Fundraising

London fintech Outpost raises $17.5M Series A led by Ribbit Capital to scale its AI-powered merchant-of-record platform, simplifying cross-border payments, tax, and compliance for global merchants.

The European fintech sector continues to attract early-stage capital, with AI-powered financial modelling emerging as a particularly active frontier for investor interest. As finance teams across high-growth organisations grapple with the limitations of static spreadsheets and fragmented planning tools, a new generation of startups is building intelligent infrastructure to replace legacy workflows. Stockholm-based Galdera Labs has now entered this space with a €1.5 million pre-seed round to develop an AI-native financial modelling platform designed for growth-stage finance teams. The funding will support platform development, reasoning infrastructure buildout, and an initial customer rollout targeting fast-growing companies with complex financial operations. Galdera’s platform combines a high-performance calculation engine with a semantic memory layer that links financial data directly to underlying business context, assumptions, and strategic decisions — enabling finance teams to query models in natural language and simulate complex scenarios in minutes rather than weeks. Klarna Veterans Back AI Financial Modelling Vision The pre-seed round was led by J12 Ventures, with participation from Antler and a roster of angel investors drawn from notable European technology companies including Klarna, DeepL, Stripe, and Plata. The investor composition reflects strong confidence in the founding team’s pedigree and the market opportunity for intelligent financial planning infrastructure. Galdera’s three co-founders — Evan Rumpza (CEO), Mattia Scolari (CFO), and Giovanni Casula (CTO) — met at Klarna during the fintech giant’s most intensive growth phase. Responsible for financial planning across 26 markets, the team experienced first-hand how manual processes and fragmented Excel models struggled to keep pace as business conditions shifted faster than traditional models could be rebuilt. To manage the complexity, they built an internal system at Klarna that replaced the static planning cycle with a continuously updated model — enabling what previously required large analyst teams to be handled by just three people, supporting the company through both capital raises and IPO preparations. The lessons learned from that experience became the foundation for Galdera Labs. “We’ve personally sat with 50 spreadsheets at two in the morning using tools that were supposed to solve the problem but didn’t. That is the infrastructure we are building with Galdera,” said Evan Rumpza, CEO and co-founder of Galdera Labs. Building AI Finance Tools for the Next Generation of CFOs The market for AI finance tools and financial modelling software is evolving rapidly as organisations demand more dynamic planning capabilities. Traditional spreadsheet-based approaches, while flexible, often create fragmented workflows where assumptions become outdated and institutional knowledge is lost between budget cycles. Galdera’s platform addresses this gap with a two-layer architecture: a powerful calculation engine capable of handling large data volumes, paired with a semantic memory layer that preserves the reasoning behind financial decisions over time. The platform is designed to function as an always-on financial forecast that automatically updates as business conditions change. Users configure scenarios once, and the model recalculates impacts across revenue, costs, margins, and other key metrics in real time. This approach positions Galdera within a growing wave of European fintech startups applying artificial intelligence not merely as an overlay on existing tools, but as a foundational redesign of how financial planning operates. With the launch, Galdera is opening its platform to its first customers: fast-growing companies and organisations with complex operations where the pace of decision-making has outgrown the tools finance teams traditionally rely on. Early adopters already include companies such as DeasyLabs, Unify, and Counsel. The pre-seed round positions Galdera Labs at an early but promising stage in a sector where demand for intelligent, context-aware financial infrastructure is accelerating across European markets. As AI continues to reshape enterprise workflows, the intersection of financial modelling and machine reasoning represents a significant opportunity for startups capable of delivering genuine operational value to scaling businesses. Summary

The sustainable consumer goods sector is witnessing growing investor appetite as environmentally conscious brands prove they can combine purpose with profitability. East London-based Allday Goods, the cult kitchen knife brand that transforms plastic waste into chef-quality blades, has raised £765,000 in a seed round led by FIGR Ventures to scale its operations from artisan favourite to mainstream kitchen staple. Founded in 2021 by ex-chef Hugo Worsley, Allday Goods manufactures kitchen knives with handles crafted entirely from recycled plastic waste — sourced from Maldon Salt buckets, milk bottle handles, discarded plant containers, and fishing nets washed up on British shores. The brand, which started in Worsley’s parents’ shed using a repurposed toastie maker, has already achieved profitability with minimal external investment. Products consistently sell out within minutes during online drops, and queues have formed at London pop-ups, reflecting a level of consumer demand that few sustainable brands can match at this stage. FIGR Ventures Leads Seed Round with Sustainability-Focused Backers The £765,000 round was led by FIGR Ventures, with participation from Anotherway Ventures, Machroes Holdings — the family office of Lord Mervyn Davies — and angel investor Tom Gozney, founder of the premium pizza oven brand Gozney. The investor mix signals confidence in Allday Goods’ ability to bridge the gap between sustainable manufacturing and scalable consumer product design. Allday Goods’ knives pair handles made from 100% recycled food-grade polypropylene with British and Japanese