Nvidia has become shorthand for the AI market itself. In the years since generative models reshaped computing, the company’s GPUs have powered everything from large-scale training clusters to real-time inference infrastructure. That dominance helped Nvidia’s stock surge over 1,500 percent from 2022 into 2025 and made it one of the most valuable tech firms in […]

The UK government announced new regulatory requirements that will bring major video-on-demand (VoD) platforms under tighter oversight by Ofcom, aligning them more closely with traditional television broadcasters. The changes are part of implementing the Media Act 2024 and mark one of the most significant shifts in how online streaming services are governed in the UK. […]

An Estonian defence startup building what it says are “affordable, mass manufacturable” missile defence systems has raised €30m in Series A funding.

Frankenburg Technologies, founded in 2024, is headed up by CEO Kusti Salm, the former permanent secretary of Estonia’s defence ministry.

The startup, which touts its sovereign credentials, says it was founded in response to a structural shift in Europe’s security environment, namely that modern aerial threats can now be produced cheaply and at scale, while missile manufacturing has historically prioritised performance over speed, cost and regeneration.

Its latest funding round comes four years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It says that it can build “affordable missile systems designed for mass production”, which addresses Europe’s air-defence bottleneck.

It says it will use the funding to build sovereign missile-manufacturing capacity in Europe, with a focus on production, resilience and regeneration.

According to the FT, one of its priorities is to set up two EU-based “mass production sites” to make more than 100 missiles per day per site.

The funding round was led by new investor Plural, the Estonian fund founded by Wise's Taavet Hinrikus and other high-profile investors, with participation from another new investor, the Estonian investor SmartCap. The startup has now raised €40m in total.

Salm said: “Europe’s deterrence problem is not just about budgets, it’s about availability. You cannot deter with systems that are too scarce, too slow to replace, or too expensive to use at scale. Frankenburg was built to restore speed, scale and sustainability to missile defence.

"This funding allows us to put real industrial capacity behind that mission and build missile systems Europe can actually afford to fire and produce at scale.”

Verley, a French nutrition-focused ingredient company developing high-performance whey proteins through precision fermentation, has secured an oversubscribed €32 million Series A financing round – four years after its inception.

The round was led by Alven, with participation from Blast and the French Tech Seed fund (managed on behalf of the French government by Bpifrance as part of France 2030), as well as past investors including Sofinnova, Sparkfood, Captech and Founders Future. With additional non-dilutive support from Bpifrance.

Stéphane Mac Millan, CEO and co-founder of Verley, said: “Verley’s mission is to address the growing global demand for high-quality nutrition while preserving the planet’s natural resources. Verley is now ready to help alleviate the pressure the dairy industry is facing. We are very proud to be building a Europe an champion leveraging decades of know – how in the dairy industry.”

Verley’s €32 million Series A positions the company toward the upper end of precision fermentation and functional protein ingredient funding activity in Europe in 2025/2026.

In comparison, early-stage players covered by EU-Startups such as SUMM Ingredients raised approximately €1.7 million in Seed funding to launch a multifunctional fermented protein ingredient, while PFx Biotech secured around €2.5 million to advance its precision fermentation platform for allergy-free human milk proteins.

Adjacent fermentation technology funding includes EvodiaBio, which raised about €6 million to scale fermentation-based flavour technologies.

Taken together, the EU-Startups-reported funding for these related ventures totals roughly €10 million, underscoring that Verley’s Series A is considerably larger than most fermentation ingredient financings reported in 2025.

Further analysis suggests that significant Series-level funding remains comparatively uncommon within the European precision fermentation and functional ingredient ecosystem, with most capital flowing into Seed-stage and adjacent technology plays.

Hélène Briand, co-founder and Chief Innovation and Commercial Officer, adds: “This financing allows us to scale not only our production, but the performance promise behind our ingredients. Our functionalisation technologies are designed to meet real industrial constraints and application needs. That focus on performance is what makes precision fermentation relevant and viable at scale.”

