Cofounder VC today announced the launch of a new early growth-stage fund that continues the investment activity of the CofounderZone team. The fund will target dynamically growing technology companies with proven market validation and recurring revenue, offering both capital and hands-on operational support to accelerate scaling. Cofounder VC (previously: CofounderZone) is an early-growth venture fund. The fund invests in technology companies that have validated products, growing revenue and a clear path to scaling. Cofounder VC combines capital with operational support from an experienced investment team, Venture Partners and a broad network of business angels. “Innovation’s value shows up only after market validation. At Cofounder VC, we aim to minimise execution risk by investing in the growth phase — when teams have proven demand, repeatable sales and clear momentum,” said Dr Tomasz Golinski, General Partner at Cofounder VC. “At that stage, our capital and operational playbook — especially in sales strategy, market entry and team building — can make a decisive difference. Our Venture Partners and the network of business angels we’ve built over the years are key assets we bring to founders.” The fund is sector-agnostic but leans toward business-process digitisation, sustainability and health tech, targeting companies with at least €100–200k in monthly recurring revenue that are profitable or near break-even. It plans to invest €1–3 million per company across a portfolio of around eight startups, supported by a network of 250+ business angels for deal sourcing and co-investment. The fund will actively support portfolio companies with: International expansion strategy and execution, Building and professionalising sales teams Fundraising and investor relations Organisational scaling and governance Implementing management best practices The team has been strengthened by the addition of Maciej Kowalczyk, founder and manager of Corvus Ventures, and will be supported by a group of Venture Partners — industry and operational experts who will advise deal selection and portfolio development. “Our goal is to bridge the gap between seed financing and later-stage growth capital,” added Michal Sioda, General Partner at Cofounder VC. “We see limited interest from many international VCs in the CEE  region, which leaves a gap for promising companies. We welcome projects that may be overlooked by large foreign funds but have strong potential to scale — and we’re ready to partner with teams that have already demonstrated early commercial success and now want to build something much bigger.” The fund has completed its first closing. Investors include Polish Development Fund, private investors and family offices from Poland and abroad. The fund intends to continue raising capital in the coming months.

Berlin-based Zentio has closed a €1.4 million pre-seed funding round led by HTGF, with additional support from SIVentures. Alongside capital, the investors will provide strategic and operational support for Zentio’s next phase of growth. Industrial companies make thousands of decisions every day, from minor operational adjustments to major strategic shifts, and each choice can trigger ripple effects across the entire value chain. A change in shift scheduling, for example, influences machine utilisation, which affects inventory levels, cash flow, and storage costs. These decisions are highly interdependent, yet no single person or existing system can fully oversee and simulate all these impacts in real time. Most companies lack the resources to analyse every scenario, leading to suboptimal planning, reduced productivity, capital tied up in inventory, missed delivery deadlines, and underused capacity. To move beyond simply digitising existing processes, manufacturers need a new approach that fundamentally changes how decisions are made. Zentio addresses this by enabling AI-native, real-time production planning. Its system structures and centralises operational, machine, and production data through AI agents, creating a self-learning flywheel effect. This depth of shopfloor-level insight helps factories turn operational data into a strategic asset, enhancing productivity, adaptability, and decision-making at scale. As Immo Polewka, co-founder and CCO at Zentio, explains, the best way to bridge this gap is by moving forward: Our vision is to elevate the standard of decision-making in European manufacturing. By combining operational data with mathematical optimisation and agentic automation, companies can plan ahead strategically and respond to disruptions with confidence. This approach allows decision-makers to anticipate capacity needs weeks in advance, respond to machine breakdowns or material shortages with the best available options, and adjust shift schedules or machine settings in real time to increase output and minimise idle time. Founded in 2025, Zentio is working with a network of pilot customers and strategic partners across Europe to advance its vision of AI-native production planning. Our main focus for the coming months is to advance our core mathematical systems and ML pipelines and tie it all together with UX and agents. To achieve this, we’re expanding our team with ambitious engineers who want to join us in building the first generation of AI-native production planning, added Christophe Kafrouni, co-founder and CTO of Zentio. The new funding will enable Zentio to deepen existing partnerships and lay the groundwork for long-term impact across European manufacturing.

This week, Spanish technology company  Internxt launched Internxt AI, a conversational AI tool designed as an ethical and secure alternative to tools like ChatGPT.  Internxt AI prioritises user privacy, total anonymity and strict compliance with European regulations, offering an accessible, sovereign AI experience free from mass surveillance.  This launch aligns with Internxt’s mission to establish itself as the leading brand in online user protection, providing a European alternative to the American tech giants.  Check out our earlier interview with Fran Villalba Segarra, CEO and founder of Internxt.  Most AIs we use daily —such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot— store and reuse data to train models or feed advertising ecosystems. Internxt AI breaks that pattern, offering a 100 per cent private, anonymous and sovereign experience where user information is never stored or shared.  Its technology relies on a unique security infrastructure, with end-to-end encryption and zero-knowledge architecture that prevents even the company itself from accessing user files. Internxt has also integrated post-quantum encryption, based on the NIST-approved Kyber 512 algorithm, designed to withstand future quantum-based cyberattacks. Developed fully on European servers, Internxt AI ensures that all user data remains within EU territory, complying with GDPR and the future EU AI Act. Unlike American competitors, Internxt AI does not track, sell or link data to accounts, enabling completely anonymous interactions. It also does not store anything shared with the system.  “Internxt AI represents the future of European AI: accessible to everyone, but without compromising on privacy,” says Fran Villalba Segarra, CEO and founder of Internxt. “We’ve worked hard to deliver a robust, European, open-source model that advances society with more than twenty billion parameters, offering fast, independent, precise and bias-free responses. It’s time for Europe to lead the AI revolution with ethics at its core.”  According to Villalba, the main features of Internxt AI include:  Absolute Privacy: End-to-end encryption for all conversations; no logs or metadata stored. Guaranteed Anonymity: Access with no registration, no cookies and no user identifiers. European Sovereignty: Hosted exclusively on European infrastructure, ensuring regulatory compliance and preventing cross-border data leaks. Advanced Security: Protection against malicious prompt injections and independent audits to mitigate bias. Accessibility: An intuitive, multilingual interface, including Spanish, is free to use. Power: Capable of handling complex queries in programming, creative writing, data analysis and more, with performance comparable to leading models but optimised for energy efficiency. Internxt is known for its strong commitment to data privacy and sovereignty, meeting the highest standards and certifications (GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC2, ENS, HIIPA) and having received the Spanish Data Protection Agency’s Award for Best Startup.  The company complements its offering with a no-tracking VPN and an intelligent antivirus, and is preparing the launch of Internxt Mail and Internxt Meet, encrypted email and video-calling services that will compete with Gmail and Zoom.

