Articles written by
Stéphane Paillard

Security operations centres are in crisis. Analysts at large enterprises and managed security providers routinely face hundreds of alerts per day, with the majority requiring manual investigation before a verdict can be reached. The result is alert fatigue, missed threats, and an industry-wide skills shortage that shows no sign of easing. Agentic AI — systems capable of autonomous, multi-step reasoning rather than simple pattern matching — is increasingly seen as the structural answer to this problem. Paris-based Qevlar AI has just secured €25.8 million to prove that thesis at scale. The Series A round, announced on 10 March 2026, was co-led by Partech and Forgepoint Capital International, with continued participation from EQT Ventures & Growth. The raise brings Qevlar AI’s total funding to approximately $44 million (€40.5 million), following a $14 million seed round led by EQT Ventures and Forgepoint Capital closed in 2024. The new capital will be deployed to expand the platform across enterprise and managed security service provider (MSSP) markets globally. From Alert Fatigue to Autonomous Investigation Qevlar AI’s platform sits inside the SOC workflow and takes over the investigation phase entirely. When an alert enters the system, the platform autonomously queries the customer’s security stack — pulling telemetry, enriching evidence, correlating context across data sources — and delivers a clear verdict: benign or malicious. Unlike traditional SOAR platforms that rely on predefined playbooks, Qevlar AI reasons dynamically across each alert without human-defined rules. The practical impact is measurable. Enterprises and MSSPs using the platform report a tenfold reduction in investigation time, bringing average case resolution down to three minutes. Notable clients include Mercedes-Benz and Sodexo, pointing to traction at the upper end of the enterprise market. According to the company, the goal is not merely to accelerate alert triage, but to transform the accumulated intelligence from individual investigations into organisation-level security insights — building a feedback loop that progressively strengthens the customer’s overall security posture. Investors Backing Europe’s Autonomous Security Leader The composition of the cap table reflects genuine conviction in the space. Partech, one of Europe’s most active venture firms with a consistent focus on enterprise software and deep tech, takes a lead position alongside Forgepoint Capital International, a specialist cybersecurity fund with a broad portfolio of security infrastructure investments. The continued participation of EQT Ventures & Growth — which backed the seed round — signals confidence in the company’s trajectory since that earlier bet. Forgepoint Capital International’s deep domain expertise in security is a particularly notable endorsement. The firm has invested across a range of enterprise security platforms covering detection, identity, and operations, and its support of Qevlar AI from seed through Series A suggests conviction that the autonomous SOC model is one of the defining platform opportunities in cybersecurity this decade. The Founders Qevlar AI was founded in January 2023 by Ahmed Achchak and Hamza Sayah, both of whom came to cybersecurity via machine learning rather than the traditional security engineering route. Achchak, who serves as CEO, trained in mathematics and biotechnology at École Centrale Paris before spending three years as a senior machine learning engineer at Natixis, the French investment bank. He subsequently served as CTO of Minautor, a European auto parts reseller, where he led technical infrastructure from scratch and helped grow revenue sixfold. Sayah, the CTO, earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in mathematics at EPFL in Lausanne, undertook research work at an ETH Zurich spin-off, and was head of research at Ponicode — a software testing startup acquired by CircleCI — before co-founding Qevlar AI. The pair’s background in applied mathematics and production ML engineering positions them credibly against a class of SOC vendors that have historically been dominated by security veterans without deep AI engineering roots. Europe’s Cybersecurity Moment The funding lands at a moment of significant acceleration in European cybersecurity investment. European startups in the sector raised approximately €2.7 billion across 266 deals in 2025, outpacing 2024 levels, with France and Germany emerging as the continent’s leading hubs for AI-native security companies. The EU has committed €145.5 million specifically to strengthen cybersecurity capabilities across small and medium-sized enterprises and public administrations. The broader market dynamics are equally compelling. The agentic AI in cybersecurity segment is projected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 40% through 2034, as organisations shift from reactive, human-driven investigations to autonomous platforms. A recent study found that the proportion of organisations allocating more than a quarter of their cybersecurity budget to AI solutions is expected to rise from 9% today to 48% within two years — a structural spending shift that creates a substantial commercial tailwind for platforms like Qevlar AI’s. For a company founded barely two years ago, the combination of marquee enterprise clients, measurable operational improvements, and a well-capitalised investor syndicate positions Qevlar AI as one of the more credible contenders in what is fast becoming one of the most contested sectors in European venture. At a Glance Company Qevlar AI Founded January 2023, Paris, France Founders Ahmed Achchak (CEO), Hamza Sayah (CTO) Round Series A Amount €25.8M ($30M) Lead investors Partech, Forgepoint Capital International Also participating EQT Ventures & Growth Total funding ~$44M What they do Autonomous agentic AI platform for Security Operations Centre investigations Key metric 10x faster investigations; average case resolved in 3 minutes Notable clients Mercedes-Benz, Sodexo

The race to monitor methane emissions from space is gaining serious momentum. As the European Union moves to enforce binding methane reduction obligations on the energy sector — with the first compliance deadlines under the EU Methane Regulation (EUMR) already in effect — the demand for independent, high-precision measurement tools is expanding fast. Against that backdrop, Munich-based AIRMO has secured €5 million in seed funding to accelerate the deployment of what it describes as the world’s most accurate spaceborne methane emissions monitoring system. The round was led by Ananda Impact Ventures, joined by Unconventional Ventures, kopa ventures, Desai Ventures, and Hypernova / New Venture Securities. Two EQT Partners — Matthias Fackler and Francesco Starace — also participated as strategic investors. Existing backers Antler, Findus Ventures, E2MC, and Pi Labs all returned for the round, reflecting continued confidence in the founding team and technology roadmap. What AIRMO Does Founded in 2022 by Daria Stepanova — a rocket scientist with over a decade in the small satellite