The Financial Times and Statista have unveiled the 10th edition of the FT1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies, confirming Estonia's position as a powerhouse for financial innovation. Leading the national charge for the second consecutive year is Tallinn-based fintech Wallester, which has surged into the Top 40 of the overall European ranking. Securing the 38th position globally (up from 48th in 2025) and ranking as the #1 fastest-growing fintech in Europe, Wallester’s trajectory highlights a broader shift in the financial sector: the move toward embedded finance and modular payment infrastructure. The FT1000 evaluates 1,000 European companies based on revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over a three-year period. The 2025 ranking considered data between 2021 and 2024. Since its launch in 2017, the ranking has become one of Europe’s reference benchmarks for scale-up growth. Sustaining hyper-growth in a volatile market Wallester’s inclusion in the FT1000 is not a one-time spike but a sustained scaling effort. Since its founding in 2016, the company has transitioned from a localised startup to a pan-European infrastructure provider. The data behind the growth: Compound Annual Growth: The company achieved a CAGR of 178.9% over the latest ranking period. Revenue Velocity: From a 2021 revenue of €790,267, Wallester grew to €9,140,000 by the end of 2023, and reached €17.2 million in audited revenue in 2024, representing 87% year-over-year growth. Job Creation: Reflecting its operational scale, the team has expanded from just three employees in 2020 to over 200 across offices in Estonia, Latvia, France, and the UK. "Being recognised by the Financial Times as Europe’s fastest-growing fintech is an important milestone for our company," said Sergei Astafjev, CEO and Co-Founder of Wallester. "Over the past several years, we have focused on building robust financial infrastructure – investing in technology, compliance, and operational resilience. As embedded finance becomes increasingly important for businesses across Europe, platforms that combine scalability with regulatory strength will play a key role in the next stage of fintech development." An entrance into the "Elite Club" Wallester’s performance mirrors its recent success in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe, where it placed 6th overall with a 2,070% four-year growth rate. By consistently ranking at the top of both the Deloitte and Financial Times lists, Wallester has joined an elite tier of European "scale-ups" that have successfully moved past the initial startup phase into established market leadership. In 2025, the company underscored this maturation by moving its headquarters to a brand-new office in Estonia, establishing a presence in Cannes, France, and complementing offices in Latvia and the United Kingdom. Powering the future of European payments While many fintechs faced a "funding winter" in recent years, Wallester’s growth was driven by its dual-pillar product strategy: Wallester White-Label: A card issuing and embedded finance infrastructure solution enabling companies to launch branded Visa card programs without the regulatory burden of obtaining their own licenses. Wallester Business: A corporate expense management platform providing virtual and physical Visa cards for SMEs. The company’s 2025 roadmap saw the launch of 24/7 instant currency exchange across ten currencies and direct accounting integrations with Xero and QuickBooks – features that have turned its Wallester Business platform into a primary tool for European SMEs navigating cross-border trade. As the highest-ranked Estonian company on the FT1000 for two years running, Wallester continues to be a primary driver of the Baltic "innovation momentum," helping the region punch well above its weight on the global stage.

Deep Science Ventures has funded the third cohort of its Venture Science Doctorate programme, which empowers a new archetype of Venture Scientist to solve neglected health and planetary challenges. Starting this April, the next cohort of five venture scientists will be supported by a funding consortium led by SPRIND, Germany’s Federal  Agency for Breakthrough Innovation, and joined for the first time by the  investment and philanthropy platform Builders Vision.  The programme is a pioneering model of entrepreneurship-focused doctoral training, offering participants a unique level of investment and freedom through an all-expenses-paid package that covers tuition, stipends, travel, and research consumables. The scientists are given total autonomy to select and define their own research topics.  With access to a global network of more than 30 world-class labs, the candidates are not tied to any single institution, allowing them to iterate on their ideas and move fluidly between laboratory environments to follow the science wherever it leads. Starting with a target societal outcome and with a goal to create a high-impact company removes the financial risk often associated with high-risk research and entrepreneurship. Past Doctoral Fellows are addressing such global challenges  as boosting longevity for two billion women by staving off menopause-related diseases; scaling energy transition through deuterium-based fusion reactors that can last ten times longer than current solutions; and extending the lifespan of all humans by triggering endogenous protein signalling. Dr Thane Campbell, Dean of Education at Deep Science Ventures, said: "The  Venture Science Doctorate is a new piece of industrial infrastructure.  Together with SPRIND and Builders Vision, we are proving that when you  strip away the bureaucratic constraints of traditional academia and give  the world’s most talented individuals the freedom to focus on outcomes,  PhDs can solve global challenges." Barbara Diehl, Chief Partnership Officer at SPRIND, said: "At SPRIND, our mission is to find and fund the breakthroughs that will shape our future,  and that requires a new breed of innovator, which the current system does not produce in sufficient enough numbers to meet the world's toughest challenges." Dr Xiao Recio-Blanco, Program Officer at Builders Vision Philanthropy, said: "Protecting and strengthening the resilience of ocean ecosystems is a key focus for Builders Vision, and achieving this requires scaling innovative solutions that advance a sustainable blue economy. By joining this consortium, we’re recognising that a new blueprint for doctoral training can help develop Venture Scientists who drive market creation and growth across this emerging sector. Lead image: Freepik.

Berlin-based finperks has closed a $4 million pre-seed funding round led by Motive Partners and seed+speed Ventures. The company is developing API infrastructure for the global prepaid market, including gift cards, eCash, and prepaid cards, a sector projected to reach $4.24 trillion by 2035. Demand for digital rewards, cashback, and employee benefits continues to grow, but the infrastructure supporting prepaid products remains fragmented. Banks, fintech companies, and HR platforms seeking to offer these services often need to integrate with multiple providers across issuing, brand partnerships, settlement, and compliance, which can slow product launches and limit regional availability. finperks aims to simplify this process by providing a single API that gives partners access to more than 1,000 brands across Europe. Through a single integration, organisations can offer services such as brand-funded cashback deposited directly into bank accounts, digital employee benefits including Germany’s €50-per-month tax-free “Sachbezug,” and instant digital gift cards embedded within financial products. Banks need cashback to retain and engage users. HR Platforms need benefits as a logical extension to upsell clients. None of them want to build prepaid infrastructure. They want to plug into it, said Sebastian Seifert, co-founder and co-CEO. Six months after launch, finperks has already integrated with several platforms. Payment app Flizpay uses finperks to offer brand-funded cashback paid directly into users’ bank accounts at the point of purchase. HR platforms Recardy and Paylo use the system to distribute Germany’s tax-free employee benefits without requiring additional infrastructure. The new funding will be used to expand the company’s engineering team, strengthen brand partnerships, and scale operations across additional European markets.