Ghent-based tech scale-up Trendtracker has closed a $7 million Series A funding round led by Armilar, with participation from existing investor Capricorn Partners. The investment will support the further development of Trendtracker’s autonomous AI strategy and foresight platform, which is designed to help organisations streamline strategic research, planning, and decision-making amid growing demand for AI tools that improve how organisations anticipate change and make strategic choices. Founded in 2019, Trendtracker provides an AI-powered strategic and foresight intelligence platform used by enterprises, governments, and consulting firms to monitor their external environment, identify emerging trends, and support the development of forward-looking strategies. Its platform is used by teams at organisations including Siemens, PepsiCo, P&G, PwC, Arthur D. Little, and Ageas. In an environment of constant change and increasing data volume, traditional strategy cycles are becoming less effective. Decision-makers need ongoing visibility into emerging trends that may create risks or opportunities across political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental domains. Trendtracker addresses this need with an always-on, AI-powered strategic intelligence platform that continuously monitors global signals, interprets them in context, and connects developments to their potential strategic impact. This helps organisations and governments act more quickly, make better-informed decisions, and anticipate disruption. Trendtracker’s platform is built on a predictive architecture and a coordinated system of AI agents that continuously detect, score, forecast, and interpret emerging trends by quantifying and explaining a range of impact KPIs. Drawing on this contextual understanding, the system provides leaders with deterministic, explainable, and transparent strategic intelligence on a 24/7 basis. According to Vincent Defour, CEO of Trendtracker, the company aims to reshape how teams working in strategy, risk, insights, innovation, and foresight operate. The AI doesn't just look at the past, but actively models strategic recommendations, predicting the future for businesses. Our technology functions as a strategic sparring partner, enhancing leadership judgment without supplanting it. Combining advanced AI with foresight expertise, Trendtracker positions itself as an autonomous AI strategy and foresight partner, helping organisations detect change earlier, understand its implications more deeply, and make informed decisions about their future direction. With a global customer base, Trendtracker plans to use the new capital to further develop its AI Analyst architecture, enhancing its multi-agent systems to automatically map organisational environments, analyse key sources of uncertainty, generate scenario-based forecasts, and recommend prescriptive strategic actions with clear rationale. The company will also accelerate its expansion in the US and the Middle East, supported by new strategic partnerships and a stronger local presence. In addition, Trendtracker intends to deepen its integrations and alliances with consulting firms, strategy and innovation platforms, global data providers, enterprise partners, and public-sector organisations, while scaling its hybrid team with senior talent in AI, foresight, engineering, and commercial leadership.

London-based VC firm Hiro Capital has snapped up two high-profile individuals from the European tech scene, as it launches a new fund targeting the European scaleup gap.Nick Clegg, the former deputy PM and former Meta executive, is joining as general partner and Meta's outgoing chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, is joining Hiro Capital’s advisory board.The pair join as the VC firm launches a new UK and Europe-focused fund targeting the scaleup gap, a long-standing issue which sees European founders struggle to get scaling up capital across the continent.The London and Luxembourg-based firm’s new fund, called Hiro lll, is a multi-stage fund deploying cheques of between €5m and €50m.It will focus on an array of sectors including spatial AI, robotics, immersive computing and defence. The fund aims to raise more than $500m, according to reports.The VC, founded in 2018, has previously invested in gaming and metaverse companies in the UK, Europe and North America.Hiro Capital was founded by Luke Alvarez, the co-founder of Inspire Entertainment, the Nasdaq-listed games and virtual sports firm, Sir Ian Livingstone, former chairman of the studio behind the game Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Cherry Freeman, the co-founder of crafts marketplace LoveCrafts. It is unclear how many hours Clegg, who served as Meta's president of global affairs, will be dedicating to the role.Clegg said: “I joined Hiro because I share with the founders a belief in the rise of immersive computing and Spatial AI. We will move from staring at the internet, to living in the internet. "We are right in the early stages of that platform shift with the convergence of spatial technologies and next-generation world model AIs. Unlike other funds, Hiro is wholly focused on those themes, entirely within Europe."This is an amazing moment of opportunity for the UK/Europe’s tech ecosystem. We have some of the most outstanding researchers and universities on the planet, and great engineers and entrepreneurs, too. Our problem is not a lack of innovation, it is a lack of capital at scale. "Europe may have its critics, but we have a vibrant start-up scene which is now ready to accelerate – I believe the Hiro team has the unique geographic and technological reach to help make that happen.”LeCun, who is French, said: "I am delighted to be joining the Hiro advisory board. We are entering a new phase of AI – an era of systems which can understand the physical world, have persistent memory and which can reason and plan complex actions. "Hiro's track record of investing in spatial technologies, 3D tech, wearables and gaming means they are exceptionally well placed to capitalise on this new wave of opportunity in Europe."

