European food retail is undergoing a structural reset — and it’s creating real pull for startups. AI is moving from experimentation to infrastructure, reshaping everything from demand forecasting and inventory optimisation to personalised offers and pricing, and giving young companies clear entry points into core retail operations. At the same time, sustainability and health have become commercial imperatives.

Retailers are actively seeking solutions for waste reduction, low-impact supply chains, smarter packaging, and nutrition-led innovation, supported by digital-first marketing and hybrid store formats.

For agrifood startups that can show measurable impact and ROI, Europe’s retail market is competitive — but full of opportunity.

However, market entry is challenging for agritech and foodtech startups.

Foodtech startups typically begin with pilots: limited volumes, regional trials, or proof-of-concept deployments. Retailers, meanwhile, operate at a massive scale through long sales cycles and expect consistent supply across many stores, as well as predictable pricing and logistics.

Food retail runs on notoriously tight margins, which makes buyers cautious about adding operational complexity or increasing unit costs.

In response, EITFood has developed Straight2Market (S2M), a program targeting agritech startups.

What is Straight to Market?

S2M is an acceleration and innovation programme led by EIT Food, designed to fast-track the validation, commercialisation, and market entry of innovative food solutions, directly connecting startups and entrepreneurs with major European retailers.

It helps startups understand retailer requirements around scale, pricing and operations, while allowing retailers to explore new, sustainability-driven solutions with reduced risk. The result is a faster, more realistic pathway from innovation to shelf— benefiting both sides of the food value chain.

What does the programme offer?

For startups and entrepreneurs, S2M offers a practical route to market readiness, combining real-world consumer testing with direct feedback to refine and adapt products, financial support of up to €30,000 to develop or validate an MVP, and the opportunity to run proof-of-concept pilots with leading European retailers. It helps de-risk commercialisation and accelerate progress from prototype to shelf.

Retailers, in turn, gain cost-effective access to disruptive innovation focused on sustainability, technology, and supply chain efficiency. ​

Turning open innovation into reality

In 2025 alone, the programme supported 15 startups, helping them refine and validate their technologies and products in real retail environments. ​ 

S2M also engaged four major retailers — Eroski, Migros, Ametller Origen and Sonae — all of whom firmly believe in open innovation and in partnering with entrepreneurs to accelerate change. ​

Each startup received €30,000 to enhance and adapt their solutions, while each participating supermarket benefited from €15,000 to implement the necessary in-store modifications to commercialise the products effectively. ​

Take a look at the participants:

Eroski partnered with:   ​

Triwuu is a digital platform that connects consumers directly with local producers, offering fresh, sustainably sourced food through curated boxes of fruits, vegetables, and artisanal products selected for quality and low environmental impact. By reducing intermediaries, the platform improves traceability, supports local economies, and promotes more responsible consumption. ​

Remolonas fights food waste by giving a second life to “imperfect” fruits and vegetables and edible production surpluses through flexible weekly or biweekly subscription boxes of seasonal fresh produce. By redirecting food that would otherwise be discarded, the model helps reduce emissions, resource use, and unnecessary waste across the supply chain.   ​

Iztueta is a family-owned producer of artisanal dairy products, made using fresh milk from its own cows raised in a sustainable farming environment. Its range includes natural yoghurts, ice creams, and farm milk, all crafted with traditional methods and high-quality ingredients that prioritise freshness, provenance, and taste. ​

Barrenetxea is an agricultural cooperative producing traditional Basque vegetables since 1980, with a strong focus on sustainable farming practices and freshness. Its offering centres on seasonal vegetables and greens harvested at peak ripeness and delivered in assorted baskets, many carrying the Eusko Label certification for quality and origin. ​

Migros Up teamed up with:   ​

Yummate is reimagining healthy snacking with vegan, gluten-free, protein-rich products designed for health-conscious consumers. Its flagship offering is baked Chickpea Puffs made from chickpea flour, available in flavours such as vegan cheese, sweet corn, and peanut, combining nutrition with everyday convenience. ​

Artisan Candy specialises in gourmet confections crafted with natural ingredients and traditional methods. Its signature product, Sea Salt Caramel Candy, pairs rich, buttery caramel with Fleur de Sel to deliver a refined, premium taste experience. ​

Hubixos crafts functional beverages designed to support energy and overall wellness. Developed by PatiLabs, the brand offers health-oriented drinks enriched with functional ingredients such as vitamins and adaptogens, targeting consumers seeking everyday performance and balance.

