Carne Group, Europe’s largest independent third-party management company and a provider of fund regulation and governance services, has agreed to sell a significant minority stake to funds advised by Permira at an enterprise valuation of €1.4 billion. As part of the transaction, Vitruvian Partners will exit its minority stake acquired in 2021, alongside several other minority shareholders. Carne’s founder, management team, and employees will retain a majority ownership in the group, with founder and CEO John Donohoe continuing to lead the business. Founded in 2004, Carne provides services across the fund lifecycle, supporting asset managers in areas including risk management, compliance, oversight, and governance. The investment represents a new phase in Carne’s development, with Permira providing capital and industry expertise to support continued growth. Since the investment from Vitruvian in 2021, the group has expanded its operations and strengthened its position across Europe. Commenting on the transaction, John Donohoe said the partnership with Permira marks an important milestone in Carne’s long-term development, aligning with the company’s growth plans as the industry evolves, while allowing it to expand its reach, continue serving clients, and maintain its independence. Permira’s backing is expected to support further investment in Carne’s technology platform, Curator, including product development, commercial capabilities, and advancements in areas such as AI and automation, while enabling the company to scale its services globally in response to growing demand for outsourced solutions.

Mos Health, a Polish-American startup developing an AI-based health platform for personalised protocols and supplements, has raised $1.1 million in a pre-seed round co-led by SMOK Ventures and Movens Capital, with participation from Tomasz Karwatka, Piotr Karwatka, Anna Lankauf, and others. Mos Health is a preventive health and lifestyle wellness company focused on making health solutions practical for everyday use. With only 25 per cent of U.S. adults meeting recommended activity levels and many diets failing due to low adherence, the company aims to address an execution gap by combining personalised guidance with tools that support consistent action. The platform is built around two integrated components. The AI Health Partner app analyses data from sleep, nutrition, lab tests, and wearable devices such as Apple Watch and Oura to generate personalised health protocols. This is complemented by a proprietary line of supplements produced with a U.S.-based manufacturing partner, designed to support implementation of the app’s recommendations. Patrycja Brzozowska, founder and CEO of Mos Health, said the company was created out of her own challenges with maintaining consistency. Generic advice is often not enough, so we are building a system that uses personal data and reduces friction in day-to-day execution, Brzozowska said. Mos Health is launching in the US with a B2B2C model that enables employers to offer personalised health protocols and supplements as part of their employee benefits. Commenting on the US launch, Paweł Chrzan, co-founder of Mos Health, said the market enables faster adoption of innovation by companies and users. The employee benefits model aligns well with our approach, as the workplace is often where sustainable lifestyle changes can be introduced, Chrzan added. The company plans to use the funding to develop its MVP, advance its core technology, and begin initial deployments in the US.

The European Union has allocated €10 million to support the development of digital public services in Ukraine and their alignment with European standards. According to Oleksandr Bornyakov, Acting Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, cooperation with the European Union and the Academy of Electronic Management is a long-standing success story that laid the foundation for our digital sustainability.: “Together, we implemented dozens of critical projects: from the construction of the Trembit data exchange system to the launch of convenient state services in Diia.  Our priority today is not just digitalisation, but full synchronisation with the EU digital space. We are confidently moving towards our strategic goal of the integration of Ukraine into the Single Digital Market of the European Union.” Diia is a single-state portal developed over the last few years that includes over 70 digital services — you can become an entrepreneur in Ukraine in just 2 seconds and found a limited liability company in 30 minutes.  Over 1,000,000 private entrepreneurs and more than 14,000 companies have already used the service. The partnership with the European Union on Ukraine's digital transformation has been ongoing for almost a decade. The funding will support the following key areas: Cross-border services: Support Ukraine’s access to the single market of services, goods, and capital with EU countries. Trembita 2.0: Upgrade the national data exchange system so government registries can communicate faster. Data oversight : Launch a system that will show when officials access citizens’ personal data. Development of CNAP centres (one-stop administrative service centers) Upgrade the Vulyk system to connect and improve more centres. European data standards: Implement new data governance rules aligned with EU standards. Training specialists: Support the Centre for Digital Competencies to train experts in e-services. The project is implemented by the Academy of Electronic Management (Estonia). The Academy of Electronic Management has been working with Ukraine since 2012, supporting the country's digital transformation through reforms, crises, and, now, a full-scale war.  According to Hannes Astok, Executive Director, Academy of Electronic Management, this long-term partnership proves that digital solutions are not only technology, but also trust, sustainability and the state's ability to serve its citizens under all circumstances. “Stable and reliable support from the European Union makes it possible to build sustainable digital systems that meet European standards.“

Spotify has confirmed it will open an office in Turkey, saying the country is a “priority market”, following a spat between the streaming giant and the Turkish government.   Spotify said it will open an office in Istanbul by the end of June, saying “opening an office in Istanbul is not a symbolic move for Spotify, it’s a structural one". It added: "Turkey is a priority market for us, and deepening our presence reflects our long-term commitment to the country’s music ecosystem, its creators, and its culture.”   The Turkish government has previously confirmed the opening of the office. The Swedish streaming giant has also appointed long-term Spotify executive Akshat Harbola to oversee its Turkish operations and said that its Turkish office will scale this year, appointing new staff. Spotify pointed to figures showing that Turkish music was seeing strong growth, with 52m users outside Turkey listening to Turkish-language tracks in 2025, with export streaming up over 160 per cent since 2020. Spotify, which launched in Turkey in 2013, has also pledged to amplify the voices of female and emerging artists in Turkey.   Spotify's commitment to Turkey follows last year's spat between Spotify and the Turkish government, which saw Spotify threaten to pull out of Turkey in a row over playlists that ridiculed president Erdogan’s wife and, in particular, her claimed lavish spending.   The Turkish government accused the streaming platform of hosting “content that targets our religious and national values and insults the beliefs of our society”. It also accused Spotify of not supporting local music. The Turkish government demanded that the Swedish streaming company open a physical office in the country and the competition authority opened an investigation into whether Spotify engaged in anti-competitive practices. However, the spat appeared to have been resolved following a meeting between the Turkish government and Spotify executives. Spotify has previously had an office in Turkey but it is understood to have closed in 2018.

Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech today announced the release of EduQit, a modular quantum computing kit designed to enable hands-on training, experimental learning, and early-stage research using an on-site superconducting quantum computing system.   EduQit enables universities and research institutions to work directly with a physical quantum computing system. This provides hands-on experience with hardware, control systems, operations, and application development.     EduQit addresses a long-standing gap in quantum education: most academic programs rely on theory, simulators, or cloud-based access, which means students miss out on learning directly how quantum systems are built, operated, and maintained. EduQit includes hardware, software, manuals and support from the Qilimanjaro team. This open design allows students and professors to understand the entire process of building and running a quantum computer, as well as to tailor the hardware to each user’s goals.   Professor Bruno Julià Díaz is the coordinator of the interuniversity master’s degree in Quantum Science and Technology and a professor in the Department of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics at the University of Barcelona. He has worked with Qilimanjaro’s hardware and quantum experts to provide students with hands-on experience. Image: Qilimanjaro’s hardware and quantum experts to provide students with hands-on experience. "Access to modular quantum systems and close interaction with Qilimanjaro’s technical teams have allowed students, particularly at the master’s thesis level, to acquire system-level understanding and practical experience that is rarely accessible within a traditional academic setting,” he said. “This type of hands-on exposure plays a key role in advanced quantum computing education, helping bridge the gap between academic training and the realities of operating and evolving quantum technologies.”    Designed as a deployable and expandable package, EduQit supports laboratory courses, project-based learning, and bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral thesis work. Its modular architecture allows institutions to refine the system over time, reducing technological lock-in. EduQit also provides a platform for comparing qubit modalities, conducting research, and developing and testing enabling technologies.    Optional cloud access to Qilimanjaro’s SpeQtrum platform allows institutions to complement on-site experimentation with remote workflows and perform benchmarks, while preserving direct interaction with the system. This additional access provides researchers with the opportunity to work with a multi-modal quantum hardware design that supports digital, analogue, and hybrid quantum computing paradigms. Qilimanjaro’s multi-modal data centre uses this infrastructure, allowing users to select the compute platform that best fits their use case.    EduQit contributes to long-term institutional and ecosystem development by supporting workforce development and enabling collaboration between academia, industry, and public stakeholders. This also aligns with national and global industry priorities related to advanced skills development, technological sovereignty, and sustainable capability building. Lead image: Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech.

European tech investment reached €72 billion in 2025, making it the second-strongest year of the past three, despite a modest decline from 2024. Deal activity remained stable, with over 3,740 transactions completed, broadly in line with recent years and indicating sustained investor engagement. In 2025, investment became increasingly concentrated in a few major hubs, while deal activity continued to be distributed across the continent. The UK ?? retained its position as the largest market, raising €21.5 billion across 830 deals, followed by Germany ?? (€11.5 billion) and France ?? (€8.7 billion), the latter boosted by several large late-stage rounds. The Netherlands ??, Sweden ??, and Switzerland ?? also held strong positions, while Finland ?? and Italy ?? gained momentum later in the year. Finland’s €2.9 billion came from a relatively small number of deals, suggesting a concentration of larger rounds. Ukraine ??, with €944 million, completed the list of the top ten tech markets (largely driven by a single significant deal in the middle of the year, despite a lower volume of transactions). Quarterly trends revealed shifting dynamics. The third quarter stood out as the most volatile, with major peaks in countries like the UK, France, and Switzerland, and declines in others such as Germany and the Netherlands. In Q4, momentum shifted again as Finland, Italy, and Sweden recorded their strongest performances of the year. Throughout, the UK remained the consistent leader, driven by a particularly dominant third quarter. For more detailed analyses of the European technology ecosystem, check out Tech.eu’s annual report: European Tech 2025 –The Big Picture. Today, we’re highlighting the largest deals from each of the top 10 countries that attracted the highest investment in 2025. In the coming weeks, we’ll take a closer look at the biggest funding rounds in each country individually. Amount raised: £2.3B As previously mentioned, CityFibre, a leading provider of full-fibre broadband infrastructure in the UK, secured £2.3 billion in financing to support the ongoing expansion of its gigabit-capable fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network. The funding will enable new home and business connections, as well as potential acquisitions of additional fibre network assets. This deal ranks as the largest tech investment in the UK for 2025. Amount raised: €1B Among German tech companies, FINN secured the largest investment in 2025, raising €1 billion to expand its vehicle fleet and support international growth. FINN offers a flexible car subscription service with all-inclusive monthly plans covering insurance, maintenance, taxes, and delivery. The fully digital process allows users to order and receive a vehicle without the need for long-term ownership commitments. Amount raised: €1.7B In France, Mistral AI secured the largest funding round of the year, raising €1.7 billion to accelerate research, expand computing infrastructure, and scale its AI platform globally. The company builds generative AI tools that help organisations develop and deploy language models, AI assistants, and autonomous agents for tasks like search, coding, and automation. The round more than doubled Mistral AI’s valuation to approximately €11.7 billion. Amount raised: €1B In the Netherlands, NXP Semiconductors raised the largest funding round, securing €1 billion to support research, product development, and manufacturing expansion, placing it among the biggest deals in Europe last year. The company develops semiconductor solutions (like microcontrollers, sensors, and connectivity tech) used in automotive, industrial, IoT, and mobile applications, enabling smart, connected systems. Amount raised: €600M In Sweden, EcoDataCenter secured the largest total funding in 2025, raising over €1.05 billion across two rounds. The largest of these, €600 million secured in September, positioned the company at the top among Swedish tech deals last year. EcoDataCenter designs, builds, and operates high-performance data centres focused on sustainability, energy efficiency, and support for AI and cloud workloads, powered by renewable energy and innovative cooling technologies. Amount raised: €258M Energy Vault secured the largest tech funding in Switzerland in 2025, raising a total of €325.8 million across three rounds. Its largest round, €258 million, ranked as the biggest tech deal in the country last year. The company develops sustainable energy storage solutions using gravity- and battery-based systems to efficiently store and dispatch energy. Its technology supports grid stability and enables large-scale decarbonization, advancing the global shift to renewable energy. Amount raised: $200M TravelPerk, a business travel platform that streamlines booking, management, and expense tracking for corporate travel, raised $200 million at a $2.7 billion valuation, securing the largest single tech deal in Spain in 2025. While Multiverse Computing raised a higher total amount across two funding rounds, TravelPerk’s individual raise placed it first among Spanish tech companies by deal size last year. Amount raised: $1B Nokia, a global provider of advanced network infrastructure and digital connectivity solutions, secured a $1 billion equity investment from Nvidia, making it the largest tech deal in Finland in 2025. The strategic partnership aims to integrate AI into telecommunications networks and accelerate data centre development. Amount raised: $710M Bending Spoons, a company that develops, acquires, and scales consumer software products across various digital categories, secured the largest tech deal in Italy in 2025 with a $710 million round. Although the company raised a total of approximately €1.1 billion across two financing rounds (placing it among the top companies by total capital raised), this single deal ranked first in Italy by size. Amount raised: $1B Grammarly, a Ukraine-founded company, secured a $1 billion funding round in 2025, making it one of the year’s largest tech deals. The company offers an AI-powered writing assistant used by individuals and teams to enhance grammar, tone, and overall communication. This deal helped position Ukraine among the top 10 European tech markets by total investment in 2025, despite a relatively low volume of transactions.

