London-based Power Protocol, a blockchain infrastructure platform for gaming and digital entertainment, has secured a $3 million investment from BITKRAFT Ventures, bringing total ecosystem funding to $15.4 million. Power Protocol is a Web3 gaming ecosystem designed to connect games, studios, players, and digital assets through shared infrastructure. Powered by the $POWER token and developed by Pixion Games, the platform is built to support multiple game titles, in-game economies, and live service features while enabling digital asset ownership and long-term player engagement. The protocol is designed to scale economic systems across multiple titles rather than a single game. It supports multi-game interoperability, progression systems, reward distribution, live service functionality, and on-chain asset tracking. BITKRAFT’s investment targets the protocol layer, enabling third-party studios to integrate into the $POWER ecosystem and use shared infrastructure instead of building standalone token utilities. The ecosystem is anchored by Fableborne, a mobile-first action role-playing game from Pixion Games that is currently in global open beta. Early performance data shows more than 400,000 players have participated across open playtests. Previous beta phases reached a peak daily active user count of 108,000 and generated $21.5 million in NFT presale revenue ahead of the POWER token listing. These results indicate early interest in Fableborne’s hybrid ARPG and base-building gameplay and align with Pixion Games’ view that skill-based mobile design combined with optional on-chain features can support competitive gaming experiences at scale. Commenting on the investment, Kam Punia, founder and CEO of Pixion Games, said: Capital in gaming and Web3 is selective right now, which makes their belief in what we’re building even more meaningful. The response to our open beta and the $POWER launch showed us there’s a strong foundation to grow from.This investment helps us keep moving toward that vision and develop an ecosystem built on progression, competition, and lasting engagement. BITKRAFT’s support gives us confidence to keep improving thoughtfully for the benefit of our players and partners. The new funding will be used to accelerate product and ecosystem development, including content expansion, competitive season design, new progression systems, and deeper integration of the $POWER economy across gameplay loops.

An Estonian defence startup building what it says are “affordable, mass manufacturable” missile defence systems has raised €30m in Series A funding. Frankenburg Technologies, founded in 2024, is headed up by CEO Kusti Salm, the former permanent secretary of Estonia’s defence ministry. The startup, which touts its sovereign credentials, says it was founded in response to a structural shift in Europe’s security environment, namely that modern aerial threats can now be produced cheaply and at scale, while missile manufacturing has historically prioritised performance over speed, cost and regeneration. Its latest funding round comes four years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It says that it can build “affordable missile systems designed for mass production”, which addresses Europe’s air-defence bottleneck. It says it will use the funding to build sovereign missile-manufacturing capacity in Europe, with a focus on production, resilience and regeneration. According to the FT, one of its priorities is to set up two EU-based “mass production sites” to make more than 100 missiles per day per site. The funding round was led by new investor Plural, the Estonian fund founded by Wise's Taavet Hinrikus and other high-profile investors, with participation from another new investor, the Estonian investor SmartCap. The startup has now raised €40m in total. Salm said: “Europe’s deterrence problem is not just about budgets, it’s about availability. You cannot deter with systems that are too scarce, too slow to replace, or too expensive to use at scale. Frankenburg was built to restore speed, scale and sustainability to missile defence. "This funding allows us to put real industrial capacity behind that mission and build missile systems Europe can actually afford to fire and produce at scale.”

Today, Marathon VC is leading a €1.1 million Seed round for Straion, the rules layer built to turn the current chaos of AI coding into governed,  production-grade engineering. We have entered the "Prompt-and-Pray" era of software development. Tools like GitHub Copilot and Cursor have turned every developer into a high-speed generator, but for engineering leaders at scale, this velocity is creating a new kind of crisis. We are seeing more code than ever before, but it often lacks the "organisational DNA" required to survive in a complex enterprise environment. The current struggle with AI-first coding is the constant need for manual course correction. An AI agent might suggest a brilliant piece of logic that technically works, but it doesn't know your company’s specific Kafka naming conventions or your PII masking protocols. This leads to an exhausting trial-and-error loop where senior engineers spend their days "babysitting" the AI’s work to ensure it doesn't break architectural patterns. Straion helps teams centralise engineering standards in a single rule hub, dynamically select the right rules for each task, and validate plans before implementation — not just after code generation. It integrates seamlessly with existing workflows such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Copilot. The goal is simple: move faster, reduce drift, and increase confidence in the reliability of generated code. "The industry has spent the last two years obsessed with making AI faster.  But in an enterprise environment, speed without alignment is a liability,"  says Lukas Holzer, co-founder of Straion. "We built Straion to give AI  the organisational context it was missing—moving it from a trial-and-error  tool to a precision instrument that understands how your company actually  builds software." Straion solves this by transforming static documentation into active,  machine-readable guardrails. It doesn't just wait for a mistake; it provides the AI with the right context at the right millisecond. Most importantly, it validates the AI’s plan before implementation begins.   This shifts the process from reactive "cleanup" to proactive precision. By building a platform that uses machine learning to dynamically retrieve only the rules relevant to a specific task, they have enabled true, governed autonomy. It’s about giving the AI the steering wheel it was missing. According to  Marathon VC, to understand why Straion is the missing piece of the modern dev stack,  you have to look at the founders' roots in Linz, Austria. This isn't a group of "vibe coders" chasing a trend; they are seasoned operators who have spent a decade in the trenches of enterprise software. Lukas Holzer, Fabian Friedl, and Katrin Freihofner were colleagues at Dynatrace, the observability giant. While at Dynatrace, they noticed a recurring friction point: as teams grew, the "invisible rules" of the organisation—architectural standards, security mandates, and naming conventions—became increasingly difficult to enforce. These rules usually lived in "rotting" documentation: Confluence pages that no one read and 300-page PDFs that were updated once a year. When AI agents began generating code at superhuman speeds, this  "documentation gap" became a canyon. The AI could write a function in milliseconds, but it had no idea how that function fit into the broader organisational architecture. "Most investors are looking for the next AI code generator. We were looking for the guardrails," says Panos Papadopoulos, Partner at Marathon  VC. "Lukas, Fabian, and Katrin aren't just building a tool; they are building the governance layer that makes the autonomous future possible for the enterprise. They have the technical pedigree from Dynatrace to solve what we believe is the most critical bottleneck in modern engineering. We are proud to back this team as they build the governance layer that will define the next decade of software engineering." The funding will accelerate three priorities: deepening the product’s capabilities in rule governance and plan-stage validation, expanding integrations for scaled engineering workflows, and hiring mission-driven builders across AI engineering and full-stack development.

