Antidote, a new London-based accelerator, has launched with £2.5 million in funding from Fulgur Ventures, Initial Capital and a group of private angel investors. Antidote aims to promote growth in the UK and to support entrepreneurs in Britain to build on open technologies, starting with Bitcoin and fintech. The accelerator provides workspace, funding, mentorship, and policy access, helping founders turn ideas into products that solve real challenges in payments and advance the technologies powering the next internet economy. Targeting early-stage entrepreneurs, experienced operators and corporate innovators, Antidote wants to empower founders from any background to turn serious ideas into investable, commercially viable businesses. Its programmes support founders working on: Financial and payments infrastructure. Digital identity and data sovereignty. Bitcoin and open-source technologies. Institutional and regulatory alignment for fintech innovation. Ben Cousens, Co-Founder and CEO of Antidote, shared : “We’re here for entrepreneurs turning new technology into real impact. Whether it’s Bitcoin, fintech, or leveraging AI and online identity, Antidote can offer the capital, community, and credibility to scale. The UK has the potential to lead this new wave of innovation. We just need to back the people building and focus on solving real problems: that's what matters.” Cousens contends that the UK has all the right ingredients by way of talent, capital, and legal frameworks to lead this new era of open, financial innovation, but "what's been missing is a credible bridge between founders and institutions, as well as a constructive approach to the 21st Century technologies that will define the economy of the future. "That’s what Antidote is here to build.” Through its workspace and network in London’s Hatton Garden, Antidote will offer founders access to: A six-month accelerator programme with workspace, workshops, and demo days. Direct funding and investor introductions. Mentorship from leading fintech, Bitcoin, and venture experts.    Community events and policy roundtables with UK regulators and ecosystem partners. Antidote is working in partnership with organisations such as UK think-tank Bitcoin Policy UK, who were instrumental in the formation of the organisation to enable access to a network that can bridge grassroots innovation with institutional support building trust, clarity, and collaboration across the UK’s growing technology ecosystem. Richard Faichney, Partner at Taylor Wessing, said: “We’ve worked closely with Antidote from the start to help build a foundation grounded in trust, clarity, and collaboration. Their work demonstrates how legal and institutional rigour can enable innovation rather than restrict it. This is a crucial step in strengthening the UK’s position as a hub for credible, long-term technology ventures." Mayra Tama, Partner at Initial Capital, said:  “Initial Capital invests in founders and ecosystems that turn Bitcoin’s potential into real-world progress. Antidote is building exactly what the UK needs right now, a credible platform that connects entrepreneurs, capital, and policy to accelerate meaningful innovation. We’re confident that Ben and the team will help cultivate the kind of companies that define the next decade of fintech and open technology.” Lead image: Freepik.

Eindhoven-based startup CityLegends has secured €1.7 million in funding to expand its street sports and culture platform internationally and advance its technology for connecting athletes, creators, and fans. The round saw participation from GFR Fund, Dutch Sport Tech Fund, Leisure Fund, and SportInnovator, alongside follow-on investments from existing backers LUMO Labs and LeanSquare. Founded in 2020 by Jimmy Hermans and Thijmen Verkerk, CityLegends operates a digital platform that connects street sports enthusiasts and urban creatives through media, gaming, and social interaction. Users can share clips, discover local spots, and compete in street Esports challenge while tracking and comparing performance. Andy Lürling, Founding Partner at LUMO Labs, said: “CityLegends has had an audacious global vision for their community from the get-go. We are excited to continue to be part of CityLegends’ journey going forward. "With also new global investors like GFR Fund from San Francisco joining the roster with unmatched expertise in shaping digital communities and cultures, we are confident CityLegends’ impact on the global urban sports community will only grow faster and stronger.” Founded in 2020 by Jimmy Hermans and Thijmen Verkerk, CityLegends operates a digital platform that connects street sports enthusiasts and urban creatives through media, gaming, and social interaction. Users can share clips, discover local spots, and compete in street Esports challenges while tracking and comparing performance. Hermans, the company’s CEO, said: “Urban culture being included in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles are a great testament to the global recognition and appreciation for the athletic and creative abilities of its practitioners. "Participation already matches traditional sports like football, basketball, and soccer, but the community is still wildly underserved with regards to digital tools. This new investment allows us to expand our platform and unite 200 million urban athletes and inspire 2 billion fans worldwide.” CityLegends plans to use the new capital to expand into new markets, enhance both its free and paid platform features, and grow its B2B media unit. The company will also develop “culture playbooks”, digital engagement tools designed to help brands and partners connect with urban sports and culture communities.

Paris-based Primaa, a developer of AI software for automated, accurate histological and cancer diagnostics, has extended its financing round to €7 million. The round is backed by the partnership fund between MH Innov’ and Elaia, and SWEN Capital Partners, with additional participation from Super Capital and members of the Wendel family. Primaa builds AI tools that detect cancer biomarkers and support diagnostic workflows. Cleo Breast (CE-IVDR) assists pathologists by automatically detecting and quantifying key biomarkers in breast cancer, while Cleo Skin, currently undergoing CE marking, addresses skin cancer and is designed to diagnose melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and basal cell carcinoma on histological slides. These tools aim to improve diagnostic reliability and consistency, reduce processing time, and ease routine workloads for pathologists. As well as saving time and improving accuracy in diagnostics, our tools make life much easier for practitioners. The automatic counting and detection features completely relieve them of certain time-consuming tasks, said Fanny Sockeel, CEO and co-founder of Primaa. Cleo Breast and Cleo Skin are in use at leading centres in France, including Institut Curie, AP-HP, and Saint-Joseph Hospital, and are beginning to roll out in Europe (ZAS Laboratory and Liège University Hospital). Primaa is expanding its portfolio with solutions in development for cervical cancer (in partnership with AP-HP and Medipath) and prostate cancer (Erasme Hospital, Belgium). The new funding will strengthen the sales organisation for faster European deployment and customer support, and accelerate feature development, including predictive AI models for disease progression and relapse risk. It will also support international expansion, particularly in the United States with planned FDA certification activities.

