Early-stage investment firm Anthemis and Cambridge AI Venture Partners (CAIVP), as well as a team comprised of industry experts Sir Andy Hopper, Prof Rob Mullins, Dr Gavin Ferris and Mike Halsall, today announce the launch of CommonAI, a collaborative engineering and computing platform for AI-enabled start-ups, enterprises, engineers, academics and investors. CommonAI combines the deep AI knowledge of CAIVP with the investment expertise of Anthemis to turbocharge the UK and European AI innovation ecosystem.  It seeks to tackle the key challenges and barriers startups and enterprises face, allowing them to innovate safely and cost-effectively, reduce their reliance on Big Tech and secure the strategic investment critical to seizing the AI growth opportunity. Through CommonAI membership, AI-enabled start-ups and enterprises will gain access to world-class IP, including models, weights, framework software, training data and hardware designs, while also gaining affordable access to critical GPU resources. Together, these capabilities will allow UK and European businesses to develop AI-enabled propositions that can successfully compete at a global scale. At the heart of the initiative is a non-profit engineering organisation – Common AI CIC – a UK community interest company that will co-develop foundational AI IP in partnership with its members.  The platform additionally provides access to CommonAI Compute Ltd – a facilitator of cost-effective GPU resource.  Both entities will be underpinned by a shared Digital Commons repository, providing world-class resources to ecosystem members under time embargo. According to Dr Gavin Ferris, CEO, CommonAI CIC, increasingly, AI startups and SMEs find themselves unable to assemble the computing power, technology and strategic resources necessary to successfully compete on the world stage: “CommonAI’s innovation platform, shared IP and industry expertise will play a critical role in levelling this playing field, unlocking new growth opportunities and protecting the long-term economic future of both the UK and Europe. ‘Structuring and governing our engineering organisation as an unconflicted Community Interest Company (CIC) ensures that the interests of our members are protected while encouraging collaboration and maximising the potential of the UK AI ecosystem.’ Sir Andy Hopper, Board Chair, CommonAI CIC contends that with Big Tech’s dominance over large-scale AI models and infrastructure, startups are being denied access to this burgeoning opportunity – and even larger enterprises face the challenge of balancing their innovation agenda with the resources required to power their core business: “By enabling ‘Virtual BigCos’ and unleashing the latent power of our entrepreneurs – and working in partnership with leading engineering talent, research institutions and universities – businesses of all scales in our economy can access the capabilities and expertise they need to thrive on the global stage.” Following the launch of the CommonAI platform, Anthemis intends to raise a “High Assurance AI” fund to invest in UK and European startups that are applying AI in highly regulated and complex industries such as financial services, healthcare, critical infrastructure and defence.  This is the first in a planned series of CommonAI-branded funds that aim to extend the traditional VC offering by providing portfolio companies access not only to capital but also to the transformative technology support of the foundational CommonAI platform. According to Anthemis Founder and Group CEO, Amy Nauiokas, the platform offers a space around which stakeholders can coalesce to deliver meaningful impact.  “We are building an AI ecosystem to drive forward action – one that clears the barriers to accessing the opportunities presented by a new wave of innovation and combines deep expertise, cutting-edge technology, cheaper compute and access to smart, supportive capital.Getting this right is critical to the UK and Europe’s economic future and we’re excited about the prospect of working alongside our partners and members to build the next generation of industry champions.’

Romanian-founded startup DRUID AI today announced it has secured $31 million in Series C financing to advance the global expansion of its enterprise-ready agentic AI platform under the leadership of its new CEO, Joseph Kim.  DRUID AI is an end-to-end enterprise agentic AI platform that enables rapid development and deployment of AI Agents to automate business processes and enhance access to enterprise knowledge. DRUID Agents deliver personalised, secure, and omnichannel experiences while seamlessly integrating with existing systems, apps, and RPA technologies—empowering businesses to operate smarter, faster, and more efficiently. Founded in 2018, DRUID AI has powered over one billion conversations across more than 4,000 AI Agents and supports 300+ clients globally. “This investment is both a testament to DRUID AI’s success and a catalyst to elevate businesses globally through the power of agentic AI,” said Kim.  “Customer success is what it’s all about, and delivering real business outcomes requires understanding companies’ pain points and introducing innovations that help those customers address their complex challenges.That’s the DRUID AI way, and now we’re bringing it to the world through this new phase of global growth.” Cipio Partners led the investment, with participation from TQ Ventures, Karma Ventures, Smedvig, and Hoxton Ventures. Roland Dennert, managing partner at Cipio Partners, explained: “DRUID AI aligns perfectly with our investment strategy – offering a differentiated, AI-based product in a vast and rapidly growing market.  Our investment will help accelerate DRUID AI’s expansion into the US and elsewhere, fuel further technological advancements, and strengthen its position as a global leader in enterprise AI solutions.”  Kim has more than two decades of operating executive experience in application, infrastructure, and security industries. Most recently, he was CEO of Sumo Logic. He serves on the boards of directors of SmartBear and Andela. In addition, he was a senior operating partner at private equity firm Francisco Partners, CPTO at Citrix, SolarWinds, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and chief architect at GE. DRUID AI is trusted by more than 300 global clients across banking, financial services, government, healthcare, higher education, manufacturing, retail, and telecommunications. Leading organisations such as AXA Insurance, Carrefour, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Georgia Southern University, Kmart Australia, Liberty Global Group, MatrixCare, National Health Service, and Orange Auchan have adopted DRUID AI to redefine the way they operate.

Genoskin, a Contract Research Organisation (CRO) developing ex vivo human skin platforms capable of testing injected drugs and implanted medical devices, today announces it has raised $8.7 million in its first funding round. Genoskin provides a scalable and sustainable alternative to animal testing. By leveraging donated human skin and its proprietary preservation technology, the company provides live immunocompetent *ex vivo *platforms that remain viable for up to seven days post-surgery, enabling more predictive, human-relevant testing than traditional animal or engineered models.  The models generate large-scale datasets through multiomics approaches, which are further analysed using AI and advanced bioinformatics to deliver meaningful insights into the toxicity and efficacy of tested products in humans.  Backed by a robust IP portfolio, an established tissue sourcing network and a proven scalable service model, Genoskin’s solutions deliver translational human-relevant insights that improve predictability and regulatory acceptance.  This combination gives Genoskin a unique competitive advantage in supplying biopharma, cosmetics and cell and gene companies with models that reflect human physiology, especially for skin-related delivery routes such as injectables, including vaccines and topically administered therapeutics. OCCTE (FPCI Occidev Impacts) led the investment round, alongside Captech Santé, GSO Innovation and CA Toulouse 31 Initiatives. It includes 5.4 million in equity investment and with $3.3 million (€3M) in non-dilutive financing in structured bank debt, provided by Bpifrance and local banking partners: BNP Paribas, Caisse d’Epargne Midi-Pyrénées and Crédit Agricole. “As a company built on ethical innovation, we are proud to offer sustainable, human-relevant alternatives to animal testing. This investment validates our strategy and reinforces our position as a leader in predictive immunotoxicology using live human skin models,” said Pascal Descargues, Ph.D., CEO of Genoskin.   “With the support of our investors, Genoskin is well-positioned to drive meaningful change in how biotherapies are developed, ultimately bringing safer treatments to patients worldwide.” “We are proud to support Genoskin, a company that perfectly embodies our mission to invest in local innovators delivering sustainable solutions with global reach. Genoskin’s technology offers an ethical, scalable alternative to animal testing and pursues a growth strategy that aligns strongly with our values of economic resilience and scientific impact,” said Julien Gomis, managing partner at OCCTE. “ Captech Santé is pleased to contribute to the financing of Genoskin, a company capable of setting new global standards in the development of injectable drugs and that already counts most major global pharmaceutical companies among its clients,” added Alexandre Demailly, investor at Captech Santé. As part of this round, Genoskin welcomes to its Board of Directors: Julien Gomis (OCCTE), Alexandre Demailly (Captech Santé), Emmanuelle Ostiari (OCCTE), and Anaïs Raluy (GSO/CAT31i). The financing will drive Genoskin’s next phase of growth and support further staff recruitment, with a view to doubling the size of the company within the next three years and to expanding Genoskin’s commercial presence in key global markets. This will include new strategic hires in Europe and Asia by 2026. Genoskin plans to launch new immune-centric service offerings by 2027 and strengthen its scientific and regulatory leadership with the development of biosimulation platforms and novel human immune models to reduce reliance on animal testing. Genoskin will also scale up operations through industrial automation and increased production capacity in both the US and France, by moving into its two updated and expanded facilities - in Salem, MA, in 2026 and in Toulouse, France, in 2027. This will double the production of skin models and launch the production of fresh human primary mast cells for next-day delivery in the US. Lead image: Freepik.