London-headquartered payments fintech Checkout.com today said it upped headcount by double digits last year to 2,000 staff, and pointed to the diversity of its merchant partners to indicate the robustness of its business, as it released selected financial figures.   In Checkout.com’s 2025 annual letter, penned by Guillaume Pousaz, founder and CEO, the fintech disclosed some financial figures for 2025 while Pousaz declared his long-term commitment to the startup he has been running for 15 years. He said: “As I close my first 20-year chapter, I can confidently declare that Checkout will be my life-long journey. I want to dedicate all my energy to compounding every learning, to further our mission and create value for our merchants.”   Checkout.com, valued at $12bn last year following an employee share sale, said it had grown headcount by 15 per cent year-on-year to 2,000 staff, opening new hubs in San Francisco, Atlanta, and Sao Paulo last year, despite fears AI was curtailing recruitment in fintech.   The fintech, whose merchant partners include Vinted and eBay, said that its top ten merchant partners account for 18 per cent of its revenues, indicating the diversity of its revenues. Other figures disclosed by Checkout.com were that it processed over $300bn in total payment volume last year, a 64 per cent increase on 2024, and that revenue grew by over 30 per cent for the second consecutive year.   It also said it was EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) profitable for the full year in 2025. Last year, it was revealed that Pousaz, who is Swiss and has been running Checkout.com since 2011, has quit the UK as his country of residence for Monaco, amid changes introduced by the Chancellor to crack down on non-doms.

Celebratix, an Amsterdam-based ticketing startup, has raised €2.2 million in growth capital from Airbridge Equity Partners, following a €1.1 million investment round at the end of 2024. Founded in 2022, Celebratix develops a blockchain-powered ticketing platform for events, clubs, and festivals. The platform provides organisers with tools to manage ticket sales, resale, guest lists, loyalty features, and real-time data through a single dashboard. It is designed to give organisers greater control over revenue and customer data throughout the event lifecycle while offering attendees a secure way to buy, sell, and store tickets. By using blockchain infrastructure, the company aims to reduce fraud, streamline access, and improve transparency. The opportunity is significant in Europe’s highly fragmented ticketing market, where a large number of local providers operate. According to Celebratix, around 300 companies are active across the region, many of which have built loyal customer bases but face limited opportunities to scale. Founder and CEO Frank Roskam said many local ticketing providers have reached their growth limits and that Celebratix’s strategy is to acquire these companies and migrate their customers onto its platform. The company is focusing on smaller providers with strong regional positions as it works to build a unified European ticketing platform capable of competing with larger players. We acquire these companies and transition their customers onto our platform. This gives organisers one system for sales, access control and resale, with less manual work and more data insights, explains Roskam. Over the past year, Celebratix completed one acquisition in the Netherlands and, according to founders Frank Roskam and Hans-Jochem Dijk, plans to add nine more European ticketing companies in the coming year. The new investment from Airbridge is intended to support this strategy and position the company for a Series A funding round in 2027.

London-based Tewke, a company focused on energy optimisation and home automation, has closed its second funding round of £1.5 million. The round included participation from JamJar Investments, Cur8 Capital, Energy Mix Ventures and Project Ventures, as well as angel investor Vlad Yatsenko, co-founder and CTO of Revolut. Read our earlier interview with Tewke co-founders Piers Daniell and Rowan Dixon. Founded in 2020 by Piers Daniell and Rowan Dixon, Tewke develops smart home technology designed to simplify energy management. Its flagship product, Tap, is designed and engineered in the UK and requires no rewiring. It works in homes without a neutral wire, making it compatible with more than 90% of UK housing. The company positions the device as an alternative to more complex, installer-led smart home systems. Beyond lighting control, Tap is designed to support household energy optimisation by helping users shift electricity use in line with time-of-day tariffs to reduce costs and emissions. It forms part of Tewke’s broader strategy to improve home energy efficiency through contextual, AI-driven intelligence. The company develops its core technology in-house, including patented hardware and firmware as well as its proprietary operating system, Tewke OS. Piers Daniell, co-founder and CEO of Tewke, said the company’s goal extends beyond energy optimisation to creating a more intelligent, sustainable, and user-centred living environment. Building next-generation electronics and AI in the UK has been a monumental technical challenge. Seeing people install Tap in minutes and start saving energy immediately is a powerful reward. This funding enables us to scale what we’ve proven works and double down on engineering excellence, added Rowan Dixon, co-founder of Tewke. In 2025, Tewke also introduced TewkeAI alongside Google, a contextual AI framework that uses data from Tap’s nine onboard sensors to analyse behaviour, movement, air quality, and temperature patterns within the home. The funding will support go-to-market execution and the expansion of Tewke’s engineering team, including the development of neuro-symbolic AI systems to improve residential energy performance. The company’s growth is also supported by non-equity funding from Innovate UK.

Munich-based VoiceLine, a voice AI platform for enterprise frontline teams, has closed a €10 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Alstin Capital and Peak, with participation from existing investors Scalehouse Capital, Venture Stars, and NAP. Field sales and service teams spend much of their time with customers, travelling between appointments, conducting visits, and coordinating follow-ups. As a result, documentation, CRM updates, and back-office handovers are often delayed or deprioritised, leaving teams to spend several hours each week on administrative work instead of customer-facing activities. This can lead to incomplete reports, missed follow-ups, and customer insights that never reach enterprise systems, limiting real-time visibility for managers and disrupting continuity between interactions. VoiceLine addresses this challenge with a voice-first AI assistant designed for the daily workflows of field sales and mobile service teams. After a customer interaction, employees can record a voice memo on the go or call the assistant by phone. The platform then automates key frontline workflows in real time, converting spoken inputs into structured visit reports, CRM entries, follow-up tasks, and visit preparations, which are synchronised with existing CRM, ERP, and other enterprise systems. For managers, this creates access to structured frontline data that was previously difficult to capture, improving visibility into field activities, customer needs, and market signals, and enabling faster, more informed decision-making. Field sales continues to be the backbone revenue driver for many industrial or services organisations. With VoiceLine, we are revolutionising the end-to-end reality of frontline work, from visit preparation and documentation to follow-ups, analytics, and insights – using voice as the most natural interface, said Nicolas Höflinger, CEO and co-founder of VoiceLine. Unlike traditional CRM projects, VoiceLine can be deployed within days, enabling customised voice AI rollouts with minimal IT involvement while meeting enterprise security requirements. VoiceLine is already in use among mid-market and enterprise customers, including DACHSER, ABB, Knauf, KSB, and Elis, supporting deployments across multiple countries and thousands of frontline users. The new funding will be used to expand VoiceLine’s team and further develop its AI platform. The company plans to significantly increase headcount this year, with a focus on product development, sales, customer success, and partnerships. In parallel, VoiceLine intends to extend its platform to additional frontline use cases and grow its international presence.

