Ghent-based technology startup Introw has raised $3 million in a round led by Visionaries Club, with continued support from PitchDrive. The company previously raised €1 million from PitchDrive and angel investors, including Pieterjan Bouten (ex-Showpad) and Ewout Meyns (ex-HubSpot). Buyers increasingly expect personalised experiences, while outreach fatigue and stricter privacy rules are making direct sales less effective. As a result, more companies are adopting partner (indirect) sales models that leverage existing relationships, credibility, and customer access. Introw provides an AI-enabled partner portal for rapid onboarding, training, and activation. Unlike legacy systems that take months to implement, Introw connects quickly to a company’s CRM, giving partners the data and tools to accelerate deal cycles. By embedding partner workflows directly in the CRM, it reduces setup time from months to minutes and improves visibility across sales, partner, and operations teams. Real-time sync and performance tracking help organisations identify top partners, optimise engagement, and scale their channel with minimal overhead. Each day a partner lacks the right information means lost revenue. Where other partner portals take four to six months to launch, we do it in minutes, says CEO Andreas Geamanu. Since launching in 2023, Introw’s platform has facilitated tens of thousands of partner interactions and helped clients generate millions in additional pipeline. Visionaries Club partner Robert Jäckle highlighted that partnerships account for a large share of global B2B revenue, yet many teams still rely on spreadsheets and outdated tools. He said Introw is building a fast, simple, and intelligent partner system that turns partnerships into a meaningful growth driver. The new funding will be used to scale sales and marketing, particularly in the US, where adoption is accelerating, and to further invest in Introw’s AI-first product strategy.

Cronvall, a Finnish technology company digitalising industrial procurement, has raised €3.9 million from Greencode Ventures, Stephen Industries, Innovestor, and leading industrial family offices. Cronvall’s platform improves transparency, efficiency, and data use across supply chains. It enables construction and industrial firms to manage critical purchases, access a network of 150+ vetted suppliers, compare prices with full transparency, and handle everything from ordering to delivery tracking. The company serves more than 8,000 industrial and construction clients, from SMEs to publicly listed firms, and is on track to exceed €6 million in annual turnover, supported by strong growth in Germany, where revenue has increased more than fivefold in the past year. Founder and CEO Walter Masalin notes that procurement in these sectors is often fragmented, with limited access to current price and availability data and a single order requiring coordination with multiple suppliers and contacts. Cronvall eliminates the frictions and brings long-needed clarity to this process: one platform, transparent pricing, and a seamless procurement experience from start to finish. New reporting rules are also reshaping purchasing. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), for example, strengthens disclosure requirements. As a result, procurement is increasingly evaluated not only on price and quality but also on environmental and social sustainability. Cronvall aims to become a leading European platform for industrial procurement, connecting thousands of suppliers and buyers in a single, transparent, data-driven network. Masalin adds: Every avoided order error or redundant shipment means fewer trucks on the road and measurable CO₂ reductions. This proves that efficiency and sustainability can scale together. The investment will support Cronvall’s international expansion and its goal of modernising and digitalising industrial procurement across Europe, with a focus on improving efficiency, transparency, and sustainability in the sector.

London-based Adclear, an AI compliance platform, has raised an oversubscribed £2.1 million seed round led by Outward VC, with participation from AFG Partners and Tenity. Angel investors include Clearscore founder Dan Cobley and Coinbase MD Keith Grose (via the a16z Scout Fund) alongside the Ventures Together community. Haatch and Force Over Mass Capital also joined the round after backing the company at pre-seed. Adclear provides an AI-driven platform that automates compliance reviews for financial marketing content and product updates. Banks, fintechs, and crypto/trading platforms use it to check that customer communications meet applicable regulations while maintaining an audit trail for compliance teams. Users can submit social images, video assets, emails, articles, Google and Meta ads, websites, product screens, and more. The system returns rapid, detailed guidance on required changes to achieve compliance. The company is also developing tools to support the full FinProm approval lifecycle, including post-publication monitoring of affiliates, partners, and financial influencers. Doni Hoti, CEO and co-founder of Adclear, comments: In the world of AI-powered marketing, teams are able to create, personalise and disseminate more content, more quickly than ever before. But if brands in the finance space want to 10x their marketing, they need powerful tools to ensure it doesn’t become a regulatory nightmare. Adclear’s AI enables compliance to move at the same speed as creation, unlocking a new frontier for communications innovation whilst removing a major burden from marketing and compliance teams alike. On average, the platform reduces review time by 88 per cent, streamlining the traditionally lengthy and iterative compliance review process for marketing materials. This allows brands to maintain the pace of modern marketing while minimising risk and freeing legal and compliance teams from repetitive manual review tasks. Founded by Doni Hoti, Joe Jordan, and Cameron Ward, and launched in 2024, Adclear’s AI-powered compliance platform is already used by marketing teams at banks and fintechs, including Lloyds Banking Group, PensionBee, Plum, Yonder, InvestEngine, ActivTrades, and Trade Nation. After establishing a strong position in the UK, supporting brands with FCA, ASA, and other regulatory requirements, the company has extended its platform to cover EU and US-regulated markets, with APAC and MENA regions scheduled to follow in the coming months. Adclear will use the funding to expand the team, grow the presence in markets outside the UK, and introduce new products and services.