Tech firms globally cut more than 100,000 jobs in 2025 as they reengineer for efficiency and rethink layers of management.  Enter international software development company and long-term technology partner Redwerk, a 20-year-old, Kyiv-founded software agency that has scaled globally without investors, middle managers, or flashy marketing.  Redwerk designs, builds, and maintains custom digital products for businesses worldwide.  Founded in 2005, the company develops web, mobile, desktop, and SaaS platforms, working across the full product lifecycle from architecture and UX to engineering, QA, deployment, and ongoing support. Its teams have delivered complex systems across e-government, healthcare, fintech, media, and marketplaces, often modernising legacy infrastructure or building mission-critical platforms from scratch. For startups, Redwerk acts as an extended product and engineering arm. It helps founders turn early ideas into MVPs, scale platforms as user numbers grow, and transition from prototype to enterprise-grade infrastructure.   This includes product discovery, technical validation, cost-efficient team building, and long-term scaling support, allowing startups to move faster without building large in-house teams too early.  Its “build + break + perfect” model, via Redwerk + its sister brand QAWek, has powered platforms for clients such as Universal Music Group, Northeastern University, and even the European Parliament. In a tech environment where bloated orgs are being stripped back, I wanted to understand how Redwerk’s flat, founder-led structure works. I spoke to CEO Konstantin Klyagin to learn more. From BASIC to building a global software firm Klyagin’s interest in computers began in early childhood. He traces his interest in computers back to early childhood. “I first saw a computer when I was six, at my mother’s office, and started playing games,” he recalls.   “Very quickly, I became interested in how these things were made.” By the age of eight, he had already written his first program in BASIC. At 15, he built a free bulletin board system (BBS) that allowed users to communicate over telephone lines, exchange files, and leave messages.  “At one point, it was among the top three systems of its kind in the world.” At 17, he launched CenterICQ. “It began as an ICQ client, but later we added support for other protocols like MSN Messenger, AOL, and Jabber,” he explains. Together with other enthusiasts, he reverse-engineered the protocols, and even established contact with key figures behind them.  “I was even in contact with the founder of the Jabber protocol.” He notes that this technology “is still widely used today underneath many modern messaging systems.” That same year, he also began working professionally. “I started working when I was 17, for outsourcing companies in Ukraine,” he says.  Over time, he observed different management styles and practices and made mental notes of what he would and wouldn’t want to replicate if he ever built his own company. The turning point came at 23, when his open-source work attracted international attention. “I received a request from someone in the Netherlands who had seen my open-source work and wanted me to develop a SaaS product. That became our first client.” He assembled a small team in southern Ukraine — “in a town that is today about 30 kilometres from the frontline” — and later opened a second team in Kyiv. At the time, he was living in Berlin, but wanted to spend more time in Ukraine. Eventually, he moved to Kyiv and lived there for five uninterrupted years before the war.” “That’s how Redwerk started,” he says, “and gradually grew.”  A company without middle managers Klyagin explains Redwerk’s horizontal structure:  “We don’t have heads of departments. We do have functional verticals, but within them people work as equals and collaborate based on projects and tasks, not hierarchy. A developer might say, “On this project, I work with this project manager, and on another project with a different one.”  There is no rigid chain of command; instead, he explained,  “everyone can talk directly to everyone else. Our customers can also communicate directly with engineers if they want to go deep into technical details. We don’t hide people behind layers of management.” The result? Less bureaucracy, faster problem-solving, and increased accountability.  “People are more involved and more responsible for the outcomes,” he shared.  How careers work in a flat organisation I was curious what career progression looks like in a flat structure — in traditional companies, the aim is always to work your way up. However, the job market today is very different from a few years ago. Klyagin contends. “It’s an employer’s market now. Many companies are downsizing, and hiring has slowed.” As a result, at Redwerk, hiring is always driven by real demand.  “We don’t hire in advance and hope work will appear. We manage closely around utilisation. When around 70 per cent or more of our team’s time is billable, that’s healthy. The remaining capacity allows us to onboard new projects. When demand grows, we don’t immediately hire full-time employees. We often start with contractors or part-time contributors, and only move to permanent roles when there is stable, long-term work. This avoids giving people false expectations and helps us stay financially responsible.” In practice, Redwerk’s lean structure makes the team much more flexible and cost-efficient for clients. “We sell what we call managed teams”, shared Klyagin.  Depending on the project, a team may include full-time developers, part-time QA, a part-time designer, and a project manager. “We can scale resources up or down quickly and move people between projects as needed. Because we don’t lock ourselves into rigid organisational structures, we can adapt faster and avoid unnecessary overhead.” For companies considering removing middle management, Klyagin cautions them to think carefully about the cultural impact.  “If their current structure works, they shouldn’t change it just because 'flat' sounds fashionable. Transformation should be gradual. Start with one project or one department as an experiment. If it works, scale it step by step.” Also, scale matters. Klyagin’s experience is with companies of up to around 100 people. He admits that at some point, as organisations grow much larger, you inevitably need layers of management simply to maintain clarity and coordination. Four lessons from 20 years of bootstrapped growth In its 20 years of operation, Redwerk has never received venture capital or other external funding.  “Everything has been financed through revenue. We’ve grown organically from the beginning,” shared Klyagin. Klyagin distils that experience into four core lessons that have shaped how the company operates today: First, profit discipline drives every decision.  “If you can’t afford something, don’t buy it. Don’t rely on debt or outside money. Build reserves and grow responsibly,” he asserts.  Second, in a services business, utilisation is critical. Headcount alone means nothing if people are not working on paid projects. Growth must be tied to real demand. Third, diversification is essential. A diversified customer base across industries and company sizes makes the business far more stable. And finally, never neglect small projects.  “Some of our largest, most valuable long-term clients started with very small engagements.  One fashion company initially came to us to fix a single webpage, and later outsourced their entire digital presence to us. Another client noticed a public QA report we had published as part of our “bug crawl” initiative, hired us, and eventually grew so much that they were acquired by Squarespace. That relationship later turned into work with Squarespace itself. Small beginnings can lead to very big outcomes.”   And, in terms of his own role, Klyagin would definitely consider replacing his own role with AI in the future.  “Anything that gives me more time for my daughter, travel, and learning new languages is welcome,” he asserts.  “I’ve spent decades in software development, and I’m very open to automation, including in management.”

