The CEO of UK fintech industry trade body Innovate Finance has called on the UK fintech sector to be “properly supported” in the next budget, highlighting data showing UK fintech had dropped down the investment rankings.

Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, whose members include Revolut and Monzo, said: “Fintech is still a tremendous force for good, it is a story of growth, it is a story of inclusion and it is a story of democracy.

“We need government and we need regulators to get behind us as well and support this sector. It is imperative that we see fintech properly supported in the budget.

“This is how we are going to drive growth, it is how we are going to cement our leadership in financial services.”

Hirt, speaking at an Innovate Finance conference, pointed to statistics such as fintech lenders providing more than 60 per cent of SME lending and fintechs “driving job creation” as indicators of its health.

But Hirt also pointed to Innovate Finance figures showing the UK had been relegated from second to third place in the global fintech investment landscape, replaced by the UAE, in the first half of 2025.

She added: “We have to grasp the opportunity that lies before us, because other countries around the world, they see that opportunity too and they are moving forward and they are moving forward at pace.”

Innovate Finance is calling for several reforms in the Autumn budget to help incentivise fintech founders to build in the UK.

She said: “We need to make sure the UK remains the place for entrepreneurs and founders to choose to build their business here both for the long term and the short term.”

She called for a “rethink” of the tax environment, to better incentivise founders, and corporation tax holidays for companies that list in the UK, to reinvigorate the IPO market.

She added: “In addition, we need to make sure that our highest growth companies are actually able to access the growth capital that they need.”

Innovate Finance is backing the Mansion House Accord, which could see billions of pounds of pension funds invested in UK assets.

Innovate Finance has also expressed concern about how the existing regulatory regime constrains the growth of challenger banks.

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Vienna-founded refurbed, a marketplace for refurbished electronics, home, and sports goods, has secured £44 million in its latest funding round. The round was led by Alex Zubillaga (an investor in Spotify, Fever, and Wallapop) alongside Orilla, the Riberas family’s investment platform known for backing Vinted, Playtomic, and Cabify, with strong follow-on participation from existing shareholders Evli Growth Partners, Bonsai, Almaz, C4 Ventures, and Speedinvest.

refurbed is an online marketplace for professionally refurbished products. Founded in 2017 by Peter Windischhofer, Kilian Kaminski, and Jürgen Riedl, its mission is to make consumption more sustainable by extending the life cycle of existing products, encouraging customers to “Rethink New.”

To date, refurbed has processed 9 million devices and served 4 million customers across 12 European markets. A market leader in Germany and Austria, the company reports environmental outcomes of 350,000 tons of CO₂ avoided, 1,136 tons of electronic waste averted, and 116 billion litres of water saved.

As it enters its next phase of growth, refurbed is focusing on the UK, one of Europe’s largest and more digitally mature markets, as a key step in its European expansion.

In the UK, demand for sustainable technology is rising amid a limited supply of reliable, high-quality refurbished options. The re-commerce sector contributes over £7 billion annually. Yet, more than 100 million phones remain unused in drawers, with an estimated 33 million suitable for refurbishment, an opportunity that refurbed aims to address by returning more devices to the circular economy.

With the UK advancing Net Zero objectives, Right to Repair measures, and e-waste reduction targets, refurbed plans to align with these priorities and support consumers in making more sustainable purchasing decisions as it prepares to enter the market.

roclub, the teleoperation platform for medical technology out of Berlin, today announces it has raised €10 million in Series A funding in order to accelerate the global rollout of its AI-powered remote operations platform, expand support for additional MedTech equipment, and strengthen its international commercial teams.

The round was led by Smedvig Ventures and YZR Capital, with participation from existing investor Speedinvest and angel investors.

André Glardon, Co-Founder and Managing Director of roclub said, “From our own experience running an international chain of diagnostics centres, Matthias and I saw firsthand how technologist shortages are impacting access to care for patients. roclub is changing that by helping healthcare providers across the world maximise the value of their MedTech equipment through AI-driven remote operations.”

This Series A funding for roclub builds on the company’s earlier €4 million Seed round in 2024. This new investment underlines continued investor interest in AI-driven healthcare operations and technologies that tackle workforce shortages and equipment utilisation challenges.

With no comparable MedTech teleoperation funding announced from Germany in 2025 so far, roclub remains a distinctive example of how European innovators are applying automation and connectivity to improve access to diagnostic care.

Glardon added: “This new funding will help us expand our support to include more medtech machinery, supercharge our international expansion and, ultimately, deliver upon our mission to transform healthcare for better patient outcomes.”

Founded in 2022, roclub is a teleoperation platform designed to transform the way MedTech equipment is operated. By enabling remote access and control and seamless integration with scanners of all vendors, roclub allegedly enhances efficiency, optimises workflows, and helps healthcare providers overcome staffing shortages and geographic barriers.

