Wildlife populations are declining at an alarming rate, and scientists lack crucial data to understand and address this crisis.  German startup TALOS is developing innovative technology to track animals and gather critical insights into their behaviour and habitat.  The bootstrapped startup sits at the convergence of spacetech and climatetech. Its currently developing “the IoT of animals,” which will allow scientists to track wildlife through a micro tracker fixed on an animal that links directly to a satellite.  The tech was originally conceived by renowned scientist Martin Wikelski at Max Planck as part of the ICARUS Project, which aimed to revolutionise climate change research by tracking migratory bird patterns. This opened up a frontier in harnessing animal observation as a tool for conservation.  However, the very first project, which was based on the ISS, was shut down at the beginning of the Ukraine War due to its ties to Roscosmos.  Now TALOS is reviving the tech, with its first client the Max Planck Society, in collaboration with the Universität der Bundeswehr, as part of the ICARUS Project. The first set of equipment will be delivered to the Max Planck Society by the end of summer, marking a significant step towards understanding climate change through animal behaviour. I spoke to CEO Gregor Langer to learn more.  TALOS's technology centres around an IoT tag with minute dimensions (approximately 19x25x10 mm and 5 grams of weight) that can be attached to any asset. This compact tag not only captures its location but also gathers crucial environmental data, storing it locally. As Langer explained: “Our technology comprises a minuscule IoT device powered by solar energy. This compact sensor collects a variety of data, including location, temperature, humidity, pressure, and acceleration. When a satellite passes overhead, it retrieves this data and stores it.”   This information is then transferred to a cloud-based platform for processing and distribution to our customers. The IoT device's data collection frequency can be remotely adjusted as needed. The devices can be attached to birds using a backpack-style harness, or like a necklace, stuck to the shell of a turtle. “We say we want to harness the intelligence of animals because they have been on the planet for billions of years, and they have had to adapt to the environment. By having IoT devices on the animals, we know where they are, and how they react in different situations. We can measure their behaviour, and we can learn from it.” From wildlife conservation to agriculture: TALOS' tech has wide-ranging applications Animal tracking provides insights into environmental challenges such as climate change — such as droughts or water changes that force animals to change their route — , land use changes, and biodiversity loss. It helps monitor the spread of invasive species and infectious diseases, contributing to more effective environmental management. This information is being used to address environmental challenges such as climate and land use change, biodiversity loss, invasive species, wildlife trafficking and the spread of infectious diseases.  There’s also safety. Early research by Max Planc detected wild dogs in Africa exhibiting abnormal behaviour based on sensor data. The park rangers were alerted, and it turned out the dogs were trapped in a barbed wire fence.  As Langer notes, ”If spacetech hadn't detected this, the dogs most likely would have died.“ Animal tracking can also anticipate natural hazards and extreme weather events. By closely observing animal behaviour, researchers hope to detect early warning signs of impending disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, which often occur before they can be measured by traditional sensors. In terms of other applications, technology also has potential in tracking livestock — which can reduce the risk of theft, and enable detailed analysis of grazing patterns.  The company is in conversation with farmers in Germany and Austria about trialling the technology.  There’s also the capacity for data monetisation in meteorology. As Langer shared: “Animals are not only on the ground, they’re flying above the earth’s surface. So we want to use them as sentinels, especially in locations where you would never put a weather station. Then we could sell this data to meteorological agencies to improve weather predictions, planning, insurance etc."  Further, in logistics, TALOS’ tech could offer global, uninterrupted asset tracking without relying on terrestrial infrastructure. TALOS capitalises on falling spacetech costs and faster development cycles It's a great time for spacetech startups as the cost of spacetech has drastically reduced from the cost of sending payloads into space to lower materials and manufacturing costs.  According to Langer:  “Launch capacity has dropped dramatically in price. Satellite technology doesn't cost billions anymore, it's not even millions anymore to buy a satellite. It's way below. Everything is more approachable. And now technology like ours can become profitable.”  Langer also highlights a mindset change:  “In the past, when you had space technology, everything was tested for 10 years, and you excluded any chance of failure. Now, companies and people are a little bit more error-tolerant.  Of course, we test everything all the way through,  but we are not spending 10 years in simulations, so we're much more agile, and the lifetimes of all the equipment in space is not 10 years. This also allows us a much quicker development cycle.  And all this propels space applications into a profitable domain.”  In the future TALOS aims to reduce its 5-gram wearables even more to 1-gram.  .Langer stressed the importance of ensuring the technology has no burden on the animals:  “We don’t want the animals to be harmed in any way. However, for scientific purposes, you don't want to change the behaviour of an animal using the technology you attach because then all the data is flawed.”   With its product in development, TALOS has the chicken and egg problem of many startups and getting customers without a working product.  TALOS has been successful in gaining grants — it was selected for the GreenStartup program by the DBU, the German Environmental Agency, coming with substantial funding for the next 24 months. The company was also selected as one of the top 3 finalists in the ESA BA challenge of the InnoSpace Masters 2024 competition Langer notes:  “Sometimes, we randomly find funding possibilities, kind of by accident, and they turn out to be great. We won five rocket launchers for free because of the idea we had, and we just found it by accident.” The company’s next steps are to get its tech up and running with the launch of a constellation of five satellites. With an initial customer in Max Planck, and a myriad of potential use cases, this is just the beginning for TALOS. Lead image:TALOS. Photo: uncredited. 

Stockholm HRtech platform Impactpool has raised $4 million in Series A funding,  Founded in 2015, Impactpool connects professionals with job opportunities in the international development, humanitarian, and impact-driven sectors.  Impactpool champions diversity and inclusion by promoting opportunities for underrepresented groups and fostering inclusive work environments in the impact sector. The platform is designed to help organisations in the impact-driven sector connect with talent across the full job-spectrum and make it more accessible to everyone, regardless of socioeconomic background.  Using its AI capabilities, it offers job listings, talent pools, employer branding, career resources, and personalised job alerts from thousands of international organizations. It bridges the gap between professionals seeking meaningful work and organisations striving to make a difference in the world. The company has registered nearly one million candidates from 195 countries with support for over 2,500 organizations worldwide. Its partnered with major UN organizations, including UNICEF, UNHCR, and UNESCO. It has expanded its reach to connect talent with international organizations such as OECD, the World Health Organization, and the Green Climate Fund, as well as for-profit companies committed to social impact.  Mediahuis and Fort Knox led the funding, “We are delighted to have the support of Mediahuis and the continuous support from Fort Knox and existing investors. Impactpool serves as a bridge between professionals seeking meaningful work and organizations striving to make a difference in the world," says Magnus Bucht, CEO and Co-founder of Impactpool. According to Patrick De Wachter, Director Corporate Development at Mediahuis: “We fully support Impactpool's mission to bring together top talent to address global challenges, aligning perfectly with Mediahuis' values of creating impact." Markus Olsson, CEO at Fort Knox, said: “Since our investment in Impactpool, the team has delivered beyond our expectations. We are impressed with the work that has been performed, both from a product- and business-development perspective.” Lead image: Mathurin NAPOLY / matnapo