TetraxAI, an AI-powered B2B SaaS platform focused on due diligence and risk management for clean energy infrastructure, has completed a €1.2 million pre-seed funding round led by The Footprint Firm, with participation from Norrsken Evolve and Carbon13. Including non-dilutive funding from NEOTEC, Spain’s national deeptech grant programme funded by the Centre for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI), the company’s total funding to date reaches €1.5 million. Founded in 2024 by Marta Vizcaíno Martín, Arnau Tibau Puig, and Ekaterina Filina, TetraxAI was created to address inefficiencies in traditional clean energy assessment processes using AI-driven technology. TetraxAI develops software designed to modernise assessment and risk analysis for clean energy projects, which are often slow and reliant on fragmented, manual workflows. By combining AI-based document analysis, local regulatory intelligence, and structured project data, the platform helps developers, investors, independent power producers, and asset managers identify and manage risks more efficiently. Tasks that previously took several weeks (such as reviewing large data rooms for utility-scale renewable energy projects) can now be completed in a matter of hours using the platform. According to customer feedback, the quality of the resulting analyses is comparable to, and in some cases exceeds, that of traditional advisory approaches, while being delivered with reduced time and cost. Its flagship product, TetraxVerify, uses AI automation to analyse large volumes of documents in project data rooms, streamlining legal, regulatory, and land-use risk assessments for developers, investors, lawyers, and insurers. Marta Vizcaíno Martín, CEO and co-founder of TetraxAI, said the funding represents an important milestone for the company, bringing in investors with experience in both climate impact and commercial growth. Commenting on the investment, Jakob Wichmann, Co-founder and Partner at The Footprint Firm, said that TetraxAI addresses a key yet frequently underestimated challenge in the energy transition. By dramatically reducing the time, cost, and friction of clean-energy due diligence and risk management, the team is enabling faster capital deployment into clean infrastructure, Wichmann added. The new funding will be used to expand TetraxAI’s machine learning and engineering teams, broaden coverage across European energy markets, and accelerate adoption among developers, investors, and asset managers.

Levellr, the AI insights platform helping brands and game studios understand and monitor Discord, next-generation communities, and user voice data, has secured $2.5 million in a round led by Fuel Ventures. Founded by Tom Gayner and Ben Barbersmith in 2021, Levellr reflects the founders’ experience at YouTube, Octagon and MyCujoo, addressing the community and audience challenges they saw first-hand. As Discord has become one of the most important communities, global brands and games companies need enterprise-grade tools and services to support real-time user insights. Levellr unifies user conversation and engagement signals from the newest generation of social platforms, such as Discord, to provide real-time intelligence on critical events to support product, live ops, game design, community and support teams. As the community increasingly becomes a commercial driver of consumer revenue, Levellr has seen growing demand for its enterprise products, with revenue doubling in back-to-back years. With brands facing rising acquisition costs, fragmented audiences and growing pressure on retention, community is critical. Millions of players now spend more time on Discord than in traditional social networks,  yet for most companies, Discord and other next-generation online community platforms remain a black box.  As a result, companies are missing out on critical audience feedback and insights that create opportunities to improve products, engagement, and commercial performance. Levellr’s platform turns raw, fast-moving community conversations into clear, actionable insight. It listens to player discussions across Discord and other next-generation platforms to provide real-time intelligence on critical events to support product, developer relations, community and support teams. Levellr is already used by leading gaming and consumer companies, including Epic Games, Krafton, Scopely, YouTube, and Google. The raise included investment from industry leaders in the video game sector, including Mark Pincus’ Workplay Ventures (Zynga Founder), Bing Gordon (Duolingo & T2 board member), Frank Gibeau (CEO Zynga), Phil Mansell (former Jagex CEO), Simon Hade (Space Ape founder), Norman Cheuk (ex-Microsoft executive) & Playformant. Bing Gordon (Duolingo & T2 board member), who invested in the round, commented: "I've tracked Levellr’s impressive growth and it's clear they're solving a critical industry gap. Levellr is shifting how teams can bring intelligence from core platforms like Discord into the business through real-time sentiment and relationship analysis. But that's just the start. They're essentially building the CDP layer - the customer data platform - that can amplify value and unlock more revenue for companies with Discord communities and beyond." According to Tom Gayner, co-founder and CEO of Levellr, customers may have clarity on what is happening through product and monetisation data, but they often lack the ‘why’ behind changes in metrics.  “They needed real-time insight from the user voice to help teams make smarter decisions. Before Levellr, teams were manually scrolling platforms like Discord, often undervaluing community signals until a bug or issue had already escalated into user churn. Community reports often lacked sophistication, such as segmentation, cohort analysis, or weighting, so even when customers could see user signals, there was little clarity about whether product teams should act on them." With Levellr, product and support teams can understand the ‘why’ behind product usage shifts and prioritise roadmaps based on real user pain. Live ops and dev rel teams receive real-time intelligence on critical events that threaten revenue and retention, enabling faster action. Community and customer support can filter signals from the noise, removing significant manual work, whilst Marketing teams can keep users in and moving along the funnel with user-level automation.” Mark Pearson, founder of Fuel Ventures, commented: “Levellr is tackling a problem we see time and again across games and consumer businesses — huge amounts of value locked up in community conversations, with no clear way to turn that insight into action. Tom and Ben have built a platform that brings clarity where there has been noise, helping teams make better decisions that directly impact retention and growth. The new funding will support Levellr’s next stage of growth, building data infrastructure that allows customers to unlock deeper user insight, which can then be combined with Leveller’s agentic solutions that can proactively provide insight-based recommendations. These increased data insights and recommendations will enable teams to respond faster, supporting product and marketing goals. Lead image: Levellr. Photo: Tom Trevatt Photography.

France-based daphni, a mission-driven venture capital firm, has completed the final closing of its Blue fund at €260 million, exceeding its initial target. The close reflects strong investor support for a strategy focused on translating European scientific research into entrepreneurial ventures that address major societal and environmental challenges. Despite a broader slowdown in the venture capital market, daphni reached its final close within nine months. During this period, the fund has already invested in nine deeptech companies originating from leading French research institutions, including INRIA, Institut Curie, INSERM and Institut Langevin. The pace of deployment highlights daphni’s growing maturity and the strength of its model, which combines a large entrepreneurial community with a dedicated digital platform. It also points to increasing investor interest in science-driven projects capable of delivering long-term, impactful innovation based on Europe’s research base. The Blue fund is built on the conviction that many of the next major technological breakthroughs will emerge at the intersection of science, digital technologies, artificial intelligence and the physical world, and that long-term capital and specialised support are required to bring these innovations to market. Pierre-Eric Leibovici, Founder and Managing Partner of daphni, noted that France and Europe generate a substantial volume of intellectual property through public and private research across disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. However, he added that the transition from laboratory research to commercial application remains underdeveloped and underfunded. This is precisely where the opportunity lies: transforming this exceptional scientific capital into technology-driven entrepreneurial ventures that create both economic and societal value, Leibovici said. First portfolio companies under the Blue fund daphni Blue plans to support around 40 European companies. Start-ups such as Epyr, Moonwatt, Pasqal and Pruna AI, backed by daphni in previous funds, illustrate the firm’s experience in supporting science-based ventures and the value-creation potential of this approach. The first investments made through the Blue fund that align closely with this strategy include: Owlo - originating from the Institut Langevin, is developing a real-time, non-invasive, label-free 3D microscopy technology for fertility and pharmaceutical research. EverDye - is advancing a patented textile dyeing technology based on green chemistry, compatible with existing equipment and designed to significantly reduce environmental impact. Karavela - spun out of INRIA, is developing a brain foundation model based on functional MRI data to enable new digital biomarkers and non-invasive brain–machine interfaces. Neotis - is pursuing immunotherapeutic approaches targeting pathological senescent cells to treat age-related chronic diseases, based on leading academic research. In line with its mission-driven strategy, daphni targets both financial and non-financial performance. A portion of the fund’s carried interest is linked to ESG criteria, ensuring alignment between long-term impact and value creation.