SEON, a Hungarian-American software provider focused on fraud prevention and AML compliance, has announced the close of its $80 million Series C round. The investment was led by Sixth Street Growth with participation from existing investors IVP, Creandum and Firebolt, and new investors including Hearst. This round brings SEON’s total funding to $187 million and accelerates adoption in North America alongside further global expansion. SEON will advance its AI-powered product development and support strategic talent acquisition. SEON’s fraud prevention solution analyses customer interactions daily for key fraud indicators. SEON’s platform enables customer onboarding, scalable compliance and advanced fraud prevention via its API. "Our mission has always been clear: to enable companies to prevent fraud without impeding legitimate growth," said Tamas Kadar, Co-founder and CEO at SEON. "This investment allows us to continue serving the critical market need for fraud prevention and AML solutions that can scale at the speed of modern digital commerce. With global fraud losses exceeding billions annually, we are tackling a fundamental challenge facing businesses worldwide." The startup's customers include Revolut, Plaid, Nubank, Afterpay, Spotify and Entain. As part of the investment, Michael Bauer, Managing Director, Sixth Street Growth, will join SEON's Board of Directors and Claire Zhang, Principal, Sixth Street Growth, will serve as a Board Observer. "Fraud is growing at an unprecedented pace in the age of AI, and businesses need better defenses. SEON has built a command center for fraud prevention and AML compliance that empowers organisations to combat bad actors without impeding real customer transactions," said Bauer. As fraud tactics become increasingly sophisticated and regulatory requirements intensify globally, there is a rising enterprise demand for unified solutions.

German-based BIOWEG, a company developing high-performance, biodegradable ingredients to replace intentionally added acrylic polymer based microplastics, has closed a €16 million Series A round. The round was led by Axeleo Capital - Green Tech Industry Fund, joined by the EIC Fund, NBank Capital, BonVenture, and seed investor Dr.-Ing. Frank Jenner. To date, BIOWEG has raised €22 million to accelerate market entry and expand its footprint across Europe. Founded in 2019 by Dr. Prateek Mahalwar and Srinivas Karuturi, BIOWEG utilises precision fermentation to convert food-industry byproducts into bacterial cellulose, which is refined using green chemistry into drop-in alternatives to fossil-based polymers. The company operates a pilot production facility in Quakenbrück with a capacity of up to six tonnes, alongside a material science, formulation, and applications lab on Bayer Crop Science’s campus in Monheim. As Europe phases out intentionally added fossil-based microplastics, supply chains in the personal care, home care, pharmaceutical, and agricultural sectors are undergoing rapid change. Companies now require compliant, high-performance ingredients manufactured at scale within the EU, a demand BIOWEG is uniquely positioned to meet while enabling straightforward reformulation. To support this transition, BIOWEG is designing a new plant that will scale from its current 6,000-litre fermentation capacity to large-volume production. Co-located with a major sugar producer in Germany, the facility will leverage feedstock synergies and reduce operating costs. Meanwhile, the company will upgrade its Quakenbrück pilot line to serve near-term customer orders during construction and expand its commercial, regulatory, and production teams to accelerate growth across the European market. Dr Prateek Mahalwar, Co-founder and CEO of BIOWEG, shared: Today’s funding allows us to move decisively into industrial manufacturing and to support customers as they transition away from microplastics. Our focus is on matching and expanding polymer-level performance with bio-based, biodegradable ingredients produced at European scale. The newly secured funding will drive scale-up, commercialisation, and the construction of BIOWEG’s first-of-its-kind bacterial cellulose plant in Germany. This step marks the transition from pilot to industrial production and positions the company to meet rising demand from industrial customers for sustainable, microplastics-free ingredients.

Italian startup Pack has closed a €3.5 million funding round to strengthen its product, add new AI-driven features, and expand its team. The round was led by Rialto VC, the Italian venture capital fund which combines strategic expertise in corporate governance, digital innovation, and scaling technology companies. The round was also supported by the team led by Giulia Bianchi Frangipane of Bonelli Erede, with senior associate Enrico Goitre assisting Pack in the legal structuring of the transaction. Pack is an HR tech startup that helps companies develop and enhance human capital through its all-in-one platform. Founded in 2022 by Pietro Maria Picogna and Giacomo Gentili, it already partners with more than 80 multinationals. Pack was created to address the growing complexity of people development by mapping skills, fostering agile and aware teams, and preparing organisations for future challenges. Its platform integrates skill mapping, digital assessments, and personalized growth paths, including coaching, mentoring, and targeted training, supported by an AI-driven monitoring system that continuously measures progress and business impact. Its mission is to empower organizations to grow by building more agile, aware, and future-ready teams. Giacomo Gentili, Pack’s co-founder, noted that companies everywhere are confronting, or soon will confront, the complex challenge of managing human capital, and what they need is not just a supplier but a genuine partner to support them through this transformation.