Skycore Semiconductors, a startup specialising in Power Integrated Circuit (IC) technology for AI data centers, has raised €5 million in seed funding. The round was led by the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund, with participation from First Momentum, Mätch VC, and Balnord. Founded in Denmark, Skycore has built a silicon-validated Power IC platform for applications requiring very high power density and efficiency, targeting the power-infrastructure challenges of emerging 800V high-voltage direct current (HVDC) architectures. Its solutions deliver high power density and efficiency in compact, flat form factors, addressing a key bottleneck in scaling AI infrastructure. The company holds six patent families and is developing 800V HVDC power architectures for future AI facilities. Skycore Semiconductors’ CEO and co-founder, Pere Llimós Muntal, stated that scaling AI compute infrastructure will require a fundamental shift in data centre power systems, with 800V HVDC architectures marking the first step toward that transformation. Our Power IC technology platform delivers power solutions with extreme power density and efficiency in flat, compact form factors, all essential to enable HVDC architectures. We design our solutions to be inherently scalable to meet the evolving demands of future power architectures. Skycore’s eight-person team plans to expand gradually while bringing its Power IC solutions to market in collaboration with strategic partners. The company is preparing its first commercial products and aims to capture the growing demand for AI data centre power solutions. Its long-term vision is to lead in Power ICs for high-voltage architectures across AI data centres and other high-power applications.

European venture firm Backed VC has closed its third fund, Backed 3, at its $100 million cap, alongside making its 100th investment.  Backed partners with outlier founders building generational frontier technology companies, who have made a fundamental technological or conceptual breakthrough. It leads Pre-seed or Seed stage rounds with investments between $500k and $5 million. A history of high-performing startups The announcement follows two high-performing first funds  – Backed’s first fund is a top decile fund and returned a further 35 per cent of capital to investors in October 2025. Now, Backed is scaling its ambition with Backed 3 — a larger fund, increased presence in the US and an expanded global events strategy.  Close to 50 per cent of Backed 3 was committed from 10 leading institutional Fund of Funds, with new investors such as Isomer Capital and Wunderland Capital. Backed 3 also now counts over 50 family offices and entrepreneurs as investors, including founders from Backed’s existing portfolio. Backed 3 will focus on three areas of frontier tech, in which Backed has previously seeded unicorns: AI-native therapeutics, blockchain and banking infrastructure and manufacturing automation. This fund has already reinvested in 6 of its strongest founders from previous funds. The firm partnered early on with the founders of companies such as Invisible Technologies, Thought Machine, General Intuition, and Flow Engineering – all of which have raised $20 to $150 million in follow-on funding rounds in the last quarter from Tier 1 US firms, including Sequoia, General Catalyst, Greycroft, and Khosla. 100 early-stage investments as portfolio yields five unicorns Backed are now at a landmark 100 Pre-Seed or Seed investments, of which five companies have already achieved unicorn status with valuations above $1 billion, and eighteen have reached an enterprise value of over $100 million.  Backed has a 90 per cent investment follow-on rate from Seed, measured by the companies closing a subsequent funding round, becoming profitable or being acquired. The intersection of venture capital and events Since its inception in 2016, Backed has differentiated itself by operating at the intersection of venture capital and events to gather the entrepreneurial community. Backed runs an extensive VC event programme globally, with 40 events per year, hosting over 4000 founders and investors. During Slush next week, Backed will host six separate events for 2000 guests. Andre de Haes, Co-Founder at Backed, said: “Backed partners with founders striving to build the first trillion-dollar European businesses, in spaces where most do not dare to build. Over the last decade, we have built a community of humans who have the audacity to take on companies like Nvidia, Google and Goldman Sachs. Their boldness has led to their success. It has created a flywheel, where our founders are now investing as LPs back into our new fund.” Alex Brunicki, Co-Founder at Backed, shared: “We want to support generational European founders building companies that will stand the test of time, who are choosing to build their businesses where they are most primed for success, not for convenience." For Aerska, Comind, and OchreBio, that is the UK and Europe. But for Flow Engineering, General Intuition and Invisible, that is the US. And we are developing our firm to support exceptional people wherever they choose to build.’ Lukas Bennemann, Founding Partner at Wunderland Capital, said: "Backed has built an exceptional reputation among founders and has matured impressively, showing a repeatable edge at the intersection of technical and scientific breakthroughs.  The team genuinely radiates something special — they connect with founders on a deeper level, which truly matters in the highly competitive seed landscape. You can tell who a ‘Backed Founder’ is, showing clearly the culture and focus of the team. Their relentless drive to achieve the best outcomes continues to make them stand out in the European VC landscape." Pim de Witte, CEO at General Intuition, shared: “Alex was truly the first to believe and Backed supported us from the very start of our journey through some very difficult moments. They are relentless in support of founders and fight when it matters most. It is fair to say, General Intuition might not exist without them. They are world-class, early-stage investors.” Lead image: Backed VC. Photo: uncredited.

