Frontier AI lab for defence and security Twin Prime has raised have $10 million in pre-seed funding led by Expeditions, with additional investment from American and European VCs, Theon, family offices, and angels from within Palantir, Anduril, Quorum, and more. 

Twin Prime is developing AI models that natively reason on data from a large number of sensor modalities in the physical world, notably across the national security landscape, compressing the perception-to-decision layer to enable smart, real-time action against threats. 

The company was founded in 2025 by George Lentzas, Stephane Sezer, Drew Calcagno, and Michael Leite-Garcia, a multinational team of researchers in frontier AI, quantitative finance, and national security. 

Collectively, they have extensive experience at top institutions, including Hudson River Trading, Google Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Columbia University, the White House, the Pentagon, and various branches of both the US and European armed forces. 

Mikolaj Firlej, Co-founder and GP of Expeditions, said: 

“Current AI models are not specialised enough to capture the complexity of modern war and wider security challenges. They usually have limited applicability at the edge and often overlook sensor integration and critical data feeds. 

Twin Prime is developing models purpose-built for high-stakes environments where size, fusion and speed are critical.

At a time when most defence prime contractors struggle to integrate advanced AI models, the Twin Prime team presents a clear commercial value not just by retrofitting legacy systems, but by transforming their operations.”

Twin Prime and Theon, a large European defence prime, also intend to form a Joint Venture to develop, commercialise, and deploy bespoke AI solutions built upon Twin Prime's proprietary models.

The JV will augment Theon’s extensive deployment of sensors and other defence product offerings, particularly as a continuation of its Theon Next initiative.

Iceotope Group, a provider of precision liquid cooling solutions for data centres and edge infrastructure, has raised $26 million in a Series B funding round led by Two Seas Capital and Barclays Climate Ventures, with participation from existing investors Edinv, ABC Impact, Northern Gritstone, and British Patient Capital.

Founded in 2005 as a research-driven green computing venture, Iceotope has evolved into a specialist in precision liquid cooling for AI infrastructure, high-performance computing (HPC), and edge deployments.

The company’s chassis-based liquid cooling approach is designed to replace traditional air cooling with liquid-based thermal management across infrastructure components, helping high-performance systems operate more efficiently while reducing energy consumption and water usage.

Iceotope said its solutions are designed for both core data centre environments and enterprise and edge deployments where cooling constraints can be particularly demanding. The company currently holds more than 200 granted and pending patents related to its liquid cooling systems.

We’ve spent years developing a differentiated IP portfolio and products purpose-built for AI infrastructure, and we’re now focused on scaling alongside growing demand for more advanced and sustainable cooling technologies,

said Simon Jesenko, CEO and CFO of Iceotope.

The new funding will support product and engineering development, expansion of the company’s patent portfolio, and ecosystem partnerships aimed at bringing solutions powered by its technology to market.

  The six largest American banks shed 15,000 employees in the first quarter of 2026 while posting 47 billion dollars in collective profits, up 18 per cent year on year. The chief executives are no longer hedging. Jamie Dimon said artificial intelligence will eliminate jobs and that people should stop sticking their heads in the […]

  Fanuc makes more industrial robots than anyone on the planet. Google makes more software platforms than anyone on the planet. On Wednesday, the two companies announced a partnership that merges those positions: Fanuc will integrate Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise and Google’s Intrinsic robotics platform into its industrial robot systems, giving the 1.1 million Fanuc […]

Ouinex, a Paris-based crypto asset exchange, has raised $3.5 million in a new equity round, bringing its total funding to $9 million, all of it from retail and professional traders using its own platform and with no venture capital participation.

Alongside the funding round, Ouinex introduced Ouinex Launchpad, a token sale platform designed to give users access to early-stage token launches based on platform engagement and loyalty metrics.

Ouinex is a trading platform combining crypto and traditional financial markets within a single environment. The platform offers access to spot crypto, crypto perpetuals, forex, indices, stocks, and commodities derivatives through one account, using crypto assets as collateral.

Founded around a community-funded model, Ouinex positions its users as both traders and shareholders. The company said more than 10,000 retail and professional traders have participated in its funding rounds since launch.

Ouinex operates on a proprietary No-CLOB (No Central Limit Order Book) execution model, designed to prevent the platform from acting as a counterparty to user trades. According to the company, the system aims to reduce practices such as stop-hunting and front-running by limiting market maker visibility into retail order flows.

