After more than a year of quietly investing, German-US VC firm futurepresent is emerging from stealth with Fund I totalling $300 million. The firm is being built as a deliberately small partnership with a flexible mandate, arguing that founder relationships matter more than platform scale.  The firm has already invested in 14 portfolio companies with an investment strategy that includes Pre-Seed/Seed and concentrated-growth investments. futurepresent  is backing companies across three areas: AI for the Physical World: the portfolio includes General Intuition https://www.generalintuition.com/, which is building a world model for spatiotemporal reasoning Applied AI in Complex Industries: portfolio includes Skalar, a fully autonomous tax and audit provider, alongside Afori and inca, which are rebuilding different parts of the insurance value chain with AI AI Infrastructure: portfolio includes Isidor, where futurepresent led the Pre-Seed round for vertically integrated data pipelines supporting reinforcement learning and model training, and Slide, where the firm recently participated in the Series B for modern IT infrastructure for  Managed Service Providers in the AI era The team also sees its footprint across the US and Europe as a core advantage, staying close to both markets while linking the two ecosystems for globally minded founders. The partners come to futurepresent after a decade helping build venture funds across both multi-stage and specialist firms, and are now establishing the firm as repeat founders and investors. According to Thomas Lueke, Partner, futurepresent, the best founders choose people and relationships over any platform feature.  “We deliberately architected futurepresent as a small partnership maniacally focused on building relationships with founders.” Johnson Yang, Partner, futurepresent, shared:  “Our intention is that each founder we work with gets to build a genuinely authentic relationship with our whole team, that lasts from the earliest stages through scale.”

Granola, the AI note-taking app, has bagged a $125m funding round, elevating its valuation to $1.5bn, hitting unicorn status, it announced today. The funding round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from Kleiner Perkins with existing investors Lightspeed, Spark and Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross also contributing to the Series C round. The latest funding round increases Granola's valuation from $250m in its $43m funding round announced in May last year. Granola, which launched in 2023, has raised around $188m in total. London-based Granola is a well known AI note-taking app used by companies such as Vanta and Gusto, as well as startups such as Cursor, Lovable, and Mistral AI. It is also very popular with VCs. Chris Pedregal, co-founder and chief executive of Granola, said: “These companies are turning to Granola not only to capture their notes, but also to capture their context. “Conversation transcripts are the richest source of context for what’s happening across your company, and when paired with powerful AI models, they can unlock workflows that wouldn’t have been possible before.” The startup also announced some new features including a public and enterprise API. It said it will use the funding to scale its product amongst other things. Image: Granola

Mandel AI has raised $3.9 million Seed funding to build coordination for global supply chains.  The startup has developed an  AI supply chain coordinator that helps manufacturers manage supplier coordination, detect disruptions, and automate procurement, replacing the spreadsheets and email chains that still run most industrial supply chains today.  The platform sits on top of existing email and ERP systems, using purpose-built AI agents to read supplier communications, extract critical data, reconcile documents such as PO confirmations and invoices, and act autonomously—following up with suppliers, flagging discrepancies, and escalating issues in accordance with company-defined rules. One procurement manager with Mandel agents can now coordinate what used to take an entire team: reading, reconciling, and acting on hundreds of supplier emails per day, 24/7.  The round is backed by Y Combinator, Category Ventures, Ritual Capital, e2vc, and other Silicon Valley investors and angels.  This year, due to supply chain disruptions, businesses will lose over $1.6 trillion, and 62 per cent of manufacturers say unstructured data remains their number one barrier to AI adoption.  Mandel has already processed $1B+ in material spend for clients in aerospace, pharma, industrials, and similar complex manufacturing industries.  The timing is not coincidental. As tariffs and geopolitical volatility force manufacturers to rapidly diversify supplier networks, often adding dozens of new supplier relationships under intense time pressure, the limitations of email-and-spreadsheet coordination have never been more exposed.  Companies that might have managed 20 suppliers are now managing 60, with no new headcount to match.  “Every supply chain system was built to track what happened. None were built to read and act on what’s happening right now,” says Nick Gospodinov, Bulgarian founder and CEO.  “Sales has Gong. Legal has Harvey. Finance has Ramp. We built the AI for the people who keep the world’s supply chains running.”  Mandel AI’s vision is to become the API for global trade communication, enabling self-coordinating supply chains for every manufacturer and distributor in North America and Europe.  Lead image: Freepik.

One of Germany’s most high-profile fintechs in recent years is cutting 20 per cent of its workforce, as it looks to become an “AI-native bank", marking the latest restructure at Solaris. Solaris, which offers white-label banking services and is known as a BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) provider, is axing around 80 roles across its approximately 400-strong workforce, as it undertakes a major restructuring. The latest round of job cuts follows previous job cuts, a write-down and a rescue funding round by Japan’s SBI Group at Solaris, which has held unicorn status. New CEO Steffen Jentsch is repositioning Berlin-based Solaris from an embedded finance platform into what it’s calling an “AI-native bank”.   This means that it aims to increase automation across its processes and products. It will see AI agents handle operational processes, while humans remain responsible for control and governance, Solaris said.   The fintech said it was developing data- and AI-driven financial services for its partners, including ADAC and Boerse Stuttgart Group. Solaris has got investor support behind its repositioning. Jentsch said: “Ten years ago, Solaris was one of the first companies in Europe to prove that cloud-based banking via APIs works. Today, we are taking the next logical step.    "Together with SBI and in close dialogue with the regulatory authorities, we are developing Solaris into an AI-native bank and creating new growth through the broad use of artificial intelligence in banking.”

