The co-founder of Danish digital bank Lunar is stepping down as CEO after more than ten years and is being replaced by a former Danske Bank and Saxo Bank executive. Ken Villum Klausen, Lunar co-founder and CEO, who has led Lunar since its founding in 2015, said the timing “feels right” to stand down. He pointed out that Lunar was now the biggest challenger bank across the Nordics. Posting on LinkedIn, Klausen said: “Lunar has the strongest team in its history. The strategy for the next phase is sharp, and we're all aligned on it. The product is loved, the business is healthy, and the ambition for what comes next is bigger than what came before. The best time for a founder to hand over is when the thing is working, not when it isn't. So that's what I'm doing, with a full heart.” He is being replaced by Søren Kyhl, who spent 10 years at Danish investment bank Saxo Bank, latterly as deputy CEO, and over 13 years at Danske Bank, the Danish multinational bank. Kyhl will take over at the start of June this year. Lunar, which has raised over €500m in funding, has over one million customers. It has expanded from its native Denmark across the Nordics. As well as its retail offering, it has over 40,00 business customers. Chairman Jens Peter Leschly Neergaard said: "With Søren, Lunar gets a CEO with deep understanding of both the financial market and the regulatory requirements that come with running a modern bank. He brings a strong background in execution, commercial development, and leadership, along with a clear ability to continue developing the bank together with Lunar’s talented employees and create even more value for our users.” In 2022, Lunar launched its Lunar Block in-app crypto platform in 2022, allowing users to buy and sell crypto coins directly. In October last year, Lunar secured a crypto licence under the EU’s MiCA regulation.  Last year, Lunar was hit by a string of executive departures, including its co-founder and CTO, as it looked to cut management costs and become profitable in the long term.

Poland has long been known as one of Europe’s strongest software development and IT outsourcing hubs, supplying engineering talent and enterprise delivery capabilities to companies across Western Europe and the US. While countries like Germany focused more heavily on fintech or SaaS products, Poland carved out its own service niche. As AI reshapes how software is built, that legacy is turning into a strategic advantage. Miquido is a Polish software development and AI solutions company headquartered in Kraków. Founded in 2011, the company builds mobile apps, web platforms, AI systems, and enterprise software for startups, scaleups, and large organisations across industries such as fintech, healthcare, ecommerce, and entertainment. Originally known for mobile development, Miquido has increasingly focused on AI-native software development, integrating generative AI and agentic AI workflows into enterprise environments. I spoke to Chief AI Officer Jerzy Biernacki to learn more about the direction and opportunities for Poland and the rise of what he calls Software 3.0. For Biernacki, Poland’s biggest strength is its talent pool, which is rapidly embracing AI tools and building processes around them to deliver more, faster, without sacrificing quality. At the same time, while Poland is not yet one of the top ecosystems in Europe, companies like ElevenLabs and DocPlanner are helping lead that charge with massive funding rounds. Specifically in AI, Poland now has two independently developed large language models — BIELIK and PLLuM. This is unusual, especially for Central Europe and even across the EU more broadly. Poland is alos home to multiple top-tier software development agencies — including Miquido, as well as companies like Netguru, 10Clouds, and Spyrosoft. From copilots to Agentic AI The rise of large language models has already pushed software development through several distinct phases, according to Biernacki. In the early days of the AI boom, many believed developers would quickly be replaced altogether as companies rushed to adopt generative AI tools. “The first phase was: ‘LLMs can be used everywhere, and they’ll replace everyone,’ particularly programmers and developers,” he said. That narrative coincided with major layoffs across the tech sector, although Biernacki argues many of those cuts were more closely tied to companies correcting pandemic-era overhiring than AI-driven replacement. Initially, AI coding tools primarily functioned as copilots, helping developers autocomplete code and accelerate workflows within their IDEs. But Biernacki says the market underwent a major shift in 2025 with the arrival of agentic AI coding systems. “I think the major breakthrough was when Claude Code was released in May last year. That was a turning point,” he explained. “Agentic AI code generation really became a thing, and it changed the way we work with software development.” The later release of Codex further accelerated the transition. According to Biernacki, the two platforms now dominate much of the enterprise AI coding market. “Those two tools basically overtook the market. They now have something like 75–80 per cent of the enterprise segment between them,” he said. The shift is reshaping far more than coding itself. Biernacki argues that AI is transforming the entire software development lifecycle, from requirements analysis and design to testing, deployment, governance, and validation. How Software 3.0 Is reshaping software development As these workflows become increasingly autonomous, Biernacki argues the role of the developer itself is fundamentally changing, evolving toward oversight and verification rather than manual coding. “The bulk of the work is no longer writing code — because writing code is now relatively cheap — but verification, architecture, governance, and validation.” He believes automated validation will become one of the most critical layers in AI-assisted software development as enterprises look to safely deploy increasingly autonomous coding systems. This has led to a shift in local hiring practices, with companies like Miquido placing greater emphasis on soft skills than on whether someone knows a language's syntax perfectly. In terms of younger hires, Biernacki characterises the importance of university graduates who used AI throughout their studies and are naturally comfortable working with AI. He admits younger hires still need time to adapt to enterprise environments and operational discipline. “We look for a different skill set now: people who can translate business requirements into prompts and who can work naturally with AI agents. They also inject fresh energy into teams. Sometimes senior engineers get stuck in existing processes, and having fresh blood helps show alternative ways of working. They’re eager to learn, eager to adapt, eager to test new things. So I think they’re a really valuable addition to company structures.” "Software 3.0 "creates a new divide between startups and enterprises The divide between startups and enterprises is becoming increasingly visible in the AI-driven software era as companies adopt to Software 3.0 development workflows. According to Biernacki, startups are moving far faster than larger organisations because they are being forced to adopt AI-native development practices to survive: “Honestly, I think startups are leading the charge right now. Startups need to show investors tangible results extremely quickly across software sectors.  They can’t afford not to rely on AI-driven coding workflows — especially for early products and feature development.” As a result, startups are shipping products and features at an increasingly fast pace. Enterprises, however, operate under very different constraints.  “Startups don’t have to worry as deeply about enterprise-grade security, reputation risk, or massive scalability from day one,” said Biernacki. “Enterprises have to move more carefully because they need stability. Their primary concerns are reputation, compliance, security, and governance.” For software development firms serving enterprise customers, reliability therefore becomes the critical differentiator. “You can’t achieve that with pure ‘vibe coding’ and no safeguards. You need enterprise processes ensuring quality.” Biernacki contends that the whole ecosystem is moving from “we provide developers” toward providing augmented delivery systems. “I think the adoption rate in Poland is probably among the highest in Europe.” He sees Poland’s edge is not about being the biggest AI market, because clearly it isn’t, but rather having an ecosystem of software companies that spent 10–15 years building enterprise software for Western European and global clients — and are now rapidly retooling around AI. “The thing Poland may actually be leading in isn’t frontier AI research itself, but AI-augmented enterprise delivery. That’s where I think the country’s real value lies right now.” Biernacki believes the software industry has now crossed a major inflection point, with agentic AI fundamentally reshaping how software is built and maintained, and leading to a competitive advantage. “Companies like us have a temporary advantage over companies that aren’t aggressively adopting agentic AI workflows yet. Though I think that advantage will eventually narrow as others catch up.” At the same time, enterprises are facing rapidly growing regulatory and compliance complexity around AI systems and software governance. “There’s also the growing complexity around regulation and compliance in enterprise software,” said Biernacki. He argues that helping enterprises navigate this increasingly complicated landscape represents one of the biggest emerging opportunities for software companies. Biernacki also believes the industry is experiencing a form of Jevons Paradox, where making software development cheaper through AI actually increases overall demand for software rather than reducing it. The long-term winners in the AI software era will not necessarily be the companies producing the most code, but those capable of redesigning their organisations around governance, reliability, and operational quality. “The winners will be companies that redesign their processes around this new reality — including governance, compliance, and enterprise reliability — not the companies writing the most code or simply ‘vibe coding,’” he said. Startups to watch:  AIstats  AIstats is a football analytics startup that uses AI, computer vision, and machine learning to analyse football matches from standard video footage. Its technology reconstructs games in 3D, tracks player and ball movement, and generates advanced tactical and performance insights without requiring stadium sensors or wearable devices.   The platform is designed to help clubs, scouts, and agents better understand player behaviour, team dynamics, decision-making, and tactical patterns through automated AI-driven analysis. The company also operates a consumer-facing football app that delivers live scores, predictive analytics, AI-generated match insights, and performance metrics across thousands of leagues worldwide.  Carein  Carein develops nutritional supplements designed to improve skin and hair health from the inside rather than relying only on topical skincare.  Founded in 2021, the company targets issues such as acne, hormonal acne, redness, pigmentation, ageing skin, and hormonal hair loss. Its products combine vitamins, minerals, probiotics, plant extracts, adaptogens, and other active ingredients to support skin regeneration, hormonal balance, and the gut-skin connection. It works with medical experts to formulate its products and markets itself as a science-led premium skincare wellness brand.  DefendEye DefendEye is a defencetech startup developing fully autonomous, AI-powered “search drones” designed for rapid intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.   Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Kraków, the company builds tube-launched drones that can deploy in under 10 seconds without requiring a pilot, joystick, or traditional drone training. Users simply launch the drone from a portable or fixed tube, and the onboard AI autonomously navigates, identifies humans, tracks movement, and streams encrypted live video back to a cloud command centre in real time. The drones are built to operate even in GPS-denied or jammed environments and include low-light and night-vision capabilities for use in difficult battlefield or emergency conditions. The startup is positioning itself within the growing “drone as first responder” and autonomous defence systems market, where rapid situational awareness is becoming increasingly important for both military and civil security operations. FormalFoundry.ai FormalFoundry.ai is an AI governance and verification startup developing mathematically traceable AI systems and compliance tooling. It builds a  verification layer for AI systems using formal methods and proof assistants, so companies can make AI outputs more reliable, auditable, and compliant.  This helps teams turn domain rules, regulations, and expert knowledge into machine-checkable logic to reduce hallucinations and errors. Graphcode Graftcode is a Polish software infrastructure startup tackling the large amount of time developers spend building and maintaining integrations between services, languages, and infrastructure layers.  According to Graftcode, engineering teams often lose 30–40 per cent of development time to API maintenance, DTO mapping, queues, versioning, and related backend complexity.  Its platform aims to remove that overhead by creating a unified communication layer between applications, enabling faster development, cleaner architectures, and easier scaling for distributed systems and AI-native software environments.   Instead of building separate services connected through traditional backend plumbing, developers can call methods across systems as if everything were in a single shared codebase.

