Nazca Capital leads Series B as Spanish startup enters unicorn territory Europe’s space technology sector is experiencing a pivotal transformation, with artificial intelligence reshaping how satellite data is collected, processed, and commercialised. As enterprises and governments increasingly rely on real-time geospatial intelligence for everything from agricultural forecasting to disaster response, the demand for AI-ready Earth observation platforms has never been higher — and investors are taking notice. Madrid-based Xoople has closed a $130 million Series B round to accelerate the development of its proprietary satellite constellation and EarthAI platform. The round was led by Nazca Capital, with participation from MCH Private Equity, CDTI (the Spanish government’s technology development fund), Buenavista Equity Partners, and Endeavor Catalyst. The investment brings Xoople’s total funding to $225 million and pushes the company’s valuation into unicorn territory. Strategic investors back Europe’s earth observation ambitions The investor composition reflects a deliberate blend of private capital and institutional backing. Nazca Capital, one of Spain’s most prominent growth-stage venture firms, led the round — a significant endorsement of the country’s deeptech ecosystem. CDTI’s participation underscores the strategic importance the Spanish government places on sovereign space technology capabilities, while Endeavor Catalyst’s involvement connects Xoople to a global network of high-growth entrepreneurs. “Every major computing era creates a new system of record; those that define that system become the economic centres of that era,” said Fabrizio Pirondini, CEO and co-founder of Xoople. The company’s thesis is that as artificial intelligence matures, it will require a continuous, high-fidelity data layer representing the physical world — and that whoever builds it will occupy a position analogous to what cloud infrastructure providers became in the software era. Founded in 2019, Xoople spent its first seven years developing its technology stack around data collected by government spacecraft, building partnerships with Microsoft Azure and Esri for distribution and cloud infrastructure. The company began commercialisation in Q2 2026, with private preview customers already including government agencies and Fortune 500 companies across agriculture, insurance, infrastructure monitoring, and government services. From third-party data to proprietary satellite constellation The Series B funding will primarily finance Xoople’s transition from relying on third-party satellite data to operating its own proprietary constellation. The company has announced a partnership with L3Harris Technologies, the American aerospace and defence contractor, to design and manufacture sensors for its spacecraft. Pirondini described the constellation as capable of producing data that is “two orders of magnitude better” than existing monitoring systems. This vertical integration strategy positions Xoople to control the entire value chain — from data collection in orbit to AI-processed insights delivered to enterprise clients. The approach differentiates it from competitors like Planet Labs, BlackSky, and ICEYE, which also operate satellite constellations but have not built the same degree of AI-native data processing infrastructure. European space-tech investment gains momentum Xoople’s raise arrives at a moment of growing confidence in European space technology. The continent has seen a steady increase in venture capital flowing into satellite and earth observation startups, driven partly by the European Space Agency’s expanded partnership programmes and partly by increasing demand from climate monitoring, precision agriculture, and insurance underwriting. The competitive landscape includes both established players and well-funded newcomers. Planet Labs and Airbus Defence and Space operate mature constellations, while ICEYE and Capella Space have carved out niches in synthetic aperture radar imaging. Xoople’s differentiation lies in its AI-first approach — building not just the satellite infrastructure but the intelligence layer that transforms raw observation data into actionable insights for enterprise decision-making. With its Series B complete and satellite construction underway, Xoople represents one of the most ambitious bets in European deeptech this year — and a signal that Spain’s startup ecosystem is producing companies capable of competing on a global stage. Company: Xoople HQ: Madrid, Spain Founded: 2019 Round: Series B Amount: $130 million Total Funding: $225 million Lead Investor: Nazca Capital Use of Funds: Proprietary satellite constellation development, sensor manufacturing with L3Harris, platform expansion

The personal care industry confronts a data infrastructure gap The global personal care industry, valued at approximately $3 trillion, faces a mounting challenge: an estimated 80 per cent of products will require reformulation by 2030 as regulatory frameworks tighten around ingredient transparency, sustainability standards, and consumer safety. Yet the infrastructure connecting ingredient suppliers with the brands that formulate consumer products remains remarkably fragmented, relying on manual processes, siloed databases, and inconsistent data standards. Zurich-based Covalo has raised €3.5 million in a funding extension to accelerate its transformation from an ingredient marketplace into the shared data backbone for the personal care sector. The round was led by Hi inov, with continued participation from existing investors HTGF and seed + speed Ventures. The capital will fund the expansion of Covalo’s enterprise data platform, development of AI-based tools for workflow automation, and scaling of its infrastructure across key markets as the company positions itself at the centre of an industry-wide data modernisation effort. From marketplace to industry data infrastructure Founded in 2021 by Yann Chilvers and Timo von Bargen, Covalo initially operated as an ingredient discovery marketplace — a digital platform enabling cosmetics and personal care brands to search for and compare raw materials from suppliers worldwide. Over five years, the platform has grown to connect more than 1,500 ingredient suppliers with over 6,000 brands across 145 countries, with a database exceeding 50,000 ingredients. However, the company’s strategic vision has evolved significantly beyond marketplace transactions. Covalo is now building the connective tissue between suppliers’ product information management (PIM) systems and brands’ research and development and product lifecycle management (PLM) workflows — effectively creating a standardised data exchange layer for an industry that has historically lacked one. “What the industry needs is one common data backbone,” said Yann Chilvers, co-founder and co-CEO. “Inefficiencies in how product data is managed and shared contribute to delays and unsuccessful product launches, whilst limiting the industry’s ability to respond to regulatory changes and evolving market demands.” Enterprise clients validate the platform approach The quality of Covalo’s client base speaks to the platform’s growing credibility within the industry. Givaudan and Symrise — two of the world’s largest fragrance and flavour houses — alongside luxury group PUIG and premium skincare brand La Prairie, are among the companies using Covalo’s infrastructure. These partnerships with industry leaders suggest the platform has moved beyond the early-adopter phase and is gaining traction with the established players whose participation is essential for any industry-wide data standard to succeed. The €3.5 million