Ilies Larbi, CEO of Ouinex, said the company’s community-funded structure allows it to approach regulation as part of the product rather than simply a compliance requirement.

Since our shareholders are our users, we aren’t cutting any corners to satisfy distant investors. We’re investing heavily in legal frameworks across five continents to ensure that Ouinex remains a safe, sustainable, and fully licensed platform for the years to come.

The new funding will be used to support regulatory expansion, product development, and the rollout of additional trading and risk management features.

  Unitree Robotics has unveiled a 2.8-metre transformable mecha that a human pilot climbs inside and operates from an open cockpit in the torso. The GD01 walks on two legs, folds into a quadruped configuration in seconds, weighs roughly 500 kilograms with a passenger, and is priced from 3.9 million yuan, approximately 650,000 dollars. It […]

Windows, Office, Teams, Copilot, server operating systems, and the cloud licensing the regulator already flagged last July. A nine-month investigation, a February 2027 designation decision, and the first CMA SMS case to walk straight through the door the cloud market inquiry left ajar. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has opened a Strategic Market Status […]

Dave Limp told an all-hands meeting that external funding is now on the table, weeks before SpaceX is expected to price the largest IPO in history at $1.75tn. The launch-cadence target is 100 a year. The cumulative bill so far is roughly $28bn. Blue Origin is preparing to take outside money for the first time […]

Resurrect Bio, a London-based agricultural BioTech startup developing disease-resistant crops, has closed its oversubscribed Series A funding round at €8.8 million ($10.3 million). In February 2026, the company made an initial close of over €6.8 million ($8 million) in its Series A round. 

The round was led by Corteva through its Corteva Catalyst platform, with participation from Calculus Capital, Pymwymic, UKI2S (managed by Future Planet Capital), SynBioVen, and AgFunder. The final closing brings Resurrect Bio’s total funding to about $12.4 million since its inception, including the 2023 Seed round.

Dr Cian Duggan, CEO of Resurrect Bio. “The strength of this raise reflects growing conviction in what we’re building: a scalable, AI-driven platform for resurrecting disease resistance in the world’s most important crops. It’s also a validation of what’s possible when you combine the UK’s world-class plant science base with commercial ambition to translate it into real-world impact. 

“We’re expanding our team, deepening our platforms, and actively seeking joint development agreements with seed companies and breeders who want to bring durable resistance traits to farmers.”

Spun out of The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, Resurrect Bio was founded in 2022 by Prof. Sophien Kamoun, Prof. Tolga Bozkurt and Dr Cian Duggan. The company is on a mission to become the world’s leading plant disease resistance company, developing both in-house traits and collaborating with leading seed companies to protect crops. 

Resurrect Bio provides the seed industry with a sustainable alternative to chemical crop protection by resurrecting complex resistance mechanisms. 

The company’s core technology is based on the idea that pathogens evolve to weaken the crop’s immune response, causing disease. The company’s approach is to resurrect the immune system, locking the pathogen out of the crop.

The funds will be deployed to scale Resurrect Bio’s three core capabilities: its FloraFold® AI in silico discovery platform, which predicts interactions between plant and pathogen proteins; its high-throughput functional biology platform, which validates those predictions at scale; and its Resurrection platform, which reactivates cryptic resistance mechanisms already present in elite germplasm.

Together, these platforms “dramatically” compress the timeline from discovery to deployment in crop.

Elizabeth Klein-Edmonds, Investment Director at Calculus Capital, said, “Crop disease remains a major and often overlooked challenge in global agriculture. Resurrect Bio’s innovative gene-editing platform, which restores native disease-resistance genes in crops, offers a promising solution by reducing dependence on chemicals and boosting yields.”

Resurrect Bio claims to be ready to engage seed companies and breeders through additional joint development agreements. Through these partnerships, it aims to bring durable disease-resistance traits to commercial pipelines faster than conventional breeding can achieve. In March 2026, the company announced its partnership with Corteva Agriscience to develop disease resistance in corn.

The post UK AgriBioTech startup Resurrect Bio closes €8.8 million Series A to develop disease-resistant crops appeared first on EU-Startups.