steel blades. The company collects, cleans, shreds, and remoulds plastic waste into distinctive, colourful handles that carry visible traces of their former lives — a design choice that has become central to the brand’s identity. Each knife effectively diverts plastic from landfill whilst delivering professional-grade performance. Worsley commented on the raise, noting that the team had built the brand slowly and intentionally, and that securing backing from investors they genuinely admire represents a significant milestone for the next chapter of growth. From Cult Following to Mainstream Market Opportunity Allday Goods has already demonstrated significant commercial traction without substantial marketing spend. The brand’s high-profile collaborations with Ottolenghi, Soho House, Maldon Salt, Kerrygold, and Paul Smith have positioned it at the intersection of culinary craftsmanship and design culture. Features in The World of Interiors and Esquire have further cemented its reputation among discerning consumers who value both aesthetics and environmental responsibility. The fresh capital will be deployed to scale production capacity, expand the product range, and accelerate the transition from limited-edition drops to consistent retail availability. The challenge for Allday Goods will be maintaining the artisan quality and brand mystique that fuelled its cult status whilst meeting the demands of a broader consumer base — a tension that many direct-to-consumer brands have struggled to navigate. The broader sustainable kitchenware market continues to attract both consumer interest and investor capital across Europe. As regulatory pressure on single-use plastics intensifies and consumers increasingly seek products that align with their environmental values, brands like Allday Goods that demonstrate genuine circularity in their manufacturing processes are well-positioned to capture meaningful market share. Summary Company: Allday GoodsHeadquarters: East London, United KingdomFounded: 2021Founder: Hugo WorsleyRound: SeedAmount: £765,000Lead Investor: FIGR VenturesOther Investors: Anotherway Ventures, Machroes Holdings, Tom GozneyUse of Funds: Scale production, expand product range, transition to mainstream retail availability

Europe’s space technology sector is experiencing a strategic shift as the continent moves to reduce its dependence on toxic propellants and build sovereign capabilities in satellite operations. Amid tightening EU regulations on hydrazine-based systems and growing demand for sustainable orbital infrastructure, a new generation of deeptech startups is emerging to fill critical gaps in the European space supply chain. Arkadia Space, the Castellón-based propulsion startup, has secured €14.5 million through the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator — one of the EU’s most competitive deeptech funding instruments. The package comprises a €2.5 million grant, €6 million in equity from the EIC Fund, and €6 million in private investment. Arkadia is the first Spanish space company to access EIC Accelerator funding, selected from 923 applications as one of just 61 startups in this round. EIC Accelerator backs hydrogen peroxide propulsion The funding signals the European Commission’s recognition of hydrogen peroxide propulsion as a strategically important technology. Arkadia’s flagship product, the DARK propulsion system, is a hypergolic bipropellant engine that combines high-concentration hydrogen peroxide with a proprietary green fuel. The system ignites spontaneously upon propellant contact, eliminating the need for complex ignition hardware and reducing operational and refuelling costs by more than 60 per cent compared with conventional hydrazine-based solutions. Founded in 2020 by Francho García (CEO) and Ismael Gutierrez (CTO), the company has spent five years developing alternatives to the toxic propellants that have long dominated satellite manoeuvring. The cost differential is striking: filling a satellite tank with hydrazine typically costs around €2 million, whereas Arkadia’s hydrogen peroxide-based operations run under €50,000 — including all ground equipment. Arkadia achieved a critical milestone in March 2025 when its DARK system became the first hydrogen peroxide-based propulsion technology to fly in orbit from Europe. Launched aboard a D-Orbit ION Satellite Carrier on SpaceX’s Transporter-13 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, the system successfully completed in-orbit test firings that matched ground test data, confirming its viability for commercial satellite operations. “This recognition confirms that we are on the right path and gives us a tremendous boost to commercialise the technology as early as next year,” said Francho García, co-founder and CEO of Arkadia Space. European spacetech builds momentum with strategic partnerships The EIC backing comes as Arkadia deepens its ties with the European space establishment. The company holds four contracts with the European Space Agency (ESA), including work under the Future Launchers Preparatory Programme. Perhaps most notably, Arkadia has secured a supply agreement with MaiaSpace, the ArianeGroup-backed reusable launch vehicle programme, to provide 250-newton reaction control thrusters — a contract that positions the startup within Europe’s next-generation launch architecture. The company has also developed ARIEL, a 250-newton monopropellant thruster that reached technology readiness level 6 within two years, further demonstrating the versatility of its hydrogen peroxide platform across both satellite and launcher applications. Arkadia previously raised a €2.8 million seed round in October 2023, led by Draper B1 with participation from Expansion Ventures. The latest EIC funding brings total capital raised to approximately €17.3 million, providing a substantial runway to move from demonstration to commercialisation. The company plans to expand its testing infrastructure at Castellón Airport and targets production of 300 to 400 propulsion systems annually, with a view to becoming a vertically integrated European supplier of green propulsion technology. Summary Company: Arkadia SpaceHeadquarters: Castellón, SpainFounded: 2020Round: EIC Accelerator (grant + equity + private)Amount: €14.5 millionLead: European Innovation CouncilPrevious funding: €2.8M seed (Draper B1, 2023)Use of funds: Commercialisation of green propulsion, R&D expansion, testing infrastructure, scaling operations