Nvidia is making a $1bn equity investment in Finnish telecoms infrastructure firm Nokia, as the two firms undertake a strategic partnership centred on working together on leveraging AI into telecoms networks and data centre development.The deal will see the US chip giant acquire more than 166 million new Nokia shares, at $6.01 each, giving Nvidia a 2.90 per cent stake in Nokia.Nvidia's investment marks the latest in a recent spree of equity stake deals undertaken by the US chip giant, as it looks to cement its position at the forefront of the AI race.Nokia says it will use the funds to speed up Nokia’s 5G & 6G software to run on Nvidia’s architecture as well as increase its presence in the AI & cloud market, according to a statement.Nokia added: “Nokia and Nvidia have agreed to collaborate on AI networking solutions and explore opportunities to incorporate Nokia’s data centre switching and optical technologies in Nvidia's future AI infrastructure architecture.”Nokia, well known for its early mobile phones, has pivoted into a telecoms infrastructure company and is now mainly known as a supplier of 5G cellular equipment to telecom providers. Nvidia has previously announced deals to invest $100bn in OpenAI and made a $5bn investment in Intel. Nokia's shares were up 15 per cent following the announcement.

Amsterdam-based micro-mobility company Dott has raised an additional $70 million, extending its Series B funding round to over $150 million. The company has previously raised over $228 million including $85 million Series B funding in spring 2021. Since the merger of TIER and Dott in 2024, the Company has successfully integrated operations to create one of the leading micromobility players in EMEA with operations in over 400 cities and 21 countries, and delivered over €60 million in annual cost savings to become adjusted EBITDA positive. The investment comes amid intensifying competition in Europe’s micro-mobility sector. Rivals such as Tier, Voi, and Lime continue to scale their e-bike and scooter fleets as cities shift towards low-emission transport. Many operators are also grappling with tightening regulation, city-level tender systems, and growing pressure to achieve profitability. Henri Moissinac, Co-Founder and CEO of Dott, said: “We reached a significant milestone for our business in 2021, launching e-bikes to extend our offer with a vehicle that is more familiar to many people and broadens the appeal of our service. Starting 2022 with additional funding will propel our growth and allow us to offer environmentally friendly travel to more people.” The company operates under an in-house logistics and maintenance model, in contrast to competitors who rely on third-party services. Alistair Watson, Head of Strategy Innovation, Private Equity at abrdn, said: “We felt that Dott is well positioned to be a leader in the category, offering a high quality product that has been recognised with significant growth in 2021, alongside a responsible business model which takes a rigorous approach to minimising its carbon footprint.” Specially, the company has successfully issued €70 million of senior secured floating rate bonds in the Nordic market, within a total framework of €150 million (the “Nordic Bonds”), and concurrently is raising a minimum of €15 million in preferred equity as an extension of its existing Series D fundraising round (the “Series D Extension”). The fresh capital will support the rollout of e-bikes, further product development, and expansion into new markets. Dott said the investment would help enhance user experience while maintaining a focus on safety and environmental impact.

SalesPatriot, a Polish-American startup building a procurement platform for defence and aerospace components, has raised $5 million in seed funding. The round was led by CRV, with participation from Pear VC, Y Combinator, SV Angel, Liquid2, Uncorrelated Ventures, and strategic angels including Paul Graham, Rich Miner, Mark Pincus, Steve Blank, and Mati Staniszewski. This brings total funding to $6.3 million. Founded in 2024 by engineers Nelson Ray, Benjamin Rhodes-Kropf, and Maciej Szymczyk, SalesPatriot addresses limitations in legacy procurement systems by ingesting and structuring data from government portals, ERPs, spreadsheets, and unstructured email. Its dynamic workflows automate quote processing and order management, enabling suppliers to process orders up to 7 times faster. The platform supports teams handling over $200 million in annual Pentagon orders. Nelson Ray (CEO) said the company aims to establish itself as the primary system of record for defence procurement and, over time, for other mission-critical supply chains as well. Wars today are won with logistics and supply chains as much as with new platforms. We’re building the infrastructure to make sure the West is ready. Within a year of founding, SalesPatriot signed contracts with distributors including Jamaica Bearings Group, AllClear Aerospace, and STATZ Corporation. For distributors and manufacturers, the system provides faster access to contracts, fewer manual errors, and higher throughput without additional headcount; for the DoD and its suppliers, it improves speed, accuracy, and supply-chain resilience. According to Benjamin Rhodes-Kropf (CTO), the company was designed from the outset to work within the complexities of defence procurement by integrating AI, structured and unstructured data, and legacy systems. Our workflows don’t force users to change how they work – they remove the manual overhead. That’s why our customers are already seeing 7x faster turnaround times and winning more Pentagon business. Looking ahead, SalesPatriot plans to deepen its presence in defence, expand into commercial aviation, and enter procurement markets in Europe and Asia, supporting a longer-term goal of becoming a trusted infrastructure layer for mission-critical supply chains and transforming how parts distributors and manufacturers buy and sell critical equipment.