An eight-month investigation arc, a $6m bellwether verdict, and a National PTA that has now resigned its Meta sponsorship. The line between independent expert and corporate spokesperson is, on the evidence, a budget item. Meta and Google have spent years funding a network of US parent and child-safety organisations that turn up, again and again, […]

As gig platforms continue to expand globally, one of the biggest operational challenges they face is managing cross-border disbursements to an ever-growing network of freelancers, creators, and partners across multiple regions. While the gig economy thrives on flexibility and rapid growth, traditional banking systems, particularly wire transfers, struggle to keep up. These payment methods are […]

Most people think of additive manufacturing — better known as 3D printing — as small plastic prototypes or desktop machines producing objects you can hold in your hand.

Since emerging in the 1980s, the technology has steadily evolved from a rapid prototyping tool into a serious industrial process used across aerospace, automotive, healthcare, and defence.

But scaling additive manufacturing to produce very large industrial components has remained far more difficult. Industries such as aviation, maritime, and energy still rely heavily on expensive molds, long production cycles, and highly centralised supply chains to produce metre-scale components using methods that are costly, labour-intensive, and generate significant material waste.

According to Francesco De Stefano, additive manufacturing largely accepted the physical “box” of the printer as a limitation until around 2015.  There was still a lot of work needed inside that box to industrialise the technology.”

But what if you broke the box entirely?

De Stefano’s Italian-founded advanced manufacturing company, Caracol, is solving the challenge of producing industrial-scale, large, and mixed-volume parts through Large Format Additive Manufacturing (LFAM), using robotic arms, advanced software, turnkey additive manufacturing systems, materials, and factory integration to reliably manufacture large polymer, composite, and metal components at production scale.

Caracol combines robotics, automation, software, and manufacturing engineering into integrated production systems that can create complex lightweight structures and industrial components at scale. Industrial robotic arms were already widely used in automotive manufacturing, welding, and pick-and-place applications.

A traditional 3D printer operates on three axes, while industrial robots operate on six, enabling far greater geometric freedom and scalability.

“That combination allowed us to move beyond the traditional limitations of additive manufacturing,” he explained. 

Prior to founding Caracol, De Stefano studied business in Milan and London and later moved into consulting, working in executive advisory, particularly in aerospace and industrial sectors.

At some point, he realised that while PowerPoints and Excel were great, he wanted to work on something with real industrial impact.

“I already knew Giovanni and Paolo, two of the other co-founders, from university. Back in 2015, they already believed additive manufacturing was the future, but they felt the technology was still too limited in scale.”

Their insight was to combine additive manufacturing with robotics. Between 2015 and 2017, they worked on integrating the two technologies to bring additive manufacturing into large-scale industrial production. With another co-founder, Jacopo, on board by the end of 2017, they realised their technology could have a real impact on industrial manufacturing. 

Breaking manufacturing’s entrenched habits

Geopolitical tensions, supply chain fragility, and industrial sovereignty have become increasingly important across aerospace, defence, energy, and transportation. After COVID and the ensuing supply chain disruptions, many companies realised the old model of highly centralised manufacturing was no longer resilient.

As labour shortages grow, supply chains regionalise, and industries seek more flexible production models, additive manufacturing is increasingly shifting from an experimental technology to a strategic industrial capability.

Yet startups and scaleups typically struggle to disrupt traditional industries like manufacturing and supply chains. 

When it comes to additive manufacturing, one of the first challenges is certification.

Take a boat component as an example.

 “Traditional composite manufacturing processes are certified, well understood, and supported by decades of production data. Certification bodies already recognise those manufacturing methods,” explained De Stefano. 

The second barrier is mindset. In industries like maritime or composites: 

“You build moulds by hand, operators manually place carbon fibre and glass fibre, and finishing work is also largely manual. It works, it’s relatively inexpensive, and people have been doing it that way for decades.

So when you introduce a new technology, the first reaction is often: ‘This is never going to work. We’ve always done it this way.’”

Caracol addressed the challenges facing additive manufacturing with a scientific approach.

For the first five years, it didn’t sell the technology at all. Instead, it operated as a service bureau, qualifying and certifying the process before commercialising it. It worked with aerospace, maritime, and automotive OEMs on testing, prototyping, material characterisation, and certification. 

Only once the applications were qualified and the business case was validated, did it start offering the technology commercially in 2022. At the same time, it focused heavily on training customers.

De Stefano explained:

“Because we operated the systems ourselves for years, we were able to guide customers not just on the machine itself, but on how to redesign and scale their production processes around the technology.”