Grand Games, a mobile gaming company focused on hybrid casual titles, has raised $70 million in a Series B funding round, bringing the company’s total funding to $103 million. The round was led by Balderton Capital through its Growth Fund, following the firm’s earlier Series A investment via its Early Stage Fund in January last year. Existing investors Bek Ventures and Laton Ventures also participated in the round, alongside mobile gaming entrepreneur Mert Gür as an angel investor. Founded in Istanbul by Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, Mehmet Çalım, and Mustafa Fırtına, Grand Games develops hybrid casual mobile games designed for short daily play sessions. The company focuses primarily on puzzle titles, combining accessible gameplay mechanics with a data-driven product development approach. With games such as Magic Sort! and Car Match reaching millions of downloads, Grand Games has rapidly emerged as one of Turkey’s fastest-growing startups. The company has recorded fivefold year-over-year revenue growth and raised three funding rounds within two years of its founding. Its valuation has also increased significantly since its previous round completed just over a year ago. We started Grand to build the kind of company we believed could unlock the full potential of great talent. Turkey has produced some of the strongest mobile gaming talent globally, and we wanted to create an environment where teams have real ownership over decisions, product direction, and outcomes, said Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, also known as Batu, CEO and co-founder of Grand Games. Grand attributes part of its growth to its organisational structure and approach to talent. Operating through five autonomous internal studios, the company gives teams significant ownership over decision-making and product direction, while the founding team provides strategic support across the business. The newly raised capital will primarily be used to expand the company’s marketing efforts, scale existing titles, and support upcoming game launches. Grand also plans to continue expanding its Istanbul-based team as it grows its international presence in mobile gaming.