industry and 12 successful satellite launches to her name — AIRMO designs, builds and operates proprietary methane monitoring instruments for deployment across drones, aircraft, and satellites. The company’s core innovation lies in its integration of a Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) pushbroom spectrometer with a micro-LiDAR system into a compact satellite platform. The LiDAR component corrects for atmospheric variables, aerosols, and wind patterns that typically degrade the accuracy of spectrometer-only systems. The result is a detection capability roughly twice as accurate as existing satellite monitoring solutions — precise enough to identify a methane plume as small as a leaking vehicle from 500 kilometres above the Earth. AIRMO is already commercially operational, running methane emissions monitoring missions via drones and aeroplanes across Europe, Central Asia, and the MENA region. Its existing customer roster includes major energy companies such as Uniper, TotalEnergies, and ESCE — names that underscore the industrial-scale relevance of real-time methane visibility. Investor Analysis The composition of this syndicate signals a deliberate blend of impact capital and energy sector expertise. Ananda Impact Ventures, a Munich-based impact fund, has built a track record of backing European startups addressing systemic environmental challenges. The participation of Francesco Starace — former CEO of Italian energy giant Enel — as a strategic investor alongside EQT Partners is particularly notable, lending AIRMO credibility in regulated utility markets where customer acquisition cycles can be long and trust-intensive. The inclusion of Antler and Pi Labs from the seed stage likewise points to a company that has been systematically de-risked from early on, rather than raising its first institutional capital on promise alone. Regulatory Tailwinds and Market Context The timing of this raise is closely tied to a tightening regulatory environment. The EU Methane Regulation requires oil, gas, and coal operators — including importers — to measure, report, and verify methane emissions in line with the OGMP 2.0 framework. Independent third-party verification at a “reasonable assurance” level is mandated, and the EU Commission is required to launch a global satellite-based methane monitoring tool by August 2026. A dedicated Methane Transparency Database is also set to go live in September 2026. For operators already aligned with OGMP 2.0, which covers an estimated 42% of global oil and gas production, the demand for verified, high-frequency measurement data is transitioning from voluntary best practice to regulatory necessity. AIRMO’s combined airborne and spaceborne offering is specifically designed to meet that need — providing the audit-grade data trails that regulators and corporate ESG commitments increasingly require. What’s Next The fresh capital will fund the integration of AIRMO’s payload onto a satellite platform developed in partnership with Bulgarian manufacturer EnduroSat — a relationship announced in February 2026 — with the first launch targeting early 2027. That initial satellite is intended as the foundation for a 12-satellite constellation that would deliver routine, global operational monitoring at commercially meaningful cadence. Alongside the satellite programme, AIRMO is scaling its existing airborne campaigns across Europe, MENA, and Central Asia to expand revenue and establish the operational credibility that long-term enterprise and regulatory customers will demand before committing to multi-year data contracts. CompanyAIRMO CountryGermany RoundSeed Amount€5 million Lead InvestorAnanda Impact Ventures Other InvestorsUnconventional Ventures, kopa ventures, Desai Ventures, Hypernova / New Venture Securities, Matthias Fackler & Francesco Starace (EQT), Antler, Findus Ventures, E2MC, Pi Labs Founded2022 FounderDaria Stepanova SectorSpaceTech / Climate Tech First Satellite Launch2027 (with EnduroSat) Key CustomersUniper, TotalEnergies, ESCE

The human microbiome — the vast community of microorganisms colonising the gut, skin, and other organs — has long been recognised as a critical but poorly understood variable in human health. Despite its influence on how drugs are metabolised, how pathogens spread, and how the body responds to treatment, the microbiome has remained computationally intractable. That gap is what London-based OutPost Bio is setting out to close. The biotech startup has raised €2.9 million (approximately $3.5 million) in a pre-seed funding round to accelerate its platform for making human microbiology computable at scale. The round was co-led by Merantix Capital and Seedcamp, with participation from OpenSeed VC, Defined, and a group of strategic family offices and angel investors. A Closed Loop Between the Lab and the Algorithm At the heart of OutPost Bio’s approach is what it calls the Lab-in-the-Loop platform — a system that integrates automated experimentation with machine learning in a continuous feedback cycle. Rather than treating laboratory work and modelling as sequential activities, the platform routes insights from ML models directly back into the experimental design, accelerating the generation of functional biological data. The result is a proprietary dataset of human-derived microbial interactions that, the company argues, goes far beyond the correlational evidence available in existing literature. Microbial communities can dramatically alter drugs and other interventions, yet this layer has been largely ignored because the data has not existed at scale. For the first time, the platform aims to move beyond correlations to reveal causal pathways. For pharmaceutical and biotech partners, this translates into a concrete set of applications: predicting microbe-mediated drug metabolism, identifying potential toxicity signals earlier in development, and building the regulatory evidence needed to bring safer formulations to market. The Team Behind the Science OutPost Bio was founded in 2025 by Dr Jenny Yang and Alex Merwin. Dr Yang — an Oxford PhD and former Marie Curie Fellow with a background in clinical machine learning — serves as CEO, bringing a rare combination of bench science expertise and applied AI experience to the role. Merwin, the company’s COO, previously led growth for health and bio startups at Amazon Web Services. The founding team is further strengthened by Dr Heidi Arjes (VP of R&D, with two decades of microbiology experience across academia and industry), Dr Saif Ur-Rehman (Director of Data Engineering, formerly a founding engineer at Basecamp Research), and Dr Neythen Treloar (Principal ML Scientist, with expertise in microbial foundation models). Investor Confidence in a Fast-Growing Market The round reflects growing investor interest in precision microbiome science. Europe’s human microbiome market was valued at approximately $290 million in 2025 and is forecast to reach $1.31 billion by 2031, advancing at a compound annual rate of 28.6%. European research institutions conducted more than 820 microbiome-based clinical studies in 2025, led by Germany, the United Kingdom, and