pricing, great service, and a product experience that removes friction rather than adds it. “Since then, the momentum has been extraordinary. From our early days in Denmark to fast growth in Finland, Germany, Italy, the UK, and France, more than 60,000 merchants now rely on Flatpay every day.” The funds will be used to expand its presence in European markets, as well as to target new markets.

Milan-based Guidoio, the first fully digital driving school in Italy, has closed a €3.5 million seed round. The round was led by European venture capital fund 360 Capital, alongside Azimut Libera Impresa SGR S.p.A. Founded in 2023 by Lorenzo Mannari and Giuseppe Cavallaro, Guidoio is developing a fully digital model for obtaining a driving license. The company’s platform is designed for digital-native learners and digitalises the entire process, from enrollment to exams. Guidoio’s service is built around accessibility, transparency, and flexibility. Through the app, candidates can manage each step of the process via smartphone: enrollment, documentation, medical appointment scheduling, practical lessons with certified instructors, and personalised theoretical study supported by AI. Two features are central to the experience: Tutor AI, which creates adaptive, personalised study paths based on individual learning progress, and Smart lesson booking, which allows students to schedule driving lessons near their home, simplifies logistics and bringing instructors closer to learners. This model gives candidates greater control over their learning journey while providing support when needed. A driving license today represents independence, employment, and freedom. Our ambition is to transform this journey into a simple, transparent, and accessible experience, aligned with the expectations of a generation that no longer tolerates bureaucracy and opacity. It’s this mix of experience, capital, and shared vision that will allow us to accelerate toward our goal of bringing Guidoio across Italy and building a new standard for digital mobility — more accessible, smarter, and closer to people, explains Lorenzo Mannari, Co-founder and CEO of Guidoio. The new funding will be allocated across three main areas: commercial expansion, product development, and team growth. The company aims to bring its driving school model to more than 30 Italian cities by the end of 2026 and plans to hire new team members in key roles to support this expansion. On the product side, investments will focus on strengthening the e-learning platform to improve preparation for theory and practical exams, developing new digital tools for instructors, and further advancing the AI-based features already integrated into the platform.

Paris-based deeptech Hummink has raised €15 million to expand the deployment of its patented High-Precision Capillary Printing (HPCaP) technology, which enables manufacturers to print metals and functional materials with high accuracy and address microscopic defects in real time. The round was co-led by KBC Focus Fund, Cap Horn, and Bpifrance, with follow-on support from Elaia Partners, Sensinnovat, and Beeyond, and additional participation from the French Tech Seed fund managed by Bpifrance as part of France 2030 and the European Innovation Council Fund. As microelectronics support the growth of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, small manufacturing defects have become increasingly costly. Imperfections at the sub-micron scale can compromise entire batches of chips or displays. Founded in 2020 as a spin-off from École Normale Supérieure - PSL and CNRS, Paris-based deeptech company Hummink focuses on this challenge. Co-founded by materials scientist Amin M’Barki and hardware startup operator Pascal Boncenne, the company has developed a technology that operates like a miniature fountain pen, depositing material at the nanoscale in a controlled manner. This process enables manufacturers to create and adjust circuitry directly at the sub-micron level, with applications in semiconductor packaging, next-generation memory, and advanced displays. While traditional lithography remains central to electronics manufacturing, it still produces defects that contribute to yield loss and material waste. Hummink’s printing tools are designed to complement lithography by detecting and correcting such defects at the micronic level, with the aim of increasing output, reducing scrap, and lowering environmental impact. Hummink’s initial integration focus is on next-generation OLED displays for smartphones and laptops, where up to 30 per cent of annual production is reportedly discarded due to microscopic defects, equating to an estimated €16 billion in losses and significant material waste. The company’s technology is designed to correct many of these defects, enabling manufacturers to recover output that would otherwise be scrapped. Our mission is to bring precision where it has never been possible before. Microelectronics is at the heart of the AI revolution, and every micron matters, said Amin M’Barki, Co-founder and CEO of Hummink. Hummink currently generates revenue by selling its NAZCA demonstrator, a first-generation high-precision printing system for R&D labs, along with custom conductive inks. NAZCA is already installed in labs and research centres across Europe, Asia, and the United States, including Duke University, where it was used to create fully recyclable, sub-micrometre printed electronics published in Nature Electronics. The new funding will be used to further develop Hummink’s industrial printing module and prepare its technology for integration into semiconductor and display fabrication lines.