Co-founders, Dr Matthias Issing and André Glardon launched roclub after running a large chain of diagnostic centres in Europe, where they directly suffered from the shortage of technologists with MedTech equipment lying idle, in turn, resulting in lost revenue. Since its founding, roclub has grown to span 11 countries.

Its cloud- and AI-based platform claims to enable teleoperation of any MedTech equipment from any vendor, allowing technologists from remote locations to manage multiple machines simultaneously. This secures business continuity for any examination at any time, maximises medical device utilisation, and prevents costly equipment downtime.

The smartphone-sized roclub connector can connect to any MedTech device with a monitor as a front-end, enabling remote access and control from anywhere and supporting direct video and audio communication between on-site teams, remote operators and patients.

Matthias Issing, Co-Founder and Managing Director of roclub said, “We want to become the global standard for teleoperation in MedTech – enabling seamless, safe, and intelligent remote access and control of medical devices anywhere in the world. By unifying MedTech, robotics, AI, and ultra-low-latency connectivity, roclub aims to empower technologists and clinicians to perform complex procedures with precision and collaboration across borders, transforming access to expert care into a truly global capability.”

The company is building on this momentum with its launch into the U.S., doubling its headcount in 2026. To capitalise on the large market opportunity, it will focus on building more established sales and customer success functions.

Joshua Seyler, President, roclub Americas said, “Amid rising labour costs and critical skills shortages, U.S. healthcare providers are embracing innovative MedTech solutions to optimize operations and meet the rising demand for radiology procedures. roclub, the world’s only dedicated remote, vendor-agnostic platform company, is proud to bring our transformative solution to the U.S. market.

“Through our user friendly platform and exclusive remote staffing marketplace, roclub empowers providers to access top expertise and deliver exceptional, high-quality care to every patient, every time.”

The funding will also fuel the AI-based development of roclub’s teleoperation platform and marketplace, which will connect healthcare organisations with remote technologists to operate connected MedTech devices.

Set to launch in late 2025, it is expected to have a transformational impact for hospitals and clinics that often suffer from a lack of access to qualified technologists.

Joe Knowles, Partner at Smedvig Ventures added, “André and Matthias have identified a transformational solution to a truly global problem; the skilled technologists needed to operate MedTech equipment are not keeping pace with demand. Building on their success in Europe, we look forward to supporting their launch in the US and, in turn, their mission to ensure more equitable access to healthcare.”

The post €10 million boost for Germany’s roclub to scale AI-powered remote operations in medical technology appeared first on EU-Startups.

Volta, a French–Italian startup, has raised €5 million in a round led by RTP Global. Pascal Houillon, former CEO of Cegid and Sage, joined the round alongside existing investors Emblem, Robin Capital, and Founders Future. Coming less than a year after an initial €6 million raise, Volta’s total funding now stands at €11 million.

Over the past 15+ years, B2C commerce has moved to digital platforms that replaced paper catalogues and automated ordering, logistics, and payments, a shift accelerated during the pandemic. By contrast, B2B adoption has lagged: many firms still rely on manual processes (Excel/PDF orders, scattered emails or faxes, fragmented software), reducing efficiency and increasing errors, delays, and blind spots. As AI and automation reshape competitiveness, adoption remains limited, with only 10 per cent of companies, with more than 10 employees, reporting AI use.

Volta aims to close this gap for SMEs and mid-market companies with an AI-powered platform that brings B2C-style simplicity to B2B. The software unifies catalogue, ordering, and customer relationship management in a single tool and integrates with existing ERP, CRM, PIM, and WMS systems.

Built around three pillars, it unifies operations by centralising data and order channels in one stream, automates workflows to remove up to 90 per cent of manual tasks (from order entry to price updates), and amplifies outcomes with data-driven recommendations, opportunity detection, and AI-guided decisions.

Paul Guillemin, CEO and co-founder of Volta, shared:

We're building a new standard for B2B distribution players with Volta. Our AI platform integrates with existing systems (ERP, PIM, etc.), automates up to 90% of manual tasks, and gives sales teams back what really matters: time for their customers and growth for their business.

The new funding will accelerate the commercial launch, advance Volta’s AI platform, and support team growth.

Allica Bank, the UK challenger lender for SMEs, has acquired UK business lender and embedded payments startup Kriya, as the challenger lender moves into offering payment services to non-financial services businesses.

Allica, which offers lending, business banking and savings services to SMEs with over 10 employees, said the all-share deal for Kriya strengthens its lending offering and represented a “strong strategic fit”.

Since it started lending in 2020, Allica has lent around £3.5bn to SMEs, and said it was now targeting £1bn in working capital finance to SMEs over the next three years, bolstered by the Kriya acquisition.