France. Merantix Capital — a Berlin-based deep tech venture fund focused on AI-driven life sciences — and Seedcamp, one of Europe’s most prolific seed investors, co-leading the round positions OutPost Bio at the intersection of two investable themes: AI-accelerated drug discovery and the microbiome’s mounting clinical relevance. Additional backing from OpenSeed VC and Defined brings further domain expertise in biotech and digital health. The pre-seed capital will be deployed to expand the Lab-in-the-Loop platform, scale proprietary data generation, and deepen partnerships with pharmaceutical companies seeking to integrate microbial modelling into their development pipelines. Redefining Microbiology as a Computational Layer The implications for pharmaceutical R&D are significant. Historically, the microbiome has been treated as a confounding variable rather than a predictable parameter. If OutPost Bio can deliver consistent, causal models of microbial behaviour, the practical benefit for drug developers is earlier and less costly de-risking of clinical candidates — particularly in areas such as oral drug metabolism, gut-delivered therapeutics, and microbiome-targeted interventions. The company’s dual presence in London and Boston also positions it well to serve European and US pharma markets simultaneously, giving partners on both sides of the Atlantic access to the platform’s data and modelling capabilities. Detail Information Company OutPost Bio Founded 2025 HQ London, UK / Boston, USA Round Pre-seed Amount €2.9M ($3.5M) Lead Investors Merantix Capital, Seedcamp Other Investors OpenSeed VC, Defined, family offices & angels Technology Lab-in-the-Loop platform Focus Making human microbiology computable

Europe’s artificial intelligence ecosystem has long struggled with a persistent blind spot: while English-language speech recognition has reached near-human accuracy, the continent’s rich linguistic diversity has been poorly served by the dominant American providers. From Dutch to Danish, Portuguese to Polish, enterprises operating across European markets have been forced to accept substandard accuracy or patch together fragile workarounds. Amsterdam-based Reson8 believes it has the answer — and has now secured €5 million in pre-seed funding to prove it. The round was led by Balderton Capital, one of Europe’s most active early-stage venture firms, with participation from NP Hard. The investment will be used to broaden Reson8’s European hardware footprint, accelerate development of its inference stack and foundational speech models, and grow a team that the company intends to scale through talent density rather than headcount. Rethinking Speech AI From the Ground Up Founded in 2023 by Thomas Kluiters, Raoul Ritter, and Jarno Verhagen — three deeply technical builders who identified the core failure of generic automatic speech recognition (ASR) — Reson8 takes a fundamentally different approach to the problem. Rather than retraining large foundation models or layering large language models on top of existing systems, the startup has built a proprietary architecture using small, pluggable adapters that adjust speech recognition dynamically to the context of each individual conversation. In practice, this means that Reson8’s models can be calibrated in real-time using live context such as documents, websites, calendars, and domain-specific terminology. A healthcare provider transcribing clinical consultations in Danish will benefit from different acoustic and vocabulary adjustments than a financial services firm processing German-language earnings calls. The system tailors itself without the cost and latency penalty that has historically accompanied custom ASR deployments. The company’s philosophy — ‘your language, your jargon’ — encapsulates this commitment to specificity over generality. The Case for European Speech Infrastructure The funding comes at a moment when European enterprises and governments are under mounting pressure to reassess their dependence on US-hosted AI infrastructure. GDPR classifies voiceprints as biometric data — a special category of personal data requiring explicit consent and strict controls on cross-border transfer. This regulatory reality has made US hyperscaler-hosted ASR an increasingly uncomfortable choice for European healthcare providers, financial institutions, and public sector organisations. Reson8 has positioned itself squarely within this compliance landscape. Unlike the major American speech providers, the company builds and operates its own European infrastructure, offering customers full-stack data sovereignty, clear data residency guarantees, and an architecture designed to meet the procurement requirements of regulated industries. At launch, the platform supports more than 20 European languages, directly targeting the quality gap that has left non-English speakers — the majority of Europe’s population — underserved. The commercial opportunity is substantial. The European automatic speech recognition market is estimated at approximately $2.52 billion in 2026, with analysts projecting growth to $13.18 billion by 2034 at a compound annual growth rate of 22.9%, according to Market Data Forecast. Demand is being driven by adoption in healthcare, financial services, customer service automation, and public administration — sectors where accuracy in non-English languages is not merely preferable but operationally critical. Investor Conviction and Competitive Positioning Balderton Capital’s decision to lead the round is a meaningful signal. The London-based firm has a track record of backing European infrastructure companies at the earliest stages, and its participation at pre-seed — a stage at which many institutional investors remain cautious — reflects confidence in both the team and the structural opportunity. NP Hard, a specialist technical investor, adds complementary depth. Reson8’s competitive moat lies not in any single technology but in the combination of European infrastructure ownership, real-time contextual adaptation, and a focus on linguistic breadth that US-centric providers have little commercial incentive to replicate. Rivals such as OpenAI’s Whisper and Google Cloud Speech-to-Text offer broad multilingual capabilities but rely on US-based compute and lack the customisation depth Reson8 is building. European alternatives with comparable infrastructure ambitions are few and early-stage. Summary Company Reson8 Headquarters Amsterdam, Netherlands Founded 2023 Round Pre-seed Amount raised €5 million Lead investor Balderton Capital Co-investor NP Hard Founders Thomas Kluiters, Raoul Ritter, Jarno Verhagen Technology Customisable ASR with pluggable adapters, 20+ European languages Use of funds European infrastructure expansion, model development, team growth