Living in Germany, rubbish sorting is a big part of daily life. Do it incorrectly and your neighbours won’t hesitate to correct you, and repeat offenders may even risk a fine.  But even in cities with collection systems, huge volumes of plastic, glass, metal, paper and cardboard end up in mixed waste and go straight to landfills or incineration. In fact, the European Environment Agency reports that the overall waste recycling rate in Europe remains below 50 per cent, meaning most municipal waste is still treated by landfill or incineration rather than recycling.​ Further, PlasticsEurope estimates that about 65 per cent of post‑consumer plastic waste collected in Europe is sent to landfill or incineration instead of being recycled, despite widespread separate collection systems.​ It’s bad. But now a Ukrainian startup called Recycle has found a way to turn trash into cash. It runs a platform (and app) called Recycle that helps people, businesses and estate/condominium associations turn sorted waste into income by selling recyclable materials. I met the company at a recent trip to Ukraine for TechChill Kyiv, where I sat down with co-founder Anton Ustimenko.   How an office sorting problem sparked Recycle Ustimenko originally comes from the game-development sector. In 2010, he launched an outsourcing company and secured several major contracts over the years.  Recycle is the consequence of a problem his team faced. He recalled: “We opened a very cool office in the city centre in Kyiv. And of course, we tried to sort our waste, and we couldn’t manage it efficiently.  But every problem for the IT sector is an opportunity. We started to investigate how the market works, and this is how Recycle was started.” Sell sorted waste in a few taps Recycle incentivises people to sort waste by paying them money.  “People buy packaging, so why should they have to pay again when they sort it? It’s real goods — they can sell it. But right now, people pay again, just for removal. But it has real value, and they can earn money,” shared Ustimenko. And it’s done through a simple, intuitive process. Ustimenko explained: “We make the process of selling recyclables very simple —it’s completed in just a few taps. You create an order, and all the recycling companies that want to buy it make bids. You choose the best price and agree. A  certified recycler then picks up the sorted waste and pays you for it. It’s very easy. They don’t have to deal with the complexity. We take that away.” Recycle currently has over 300 active clients. An example is homeware retailer Jysk, which has over 100 stores across Ukraine, and sells its recyclables through the app. The startup takes a commission from the transaction. Focusing on high-value streams: paper, PET, HDPE, metal and glass Because some materials are far easier and more profitable to recover than others, Recycle zeroes in on the highest-value streams first. “We work with waste paper and plastics — at the moment, two main types: PET (type 1) and HDPE (type 2) — as well as metal cans and glass. Essentially, anything that can be recycled,” he explained. “Polypropylene (PP) is a challenge. There are many different grades of PP, and it’s quite difficult for recycling companies to process. That’s why we’re currently looking for a solution. But even if people simply start sorting the two most common plastics separately from the start, it already makes a big difference.” In addition, Recycle aims to convince recycling companies that buying well-sorted waste is much cheaper than post-sorting.  “Even the 'yellow bins,’  where people put all plastics together, are too expensive to sort. So, separate sorting is key to real recycling. Anything else is not really recycling,” asserts Ustimenko. “Good traction and a good pace” Ustimenko admits, “I’ve never heard of a model like this either, but it works. And we gained traction very quickly. We’ve been operating for more than half a year, and I think we have good traction and a good pace. Our steady growth is around 20 per cent per month, sometimes even higher.” He plans that Recycle will become profitable in a year, and after that, "I think we’ll be interesting for investors. Every investor wants traction — real paying customers — not endless pilots that never convert. We have real clients. And we almost don’t have churn — maybe one or two clients stopped using us, but not because of any bad story. Their circumstances just changed.” The startup is currently operational only in Ukraine due to regulatory requirements. Ustimenko explained that going to another market will take a few months of preparation: “For every transaction and every deal, we have to generate all the documentation, ecological compliance and accounting compliance and adjust our app to local legislative requirements. It’s not a tough task, but it takes time." However, Recycle’s next goal is Poland, and then Bulgaria. The company also plans to keep scaling in the Ukrainian market.  Further, through its charity arm, Recycle has partnered with TiKO fund to launch a program called “Sort for the Children of Ukraine.” This initiative sets up sorting stations in schools and kindergartens. The waste collected is sold, and proceeds go to support children in orphanages, boarding homes, as well as children with disabilities or in palliative care. Lead image: freepik

Barclays is investing in United Fintech, joining four other big banks, which have invested in the fintech group. Barclays is joining Citi, Danske Bank, BNP Paribas and Standard Chartered which have invested in United Fintech. London-headquartered United Fintech, founded in 2020, acquires and scales fintechs across commercial banking and capital markets, as it looks to serve the needs of its financial clients. In total, it has acquired seven fintechs, including Cobalt, FairXchange, TTMZero, Athena Systems and NetDania. This year, it said it made its biggest purchase to date. Financial details of the strategic investment by Barclays in United Fintech, in which it will take a stake, were not disclosed. Barclays will now join United Fintech’s board of directors. The investment by Barclays will be used to fund further acquisitions. United Fintech has 11 offices including in London, New York, Copenhagen, Singapore and the UAE and employs more than 200 people. Christian Frahm, CEO, founder, United Fintech, said: “We are very excited to welcome Barclays as our fifth global bank investor. “With AI accelerating across financial services, industry-wide collaboration has never been more important. "With Barclays now onboard, we further strengthen our industry-wide adoption, and United Fintech is well on its way to becoming the trusted ecosystem for enabling that collaboration."

Berlin-based Mondu, a provider of B2B payment solutions, has secured a €100 million debt facility from J.P. Morgan Payments to scale its offering and support its expansion across Europe. Founded in 2021 by Malte Huffmann, Philipp Povel, and Gil Danziger, Mondu provides B2B payment solutions designed to simplify business transactions across Europe. With a focus on flexibility, convenience, and security, the company supports both online and offline payments, helping businesses improve growth and operational efficiency. Mondu holds an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license, enabling it to operate in all EU markets. Mondu has also joined the J.P. Morgan Payments Partner Network, through which it will offer its deferred payment solutions for accounts payable and receivable to J.P. Morgan Payments’ corporate clients in Europe via a referral program. The collaboration is intended to give these clients easier access to flexible payment options that can support cash flow, sales, and payment process efficiency. Philipp Povel, co-CEO of Mondu, said the company is excited to be partnering with an industry-leading institution like J.P. Morgan Payments: This debt facility and strategic collaboration are a significant validation of our business model and our vision to simplify the financial lives of businesses. The capital will allow us to accelerate our growth and support more businesses across Europe with our innovative B2B payment solutions. Joining the J.P. Morgan Payments Partner Network will be a great driver of our expansion in Europe, and we look forward to working with their team and customers. The B2B e-commerce market is expanding rapidly, with the European segment alone expected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2025. Alongside this growth, demand for modern and flexible payment methods is increasing. The European Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) market is projected to grow from $191.3 billion in 2025 to around $293.7 billion by 2030, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.0 per cent. The collaboration between Mondu and J.P. Morgan Payments aims to address this trend by offering businesses enhanced financial flexibility and improved access to flexible B2B payment options throughout Europe.

A University of Cambridge quantum computing spinout, which is building the infrastructure needed for scaling quantum computers, says it has raised the largest ever quantum Series A in the UK.Nu Quantum has raised $60m in a funding round led by National Grid Partners, the VC unit of National Grid, with participation from Gresham House Ventures and Morpheus Ventures. Existing investors, including Amadeus Capital Partners, IQ Capital, Ahren Capital and Cambridge Enterprise Ventures also took part.Nu Quantum says the round was the largest quantum Series A in the UK to date. Quantum computing has long been touted as the next big technology wave. It can solve problems too difficult for normal computers and makes it possible to carry out complex calculations very quickly.Founded in 2018, Nu Quantum is a spinout of the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. In 2023, the company raised £8.5 million pre-series A round.The company says quantum applications require systems that are thousands of times more powerful than those available today and that its networking architecture will unlock data centre-scale quantum computing by weaving together quantum processors to accelerate the path to transformational utility.It says it will use the funding for future product development and international expansion, including expanding its presence in Europe and the US.Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, founder, CEO, Nu Quantum, said: “When we launched seven years ago, very few were thinking about networked or distributed quantum computing as a strategy for scaling, but we saw it as one of the most urgent and challenging outstanding problems in the industry, and set out to solve it.“We’ve made great strides in shaping the market and the technology since then."Steve Smith, chief strategy and regulation officer, National Grid and president of National Grid Partners, said: “We are closer to quantum computing having an impact on businesses and lives than many people think.”