Munich-based Twogee Biotech, a biotechnology start-up developing customised enzyme solutions for the industrial conversion of biomass into sustainable raw materials, has completed a €2.16 million seed financing round. The round includes investments from High-Tech Gründerfonds and Bayern Kapital, as well as strategic partners AgriFoodTech Venture Alliance and Heinz Entsorgung. Founded in 2024 by Frank Wallrapp and Helge Jochens, Twogee Biotech supports industrial partners in converting low-value biomass residues and by-products into sustainable second-generation raw materials, with a focus on sugars for bio- and synthetic biology applications. The company’s approach is based on a predictive development platform that integrates enzyme screening, strain engineering, and fermentation. This enables more efficient biomass utilisation while helping industrial partners advance circular, low-CO₂ value creation by shortening development timelines and reducing scale-up risk. Frank Wallrapp, CEO of Twogee Biotech, said that many industrial residual streams contain untapped economic potential and that the company supports partners in accessing this value through solutions designed for straightforward integration and clear commercial benefits. The company plans to use the newly raised capital to further develop its technology and advance commercialisation. Initial MVPs and paid pilot projects with industrial partners have already been completed. Twogee Biotech intends to pursue a licensing model that enables local enzyme production at customer sites, with the aim of reducing costs and emissions while supporting decentralised, circular value chains.

Voyager Ventures has closed a $275 million Fund II. With this fund, Voyager now manages $475 million across North America and Europe.  The firm invests in technologies that modernise the base layer of the economy, spanning energy production and distribution, advanced manufacturing, critical materials, physical AI, and compute. “We launched Voyager in 2021 to invest early in the foundational technology companies for durable economic growth,” said Sarah Sclarsic, co-founder and general partner at Voyager Ventures.  “Today we’re seeing the market validate demand and scale for energy, critical materials, advanced manufacturing, AI for optimising physical systems, among other technologies that are drivers of the global economy. Now, more than ever, companies and countries are recognising that these technologies are critical to creating lasting competitive advantage.” “We are investing in technology companies that create systemic stability in an increasingly volatile world,” said Sierra Peterson, co-founder and general partner at Voyager Ventures. “The economy of the past was built on finite fuels and brittle processes that will continue to hamper prosperity until we transcend them. We’re investing in technology that simply performs better." Voyager Ventures’ Fund II invests across Energy + Efficiency, Materials Production, Software + AI, Mobility, Built Environment, and Carbon Management. Voyager’s portfolio includes Allie, Anthro Energy, Arbour Energy, Clean Baseload Power, Zero Emissions, and Astro Mechanica.  Fund II has already begun investing, including in ENAPI, Leeta Materials Home, and Electroflow Technologies.

The AI fintech Vickii has been acquired by the finanzen.net Group, a German financial portal and parent company of the neo-broker finanzen.net ZERO.  Vickii began as a student project in Münster. At just 20 years old, Jai Bheeman, Lukas Söllner, and Alexander Brils founded the fintech while still at university, with the ambition to rethink investing for a digital generation. From the outset, the idea was clear: investing must be intuitive, easy to understand and personalised – and artificial intelligence is the key to scaling this experience. Over time, early prototypes evolved into a powerful AI engine that simplifies complex market data and supports better investment decisions. Vickii grew to a high-five-figure user base and raised more than €2 million from investors, laying the foundation for a successful exit.  With this acquisition, Vickii’s technology and team will scale their impact within a European platform reaching millions of users. “When we founded Vickii, our mission was to make investing clearer and easier for everyone. With the finanzen.net Group, we can now take this mission onto a much bigger stage,” says Jai Bheeman, CTO of Vickii. The integration provides an ideal environment to accelerate this vision: access to millions of users, an execution-driven business model rather than subscriptions or advertising, and a flexible setup that enables AI features to be brought to market faster, more data-driven and effectively. “We never doubted our vision – this acquisition shows that we were right,” adds Alexander Brils, CPO of Vickii.  “A (neo)broker had long been the logical exit route. That the right opportunity has emerged now was not something we could have predicted. With finanzen.net ZERO, we can realise our ideas faster and at greater scale, in an excellent environment.” With the acquisition of Vickii, the finanzen.net Group is deliberately strengthening its expertise in user-centric, AI-powered financial content and brokerage. The existing technologies and competencies will be gradually integrated into the finanzen.net portal and the group’s own broker, finanzen.net ZERO. The aim is to offer investors clearer support for decision-making throughout the entire user journey – from information and analysis to concrete investment decisions. “AI, when used pragmatically, can create significant value for users. We want to provide our readers with more clearly structured information and give our investors a better orientation. The Vickii team strengthens us precisely in this user-focused application of artificial intelligence,” says Muhamad Chahrour, CEO of the finanzen.net Group. The Vickii founders will continue to contribute their expertise to the development and advancement of AI-supported products and content within the finanzen.net Group.  The parties have agreed not to disclose the financial details of the transaction. Lead image: Jai Bheeman, Lukas Söllner, Alexander Brils. Photo: uncredited.