On the fourth anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Tech.eu remains committed to amplifying Ukrainian founders and investors — not merely as a gesture of solidarity, but as recognition of their ongoing impact in innovation, creating front-running tech for international scale. Ukraine’s tech ecosystem is not paused by war. It is evolving — faster, harder, and with a clarity of purpose that much of Europe would do well to study. ​ Europe — and much of the global tech ecosystem — still underestimates and fails to grasp what Ukraine represents. ​ I often hear Ukrainian startups described as resilient. It’s a phrase I struggle with because it describes the kind of people who can bounce back, shake it off, and keep going. It makes us feel better, not them and implicitly suggests that adversity can simply be absorbed, as though anyone who struggles under these conditions is an exception rather than human. ​ No founder should have to pitch between air-raid sirens or hesitate to tell customers and investors they have teams in Ukraine — fearing that blackouts and disrupted infrastructure might make them harder to reach. ​ I’ve visited Ukraine three times since Russia’s full-scale invasion, and interviewed dozens of startups and ecosystem builders. It hits different when you visit a co-working space that has been hit by a missile attack / or talk to a founder who casually mentions they are homeless because their apartment burnt down. Founders are operating under pressures most of us will never fully comprehend — air-raid sirens at all hours, rolling blackouts, and the grinding toll of chronic sleep deprivation. I’m a chronic insomniac myself, but imagine being jolted awake night after night for nearly four years by the sound of an air-raid alert. You check the app and your local Telegram group. What kind of missile is it? Is it serious enough to warrant shelter — again — or can you cautiously try to sleep? But now you’re awake in fight-or-flight mode. And the next morning, you have a company to run. A pitch to deliver. A stage to stand on. Recently, Ukrainians experienced what became Ukraine’s harshest winter since the full-scale invasion. Temperatures plunged to –20°C in many regions as sustained Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure — actions that constitute war crimes under international humanitarian law — left entire areas without electricity, heating, or running water. And, there's the reality that family, friends, and colleagues have been killed. The editorial team at DOU, the largest Ukrainian IT community and portal for software developers and tech professionals, created a powerful digital memorial in honour of fallen IT professionals. The structural barriers Ukrainian founders face are rarely understood outside the region. Most Ukrainian men aged 18–60 are not permitted to leave the country under martial law. Yet I have heard investors say they will only invest if they can meet founders in person — as though geography were a preference rather than a wartime restriction. I’ve also had quite a few early-stage Ukrainian founders ask me not to mention they have co-founders and management in Ukraine in case it deters investors who see the blackouts as a particular liability for customer retention. Ukraine’s airspace has been closed to civilian flights for more than four years. A trip to a conference, pitch event, or board meeting in London, Berlin, or Lisbon can involve a 15-hour journey each way — train to the Polish border, border crossing, flight onwards, then the same again in reverse. And for those who got out. displacement brings its own invisible tax: navigating a new language, unfamiliar bureaucracy, housing insecurity, and rebuilding professional networks from scratch. These are not minor inconveniences. They are structural friction layered on top of war. And yet, Ukrainian startups continue to launch, raise capital, and scale internationally. But in the last four years, we’ve seen airSlate, Unstoppable Domains, Creatio, Preply, and mono become unicorns. Since 2020, the estimated value of the Ukrainian startup ecosystem has tripled to more than $25 billion. According to Digital State UA , there are approximately 2,600 startups in Ukraine, of which around 2,100 were founded by Ukrainian crews and more than 500 foreign startups that have opened offices in Ukraine. Further, the exodus of Ukrainian talent across the US, UK, and Europe has created unlikely dividends — new networks, new markets, new paths to scale. Has Europe done enough? Definitely not. Ukraine is holding the line — not just for itself, but for Europe’s security. ​ It’s been bizarre for me to see the investors go from anti-defencetech to scrambling for a foothold. Ukraine did not “pivot into defence tech” as a trend. It had to. And what began as an urgent, frontline necessity is increasingly translating into exportable dual-use technologies with broader European relevance, especially for startups. building autonomous counter-UAS systems, battlefield communications platforms, AI-enabled targeting software, logistics optimisation tools, and space-enabled capabilities. What started as survival is becoming strategic capability. Russia’s invasion has underscored a stark strategic shortcoming for not only Ukraine but neighbouring Europe: its reliance on systems like Starlink, owned by an American company headed by one of the most megalomaniac people in tech, to power satellite communications infrastructure in times of conflict. It has also highlighted the need for an expansion of localised, decentralised energy systems — from microgrids to renewables and storage — capable of withstanding sustained attacks on centralised infrastructure. ​ And, where to from here on? The rebuilding of Ukraine will be one of the largest infrastructure and governance challenges Europe has faced in generations.   But startups are focused on rebuilding, demining, and creating the necessary digital infrastructure. ​ Once the war ends, I predict cities like Lviv and Kyiv will become beacons for founders abroad looking to find a place to found their companies. A single state portal, Diia, developed over the last few years, offers 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. Ukraine is not waiting to be rebuilt. It is already being built. The question is whether the rest of Europe is ready to build alongside it. Lead image: Freepik.

Finland-based quantum computing startup IQM today said it plans to go public in the US via a SPAC, with a $1.8bn valuation. Helsinki-headquartered IQM, founded in 2018, is merging with SPAC firm Real Asset Acquisition Corp (RAAQ) as part of the deal, the startup said today. SPACs are an alternative route for companies to go public, instead of a traditional listing. A SPAC listing is seen as attractive to startups as they can fast-track a listing, without the expense, time and hassle of going through a conventional IPO. SPAC IPOs leapt in popularity in 2020, but then fell out of favour, amid falling stock prices and big investor losses. IQM said the transaction values IQM at a pre-money equity valuation of approximately $1.8 billion and would make IQM the first European quantum company to go public.  It said it was going public on one of the two leading US stock exchanges, but did not share further details. RAAQ is listed on the Nasdaq. The deal, which is subject to the approval of IQM and RAAQ shareholders, is expected to be completed in June this year, ahead of the listing. IQM said it was also considering a dual listing that would see it listed on the Helsinki stock exchange. IQM is a prominent player in superconducting quantum computers. It provides both on-premises full-stack quantum computers and a cloud platform to access its computers.  Last year, IQM raised $320 million in venture capital, the largest Series B raise ever in the quantum space, bringing its total funding raised to $600m. Last year, Swedish autonomous truck startup Einride said it was going public in the US via a SPAC, valuing it at $1.8bn. Jan Goetz, co-founder and CEO, IQM, said: “We built IQM from the beginning for one purpose — to put working quantum computers in the hands of the people who will use them to solve real problems. "Not someday. Now. Quantum computing is a science project no more. It is an industry where customers own, operate, and build on advanced quantum computers. That’s what IQM makes possible.”   Peter Ort, CEO and co-chairman, Real Asset Acquisition Corp, said: “IQM has built and delivered more on-premises quantum systems than any other competitor to some of the most demanding research institutions on earth. "This transaction will accelerate the growth of a company that has already earned its position in the field, with real customers, running real quantum systems, today.”