In addition:

Sonae matched with Tetis Biotech, a marine biotechnology company transforming aquaculture by-products into sustainable, high-value functional ingredients.

Its snacks include marine collagen and “Seanacks” rich in protein, collagen, and omega-3, all produced through eco-friendly processes that support circular bioeconomy principles. ​

Ametller Origen partnered with Genky Innovations, which develops functional foods inspired by longevity and circularity, using antioxidant-rich ingredients to support healthy ageing.

Through its Eternal Foods range, the company upcycles wine industry by-products to deliver resveratrol and more than 30 antioxidants in products designed for everyday wellness. ​

According to Izaskun Valle, Business Innovation Project Manager at EITFood, leading the Straight2Market programme throughout 2024 and 2025 has been an incredibly rewarding and transformative experience. ​

“Working closely with retailers and startups has enabled me to drive innovation, foster strategic collaboration, and contribute meaningfully to the growth of the agrifood ecosystem.“

Valle concludes:

“Once again, Straight2Market highlights the transformative impact that collaboration can have on shaping the future of food.

The programme helps companies test their solutions in real-world facilities to improve their projects before launching them on the market. "

By backing these businesses, EIT Food not only drives innovation but also helps strengthen a more connected, resilient,  and sustainable European food system. ​ 

To learn more about the programme, visit the S2M website to explore how startups and retailers can collaborate to pilot, validate, and scale innovation in real retail environments.

Lead image: Freepik.

German robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) provider NEOintralogistics has closed a €3 million seed funding round, led by the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund with participation from Cetus Holding.

The need for accessible automation solutions continues to grow. While automation can deliver significant operational cost savings, adoption has been constrained by high upfront investment requirements. As a result, many warehouses worldwide continue to operate manually, with cost barriers limiting automation primarily to large operators.

NEOintralogistics aims to address this gap by making warehouse automation more affordable, scalable, and faster to deploy. Its robotic picking system is designed for both brownfield and greenfield warehouses and can be implemented within weeks rather than months or years. Through a pay-per-pick model, automation shifts from a capital expenditure to a flexible, performance-based service.

Michael Drodofsky, co-founder of NEOintralogistics, said the company is focused on reducing the cost and complexity that have traditionally limited access to warehouse automation.

Our RaaS model removes the need for costly infrastructure or warehouse redesigns, allowing customers to integrate the system into existing shelving and realise efficiency gains more quickly,

Drodofsky added.

The company’s solution is designed to be more flexible and cost-efficient than traditional automation systems and can significantly reduce reliance on manual labour. NEOintralogistics is already working with industry partners, including Magazino, Jungheinrich, GLS, and BITO.

Commenting on the investment, Tim Hos, Associate at APEX Ventures, said NEOintralogistics has developed a scalable approach by replacing high upfront costs and complex integration with a recurring Robotics-as-a-Service model. He noted that this shift improves the underlying economics of intralogistics and supports broader market adoption.

The funding will be used to support commercial expansion and customer acquisition, further product development, growth of research and development capabilities, and team expansion, particularly in engineering and operations.

French accounting software platform Pennylane has raised $200m in a funding round, but says it had no immediate need for the fresh funds.  

The round was led by growth investor TCV, with Blackstone Growth and existing investors, including Sequoia, DST Global and the venture arm of Alphabet, CapitalG, also participating.  

The funding round values Pennylane at around $4.25bn, according to a report in Bloomberg, but Tech.eu was not able to verify this.  

Founded in 2020, Pennylane is a financial management and accounting platform for startups, SMEs, and their accountants across Europe.  

It sells itself as an “all-in-one” accounting and financial management platform that centralises the financial function of businesses and their accountants in one shared workspace, enabling them to work closer together.