Kriya offers its customers, which include retailer Halfords, embedded payments, which can be described as the integration of payments into non-financial services businesses, as well as business lending.

Since launching in 2011, Kriya (formerly known as MarketInvoice and MarketFinance) has processed over £4 billion in invoice finance, SME loans and embedded finance.

Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. The acquisition marks Allica’s third to date, following the purchase of Allied Irish Bank's SME lending customers in 2021 and bridging finance specialist Tuscan Capital in 2024. 

Kriya will continue to operate under its own brand with CEO and co-founder Anil Stocker leading the business, with Kriya's 30 employees joining Allica's 680 employees.

Allica last undertook a funding round in 2022, raising a £100m Series C led by TCV, with participation from investors Warwick Capital Partners and Atalaya Capital Management.

Kriya is backed by investors including Northzone, Barclays, Santander, and Cogito Capital Partners.

Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, said: "Kriya has built an impressive business over more than a decade, and Anil and his team share our belief that SME finance needs reinventing, and that together we can offer something the market desperately needs.

"Our ambition is clear. We plan to lend £1 billion of working capital finance to SMEs over the next three years. This is our third acquisition but our first in the embedded payments space and it aligns well with our future potential international expansion.”

Anil Stocker, CEO of Kriya, said: “Combining forces with Allica gives us the right platform to scale what we've built. We share the same DNA – a genuine commitment to reinventing SME finance and competing with the big banks who've walked away from the SME market.”

Madrid-based Acoru, which develops technology to prevent AI-enabled fraud and money laundering, has raised a €10 million Series A led by 33N Ventures, with participation from existing investors Adara Ventures and Athos Capital.

Generative AI–enabled schemes, deepfakes, voice cloning, and social engineering are driving up fraud losses, with global fraud and bank scams estimated at nearly $500 billion annually. Most existing tools are not designed to detect Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud or capture intent signals, focusing instead on transactions, events, and sessions.

Founded in December 2023 by cybersecurity veterans Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo and David Morán, Acoru addresses this gap with its Account Monitoring Platform. The platform classifies both first-party and counterparty accounts to predict APP fraud, prevent scams, and reduce losses, aligning with new regulations on shared scam reimbursements and enhanced reporting.

Built by experienced fraud fighters and centred on intent and network behaviour, the platform links pre-fraud signals with context across channels within a bank and, via the Acoru Consortium, across participating institutions. It continuously monitors accounts and their counterparties, building evolving risk profiles to flag patterns such as clusters of micro-transactions or unusual interaction behaviours indicative of AI-driven automation.

This enables fraud and financial crime teams to intervene early: blocking suspicious activity in victim and unwitting mule accounts, and freezing complicit mule and money-laundering accounts before funds move.

Pablo de la Riva Ferrezuelo, CEO and co-founder of Acoru, said: 

Scammers today have more powerful tools at their disposal than ever before. Our approach predicts future victims, money mules and accounts at risk of being laundered by detecting the earliest warning signals others can’t see. With our innovative consortium model, banks can finally exchange account classifications through a centralised network that creates a truly collective defence. This is a paradigm shift in how fraud is fought.

The new funding will enable Acoru to advance its mission of helping banks predict and prevent AI-driven fraud and money laundering before transactions occur.

The teleoperation platform for medical technology roclub, has raised $11.7 million in a Series A to fuel its next stage of growth. The round was led by Smedvig Ventures and YZR Capital, with participation from existing investor Speedinvest and angel investors.

roclub is a vendor-agnostic teleoperation platform that enables secure, remote access and control of medtech equipment, initially focused on MRI and CT, with expansion to other modalities. Its cloud- and AI-based architecture integrates with scanners from any manufacturer, allowing technologists to operate multiple machines across sites, maintain business continuity, and improve device utilisation while reducing downtime and operating costs.

By easing staffing constraints and geographic barriers, roclub helps hospitals and imaging centres deliver consistent, high-quality radiological services and broaden patient access to advanced diagnostics.

The smartphone-sized roclub connector can connect to any monitored medtech device, enabling remote access and control from anywhere and supporting direct video and audio between on-site staff, remote operators, and patients. With AI-assisted workflows, roclub helps reduce patient wait times and improve care outcomes, while giving technologists hybrid-work flexibility without requiring physical presence.

Founded in 2022 by Dr Matthias Issing and André Glardon, who previously ran a large network of diagnostic centres in Europe and experienced technologist shortages and underused equipment firsthand, roclub now operates in 11 countries, serving major hospitals and outpatient imaging providers.

Matthias Issing emphasised that the company’s goal is to establish itself as the global benchmark for teleoperation in medtech, providing seamless, secure, and intelligent remote access and control of medical devices worldwide.