European venture capital has long been shaped by large multi-partner institutions, yet a quiet structural shift is now unmistakeable: a cohort of solo general partners — single decision-makers running focused, high-conviction funds — is increasingly winning the trust of the world’s most sophisticated institutional allocators. The latest and most striking example is Air Street Capital, the London-based, AI-first fund founded by Nathan Benaich, which has closed Fund III at $232 million — making it the largest solo GP venture fund in Europe. The close, announced on 23 March 2026, brings Air Street Capital’s total assets under management to approximately $400 million and marks a dramatic expansion from the firm’s origins. Fund I, raised in 2020, totalled just $17 million. Fund II reached $121 million. Fund III at $232 million represents a near-doubling of the prior fund, backed by a deepened and broadened set of limited partners. Inside Fund III: Strategy and Investment Parameters Air Street Capital invests in AI-first companies across both Europe and North America, with a clear preference for backing at the earliest stages. Initial cheques from Fund III will range from $500,000 to $15 million, with a reserved allocation for select growth investments of up to $25 million. The fund targets four sectors: software, science, the physical world, and — in an explicit addition for Fund III — defence. Benaich’s decision to include defence represents a notable step for a European venture firm, at a time when many institutional investors on the continent are still reluctant to back dual-use or military-adjacent technology. Air Street’s existing portfolio investment in Delian Alliance Industries signals a willingness to back companies operating in this increasingly strategically important domain. A Portfolio That Speaks for Itself The case for Fund III rests substantially on Air Street’s track record from its first two vehicles. The firm’s portfolio reads as something of a roll call of AI’s most prominent early-stage bets in Europe. Synthesia, the AI video generation platform backed by Air Street from an early stage, reached a $4 billion valuation in January 2026 following a $200 million Series E co-led by Alphabet’s GV and Nvidia’s NVentures. The company now reports $150 million in annual recurring revenue, with customers spanning more than 90 per cent of the Fortune 100. Wayve, the autonomous driving company also backed by Air Street, has deployed its AI driver across more than 500 cities worldwide — a significant operational milestone for a European deep-tech company in a capital-intensive sector long dominated by US and Chinese players. In scientific AI, portfolio company Profluent made headlines when it published the first AI-designed CRISPR gene-editing system in the journal Nature, establishing Air Street’s credentials in the frontier of AI-applied biology. Sereact, another portfolio company, has deployed embodied AI robotics in warehouses for BMW Group and Daimler Truck, demonstrating Air Street’s reach into industrial AI at scale. The Solo GP Model Under the Microscope Air Street Capital’s raise is a benchmark moment for the solo GP model in European venture capital. The traditional argument against single-partner funds — that concentrated decision-making creates concentration risk — appears to be giving way to a counter-argument: that thesis clarity, sector depth, and alignment of incentives can be more powerful than institutional headcount. Fund III is backed by a group of US university endowments, foundations, hospitals, and institutional investment platforms. Notably, many existing investors significantly increased their Fund III commitments, and several are backing a solo GP vehicle for the first time — a sign that allocators are recalibrating their assumptions about what venture capital governance should look like in an era defined by specialised technical domains. Benaich’s track record at the intersection of AI research and early-stage investment — he also co-authors the widely-read State of AI Report — gives Air Street an unusual combination of market visibility and technical credibility that larger, more generalist firms struggle to replicate. Key Details at a Glance

Europe’s venture capital ecosystem has long grappled with a persistent gap between academic research excellence and commercial startup activity. While European universities and research institutions produce world-class science, translating that output into fundable, scalable companies has historically required specialist intermediaries with deep institutional relationships. French-Italian firm 360 Capital has built its Poli360 strategy around exactly that challenge — and its second fund has now reached an €85 million first close. 360 Capital Closes €85M First Close for Poli360 2 360 Capital has announced an €85 million first closing for Poli360 2, a seed-stage technology transfer fund targeting a total of €100 million. The firm expects to reach its final close by the end of 2026. Poli360 2 is structured to invest primarily in academic spinouts emerging from universities and research centres, with at least 80 per cent of capital to be deployed in Italy. The remainder will target early-stage deeptech opportunities across the wider European market. The fund plans to make between 20 and 25 investments, with initial tickets of approximately €2 million and follow-on capacity of up to €8 million per company. Institutional Backing and a Defence Dimension The investor base for Poli360 2 reflects both the institutional depth of 360 Capital’s relationships and the growing intersection of European deeptech with defence priorities. Limited partners include the European Investment Fund, participating through its InvestEU Defence Equity Facility, CDP Venture Capital, Italian pension funds, and a range of family offices. Corporate strategic investors add further weight to the syndicate: Brembo, the Italian braking technology group; MBDA, Europe’s leading missile systems manufacturer; and Lucchini RS, a specialist in rolling stock components. The presence of MBDA alongside the EIF’s defence facility signals a deliberate positioning of Poli360 2 at the intersection of dual-use technology and European industrial sovereignty — a theme that has gained considerable momentum since 2022. Two Investment Pillars: Automation and Sustainability The fund’s investment strategy is organised around two thematic pillars. The first, Industry Automation, encompasses robotics, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity — technologies central to modernising European manufacturing and critical infrastructure. The second, Sustainability, covers advanced materials, energy transition technologies, and circular economy applications. Three investments have already been completed from Poli360 2: Neuronova, a semiconductors startup originating from the University of Grenoble and Politecnico di Milano; iNGage, focused on MEMS sensor technology; and Bynario, operating in cybersecurity. Building on Poli360 1’s Track Record The predecessor fund, Poli360 1, invested in 20 companies and has established a portfolio that includes several well-known deeptech names. Energy Dome, the CO₂-based long-duration energy storage company, and Phononic Vibes, which develops metamaterial solutions for noise and vibration control, are among the cohort, alongside ISAAC Antisismica, Inxpect, PhotonPath, and Equixly. 