Oslo-based Sonair, a sensing technology company, has raised $6 million from a group of existing and new international investors, including Copenhagen-based Scale Capital and Norway’s state-backed Investinor, with continued support from RunwayFBU (part of the Aker group), SINTEF, and ProVenture.

Sonair is a sensing technology company focused on making autonomous machines safer, smarter, and more cost-effective. Its patented ADAR (acoustic detection and ranging) sensor, the first safe 3D ultrasonic sensor for robots, delivers precise, real-time 3D spatial awareness to support safe operation in shared human–machine environments. The technology originates from SINTEF, a leading Norwegian research institute.

For robots to operate alongside humans, safety has to be built in from the start. ADAR gives manufacturers a straightforward and more affordable way to achieve that,

said Knut Sandven, CEO and co-founder of Sonair.

Sonair’s patented ultrasound technology is designed to provide precise 3D perception at a lower cost than LiDAR. Following pilots with more than 30 companies, the initial focus is on autonomous mobile robots in logistics and manufacturing, a segment projected to reach $15.6 billion by 2030.

Growing warehouse automation, labour constraints, and evolving safety requirements are increasing demand for systems that enable people and robots to operate in close proximity. ADAR combines safe 3D object detection, full vertical field of view, and low computational needs to support safer robot navigation without adding significant complexity or cost.

Sandven added:

If a robot can’t operate safely around people, it won’t be widely adopted. We’re giving manufacturers a tool they can trust, one that helps them meet the highest safety standards without slowing down innovation.

One of Sonair’s customers, Fuji Corporation in Japan, is developing autonomous robots for use in retail settings. In Europe, another customer is building cleaning robots for commercial buildings. In both applications, safety is a key requirement since the robots are designed to operate in close proximity to people.

Following its launch earlier this year, ADAR is now shipping to manufacturers across Asia, Europe, and North America. The new funding will support expansion into global target markets and efforts to establish a new category in robotic perception.

For decades, legal teams have been under-resourced and over-relied upon. Stuck reviewing the same clauses, answering the same questions, and redlining the same contracts again and again. It worked, until it didn’t. Businesses move too fast now. Risk environments shift too quickly. And legal teams are still too small. AI is finally breaking the deadlock. We are entering the age of autonomous legal operations where contracts are no longer slow, manual blockers, but self-executing workflows powered by intelligent agents.

From legal gatekeepers to trust managers

In this new model, lawyers stop being gatekeepers and become architects. The job isn’t to touch every contract. It’s to define the system that governs how contracts move. Think playbooks, clause libraries, risk thresholds, escalation triggers, and fallback positions. All pre-set. All auditable. The lawyer becomes a Trust Manager. They design the protocols. The AI does the heavy lifting. Business teams can move fast without breaking things.

Contract agents are already here. Imagine a sales team starts a deal. They answer a few smart prompts, and the system drafts the contract, checks it against internal policies, recommends changes, and flags risk. All before legal even gets involved. Unless there’s an edge case or red flag, no human review is needed. That doesn’t just save time. It creates consistency, lowers spend, and scales compliance without scaling headcount.

What does it mean for business?

For startups and scaleups, the benefits are massive:

• Faster deal cycles: Commercial teams can create, edit, and agree on contracts in minutes, not days.
• Lower legal spend: Reduce reliance on external counsel for routine work.
• Scalable compliance: Every document is governed by the same rules, automatically.
• Empowered teams: Non-lawyers can confidently self-serve.

Even large companies are rethinking their legal departments around this model.

Suddenly, having a lean legal team isn’t a problem. It’s a strategic advantage. We’re already seeing forward-thinking companies operate with just one in-house lawyer because that one lawyer is empowered by an army of AI agents and a rules-based system they control.

So what’s next? We’re heading toward systems that learn with every contract they touch. AI agents that remember how your company negotiates and evolve your legal playbook in real time. Legal operations that benchmark themselves continuously against laws, market standards, and internal policy without needing to be told. This is not just automation. It’s compounding intelligence. The result is a trust layer that becomes safer and smarter over time, creating a legal infrastructure that improves without manual intervention.

The “One Lawyer Company”

This vision leads to what we call the One Lawyer Company. Not because it sounds futuristic, but because it is the most efficient way to operate. That lawyer is not drowning in admin or buried in markup. They are orchestrating the system. They are guiding strategy, refining guardrails, and stepping in only when the business truly needs judgment. The AI handles the rest. It’s not about having fewer lawyers. It’s about unlocking the full potential of the ones you already have.

This isn’t about replacing lawyers. It’s about putting them in the role they were always meant to play. High-trust decision-makers focused on strategy, governance, and judgment. Not copy-pasting clauses. As one GC told us, “I don’t want to review every contract. I want to empower the business to do that safely without me.” Thanks to AI, that’s no longer a vision for the future. It’s what’s happening now.

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One of the leading voices in the UK tech scene today hailed a flurry of US AI investment commitments to the UK, calling it a “much-needed step change” in UK and US relations but warned the UK was in danger of becoming AI "users, not makers".

Brent Hoberman, the co-founder of lastminute.com and executive chairman of Founders Forum Group, made the comments as Nvidia and Microsoft become the latest US tech giants to pledge significant AI investments into the UK.

Posting on LinkedIn, Hoberman said: “Make no mistake, we need these kinds of deals with our biggest tech giants. This is a significant investment, and the impact will be felt.

“But here’s the next challenge...how we make sure UK startups and scaleups actually benefit from these deals?”

He said in AI, the UK was at risk of becoming “users, not makers", saying the UK should take lessons from Europe, pointing to France backing Mistral and Germany backing Helsing. He said the UK procurement system still favoured the same global platforms.

Hoberman was echoing comments made in a FT comment piece by Mike Bracken, the UK government's former chief digital and data officer.

Hoberman urged UK private and public partnerships to prioritise talent and deploy capital at scale.

He added: “The real opportunity is in what we build next. Data centres yes, but also new national champions."