By unifying medtech, robotics, AI, and ultra-low-latency connectivity, roclub aims to empower technologists and clinicians to perform complex procedures with precision and collaboration across borders, transforming access to expert care into a truly global capability.

The funding will advance AI-driven development of its teleoperation platform and a marketplace that connects healthcare organisations with remote technologists to operate connected medtech devices, helping hospitals and clinics address persistent access gaps.

Building on this momentum, roclub will enter the US market, double its headcount in 2026, and strengthen its sales and customer success functions.

Saturn, the British AI technology company transforming financial advice by slashing the cost to serve and broadening access to wealth management, today announced a €12.9 million Series A funding round.

The round was led by European VC Singular, with participation from Shapers, Y Combinator and Zeno Ventures. The investment will accelerate product development and expand Saturn’s platform, helping advisers serve more clients efficiently.

“Behind every financial plan is a human story,” said Amal Jolly, Saturn CEO. “Advisers and their teams quietly change lives, giving families confidence and peace of mind. Our job is to empower the humans in the financial advice process. By doing the heavy-admin-lifting making compliance much more reliable and less painful, we can help financial advice professionals offer their life-changing services to more people at a significantly lower cost.”

Saturn’s funding lands amidst other notable funding rounds for AI-enabled FinTech.

Startups such as Finary in France and Flanks in Spain have both secured significant rounds to scale AI-driven wealth-management platforms. UK-based Zango AI raised €4 million to enhance compliance automation, while Resistant AI in Czechia attracted €21 million to expand its financial-crime detection solutions.

Even early-stage ventures like Denmark’s TODAY are targeting administrative efficiency for financial advisers.

Against this backdrop, Saturn’s funding reflects continued investor focus on technologies that reduce the cost to serve and strengthen compliance in wealth and advice sectors – an area seeing steady momentum across the UK and continental Europe.

Jolly added: “We started this business to harness technology to help close the advice gap. As we continue to bring the cost to serve advice down, we will help the advice profession to improve the quality, cost, and scale of services in the UK, enabling them to reach more people and changing lives for the better.”

Founded in 2023 by Amal Jolly, Michael Ettlinger and Rohit Vaish, Saturn’s mission is to make human-led advice accessible to one billion people. After uncovering the scale of the issue reading an industry report, the founding trio saw how AI could transform the economics of advice and open access for everyone.

The advice gap is one of today’s biggest societal challenges, fewer than 1 in 10 people in the UK received financial advice last year, according to the Financial Conduct Authority. That leaves millions of families without the help and expertise they need to secure their futures.

The company outlines that the main problem is that delivering advice is too expensive. Advice professionals, whether they are financial advisers, paraplanners, or administrators, spend too much time bogged down in admin and compliance tasks. The result: it costs on average £2,000/year to serve just one client, making financial advice a privilege for the wealthy.

Jeremy Uzan, Co-founder and GP at Singular commented: “We have rarely seen such an ambitious, high-velocity founding team that combines deep technical expertise with real industry insight. They have built an exceptional group around them that moves fast, with focus and attracts top talent – and their early traction already reflects their ambition. We are excited to partner with the team to build a category-defining company that transforms wealth management.”

Saturn’s compliance-focused AI looks to tackle the root of the problem by automating the most time-consuming administrative and regulatory work. Tasks that once took four hours of paraplanner time now reportedly take just 20 minutes of review – including client suitability reports, meeting documentation, onboarding, and pension transfer processing.

Built to be compliant by design, Saturn adapts to each firm’s internal policies and local regulatory requirements, ensuring process, document, and workflow aligns with the regulations e.g.: FCA and Consumer Duty standards from the start).

Its AI is purpose-built for UK financial advice compliance – not a generic CRM or automation tool – and is continually refined in collaboration with Saturn’s in-house team of compliance experts and paraplanners.

Saturn’s technology is already trusted by over 600 advisory firms, consolidators, national firms and advice networks, few names include Progeny, Hoxton Wealth, Perspective Financial Group and Insight Financial Associates.

The new funding will accelerate the development of next – generation AI and tech that enable faster, more scalable and more compliant advice delivery. Saturn will also expand its AI, engineering, research, customer delivery and partnerships teams to strength en industry collaboration.

The post London’s Saturn raises €12.9 million Series A to cut cost of financial advice by up to 90% appeared first on EU-Startups.

Chemnitz-based in.hub, a provider of plug-and-play IIoT solutions for industrial production, has successfully completed a seven-figure add-on financing round.

In addition to existing investor TGFS Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, SBG – Sächsische Beteiligungsgesellschaft is also participating for the first time as part of the Sachsen (RIG) programme.