Battery optimisation company Entrix today announced two critical milestones. It has raised €43 million in funding and reached 3 GW / 8.5 GWh of contracted battery storage capacity. Of the contracted portfolio, 2 GW will be live and operational during 2026.  Entrix operates a large and growing portfolio of battery storage systems across Europe, with more than 70 systems under management, ranging from standalone projects to co-located solar-plus-battery models.  The company maintains offices and local teams in Germany, Italy, Spain, and Poland, ensuring strong market proximity and regulatory expertise across its core European markets The funding is led by Junction Growth Investors and Korys, alongside BNP Paribas via its Solar Impulse Venture Fund, Allianz, AENU, Enpal, Abacon, and Arvantis Group.  What began in 2021 as a pioneer operating one of Germany's first large-scale battery storage projects has grown into Europe's leading player in battery optimisation.  With 3 GW of contracted flexible capacity, Entrix operates at a scale equivalent to approximately three nuclear power plants or the peak electricity demand of around three million households.  Flexibility as critical infrastructure As renewable penetration accelerates and power markets become increasingly volatile, orchestrating flexibility across markets becomes critical – and increasingly urgent.  Europe's continued exposure to unstable fossil fuel markets has made accelerating the energy transition not only a climate imperative but a strategic one. The need for flexibility is further amplified by the rapid growth of data centres.  Entrix offers an end-to-end solution in five core markets: Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Germany represents Entrix’s largest market by capacity, while Poland represents a fast-evolving flexibility market, supported by capacity mechanisms and structural changes in the generation mix.  Entrix optimises battery storage systems across all relevant electricity markets, including balancing services, day-ahead and intraday trading. Its AI-driven trading and optimisation enables batteries to respond in real time to price signals, grid needs and portfolio strategies – turning technical flexibility into measurable economic value and helping make the energy transition more affordable, greener and more efficient for everyone. According to Steffen Schülzchen, founder and CEO of Entrix, the scale of projects entrusted to the company reflects a structural shift in the energy system: flexibility has become critical infrastructure.  "Our role is to translate technical performance into stable, risk-adjusted revenues for investors while strengthening grid resilience and enabling renewable integration at scale. This milestone underscores the long-term partnerships and operational depth we have built across Europe.”

Italian-based Subbyx, a technology scaleup focused on infrastructure for the subscription economy, has closed a €30 million Series A financing round, bringing its total funding to €50 million across equity and debt. The round was led by Systemiq Capital, with participation from existing investor Azimut, while Flashpoint has provided venture debt to support the expansion of Subbyx’s device portfolio. Founded in 2024, the company builds infrastructure that enables businesses to shift from ownership-based models to access-based subscriptions, allowing technology products to be offered through flexible, recurring models. At the core of its offering is Subbyx Builder, an AI-powered platform that allows merchants and enterprises to convert traditional sales into subscription-based revenue streams, managing the full lifecycle of subscriptions. Our goal is to provide the operating system for the access economy. We have built an infrastructure layer that enables businesses to transition from transactional to subscription-based models, and we are now scaling it to meet growing market demand, said Filippo Rocca, CEO and founder of Subbyx. The new funding will be used to support Subbyx’s international expansion, with Sweden selected as its first market outside Italy. The company is targeting regions with strong adoption of circular economy principles, aligning with its focus on extending product lifecycles and promoting reuse.

Eunice, a London-based company building due diligence infrastructure for regulated markets, has raised $8 million in a combined seed and pre-seed funding round led by Moonfire Ventures and Speedinvest, with participation from Openspace Ventures and several industry founders. The company develops institutional-grade infrastructure designed to standardise how complex investment decisions are assessed, documented and defended, as alternative assets grow in scale and regulatory scrutiny increases. Eunice initially focused on digital assets, where the need for structured, audit-ready due diligence emerged early. The company deployed AI agents to deliver asset-level assessments and contributed to disclosure template development through the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s Regulatory Sandbox. The same infrastructure is now being applied more broadly across alternative assets, where institutional investors such as pension funds, endowments and funds of funds face increasing expectations around governance, transparency and documentation. In these markets, due diligence processes often remain fragmented and manual, with teams required to evaluate complex opportunities while clearly demonstrating how decisions are made. When decision-making in alternative assets is opaque, risk doesn’t disappear - it becomes invisible until it surfaces. We’re building infrastructure that enables institutions to show not only what decisions were made, but how they were reached, in a structured and transparent way, explained Yi Luo, founder and CEO of Eunice. Eunice’s platform replaces these workflows with standardised, auditable frameworks that incorporate human oversight, aiming to make decision-making more transparent and defensible without removing professional judgement. As digital assets mature and private markets continue to expand, both sectors are seeing growing demand for consistent and accountable decision processes. The funding will be used to further develop Eunice’s AI capabilities, expand its coverage across private markets, and scale its commercial operations.