Founded in 2022, Verley is a food and nutrition ingredient company developing high-purity, functionalised whey proteins through precision fermentation. By combining nutritional performance, industrial scalability and sustainability, Verley aims to support food and beverage manufacturers in developing next-generation high-protein products aligned with evolving consumer and market expectations.

According to data provided by the company, in 2026, the global protein market is expected to continue posting record figures, after reaching a value of €26.9 billion ($31.8 billion) in 2025. High-protein nutrition has become a mainstream expectation across categories, while demographic growth, evolving dietary habits and the rapid expansion of GLP-1 treatments (1 in 8 adults in the US were taking a GLP – 1 drug in 2025) are further increasing demand for high-quality, digestible protein ingredients.

In this context, Verley develops functional whey protein ingredients, more precisely beta lactoglobuline (BLG), designed to deliver the nutritional and functional performance expected by food and nutrition manufacturers. Verley has built its approach to integrate seamlessly into existing food value chains.

Verley’s ingredients allegedly only require a fraction of the natural resources used in conventional production, addressing a growing demand from manufacturers and consumers for reduced-impact products.

Verley’s portfolio, marketed under the FermWhey range, consists of functionalised whey proteins engineered for performance in real-world formulations (high-protein yoghurts,​ protein shots…), combining high purity, advanced solubility, emulsification, gelling properties and optimised nutritional profiles.

The proceeds of the round will primarily support Verley’s U.S. market entry, including commercial deployment and early customer scale-up, alongside a ramp-up of production capacities. The company will also continue investing in R&D to further strengthen the performance, efficiency and sustainability of its technologies.

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Today, Marathon VC is leading a €1.1 million Seed round for Straion, the rules layer built to turn the current chaos of AI coding into governed,  production-grade engineering.

We have entered the "Prompt-and-Pray" era of software development.

Tools like GitHub Copilot and Cursor have turned every developer into a high-speed generator, but for engineering leaders at scale, this velocity is creating a new kind of crisis. We are seeing more code than ever before, but it often lacks the "organisational DNA" required to survive in a complex enterprise environment.

The current struggle with AI-first coding is the constant need for manual course correction. An AI agent might suggest a brilliant piece of logic that technically works, but it doesn't know your company’s specific Kafka naming conventions or your PII masking protocols. This leads to an exhausting trial-and-error loop where senior engineers spend their days "babysitting" the AI’s work to ensure it doesn't break architectural patterns.

Straion helps teams centralise engineering standards in a single rule hub, dynamically select the right rules for each task, and validate plans before implementation — not just after code generation. It integrates seamlessly with existing workflows such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Copilot.

The goal is simple: move faster, reduce drift, and increase confidence in the reliability of generated code.

"The industry has spent the last two years obsessed with making AI faster.  But in an enterprise environment, speed without alignment is a liability,"  says Lukas Holzer, co-founder of Straion.

"We built Straion to give AI  the organisational context it was missing—moving it from a trial-and-error  tool to a precision instrument that understands how your company actually  builds software."

Straion solves this by transforming static documentation into active,  machine-readable guardrails. It doesn't just wait for a mistake; it provides the AI with the right context at the right millisecond. Most importantly, it validates the AI’s plan before implementation begins.  

This shifts the process from reactive "cleanup" to proactive precision. By building a platform that uses machine learning to dynamically retrieve only the rules relevant to a specific task, they have enabled true, governed autonomy. It’s about giving the AI the steering wheel it was missing.

According to  Marathon VC, to understand why Straion is the missing piece of the modern dev stack,  you have to look at the founders' roots in Linz, Austria.

This isn't a group of "vibe coders" chasing a trend; they are seasoned operators who have spent a decade in the trenches of enterprise software.

Lukas Holzer, Fabian Friedl, and Katrin Freihofner were colleagues at Dynatrace, the observability giant. While at Dynatrace, they noticed a recurring friction point: as teams grew, the "invisible rules" of the organisation—architectural standards, security mandates, and naming conventions—became increasingly difficult to enforce. These rules usually lived in "rotting" documentation: Confluence pages that no one read and 300-page PDFs that were updated once a year.