Meanwhile, hailing Nvidia's investment into the UK, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said: “The United Kingdom is building the infrastructure for the AI industrial revolution."

His comments came as Nvidia and Microsoft became the latest US tech giants to pledge major AI investments into the UK.

US chip giant Nvidia said that, along with its partners NScale, CoreWeave and others, it was investing up to £11bn in UK AI factories, deploying 120,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, which Nvidia said represented the largest infrastructure rollout in the UK’s history. 

The infrastructure will be behind initiatives like OpenAI’s Stargate UK.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is investing up to $30bn in the UK’s AI infrastructure from 2025 to 2028.

This includes $15 billion in capital expenditures to build out the UK’s cloud and AI infrastructure and will be used to help build the UK’s biggest supercomputer, in partnership with Nscale.

Billions of AI investment in the UK have been pledged by US tech firms, coinciding with the visit of President Trump.
Investments include OpenAI, Nscale and Nvidia announcing a UK version of Stargate, a sovereign AI infrastructure version of OpenAI’s mammoth Stargate project.

The UK and US have also inked a “tech prosperity deal” focused on developing the fastest-growing technologies like AI, quantum and nuclear.

Professor Sebastian Weidt, CEO and co-founder, Universal Quantum, said: “It is encouraging to see quantum computing recognised at the highest levels of government. International collaboration will be vital in accelerating progress on one of the defining technologies of our age, yet Britain must not allow itself to become dependent on foreign partners for access to it.

“History reminds us that alliances cannot substitute for sovereign capability. The UK has already established itself as a global leader in quantum computing, a field that will underpin the resilience of our economy and the security of our critical infrastructure.

"Government now has a clear opportunity to safeguard sovereignty by ensuring that homegrown companies receive the long-term support required to remain both independent and globally competitive.”

Kreios Space, a Spanish SpaceTech startup headquartered in Vigo, has secured €8 million in what marks the largest European investment to date in very low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellite technology.

The Seed round was led by the NATO Innovation Fund and Berlin-based JOIN Capital, with participation from Grow Venture Partners, Xesgalicia, and Tasivia Global. The funding will enable the Spanish startup to advance its proprietary air-breathing plasma propulsion system and launch its first two satellites into VLEO.

“We are not just building satellites, we are opening up an orbit that was long considered impossible,” said Adrián Senar, CEO and Co-founder of Kreios Space. “Very low Earth orbit offers more accurate vision, faster connectivity and greater independence in space. With this funding, we are going to demonstrate our technology in orbit and place both Europe and Spain at the forefront of this emerging domain.” (Translated)

Founded in 2021 by Adrián Senar, Jan Mataró, Francisco Boira, Adrià Barceló, Max Amer and Francisco Bosch, Kreios Space is innovating a new propulsion system known as Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP). The system draws in atmospheric air and converts it into plasma fuel, allowing satellites to maintain low orbits for extended periods without carrying onboard propellant – a key limitation of existing low-altitude systems.

This investment builds on a previous €2.3 million raised in 2024 and sets the company on course to test its ABEP engine in orbit for the first time. The demonstration will be followed by commercial deployments focused on both Earth observation and broadband connectivity constellations.

These capabilities are seen as increasingly critical for defence, climate monitoring, and disaster response.

Operating satellites at altitudes between 150 and 400 kilometres – closer than any commercial satellite systems currently in use – offers the promise of three times higher image resolution and the potential for direct-to-device broadband connectivity without bulky antennas.

“Kreios’ technology represents a decisive leap toward unlocking the next frontier of very low Earth orbit,” noted David Ordoñez, Senior Associate at the NATO Innovation Fund. “By bringing satellites closer to Earth, they enable high-resolution imaging and direct-to-device broadband at an entirely new level – capabilities vital for European security.” (Translated)

The move comes at a time when Europe is intensifying efforts to reduce its dependence on non-European space infrastructure.

With ABEP-powered satellites positioned mere hundreds of kilometres above the surface, applications ranging from wildfire detection to infrastructure monitoring become more accurate and cost-effective. Meanwhile, the potential for resilient, sovereign broadband communications could transform connectivity for remote regions, emergency response, and military operations.

“Europe cannot afford to be left out of the next orbital economy,” stated Tobias Schirmer, Founding Partner at JOIN Capital. “What excites us about Kreios is the strategic significance it holds for Europe combined with the readiness of the technology. VLEO has long been a research focus; now it’s ready for real-world deployment.” (Translated)

From its origins as a lab concept in 2021, Kreios Space has grown into a 17-person team attracting talent from organisations including Thales, JAXA, and the European Space Agency (ESA). The firm has also received support from the Spanish CDTI and the Spanish Space Agency (AEE) under the National Space Technology Programme, reinforcing the Spain’s commitment to advancing its orbital economy.

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Decentralised AI is no longer just the preserve of Web3 dreamers. It has become one of Europe’s most significant bets in shaping a future that balances technological progress with privacy, sovereignty and democratic accountability.

Rather than entrusting centralised servers owned by US or Chinese giants, decentralised AI distributes intelligence across a mesh of nodes, letting data remain local and under the control of its rightful owners.

In Europe, this approach resonates deeply. GDPR has set a global benchmark for data rights and regulators are doubling down on platform accountability. Against this backdrop, decentralised AI is not a curiosity; it is a necessity. The question is who will lead the charge.

A field of rising contenders

Across the continent, a growing constellation of startups are experimenting with different aspects of decentralised AI.

SingularityNET, with roots in the Netherlands, is building a decentralised marketplace where developers publish AI services on-chain. Its tokenised economy lowers entry barriers for smaller providers and challenges the centralised control of Big Tech, making it a key player in Europe’s effort to democratise AI.

Flower Labs in Germany leads in federated learning, enabling model training across distributed data without sharing it. This helps European organisations innovate while staying compliant with GDPR and other privacy regulations, making Flower a cornerstone for privacy-preserving AI.

Bitfount, from the UK, focuses on healthcare and life sciences, letting researchers analyse sensitive data without moving it. This accelerates clinical research while protecting patient privacy, showing how decentralised AI can unlock value in highly regulated sectors.