Every day in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, consumption data is automatically collected from hundreds of thousands of residential utility meters. There are no technicians in the field, no paper forms, and no manual labour involved. For most residents, this system is invisible, yet it is fundamental to the city’s modern infrastructure. While many "smart city" projects remain stuck in the pilot phase, Vilnius has achieved full-scale digitisation by looking to Central European engineering. The technology driving this city-wide transformation was designed, engineered, and manufactured by the Czech firm ACRIOS Systems. Their work in Lithuania serves as a case study for the application of "Made in Europe" hardware. This is especially relevant in an era where supply chain resilience and data security are becoming central considerations for municipal authorities. Bridging the gap between vision and reality Smart city technology is often discussed as a horizon: a strategic vision, a pilot programme, or a future state. In Vilnius, however, the conversation is different because remote meter reading at the city scale is a daily operational reality for more than 500,000 residents. ACRIOS Systems secured this contract through an open and competitive tender process. They were selected alongside a field of international technological suppliers, including established global players. This successful implementation may reflect a shifting landscape in the European tech market. It suggests that municipalities and utilities might increasingly consider agile, specialised firms that can deliver field-proven, customisable solutions. Such a shift could potentially enable greater flexibility and faster digitization of critical urban infrastructure. Scaling 10,000 devices in five months The Vilnius project involved an extensive deployment, requiring significant technical and organisational coordination. A total of 10,000 IoT data concentrators were installed across the capital. This creates a network that stands as a major implementation of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe. The implementation tempo required the entire infrastructure to be deployed within a five-month window. Each of these 10,000 units is designed to service up to 800 individual meters. To manage this scale, ACRIOS shipped every unit pre-configured. Installation materials were included, customer SIM cards loaded, and specific settings already applied. This foresight saved tens of thousands of minutes of manual configuration that would have otherwise been required in the field. By treating the hardware as a ready-to-use solution rather than just a component, the firm simplified a complex urban rollout into a streamlined industrial process. Interoperability: breaking the legacy patchwork Most European cities carry decades of accumulated utility infrastructure. This includes meters from different manufacturers, different generations, and different communication protocols. This heterogeneity is often a significant obstacle to digitisation and is rarely solved by replacing hardware. ACRIOS Systems built its products to handle this complexity by connecting devices from multiple manufacturers into a unified data layer. Existing infrastructure is integrated rather than discarded. This approach avoids the high costs associated with "rip-and-replace" programmes. In Vilnius, this had a concrete commercial impact. It removed the city's dependence on a single provider and enabled competition among meter vendors. This resulted in measurable operational cost savings for the city. In-house development as a long-term advantage A key structural element of the ACRIOS approach is that the company develops both hardware and firmware internally. This matters beyond the initial installation because remote firmware updates can be pushed to every device in the field. This allows the network to adapt to new technical requirements or evolving security standards without physical intervention. For a deployment of 10,000 units, this can lead to a lower total cost of ownership. The infrastructure can evolve in place. This helps ensure cities are not locked into a static technology stack that requires replacement as standards shift, a scenario that has affected earlier smart city deployments across Europe. A model for European collaboration The project was delivered in partnership with Taiklu, a local partner responsible for platform integration and market knowledge in Lithuania. This combination of a specialised technology provider and a locally embedded partner is a model for delivering complex infrastructure projects in the European Union. "Our strength is the ability to connect different technologies into one functional whole," says Radim Malinowski, CEO of ACRIOS Systems. "We are not just a hardware supplier. We deliver technology that must work in real city and utility environments." "Our goal is to deliver a system that works reliably and provides useful information," adds Lukáš Smetana, Chief Sales Officer at ACRIOS Systems. "Every project starts with a conversation where we understand the operator's needs. Only then do we discuss the specific technology. After years of preparation, it is rewarding to see the project meeting these expectations." Building the future of European infrastructure As European institutions focus more on the provenance of critical infrastructure, hardware designed and built in Europe is increasingly scrutinised. The Vilnius deployment aligns with broader regulatory shifts, such as the Energy Efficiency Directive. This is increasing the need for accurate and accessible consumption data across the continent. Vilnius argues that Central European firms can serve as architects of the systems that define European smart cities. Infrastructure that works is often infrastructure that remains in the background. In the streets of Vilnius, this Czech-engineered technology has been in full operation for two years, establishing itself as a proven functional standard for the city's energy grid. About ACRIOS Systems ACRIOS Systems is a Czech technology company specialising in hardware and software development for smart metering, IoT, and energy management. With an in-house engineering team, the company designs and builds its own hardware and firmware. It delivers interoperable solutions for cities, utilities, and industry across Europe. For more information, visit ACRIOS Systems.