funding extension will support the launch of several AI-powered capabilities, including conversational analytics, automated RFI and RFP processing, intelligent data extraction and enrichment, and regulatory compliance tools. These features are designed to reduce the significant manual effort currently required to source, evaluate, and qualify ingredients — a process that can take months for complex formulations and represents a major bottleneck for product development teams. Regulatory tailwinds drive urgency for data transparency The personal care industry faces an increasingly complex regulatory landscape across its key markets. The European Union’s Cosmetic Products Regulation continues to evolve, with stricter requirements around ingredient documentation, safety assessments, and environmental impact reporting. Similar regulatory tightening in the United States and Asia-Pacific markets is creating a global compliance challenge that is particularly acute for brands operating across multiple jurisdictions. For ingredient suppliers, the ability to provide standardised, verified data to brand partners is becoming a competitive necessity rather than a convenience. For brands, having a reliable infrastructure to access and manage supplier data across their entire product portfolio is essential for maintaining regulatory compliance and accelerating time to market. Covalo’s positioning as a neutral, industry-wide data layer — rather than a proprietary system controlled by any single supplier or brand — gives it a structural advantage in an ecosystem where trust and data interoperability are paramount. As the reformulation wave accelerates and regulatory demands intensify, the case for a shared data infrastructure in the personal care sector appears increasingly compelling. Summary Company: Covalo HQ: Zurich, Switzerland Founded: 2021 Round: Seed extension Amount: €3.5 million Lead investor: Hi inov Participating investors: HTGF, seed + speed Ventures Use of funds: Enterprise platform expansion, AI tool development, market scaling

European demand for sovereign intelligence technology accelerates The geopolitical landscape reshaping European defence and security priorities is driving unprecedented demand for sovereign technology platforms — systems that operate entirely within national borders without dependence on foreign cloud infrastructure. With European governments investing close to €1 billion in defence technology through the European Defence Fund alone, and the continent’s tech sovereignty spending exceeding €1.5 trillion in 2026, the market for AI-native intelligence tools built on European soil is expanding rapidly. Galway-based Octostar has raised €6.1 million in a seed extension round to scale its sovereign AI intelligence platform across European government agencies. The funding round attracted participation from existing strategic and venture capital investors alongside a notable new commitment from The Techshop, a Milan-based venture capital firm, and several new national institutional investors. The capital will accelerate deployment of Octostar’s platform, which serves national security, law enforcement, and financial intelligence organisations across Europe and beyond. A European alternative to Palantir gains traction Founded in 2023 by Dr Giovanni Tummarello, Robert Fuller, Varun Sharma, and Simone Scarduzio, Octostar has been identified by Intelligence Online as one of only two European alternatives to Palantir — the American data analytics giant that dominates the global intelligence software market. The distinction is significant at a time when European governments are actively re-evaluating their technology supply chains for intelligence and security applications. “Nations are re-evaluating their technology supply chains for intelligence and security,” said Dr Tummarello, CEO and CPO of Octostar. “The question is no longer whether sovereign alternatives are needed, but how quickly they can be deployed.” Octostar’s platform provides investigative intelligence capabilities including link analysis, communications intelligence, document intelligence, and GenAI-powered agents — all deployed within a fully sovereign, air-gapped architecture that operates without cloud or internet connectivity. This approach addresses a critical concern for European security agencies that increasingly view dependence on American hyperscalers as a strategic vulnerability. Rapid deployment across EU institutions The company’s commercial momentum has been striking for a startup founded less than three years ago. In Q1 2026 alone, Octostar completed three new deployments within EU national law enforcement and judicial bodies, with more than 15 additional deployments expected by year-end. The platform has also been deployed for national security purposes across the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, and the company has announced joint work with BAE Systems, one of Europe’s largest defence contractors. Headquartered in Galway with a research and development centre in Bergamo, Italy, and offices in London, Octostar benefits from backing by Platform94, an Irish Government and EU initiative supporting deep-tech companies. The cross-border structure reflects the broader European approach to building sovereign technology: leveraging talent and institutions across multiple member states whilst maintaining independence from non-European infrastructure. “Octostar is well positioned for an intelligence market that increasingly demands digital sovereignty,” noted investors from Cysero VC, highlighting the structural nature of the opportunity. The sovereign AI imperative in European defence The timing of Octostar’s funding aligns with a fundamental shift in European security thinking. US hyperscalers still control approximately 70 per cent of the European cloud market, a dependency that has become increasingly uncomfortable as transatlantic relations evolve. The European Commission has responded with initiatives including the EURO-3C project, which brings together more than 70 organisations to build sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure. The Europe AI and analytics in defence market is projected to grow at 8 per cent annually through 2030, with information superiority commanding more than 10 per cent of the European Defence Fund budget. For intelligence software specifically, the shift towards sovereign platforms represents a generational procurement cycle that could reshape the competitive landscape for years to come. With its air-gapped architecture, rapid deployment track record, and growing roster of European government clients, Octostar appears well positioned to capture a meaningful share of this expanding market — offering European agencies a credible, homegrown alternative to the American platforms that have long dominated the intelligence software sector. Summary Company: Octostar HQ: Galway, Ireland (R&D in Bergamo, Italy; offices in London) Founded: 2023 Round: Seed extension Amount: €6.1 million Key investors: The Techshop (Milan), existing strategic and VC backers Use of funds: Scaling deployment across EU government agencies Total funding: €6.1 million