The Dutch payment giant Adyen today reaffirmed that the fintech was unlikely to pursue future growth through M&A, saying consolidation can be “very painful”. Ingo Uytdehaage, Adyen co-CEO, was asked by an analyst, given falling fintech valuations, whether Adyen, which is famous for rejecting acquisitions as a growth strategy, would consider future acquisitions. Uytdehaage said: “We have always had an organic growth strategy, and the reason for this is that we strongly believe building the infrastructure ourselves gives us full control.” He said consolidating platforms can be “very painful”, pointing to challenges like migrating customers and choosing which platform to terminate. He added: “Customers select us because of our performance and the fact that we have this full control." That said, he said Adyen, one of Europe's most well known fintechs, was not "dogmatic" on ruling out future acquisitions. Uytdehaage was speaking as Adyen reported net revenues of €913.4 million in the first half of 2024, up 24 per cent on the year. According to Reuters, Adyen beat half-year core profit expectations driven by market share gains, reduced hiring rate and lower one-off expenses. Shares in Adyen, which is listed in Amsterdam, were up five per cent.

Software sales platform trumpet has raised $6.35 million Seed funding.  B2B sales have become harder than ever with companies continuing to tighten their belts and buying fewer tools, making it an increasingly difficult market to sell into.  Almost the entire buyer journey (95 per cent ) is spent without the salesperson, which means a move to async buying and supporting digitally-native millennial buyers.  trumpet enables revenue teams to centralise the entire buying journey from pitch to renewal into one link – a collaborative workspace.  All deal information, content, timelines, communication and more, are stored in these digital spaces which creates a seamless customer experience that's helping sales teams sell when they're not in the room and stand out from the competition. trumpet now has 10,000+ users and 250+ paying customers, including Cognism, OpenTable, Sky Media and Crossbeam. The brand and product have gone viral amongst sales communities, with 20 per cent of trumpet’s customer base coming from the US, without any marketing or teams based there. Rory Sadler(CEO), Nick Telson-Sillett (CMO) and Andrew Webster (CPO) founded trumpet in 2021. Telson-Sillett and Webster are successful second-time founders, who created hospitality booking platform DesignMyNight and scaled it to an 8-figure exit, whilst sales specialist Sadler was formerly sales lead at product insights platform Hotjar before joining the duo to create trumpet to solve the problems they had experienced in the sales process. Rory Sadler, co-founder and CEO of trumpet, said:  “We’re helping companies collaborate and centralise their buyer journey, increasing their sales efficiency and velocity.  Our proprietary revenue intelligence signals are also helping revenue leaders forecast and understand their deal pipeline like never before. The new trend of buyer enablement is happening and we’re at the forefront of it.” AlbionVC led the funding, which included previous investors Lightbird Ventures, Anamcara Capital and Triple Point Ventures. Paul Lehair, Partner at AlbionVC, said:  “Rory, Nick and Andrew have built one of the most exciting B2B platforms we have seen recently. Trumpet is elegantly designed and extremely easy to use and it's already proving its effectiveness with global teams.  There is so much potential for Pods to not only own the conversations between buyers and sellers but also other areas of B2B communications and I’m looking forward to working with the team as they expand and grow.” The funding will enable trumpet to expand to the US. Lead image: Rory Sadler and Nick Telson-Sillett, trumpet. Photo: uncredited.

Romania, while not leading the region, has shown noticeable growth in recent years. A more interconnected support system has emerged, including accelerators, VC funds, and startup networks that foster collaboration nationwide. This influx of influential newcomers in the Romanian startup landscape highlights the country's potential to nurture entrepreneurial innovation and expand globally. Romania has primarily focused on IT and outsourcing sectors, with Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, and Iași emerging as key hubs. Positive shifts in public policy have increased access to public funds and spurred state-led programs supporting emerging enterprises. Here are ten companies which contribute to strengthening of the Romanian tech ecosystem. Industry: Platform Amount raised in 2023: €93.3M TOKHIT is a gamified platform powered by Blockchain technology where content creators, influencers, and Crypto & NFT enthusiasts can socialise, play and earn. The app lets users earn crypto rewards (Diamond HITT tokens) for their in-app activity and the platform’s AI algorithm pushes every published post to other users, helping creators gain new followers. Industry: Software Amount raised in 2023: €32.4M FlowX.ai is a company that helps businesses to digitize their internal processes. The company develops a platform that allows financial institutions and other enterprises to build omnichannel, personalized apps in just ten weeks while reviving their legacy infrastructure and providing a path to re-building it from within. The process doesn’t require changes in legacy technology nor deeptech skills. Industry: Artificial Intelligence Amount raised in 2023: €28M Druid is a company at the forefront of conversational AI and chatbot technology. Specializing in developing advanced AI-driven solutions, Druid empowers businesses to enhance customer interactions and streamline operations through innovative virtual assistant platforms. With a focus on delivering seamless user experiences and actionable insights, Druid enables organizations to achieve higher efficiency and customer satisfaction across various industries, including finance, telecommunications, and e-commerce. Industry: Platform Amount raised in 2023: € 9.5M Creatopy is an AI-driven creative automation platform that helps businesses and agencies easily create, personalise, scale, and serve effective ads. The company offers intuitive tools for creating, managing, and optimizing visual content across digital channels. With a focus on efficiency and collaboration, Creatopy enables marketers and designers to produce compelling designs quickly and effectively, enhancing brand consistency and driving engagement. Industry: Software Amount raised in 2023: €5.6M Verdion is a real estate investor, developer and asset manager, specialising in the industrial and logistics sector and operating across Europe. The company’s local teams work closely with businesses, landowners, municipalities and communities to unlock strategic sites and transform under-used assets. Veridion source, fund, design and deliver new opportunities, focused on these key areas and creating additional value through technical innovation and development expertise. Industry: Cloud Amount raised in 2023: €3.5M Bunnyshell is a dynamic tech company focused on simplifying cloud infrastructure management. Specializing in automation and scalability, Bunnyshell enables businesses to effortlessly deploy, manage, and optimize their applications on cloud platforms. With user-friendly tools and advanced analytics, Bunnyshell empowers teams to enhance efficiency and reduce operational complexity, making cloud computing accessible and efficient for organizations of all sizes. Industry: Software Amount raised in 2023: €2.6M Kubeark leads companie’s transformation by delivering a robust automation and integration platform that not only streamlines operations but also optimizes the performance of organizations, enabling them to thrive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. With a focus on simplicity and reliability, Kubeark empowers businesses to deploy and manage containerized applications seamlessly across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Kubeark is facilitating the establishment of secure, seamless connections between systems, empowering organizations to expedite and automate operations while upholding stringent security and compliance standards, regardless of their operational location. Industry: Sports Amount raised in 2023: €2M ESX is the company develops a fitness subscription platform tailored for users to access sports clubs across Romania. Their platform includes tools for subscription management such as renewal, cancellation, and upgrades. Additionally, it provides access to home video training modules, diverse training programs, nutrition guidance, motivational content, and more, empowering users to choose and train at various clubs according to their preferences. Industry: Consumer productivity Amount raised in 2023: €2M Nooka Space is an innovative company specializing in modern office solutions and flexible workspace management. With a focus on creating dynamic environments tailored to today's work trends, Nooka Space offers customizable office layouts, collaborative spaces, and state-of-the-art amenities. Their mission is to redefine workspace functionality, fostering productivity and creativity for businesses of all sizes. Industry: Back office Amount raised in 2023: €1.8M Pluria is a forward-thinking company dedicated to transforming the workspace experience through flexible office solutions. By providing access to a network of modern, adaptable workspaces, Pluria empowers businesses and professionals to work efficiently and comfortably from anywhere. The company offers teams with access to a network of workspaces such as coworking hubs, hotel lounges, and cafés. Through the innovative platform, Pluria offers seamless booking, management, and utilization of office spaces, catering to the dynamic needs of today's workforce.