The benefits of robotic additive manufacturing

Instead of 3D printing small prototype parts, Caracol’s robotic systems manufacture large-scale marine structures, molds, and functional components for boats and yachts. 

Rather than relying on traditional tooling or moulds, Caracol’s systems manufacture parts layer by layer directly from digital designs, helping companies reduce waste, lower production costs, and accelerate manufacturing timelines. Its core sectors today are transportation (including dual defence applications across maritime, aerospace, and land mobility), creative industries like architecture, construction, retail environments, and design applications using sustainable materials and customised geometries.

The company launched a metal additive manufacturing platform around two years ago, expanding into energy applications, including propulsion systems, industrial components, and nuclear-related applications. The company is also exploring solutions for manufacturing in space.

In maritime composite manufacturing, producing a component traditionally involves several months of lead time. It can take three to four months just to create the mould, then several more weeks to laminate and finish the part. Caracol eliminates the mold entirely.

De Stefano detailed: 

“You go directly into production and then perform the same finishing processes afterwards. In many cases, lead times are reduced by more than half.”

This not only saves time but also money. A project with yacht makers Ferretti Group achieved cost savings of more than 30 per cent. The benefits also extend to waste reduction.

In conventional aerospace tooling,  traditional manufacturing often wastes 70 to 80 per cent of the material during machining. With Caracol, waste drops to below 5 per cent. Caracol’s process also leads to significant weight reduction. In some cases, tooling components are now one-tenth the weight of traditional alternatives, making them much easier to move and manage in factories.

Building a transatlantic manufacturing footprint 

The company is currently the only large-format additive manufacturing player operating manufacturing facilities in both Europe and the US.

According to De Stefano, Caracol made this decision early in recognition of how important the US market would become, particularly for aerospace, defence, and industrial manufacturing. In the US, manufacturers have historically relied more on very large and expensive gantry systems. Flexible robotic manufacturing is gaining momentum there now as companies increasingly understand the importance of deployable, localised manufacturing.

Comparing the two markets, De Stefano said: “Interestingly, Europe is actually more advanced in robotics integration than parts of the US. I think that comes from Europe’s industrial heritage and manufacturing traditions.

“One major difference is that US customers are generally faster to adopt new technology. There is less resistance from a mindset perspective and more willingness to take risks. At the same time, expectations around support and responsiveness in the US are much higher:

“Customers expect you to be physically close, react quickly, and support them directly throughout implementation.”

From supervised machines to autonomous manufacturing

Automation within large-scale additive manufacturing has evolved rapidly over the past decade, shifting from highly supervised production environments toward increasingly autonomous and self-optimising systems. De Stefano describes progress in the sector as “dramatic”. In 2017, the company’s systems required constant oversight. 

“Operators had to supervise the machines continuously and manually intervene throughout the process.”

Today, he explained, “Caracol’s systems can operate lights-out for days at a time. Once the print is launched, the machine can run autonomously with very minimal intervention.”

While there is still some manual work involved in setting up prints, loading materials, and post-processing parts, AI and machine learning are increasingly automating those operations as well.

The next stage is machines becoming capable of understanding and optimising their own processes in real time. The company already has its Nexus software platform, which monitors large amounts of production data. 

“Last year, we also launched our ADOS AI platform, which allows the system not only to monitor the process but to understand deviations from the target outcome and automatically adjust parameters live. That improves productivity, reduces waste, minimises downtime, and even enables predictive maintenance.”

To support that vision, Caracol built its own integrated hardware, software, and automation ecosystem designed to centralise manufacturing intelligence across its global network. De Stefano explained: “All our systems connect through the Nexus platform, which allows us to aggregate and analyse production data globally. That means the machines are effectively learning from one another already.

For Caracol, what began as an effort to “break the box” of traditional 3D printing has evolved into a broader vision of distributed, software-driven manufacturing systems. Its long-term ambition is not just autonomous machines, but globally connected manufacturing systems capable of collectively learning and improving over time.

Rather than robots directly ‘talking’ to each other individually, the learning happens through a centralised data and software layer. The more data we gather across the network, the faster the systems improve collectively.

“That’s really the long-term vision: globally connected manufacturing systems continuously learning and optimising together,” shared De Stefano.