Modern defence is shifting from hardware to software. As cyber conflict, drone warfare, and information operations reshape global security, the advantage increasingly belongs to nations that can innovate faster — not just build bigger arsenals. Defence Holdings PLC is a UK-listed defence technology company focused on building a software-led platform for modern military and security operations. Rather than manufacturing traditional hardware, it develops and acquires AI-driven tools for mission planning, logistics, cyber defence, secure communications, drone coordination, and protection of critical infrastructure.  Defence Holdings recently appointed Andrew Roughan as CEO, formerly head of innovation hub Plexal, which oversees more than 700 startups and scaleups. While Roughan focuses on scaling the company’s commercial strategy, this interview centres on CTO Andy McCartney, who leads the design and deployment of Defence Holdings’ AI product stack. Building the software layer of modern warfare The company positions itself around the idea that future defence capability will increasingly depend on intelligent software, data, and automation, and is assembling a portfolio of technologies to help governments and allied organisations respond to cyber, information, and hybrid threats. The edge-case engineer The company’s software-first strategy is shaped heavily by McCartney’s background. Andy McCartney brings nearly three decades of technology experience to Defence Holdings. A Belfast-born technologist, McCartney has built his career around developing systems ahead of mainstream demand — tools that organisations often recognise the value of only years later. “My background’s pretty much online. I’ve been doing tech since I was 11 or 12,” he said. Growing up in a rough area of Belfast, he spent long stretches teaching himself programming in public libraries. “That’s where I got a real passion for technology.” He built his first computer at 12 and quickly gravitated toward technical problems others overlooked. “I realised I was good at building the technology people said wasn’t needed — the 3 per cent nobody wanted. Then three years later, everyone says, ‘Can we please have that?’ That’s been my world: building the edge cases that later become essential.” McCartney later served as CEO of Microsoft Ventures UK between 2013 and 2015, where he launched the company’s first venture innovation platform outside the United States and helped scale dozens of high-growth technology businesses.  Defence as a natural fit McCartney went on to found Whitespace, a Belfast-based company delivering generative AI into defence, the public sector and other highly regulated industries. Today, Whitespace platforms support frontline Ministry of Defence operations. His entry into defence, he says, was driven by both technical challenge and personal motivation. “About 15 or 16 years ago, I was brought into defence and national security conversations around technology. I realised I was actually very good at it because it’s complex and fast-paced. It suited my attitude toward technology.” He frames his work in direct terms: “I’ve always been vocal about this — I really don’t like bad people. I grew up seeing bad people do bad things. Much of the technology I’ve built has been focused on stopping that. So defence felt like a natural fit.” Alongside Defence Holdings and Whitespace, McCartney has founded SafetyTalks and Jam Pot Technologies and continues to serve as chief hacking officer at Tadaweb, with a focus on security, data systems, and high-risk operational environments.  This background shapes how he sees Defence Holdings’ mission. More capability, less money, greater urgency Last year, the UK published the Strategic Defence Review. It calls on government, the armed forces, industry, and wider society to implement its 62 recommendations to ensure Britain can deter threats and respond effectively in a rapidly evolving security environment The review advises a shift toward faster procurement, dual-use innovation, and deeper collaboration with startups. For younger defence companies, it effectively opens doors that were historically closed. For McCartney, “It means developing more capability for less money, faster. We have less time and budget to solve complex problems quickly. That’s a massive attraction for me.” According to McCartney, “the last time we truly operated at wartime speed was Bletchley Park. It was about solving impossible problems quickly, bringing in talent from the commercial and civil sectors, and working nationally to solve them.” Ukraine has rewritten the rules of modern warfare According to McCartney, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine fundamentally changed how modern warfare is understood. “They didn’t have time to spin up high-end systems. War arrived in 24 hours. They had to innovate immediately,” he said. Without access to Western intelligence infrastructure, Ukrainian forces relied on low-cost hardware, commercial platforms and open data — constraints that forced rapid experimentation. “Jeopardy creates high-quality solutions because failure has consequences.” Rather than deploying multi-million-dollar systems, Ukraine adapted consumer technology at scale. Cheap drones are now capable of destroying tanks worth up to €1 million — a cost imbalance that McCartney says “rewrites doctrine.” “Ukraine isn’t spending $10 million per system. They’re bolting functionality onto consumer drones and integrating them into the kill chain. That mindset is powerful.” The lesson, he argues, extends well beyond the battlefield. NATO countries must rethink how they design and procure defence capabilities. Ukraine isn’t just a war story — it’s a preview of how modern defence will operate in the future. “For every solution you create, a hundred new problems appear. Meanwhile, you have institutions wrapped in legacy procurement systems that weren’t built for this speed. That’s the seismic shift.” Rebuilding domestic defence capability Defence Holdings positions itself as part of a broader push toward sovereign capability in UK defence technology. The company aims to reduce reliance on foreign-built systems by accelerating the development of domestic alternatives. “When you buy externally, the money leaves your economy, and you’re not part of the development cycle,” he said. “You don’t understand the solution as deeply because you didn’t build it.” He argues that the UK’s dependence on non-sovereign technology is often driven more by speed than by preference. Defence agencies frequently turn to foreign suppliers because domestic suppliers have struggled to deliver at the pace operational needs demand. “The UK often has no choice but to buy non-sovereign technology because no one has provided alternatives at the speed required,” McCartney said. “Defence Holdings exists to change that.” The company’s strategy is to work with smaller technology partners and hyperscale infrastructure providers to deliver sovereign applications faster — giving UK defence agencies greater control over both the technology stack and its long-term evolution. Why smarter systems beat bigger arsenals What Ukraine exposed, McCartney argues, is not just the importance of readiness, but the central role of data in maintaining it. Modern defence capability, he says, depends less on raw firepower and more on how effectively information is processed and acted upon. Yet he believes the long-standing assumption that “data equals power” can itself become an obstacle. “I once heard a senior military leader say, ‘The last thing I need is more data.’ That terrified me,” he said. “Amazon, Microsoft, Apple — they want more data. It sharpens execution. If you can’t use data, your systems are broken.” For McCartney, the issue is not volume, but interpretation. Data, he argues, removes institutional bias. “If decisions aren’t data-driven, they’re opinion-driven,” he said. “If you ask the army, navy and air force how to defeat an enemy, each argues for their domain. AI looks at the problem neutrally. Its strength is analysing data without institutional bias.” The lesson reinforced by Ukraine, he says, is clear: superiority will increasingly come from intelligent systems rather than sheer scale . “Ukraine proved the solution isn’t more tanks. It's smarter systems.” A system finally starting to move McCartney advises that cultural change in the UK, somewhat insulated from the battlefields of Ukraine, is possible. He advises: “Demonstration beats argument. Instead of waiting a year for approvals, I go directly to the person with the problem. We build fast. Then we come back and demonstrate the working solution.” Once people see it functioning, resistance disappears. Then, the only barrier left is process. Suddenly, onboarding documents shrink. Procurement timelines compress. Senior leadership now has proof they can use to push internal reform. “We’re not waiting for defence to fully transform before engaging. We’re engaging now and helping accelerate that transformation,” he asserts. The shift from hardware to information warfare Defence Holdings is seeing the most traction in real-time learning systems that analyse operations and continuously improve them.  According to McCartney, “Information warfare is huge: misinformation, cyber, psychological operations. A teenager with tools can destabilise a public figure faster than institutions can respond. Encryption and redundancy matter because communication infrastructure is converging.” He also shares my interest in spacetech as critical to defence, asserting, “Ukraine showed commercial satellites can outperform traditional military systems. That changes assumptions.” In terms of UK readiness in defencetech, McCartney admits, “a year ago I’d have been cautious. Now I’m encouraged.” He sees commitments made in early 2025 are turning into reality, noting: “For an organisation as regulated as defence, that pace is impressive. It reminds me of Microsoft’s transformation under Satya Nadella. Cultural change takes time, but once it starts, it compounds.” “Stop complaining and build” McCartney advises startups interested in defence/dual defence to jump in: “History is being written, and this is a historic window. The blueprint doesn’t exist yet. In three years, it will. Stop complaining and build. Right now, a small team can compete with giants. If six out of ten attempts succeed, you’re ahead of everyone who tried none. Defence Holdings isn’t a traditional prime contractor. We’re a bridge. If you’re solving real problems, talk to us.”