Europe’s fintech infrastructure race intensifies with major investment Europe’s financial technology infrastructure sector is undergoing a profound transformation as traditional banks increasingly seek API-first solutions to modernise their legacy investment systems. The shift from monolithic banking platforms towards modular, cloud-native infrastructure has attracted significant investor attention, with B2B fintech infrastructure alone drawing €6.3 billion in the first nine months of 2025. Against this backdrop, Berlin-based Upvest has secured $125 million in fresh capital to cement its position as the continent’s leading investment API provider. The funding comprises $90 million in equity from Sapphire Ventures, Tencent Holdings, Bessemer Venture Partners, and BlackRock, complemented by a $35 million credit facility. Coming just twelve months after its Series C, the round underscores the accelerating demand for infrastructure that enables banks and wealth managers to offer seamless investment experiences without building proprietary technology from scratch. Global investors back European fintech infrastructure play The participation of Tencent — one of the world’s largest technology conglomerates — alongside established venture firms Sapphire Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners signals growing international confidence in Europe’s fintech infrastructure layer. BlackRock’s involvement is particularly notable given the asset manager’s own strategic interest in democratising investment access globally. Founded in 2017 by Martin Kassing, Dr Til Rochow, and Tobias Auferoth, Upvest operates as a regulated securities institution that provides banks, brokers, and wealth managers with API-based infrastructure encompassing trading, custody, and back-office services. The platform effectively replaces the fragmented legacy systems that have historically constrained European financial institutions from launching competitive digital investment products. “Banks choose Upvest for infrastructure to grow investment propositions profitably at scale for new investors,” said Martin Kassing, CEO and co-founder. “The $125 million round, 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.” Scaling across Europe’s largest markets Upvest’s client roster reads as a directory of Europe’s most prominent digital financial institutions. DKB, Santander’s Openbank, Revolut, N26, Webull, and Raisin all rely on Upvest’s infrastructure to power their investment offerings. The platform currently processes more than 100 million orders annually for over 30 financial institution clients, supported by a team of 280 employees. The fresh capital will fuel expansion into Europe’s largest markets, with a particular focus on localised pension products — including Germany’s forthcoming Altersvorsorgedepot and the United Kingdom’s Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs). This pension strategy positions Upvest at the intersection of two powerful trends: the digitisation of retirement savings and the European Commission’s push to deepen capital markets union across the bloc. Upvest is also investing in AI-driven wealth solutions, including autonomous advisory services designed to personalise investment strategies at scale — a capability that could prove transformative as European regulators increasingly encourage retail investor participation in capital markets. The broader European fintech infrastructure opportunity The European embedded finance market is projected to reach $143.2 billion by the end of 2026, growing at 11.1 per cent annually. Within this landscape, investment infrastructure represents one of the most underpenetrated segments, as the vast majority of European banks still operate on decades-old core systems that were never designed for real-time digital investing. The median European funding round grew 32 per cent between 2024 and 2025, the largest increase since 2020, with fintech infrastructure consistently ranking among the most active investment categories. Upvest’s ability to attract $125 million just twelve months after its previous round suggests the company is approaching an inflection point, with management indicating a clear path to profitability in the near term. As European regulators continue to push for greater retail investor access to capital markets and the pension landscape undergoes digital transformation, infrastructure providers like Upvest stand to benefit from a structural tailwind that shows no signs of abating. Summary Company: Upvest HQ: Berlin, Germany Founded: 2017 Round: Series D ($90M equity + $35M credit facility) Amount: $125 million Lead investors: Sapphire Ventures, Tencent Participating investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, BlackRock Use of funds: European market expansion, pension product rollout, AI-driven wealth solutions

Europe’s defence and intelligence technology sector is experiencing a decisive inflection point, driven by governments’ growing determination to reduce dependence on non-European vendors for critical national security infrastructure. The movement gained further momentum when Switzerland terminated its contract with Palantir in early 2026, citing concerns over US intelligence agencies’ potential access to sensitive defence data — a development that underscored the urgency of building genuinely sovereign alternatives. Against this backdrop, Irish startup Octostar has closed an extension of its seed round, bringing total funding to €6.1 million. The investment attracted participation from existing strategic and venture capital investors, alongside new backers including Milan-based venture capital firm The Techshop and several national institutional investors. Strategic investors back sovereign AI growth The funding reflects accelerating institutional demand for investigative intelligence platforms that operate entirely outside US jurisdiction. Gianluca D’Agostino of The Techshop described the investment thesis: “Giovanni and his talent-dense team represent a rare combination of deep domain expertise. Octostar is one of the very few teams delivering on such demand.” The Galway-headquartered company, founded in 2023 by Dr Giovanni Tummarello, Robert Fuller, Simone Scarduzio, and Varun Sharma, has built an AI-native intelligence platform designed for national security, law enforcement, and financial compliance organisations. Its architecture supports deployment in fully air-gapped, No Cloud/No Internet environments — a critical requirement for government agencies that cannot risk data exposure through cloud-based systems. Octostar’s platform integrates link analysis, communications intelligence, document intelligence, and generative AI-powered investigative agents within a fully sovereign and extensible architecture. Clients can customise workflows and adapt the system to their specifications without vendor intervention, maintaining complete operational independence. Positioning as a European Palantir alternative The company has been recognised by Intelligence Online, a specialist intelligence industry publication, as one of only two European alternatives to Palantir in the investigative intelligence space. This designation carries significant weight within the sector, signalling that Octostar has achieved the technical and operational credibility required to compete with the dominant US incumbent whilst offering genuine sovereignty guarantees. Traction has been building rapidly. In Q1 2026 alone, Octostar completed three new deployments within EU national law enforcement and judicial bodies, with more than 15 expected by the end of the year. The company has also secured national security deployments across the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, and announced joint work with BAE Systems, the UK defence contractor. CEO Dr Giovanni Tummarello framed the opportunity in geopolitical terms: “Nations are re-evaluating their technology supply chains for intelligence and security. The question is no longer whether sovereign alternatives are needed, but how quickly they can be deployed.” European defence tech investment reaches record levels Octostar’s funding arrives at a moment of unprecedented