The intersection of artificial intelligence and financial infrastructure continues to attract significant venture capital attention across Europe, as institutional investors seek more sophisticated tools to navigate increasingly complex global markets. Cambridge-based deeptech startup Theia Insights has secured $8 million in a Series A round to advance its AI-powered platform that creates dynamic, real-time maps of the global economy for the investment industry. The round brings Theia Insights’ total funding to $14.5 million since its founding in 2022. The fresh capital will be directed towards expanding into private markets, scaling its research and engineering capabilities, and accelerating global commercial growth. Founded by former Amazon Alexa scientist Dr Ye Tian alongside co-founders Isami Ito and Dr James Thorne, the company has built proprietary technology that processes vast quantities of corporate data to represent companies across multiple evolving sectors rather than constraining them to single industry labels. MiddleGame Ventures Leads Strategic Investment Round The Series A round was led by MiddleGame Ventures, a specialist fintech investor, with participation from Further Ventures and existing backer Unusual Ventures. The investor mix reflects a deliberate strategy to bring both financial services expertise and deep technology understanding to the cap table. Unusual Ventures, which led Theia Insights’ earlier $6.5 million seed round in 2024, has continued to back the company’s vision of building foundational AI infrastructure for global capital markets. Theia Insights has already secured notable commercial traction in the institutional investment space. The company’s technology powers S&P Dow Jones Indices’ Atlas Indices and is distributed through Nasdaq Datalink for mutual fund thematic exposure data. Its client base spans global index providers, asset managers, hedge funds, and investment banks, positioning it at the infrastructure layer of financial decision-making. The company is also a portfolio company of Fidelity International Strategic Ventures and has been selected for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator programme. Dr Ye Tian, CEO and co-founder, explained the company’s fundamental thesis: “We must first see the economy clearly, not in fragments but as an interconnected whole.” This philosophy underpins a platform that processes regulatory filings, earnings transcripts, and financial disclosures to construct multidimensional representations of companies, moving beyond the limitations of traditional static classification systems that assign businesses a single industry label. AI-Powered Financial Intelligence Gains Momentum in Europe Theia Insights’ core product suite comprises four solutions that address distinct institutional needs. Its Dynamic Industry Classification system reveals how companies actually operate across multiple sectors, whilst its Thematic Factor Risk Model analyses stock movements through more than 200 thematic and style factors. The Concept2Universe tool converts investment ideas into actionable portfolios with evidence-based rankings, and its Theme Watch Indices track daily returns across over 200 global themes. The funding arrives at a time when European deeptech startups are increasingly demonstrating that foundational AI research can translate into commercially viable products for regulated industries. The financial services sector, in particular, has shown growing appetite for AI tools that go beyond simple automation to provide genuinely novel analytical capabilities. Traditional classification systems, which have underpinned investment analysis for decades, are increasingly seen as inadequate for capturing the complexity of modern businesses that operate across multiple sectors simultaneously. With partnerships already established with major financial infrastructure providers and a technology stack built on advanced NLP, large language models, and knowledge graph architecture, Theia Insights is well positioned to capitalise on the growing demand for AI-driven investment intelligence. The Series A funding should enable the company to broaden its reach into private markets and deepen its presence across the global investment ecosystem. Summary Company: Theia InsightsHeadquarters: Cambridge, United KingdomFounded: 2022Round: Series AAmount: $8 million (total raised: $14.5 million)Lead Investor: MiddleGame VenturesOther Investors: Further Ventures, Unusual VenturesUse of Funds: Private markets expansion, R&D, global commercial growth

Europe’s quick commerce sector is entering a new phase of maturity, with profitability replacing growth-at-all-costs as the defining metric for investors. After years of aggressive expansion, consolidation, and high-profile collapses, the sector’s survivors are now demonstrating that rapid grocery delivery can work as a sustainable business. Berlin-based Flink, one of the last independent quick commerce operators standing in Europe, has secured approximately $100 million in new growth capital at a $900 million valuation. The funding round, led by existing investor Prosus, will strengthen Flink’s financial position and support a targeted expansion across its core markets of Germany and the Netherlands. The company plans to open new fulfilment hubs in selected German regions throughout 2026, applying strict profitability and density criteria to each new location rather than pursuing unchecked geographic expansion. Prosus Leads Round as Investor Confidence Returns to Quick Commerce The round was led by Prosus, the Amsterdam-listed technology investment group and long-standing Flink backer, with participation from Btomorrow Ventures, the corporate venture arm of British American Tobacco. Strategic partner REWE, one of Germany’s largest grocery retailers, also remains closely involved in Flink’s operations through a supply