Cologne-based Einklang, which specialises in integrated energy solutions for Germany’s mid-sized companies, has secured €2.2 million in funding. The round was led by Vireo Ventures, with participation from SI Ventures, Saxovent, Angel Invest, Heimatboost and DnA Ventures. Einklang is an Energy-as-a-Service provider focused on serving small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany. The company delivers integrated electricity solutions for commercial and industrial customers, combining intelligent control systems, battery storage, and flexible tariffs without requiring upfront investment or operational effort from customers. Its offering is designed to help businesses reduce electricity costs, increase energy autonomy, and expand the use of renewable power. The company is part of a new generation of energy ecosystem spin-offs. Its founders, Lucas Jonas, Jonathan Schulte, Paul Ziche, and José Neri, bring experience from building and scaling companies, including Voltfang and Impuls Energy. This background in industrial energy systems and algorithmic energy trading underpins Einklang’s technology approach. Lucas Jonas, co-founder and CEO of Einklang, said the company is addressing a key challenge in the energy transition: While energy-intensive industries are granted relief through tailored regulations, mid-size companies continue to face high electricity prices. The issue isn’t renewable energy itself, but rather price volatility, high grid charges, consumption peaks, and a lack of flexibility. Our solution tackles exactly these problems. Jonas added that the company’s objective is to enable businesses to automatically use electricity when renewable generation is high, without adding operational complexity. Einklang integrates electricity procurement, storage and consumption to help companies automatically source power when it is cheaper and more renewable. The system is designed to reduce price volatility and peak loads, lower grid fees, and improve planning visibility. The solution is already in use at manufacturing and industrial sites, with implementation typically completed within three months. Following the funding round, Einklang plans to further develop its technology platform and expand strategic partnerships as it works to scale flexible energy systems for mid-sized businesses. The company aims to grow its battery-optimised electricity tariff solution across commercial and industrial customers, targeting expansion to 100 customer sites by 2026.

Today GovTech Lab Ukraine announced that three startups from Ukraine and Europe have been selected to pilot digital solutions for public services in Ukraine’s first open innovation programme for the public sector.  GovTech Lab Ukraine is an open innovation programme in government technology implemented by the Global Government Technology Centre Kyiv (GGTC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the World Economic Forum, and with the support of Switzerland through the EGAP Program, which is carried out by East Europe Foundation. GovTech Lab Ukraine enables government institutions to work directly with startups to design and test digital solutions before scaling them.  This approach helps reduce the risks of large-scale digital projects, accelerates innovation cycles, and allows both public institutions and technology companies to develop solutions grounded in real operational needs—ultimately improving public services and strengthening the digital economy. This year, GovTech Lab Ukraine focused on three challenge areas developed together with government partners: legal assistance, urban development, and tourism management. During the programme, seven startups worked with public-sector teams to refine user needs, test hypotheses, and prepare pilot concepts, which they presented at Demo Day. The solutions were reviewed by an Advisory Board that included representatives from government, international organisations, and the GovTech ecosystem. Winning startups and their pilot solutions Obriy AI to pilot automated legal assistance for Ukraine’s justice system In partnership with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the “Automated Legal Assistance” challenge is designed to expand access to basic legal guidance for citizens while easing the operational burden on Ukraine’s Free Legal Aid service. As demand for legal support rises amid ongoing wartime and reconstruction pressures, scalable digital tools are becoming essential to maintain timely and consistent service delivery. The winner, Obriy AI, will pilot its SURE platform to support legal aid operators. The enterprise-grade solution deploys AI agents capable of understanding legal intent, retrieving information from approved knowledge bases, and assisting staff in responding to citizen inquiries — all while adhering to strict security and data-governance requirements. The pilot is expected to reduce workload for legal aid professionals, shorten response times, and improve the consistency and quality of frontline legal support. citytax UAB to modernise Ukraine’s tourism data infrastructure In collaboration with the State Agency for Tourism Development of Ukraine, the “Data-driven Tourism Management” challenge aims to strengthen how tourism data is collected, analysed, and applied in policymaking. As Ukraine looks to rebuild and reposition itself internationally, transparent and reliable tourism data will be essential for informed decision-making, fair taxation, and long-term sector development. The winner, citytax UAB, is a Lithuanian GovTech company building digital infrastructure for public-sector tourism management and local taxation. It will pilot a digital platform for accommodation registration and tourist-tax administration, introducing standardised identifiers, structured data flows, and AI-based screening of accommodation listings. The solution enables authorities to detect unregistered properties, improve tax compliance, and generate more reliable tourism data. Designed to integrate with existing public-sector systems and align with European regulatory frameworks, the platform supports scalable rollout beyond the initial pilot phase. Itera wins challenge to digitise Ukraine’s construction oversight In partnership with the State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Planning of Ukraine, the “Transparent and Efficient Urban Development” challenge set out to modernise one of the most critical bottlenecks in Ukraine’s reconstruction: construction permitting and regulatory compliance. As the country rebuilds, improving the transparency, speed, and accountability of urban planning processes — particularly around complex documentation and regulatory requirements — is essential to restoring infrastructure at scale. The winner, Itera, is a Nordic software and innovation company with more than 30 years of experience and a strong team based in Ukraine. Itera presented an AI-powered solution that automates the extraction, structuring, and verification of complex construction documentation. The system conducts compliance checks against current regulations and introduces auditable workflows alongside role-based dashboards, helping authorities streamline permit issuance while strengthening transparency and oversight in the rebuilding process. Over the next 12 weeks, startup teams will work together with government partners to develop and deploy the proposed pilot solutions in real operating environments. Each team will receive up to $100,000 to implement and test their solutions in partnership with Ukrainian government institutions. Support for selected challenges is provided by Mastercard, partner of the data-driven tourism management challenge, and East Europe Foundation, partner of the automated legal assistance challenge. Infrastructure resources across all three challenges are provided by De Novo, enabling startup teams to design and test pilot solutions.

Last week, we tracked more than 80 tech funding deals worth over €707 million, and over 15 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.

Thiax, a Danish deeptech spin-out, has secured investment from PSV Hafnium to advance its non-destructive 3D inspection technology for polymer and composite parts. In many high-performance composite industries, including aerospace, quality assurance still relies heavily on destructive testing and techniques such as ultrasound. While effective at confirming failure or detecting simple defects like voids, these methods often cannot reveal root causes or measure critical parameters such as strain and crystallinity. Thiax seeks to address this gap by combining advances in X-ray diffraction with multispectral X-ray detectors and 3D measurement technology to deliver deeper insight into polymer microstructures. The capability is delivered through a compact, production-ready instrument for in-line use, providing three-dimensional, depth-resolved visibility into internal material structures. Peter Froberg, CEO of Thiax, said the key milestone is not only that the underlying physics is proven, but that the technology can operate at industrial speed, enabling manufacturers to inspect internal material behaviour non-destructively in factory environments. Thiax is initially targeting aerospace manufacturing, where quality assurance remains a significant challenge, with longer-term applications expected to extend to areas such as spacecraft quality control and increased use of recycled polymers in everyday products. With the investment from PSV Hafnium, Thiax will focus on preparing its system for stable, reproducible use in industrial production environments, advancing pilot projects with aerospace partners, and strengthening its organisation around product development and commercial validation. By bringing laboratory-grade material insight into production settings, the company aims to support a shift in quality assurance toward a more enabling role in advanced manufacturing at scale.