In the 2010s, IOTA was one of the most exciting European startups in blockchain tech — especially for anyone interested in industrial IoT like myself.  However, today, its co-founder is embarrassed by blockchain's reputation. there's a graveyard of pilot projects that never commercialised, and a shift in focus towards other regions. Today, IOTA is a token, but it is also a non-profit founded in Germany in 2017 to advance IOTA technology. I spoke to co-founder and IOTA foundation chairperson Dominik Schiener to find out more.  IOTA's vision collides with reality IOTA was co-founded in 2015 by David Sønstebø, Dominik Schiener, Dr. Serguei Popov, and Serge Ivancheglo. It was designed as a distributed ledger technology to facilitate — as its name suggests — transactions in the IoT ecosystem.  Central to this was machine-to-machine trading, with a backbone of feeless transactions, tamper-proof data, and low resource demand.  Imagine, for example, an autonomous car that can detect a service fault but also book its repair appointment at a service centre staffed by autonomous robots, drive there, and pay—all without a human involved in the transaction.  Or electric vehicles that generate income through peer-to-peer charging or feeding power back to the grid.  However, today Schiener considers industrial IoT adjacent rather than central to IOTA's mission:  "It's not something that we quite frankly focus on anymore. We've kind of stopped doing those IoT use cases. We've really focused more on these higher-level ecosystem creation projects, which include trade, digital identity, and asset organisation." As I've written in an article about mobility and blockchain, the problem with industrial blockchain usecases has not been the tech per se —- there are plenty of successful pilots – but transitioning these to commercialisation. It's not helped by fundamentally different innovation cycles. Schiener admits," It's always nice to give machines a wallet and allow them to trade, but the economic uses weren't there.  Because why should a car have a wallet? It makes so much sense from a concept perspective. But, from a business perspective, it was just very difficult to get it off the ground because there were issues actually embedding it into the car." Along with challenges of standards and interoperability that have plagued both IoT and blockchain  since time began, the influx of COVID meant less OEM investment in emerging tech (can we still call IOTA emerging tech?), and it meant a nail in the coffin for many innovation projects.   Schiener concedes that "blockchain was also a solution trying to find problems." "But it was the same with AI. AI was like an amazing solution, trying to find the right problems. Now, with Chat GPT, we have had this unique moment where it has become a global knowledge base. I think with blockchain tech, we're still looking for this Chat GPT moment." However, twelve years is a long time to wait for the golden use case to achieve mass adoption.  IOTA co-founder admits Blockchain's credibility crisis He also admits that blockchain has a credibility problem "It has a 100 per cent credibility problem. I'm sometimes ashamed to call myself an entrepreneur in this space.  You start with, 'Hey, how can this technology be used to really drive positive change in the world?' And then you end up figuring out, "Hey, like, this technology has been used to launch new coins so that people can get rich quick. It's like a modern lottery, and it's just kind of sad." Schiener also admits that he would personally distance himself from consortium structures like GAIA-X and the moveID project—a group of interconnected projects creating a foundation for the future of data infrastructure in Europe, such as vehicle-to-everything standards for communication and transactions. "Because, quite frankly, the results never really come out as we anticipate. The failure rate is just too high." It takes a lot to pivot from the use cases on which you build your foundation, your name, and your regional focus.  A strong pivot away from Europe to MENA and Africa  Over the last few years, the IOTA foundation has focused on making its mark outside Europe, with particular attention on Africa, the Middle East, and the UK, as part of a broader strategy to establish itself as a global digital infrastructure and innovation ecosystem. It's a deliberate pivot away from Europe, where, according to Schiener, over-regulation and a slow pace of innovation have made the Foundation focus on other regions.  Schiener said: "The support in all these other regions was just much better. Europe is very focused on regulation rather than innovation. I remember applying for innovation groups where 25 per cent of the costs would be earmarked just for grant compliance. Innovation on that level just doesn't make sense." He notes that when the company came to Germany, "we never really had any real production cases happening there. Nobody's willing to take these risks. It's deeply embedded in the culture. "For the country to change and move forward, it needs to adopt and embrace this technology finally." Our focus is to use blockchain in the real world, to get it adopted by governments and by enterprises for their various use cases. And so we'll continue to carry on this flag, and make sure that blockchain doesn't have this credibility problem, that we really show that there's use cases in the real world, like this digital product password, that will positively impact people's lives." IOTA is currently working in partnership with TradeMark Africa, World Economic Forum (WEF), Trademark Africa, and the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change to develop The Trade Logistics Pipeline (TLIP) platform.  TLIP aims to significantly reduce transaction costs and enhance the efficiency of cross-border trade operations — the IOTA Foundation has partnered on a pilot project in Kenya focused on the country's flower exports as well as work exporting tea to the UK, fish to Belgium, and textiles to the US. In the UK, Mobius Technology is conducting a pilot project using IOTA's TLIP to manage shipments of chilled poultry. Schiener likes the UK. "They are standing up to Europe." In July this year, the IOTA Foundation launched the I3-Lab at Imperial College London, a research facility dedicated to the circular economy. The lab aims to develop and use digital tools to advance the circular economy. However, IOTA hasn't left Europe entirely, recently announcing a partnership with Eviden and the launch of the Eviden Digital Passport solution (EDPS), "powered by IOTA" technology.  The passport integrates IOTA's open-source, scalable and regulatory-compliant DLT and is a part of the EU's broader circular economy action plan.  Similar to battery passports that verify the provenance, chemistry, and identity of batteries and measure their environmental impact without risk of data tampering. The EDPS can be used across various industries, such as manufacturing, fashion and textiles, and food and beverages. In late 2023, the IOTA launched the IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation in Abu Dhabi as part of broader efforts to digitise global trade and make trade finance solutions more accessible. The Foundation recently released a Shariah-compliant token. However, while partnerships fueled by substantial contributions from foundations like IOTA can catalyse innovation, they differ significantly from traditional commercial ventures.  For instance, the IOTA Foundation invested $1.2 million in Imperial College London's lab and committed $100 million in IOTA tokens to the Abu Dhabi initiative, with plans for additional investments. Does such financial backing equate to the same level of legitimacy or commercial value as a traditional business partnership, or is it simply IOTA giving something back? Let's face it: there's no shortage of IoT pilots and R&D efforts. Are we going full circle? Further, many companies, including Circularise, Circulor, and Everledger are already heavily embedded in digital product passports and circularity.  Schiener attributes IOTA's securement of these government partnerships in new regions to the foundation's nonprofit status: "We're not required to generate profits and we have been in the market for a long time."We are here to solve a problem for them. We're not here to sell them something." However, despite their laborious documentation, he admits that previous Horizon 2020-funded projects have helped the brand's reputation abroad.   Further, the IOTA Foundation is not saying farewell to Europe anytime soon. It has also developed a solution prototype within the European Blockchain Pre-Commercial Procurement, funded by the European Commission, to streamline intellectual property rights management using distributed ledger technology and Smart Contracts for media.  The prototype replaces traditional negotiations with automated, transparent digital contracts. Will the prototype become a commercial product or can we add it to the innovation graveyard? Can IOTA be the backbone of a more inclusive world? Schiener admits that he's been in blockchain for a third of his life, since 2011. "I really grew up with it. For me, it's all about ensuring we finish what we started with IOTA because I believe that IOTA is one of these transformational technologies. We want to make it more transparent, more efficient, and powerful enough for people to participate in the global economy. We started with financial inclusion, which was one of Bitcoin's main use cases at the time. And this is what I really want to do more of. This is why we are working in regions like Africa, to give people new access to the global economy.  So we really think blockchain is there as a core trust infrastructure to erase barriers and ensure that the world is less divided than that we're actually able to collaborate and coordinate more closely with each other."