Last week, we tracked more than 60 tech funding deals worth over €736 million, and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.

Life sciences venture capital firm Sofinnova Partners today announced the close of its latest flagship fund, Sofinnova Capital XI, at €650 million ($750 million), greatly exceeding its initial target. Based in Paris, London, and Milan, Sofinnova Capital XI will back a new generation of pioneering biopharmaceutical and medical technology companies addressing urgent unmet clinical needs. Sofinnova Capital XI is actively deploying capital, with investments already made in a few portfolio companies, including Latent Labs, BioCorteX, and  Amolyt. In keeping with Sofinnova’s multi-strategy platform model, Capital XI draws on the strength of its experienced team, including Partners Maina Bhaman, Anta Gkelou, Karl Naegler, Antoine Papiernik, Henrijette Richter, and Graziano Seghezzi. Sofinnova Capital XI attracted strong support from a global base of blue-chip institutional investors—among them sovereign wealth funds, leading pharmaceutical companies and other corporates, as well as insurance companies, foundations, and family offices. Commitments came from across Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East, with a majority of returning LPs and a significant number of new top-tier investors. This reflects enduring confidence in Sofinnova’s disciplined strategy and long-standing track record. Antoine Papiernik, Managing Partner and Chairman of Sofinnova Partners, said: “This fundraising marks a pivotal moment for Sofinnova. It gives us the firepower to double down on early-stage opportunities and reinforces our uniquely collaborative, science-driven investment approach. We’re excited to continue backing visionary entrepreneurs and advancing the next wave of breakthroughs in science and medicine to bring them to patients worldwide." The fund will continue to support early-stage biotech and medtech ventures across Europe and North America, participating in both initial and follow-on rounds.

This week, we tracked more than 60 tech funding deals worth over €736 million and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. In addition to this week's top financials, we've also indexed the most important/industry-related news items you need to know about. If email is more your thing, you can always subscribe to our newsletter and receive a more robust version of this round-up delivered to your inbox. Either way, let's get you up to speed. ?  Notable and. big funding rounds ?? Zilch nets $175M as eyes "strategic" M&A ?? FMC raises €100M as it unveils new class of memory chips for the AI era ?? Aily Labs grabs $80 million in one of 2025’s biggest Series B rounds for female-led AI startups ??  Uber competitor Grab invests up to $60M in Vay ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers  ?? Purple announces merger with Splash Access ?? DataCamp acquires Optima to power the next-gen AI learning engine ?? Barcelona’s EU-Startups acquired by MeOut Group ?? Reekom acquires Paris-based textile repair company Tilli ? Interesting moves from investors ?Backed VC closes $100M Fund III and marks 100th investment milestone ? Oyster Bay closes €100M Fund II for next-gen food startups ? Vendep Capital raises €80M to back the next wave of AI-era SaaS founders ? Ada Ventures unveils Deck Genius to give founders VC-level feedback powered by AI ?Erin Hallock joins NATO Innovation Fund to advance alliance-critical frontier tech ?️ In other (important) news ? Healthtech dominates European VC in a €8.3B October ? Locai Labs launches the UK’s first foundational LLM to rival GPT-5 and Claude ?? Founders and investors slam UK “exit tax" ?? "Exit tax" on founders axed, according to reports ?? Lithuania’s Sentante achieves transatlantic first in remote robotic stroke intervention ?? Finland’s first EV virtual power plant goes live ? Recommended reads and listens ?? Missiles hit Kyiv startup hub LIFT99 — it only made Ukraine's tech community more determined ?? Japan’s €33B bet on Europe: deeptech & AI lead as cross-border investment surges ? Epidemic Sound launches Studio, an AI tool that auto-soundtracks creator videos in seconds ?? Europe’s biggest landlords team up to build a proptech scaling machine ? European tech startups to watch  ?? Edtech company Nuela closes a €620,000 investment round ?? Spiich Labs gets €600,000 backing from Tandem Health and Creandum founders ?? Enteral Access Technologies secures £500,000 to scale DoubleCHEK ?? Quantum receives €161,000 to build scalable next-gen quantum hardware ?? Journalist to founder: Monty Munford’s HomeTruth emerges from stealth to solve a £60B problem