360 Capital was founded in 1997 and operates from offices in Milan and Paris. The firm manages approximately €500 million in assets under management and maintains an active portfolio of more than 50 companies spanning deeptech, climate technology, and digital sectors. Its broader investment activity extends from pre-seed to Series B across European markets. Market Context: Technology Transfer as a Strategic Priority The Poli360 2 close comes at a moment of heightened policy attention to European technological sovereignty. The European Commission’s InvestEU programme and its associated Defence Equity Facility have explicitly prioritised channelling institutional capital towards dual-use technology commercialisation — the kind of early-stage academic spinout that sits squarely in 360 Capital’s wheelhouse. Italy, the fund’s primary target market, has historically been underserved by specialist technology transfer vehicles. CDP Venture Capital, the venture arm of state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, has been actively working to address this deficit, and its participation in Poli360 2 reflects alignment with national innovation strategy. With a €100 million target and three investments already deployed, Poli360 2 is on track to become one of the more substantial specialist technology transfer vehicles operating in continental Europe. Fund Summary

Europe’s hospitality sector is undergoing a sustained wave of technological transformation, as independent restaurants and food-service operators seek integrated digital tools to manage ordering, payments, and customer relationships from a single platform. Against a backdrop of rising operational costs and intensifying competition from delivery aggregators, demand for purpose-built restaurant management software has accelerated markedly across Central and Eastern Europe in recent years. Into this landscape, Prague-founded Choice has announced the close of a $7.1 million Series A funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $11.6 million. The round was led by Alea Capital Partners, a Lisbon-based investor specialising in B2B SaaS, with continued backing from existing shareholders Reflex Capital, Smartlink, and J&T Ventures. What Choice Does Choice offers an all-in-one restaurant operating system that bundles online ordering, contactless payments, table reservations, and marketplace integrations into a single subscription. Founded in 2021 by Alex Ilyash — a Forbes 30 Under 30 alumnus who previously built DAVINCI, a hotel reservations SaaS serving 10,000 properties across Europe — alongside co-founders Volodymyr Olyanitsky and Robert Novosad, the company targets independent restaurants and small food-service chains that have historically relied on fragmented, high-cost point solutions. The platform currently counts more than 30,000 registered restaurants, of which over 7,000 are paying subscribers across nine active markets: the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, and Romania. Choice processes in excess of 1.5 million orders per month, representing approximately €35 million in monthly gross merchandise value (GMV). Entering 2026, the company reported approximately $5 million in annualised recurring revenue and confirmed it had reached breakeven — a notable operational milestone for a growth-stage SaaS business. The Investment Case The participation of Alea Capital Partners as lead investor carries strategic significance beyond the capital itself. The Lisbon-based firm’s focus on B2B SaaS and its regional network in Southern Europe is widely seen as a signal of Choice’s near-term geographic ambitions. Portugal is set to serve as the company’s first Western European beachhead, with Spain and Italy earmarked for subsequent phases. France, Germany, and the Netherlands represent a longer-horizon expansion target. The proceeds will be deployed primarily into product development — with an emphasis on AI-integrated modules — and into building dedicated local sales teams in each new market. The company has also confirmed plans to open an operational hub in Bucharest, reflecting both the size of its Romanian customer base and the availability of local engineering and commercial talent. Founder Perspective Alex Ilyash, Founder and CEO, said: “By combining strong local sales teams, efficient capital deployment from our CEE base, and AI-driven product innovation, we are confident we can win market by market.” Market Context The European restaurant technology market remains highly fragmented, with a mix of legacy point-of-sale vendors, delivery aggregators, and newer SaaS entrants competing across geographies. Choice’s all-in-one positioning differentiates it from single-function tools by offering a unified data layer across the restaurant’s key operational touchpoints. As AI-driven features — such as predictive ordering and customer retention analytics — become increasingly standard, the company’s commitment to product investment will be closely watched by operators and investors alike. The broader CEE technology ecosystem continues to attract capital, with the region’s combination of strong engineering talent, lower cost structures, and growing consumer markets making it an increasingly credible base from which to build pan-European businesses. Choice’s journey from Prague to nine markets in under five years is a case study in precisely that thesis. Deal Summary Company: Choice Headquarters: Prague, Czech Republic Founded: 2021 Founders: Alex Ilyash, Volodymyr Olyanitsky, Robert Novosad Round: Series A — $7.1M Total funding: $11.6M Lead investor: Alea Capital Partners (Lisbon) Other investors: Reflex Capital, Smartlink, J&T Ventures Paying customers: 7,000+ across 9 markets Monthly GMV: ~€35M ARR: ~$5M (entering 2026)

The global venture landscape is undergoing a quiet but significant structural shift: a growing number of investors are choosing to back exceptional individuals before they even have a startup idea. At the forefront of this movement is Entrepreneur First, the London-founded talent investor that has just raised $200 million in fresh capital, propelling the firm to a $1.3 billion valuation and cementing its status as one of Europe’s most distinctive success stories in venture building. The new capital, announced in March 2026, comes from a roster of high-profile technology founders and institutional investors. Of the $200 million raised, approximately $130 million will be invested into the management company itself — a signal that backers see Entrepreneur First not merely as a fund, but as a platform business with long-term compounding value. Silicon Valley’s Elite Back the Talent-First Thesis The investor list reads like a who’s who of global technology leadership. Stripe co-founders John and Patrick Collison have re-upped their commitment, alongside former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and Greylock Partners — the firm that first backed Entrepreneur First in its 2017 Series A. New investors joining this round include Cohere co-founder Aidan Gomez, former Google Brain leader Jeffrey Dean, and veteran operator Claire Hughes Johnson, formerly of Stripe. Matt Cohler of Benchmark and Danny Rimer of Index Ventures have also joined, alongside