London radiology tech company Hexarad has secured €13 million in funding.  Hexarad was founded in 2016 by a group of NHS consultant radiologists. Its proprietary software and teleradiology platform help customers in the UK, Ireland, and Saudi Arabia boost radiology capacity and address the key causes of diagnostic delays. Hexarad’s software suite covers an end-to-end radiology workflow including a proprietary radiology information system (RIS), Hexarad Edge integration engine, Hexarad Hub for urgent reporting and Hexarad Portal for auto-allocation.  The company recently won a Health Services Journal (HSJ) Partnership award for its work in reducing diagnostic waiting times for acute and emergency care patients at North West Anglia NHS Foundation, where it saved 14 hours of accident and emergency (A&E) referral time a night. Hexarad also provides tech-enabled teleradiology services to the NHS and imaging centres across the UK and Ireland. The company has developed proprietary technology to assign scans to the most appropriate radiologist automatically. The auto-allocation tool assigns scans 90 per cent more quickly than manual allocation and is more accurate and efficient.  Hexarad has now established a strong community for radiologists, attracting over 200 radiologists to its platform to date, and delivers industry-leading turnaround times and consistently high customer satisfaction scores. Farzana Rahman, Co-Founder and CEO at Hexarad comments:  “Following unprecedented interest and an oversubscribed round, we are really pleased to be moving forward with MTIP, as well as many of our other existing investors. Once again, investors have been impressed by our clear mission to develop healthcare technology that addresses the problem we are seeing worldwide: that there are too many scans and not enough radiologists. "The clinical experience within our senior leadership team means that we understand these issues and know how to create the most effective solutions." MTIP led the round alongside reinvestment from existing shareholders, including the Foresight Group. Katrin Vatiska, Investment Partner at MTIP, states:  “We are highly impressed by the founding team—Farzana Rahman, Sam Dumonteil, Jaymin Patel, and Amy Davis—and we are excited to partner with them for the next phase of growth. We see tremendous potential in Hexarad and are thrilled to support the scaling of their teleradiology services and the expansion of their software product offerings.” Matt McLoughlin, Director at Foresight, states: “We are delighted to continue supporting Hexarad by participating in this Series B funding round. The company has achieved strong growth since our initial investment in 2021, using its differentiated technology platform and clinically-led approach to make a real difference to patients. We look forward to the next stage of Hexarad’s journey.” Lead image: Hexarad. 

One of the most senior executives at Germany's top challenger bank N26 is leaving the fintech after two years. Jan Stechele, N26’s managing director and chief regulatory officer, is exiting the challenger bank in September this year. Stechele is one of the challenger bank’s top leaders and is part of the senior leadership at N26, one of Germany's most high-profile fintechs. His departure was announced by Valentin Stalf, N26 CEO and co-founder. Stechele’s role will be subsumed into the job of Carina Kozole, N26’s chief risk officer. In June this year, BaFin, the German finance regulator, lifted restrictions on the German bank adding new customers. It was previously limited to 50,000 client sign ups a month. Stalf said that Stechele and his teams had “played a crucial role in bringing compliance, risk management and AML to a new level at N26”. Founded in 2013, N26 last publicly raised in 2021, raising $900 million Series E round at a $9 billion valuation. Third Point Ventures and Coatue Management led the round in the Berlin-based fintech.