Like many people worldwide, I have worked remotely for over a decade, so I'm always interested to learn about software that makes my life easier.  Native Teams is a global platform that makes it easy to handle work payments and employment. It's built to support both companies and the people behind them. More than just an Employer of Record (EOR), Native Teams offers end-to-end tools for hiring worldwide, expanding into new markets, and managing multi-currency payments for employees and freelancers — while staying fully compliant. With Native Teams, businesses can get more out of every dollar and cut down on admin work thanks to simple, scalable solutions. Already trusted by 3000+ companies in over 85 countries, Native Teams makes global employment straightforward, compliant, and people-first. Today Native Teams launches Entity Management – the all-in-one solution that enables businesses to set up, manage, and control multiple entities from a single dashboard. It also helps significantly cut expansion costs and simplify compliance workflows across markets.  I spoke to Jack Thorogood, founder and CEO of Native Teams, to learn about the biggest shifts, challenges, and opportunities in remote work. Skills outweigh geography in remote work era Since its founding in 2020, Thorogood has observed three levels at which changes have been most significant: the employee level, the employer level, and even the country level. From an employee perspective, the barriers to good remote jobs have come down a lot. People can now work from anywhere and still expect to find high-quality jobs.  "Before, there was more of a trade-off between location and the quality of jobs available. The pandemic really accelerated that shift,” he shared. From the employer's perspective, there is now a much greater understanding that location matters far less than it used to.  He admits, “You still see the occasional story about a big company forcing people back into the office, but generally employers recognise that if the internet connection is stable and communication skills are strong, location is irrelevant." "Even time zones are less of a barrier than before. For example, my co-founder recently spent a month working from Vietnam — starting her day on the beach, then working seamlessly with the rest of the team.” At the country level, Thorogood has seen a narrowing of pay gaps over the last 15 years. While salaries are still not the same everywhere, the gap has decreased, especially for certain roles and levels of responsibility. Location is increasingly disconnected from salary. I remember the first time I visited Ukraine — a developer picked me up in a Maserati because he was being paid US wages. That's no longer the case; wages have evened out. According to Thorogood, the same has happened in India.  “It’s one of the biggest benefits of distributed teams and gig work — it has improved quality of life and increased tax receipts in many countries. If you look at the world through the lens of the greatest good for the greatest number, and people’s lives are improving, then this shift is hugely positive.” According to Thorogood, these changes couldn't have happened without the rise of software to support them. “It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation: the demand for better tools drove developers to build them, and the existence of those tools made remote work easier. Many of the categories of tools have been around for years, just under different names. Today we use Slack, Google Workspace, and Asana." "Back when I started, we were using ICQ, then Skype, and Basecamp instead of Asana. The point is, as long as the tools are cloud-based, they enable remote work.” Thorogood contends that the limitations usually come from companies that are still tied to on-premises software.  “That creates friction: either it slows their transition to distributed work, or it makes remote workers feel like second-class citizens because they can’t access certain systems unless they’re physically in the office.” He believes that looking ahead, AI will play a big role in making remote work smoother.  “One of the biggest challenges is collaboration, and AI can help with better note-taking, automated action points, and smarter prompts after meetings. These kinds of tools will make collaboration more seamless and remove some of the remaining frictions in distributed work.” Addressing a common market gap Workers today have more options and mobility than ever before. Freelancers want flexibility, and companies need to adapt. With this in mind, tax and employment classifications have always been a priority for Native Teams, according to Thorogood, “because the rules are always changing." Freelancers who aren't on top of this risk falling foul of new regulations, and employers can run into issues too. Employers want flexible labour — and freelancers want flexibility. "But neither side wants a freelancer to suddenly be reclassified as a full-time employee.” This becomes even more challenging as companies scale.  As global hiring and company operations become standard practice, many companies struggle with the costly and complex challenge of managing admin and compliance across multiple countries.  Native Teams Entity Management gives much greater flexibility for global payments and operations, including setting up new legal entities and onboarding existing ones to the platform. This brings centralised management to international work payments, compliance and workflows, and also provides full control over businesses' global infrastructures.  Key Entity Management features New entity setup with full administrative and legal support. Onboarding existing entities into one streamlined and consistent dashboard. Centralised management of work payments, contracts, and compliance. Local advisory support for country-specific laws and regular monthly obligations. Benefits for global businesses. Owned employment structure in hiring countries. Greater visibility and control over the global workforce. Reduced long-term operational costs. Minimised legal risks. According to Thorogood, Entity Management helps organisations as they scale, and their priorities shift towards more cost efficiency and operational control. “Entity Management is purpose-built to support that evolution. We aim to be the right partner at the right time, helping our clients transition from fast, flexible solutions to more permanent, scalable setups as their needs change. Our goal is to give our clients the right solution, and help them grow. When clients come to us asking for the most effective way to employ and pay their teams across borders, we're able to provide a much broader range of answers." Solving the two sides of payments: movement of money and documentation Years ago, most freelancers and remote workers relied on platforms like  PayPal and lost money through conversions and fees. Native Teams offers a multi-currency wallet and payments system that lets businesses and freelancers easily send, receive, and manage money across borders. Users can hold and convert different currencies in one wallet, fund it via bank transfer, card, PayPal, or Payoneer, and pay employees or contractors worldwide — even in batches. The platform provides IBAN/SWIFT accounts for seamless transfers, supports physical and virtual payment cards, and includes expense tracking with full transparency on fees, taxes, and salaries. This makes global payroll, contractor payments, and cross-border expenses simple, compliant, and efficient. Thorogood explained that payments really have two sides: “First there physical movement of money. We focus on making that as smooth as possible, because it can still be a point of friction. Services like Wise and Revolut cover a lot of ground here, but we approached this from an employee-first perspective.” He recalled that when Native Teams started in the Balkans, they saw how poorly smaller countries and currencies were served: “Imagine you’re a Macedonian developer with a bank account in denars. With Native Teams, they can invoice in USD, convert with zero or minimal commission (depending on their plan), and receive the funds in local currency. That removes a lot of friction." The second side is documentation. In many countries, an employee’s bank requires paperwork that explains where the money came from and in the right format.  If the documentation isn’t provided, the money sits in limbo until the bank approves it. So localised documentation is just as important as the underlying payment rails. Without it, the payment can’t be completed. The new digital divide In the past, we talked about the “digital divide” — people who could manage technology versus those who couldn’t. Now there’s another divide: people who can thrive in remote work versus those who struggle.  Today many people start their careers as remote workers. However, Thorogood contends that not everyone has the skills to succeed in a remote environment: “It’s not about technical ability — it’s about communication, self-management, and being able to pick up nuance over video calls," he shared.  “Some people simply aren’t equipped for that, and it becomes obvious when they join a distributed team. I’ve never seen a course that truly prepares people for remote work expectations. That’s something education systems should consider.” From 15 to 300: How Native Teams scaled culture with intentionality Another issue for remote teams is culture. If a company isn’t remote-first, people working outside the head office often become second-class citizens.  Thorogood raises an important point: the difference between a “remote team” and a “distributed team” is important. In a distributed setup, everyone’s in the same boat, with no single headquarters. Companies that succeed with distributed teams make deliberate efforts to build inclusion and collaboration. According to Thorogood, at Native Teams, intentionality has been critical.  “We started during lockdown with about 15 people, and now we’re over 300. To keep culture strong, we’ve run virtual social calls, in-person retreats in Greece, and regular check-ins. At first, some of these initiatives — like video calls where everyone introduced their pets or shared something personal — felt awkward. But they built camaraderie and trust." Every year, Native Teams brings teams together in small groups. It’s not cheap, but the benefits far outweigh the cost.  “People get to know each other as individuals, and collaboration improves afterwards.” Culture also comes from the founders.  “A lot of our DNA as a company reflects how my co-founder and I work. If you don’t shape culture deliberately, subcultures form on their own, and not always in ways you want,” contends Thorogood. As the lines between geography, skills, and opportunity continue to blur, companies that prioritise flexibility and compliance will gain the edge. Native Teams’ growth shows that making global work simple isn’t just about payroll or paperwork — it’s about enabling people to thrive wherever they are.  Lead image: Jack Thorogood, founder and CEO of Native Teams. Photo: uncredited. 