A recent report reveals that in the past 14-20 months, EIC Scaling Club members have achieved an average funding growth of 66.66 per cent. That is more than double the control group, which saw just 26 per cent growth in the same time period, according to the EIC Scaling Club Impact Report. Supporting Europe’s most promising deeptech scaleups The EIC Scaling Club is an initiative under the EIC Business Acceleration Services,  run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.  The initiative is designed to support Europe’s most promising deeptech scale-ups by increasing visibility, providing access to networks, and offering targeted expert guidance. The program’s portfolio was selected from more than 300 nominations submitted by investors and EU Member State representatives from the EIC programme committee, identifying companies with strong potential to grow towards a €1 billion valuation. Benchmarking for critical comparison The 120 EIC Scaling Club members were benchmarked against 240 deep tech companies that were nominated for the program, eligible, and applied but were not selected due to capacity or geographic constraints. Funding growth refers to how much additional funding a company has raised since joining the Club. In total, the member companies have raised around €2.13 billion since joining the program. This brings the total raised to approximately €5.47 billion across the portfolio to date. The 120 companies in the Club represent an estimated combined valuation of €10-13 billion, with the top 20 companies alone accounting for €4-5 billion. “These results reflect the strength of Europe’s deep tech talent and the importance of sustained support for companies with the potential to scale globally,” said Patrik Sobocki, EIC Board Member and EIC Scaling Club Council Member. Providing high-quality support to them is essential for Europe’s long-term competitiveness. Top scaleups drive €1.67B in new funding across The top 20 companies in the portfolio have achieved 152 per cent funding growth, raising around €1.67 billion in new capital since joining the programme. Companies that raised the most since joining include:   Axelera AI, Netherlands (€361 million), Multiverse Computing, Spain (€254 million), PLD Space, Spain (€206 million), EnduroSat, Bulgaria (€143 million + more undisclosed), Vay Technology, Germany (€90 million), CorPower Ocean, Sweden (€77 million), and cylib, Germany (€63 million). Beyond funding, companies also report strong economic and market impact.The scaleups have created 2182 new jobs and closed 200 strategic partnerships. 76 per cent of members say they've attracted new clients, while 35 per cent have expanded their business outside the EU. “It is a privilege to serve these 120 companies. By continuously monitoring impact, engagement, and satisfaction, we commit to providing meaningful value as they pursue funding, growth, and international opportunities,” said William Stevens, EIC Scaling Club Coordinator, Tech Tour.

Legora, the collaborative AI platform for lawyers, today announced it has raised $550 million at a $5.55 billion valuation in a Series D funding round to accelerate its expansion across the United States. The round was led by Accel, with participation from existing investors Benchmark, Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst, ICONIQ, Redpoint Ventures, and Y Combinator, as well as new investors, including Alkeon Capital, Bain Capital, Firstmark Capital, Menlo Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Sands Capital and Starwood Capital.  The funding round coincides with Legora’s first anniversary in the United States and follows a series of major customer wins and partnerships, including White & Case, Cleary Gottlieb and Goodwin, underscoring the US as a core growth market as legal teams increasingly embed AI into their workflows at scale. Commenting on the funding and US expansion, Max Junestrand, CEO and Co-Founder of Legora, said: “Over the past year, the pace of adoption in the US has exceeded our expectations, as leading firms and in-house teams move decisively from experimentation to embedding AI across their organisations. This funding enables us to accelerate our US growth – investing in talent and infrastructure, strengthening our presence in key markets, and ensuring we can support customers on the ground as they integrate AI into their core workflows.” Less than a year after opening its first US office in New York in March 2025, Legora is expanding its footprint with new offices in Houston and Chicago – two of the country’s most significant legal and commercial hubs – alongside its existing presence in New York and Denver. The company expects to open additional local hubs and grow to more than 300 employees across its US offices by the end of 2026."Max and team are relentlessly focused on building the AI operating system for the legal industry,” said Arun Mathew, Partner at Accel. “As in other service industries, work is quickly shifting to end-to-end workflows run by agents, and more of that work is happening on Legora. We’re excited to partner with Legora as they enter this next stage of growth." Legora’s growth has been driven by its deeply collaborative approach to developing and deploying AI. The company works side by side with clients from the earliest stages of exploration through full-scale rollout and ongoing optimisation, positioning itself as a long-term partner as firms and in-house teams embed AI into mission-critical workflows.Over the past year, Legora has grown from 40 to 400 team members across Stockholm, London, New York, Denver, Sydney, and Bengaluru. The Legora platform supports tens of thousands of lawyers each day across 800 customers in more than 50 markets.Junestrand shared: “We’re incredibly grateful to the legal teams who trust us to support some of their most important work, and to the investors who continue to back our long-term vision. This support enables us to continue building technology that empowers lawyers through seamless collaboration between human expertise and machine intelligence.”

UK-based legaltech platform Avvoka has secured £14 million in growth funding in a round led by Valhalla Ventures, founded by Mark and Lindy O’Hare. Avvoka develops AI-powered drafting infrastructure for law firms, helping legal teams convert legal documents into structured templates that can be reused and refined over time. Its automation engine uses large language models to identify variables, clauses, and conditions, while built-in controls ensure drafts remain consistent with a firm’s established standards. The system is designed to support high-volume legal work that requires high accuracy. The company was founded by former Magic Circle lawyers Eliot Benzecrit and David Howorth, who developed the platform by working with large legal organisations to convert precedent and institutional knowledge into structured drafting systems. Rather than replacing existing processes, Avvoka integrates AI into the rules-based automation frameworks commonly used by law firms. Eliot Benzecrit, co-founder of Avvoka, said advances in AI are changing the pace of legal drafting, as rising client expectations and increasing workloads make traditional document-by-document automation less scalable. He added that law firms increasingly require drafting infrastructure that combines AI capabilities with structured processes, governance, and human oversight in order to maintain quality while scaling output: Avvoka exists to build that infrastructure. We help legal teams turn their knowledge into structured, supervised systems that increase output while protecting their edge. The investment follows recent expansion for the company and comes as law firms increasingly explore operational uses of generative AI. Avvoka has focused on developing infrastructure designed to support structured drafting processes that incorporate governance and oversight. The new funding will be used to expand Avvoka’s presence in the United States and further develop the platform’s capabilities to support high-volume legal work while maintaining consistency.