Syndicate One, an international network-driven investment firm backing Belgian startup founders, has completed the first close of its second fund at €22 million. The fund was oversubscribed within eight weeks of the initial pitch, reflecting strong investor interest in the Belgian tech ecosystem. The new capital follows Syndicate One’s €6.5 million fund raised in late 2024. The new fund will be deployed through Syndicate One’s network of founders, investors and operators, and will be managed by founder Laurens De Poorter together with founding members Arnaud Bakker and Robin Wauters. Since its launch in early 2022, Syndicate One has invested in a range of Belgian early-stage startups, including Aikido Security, Techwolf, Conveo, Sirona Technologies, Donna, Warren, SAPI, Ravical, Cosmic Aerospace, Powernaut, Tekst, and Mindoo. Two early portfolio companies, Fundamental and Aikido Security, have since reached unicorn status with private valuations exceeding $1 billion. Laurens De Poorter, founder of Syndicate One, said the new fund reflects the continued maturation and compounding momentum of the Belgian tech ecosystem: What started as a tight-knit network of ambitious founders and operators has evolved into a powerful flywheel, where today’s founders become tomorrow’s backers. We are doubling down on exceptional Belgian entrepreneurs, wherever they are in the world, and on the ecosystem initiatives that help them scale faster, think bigger and build globally competitive companies from day one. A growing investor base Syndicate One was the first Belgian investment firm backed by four governmental funds - PMV (Flanders), SFPIM (federal), Finance&Invest Brussels, and Wallonie Entreprendre. Together with prior anchor investor Sofina and new institutional backers including Finhouse and COI, all previous institutional investors have recommitted to the new fund. The €22 million vehicle has also attracted a broad group of founders and ecosystem builders as investors, including Felix Garriau, Roeland Delrue and Willem Delbare (Aikido Security), Matthias Geeroms (Lighthouse), Stijn Christiaens (Collibra), Andreas De Neve (TechWolf), Cedric De Vleeschauwer, David Du Pré and Jos Polfliet (Warren), Alexis Eggermont (Accountable), JC Velge (Qover), Sebastien Deletaille (Rosa), Thoralf Gutierrez (Sirona), Elise Pepermans (ImmuneSpec), Benoit Deper (Aerospacelab), Benjamin Schrauwen (Oqton), Raf Mertens (CrazyGames), Jeroen De Wit (Teamleader), Dewi Van De Vyver (Effex), Hendrik Isebaert and Pieterjan Bouten (Showpad), Sam Heymans (Lizy), Otto Debals (Segments, Uber), Tom Vroemans (Gorilla, Spencer, November Five), Victor and Louis Mortreu (Just Russel), Willem Schroe (Botanix Labs), Michiel Van Beirendonck (Belfort), Michiel Bearelle (Officient, Vendorvue), and Benoit Baervoets (Eagl), among others. In total, more than 120 entrepreneurs and several Belgian entrepreneurial families have backed the fund, with a growing number of founders from previously backed companies now investing in Syndicate One. Beyond capital, Syndicate One provides founders access to a network of Belgian entrepreneurs and operators with experience scaling companies such as Collibra, Deliverect, Accountable, DataCamp, Showpad, THEO Technologies, N26, EyeSee, Oper, and Bnewable. The community offers expertise across investment, operations, go-to-market strategy, sales, platform development, marketing, and communications. Together with Sofina, SFPIM, and Bain & Co, the firm recently published the second State of Belgian Tech Report. It has also released an updated version of the Syndicate One Convertible, a standardised convertible loan agreement for early-stage financing, and launched a video podcast showcasing Belgian technology talent.

TThis week, we tracked more than 80 tech funding deals worth over €707 million and over 15 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. Alongside the week’s top funding rounds, we’ve highlighted key industry developments, as well as notable trends in European venture activity, investor moves and emerging sectors shaping the current funding landscape. If email is more your thing, you can always subscribe to our newsletter and receive a more robust version of this round-up delivered to your inbox. Either way, let's get you up to speed. ? Notable and big funding rounds ??  Wayflyer raises $250M in credit facility ?? Bootstrapped and profitable AI insuretech company mea platform raises €42.2M ?? Onodrim Industries raises €40M in seed funding ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ?? eBay agrees £890 million deal to buy Depop ?? Scopely takes majority stake in Pixel Flow! at $1B valuation ?? Firecell and Accelleran unite in €7.9 million-backed merger to simplify private 5G networks ?? Mondra and inoqo merge to build a product intelligence platform for the food sector ? Interesting moves from investors ? Quantonation Ventures closes €220M quantum fund backed by Toshiba ?? British Business Bank invests up to £45M in VC fund targeting consumer brand startups ?  212 NexT invests in advanced chemistry startup Aepnus ??. Berlin-based “AI roll-ups” investment firm Tenet launches ?️ In other (important) news ?  Legora and Tandem Health CEOs reject Anthropic and OpenAI threat ?? Austrian creator of viral OpenClaw joins OpenAI ? Getir's co-founders have filed a $700 million lawsuit against Mubadala ⚖️ Noxtua launches Europe’s first cross-border legal AI license ?? HeyCharge awarded €2.5M EIC grant to expand EV charging solutions for apartment buildings ?? Tingit raises €1.5M to scale AI-powered repair platform across Europe ??  Intuos receives €720,000 for non-commercial aviation operations and safety ?? MaXon Systems secures funding to build autonomous air defence against mass drone attacks ?? TrueLayer lands eBay "strategic investment"

CLIMATEX AG, a Swiss textile technology company focused on circular textile technologies and patented solutions, has closed a €3.5 million (CHF 3.2 million) financing round led by the Collateral Good Textile & Fashion Innovation Fund, with participation from existing investors. CLIMATEX develops advanced material and construction technologies designed to enable circularity across the apparel and interior textiles industry. Its core objective is to eliminate textile waste by creating high-performance fabrics and product architectures that can be fully separated and recycled at the end of life. By combining functionality, sustainability, and design for disassembly, the company supports the transition toward a scalable circular textile economy. The company has built a broad portfolio of patented, recyclable textile solutions and emphasises proprietary fabric systems engineered to recover complex, multi-material products within closed material loops. The company works with international clients, operates at Technology Readiness Level 8, participates in multiple EU and Swiss circularity research projects, and has recently filed two additional patents covering next-generation textile technologies. Following the financing round, CLIMATEX also announced the appointment of Camilla Skjønning Jørgensen as CEO-designate. Commenting on the company’s positioning, Camilla Skjønning Jørgensen said CLIMATEX is targeting a distinct system-level opportunity within the textile industry: By rethinking textile construction at the product design stage, the technology enables high-quality, durable products that are also designed for disassembly and recycling from the outset. As part of the leadership transition, current Co-CEOs Adrian Obrist and Patric Rupp will remain shareholders and board members. The newly raised capital will be used to strengthen sales and marketing activities as CLIMATEX’s technologies, products, and market adoption enter a growth phase.