“Our vision is to radically simplify digitalisation for all relevant players in the industry,” explain Founders Christian Groß and Marco Neubert. “Our target groups are not only manufacturing companies, but also machine builders, automation specialists, sensor manufacturers, and software providers. They can enhance their products with our technology – for example by delivering machines that are already digitised or by turning sensor technologies into a complete solution for their customers with our plug-and-play modules and the siineos platform.”

The latest financing for in.hub comes amid a steady flow of investment into Europe’s industrial IoT and manufacturing digitalisation sector in 2025.

In Austria, MAVOCO raised €11 million to accelerate the global rollout of its connectivity management software for IoT. From Saxony, Packwise secured a seven-figure growth round to scale its industrial container monitoring platform – also backed by regional investors such as TGFS and SBG under the RIG programme. Meanwhile, in Spain, HaloTech Digital Services collected €10 million to expand its AI-driven industrial safety IoT solutions.

Against this backdrop, in.hub’s own add-on financing reinforces the DACH region’s momentum in developing plug-and-play hardware-plus-software ecosystems for smarter, more connected production environments.

SBG Managing Director Frank Tappert adds: “Thanks to its in – depth application knowledge, the team knows exactly where companies encounter limitations in digitalisation. This expertise makes all the difference – because the solutions developed are as intuitive as a smartphone, but at the same time suitable for industrial use, secure, and scalable. It was precisely this combination of practical experience and technological excellence that was one of the key reasons for our involvement.”

in.hub GmbH was founded in 2017. The company develops a flexible, expandable, and manufacturer-independent solution that includes both hardware and software components. The target group is small and medium-sized enterprises, which gain deeper insights into their machines thanks to the solution.

Compared to traditional products, the company says their product is more cost-effective and easier to implement.

The team, which currently consists of 16 employees, is managed operationally by the Founders. The two engineers have years of experience in development and sales with the same target customer structure in previous positions, enabling them to lead the company to stable sales growth in a short period of time.

With the new funds, in.hub is consistently expanding its business model. The focus is on three strategic pillars:

• in.hub Academy – a practice-oriented training platform that guides customers and partners step by step through the entire digitisation process – from initialisation and commissioning to scalable rollout.
• in.hub Services – modular support and consulting services that enable companies to get started with Industrial IoT.
• in.hub Marketplace – an open platform where apps, modules, and digital services can be offered. Machine builders, automation specialists, and software providers can integrate their products there, thereby expanding their own solutions or developing new digital business models.

The key difference to traditional providers: in.hub combines hardware expertise and software competence. While many competitors rely exclusively on cloud platforms, in.hub supplies Io T modules for the shop floor that can be installed in just a few minutes.

The siineos platform processes machine, process, and energy data directly locally in the factory – without the need for the cloud or external data centers.

Sören Schuster, Managing Director of TGFS, adds: “With this add-on investment, we are enabling in.hub to take the next big step – from a hardware and software provider to a complete ecosystem for industrial digitalisation. The team has shown that it can inspire small and medium-sized businesses as well as large manufacturers and system providers alike.”

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Infrastructure, observability, developer-tools, and AI-native data platforms have seen a steady uptick of funding in this past year.

For instance, Rerun (€15.6 million Seed) is tackling data and telemetry challenges, while Cloudsmith (€21.9 million Series B) and Qovery (11.3 Series A) focus on developer productivity and infrastructure reliability.

This cluster of activity highlights growing investor interest in AI-driven infrastructure optimisation across Europe. Notably, none of these firms are based in Ireland – positioning Bronto as one of the few Irish startups in 2025 to attract significant funding within the observability and infrastructure domain.

Founded in 2024, Bronto is an AI-native log data platform company reinventing logging infrastructure for the modern era. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Noel Ruane (Co-founder Voysis, acquired by Apple in 2020) and Trevor Parsons (Co-founder LogEntries, acquired by Rapid7 in 2015), Bronto enables mid-market and enterprise customers to eliminate costly tradeoffs between data volume and retention while unlocking new AI-powered use cases.

The company’s proprietary platform addresses critical infrastructure bottlenecks as organisations deploy AI at scale, allowing them to maintain and leverage all log data without discriminating between hot and historic information.

Bronto’s AI native logging platform removes the toil experienced by users of existing platforms and opens up valuable new use cases combining AI and logging domain specific expertise.

It means companies do not have to discriminate between hot and historic log data and get real value from all of their logs rather than tradeoffs between data volume and cost.

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German deeptech etalytics has closed a €8 million Series A extension, bringing its total Series A funding to €16 million. The extension is led by M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund, and includes continued support from existing investors Alstin Capital (Carsten Maschmeyer), ebm-papst, and BMH. 

Built on research from TU Darmstadt, etalytics takes a software-first approach to industrial energy optimisation. Its platform, etaONE®, applies AI, digital twins, and predictive analytics to lower energy costs and emissions while maintaining system reliability and compliance in regulated, energy-intensive environments.