chain partnership that gives the company a significant edge in product sourcing and logistics. The investment brings Flink’s total funding to approximately $1.4 billion. Notably, the $900 million valuation represents a substantial reduction from the company’s peak valuation of $5 billion in May 2022, reflecting the broader market correction that swept through the quick commerce sector as pandemic-era demand normalised and investor sentiment shifted decisively towards unit economics over top-line growth. Yet the fact that Prosus continues to lead funding rounds signals genuine confidence in Flink’s restructured business model. The company confirms it is now operating profitably at EBITDA level, a milestone that few quick commerce operators have achieved. Flink reports an average basket size exceeding €45, suggesting it has successfully moved beyond impulse purchases towards serving regular household grocery needs. Quick Commerce Consolidation Reshapes European Market Flink’s funding arrives against a backdrop of dramatic consolidation in the European quick commerce landscape. Gorillas, once a fierce Berlin-based rival, was absorbed by Turkish competitor Getir in late 2023. Getir itself subsequently imploded under financial pressure and was sold to Uber in February 2026, effectively removing the two most prominent competitors from Flink’s core markets. This consolidation has left Flink as one of the last independent quick commerce operators in Europe, with a dense network of fulfilment hubs across approximately 80 cities in Germany and the Netherlands. The company’s expansion plans target 110 cities by 2027, though management has emphasised that each new hub must meet rigorous profitability thresholds before launch. The broader European quick commerce market continues to grow, with Germany’s segment projected to reach $11.6 billion by 2026. Flink’s disciplined approach to expansion, combined with its REWE supply chain partnership and demonstrated path to profitability, positions the company to capture a meaningful share of this growing market without repeating the overextension that plagued earlier entrants. Flink’s journey from pandemic-era losses of €515 million in 2022 to EBITDA profitability represents one of the more compelling turnaround stories in European tech. Whether the company can sustain this trajectory while expanding into new cities will be the key test in the months ahead. Summary Company Flink Headquarters Berlin, Germany Founded 2021 Round Growth Amount $100M Valuation $900M Lead Investor Prosus Other Investors Btomorrow Ventures Total Funding ~$1.4B Use of Funds Expansion of fulfilment hubs in Germany and the Netherlands

The digital therapeutics market for diabetes management is experiencing rapid growth across Europe, as healthcare systems increasingly recognise the potential of software-based interventions to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. France, with an estimated 4.2 million people living with diabetes, stands at the forefront of this transformation — and one Montpellier-based startup is positioning itself to lead the charge. DiappyMed, the French medtech company behind the clinically validated insulin dose calculation app EkiYou, has raised €5 million in a seed funding round. The investment was led by Ventech and AFI Ventures, with additional participation from Sofilaro and IRDI Capital Investissement. Alongside the raise, DiappyMed has announced a strategic partnership with pharmaceutical giant Sanofi to accelerate the deployment of its digital therapy across France. Ventech and Sanofi Back Personalised Diabetes Care The seed round marks a significant milestone for DiappyMed, which was founded in January 2021 following research conducted at Montpellier University Hospital by co-founder Omar Diouri. The company’s flagship product, EkiYou, is the first digital therapy application in France to have demonstrated clinically proven improvements in postprandial glycaemia within target range — a critical metric for effective diabetes management. EkiYou works by calculating the appropriate insulin dose for patients based on their meals, physical activity levels, and blood glucose readings. The application effectively replaces the complex mental arithmetic that many insulin-dependent patients must perform daily, reducing dosing errors and improving glycaemic control. DiappyMed also launched EkiYou Carbs in November 2022, a complementary carbohydrate counting tool co-developed with Montpellier University Hospital. The partnership with Sanofi is particularly noteworthy. The collaboration aims to massively deploy EkiYou as the first French digital therapy dedicated to personalised insulin dose calculation for both healthcare professionals and patients living with diabetes. Sanofi’s involvement brings not only commercial reach but also deep expertise in insulin therapy, positioning DiappyMed at the intersection of pharmaceutical and digital health innovation. European Digital Therapeutics Market Gains Momentum DiappyMed’s raise arrives at an opportune moment for the digital therapeutics sector. The global market for digital therapeutics in diabetes management was valued at approximately $1.6 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $5.3 billion by 2033, according to industry estimates. In Europe, regulatory frameworks are evolving to accommodate digital health solutions, with France’s health insurance system moving towards reimbursement of validated digital therapies. Indeed, a central objective for DiappyMed is to achieve reimbursement from the French national health insurance (Assurance Maladie) in 2026. Securing reimbursement would represent a transformative moment for the company, as it would effectively integrate EkiYou into the standard care pathway for insulin-dependent diabetes patients across France — dramatically expanding its addressable market and providing a template for expansion into other European healthcare systems. The €5 million investment will support DiappyMed’s pursuit of this reimbursement milestone, whilst also funding further clinical development, platform enhancements, and the scaling of its commercial partnership with Sanofi. As European healthcare systems grapple with rising diabetes prevalence and mounting treatment costs, digitally enabled solutions like EkiYou represent a compelling proposition for payers, providers, and patients alike. Summary Company DiappyMed Headquarters Montpellier, France Founded January 2021 Round Seed Amount €5 million Lead Investors Ventech, AFI Ventures Other Investors Sofilaro, IRDI Capital Investissement Strategic Partner Sanofi Use of Funds Health insurance reimbursement, clinical development, Sanofi partnership scaling