London-based Matta, an industrial AI spin-out from the University of Cambridge, has raised $14M in seed funding to transform how products are designed and manufactured. The round was led by Lakestar, with participation from Giant Ventures, RedSeed VC, InMotion Ventures, 1st Kind (Peugeot family), Unruly Capital, and Boost VC, alongside grant support from Innovate UK and the Royal Academy of Engineering. After decades of deindustrialisation, many factories are now exposed to geopolitical shocks and under pressure to deliver more with fewer resources. At the same time, energy costs are rising, supply chains remain fragile, and workforces are ageing. Manufacturers are being asked to reshore, decarbonise, and operate with fewer skilled workers. Workforce gaps and increasing operational costs are becoming common across Europe, and the US. Matta offers a practical way to improve productivity, quality, and resilience on today’s shop floors. The company develops AI that learns the physical rules of production and applies them directly on the line. Its first product uses unsupervised and self-supervised computer vision to automate quality control and anomaly detection, perform measurements, diagnose root causes, and recommend corrective actions in real time. A central platform allows teams to monitor every camera, analyse results, and trace parts across the factory, giving live visibility into issues and bottlenecks. Matta delivers this as a plug-and-play system that combines hardware, factory integration, AI research, and software. Most deployments become operational within hours, with cameras inspecting automatically after a short learning period. Manufacturing still runs on human know-how, the kind that lets someone on the line kick a machine just right, or run a finger over a scratch, and say, ‘that’s thirty-four microns wide.’ We’re using AI to capture and scale that tacit knowledge, so engineers can design things that actually work in the real world. It’s time to manufacture the impossible, explains Doug Brion, Co-founder and CEO of Matta. Matta’s AI enables factories to monitor, analyse, and optimise their operations in real time, learning any production line within days. It detects defects, identifies root causes, and helps teams address issues before they become costly. The technology is general-purpose and highly adaptable, operating across sectors such as electronics, automotive, defence, and apparel, and integrating with manual inspection stations, conveyor lines, and robotic systems. Beyond defect detection, Matta also collaborates with OEMs to enable machines to adjust their own settings. The new investment will accelerate the rollout of Matta’s technology, enhance its AI capabilities, expand self-serve deployment, and support the company’s entry into key manufacturing regions in Europe and the US as it pursues increasingly autonomous, end-to-end production.

U2V (University2Ventures) has completed the first closing of its €60 million Fund I, with support from corporates including anchor LP Jungheinrich via Uplift Ventures, alongside family offices, serial entrepreneurs and industry executives. The fund aims to support teams turning Europe’s research into commercially viable deeptech companies, helping to bridge academia and industry while contributing to Europe’s technological sovereignty and resilience. Founded by Philipp Semmer, Michael Schmitt and Johannes Triebs, U2V brings together scientific, technical and commercial expertise, providing capital, strategic support, industry connections and operational guidance to help companies scale. The founding team has more than 30 years of combined venture experience and a track record of backing over 50 startups and achieving more than 10 exits across previous funds (Earlybird-X and Motu Ventures), with portfolio companies including Quantum Diamonds, Greenlyte, Ncodin, Certivity, Twaice and LiveEO. U2V has proprietary access to leading European tech universities and ecosystems, including TU Munich, ETH Zurich, RWTH Aachen, École Polytechnique, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Imperial College London, DTU Denmark and Politecnico di Milano, alongside an industrial network of more than 500 corporate partners. This combination enables structured go-to-market pathways and early pilot customers for portfolio companies. Through close collaboration with technology transfer offices and corporate innovation units, U2V aims to accelerate commercialisation and follow-on funding rounds. According to Dr. Philipp Semmer, Founding Partner at U2V, Europe excels at generating scientific breakthroughs but still faces challenges in turning them into global companies. With U2V we’re fostering a substantial change here: we help scientists become entrepreneurs, linking research, capital and corporate partners to build Europe’s next generation of category-defining deeptech startups. U2V, with Fund I, aims to back up to 25 pre-seed and seed startups across Europe in AI and novel computing, industrial technologies and cleantech, building a deeptech spin-off platform that helps turn university-originated technologies into commercially viable industrial solutions.

Amsterdam-based coffee company Wakuli has closed a Series A round of €5 million in debt and equity from ECBF and Rabobank. Including earlier participation from the ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund and Icecat Capital, the company has now raised a total of €9.25 million. Founded in 2019 by Yorick Bruins and Lukas Grosfeld, Wakuli focuses on giving farmers greater control and reducing exploitation in the coffee supply chain. Initially launched as an online subscription brand, it now operates 20 coffee bars across the Netherlands while continuing to grow its digital business. Wakuli’s model is based on the view that farmer income and climate impact are closely linked. The company maintains that farmers can only adopt regenerative agricultural practices if they have access to a stable, long-term living income from committed buyers. Over the past five years, Wakuli has worked with more than 16,000 farmers across 13 countries, paying among the highest prices in their respective regions. It has maintained relationships with most of these farmers throughout this period, including in challenging regions such as the DRC, Myanmar and East Timor, providing a more reliable and sustainable income stream. This financial stability enables farmers to invest in climate-friendly methods. Recent research by the nova-Institute indicates that Wakuli’s regenerative approach results in emissions of just 0.30–0.60 kg CO₂ per kg of green coffee, representing a reduction of 57–89 per cent compared with conventional agriculture. Some partner farms even achieve net-negative emissions through carbon sequestration in trees and soil. These reductions are achieved by phasing out synthetic fertilisers, implementing shade-grown agroforestry systems, restoring soil health through organic management and minimising pesticide use. According to Wakuli, such practices are feasible because farmers have the financial capacity to prioritise long-term soil health over short-term yield maximisation. The company plans to use the funding to accelerate the opening of new locations in the Netherlands and to launch its first international outposts.