Neuron, also UK-based, builds infrastructure for machine-to-machine communication using blockchain and AI. Its technology underpins secure, decentralised networks for IoT and automation, supporting Europe’s goal of open and sovereign digital infrastructure.

Europe's reference point

Gaia has become one of several reference points for decentralised AI in Europe. While its rivals focus on discrete verticals such as factories, marketplaces, chatbots and mesh infrastructure - Gaia offers a comprehensive and modular platform that unites these approaches into a coherent system.

While the previously mentioned companies are important, each moves the field forward in their own unique way. But none as yet offers the breadth and cohesion that Gaia has begun to deliver. It provides the orchestration layer that turns fragmented innovation into a functional ecosystem.

Recently profiled in Forbes, Gaia is delivering building blocks across compute, identity, data rights and payments. These modules allow developers to assemble AI agents with precision and flexibility, a critical differentiator in a landscape often constrained by siloed tools.

From pilot projects to market traction

What sets Gaia apart is its movement from concept to deployment. Its technology is already being piloted by European telcos to run predictive maintenance and edge-based personalisation across tower clusters. These real-world implementations demonstrate that decentralised AI is not just possible, but scalable.

“At Gaia, we’re building Europe’s decentralised AI backbone - scalable, modular and sovereign. Our mission is simple: prove that AI can be powerful and accountable, uniting innovation with trust so Europe leads not by copying Silicon Valley, but by setting its own standard,” said Shashank Sripada, Co-Founder, Gaia.

Addressing the hard problems

Decentralised AI is difficult. Latency, adversarial attacks and governance incentives are not abstract risks, they are daily realities. Gaia’s statistical consensus and validation system addresses synchronisation across thousands of nodes. Its secure multiparty computation reduces the risk of poisoned models. And its token-credit system provides transparent incentives that scale better than ad hoc reputation systems.

Rivals are grappling with these issues individually, often with elegant but partial solutions. Gaia’s achievement is that it brings these answers into a unified, production-ready stack.

Why it matters for Europe

Europe’s competitive advantage will not be built by cloning Silicon Valley. It will be defined by technologies that enshrine transparency, privacy, and collaboration. This coherence matters. Without it, Europe risks a splintered patchwork of promising projects that never scale beyond their niches. Gaia offers a focal point for Europe’s ambitions: a decentralised AI ecosystem that is usable, compliant and capable of achieving critical mass.

A constellation with a centre

The story of decentralised AI in Europe is not a zero-sum contest. But the centre of gravity is Gaia, which is betting on a decentralised future. In reality, it is more than a gamble. With modular infrastructure, regulatory foresight and real-world traction, Gaia is a conductor in a symphony of decentralised innovation.

And in that orchestra, the rivals may play their instruments with virtuosity, but for now Gaia is holding the baton. Let the band play on.

Nosh.bio, a Berlin-based startup developing clean-label protein from non-GMO fungi, is launching Koji-based hybrid mince in collaboration with Speisemanufaktur Adlershof in Berlin to mark the first public showcase of its hybrid mince product.

This week, the hybrid mince is featured in the cafeteria's menu in a variety of familiar dishes — including burgers, meatballs, and lasagna, showing both its adaptability in different culinary formats and its suitability for large-scale food production, with meals available to the public.

There's no shortage of startups trying to reinvent meat – from Project Eaden to Umiami, Enough, and Mycorena to various cell-cultivated (lab-grown) meats. But it's an industry where startups often struggle to bring their products to market successfully.  

From reBuy to rethinking meat: Why Tim Fronzek co-founded Nosh.bio

I visited Nosh.bio to try their ingredients firsthand and speak with co-founder and CEO Tim Fronzek. In the process, I not only sampled some impressive food but also came away with valuable insights — almost a playbook — on what it takes to succeed in the alt-protein space.

Fronzek brings over 15 years of management experience, having served in various C-Suite roles, notably co-founding reBuy.com, which achieved €200 million in net sales with a team of 600 employees.

He admits that while the work was rewarding, he decided to move on after realising he was more of an entrepreneur than a manager.  During a year off to spend time with his family, he reflected on what to do next, asking himself, "Where can I have the biggest impact?"

After screening different industries by footprint and scalability, food emerged as the most urgent and impactful, inspired by a friend in the alternative protein space who highlighted the profound impact of food choices on the environment.

In collaboration with Brazilian microbiologist Felipe Lino, Fronzek co-founded Nosh.bio in early 2022. 

The company aims to deliver a scalable ingredient solution that enables manufacturers to create affordable, nutritious and delicious food in an environmentally friendly way. 

And here's how it's setting itself up for commercial success, with some great insights for others in the foodtech space:

Do extensive market research from the get-go 

Before founding Nosh.bio, Fronzek and Lino spent nearly a year speaking with over 100 experts — scientists, corporates, startups, investors, and consumers.  Most households won't pay a premium or sacrifice taste, so the challenge was clear: create affordable, mass-market-ready, sustainable alternatives.

Think commercially, not just social and environmental impact

While most alt-protein startups focus on plant substitutes as their end product, such as veggie nuggets or patties, Nosh.bio opted for a different approach, creating hybrid products that combine meat and alternative proteins to allow flexitarians and omnivores to reduce their meat consumption without eliminating it entirely.  

While a vegetarian himself, Fronzek shared, "Flexitarians and omnivores are a much larger market than strict vegans, so blending allows us to maximise impact quickly."

According to Fronzek:

"Our goal isn't to eliminate meat but to reduce its quantity and improve quality. That's the change Nosh.bio is working to enable.

Nosh. bio's hybrid mince has been developed from the outset to match and surpass pure beef in key areas: cheaper than beef, it retains the flavour and mouthfeel with improved juiciness and delivers 30 per cent less cholesterol, increased dietary fibre, and high levels of protein. "

A Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of Nosh. bio's protein found that it uses 99 per cent less land and water than beef protein and produces 90 per cent less CO2. 