Green concrete startup Carbonaide has raised €3.7 million to transform the concrete industry through carbon dioxide curing and permanent CO₂ storage. Carbonaide’s technology has been in commercial production since 2024. In 2025, Carbonaide entered into agreements with two Finnish companies, concrete producer Lakan Betoni and concrete element manufacturer Lipa-Betoni, to install its technology in their factories.  Production with the Carbonaide systems begins in both facilities in early 2026.  In January 2026, Carbonaide also sold the first certified carbon credits created through its mineralisation. The round was led by Carbonaide’s existing owners, Vantaan Energia, Redstone, and Ihantola Invest, and joined by a group of private investment companies and investors, including Zero Carbon Future Group, Product Ecology Holding B.V., Helkama Kiinteistöt, and Ikorni Invest. “With a lifetime focus on decarbonising construction, I am very excited by Carbonaide’s potential. Now that the technology is ready to scale, we are thrilled to support the growth of the company and also to partner with Carbonaide to supply carbon data for low-carbon products,” says Panu Pasanen, CEO of One Click LCA and investor through Zero Carbon Future Group. The new funding will support Carbonaide’s international expansion and boost R&D activity towards new applications, making carbon-negative concrete profitable. The funding will be used to drive progress across three core areas: Expansion of customer acquisition by strengthening the company’s global sales organisation and marketing efforts. Further development of the Carbonaide Service Platform – a cloud-based software platform for managing CO₂ flow, carbon measurements and carbon credit issuance that will serve as the backbone of our solution. Accelerated R&D beyond precast concrete – fast-tracking the development of Carbonaide’s roadmap extension, starting with next-generation carbon dioxide curing for concrete element production. This will pave the way for applications in ready-mix and other concrete types. “With this momentum, we are well-positioned to scale our technology, expand our CO₂ partner network, and continue turning concrete factories into carbon sinks,” says Tapio Vehmas, CEO of Carbonaide. “There is clear demand in the construction industry for solutions that reduce emissions, showing that the industry is turning towards a low-carbon built environment.”

The former CEO of bankrupt battery maker Northvolt said it was “emotionally tough" raising funds for his new venture, after the demise  of the Swedish battery maker, which collapsed with debts of $5.8bn. Peter Carlsson, the co-founder and former CEO of Northvolt, launched a new startup last year that leverages AI to help the manufacturing process just months after Northvolt, which raised billions of dollars in equity and debt, collapsed. Carlsson's new venture, called Aris Machina, has attracted investment from angels along with investors such as Earlybird and Village Global, according to Aris Machina. Speaking about the process of raising money after the collapse of Northvolt, Carlsson said: “That was not easy at all. You felt incredibly guilty towards the people who lost a lot of money. It is important to recognise that the Northvolt journey was not a VC journey. We built Northvolt first with industrial investments and then later on with big funds like Goldman Sachs. Emotionally, it was tough.” Carlsson was speaking at the GoWest VC conference in Gothenburg, along with Siddharth Khullar, who launched Aris Machina with Carlsson and is its CEO. Khullar previously headed up Northvolt's AI offering. Carlsson also said there was a “big curiosity” about Aris Machina, in which he owns a stake of between 25 and 50 per cent in, when he began selling it into the market. Carlsson said: “Overall, I think there has been a pretty big curiosity and interest in what we are doing.” Carlsson said many potential Aris Machina customers know that AI is going to disrupt the way they are working, but don’t know how. Khullar said: “In my experience, both the investor conversations and customer conversations have been incredibly toned in the way that ‘tell us everything you learned’.”  Speaking about Nortvolt, Carlsson said: “It’s been a very tough year, I think incredibly challenging.  As you’ve been 24/7 working on building this company that you dedicated your entire effort.” Carlsson also said that if Norhvolt had been able use the operating system developed by Aris Machina, it would have helped the battery maker. Also speaking at the conference was Michiel Scheffer, president of the board, European Innovation Council, the EU body for identifying funding, and scaling disruptive tech across the bloc. Last year, the EU unveiled its €5bn ScaleUp Europe Fund designed to address the long-term issue of the shortage of late-stage growth capital across the EU. Speaking of the fund, Scheffer said it had €3bn committed from private investors. But he called out the absence of investment from Germany and France. He said: "It’s still very much a Nordic affair, if you take the Netherlands as a Nordic country as well." He said the first investment from the fund should take place in the summer of this year. Scheffer also said he was surprised by Ursula von der Leyen officially announcing the launch of Eu Inc at Davos last week. He added: "I was at Davos last week and was surprised Ursula von der Leyen took the most radical position possible on the 28th regime, the 28th regime as a regulation  and not as a directive.” Photo: Stockholm School of Economics

seed+speed Ventures, the Berlin-based early-stage fund led by Carsten Maschmeyer and Alexander Kölpin, has closed its fundraising at €90 million.  The original planned target size for this third fund was €30  million. With investor approval, the hard cap was increased twice.  seed+speed III will invest in European B2B and enterprise software companies at the pre-seed and seed stages, with initial ticket sizes ranging from €500,000 to €1.5 million. For each startup, the fund can provide several million euros in follow-on capital.  With the new fund, seed+speed Ventures aims to focus on the secure rollout and use of AI in everyday business operations — from security, data protection, and governance to quality, cost control, and measurable productivity.  The investor base includes institutional investors such as banks and foundations, media groups, family offices, industrial holdings,  professionals from the legal and tax sectors, real estate entrepreneurs, and high-net-worth individuals.  Carsten Maschmeyer, Managing Partner at seed+speed Ventures, contends that “If Europe wants to compete in the global AI race, we urgently need to drive innovation.  We firmly believe in AI from Europe.” “There are strong, innovative founders here with an inventor’s mindset and world-class technology. What is often missing, unfortunately, is the power to build large companies from it, and that’s where add value. We’re especially proud that several successful founders from our first two seed+speed funds have since joined us as investors following their exits. That is a strong signal of trust.” According to Alexander Kölpin, Managing Partner of seed+speed Ventures, the question is no longer whether companies will use AI, but how they use it to remain competitive.  “We invest in Pre-Seed and Seed teams that build AI as a core technology,  as well as in companies that provide tools to use AI safely and effectively.  With €90  million, we have created a strong early-stage vehicle for enterprise AI in Europe. We  invest deliberately at the earliest stages and back founders with follow-on fundraising,  go-to-market execution, and sales-led scaling, so European technology becomes solutions that set international standards.”  Fundraising for seed+speed III began in summer 2024. For the first time, the new fund is open to European startups outside the DACH region.  Since then, the investment team has already invested in 13 startups, including:  • Orq.ai, based in Amsterdam (Netherlands), is a Generative AI  collaboration/LLMOps platform that helps teams develop, test, deploy, and monitor AI agents securely in production. • RIIICO, based in Düsseldorf (Germany), is an AI-based software platform that helps industrial companies create a digital 3D model of their existing factories,  enabling them to plan and execute factory expansions, new production lines,  and other conversion projects four times faster and more flexibly than before.  Customers already include well-known automotive manufacturers. • Optimuse, based in Vienna (Austria), is an AI platform for building engineering,  retrofit projects, and operations. It shows planners of new and existing buildings early on which technical options reduce costs and emissions the most. • Eleven Dynamics, based in Solothurn (Switzerland), provides automated inline metrology and quality assurance for manufacturing, helping companies reduce cycle times while improving quality. Customers include BMW, Audi, and Sauber  Motorsport.