investment in European defence and security technology. Private investment in the sector reached a record €5 billion in 2024, representing a fivefold increase compared to 2019. The European Commission has committed €307 million to advancing trustworthy AI and strategic digital technologies, whilst the European Investment Bank Group has pledged €15 billion through the European Tech Champions Initiative. The sovereign AI opportunity is substantial. McKinsey estimates that sovereign AI capabilities could unlock up to €480 billion in value annually by 2030 across Europe. However, capturing this value depends on European companies demonstrating genuine technological and operational independence from US jurisdiction — precisely the positioning Octostar has established. With offices in Galway, a research and development centre in Bergamo, Italy, and a sales presence in London, Octostar is building from a foundation that reflects its cross-border European identity. The company’s previous funding — a €2 million seed round in November 2024 from Italian investors including Cysero, Euveca, and Kilometro Rosso — provided the initial capital to develop the platform and secure early government contracts. The fresh capital will support expanded deployment capacity and product development as European governments accelerate procurement of sovereign intelligence solutions. Company Octostar Headquarters Galway, Ireland Founded 2023 Round Seed Extension Amount €6.1 million (total) Key Investors The Techshop, existing strategic and VC investors, national institutional investors Use of Funds Expanded deployment capacity and product development Total Funding to Date €6.1 million

Digital commerce in the B2B sector has long laboured under a peculiar inefficiency. Whilst consumer-facing platforms have achieved unprecedented adoption by meeting customers where they already spend time, many B2B ordering solutions have pursued a distinctly different strategy: build a dashboard, populate it with data visualisations, and assume adoption will follow. For retailers and hospitality operators in emerging markets across Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, this assumption has proven persistently wrong. The reality is measurable and sobering. Industry data consistently shows that traditional B2B SaaS ordering platforms achieve adoption rates of around twelve percent among small and medium-sized retailers and HoReCa operators. These figures have remained stubbornly flat for years, suggesting the problem is not merely one of poor implementation but of fundamental design philosophy. Into this gap steps nFuse, an AI-powered B2B ordering platform that has just secured two million dollars in funding to accelerate its expansion across Europe and beyond. Funding and investor backing The $2 million round was led by Eleven Ventures and LAUNCHub Ventures, two of the most prominent venture capital firms operating across the CESEE region. This funding reflects growing investor confidence in solutions addressing the persistent friction within B2B commerce in emerging markets, a sector where inefficiencies remain both widespread and expensive. The capital will support nFuse’s expansion strategy, with particular focus on accelerating adoption across Europe and preparing for entry into broader EMEA and American markets. nFuse was founded by Stoyan Ivanov, who serves as Chief Executive Officer, and Stefan Radov, Chief Operating Officer. Both bring substantial experience from their previous roles at Coca-Cola. Ivanov spent two decades in corporate business development and was instrumental in building Coca-Cola’s European venturing unit, providing him with deep insight into enterprise operations and scaling challenges. Radov brings expertise in distribution, sales operations, and go-to-market strategy accumulated through years in the beverage and FMCG sector. Their combined background reflects a founding team that understands both the strategic and operational realities of B2B commerce at scale. How nFuse reimagines B2B ordering The platform’s core proposition is elegantly straightforward. Rather than requiring retailers and HoReCa operators to learn yet another software interface, nFuse enables ordering through the messaging applications they already use daily: WhatsApp, Viber, and SMS. Customers can place orders using text, voice messages, or images. The system is powered by AI that processes these inputs and converts them into structured orders, eliminating the need for new applications or significant workflow changes. This approach addresses what has long been a blind spot in the B2B SaaS industry. Radov, reflecting on the problem the company seeks to solve, observes: “We sat in the meetings where adoption targets kept getting missed. They don’t want another app. They want to order the same way they message their family.” This insight emerged from direct experience within large organisations struggling to drive adoption of traditional ordering platforms. Ivanov adds institutional perspective: “The industry built and designed eB2B for headquarters — for the people who wanted dashboards and data.” His observation captures a crucial misalignment between what traditional B2B ordering platforms optimise for and what end users actually need. Whilst logistics managers and purchasing departments may appreciate comprehensive data visualisations, the frontline staff placing orders simply want to communicate their needs through familiar tools. The FMCG B2B sector and messaging-first ordering The FMCG and general B2B ordering sector has undergone gradual but significant transformation over recent years. Messaging-first approaches have gained traction in emerging markets precisely because they reduce friction and align with existing user behaviour. nFuse’s presence across CESEE, Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia reflects the genuinely global nature of this opportunity. In each region, the fundamental problem is identical: conventional B2B ordering applications built around desktop dashboards fail to achieve meaningful adoption among small retailers and informal hospitality operators. Within Europe specifically, B2B SaaS funding has remained robust throughout 2026, with investors recognising both the market opportunity and the durability of solutions that actually solve genuine problems. nFuse’s success in raising capital from prominent regional venture firms suggests that investors see real potential in a messaging-native approach to B2B ordering. Looking ahead As nFuse moves into its expansion phase, the broader implications extend beyond any single company’s trajectory. The B2B ordering platform market may finally be reckoning with a fundamental truth: adoption metrics matter more than feature completeness, and meeting users where they are proves more effective than asking them to change their habits. For retailers and hospitality operators across the CESEE region and beyond, nFuse’s expansion could mean finally having access to a B2B ordering platform that works with their workflow rather than against it. Summary Company: nFuse Founders: Stoyan Ivanov (CEO), Stefan Radov (COO) Round: $2 million Investors: Eleven Ventures, LAUNCHub Ventures Use of Funds: European expansion, broader EMEA and American markets Product: AI-powered B2B ordering via WhatsApp, Viber, and SMS