Customers across sectors, including Volkswagen, Equinix, NTT, Digital Realty, and Merck, report up to 50 per cent reductions in energy use for cooling, heating, and ventilation, resulting in measurable carbon reductions and operating cost improvements.

This latest funding round will fuel etalytics’ strategic expansion into North America and scale delivery capabilities across Europe and Asia. It will also enhance its flagship platform, etaONE®, which provides real-time, AI-driven energy optimisation for critical infrastructure in data centers, chemical and pharmaceutical production facilities, and automotive manufacturing sectors where increasing complexity and stricter energy regulations have surpassed the limits of traditional energy management systems.

Hydryx, the Amsterdam-based ClimateTech startup tackling methane emissions from landfills, has closed a €2.5 million Seed round to accelerate its expansion into Europe – turning a global waste challenge into a powerful source of green energy.

The round was led by impact investor Marcel Smits and venture capital fund Graduate Entrepreneur, joined by a consortium of mission-driven entrepreneurial angel investors.

“This investment enables us to drastically reduce methane emissions across Europe; right now, when it matters most,” added CEO Anthonie Jacobson.

Hydryx’s Seed round fits within a wider 2025 trend of ClimateTech and WasteTech startups securing funding to tackle methane and waste emissions.

In February, Sweden’s Agteria Biotech raised €6 million to develop methane-reducing products for livestock, while Italy’s Resilco secured €5 million to convert industrial waste and ash into raw materials while storing CO₂.

Although these companies address different points of the emissions challenge, all reflect a movement toward turning waste and greenhouse gases into economic value. Hydryx’s focus on landfill methane conversion situates it within this data-driven transition, marking one of the few Netherlands-based efforts in a growing European ecosystem.

“Hydryx has the biggest ‘bang for your buck’ climate solution that I have seen,” said lead investor Marcel Smits.

Founded in 2023, Hydryx is a ClimateTech startup focused on landfill gas management, using automation and data to reduce methane emissions and increase landfill gas recovery.

Founders Anthonie Jacobson (CEO) and Joren Tangelder (COO) applied their expertise on climate and energy to landfills and developed a methane management system. It installs easily on existing infrastructure and captures methane before it leaks into the air, enabling landfill owners to turn it into green energy.

The result is less emissions, additional revenue for landfill operators, and proof that the most sustainable option can also be the smartest investment.

According to data provided by the company, landfills produce large quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas 86 times as potent as CO2, and have more impact on the climate than the aviation and shipping sectors combined.

In the Netherlands alone, there are over 6,000 closed landfills, with around 50 still actively producing landfill gas (LFG).

Globally, approximately 70% of waste is still dumped or landfilled, and total waste generation is expected to rise from 2.01 billion tonnes today to 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050. Landfills are responsible for roughly 6% of global climate change – more than the aviation and shipping sectors combined – and methane emissions can continue for up to a century after a site’s closure due to the slow, anaerobic decomposition of organic materials.

While methane emissions are declining within the EU, they are still increasing worldwide, meaning methane’s share of total climate impact continues to rise. Open dumps can release between 1 and 4 million tonnes of methane per site each year, and even modern sanitary landfills in Europe and the US leak between 100,000 and 250,000 tonnes annually.

On average, about 60% of the gas produced in a landfill escapes into the atmosphere, with only the remaining 40% typically captured for flaring, power generation, or upgrading. Given that methane is 220 times more potent than CO₂ over a 10-year period, reducing emissions from landfills presents one of the most immediate and impactful opportunities for climate mitigation.

Hydrix believes that if it is harnessed properly, landfill methane could become a major source of green electricity, heat, or renewable natural gas.

Together with Dutch waste management company Renewi, Hydryx is proving its approach: the system generates 40% more green energy from the landfill.

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In construction, even the smallest design error can have significant consequences — a ramp that’s too steep, a doorway that's too narrow, or a misplaced sensor that costs weeks to fix. Most of these are preventable mistakes, and now, Swedish startup AI-BOB is tackling that inefficiency head-on.

I spoke to Elin Mårtensson, co-founder and CEO of AI-BOB to learn more.

Mårtensson has a near 15-year background in the construction industry, initially as a property developer on large-scale projects like Mall of Scandinavia in Stockholm and also Fisketorvet here in Copenhagen, where she was responsible for the extension project.

Accessibility errors are everywhere — and almost always avoidable

Over time, she became an expert in accessibility and usability in buildings, as a result of working part-time as a student, helping a blind girl with navigation:

“It was such an eye-opener. It made me realise how many unnecessary barriers we put in the built environment.”

And when she worked as a property developer. She saw that accessibility and compliance issues were a recurring problem in every project — and they caused a lot of avoidable errors that had to be fixed later.