Berlin-based cleantech startup FION Energy has closed a €1.4 million pre-seed funding round, led by HTGF and Norrsken Evolve, with participation from experienced business angels. Most industrial companies want to reduce their energy costs but face significant technical complexity and high operational effort. FION addresses this by offering an end-to-end solution, from site analysis and system sizing to procurement and installation of turnkey battery systems, followed by ongoing operation. Founded in 2025 in Berlin, FION Energy focuses on making industrial battery storage systems economical and easy to use through manufacturer-independent project development and AI-optimised real-time operation. FION uses battery storage systems to increase flexibility in industrial energy demand, providing manufacturer-agnostic, AI-controlled solutions designed for economically optimised operation. The company’s proprietary AI dispatch engine learns consumption patterns, reads tariffs and market prices, and autonomously controls the battery. This helps smooth load peaks, reduce grid fees and enable price arbitrage without additional effort for plant operators, resulting in potential electricity cost reductions of up to 50 per cent. According to Philipp Hamm, co-founder and Managing Director of FION Energy, Europe’s industrial sector is increasingly disadvantaged by high electricity costs: With FION, energy becomes predictable and profitable again – our AI turns battery storage into a real competitive advantage. FION targets industrial companies with an annual electricity consumption of more than 2 GWh. Several battery systems are already installed at industrial customer sites, with further projects in Germany and across the EU in development. The new capital will be used to accelerate roll-out, further develop the platform and expand the team, with the goal of lowering energy costs and strengthening industrial sites. FION’s broader mission is to turn energy into a competitive advantage for industry and help make production in Europe economically attractive again.

Ignite Next today announced its launch as Europe’s new scaleup program for deep tech innovation, designed to bridge the gap between early-stage founders and industrial-scale success. Headquartered in Dresden, the heart of Silicon Saxony, and created by the team behind the renowned Intel Ignite program, now independently operated, Ignite Next introduces a new collaborative model that brings together leading global technology players, including Infineon and Intel, to support the continent’s most ambitious deep tech founders. I spoke to Markus Bohl, CEO and co-founder of Ignite, to learn about it. Bridging the gap between science and industry to solve Europe’s scaleup problem Europe’s deep tech startups face a persistent challenge: strong scientific foundations and early funding, but limited industrial collaboration and scaleup support. Ignite Next directly addresses this gap between innovation and market success, enabling founders to reach commercial scale faster through direct access to relevant industry expertise and decision makers from strategic partners. Rather than operating as a traditional accelerator, Ignite Next positions itself as the missing link between startups and industry — a hands-on, non-dilutive program helping founders scale IP-heavy breakthrough technologies from Pre-Seed to Series B and beyond. Each three-month cohort provides deep technical mentorship, commercial validation, and investor engagement, helping startups reach product-market fit, go-to-market readiness, and Series A and B funding faster. “We’re building the bridge that Europe’s deep tech founders have long needed,” shared Bohl.  A multi-partner model built for frontier tech Ignite Next’s independent structure allows the team to work with multiple partners and engage far more deeply across frontier technologies — from semiconductors, photonics and advanced manufacturing to robotics, AI and quantum computing. Although operating independently, Ignite Next has the support of key partners, including Intel and Infineon, enabling the programme to stay closely connected to the industry while maintaining full strategic flexibility. According to Bohl: The blueprint stays the same: it’s non-dilutive, we don’t take equity, we don’t charge, we don’t sell. Our North Star is founder success.” The only metric that matters: progress Bohl says the clearest proxy for success at this stage—anything from seed to Series A — is whether startups secure follow-on funding and continue to progress. “Because we only work with breakthrough, IP-heavy innovation, it takes years to judge commercial success,” he explained. “So the best proxy is simple: did they get funded, and did they move forward?” A smaller conversion metric is whether the startups make it to the next round — graduation from seed to Series A.  Currently Ignite Next graduates are north of 70 per cent.  “The market average is maybe 25–30 per cent. Not all our companies are due for a Series A yet, but that’s how we track it. Eventually, it’s also about how the startups themselves assess it — whether they say it was successful, ” explained Bohl. The model has already proven itself. Alumni from the Ignite model include Black Semiconductor, Proxima Fusion, Corintis, Quantum Diamonds, Cerabyte, and Space Forge - each proving Europe’s outstanding capabilities in frontier technologies. Ignite Next’s investment mode Ignite Next’s non-dilutive, founder-first structure ensures startups can scale without sacrificing ownership, while its high-touch approach - guided by more than 300 senior industry mentors - gives founders direct access to technical expertise, market insight, and investor readiness support. In contrast to the classic accelerator model, Ignite Next’s new fund won’t operate on small cheques exchanged for automatic equity stakes. “We’re not doing the usual ‘give me 7 per cent, and I give you €20k or €50k,’” Bohl explained. “We will invest real money at the valuation after the program.” Because Ignite Next sources its companies directly from deep-tech research ecosystems, the pipeline is “already highly curated,” he said. The fund won’t lead rounds, but will act as a de-risking or conviction ticket alongside other investors. And despite working with major corporates, Bohl stresses it is not a corporate venture arm. “CVCs invest either for strategic or purely financial reasons. We are independent. But corporates are free to invest in the fund if they want to benefit from the work they’re already doing with the startups — that’s up to them.” Fast decisions, high standards Each cohort is highly selective, typically drawing over 300 applications for just ten places. Startups are mostly referred to the program by leading venture capital investors and chosen for their potential to become Europe’s next scaleup success stories.  And applicants aren’t left waiting for a decision. According to Bohl, “it’s basically a fast-track yes/no. We couldn’t do this at Intel due to the internal structure. Now we can. It’s exciting.” Cooling, compute, and the infrastructure frontier Beyond the program mechanics, Bohl sees macro-level opportunities emerging across the deep-tech stack. He believes some of the most transformative opportunities sit far below the application layer — in the physics of infrastructure.   “If you do anything with cooling in a data centre today, you are the king of the hill — and you will be for the foreseeable future,” he said. It’s why Ignite Next focuses on breakthrough IP rather than incremental improvements. “When you have four or five of the eight world experts in a field, defensibility is high, and competition is low,” Bohl explained. “It’s a hard journey, but if these companies make it, they become wildly successful.” Breakthrough innovation doesn’t happen over a beer Most of the startups entering the programme are the product of years — often decades — of research. “They come from university labs, research institutions, or operators,” he said. “We had a Philips spinout where the technology had been developed for 15 years. It’s people’s life’s work. These technologies don’t get invented over a beer. They come from the lab.” Bringing these founders together can be intimidating. “You’re in a room with PhDs who have multiple PhDs,” he joked. “But the technology is rarely the problem. The real challenge is turning that technology into a solution someone will pay for.” Foundational technologies often have dozens of potential applications — automotive, robotics, industrial automation — and that breadth can be fatal for young teams. “If you’re 10–20 people with €5 million, trying to chase everything will kill you,” Bohl said. Part of Ignite Next’s role is helping founders make disciplined choices. “We bring in industry experts who can say, ‘Go this direction, not automotive,’ or, ‘Go automotive, but with this angle,’” he explained. “They understand the bottlenecks, the pricing, the hidden dynamics. They also know what corporates are building internally — and sometimes the founders realise a startup has already outperformed the internal team.” The ‘end of the beginning’: where the real work happens One of my frustrations as a journalist with a history of writing about industrial tech is that while there are an abundance of pilots partnering startups with OEMs, few translate to commercial opportunities. Bohl is familiar with this pain point and, as a result, during the 12-week program, teams identify several concrete opportunities: “After the program — the “end of the beginning”—the real work starts. We call it value creation. Most of the work is strategic: building new business units, unlocking new joint opportunities, not cost-saving projects. When things work well, it’s a combination of startup tech + corporate tech + an end customer urgently needing the joint solution. Everyone wins. That's when scale happens, because these companies need a lot of capital and must grow on the shoulders of giants. We also help them understand precisely where they fit in the value chain — what they do, what they don’t do, what their right to exist is.” Coachability is a competitive advantage According to Bohl, the best founders are super-technical, straight from the lab, geeks — and they want to commercialise.  “But you don’t always get that. So you augment the team.  That creates culture clashes. Bringing in a seasoned sales veteran with industry expectations can be difficult. Chemistry is critical. We insist on a chemistry check before adding senior hires. If it doesn’t click, nothing works.” Further, he contends that “Senior hires—especially sales—are good at selling themselves. Scientists can’t always evaluate that.”  He shared that founders must also think ahead:  “What will be my job in two years? In five years? What do I need to learn to stay a CEO? Roles change. The roadmap is long — fusion companies, for example, will spend decades together. We look for coachability.” Additional corporate and institutional partners are set to join in the coming months, further strengthening Ignite Next’s value proposition to founders. All partnerships are long-term, offering startups sustained support while reinforcing a lasting commitment to Europe’s deep tech ecosystem and supply chain resilience.