European tech activity in April 2026 remained broadly stable compared to March, although overall funding volumes declined more noticeably. The ecosystem recorded 290 funding deals and €5.1 billion raised, compared to 292 deals and €7.5 billion in March, reflecting a marginal 0.7 per cent decrease in deal activity and a 32 per cent decline in total capital raised. At the country level, the UK maintained its position as the leading funding hub despite lower investment volumes. UK funding reached €1.9 billion in April, down from €2.6 billion in March, representing a 27 per cent decrease month-on-month. Sector trends also shifted during the month. Cleantech led in April with €1.3 billion raised, while AI dominated in March at €1.8 billion, indicating a rotation of investor focus between key technology sectors rather than a continuation of a single dominant theme. Exit activity softened further in April, declining from 52 exits in March to 35, a 33 per cent decrease, pointing to weaker liquidity conditions across the market. Alexander Kölpin, Managing Director & Partner at seed+speed Ventures, commented on the April numbers within the European tech investment landscape in our April Tech.eu Pulse, a compact version of the monthly report: The landscape of European tech in April 2026 paints a clear, if bifurcated, picture. The headline figures (a slight drop in total investment volume to €5.1 billion and fewer M&A exits) suggest a market tightening its belt. From my vantage point as an investor focused on B2B and enterprise solutions, this contraction is a necessary maturation. The era of unchecked growth at any cost is long over. What matters now most is: execution, market-fit, and a clear path to revenue. However, funding remains robust and even spectacular in critical, capital-intensive themes, most notably with big deals in Cleantech (Σ €1.3 billion in Sweden) and Artificial Intelligence (Σ €1.2 billion in the UK).If we abstract from those single, dominating deals, we see clear winners in the spaces we VCs talk about amongst our peers: semiconductors, robotics, HW, deep tech and obviously AI, AI, AI. For his more detailed review and more in-depth analyses of the European tech ecosystem, including industry and country performance, exit activities, and more, check out our April report. Here are the 10 largest tech deals in Europe from April, accounting for 62.7 per cent of the month’s total funding. Amount raised: €1.4B Stegra (formerly H2 Green Steel) is a Swedish industrial company focused on decarbonising hard-to-abate industries through the production of green hydrogen, green iron, and near-zero-emission steel. Founded in 2020, the company is developing one of the world’s first large-scale green steel plants in Boden, Sweden, using renewable electricity and hydrogen to significantly reduce CO₂ emissions compared to traditional steelmaking processes. Stegra secured €1.4 billion in additional funding from a consortium led by Sweden’s Wallenberg family to support the completion of its green steel plant project. Amount raised: $1.1B Ineffable Intelligence is a London-based artificial intelligence research company focused on developing “superlearner” AI systems that can acquire knowledge and skills through experience rather than relying solely on human-generated data. Founded by former DeepMind researcher David Silver, the company specialises in reinforcement learning and aims to advance AI capabilities across science, engineering, and other complex domains. Ineffable Intelligence has emerged from stealth mode and announced $1.1 billion in seed funding at a reported valuation of $5.1 billion. Amount raised: €340M AURA AERO is a French aerospace company developing low-carbon and hybrid-electric aircraft for regional transport and pilot training. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Toulouse, the company focuses on accelerating aviation decarbonization through innovative aircraft design, digital technologies, and sustainable manufacturing solutions. AURA AERO secured €340 million in funding to support its operations and expansion plans in Toulouse and Florida. Amount raised: €211M CamGraPhIC is a deeptech company developing graphene-integrated photonic circuits for telecommunications, data centres, and AI infrastructure. Founded as a spinout from the University of Cambridge, the company focuses on energy-efficient optical interconnect technologies designed to deliver higher bandwidth, lower latency, and reduced power consumption compared to conventional silicon photonics solutions. CamGraPhIC secured €211 million from the EU to build graphene tech for faster AI data transfer. Amount raised: $130M Xoople is an intelligence and data infrastructure company developing AI-ready geospatial data systems to monitor physical changes on Earth in real time. Founded in 2019, the company combines satellite technology, artificial intelligence, and cloud infrastructure to help enterprises and governments improve decision-making across areas such as supply chains, infrastructure monitoring, agriculture, and risk management. Xoople raised $130 million in a Series B funding round as it expands commercialisation efforts for its real-time geospatial data platform designed to support AI applications across industries. Amount raised: $117M Verda (formerly DataCrunch) is an AI cloud infrastructure company providing GPU-powered cloud computing services for artificial intelligence training and inference workloads. The company focuses on delivering scalable, energy-efficient, and sovereign AI infrastructure for enterprises, startups, and research organisations across Europe. Verda raised $117 million to scale AI cloud infrastructure built on clean Nordic power. Amount raised: $110M Sereact is an AI robotics company developing vision-language-action models that enable robots to autonomously perform complex physical tasks in logistics, warehousing, and manufacturing environments. Founded in 2021, the company focuses on hardware-agnostic embodied AI software that allows robots to perceive, reason, and adapt to real-world conditions with minimal programming or human intervention. Sereact closed a $110 million Series B funding round, with the proceeds intended to support development of its latest AI model and the company’s expansion into the US market. Amount raised: $72M Cloudsmith is a software infrastructure company that provides a cloud-native platform for managing, securing, and distributing software packages and containers across the software supply chain. Founded in 2016, the company helps enterprises centralise artefact management, improve software governance, and support secure software development workflows at a global scale. Cloudsmith raised $72 million in Series C to secure the AI-era software supply chain. Amount raised: £50M Raspberry Pi is a technology company that designs and manufactures low-cost, high-performance single-board computers, microcontrollers, and embedded computing products for education, industry, and consumer applications. Originally created to promote computer science education, Raspberry Pi’s platforms are now widely used in areas including industrial automation, IoT, robotics, and software development. Raspberry Pi raised £50 million in investment from a subsidiary of semiconductor company Arm Holdings. Amount raised: $60M MillTech is a fintech company providing FX and cash management solutions for investment managers, corporates, and institutional clients. Founded in 2019, the company offers a cloud-based platform that helps clients automate foreign exchange workflows, manage liquidity, reduce operational risk, and access institutional-grade treasury services. MillTech received a $60 million to support expansion in North America and further development of its treasury management platform.

Dutch nanophotonic imaging company eyeo has raised €40 million in a Series A funding round led by Innovation Industries, with participation from existing investors imec.xpand, Invest-NL, Qbic, High-Tech Gründerfonds and Brabant Development Agency. The funding brings the company’s total capital raised to €55 million. Founded to commercialise technology developed at imec, eyeo develops nanophotonic colour-splitting technology for image sensors used in smartphones, industrial systems, XR devices, smart cities, and autonomous applications. The company’s NCOS® platform replaces conventional colour filters, which block a large portion of incoming light, by splitting and directing light to individual pixels, improving light sensitivity, colour accuracy, and image resolution. Compatible with existing CMOS sensor platforms, the technology also enables ultra-compact sub-micron pixels for high-performance imaging applications. According to co-founder and CEO Jeroen Hoet, the funding will support eyeo’s transition from technology development to scaled commercial delivery: Every modern device that sees the world, from smartphones to autonomous systems, is held back by the same 50-year-old constraint. eyeo removes it at the source. Our technology is proven, patented and validated at a commercial foundry, with tier one customers already engaged. The operation also benefits from support from the European Union under the InvestEU Fund. eyeo plans to use the funding to expand its in-house engineering capabilities, strengthen partnerships with OEM customers, and accelerate the commercial deployment of its imaging technology. The company will also invest in next-generation 3D-stacked CMOS image sensors and grow its IC and system architecture teams.

Last week, we tracked more than 65 tech funding deals worth over €1.4 billion, and over 5 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.Click to read the rest of the news.