When VivaTech first opened its doors in 2016, it gathered 45,000 visitors. This June, the 10th edition is expected to welcome more than 180,000 attendees from 171 countries, a 300% increase that reflects not just the event's growth, but the pace of transformation reshaping the global tech landscape.

From 17 to 20 June at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, VivaTech 2026 promises to be its most ambitious edition yet: 15,000 startups, 4,000 investors, 1,500+ live demos, and a program built around the questions that actually matter right now, AI and productivity, cybersecurity and defense, the energy transition, and the frontier technologies redefining what's scientifically possible.

Here's a look at some of the conversations and speakers you won't want to miss.

The Energy Transition Gets Real

The climate debate at VivaTech 2026 moves past ambition and into execution. The Energy, Greentech & Mobility track tackles the uncomfortable math behind decarbonization: can renewables scale fast enough? Can AI be sustainable when data centers are consuming energy at record rates? Who pays for electrification and who profits?

To answer these questions, VivaTech is bringing together some of the sector's most consequential voices. Lei Zhang, CEO of Envision, one of the world's leading renewable energy and smart energy companies, will be at VivaTech alongside Philippe Piron, CEO of Electrification at GE Vernova, the energy technology spin-off now at the center of the global grid modernization effort. François Provost, CEO of Renault, will represent the mobility side of the equation at a moment when the European automotive industry is navigating one of its most complex strategic pivots.

Rounding out the track: Siddarth Singh, Co-lead of Energy and AI at the International Energy Agency, and Kate Williams, CEO of 1% for the Planet, bringing both data-driven rigour and accountability frameworks to a conversation that needs both.

On the floor, startups like Nyobolt (ultra-fast charging), Bienesis (climate-resilient agriculture), and Tenaka (ocean regeneration, world exclusive) will demonstrate that the energy transition isn't a future story. It's shipping now.

Tech Beyond the Obvious

If one track captures why VivaTech still surprises after a decade, it's Tech Beyond the Obvious, dedicated to deeptech, radical science, and the innovations that seem implausible until suddenly they aren't.

Jerry Chow, IBM Fellow and CTO for Quantum-Centric Supercomputing at IBM, will be at VivaTech to present the "quantum chandelier", a world exclusive demonstration of a system capable of computations that classical computers simply cannot perform, with applications in healthcare, telecommunications, and industrial optimization.

On the space side, Helene Huby, Founder and CEO of The Exploration Company, represents a new generation of European private space ventures redefining what independent orbital infrastructure looks like. And Madeline Lawrence, Chief Growth Officer of Aikido, speaks to a parallel frontier: AI-assisted tools that detect and fix code vulnerabilities at the speed the threat landscape now demands.

The track also features Adel Haddoud, CEO of Infinite Orbits, working on satellite life-extension technology, and world exclusives including Xpanceo's AI-powered smart contact lens capable of projecting information directly into the field of vision.

Where Tech Leadership Gets Tested

The Tech Leaders Summit, powered by QuantumBlack AI by McKinsey, Nebius and Orisha, is where the conversation shifts from what's possible to what's actually hard. CTOs, CIOs, CISOs, and CDOs gather to work through the tensions that don't resolve neatly on a slide deck: how do you harden cybersecurity while accelerating deployment? Where does digital sovereignty end and operational paranoia begin? When every layer of the stack is becoming intelligent, who actually controls it?

The speaker lineup reflects the stakes. Elizabeth Stone, Chief Technology Officer at Netflix, brings the perspective of an organization that has made infrastructure a competitive advantage, and must now navigate what AI-native product development means at global scale. Jens Holtinger, CTO of Volvo Group, represents an industry in the middle of one of its most complex technological transitions: electrification, software-defined vehicles, and autonomous systems converging simultaneously. Damien Lucas, CEO of Scaleway, speaks from the front line of European cloud sovereignty, a question that has moved from policy debate to operational urgency. And Thomas Dohmke, Founder & CEO of Entire, brings a builder's perspective on what it actually takes to modernize enterprise infrastructure from the inside.

At a time when cyberattacks surged 75% in a single year (Accenture, 2024) and AI is simultaneously the most powerful tool available to defenders and attackers alike, this forum is less a conference track and more a pressure test for tech leadership in real conditions.

A New Format, A New Audience

VivaTech 2026 also marks two firsts in the event's history. On 14 June, three days before the main event, VivaTech will take over the Champs-Élysées for a free, public-facing day of innovation, pedestrianizing one of the world's most iconic avenues and transforming it into an open showcase for AI, robotics, mobility, health, and climate tech.