When AI agents began generating code at superhuman speeds, this  "documentation gap" became a canyon. The AI could write a function in milliseconds, but it had no idea how that function fit into the broader organisational architecture.

"Most investors are looking for the next AI code generator. We were looking for the guardrails," says Panos Papadopoulos, Partner at Marathon  VC.

"Lukas, Fabian, and Katrin aren't just building a tool; they are building the governance layer that makes the autonomous future possible for the enterprise.

They have the technical pedigree from Dynatrace to solve what we believe is the most critical bottleneck in modern engineering. We are proud to back this team as they build the governance layer that will define the next decade of software engineering."

The funding will accelerate three priorities: deepening the product’s capabilities in rule governance and plan-stage validation, expanding integrations for scaled engineering workflows, and hiring mission-driven builders across AI engineering and full-stack development.

VoiceLine, a Munich-based startup that builds voice-first artificial intelligence for enterprise frontline workers, has closed €10 million in Series A funding to accelerate growth, expand its product and bring its technology to more customers across Europe and beyond. The round was led by Alstin Capital and Peak, with continued participation from existing backers including Scalehouse […]

Following up on our country deep-dive series, we now turn to Lithuania, a Baltic nation that has steadily built a reputation as one of the region’s most dynamic innovation hubs. While compact in size, the country has developed strong capabilities across fintech, cybersecurity, AI, defence technologies, agritech, and advanced manufacturing.

Lithuania’s startup ecosystem benefits from a highly skilled technical workforce, competitive operating costs, and deep integration with European and global markets. In recent years, the country has seen a wave of venture-backed companies building products for international customers from day one, particularly in regulated industries, AI-driven tools, and hardware-enabled innovation.

In this article, we highlight 10 of the most promising Lithuania-based startups founded from 2021 onwards (coincidentally, they are all headquartered in Vilnius). Presented in alphabetical order, the selection focuses on companies that have secured funding, developed defined products, and are positioning themselves for continued growth into 2026 and beyond.

Founded in 2023, Axiology provides digital infrastructure for issuing, holding, trading, and settling fixed-income instruments such as bonds. Instead of separating these processes across multiple intermediaries, the company brings them together within a single system built on distributed ledger technology. The platform is authorised under the EU DLT Pilot Regime and operates as a MiFID investment firm supervised by the Bank of Lithuania.

Its infrastructure allows licensed brokers, banks, and investment service providers to issue and trade tokenised bonds with real-time settlement and integrated custody. Built on a permissioned version of the XRP Ledger, the system is designed to meet regulatory and security requirements, including ISO 27001 certification and DORA compliance. The company has raised €8 million, with its latest funding round completed in 2026.

Founded in 2023, Copla is a compliance automation platform that helps companies manage cybersecurity and ICT regulatory requirements. The company rebranded from CyberUpgrade in 2025 and now focuses on supporting frameworks such as DORA, NIS2, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and MiCA. Its software automates evidence collection, policy management, and continuous control monitoring, while cross-mapping requirements across frameworks so overlapping work only needs to be completed once.

In addition to the platform, Copla provides access to experienced CISO-level guidance to support audit preparation and long-term compliance planning. The solution is aimed at growing companies that must meet regulatory standards without building large in-house compliance teams. To date, they have secured €6 million, with their latest funding round completed in 2026.

Founded in 2021, Leafood operates a vertical farm in Vilnius, producing microgreens, baby leaves, herbs, and sprouts. Instead of traditional soil-based farming, the company grows greens in vertically stacked layers using nutrient-rich water in a controlled indoor environment. This allows year-round production without pesticides or herbicides, while reducing land use and water consumption compared to conventional agriculture.

Leafood delivers produce to retailers shortly after harvesting, packaging many of its greens with roots attached to extend freshness. The company focuses on local distribution and sustainable production methods, including the use of renewable energy. Leafood has raised €6.45 million in funding.