Manchester-based Keel has emerged from stealth after reaching profitability and establishing a growing client base for its Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform across multiple fintech markets. Originally founded in 2019 as consumer neobank Frost, the company combined digital banking services with energy-switching tools and grew its user base to more than 18,000 customers. Following changes in market conditions, the business later shifted its focus toward fintech infrastructure, building on the technology developed through Frost. Over the past two years, Keel has focused on developing its BaaS platform, securing regulatory approval for its new operating model and redesigning its APIs for external use. Its clients include venture-backed fintech companies, regulated financial businesses, and international platforms. Keel’s platform provides multi-currency accounts, virtual accounts, Visa card issuing capabilities across debit, prepaid, and credit products, open banking services, and access to domestic and international payment rails, including Faster Payments, BACS, CHAPS, SEPA, SWIFT, ACH, and Fedwire. Delivered through a single API, the platform also includes integrated compliance tools such as KYC, AML, fraud detection, and transaction monitoring. The company is positioning itself around a more integrated infrastructure model aimed at reducing operational complexity for fintechs seeking to launch and scale financial products. According to co-founder and CEO Paweł Ołtuszyk, Keel prioritised achieving product-market fit and sustainable revenue growth before publicly launching the business. Having previously operated its own fintech product before transitioning into infrastructure services, Keel is positioning itself as a long-term infrastructure partner for fintech companies building financial products at scale.

German-based deeptech startup NanoStruct has raised   €2.6 million Seed funding.  Founded by Dr Henriette Maaß, Enno Schatz, and Kai Leibfried, the company develops nanostructured sensor chips for the rapid identification of dangerous pathogens in food.  Detecting dangerous bacteria in food currently takes several days, far too long to ensure that harmful pathogens don't reach consumers. At the same time, regulatory requirements are increasing to enhance consumer protection.  As a result, demand for faster, automated analysis among food manufacturers and testing laboratories is high.  NanoStruct has developed a process that reduces detection to just a few hours by combining optical measurement technology with nanotechnology, biotechnology, and machine learning. For the food market, this represents a complete rethinking of microbial analysis.  Results can be obtained on the same day, recalls are avoided, food waste is reduced, and food safety is significantly improved. NanoStruct's technology also has the potential to accelerate and simplify processes in additional fields such as veterinary and human diagnostics, as well as bacterial monitoring in sensitive production environments. The round is led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Bayern Kapital, and the AUXXO Female Catalyst Fund. The funding builds on previous grants from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) and the European Union. Dr Henriette Maaß, CEO of NanoStruct, shared: "With HTGF, Bayern Kapital, and AUXXO, we have found exactly the partners we need for this next step: experienced, well-networked, and convinced of our vision. Now we are bringing rapid bacterial analytics to the food industry."  According to Dr Stephan Ruck, Investment Analyst at HTGF:   "The technological breakthrough NanoStruct has achieved in sensor development is remarkable. In addition to the platform technology, we were convinced by the company's strong network in the target market and, above all, by the team." 

This week, we tracked more than 65 tech funding deals worth over €1.4 billion and over 5 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. This week, we tracked more than 65 tech funding deals worth over €1.4 billion and over 5 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe. We also released our monthly report for April (paid subscriber and free versions)  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 ??  ElevenLabs adds BlackRock, Nvidia and Jamie Foxx to $550M+ Series D ??  QuantWare secures €152M for large-scale quantum systems ??  Quantum outfit Quantum Motion run on silicon chips raises $160M ??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers ?? Quantum Machines acquires QHarbor and opens Delft office to deepen European quantum footprint ?? Getaround Europe and GoMore merge to create Europe’s largest peer-to-peer carsharing network ??  Netradyne acquires Moove Connected Mobility to scale AI-powered fleet intelligence across Europe ? Interesting moves from investors ⚛️  Renaissance Philanthropy reshapes science funding with a new model for innovation ?  British Business Bank commits £1m to tackling gender funding gap ?️ In other (important) news ?? Europe’s first drone procurement hub targets faster defence deployment ?? European Tech.eu Pulse: key trends and investment in April (free report) ?? German AI translation startup DeepL to axe 250 staff ??  Elastics secures $2M pre-seed to build AI agents for prediction markets ??  Mobility Signage secures €1.8M to unify public transport IT ??  Maurice & Nora raises €1M to address rising care demand ??  ENVIOTECH raises €1M pre-seed for smart street lighting ?? Detecht lands €395,000 to grow global motorcycle platform

Stockholm-based defence-focused investment company Front Ventures has raised €5 million through an oversubscribed rights issue of B-shares, with the raise subscribed to 278 per cent. The company backs early-stage defence technology companies developing operationally relevant systems in Ukraine and Sweden. The round included participation from all major shareholders, including CEO Jonas Malmgren and board member and former CEO Johan Lund, alongside new investor Roglar Holding, which brings production and industrial expertise. APREA Partners AB acted as financial advisor, Advokatfirman Lindahl KB as legal advisor, and Aqurat Fondkommission AB served as lead manager for the rights issue. Front Ventures invests across software, drone systems, communications, and critical defence supply chains, with a particular focus on companies that have already developed working prototypes and are ready to scale. The company aims to bridge the gap between battlefield-tested Ukrainian innovation and access to European and NATO industrial partnerships. Its portfolio includes: SkyHunter - which develops target allocation solutions for drone interceptors, Aeromotors - a Ukrainian manufacturer of drone propulsion systems supplying NATO-aligned markets, and Kyiv-based Black Forest Systems - developer of the SHADOX infantry drone system. Front Ventures is also an approved investor in Brave1, the Ukrainian government’s defence tech platform connecting innovators with investors and the military. Jonas Malmgren, CEO of Front Ventures, said: We’re seeing a generation of defence companies that have effectively skipped the lab phase because their products have already been tested in operational environments. The challenge is no longer innovation itself, but scaling and industrialising these technologies quickly enough. This raise is intended to help accelerate that process. Founded in 2012, Front Ventures previously invested in fintech, enterprise software, and blockchain companies before shifting its strategic focus toward defence technology. Investment sizes from the current raise are expected to range between €200,000 and €2.5 million per company. With the new funding in place, Front Ventures plans to expand its defence technology portfolio across Ukraine and Sweden, focusing on companies developing technologies in areas such as drones, communications, software, and critical supply chains.