Europe’s residential energy landscape is undergoing a fundamental transformation as households seek alternatives to volatile grid prices and fossil fuel dependence. At the heart of this shift lies a persistent technical challenge: how to bridge the seasonal gap between summer solar abundance and winter energy demand. Oslo-based Photoncycle believes it has the answer, and has just secured the capital to prove it at scale. Photoncycle has raised €15 million in a Series A round co-led by NordicNinja and Voima Ventures, with continued participation from existing backers Lifeline Ventures, Eviny Ventures, Luminar Ventures, and Momentum. The funding will support the commercial rollout of the company’s solid-state hydrogen energy storage system in Denmark, followed by expansion into the Netherlands ahead of the country’s planned phase-out of net metering. NordicNinja and Voima Ventures back long-duration energy storage play The investor syndicate reflects a strong Nordic conviction in deep-tech climate solutions. NordicNinja, backed by major Japanese corporates, has increasingly focused on European sustainability infrastructure, whilst Voima Ventures brings deep expertise in science-based ventures from its base in Finland. The participation of all existing investors in the round signals continued confidence in Photoncycle’s technology roadmap. Founded in 2020 by CEO Bjørn Brandtzaeg, a visiting fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where the company was incubated, Photoncycle has developed a system that converts surplus summer solar electricity into hydrogen via a reversible fuel cell. The hydrogen is then processed into a solid state and stored in an underground unit capable of holding up to 10,000 kilowatt-hours of energy — approximately 20 times the density of a comparable lithium-ion battery system. When energy is needed during winter months, the hydrogen is converted back into electricity through a fuel cell, with recovered heat available for space heating or hot water via a heat pump. The storage material itself costs around $1,500 for 10,000 kWh of capacity, a figure that positions Photoncycle’s technology well below conventional long-duration energy storage alternatives designed for residential applications. Europe’s seasonal energy gap creates a substantial market opportunity The residential storage market remains dominated by lithium-ion batteries, which excel at short-duration cycling but are not economically viable for storing energy across seasons. This leaves a significant gap in the European energy transition, particularly in northern countries where solar generation peaks in summer whilst heating demand surges in winter. Denmark represents Photoncycle’s initial commercial beachhead, and for good reason. The country has some of the highest household energy prices in Europe, and approximately 300,000 homes still rely on gas-based heating systems that are scheduled for phase-out by 2035. Photoncycle reports a growing waiting list of Danish homeowners keen to adopt the technology. The company intends to offer its system under a subscription-based model, in which the seasonal storage unit is installed at the customer’s property and operated as part of an integrated energy solution. The model can incorporate existing solar panels or include new installations, and covers maintenance, system operation, and access to energy trading markets. Looking ahead, Photoncycle’s industrialisation plan is ambitious. An industrial plant is set to go live in 2027 as the first phase of a planned 1.4 terawatt-hour annual manufacturing capacity expansion. At full scale, the facility could provide seasonal storage for an estimated 140,000 homes. After Denmark, the Netherlands is next in line, where the impending end of net metering is expected to drive strong demand for residential storage alternatives. The round positions Photoncycle among a growing cohort of European climate-tech ventures tackling the energy storage challenge beyond lithium-ion, in a market segment that is attracting increasing attention from both institutional investors and policymakers focused on energy sovereignty. Summary Company Photoncycle Headquarters Oslo, Norway Founded 2020 Founder & CEO Bjørn Brandtzaeg Round Series A Amount €15 million Lead investors NordicNinja, Voima Ventures Other investors Lifeline Ventures, Eviny Ventures, Luminar Ventures, Momentum Use of funds Commercial rollout in Denmark and Netherlands; first phase of 1.4 TWh annual manufacturing capacity

The application of AI in clinical trials is rapidly reshaping the pharmaceutical development landscape, as biotech companies and contract research organisations grapple with spiralling data complexity and mounting pressure to accelerate drug approvals. Zurich-based Rivia has secured €13 million in Series A funding to scale its agentic data platform, which aims to transform how clinical trial operations teams manage the vast volumes of data generated during modern drug development programmes. The round, led by European venture capital firm Earlybird through its dedicated health fund, brings Rivia’s total funding to approximately €16 million following a €3 million seed round in 2024. New investor Defiant joined the round alongside returning backers Speedinvest, Amino Collective and Nina Capital. The fresh capital will be deployed to expand Rivia’s teams in Zurich and Boston, and to accelerate the rollout of its suite of embedded AI agents designed to automate clinical trial workflows. Earlybird Health leads investment in agentic AI for clinical trials The Series A was led by Earlybird Health, the healthcare-focused arm of pan-European