Carbon capture materials company Promethean Particles has closed an £8 million financing round.  Promethean manufactures metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of materials composed of metal ions interconnected by organic molecules to form a porous, lattice-like structure.  Their unique architecture gives them an exceptionally high surface area and customisable pore sizes, which allows them to trap and store gases and liquids efficiently. This makes MOFs highly effective for applications such as gas storage and separation, carbon capture, and catalysis. The Nottingham-based  company has developed a proprietary continuous-flow reactor that not only dramatically improves the throughput and cost of MOF production, but also increases process reliability and consistency, without sacrificing critical quality parameters. Promethean currently produces a wide portfolio of MOFs for various customer applications including carbon capture and storage (CCS), biogas upgrading, water harvesting and gas separation and storage. .“The closing of our Series A round represents a significant milestone in the company’s growth journey, and we are delighted to welcome Mercia and Aramco Ventures to the Promethean team,” said James Stephenson, chief executive officer of Promethean.  “It is increasingly evident that a viable carbon capture solution is required to help mitigate the effects of climate change. MOFs show significant promise as a technological solution and Promethean’s manufacturing technology enables their production at unprecedented scale and cost-effectiveness.” Mercia Ventures and Aramco Ventures, led the investment, with participation from existing investors including the Midlands Engine Investment Fund I (Equity Finance fund, managed by Foresight), the University of Nottingham, TSP Ventures, and the East Midlands Early Growth Fund (managed by the British Business Bank). Dr Marina Fuentes, investment manager at Mercia Ventures, said: “Promethean Particles is uniquely positioned to capitalise on the fast-growing MOF market through their innovative manufacturing reactor technology, which addresses the bottlenecks of cost and scalability. We are thrilled to support a highly capable team and cutting-edge technology that has been developed over 15 years and is now ripe for commercialisation at scale.” Bruce Niven, head of strategic venturing at Aramco Ventures, said:  “MOFs are an emerging class of materials with unique properties and wide-ranging applications including several in the energy transition domain. Promethean offers new capabilities to scale manufacturing of MOFs cost-effectively, which is a critical ingredient in unlocking the potential for these materials to gain widespread acceptance.” The new investment will enable the company to build a scaled-up manufacturing facility, expand the team, and implement further projects that demonstrate the potential of MOFs in energy transition applications. Lead image: Promethean Particles. Photo: uncredited. 

Today MetaMask, Mastercard, and Baanx (Crypto Life) launched the pilot of MetaMask Card — the "world's first" Mastercard payment card that enables direct spending from your MetaMask wallet.  Eligible users can now make everyday purchases with their crypto anywhere Mastercard is accepted. Removing barriers to spending For too long, the process of spending crypto in the real world has been cumbersome and often requires jumping through several hoops like sending funds to an exchange, transferring it to a bank, and only then being able to spend.  This tedious user journey has hindered mainstream adoption of crypto as a practical, real-world currency. MetaMask Card eliminates the need for a bank to spend your crypto.  Further, most traditional crypto cards operate similarly to prepaid cards, where one must transfer funds to a third party before spending them. Instead, MetaMask Card functions like a debit card. Card holders can directly use the crypto in their MetaMask wallet for everyday purchases and maintain control over their funds until the exact moment of payment.  This differs to the earlier released Nexo card, which allows you to use your digital assets as collateral to access a credit line, enabling you to make purchases without selling your cryptocurrencies.  MetaMask Card utilises Mastercard's global merchant network, combined with the security of MetaMask and the efficiency of Linea secured by the Ethereum network. This provides a swift, cost-effective, and secure spending experience, whether online or for in store purchases. According to Lorenzo Santos, Senior Product Manager at Consensys: “MetaMask Card pilot gives people more freedom to spend their crypto,” says Lorenzo Santos, Senior Product Manager at Consensys.  “MetaMask Card represents a major step to removing the friction that has traditionally existed between the blockchain and real-world commerce. This is a paradigm shift that offers the best of both worlds.” In line with this, Simon Jones, Baanx's Chief Commercial Officer, says: “We are so delighted to partner with Web3’s leading wallet, MetaMask, to power the financial revolution by enabling users to be their own banks.” The pilot phase is kicking off in the EU and the UK, offering a few thousand users the chance to sign up for a MetaMask Card, which includes integration with Apple Pay or Google Pay for immediate use. Eligible currencies at launch include USDC, USDT, and WETH on Linea. This pilot is available to a limited group of users in the EU and UK only, but  MetaMask Card plans to expand its reach, with plans for geographic expansion into additional regions. 

Munich AI startup Voiceline has closed its Seed Funding round, securing €2.4 million in funding, bringing the company’s total funding to €4.2 million. Today’s sales arena is experiencing rapid digital disruption, redefining efficiency and intelligence. While virtual meetings, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, virtual deal rooms, and revenue intelligence platforms are dramatically reshaping sales, the heartbeat of many organisations — field sales — hasn’t changed much in decades. The modern sales tool kit relies on virtual interactions to be effective. However, many companies still rely on face-to-face meetings to sell their goods and build lasting relationships. The company frees up salespeople's time by automating manual documentation, streamlining administrative tasks, and ensuring complete data capture in the field. The platform automatically transcribes and analyses conversations by allowing field staff to record customer interactions via voice, identifying industry-specific terms.  This information is then used to generate automated follow-up actions, significantly reducing the time spent on post-visit paperwork.  The startup claims to cut follow-up time, which can exceed an hour per appointment, by up to 80 per cent.  The solution also provides valuable customer insights through comprehensive documentation. Following product research with around 400 companies, the company’s customers include Böllhoff, Hawle, Bohnenkamp, Schrauben-Jäger, Elis Textilmanagement,Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, and Julius Blum. Venture Stars and SCALEHOUSE Capital co-led the funding, which included various co-investors and angels.  The company plans to invest the funds in UX, unlocking further use cases and expanding its customer base. 