Dutch B2B automotive remarketing software platform CarCollect has received funding from Main Capital Partners. Founded in 2012, CarCollect offers an integrated remarketing SaaS platform that combines its Trade, Transport, and Stock management offerings into a mission-critical solution covering vehicle intake, pricing, sales execution, transport coordination, settlement, and stock management.  CarCollect’s platform digitises the  end-to-end used-vehicle remarketing workflow for branded dealers, leasing companies,  universal dealers, and fleet and rent companies. Built on a modern, cloud-native multi-tenant  SaaS architecture, the platform supports 15 languages, 10 currencies, and is used by 14,000+  automotive companies.  The company serves approximately 750 companies, including branded dealers, leasing companies, universal  dealers, and fleet and rent companies across 10 countries in Europe.   According to Lev van der Eng, CCO of CarCollect: “With this step, we further strengthen  CarCollect’s position as a connecting force within the European automotive market and accelerate our mission to help businesses operate smarter, faster, and more efficiently.  For our  customers, this means access to deeper insights and more powerful tools, enabling faster  decision making, demonstrably higher returns and accelerated growth.”  Jeffrey Sanya, Investment Director at Main, stated:   “We are very excited to support  CarCollect in the execution of its growth strategy and help the business grow into the  European market leader in remarketing solutions for the automotive market. We know the  automotive software market well through several other active partnerships and are confident  in the CarCollect team’s ability to be a differentiator in this space through continued  investments in product innovation and accelerated international go-to-market development.” The company plans to launch a series of new products and features, including CarCollect’s stock management solution, alongside further international expansion through both existing and new cross-border customer relationships, complemented by a selective acquisition strategy.

European startups raised €5.1B across 290 deals in April 2026, with cleantech leading investment activity and the UK remaining the top fundraiser, despite a drop in overall capital.Click to read the rest of the news.

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Europe’s battery ambitions took a major hit with the collapse of Northvolt, once seen as the continent’s best chance to rival Chinese competitors and build a homegrown supply chain.  But since then, we’ve seen a more modular, ecosystem-driven approach with scaleups rebuilding momentum across the battery value chain, by tackling a specific bottleneck rather than trying to do everything at once. These are some of the key themes defining the space, along with companies to keep on your radar:  Battery recycling and circular economy The need to recycle batteries is quickly becoming one of the most urgent challenges in the energy transition. As electric vehicles, grid storage, and consumer electronics scale, so does the volume of lithium-ion batteries reaching end of life. Without robust recycling, this creates a growing waste stream and an escalating demand for raw materials that are already difficult to mine, expensive, carbon-intensive, and geopolitically sensitive. Cylib (Germany)   Cylib deeptech scale-up on a mission to revolutionise battery recycling and secure a circular future for Europe.  Born out of years of research at RWTH Aachen University, cylib has developed a holistic, water-based technology to recover all elements within lithium-ion batteries. The core challenge of Europe’s energy transition is its heavy dependence on imported critical materials. cylib’s technology addresses this by transforming end-of-life batteries – from electric vehicles, power tools, and energy storage systems – back into high-quality production materials. What makes their technology a game-changer is its holistic, water-based process, which achieves over 90 per cent recovery efficiency with 80 per cent lower emissions than traditional mining. Unlike many existing solutions, cylib can handle both NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) and LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery chemistries at an industrial scale. The company has raised over €156 million. tozero (Germany) tozero focuses on recycling lithium-ion batteries by processing used or waste batteries to extract valuable raw materials, including lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, and manganese. In March, the company launched an industrial-scale battery recycling plant at the Chemical Park Gendorf in Bavaria, capable of processing more than 1,500 tonnes of battery waste annually and recovering critical materials such as lithium, graphite, and nickel-cobalt mixtures.  Check out our earlier interview with Sarah Fleischer, co-founder and CEO of tozero. What sets the company apart is its chemical (hydrometallurgical) recycling process, which allows it to recover a large share of these materials — often around 80 per cent or more — in a form pure enough to go straight back into industrial production.  The company has raised over €17 million R3 Robotics (Luxembourg) R3 Robotics  (formerly CircuLi-ion) is focused on automating the safe, scalable dismantling of end-of-life electric vehicles and their high-voltage components. When electric cars reach their end of life, taking them apart is still mostly manual, slow, expensive, and dangerous (especially due to high-voltage battery systems).  R3 Robotics' tech combines computer vision, AI, and specialised robotic tooling to automate the disassembly of lithium-ion battery packs, e-motors, power electronics, and other high-value electrified components. The system minimises human exposure to high-voltage hazards and delivers the cost structure and reliability required for industrial-scale operations.  The company has raised €28.5 million. For a batterytech deep dive, check out the EIC Scaling Club’s Market Roadmap: Batteries and Energy Storage. Battery R&D and manufacturing Europe’s battery maker scaleups are not only building batteries with more sustainable materials, but also focus on manufacturing locally, thus reducing Europe’s reliance on imported batteries and strengthening the region’s energy and EV supply chain. ElevenEs (Serbia) ElevenEs is the first company in Europe to develop a lithium-ion giga factory based on LFP blade-type cells.  LFP (Lithium iron phosphate) is a type of chemistry within lithium-ion batteries. While it’s a mature technology in China, Europe has been focused on more traditional options such as Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) batteries.  By producing LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cells locally, ElevenEs offers a safer, lower-cost alternative that avoids scarce materials like cobalt and nickel while still meeting the needs of EVs and grid storage. Skeleton Technologies (Estonia) Skeleton Technologies develops high-power energy storage systems, primarily supercapacitors and hybrid SuperBattery technology, designed to deliver and absorb energy almost instantly.  Unlike traditional battery companies that focus on storing large amounts of energy, Skeleton is focused on power — how quickly energy can be released, captured, or stabilised. Its technology acts as a buffer within electrical systems, handling rapid spikes and drops in power that batteries alone cannot efficiently manage. The company’s systems are used across electric transport, energy grids, industrial machinery, and increasingly AI data centres.  In November 2025, Skeleton opened a €220M Leipzig SuperFactory to power Europe’s AI and grid stability Check out our interview with Skeleton Technologies  CEO Taavi Madiberk.  The company has raised €313.3 million. Battery energy storage  Battery energy storage (BESS) is a way to store electricity in batteries so it can be used later, rather than immediately when it’s generated. Batteries are uniquely valuable because they can both store and release electricity instantly, and they are becoming a key part of grid stability.  Sympower (The Netherlands) Sympower is an energy tech company that helps businesses use their electricity in a smarter way. It connects to assets like factories, batteries, or heating and cooling, and uses AI-embedded software to automatically decide when to charge or discharge them based on grid conditions.   By aggregating many batteries and flexible energy systems into a “virtual power plant,” Sympower can sell this flexibility into energy markets, helping stabilise the grid while generating revenue for its customers. When you look at Sympower through a battery lens, the company’s role becomes even clearer: it turns batteries into active, revenue-generating assets for the grid, rather than passive storage. Sympower connects to industrial batteries (and increasingly grid-scale storage systems) and uses its software to control when they charge or discharge based on grid needs. The company has raised $76.8 million. Check out our earlier interview with  Nikolas Samios, Managing Director, PT1, to understand how battery storage has become a rapidly evolving asset class. Battery intelligence Battery intelligence is emerging as a critical software layer in the energy stack, turning raw battery data into predictive insights that improve performance, safety, and asset value.  By analysing patterns in battery charging, discharging, and degradation, these systems enable operators to anticipate failures, optimise usage, and reduce downtime—an increasingly important capability as electric vehicles, grid storage, and industrial electrification scale. ACCURE battery intelligence (Germany)  ACCURE Battery Intelligence builds AI-powered software to monitor, analyse, and optimise battery systems. Its platform operates as a data and intelligence layer. It collects the huge volumes of data generated by battery management systems (BMS)— such as  voltage, temperature, and charge levels—and uses AI and physics-based models to turn that into actionable insights.  This allows operators to detect faults early, improve performance, and extend battery lifetime. This also helps prevent thermal runaway (battery fires), degradation, and inefficiencies by identifying problems before they become critical and recommending corrective actions.  With ACCURE, utilities, energy storage operators, and EV fleet managers can reduce risk, maximise uptime, and increase the economic value of battery assets. The company has raised $34.5 million. Companies mentioned in this article are members of the EIC Scaling Club, a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth. The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.