Stockholm-based Funnel, the marketing intelligence platform, has secured an $80 million debt facility from HSBC Innovation Banking and Hercules Capital. The financing includes a revolving credit facility from HSBC Innovation Banking and a junior term loan from Hercules Capital, bringing together two lenders focused on supporting growth-stage technology companies. Founded in 2014 by Fredrik Skantze and Per Made, Funnel provides a marketing intelligence platform used by global brands such as Adidas and Sony, as well as marketing agencies including Publicis and Havas. The platform enables organisations to collect, structure, visualise, and analyse data from more than 600 marketing platforms. As part of its transition toward an AI-first platform, Funnel is developing advanced agentic measurement capabilities. The company recently launched Data Chat, a conversational analytics feature that allows users to interact with marketing data using natural language. Commenting on the funding, Funnel CEO Fredrik Skantze said the facility reflects the company’s financial maturity and will help accelerate AI development and expand analytics capabilities for marketers. The new facility refinances a previous $58 million debt arrangement and provides additional capital to support product development, international expansion, and progress toward profitability, as well as operational efficiency improvements as the platform scales.

For years, Europe’s energy debate has focused on increased supply — more renewables, more grid capacity, more infrastructure. But as electrification accelerates, from heat pumps to EVs, the real challenge is shifting from how we generate power to how we use it. Peaks and troughs in demand still force the system to overbuild, waste clean energy, and rely on fossil backup, even when renewable generation is abundant. At the same time, the technologies meant to make homes “smart” remain fragmented with lower adoption than in other parts of the world. This leaves millions of connected devices in our homes, yet very little real, automated control over when and how energy is actually consumed. Tewke is a London-based climate-tech and smart-home company whose flagship product, Tap, replaces the traditional light switch with an AI-enhanced interface for lighting control, energy management, and environmental sensing.  Through the Tewke app, you can control lighting and connected devices remotely and set up automation based on routines or sensor triggers. Built-in sensors and software analyse energy usage and offer recommendations to reduce waste and save on costs. Tap can also track home environmental factors like air quality, humidity and CO₂, helping you understand and improve your home health. Tewke is led by serial entrepreneurs Piers Daniell and Rowan Dixon.   Piers Daniell founded Fluidata (now FluidOne) in his bedroom in 2006, growing it to over 150 employees before exiting in 2019. Sir James Wates is Chairman of Tewke and former Chairman of the Wates Group, one of the largest family-owned construction, development, and property services companies in the UK. As his company grew, Daniell shared, “We operated out of 18 data centres, and at certain times of day, the national grid would actually pay those data centres to go offline. That’s when the idea of demand-side control really landed for me: if you could change demand in millions of homes, you could have a massive impact on energy consumption.” When he eventually exited that business, he realised that no one had truly solved demand-side control at a granular, home level. “ You had companies like Octopus playing around the edges, but not really controlling demand in detail.” The nuclear-scale prize of shifting household demand The potential impact for demand control is enormous, according to Daniell: “If everyone ran their washing machines or dishwashers at three in the morning, we could use all that excess energy and flatten peak demand,” Daniell said. “I once read an estimate that Europe could save the equivalent output of around 200 nuclear power stations just through better demand management.” At the same time, Daniell‘s personal experience with home automation exposed a different but related problem: usability. “I was living in a home with a high-end automation system, Control4. It was powerful but incredibly hard to use,” he said. “My in-laws once babysat and sat in the dark all night because they turned the system off and couldn’t work out how to turn it back on. Everyone has similar stories — people unplug smart plugs, forget passwords, get logged out of apps.”  — This is also my experience. Whenever we get a cat sitter, we come home to find every smart device unplugged from the wall, despite how simple we make Google Home instructions. Daniell realised that if home technology was going to scale, it had to be “usable by absolutely everyone, not just tech enthusiasts,” he said. “So those two worlds came together: intelligent energy control and genuinely usable home technology. But I needed serious technical firepower to build it — that’s where Rowan came in.” Dixon was studying Design Engineering at Imperial Collegeand working in Microsoft R&D when Piers approached him.   He shared:  “At that stage, it was basically a napkin sketch, but the ambition was very clear. The goal wasn’t just to build a ‘smart home’ — it was to remove human error from energy use.” Why the light switch is the most powerful interface in the home The team opted for the light switch because, according to Daniell, it's the most universal interface in the home. “A three-year-old can use it. A grandparent can use it. Babysitters, builders, visitors — everyone understands it,” Daniell said. Dixon added: “We realised that if you control the light switch and the socket, you essentially control all the energy in the home.” They also insisted on physical buttons. This means that if the internet goes down or software fails, the lights still have to work. Re-engineering the wall: power, sensors, and a modular brain The Tewke product has three layers: The frame for aesthetic customisation,  The wired core that replaces the switch, and, A magnetically attached display module that contains the sensors and compute. Each device contains nine sensors: Doppler radar for presence detection, a microphone, temperature, humidity, air pressure, ambient light, volatile organic compounds, CO₂, and voltage and current sensing.  Together, they give a real-time picture of environmental conditions and occupancy. Historically, IoT has been fragmented: one device for air quality, another for temperature, another for motion, each with its own apps and ecosystems. Tewke provides a single, integrated platform that could actually reason about what’s happening in a space.  If you ever need to upgrade the intelligence, you don’t need to rewire the wall — you just replace the module. One of the hardest technical challenges is that a light switch is in series with the load: when the light is off, the power is off. Yet you want sensors, processors, radios and a screen to remain powered.  “We developed and patented a way to do this with and without a neutral wire, explained Dixon. This is critical in Europe, where many homes don’t have neutrals at the switch. Turning lighting control into energy intelligence More than just a great smart lighting solution, Tap provides real-time energy cost tracking to empower users to make efficient energy use choices, helping them to shift the use of energy-heavy appliances, like the dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer or EV charger, to much lower cost times of the day. Paired with a variable energy Tariff, Tap helps users to make informed decisions that could save them considerable money on their energy bills.  The sensors feed into on-device AI that learns behavioural patterns rather than relying on fixed schedules. It understands when rooms are used, how air quality changes, and how people move through the space, and it automatically adapts lighting, heating, and ventilation. Adding a natural language layer to the wall While the physical light switch remains the most universal interface in the home, Tewke includes TewkeAI, a built-in voice interface that allows residents to control lighting, energy use and home settings through natural language, without relying on external assistants or cloud-only processing. Unlike traditional smart speakers that act as a separate layer in the room, TewkeAI is embedded directly into the wall switch itself, combining microphones, on-device AI and contextual awareness from Tap’s sensor stack. For Daniell, this is about removing yet another source of friction. “If a three-year-old, a grandparent and a visitor can all use a light switch, voice should work the same way,” he said. “You shouldn’t have to remember commands or wake words. You should just be able to say what you want to happen in the room.” Because Tap already understands occupancy, light levels, air quality and routines, voice becomes contextual rather than generic. A request like “make it cosy in here” can translate into a specific lighting scene, temperature adjustment and ventilation change, while “I’m going to sleep” can trigger an energy-optimised night mode across the home. Privacy first from the get-go According to Daniell, “being invited into someone’s home is a privilege." "We keep as much processing on-device as possible. When data leaves the device, it’s anonymised. We don’t know whose home it is or where it is — only that “a room like this” has certain characteristics. That still allows us to train models and improve performance, without compromising personal privacy. We’re European, and we take European privacy values seriously.” In turn, TewkeAI processes voice locally wherever possible, keeping raw audio in the home and using anonymised data only to improve models. Future features will allow users to manage activities such as home security, media and thermostat control, all of which will be activated in the background, without the need for further hardware or configuration. From electricians to landlords, social housing, and hotels Tewke’s initial customers are homeowners via electricians and installers. After appearing on Grand Designs, (a UK architecture TV show) the team saw a big spike in consumer interest, which helped build its partner network.  Dixon explained: “Our model is that you buy through an electrician — they source it, install it, and become an extended sales and education channel.” Tewke is also seeing strong interest from landlords, social housing providers, student accommodation operators, and hotels. The same hardware works across residential and commercial use cases, which is important for scale. Presence detection alone is hugely valuable: turning heating and lighting off automatically when rooms are empty, pre-heating before check-in, monitoring air quality, and even detecting vaping or unusual activity in hotel rooms. “Like building six companies at once” In explaining why the company chose to manufacture in the UK despite the added complexity, Daniell points to the strategic value of control. “We’re full-stack: electronics, mechanical engineering, industrial design, software, AI — all in-house,” he said. “It’s like building six companies at once, but it gives us total control over quality and roadmap.” The company employs around 16 full-time people and has grown largely through bootstrapping, supplemented by a small group of angel investors. According to Daniell, that constraint has shaped not just the pace of growth but also the company’s culture. “It forces discipline,” he said. “If we’d raised €10 million on day one, we’d have spent it — and probably built something worse. Tewke’s long-term vision is to position the home within the smart grid.  Think white goods, heating systems, EV chargers — coordinated automatically so demand shifts to the cheapest and greenest times. Your washing machine runs when renewable generation is high. Your heating pre-warms your home when energy is abundant. Piers Daniell contends that in this case, “Instead of everyone having to invest in huge capex like batteries and solar, we optimise what already exists. Shift demand, don’t just add supply. If we can flatten peak load, we reduce the need for massive new power stations.” In the long run, while we start with hardware, we expect to be seen as a software and energy-intelligence company. The light switch is just the gateway — but it’s the most familiar gateway in the world.”