“Nik comes in waves", depending on how passionate he is about a project, says one of Nik’s key lieutenants. The Nik in question is Nik Storonsky, the co-founder and CEO of Revolut, Europe’s most valuable startup.The key lieutenant is James Gibson, general manager, Revolut Business.For many people, Revolut is the bullet train UK retail neobank, launching products left, right and centre, sticking two fingers up at banking conventions, orchestrated by the Pied Piper-like figure of Storonsky.But the $75bn-valued Revolut is also a business bank, with hundreds of thousands of business customers, from startups to big businesses and, says Gibson, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that Revolut Business could be bigger than its retail banking arm in the future.Pouring cold water on Tech.eu's suggestion that Revolut’s retail arm will always remain supreme, Gibson points out: “For a lot of banks globally, the business banking arm is much bigger than the retail banking arm.”Gibson, a former management consultant who joined Revolut in 2017, is in a chipper mood, speaking over video, enthusing about recent and future product launches and account wins, rhapsodising about the potentially “huge” US market, while telling Tech.eu that Revolut has preserved its startup culture despite its 10,000-plus-sized global workforce. Furthermore, Gibson’s mood is likely buoyed by Revolut moving into new glitzy London headquarters. Some facts and figures Revolut Business, as it’s called, launched in 2017 (two years after the launch of Revolut) and now accounts for between a growing 15 and 20 per cent of Revolut’s £3bn plus annual revenues.Over 500,000 businesses are using Revolut Business, which, at its core, offers local and international money payments, FX, and spend management features- though the product offering is tailored to different markets.For example, in the UK, the focus is balanced between payments, FX and spend management, while in the US, Revolut is more focused on payments and FX.Revolut, which has over 60 million customers, says Revolut Business is ripping, adding more than 20,000 companies on average a month. Global operations Revolut Business operates in the UK, across the EU, the US, Singapore and Australia, with its biggest markets being the UK, Ireland, France and Italy. Its customers include Aer Lingus, Deel and CreditSpring.In its early days, Revolut Business’s customer base swayed towards startups, says Gibson, but it's attracting bigger businesses as well. Being a retail-business combo bank is a definite plus, adds Gibson, saying a “significant chunk” of its business customers are existing retail customers.Another plus is that, unlike in retail banking, where opening up multiple accounts is largely hassle-free, opening up multiple business accounts is hassle-filled, a chore which, Gibson says, means that more than 50 per cent of Revolut’s business customers are primary account holders. European differences One of the biggest challenges facing Revolut Business is local market integration, says Gibson, an articulate Oxford University graduate, who estimates that Revolut’s product teams spend between 60 and 70 per cent of their time on this. This includes, for example, making tax payments in specific countries, account integrations with specific local platforms, or launching different treasury products in different markets. Earlier this year, Revolut, which has a Lithuanian banking licence, which it passports across the EU, said it was applying for a French banking licence, which Gibson said will “strengthen its presence in France”, but will not lead to a “massive change” in product direction. US plans Judging by the lack of Revolut press releases touting its US exploits, it could be argued that the US has hitherto not been a priority for Revolut. However, reports have recently emerged that Revolut is ramping up its presence in the US, and it recently announced it is investing over $500 million in the US over the next three to five years. Observers point out the likelihood is, though, for Revolut to achieve success in the US, which is heavily credit-based, it would likley need a US banking licence, either getting one itself or getting one via an acquisition. Revolut has previously tested the waters on getting its own US banking licence, but has not applied for one. Gibson, who has previously worked for Revolut in the US in its New York office and served as Revolut’s business development manager, said: “The US could be huge. We are by no means dominating there yet, but it remains a priority for us.” UK banking licence Most business banks make their money through offering credit products but Revolut has yet not offered any pureplay credit products in Europe. “Our customers who need credit are going elsewhere, such as high street banks,” says Gibson, when asked if not having a UK credit offering was damaging. The UK, which is Revolut Business’s biggest market, would be an obvious bet, should it successfully exit the mobilisation stage of its UK banking licence application. Gibson says: “We are aware that it is something we want to get into in the longer term.  “In the longer term, we want to move to offering credit, and milestones like achieving a banking licence will definitely help us achieve that in the longer term.” Hardware While online banking remains Revolut’s bread and butter, Revolut has made gentle steps into payment hardware, as it looks to take on the likes of SumUp and Square. It has launched payment terminals for larger businesses and retailers. Over 100 of the quick-to-set-up terminals were deployed at the Primavera European music festival, and the tech meant that festival goers could make payments irrespective of the quality of the festival's WiFi. Revolut has also launched card readers for shops and restaurants which means customers can make card payments via the reader and use services such as chip & pin, contactless, Google Pay and Apple Pay. Relationshp with co-founders Gibson, who is 35, says that one of the triumphs of Revolut is that its co-founders, Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko are still “ very hands on” with the business, giving it “continuity”, in contrast to say the founders of Monzo and Starling who have left. He says: “Nik, you know, comes in waves. Sometimes when he is particularly interested or passionate about a project, he is a bit more hands-on, and at other times a bit more hands-off off and we get on with it. “They are still very much involved. I speak to them regularly. I am speaking to Nik in an hour about giving him an update about what we have been up to. “Nik is someone who pushes us all a lot to achieve a lot. The core of the company culture has stayed broadly similar. But we have definitely matured as an organisation over that time.” Combating fraud Fraud is an ongoing issue faced by banks of all stripes. A BBC Panorama programme last year named Revoluts in more fraud complaints than any other major UK bank, naming it in nearly 10,000 fraud complaints in one year. One customer, who had £165,000 stolen from his Revolut business account, said Revolut's security measures failed to stop the theft after finding there was no helpline to call and having to wait more than 20 minutes for support via a chat function in the app. Revolut says it invests a lot of money trying to combat fraud, estimating that in 2024 it saved customers £600m worth of fraud. Gibson said: “I can tell you personally I spend a lot of time working with our teams in ways we can help our customers spot fraud early and make sure they don’t fall victim to it.” New products Recent launches and wins include new European marketing campaigns, several airlines using Revolut Pay, and Audio F1 using Revolut Business as part of a big sponsorship tie-up. Famed for its rapid NPD, Gibson, who, during the interview, is fair game and doesn't swerve questions, said there will be more Revolut Business product launches coming soon.

France-based Temelion, an AI platform that optimises pre-construction workflows, has closed a €3.2 million seed round to accelerate its go-to-market and strengthen its position among French engineering consultancies. The round was led by 360Capital, with participation from ISAI Build Venture, SE Ventures and Kima Ventures. Temelion’s platform automates repetitive work for building design engineers and keeps requirements, documents and deliverables in sync. It speeds bid/no-bid decisions, produces precise technical documentation and streamlines contractor evaluations. Trade-specific workflows for Mechanical (HVAC), Electrical and Plumbing are on the way, building a comprehensive toolkit to help engineers deliver faster, more accurate, higher-quality results. Founded in 2025 by Jérôme Joaug, Rodolphe Héliot and Sébastien Gilles, Temelion is led by serial entrepreneurs with decades of experience operating and investing in high-growth companies. Its vision is to free engineers from repetitive work so they can deliver faster, error-free outputs, reducing costs and raising quality across the built environment. Jérôme Joaug, Co-founder and CPO of Temelion, shared: When we first spoke with engineers, we expected resistance to AI. What we found instead was universal frustration with the hours spent crunching documents — work that none of them signed up for, yet dominates their daily lives. The new funding will enable the company to expand its engineering team to refine the product across workflows, accelerate its commercial rollout in France (with a focus on building engineering firms), and invest in customer onboarding, support and integrations with industry-standard tools.