In 2023, my nephew died back in Australia. As my parents were their only living relatives, they were forced to deal with his estate on the other side of Australia. This process took over 18 months, involved repeated travel between Melbourne and Sydney, and cost thousands. The problem was that my nephew had no plans in place, and everything from accessing bank accounts to closing subscriptions and selling vehicles and property was a laborious, burdensome process for my elderly parents. It's a problem many families face, and one UK startup, Lyfeguard, aims to solve the scattered chaos of personal admin, financial clutter, and unspoken legacy planning. From the outset, Lyfeguard stands out as a startup with a difference — it’s co-founded by father and son, Gary and Fraser Stewart. I spoke with them to learn more about the vision behind the company and the unique dynamics of building a business together as family.              Turning tragedy into a mission According to Gary, the idea for Lyfeguard emerged in 2021, when a couple of friends died really suddenly. And in both instances, their families asked him to go and help them with the estate administration. He admits: "It was terribly problematic. It was very intrusive, really difficult actually finding things — rifling through people's personal possessions just to find documents." This was compounded by the fact that, in both instances, the deceased were breadwinners, both employed and in their mid-to late fifties.  "The families were effectively three months away from a financial disaster." Fortunately, in both instances, he was able to find some life insurance, which maintained liquidity. But it took more than 18 months to close down both estates, including probate and the government's inheritance tax process.  "Even though they were spousal transfers, you still have to go through all the motions. There were also some business shares involved, so it was quite complex." Sometime later, he asked himself: 'What would happen to my family if the same thing happened to me? Would they know where my stuff was?' And the answer was a resounding no."  Facing the uncomfortable: building utility beyond death His son Fraser recalls that when they discussed the challenge with a few people, their faces went blank — the realisation came that what we were talking about was largely focused on death. "Storing documents and information in one place to pass on to family and friends sounds useful, but people don't want to think or plan for death. That's probably why they end up in the situation of not having information organised." So the duo knew they had to achieve the same end goal, but flip the idea on its head and give people day-to-day utility from the platform — while still getting that information there and keeping it up to date for family and friends to access later. Fraser, who completed an MBA at Alliance Manchester Business School, credits the experience with giving him the entrepreneurial skills needed to help build and scale a startup. Bringing information to life through open finance Lyfeguard works as an end-to-end life-management tool — a place to store information throughout someone's life, accessible whenever needed.  "But we didn't want it to be just a static repository," shared Fraser. "We wanted to bring that information to life, so we connected in open finance." That means banking, credit cards, investment platforms, pension providers, loans, crypto, mortgages — pretty much any financial instrument — can be connected in real time. This not only makes it easier to input information, but it also allows Lyfeguard to visualise it in ways that help people actually understand their personal finances: spending, balances, transactions, net worth over time, etc. Significantly, Lyfeguard offers an active platform, providing people with alerts about upcoming expiry dates, which is hugely helpful.  "There's so much to remember: driving licence renewals, utility bills, MOTs — the list goes on. Lyfeguard gives people that nudge when it's time," shared Gary. A secure vault for life's most important information Lyfeguard offers a secure "vault" where users can store documents, passwords, financial accounts, investments, and other vital information — all in one place. On the financial side, it taps into open finance data to give users a unified view of assets, liabilities, spending flows, and net worth, helping demystify what's often fragmented across multiple institutions.  "Ultimately, we want Lyfeguard to put the person at the centre — as their life-management hub — with the ability for everyone important in their life to gain access when they need it: spouse, children, adviser, lawyer, mortgage broker, bank, insurer, etc," shared Gary. "Right now, information comes via emails, letters, apps — it's fragmented. The way we manage our lives is broken. We're trying to fix that." Trust, transparency, and control Beyond being a personal tool, Lyfeguard is built with collaboration and sharing in mind: users can designate "Trusted Users" (family, executors, advisers) who gain access under defined circumstances — now, upon incapacity, or after death.  It's aimed not only at individuals but also serves professionals in the financial advice, legal, and estate-planning sectors by enabling smoother onboarding, richer client insights, and continuity of care across generations. According to Fraser, it allows people to share as much or as little information as they want, at a point in time that suits them. "They can choose to share very granular levels of data — either now or after they pass away." The startup is expanding its reach to include a lasting power of attorney (LPA), which would cover an incapacitation event such as a serious accident, "but even now, the information can be shared immediately; it doesn't need to wait for that kind of event."  The 360-degree client view Lyfeguard originally started as a business-to-consumer product and later began speaking to a few verticals.  Gary shared: "The first was financial advice. They were telling us, 'We need all this information about our clients.' To paint the picture — it was 2021, during or just after COVID. Advisers were seeing clients less in person, more via Teams, and struggling to get client information. Their existing portals were focused largely on finances — assets and liabilities — which are important, but there's more to a client than what's in their bank account. There's all the softer, peripheral information that sits around that. Then Consumer Duty came in, which is all about understanding clients better than ever and ensuring advice is genuinely tailored. They can only do that with accurate, up-to-date, personalised information."  This aligned really nicely with Lyfeguard — giving a 360-degree view of the client. Tackling the £5.5 trillion intergenerational wealth transfer Further, Gary shared that advisers — especially in the UK but also globally — are struggling with the wealth-transfer issue.  "Between now and 2050, £5.5 trillion will be transferred between generations in the UK. Currently, advisers lose about 90 per cent of clients when the original client dies; the beneficiaries almost never stay with that adviser." This means they lose the assets under management too, which is how they get paid. If a million pounds' worth of assets are under management, even at a 1 per cent fee, that's £10,000 a year gone. According to Fraser, Lyfeguard enables the adviser to see who the key people are — executors, beneficiaries, family — and the client can proactively share relevant information with them.  "Other portals don't allow that. So it becomes collaborative planning where the adviser treats the whole family unit as the client, not just one individual." Lyfeguard is live with 11 independent financial-advice firms and, at the time of our interview, was in the process of signing with a private-client law firm representing around 100,000 clients in the UK. "They like Lyfeguard because people want to store their wills electronically. Even though digital wills aren't legally valid yet, it gives executors a head start, and we annotate where the original will is held," shared Gary. "The same goes for lasting powers of attorney. Lawyers also like that it keeps them relevant — clients usually come for a will or an LPA and never return. Lyfeguard keeps that connection alive." The company is also in advanced discussions with a large UK insurance company that wants to include Lyfeguard in its employee-benefits offering, under the umbrella of financial wellness. Employees often have benefits like death-in-service insurance or private healthcare that their families don't even know exist. Lyfeguard brings it all into one view. Fraser asserts: "Lyfeguard's value is twofold: helping employees see everything in one place, and ensuring families know what's available to them." The cross-border opportunity  For now, the startup is focused on the UK, but the opportunity is global. Ireland's a great bridge into the EU — close, English-speaking, with a similar legal system. After that, Europe, Australia, and Canada. "People are more mobile than ever — remote work, international assets, multiple pensions. Lyfeguard will also support storing foreign assets, shared Gary. "Many people we speak to have pensions or property abroad, and it's incredibly difficult to keep track of. We want to solve that too." From family to founding team Of course, I had to ask about the dynamic of a father-and-son team.  Gary admits that it was tricky at first: "You have to redefine the relationship. But I feel privileged to work with my adult son. I have another son still finishing his accounting exams — I plan to rope him in next! It's special to build something together." Fraser agreed, sharing, "There aren't many people who can say they've co-founded a company with their dad." "It felt weird initially — almost like breaking and rebuilding the relationship — but now we're in a great rhythm. It's an absolute privilege." The startup initially bootstrapped, then raised friends-and-family funding in 2022, with a few follow-on rounds. It's currently raising, targeting a group of angel investors.  It recently completed the FinTech Innovation Lab in London, run by Accenture, which was a major boost. According to Gary, "it introduced us to so many investors and large enterprise customers — including several of the UK's biggest banks. They love what we're doing. Banks move slowly, of course, but the long-term potential is huge."