Real-time generative media platform fal today announced a $140 million Series D financing, bringing its funding to over $400 million. Türkiye-founded, fal is an infrastructure layer for real-time AI-generated content, enabling developers and enterprises to run any model—open-source, private, or commercial—through a single, ultra-low-latency serverless API. The platform automatically scales globally and eliminates DevOps overhead, allowing teams to deploy generative applications in minutes rather than months. Today, fal powers millions of developers and hundreds of enterprise teams across commerce, design, entertainment, and emerging AI-native categories. Customers rely on Fal for applications ranging from real-time video generation to hyper-personalised media, immersive creative tools, and advertising workflows. The financing follows the $125 million Series C announced in July 2025 for fal. At that time, the company had more than tripled its revenue since 2024 and surpassed 2+ million developers using the platform. The company previously raised $49 million in Series B funding in February this year. Demand has continued to accelerate at historic speed: fal has more than doubled its run-rate in four months. Developer and enterprise usage surged further, with billions of real-time generative assets served monthly across image, video, audio, and 3D. Team size tripled in 2025, as the company scaled engineering, product, and go-to-market teams to meet global demand. fal also completed one strategic acquisition and launched multiple new product lines, expanding its reach across real-time AI workflows. The round is led by Sequoia, with participation from Kleiner Perkins and new investment from NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm, and Alkeon Capital. The round also includes continued support from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Kindred Ventures, Meritech, Bessemer Venture Partners, Notable Capital, Shopify Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and others. “Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins and NVentures joining fal is a powerful signal about where generative media is heading—and who is going to define it,” said Burkay Gur, co-founder and CEO of fal. “Developers and enterprises are building entirely new categories of applications around real-time, personalised, generative content. fal is the infrastructure that makes that possible at a global scale.” “fal's momentum has been undeniable—developers and enterprises kept telling us they were the platform to use for creating media with AI,” said Sonya Huang, Partner at Sequoia. “As inference is one of the largest technology markets and video its most demanding slice, fal's speed, model selection, and workflow and collaboration features position them to define the category. We’re proud to back a team enabling high‑quality, AI‑generated video at scale.” The Series D funding will accelerate hiring across go-to-market and engineering, support the continued development of new product lines, and expand fal’s global infrastructure footprint to meet the rapidly rising demand.

Sprouty, an AI-powered parenting assistant, has raised $550,000 in a seed round from AltaIR Capital to accelerate growth, expand into new markets, and advance its mission of providing parents with reliable, empathetic support from birth to age two. Parenting stress is a widespread issue, and parental burnout has been documented in many countries. Recent studies indicate that in more individualistic societies, where extended-family support is less common, parental burnout tends to be higher on average. These pressures are particularly strong in the early years of parenting, when disrupted sleep, new responsibilities, and work–family demands make everyday life more challenging. As a result, many parents look for solutions that reduce uncertainty and lighten their day-to-day load. Sprouty was created to address these needs. Designed for families with children from birth to age two, the app combines evidence-based guidance, daily micro-exercises designed by paediatricians, and personalised recommendations to help parents navigate early childhood. It offers clear, reliable information about a baby’s development and reduces mental load by consolidating key tools in one place, including feeding, sleep, diaper and routine tracking, evidence-based articles, and milestone guidance, within a supportive user experience. One feature uses AI to estimate the likely reason for a baby’s crying, with reported accuracy above 80 per cent. The parenting market renews itself every day — every moment, someone becomes a parent for the first time. Our focus is to make sure the new parents stepping into this journey can easily find trustworthy support, explains co-founder and CEO Dmitry Rumbeshta. Founded in Europe, with its core team based in the UK and Cyprus, Sprouty is used by 1.7 million families across Europe, North America, Australia, and Latin America, with growth to date occurring organically. The company will use the seed funding to expand its global presence, strengthen its user acquisition efforts, and extend its product offering to support children from birth to age three.