Arthur Waller, co-founder and CEO of Pennylane, said: “We had no immediate need for funding, but the opportunity to partner with investors like TCV and Blackstone with low dilution was a strategic advantage. This gives us the resources to stay fully independent while accelerating our lead in AI and expanding across Europe. Our mission remains unchanged: being the reference tool for accountants and their clients."

Pennylane says it will use the funding to increase its R&D investment, including fine-tuning its product in Germany, where it recently launched, and improving its payment and cash management offering.  

Last year, Pennylane raised €75m in a funding round co-led by Sequoia, Alphabet’s CapitalG, and Meritech Capital Partners, while the year before it raised €40 million in a Series C.

Munich-based Orbem, a deeptech company applying artificial intelligence to magnetic resonance imaging to analyse food and biological systems, has closed a €55.5 million Series B financing round. The round was led by Innovation Industries, with participation from Supernova Invest and follow-on investments from existing backers, including General Catalyst, 83North, The Venture Collective, Possible Ventures, and a group of angel investors.

Orbem applies artificial intelligence to industrialise magnetic resonance imaging, enabling fast, scalable, and non-invasive analysis of biological materials. Its platform generates actionable insights from biological data to support decision-making across agriculture, food production, and health.

The technology provides access to information that was previously unavailable at an industrial scale, such as determining embryo sex in eggs, evaluating seed viability, or assessing produce quality without destructive testing. With proven applications in the poultry industry, Orbem’s solutions help improve efficiency, reduce waste, and increase transparency across biological value chains.

Its flagship product, Genus Focus, uses AI-enabled MRI to determine the sex of a poultry egg non-invasively in under one second, providing an alternative to the culling of male chicks, a practice restricted in parts of the European Union. To date, the system has been used to scan more than 170 million eggs, and the company is expanding capacity to meet growing international demand.

Building on this foundation, Orbem has introduced Genus Scale, a solution designed to assess egg fertilisation status before incubation. This allows hatcheries to identify non-viable eggs early, reduce inefficiencies, and redirect suitable eggs for food use.

The Series B funding will support Orbem’s expansion into the United States, further scaling of its poultry solutions, and entry into the fruit and vegetable sector using non-destructive quality analysis. The company will also continue developing healthcare applications based on large-scale biological data.

The UK government-backed British Business Bank (BBB) is taking a £25m stake in Kraken Technologies, the software entity being spun out of Octopus Energy, marking the bank's biggest ever direct investment into a private firm.

Octopus Energy sold a $1bn stake in Kraken last month to a syndicate of investors, paving the way for its demerger from Octopus Energy and a possible stock market flotation in the future.  

Octopus Energy founder and chief executive Greg Jackson told the BBC there was "every chance" Kraken would list its shares "in the medium term", with the location of the flotation "between London and the US".  

A press release from the Department for Business & Trade, detailing the £25m investment from the economic development bank, mentioned that Kraken, which has 70m customers, “may list in London" following its split from Octopus Energy.  

Peter Kyle, the UK business secretary, told the FT that the government investment in Kraken was part of a move to keep it based in the UK.  

Kraken leverages AI to automate customer service and billing for energy firms, making it easier to manage customer billing, smart meters and home batteries. 

The investment from the BBB in Kraken, valued at $8.65bn last month, follows last year’s reforms to the BBB, which saw its funding capacity upped from £15.6bn to £25.6bn, which means that it can scale up the direct investment arm of the bank.  

The BBB is also investing £50 million each into two deep tech funds: Epidarex Capital and IQ Capital.

Jackson said: “Over the past decade, we’ve built Kraken from zero into a true powerhouse.   

"It now plays in a league of its own and is ready to spin out of Octopus – and with backing from world-class investors like the British Business Bank and Octopus Ventures, it’s poised to grow even faster and cement its position as a UK-founded, UK-funded success story.”

Jordan Cummins, UK competitiveness director, Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said: “Cutting red tape and helping businesses scale-up is central to our collective growth mission.

"This latest package from government is therefore a good step on the journey to helping the growing firms of today become the global leaders of tomorrow. Maximising the catalytic role of the British Business Bank and making big bets on battery technology are smart moves to keep the UK competitive."