European defence technology has undergone a marked shift over the past three years. The proliferation of low-cost unmanned systems, exposed starkly by recent conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, has rendered many legacy air defence systems economically unviable. A single interceptor missile costing hundreds of thousands of euros deployed against a drone worth a few thousand has created a fundamental imbalance in modern warfare economics. This backdrop has catalysed a wave of European defence technology investment, with the sector attracting €2.3 billion in funding last year alone — double the equivalent figure from 2024. Into this landscape steps EGIDE, a Ris-Orangis-based drone defence startup that has secured €8 million in seed funding to accelerate development of electrically propelled interceptor systems and a hardware-agnostic software platform designed to counter unmanned threats at scale. The round was co-led by Expeditions, Eurazeo, and Heartcore Capital, with participation from Galion.exe and Kima Ventures. The company’s funding will be deployed across three primary objectives: accelerating the design and production of its interceptor systems, developing and refining Mystique — its distributed sensor and AI-driven detection platform — and expanding its engineering team across Europe to bolster capabilities in electric propulsion, aerodynamics, warhead design, and software architecture. EGIDE currently operates with a team of six to nine employees and is recruiting to support the expanded roadmap. Who is backing EGIDE The investor syndicate reflects confidence in both the founders and the market timing. Expeditions, which led the round, observed in a statement that “the rapid proliferation of low-cost drones is transforming the character of warfare, exposing critical vulnerabilities in legacy defence systems.” This articulates the core thesis: European defence establishments lack scalable, cost-effective alternatives to traditional air defence frameworks. Eurazeo and Heartcore Capital, as co-leads, bring both financial firepower and sector connectivity. Heartcore Capital has developed particular expertise in applied technology businesses serving the defence sector, whilst Eurazeo’s presence signals institutional-level conviction in the opportunity. The participation of venture funds including Kima Ventures — known for early-stage defence technology bets — reinforces that this is not a one-off outlier but rather part of a structured investment wave in European defence infrastructure. Addressing the drone problem EGIDE’s technical approach centres on two complementary elements. The company develops electrically propelled interceptor systems designed to be orders of magnitude cheaper than conventional air defence missiles whilst retaining sufficient lethality and precision. The economics here matter: if an interceptor costs a fraction of a conventional missile, the cost-exchange ratio becomes defensible across wider operational deployments. The second pillar is Mystique, a software platform that operates independently of specific hardware implementations. The system combines distributed sensors, AI-driven threat detection, and layered interception logic. By decoupling software from hardware, Mystique can theoretically be retrofitted into existing defence infrastructure or paired with EGIDE’s own interceptor hardware, expanding its addressable market. The founding team comprises Simon Calonne, CEO and aerospace engineer specialising in guidance, navigation, and control systems, and Florian Audigier, CTO and pyrotechnical engineer with warhead design expertise. Both are former MBDA engineers — Europe’s largest missile systems manufacturer — which provides meaningful credibility in a sector where technical pedigree and established industry relationships carry substantial weight. Calonne stated: “Low-cost drones are fundamentally transforming modern warfare. We are building a new generation of scalable and affordable defence capabilities designed to meet this challenge.” This framing — scaling and affordability as design principles rather than afterthoughts — differentiates EGIDE from legacy defence contractors and positions it alongside comparable European drone defence startups that have recently secured substantial funding. The broader European defence technology moment EGIDE is not alone in attracting capital to address the anti-drone technology problem. Frankenburg Technologies, based in Tallinn, recently raised €30 million for interceptor missile development. Tytan Technologies, operating from Munich, secured a similar €30 million round for air defence systems. Both companies emerged from comparable tactical observations: European NATO allies require new solutions urgently, and traditional procurement cycles are too slow. The investment velocity in European defence technology reflects genuine urgency at the institutional level. Defence ministries across NATO are recalibrating procurement strategies, venture capital is deploying capital at scale, and technical talent is migrating from civilian tech into defence applications. This represents a structural reorientation, not cyclical enthusiasm. Looking forward EGIDE’s €8 million seed round provides sufficient runway to validate its interceptor platform and establish initial market traction with European defence customers. The real test lies in execution: delivering cost-effective, reliable systems that perform under operational constraints, securing customer validation, and expanding its engineering capacity to support a growth trajectory that will likely require a significantly larger Series A within 18 to 24 months. The European drone defence startup ecosystem is consolidating quickly around teams with credible technical founders, clear technical differentiation, and investor backing that signals market timing. EGIDE fits this template. Whether it becomes a category leader or acquires strategic value for a larger defence prime will depend on how effectively it translates funding into engineered solutions that prove defensible in European procurement environments. Summary Company: EGIDE HQ: Ris-Orangis, France Founded: 2025 Founders: Simon Calonne (CEO), Florian Audigier (CTO) Round: €8 million Seed Lead Investors: Expeditions, Eurazeo, Heartcore Capital Other Investors: Galion.exe, Kima Ventures Total Funding: €8 million Use of Funds: Interceptor development, Mystique platform, engineering team expansion

Data quality has emerged as perhaps the most critical technical constraint on artificial intelligence adoption across European enterprises. As organisations race to implement machine learning systems and AI-powered applications, a fundamental challenge persists: the quality of data flowing into these systems directly determines the quality of outputs. Gartner research identifies data quality as the single biggest obstacle to successful AI implementation, whilst a recent MIT study found that 95 percent of AI projects never reach production, often due to data governance failures. Against this backdrop, Stockholm-based Validio has secured $30 million in Series A funding, a vote of confidence from some of Europe’s most sophisticated investors in the company’s approach to automating data quality and observability across enterprise systems. The funding round, which closed on 5 March 2026, was led by Plural, a venture firm founded by Taavet Hinrikus, the co-founder of Wise, alongside technology investor Ian Hogarth. The round also attracted participation from existing backer Lakestar, as well as J12 and a roster of notable angel investors including Kevin Ryan, the founder of MongoDB; Denise Persson, former Chief Marketing Officer at Snowflake; Emil Eifrem, founder and CEO of Neo4j; and Sven Hagströmer, founder of the Avanza Bank platform. This brings Validio’s total funding to $47 million since its 2019 founding. Understanding the Validio approach Validio’s agentic data management platform automates critical functions that have traditionally consumed