German parking tech company Wemolo has received a debt financing package from CIBC Innovation Banking.  Wemolo specialises in digital parking lot solutions using licence plate recognition and is active on more than 2,500 properties across Europe. Wemolo's parking management solution is based on computer vision technology and automates the processing and billing of parking events in paid and unpaid parking spaces.  The GDPR-compliant licence plate scanners make traditional parking systems with barriers, parking tickets and officers redundant. Wemolo also ensures the efficient use of parking spaces. The system enables detailed insights into key performance indicators of parking spaces, such as occupancy, peak times, or utilisation patterns.  The unused parking space can then be made available to the public with Wemolo's booking platform. Dr. Yukio Iwamoto, Founder & CEO at Wemolo said:  “I am thrilled to announce that Wemolo has successfully secured a significant debt growth funding round with the Canadian bank CIBC.  This milestone is a testament to the achievements of our remarkable team. Our continued success demonstrates the immense potential and future viability of digital parking solutions. Together, we are shaping a future where parking is seamless, digital, and sustainable.” Wemolo employs more than 230 people at its headquarters in Munich and its other European locations in Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, and Denmark. Wemolo has raised more than €20 million euros in financing previously and grown over 23,000 per cent in the past four years. Charlotte Goggin, Director at CIBC Innovation Banking said:  “We are pleased to be supporting Wemolo as it grows and expands across Europe. Wemolo offers a truly innovative solution for retailers, real estate owners and cities, providing an easy and cost effective way to manage their parking lots.” The financing will be used to expand Wemolo's product portfolio and footprint across Europe. Lead image: Wemolo. Photo: uncredited. 

Iceland-founded AI-assisted decision support platform for the pharmaceutical industry PLAIO has raised €4.3 million in an oversubscribed round.  The company was co-founded by industry veterans and academics with over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical supply chain sector. Its AI-enhanced sales, operations, and supply chain planning solution was developed specifically for the pharmaceutical industry.  An overwhelming 95 per cent of pharma companies rely on outdated spreadsheets for supply chain planning, according to PLAIO's research. PLAIO was founded to address critical gaps in the market.  PLAIO's platform uses prediction algorithms and AI to assist planners and supply chain managers in optimising the sales and operations cycle.  PLAIO's AI co-planner offers an intuitive natural language interface, allowing pharma professionals to ask questions about data and simulate various "what if" scenarios. PLAIO's co-planner is designed to maximise efficiency, enabling users to quickly perform scenario analysis, and streamline the execution of manufacturing orders into campaigns - effectively handling some of the most time-consuming tasks that planners face daily.  PLAIO's client portfolio has grown by 200 per cent in the last 12 months, and includes Covis Pharma, Alvotech, and Camarus.  Johann Gudbjargarson, Founder and CEO of PLAIO, shared: "We founded this company with a clear mission: to transform the outdated and inefficient methods that dominate pharmaceutical supply chain planning. With more than 25 years of experience in the industry,  I have witnessed first-hand the intricate nuances and complications that pharma companies face every day. That is why we started this journey, and, as interest and adoption of AI continue to grow, we're experiencing exponential growth and a remarkable level of newfound interest, with strong sales conversions."  The round was led by Iðunn, a venture capital fund managed by Kvika Asset Management, with continued support from existing investors Frumtak Ventures and Dr. Agon.  "PLAIO is standing at the forefront of a critical shift in the pharmaceutical industry, and I'm delighted to be joining the board at such a significant time for the companym" adds Iðunn's Pétur Richter.  "AI, while touted by the masses as the solution to many of the problems faced by the everyday worker, the pharmaceutical industry remains unprepared for this digital transition. PLAIO's dedication to solving this issue aligns perfectly with our investment philosophy, and we are extremely excited to support the company's mission."  Ásthildur Otharsdóttir, Partner at Frumtak Ventures, and Chairman of PLAIO, shared: "PLAIO's innovative approach has already proven its value in the northern European market, and our latest investment underscores our confidence in the platform and its ability to resonate on a global scale."  PLAIO will use the funding to implement strategic enhancements to the platform's 'AI co-planner' offering and strengthen and develop new and existing partnerships to solidify its position as a market leader in AI pharma planning solutions.  Lead image. PLAIO. Photo: uncredited. 

LIsbon-headquarted gaming distribution platform FRVR has raised $12.7 million funding, bringing the company’s funding to over $100 million.  The company was founded by games industry veterans Chris Benjaminsen and Brian Meidell, with the vision of connecting everyone, everywhere to games they’ll love. It works to develop and scale a creator economy that empowers creators worldwide with the tools to develop and monetise their content. Over the past five years, FRVR has grown from a two-person passion project to more than 80 employees in six offices around the world FRVR has reached over 1 billion gameplays across 100+ games, and continues to deliver exceptional experiences and empower creators globally. "We're thrilled to have secured this funding." said Brian Meidell, Co-Founder of FRVR.  "We've spent the last few years solving mass distribution of games across a myriad of channels – We are now working on making our platform the best possible place to create and distribute games and interact with your players.  Our new AI first game development engine, Forge, helps developers create faster than ever and non-developers to create and distribute games across multiple channels, including mobile, PC, and web.” This round was led by Iberis Capital, with the participation of Indico Capital Partners, Lince Capital, and returning investors such as Hiro Capital.  João Henriques, Partner at Iberis Capital, shared:  “We're delighted to be part of this funding round and to be investing in FRVR's innovative AI-powered game creation platform, We believe that FRVR.ai's technology has the potential to democratise game development and make it more accessible to a wider range of creators. We're excited to support the team as they continue to push the boundaries of what's possible in the game creation industry." According to Stephan de Moraes, Managing General Partner at Indico Capital: "FRVR’s innovative tool has the potential to disrupt the status quo and provide a new level of speed of creation and distribution for developers and non-developers." The funding will enable FRVR to develop its AI-powered game creation platform further, focusing on advancing its AI engine for more personalised gaming experiences. Lead image: FRVR co-founder Brian Meidell. Photo: uncredited. 

Latvian mobility startup BeTriton has raised €80,000 from 150 investors through its equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube.  The company is developing an electric amphibious RV, BeTriton, which is a combination of an electric bike, camper, and boat.  Check out our interview with Aigars Lauzis, Chief Amphibious Officer and co-founder of BeTriton to learn more about the company. The vehicle is classified as an electric bicycle for customs but is also a category D boat for inland water.  The vehicle's range is 100+ km overland and 30+ km on water, depending on various conditions. Speed-wise, the vehicle can go 25 km/h overland and up to 8 km/h on water. It is equipped with two electric motor hubs, an electric outboard engine, and 250 watts worth of solar panels.  The boat is designed for freshwater (inland lakes and rivers) only and is not designed to tackle ocean waves. Some of the parts are not made to withstand saline water. After initial rentals in Latvia and its first sale to Switzerland, BeTriton fundraised to build a rental fleet to expand its Europe network for rental locations. According to the company, "It's a modest target and a small round, but it means the world to us as we continue developing our products and building new units for rent and sale." The funds expand production to produce a rental fleet, charging fees to businesses or individuals and selling units to other rental companies. Lead image: BeTriton. Photo: uncredited. 