Stockholm-based Grasp, an AI startup automating investment banking and management consulting workflows with multi-agent systems, has raised $7 million in a Series A round led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from existing investor Yanno Capital. The round brings total funding to $9 million. Founded in 2020 by former McKinsey consultants RichardKarlsson and Johan Devér, together with former Ericsson AI engineer Simon Hällqvist, Grasp builds a proprietary multi-agent platform that automates complex, costly, and time-consuming tasks for finance professionals. By connecting domain-specific AI agents to trusted tools and datasets, the platform surfaces more relevant companies, delivers deeper insights, and produces ready-to-present spreadsheets and PowerPoint materials, reducing manual, repetitive work while improving output quality. The global investment banking and management consulting services market totals roughly $1.4 trillion in annual spending. As AI automates portions of this work and increases productivity, platforms like Grasp are positioned to capture a share of that spend. Richard Karlsson, CEO and co-founder of Grasp, shared the idea behind the company: At McKinsey, we spent over 90% of our time on manual work - reading reports, building excel models, creating presentations. Together with Simon, who brought critical AI expertise from Ericsson, we realised AI had the potential to completely transform this $1.4 trillion market of human-intensive finance work. Five years later, we're proving this thesis. While AI initially boomed in text-centric fields like law, recent advances have finally enabled AI agents to tackle complex, multimodal tasks prevalent in finance. Now, with Octopus Ventures joining our journey, we're excited to continue expanding our rapidly growing customer base. Over the past 12 months, Grasp recorded 3.5× ARR growth and now serves nearly 200 customers in 30 countries, including most of the Big Four consulting firms. The new funding will support the expansion and growth of the product and sales teams.

Latvian-based Desktop Commander, the company behind the open source Desktop Commander MCP server, has raised a €1.1 million pre-seed round led by 42CAP, with participation from BADideas Fund. Desktop Commander MCP provides AI-controlled access to a user’s computer and file system, enabling it to manage files, use the terminal, and review, write, and deploy code from natural language instructions, saving time and handling complex tasks without requiring users to code. Founded in March 2025 by former colleagues Eduards Ruzga (ex-Infogram, Prezi), Dmitrijs Sergejevs (ex-Juro), and Lauris Lietavietis (ex-Infogram, Prezi, Printify, Oxylabs), Desktop Commander has become one of the most-used MCPs on Smithery, the Docker MCP Hub, and the Claude connectors marketplace. It now has thousands of daily active users, including founders building products, developers reviewing and deploying code, and knowledge workers automating routine tasks. Built on Anthropic’s MCP standard introduced in late 2024, now with more than 15,000 MCPs, Desktop Commander is currently in beta with a paid offering that extends its core functionality based on user feedback. I initially developed the first iteration of the product as a custom GPT in 2023 to address a personal work-related challenge; it did not gain substantial interest at that time. However, I revisited the concept when Anthropic introduced their new MCP standard in late 2024, and it experienced significant adoption in April of this year. What I find most rewarding is users expressing that they have acquired capabilities they previously did not realize they possessed, stated Eduards Ruzga, CEO and co-founder. Desktop Commander will use the new funding to make coding and local automation tools more accessible to non-technical users. The team is currently beta-testing a paid offering based on the MCP framework that extends functionality informed by user feedback.