There was a time when Watson felt like a quiz show champion in search of a business model. When IBM’s AI first dazzled the world on Jeopardy! back in 2011, it became shorthand for machine intelligence itself. Fast forward to 2026, and Watson has now evolved into the far more industrial-sounding IBM watsonx™ and is no longer about headline-grabbing demos. It’s about plumbing. Serious plumbing. The kind that powers enterprise AI at scale. And that, frankly, is far more interesting. At IBM’s recent collaboration event in London with Datavault AI, the message wasn’t about replacing humans with generative chatbots or chasing the latest large language model benchmarks. It was about infrastructure; about building AI systems that organisations can govern, deploy across hybrid environments and actually monetise. In other words, Watson has grown up. From Trivia to Tooling The modern Watson story is embodied in IBM watsonx, IBM’s modular AI platform that combines foundation models, data governance and workflow orchestration. Rather than compete head-to-head with hyperscalers in model size theatrics, IBM has taken a more pragmatic route: build the AI equivalent of enterprise middleware. IBM watsonx™ is split broadly into three layers - model development (watsonx.ai), data governance (watsonx.data) and responsible AI tooling (watsonx.governance). That architecture reflects something many CIOs learned the hard way over the past two years: deploying generative AI inside a regulated enterprise is less about prompts and more about provenance. You can’t just plug a large language model into a bank and hope for the best. IBM’s advantage has always been its relationship with large enterprises - the banks, insurers, telcos, and governments that care deeply about compliance, audit trails, and hybrid cloud compatibility. IBM watsonx leans directly into that heritage. It is designed not just to build models, but to control them: where data flows, how it’s labelled, how outputs are validated, and how bias is monitored. In the current climate - with European regulators circling AI governance frameworks and boards increasingly wary of reputational risk - that focus feels less conservative and more prescient. Ecosystems Over Ego The collaboration with Datavault AI illustrates IBM’s platform approach rather than redefining it. Datavault is using watsonx.ai as part of its broader effort to build AI agents capable of valuing and monetising enterprise data. But the bigger story is not the Nasdaq-listed company itself; it’s IBM’s willingness to act as infrastructure provider, committing engineering resources and solution architects to embed IBM watsonx deeply into partner offerings. This is ecosystem strategy 101. Instead of insisting that every AI workload lives inside a monolithic IBM product suite, IBM watsonx becomes the trusted substrate on which others build specialised applications. That’s smart. Because the AI market is fragmenting fast. There will not be one dominant platform for every use case. Instead, there will be layers: foundation models, orchestration engines, governance frameworks, and vertical applications. IBM is staking its claim firmly in the layers that enterprises cannot afford to get wrong. And data governance, particularly in Europe, is very much one of them. Data as Capital The one theme that stood out during the event was the framing of data not merely as fuel for AI, but as an asset class in its own right. That’s where Datavault’s positioning intersects most clearly with IBM watsonx capabilities. If organisations begin treating data as something that can be priced, licensed, and monetised directly, then the need for robust AI infrastructure becomes even more acute. You cannot assign value to data if you cannot trace it, secure it, and govern its usage. That’s where IBM’s role becomes foundational rather than peripheral. As Datavault AI’s CEO, Nathaniel T. Bradley, put it during the collaboration announcement: We believe this is a strategic inflection point for Datavault AI and marks a significant milestone in our enterprise-scale commercialization roadmap. By integrating IBM watsonx at a technical level and collaborating with IBM, we’re positioned to scale our data monetization platform globally. The quote is telling not because it spotlights Datavault, but because it underscores IBM watsonx’s function as a scaling engine. The subtext is clear: without industrial-grade AI infrastructure, ambitious monetisation strategies remain theoretical. IBM supplies the scaffolding. The Quiet Repositioning of Watson It is worth pausing on how quietly IBM has executed this repositioning. After the early Watson hype cycle faded, critics were quick to label the initiative as over-promising and under-delivering. Yet instead of abandoning the brand, IBM absorbed the lessons and rebuilt. The flashy cognitive computing narrative has been replaced by something more sober - and arguably more durable. IBM watsonx is not trying to be the loudest AI in the room. It is trying to be the most reliable. In a market currently obsessed with model releases and GPU shortages, that may not generate the same buzz as the latest generative breakthrough. But for enterprises writing eight-figure transformation budgets, reliability beats spectacle every time. And in Europe, especially, where digital sovereignty, data residency, and regulatory compliance loom large - IBM’s hybrid cloud DNA gives it a distinct narrative advantage. The Real Test Of course, ambition is one thing; execution is another. The enterprise AI graveyard is already filling up with pilot projects that never scaled beyond PowerPoint. The test for IBM watsonx will be whether it can move beyond partnership announcements and into measurable, repeatable deployments that deliver ROI. But if the recent event signals anything, it’s that IBM understands the moment. AI is no longer a novelty; it is becoming core infrastructure. And infrastructure is where IBM has always been strongest. Watson may have started life answering trivia questions. Now it is attempting something far harder: becoming the operating system for enterprise AI. And if IBM gets that right, the next chapter of Watson’s story may be less glamorous… but far more consequential.