enormous engineering resources: data observability, quality monitoring, lineage tracking, and asset cataloguing. The platform combines AI-powered anomaly detection capable of processing billions of records to identify data quality issues in minutes rather than at month-end reporting cycles. Early customers report a 95 percent reduction in manual investigation time, whilst one metric stands out particularly: the company reports reducing data lineage configuration from eight months to a single day through automation. These improvements translate directly to business value. Validio’s own growth metrics underscore market appetite: the company has achieved 800 percent annualised revenue growth. Its customer base spans several high-profile European firms including Nordea, Deutsche Glasfaser, Canva, Truecaller, Surfshark, Walden, and AllianceBernstein, many of whom operate mission-critical data infrastructure that feeds downstream analytics and machine learning systems. CEO Patrik Liu Tran, who founded Validio alongside Oliver Molander and Urban Eriksson, articulated the stakes in a recent statement: “In the AI era, everything is magnified: now it’s garbage in, disaster out.” This frames data quality not as a back-office concern but as a direct determinant of whether AI implementations succeed or fail at scale. Why investors are backing this moment The investor composition reflects both the strategic importance of data infrastructure and the timing of this round. Plural’s involvement represents the venture thesis of Hinrikus and Hogarth, who have demonstrated conviction in enterprise software addressing fundamental technical constraints. The participation of product founders — Ryan at MongoDB, Eifrem at Neo4j, and Persson’s experience at Snowflake — indicates that experienced technologists recognise the problem Validio solves. This timing matters. European venture capital continues to flow disproportionately towards AI-backed companies. Across the continent in the first quarter of 2026, startups raised $19.3 billion across 887 funding rounds, with AI-backed ventures capturing approximately 62 percent of available capital. Validio’s focus on a foundational layer of the AI stack — ensuring that the data feeding machine learning systems is reliable — positions it within this broader momentum. A European data infrastructure story Validio represents a growing pattern in European technology: high-value software addressing enterprise operational problems, founded outside the Bay Area yet attracting global investor attention. The company’s Stockholm origins connect to a broader Nordic strength in data-intensive systems, from the fintech infrastructure behind Wise to the customer data platforms built across the region. The deployment of capital from this round reflects ambition to scale internationally. Validio plans to expand its go-to-market operations in the United States, United Kingdom, and Northern Europe, with new offices opening in New York and London. Product development will continue in parallel, ensuring that the platform keeps pace with the expanding complexity of data architectures across industries managing critical information flows. For enterprise technology buyers evaluating data quality tools, Validio’s funding and investor backing signal both validation of the problem and the confidence that the company has developed a credible solution. Whether the platform can maintain its growth trajectory whilst integrating effectively into complex organisational data stacks remains an open question — but the market opportunity that prompted this Validio funding round is unambiguous. Key Details Company: Validio HQ: Stockholm, Sweden Founded: 2019 Founders: Patrik Liu Tran, Oliver Molander, Urban Eriksson Round: $30 million Series A Lead Investor: Plural Other Investors: Lakestar, J12, Kevin Ryan (MongoDB), Denise Persson (Snowflake), Emil Eifrem (Neo4j), Sven Hagströmer (Avanza Bank) Total Funding: $47 million Use of Funds: US, UK, and Northern Europe go-to-market expansion; new offices in New York and London

Growing investment in rehabilitation robotics The funding, which closed in late March 2026, comprises €6 million in equity from a consortium of family offices, entrepreneurs, and private investors, supplemented by €2 million in non-dilutive financing awarded through the France 2030 national investment programme. The blended structure reflects a pattern increasingly common among European medtech startups, where government innovation grants complement private capital to derisk the commercialisation of novel therapeutic devices. Lifebloom’s core product, the Lifebloom One, is a robotic exoskeleton system designed to restore autonomous walking in patients with reduced mobility — conditions stemming from neurological injuries, strokes, spinal cord damage, and age-related mobility decline. Unlike fitness-oriented wearable robotics, the Lifebloom One is a clinical rehabilitation tool, deployed within healthcare facilities under medical supervision as part of structured therapy programmes. Scaling deployment across French healthcare facilities The primary use of funds is the rapid deployment of Lifebloom’s Walking Units, with the company targeting 30 healthcare facilities across France within the coming year. This rollout strategy is critical: exoskeleton rehabilitation technology has shown clinical promise for over a decade, but adoption has been constrained by high unit costs, limited insurance reimbursement pathways, and the need for specialised clinical training. Lifebloom’s approach — providing integrated walking units rather than standalone exoskeletons — is designed to lower the operational barrier for rehabilitation centres, packaging the hardware, software, and clinical support into a deployable system. The company’s longer-term target is ambitious: enabling 1,000 patients to regain autonomous walking by 2028. While the number may appear modest in absolute terms, it represents a significant milestone in a field where each successful rehabilitation outcome requires dozens of supervised therapy sessions and careful patient selection. European medtech finds its stride in rehabilitation robotics Lifebloom’s funding arrives during a period of growing investor interest in rehabilitation and assistive robotics across Europe. The global rehabilitation robotics market, valued at approximately $1.2 billion in 2025, is projected to grow at a compound annual rate exceeding 20 per cent through the end of the decade, driven by ageing populations, rising stroke incidence, and mounting pressure on healthcare systems to deliver cost-effective long-term care. In France specifically, the government’s France 2030 programme has emerged as a significant catalyst for medtech innovation, providing non-dilutive capital to companies developing breakthrough health technologies. The programme’s backing of Lifebloom signals institutional confidence in exoskeleton therapy as a viable component of France’s future rehabilitation infrastructure — a vote of confidence that may help accelerate regulatory and reimbursement pathways for the category. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Lille, Lifebloom has spent the intervening years refining its technology and building clinical evidence. The transition from development to deployment — marked by this funding round — represents the classic inflection point for European medtech companies: the moment when a promising laboratory technology must prove it can scale within the practical constraints of real-world healthcare delivery. For the consortium of family offices and private investors backing the round, the thesis rests on a straightforward demographic reality: Europe’s population is ageing, its healthcare workforce is shrinking, and technologies that can multiply the effectiveness of rehabilitation professionals will command growing value. Lifebloom’s challenge now is execution — placing its Walking Units in clinics, training therapists, and generating the patient outcome data that will underpin broader adoption. Summary Company: Lifebloom HQ: Lille, France Founded: 2019 Round: Seed (equity + France 2030 grant) Amount: €8 million (€6M equity + €2M non-dilutive) Investors: Consortium of family offices, entrepreneurs, and private investors; France 2030 programme Use of funds: Deployment of Walking Units across 30 French healthcare facilities; target of 1,000 patients walking autonomously by 2028