We are pleased to announce that Jonathan Anguelov, Co-founder of Aircall, will take the stage at the upcoming EU-Startups Summit, returning for the third time to sunny Malta on 7 to 8 May 2026!

Founded in 2014 in Paris, Aircall has grown into one of France’s most successful tech scaleups and a recognised European unicorn. The company provides a cloud-based phone system designed for sales and support teams, seamlessly integrating with leading CRM and helpdesk tools. Today, Aircall serves thousands of customers worldwide, reached unicorn status and has recently surpassed €200 million in annual recurring revenue, with a strong presence across Europe, North America and beyond.

As Co-founder, Jonathan Anguelov played a central role in shaping Aircall’s go-to-market strategy, sales organisation and international expansion. From early customer acquisition to building scalable sales teams and processes, Aircall’s growth story is closely tied to disciplined execution, customer focus and a clear understanding of how to sell effectively in competitive global markets.

At this year’s EU-Startups Summit, Jonathan will do deliver an insightful keynote about “The sales tactics that helped scale Aircall beyond €200 million in ARR”.

During his talk, Jonathan will share sales insights from Aircall’s journey as it scaled into a global SaaS leader, offering perspectives relevant to founders and operators focused on fast and sustainable growth, strong sales organisations and internationally competitive technology businesses.

Further details about the programme and additional speakers will be shared via the official EU-Startups Summit event page.

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Berlin-based GeneralMind, an AI-based system focused on automating operational and coordination tasks in supply-chain environments, has closed a $12 million equity financing round. The round was led by Lakestar, Leo Capital, LucidCapital, Heliad, and BOOOM, with additional participation from angel investors including Alexander Kudlich, Jens Urbaniak, and Samir Sood.

Many enterprises continue to rely on legacy systems of record, such as ERP platforms, to manage transactions and data. However, operational execution is often handled manually, with teams coordinating work across email, spreadsheets, and other disconnected tools to manage exceptions and handovers within supply chains.

While these systems reliably store information, they typically do not support task execution or the unstructured coordination required between functions such as procurement, logistics, finance, and external partners. As a result, email frequently functions as an informal task management layer, leading to manual processes, limited visibility, and higher error rates.

GeneralMind is addressing this gap by developing an AI-based system of action for operational execution. Its AI Autopilot is designed to automate repetitive work at supply-chain handover points by executing workflows across email, spreadsheets, and ERP systems.

Tasks, often initiated through email, are captured, interpreted, and carried through to completion. This approach is intended for environments with high volumes of recurring tasks, strict deadlines or compliance requirements, and multiple internal and external stakeholders, such as sales operations, procurement, and invoice processing.

Inefficiencies resulting from fragmented, inbox-driven workflows can lead to delays, missed actions, and reduced operational performance across supply chains.

Commenting on this challenge, Tushar Ahluwalia, founder and CEO of GeneralMind, said that while organisations are often aware of where operational issues arise, they frequently struggle to translate that understanding into effective execution.

Drawing on his experience in e-commerce, Ahluwalia added that manual, email- and spreadsheet-based processes and complex coordination between unstructured communication and ERP systems create significant inefficiencies in large organisations, noting that GeneralMind is designed to run these processes end to end through a human-supervised AI autopilot rather than acting as a productivity copilot.

The funding was completed within the company’s first months of operation and will be used to support the scaling of GeneralMind’s technology across Europe.

Paris-based Stoïk has completed a €20 million Series C funding round co-led by Impala, which joins as a new investor, and Opera Tech Ventures, an existing investor. Current investors Alven and Andreessen Horowitz also participated in the round.

Stoïk is a European insurtech focused on cyber risk coverage for companies with revenues of up to €1 billion. Founded in 2021 by Jules Veyrat, Alexandre Andreini, Nicolas Sayer, and Philippe Mangematin, the company provides an integrated cyber risk protection model that combines insurance with active prevention and response capabilities.