Golf tech startup Hosel is aiming to take a swing at a global second-hand club, equipment, and accessory market valued at $3 billion. Ascension VC has led a pre-seed £500,000 investment round, with a further institutional round and US expansion planned later this year.   With a growing trend among golfers seeking “nearly new” golf clubs, Hosel’s platform helps golfers compare, buy, and trade pre-owned clubs from trusted sellers in a market dominated by non-specialist behemoths like eBay and characterised by issues around pricing, product quality, and counterfeit goods.  As resale becomes increasingly core in retail, and in many cases outstrips the primary market, Hosel plans to modernise golf resale with a modern approach to pricing, authentication, fulfilment, and customer experience.  Hosel, named after the socket that connects the shaft to the club head, aggregates thousands of pre-owned golf clubs from trusted sellers on a single, searchable site, enabling golfers to compare pricing across sellers, buy with authenticity guaranteed, trade in clubs with confidence, and quickly understand fair market value.   Hosel’s co-founder and CEO, Andrew McGinley, previously founded, scaled, and exited care marketplace Care Sourcer before going on to support and mentor hundreds of founders across the Scottish tech ecosystem as an Entrepreneur in Residence at CodeBase.    Co-founder and CTO Charles Harley contributed to app development for Scottish unicorns Skyscanner and FanDuel, before joining FanDuel post acquisition, going on to work alongside McGinley at Care Sourcer.  According to CEO Andrew McGinley, golf is an amazing game, but one of the greatest barriers is cost.  "Whether you’re building your first bag, upgrading your driver, or trading clubs you no longer use, everyone should be able to access the game at a fair price. Essentially, Hosel is about bringing trust and price transparency to golf resale, which is seriously lacking as things stand.  Second-hand golf shouldn’t feel like the Wild West, and by aggregating trusted sellers Hosel is going to be  much better for golfers and the overall long-term health of the game.”  Toyosi Ogedengbe, Principal, Ascension, said:  “Hosel sits at the intersection of two powerful trends: the structural growth of golf participation and the mainstream shift towards recommerce. As avid golfers who experienced the status quo - fragmented sellers, price opacity and a poor customer experience - Andrew and Charles decided to build the infrastructure required to capitalise on this £2 billion plus market opportunity.  We’re excited to back them early in what we believe is the Vinted for golf.”  Lead image: Left to right: Charles Harley, Andrew McGinley, and Duncan Blair of Hosel. Photo: Stewart Attwood.

Swiss bio-materials company Seprify today announced that it has raised €13.4 million in Series A funding to scale their cellulose-based alternative to titanium dioxide used across cosmetics, food and coatings.  The investment is backed by Inter IKEA Group and also includes participation from investors Una Terra Early Growth Fund, Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB), Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Kickfund, and other circular-economy-aligned investors. Seprify’s cellulose platform combines deep process know-how, application expertise and strong intellectual property spanning process, product and end-use applications. Flagship product grades include SilvaLuma, a cellulose-based SPF booster for cosmetics and personal care, and SilvaAlba, a food-grade whitening solution designed as a scalable alternative to titanium dioxide. Supported by Inter IKEA Group, Seprify’s cellulose platform has been validated at TRL 7–9 through hands-on collaboration with industry partners and is now progressing through supplier qualification processes, early commercial contracts and procurement discussions across cosmetics and personal care, food and pet food, and coatings.  The company is currently engaged with more than 100 customer organisations, spanning active evaluations through to early commercial supply. “This funding enables us to focus on execution and scale,” said Lukas Schertel, co-founder and CEO of Seprify.   “Our immediate priority is delivering consistent quality and reliable supply, meeting the operational standards large industrial customers require. In the near term, that means supporting cosmetics and personal care, including suncare, as well as food and pet food. We are also scaling for higher-volume applications such as coatings, inks and printed electronics, reflecting the broader potential of our cellulose platform.” According to Robert Carleke, Innovation Ventures Manager at Inter IKEA Group, IKEA looks for solutions that can realistically replace high-impact incumbent materials while fitting into existing manufacturing and recycling systems. "Seprify’s cellulose platform has reached a level of maturity that makes this a credible path to explore — not only for specific applications such as coatings and surface finishes, but as a scalable materials platform with the consistency and operational readiness required for industrial use. We’re looking forward to this exploratory project.” 

BioInnovation Institute (BII), a Copenhagen-based non-profit innovation hub established by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, is supporting 11 companies through its 12-month Venture Lab programme. Each company receives €500,000 in convertible loan funding, along with access to laboratory infrastructure, mentorship, business expertise, and BII’s investor network of more than 200 national and international investors. BII supports early-stage life science startups and research projects by providing funding, laboratory facilities, mentoring, and business development support aimed at helping translate scientific research into commercial ventures. The institute focuses on areas including human health, biotechnology, and planetary health, with the goal of developing technologies and solutions based on scientific discoveries that address societal and environmental challenges. Commenting on the announcement, Trine Bartholdy, Chief Business Officer at BII, said: Working across human health, planetary health and quantum, these eleven startups are aligned with BII’s mission to enable entrepreneurs to commercialise innovative solutions and technologies that address current and future societal challenges.At BII, we look forward to supporting the startups in bringing their science to life by providing our knowledge, network, funding, and infrastructure to help build successful companies. With the addition of this new cohort, BII has supported a total of 142 companies with €145 million in funding. These companies have collectively attracted around €1.1 billion in external investments and financing. The eleven companies receiving support are: 2D - A spinout from the Technical University of Denmark developing scalable graphene-based technologies aimed at supporting sustainable industrial applications. Vasuqi - A clean water technology company developing light-based solutions to remove complex industrial pollutants and support water reuse. Cerentry - A biotechnology company developing approaches for systemic drug delivery to the brain based on research from the University of Copenhagen (co-financed by the Lundbeck Foundation). Étiquette - A food technology company developing fermentation-based processes to produce alcohol-free wine while maintaining flavour and structure. Combotope Therapeutics - A biotechnology company developing tumour-selective antibodies that target cancer-specific glyco-epitopes to improve precision in cancer therapies. Anorit Medical - A spinout from Aarhus University developing an automated ventilation device designed to assist bystanders in responding to cardiac arrest situations. Equilibrium Diagnostics - A spinout from Aarhus University, developing non-invasive diagnostic tools to assess kidney tubular function in chronic kidney disease. Ibnova Therapeutics - A biotechnology company developing vascularised engineered heart tissue patches aimed at supporting new approaches to heart repair. Heureka Therapeutics - A biotechnology company developing a dual-acting molecule intended to restore liver function in patients with fatty liver disease. 1st Biome - A spinout from the Technical University of Denmark developing next-generation probiotics designed to support improved health outcomes. QFactory - A spinout from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, developing customised quantum systems for advanced sensing technologies. Recently, BII also provided €1.3 million in follow-on funding to five portfolio startups (Synuca Therapeutics, Gefjon Pharma, MicroMiner, DARERL, and Diasense) to support product development, operational scaling, and progress toward market deployment across health, climate, agriculture, and deeptech sectors. Photo credit: BioInnovation Institute