DeepL, the German AI translation startup, is cutting around 250 jobs, about a quarter of its headcount, saying it was moving to smaller teams so it is able to compete amid rapid AI advancements, its CEO said today. Posting on LinkedIn, Jarek Kutylowksi, CEO and founder, said the cuts at DeepL, which employs over 1,000 people globally, were a “deliberate structural choice about how DeepL needs to operate to remain a global AI leader”. He added: "The pace of AI has accelerated far beyond what was possible even just a year ago, changing what it means to operate effectively - including for a company like ours. "We are currently living through a massive structural shift in what work exists, who does it, and how many people it takes to do it well, and that shift is because of AI.” The Cologne-based AI translation startup, founded in 2017 and last valued at $2bn in 2024, is known for its AI text translation and writing tools. Kutylowksi said he and his management team had been reviewing how DeepL could best operate as a global AI firm amid fast improvements in AI. He added: "In practice, this means transforming how DeepL works from the inside out, with AI embedded into every layer of how we operate. "We are moving to smaller high-agency teams where AI handles the routine, so people can focus on what only humans can bring, like using our intuition, coming up with new creative ideas and seeing projects through from start to finish.  "AI systems will allow us to put more energy into the work that actually matters and move at a speed we haven’t seen before, leaving behind recurring roadblocks and day-to-day inefficiencies." The CEO did not say which specific areas of the business would be impacted by the cuts.

Cultivated meat pioneer Meatly, Europe’s first company to sell cultivated meat, has today announced that it has raised £10.4 million in Series A funding.  Since launching in 2022, Meatly has solved the key technical cost challenges facing the cultivated meat industry, accelerating the path to scalable, affordable production.  In 2024, Meatly announced it had reduced the cost of its chemically defined protein-free medium to an industry-leading £0.22/l, and in 2025, announced it had reduced the cost of bioreactors by ~10x. Following its regulatory authorisation in 2024, Meatly sold the world’s first cultivated pet food in 2025. Check out our earlier interview with Owen Ensor, founder and CEO of Meatly. This new funding will enable Meatly to build a 20,000-litre bioreactor facility in London, which is the largest of its kind in Europe. Fit-out of the facility will begin immediately, with product releases expected to follow in 2027.Investors in the round include Oyster Bay Venture Capital, Clean Growth Fund, and JamJar Investments.   This latest raise builds on the £7 million in seed funding provided by founding investor, Agronomics, and Pets at Home, bringing total funding raised to date to £17.4 million.   Owen Ensor, CEO, Meatly, sees the investment as a powerful endorsement, not just of Meatly, but of Britain's foodtech and biotech sectors.  “Meatly has one focus: to make commercially viable cultivated meat a reality. Over the last four years, Meatly’s pioneering team has systematically focused on reducing key costs and building the strongest possible technical foundation for growth. Now we have our own industry-leading technology, and we are ready to scale." Connor Duffy, Investment Manager at Clean Growth Fund, said:  "Rethinking how we produce protein is an essential part of tackling the climate crisis. We’ve invested in Meatly because they are showing it’s possible to produce real meat cost-competitively and with a fraction of the environmental impact.”   Elise Schumacher, Investor at Oyster Bay Venture Capital, said: “Meatly is not just building a new product - it’s laying the foundations for an entirely new protein category.      