Barney Hussey-Yeo, founder of fintech unicorn Cleo — itself an Entrepreneur First alumnus. The breadth of the investor base underscores a growing conviction that identifying talent at the earliest possible stage represents a durable edge in venture capital. “We have raised this capital to double down on what we do best: identifying extraordinary individuals early and helping them build outlier companies from scratch,” said Alice Bentinck, co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneur First. A Portfolio Now Worth Over $16 Billion The numbers behind Entrepreneur First’s model have become increasingly difficult to ignore. The firm’s portfolio of companies is now collectively valued at over $16 billion, a remarkable increase from $3 billion when the company last raised in 2021. Portfolio companies have attracted backing from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, SoftBank, and Khosla Ventures, and include several unicorns and notable exits — among them Magic Pony Technology, acquired by Twitter for a reported $150 million, and Tractable, valued at $1 billion. Founded in 2011 by Bentinck and Matt Clifford, Entrepreneur First has built a distinctive model often described informally as the “CAA for startups.” Rather than investing in existing companies, the firm recruits top technical and entrepreneurial talent — frequently straight out of university — and guides them through finding a co-founder, developing an idea, and raising initial funding. “Once we have identified the talent, our role is to create the environments, peer groups and standards that push exceptional people to operate at the edge of their capabilities,” said Clifford, who serves as chairman. Bay Area Relocation Strategy Doubles Valuations A pivotal strategic shift has accelerated Entrepreneur First’s recent momentum. In 2024, the firm began relocating all pre-seed-funded companies to the Bay Area ahead of their seed rounds. The results have been striking: on average, time to raise has halved and valuations have doubled. Companies in recent Bay Area cohorts have raised up to $15 million in seed funding within two weeks of completing the programme. “The Bay Area program is not just about proximity to capital. It changes the ambition gradient. Founders move faster, think bigger and compete on a global stage from day one,” Bentinck explained. This transatlantic bridge strategy positions Entrepreneur First uniquely within the European ecosystem. While the firm continues to source talent from its offices in London, Paris, and Bangalore, it funnels the most promising ventures into Silicon Valley’s competitive crucible — combining European depth of talent with American scale of ambition and capital. European Talent Investing Enters a New Phase Entrepreneur First’s unicorn milestone arrives at a moment when the broader European startup ecosystem is maturing rapidly. The continent continues to produce world-class technical talent, yet the gap between talent supply and venture formation remains significant. Entrepreneur First’s model — investing in people rather than pitches — addresses this gap directly, and its $1.3 billion valuation suggests the market increasingly recognises the value of this approach. With over a decade of operations, offices across four cities, and a portfolio that now rivals many traditional venture funds in scale, Entrepreneur First has evolved from an experimental programme into a global institution. The $200 million raise ensures it has the resources to continue scaling its talent-first model at a time when the competition for exceptional founders has never been fiercer. Summary Company Entrepreneur First Headquarters San Francisco (founded in London) Founded 2011 Founders Alice Bentinck (CEO), Matt Clifford (Chairman) Amount Raised $200 million Valuation $1.3 billion (unicorn) Key Investors Greylock, John & Patrick Collison, Eric Schmidt, Reid Hoffman, Matt Cohler, Danny Rimer, Aidan Gomez, Jeffrey Dean Portfolio Value Over $16 billion Use of Funds ~$130M into management company; scaling talent-first model globally

Europe’s construction technology sector is attracting growing investor attention as the continent grapples with ageing building stock and heightened awareness of seismic risk. From southern Italy to the Balkans and beyond, millions of structures remain vulnerable to earthquake damage, creating a substantial market opportunity for companies developing smart, non-invasive protection systems. Milan-based ISAAC antisismica has now closed a €14 million investment round to expand its proprietary active mass damper technology, bringing total funding to €21.7 million. The round saw participation from a strong consortium of European investors, including CDP Venture Capital, 360 Capital Partners (also through Fondo Parallelo LV 360 – Lombardia Venture), Axon Partners Group, Gruppo Azimut, Ring Capital and NovaCapital. The proceeds will be deployed to advance ISAAC’s earthquake resilience technology, expand its engineering and commercial teams, and accelerate international growth beyond its Italian home market. Strategic investors back seismic safety innovation The investor syndicate reflects the cross-border appeal of ISAAC’s proposition. CDP Venture Capital, the venture arm of Italy’s national promotional institution Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, has been a consistent backer of the company. Their continued involvement alongside international players such as Spain’s Axon Partners Group and France’s Ring Capital signals that ISAAC’s earthquake resilience technology is resonating well beyond Italian borders. Founded in 2018 by Alberto Bussini, a mechatronic engineering graduate of the Politecnico di Milano, ISAAC developed from an academic research project into a commercially proven enterprise. The company’s core innovation lies in its active mass damper systems, which counteract building oscillations during seismic events through controlled dynamic response. Unlike traditional retrofitting methods that require invasive structural reinforcement, ISAAC’s modular approach preserves building integrity and allows installation without disrupting ongoing operations. The technology has already demonstrated its value at scale. Hundreds of ISAAC devices are currently operational across strategic buildings in Italy, including the Policlinico San Martino Hospital in Genoa — one of the country’s largest hospital complexes with daily occupancy exceeding 9,000 people — and the Pilot Tower of the Port of Genoa, designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. With 2025 revenues reaching approximately €9 million, ISAAC has established a credible commercial trajectory alongside its technical achievements. European seismic resilience market presents growing opportunity The broader market context strongly favours ISAAC’s expansion plans. The European Union’s building renovation wave initiative, a cornerstone of the Green Deal, is unlocking parallel investments in structural modernisation. National implementations of Eurocode 8, which governs earthquake-resistant design standards, are compelling the integration of advanced seismic protection