TechBBQ has just received a 6 million Danish kroner (approx €800,000) grant from the Danish Board of Business Development. It follows an earlier grant in May this year and is part of a larger investment round (122 million DKK) from the Danish Board for Business Development. Denmark is increasingly backing the startup ecosystem, investing in initiatives, accelerators, hubs, and programs that reflect its commitment to fostering entrepreneurship. The TechBBQ Summit serves as a central meeting place for the entire startup community, offering matchmaking with investors, talent, speakers, media, and knowledge sharing among startups, corporates, and research institutions. The grant will ensure that TechBBQ can continue to host its annual international startup and entrepreneurship summit at the end of August, as well as year-round activities that provide access to networks, capital,  knowledge, and new markets for startups and scaleups across Denmark. “We are incredibly grateful for the support and trust from the Danish Board of Business Development and Beyond Beta,” says Benjamin Rej Notlev, CIO & CCO at TechBBQ. “This grant enables us to expand our efforts to strengthen the Danish startup ecosystem. Denmark holds enormous — but still untapped — potential, and we look forward to building the connections and partnerships that can lift Danish startups to new heights. At the same time, we aim to maintain Denmark’s position as the host of one of Europe’s most significant and valuable entrepreneurship events.” At TechBBQ 2025, around 10,000 participants took part, including 3,500 startups and scaleups and 1,700 investors. The summit also featured over 350 speakers, 160 members of the press, and numerous partners and community contributors. The new grant will enable the summit to further develop into an even stronger pan-European meeting place, with more curated exhibition areas, themed stages, and international exposure for the most forward-thinking tech companies. “TechBBQ’s mission is to join efforts for entrepreneurship. Our overarching goal with the annual summit is to show the world that the Nordics are creating unique companies worth watching. At the same time, we’re helping position Copenhagen as a European capital where innovation and new jobs are thriving,” adds Benjamin Rej Notlev. TechBBQ 2026 will take place at Bella Center Copenhagen, August 26–27, 2026.

There are hundreds of startup accelerator programmes across the UK and Europe, but as a journalist, I’m only interested in those built and delivered by deep domain experts within specific industries.  ATechX is a growth program developed by the venture and innovation arm of Aroundtown, Europe’s third-largest listed real estate company.  Partnering with Vonovia (Europe’s largest residential real estate company), and built-world VCs noa, Fifth Wall, and Round Hill Capital, ATechX helps the real estate sector adopt technology in a systematic, scalable way — moving beyond one-off pilots towards long-term commercial deployment.  I spoke to Angie Mahtaney from ATechX to learn all about the programme. The program targets early-stage startups that already have a product (or at least a minimum viable product) and are ready to scale their solutions within real estate, residential, commercial, and hospitality spaces across Europe.  Crucially, it aims to be a “testbed” environment, where startups gain access to real-world assets (via Aroundtown’s portfolio) to pilot or deploy their solutions. "Real estate isn’t plug-and play" According to Mahtaney, ATechX was developed in response to programs where startups get stuck in the piloting phase and fail to attract commercial customers.  She contends: “It was clear that giving a startup a single pilot or one-off investment wasn’t moving the needle. Startups need alignment of systems, product validation, and business model clarity. It’s rarely plug-and-play in real estate. The idea behind ATechX was to create a programme that deploys tech in a structured way — beyond pilots — where both sides think early about how the relationship can scale. That’s how you build win-wins.” Further, compared with biotech or consumer tech, there’s no “hockey-stick' growth because sales cycles are long and risk tolerance is low. It’s a traditional industry, and that’s the biggest barrier.  However, once a solution is adopted, relationships tend to be extremely sticky — but getting there takes time. This means founders need to structure their business accordingly. "The lights have to stay on during long sales cycles," shared Mahtaney.  Take the example of data – GDPR and privacy requirements are very stringent. Early-stage startups often lack ISO certifications and security processes.  “So even with the appetite to adopt tech, it can’t happen overnight.” Further, while there's an increased growth of material innovation from cement to construction-waste composites, these haven’t been tried for decades. The implications of failure are huge. So for the industry, the caution is logical.” Why enterprise partners matter (especially with Europe’s old building stock) In addition, many proptech startups struggle to gain early-stage commercial pilots (much less commercial traction) in Europe simply because of the number of people who rent rather than own apartments in old buildings that would desperately benefit from a retrofit or new tech. For Mahtaney,  that’s exactly why ATechX’s approach matters.  “We own the assets and we can create a real sandbox.” In ATechX, startups work “side-by-side” with real estate, property, and hospitality providers who deploy or pilot-test in real assets. If they prove successful, they scale systematically, from one asset to ten assets, and from one country to multiple countries. “Accelerators are great, but many don’t have the ability to commercialise at scale. By bringing in partners like Vonovia and Round Hill Capital, we can share learnings, give multi-perspective mentorship, and open our portfolios in a controlled-risk environment,” shared Mahtaney.  ROI, differentiation, and survival matter more than vision Entry to ATechX is competitive. Firstly, ROI is non-negotiable. Mahtaney contends, “It sounds simple, but it’s not. You can have the biggest vision, but if you’re not delivering value to the tenant or to us, it won’t scale.” The team also considers the viability of the business model and whether pricing aligns with ROI. Then there's the question of whether the company can fundraise and stick around — “Because the worst case is integrating a solution only for the startup to go insolvent six months later,” shared Mahtaney. The programme is performance-based. After several months of collaboration with the ATechX team and asset experts, startups present to an investment committee comprising leadership from Aroundtown, Vonovia, and Round Hill. Mahtaney stresses that the program is goes beyond the funding focus of others: "We believe great founders will raise capital. The white space we’re solving is zero-to-one commercialisation. We want to give you business. And we’re extremely transparent. If your business case doesn’t yet work, we’ll tell you — and help you fix it. If you want to strengthen the foundations of your company, this is a great place to do it.” Part of this transparency is supporting companies to pivot. According to Mahtaney, the pivots from just two startup cohorts are "incredible." “Startups present their updated business model, the traction they’ve achieved, and the plan for pilots or portfolio-wide deployment. At that point, partners may choose to invest. We’ve made several investments across both cohorts so far.” Examples of successful startup pivots include:  A robotics founder came in with a prototype focused in hospitality. ATechX placed her at one of their hotels to identify where robots could actually move the P&L. However, according to Mahtaney, “Serving dishes isn’t a big cost centre. Through on-the-ground observation, she pivoted towards higher-value operational tasks — and is now commercially engaging with several hotels.” Another startup working on ultra-efficient cooling discovered — through meetings with hotel GMs, construction teams, and energy experts — that their biggest opportunity was in a customer segment they hadn't originally considered. The program helped them re-target and re-align their product roadmap. MapMortar initially entered the program with an AI-first retrofit planning tool. They realised the biggest pain point wasn’t the modelling — it was usability. Existing tools require heavy training and fall apart when the trained staff member goes on holiday." With this in mind, Mahtaney stresses, “Founders often think about big features, but sometimes the details differentiate you. If someone in our company can’t use your product instantly, they won’t. MapMortar figured that out by watching the tiny pain points we didn’t even articulate.” Startups have until November 27 to apply for the latest accelerator program. Lead image: Freepik.

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In my role, I've visited countless startup hubs and co-working spaces — but it's not every day that a tour includes a bomb shelter or a building that has survived a Russian missile strike. During a trip to Kyiv two weeks ago, Tanya Chaikovska — co-founder and CEO of LIFT99 Kyiv — invited me to visit the space, learn about its restoration efforts, and meet with members of the team. Chaikovska co-founded LIFT99 Kyiv when she was just 21 years old, partnering with Estonian entrepreneur Ragnar Sass, who had a bold vision: to create infrastructure in Ukraine that would finally allow its exceptional talent to build product companies — not just outsource for others. Before the war, LIFT99 Kyiv quickly became one of the most influential hubs in the country: the only place where founders could raise pre-seed capital from international angels at European-level valuations, where global companies came to hire Ukrainian teams, and where the ecosystem minted a 0→1 unicorn — Matter Labs, whose founders took their earliest steps inside the hub. So, on a crisp autumn Sunday, I made my way to the hub to speak with Lada Samarska, Operations & Development Manager, and Aliona Chernenko, a former resident turned Community & Engagement Manager, to learn more. From Baltic roots to Ukrainian entrepreneurs LIFT99 began in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2017, founded by a group of Estonian entrepreneurs, including Sass. Estonia had