On 20 June, the general public day becomes the VivaTech Festival, opening the event's final day to 18-35-year-olds, with programming focused on AI & Society, the Creator Economy, and career opportunities in tech, including a dedicated Careers Festival and exclusive demos.

Join VivaTech from June 17 to 20 at Paris Porte de Versailles.

Book now at vivatech.com, before the robots do.

Join us for a conversation with Pieterjan Bouten, Founding and Managing Partner at Entourage, as he reflects on his journey from co-founding In the Pocket and scaling Showpad to $100 million ARR, to now building and funding the next generation of B2B SaaS companies through Entourage Studio and Entourage Capital.

He also shares insights on his role as an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Vlerick Entrepreneurship Academy and the vision behind Wintercircus, a hub for entrepreneurs, researchers, and digital creatives.

Pieterjan dives into the challenges and triumphs of scaling a global SaaS company, the evolution of his perspective as both an operator and investor, and how Entourage is redefining early-stage support for European founders. He also discusses the future of AI in B2B SaaS, the role of communities like Wintercircus, and what it takes for founders to stand out in today’s competitive landscape.

Key Points

• The motivations and early influences that drove Pieterjan to start building companies.
• Lessons from scaling Showpad from zero to $100 million ARR and +500 employees globally.
• How his perspective on founders has shifted after sitting on both sides of the table – as a CEO and now as an investor.
• The rationale behind combining a venture studio and VC fund at Entourage, and how the two models complement each other.
• Where Entourage fits into today’s European VC ecosystem, amid sector-specific funds and cautious capital deployment.
• The role of communities like Wintercircus in fostering collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and ambition among the next generation of founders.

The post The EU-Startups Podcast | Interview with Pieterjan Bouten, Founding and Managing Partner at Entourage appeared first on EU-Startups.

A week after Samsung Electronics passed $1tn in market value, its largest union is preparing an 18-day strike that could disrupt the AI memory chips inside that valuation. The wage gap with SK Hynix is the spark. The bonus formula is the fight. Samsung Electronics sent a letter to its two largest unions on Thursday […]

A London-founded payments fintech backed by US investment giant Bank of America has been acquired by Australia’s top business lender, the lender has announced.  

Banked, founded in London in 2018, has built technology which allows users to pay online from their bank accounts, as opposed to using a credit or debit card. The payment method is known as account-to-account payments. The fintech has been acquired by National Australia Bank (NAB) for an undisclosed sum, with Banked boss Brad Goodall saying the deal will allow its tech to reach more people.  

Banked, which is backed by Bank of America, Insight Partners and Citi, has raised over $50m in funding rounds. NAB is an existing customer of Banked, which has offices in London, Palo Alto and Vilnius, and has also invested in Banked via its venture arm.  

Sources told Tech.eu that Banked would now be exiting the UK and US market and focus on Australia.

NAB executive Shane Conway said: “Pay by Bank is part of a broader shift in Australia’s payments landscape toward real‑time, account‑to‑account options that sit alongside cards and digital wallets. Customers expect making payments to be fast, easy and reliable, and Banked helps us deliver that.”

Goodall, Banked CEO and co-founder, said: “The Banked team have worked hard to build a globally proven payments platform focused on the modern demands of developers and merchants of all sizes and scale.  Having the backing of NAB will allow the platform to reach more customers.”

Earlier this year, Tech.eu reported that Banked’s proposed acquisition of UK fintech VibePay did not go through, despite a press release announcing the deal last year. 

Sources said the deal failed due to issues arising out of the due diligence process carried out by Banked.

In 2025, European energy tech companies raised €7.5 billion, with funding concentrated in large infrastructure-focused rounds spanning EV charging, battery storage, grid flexibility, home energy systems, and sustainable fuels.

Debt financing played a major role, particularly among companies scaling capital-intensive assets such as charging networks and storage systems. Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, France, and Sweden stood out among the most active markets.

The largest deals show investor focus on deployment-ready infrastructure, with EV charging companies IONITY, Electra, and Believ ranking highly, while battery and grid storage companies, including Green Flexibility, Zenobē, Lion Storage, Return, and Energy Vault, also attracted significant capital.