The company supports small and medium-sized enterprises before, during, and after cyber incidents, helping them maintain operations, limit financial losses, and recover effectively. Its approach is based on an AI-enabled 360-degree model that integrates cyber insurance, risk prevention and detection, and in-house incident response teams, increasingly supported by proprietary AI agents.

Stoïk operates across several European markets, including France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Austria, and Luxembourg. Nearly five years after its launch, the company works with more than 2,000 broker partners, protects over 10,000 businesses, and employs more than 130 specialists across six European countries, reflecting its expanding presence in the European cyber risk market.

Commenting on the funding, Jules Veyrat, CEO and co-founder of Stoïk, said the company’s recent performance reflects a disciplined business model and careful financial management. He noted that the round was sized to support the next phase of growth without exceeding operational needs and that the new capital will be used to further scale the company’s existing model and invest in proprietary AI agents that underpin its prevention, detection, and incident response capabilities.

The new funding will support continued development of Stoïk’s cybersecurity and insurance offerings, further international expansion with a focus on Central and Southern Europe, and ongoing investment in advanced AI technologies.

Stockholm-based Stilla has emerged from stealth with $5 million in pre-seed funding to develop an intelligence layer designed to support collaboration between humans and AI within product teams. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from a group of angel investors.

As organisations accelerate the adoption of AI across workflows, coordination has become an increasing challenge. Information is often distributed across tools and teams, while individual productivity continues to rise. Fragmented context, time-intensive alignment processes, and the parallel use of multiple AI agents can make it difficult for organisations to maintain a shared view of priorities and progress.

Stilla is designed to address these challenges by providing an infrastructure layer for collaboration. Rather than operating as an individual AI assistant, the platform connects core workplace tools (including Slack, Linear, GitHub, and Notion) to maintain a continuously updated understanding of what teams are working on, why decisions are made, and how work progresses. By distributing relevant context across teams and AI systems, Stilla aims to support coordinated execution as organisations scale.

The company was founded by Siavash Ghorbani and Kaj Drobin, who previously contributed to the development of Shop and Shop Pay at Shopify. Commenting on the shift toward organisations where both people and AI systems contribute to decision-making, Ghorbani said:

Without real-time shared context, speed creates chaos. Getting everyone aligned — humans and AI alike — is now the single biggest unlock for companies.

Stilla is already in use at companies including Spotify, Ramp, Lovable, and Legora. Anton Osika, CEO of Lovable, described the platform as an early indication of how work may evolve, noting that it captures context automatically and translates it into coordinated action. Legora CEO Max Junestrand added that in AI-driven environments, speed is essential, and said Stilla helps reduce communication overhead by maintaining alignment across teams, likening it to an AI-enabled chief of staff.

The company plans to use the capital to further build its core infrastructure, enabling better coordination between human teams and AI agents as organisations scale their use of AI. The funding will also support continued integration with existing workplace systems and the expansion of the platform’s capabilities based on early adoption by product teams. 

While much of Europe’s startup spotlight has recently fixated on digital disruptors and AI-powered platforms, steady progress is taking place in the fertile, green hills of northern Spain.

EIT Food’s Bilbao Campus Experience (BCE) is cultivating a different kind of innovation – one rooted in the soil, science, and systems behind what we eat. At the heart of this initiative lies the idea to bring global agrifood talent to Bizkaia, plug them into an advanced innovation ecosystem, and give them the tools to scale in Southern Europe and beyond.

Organised by EIT Food, the EU’s food innovation initiative, and hosted at the BAT (B Accelerator Tower) in Bilbao, the programme looks to redefine how post-accelerator support can drive global impact in sustainable food and agriculture.

With the backing of the Basque Government and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, BCE stands as a model for how public-private partnership and local infrastructure can magnetise international startups to a specific region.

Tailored growth, not off-the-shelf advice

Around 80% of BCE’s curriculum is bespoke, crafted around the individual needs of each startup. The goal is to address specific post-acceleration hurdles: from refining go-to-market strategies to building partnerships with key industry players.

Selected startups spend three to four weeks in November immersed in the Basque Country’s agrifood ecosystem, not only benefiting from mentorship and training but actively collaborating with players like Eroski, Biolan, and Conservas Arroyabe.