As consumer devices become smaller, smarter and more wearable, one of the most stubborn design challenges remains sound. Traditional speakers rely on mechanical components that take up space, consume power, and limit how small audio hardware can become. Danish company SonicEdge is developing a different approach. The deep-tech company is building MEMS-based micro-speakers, using semiconductor technology to generate sound from a chip rather than a conventional moving driver.  By replacing mechanical structures with a solid-state design, SonicEdge promises smaller speakers with broader bandwidth, higher efficiency, and no mechanical vibration — potentially enabling more compact hearing aids, custom-fit audio devices, and next-generation wearables. I spoke to CEO Dr Moti Margalit, to learn how the technology works and where it could reshape the future of audio. Starting from physics to reinvent small-speaker audio The spark for SonicEdge came from a conversation with his co-founder, Ari Mizrachi, who uses a hearing aid.  “He told me that while it was ‘better than nothing,’ he still couldn’t hear music properly. That complaint is very common." That question sent Margalit back to first principles: how do you generate high-quality sound from a very small speaker? Coming from a background in lasers and electronics, he initially knew little about acoustics. But approaching the problem through fundamental physics eventually led to the ideas that became SonicEdge. From quantum optics to deeptech entrepreneurship Margalit originally comes from electrical engineering. He completed a PhD and then a postdoc in quantum optics at MIT. Over the years, he’s founded several deep-tech companies — in silicon photonics, equipment for solar cell manufacturing, LED packaging and more.  He admits: “I realised that I was always inventing — whether as a founder or in a leadership role.  Today, I hold around 100 patents. One of my early commercial inventions was chip-scale packaging for cameras. That’s the technology used in most front-facing smartphone cameras today. We developed it back in 2007 while I was working for a US company.” In 2010, he worked with another US company that essentially bought ideas.  “We built a global network of inventors. Over several years, we sold hundreds of ideas. Some evolved into patents and commercial products. The original patents behind SonicEdge were actually funded through that company. It took a couple of years before I bought them back and began developing the technology independently, which really started around 2019.” Earbuds: the first proving ground for SonicEdge’s technology While SonicEdge offers a difference across multiple categories — earbuds, hearing aids, glasses, and even larger speakers, the low-hanging fruit is earbuds. Traditional speakers use a membrane that moves back and forth, pushing air to create pressure waves. When you shrink that design, performance drops dramatically. SonicEdge approached it differently. Its speaker consists of thousands of microscopic elements — about the width of a human hair — on a millimetre-scale chip. According to Margalit, very small structures are good at generating ultrasound.  “But humans can’t hear ultrasound. Our key invention is an acoustic modulator. We generate ultrasound — which contains all the necessary pressure variations — and selectively extract the correct pressures at the right time to reconstruct audible sound." Physically speaking, the company has built a very high-speed air pump operating at around 400,000 cycles per second. Traditional membranes operate around 1,000 cycles per second. “Instead of scaling size, we scale speed. That allows us to replace a large membrane with an ultra-fast pump,” explained Margalit. The result is smaller speakers with broader bandwidth, higher efficiency, and no mechanical vibration. And, the tech is patented.  Margalit says the biggest consumer complaint about earbuds is comfort. After one or two hours, they become uncomfortable. Hearing aids, on the other hand, can be worn for 10 hours — but they don’t deliver the same sound quality. The second issue is bandwidth. Most earbuds today don’t reproduce frequencies above 10 kHz well. Some companies are introducing dual-driver systems to improve quality — such as combining a 10 mm and a 6 mm driver — but this increases complexity and size. SonicEdge’s technology enables much smaller form factors while delivering full-spectrum sound up to 20 kHz. It also offers greater comfort, no mechanical vibration, potentially improved noise cancellation, and easier integration and manufacturing for device makers. SonicEdge offers several advantages, including no mechanical vibration, potentially lower power consumption, a slim form factor, and greater flexibility in integration. From earbuds to hearing aids Margalit admits that with multiple potential markets, prioritising is a major challenge.  “We’re a relatively small company with offices in Denmark and Israel. Denmark provides world-class electronics expertise. Israel leads the MEMS development. The earbud market alone is about 300 million units annually — that’s roughly 600 million speakers. It’s a very significant opportunity. Hearing aids are important, but smaller — around 25–30 million units annually. It’s a slower-moving market dominated by five major companies." Interestingly, three of those companies are Danish, and SonicEdge’s investors and board members have deep relationships in that ecosystem. “So we understand the hearing market well. It’s meaningful, but our primary initial focus is earbuds,” shared Margalit. A new approach to in-ear sound Have you ever bought a pair of earbuds – AirPods, Beats, or others – only for them to constantly slip out, fail at noise cancellation, or make running a nightmare? Last year SonicEdge partnered with Earfab to fix this once and for all. Using just images from your phone, Earfab can 3D-scan your ears to create fully custom-fit earbuds, while SonicEdge’s fingertip-sized MEMS deliver unmatched sound quality.  A custom fit sits naturally in the ear, so you can wear earbuds for extended periods without discomfort. A precise seal within the ear canal also improves sound quality. “It creates a closed fit, which enhances bass response, passive noise isolation, and overall acoustic performance,” explained Margalit. The companies also believe their combined approach could simplify the design of high-end audio devices. “In high-end in-ear monitors for musicians, you often find five to ten tiny drivers covering different frequency bands. With our technology, you could potentially replace all of those with a single device.” While the professional audio and custom-fit market may be relatively niche, the companies see it as an ideal proving ground. “It’s not the largest market,” SonicEdge adds, “but it’s an excellent showcase for what the combined technologies can achieve.” Why voice is the future of smart glasses That said, SonicEdge recently secured a multimillion-dollar contract to adapt its speakers for glasses. For years, smart glasses struggled to go mainstream. The main issue was the display and usability.   Most glasses today use traditional micro-speakers, not bone conduction, as many assume. Those speakers must be high-power because of acoustic leakage and privacy constraints. Margalit believes that “If glasses fulfil their promise, they could become as important as smartphones. That’s why Apple, Google, and Meta are investing heavily — they don’t want to lose control of the interface.” He admits: “The glasses opportunity was strategically and financially significant enough that we couldn’t turn it down.” According to Margalit, Meta turned voice into the modality of choice and showed that you don't necessarily need a screen — AI voice assistants can redefine the interaction. “We naturally talk to people. So why not talk to our glasses? They can remind us of things, take notes, and provide context. Voice is central.” For glasses, Margalit contends that there are two main criteria: They must not weigh down the ear.The speaker must fit in a slim, flexible form factor. SonicEdge speakers weigh about 100 milligrams while standard micro-speakers weigh around 1.5 grams. Its thickness is about 1 millimetre.  SonicEdge expects to bring its first products to market in early 2027. After that, it will expand into smartphones and larger form factors like laptops and tablets.