European tech companies experienced a cooler investment climate in November 2025, as total funding dropped to €4.6 billion across 271 deals, down sharply from October’s €8.3 billion and also November 2024’s €5.2 billion. Despite the slowdown, several key markets maintained strong momentum. The UK led all countries with €1.25 billion in investments, followed by Germany (€673.5 million), the Netherlands (€620.5 million), France (€553.2 million) and Switzerland (€425.8 million), underscoring a continued concentration of capital in Europe’s largest tech ecosystems. From an industry perspective, fintech remained the most heavily funded sector with €1.2 billion, reaffirming its position as a cornerstone of European tech. Transportation (€452 million) and software (€448.2 million) also attracted substantial investor interest, reflecting ongoing demand for mobility innovation and digital transformation solutions. Sebastian Peck, Founding Partner at KOMPAS VC, commented on the November numbers within the European tech investment landscape in our November Tech.eu Pulse, a compact version of the monthly report: November saw massive commitment from major VCs, including Aspirity Partners closing an €875M debut fund for B2B tech champions, Sofinnova Partners securing €650M for biopharma and medtech breakthroughs, and Future Energy Ventures raising €205M for the next wave of energy innovation.At KOMPAS VC, we see this shift reflected across the regions we invest in. Europe’s competitive edge will increasingly come from companies addressing core industrial challenges, improving productivity, driving decarbonisation, and building resilience across supply chains and critical infrastructure.These are the technologies that will define a competitive and sustainable economy over the next decade. For his 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 November report. Here are the 10 largest tech deals in Europe from November, accounting for 50 per cent of the month’s total funding. Amount raised: £500M Capital on Tap is a UK-based fintech company that provides small and medium-sized businesses with fast, flexible access to credit. Through its business credit card and integrated spend-management platform, the company offers credit limits of up to £250,000, unlimited 1% cashback, no annual or foreign exchange fees, and tools for issuing virtual or employee cards. Capital on Tap enables businesses to track expenses in real time, integrate with accounting software, and manage cash flow more efficiently. Since its launch, the company has helped over 200,000 businesses streamline their finances and access the funding needed to grow. Capital on Tap closed “London Cards 3,” its third asset-backed securitisation (ABS), a £500 million funding facility backed by its business credit card receivables. Amount raised: €430M Picnic is a Dutch online supermarket that operates entirely through its mobile app, offering a full range of groceries delivered directly to customers’ homes. Using electric delivery vehicles and data-driven route planning, the company provides efficient, low-cost, and environmentally friendly deliveries. Picnic focuses on affordability by keeping prices low, eliminating unnecessary overhead, and offering free delivery with scheduled time slots. Picnic has secured €430 million from existing investors and is directing a significant portion of the funding toward expanding its operations in Germany. Amount raised: €300M Spotawheel is a digital platform for buying and leasing high-quality used cars, designed to make the process transparent, reliable, and accessible. The company sources vehicles through a data-driven selection process and conducts comprehensive technical inspections, providing customers with detailed reports and a clear history for each car. Through its online marketplace, users can browse certified, accident-free vehicles, arrange test drives, and complete purchases or subscriptions entirely online. Operating across several European markets, the company aims to simplify the used-car experience while ensuring trust and value for customers. Spotawheel raised €300 million in combined debt and equity financingwhich will to expand its presence across Europe and grow its subscription fleet. Amount raised: €220M HoloSolis is a solar energy company focused on rebuilding large-scale solar PV manufacturing in Europe by producing low-carbon, high-efficiency PV cells and modules domestically. The company is developing one of Europe’s largest solar gigafactories in Sarreguemines-Hambach, France, designed to reach an annual capacity of 5 GW, enough to supply around one million homes. Using advanced n-type TOPCon technology that avoids rare critical metals, HoloSolis aims to deliver high performance with a lower environmental footprint. HoloSolis secured €220 million in public and private financing, with the aim of strengthening EU energy sovereignty, cutting carbon emissions, and supporting the clean energy transition. Amount raised: €180M Quantum Systems is an aerospace and aerial-data intelligence company that specialises in the development, design, and production of advanced electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) that combine multi-sensor data collection with AI-backed real-time processing. Serving both commercial and defence clients, Quantum Systems delivers drone platforms used for geospatial mapping, security, public safety, humanitarian, industrial, and defence operations. With global operations and a dual-use mandate, Quantum Systems has positioned itself as a leading provider of unmanned aerial intelligence platforms for both civilian and defence-oriented markets worldwide. Quantum Systems raised €180 million in a Series C Extension to accelerate its AI, software, and hardware development across all domains, connected by the multi-domain mission software MOSAIC UXS. Amount raised: $175M PayZilch (often known simply as “Zilch”) is a UK-based fintech company offering a flexible “buy now, pay later” payment platform that lets consumers split purchases into interest-free instalments or pay in full to earn rewards. Through its app, users receive a virtual payment card that works globally where Visa is accepted; they can choose to pay upfront and receive up to 5 per cent cashback, or spread payments over six weeks or three months. PayZilch is designed to offer an alternative to traditional credit cards, with no annual fees and a simpler, transparent payment model, making shopping more flexible and manageable while helping users build credit over time. Zilch raised over $175 million in an equity and debt funding round as it eyes acquisition targets. Amount raised: $170M Flatpay is a fintech company that provides straightforward, flat-rate payment solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. Its offering includes in-store card terminals, point-of-sale systems, and online payment tools, all designed to eliminate hidden fees and complex pricing structures. By combining simple hardware, intuitive software, and reliable service, Flatpay aims to help businesses streamline transactions, reduce administrative burdens, and manage their finances more efficiently across the Nordics and beyond. After securing $170 million in funding, Flatpay has become the country’s latest unicorn. Amount raised: $150M Distalmotion is a medical-technology company dedicated to expanding access to robotic-assisted surgery by simplifying its adoption for hospitals and outpatient centres worldwide. Its flagship product, the DEXTER® Robotic Surgery System, is a compact, mobile surgical robot designed for soft-tissue procedures that integrates seamlessly into existing operating rooms without requiring structural changes. DEXTER combines the precision and dexterity of robotic surgery with the flexibility of laparoscopic techniques, offering surgeons ergonomic, wristed instruments, a sterile console for bedside access, and an open architecture compatible with existing visualisation and laparoscopic devices. With regulatory approvals in Europe and the United States, and a growing number of installations at hospitals and ambulatory surgery centres, Distalmotion aims to make minimally invasive, robot-assisted care more widely and affordably available. Distalmotion closed a $150 million Series G funding round, which will be used primarily to accelerate US commercial adoption of DEXTER as well as to support ongoing clinical and product development initiatives. Amount raised: €100M Ferroelectric Memory Company (FMC) is a semiconductor firm that develops next-generation memory technologies, notably its proprietary hafnium-oxide-based solutions. FMC’s product lineup includes DRAM+ and CACHE+ memory chips, which combine the speed of DRAM with the persistence of non-volatile storage. Through its innovations, FMC positions itself as a European memory-tech pioneer, aiming to enable scalable, energy-efficient memory infrastructures for the next generation of AI, cloud, industrial and edge computing environments. FMC raised €100 million to set new standards in memory chips with its highly innovative technology. Amount raised: €100M NestAI is a Finnish “physical AI” lab that builds next-generation technology for real-world, mission-critical applications. Positioned as “a lab for the brilliant and the bold,” it focuses on solving significant human and societal problems, emphasising curiosity, boundary-pushing innovation, and a culture of humility, accountability, and creativity. The company develops advanced AI systems for unmanned vehicles, autonomous operations, and data-centric command-and-control platforms used in areas such as logistics, inspection, security, and defence, to strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty in critical infrastructure and defence. NestAI has raised €100 million in new funding, which it will use to establish a physical artificial intelligence laboratory and to develop autonomous vehicles and command-and-control systems for defence applications.