Italy-based CommerceClarity, a composable AI operating system for e-commerce, has closed a €2.7 million pre-seed round led by IFF (Koinos Capital) and Entourage, with participation from Redstone and Euregio+ (Alpine VC), Vento (Exor), Ithaca Investment, and Vesper Holding. CommerceClarity tackles one of digital retail’s biggest challenges: increasingly unmanageable product-assortment workflows. McKinsey estimates AI agents could mediate up to $5 trillion in global retail sales by 2030, yet many teams still rely on spreadsheets, copy-paste processes, legacy IT, and incomplete product data, complexities that will intensify as AI agents influence discovery and purchasing. Built on a composable architecture, CommerceClarity automates catalogue data ingestion, enrichment, and validation, transforming unstructured information into structured, AI-readable, performance-optimised content for each market and channel. As the complexity of product data keeps growing and AI agents begin influencing what people buy, e-commerce needs intelligent infrastructure to remain visible, discoverable, and competitive, said co-founder and co-CEO Federico Sargenti, noting the platform stems from inefficiencies the founding team experienced first-hand in e-commerce operations. Founded in 2024 by Federico Sargenti, Daniele Vella, Michele Sampieri, and Alessandro Angelini, and drawing on experience at Amazon, Everli, and Bain & Company, the company now works with over 40 retailers and brands, including Nestlé Purina (pet food), Arcaplanet (pet care), Cisalfa (sporting goods), 1000Farmacie (pharma), and Caddy’s (home & personal care). Its technology is designed to cut operational costs by up to 90 per cent, lift traffic and sales by up to 30 per cent, and reduce time-to-market from weeks to hours. The new funding will advance CommerceClarity’s infrastructure for the agentic future of e-commerce and support international expansion, with offices in Milan, Rome, and London.

Finnish venture capital firm Vendep Capital has closed €80 million for its fourth fund to support early-stage SaaS founders in the Nordics and Baltics during the AI era. The fund is backed by Nordic and European investors, including Tesi (the Finnish state-owned investment company) and Pension Insurance Company Elo, alongside family offices and angel investors. The vehicle has reached its target size, though fundraising will remain open to new investors for a short period. Since 2013, Vendep has built a strong SaaS investing track record in the Nordics, backing companies such as AlphaSense, Hostaway, Leadfeeder, and Happeo. The firm focuses on early-stage B2B SaaS (from pre-seed to Series A) with a particular emphasis on AI-first products, and is recognised as a specialist SaaS investor in Northern Europe. We are excited to continue our work. The Nordics and Baltics offer one of the most thriving environments globally for building category-defining software companies, and Vendep is uniquely positioned to partner with the next wave of founders driving that growth, said Sakari Pihlava, Founding Partner at Vendep. The new fund arrives at a pivotal time for SaaS. Sami Ahvenniemi, General Partner at Vendep, commented that while SaaS may not be viewed as the flashiest investment theme, it has continued to outperform thanks to predictable recurring revenues and strong margins. He added that AI is ushering in the most dynamic phase for the model, noting that the most significant AI products today are delivered and monetised as SaaS. Fund IV will invest in around 20 early-stage SaaS startups across the Nordics and Baltics, from pre-seed to Series A, with initial investments ranging from €0.1 million to €3 million. Vendep also provides follow-on funding to support portfolio companies as they scale toward global market leadership.

Helsinki-based CHAOS, a data-intelligence company focused on reinventing the global real estate industry, has raised €2 million in a new funding round with participation from Swedish investment company Nidoco and Finnvera, a state-owned Finnish financing institution. Founded in 2017, CHAOS aims to modernise the real estate sector with advanced location intelligence and AI-driven insights. The platform aggregates and interprets fragmented data, including neighbourhood growth, population movements, business performance, and service needs. It then turns this information into actionable insights that help developers, investors, planners, and retailers decide where to invest, what to build, and how to support thriving communities and successful businesses. By providing better access to understandable data and actionable insights, our platform empowers the real estate industry to make more profitable and human-centric decisions, said Natalia Rincón-Eriksson, CEO and co-founder of CHAOS. The platform’s AI capabilities help users navigate complex datasets, compare neighbourhoods and access localised insights on demographics, services and assets. Rather than simply summarising data, it delivers AI-generated recommendations across the asset lifecycle, from initial investment and property management to divestment. Designed for ease of use, it offers unified location analytics and dashboards with forecasting and simulation tools, plus flexible, pay-as-you-need pricing to support adoption across corporate teams. The new investment will support expansion across the Nordics and the DACH region and further development of CHAOS’s AI-driven solutions for real estate investors, property developers and retailers.