In Europe, nine major supermarket chains have pledged to achieve a 50:50 plant-animal protein ratio by 2030. With many consumers reluctant to adopt a 100% plant-based diet, blended formats like Nosh are gaining popularity and offer a realistic path to achieving these goals.

Strategic ingredient decisions leads to speed

Nosh.bio made a strategic decision to work with a microorganism that isn't classified as a novel food in Europe, allowing it to be used without going through the lengthy regulatory approval process that can otherwise take years.

Specifically, Nosh.bio uses the microorganism Koji, known in Japan for sake, miso, and soy sauce. It creates a high-protein ingredient for blended meat products. 

The protein itself is derived from the fermentation of the mycelium of non-GMO Koji fungi, grown using only water and natural inputs. It's highly versatile with applications ranging from meat and seafood to confectionery, dairy and bakery products, meaning there are endless opportunities. 

The fermentation process uses agricultural side-streams as feedstock. It can be carried out in existing fermentation facilities (such as a former brewery in Dresden) to enable rapid scaling while keeping downstream prices low. Its use meant the company could commercialise quickly without waiting years for regulatory approvals.

But, Fronzek admits, it also meant no patents on the strain itself, which put off some investors: 

"Fortunately, in the end, we found the right backers who valued speed to market."

Disrupt the supply chain 

While many in the alt-protein space focus on B2C products, such as patties that you can purchase at the supermarket, Nosh.bio took a different approach: B2B.

Nosh.bio partners with food manufacturers to overcome the taste, texture, and price challenges, especially in hybrid and plant-based applications. With a focus on industrial readiness and cost-effective scale-up, the team is helping accelerate the shift toward more sustainable, consumer-ready products.

According to Fronzek:

"We wanted focus. Building a consumer brand requires total attention and cash, and so does developing deep tech. Trying to do both risks failure.

By being B2B, we let established producers with existing production, retail networks, and brands use our ingredient. That way, we can concentrate on technology and impact while leveraging their reach."

Make change happen from within   

Nosh.bio joins companies such as Enough, Mosa Meat, and the Vegetarian Butcher, who have all received investment from the meat industry.  According to Fronzek, the company has received minor criticism for this, contending that while sustainability opens doors, "the real selling points are taste, texture, health benefits, and better margins." 

"The reality is food startups can't disrupt without working with established players. They control distribution, regulation, and consumer trust.

If we want real impact, we must collaborate with them. The biggest meat producer in Europe is already both a customer and an investor. We're preparing retail launches in Germany with their support."

A dual approach to scale

Nosh.bio has developed a dual approach to scaling production. Its contract manufacturing partner can already produce up to 10 tons per week, with the capacity to scale further.

At the same time, Nosh.bio is retrofitting a decommissioned brewery in Germany for its own production. This strategy spreads risk, lowers capital expenditure, and provides greater flexibility. Further, both the CMO and the company's largest customer are also shareholders, ensuring aligned interests.

Create a great-tasting product

I like fermented food, hailing from the land of Vegemite — a sandwich spread created from beer sidestreams — so I was curious to see what Nosh-bio tastes like, when combined with beef mince.

Honestly, it's as you might expect, a nice umami addition, tasty and hearty enough that the reduced meat isn't missed, and interesting enough that people would want to eat it again. 

Great science isn’t enough in alt-protein

In conclusion, I asked Fronzek what advice he would give to startups in the alt-protein space.  He contends, 

"Fundraising is unavoidable, and in food tech, investors want to see a clear path to commercialisation," he said. "Great science isn't enough.

Many promising startups fail because they can't bring products to market.

Our products were ready in terms of taste and texture two years ago, but scaling from the lab to industrial production and navigating slow B2B adoption cycles took far longer than I expected.

My advice: focus on building superior products, not just incremental improvements."

From here, Nosh.bio aims to expand into retail with co-branded products and scaling food service partnerships.  Fronzek asserts: 

"While chefs appreciate how easily our ingredient fits into their menus, reaching retail shelves is key to making a broader impact."

Barcelona-based investment firm Suma Capital has closed its ClimateTech-focused fund, SC Net Zero Ventures I, securing €210 million to back scale-ups advancing industrial decarbonisation across Europe.

This final amount exceeds the fund’s original €150 million target by 40% and aims to bridge the notorious ‘scale-up gap’ for climate technologies – particularly those tackling high-emission sectors.

Alongside Repsol, the European Investment Fund (EIF) has committed capital, as have several Spanish public institutions including ICO, CDTI, ICF, IVF and Seed Bizkaia.

“With this final close, we reinforce our role as a reference partner for companies leading industrial decarbonisation in Europe. Through SC Venture, we support climate scale-ups with validated technology and commercial traction, driving their expansion and their long-term environmental and competitive impact,” said Natalia Ruiz, Partner at Suma Capital.

Founded in 2007, Suma Capital has built a track record of investing in sustainability and infrastructure. With a team spread across Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, and Milan, the firm is steadily positioning itself as a pan-European reference in sustainable investment.

Through SC Net Zero Ventures I, the firm is doubling down on its capital-with-purpose model – pursuing both financial returns and tangible, traceable climate impact.

The fund’s alignment with the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality targets further underlines its relevance, as governments and corporates across Europe race to decarbonise the continent’s industrial base.

“At Repsol we believe alliances are essential to accelerate the energy transition. Our participation as anchor investor in SC Net Zero Ventures I reinforces the ambition to promote technologies with real industrial application, capable of generating measurable environmental impact and delivering long-term competitiveness. Collaboration with Suma Capital is an example of how capital and industry can move forward together towards the 2035 goals,” added Gema García, Director of Repsol Corporate Venturing.

Managed under the firm’s SC Venture strategy, SC Net Zero Ventures I will focus on startups with validated technology and commercial traction operating in key industrial and B2B verticals. These include low-carbon mobility, electrification of industrial processes, renewable energy storage, carbon utilisation, and hydrogen innovation.

Notably, the fund has already begun deploying capital into a quartet of European ClimateTech ventures:

• HESSTEC (energy storage)
• Corinex (energy grid digitalisation)
• H2SITE (green hydrogen)
• V2C (smart EV charging).