Founded in 2024, nexos.ai provides an all-in-one AI platform that allows companies to build and manage AI agents without writing code. Users can create task-specific agents for areas such as sales, marketing, HR, and operations, either by customising pre-built templates or configuring their own workflows. The platform connects to existing workplace tools, including Slack, Google Drive, SharePoint, Jira, and CRM systems, allowing agents to access relevant internal data.

nexos.ai supports multiple large language models within a single interface and includes features such as automated task execution, meeting summaries, content generation, and workflow monitoring. The company positions itself as an infrastructure for teams that want to centralise AI tools rather than rely on separate applications. nexos.ai has raised €36.7 million, with its latest funding round completed in 2025.

Founded in 2021, Pulsetto develops a wearable vagus nerve stimulation device designed to support stress management and sleep quality. The device stimulates the vagus nerve in the neck to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which plays a role in regulating heart rate, stress response, and recovery. It is positioned as a non-invasive neuromodulation tool intended for daily use.

Pulsetto combines hardware with a mobile app and is marketed as a hands-free solution that requires only a few minutes per session. The company references research linking vagus nerve stimulation to improvements in stress regulation and heart rate variability. Pulsetto has raised €2.95 million, with its latest funding round completed in 2025.

Founded in 2023, sintra.ai develops AI-based business tools designed to automate everyday operational tasks. The platform offers role-specific “AI employees” that support functions such as social media management, SEO, sales outreach, customer support, recruitment, data analysis, and email marketing. Instead of providing a single chatbot interface, sintra.ai structures its system around dedicated agents assigned to specific business roles.

The platform integrates with tools such as email, calendars, CRMs, and social media platforms, allowing the AI agents to work within existing workflows. Businesses can create multiple workspaces and configure agents according to their brand guidelines and internal processes. sintra.ai has secured €14.9 million in funding, with its latest funding round completed in 2025.

Founded in 2023, Tingit operates a digital repairs marketplace focused on shoes, bags, and clothing. Customers upload a short video of the item they want repaired, receive a quote, and ship the product to a repair partner through an integrated logistics system. Once restored, the item is returned to a chosen collection point. The platform aims to simplify the repair process by handling quoting, payment, and shipping within one workflow.

Beyond repairs, Tingit positions itself within a broader circular model that includes resale support, product authentication tools, and digital tracking of items’ lifecycle. By making repairs more accessible, the company seeks to extend product longevity and reduce waste in fashion and accessories. Tingit has obtained €2 million in funding, with its latest round registered in 2026.

Founded in 2022, Unmanned Defense Systems develops unmanned aerial vehicle systems for defence and security applications. Its portfolio includes ISTAR platforms for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance, as well as long-range loitering munition systems. The company also develops swarm command and control software that connects multiple UAVs within a single operational framework.

Its systems are designed for deployment in contested and GNSS-denied environments, combining reconnaissance, strike capability, and battlefield data analysis. The company positions itself as a complete “kill-chain” provider, integrating detection, engagement, and command functions within one ecosystem. Unmanned Defense Systems has secured €4.2 million in funding, with its latest round completed in 2024.

Founded in 2021, WeSky develops in-seat power systems for aircraft cabins. Its technology enables passengers to charge personal devices during flights while aiming to reduce overall aircraft weight compared to traditional cabin power installations. Lower weight contributes to improved fuel efficiency and reduced operating costs for airlines.

The company holds EASA Part 21J Design Organisation Approval and carries out in-house cabin avionics development and certification, including product integration under EASA and FAA supplemental type certification frameworks. WeSky has secured over €2 million in funding, with its latest round completed in 2025.

Founded in 2024, WhiteBridge AI develops an AI-powered people search and digital footprint analysis tool. The platform aggregates publicly available online information and structures it into a consolidated report, including social media activity, media mentions, career history, and other open-source data. Users can search by name or social profile link to generate an overview of an individual’s public online presence.

The tool is positioned for personal due diligence, sales research, and reputation checks, helping users review publicly accessible data before entering into business or personal relationships. WhiteBridge AI focuses on structuring open-source intelligence into readable summaries rather than relying on manual searches across multiple platforms. The company has landed over €3 million in funding.

By the way: If you’re a corporate or investor looking for exciting startups in a specific market for a potential investment or acquisition, check out our Startup Sourcing Service!