systems in public works, schools, hospitals and high-occupancy residential buildings across member states. Italy alone faces enormous seismic vulnerability, with much of its existing building stock predating modern safety codes. The challenge extends across southern Europe and into newer EU member states, where ageing infrastructure similarly requires upgrading. The market is evolving towards intelligent, sensor-equipped solutions — precisely the direction in which ISAAC has positioned itself with its smart, data-driven approach to seismic protection. With €14 million in fresh capital and a proven technology platform, ISAAC is well placed to capitalise on this structural market tailwind. The company’s ability to protect buildings without invasive modifications gives it a distinctive competitive edge as European regulators and building owners increasingly prioritise both safety and operational continuity. The coming years will be critical as ISAAC scales its production capacity, expands internationally and works to establish active mass damper technology as a standard approach to earthquake resilience across the continent. Summary Company ISAAC antisismica Headquarters Milan, Italy Founded 2018 Founder Alberto Bussini Round Investment round Amount €14 million (€21.7M total funding) Key Investors CDP Venture Capital, 360 Capital Partners, Axon Partners Group, Gruppo Azimut, Ring Capital, NovaCapital Use of Funds Technology advancement, team expansion, international growth, production scaling

The European wealth-tech infrastructure sector is experiencing a decisive shift, as financial institutions across the continent accelerate their transition from legacy systems to modern, API-driven investment platforms. Amid growing demand for embedded finance solutions and digital pension products, Berlin-based Upvest has secured $125 million in new financing to cement its position as Europe’s leading provider of API-first investment infrastructure. The financing package comprises a $90 million equity round co-led by Sapphire Ventures and Tencent Holdings, with continued participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and BlackRock. Upvest has also finalised a $35 million debt facility to further strengthen its capital base. The deal values the company at €640 million, nearly doubling its €360 million valuation from its previous round in December 2024. Sapphire Ventures and Tencent lead strategic round The involvement of both Sapphire Ventures, a prominent Silicon Valley growth-stage investor, and Tencent, the Chinese technology conglomerate, underscores the global appetite for European fintech infrastructure. The round marks a notable validation of Upvest’s approach: rather than competing with banks and brokers, the company provides the underlying rails on which these institutions build and scale their investment offerings. Martin Kassing, CEO and co-founder of Upvest, noted that the round reflects the company’s momentum, stating that the $125 million raise “just 12 months after our Series C, underscores our momentum to be the top choice for financial institutions launching and scaling best-in-class investment experiences at lightspeed in Europe.” Founded in 2017 by Kassing alongside Dr. Til Rochow and Tobias Auferoth, Upvest has grown into a regulated securities institution with a team of 280 professionals. The company now supports more than 30 major financial institutions and processed over 100 million client orders throughout 2025. Its client roster includes some of Europe’s most prominent digital banks and fintechs, among them DKB, Santander’s Openbank, Revolut, N26, Webull, and Raisin. European investment infrastructure enters a new phase The fresh capital will be directed towards two strategic priorities that reflect broader shifts in European financial services. First, Upvest is building support for complex local tax wrappers, including Germany’s forthcoming Altersvorsorgedepot and the United Kingdom’s self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs), enabling institutions to launch pension products through its API in months rather than the years typically required for in-house development. Second, the company is rolling out AI-supported investment engines that provide real-time, programmable execution APIs. This positions Upvest at the intersection of two powerful trends: the democratisation of investment access across Europe and the integration of artificial intelligence into wealth management workflows. By absorbing regulatory and technical complexity into its platform, Upvest enables its clients to focus on the customer experience rather than back-office infrastructure. The Upvest funding round represents one of the largest recent raises in the European B2B fintech infrastructure space, signalling sustained investor confidence in the sector despite broader market caution. As European regulators continue to push for greater retail investment participation and pension reform, companies that provide the underlying technological architecture stand to benefit significantly from the structural tailwinds ahead. Summary

The application of artificial intelligence in clinical trials is rapidly reshaping how the pharmaceutical and biotech industries manage the vast, fragmented data sets that underpin drug development. With clinical trial data volumes having grown by more than 400 per cent over the past decade, the need for intelligent infrastructure capable of unifying and analysing this information has never been more pressing. Zurich-based startup Rivia has raised €13 million in a Series A round to expand its agentic AI data platform, positioning itself at the forefront of this transformation. The round was led by Earlybird, one of Europe’s most established venture capital firms, with Defiant joining as a new investor alongside existing backers Speedinvest, Amino Collective, and Nina Capital. The fresh capital will support product development, team expansion, and international growth, with a particular focus on the US biotech market as demand for more efficient trial execution continues to accelerate. Earlybird leads Series A as agentic AI gains traction in healthcare Founded in 2022 by Erik Scalfaro and Tiago Kieliger, Rivia has built what it describes as an agentic data engine — a system in which AI agents actively surface insights, flag anomalies, and help coordinate the operational layer of a clinical trial, rather than simply storing and visualising data. The platform comprises three core components: Rivia Core, which consolidates fragmented data from thousands of heterogeneous files across vendors into a structured foundation; Rivia Detect, which continuously monitors data quality, clusters thousands of issues, and automates corrective actions; and Rivia Spark, which transforms natural language queries into visual analytics for patient cohorts, adverse events, and biomarkers. The company currently supports approximately 40 clinical trials across Europe and the United States, integrating data from specialty laboratories, patient wearables, genomics platforms, and imaging systems into a single, harmonised infrastructure. Erik Scalfaro, CEO