Belgian biosurfactants developer AmphiStar has been awarded €2.5 million in funding by SPRIND, Germany’s Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation, to accelerate continuous manufacturing of its microbial biosurfactants.  This is AmphiStar’s third consecutive SPRIND award, bringing total support to €6 million and further validating its approach to converting bio-based waste into high-performance surfactants that are free from fossil and palm-based feedstocks. AmphiStar develops and produces 100 per cent upcycled microbial biosurfactants as high-performance, sustainable alternatives to conventional surfactants. Using its platform technology, the company converts bio-based waste and side streams into a portfolio of products that do not rely on fossil or palm-based feedstocks and require no direct land use, supplying sectors such as personal care, home care, and agrifood. The company applies synthetic biology, microbial fermentation, and mild processing to manufacture these ingredients, and offers what it describes as the first commercially available biosurfactants made entirely from bio-based waste and side streams. It is an honour to be recognised as one of the final five participants in Stage 3 of the SPRIND Challenge, following the thorough assessment by the expert jury. This funding strengthens our ability to deliver high-performance, circular ingredients that reduce environmental impact and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable economy, said Pierre-Franck Valentin, CEO of AmphiStar. SPRIND funding will enable AmphiStar to advance its continuous fermentation technology and accelerate the commercialisation of new biosurfactant molecules from its growing library, produced by microbially upcycling bio-based waste feedstocks into market-ready ingredients. Recent partnerships with Kensing in North America and Caldic in Europe reflect increasing global interest in waste-based, sustainable solutions and mark milestones toward broader adoption of circular biosurfactants.

Rotterdam-based venture studio Builders has raised an additional €3 million, bringing total funding to €4.5 million. The round was led by a group of entrepreneurs, exit-founders, and family offices, including Wouter Holtslag, Eric Carbijn, and Invint Capital. Additional participants included family offices Den Breems & Schouten B.V., Vajoinvest, Hedje Invest, Plott Invest, and angel investors Peter Kaas, Edwin de Jonge, Richard Budding, Karol Wojtaszek, Emil Wojtaszek, Joeri van den Bovenkamp-Hofman, Ruud Vodegel, Hector Rodriguez, Wilbert Nederpelt, Steven van Houweling, Roland van Gulik, Herjan Meloen, Tristan Orzero, Patrick Veldhuizen, Eliska Went, Theo Wieckardt, Patrick van de Werken, and Sylvia Dekker. Builders is a venture studio that partners with entrepreneurs to create enterprise AI companies from initial concept to independent operation. From day one, it provides support across concept development, validation, talent acquisition, network access, funding, execution, and growth. Following its first funding round, in which €1.5 million was raised, Builders developed Noon, Obeyo, and Influentials. Noon and Obeyo were later discontinued, while Influentials was successfully sold. With the €3 million raised in the second round, Builders has refined its focus on enterprise AI software and built a new portfolio of ventures (Everday, Avery, and Cortena), all of which are nearing seed-readiness. Backed by the new capital, Builders will scale operations, support its existing portfolio, and expand across Europe through partnerships with startup studios and venture ecosystems. The studio aims to increase its annual launch rate from at least four to up to ten companies as it progresses toward a self-sustaining model. To accelerate this growth, Builders is establishing a €25 million fund to invest across its AI ecosystem, providing follow-on capital for current ventures and backing new European collaborations, with a first close planned for summer 2026.

French specialised software provider of logistics management solutions, Shippingbo, has received funding from Main Capital Partners to support the next phase of its growth journey.  Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Toulouse, France, Shippingbo provides a comprehensive, cloud-based logistics management platform that combines Order Management (OMS), Warehouse Management (WMS), and Transport Management (TMS) functionalities into an integrated platform. Its solutions enable e-commerce brands, logistics providers, and retailers to automate fulfillment, optimise warehouse operations, and manage transport flows efficiently through a centralised interface.  Shippingbo’s software platform delivers scalability, flexibility, and seamless integration throughout the supply chain ecosystem. Its solutions enable supply chain players to connect and automate every stage of their operations, facilitating robust omnichannel strategies through unified logistics capabilities.  The company employs approximately 80 professionals at its Toulouse headquarters and serves around 1,000 direct customers across several verticals — including consumer goods, 3PL logistics, sports & leisure, and food & beverage.  Key customers include brands such as Venom, Teddy Smith, and Weber Industries, as well as third-party logistics providers (3PLs) such as DHL, Deret, and Stef.   Marc Heiricher, Founder and CEO of Shippingbo, shared: “We are very proud of this strategic agreement with Main Capital to support us in this new chapter.  Main’s experience in the software sector and in supporting scale-ups through their growth journey will allow us to accelerate Shippingbo’s development significantly. This new partnership validates  our vision and will provide us with new resources to continue innovating internally, strengthen  our partner ecosystem, and roll out a Buy & Build strategy to reinforce our position as an  established unified logistics platform for omnichannel commerce in France and internationally.”  Although the majority of its revenues are currently generated in France, Shippingbo demonstrates clear international ambitions, with a growing customer base and market presence in Spain,  Belgium, and Switzerland.  Through its collaboration with Main, Shippingbo aims to accelerate growth via continuous product innovation, international expansion, and a targeted buy-and-build strategy to reinforce its position as a specialised software provider in the logistics value chain. The partnership will prioritise expanding Shippingbo’s functional coverage (OMS, WMS, TMS), developing complementary modules and a partner network, and strengthening its go-to-market strategy to serve its growing European customer base better.   The management team - primarily composed of the founding partners with decades of experience in logistics software - will retain a significant stake and continue to lead the next phase of growth alongside Main.  The transaction represents Main’s third platform investment in France in 2025, following the opening of its  Paris office in February of this year.  The Shippingbo management team will continue to lead operations and retain a significant ownership stake, underscoring their strong commitment to the shared vision of building an internationally leading unified logistics platform. According to Jonas Kruip, Co-Head France & Sr. Investment Manager at Main Capital Partners, as supply chains become more digital, data-driven,  and customer-centric, integrated OMS, WMS, and TMS solutions have become mission-critical for businesses striving to deliver efficiency, transparency, and scalability across the entire supply chain.  “Shippingbo’s scalable and modern platform is uniquely positioned to address these needs,  and we look forward to working closely with the management team to accelerate innovation and expand the company’s presence internationally both through organic and inorganic growth."