venture firm Earlybird, which manages a dedicated €173 million health fund backing companies that are transforming patient outcomes through technology. The investment underscores growing investor confidence in AI-powered infrastructure for the life sciences sector, particularly platforms that address the operational bottleneck of clinical data management rather than drug discovery alone. Founded in 2022 by Erik Scalfaro and Tiago Kieliger, Rivia was born from first-hand frustration with the fragmented data landscape in pharmaceutical development. Scalfaro, who spent a decade in the pharma industry, has spoken of clinical operations as a world dominated by manual spreadsheet work — downloading hundreds of Excel files, formatting data, and consolidating information rather than focusing on patient outcomes. Kieliger, previously a cybersecurity engineer for the Swiss defence department, brought deep technical expertise in building secure, scalable data infrastructure. Rivia’s platform serves as what the company calls a reusable intelligence layer for clinical trials. Its data engine integrates thousands of heterogeneous data files in real time, applies trial-specific scientific logic through a proprietary library of reusable configurations, and feeds harmonised data directly into operational review workflows. The company currently supports 40 clinical trials across Europe and the United States, handling data volumes that have grown over 400 per cent in the past decade. From data engine to agentic AI in clinical trial operations On this data foundation, Rivia is now launching a suite of embedded AI agents designed to automate high-impact clinical workflows. The company’s first agent, Spark, converts natural-language queries into publication-grade clinical visualisations instantly, eliminating the manual effort traditionally required to produce trial analytics. Additional agents are being deployed for proactive data quality monitoring and oversight workflows, enabling earlier detection of deviations and intelligent prioritisation of issues across trial sites. The broader market opportunity is substantial. The global AI in clinical trials market is estimated at approximately $1.5 billion in 2026 and is projected to reach $18–20 billion by the end of the next decade, driven by increasing data complexity and regulatory pressure for faster, more efficient trial execution. Rivia’s ambition is to reduce clinical trial costs by up to 50 per cent by replacing manual processes with scalable agentic systems — a proposition that resonates strongly in an industry where the average cost of bringing a new drug to market continues to exceed $2 billion. The strategic decision to build the data infrastructure layer before deploying AI agents is central to Rivia’s thesis. As co-founder Kieliger has noted, AI and agents can deliver significant value for clinical trials, but the limiting factor remains the underlying data infrastructure. By establishing a robust intelligence layer that aggregates data across sources and models the specific scientific logic behind each trial, Rivia has created the foundation upon which its agentic capabilities can operate with precision and reliability. With this latest funding, Rivia is well-positioned to capitalise on the accelerating adoption of AI in clinical trials across Europe and the United States. The combination of a proven data platform, embedded AI agents, and backing from specialist healthcare investors suggests the Zurich-based company is building for long-term impact in a sector where efficiency gains translate directly into faster patient access to life-saving therapies. Summary

The autonomous vehicle sector is undergoing a strategic recalibration across Europe, as investors increasingly back companies focused on controlled industrial environments rather than the complexities of open-road driving. Oxford-based Oxa has emerged as a leading beneficiary of this shift, securing $103 million in the first close of its Series D funding round to expand its autonomous driving software across ports, airports, warehouses and manufacturing facilities. The round, which brings Oxa’s total funding to more than $250 million, was anchored by a $50 million commitment from the UK’s National Wealth Fund — a significant endorsement of the company’s industrial automation strategy. Additional backing came from NVentures, Nvidia’s venture capital arm, alongside existing shareholders BP Ventures, IP Group and Australian pension fund Hostplus. A second and final close of the Series D is expected during the first half of 2026. National Wealth Fund and Nvidia Back Industrial Autonomy Vision The involvement of the UK’s National Wealth Fund, which manages £27.8 billion in assets directed at the country’s clean energy and growth industries, signals growing governmental confidence in autonomous vehicle technology as a pillar of British industrial competitiveness. IP Group, the Oxford-based intellectual property commercialisation company, invested £7.5 million from its own balance sheet and a further £19 million through funds it manages on behalf of Hostplus, bringing its combined beneficial holding in Oxa to 20.3 per cent. Nvidia’s participation through NVentures is particularly strategic, given the chipmaker’s dominant position in the AI computing infrastructure that underpins autonomous driving systems. Oxa has been collaborating with Nvidia to accelerate what it terms Industrial Mobility Automation (IMA) — the automation of repetitive driving tasks that businesses perform millions of times daily across logistics and industrial operations. Gavin Jackson, CEO of Oxa, has described Britain as experiencing a “watershed moment” for AI, arguing that advances in digital infrastructure are laying the groundwork for a new industrial era. The funding will enable Oxa to intensify its focus on commercialising solutions for Industrial Mobility Automation, supercharging the development of its configurable and explainable self-driving software, Oxa Driver, and its development toolchain, Oxa Foundry. European Autonomous Vehicle Market Gains Momentum Oxa’s funding round arrives against a backdrop of accelerating investment in