On the homepage of The Times website this week, nestled between a review of the new Wuthering Heights film and a comment piece about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's ex-wife, was a story about how a podcast-cum-novelist “broke the internet” with an Instagram poll about what coffee table she and her partner should buy. Thousands commented on Elizabeth Day’s domestic dilemma, on whether the couple should opt for a coffee table such as Dunelm’s simple kidney-shaped coffee table in black-stained mango wood or Soho Home’s striking circular reddish-orange Rosso Alicante marble table. Professional interior designers, the comedian Miranda Hart, and TV actress Scarlet Moffatt, were amongst Day’s 30,000 followers who eagerly had their say. One of those not commenting was Day’s husband, Justin Basini, a startup entrepreneur and CEO of a UK fintech that is a prime candidate to soon IPO. “We have now chosen the table, and we have released that to the world,” laughs Basini, the co-founder and CEO of credit marketplace ClearScore, speaking at its light and airy south London offices. “And apparently, that is very interesting to people. Surprising to me.” Accidental Insta celeb In fact, at the behest of his wife, Basini, who is not a big social media user due to health concerns, has become something of an unwitting Insta celebrity, appearing in his wife’s Insta videos as an amateur chef. He says: “This cooking thing has gone mad. I feel like the work that I do is important. The impact I have on our 26 million users is important, the 600 staff that I employ is important. And almost always now I will walk into meetings, and people will be like ‘saw you cooking pasta on Sunday’ and that is the thing they engage in.” Basini, 51, Italian ancestry, strong bearing, a full head of hair atop pronounced features, has the look of a chef, albeit one who is serving up a public offering, rather than a culinary offering. Laying the groundwork for IPO ClearScore, one of London’s most prominent fintechs, is currently laying the foundations for an IPO- and London is the favoured destination. The 2015-founded startup is working with an undisclosed accountancy firm to audit its systems- be it legal, finance, reporting structures- to see if it’s IPO-ready, Basini says. Basini said: “As I see it now, given the size of the company, the profile of the brand, the investor base, our mix of growth and profitability, that London is the lead option." Incentives like the UK chancellor’s stamp duty holidays for companies that list on the London Stock Exchange are also helpful, he says. A London listing, which could value ClearScore at between £1.5bn and £2.5bn, according to industry estimates, would be welcomed by investors, staff, and the UK government wanting to defrost an ice-cold IPO market. But a ClearScore listing is not going to happen overnight, Basini says, and points out that he wants the company to grow bigger before it takes the plunge. If London is the lead option, then the US, it would seem, is an unlikely option, courtesy of its lack of US brand recognition (ClearScore is not in the US), allied to it being too small to quicken the pulse of US investors and be a success. Basini says: “If a company were to IPO for £5bn in the UK, I think they would be FTSE 100. In the US, they would be the bottom 25 per cent.” IPO good for general public Another option out the door is ClearScore making its way through the alphabet in never-ending private funding rounds, shielding itself from the glare of quarterly reporting of public life. Speaking in a personal capacity, Basini has a public-spirited, opinionated view on companies staying private for too long. He argues ClearScore (or any company, for that matter) is carrying out a wider public good by listing, arguing these days there is too much capital held in private companies, stoking public distrust and animosity towards “fat cat companies” who are “mugging off” the public. Selling shares to the wider public following an IPO will help re-establish trust between companies and the public, which has been lost, he says. Basini says: “My dad was a teacher, ex-coal miner, he never owned shares, and when Thatcher said you can own a bit of British Gas, you can own a bit of British Telecom, he bought a few shares. And what that is doing is enfranchising him and my family into that business growth. Largely, we have lost that, and that is because a lot of companies are staying private and they are owned by the top 0.1 per cent of the world." Luckily, all the ClearScore equity is not locked away and long-serving ClearScore staff are given the chance to cash in on their service, via small annual secondary share sales. Basini says: "I am very conscious that I have people who joined me in their twenties, they are now in their thirties, they’re having babies, they want to pay down a bit of the mortgage.” What does ClearScore do? ClearScore is a credit marketplace, which has evolved from its credit score roots, to now offer its users an array of credit products: credit cards, loans, car finance and soon-to-launch mortgages. It was founded by Basini, Nigel Morris, managing partner, QED Investors, who founded Capital One and is now ClearScore chairman, and Dan Cobley, ex-Google, who now acts as an advisor to Basini. It operates in the UK, where it has 16 million users, with its headquarters in London and offices in Manchester and Edinburgh. It also has a presence in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. New markets could be South America, mainland Europe and Asia. Some commentators say that ClearScore might have peaked. Not so, says Basini, pointing out that it adds around two million customers a year, including one million UK users a year. Taking on giants ClearScore has disrupted a market, occupied by giants like TransUnion and Experian, with what it says is a more user-friendly and cheaper offering. For example, Basini says that, unlike rivals, users get their credit score, credit report, and tools to understand it, for free. The wizardry of its algorithm and banking API links is another winning selling point, he says. This means customers are only served up credit products which fit their financial budgets, eliminating the “doom loop” of users getting turned down for credit, impairing their credit rating. ClearScore is also available on third-party websites, such as GoCompare. He also says that the credit scores of the active users of ClearScore increase by an average of 80 points, helping them access more interest-friendly products. ClearScore, which also uses open banking technology, is free to consumers and makes money by taking a “bounty”, a commission from the financial institutions when a product is sold. The fintech, which has raised over $200m in debt and equity and is backed by QED, Lead Edge Capital, and Blenheim Chalcot, was last publicly valued at $700m in 2021. New credit products and financials Buy Now Pay Later could be the next credit product it offers, which could come through acquisitions, following the three it has made to date. He says: “Over the next 10 years, we want to broker every type of credit that is out there. We will start to think about Buy Now Pay Later. We will start to think about equity release. We will start to think about insurance that goes alongside credit products.” ClearScore itself got close to being acquired by Experian in 2018, but was ruled out by the Competition and Markets Authority (where Basini now sits on the board), due to competition concerns- a deal, which had it been successful, would have given Basini all the coffee tables in the world! However, what ClearScore won’t start to think about is investment and savings products. Basini adds: “My users, they really are average families. I have got people who are not affluent, I have got people who are affluent. But if I look at the average, they are heavy users of credit, they are responsible borrowers. But they don’t have a huge amount of assets. They are not investing in the stock market.” Financial figures for ClearScore UK in the year ending 2024 show revenues of £89.7m and pre-tax profits of £17.9m. However, these figures are only for its UK entity, with Basini saying it invests profits from its UK entity into its global business. Integrating Buddhism Basini’s professional career has run through peaks and valleys. ClearScore is his third startup, having had one failure (in his twenties), where he admits he made mistakes, and one moderate success (a data brokerage firm which he sold). In between the two startups, Basini, who is chair of the financial education charity, the Money Charity, blagged his way into Deutsche Bank, pretending to be an investment banker, made some money, paid back his credit card debts from his failed startup, then learnt about consumer credit at Capital One. In his twenties, he went through a rough spell, having suicidal thoughts, ending up in therapy, following the failure of his first startup. He returned to therapy around ten years ago, going through a divorce and following his father's death. A leveller has been Zen Buddhism, helping him achieve Zen-like calm, handle pressure and be attuned to the feelings of others, he says. He says: "I meditate quite frequently. I spend time trying to integrate Buddhist practices into the way I think and feel about things." Despite his inner calm, he admits he can be a “quite emotional” leader who cries easily. “When did I last tear up?” he asks his top PR man, sitting next to us. It was at the ClearScore summer party last year. Why? I ask. He says: "Just because talking about the people we employ. We have a lot of people here who have been with us for eight, nine years. And came as first job people. They have grown, they have delivered a lot to the company.” He admits he is a workaholic, firing off company Slack and email messages at 2am. AI, London as fintech hub, and plans for 2026 Some commentators believe that AI could have a detrimental impact on ClearScore, superseding its offering. But Basini says it is embracing the tech, pointing to its positive impact. He says: “I think it is going to be fantastic for businesses like us, which are tech-enabled, have a data asset that is unique, and have a brand.” It is leveraging AI into its product, using it internally to streamline code, and latterly investing in agentic AI.  Meanwhile, the entrepreneur is a fan of London as a fintech hub, amid suggestions London has lost its European pre-eminence. He says: “London is still a fantastic place to build a business. It is packed full of entrepreneurs, packed full of talent, huge infrastructure, huge access to government, regulator and the City.” And ClearScore’s plans for the rest of the year? He says: “Execute our plan, integrate Acre (its latest acquisition), focus a lot on some of the stuff we are doing in agentic AI and mortgages, and that is what we will be launching later this year.” And which coffee table did the couple opt for? It was West Elm’s marble top perched atop a dark bronze base.