and co-founder of Rivia, has spoken about the company’s deliberate approach to building its technology, noting that Rivia started with the foundational data engine before layering in agentic capabilities — a sequence he believes gives the company a structural advantage over competitors. AI in clinical trials market poised for significant growth The global AI in clinical trials market is estimated at approximately $2.09 billion in 2026 and is projected to reach $18.62 billion by 2040, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 17 per cent. Industry analysts anticipate that AI-driven solutions could reduce clinical development timelines by 30 to 40 per cent within the next two to five years, a prospect that is drawing considerable investor attention to the space. Rivia’s focus on agentic AI — where autonomous agents manage workflows from data integration to real-time risk monitoring — places it within one of the fastest-growing segments of health technology. Unlike traditional clinical data management systems that require extensive manual intervention, agentic platforms can proactively identify protocol deviations, predict enrolment bottlenecks, and automate regulatory reporting workflows. This shift from passive data storage to active intelligence represents a fundamental change in how trials are operated. The Series A round follows a €3 million seed round in 2024, also backed by Speedinvest, Amino Collective, and Nina Capital. With the European clinical trial ecosystem increasingly competing for global biotech investment, platforms like Rivia that bridge European innovation with US market access are well positioned to capture growing demand for next-generation trial infrastructure. Summary Company: RiviaHeadquarters: Zurich, SwitzerlandFounded: 2022Founders: Erik Scalfaro (CEO), Tiago KieligerRound: Series AAmount: €13 million (~$15 million)Lead investor: EarlybirdOther investors: Defiant, Speedinvest, Amino Collective, Nina CapitalUse of funds: Product development, team growth, US market expansion

The global autonomous freight sector is entering a pivotal phase, with mounting investor confidence signalling that driverless logistics is moving beyond pilot programmes and into commercial viability. European companies, in particular, are positioning themselves at the forefront of this transition, combining electric vehicle technology with autonomous driving capabilities to address both decarbonisation targets and chronic driver shortages across the haulage industry. Swedish autonomous freight company Einride has secured $113 million in an oversubscribed PIPE (private investment in public equity) financing round, ahead of its planned listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The capital raise, which exceeded the company’s initial target of $100 million, comes in advance of Einride’s merger with special purpose acquisition company Legato Merger Corp. III, a transaction expected to close in the first half of 2026 under the proposed ticker symbol ENRD. Oversubscribed PIPE reflects strong investor conviction The $113 million PIPE was backed by a combination of new and existing investors, including Stockholm-based EQT Ventures and a major global asset management firm based on the West Coast of the United States. The oversubscription underscores growing institutional appetite for autonomous trucking plays, particularly those with proven commercial operations and a clear path to public markets. Combined with approximately $220 million held in Legato’s trust account, the completed transaction is expected to deliver around $333 million in gross proceeds before redemptions and transaction costs. The deal values Einride at a pre-money valuation of $1.35 billion, a recalibration from the $1.8 billion figure initially attached to the SPAC merger when it was announced in November 2025. Roozbeh Charli, Chief Executive of Einride, who took over from founder Robert Falck in May 2025, has framed the raise as validation of the company’s commercial trajectory. The proceeds will support Einride’s technology roadmap and global expansion, including autonomous deployments across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Autonomous electric freight gains commercial traction Founded in 2016 by Robert Falck, a former Volvo Powertrain engineering director, Einride has built a full-stack freight ecosystem that combines electric and autonomous trucks with its proprietary AI operating system, Einride Saga. The platform enables shippers to optimise routes, reduce costs, and eliminate emissions across their logistics operations. The company operates a fleet of approximately 200 heavy-duty electric trucks across Europe, North America, and the UAE, serving more than 25 customers in seven countries, including Heineken, PepsiCo, GE Appliances, and Carlsberg Sweden. Einride’s autonomous trucks are notably cabless — designed from the outset without space for a human driver — and were the first commercially deployed autonomous electric vehicles approved for public roads in both Sweden and the United States. The company reports over 1,700 driverless hours in contracted customer operations, more than 11 million electric miles driven, and over 350,000 executed shipments to date. Financially, Einride has disclosed a contracted annual recurring revenue base of $65 million, with over $800 million in potential long-term ARR from its pipeline. The company has raised a cumulative $865 million across 13 funding rounds, positioning it as one of the most well-capitalised players in the European autonomous mobility space. European autonomous trucking market accelerates Einride’s NYSE listing comes at a time of significant momentum in the autonomous trucking sector. The global autonomous truck market is projected to expand from $47.4 billion in 2025 to over $93 billion by 2030, with Europe accounting for roughly 30 per cent of the market. Stringent emissions regulations, particularly in Northern Europe, are accelerating adoption of electric and autonomous freight solutions, while countries such as Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands continue to spearhead regulatory frameworks for autonomous vehicle deployment. The SPAC route to public markets represents something of a calculated bet for Einride. While SPAC listings have faced scepticism following a wave of underperforming deals in 2021 and 2022, Einride’s combination of commercial revenue, operational fleet, and institutional backing from the likes of EQT Ventures may distinguish it from the speculative pre-revenue SPAC mergers of earlier years. As autonomous freight technology matures and regulatory pathways become clearer across both sides of the Atlantic, Einride’s public debut will serve as an important bellwether for the sector’s investability. Summary Company: EinrideHeadquarters: Stockholm, SwedenFounded: 2016CEO: Roozbeh CharliRound: $113M PIPE (pre-SPAC)Valuation: $1.35 billion (pre-money)Key Investors: EQT Ventures, undisclosed West Coast asset managerListing: NYSE via SPAC merger with Legato Merger Corp. III (H1 2026)Use of Funds: Technology roadmap, autonomous deployments, global expansion