Google has pledged a £5bn AI investment into the UK, one of a string of expected major AI investments by US tech giants this week into the UK coinciding with the visit of President Trump to the country.Google’s £5bn investment will be ploughed into infrastructure and scientific research over the next two years, including “pioneering” AI research in science and healthcare through its Google DeepMind operation.Google, which is owned by parent company Alphabet, says the investment would help the UK boost its AI economy, open new doors for job opportunities and fortify cybersecurity.Google, which is a significant player in AI and is behind the Gemini AI bot, said its investment is projected to create 8,250 jobs every year for UK businesses. The US tech giant is to officially open a £735m data centre in Hertfordshire today, alongside Chancellor Rachel Reeves.  Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer, Alphabet and Google, said: "Google’s investment in technical infrastructure, expanded energy capacity and job-ready AI skills will help ensure everyone in Broxbourne and across the whole of the UK stays at the cutting-edge of global tech opportunities.” Porat told the BBC that the government’s AI Opportunities Action plan was helping the investment but said “there’s still work to be done to land that”.Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO, Google DeepMind, added: “We founded DeepMind in London because we knew the UK had the potential and talent to be a global hub for pioneering AI. The UK has a rich history of being at the forefront of technology - from Lovelace to Babbage to Turing - so it’s fitting that we’re continuing that legacy by investing in the next wave of innovation and scientific discovery in the UK."  Rachel Reeves MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said:  “Google’s £5bn investment is a powerful vote of confidence in the UK economy and the strength of our partnership with the US, creating jobs and economic growth for years to come. This government is reversing decades of underinvestment that has held us back for too long, by slashing burdensome red tape, delivering bold reforms of the planning system and investing in better tech to unlock better jobs and opportunities. Through our Plan for Change we are building an economy that works for, and rewards, working people.”The investment from Google comes amid expected investment announcements from OpenAI and Nvidia, to coincide with the visit by President Trump. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang are accompanying Trump on the visit.The two firms are expected to announce a deal to support new data centres in the UK, which would be worth billions of dollars. It is expected that OpenAI will provide access to AI tools and tech and Nvidia the chips to power the AI models, with the UK government supporting the projects.

London-based Nothing closed $200 million in a Series C round at a $1.3 billion valuation. The round was led by Tiger Global, with significant support from existing shareholders GV, Highland Europe, EQT, Latitude, I2BF and Tapestry, alongside new strategic backing from Nikhil Kamath and Qualcomm Ventures. Nothing is a consumer technology company building an AI-native platform where hardware and software converge into a single, intelligent system. Starting with smartphones, audio products, and smartwatches, and designed to extend across future form factors like smart glasses, robotics, and EVs, Nothing leverages the smartphone’s last-mile distribution and rich contextual signals to deliver deeply personalised, context-aware experiences. Underpinned by an end-to-end value chain for speed, scale, and quality, the company pairs award-winning design with a global manufacturing and supply network. In four years, Nothing has shipped millions of devices and crossed $1 billion in cumulative sales at the start of 2025, growing 150 per cent in 2024. Its community-driven model and go-to-market operations enable it to launch and support new hardware worldwide within months, without the constraints typical of incumbents. With this milestone, the company is moving beyond a unique independent smartphone origin to building an AI-native platform that unifies hardware and software into a single intelligent system. The next chapter focuses on integrating AI across devices to reinvent how technology anticipates intent and acts on users’ behalf. Alongside the Series C, the company is preparing to launch a new community round, giving supporters another opportunity to join Nothing’s journey.

Aspire11 has announced the launch of its inaugural €500 million pension-backed fund, led by Pavel Mucha, a long-term VC investor in the CEE region. Aspire11 is designed to connect world-class innovation with long-term capital intended to support companies for decades. Aspire11's goal is to open new pathways for European pension funds to increase their exposure to VC funds and growth companies. It is inspired by the Canadian Maple Model. Currently, only 0.02 per cent of assets flow into high-growth startups, leading to globally uncompetitive returns for Europe’s retirees. Aspire11 aims to break this cycle. Pavel Mucha founded KAYA VC, one of CEE’s first venture firms, co-founded the venture debt firm Orbit Capital, and has backed some of the region’s most successful venture stories, including Rohlik Group, Mews, Booksy, and DocPlanner.  He has also been an LP in numerous exceptional seed VC funds behind companies such as Revolut, PhotoRoom, Incident and Yoco.  With more than 15 years of experience in private (non-public) markets and venture capital, Mucha brings this track record to Aspire11’s mission of reshaping and growing pension capital as a generational force fuelling the future economy. Removing the pressure of short-term exits and cap table disruptions The fund invests directly into VC investors and entrepreneurs, without intermediaries. By removing the pressure of short-term exits and cap table disruptions, Aspire11 empowers entrepreneurs and VC investors to focus on building enduring, industry-defining businesses. The fund operates with a long-term horizon, focusing on private (non-public) markets, prioritising fee efficiency and active participation, and has a mission to strengthen pensions. Aspire11 launches with a barbell approach consisting of two strategies, named  Tribes and Eternals. With Tribes, it invests into a new generation of early-stage VC investors, growing tribes of ambitious founders specialising in emerging technologies and demographic shift-driven opportunities. With Eternals, Aspire11 fuels a fund that can hold for 20 years or more, supporting companies with a long-term vision for generational value through quality execution. Mucha is joined by Tülin Tokatli as a partner to build and curate the Tribes portfolio, drawing on her track record in evaluating VC investors as a former investor at the European Investment Fund (EIF).   With pension company Rentea, which is part of Czech financial organisation The Partners Group, a major LP of Aspire11, the fund aims to demonstrate that once pension capital is placed in the hands of outstanding VC investors and entrepreneurs, it benefits everybody and drives lasting prosperity. Europe is undercapitalised and dependent on overseas capital.  Analysis by Aspire11 found that redirecting just 1 per cent of European pension funds’ assets under management (AUM) would unlock an estimated €87 billion — which represents less than a quarter of their average annual yield — without undermining societal stability or welfare. Aspire11's calculations indicate that an annual investment of as little as 1 per cent of European pension funds' AUM into the continent's economy over the next decade would unlock a sum exceeding €1.1 trillion. This is due to the benefits of increasing valuations and decades of compounding interest. According to the European Central Bank, EU pension funds allocate just 0.02 per cent of total assets to venture capital, compared with almost 2 per cent for US pension funds. Aspire11 plans to gradually grow its global footprint in the years to come, while always keeping Europe high on its agenda. For Pavel Mucha, founder of Aspire11, awakening dormant pension capital and connecting it efficiently to VC investors and lifelong builders has turned into a mission: "Thanks to broader shifts in EU pension and long-term investment rules, pension capital can now engage with the private and venture markets. For years, the pattern has been the same. European private markets have not been deep enough, and their progress has been painfully slow. Entrepreneurs across the continent have been scrambling for patient, long-term capital inside Europe so they can build at scale, while VC investors have been forced to seek liquidity overseas. The contrast with the depth of North American markets has been obvious and has long screamed for change." Aspire11 will back both lifelong business builders and frontier VC investors. Mucha explains,  "With Tribes, we commit ourselves to the next wave of high-conviction VC pickers. Through Eternals, we are ready to support companies not just for years, but decades, to buy them time to win. “Aspire11 invites entrepreneurs and VC investors to join in growing this vision. With a horizon measured in decades, our goal is to turn dormant pension funds into a force that works for the people who have built and served the country, ensuring that life after work is not only secure but also rich in quality and possibility.”As Aspire11’s international team expands, it will gradually extend its global reach. According to Jan Hammer, Partner at Index Ventures, European tech is entering a new era of entrepreneurship.  “The ambition to create European-born $50bn and $100bn companies has shifted from aspiration to reality. Each success paves the way for the next, delivering value for employees, investors, and the economy at large. This momentum presents a significant opportunity for European pension funds — most of which have yet to allocate capital to venture—to share in the growth and prosperity.”  Kai Hansen, founder of Lieferando/Takeaway and angel investor, shared: “Having built and backed companies myself, I know that the businesses which truly change industries and deliver outstanding returns are created by founders who stay focused over decades, not quarters.  To back such founders, we need a new kind of venture investor — one free from the short-term cycles that define traditional VC." Aspire11 now aims to bring European pensions into the mix to make them work for stronger returns and contribute to future economy and prosperity.