She shared:

“Many errors are so unnecessary. For example, ramps that are too steep, doors that need two hands to open — small things that make a building inaccessible for someone in a wheelchair or with low vision.

I see these issues everywhere — and they’re almost always avoidable.”

Mårtensson eventually started my own company reviewing projects for compliance with accessibility and usability regulations. She shared:

“I worked closely with architects, reviewed hundreds of blueprints, and did final on-site inspections. After a while, I got so tired of seeing the same errors appear again and again. Most of these issues could have been avoided much earlier in the process."

70% of construction errors start in the blueprints

Studies show that over 70 per cent of all construction errors actually originate in the blueprints — meaning it’s not the builders’ fault. They’re just working from wrong or incomplete information.

Prior to AI-BOB there was no real tool to help architects or property developers properly check their blueprints. Most of the process still happens in Microsoft Word, Excel, or endless email threads — nothing automated.

According to Mårtensson in one project alone, you can have tens of thousands of requirements — “BIM standards, environmental targets, national codes, accessibility, and EU-level regulations, plus all the project-specific ones. No tool helps coordinate all that. In a way, construction performs amazingly well given how much complexity they have to manage manually.”

A 2018 Swedish government study found that around 25 per cent of all construction budgets in Sweden are spent on fixing errors. It's not only a waste of money but also materials, CO₂ emissions, and labour.

“Every time you fix something, you need people who are delayed from another project,” shared Mårtensson. It's a waste on every level.

Mårtensson started AI-BOB about a year and a half ago — right after I’d been on maternity leave with my second child. 

“I finally had some time to think, and this was also when the big AI boom started. I read everything I could about AI and thought: maybe now we actually have the tech that can help this industry. So that’s when I started AI-BOB with my co-founders.”

Pre-deployment testing for construction

Construction is a €13-14 trillion industry globally — and 25 per cent of that goes to fixing mistakes. Mårtensson admits,

“When I told our CTO — who had worked at Spotify setting up their transaction engine (every song stream is a transaction) — he said, ‘You’re kidding me, there are no automated checks before you start building?’ In tech, you’d never deploy software without automated checks. That’s exactly what we’re trying to bring into construction: automated pre-deployment testing for buildings."

AI-BOB uses AI to automate compliance checks on blueprints directly in the BIM model. 

“We can check if designs comply with building regulations and produce reports — even suggest corrections on how to fix detected issues,” explained Mårtensson.

 Built to fit existing workflows

The platform integrates directly into the CAD software.  “That was really important for me — in construction, everything is about mitigating risk,” admits Mårtensson.

"You can’t just drop in some new standalone product and expect people to adopt it. Construction projects run for five to ten years. You need to fit into their existing workflow.”

For architects, AI-BOB works like a spell-checker inside their CAD tools — they don’t need to change behaviour.  “For property developers — the company’s main customers — it integrates with their project platforms, giving them a dashboard view: do we have the most relevant requirements, do we meet them, who’s responsible, and when were decisions made? It’s about giving them data-driven control for the first time.”

“Dream customers” and early traction

From the start, AI-BOB has had what Mårtenssonwe calls “our dream customers" — White Arkitekter and CF Møller — on board as early collaborators.

"They’ve given us continuous feedback: are we solving the right problems, does this actually make their work easier, is this something they’ll use? And now we’re also starting pilots with property developers.”

Mårtensson contends that this sector represents one of the biggest opportunities in the built environment. Beyond efficiency, AI-BOB is very purpose-driven as a company. 

“We want to reduce the number of errors, cut CO₂ emissions, and make high-quality, affordable buildings possible — schools, hospitals, housing. There should be no excuse not to build the best you can. If we can deliver buildings on time, on budget, and with less waste, we can really move the needle on sustainability and affordability,” shared Mårtensson.

AI-BOB is currently active in Sweden but is looking to expand to new markets.

Lead image: AI-BOB. Photo: uncredited.

Paris-based Exeliom Biosciences, a clinical-stage BioTech company developing new therapies in immuno-oncology and immuno-inflammation, today announced the completion of a €2.85 million extension to its Series A round, bringing the total Series A funding to €11.85 million.

This extension, led by existing investors Biocodex with participation by Crescent Ventures, UI Investissement and Forepont Capital Partners, builds on the company’s legacy of nearly €30 million in dilutive and non-dilutive funding since its founding in 2016.

“Exeliom is deeply grateful for the unwavering support of our investors, which has enabled us to transform EXL01 from a microbiome therapy into a precision NOD2-targeting immunomodulator, using a live bacterial strain as its delivery mode,” said Benjamin Hadida, CEO of Exeliom.

This funding fits within a wider pattern of investment in European immuno-oncology and immuno-inflammation ventures during 2025.