Berlin-founded biotech startup Cellbricks Therapeutics has raised €10 million to advance its goal of 3D-printed organs, beginning with biofabricated human tissue implants.  If successful, Cellbricks is not just building better implants — it is laying the groundwork for manufacturing living human organs. The financing includes a €7 million seed round and more than €3 million in additional non-dilutive funding currently under negotiation.  For patients with severe soft tissue loss, complex wounds such as full-thickness burns or blast injuries, and reconstructive defects, medicine still too often relies on compromise: invasive grafting procedures, synthetic implants and solutions that restore shape imperfectly but rarely restore living function.   Cellbricks Therapeutics has developed a proprietary biofabrication platform capable of producing vascularised human tissue implants. Combining human cells with biomaterials, it creates tissue constructs designed to be implanted into patients. In the longer term, Cellbricks aims to build the biological and manufacturing capabilities needed to produce fully functional, implantable human organs. I spoke to Alexander Leutner, Co-CEO and Co-Founder, Cellbricks Therapeutics, to find out more.  A personal turning point into regenerative medicine Leutner describes himself as “an entrepreneur at heart and an engineer by training.” Earlier in his career, he built the metrology startup Apodius, which was later acquired by Hexagon AB. He stayed on to lead the "Vision Systems" metrology business unit but admitted that the startup life was still calling. At the same time, it was clear that he would need to donate a kidney to his younger brother. He began looking at startups in regenerative medicine, where he found Cellbricks Therapeutics. The company was originally founded by Dr Lutz Kloke following his PhD, during which he developed and globally patented the light-based process that underpins the platform.  Dr. Klokeliked the idea of bringing in an experienced entrepreneur, so that he could focus more on the scientist, and Leutner recalled: “When I joined, the company was working heavily on the bioprinter itself, while also exploring the broader space of tissue models for drug development. Together we quickly said: Let’s go for the really big opportunity. Let’s focus on human tissue implants.”  From bioprinting tools to human tissue implants Today, Cellbricks has two main areas. One is adipose tissue for wound healing and breast reconstruction, which is less complex than liver tissue.  The focus on tissue bioprinting serves as a key validation programme, enabling the company to demonstrate that its platform can produce human tissue that can enter the clinic and function properly. At the same time, it's also working on the moonshot, which is organ tissue, including liver tissue. The decision to start with tissue therapeutics is strategic. Leutner explains that as the company continues to develop its capabilities, tissues and programmes, it is also spinning out applications that can help patients sooner, while serving as validation milestones on the path towards tissues with organ function. “It builds step by step. In wound healing, for example, we are targeting very complex wounds, including severe full-thickness burns in which the damage extends far beyond the skin surface.  We are not simply producing a superficial cover. This is where we develop the full platform and show that we can produce something large, viable and functional that works in large animals and, later, in the clinic. At the same time, it is a strong business case because there is currently no product on the market that truly solves these problems for patients. There are wound dressings, but they do not really solve it. There is autologous skin grafting, but that is extremely burdensome.” From there, the next step is breast reconstruction, which uses much the same material but at a much larger volume and with even greater vascularisation requirements.  It's a process of  solving the biology, engineering and  translation challenges tissue by tissue. Living implants that survive, vascularize, integrate and function in the body are the essential stepping stones.   “You can see how that starts to lead towards organ tissue, which also requires larger, highly vascularised constructs. So we are building one stage on top of the other as we advance our platform,” explained Leutner. A fully integrated approach to biofabrication Leutner describes one of his biggest contributions as bringing in more pharmaceutical expertise: “I hired a very experienced co-CEO, someone I would describe as a biopharma silverback, and he helped us set up the programmes properly. We also brought in a lot of new talent. Our team now includes 13 nationalities, with people coming from all over the world to Berlin to work on this." While there are several bioprinting startups, Leutner sees Cellbricks as possessing a core competitive advantage:   "We have everything in-house — expertise across cells, biomaterials, the bioprinter, software, maturation, and now the translational capabilities needed to bring this into the clinic. I would say there is no other company in the world with all of that under one roof, and certainly not in Europe. That is what makes us unique and gives us a real competitive advantage. Our scientists can, for example, say that to achieve fully vascularised tissue implants that work properly, we need to slightly adjust the biomaterial or the printing parameters, and we can do so directly. We have built a dedicated system for producing human tissue." Further, Cellbricks stands out for its ability to produce tissue in the lab at speed. “Because we use light-based bioprinting, we can work around 15 times faster than other bioprinting approaches,” explained Leutner. “We have demonstrated that we can produce large volumes of tissue at high speed while maintaining full vascularisation. Our technology enables the creation of large tissue constructs that remain healthy and viable over time, as the cells receive sufficient nutrients and oxygen. That is what we are most proud of: producing large, vascularised tissue constructs that function in vivo.” Solving the cell supply challenge When it comes to 3D bioprinting, Leutner explained that historically, one of the biggest questions was where all the cells would come from: “For organ tissue, for example, you cannot simply replicate liver cells from a patient at the scale required.” But breakthroughs in cell biology, particularly in pluripotent stem cells such as iPS cells, have changed that.  “Large quantities of cells are becoming available, and many companies are emerging in that field.  We can partner with those companies and secure the cell supply.” Partnering with pharma to reach the clinic faster For adipose tissue, Cellbricks uses patient-derived cells because that offers a faster regulatory pathway and development route. The liver programme uses stem-cell-based allogeneic cells, which can work across many different patients without severe issues. However, the real challenge now is scaling.  “Producing tiny tissue sections in the lab is no longer the main issue. Many groups can do that,” shared Leutner.  From hospital printers to pharma partnerships: the path to market But what does the business model of 3D tissue (and later organ) printing look like in practice? Leutner admits that from the visionary founder perspective, “ignoring time for a moment, the ideal future would be that the technology sits close to every hospital, perhaps even inside every hospital, and hospitals can produce their own tissue implants for patients." "Later on, that could extend to tissue with organ function as well, not necessarily full organs immediately, but functional tissue.” But today the company wants to partner its lead programme with a large pharmaceutical company. Canadian company Aspect Biosystems has already done something comparable with Novo Nordisk to develop cellular therapies for diabetes using stem-cell–derived islet cells in a deal worth $2.7 billion for one programme. Leutner explained that for a small biotech, that model is attractive because it creates early revenue.  “There is an upfront payment, potentially worth tens of millions, followed by milestone payments as the programme progresses. The pharmaceutical company then launches the product, and the smaller company receives royalties. That is what we are aiming for, and we are already in discussions with two large pharmaceutical companies about those kinds of partnerships. That model means we do not need to raise hundreds of millions of our own funds to commercialise the therapy independently. We can move forward through partnership, generate revenue earlier, and potentially even pursue an IPO on the back of that in a few years. That is our strategic path today.” Berlin vs Boston: cost meets speed Celbricks has offices in both Berlin and Boston. I was curious about the differences between the biotech ecosystems. Despite the disadvantage that Berlin has no direct flights to Boston, Leutner sees speed as the biggest difference.  “A good example is regulatory approval for a small animal trial. In Germany, that can take between six and 12 months. In Boston, it can take around six weeks.” Conversely, Boston is significantly more expensive, with higher labour costs, pricier lab space, and more costly professional services. However, with most of the team based in Berlin — where laboratory setup is more affordable — the company can balance costs while benefiting from Boston’s faster, more innovation-driven ecosystem, particularly in areas such as regulation and clinical translation. For a small biotech, this combination is highly attractive. Funding will accelerate preclinical validation and enable Cellbricks Therapeutics to move from promise to proof, demonstrating that engineered human tissues can perform in clinically relevant models. This includes advancing its lead adipose tissue implant programme, launching up to three preclinical animal studies, and generating the necessary data to progress towards human trials. Lead image: Cellbricks executive leadership team. From left to right: Dr Tobias Lam (CTO), Michael Kring   (CFO), Dr Kathy Kordy (CMO), Alexander Leutner  (Co-CEO), Dr Simon MacKenzie (Co-CEO).