Ghent-based OnTracx has secured €1.2 million in seed funding to develop technology that helps runners and health professionals better understand the body’s response to running. The funding round included imec.istart fund, PMV, KBC, and a group of business angels combining sports medicine expertise with entrepreneurial experience from Belgium and the Netherlands, complemented by a VLAIO innovation grant. OnTracx is a Ghent University spin-off founded in 2023, which brings science-based innovation to the global running and sports-medicine market. Its smart sensor platform serves individual runners, especially those prone to overuse injuries, as well as physical therapists, podiatrists, athletic trainers, and running coaches. By turning award-winning research into scalable products, the company enables data-driven training, injury prevention, and rehabilitation in a market of more than 110 million runners worldwide. Rather than promising to eliminate injuries, OnTracx makes hidden biomechanical load visible, with a distinctive focus on cumulative load over time, widely recognised as critical to better outcomes. A lightweight sensor worn on the lower leg measures load on tendons, muscles, and joints, targeting the lower-extremity overuse injuries most runners face. It can support screening, yet the emphasis remains on understanding how load accumulates to guide smarter training and rehab decisions. OnTracx captures everyday running and training, offering a clear view of load and capacity without oversimplifying human movement. The platform supports safer ongoing training and more informed return-to-run after injury, combining objective sensor data with runner-reported inputs such as symptoms. By bridging the needs of runners, therapists, and coaches, and with growing ecosystem support, OnTracx is closing the long-standing gap between care, training, and performance. Senne Bonnaerens, CEO and Co-founder of OnTracx, shared: Our goal is to give athletes and caregivers a clearer understanding of loading patterns so they can make informed choices. Most runners just want to keep running – whether for health, performance, or enjoyment – and understanding hidden loads is an important step toward that. With 110 million runners worldwide, and many struggling with overload injuries, OnTracx helps runners and clinicians collaborate on safer, more sustainable training. As the industry shifts toward load-based insights, the company is shaping that transition, creating opportunities for runners, professionals, and partners to help define the next wave of training and rehab. The new funding will refine OnTracx’s wearable sensor and digital platform, scale commercialisation, and prepare for market entry in Europe and the US.

Plumerai, London developer of AI solutions for cameras, today announced an $8.7 million Series A funding round. New investors Partech and OTB Ventures led the round, with support from Acclimate Ventures and existing investors.  This brings the total funding received to over $17 million.  Plumerai’s Tiny AI is already running on millions of cameras, and includes People, Vehicle, Animal & Package Detection, Familiar Face & Stranger Identification, and Multi-Camera People Tracking. It’s faster, cheaper, private, runs on battery-powered cameras, and uses inexpensive and off-the-shelf chips.  With an initial focus on home security cameras, it is now rapidly expanding into Enterprise Security, Retail, and more.  In addition to the funding, Plumerai announced today its first Vision LLM-powered features:   AI Video Search helps users search for anything in their camera’s video history, e.g. ‘person peering through a car window’.    AI Captions accurately describe what actions took place in a video, enabling cameras to send rich notifications to their owners, such as ‘A delivery driver rang your doorbell, placed the package on the ground, and left again’.  Image: Plumerai. These features unlock valuable new applications for Plumerai’s customers and are driven by the recent advances in multimodal LLMs that make it possible to draw deep insights from videos.  Plumerai’s Tiny AI, which runs on the edge when combined with its cloud-based Vision LLM, enables unmatched accuracy with record-low cloud inference costs.  Benchmarks performed by customers show Plumerai’s AI Video Search to be more accurate than cloud-only solutions such as Amazon Nova and Google Gemini, and to have cloud costs up to 135x lower.  “We are at an exciting point in time where powerful Vision LLMs are now both accurate and cost-efficient enough to open up valuable new use cases, thanks to our combination of on-device Tiny AI with cloud-based Vision LLMs,” says Roeland Nusselder, Founder and CEO at  Plumerai.  “We’re going to make it possible for everyone to have their own AI security guard and assistant that never gets distracted, so they feel safer and calmer than ever before.  It will warn you about a stranger in your backyard, a leaking water pipe, or simply help you find your keys. And it’s not just for the home, but for retail, offices, warehouses, elderly care and more. The trust of our partners and investors allows us to bring powerful AI into the physical world, beyond desktops and the cloud-" Reza Malekzadeh, General Partner at Partech, says:  “There are many companies building great products but they struggle to add powerful AI features to their devices. Plumerai enables them to do this, move faster to market, with high-quality AI features, and lower development costs.  They are on track towards a future where trillions of intelligent edge devices are equipped with their AI.”  “We are particularly impressed by the strength of Plumerai’s technology and product, which has clearly outperformed in every technical evaluation performed by customers,” adds Marcin Hejka, Managing Partner at OTB Ventures.  “Since customers can use simple over-the-air software updates to activate Plumerai’s AI on devices that are already in the field, Plumerai has been able to scale up quickly with rapid ARR growth as a result. We look forward to working with Roeland and the entire team on this next stage of growth.”  The new funding will drive Plumerai’s ambition to enable trillions of intelligent devices, a future that is now accelerated by its new Vision LLM features. 