EPFL spin-off MoleSense has received €156,000. (CHF 150,000) from Venture Kick to bring molecular wearables to maternity care.  These devices will continuously and non-invasively monitor key biochemical markers in high-risk pregnancies, enabling doctors to make data-driven decisions and mothers to receive proactive care. Preterm birth and pregnancy complications remain among the most pressing challenges in maternal health. When a mother’s water breaks too early, doctors face a difficult dilemma: delay delivery and risk infection or induce birth and risk lifelong complications for the baby. With no reliable way to quantify these risks, mothers often undergo invasive tests while clinicians must make life-or-death decisions with limited data. MoleSense ias developed a new class of wearables that track inflammatory proteins and steroid hormones in real time through non-invasive sweat monitoring using a “wear and forget” device.  By combining personalised molecular data with biology-aware machine intelligence, the technology provides real-time, actionable insights for early diagnosis and targeted interventions. Founded and led by Gian Luca Barbruni and Ata Golparvar, both PhD graduates from EPFL, MoleSense brings together deep expertise in micro- and nano-engineering and wearable technologies. The team is initially focusing on pregnancy management, aiming to impact more than eight million pregnancies annually across Switzerland, Europe, and the United States. Their approach sets a new standard for proactive, personalised maternity care and targets the USD 110 billion women’s healthcare device market, beginning its rollout with high-risk pregnancy centres such as CHUV. The CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick will help the Medtech startup complete validation and move forward along the regulatory pathway toward early market entry. “Venture Kick challenged us to think bigger, move faster, and sharpen our vision,” commented CEO Gian Luca Barbruni.  Lead image: Gian Luca Barbruni, CEO, MoleSense. Photo: uncredited.

Copenhagen-based Formalize has raised €30 million in a Series B co-led by Acton Capital and Blackfin Tech, with participation from West Hill Capital and CIBC Innovation Banking. The company has raised €50 million to date. Across Europe, organisations face an increasingly complex, interconnected regulatory landscape, with evolving rules reshaping expectations for information security, resilience, and reporting across industries and regions.  Formalize, addresses this with a single platform that automates compliance workflows, consolidates requirements, and supports companies in managing ongoing regulatory change. Founded in 2021, Formalize is a compliance software company whose platform supports NIS2, DORA, ISO 27001, GDPR, SOC 2, and related frameworks. The company began with its Whistleblower Software and has expanded into broader risk, privacy, and data compliance. Today, it serves organisations in over 80 countries and supports more than 12 languages. Jakob Lilholm, CEO and co-founder of Formalize, said compliance has become a basic requirement for doing business. At Formalize, we’re building a future where automation and AI simplify GRC for European SMBs without ever compromising on security or the local expertise that defines us. Our ability to scale and deliver value to thousands of companies places us at the forefront of Europe’s regulatory landscape, Lilholm added. The new funding will support expansion across Europe, with plans to increase presence in key markets such as the DACH region and France by opening additional offices and growing local teams to support customers and partners.

SpinDrive, a Finland-based provider of active magnetic bearing (AMB) systems, has secured new growth funding led by long-time investors Rhapsody Venture Partners and Innovestor. Founded in 2015, SpinDrive commercialises magnetic-levitation solutions for high-speed machinery. The company’s vision is to lead in advanced magnetic-bearing systems with IoT-based condition monitoring, improving efficiency and lowering costs and maintenance in industrial applications. Traditional industrial bearings rely on oil lubrication and physical contact between moving parts, creating friction, energy losses, wear, and frequent maintenance. Because bearings are widely used in rotating machinery (such as compressors, pumps, turbines, and blowers), these inefficiencies add up to substantial energy consumption and reduce electric-motor efficiency. SpinDrive addresses this with active magnetic bearing technology that levitates the rotor, eliminating physical contact and friction. The result is maintenance-free operation for over 20 years, no need for oil-based lubricants, and meaningful energy-efficiency gains. Compared with traditional ball bearings that often require replacement every 12–18 months in high-speed applications, SpinDrive’s systems include integrated condition monitoring without external sensors and can reduce overall equipment maintenance costs by more than 80 per cent. SpinDrive reports increasing US traction through both direct customers and European OEM partners with US operations. Its systems are being adopted in industrial cooling, heat pumps, wastewater treatment, and semiconductor manufacturing, where energy efficiency and reliability are critical. The upcoming Magma X100 extends SpinDrive’s AMB technology to ultra-high-speed machinery under 100 kW, broadening access to AMB benefits in new markets and applications. Developed with support from the European Commission, it is the company’s smallest, most affordable, and most efficient system to date, and has received commercial orders ahead of launch. Janne Heikkinen, CEO of SpinDrive, said: Magma X100 brings the benefits of AMBs to applications for which there has been no technical solution to date. Our new product is small in form factor and a fraction of the cost of existing AMB systems. We believe the benefits of AMBs will revolutionise a broad new set of appliances and machinery. The funding will support SpinDrive’s expanding US customer base, strengthen its market presence in the region, and enable the launch of the new Magma X100 magnetic bearing controller product line.