When I tell people I live in Berlin at startup events abroad, I often receive a bad reaction, especially from investors.  Many people associate Berlin with its heyday of Rocket Internet and see it as a city full of techno sex clubs, drug addicts, and founders more interested in partying than disciplined, global ambition. It’s certainly not a view I share — and now there’s a concerted initiative determined to demonstrate what Berlin is truly capable of. This week saw the launch of Berlin auf die Eins (BAD1), a community-led campaign founded by local founders, startup builders, investors, and ecosystem players with the goal of making Berlin the most builder-friendly tech city in Europe within the next 12 to 24 months.  ​This grassroots initiative was started by entrepreneurs Bela Wiertz, Julian Teicke, Linda Büscher, Benedict Kurz, Leonard Darsow, Max Linden & Bastian Meyer, is powered by The Delta and supported by founding partners UNITE and Dentsu Creative.  The reality of the startup system in Berlin Berlin's startup ecosystem contributes 10–12 per cent of the city's GDP and is a major growth driver. It creates over 150,000 jobs directly and indirectly. Berlin is Germany's funding hub: €2.2 billion in VC in 2024, that's 31 per cent of all German VC volume. Berlin is Germany's leading AI cluster, home to 283 AI startups. Berlin keeps founding at speed: 498 new startups in 2024. Home to initiatives like EWOR, Vision Lab, and Deep Tech Momentum. And yet, despite this strength, structural frictions continue to slow its global competitiveness. What holds Berlin back Berlin, like all of Germany, is notorious for its slow, complex bureaucracy and administrative processes — this is why we need the 28th regime.  Newcomers to the city — particularly migrants from outside the EU, myself included as an Australian — face severe housing shortages and systems that are still highly paper-based and decentralised  that make the practicalities of relocating both costly and exhausting. And structurally, Berlin still lacks a strong, systematic pipeline between its universities and startup ecosystem, limiting the commercial translation of research and the steady flow of talent into early-stage companies. High impact focus on meaningful change Importantly, Berlin auf die Eins is not a top-down policy programme but a community-driven movement with a focused mission. Rather than producing a long wishlist, the aim is to prioritise a small number of high-impact issues — five to ten changes that could meaningfully improve Berlin within 12 to 24 months. From there, working groups drawn from the community develop concrete, owned solutions. At the same time, the initiative seeks to reshape Berlin’s narrative through facts — highlighting that the city is already a major economic engine and deserves stronger global recognition. Supporters include:  Kai Wegner – Mayor of Berlin. Jan Oberhauser – Founder of n8n. Daniel Khachab, Founder of Choco. Marius Meiners, Founder of Peec AI Filip Dames, Founding Partner at Cherry. Florian Heinemann, Founding Partner at Project A. Dr Gesa Miczaika, co-founder and Partner at Auxxo and the Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund. Overall, BAD1 aims to reduce friction for startups and founders, bring ecosystem stakeholders together, and build momentum across the city and beyond. While the campaign is just getting started, it's a great start to make Berlin more competitive globally. 

MaXon Systems, a Ukrainian defence technology company building an autonomous, end-to-end counter-UAS platform designed to defend large perimeters against mass drone attacks, has raised funding in a round which included Greenflag Ventures, BRAVE1, Freedom Fund VC, and Big Defence. MaXon is building an autonomous air defence system designed to counter mass Shahed-type drone attacks, where today’s manual FPV intercept model does not scale. MaXon is addressing one of the defining challenges of modern warfare: the reality that adversary drones are no longer deployed one at a time, but in high-volume swarms.  Traditional air defence systems are capable but prohibitively expensive at scale; neither does manual interception. MaXon’s approach is different; a closed-loop system that combines high-speed interceptors, long-range detection and tracking, and an integrated targeting and guidance software stack to enable centralised, autonomous defence of cities and critical infrastructure. Its detect-to-defeat stack pairs a proprietary high-speed interceptor (Eichel) with integrated detection, targeting, and guidance software built to function in GPS-denied, EW-heavy conditions. The goal is to shift interception from pilot workload to software execution. In MaXon’s current workflow, the system is designed to compress an intercept into a tight sequence of actions: launch, target selection, and engagement confirmation. This enables a remote command post to dispatch multiple interceptors against multiple targets in parallel.  Further, MaXon combines battlefield traction with a clear path to autonomy at scale. The team reports 16 km proven detection with its DTU (Detection & Tracking Unit), multiple real-target contacts in automatic guidance mode, and active collaboration with multiple combat units. They position MaXon System V1 as commercially ready with first sales targeted for early 2026, while last-mile terminal guidance progresses through testing.   Their roadmap is shaped by the constraint that matters most: high-volume defence. That includes multi-interceptor control, remote command-centre operations, and all-weather terminal guidance, including FMCW radar integration work already underway with a large EU automotive partner.  According to a post by Greenflag Ventures on LinkedIn, the firm shared: “We're impressed not only by the ambition of the technical vision, but the pace and seriousness of execution. MaXon has already reached TRL 8 with validation in real combat conditions. Equally important, MaXon’s roadmap is clearly aligned with the future requirements of scalable air defence. The company is focused on providing full end-to-end autonomy across launch, mid-course, and terminal phases; enabling multi-interceptor parallel control from a remote command post; and integrating radar-based terminal guidance to ensure all-weather performance.  This is precisely the type of autonomy-first architecture that will define the next decade of European and NATO-relevant air defence modernisation.”