Renasens, a Stockholm-based deeptech company developing textile recycling technology, has raised €10 million in a seed funding round led by Extantia, with participation from Course Corrected VC and continued backing from Norrsken Launcher. Renasens is addressing a structural challenge in the textile industry, where more than 12 million tonnes of waste are generated annually in Europe, yet less than 1 per cent is recycled into new fibres. Existing recycling methods struggle to process blended and treated fabrics, which makes up the majority of post-consumer waste. The company aims to close this gap by enabling fibre-to-fibre recycling at scale and reducing reliance on imported virgin materials. Its platform uses modified supercritical CO₂ to separate and decolour blended textiles, recovering intact fibres without the use of water or the use of toxic chemicals. The recovered materials can be reintroduced into existing manufacturing processes without requiring new equipment, and the system is designed to be modular, allowing deployment within existing facilities across fragmented supply chains. Post-consumer textile waste has long been considered both technically and structurally unsolvable. We have developed a process that makes fibre recycling viable at industrial scale, and are now building the infrastructure and partnerships to support its adoption across Europe, said Dr Jade Bouledjouidja, founder and CEO of Renasens. The company has already begun supplying recovered cotton and polyester fibres to manufacturers in Portugal and Italy. Its development comes as EU regulations tighten, with mandatory textile collection systems introduced in 2025 and extended producer responsibility schemes are expected by 2027, increasing demand for scalable recycling solutions. The funding will support the development of a pilot plant in Borås, Sweden, and enable the company to begin supplying recovered fibres directly into European manufacturing.