Madrid-based Cofrai, the software platform specialised in managing fire protection companies, has secured a €2 million seed round. The round was led by DFF Ventures with participation from recognised industry experts. Cofrai is a vertical SaaS platform that digitises and automates the management of fire protection companies. With back-office tools, a mobile app for technicians, and AI-powered features, Cofrai helps customers save time, reduce regulatory risk, and focus on scaling their business. Though essential and tightly regulated, the fire-protection industry remains fragmented and dated. Thousands of companies worldwide still run on spreadsheets, paper, or legacy systems, driving inefficiency, extra costs, and compliance risk. Cofrai closes this gap by bringing digitisation and AI to a field that safeguards public safety. Founded by Rafael Gorjao, Antonio Acevedo, and Javier Goitia, the company launched its MVP 18 months ago and already works with nearly 100 firms, including sector leaders. It’s an essential sector for everyone’s safety, but digitally it remains stuck in the past. We want to close that gap with the best technology, said Javier Goitia. Cofrai’s platform unifies end-to-end operations and administration, supports compliance with Spain’s RIPCI and Verifactu requirements, and helps businesses scale through digital tools and intelligent automation. The company will use funding to accelerate product development, strengthen its engineering team, and scale operations to consolidate its position as Spain’s standard while preparing for international expansion.

Shop Circle has announced the extension of its Series B funding round to a total of $100 million, combining $60 million in equity with strategic financing. Shop Circle focuses on scalable, operationally critical software and is expanding its enterprise offering through targeted acquisitions and disciplined execution across product innovation, AI, and go-to-market. Its tools drive engagement and conversion, as well as internal operations, spanning both the interaction and efficiency layers of the modern software stack. As Shop Circle evolves, it is becoming an AI-first acquirer, focused on delivering post-acquisition operational excellence across its portfolio.  I spoke to Luca Cartechini, co-founder and CEO of Shop Circle, to learn more.  Shop Circle aims to build the leading European software platform powering the infrastructure of modern enterprise.  "We want to acquire outstanding B2B products and scale them: applying AI to automate operations and lift margins on one hand, and strengthening go-to-market and partnerships on the other," shared Cartechini. Efficiency is Europe's competitive edge Cartechini asserts that while it's difficult for European companies to compete one-to-one with Silicon Valley on innovation — they can afford to pay developers millions of dollars — what Europe does better is efficiency.  This is why several acquisitive software companies have emerged locally in the past few decades, scaling successfully through a purely acquisitive path such as Visma, TeamSystem, and Bending Spoons. "They've grown into far more than unicorns; they've become some of Europe's most important tech players. We believe you can build some of the greatest technology companies in the world from Europe, following a similar model," shared Cartechini. Europe's software market is vast, but IPO potential is slim Europe is home to nearly 13,000 software companies making over $10M in annual revenue, and around 4,000 are above $50M.  According to Cartechini, only one or two per cent have the potential to go public, while the rest are better suited to remain independent or become part of a platform like Shop Circle. "Europe's market is very fragmented. Compared to Silicon Valley, there are fewer companies raising capital — and I think that's a good thing. The problem with raising capital is that once you do, you can't go back. If you can't get to $100M ARR or more, you're stuck with liquidation preferences and investors pushing you to scale at all costs.  Statistically, it's almost impossible in Europe for a standalone software company to reach $200M ARR." Cartechini recalls his time in equity research covering listed tech companies:  "The IPO threshold used to be around $100 million in ARR. Now it's closer to $500 million—out of reach for 99 per cent of venture-backed companies in Europe. Frankly, many of them should never have raised money in the first place." Still, he argues, those companies can build great products and capture value by joining a larger platform.  "We're seeing more and more opportunities—both from bootstrapped firms that grew sustainably and from those that raised a round or two before realising that partnering with a larger group would help them create something more meaningful." An AI-first playbook for acquisitions Shop Circle is still young — just four years in — while many of its peers have been building for 15 to 25 years. But over the past four years, Shop Circle has acquired 16 companies. Yet Cartechini notes a cultural difference compared to other firms pursuing a similar acquisition model:  "Our edge is applying AI and taking a product-led operator approach. We are product- and people-first operators. Around 70 per cent of our team are technical developers, engineers, and product people.  We're not a private equity firm. We have dedicated AI teams focused on automating operations and increasing margins across our portfolio, which enables us to adopt an AI-first, acquisitive business model." One of Shop Circle's playbooks is embedding AI post-acquisition to expand margins. It builds or adopts tools that automate repeatable tasks in HR, marketing, finance, and support.  "That quickly lifts margins — we're already running at more than 25 per cent EBITDA across the portfolio, shared Cartechini. When evaluating acquisitions, Shop Circle focuses on fundamentals: net dollar retention, churn, EBITDA, and cash flow. "Churn is especially important in AI because no one yet knows how sticky these tools are. Most companies we acquire have usually been around 7–10 years, with proven product-market fit and strong cohorts. Typically, we target companies with $2M–$10M ARR and a clear path where we can take them from two to ten." For example, as part of this evolving strategy, Shop Circle has recently acquired KrakenD, a high-performance API gateway that simplifies and accelerates data delivery. The four pillars of Shop Circle's acquisition model According to Cartechini, Shop Circle has consistently proven it can improve their performance post-acquisition with a repeatable playbook that combines operating leverage, AI integration, and vertical expertise.  "We now serve more than 130,000 paying customers, which gives us strong visibility into what works in B2B SaaS. It comes down to consistent execution, supported by metrics — including revenue, EBITDA margins, and growth — and a proven business model." Cartechini argues that Shop Circle approaches acquisitions differently in four key ways. First, it buys to own forever. "We're not a private equity fund. We preserve the brand, the product, and the team. If they want, they can keep autonomy and become part of a larger organisation." Second, it centralises the backend, taking over finance, legal, HR, and customer support — "the things founders don't enjoy"— so their teams can focus on product and customers.  "By doing this, we've improved EBITDA margins almost every month. Today we're at more than 25 per cent across the portfolio. Software companies usually have gross margins of 95 per cent, but many remain unprofitable because they're run inefficiently. With discipline and AI, you can make them highly profitable." Third, it adds talent. According to Cartechini, each role at Shop Circle attracts more than a thousand applications. Shop Circle applies a rigorous, data-driven approach to hiring, reviewing over 45,000 applications annually to select the top 0.1 per cent of candidates with exceptional technical skills and long-term potential.  "That allows us to place world-class engineers, operators, and AI specialists into portfolio companies when needed. A 10-person bootstrap team doesn't normally have access to that level of talent." Cartechini contends that Europe doesn't have a talent shortage.  "We have some of the best universities and engineers in the world. What we lack is capital. Our model allows us to combine Europe's talent base with the scale and capital needed to grow." And fourth, it provides access to our customer base and network: "We don't merge products because that's messy, but we give portfolio companies access to 130,000 customers and hundreds of consultants in GTM, product, partnerships, and pricing." Often, the founder becomes GM of the acquired company. They maintain autonomy on product development but benefit from central support. In some cases, they even go on to lead a business unit within Shop Circle, with their own M&A budget to consolidate other products. Cartechini asserts that it's crucial that transactions are fair and that founders see their companies not only preserved but actively scaled. "That's very different from the horror stories many founders have heard." Shop Circle's business model has resonated strongly with investors — this is the company's fourth round in four years, each at a higher valuation.  Nextalia Ventures led the round, which included a mix of European and US investors, including existing backers, Primo Capital and CDP Venture Capital, alongside new strategic investors such as 645 Select Fund, which invested through its designated vehicle, FNDX, FG2 Capital, and entrepreneurial family offices backed by leading industrial and technology groups.  “We invest through our Select Fund in the best companies of our venture portfolio, and Shop Circle has proven it has the potential to become one of the leading enterprise software companies globally. The next wave of digital transformation will belong to those who embed AI deeply into their products, pricing, GTM strategies, and internal workflows, exactly as Shop Circle is doing,” said Nnamdi Okike, Managing Partner at 645 Ventures. "We doubled down on Shop Circle because we believe it can become one of the next leading European technology companies powering the infrastructure of modern enterprises," said Francesco Canzonieri, Founder and CEO at Nextalia Investment Management. But for now, Shop Circle's goal is to keep building quietly and efficiently. The capital will fund an ambitious M&A roadmap, with multiple acquisitions already in advanced stages, and accelerate AI product development across the company's portfolio.