Europe’s building energy efficiency sector is attracting growing investor attention as tightening regulations force property owners to rethink how they manage energy consumption across commercial and residential portfolios. French software group Enersweet has secured €45 million in a funding round that combines equity investment from Ring Capital with debt financing from Zencap Asset Management and Bpifrance, positioning the company to accelerate its acquisition-led consolidation strategy in the building energy transition market. Strategic investors fuel Enersweet’s acquisition-led growth Ring Capital has entered the capital of Enersweet alongside debt financing from Zencap Asset Management and Bpifrance, replacing the group’s previous debt partner Pictet Asset Management. The €45 million round — comprising equity investment from Ring Capital and a unitranche debt facility — gives Enersweet the firepower to pursue two to three acquisitions annually across adjacent segments of the building energy management value chain. Pierre-Alexis de Vauplane of Ring Capital joins Enersweet’s supervisory board as part of the transaction, though the management team, led by founder and chief executive Mickaël Cabrol, retains majority ownership and full operational control of the business. A buy-and-build strategy delivering rapid scale Since its founding in 2022, Enersweet has completed five acquisitions in three years, assembling a portfolio of complementary software businesses that serve real estate diagnosticians, engineering firms, property companies, and large commercial occupants. The group’s subsidiaries — Liciel Environnement, Arobiz, Sogexpert, Quotidiag, and eGreen — collectively provide tools spanning energy performance diagnostics, building technical management, and energy monitoring systems. The acquisition of Liciel Environnement, France’s leading provider of energy performance diagnostic software, gave Enersweet a dominant position in the regulatory compliance segment. The more recent integration of eGreen, a pioneer in energy management systems, extended the group’s capabilities into real-time energy monitoring and building automation — technologies that are becoming essential as French regulations tighten around building energy consumption. This acquisition-driven approach has propelled Enersweet to 85 employees, more than 7,000 clients, and over €10 million in revenue by its second full financial year in 2025 — a trajectory that underlines both the fragmented nature of the market and the demand for integrated software solutions in the building energy sector. Regulatory tailwinds and a €100 million ambition The timing of Enersweet’s funding round reflects a broader wave of investment into building decarbonisation across Europe. In France, the building sector accounts for 43 per cent of national energy consumption and approximately a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, making it a priority target for policymakers. The tertiary energy decree (Décret Tertiaire), which mandates progressive energy consumption reductions in commercial buildings, and the BACS decree requiring building automation systems, are creating sustained demand for the kind of software infrastructure Enersweet provides. Across Europe, the regulatory push is intensifying. The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive sets a pathway toward zero-emission buildings by 2030 for new public buildings, with the broader stock following by 2050. This regulatory framework is channelling significant capital into proptech and energy efficiency solutions, with building energy management emerging as one of the fastest-growing segments of the European climate tech ecosystem. Enersweet’s ambitions match the scale of the opportunity. The group has set a target of deploying €100 million by 2030, with plans to expand beyond its current core of energy diagnostics and monitoring into adjacent verticals including air quality management, waste management, and building maintenance software. The strategy positions Enersweet as a potential one-stop platform for the full spectrum of building sustainability services — a consolidation play in a market where hundreds of small, specialised software providers serve fragmented customer needs. For Ring Capital, which focuses on growth-stage technology investments in France and Southern Europe, the deal represents a bet on the intersection of regulation-driven demand and software-enabled consolidation — two forces that, when combined, tend to produce durable market leaders. Summary Company: Enersweet HQ: Paris, France Founded: 2022 Round: Growth (equity + debt) Amount: €45 million Lead investor: Ring Capital (equity); Zencap Asset Management and Bpifrance (debt) Use of funds: Acquisition strategy (2-3 per year), expansion into air quality, waste management, and building maintenance software Total funding to date: €45 million

Strategic health investors back digital therapeutics for cognitive decline Europe’s digital health sector is witnessing a quiet but significant shift in investor appetite, with growing capital flows towards therapeutic applications that address chronic neurological conditions — an area historically underserved by both pharmaceutical innovation and venture funding. As populations across the continent age and healthcare systems strain under the weight of dementia-related costs, digital therapeutics platforms that can deliver clinically validated interventions at scale are attracting attention from a new class of strategic health investors. Five Lives, the Franco-British healthtech startup developing digital therapies for dementia prevention and cognitive decline, has raised €1.7 million from strategic investors Open CNP (the investment arm of French insurance group CNP Assurances), 50 Partners, and Family Ventures. The company is supplementing the round with a crowdfunding campaign on Sowefund, targeting an additional €300,000 to €500,000. Combined with previous rounds totalling over €3 million from investors including Headline, Speedinvest, and Boost Capital, Five Lives has now secured approximately €5 million in total funding. From prevention to treatment: a dual-product strategy Founded in 2019 by CEO Xavier Louis, Five Lives has evolved from a consumer-facing brain health app into a clinically validated digital therapeutics platform operating across two distinct product lines. The original Five Lives Mental Health Prevention app targets at-risk individuals without a clinical diagnosis, offering personalised lifestyle guidance across five evidence-based pillars: physical exercise, cognitive stimulation, nutrition, sleep, and social engagement. In January 2026, the company launched Five Lives Care, a prescription-grade therapeutic application designed specifically for patients with mild cognitive impairment — the clinical stage that often precedes Alzheimer’s disease. The app includes over 500 adapted exercise