Overall, 2025 points to a European energy tech market increasingly shaped by scale, infrastructure buildout, and the need to support electrification and renewable energy integration (for more detailed analyses of the European technology ecosystem, check out Tech.eu’s annual report: EuropeanTech 2025 - The Big Picture).

Here are ten energy tech companies that raised the most in 2025

Amount raised in 2025: €600M IONITY is a European electric vehicle charging infrastructure company operating a high-power charging network across 24 countries. Founded in 2017 as a joint venture between major automotive manufacturers, the company provides ultra-fast EV charging services designed to support long-distance electric mobility across Europe. In 2025, IONITY secured €600 million in financing backed by nine European commercial banks to expand its network to more than 13,000 charging points by 2030.

Amount raised in 2025: €500M Elvy is a Sweden-based energy technology company providing subscription-based home energy systems that combine solar panels, heat pumps, and battery storage with installation, maintenance, and energy management services. The company uses data analysis and AI-driven optimisation to help households reduce energy costs and increase energy self-sufficiency through fixed-price energy plans. Elvy raised €500 million to support the expansion of its home energy solutions platform and increase access to integrated residential energy systems.

Amount raised in 2025: €433M Electra is a France-based electric vehicle charging company operating a network of ultra-fast charging stations across Europe. The company develops and manages high-power EV charging infrastructure designed to support long-distance electric mobility through a simplified charging experience, integrated software, and charging capacities of up to 400 kW. Electra secured a €433 million green loan in 2025 to support the expansion of its ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure across Europe, bringing its total funding to more than €1 billion.

Amount raised in 2025: €400M Green Flexibility is an energy technology company developing, building, and operating large-scale battery storage systems designed to support grid stability and renewable energy integration across Europe. Founded by battery industry veterans, the company manages the full project lifecycle, from site development and permitting to financing, operation, and commercialisation, with a focus on flexible and grid-supportive energy storage solutions. In 2025, Green Flexibility secured €400 million from Partners Group for large-scale battery storage systems.

Amount raised in 2025: €350M Lion Storage, part of Return and specialising in energy storage, focuses on the development and construction of large-scale battery energy storage systems directly connected to the high-voltage grid. The company aims to accelerate the energy transition by delivering reliable, efficient, and long-duration storage solutions that support a more sustainable and resilient power system. In 2025, Lion Storage secured €350 million in financing for ‘Mufasa’, one of Europe’s largest battery storage projects.

Amount raised in 2025: £300M Believ is a UK-based electric vehicle charging infrastructure company developing and operating publicly accessible EV charging networks for local authorities, businesses, and landowners. The company provides renewable energy-powered charging solutions across on-street, destination, rapid, and ultra-rapid charging locations to support the expansion of electric mobility across the UK. Believ secured a £300 million investment facility in 2025 to support the installation of at least 30,000 public EV charge points across the UK.

Amount raised in 2025: €325M Zenobe is an energy storage and fleet electrification company that develops and operates battery storage systems and electric vehicle infrastructure for public transport, commercial fleets, and power grids. Founded in 2017, the company focuses on supporting the transition to renewable energy and electric mobility through battery optimisation, grid services, and financing solutions. In 2025, London-based Zenobē secured €325 million in debt financing from a syndicate of seven international banks to accelerate electric vehicle fleet expansion across Europe.

Amount raised in 2025: $378M Energy Vault is an energy storage technology company that develops and deploys utility-scale solutions designed to support the transition to renewable energy. Its technologies include gravity-based storage systems, battery storage, and hybrid hydrogen solutions, combined with software platforms that help utilities and industrial customers manage and optimise energy assets. Founded in 2017, the company is known for its gravity energy storage technology, which stores electricity by lifting heavy composite blocks using cranes and releasing the stored energy when the blocks are lowered to generate power for the grid. In 2025, Energy Vault secured $378 million across three funding rounds to support the continued development and deployment of its energy storage projects.

Amount raised in 2025: €300M Return is an energy infrastructure company specialising in large-scale battery energy storage systems and flexibility services. The company builds, owns, and operates storage assets that help balance electricity supply and demand, integrate renewable energy, and improve grid stability. Return raised €300 million in growth capital in 2025, to scale battery storage capacity.