Mantle8, a European natural hydrogen exploration company, has received a €2.06 million grant from the European Union’s Just Transition Fund to support the development of its natural hydrogen exploration technology platform in Grenoble. Founded in 2024 by Emmanuel Masini, Mantle8 develops geoscience-based technologies designed to identify potential natural hydrogen resources and analyse hydrogen-generating systems in the subsurface. The company currently holds several exploration permits associated with potential natural hydrogen reservoirs and is working to advance technologies that could support future hydrogen production. Its programme builds on long-standing geoscience research in Europe, particularly in Grenoble, with the aim of translating scientific work into scalable industrial technologies. The grant will support further development and scaling of the company’s technology platform, including expansion of the HOREX pilot project in Comminges, the establishment of an APoGeH geochemistry laboratory in Grenoble, upgrades to GeoLogix for improved subsurface imaging, and continued development of the Simul8 modelling platform, and Mantle8 also plans to recruit specialised researchers and conduct techno-economic studies with strategic partners. All activities supported by the programme will take place in Grenoble and the wider Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. While the funding does not directly finance exploration campaigns, it is intended to accelerate the industrial development of Mantle8’s technologies so they can be deployed more efficiently and precisely.

Yann LeCun’s much-anticipated new startup, which is developing alternative AI models to large language models (LLMs), has raised more than $1bn in Europe’s largest-ever seed funding round, it has confirmed today. Announcing the funding round, LeCun, the former Meta chief AI scientist and Turing prize winner, said: “We just completed our seed round, one of the largest seeds ever, probably the largest for a European company.” Paris-headquartered Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) Labs, which is less than six months old, is developing AI world models, which reflect the goings-on of the real world. These AI models try to understand physical reality by predicting how the world behaves. This approach is an alternative to LLMs backed by the Silicon Valley giants, which consume vast amounts of data, and then generate outcomes based on the data and a prompt. The size of the funding round in AMI Labs indicates investor appetite for new AI startups, to challenge the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and xAI in the AI race. AMI Labs raised $1.03bn at a $3.5bn valuation, in a round co-led by Paris-based VC firm Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital and Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions. Former Google boss Eric Schmidt and web inventor Tim Berners-Lee are also backing the startup, which is also backed by Nvidia and Samsung. Alexandre LeBrun, former chief executive of French startup Nabla, is the CEO of AMI Labs, with co-founder LeCun, who left Meta last year, serving as executive chair. The startup is looking to build its teams in Paris, New York, Montreal and Singapore.

France-based Qevlar AI, which develops AI technology for security operations centres (SOCs), has raised $30 million in funding for the development of its autonomous AI SOC platform. The round was jointly led by Partech and Forgepoint Capital International, with participation from EQT Ventures. Security operations centre (SOC) teams are handling increasing volumes of threat alerts, which can create operational challenges. Industry analyses suggest that even a small number of attack scenarios may generate large numbers of alerts, and a significant portion of the threat detection and response process is often spent on triage and investigation. As alert volumes grow, many SOC teams are working to manage these demands with limited resources. Qevlar AI has developed a platform designed to automate the investigation process. The system performs tasks such as data enrichment, identifying alert patterns, and generating reports, allowing security analysts to focus more on strategic activities, including threat hunting, incident response planning, and improving overall security posture. The platform uses AI to enrich, correlate, and investigate security signals, helping security teams analyse alerts across multiple systems. According to Qevlar, the technology is used by managed security service providers and large enterprises to identify potential threats, improve investigation consistency, and strengthen operational resilience. Ahmed Achchak, co-founder and CEO of Qevlar AI, said that many security operations centres currently measure success based on the number of alerts handled and how quickly they are resolved. He noted that this reactive approach provides limited insight into an organisation’s overall security posture and that identifying patterns and trends requires a different approach. We’re moving from autonomous alert investigations to an intelligent AI SOC platform that uncovers insights that transform how teams not only deal with alerts, but stop them from recurring. We’re putting out the fire and finding out what started it to make sure it doesn’t happen again, Achchak added. According to the company, organisations using the platform have reported reduced investigation times, continuous automated analysis of alerts, and the ability to review alerts in greater depth while managing increasing alert volumes. The new funding will support further development of the Qevlar platform as it expands beyond alert investigation. The company aims to enable security teams to rely on its autonomous AI system to conduct investigations and generate insights into underlying security issues and helping teams identify root causes, take corrective action, and strengthen overall security posture.

Escape, an offensive security engineering platform, has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round to develop AI agents designed to automate the security lifecycle. The round was led by Balderton, with participation from Uncorrelated Ventures and existing investors IRIS and Y Combinator. Advances in AI have shortened the time between code deployment and the exploitation of software vulnerabilities. While recent industry efforts have focused on securing code within developers’ environments, many security risks arise in live systems where configurations, integrations, authentication flows, and business logic operate in production. Escape was founded by Tristan Kalos (CEO) and Antoine Carossio (CTO) to address limitations in traditional application security models. The company aims to replace legacy scanners and manual offensive security processes with AI agents designed to automate security testing and remediation across the development lifecycle. The platform focuses on what it describes as offensive security engineering, an approach that uses AI agents to identify, test, and remediate vulnerabilities directly within engineering workflows. Escape’s agents automate tasks such as attack surface discovery, continuous security testing, and remediation support, helping teams move more quickly from vulnerability detection to resolution while reducing operational overhead. Security teams are outnumbered and managing siloed, manual processes. In a world where code is written and attacked at the speed of AI, this approach is no longer sustainable. We are building Escape as an offensive security engineering platform designed to address this challenge at scale. said Tristan Kalos, CEO and co-founder of Escape. Escape’s AI agents are designed to operate in live environments, simulating attacker behaviour to identify potential logic flaws and data exposure risks and support remediation before they can be exploited. In a recent analysis, Escape reported identifying more than 2,000 high-impact vulnerabilities across 5,600 publicly available applications generated using automated coding tools. These included 175 cases involving exposure of personal data, with some instances revealing multiple sensitive credentials. According to the company, all of the identified vulnerabilities were present in live production systems and could be discovered within a short timeframe. The new funding will support further development of the platform’s AI agent capabilities, including tools designed to analyse application logic during penetration testing, as well as the expansion of engineering and go-to-market teams as Escape targets enterprise customers in the US and Europe.