Beyond borders: the startups making waves

The programme has drawn participants from Poland, Serbia, Argentina, France, the Netherlands, and beyond – highlighting its international pull.

Startups in the latest cohort represent a cross-section of agrifood ingenuity:

• MiFood (Poland): One of the standout participants in the late 2025 cohort, MiFood is innovating robotic systems for agriculture tech and aims to slash labour costs by 50% and cut CO2 emissions by 30% – all while reducing crop loss.
• Veles Sense (Serbia): Specialising in precision agriculture, their platform provides real-time crop and environmental analytics, fuelling smarter, more sustainable farming decisions.
• Food 4 You (Argentina): Exploring microbial ecosystems for natural food preservation, this startup is paving the way for clean-label, chemistry-free shelf life solutions.
• Happeaz (France): Makers of high-quality, plant-based foods, this company uses local sourcing and minimal processing to deliver flavour without compromise.
• BeeSage (Netherlands): Combining DeepTech and environmental science, BeeSage helps beekeepers detect early signs of threats to their colonies, supporting both biodiversity and food production.

And BCE isn’t just a stopover – several alumni have decided to lay down roots in Bizkaia.

These include Nannobubbles Europe (Hungary), whose nano-bubble preservation technology offers a scientifically advanced solution to food waste; Atfield Technologies (Serbia), which delivers vineyard intelligence through dense canopy climate sensors that help optimise cultivation; Bluana Foods (Italy), innovators in molecular gastronomy producing “vegetable sashimi” that mimics seafood while protecting marine ecosystems; Preservashield (Poland), creators of an edible, invisible coating that extends the shelf life of fresh produce; and Genky (France), which upcycles winemaking by-products into non-alcoholic elixirs that combine sustainability with functional food benefits.

Bizkaia: a gateway, not just a backdrop

The Basque Country’s appeal to startups goes beyond picturesque landscapes and pintxos. Its strategic location on the Atlantic Corridor provides startups with direct access to Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American markets – key growth areas for food innovation.

Add to that a rich industrial tradition, a collaborative research network, and government-backed sectoral support, and you have a landing pad primed for scale.

Alumni such as Genky, Nannobubbles, and Atield have reported that the relationships built during the programme, whether with local producers or academic labs, have outlasted the experience itself.

From digital beekeeping to vegetable sushi, the startups of the Bilbao Campus Experience are showing that agrifood innovation isn’t just about tech – it’s about rootedness, relevance, and readiness to grow.

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Berlin-based GeneralMind, an AI startup building its own “System of Action”, designed to be an operational AI layer on top of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, today announced the closing of a €10.2 million ($12 million) equity financing. 

According to the company, this round was completed less than six months after the company began operating, and it claims that this is one of the largest publicly disclosed European pre-seed rounds in recent years. 

The round was led by Lakestar, Leo Capital, Lucid Capital, Heliad, and BOOOM, alongside angel investors, including Alexander Kudlich, Jens Urbaniak, and Samir Sood.

Tushar Ahluwalia, founder and CEO of GeneralMind, said, “Companies often know exactly where things break down but struggle to turn that insight into operational execution. In e-commerce, I repeatedly saw how email-and-excel workarounds, inefficient manual processes, and painful stakeholder coordination between unstructured email communication and ERP systems create massive inefficiencies in large organisations.

“That’s exactly what we’re solving for with GeneralMind. Our AI runs these processes end-to-end; this isn’t a copilot, but an autopilot: human-supervised, and approved when needed.”

Founded in 2025 by the team that built the German unicorn Razor Group, GeneralMind is building an autonomous “AI System of Action” that takes over the repetitive white-collar work and unstructured email back-and-forth along the supply chain. 

“Enterprises today run on legacy Systems of Records (SoRs) like ERPs. On top of those systems sits a human-as-glue-layer, teams living in inboxes and spreadsheets, stitching together handovers and exceptions to keep supply chains moving. GeneralMind is building the AI System of Action (SoAs) to take over that very layer,” the company mentioned in the press release. 

Its AI Autopilot autonomously executes recurring workflows end-to-end across email, Excel, and enterprise systems. It is designed for mid-sized and large enterprises in Europe and other regions, with a focus on industry, commerce, and logistics. 