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London-headquartered payments fintech Checkout.com today said it upped headcount by double digits last year to 2,000 staff, and pointed to the diversity of its merchant partners to indicate the robustness of its business, as it released selected financial figures.  

In Checkout.com’s 2025 annual letter, penned by Guillaume Pousaz, founder and CEO, the fintech disclosed some financial figures for 2025 while Pousaz declared his long-term commitment to the startup he has been running for 15 years.

He said: “As I close my first 20-year chapter, I can confidently declare that Checkout will be my life-long journey. I want to dedicate all my energy to compounding every learning, to further our mission and create value for our merchants.”  

Checkout.com, valued at $12bn last year following an employee share sale, said it had grown headcount by 15 per cent year-on-year to 2,000 staff, opening new hubs in San Francisco, Atlanta, and Sao Paulo last year, despite fears AI was curtailing recruitment in fintech.  

The fintech, whose merchant partners include Vinted and eBay, said that its top ten merchant partners account for 18 per cent of its revenues, indicating the diversity of its revenues.

Other figures disclosed by Checkout.com were that it processed over $300bn in total payment volume last year, a 64 per cent increase on 2024, and that revenue grew by over 30 per cent for the second consecutive year.  

It also said it was EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) profitable for the full year in 2025.

Last year, it was revealed that Pousaz, who is Swiss and has been running Checkout.com since 2011, has quit the UK as his country of residence for Monaco, amid changes introduced by the Chancellor to crack down on non-doms.

The post European missile manufacturing push gains momentum as Frankenburg closes €30 million funding round appeared first on EU-Startups.

Celebratix, an Amsterdam-based ticketing startup, has raised €2.2 million in growth capital from Airbridge Equity Partners, following a €1.1 million investment round at the end of 2024.

Founded in 2022, Celebratix develops a blockchain-powered ticketing platform for events, clubs, and festivals. The platform provides organisers with tools to manage ticket sales, resale, guest lists, loyalty features, and real-time data through a single dashboard.

It is designed to give organisers greater control over revenue and customer data throughout the event lifecycle while offering attendees a secure way to buy, sell, and store tickets. By using blockchain infrastructure, the company aims to reduce fraud, streamline access, and improve transparency.

The opportunity is significant in Europe’s highly fragmented ticketing market, where a large number of local providers operate. According to Celebratix, around 300 companies are active across the region, many of which have built loyal customer bases but face limited opportunities to scale.

Founder and CEO Frank Roskam said many local ticketing providers have reached their growth limits and that Celebratix’s strategy is to acquire these companies and migrate their customers onto its platform. The company is focusing on smaller providers with strong regional positions as it works to build a unified European ticketing platform capable of competing with larger players.

We acquire these companies and transition their customers onto our platform. This gives organisers one system for sales, access control and resale, with less manual work and more data insights,

explains Roskam.

Over the past year, Celebratix completed one acquisition in the Netherlands and, according to founders Frank Roskam and Hans-Jochem Dijk, plans to add nine more European ticketing companies in the coming year. The new investment from Airbridge is intended to support this strategy and position the company for a Series A funding round in 2027.

London-based Tewke, a company focused on energy optimisation and home automation, has closed its second funding round of £1.5 million. The round included participation from JamJar Investments, Cur8 Capital, Energy Mix Ventures and Project Ventures, as well as angel investor Vlad Yatsenko, co-founder and CTO of Revolut.

Read our earlier interview with Tewke co-founders Piers Daniell and Rowan Dixon.

Founded in 2020 by Piers Daniell and Rowan Dixon, Tewke develops smart home technology designed to simplify energy management. Its flagship product, Tap, is designed and engineered in the UK and requires no rewiring. It works in homes without a neutral wire, making it compatible with more than 90% of UK housing. The company positions the device as an alternative to more complex, installer-led smart home systems.

Beyond lighting control, Tap is designed to support household energy optimisation by helping users shift electricity use in line with time-of-day tariffs to reduce costs and emissions. It forms part of Tewke’s broader strategy to improve home energy efficiency through contextual, AI-driven intelligence. The company develops its core technology in-house, including patented hardware and firmware as well as its proprietary operating system, Tewke OS.