PAVE Space, a Swiss space infrastructure company, has raised $40 million in seed funding to develop a new generation of spacecraft designed to move satellites rapidly between orbits. The round was led by Visionaries Club and Creandum, with participation from Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Atlantic Labs, Sistafund, b2venture, ACE Investment Partners, Ilavaska Vuillermoz Capital, and Pareto & Motier Ventures. The company is building a family of orbital transfer vehicles (OTVs) capable of transporting satellites from low Earth orbit to higher-energy destinations such as geostationary and lunar orbits in under 24 hours, addressing a growing bottleneck in the space economy. Today, satellites typically rely on onboard propulsion systems that can take months to reach their final orbit, delaying operations and increasing costs. PAVE’s flagship kickstage vehicle is designed to shorten mission timelines and reduce costs using storable bipropellants, while a smaller mobile platform is being developed for rapid, flexible satellite repositioning. As the number of satellites in orbit continues to grow, demand for faster and more flexible orbital mobility is increasing across both commercial and institutional markets. PAVE aims to provide a launcher-agnostic logistics layer compatible with multiple launch systems, supporting satellite operators, telecom providers and defence organisations. Julie Böhning, CEO and co-founder of PAVE Space, said that the space economy is moving into an industrial phase where logistics in orbit will become as essential as they are on Earth: Our ambition is to build the infrastructure that enables industries to move, operate and scale beyond Earth, while supporting Europe’s strategic autonomy in space. The company is preparing its first in-space demonstration mission and has already secured early reservation agreements with satellite operators. The funding will be used to accelerate development of its orbital logistics platforms, conduct initial demonstration missions, expand its engineering team and prepare for its first commercial deployments.

A Nick Candy-backed fintech founded by a “millionaire” who grew up on a council estate has gone into liquidation, leading to job losses, after investors pulled the plug on the payment app.   Staff at VibePay, a UK peer-to-peer payment app, were made redundant after the investment arm of the billionaire Reform UK treasurer and property mogul, called Candy Ventures, and other investors, pulled future investment, following a strategic review.   Around 10 staff were made redundant in an online call weeks ago, following around 30 redundancies in 2025, sources say. One axed staff member said: "I am very upset, we believed we had built a really strong product." Liquidators have been appointed to VibePay, in which Candy Ventures was the largest shareholder.   VibePay was founded by Luke Massie, who grew up on a council estate in Lancashire with an alcoholic and depressed mum. Massie, who according to The Sun was a millionaire, launched VibePay in 2019. The fintech facilitates account-to-account payments for businesses, content creators, and individual consumers using open banking. VibePay grew out of Massie’s previous venture Vibe Tickets.  Sources said a deal to buy VibePay by Bank of America-backed fintech Banked did not go through, despite a press release announcing the deal last year.    Sources said the deal failed due to issues arising out of the due diligence process carried out by Banked.  Neither Banked nor VibePay confirmed this. After this, investors carried out a strategic review and decided to pull the plug on future investment.   Massie, who set up his first business when he was 17, left VibePay in December last year. According to Pitchbook, VibePay has raised over £12m.  Its other backers include YouTube star and DJ Vikkstar, UK entrepreneur Scott Fletcher and Vela Technologies.   A spokesperson for Candy Ventures, which had invested millions in VibePay, said: “Following the departure of founder and CEO Luke Massie in December, the board of Vibe conducted a strategic review of the business and its funding requirements.   “The findings were shared with key investors in January, who decided not to commit further capital. As a result, and after exploring all available options, the board concluded that placing the business into liquidation was the only viable course of action. The board thanks the Vibe team, partners and clients for their support and contribution, and is working with the appointed liquidators to ensure an orderly process.”   Banked did not respond to a request for a comment. IMAGE: PIXABAY

Origin, an AI-native platform focused on managing global employee benefits, has raised $30 million in a Series A+ funding round, bringing its total funding to over $50 million within the past year. The round was led by Notion Capital, with participation from Felix Capital, Acadian Ventures and existing investors, alongside additional growth financing from HSBC Innovation Banking UK. The company aims to address inefficiencies in one of the largest and least visible areas of workforce spending: global benefits. Traditionally fragmented across countries, vendors and systems, benefits data is often dispersed across documents, platforms and languages, making it difficult for organisations to gain a clear understanding of coverage, costs and performance. Origin’s platform introduces what it describes as an Enterprise Benefits Intelligence system, using AI to aggregate and structure complex, unstructured data into a unified, actionable view. Its proprietary AI engine, Cuido™, is designed specifically for global benefits, enabling organisations to analyse policies, identify inefficiencies, and streamline operations across multiple markets. Chris Bruce, co-founder and CEO of Origin, noted that the primary challenge in global benefits has long been the absence of a single, reliable source of truth. AI now makes it possible to bring together fragmented, complex data into a system that gives organisations full visibility into their global benefits spend, so they can operate more efficiently and deliver better outcomes for employees. The platform has been developed in collaboration with large multinational organisations managing benefits across multiple jurisdictions, reflecting the increasing complexity faced by employers as healthcare and risk-related costs rise globally. With the new funding, Origin plans to expand integrations with human capital management systems to improve employee access to benefits information and to further develop its partner ecosystem, supporting brokers, insurers and consultants with enhanced tools and data-driven insights.