European autonomous vehicle technology. The continent captured approximately 38 per cent of the global autonomous vehicle market in 2024, with the Europe and CIS semi- and fully autonomous vehicle market valued at $15.5 billion and projected to reach $26.8 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of 9.55 per cent. Founded in 2014 as a spinout from the University of Oxford by robotics professors Paul Newman and Ingmar Posner, Oxa — formerly known as Oxbotica — has deliberately pivoted away from the congested open-road self-driving market towards industrial applications where the technology can deliver immediate commercial value. The company’s full-stack autonomous driving software, Oxa Driver, is both vehicle- and platform-agnostic, with no dependence on external infrastructure such as GPS, making it particularly well suited to the controlled but complex environments found in industrial settings. The company’s existing customer base includes major logistics operators such as DHL, energy giant BP and automotive logistics provider Vantec. The fresh capital will be deployed to deepen these relationships, expand into new industrial verticals and further develop Oxa’s technology stack. The broader trend towards industrial autonomy reflects a pragmatic shift in the autonomous vehicle sector, where companies that once pursued ambitious on-road robotaxi visions are finding faster paths to commercialisation in structured environments with predictable traffic patterns and clear operational boundaries. Summary Company Oxa (formerly Oxbotica) Headquarters Oxford, United Kingdom Founded 2014 Founders Paul Newman, Ingmar Posner CEO Gavin Jackson Round Series D (first close) Amount Raised $103 million Key Investors UK National Wealth Fund, NVentures (Nvidia), BP Ventures, IP Group, Hostplus Total Funding Over $250 million Use of Funds Scaling Industrial Mobility Automation across ports, airports, warehouses, and factories

The artificial intelligence sector continues to reshape not just how businesses operate, but how workers prepare for the jobs of tomorrow. As AI adoption accelerates across industries, a growing number of platforms are emerging to help professionals build the skills required to remain competitive in an increasingly automated labour market. London-based Ivee has now secured $1M in seed funding to scale its AI upskilling platform, backed by an impressive roster of investors including entrepreneur and podcaster Steven Bartlett. The seed round brings together a strategically diverse group of backers. Alongside Bartlett, the round includes fellow Dragons’ Den investor Deborah Meaden, global accelerator Techstars, Social Impact Enterprises, and senior leaders from Microsoft’s AI SuperIntelligence Lab, Dawn Capital, and Balderton Capital. The funding will support Ivee’s expansion across the United Kingdom, deepen its employer partnerships, and further develop its AI curriculum to keep pace with rapidly evolving workplace technologies. From Dragons’ Den to AI Education Pioneer Founded by sisters Amelia and Lydia Miller, Ivee first gained national attention through its appearance on BBC’s Dragons’ Den, where the pair secured £37,500 from both Meaden and Bartlett for a 7.5% equity stake in their original return-to-work platform. The company was born from a deeply personal motivation — the founders witnessed firsthand how difficult their own mother found it to re-enter the workforce after taking time away to raise children. Since that initial television appearance, the company has undergone a significant strategic evolution. What began as a platform connecting women returning from career breaks with flexible employment opportunities has broadened into a comprehensive AI upskilling service addressing one of the most pressing challenges in today’s labour market: the growing demand for practical AI fluency. The platform now offers three core services: an AI tool discovery engine that identifies the most effective applications for specific professional tasks, practical bite-sized lessons built around real-world use cases, and a validated skills framework enabling users to track and showcase their AI competencies to potential employers. On the enterprise side, companies can use Ivee to upskill existing teams or recruit directly from the platform’s network of over 80,000 AI-fluent candidates. Enterprise Traction Signals Market Fit The pivot towards AI upskilling appears well-timed and well-validated by market demand. Ivee counts Red Bull, Deliveroo, TransPennine Express, and OVO Energy among its enterprise clients, suggesting meaningful traction with established brands seeking AI-ready talent. The platform’s growth from a community of 8,000 users at its early stages to over 80,000 registered candidates represents a tenfold increase that underscores the urgency employers and workers alike feel around AI preparedness. The composition of the investor syndicate further reinforces the platform’s credibility. Techstars provides access to a global network of mentors and corporate partners, whilst the involvement of senior figures from Microsoft’s AI SuperIntelligence Lab and prominent venture firms like Balderton and Dawn Capital signals confidence in Ivee’s approach to democratising AI education. UK AI Skills Gap Presents Growing Opportunity The funding arrives amid a broader push across Europe and the United Kingdom to close the AI skills gap. As generative AI tools become embedded in workflows spanning marketing, finance, operations, and customer service, employers are increasingly seeking candidates who can demonstrate practical fluency with these technologies rather than merely theoretical understanding. Industry surveys consistently rank AI literacy among the most in-demand skills for 2026 and beyond. For Ivee, the opportunity extends beyond individual upskilling. The platform sits at the intersection of two powerful trends: the enterprise need for AI-competent workforces and the individual imperative to future-proof one’s career. By serving both sides of this equation — offering B2C skill development alongside B2B talent sourcing — the company has positioned itself to capture value across the entire AI skills ecosystem. Summary Company: Ivee (ivee.jobs)HQ: London, United KingdomFounded by: Amelia and Lydia MillerRound: SeedAmount: $1MKey Investors: Steven Bartlett, Deborah Meaden, Techstars, Social Impact Enterprises, Microsoft AI SuperIntelligence Lab leaders, Dawn Capital, Balderton CapitalUse of Funds: Platform expansion, employer partnerships, AI curriculum development