With capital now in hand, SC Net Zero Ventures I looks to become a vital lever in accelerating Europe’s transition to a greener, more competitive economy – one scale-up at a time.

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EvoluteIQ, Stockholm’s native AI platform, today announced the completion of a €44 million minority growth capital round to accelerate its global expansion and cement its leadership in enterprise-grade Agentic AI led automation space.

The round was led by Baird Capital.

“We are privileged to partner with Baird Capital for EvoluteIQ’s next phase as a company,” said Sameet Gupte, Co-founder and Chief Executive at EvoluteIQ. “The Agentic AI market represents a fundamental shift from reactive automation to proactive, intelligent orchestration. Baird Capital’s expertise in scaling technology companies, network, and global resources will help us accelerate our journey as we focus on driving transformative growth through outcome driven agentic models.”

Founded in 2019, EvoluteIQ aims to transform the automation of complex business process through its platform (EIQ), underpinned by its proprietary Agentic Mesh Architecture {aMa}, and the AI Workbench.

The platform reportedly delivers measurable outcomes across mission-critical operations in banking and financial services, insurance, healthcare, telecommunications, and manufacturing by orchestrating complete end-to-end business workflows instead of the traditional point-solution approach.

Their platform unifies process orchestration, data integration, and GenAI-driven decision-making into one Low-Code/No Code/Pro Code environment to enable end-to-end automation of processes. Designed for complex, regulated enterprises, EIQ reportedly eliminates fragmented toolchains by enabling organisations to design, deploy, and scale AI-enabled, end-to-end business processes at speed, security, and cost efficiency.

EvoluteIQ says their differentiated approach addresses the enterprise market’s most pressing need: moving beyond fragmented AI tools to comprehensive, autonomous business process management.

Supported by Baird Capital’s global platform, EvoluteIQ plans to scale its established business globally, bolstered by new additions to the Board of Directors: Baird Capital’s Daina Spedding and Mark Donnelly.

“The investment demonstrates our excitement for AI and reshaping automation,” said Daina Spedding, Director in Baird Capital’s Global Private Equity team. “EvoluteIQ has earned its place alongside other automation trailblazers, bringing deep expertise and addressing a critical AI need across the enterprises they serve. We are delighted to welcome EvoluteIQ into Baird Capital’s portfolio, and we look forward to working with the team to grow the business.”

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Workday, Inc., the American enterprise AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Stockholm’s Sana, an AI company building the next generation of enterprise knowledge tools, for approximately €928 million.

According to the companies, Sana will power a new Workday experience – where knowledge, data, action, and learning come together as one and create the new front door for work.

“Our focus has always been on creating intuitive AI tools that improve how people learn and work,” said Joel Hellermark, Founder and CEO of Sana. “I’m excited to bring these tools to 75 million Workday users and partner with Workday’s iconic team to launch a new era of superintelligence for work.”

Since its founding in 2016, Sana has been innovating AI for work, developing intuitive tools that “elevate humans with AI“. Sana’s core products, Sana Learn and Sana Agents, have already served over one million users across hundreds of enterprises.

In addition to powering a new Workday experience, Sana will continue to develop Sana Learn and Sana Agents. As part of Workday, Sana will be able to accelerate its growth and deliver even more innovation to its customers at scale.

“Sana’s team, AI-native approach, and beautiful design perfectly align with our vision to reimagine the future of work,” said Gerrit Kazmaier, president, Product & Technology, Workday. “This will make Workday the new front door for work, delivering a proactive, personalized, and intelligent experience that unlocks unmatched AI capabilities for the workplace.”

With Sana, Workday says they will create the work experience of the future – helping people get their work done and empower employees with AI agents that can:

• Find answers, information and files by instantly searching across a company’s data sources, including Workday, Google Drive, SharePoint, and Office365.
• Act proactively by anticipating needs, summarising insights, and assisting with projects.
• Create presentations, documents, and dashboards, even full learning courses, based on company knowledge.
• Automate repetitive tasks and routine work by executing workflows end-to-end.

For example, hiring managers will be able to generate tailored dashboards to monitor their live recruitment pipeline, automate the end-to-end performance review process, and receive proactive suggestions on onboarding new hires based on real-time performance data.

With Sana’s no-code agent builder, Sana Agents, users can create AI agents to automate repetitive tasks and act proactively on their behalf. These agents streamline workflows while helping ensure that every action remains secure and compliant with company policies through the Workday Agent System of Record. For instance, a leading American manufacturer achieved up to 95% time savings with Sana Agents; a multinational industrial tech company achieved 90% productivity gains; and a global law firm saw over 60% time savings and 200% increased efficiency.

Sana’s AI-native learning platform, Sana Learn, combines learning management, content creation, course generation, and personalised tutoring through specialised learning agents.  For example, a global electric vehicle manufacturer boosted learning engagement by 275%; a leading European installation distributor with 7,500 employees cut course creation time from four months to four days; and a global fintech company went from three weeks to three hours for content creation.

Sana Learn will complement Workday Learning with hyper-personalised skill building capabilities and AI-native content creation at scale. Enhanced by AI-driven internal mobility with Workday Talent Optimisation and HiredScore, this learning suite will aim to help employees build skills faster and help enable organizations to scale personalised learning experiences, supporting employee reskilling and upskilling initiatives.

“Sana pioneered the world of intelligent agents and AI-native learning at scale,” said Josh Bersin, global industry analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company and a Sana customer. “I think Sana’s AI agent and learning system gives Workday customers the opportunity to completely transform the way their employees learn, grow, and operate as superworkers in this new age of AI.”

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Workday’s fiscal year 2026, ending January 31, 2026, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

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EvoluteIQ, a native AI platform, secured $53 million in minority growth capital from Baird Capital to accelerate global expansion and strengthen its leadership in enterprise-grade agentic AI automation. Baird Capital’s Daina Spedding and Mark Donnelly will join the EvoluteIQ Board of Directors.