As enterprises rapidly adopt agentic AI systems capable of autonomously executing tasks, interacting with tools, and making decisions across workflows, concerns around security, hallucinations, governance, and operational control are becoming a major barrier to deployment. French company Giskard is launching Giskard Guards, Europe's first independent sovereign guardrail platform for enterprise AI agents. I spoke to co-CEO and co-founder Jean-Marie John-Mathews to learn more. Enterprise AI agents face a growing range of risks, from hallucinations and unreliable outputs to security vulnerabilities, unsafe behaviour, regulatory compliance issues, and failures in how agents interact with tools, sensitive data, and real-world operational systems. Why AI agents remain vulnerable to manipulation So why does all of this occur? Well, simply put, AI agents are built on LLMs, and those models undergo training and reinforcement learning to make them helpful. In other words, training creates compliance, compliance creates vulnerability. “The challenge is that the model wants to remain helpful even when the request is malicious. That creates a major trade-off in how the systems are trained and fine-tuned,” explained John-Mathews. Further, many existing AI guardrails are ill-suited to the rise of chatbots and AI agents, as they were originally designed for social media moderation. “Traditional guardrails were mostly built for content moderation on social networks,” shared John-Mathews.  “With chatbots and AI agents, you’re not just moderating text — you also need to understand the actions the AI is performing.” A seemingly harmless request could trigger sensitive backend actions.  “A user might say, ‘Please delete the Q2 budget draft,’ but what matters is the underlying function call,” he shared. “Maybe the user doesn’t have admin privileges. Traditional moderation systems can’t handle that level of operational context.” Why conventional solutions fail  According to John-Mathews, there are currently two primary solutions to reduce these risks. You can do it offline—meaning large scans where you try to find many vulnerabilities in your agent. Or you can do it online, meaning guardrails that block unsafe responses. But existing generic LLM guardrails weren’t built for agents. They lack operational and company-specific context, and they can generate large numbers of false positives, even blocking up to 40 per cent of legitimate requests. Take a banking example. A user writes: “Fraud claim — what should I do?” A generic guardrail might block that because it sees the word “fraud”. But in context, it’s perfectly legitimate. The user may simply be asking what to do if their card has been compromised. “Without understanding context, you can’t moderate correctly,” explained John-Mathews. Further, traditional solutions are often designed around toy benchmarks (like blocking the forgetting of previous instructions) and fail to account for real-world attacks such as multi-step social engineering, context manipulation, or toolchain exploitation. The most common attacks aren't always the most dramatic. Often, says John-Mathews, they begin with someone simply trying to make an agent step outside its intended role — and succeeding. “There are things that are really dangerous, and things that are more reputational.” He offered the example, exposed by Som_patel5 on X, in which the poster opened the Chipotle restaurant chatbot to order food and explained that he needed help with a task: specifically, writing a Python script to reverse a linked list. In doing so, a supposedly limited-purpose enterprise AI assistant still exposed the broader capabilities of its underlying large language model, suggesting weak containment and inadequate guardrails.  While this not only leads to reputational damage, it also suggests that users may be able to steer the system outside its intended scope through prompt manipulation.  This could create opportunities for risks such as prompt injection attacks, extraction of hidden system instructions, misuse of connected tools or APIs, and potential access to sensitive backend workflows.  In another incident, the Chevrolet dealership chatbot became a viral example of how poorly constrained AI systems can be manipulated through prompt injection. Users discovered that the ChatGPT-powered bot could be tricked into ignoring its intended role as a car sales assistant and instead follow arbitrary instructions, including agreeing to sell a $76,000 Chevy Tahoe for $1. From AI testing to real-time agent protection Giskard’s Guards blocks unsafe answers and behaviours. Guards inspect the full agent execution chain (tool calls, parameter validation, multi-step reasoning) and adapts to each agent's business domain.  To achieve this, Giskard builds multiple detectors. Some are extremely fast, almost instant. Others are more contextual and deeper. Each detector maps to a specific action. If the system detects unsafe behaviour, it can block the response, notify developers, or simply monitor and log the interaction. Even before today’s launch, the company's platform for testing enterprise AI agents was used by Mistral, Google DeepMind, BNP Paribas, AXA, Doctolib, among others. The tech is suitable for deployment for sensitive agentic workflows in regulated sectors like banking and insurance. According to John-Mathews: “Customers kept pushing us past detection. They asked for runtime AI agent protection adapted to their context. Guards closes the loop: detect, then protect and fix vulnerabilities and hallucinations in real time.” The company also works extensively with healthcare organisations, where AI chatbot failures can quickly become high-risk. “Their chatbots can sometimes diagnose issues if users provide symptoms,” explained John-Mathews. “And depending on how the question is framed, the responses can become dangerous.” Further, conversational AI systems may reinforce harmful beliefs. For example, if a user expresses scepticism about antibiotics, the chatbot can become demagogic and suggest avoiding them. The same thing can happen with vaccines. The problem can also extend to manufacturing environments. “Imagine someone asking about electrical voltage requirements for a washing machine,” shared John-Mathews.   “If the chatbot gives the wrong answer, that could be a disaster.” From policy documents to enforceable code John-Mathews contends that traditional AI governance processes are struggling to keep pace with the rapid deployment cycles of enterprise AI agents.  While compliance teams still rely on manual risk assessments, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and annual audit cycles, AI teams are deploying and updating agents weekly — creating what the company describes as a dangerous governance gap that can lead to incidents.  Giskard's response is what John-Mathews calls "policy-as-code" — the idea that governance rules shouldn't live in documents at all, but should be embedded directly into the AI system as machine-enforceable logic. This approach replaces static documentation with machine-enforceable policies, automated compliance checks, Git-based version control, and rapid rollback capabilities, alongside prebuilt policy packs aligned with frameworks such as the EU AI Act and OWASP. “Whether the rules come from regulators or from internal company guidelines, we make them enforceable through the AI system itself. The system can be hosted directly by the company on European infrastructure and used to enforce safe behaviour.” Europe's sovereign AI stack is moving from policy to product The company also sees the rise of agentic AI as part of a wider push toward sovereign European AI infrastructure. A critical component of Giskard Guards is its position as a genuinely sovereign European AI security stack.  While “EU sovereign AI” has often remained largely political rhetoric, Giskard is attempting to deliver a concrete security-layer product: an independent European provider with its own technology, optimised models, and fully on-premise deployment capabilities. John-Mathews asserts:  “We want to turn European AI governance into actual products and enforceable systems — not just abstract policies.” For regulated sectors such as banking, insurance, and healthcare, sovereignty, data control, and deployability are no longer theoretical concerns, but operational requirements.”