Incoming tasks, which often arrive via email, are captured, analysed, and executed end-to-end. This approach comes in handy for use cases involving large volumes of small tasks that must be completed, handovers and alignments must be tracked, deadlines and compliance windows must be met, and many internal and external stakeholders are involved, such as sales operations, procurement or invoice processing.

In addition to its Berlin headquarters, the company operates a second site in Bangalore, India. GeneralMind claims that its technology is used by companies listed on NASDAQ, MDAX, and SDAX

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Pennylane, the Paris-based unicorn building the financial OS for European SMEs, today announced a €175 million funding round to accelerate product investment in AI development and anticipate potential market consolidation.

The round was led by TCV, with participation from Blackstone through funds managed by Blackstone Growth. Existing shareholders, including Sequoia Capital, DST Global, CapitalG, and Meritech Capital, also participated in the round.

Arthur Waller, co-founder and CEO of Pennylane, explained, “We had no immediate need for funding, but the opportunity to partner with investors like TCV and Blackstone with low dilution was a strategic advantage. This gives us the resources to stay fully independent while accelerating our lead in AI and expanding across Europe. Our mission remains unchanged: being the reference tool for accountants and their clients.”

Founded in 2020, Pennylane is a French accounting production and financial management platform for accounting firms and their clients. It provides a single platform for financial and accounting data, used by entrepreneurs to manage invoicing and getting paid, paying suppliers and expense management, piloting cash and profitability, and by accountants for bookkeeping and tax filings.

Pennylane noted that the recent funding occurred during a period of rapid growth that exceeded its initial expectations. The French unicorn also claims that it’s approaching profitability, and this fundraising is reflective of its strategic desire to secure long-term resources to anticipate European market consolidation and the arrival of electronic invoicing. 

“Pennylane deliberately selected investors who fully share the company’s vision. These partners operate with a long-term logic and adhere to the company’s governance charter. This charter guarantees the absolute control of the founders, the absence of price increases, and the continuity of the product strategy,” mentioned the company in the press release. 

This fresh capital will be deployed towards intensifying its R&D investments across several areas. These include building generative AI tools (such as an analysis-assistant co-pilot for accountants to boost their advisory services to business leaders), product localisation to meet German regulatory requirements, preparing for electronic invoicing by strengthening its infrastructure to facilitate the transition for its users starting in 2026 as an authorised platform, and enriching the payment and cash management offering. 

Since 2024, Pennylane has been registered as an Authorised Platform (formerly PDP) by the tax administration, with an electronic invoicing solution already operational. It currently supports over 6,000 firms and 800,000 client companies, and employs 1,000 people. 

Last year, in April, the company raised an additional €75 million in a funding round co-led by Sequoia Capital, Capital G, and Meritech. In November 2025, Pennylane officially entered the German market. 

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Cancilico, an AI diagnostics startup specialising in blood cancer, has raised €2.5 million in Seed funding. 
The Dresden healthtech startup was founded in 2023 as a spin-off of the EKFZ for Digital Health at TUD Dresden, University of Technology, and University Hospital Dresden. 

The company develops AI-driven diagnostic solutions for haematology to automate and improve the accuracy of blood and bone marrow analysis. 

The founding team includes Markus Badstübner, Dr Moritz Middeke, Tim Schmittmann, Sebastian Riechert, Dr Jan Eckardt, Dr Karsten Wendt, and Angel Investor Prof. Gerhard Ehninger.

Its MyeloAID uses advanced AI to analyse bone marrow samples with unprecedented speed and accuracy. The technology can be implemented on any standard imaging microscope or scanner, allowing laboratories to upgrade their current diagnostic capabilities without replacing existing hardware infrastructure. 

The underlying data model for Cancilico’s AI diagnosis is based on a large, validated dataset of various malignancies, as well as data from healthy individuals. 

Partnerships with haematopathology centres further enhance the data model, and cooperation with pharma partners has yielded initial results in accelerating the development of biomarkers and therapeutic options for haematological malignancies.