already produced companies like Skype and Pipedrive, and the founders wanted a physical space where entrepreneurs could meet, collaborate, and not feel alone. Before LIFT99, Sass co-founded Garage48, famous for its hackathons. When he began spending time in Ukraine, he noticed something striking: massive engineering and product talent, but most of it engaged in outsourcing rather than creating startups. After meeting Chaikovska — then a young lawyer — he proposed they build something new. “Let’s open LIFT99 in Ukraine. The talent is here — the ecosystem just needs the platform.” Chaikovska helped establish the legal and operational foundations of the Kyiv hub, which almost immediately became a home where founders could prototype, raise their first capital, and plug into global networks. Home to a bright yellow helicopter The LIFT99 helicopter. Two things stood out during my visit to LIFT99: the ongoing construction — more on that shortly — and the bright yellow helicopter in the middle of the hub. Chaikovska explains: “We discussed how to inspire people to do crazy, big things with the help of community — and decided to remove all receptions, put a community kitchen right at the entrance, and place a real-size helicopter on the 3rd floor of a central Kyiv office.” For months, the founders even planned for the helicopter tail to extend out onto the street. Permits ultimately prevented it, but the helicopter stayed — becoming an unofficial symbol of Kyiv’s fearless tech culture. The hub itself is airy and warm: open kitchen, lounge areas, meeting rooms named after Ukrainian and Estonian founders, plenty of plants, a shower, and a tiny bedroom on the top floor that founders compete for during long nights. Image: Visiting the site's underground bomb shelter. The missile attack On the early morning of 28 August this year, two consecutive missile strikes hit Kyiv. “I was in a nearby bomb shelter,” Samarska recounts. “The explosions were so loud. I thought: ‘That was either my apartment or LIFT99.’ Both are within 250 meters.” When she emerged, she saw ambulances and fire trucks — and realised it was the hub. The building next door had taken a direct hit. Unusually, both rockets exploded on top of the building rather than piercing downward. The blasts sent debris into surrounding structures, including LIFT99. The damage was extensive: shattered windows, 90 per cent of interior glass gone, broken furniture, collapsed walls. Image: Windows waiting for new glass. A fallen sign reading “It will be worth it” became both dark humour and motivation. Some damage was invisible — walls coming loose from frames, glass leaning dangerously, debris embedded inside furniture and walls. “People think a missile strike is a one-day event,” Samarska said. “But if you’re directly affected, it lasts for months. You keep walking on metaphorical broken glass. Sometimes literal glass.” Image: Members kept finding debris weeks after the attack. A wartime lifeline After Russia’s full-scale invasion, LIFT99 evolved from a workspace into a survival centre for the tech community. “When power outages started in 2022, we installed a generator,” Samarska said. The generator was personally donated by Gero Decker, co-founder of Signavio, who wanted to ensure Ukrainian founders could keep working even when the entire capital went dark. And Kyiv did go dark. Entire districts — sometimes the whole capital — had no electricity, no heating, no mobile connection, often for days. In those moments, LIFT99 opened its doors for free to anyone in tech who needed a place to charge devices, warm up, connect, or simply sit in the light. “There were days when so many people came that we literally ran out of chairs,” Samarska says. “Founders were sitting on the floor, wrapped in jackets, laptops plugged into the generator — the only source of power for several blocks. It sounds unreal now, but it was life-saving.” Some founders slept at the hub during long attacks. The small bedroom became coveted; others stayed on couches or in meeting rooms. Chernenko recalls a startup couple arriving after a night in a bomb shelter with their tiny, exhausted dog. “But they still showed up to build. That’s Ukrainian founders: frozen, tired, but unbreakable.” An expanded mission Global solidarity — and leadership from within LIFT99 did not retreat during the war — it expanded its mission. Chaikovska and Sass launched Help99, a tech-driven donation platform enabling global tech leaders to support Ukraine quickly and transparently. It also encouraged many of them to visit Kyiv for the first time. Image: Fundraising by Help99. They then launched Coaches for Ukraine — led by Ariane de Bonvoisin — uniting partners from Cherry Ventures, Atomico, world-class coaches, and top angels to mentor Ukrainian founders through the hardest months. Across these years, LIFT99 took on an additional mission: to push foreign investors, operators, and founders to come to Kyiv, run office hours, invest, and support the Ukrainian teams who chose to stay and build through the war. Many made