Entrepreneur, investor and Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett has raised an eight-figure funding round for his media and technology company Steven.com, valuing the business at €365 million. The round, led by Slow Ventures and Apeiron Investment Group, is believed to be the largest creator-economy funding round in Europe to date. Bartlett, who is also the creator and host of The Diary of a CEO, said: “By bringing together creator IP, capital and our infrastructure, Steven.com is positioning itself to lead in the next era of the creator economy. "My ultimate ambition is to build the Disney of the creator economy – and the strategic partners this funding round has brought on board has enabled me to take a big step in that direction.” The company, which houses divisions including FlightStory, FlightCast and FlightFund, plans to use the new capital to scale its global media and creator commerce operations while maintaining majority ownership of more than 90 per cent. The business integrates content creation, investment and technology infrastructure to help creators build long-term brands and ventures. Bartlett compared his vision to that of traditional entertainment companies: “With my team, I think we are building the modern version of model. But in our world, the IP is not a fictional character. The creator is the new franchise.” Bartlett’s existing ventures collaborate with high-profile figures including Trevor Noah, Davina McCall and Paul C. Brunson, while his Diary of a CEO podcast recently surpassed one billion YouTube views, making it the most popular podcast in Europe and one of the fastest-growing globally.

Sequoia, the US VC firm which has backed Klarna and Stripe, has launched two early-stage funds and given a vote of confidence to European founders. The two new funds are a $750 million early-stage fund targeting Series A startups and a $200 million seed fund. Sequoia has a long history of investing in high-profile tech firms at an early stage, such as its investments in Apple and YouTube. In a post about the funds on its website, the US VC firm said it would be targeting founders from “any background from around the globe”. The post goes on to share emerging themes witnessed by Sequoia's early-stage investors. Luciana Lixandru, partner, said: “I am excited to meet founders who use Europe as their product and engineering hub, but who want to take over the world. Europe’s founder pool has never been stronger. "A new wave of repeat entrepreneurs and alumni from breakout scaleups bring hard-won judgment, world-class product taste, and the muscle memory of going from zero to global.” Sequoia’s European investments include Swedish fintech Klarna, German fintech Trade Republic,and German drone startup Stark. Sequoia partner Roelof Botha said: “I’m drawn to dynamo founders—polymaths with a voracious appetite for learning, who blend interdisciplinary insights. "These people don’t follow the conventional path. They’re defiant. They want to chart their own course. With the tools that we have available now in AI, founders like this can address problems that they spot in ways that we could never have done before.”

San Sebastián and Barcelona-based biotech Adaptam Therapeutics has raised €3 million in a pre-seed round led by Criteria Bio Ventures to develop first-in-class antibody therapies targeting immunosuppressive myeloid cells in solid tumours. The funding will allow Adaptam to advance its antibody-based programmes, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and bispecific antibodies, into the preclinical stage across multiple oncology indications. As part of the round, Salvatore Cappadona and Pablo Cironi from Criteria Bio Ventures have joined the company’s board of directors. “Immunosuppressive myeloid cells within tumours present one of the toughest challenges in immunotherapy today. Our goal is to neutralise this obstacle by developing therapies that specifically target these cells, offering patients new hope where traditional approaches have failed,” said Asis Palazon, founder, CEO and CSO of Adaptam. Adaptam’s approach focuses on disrupting the tumour microenvironment, which often prevents immune cells from effectively attacking cancer. Its therapies target glycoimmune checkpoints selectively expressed in immunosuppressive myeloid cells such as tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs). “We are thrilled to support Adaptam in its mission to transform cancer treatment by targeting the immunosuppressive cells within the TME. The scientific breakthroughs achieved by Prof. Asis Palazon and his team have laid the groundwork for potentially life-changing therapies,” said Pablo Cironi, chairman of Adaptam’s board. Adaptam was founded based on research from CIC bioGUNE in Bilbao, with early support from Criteria Bio Ventures and a Caixa Research Health grant awarded to Palazon in 2021. Some of the underlying discoveries have been published in Nature Communications. “CIC bioGUNE’s long-standing leadership in glycobiology provided the scientific foundation for Adaptam and we have supported the company from its earliest steps through to today’s preclinical maturation,” said Jesús Jiménez-Barbero, scientific director of CIC bioGUNE.