In Finland, TILT Biotherapeutics raised €22.6 million in a Series B round to progress intravenously delivered cancer immunotherapies. In the UK and Ireland, LIfT BioSciences secured €12 million to advance neutrophil-based immunotherapies for solid tumours. Denmark’s SNIPR Biome obtained €35 million in Series B funding for microbial and CRISPR-based therapeutics addressing oncology and infectious diseases.

Meanwhile, Spain’s Highlight Therapeutics raised €15 million to accelerate clinical development of its skin-tumour immunotherapies, and Austria’s Graph Therapeutics completed a €3 million pre-Seed round for AI-driven discovery in inflammation and immunology.

Exeliom’s Series A extension therefore reflects continued investor confidence in precision-based immunotherapies, positioning France alongside a diverse set of European peers advancing immune-modulating platforms.

EU-Startups previously covered Exeliom Biosciences in July 2023, when we reported on the company’s €24 million Series A close to advance its microbiome-based immunotherapy pipeline.

“The evolution of this small-molecule-like approach unlocks new indications, not only expanding our therapeutic potential but also positioning us for international growth, including a new cancer study underway in the US,” added Hadida.

Founded in 2016, Exeliom Biosciences is a clinical-stage BioTech company developing a new generation of innate immune modulators to restore and enhance patients’ immune responsiveness in cancer, inflammatory diseases and chronic infections.

The new funding will support the continued clinical development and international expansion of Exeliom’s lead programme, EXL01, with a focus on advancing proof-of-concept Phase 2 studies and preparing for a new cancer indication in the US.

Their lead candidate, EXL01, is a bacterial-derived, NOD2-targeting immunomodulator that activates macrophages and reprograms the immune microenvironment. By doing so, EXL01 has the potential to overcome resistance to existing therapies and significantly enhance the efficacy of immunotherapies.

EXL01 is currently being evaluated in three Phase 2 oncology trials in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors, including the largest randomized Phase 2 study worldwide evaluating a bacterial approach in gastric cancer. In addition, EXL01 has completed a Phase 1 study in Crohn’s disease and is now being investigated in a randomised, placebo-controlled Phase 2 trial in the same disease.

The programme also includes a Phase 2 randomised, placebo-controlled trial for the prevention of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection.

“Supporting Exeliom Biosciences perfectly embodies a partnership rooted in scientific excellence, guided by long-term vision and driven by our shared conviction that microbiota-based innovation can transform the management of complex immune-mediated diseases. Together, we aim to turn pioneering science into sustainable health solutions for patients worldwide,” said Jean-Marie Lefevre, chairman of Biocodex.

Over the past two years, Exeliom has made significant strides in demonstrating the mechanism of action of EXL01, identifying NOD2 as its key target.

The NOD2 pathway is a central component of the body’s innate immune system and a well-validated target in the pharmaceutical industry, with two approved products already on the market. EXL01 exhibits superior NOD2-agonist properties and activates a distinct NOD2 signaling profile compared to existing approaches, positioning it as a potentially first-in-class therapy in this emerging field.

“Forepont Capital are excited at the scientific and clinical advancements made by Exeliom, particularly that Faecalibacterium prausnitzii modulates the immune system via the NOD2 pathway, which is important for regulating innate immunity and is therefore an important target for therapeutics,” said Ismail Kola, senior partner at Forepont.

The post French startup Exeliom Biosciences boosts funding with €2.85 million to accelerate immunotherapy for cancer appeared first on EU-Startups.

Vilnius-based nexos.ai has raised €30 million in a Series A round to help enterprises adopt AI securely and at scale. The financing was co-led by Evantic Capital and existing investor Index Ventures, with participation from Creandum, Dig Ventures, and angel backers.

The raise comes six months after the company’s January launch and amid growing concerns over “shadow AI,” where employees upload confidential materials to consumer tools, risking exposure to third parties.

nexos.ai’s platform combines an AI Workspace for employees and an AI Gateway for developers, providing a unified control layer across 200+ models. This enables task routing to the most suitable model while centralising security, cost management, and compliance.

The AI Workspace enables teams to interact with multiple LLMs within a single interface, featuring configurable guardrails and role-based access. Users can compare models side by side, work across file formats, and collaborate with built-in web search, while detailed logging and trace visibility help prevent data leakage.

The AI Gateway offers a single endpoint for plug-and-play orchestration of models, intelligent caching to cut costs and latency, RAG grounded in company documents, smart fallbacks and load balancing for resilience, and private hosting options for sensitive workloads.

The funding will scale the platform and tackle core barriers to enterprise AI adoption, security, observability, governance, and cost control. It will also accelerate advanced routing and private model deployment, support expansion across Europe and North America, and fund educational partnerships to help close AI skills gaps.