Piers Daniell, co-founder and CEO of Tewke, said the company’s goal extends beyond energy optimisation to creating a more intelligent, sustainable, and user-centred living environment.

Building next-generation electronics and AI in the UK has been a monumental technical challenge. Seeing people install Tap in minutes and start saving energy immediately is a powerful reward. This funding enables us to scale what we’ve proven works and double down on engineering excellence,

added Rowan Dixon, co-founder of Tewke.

In 2025, Tewke also introduced TewkeAI alongside Google, a contextual AI framework that uses data from Tap’s nine onboard sensors to analyse behaviour, movement, air quality, and temperature patterns within the home.

The funding will support go-to-market execution and the expansion of Tewke’s engineering team, including the development of neuro-symbolic AI systems to improve residential energy performance. The company’s growth is also supported by non-equity funding from Innovate UK.

VoiceLine, a Munich-based voice AI platform for enterprise frontline teams, today announced that it has closed a €10 million Series A funding round to scale its team and platform, as well as expand internationally. 

The round was led by Alstin Capital and Peak, with participation from existing investors Scalehouse Capital, Venture Stars, and NAP.

Dr Nicolas Höflinger, CEO and co-founder of VoiceLine, said, “Field sales continues to be the backbone revenue driver for many industrial or services organisations. With VoiceLine, we are revolutionising the end-to-end reality of frontline work, from visit preparation and documentation to follow-ups, analytics, and insights – using voice as the most natural interface. 

“We are proud to reach this milestone and grateful for the trust of our investors. This Series A enables us to further scale VoiceLine across Europe and make enterprise-grade Voice AI accessible to many more frontline organisations.”

Founded in 2020 by Dr Nicolas Höflinger and Sebastian Pinkas, VoiceLine is the voice AI platform for enterprise frontline teams in sales, service, and operations. It enables employees to capture information by voice, automate workflows, and generate actionable insights, with integration into existing enterprise systems.

According to VoiceLine, field sales and service teams spend most of their working day with customers, travelling between appointments, conducting visits or service calls, and coordinating follow-ups. The startup states that this leads to documentation, CRM updates, and handovers to back-office teams often getting postponed or not completed. 

VoiceLine notes that because of delayed or incomplete reporting, missed follow-up tasks,  valuable customer insights never reach enterprise systems. Consequently, managers have limited real-time visibility into field activities, and teams lose momentum between customer interactions.

VoiceLine claims to address this with a voice-first AI assistant built for the daily reality of field sales and mobile service teams. “After a customer interaction, employees simply speak to the assistant – by simply recording a voice memo on the go, or calling it via phone from the car. In the background, VoiceLine automates the entire frontline sales workflow in real time. Spoken inputs are automatically structured into visit reports, CRM entries, follow-up tasks, and visit preparations, and synchronised seamlessly with existing CRM, ERP, and other enterprise systems,” the company explained. 

The German startup also mentioned that this creates access to structured, high-quality frontline data for the managers. With enhanced visibility into field activities, customer needs, and market signals, VoiceLine states that managers can react faster to changing market conditions, steer their organisation along proven success drivers, and enable more individualised, personalised customer experiences.

“Enterprise field sales is the engine of many B2B business models, yet administrative burdens are slowing it down. VoiceLine turns Voice AI into a productivity lever for mobile teams while simultaneously creating a new data foundation for strategic decision-making. This combination of measurable ROI and a scalable enterprise business model convinced us to lead the round,” said Andreas Schenk, Partner at Alstin Capital.

According to VoiceLine, unlike traditional enterprise software or CRM projects, it can be deployed within days. Its proprietary implementation engine enables enterprises to roll out fully customised Voice AI assistants for frontline teams with minimal IT involvement, while meeting enterprise-grade security and compliance requirements. 

VoiceLine reports delivering measurable outcomes where most internal AI initiatives stall, achieving a pilot win rate of over 95% and deploying voice AI without the cost, complexity, or risks associated with in-house development. 