Every summer, forests around the world are destroyed by fires. Traditionally, reseeding is labour-intensive, slow, and often limited in access due to steep slopes and the remote nature of fire-affected zones.   But now a not-for-profit startup spun out of a high school project is united by a shared mission to rebuild Greece's forests and restore its native flora. ReSeed is a sustainability-focused startup that uses drones to reforest burnt areas by deploying seed bombs. The startup uses advanced drone technology to map terrain, identify optimal planting zones, and deploy seeds in areas that are often inaccessible or unsafe for manual planting.  It aims to make reforestation faster, scalable, and more effective through technology. From a school project to a reforestation mission ReSeed was founded by two high school students, Alex Leontaridis and Dimitris Orfanidis. There's a whole team behind ReSeed, mostly other high school students.  I spoke to Leontaridis to find out more.   Alex Leontaridis is a senior high school student at Dodonea Lyceum in Ioannina. As well as co-founding ReSeed, Leontaridis serves as a Research Assistant at Stanford's Venture Capital Initiative and Developer at RevisionDojo (YC F24).  According to Leontaridis, "the idea for ReSeed came from a major problem in Greece — wildfires.  "Since 2018, devastating fires have occurred every summer in Greece. When my team and I volunteered in reforestation efforts, we realised the process was expensive, slow, and required a lot of people.  So, we started thinking about how we could reforest burned areas using drones. " Planting smarter, faster, and safer Before ReSeed, replanting in Greece was a manual process, with trees planted by hand. ReSeed uses advanced satellite imagery and AI analysis to identify areas most in need of ecological restoration. The team designed small seed pods containing different native seeds that can be dropped from drones and built their own drones from scratch.  According to Leontaridis, "they're custom hexacopters — six motors — and we designed a mechanism that stores and releases the seed pods during flights based on pre-programmed GPS applications. " The drones enable planting up to one tree per second with optimal spacing and depth. Image: The Re-Seed drone analyses soil, vegetation and terrain. Before each mission, the ReSeed Scout drone takes flight, using HD and multispectral cameras to analyse soil, vegetation, and terrain. Its data guides the main ReSeed drone to deploy seeds only where regrowth potential is highest — making RS-Iris the intelligent eyes of the operation. Image: The ReSeed drone can deliver around 180 seed bombs per fill. The ReSeed drone is the heavy-lift workhorse of the operation, built for power, precision, and autonomy. With a six-tube seed dispenser delivering around 180 seed bombs per fill, it combines high-thrust motors, long-endurance batteries, and smart flight controls to navigate tough terrain. Guided by data from the scout drone, it deploys seeds with accuracy while monitoring conditions for safety and efficiency — the backbone of ReSeed's scalable reforestation system. Proof in the planting To test their tech, ReSeed partnered with local universities and biologists to take samples from burned trees and soil, then tried to simulate the conditions in a lab.  "We wanted to predict the success rate of seed germination and tree growth as accurately as possible, based on both lab tests and existing academic research," shared Leontaridis. Significantly, the process proved much faster and more efficient than manual replanting, and the success rate was better than initially expected. A core part of ReSeed's approach is transparency and verification. Each mission is tracked through data and imagery, enabling continuous assessment of impact—from initial seeding to long-term ecosystem regeneration.  Tracking seeds post-drop Of course, rapid planting is not the end. Reforestation success depends on using the right local seeds, soil quality and regional climate.  ReSeed has a timeline for monitoring — after two weeks, four weeks, and then two months. Specialised teams visit the reforested areas to track growth, survival rates, and canopy expansion, and compare results with lab projections.  "We're also exploring ways to integrate more technology — things like sensor-based solutions or aerial imaging to monitor progress remotely," shared Leontaridis. Drones for the bees The startup is expanding its approach beyond forests, for example, to help replant flowers in areas where bee populations are declining.  "That's becoming a serious issue in Greece, too," notes Leontaridis. It recently launched ReSeed Bees to protect and rebuild pollinator habitats through drone-enabled reforestation and targeted planting.  Greece, known for its rich beekeeping tradition, is facing a sharp decline in bee populations due to pesticides, wildfires, climate change, and habitat loss — all of which threaten both biodiversity and food security. To address this, ReSeed Bees uses drones to plant native flowering species, herbs such as thyme, oregano, and sage, and trees that provide year-round shelter and nectar sources. After planting, researchers observe flower density, bee population recovery, and pollination activity. The project not only supports the recovery of bee populations but also strengthens broader ecosystems and rural communities. Through education and engagement with schools, farmers, and local residents, ReSeed Bees fosters awareness of pollinator health and its crucial link to environmental resilience and sustainable agriculture. A cheaper, smarter way to reforest Greece Millions of euros are donated in Greece each year to reforestation after major fires. Leontaridis contends that their approach is "much cheaper than traditional methods, so we hope that over time, part of those funds can be redirected to support drone-based reforestation." For now, ReSeed is funded entirely through donations and wants to remain a non-governmental, nonprofit organisation.  "We believe that if we became a for-profit company, we'd lose part of our mission and identity." So far, ReSeed has planted over 13,600 trees and flowering plants, helping to restore 650,000 square metres of land and sequester around 27 tons of CO₂ — based on forest density and tree spacing estimates.  ReSeed's main goal for the 2025–2026 season is to scale up. "Last year, we focused on prototyping and testing different seed types and deployment systems. This year, we aim to plant 15,000 trees," shared Leontaridis. "So far, we've planted between 2,000 and 3,000. The great thing about drone reforestation is how fast it is — in an hour, we can plant around a thousand seeds. We're also working to recruit more volunteers, improve our technology, and strengthen our fundraising base." When asked if they receive any school credit for their work, Alexandros Leontaridis said not yet — though he acknowledged it might help with his university applications, particularly in the US. Still, he emphasised that this wasn't the motivation behind the project: "We just saw a big problem and wanted to make an impact." Lead image: Re-Seed co-founder Alex Leontaridis.

UK’s BMLL is set to be acquired by Nordic Capital in a transaction carried out with BMLL’s management and minority shareholder Optiver. Financial terms were not disclosed. BMLL is an independent provider of harmonised historical market data and analytics, delivering Level 3, Level 2, and Level 1 order-book data across global equities, ETFs, and futures. Founded in 2014 in the University of Cambridge’s machine-learning labs, the company enables banks, asset managers, hedge funds, exchanges, and academic institutions to accelerate research, optimise trading strategies, and improve alpha generation. Its cloud-native platform provides harmonised, nanosecond-timestamped data from 100+ venues, reducing in-house engineering and speeding time to insight. Nordic Capital’s investment includes a primary capital infusion to fund product development, innovation, and client delivery. BMLL plans to broaden venue coverage, extend historical depth, and expand multi-asset capabilities, positioning the firm as an alternative to incumbent providers. The initiative advances BMLL’s goal of building a trusted “golden copy” of high-quality, AI-ready historical market data to support decisions across the trading lifecycle, from research and alpha generation to execution analytics. With Nordic Capital’s backing, BMLL will strengthen its go-to-market capabilities and deepen partnerships with exchanges, technology platforms, and market-infrastructure providers. The existing management team, led by CEO Paul Humphrey, will continue to run the business and remain shareholders.