The race to build the infrastructure underpinning artificial intelligence has moved well beyond software and into the physical layer of computing itself. As AI models grow exponentially in size and complexity, the semiconductor industry faces a fundamental constraint that threatens to slow progress: the memory wall. European deeptech investors are increasingly backing startups that address this hardware-level challenge, recognising that the next leap in AI performance depends as much on memory architecture as on processing power. Belgian semiconductor startup Vertical Compute has raised an additional €37 million in seed funding, bringing its total seed round to €57 million. The company, an imec spin-off founded in 2024, is developing a novel 3D memory architecture that stacks vertical memory elements directly on top of compute logic within a single wafer manufacturing process. The fresh capital will fund the transition from chip validation to commercial chiplet deployment for next-generation AI platforms. Quantonation Leads Extended Seed Round with Strong European Backing The €37 million extension was led by Quantonation, the Paris-based deeptech venture firm specialising in quantum and advanced computing investments. New investors joining the round include Flanders Future Techfund (managed by Flemish investment company PMV), Wallonie Entreprendre, Sambrinvest, Noshaq, InvestBW, Drysdale Ventures, and Kima Ventures. Existing backers Eurazeo, XAnge, Vector Gestion, imec.xpand, and imec all reinvested, underscoring continued confidence in the company’s technical roadmap. The breadth of the investor syndicate is notable. Vertical Compute has assembled a coalition that spans French, Belgian, and German government-backed funds alongside established European venture capital firms. This cross-border alignment reflects the strategic importance that European policymakers and investors attach to building sovereign semiconductor capabilities, particularly in AI-critical components where supply constraints continue to tighten. The initial €20 million seed round, led by imec.xpand, had already positioned Vertical Compute as one of Europe’s most well-capitalised deeptech seed-stage companies. With the extension, the total €57 million seed round places the startup firmly among the continent’s largest pre-Series A raises in the semiconductor space. Solving the Memory Wall: From Centimetres to Nanometres The technical challenge that Vertical Compute addresses is well understood but stubbornly difficult to solve. Current AI chip architectures rely on a horizontal separation between processing units and memory, creating a bottleneck as data must travel centimetres across circuit boards. Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) offers speed but at prohibitive cost and limited density, while Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) provides greater capacity but consumes substantial energy and bandwidth. As AI workloads intensify, the scaling limitations of both memory technologies have become a binding constraint on system performance. Vertical Compute’s approach — what the company describes as the “skyscraper model” — fundamentally reimagines this architecture. By integrating vertical data lanes directly on top of computation units within a single wafer process, the technology reduces data movement from centimetres to nanometres. The company claims its approach has the potential to outperform conventional DRAM in terms of density, cost, and energy efficiency, offering a step change rather than an incremental improvement. In just over a year since spinning out of imec, Europe’s leading nanoelectronics research centre, Vertical Compute has grown to a team of 25 across Belgium and France, successfully taped out its first vertically integrated memory-on-logic test chip, and secured a manufacturing partnership with TSMC. The collaboration with the world’s largest semiconductor foundry validates that the vertical memory approach can be produced at industrial scale — a critical milestone for any chip startup seeking commercial traction. European AI Chip Ambitions Gain Momentum Vertical Compute’s raise arrives at a moment of heightened strategic urgency for the European semiconductor sector. Global AI chip demand continues to outstrip supply, with memory constraints emerging as a particular chokepoint. The European Chips Act, which aims to double Europe’s share of global semiconductor production to 20 per cent by 2030, has created a favourable funding environment for startups addressing critical gaps in the AI computing value chain. The company was co-founded by CEO Sylvain Dubois, formerly of Google, and CTO Sebastien Couet, who brings deep expertise from his time at imec’s research labs. Their combination of commercial scaling experience and advanced semiconductor research positions Vertical Compute to bridge the gap between laboratory innovation and volume production — a transition that has historically proven challenging for European chip startups. With the extended seed funding secured, Vertical Compute is now focused on moving beyond validation and into commercial chiplet deployment. If the technology delivers on its promise, it could offer AI system designers a European-made alternative to the memory solutions currently dominated by a handful of Asian manufacturers, whilst simultaneously addressing the energy consumption challenges that increasingly constrain data centre expansion. Summary Company Vertical Compute Headquarters Belgium Founded 2024 (imec spin-off) Round Seed extension Amount €37M (€57M total seed) Lead Investor Quantonation Key Investors Flanders Future Techfund, Eurazeo, XAnge, imec.xpand, Kima Ventures Use of Funds Commercial chiplet deployment for AI platforms Key Partnership TSMC manufacturing partnership