Its mid-market and enterprise customers include DACHSER, ABB, Knauf, KSB, and Elis. According to the company, its customers report a reduction of up to 82% in administrative work for customer-facing teams, saving approximately five hours per sales representative per week.

Its customers also reported 400% more structured field data, and up to 96% of follow-up tasks forwarded within minutes, and frontline data available the same day. 

In 2024, VoiceLine raised a €2.4 million Seed round led by Venture Stars and Scalehouse Capital. More recently, EU-Startups covered a €4.1 million funding round announced in December 2025 by Ghent-based Donna, which is developing an AI assistant focused on reducing administrative workload for field sales teams. Together, these rounds reflect continued investor interest in AI-driven tools designed to support frontline sales workflows.

The fresh capital will be used by the company to expand its team and further develop its AI platform. The company plans to more than double its headcount this year, with a focus on product development, sales, customer success, and partnerships. In parallel, VoiceLine aims to expand internationally and accelerate growth in additional frontline-heavy industries, including pharma, medtech, food & beverage, insurance, and financial services. It currently employs around 30 people and has achieved tenfold year-over-year growth.

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Munich-based VoiceLine, a voice AI platform for enterprise frontline teams, has closed a €10 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Alstin Capital and Peak, with participation from existing investors Scalehouse Capital, Venture Stars, and NAP.

Field sales and service teams spend much of their time with customers, travelling between appointments, conducting visits, and coordinating follow-ups. As a result, documentation, CRM updates, and back-office handovers are often delayed or deprioritised, leaving teams to spend several hours each week on administrative work instead of customer-facing activities. This can lead to incomplete reports, missed follow-ups, and customer insights that never reach enterprise systems, limiting real-time visibility for managers and disrupting continuity between interactions.

VoiceLine addresses this challenge with a voice-first AI assistant designed for the daily workflows of field sales and mobile service teams. After a customer interaction, employees can record a voice memo on the go or call the assistant by phone. The platform then automates key frontline workflows in real time, converting spoken inputs into structured visit reports, CRM entries, follow-up tasks, and visit preparations, which are synchronised with existing CRM, ERP, and other enterprise systems.

For managers, this creates access to structured frontline data that was previously difficult to capture, improving visibility into field activities, customer needs, and market signals, and enabling faster, more informed decision-making.

Field sales continues to be the backbone revenue driver for many industrial or services organisations. With VoiceLine, we are revolutionising the end-to-end reality of frontline work, from visit preparation and documentation to follow-ups, analytics, and insights – using voice as the most natural interface,

said Nicolas Höflinger, CEO and co-founder of VoiceLine.

Unlike traditional CRM projects, VoiceLine can be deployed within days, enabling customised voice AI rollouts with minimal IT involvement while meeting enterprise security requirements.

VoiceLine is already in use among mid-market and enterprise customers, including DACHSER, ABB, Knauf, KSB, and Elis, supporting deployments across multiple countries and thousands of frontline users.

The new funding will be used to expand VoiceLine’s team and further develop its AI platform. The company plans to significantly increase headcount this year, with a focus on product development, sales, customer success, and partnerships. In parallel, VoiceLine intends to extend its platform to additional frontline use cases and grow its international presence.

Dytto, a Ghent-based startup building an AI assistant for accounting and bookkeeping firms, has today announced €1.5 million in pre-Seed funding for product development, European expansion, and team growth. 

The round was co-led by Entourage and Fortino Ventures, with participation from the founders of Aikido Security, Tally, and several accounting firm partners.

“We have talked to more than 100 accountants. They are all asking the same question: what can we actually do with AI right now? Not someday. Now. That is why we built Dytto,” said Niels Van Driessche, co-founder & CEO of Dytto. 

Dytto was founded in 2025 by Van Driessche and Jorne De Blaere with the mission to “free the accountant”. It was created with the idea that automating administrative tasks through AI would allow accountants to focus more on their clients. 