"We are facing a global shortage of haematologists, yet the complexity of diagnostic cases is rising," said Markus Badstübner, CEO and Co-Founder of Cancilico.

 "Our goal is to democratise access to expert-level diagnostics. This investment allows us to navigate the FDA and CE-IVDR regulatory landscapes and bring a tool to market that integrates seamlessly with existing lab hardware to improve patient outcomes without heavy capital expenditure."

The investment was led by a strong consortium comprising High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), TGFS - Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, GEDAD GmbH (an investment vehicle of the Ehninger family), and ROI Verwaltungsgesellschaft (Roland Oetker).

"We are convinced to invest in a winning team and a superior technology that has already gained commercial traction with its 'Research Use Only' data models," said Dr Jörg Traub, Principal at HTGF. 

"The team combines entrepreneurial spirit with deep technical and clinical knowledge.

Cancilico has established a convincing AI model using training data that includes not only diseased patient samples but also healthy datasets, allowing for better and faster classification."

The funding will accelerate Cancilico’s mission to establish its AI-based diagnostic software MyeloAID as a routine tool to improve the standard of care for blood cancer patients worldwide and to accelerate digital biomarker development in haematological malignancies.

Brussels-based Dripl, the developer of smart water dispensers, has raised €4 million in a funding round to expand its smart dispenser beyond the 500 companies already converted in the Benelux, ramp up their production facility in Leuven and launch in more regions across Europe.

The round was led by Abacus Investments, with continued support from Spadel, Faraday Venture Partners and the Meert Family.

“Real behaviour change only happens when the healthy and sustainable option is simply better than the alternatives on every level. This funding round allows us to make healthy refilling the norm worldwide. We’re building for the long term, reshaping how people hydrate at work. That requires partners who share that ambition, which is why we’re proud to partner with Abacus Investments as the lead investor in this round,” says Colin Deblonde, co-founder of Dripl.

In a 2025 European context, Dripl’s €4 million funding round sits alongside a small number of comparable investments in smart hydration and sustainable beverage infrastructure.

Most notably, Amsterdam-based Aquablu raised €7 million to scale its smart water dispensers, expand internationally and further automate its hydration platform, underlining continued interest in technology-led alternatives to bottled water in workplaces and public spaces.

EU-Startups previously covered Dripl in an earlier 2023 article detailing their €2 million funding round.

“Dripl fits perfectly with our philosophy of impact-driven investing,” adds Wim Flo, CEO of Abacus Investments. “Their sugar-free drinks promote healthier hydration, while their dispensers significantly reduce the use of single-use packaging. We’re excited to support Dripl in the next chapter of their journey and proud to join the Refillution.”

Dripl was founded in 2020 with a mission to reshape the beverage industry. Through its smart Refill Points, Dripl offers just water or flavours with functional benefits, such as ginger-lime or raspberry-grapefruit, without added sugar or unnecessary CO₂e emissions.

Designed for workplaces, Dripl’s dispenser combines hydration, sustainability and convenience, offering a zero-waste alternative to traditional bottled soft drinks and water.

The idea behind Dripl was born five years ago, when co-founders Colin and Lucas found themselves standing in front of an old-school vending machine and realised flavoured drinks were still stuck in single-use packaging. Both students at the time, that moment sparked a clear mission: to build a better alternative.

Their first prototypes were assembled in a garage using second-hand Coca-Cola machine parts.

With over 500 customers, including Moore, Cordeel, Visma, and PostNL, Dripl has already helped avoid more than 15 million single-use packages. That’s the equivalent of one disposable package avoided every second of the workday. Dripl’s long-term ambition is to eliminate 1 billion single-use packages and fundamentally reshape how we hydrate at work.

“Over the past few years, we’ve already achieved something special: building a profitable, fast-growing hardware and drinks scale-up that’s helping make healthy, sustainable hydration the norm,” adds Colin. “But the road ahead is still long. Large corporations continue to dominate the market and push single-use, sugary drinks at scale. We’re here to fix that.”

The post From spare Coca-Cola machine parts to a €4 million funding round: the journey of Belgian startup Dripl appeared first on EU-Startups.