Founded in 2019, EvoluteIQ develops the EIQ platform for automating complex business processes. Built on its Agentic Mesh Architecture (aMa) and an AI Workbench, EIQ orchestrates end-to-end workflows across sectors such as banking and financial services, insurance, healthcare, telecommunications, and manufacturing.

The AI-native platform unifies process orchestration, data integration, and generative-AI–assisted decisioning in a single Low-Code/No-Code/Pro-Code environment, replacing fragmented toolchains.

Designed for complex, regulated organisations, EIQ enables teams to design, deploy, and scale AI-enabled business processes with greater speed, security, and cost efficiency. The platform is used by some Fortune 500 enterprises to automate workflows and improve operational resilience.

Sameet Gupte, Co-founder and Chief Executive at EvoluteIQ, commented:

The Agentic AI market represents a fundamental shift from reactive automation to proactive, intelligent orchestration.
Baird Capital’s expertise in scaling technology companies, network, and global resources will help us accelerate our journey as we focus on driving transformative growth through outcome driven agentic models.

This funding will enable the company to accelerate its global expansion and strengthen its leadership in enterprise-grade agentic AI–driven automation.

Terra One, a German developer of grid-scale battery storage systems, has secured up to €150 million in mezzanine financing from Aviva Investors. Alongside equity and project financing, these funds will enable Terra One to invest up to €750 million in new storage assets.

This will enable the company to build up a total capacity of around 3 GWh – which is enough to meet the electricity needs of approximately 20% of all German households for one hour. Germany has approximately 41 million households (as of 2024/2025).

“This financing is a milestone for Terra One and for the energy transition in Europe,” said Tony Schumacher, Founder and CEO of Terra One. “With Aviva Investors at our side, we can accelerate the expansion of large-scale battery storage significantly. In doing so, we are making a decisive contribution to security of supply and making Europe’s energy system more independent and resilient. At the same time, the hybrid financing structure gives us the flexibility and scalability we need to establish Terra One as one of the leading independent storage developers in Europe.”

Founded in 2022, Terra One develops, finances, and operates grid-scale battery storage projects that provide flexibility to power systems increasingly reliant on renewable energy. Its proprietary machine-learning trading platform optimises asset performance across wholesale and ancillary markets, enabling secure, affordable, and sustainable power for Europe.

Their algorithmic power trading platform uses a machine-learning architecture to operate their batteries autonomously.

“Energy storage is the backbone of a carbon-neutral future,” added Adam Irwin, Director  Infrastructure Equity at Aviva Investors. “We are investing in Terra One because the company has proven its ability to deliver projects quickly, reliably, and to the highest standards. Together, we aim to take the European storage market to the next level and accelerate the transformation of Europe’s energy systems.”

As the energy transition progresses, market volatility and the strain on electricity grids are increasing. Battery storage systems are crucial for integrating renewable energies, stabilising grids and strengthening European energy independence.

Terra One combines project expertise, innovative financing structures and an AI-based trading platform. This makes the company a leading partner for grid operators, banks and investors in the dynamically growing storage market.

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Warsaw-based HealthTech startup Doctor.One has raised a €4 million Seed round to support expansion into Germany, Spain, and the UK, building on its early commercial success in Poland and demand for chronic care solutions that move beyond episodic or telemedicine models.

The round was led by YZR Capital, with participation from Impact Ventures and existing investors.

“We aim to become the go-to digital companion for healthcare professionals managing chronic patients – keeping them connected, informed, and supported between in-person visits,” said Maciej Malenda, the Co-founder and CEO of Doctor.One.

Founded in 2021, Doctor.One is a chronic care platform that aims to empower healthcare professionals to stay connected with their patients through continuous, asynchronous communication. By transforming care into a relationship-driven experience beyond the visit, the company looks to help improve engagement, boost adherence, and ensure that no chronic patient feels alone in their health journey.

Rather than replacing the physician-patient connection, the platform says they strengthen it – empowering healthcare professionals to support their patients between hospital appointments or clinic visits without overloading their schedules.

The company is currently running programmes with pharmaceutical companies Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Merck and AstraZeneca, helping its partners improve adherence, patient engagement, and long-term outcomes through structured digital care paths and human touch.

With almost half a million of microinteractions facilitated across therapeutic areas such as obesity, oncology, neurology, and endocrinology, the platform has proven both clinically valuable and psychologically resonant.

“We are strong believers in exceptional teams fixing crucial problems on a large scale with innovative solutions,” said Markus Feuerecker, the Co-founder and Managing Partner from YZR Capital. “In Doctor.One we found such a team that stands out with their asynchronous care model and already proven success in tackling key issues in care pathways using scalable technology while providing clear value to patients, providers and pharma groups at the same time.”

Doctor.One is also collaborating with healthcare providers across Europe, including a flagship partnership with Uniwersyteckie Centrum Kliniczne (UCK) in Gdańsk as part of the EU-funded Amber Project. This initiative, uniting partners from five countries, is transforming cancer care through proactive, home-based support that’s relational rather than transactional.

Still in 2025, the company is on the way to increase its revenue eightfold and grow its team in Sales, Product, AI, and Growth to support the expansion with its focus on relational, continuous care.​

“Doctor One is making doctor-patient direct communication more accessible and taking it to a new level, with the aim of providing more effective and more human treatment,” added Gergő Iváncsics from Impact Ventures.

Operating in full compliance with GDPR and ISO standards , the team is now preparing to scale its platform across Germany, Spain and UK —Europe’s largest healthcare markets.

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Germany-based AI compliance platform Kertos has closed a €14 million Series A to redefine AI-native compliance in Europe. The round was led by global fintech investor Portage, with continued participation from existing backers Pilabs, Redstone, 10x Founders, and seed+speed Ventures.

Kertos is a European compliance engine that pairs a powerful operating system with AI-native automation and on-demand expert support. It integrates with your tech stack, automatically discovers assets, surfaces real-time insights, assesses risk, and automates the end-to-end workflow, from document drafting and evidence collection to continuous monitoring, reducing the time and effort required to stay compliant.