videos, memory and attention training games, and AI-powered personalised treatment sessions. Within its first two months, Five Lives Care has enrolled 5,000 patients, demonstrating strong early adoption in a market where treatment options for early-stage cognitive decline remain severely limited. “When diagnosed with Alzheimer today, patients go home with no meaningful medical perspective,” Xavier Louis has noted, highlighting the therapeutic gap that Five Lives aims to address. The company’s approach draws on accumulating clinical evidence that lifestyle interventions can meaningfully slow cognitive decline when delivered early and consistently. Clinical validation underpins reimbursement strategy The strength of Five Lives’ positioning lies in its clinical evidence base. A randomised controlled trial conducted across seven hospitals — five in the United Kingdom and two in France (Broca Hospital in Paris and La Timone in Marseille) — involving 180 patients demonstrated significant improvements in executive function and quality of life within three months of using the platform. The new funding will partially finance a second clinical trial, designed to strengthen the company’s case for healthcare reimbursement — a critical milestone that would unlock substantially larger market access. The reimbursement pathway is central to Five Lives’ revenue model. While the consumer app operates on a subscription basis at approximately €30 per month, the clinical product commands a reimbursement rate of €135 per month. Securing formal reimbursement approval, which the company is targeting for 2027, would transform its unit economics and addressable market. Five Lives projects revenues of €1 million in 2026, rising to €5 to €10 million in 2027 if reimbursement is achieved, with a longer-term ambition of reaching €100 million in annual revenue and 500,000 patients by 2030. A growing European digital therapeutics market The investment by Open CNP is strategically significant. As the investment vehicle of CNP Assurances, one of France’s largest insurance groups, its participation signals that major health insurers are beginning to view digital therapeutics as a viable complement to traditional care pathways — and a potential tool for reducing the long-term costs associated with dementia, which currently represent one of the largest financial burdens on European healthcare systems. Five Lives’ commercial expansion is focused on three markets: France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with the new capital supporting customer acquisition and AI integration to further personalise treatment protocols. With over 200,000 cumulative app downloads and a growing clinical evidence base, the company is building the foundation for a platform that could scale across Europe’s fragmented but increasingly receptive digital health landscape. Summary Company: Five Lives HQ: France / United Kingdom Founded: 2019 Round: Funding round Amount: €1.7 million (+ up to €500k crowdfunding) Investors: Open CNP (CNP Assurances), 50 Partners, Family Ventures Use of Funds: Commercial expansion (France, UK, US), second clinical trial, AI integration for personalised treatment

General Catalyst leads seed round as enterprise AI agent adoption accelerates The enterprise AI landscape is evolving rapidly from experimental chatbot deployments towards autonomous agents capable of executing complete business workflows. As organisations across Europe grapple with the practical challenge of moving AI from proof-of-concept to production-ready systems, a new generation of platforms is emerging to bridge the gap between AI capability and enterprise-grade deployment — particularly for non-technical teams that lack dedicated engineering resources. Nexus, the Brussels-founded agentic AI platform backed by Y Combinator, has raised $4.3 million in a seed round led by General Catalyst. Additional investors include Transpose Platform, Twenty Two Ventures, Phosphor Capital, and prominent angel investors Gokul Rajaram, Raphael Schaad, and Jake Mintz. The funding will support the company’s expansion into enterprise markets across Europe and the United States. Enabling non-technical teams to deploy AI agents Founded in 2024 by former McKinsey consultant Assem Chammah and AI engineer Shady Al Shoha, Nexus has developed a platform that enables non-technical business teams to build and deploy production-ready AI agents without writing code. The platform integrates across more than 4,000 enterprise systems — spanning CRM, ERP, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other core business tools — allowing agents to execute complete workflows end-to-end rather than simply answering queries or generating content. What distinguishes Nexus from the crowded field of AI agent builders is its embedded governance and compliance layer. Enterprise deployment of autonomous agents raises significant questions around data handling, audit trails, and regulatory compliance, particularly in heavily regulated European industries. Nexus addresses this by building governance controls directly into the agent deployment process, enabling organisations to maintain oversight while benefiting from automation. Early traction with major European enterprises Despite its early stage, Nexus has already secured notable enterprise clients, including Orange Group, the global telecommunications operator with operations across Europe and Africa. Orange deployed a customer onboarding agent using the Nexus platform in just four weeks, reportedly achieving a 50 per cent increase in conversion rates and generating more than €5 million in annual lifetime value from a single agent deployment — a striking demonstration of the platform’s potential return on investment. Belgian telecommunications company Proximus Global is another early adopter, further validating the platform’s applicability in large, complex enterprise environments. These reference customers provide Nexus with a powerful narrative for its sales pipeline as it scales beyond its initial Belgian market. The European agentic AI market matures Nexus’s raise arrives at a pivotal moment for the European AI ecosystem. According to recent market data, AI-backed startups now attract 62 per cent of all venture capital funding in Europe, with enterprise AI solutions commanding an increasingly significant share. The shift from generative AI tools towards agentic AI — where software autonomously completes multi-step business processes — represents what many investors view as the next major value-creation wave in enterprise technology. General Catalyst’s decision to lead the round is noteworthy. The firm has been one of the most active global investors in enterprise AI infrastructure, and its backing signals confidence in Nexus’s approach to a market that remains highly competitive. Y Combinator’s continued involvement, following its initial support through its accelerator programme, adds further validation. For the Brussels-based startup, the seed funding provides the runway to expand its engineering team, deepen platform capabilities, and pursue the enterprise sales cycles that typically define growth in this segment. With AI agent deployment emerging as a strategic priority for large European organisations, Nexus is positioning itself at the intersection of two powerful trends: the democratisation of AI development and the enterprise demand for measurable automation outcomes. Summary Company: Nexus HQ: Brussels, Belgium Founded: 2024 Round: Seed Amount: $4.3 million (€3.7 million) Lead Investor: General Catalyst Use of Funds: Engineering team expansion, platform development, enterprise sales across Europe and the US