In 2025, Europe’s healthtech ecosystem showed strong funding momentum, with capital concentrated in large rounds across biotech, medtech, digital health, and AI-enabled healthcare. The biggest deals came from companies such as Oura Health, Isomorphic Labs, Verdiva Bio, Tubulis, and Neko Health, highlighting investor interest in both consumer health platforms and advanced life sciences. By country, the UK stood out as the most active market, with major rounds across AI drug discovery, biotech, surgical robotics, digital care, and diagnostics. Switzerland also showed strong depth, particularly in biotech and medtech, while Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, and the Nordics remained important contributors. By round type, the market was led by a mix of large growth rounds and strong Series A and Series B activity. Series A deals showed continued appetite for early clinical and platform development, while Series B and later rounds reflected investor support for companies moving toward commercialisation, clinical expansion, or international growth. Overall, 2025 pointed to a maturing European healthtech market, where capital flowed to companies with clear clinical, technological, or commercial validation, while early-stage innovation remained active across a broad range of European hubs (for more detailed analyses of the European technology ecosystem, check out Tech.eu’s annual report: European Tech 2025 - The Big Picture). Here are ten healthtech companies that raised the most in 2025. Amount raised in 2025: $900M Oura Health is a Finnish company that develops the Oura Ring, a smart wearable that continuously tracks sleep, activity, heart rate, and other biometric data. Through its mobile app, it delivers personalised insights to support users’ health and wellbeing. In 2025, the company raised more than $900 million in a funding round that valued it at around $11 billion. The capital is intended to enhance AI capabilities, drive product development, expand global reach, and introduce new health features. Amount raised in 2025: $600M Isomorphic Labs is a London-based artificial intelligence company focused on transforming drug discovery through advanced machine learning. A spin-out of DeepMind, it builds AI models based on technologies such as AlphaFold to predict biological structures and design new medicines more quickly and efficiently, with the aim of accelerating breakthroughs in human health. In 2025, Isomorphic Labs raised $600 million in its first external funding round, led by Thrive Capital with participation from Alphabet and Google Ventures, highlighting continued backing from its parent ecosystem. Amount raised in 2025: $411M Verdiva Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation therapies for obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. Its pipeline includes oral and injectable treatments designed to improve efficacy, convenience, and long-term outcomes, with a focus on patient-friendly options such as once-weekly dosing. The company leverages advances in gut-brain biology to create innovative medicines aimed at addressing significant unmet medical needs in global health. In 2025, Verdiva Bio launched with $411 million raised in a Series A for advanced obesity therapies. Amount raised in 2025: €308M Tubulis is a biotechnology company developing next-generation antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for cancer treatment. Its proprietary platform technologies enable the creation of highly stable, targeted therapies designed to deliver anti-cancer agents directly to tumours, improving efficacy while reducing side effects. The company is advancing a pipeline of ADC candidates for solid and hematologic tumours, with a focus on expanding the therapeutic potential of precision oncology and addressing areas of high unmet medical need. Tubulis raised €308 million in a Series C funding round in 2025 to advance the clinical development of its lead cancer therapy TUB-040, including expanding into earlier treatment lines and additional indications. Amount raised in 2025: $260M Neko Health is a healthtech company focused on preventive healthcare and early disease detection. It develops advanced scanning systems that combine sensors, imaging, and AI to collect and analyse large amounts of health data in a non-invasive way. Through its health centres, the company provides comprehensive body scans and immediate, doctor-led consultations, aiming to shift healthcare from reactive treatment to proactive prevention. In 2025, Neko Health raised $260 million in a Series B for preventative health scanning tech. Amount raised in 2025: €200M Ortivity is a Munich-based healthtech company building an integrated network of outpatient orthopaedic practices and surgical centres across Germany. Founded by physicians, it connects clinics, physiotherapy centres, and medical providers into a unified platform delivering diagnostics, treatment, surgery, and aftercare. Its model focuses on improving access, efficiency, and quality of care through a physician-led approach and the use of digital solutions, aiming to modernise orthopaedic services and shift care from inpatient to outpatient settings. Ortivity secured €200 million in 2025 to expand outpatient orthopaedic care. Amount raised in 2025: $200M CMR Surgical is a medical device company developing robotic systems for minimally invasive surgery. Its flagship product, the Versius surgical robot, is designed to assist surgeons in performing precise procedures while improving access to keyhole surgery. The company focuses on enhancing surgical outcomes, reducing recovery times, and making advanced robotic-assisted surgery more accessible across healthcare systems. In 2025, CMR Surgical raised over $200 million to expand global deployment of its Versius system, including entry into the US market, and to advance product development and innovation. Amount raised in 2025: €132M Azafaros is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing disease-modifying therapies for rare genetic and metabolic disorders. Founded in 2018, the company focuses on small-molecule treatments targeting lysosomal storage diseases. Its lead candidate, nizubaglustat, is an orally available therapy designed to address underlying disease mechanisms, with the aim of delivering new treatment options for patients with limited or no existing therapies. In 2025, Azafaros completed an oversubscribed €132 million Series B funding round. Amount raised in 2025: $150M Cera is a London-based healthtech company providing digital-first home healthcare services. It combines a network of carers and nurses with AI-driven technology to deliver care, monitoring, and support in patients’ homes, aiming to improve outcomes, reduce hospitalisations, and shift healthcare from hospitals to community settings. In 2025, Cera raised a $150 million funding round to expand its AI platform, increase service diversity, and support operational growth. Amount raised in 2025: $150M Distalmotion is a medtech company developing robotic systems for minimally invasive surgery. Founded as a spin-off from EPFL, it created the DEXTER surgical robot, designed to simplify operations and integrate into existing hospital workflows. The company aims to expand access to robotic surgery by reducing complexity and enabling more surgeons and healthcare facilities to adopt advanced, precise surgical techniques across a range of procedures. Distalmotion raised $150 million in a 2025 Series G round to expand deployment of its DEXTER surgical robot in the US.

A UK university spinout, which builds full-stack quantum computers made with the same silicon chip technology used in laptops and smartphones, has raised $160m in an investment round, it said today. The Series C funding round in Quantum Motion was co-led by US VC DCVC and Spanish deeptech investor Kembara with participation from British Business Bank and Firgun. Also investing were Oxford Science Enterprises, Inkef and Bosch Ventures. Quantum Motion, which has raised over $200m to date, said it’s now the UK’s best-funded quantum computing company. The startup says that using silicon chips means it can build quantum computers more cheaply and more energy-efficiently than rivals. Leveraging silicon could mean a 100-fold reduction in cost and space requirements and a 1,000-fold reduction in energy consumption, the 2017-founded startup said. A full-stack quantum computer includes all layers required to perform quantum computing, including a Quantum Processing Unit (QPU), a user interface, and a control stack compatible with standard quantum computing software.  The funds will be used to commercialise its offering, as well as further R&D and geographical expansion, it said. The startup was founded by professor John Morton, based at the London Centre for Nanotechnology at UCL, and professor Simon Benjamin of Oxford University. The London-headquartered company also has offices and labs in Spain, Australia and the US. Doctor James Palles-Dimmock, CEO of Quantum Motion, said: “Today’s announcement reflects the strength of the team we have built and the progress they have delivered. Quantum computing will only achieve its full potential if it can be built on a platform that scales, and we believe silicon is the strongest route to achieving that."

Invest Europe, the association representing Europe’s private equity, venture capital and infrastructure sectors, has released Investing in Europe: Private Equity Activity 2025, its annual report examining performance across the region. The report provides a comprehensive breakdown of activity across segments, stages, sectors and geographies. It also introduces new data on continuation funds and investment in strategic areas such as defence and deep tech, supported by strong momentum in biotech and life sciences. According to the report, fundraising remained concentrated among fewer, larger funds, with pension funds and international investors playing an increasingly prominent role. Buyouts continued to drive activity, while venture investment showed signs of recovery, exceeding its longer-term average. Across segments, ICT remained the leading sector, alongside continued momentum in biotech and life sciences. The report’s findings highlight a resilient private capital market, with both fundraising and investment reaching their second-highest levels on record. Private equity and venture capital firms raised €147 billion in 2025, a 16 per cent increase on 2024 levels and second only to 2022’s record. Buyout funds were the primary driver, accounting for €103 billion, a 33 per cent increase, reflecting renewed demand from global investors despite ongoing geopolitical and economic uncertainty. Source: Investing in Europe: Private Equity Activity 2025 Total investment rose 3 per cent to €135 billion, marking the second-strongest year after 2021. Buyout investment reached €90 billion, broadly in line with 2024 and 16 per cent above the five-year average. The mid-market segment accounted for 34 per cent of total buyout value, reflecting continued capital allocation to SMEs and scaling businesses. Venture capital investment increased to €20 billion, 20 per cent above the five-year average. Source: Investing in Europe: Private Equity Activity 2025 The report also finds that activity accelerated in the second half of the year as markets stabilised following earlier uncertainty, with investors refocusing on long-term fundamentals. Exit value remained solid at €45 billion in 2025, supporting distributions to limited partners. Commenting on the findings, Eric de Montgolfier, CEO of Invest Europe, said: Private equity and venture capital activity showed great strength in 2025 against a backdrop of geopolitical and macro uncertainty. Europe provides a predictable and stable environment for global LPs to deploy their money, as well as being full of dynamic and high-potential businesses for skilled managers to back and grow. Overall, the report provides a detailed breakdown of activity across sectors, stages and geographies, and for the first time includes data on continuation funds and strategic investment areas such as defence and deep tech.