Amount raised in 2025: €250M SkyNRG is a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) company founded in 2009 that focuses on sourcing, supplying, and producing high-integrity SAF to help airlines and corporates reduce the carbon footprint of air travel. SkyNRG works with global partners to scale SAF production, develop dedicated fuel plants, and make sustainable aviation a viable alternative to fossil jet fuel, supporting the aviation sector’s transition toward lower-emission flying. SkyNRG secured €250 million in 2025 to build SAF plants in the Netherlands, Sweden, and the US.

Two AI memory rallies, one country, and a market cap chart that has gone up 9x in two years. If SK Hynix crosses the threshold, South Korea becomes the first country outside the US to host two trillion-dollar companies at the same time. SK Hynix is roughly $50bn away from a trillion-dollar market capitalisation. Its […]

Zerops, a Prague-based platform-as-a-service startup redesigning cloud architecture, has raised a €1.7 million ($2 million) Seed round led by Gi21 Capital to expand its global infrastructure in the US and Asia, accelerate product development, and grow its team.

The funding will support expansion into Asia and North America, including scaling infrastructure in the United States and opening a new data centre in Singapore.

Damir Špoljarič, founder of Gi21 Capital, said, “The market is reaching an inflection point. Rising cloud costs are forcing a shift, while AI is changing not just how software is written, but who is building and running it. We’re moving from millions of developers to millions of developers working alongside AI agents. Most platforms weren’t designed for either of these changes. Zerops was. Its economics come from owning the full stack, and its architecture works because it never abstracts away the underlying infrastructure.”

Zerops was founded in 2021 by Aleš Rechtorík and Jan Saidl as a vshosting.eu spin‑off. The company removes the separation between development and production environments, a long-standing flaw in cloud architecture that causes deployment failures for developers and AI coding agents alike.

The company notes that developing and managing software in the cloud remains both complex and expensive. It cites Gartner’s forecast that global cloud expenditure will hit €617.5 million ($723 billion) by 2025, but highlights that developers devote just 16% of their time to coding, while the remaining effort is spent on infrastructure and tools. 

According to Zerops, a core issue is that development and production environments are fundamentally different, so applications that work in one often fail in the other.

“At the same time, simpler platforms abstract away critical system visibility, while more powerful solutions require significant operational expertise. The rise of AI coding tools is adding further strain, with 45% of developers reporting that debugging AI-generated code takes more time than writing it themselves, often because this code is built in environments that do not match real systems,” mentioned the company in the press release.

Zerops claims to create a unified environment where applications behave identically from development through to production, enabling reliable deployments from the start. It states that on its platform, there are no environment tiers; applications run within a single project where code behaves the same way, regardless of scale. 

This means developers build, test, and deploy in genuinely identical conditions, eliminating an entire category of deployment failures. The startup points out that because the infrastructure is consistent from the start, deploying a production-ready system requires a single click, not weeks of configuration.

Zerops is built on its own infrastructure, with data centres across Europe and the United States. It runs applications in full Linux containers, not restricted app containers, giving developers the same level of access as on their own machines, including real-time visibility and control over running processes. 

The platform also includes more than 15 built-in services such as databases, search engines, and messaging systems, reducing the need for external integrations compared to the typical two or three offered by most platforms. As applications grow, they remain within a single environment, removing the need to re-architect infrastructure at scale, says Zerops. 

Aleš Rechtorík, co-founder and CEO of Zerops, said, “Most platforms ask you to trust that development and production are close enough. We removed the gap entirely by rethinking how cloud architecture should work from the ground up. That’s the same guarantee we now give AI coding agents, and it’s why the code they produce is production-ready from the first deployment. What works once continues to work as applications scale. Our goal is to make running software predictable, not something teams have to constantly debug.”

The company is also introducing Zerops Control Panel (ZCP), a feature designed for AI-driven development. ZCP connects AI coding agents, such as Claude, Codex, or Gemini, directly to real cloud infrastructure within a Zerops project, enabling them to build, deploy, and debug applications in real-world conditions rather than in isolated environments. 

Since AI operates within the same environment as production, the generated code functions immediately. Developers can work alongside AI in the same workspace, reviewing and modifying outputs with their preferred tools.

Zerops aims to become one of the primary cloud platforms used by developers globally, focusing on delivering infrastructure that balances control, transparency, and cost, for both human developers and AI agents.

The post Prague’s Zerops raises €1.7 million to close the gap between development and production in cloud infrastructure appeared first on EU-Startups.

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