February 2026 saw a notable increase in funding compared with January, driven mainly by larger capital inflows rather than a sharp rise in the number of deals. Deal activity reached 296 transactions, up 11.7 per cent from 265 in January, indicating steady but moderate growth in deal volume. The more significant change was in total capital raised, which increased from €5 billion in January to €7.8 billion in February, representing a 56 per cent month-over-month rise. Geographically, funding became more concentrated, with the UK accounting for €3.8 billion, or about 48.7 per cent of total funding in February. At the sector level, transportation attracted €1.5 billion, approximately 19.2 per cent of total funding for the month. Tech.eu’s Cate Lawrence commented on the February numbers within the European tech investment landscape in our February Tech.eu Pulse, a compact version of the monthly report: In February, startups across the continent raised €7.8 billion across 296 deals, up from €5 billion the previous month. But the most telling trend is not the deal count - it is the growing concentration of capital into large, strategic rounds.Still, Europe’s startup ecosystem has never been solely about speed. Increasingly, it is about strategic depth — building technologies that underpin energy systems, mobility networks, healthcare platforms, and digital infrastructure.If February’s numbers tell us anything, it is this: European tech is still scaling - but increasingly, it is scaling the systems that matter. For her more detailed review and more in-depth analyses of the European tech ecosystem, including industry and country performance, exit activities, and more, check out our February report. Here are the 10 largest tech deals in Europe from February, accounting for 61.5 per cent of the month’s total funding. Amount raised: €$1.4B Nscale is a technology company that provides AI-focused cloud and computing infrastructure designed to support large-scale artificial intelligence workloads. Headquartered in London, the company develops and operates high-performance GPU cloud platforms and data centres that enable organisations to train, fine-tune, and deploy AI models efficiently. Nscale has secured a $1.4 billion delayed draw term loan backed by GPUs to fund the purchase of GPU systems linked to multiple signed customer contracts. Amount raised: $1.2B Wayve is a London-based artificial intelligence company developing software for autonomous driving. Founded in 2017, the company builds AI foundation models that enable vehicles to learn how to drive from real-world data rather than relying on detailed maps or hand-coded rules. Its technology, known as an “AI Driver,” uses camera-based perception and machine learning to deliver scalable automated driving capabilities for passenger vehicles, robotaxis, and other mobility applications. Wayve raised $1.2 billion in a Series D round at $8.6B valuation to scale embodied AI for autonomous driving. Amount raised: €975M Eutelsat is a satellite communications company that provides connectivity and broadcasting services worldwide. The company operates a fleet of geostationary satellites and a low-Earth-orbit constellation through its subsidiary OneWeb, delivering video distribution, broadband connectivity, and data services to broadcasters, telecom operators, businesses, and governments across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Eutelsat has signed €975 million in Export Credit Agency (ECA) financing to fund the procurement of new LEO satellites for its OneWeb constellation. Amount raised: $500M ElevenLabs is an AI research and technology company that develops advanced audio and voice generation models. Its platform enables users to create realistic, human-like speech, clone voices, and build conversational voice agents using generative AI. The company’s tools are used by developers, businesses, and content creators for applications such as voiceovers, dubbing, audiobooks, and customer-service automation across multiple languages. ElevenLabs has raised $500 million in a Series D funding round that values the company at $11 billion. Amount raised: $400M Polestar is an automotive manufacturer focused on electric vehicles and performance-oriented design. Founded as a standalone brand in 2017, the company develops and sells battery-electric cars that combine Scandinavian design, advanced technology, and sustainability. Polestar operates globally and aims to accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility through innovative electric vehicle products and digital-first sales and service models. Polestar has secured $400 million in new equity funding to strengthen its balance sheet and improve liquidity. Amount raised: $250M Axelera AI is a Netherlands-based semiconductor company that develops hardware and software platforms to accelerate artificial intelligence applications. Founded in 2021, the company designs AI processing units (AIPUs) and inference accelerators that enable efficient AI deployment at the edge for applications such as computer vision, robotics, industrial automation, and smart devices. Its technology focuses on high-performance and energy-efficient AI computing using proprietary digital in-memory computing architectures. Axelera AI raised more than $250 million in a funding round led by Innovation Industries, with participation from new investor BlackRock. Amount raised: $250M Wayflyer is a fintech company that provides revenue-based financing and analytics tools to e-commerce and consumer brands. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Dublin, the company uses data-driven technology to assess business performance and offer fast, flexible funding that helps companies manage cash flow, purchase inventory, and scale operations. Wayflyer’s platform enables businesses to access capital without giving up equity, with repayments linked to future revenues. Wayflyer secured a $250 million two-year credit facility from ATLAS SP Partners to provide financing directly to founders of small businesses. Amount raised: $220M Olix is a semiconductor startup developing next-generation AI chips designed to improve the efficiency of running artificial intelligence models. The company is building a new class of AI accelerator that integrates SRAM-based architecture with photonics to deliver higher throughput, lower energy use, and reduced costs for AI inference workloads. Olix aims to address the growing compute demands of advanced AI systems by creating alternatives to traditional GPU-based architectures. Olix secured $220 million in new funding, bringing its total funding to approximately $250 million since its launch in 2024. Amount raised: €150M ICEYE is a space technology company that designs, builds, and operates constellations of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites for Earth observation. The company provides high-resolution radar imagery and analytics that can capture images of the Earth day or night and through cloud cover. ICEYE’s data and satellite solutions are used by governments and commercial customers for applications such as disaster response, environmental monitoring, maritime tracking, and security. ICEYE raised €150 million in Series E funding. Amount raised: €150M Quantum Systems is an aerospace and technology company that develops and manufactures autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and aerial intelligence solutions. The company produces electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) drones equipped with advanced sensors and software for data collection and real-time analysis. Its systems are used by government agencies and commercial customers for applications including defence, security, mapping, and geospatial intelligence. Quantum Systems received a financing package of a total value of €150 million to support their continued growth and industrial scaling in Europe.