Galtea, a provider of AI evaluation infrastructure, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding to further develop its platform for generating high-quality, use case-specific test scenarios for generative AI agents. The round was led by 42CAP, with participation from Mozilla Ventures and existing investors including JME Ventures, Masia and ABAC Nest Ventures, bringing total funding to $4.1 million. The company addresses a key bottleneck in AI deployment: access to reliable and affordable test data. As enterprises adopt generative AI, many face challenges moving from development to production due to the cost and complexity of testing. Galtea aims to streamline this process by providing structured, scalable testing scenarios that support evaluation of performance, accuracy and security before deployment. Galtea’s platform offers continuous, dynamic testing and tailored evaluation metrics, enabling enterprise teams to assess and improve their AI agents. The solution is already in use by customers across sectors, and the company has introduced a self-service offering, including a free trial, to broaden access for developers alongside its enterprise packages. Jorge Palomar, co-founder and CEO of Galtea, noted that limited access to sufficient and cost-effective testing data continues to slow AI deployment: Galtea provides the infrastructure developers need to test, validate and deploy AI systems reliably and efficiently in real-world conditions. The company reports that its platform can reduce the cost and time associated with AI validation through automated scenario generation, supporting more efficient development workflows. The funding will be used to expand Galtea’s engineering and commercial teams and to further develop its platform, with the aim of making rigorous AI testing more accessible to developers globally.

Epoch Biodesign, a London-based company developing enzymatic recycling technology, has closed a $12 million strategic funding round with participation from lululemon, KOMPAS VC, Happiness Capital, Extantia, Leitmotif and others. The new investment brings the company’s total funding to over $50 million. Epoch is focused on advancing circularity in materials by enabling the recycling of nylon 6,6 without the need for virgin feedstock. Its process breaks down waste garments and other nylon-based materials into their original chemical components, such as adipic acid and HMDA, which can then be used to produce new, virgin-quality polymers and yarn. The company’s technology is designed to process complex materials, including blended textiles, coated fibres and mixed plastics, helping to address waste streams that are typically difficult to recycle. By working with existing yarn producers, Epoch aims to provide a drop-in solution that allows brands and manufacturers to improve supply chain sustainability without changing suppliers. The funding will be used to expand Epoch’s global commercialisation efforts and deepen partnerships across industries, including apparel and automotive.

INCIRT, an Aachen-based deeptech company, has closed a €4.8 million funding round led by Lifeline Ventures, with participation from High-Tech Gründerfonds. INCIRT is developing a new generation of data converters capable of delivering up to 100 times faster data conversion than conventional approaches. Instead of relying on increasingly smaller and more costly manufacturing nodes, the company’s technology addresses key semiconductor limitations through a new system architecture based on intelligent parallelisation. Data converters are a critical component in modern communication and sensor systems, determining how efficiently data is transferred between digital systems and real-world applications. INCIRT’s approach rethinks this building block from the ground up, focusing on architectural innovation rather than incremental improvements. Our architecture enables performance gains that are difficult to achieve with conventional semiconductor approaches, while demonstrating that high-performance chips can be realised using European manufacturing, said Oner Hanay, co-founder and CEO of INCIRT. The technology has already been implemented as a working silicon chip produced using 22-nanometer technology in Europe, enabling high-performance semiconductor production without reliance on advanced non-European nodes and strengthening the regional value chain for critical infrastructure. The company targets data- and energy-intensive sectors such as satellite communications and telecoms. Its technology enables higher data throughput with lower energy use in satellites, while in telecommunications, it supports increased network capacity, reduced costs, and readiness for future network evolution beyond 5G. The funding will be used to advance product development, validate the technology, and prepare initial customer projects and market entry, while supporting the commercialisation of INCIRT’s chip architecture and contributing to Europe’s digital sovereignty.

Biotech startup NanoZymeX has obtained €160,000 (CHF 150,000) from Venture Kick to advance a new platform for enzyme replacement therapy using lipid nanoparticles.  Spun out of research at the University of Basel, the technology aims to improve therapies for rare genetic conditions such as Pompe disease (a rare genetic disorder that affects how the body breaks down glycogen, leading to progressive muscle damage) by increasing therapeutic activity in affected tissues. Enzyme replacement therapies are used to treat several rare genetic disorders, but their effectiveness is often limited by poor delivery into diseased tissues. Many therapeutic proteins struggle to enter cells efficiently, reducing their activity in critical organs such as skeletal muscle. In addition, immune responses to repeated treatments can further limit long-term effectiveness. NanoZymeX is developing a lipid nanoparticle-based platform designed to transport therapeutic enzymes directly into target cells and lysosomes. By improving intracellular delivery and reducing immune reactions, the approach increases functional activity where it is most needed. Early preclinical studies show strong delivery efficiency and improved enzyme activity in relevant tissues. NanoZymeX’s technology targets lysosomal storage disorders, a group of rare diseases representing a multibillion-dollar therapeutic market.  The platform is designed to improve the performance of existing enzyme therapies and can be adapted to multiple diseases beyond Pompe. The company plans to partner with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies developing rare disease treatments to bring next-generation enzyme therapies to patients. “The support from Venture Kick comes at a critical moment when scientific discoveries need to transition into real companies,” highlighted Boris Sevarika, co-founder of NanoZymeX. “This type of early funding provides the flexibility needed for company building, business development, and preparing the next stages of financing. It fills a crucial gap between academic research and venture-backed biotech development.” The funding will help NanoZymeX further develop its lipid nanoparticle technology, conduct additional preclinical studies, and prepare for scalable manufacturing. This will support future fundraising and the transition toward clinical trials. Lead image: Freepik.