Female-founded Clearly has raised $4.3M in seed funding to help fleet operators be more financially and energy efficient. Based in the UK,Clearly's climate intelligence platform has tracked data from over 100 million trips working alongside consumer goods companies, international parcel delivery services, vehicle distributors and fleet management firms. By evaluating the true costs and risks of decarbonisation measures, leveraging external data sources, Clearly’s deeply integrated intelligence platform helps operators make savings while ensuring they meet emission regulations and targets. More than half of CEOs want to improve data visibility to better reduce emissions, according to UN data. The round, led by Pace Ventures and Nine Realms, also saw participation from existing mobility investors Mobilion, Next Gear and M1720 alongside notable angels Lord Nash and Margaux Primat. The new investment will be used to enhance the company’s existing product offering and add to its growing suite of proprietary AI capabilities. Clearly will also be scaling its team further to meet the global demand for its product. With the transport sector accounting for 25% of global emissions, decarbonising supply chains will be essential to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Road transportation alone requires an annual spend of $1.75 trillion to reach net-zero goals, explaining why more than half of CEOs are looking to improve data visibility to better reduce emissions, according to the United Nations. Clearly tackles this challenge by providing logistics operators, fleet owners, and other supply chain participants with the critical insights needed to make real-time decisions capable of significantly enhancing operational and financial efficiency. Enabling global corporations to hit net zero targets, the company’s proprietary technology overcomes the limitations of existing approaches by integrating and blending data from a broad range of sources - covering vehicle movement and performance (gps, tracking, IoT), operations (weight, packages), assets (vehicle type, tyres), energy (fuel, electricity) and more, to generate actionable emission-related insights for fleet managers. These real-time insights help operators identify and choose the most effective decarbonisation initiatives, and facilitate access to financing for these. By evaluating the true costs and risks of decarbonisation measures, leveraging external data sources, Clearly’s deeply integrated intelligence platform helps operators make millions in savings while ensuring they meet emission regulations and targets. “Decarbonising supply chains is not a new challenge, but one of the largest hurdles for businesses has been accessing and analysing comprehensive data, as a direct result of supply chain complexities and the nature in which this data has been collected up until now. We saw that by using our unique approach to collect, normalise and blend supply chain data, we could improve its interoperability and use it to provide actionable insights on transportation emissions down to the level of individual trips and packages.” commented Danielle Walsh, Founder and CEO of Clearly. “We are deliberately hardware-agnostic, which means our platform is compatible with any data source, overcoming the significant initial challenge of data acquisition”, she continued. Once integrated, Clearly’s powerful AI system runs thousands of scenarios to identify targeted interventions, enabling management teams to not only determine strategic options such as ideal vehicle configuration, but also guide individuals like drivers and optimise processes involved in operating them. “While fleet electrification provides a significant step towards reducing emissions, our data was able to show that as much as 30% of fuel consumption is influenced by driving behaviour alone. By making actionable insights like these readily available, we’re able to help companies improve the way their businesses operate, highlighting strategic optionality beyond capital intensive adjustments to vehicle fleet mix, and recommend changes that can be made immediately to improve environmental and financial outcomes.” added Danielle Walsh, CEO of Clearly. With transportation emissions on the rise, the urgency with which companies need to act has never been more critical. Without significant intervention, transportation emissions are projected to increase by 60% by 2050, causing severe weather, rising sea levels, ecosystem disruption, health risks, and economic instability - according to the International Energy Agency. “This space is expanding rapidly and we were impressed by the significant demand from large corporates and the financing sector for Clearly’s product. As the transport sector transitions to using greener technologies, we see the need for data-driven procurement and AI-enabled operational decision making broadening at a fast pace. Clearly is making sustainable transportation more than just a choice for its customers, it’s making it a competitive advantage.” commented Marius Swart, Partner at Pace Ventures. “Unlike other tools, Clearly offers actionable insights to help fleet operators achieve their goals in the most commercially viable way” added Christy McCaig, Partner at Nine Realms. “We were impressed with the team and their early traction with enterprise customers, and we’re thrilled to support them in their next stage of growth.” Image: Hubert Cecil

Collo, a Finnish technology company offering IoT analysers for optimising industrial liquid processes, announces today a growth funding of €5 million.  Collo's analyser can quickly characterise any type of liquid. It offers food and beverage companies continuous, real-time measurement, enabling them to control and optimise their production flows better, saving raw materials and water, and reducing CO2 and waste production. For example, based on Collo's market research and estimates, the annual raw milk losses for a typical mid-sized dairy plant can be up to 8 million litres due to the lack of inline process control. With Collo’s analyser, such dairies can significantly reduce these losses while saving up to 11 million kilos of CO2 emissions and 35 million litres of clean water. The sensor is compatible with any liquid in the plant, replacing the need for multiple traditional sensors. Furthermore, its analytics and machine learning capabilities provide actionable insights for plant management rather than mere measurement data. This allows food and beverage industry operators to manage processes without having to maintain sensors or interpret raw sensor data. According to  Matti Järveläinen, co-founder and CEO of Collo: "The global food and beverage industry is going through a significant transformation driven by climate change, rising demand for sustainable operations, and increasing environmental regulation. Major market leaders have established strategic priorities to cut emissions by half by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050." "All savings are realised through process optimisation using existing infrastructure. Any processing company can implement Collo analysers to bring their plants to the IoT era and make their processes sustainable without a need for large investments in new production lines,” Järveläinen explains. Collo’s current customers include global food and beverage companies such as dairy giants Fonterra, Danone, and Valio.  As well as reducing product losses in n-product pushouts, the technology has also proven beneficial in Clean-in-Place (CIP) process optimisation, or fermentation process optimisation, which is the basis for many “Food 2.0” products. Swedish SEB Greentech Venture Capital and FORWARD.one, co-led the round which was joined by existing investor, Scale Capital. Mikko Huumo, Investment Manager at SEB Greentech VC, shared: "It is more critical than ever for process plants to invest in technologies that help cut emissions and conserve water fast. Collo offers laboratory-level technology and precision in a cost-effective format, enabling any processing industry plant to achieve this. Major global industry players are already trusting Collo’s solution in process optimisation.” "The analyser Collo has developed is truly groundbreaking. We are impressed by Matti and his team and are thrilled to join them in their journey to become a leader in liquid analytics,” says Riemer Smink, Managing Partner at FORWARD.one. Lead image: Collo. Photo: uncredited. 