Cytotrait, a spinout from The University of Manchester focused on developing new traits for food and agricultural applications, has closed a £3 million seed funding round. The round was led by Northern Gritstone, with participation from the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S), managed by Future Planet Capital, and the Northern Universities Ventures Fund, managed by Parkwalk in collaboration with Northern Gritstone. Cytotrait develops technologies aimed at improving crop traits. Its proprietary platform, MOSS (Mutant Organelle Selection System), enables the introduction of genes and gene edits into plant organelles, including chloroplasts and mitochondria. The approach allows researchers to rapidly achieve homoplasmy, meaning the desired genetic change is present across all organelles within a cell or plant. The technology enables gene edits or insertions in plant organelles, supporting the development of new crop traits while addressing technical challenges in plant engineering. It can be applied to both endogenous gene editing and the introduction of transgenes. Cytotrait’s technology has potential applications in areas such as improving crop yield, enhancing resistance to pests and diseases, supporting hybrid crop development, and introducing new food-related traits. It may also contribute to agricultural approaches aimed at improving carbon capture. Dr Junwei Ji, co-founder and executive director of Cytotrait, said the company developed MOSS to help address challenges related to food security and agricultural sustainability. He noted that the technology is designed to support the development of crops with new and enhanced traits while potentially streamlining regulatory pathways. The company plans to use the new funding to expand research programmes focused on wheat, maize, potato, and canola in European and North American markets. These programmes will apply the MOSS platform to explore improvements in crop yield and resilience, the development of new food traits, and approaches that may support more sustainable agricultural practices, including improved carbon sequestration.

Intelligent Legal Solutions (ILS), a global legal technology company building automation software for investment fund lawyers, has secured a seed funding round led by Chicago Ventures, bringing its total funding to more than $3 million. Founded in 2024, ILS was established to address the largely manual nature of post-close fund workflows, an area that has historically seen limited support from modern software. While working in the investment funds teams at firms including Goodwin and Proskauer, co-founders Fergus Plant and Jack McCarthy identified this gap and, together with Stefano Benigni, developed ProVision to introduce greater structure and automation to these processes. ProVision enables private funds teams to manage side letters, and MFN processes more efficiently by consolidating side letters into a single system of record and converting negotiated terms into structured, searchable obligations and elections. The platform also streamlines MFN workflows by generating election forms that automatically track selections. By incorporating AI capabilities and complying with SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR standards, ProVision is designed to reduce manual tracking across emails and spreadsheets while supporting more consistent workflows. It also provides greater visibility into side letter obligations and elections throughout a fund’s lifecycle. Since its launch, ILS has been adopted by more than 10 of the world’s largest law firms. ProVision has processed over 5,000 side letters across more than 450 matters and supported over $150 billion in fundraises. The new investment will support further development of the ProVision platform as the company works toward its product roadmap for 2026.

Saltz, a digital marketplace for the food supply industry, has raised €20 million in Series A funding. The round included investment from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Inovo, Lifeline Ventures, and Change Ventures, along with participation from Mantas Mikuckas (founder of Vinted), Miki Kuusi (founder of Wolt), several Shopify executives, and other strategic angel investors. The company was founded after its team identified how fragmented and largely offline the food distribution sector remains. Restaurants often rely on multiple distributors, face limited pricing transparency, and place orders through manual and time-consuming processes. At the same time, suppliers can struggle to efficiently reach customers or provide additional services such as payment terms and logistics. Saltz aims to address these challenges through a digital marketplace that connects professional kitchens directly with verified food suppliers. Available through a browser and mobile app, the platform consolidates supplier catalogues, ordering, payments, and logistics into a single interface, helping replace fragmented procurement processes. Saltz co-founder Andrius Slimas said the team previously built global B2B marketplaces at Oberlo and Shopify and identified a lack of infrastructure supporting direct cross-border transactions in food distribution. Restaurants and suppliers still rely heavily on intermediaries, wasting time and inflating margins. Saltz is building a transparent, simple marketplace that connects chefs directly with suppliers across Europe and beyond, Slimas added. The platform currently operates across 20 countries, providing chefs with access to thousands of fresh and frozen meat and seafood products. By bringing together suppliers and kitchens on a single platform, Saltz seeks to streamline sourcing and improve transparency in food distribution. With the new funding, the company plans to accelerate its expansion across Europe and further develop the technology supporting cross-border food trade. Over the next year, Saltz also plans to grow its team across engineering, product, sales, and operations as it continues scaling the platform.

A UK startup which has developed software to automate the manufacturing of key component parts for industries, including space, defence and robotics, has raised $50m in a Series A funding round, less than 12 months after its $9m seed round. Isembard, founded by entrepreneur and former army reservist Alexander Fitzgerald in 2024, is creating a network of factories serving key industries, with the aim of showing that Britain can revive its manufacturing prowess.  The startup is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the well-known civil engineer. The startup runs its own and franchise factories, leveraging proprietary software, and aims to deploy dozens of software-driven factories across the UK.   Its software integrates quoting, scheduling, supply chain, manufacturing, quality control and delivery into what it calls a “single intelligent agentic operating layer”.  The capital from the funding round will speed up the startup’s plan to open 25 factories by the end of 2026, expand its engineering teams while launching into Germany, France and Ukraine.  The round was led by Union Square Ventures, an early backer of Twitter and Coinbase. New investors Tamarack Global and IQ Capital participated along with exiting investors Notion Capital and CIV. Angel investors in the round include Alex Bouaziz, founder and CEO of Deel, and Matt Briers, the former Wise CFO.  Fitzgerald, founder and CEO, who previously founded challenger broadband provider Cuckoo, said: “Manufacturing is the origin of our security, prosperity and sense of purpose as nations.   “This Series A enables us to open more factories, invest in MasonOS, support exceptional franchisees and recruit the best engineers across Europe and the United States. Our mission is to forge industrial acceleration.”