By streamlining repetitive, complex tasks, Kertos’ AI agents make compliance effortless and enable audit readiness in days.

Kertos co-founder Dr. Kilian Schmidt said the company’s OS and AI agents now automate the entire compliance workload, turning compliance into a strategic lever for European businesses. He added that the platform delivers at scale, eliminating busywork, reducing costs, and providing the infrastructure Europe needs to achieve operational excellence and meet leading European and global frameworks.

As Europe’s regulatory landscape grows more complex, Kertos leads with a Europe-first approach, delivering end-to-end compliance, from asset discovery and regulatory mapping to certification and continuous audit readiness, for businesses of every size. Startups and scale-ups get compliant fast to unlock enterprise deals, mid-market firms automate manual work to fuel growth, and large corporates replace fragmented processes with AI so teams can focus on strategy and governance.

Finnish startup Time Atlas Labs, which helps people track and learn from life’s most important moments, has raised €1.8 million in growth funding led by Lifeline Ventures, with participation from a syndicate of angel investors including Duolingo co-founder Severin Hacker and Linear’s Tuomas Artman.

While many apps track parts of life, such as workouts, health metrics, or diet, none capture the full picture or help users learn from past events and patterns. This gap inspired Time Atlas Labs to create Time Atlas, its Active Life Tracking app. The platform builds a private, continuous timeline of a person’s life by linking activities with context, enabling users to revisit experiences and uncover meaningful patterns.

Founded in 2024 by Aapo Kyrölä, Markus Stenberg, and Juho Pennanen, the company was born from Kyrölä’s realisation that he couldn’t remember many key moments from his first year of fatherhood.

Privacy is a central principle for Time Atlas Labs. Unlike other tracking tools, it never shares data with third parties. Users can choose to share information with close contacts, but only on an optional basis.

Time Atlas goes beyond fitness and sleep tracking by creating a private life timeline that connects activities, places, and personal notes, helping people recall and reflect on meaningful experiences.

Various types of life tracking have been around for years, but they’ve always been segmented to specific activities. What we’re building at Time Atlas Labs takes all of these moments and lets people see connections between their actions and use them to understand themselves,

said Aapo Kyrölä, CEO and co-founder.

The health and wellness tracking market is projected to more than triple by 2034, while life tracking overall has surged in recent years, largely through sports and sleep technologies.

Time Atlas Labs represents the next evolution of this space, offering a single platform that maps an entire life of activities and enriches them with comments and journal entries that bring depth and context to each moment.

The new funds will be used to further develop and grow its Active Life Tracking app, Time Atlas.

Belgian company SEQUESTO, a scale-up transforming how organisations handle tenders, RFIs, and RFPs, has secured a strategic €2.5 million investment from Smartfin and Newion.

Founded in 2020, SEQUESTO is an AI-first platform that uses agentic workflows to automate repetitive, error-prone tasks across the entire RFx lifecycle, thereby enhancing tender teams’ efficiency and win rates.

As tenders grow in number and complexity, and AI breakthroughs emerge, the global market for RFP optimisation software is accelerating. Yet for most organizations, responding to RFPs, RFIs, and other complex procurement procedures remains largely manual, slow, and costly, with frustratingly low win rates.

Unlike legacy players that deliver only incremental improvements, SEQUESTO reimagines the entire RFx lifecycle with advanced AI, setting a new standard in the market. Its impact extends well beyond time savings, as SEQUESTO consistently reduces content management costs, accelerates time to value, and improves win rates on complex bids.

Now an international scale-up, SEQUESTO operates across key European markets and the United States, serving fast-growing SaaS firms and highly regulated enterprises alike.

The new funding will support SEQUESTO’s international expansion and further develop its market position.

London’s BNVT Capital today announced the launch of its debut €126 million fund to invest in AI-first and technology-driven companies “solving humanity’s most pressing challenges“.

Rory Mounsey-Heysham, managing partner at BNVT Capital said: “LPs and entrepreneurs are crying out for investors who see the world’s biggest challenges not as a moral quandary, but as vast untapped markets. A big problem is simply a big market waiting to be served.”

BNVT Capital is a global VC firm, launched by investors previously at the Gates Foundation, Hedosophia and Goldman Sachs. With a presence in London, New York, and Riyadh, the global investment team is guided by the principle of Benevolent Disruption, an idea backed by proprietary returns data, that solving Big Problems is Big Business.

BNVT Capital was founded by Managing Partners Rory Mounsey-Heysham (ex-Gates Foundation), and Chris Corbishley (ex-Hedosophia).

Their approach is built on the study, “Benevolent Disruption: The Fortune in Solving the World’s Biggest Problems”, co-authored with Professor Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School and VenCap International PLC (a large VC allocator) and academics at MIT and Oxford University.

Drawing on proprietary data on 500+ VC funds and 14,000 companies, over the last 40 years, the study unveiled an enormous, and reportedly undiscovered, source of investment value: just 30% of venture-backed companies tackle big problems and these have historically delivered 51% higher returns compared to their peers.

Chris Corbishley, managing partner at BNVT Capital said: “Investors have missed a striking pattern in their own data. For too long, investors have been backing fads, not needs – distracted by incremental technologies making life marginally faster, cheaper, or easier. Venture capital is about swinging for the fences – backing solutions that can reshape society for the better. That is what Benevolent Disruption is about.”

The fund has already invested in 11 companies across Europe and the US, including Swap Commerce (UK), Cloover (Germany), and Dawnguard (Netherlands), co-investing alongside global firms such as TPG, Iconiq, Lowercarbon, and QED.

The fund’s origins came from Mounsey-Heysha seeing the outsized returns Bill Gates was generating from investing in solutions to global problems, and then Corbishley seeing the same pattern play out in his own portfolio at Hedosophia.

The VC says this new fund and investment concept comes at an interesting time when politicians and the investor community alike are at war as to the role of business in society. BNVT Capital position their thesis as a ‘third way’ between the ESG antithesis and unfettered capitalism.