Stateful Robotics, an embodied AI company spun out of the University of Oxford, has raised $4.8 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), with additional participation from angel investor Stan Boland. While advances in large language and other foundation models have significantly improved robots’ perception and contextual understanding, real-world deployments still face limitations when conditions change. Robots often struggle with disruptions such as unexpected obstacles, shifting lighting conditions, or evolving operational requirements. These systems typically lack the ability to retain and utilise historical context, such as prior task outcomes, recurring issues, or environment-specific behaviours, which is essential for reliable long-term performance. Stateful Robotics addresses this gap by continuously integrating real-time data, task progress, and historical performance into a unified AI model. This enables robots to recall past events, adapt to changing conditions, and plan more effectively over extended time horizons, moving beyond rigid, pre-programmed workflows. The company was co-founded by Kirsty Lloyd-Jukes (CEO), alongside Professor Nick Hawes, Professor David Parker, and Dr Bruno Lacerda. Their work builds on over a decade of research at Oxford in areas including autonomy, probabilistic verification, and decision-making under uncertainty. Kirsty Lloyd-Jukes, CEO and co-founder, noted that while robots are typically effective at handling immediate tasks, they often face challenges when it comes to planning ahead, especially when decisions need to be made over longer periods, such as hours or days: By maintaining a continuously updated model of each deployment, our platform enables robots and human-robot teams to operate more reliably and consistently in complex environments. The technology is already being tested with pilot customers in sectors such as infrastructure and logistics. The newly raised capital will be used to expand the company’s engineering team, further develop its performance engine, and accelerate go-to-market efforts with industrial partners.

Belgian drone traffic management company Unifly today announced the acquisition of EuroUSC-Benelux, a Dutch consultancy specialising in drone regulation, safety, and operational compliance across Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France. The Unifly platform connects authorities, drone operators and stakeholders to digitise and automate airspace management, supporting the safe integration of next-generation aircraft. Through Unifly Consulting, the company combines Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) solutions with regulatory and safety. According to Andres Van Swalm, CEO of Unifly: “Building strong local capability is essential to Unifly’s mission to enable autonomous aviation.  As drone operations scale, organisations need trusted partners wth deep regulatory expertise on the ground. This acquisition strengthens our presence in a key European region and supports the safe, scalable deployment of advanced drone operations.  According to Michael Maes, Director of EuroUSC-Benelux, “Becoming part of Unifly allows us to scale our impact while preserving the independence and technical rigour that defines EuroUSC-Benelux. We will be even better positioned to support authorities, operators and manufacturers as drone operations grow in scale and complexity."

Zevero, a carbon management platform, has secured $7 million in new funding, bringing its total capital raised to $14 million. The round includes participation from Spiral Capital, Gazelle Capital, and Deep 30, and follows a period of rapid growth. The company provides an AI-driven platform that helps businesses measure, manage, and derive value from emissions data. It automates data collection and calculation across Scope 1, 2, and 3, enabling organisations to build structured datasets for ESG reporting and operational decision-making. By combining technology with in-house sustainability expertise, Zevero supports companies in identifying emissions hotspots, setting targets, and implementing decarbonisation strategies. Shigeo Taniuchi, CEO of Zevero, said that although businesses are increasingly expected to manage sustainability with the same discipline as finance, many still treat it as a recurring annual exercise rather than an integrated system. He added that the company aims to address this by providing tools and expertise to make climate data continuous, reliable, and decision-oriented, with the new funding supporting broader adoption across markets. According to George Wade, CCO and co-founder of Zevero, carbon data is increasingly shifting from a reporting function to a key input for operational and investment decision-making: Organisations don’t just need the software to collect the data; they need the guidance to help turn it into something the business can act on. That’s what Zevero is built around. Founded in 2021, Zevero operates across more than 20 countries with a team of around 50 employees, serving customers including Asahi Group, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and waterdrop. The company recently acquired sustainability advisory firm Inhabit, expanding its capabilities to help organisations move from measuring emissions to implementing practical decarbonisation strategies. The funding comes as sustainability reporting becomes more regulated, with frameworks such as the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards and Japan’s SSBJ Standards increasing requirements for transparency and governance. The new investment will be used to accelerate product development and support international expansion across Asia-Pacific and continental Europe, where demand for emissions management solutions is increasing.