Cross-border transaction fintech iBanFirst is partnering with quity and investment platform SeedBlink, introducing a bespoke solution for fundraising startups and their private investors. The collaboration aims to ensure faster onboarding and access to preferential FX (currency trading) rates. Traditional banking solutions often fail to meet the efficiency and customisation needs of investment platforms, resulting in slower transactions, higher costs, and cumbersome administrative processes.  This partnership introduces dedicated collection accounts for each funding round on iBanFirst’s platform, collecting multi-currency investments from around 50 European investors per project.  Onboarding each account now takes a few hours, down from 10 days with traditional providers. "Collaborating with SeedBlink to introduce dedicated collection accounts represents a significant milestone in enhancing financial accessibility and transaction efficiency for scaling startups," shares Johan Gabriels, Regional Director for South-East Europe at iBanFirst.  "This strategic partnership demonstrates our dedication to empowering businesses with seamless international payment solutions and personalised financial services tailored to their unique needs." According to Carmen Sebe, CEO of SeedBlink: "Our partnership with iBanFirst underscores our commitment to providing top-tier financial solutions and democratising a wide range of opportunities for both startups and investors.” For investors, this partnership results in improved financial terms for their currency exchanges and international payments. Investors can commit funds primarily in euros, but if a fundraising startup is based in Switzerland, the investments will be converted to the appropriate currency before being transferred to the startup. Lead image: SeedBlink founder and CEO Carmen Sebe. Photo: uncredited. 

UK-founded AI startup Cosine has raised $2.5 million from SOMA and Uphonest in a round that also included funds like Lakestar and Focal. In parallel, it achieved a breakthrough in AI-assisted software development with its artificial developer, Genie. Based between San Francisco and London, Cosine's Artificial Developer, Genie, works like a very good human developer.  For instance, it is able to solve bugs, build features, refactor code, and everything in between either fully autonomously or collaboratively with other developers.  Founded in 2022, Y-Combinator-backed Cosine's software was created out of the founder's realisation of the potential in using LLMs to perform complex tasks in the coding space by imitating human software developers' behaviours. It is uncannily 'human' in its approach to reasoning as a result, with the founders' primary goal to create truly resilient AI capable of tackling open-ended problems across various domains The company has achieved a 30 per cent score on SWE-Bench, the industry standard for evaluating software engineering skills in AI models.  The benchmark, which includes real-world human tasks in software architecture, debugging and implementing new features in existing codebases, assesses an AI model's ability to understand, modify, and generate complex code. This marks the highest score achieved by any company to date  Cosine's score represents a 56 per cent improvement over the previous best score, held by Factory at 19 per cent and 2196 per cent improvement over OpenAI's GPT4 score of 1.31 per cent.  By fine-tuning models to emulate human reasoning, Cosine's approach has beaten out rivals like AWS's Amazon Q Developer and Cognition's Devin, both of which scored under 20 per cent  on the same benchmark. Cosine CEO, Alistair Pullen, shared:  "Our breakthrough in codifying human reasoning is allowing us to train AI models to operate far beyond the narrow range of tasks and tightly restricted prompts currently available to teams developing software."  "We've developed a product capable of beating OpenAI and others in completing complex software tasks - in a fraction of the time and money it has taken our competitors to achieve the same results. We're on course to radically transform the way development and developers work", continued COO Yang Li.  "Cosine is not just improving AI; they're fundamentally teaching AI to reason, providing companies with a true AI colleague", said Ellen Ma, Partner at Uphonest Capital. 

Serica Energy, an independent British upstream oil and gas company with operations centered on the UK North Sea, has partnered with information management platform OpenText to efficiently control engineering information, work processes, and risk across the lifecycle of projects and operations, while accelerating operational efficiencies. Serica Energy is one of the top ten oil and gas producing companies in the UK. Serica Energy hopes that integrating OpenText's solution will boost productivity and optimize processes, while complying with health, safety, security and environmental requirements – enabling the organization to expand and diversify its portfolio, maximize asset value, and play its part in the energy transition. Information management is critical to Serica’s operations. The organization relied on SharePoint to store and control complex engineering documents and work processes, from maintenance programs and contracts to safety and inspection reports, and end-to-end project plans. With ever-increasing documentation requirements across its operations, Serica’s SharePoint environment became insufficient. Document control processes were manual and labor intensive, and the impact of accessing incorrect versions would be catastrophic. Serica identified the need to migrate its SharePoint environment with an information management solution to ensure easy accessibility and a single source of truth for all documents. “As Serica Energy enters an exciting phase of growth, it’s critical that our asset information is easily accessible, useable, reliable, secure and governed,” said Malcolm Gordon, Information Management Lead at Serica Energy. “​OpenText will enable us to remove limitations on documentation controls and functionality, allowing us to significantly enhance operational efficiencies and reduce risk in managing asset operations, while leading capital projects planned until 2035 and beyond.” Serica chose Content Cloud – a composable platform that connects people to content, when and where they need it – because of its proven track record in helping organizations across the energy sector and other asset-intensive industries gain control over asset content to work smarter. Enhancing information management across the organization will enable Serica to unlock major time savings and greater productivity to complete projects on time, improve asset uptime, and mitigate operational risk.​ An additional benefit valued by Serica is the deep integration of the solution with its current business application systems, ensuring a single source of truth across the enterprise.  “Energy companies are under intense pressure to deliver more reliable and sustainable energy without compromising the health of their employees, the safety of the communities they serve, or the environment in which they operate,” said Muhi Majzoub, EVP & Chief Product Officer at OpenText. “More than 75% of the top 100 energy and engineering organizations rely on OpenText for enterprise information management to achieve operational excellence through improved collaboration, reduced operational risk and secure, seamless access to engineering drawings and other asset content.” Leveraging Extended ECM for Engineering enables Serica to gain quick access to correct and up-to-date engineering and process documentation. By efficiently controlling engineering information, work processes, and risk, Serica can accelerate business value and deliver positive experiences – from its engineers to its end users. With Content Cloud, Serica Energy hopes to take the next step in its information management journey by incorporating the power of generative AI and OpenText Content Aviator to its business processes to further boost employee productivity in the field and in the back office to keep energy flowing safely.