The UK’s sustainable grocery delivery service, Modern Milkman, has raised £10 million in a funding round led by Salica Investments, bringing its total funding to more than £60 million. Founded in 2019 by Simon Mellin, Modern Milkman began as a local milk delivery service and has since expanded into a national operation. The company operates an optimized supply chain, sourcing fresh produce from independent British suppliers. Its app-based platform supports automated routing and order processing to align deliveries with demand and reduce waste. Groceries and breakfast items are delivered up to three times per week in reusable glass bottles and returnable containers, supporting a closed-loop system that reduces single-use packaging. Mellin said Modern Milkman offers a distinctive and convenient service for households across the UK, adding that the new investment will support the development of more integrated doorstep services. He noted that the company’s growth and customer satisfaction reflect strong demand for sustainable alternatives, positioning the business to scale while helping households reduce their environmental impact. Modern Milkman now serves more than 100,000 households across the UK and expanded into the US in January 2024 through a strategic acquisition. The investment will support the continued development of Modern Milkman’s doorstep delivery model and logistics platform, with plans to introduce additional integrated services aimed at making sustainable choices more accessible and convenient for customers.

b2venture has closed its Fund V at €150 million, reaching the hard cap and marking the firm’s largest early-stage fund to date. The fund is supported by a mix of long-standing and new limited partners, including family offices, institutional investors, and high-net-worth individuals. Several investors have committed across multiple fund generations, reflecting continued support for b2venture’s investment approach. New institutional investors include asset manager Flexstone and Swiss pension fund Stiftung Abendrot, alongside portfolio entrepreneurs, operators, and long-standing angel investors such as Thomas Hagemann (SevenSenders) and Joachim Schoss. Supporting Europe’s next generation of technology companies Fund V will invest in around 35 early-stage startups across Europe, following an industry-agnostic strategy with a focus on scalable, defensible technologies. The fund has already made several investments, including Nautica Technologies, Hive Robotics, Augmented Industries, and Assemblean. These investments reflect b2venture’s focus on deep technology, AI, robotics, manufacturing, automation, and infrastructure companies shaping Europe’s future. b2venture’s investment approach is centred on long-term collaboration with founders. Fund V continues the firm’s intergenerational model, in which founders may become investors after exiting their companies and contribute experience, networks, and capital to subsequent generations of entrepreneurs. The firm’s continuity across five fund generations reflects the durability of this long-term, community-based approach. Jan-Hendrik Bürk, Partner at b2venture, explained that venture capital is fundamentally a people-driven business, highlighting the firm’s angel network as a key differentiator in sourcing, selecting, and supporting founders building category-defining companies. With Fund V, we are strengthening this model to support the next generation of European tech champions with true domain knowledge, not just capital, Bürk said. Over the past two decades, b2venture has supported a range of European technology companies, including DeepL, 1KOMMA5°, Raisin, SumUp, Nelly, and Urban Sports Club. The firm has backed at least one unicorn in each fund generation and has been involved in 11 IPOs and more than 30 trade sales. In 2025, b2venture recorded one IPO with Navan and completed several portfolio exits, including Araris Biotech, Beekeeper, and Neptune, which was acquired by OpenAI. A community-driven investment model and generational transition b2venture integrates a network of more than 350 experienced angel investors who contribute both capital and operational expertise alongside the firm’s institutional approach. In 2024, b2venture strengthened its team by appointing Mathias Ockenfels as Partner, while long-standing Partner Jochen Gutbrod transitioned into the firm’s Super Angels network. b2venture has operated across multiple market cycles, from the early internet era to the current expansion of AI. Throughout this period, the firm has maintained a consistent focus on long-term relationships, continuity, and disciplined investing. Fund V continues this approach, emphasising sustained partnerships based on trust and a long-term perspective.