Barry Sternlicht, CEO of Starwood Capital, added: “The greatest economic value comes from investing in mission-driven brands that don’t just follow the market – they redefine it.”

The fund’s thesis has attracted support from leading entrepreneurs and investors, including founders and leaders at Shopify, Google, Octopus Energy, Remitly, and institutional support from Starwood Capital, Investcorp, TPG, and others.

BNVT portfolio Founder Sam Atkinson, Founder of Swap Commerce, said: “BNVT has been pivotal in rapidly scaling Swap through strategic capital and deep expertise. Their global industry insights have directly shaped our growth strategy and product evolution.”

While Jodok Betschart, Founder of Cloover, said: “BNVT has been a fundamental partner in accelerating Cloover’s growth, unlocking over $100 million in funding capacity and connecting us with world-class climate investors. Their deep expertise in climate tech has been instrumental.”

BNVT Capital plans to expand its portfolio to 25–30 companies globally in the coming two years, continuing to prove that solving the world’s biggest problems provides one of the most lucrative opportunities in venture investing.

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BNVT Capital today announced the launch of its debut $150M fund to invest in AI-first and technology-driven companies solving humanity’s most pressing challenges.

BNVT’s approach is built on a groundbreaking study, “Benevolent Disruption: The Fortune in Solving the World’s Biggest Problems”, co-authored with Professor Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School and VenCap International PLC (a large VC allocator) and academics at MIT and Oxford University. 

Drawing on proprietary data on 500+ VC funds and 14,000 companies, over the last 40 years, the study unveils an enormous source of investment value: just 30 per cent of venture-backed companies tackle big problems and these have historically delivered 51 per cent higher returns compared to their peers.

BNVT Capital was founded by Managing Partners Rory Mounsey-Heysham (ex-Gates Foundation), Chris Corbishley (ex-Hedosophia), as well as Co-Founder Nasir Alsharif (Chairman of Sackville Capital). Sackville Capital is a London-based private markets investor and seeded BNVT Capital. 

The funds' origins stemmed from Rory observing the outsized returns Bill Gates was generating from investing in solutions to global problems, and then Chris witnessing the same pattern play out in his own portfolio at Hedosophia. 

The fund has already invested in 11 companies across Europe and the US, including Swap Commerce https://www.swap-commerce.com/ (UK), Cloover (Germany), and Dawnguard (Netherlands), co-investing alongside global firms such as TPG, Iconiq, Lowercarbon, and QED.

Rory Mounsey-Heysham, managing partner at BNVT Capital, said:  

“LPs and entrepreneurs are crying out for investors who see the world’s biggest challenges not as a moral quandary, but as vast untapped markets. A big problem is simply a big market waiting to be served.”

Nasir Alsharif, co-founder of BNVT, added: 

“This is truly a differentiated investment thesis - backed up by extraordinarily real-world data. Myself, and Sackville Capital, were excited by the countercyclical nature of the thesis - creating outsized returns from solving the biggest problems.”

Chris Corbishley, managing partner at BNVT Capital, said:

“Investors have missed a striking pattern in their own data. For too long, investors have been backing fads, not needs - distracted by incremental technologies making life marginally faster, cheaper, or easier.

Venture capital is about swinging for the fences—backing solutions that can reshape society for the better. That is what Benevolent Disruption is about.”

The fund’s thesis has garnered support from leading entrepreneurs and investors, including founders and leaders from Shopify, Google, Octopus Energy, and Remitly, as well as institutional backing from Starwood Capital, Investcorp, TPG, and other prominent investors.

As part of the announcement, BNVT Capital is launching the Benevolent Disruption platform and community. 

BNVT Capital plans to expand its portfolio to 25–30 companies globally in the coming 2 years, continuing to prove that solving the world’s biggest problems provides one of the most lucrative opportunities in venture investing.

Lead image: Chris Corbishley and Rory Mounsey Heysham. Photo: uncredited.

suena energy, a technology company specialising in algorithmic optimisation and trading for energy storage systems and renewable energies, has successfully closed an €8 million Series A funding round. 

suena energy’s proprietary Energy Trading Autopilot enables fully automated, AI-driven trading of flexibilities across all relevant power and ancillary service markets. 

Using real-time data and forecasts, the platform generates optimal dispatch schedules to maximise revenues while minimising risk and battery degradation.

A key focus of the growth strategy is the rapidly expanding market for co-located storage. These projects not only offer operational synergies and new revenue models but also require strong technological, regulatory, and economic integration. suena energy addresses this complexity with a software approach that can flexibly adapt to market and project conditions, helping customers to develop storage projects quickly, efficiently, and profitably – for a resilient, decentralised, and decarbonised power system.

Dutch energy company Eneco led the round through its investment arm Eneco Ventures. It was joined by impact venture capital fund InnoEnergy and existing investors InnoEnergy, J.O.S.S., Santander, and Energie 360°. 

“This funding round marks a strategic milestone for us, enabling us to take our business model to the next level – with strong partners at our side who share our vision”, said Lennard Wilkening, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of suena energy.

“Eneco Ventures and 4impact are highly complementary to our existing investor base. Their strategic-operational and digital technology expertise brings us closer to our goal of becoming a leading provider of intelligent flexibility trading in Europe.”

Till Wyszynski, Investment Director at Eneco Ventures, shared:

“suena energy impressed us with its outstanding team, innovative trading platform, and clear vision.

The ability to optimise complex assets like the combination of renewables and storage in real time is a crucial element of the energy transition. suena energy has the potential to become a market leader in this space.”

According to Pauline Wink, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of 4impact capital:

“We are deeply impressed by Suena Energy’s focus on optimising co-located storage and renewable energy – an increasingly vital component of the energy transition – as well as the strength and complementarity of its founding team. 

The team has secured key customers, developed clear growth plans, and achieved significant progress.”

suena energy will use the fresh capital to strengthen its position in the rapidly growing energy storage market, with a focus on international expansion, scaling its business model, and optimising the co-location of storage systems with renewable energy assets. 

Lead image: suena energy. Photo: uncredited.