their first Ukrainian investments ever because LIFT99 insisted on fostering that physical connection. Rebuilding — and upgrading: LIFT99 Kyiv Hub 2.0 Image: Rebuilding at work. Despite the destruction, LIFT99 is not simply repairing its space. It is building Kyiv Hub 2.0, driven by a clear mission: to create the most resilient 24/7 place for anyone in Ukraine to launch and run their business. The upgraded hub introduces infrastructure that the ecosystem has never had before: Hackathon Space A dedicated arena for Garage48-style hackathons, prototyping weekends, and community tech challenges. Media Room / Content Studio A fully equipped space for recording podcasts, videos, demos, and fundraising materials — with professional production support. “We want everyone in Ukraine to be able to broadcast high-quality content abroad,” the team says. Residents get priority access and discounts. Hardware Lab: A compact but powerful lab with 3D printers, basic tools, and workbenches for robotics, hardware, and energy founders. Kyiv Hub 2.0 isn’t just a rebuild. it’s a declaration that LIFT99 is constructing the next generation of Ukraine’s startup infrastructure in the middle of a war. Giving, grit, and community Image: NAFO badges displayed at LIFt99 Kyiv. The hub’s walls display patches from NAFO fundraising drives and Help99 campaigns, many of which funded vehicles for the frontline. Receiving an authentic brigade patch — usually reserved for soldiers — is a rare honour. LIFT99 provides free space to NGOs like: • Blood Agents — Ukraine's main blood donation coordination network. • Behind Blue Eyes — offering psychological support and education to children in frontline regions. Image: Rebuilding the NGO room. Image: A trophy for one of this year's winners of the Ukrainian startup awards. It also hosts the Ukrainian Startups Wall of Fame and annual startup awards, spotlighting the country’s most influential emerging tech companies. Image: Ukrainian Startups Wall of Fame. Identity under pressure Investors often label being based in Ukraine as a risk. For founders, this is painful. “If you can build a startup here — during missile strikes and blackouts — and still ship a world-class product, then being Ukrainian is a superpower,” Samarska says. Air raid sirens interrupt calls. Founders hide their location to avoid scaring clients. Others relocate temporarily to raise funds. But LIFT99 urges them not to lose connection. “They are part of us, even if they’re building from Berlin, Tallinn, or San Francisco,” Chernenko says. “We want them to keep hiring here, keep contributing, keep identifying as Ukrainian founders. Otherwise, we risk losing our talent forever.” Want to support LIFT99? Here’s how you can help: Run office hours: The team curates meetings between Ukrainian founders and international VCs, operators, and experts. Visiting Kyiv? LIFT99 will show you around, help you navigate the ecosystem, and introduce you to founders. Part of the diaspora? Stay connected. Your knowledge and network matter. Ukraine needs its global founders more than ever. Chernenko sums it up: “If you’re exploring Kyiv, thinking about opening a team, or simply curious about the tech scene — LIFT99 is the place. Just come. We’ll plug you in.”

A planned “exit tax“ on entrepreneurs who leave the UK has been dropped by the chancellor of the exchequer, according to reports. Rachel Reeves had been said to be planning a 20 per cent tax on the British assets of wealthy founders leaving the country as part of this month’s Autumn Budget, as the government looked to plug a multi-billion pound hole in the country’s public finances. The levy has now been axed amid concerns that founders would exit the country before the charge was implemented, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph. A source close to the chancellor told the newspaper: “This is a pro-business government which is building on the progress we’ve already made to strengthen the UK’s position as an attractive investment prospect for the best and the brightest across the world. “Introducing an exit charge would risk signalling that the UK is less welcoming to entrepreneurs and global talent, and that’s not something the chancellor wants to do.” It said the chancellor was also concerned the levy would lead to founders abandoning plans to launch startups in Britain. Dom Hallas, the CEO of the Startup Coalition, which campaigned for the planned tax to be dropped, said the U-turn had been “fully confirmed from folks in government” to him. Earlier this week, the Startup Coalition published a letter signed by over 150 founders and investors calling for the planned tax to be halted, saying it would tell entrepreneurs that "their ideas and innovations aren’t welcome" in the UK. Hallas added: “This has only been possible because of the startup community uniting with a clear voice about how detrimental it would be to the UK." A report in the Times said that one government source said the levy was not likely to go ahead, although another said no final decision had been made.