KBC Group is investing €100 million through Start it @KBC to strengthen the Belgian startup ecosystem. This investment also launches a new fund (the Start it Fund) aimed at early-stage financing for top-tier startups from the accelerator program, addressing a long-standing demand from founders.  Thanks to this fund, these startups can count on capital and guidance to accelerate their growth. The very best will also have the opportunity to receive additional follow-up financing at a later stage. In this way, KBC Securities and Start it @KBC together offer a unique trajectory: from the first ideas to a potential IPO. “Start it @KBC originated eleven years ago within KBC itself - from the same entrepreneurial DNA that lies at the core of our organisation,” says Johan Thijs, CEO of KBC Group. “What began as a small initiative has grown into Belgium’s largest startup ecosystem. Entrepreneurship is in our genes: KBC was co-founded by entrepreneurs and stimulates innovation both outside and within the organisation. Today, we are among the most innovative and digital-driven banks in the world, and our close collaboration with Start it @KBC fuels that ambition every single day. With the new fund, we can now truly support founders from idea to IPO: we support them not only with knowledge and a network but also with capital tailored to their growth ambitions. Together, we are building an ecosystem where innovation, entrepreneurship, and international ambition take centre stage." "Every year, around 1,000 startups apply to join us, a number that continues to rise. This allows us to be increasingly selective, and quality continues to grow. For eleven years, we’ve been building an ecosystem with founders, for founders. We already had coaching, community, and a European ecosystem - only one thing was missing: investing ourselves at the early stage. We are now filling that gap, at the request of founders, and in a way that centres them,” says Lode Uytterschaut, founder and CEO of Start it @KBC. The “no equity” philosophy at the start of the Start it @KBC program remains unchanged, but the opportunity to invest is now added through a new early-stage fund managed by Start it itself: the Start it Fund. While other accelerators offer small amounts at fixed terms at the start, the Start it Fund offers only the top 1 per cent of all applications at the end of their program a larger sum, depending on the needs and stage of the start-up. Start-ups are entirely free to accept the funding. On average, the fund invests €300,000 at early stage, although the amount may be higher in some cases. The very best of the selected startups also have the chance to receive further follow-up financing of up to €5 million through KBC Securities. According to Tim Derycke, Head of Investment Services & KBC Focus Fund at KBC Securities: “With KBC Securities, we offer not only follow-up financing but also access to the venture capital experience and technological expertise of our investment team. In addition, KBC Securities provides added value for the further growth of companies: from M&A advice and financing solutions to guidance during an IPO. With this integrated approach, we offer founders a unique ecosystem of support and financing – an offering unmatched in Belgium.” Of the 1,923 startups Start it @KBC has supported since 2014, 227 have raised more than €1 million, and 122 have raised more than €2 million. Together, they have raised over €1.1 billion and created more than 12,000 jobs, making the ecosystem one of the largest employers in Belgium.  Start it @KBC startups also perform very well in terms of survival rate: after five years, about 73 per cent still exist, compared to an international benchmark of 51 per cent for startups that raise venture capital. Among the biggest success stories are well-known names such as Aikido Security, Bolt, Loop Earplugs, Conveo, Keyrock, Segments.ai, Crazy Games, and Wondr/Planet B.

Assaia, the Zurich-based aviation technology company, has raised $26.6 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round led by Armira Growth, alongside existing investors. As air traffic volumes surpass pre-pandemic levels and airports face staffing constraints and tighter operational margins, the industry is increasingly prioritising intelligent automation to strengthen resilience and improve efficiency. Assaia’s AI platform supports this shift by reducing turnaround times and enabling more effective planning across airside operations. Assaia uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to give airports and airlines full visibility and control over aircraft turnaround operations. Its solutions help predict issues, automate key processes, and enhance operational performance, contributing to safer, faster and more sustainable airport environments. Christiaan Hen, CEO of Assaia, said the funding marks an important new stage for the company, noting that airports and airlines are turning to AI more than ever to address growing operational pressures. With Armira’s backing, we are accelerating the rollout of new technologies and expanding our footprint to deliver measurable value in some of the world’s most complex airport environments. Assaia’s technology, designed to optimise the aircraft turnaround process through real-time visibility and automation across apron operations, is already deployed at major international hubs including New York JFK, London Heathrow, Dubai International, and Toronto Pearson. At these airports, it supports reduced delays, improved on-time performance and better gate utilisation. The new capital will allow Assaia to scale its AI platform globally and launch additional solutions aimed at improving efficiency for airports, airlines and ground handlers. A portion of the funding will support the rollout of the next-generation StandManager, a planning module that uses AI to optimise gate and stand assignments before aircraft land, enhancing predictability and gate utilisation in congested and high-volume environments.

The co-founder of AI infrastructure startup Nebius says its strategy is to build as many of its own data centres as it can, saying it plans to "build and control as much as possible”.  Nebius, which is sometimes referred to as a neocloud, is backed by Nvidia. It builds and operates data centres, packing them with GPUs, then offers access to these data centres to AI and enterprise companies needing compute power, as well as offering them specialised software to run AI applications. This year, Amsterdam-headquartered Nebius has signed blockbuster deals with Microsoft, worth over $17bn, and Meta, worth $3bn, to supply them with AI infrastructure and compute power. In the podcast, Roman Chernin, co-founder and chief growth officer, Nebius, discusses the two blockbuster deals and some of its other AI and enterprise clients. He also talks about Nebius’s approach to housing data centres, whether it would build more of its own or co-locate. Chernin said: “Our strategy is long-term build and control as much as possible, and I think in a few years from now, the majority of the fleet will be run on physical infrastructure that is ours. But in the meantime, we are obviously partnering with others just to move faster.” Elsewhere in the podcast, Chernin discusses data centre energy demands, Nebius’s green credentials, and its plans for the next few years.