AI-native restaurant management platform Nory has raised $37 million in a Series B led by Kinnevik, bringing total funding to $62.6 million. The round comes just one year after the company’s Series A, led by Accel, which also participated in this round alongside existing investors. Nory is an AI-powered restaurant management platform that unifies business intelligence, inventory, workforce, and payroll into one control centre to streamline operations and boost margins. It plugs into a restaurant’s existing tech stack and uses real-time data plus predictive analytics to forecast demand, optimise labour and inventory, and deliver actionable recommendations to frontline teams. Built for independent, multi-location, franchise, and enterprise groups, Nory replaces scattered spreadsheets with a single source of truth for consistent, profitable execution. Created by industry insider Conor Sheridan, it’s purpose-built for hospitality and has helped restaurants cut operating costs by nearly 20 per cent and lift core net profits by up to 50 per cent. By automating time-consuming back-office tasks like business analysis, digital guest engagement, rota planning, procurement, and finance, Nory saves over 100 hours of admin per site each month, while its AI learns from historical operations and sales to deliver real-time insights and recommendations. Conor Sheridan, Founder and CEO of Nory, commented: At a time when hospitality is under pressure, we are putting restaurants back in control of their profitability and their destiny. The future of hospitality isn’t robots or gimmicks. It’s AI that makes restaurants smarter, leaner, and more profitable, with automation that frees teams up to focus on what matters: great food and even greater customer experiences. The Series B will fund AI enhancements to Nory’s platform, including hiring world-class data scientists, advancing proprietary algorithms, and deploying autonomous AI assistants. It will also accelerate the company’s US expansion.

Madrid-based Lightbase, an AI-powered developer tools platform, announced its official launch along with a €2.2 million pre-seed funding round. The investment will fuel Lightbase’s mission to accelerate the pace at which engineering teams deliver value by eliminating one of their most persistent bottlenecks: knowledge fragmentation. The round was led by Picus Capital, with participation from Kfund, Helloworld, and angel investors Jorge Poyatos, Albert Nieto, Christian Beedgen, and Rodrigue Schäfer. In growing engineering organisations, the real productivity bottleneck isn’t writing code, it’s finding and sharing the knowledge needed to change it. Developers spend roughly a third of their time coding, with the rest lost to meetings, interruptions, and coordination. Senior engineers carry the heaviest load, fielding questions and mentoring. The problem deepens with new hires, who face a steep learning curve and remain dependent on teammates because there’s no reliable, self-serve way to navigate the codebase. When experienced engineers switch teams or leave, critical context disappears, creating costly, hard-to-close knowledge gaps. Lightbase, an AI-powered code intelligence platform, solves this by turning codebases and engineering tools into a living knowledge system. It plugs directly into repos and workflows, analyses the code, and uses AI to deliver instant, accurate answers about how your systems work, far beyond what generic AI coding assistants provide. The result: fewer interrupts, faster onboarding, preserved institutional knowledge, and a meaningful lift in real engineering throughput. As teams scale and systems grow more complex, Lightbase gives engineers, product managers, and new hires rapid insight into architecture, data flows, and dependencies. This reduces constant pings to senior developers and can free up to 50 per cent of time lost each week to onboarding, meetings, and repeated explanations. This pre-seed investment will accelerate Lightbase’s product development and expand its engineering team. Following strong results with early customers, Lightbase is opening its platform to more companies across Europe and North America.

Portuguese-founded defencetech startup Tekever has opened its biggest UK site, where it will manufacture drones for surveillance and intelligence purposes. The 254,000-square-foot facility is located in The Spectrum Building, a historic Grade 11-listed building designed by architect Sir Norman Foster in Swindon and is expected to open in 2026. The defencetech startup, which became a unicorn in May this year, says it will produce one of its largest drones in the UK for the first time, and increase production of another from the site. The UK has already brought £270m of Tekever drones supporting Ukrainian forces attacking Russian air defence systems. The opening of the new site forms part of a five-year Tekever initiative aiming to create over 1,000 highly skilled jobs in the UK and invest more than £400m into British drone production and advanced AI warfare capabilities. It will be the manufacturer's fourth UK site and its largest so far. Swindon has a long-standing history linked to UK defence.  It produced the Supermarine Spitfire during the Second World War while drone companies Stark and Munin Dynamics are located in Swindon. Karl Brew, Tekever, head of defence unit, said: "Our new facility will not only increase Tekever’s capacity to innovate and meet the rapidly evolving needs of our clientele, but also enable our business to operate more efficiently as we continue to scale our ambitions in line with our fervent commitment to transforming the UK’s defence industry into a leading powerhouse on the global stage.”  Will Stone, MP for Swindon North, said: "This announcement supports my ongoing commitment to establishing a Drone Cluster of excellence in Swindon, creating highly skilled, well-paid jobs while also fostering new education and training opportunities for young people in our community.”

Turin-based Plino, which uses generative AI to streamline analysis of accounting, cost, revenue, and cash-flow data for SMEs, has closed a €650,000 funding round. Investors include Exor Ventures, Berkeley SkyDeck Europe (UC Berkeley’s accelerator with Cariplo Factory and Lendlease), and a syndicate of Italian backers led by Techaround.vc, joined by Zooga.vc and several business angels, including CFOs and accountants. Incubated since 2024 at I3P, the Innovative Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino, Plino was founded by Pietro Galimberti, Viola Bonesu, and Enrico Castelli. The founders combine backgrounds in philosophy, engineering, finance, and AI, convinced that innovation happens at the intersections. Italian SMEs struggle with fragmented financial workflows - data scattered across accountants, software, and banks; manual analysis spread over dozens of spreadsheets; and delays that push managers to rely on instinct rather than evidence. Plino replaces this with a single platform for real-time tracking of sales, costs, revenue, and cash flow, liquidity forecasting, and automatically generated, easy-to-read reports. Today, Plino supports more than 100 SMEs across Italy in sectors such as manufacturing, services, food, hospitality, and construction. The goal is simple: give SMEs a fast, accurate system for making strategic, data-driven decisions. The new capital will accelerate the development of AI features such as cash-flow forecasting, natural-language report generation, and profitability analysis at the product or project level. In parallel, Plino will grow its product, technology, and sales teams and deepen partnerships with professional firms and trade associations, bringing AI-driven innovation into the accounting profession.