“For many businesses, the accountant is their only financial adviser. That relationship is not going anywhere. The challenge is whether firms can free up enough of the day-to-day work to actually serve it well. Accountants do not need another expensive software sold on long-term promises. They have had a decade of those. They need AI that is simple to adopt, works inside their existing tools, and delivers value from day one,” added Van Driessche. 

According to the company, that is what Dytto was built to do. The company claims that Dytto does not require any expensive implementations, nor lock-in.  The platform connects to client data, firm knowledge, and the existing tools already used by the firm. It supports daily work from the inside. Nothing is sent or executed without the accountant’s approval.

“Our AI assists, but humans decide. We designed Dytto so firms can embed their own expertise and ways of working. That is how they stay differentiated,” said Jorne De Blaere, co-founder and CTO of Dytto. 

The fresh capital will be used by the company towards product development, European expansion, and team growth across engineering, product, and customer success.

“Professional services is one of the largest sectors still waiting for AI to deliver real value. Dytto is tackling the adoption challenge by meeting accountants where they work, inside the tools they already use. We are excited to back Niels and Jorne as they build out the product and grow the team,” said Filip Van Innis, Managing Partner at Fortino Ventures. 

Dytto is used by firms across the UK, Belgium, and the Netherlands, ranging from solo practitioners to multi-team organisations. It states that early customers report saving up to an hour per team member per day.

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On the fourth anniversary of Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Tech.eu remains committed to amplifying Ukrainian founders and investors — not merely as a gesture of solidarity, but as recognition of their ongoing impact in innovation, creating front-running tech for international scale.

Ukraine’s tech ecosystem is not paused by war. It is evolving — faster, harder, and with a clarity of purpose that much of Europe would do well to study. ​

Europe — and much of the global tech ecosystem — still underestimates and fails to grasp what Ukraine represents. ​

I often hear Ukrainian startups described as resilient.

It’s a phrase I struggle with because it describes the kind of people who can bounce back, shake it off, and keep going. It makes us feel better, not them and implicitly suggests that adversity can simply be absorbed, as though anyone who struggles under these conditions is an exception rather than human. ​

No founder should have to pitch between air-raid sirens or hesitate to tell customers and investors they have teams in Ukraine — fearing that blackouts and disrupted infrastructure might make them harder to reach. ​

I’ve visited Ukraine three times since Russia’s full-scale invasion, and interviewed dozens of startups and ecosystem builders. It hits different when you visit a co-working space that has been hit by a missile attack / or talk to a founder who casually mentions they are homeless because their apartment burnt down.

Founders are operating under pressures most of us will never fully comprehend — air-raid sirens at all hours, rolling blackouts, and the grinding toll of chronic sleep deprivation.

I’m a chronic insomniac myself, but imagine being jolted awake night after night for nearly four years by the sound of an air-raid alert. You check the app and your local Telegram group. What kind of missile is it? Is it serious enough to warrant shelter — again — or can you cautiously try to sleep? But now you’re awake in fight-or-flight mode. And the next morning, you have a company to run. A pitch to deliver. A stage to stand on.

Recently, Ukrainians experienced what became Ukraine’s harshest winter since the full-scale invasion. Temperatures plunged to –20°C in many regions as sustained Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure — actions that constitute war crimes under international humanitarian law — left entire areas without electricity, heating, or running water.

The structural barriers Ukrainian founders face are rarely understood outside the region.

Most Ukrainian men aged 18–60 are not permitted to leave the country under martial law. Yet I have heard investors say they will only invest if they can meet founders in person — as though geography were a preference rather than a wartime restriction.

I’ve also had quite a few early-stage Ukrainian founders ask me not to mention they have co-founders and management in Ukraine in case it deters investors who see the blackouts as a particular liability for customer retention.

Ukraine’s airspace has been closed to civilian flights for more than four years. A trip to a conference, pitch event, or board meeting in London, Berlin, or Lisbon can involve a 15-hour journey each way — train to the Polish border, border crossing, flight onwards, then the same again in reverse.

And for those who got out. displacement brings its own invisible tax: navigating a new language, unfamiliar bureaucracy, housing insecurity, and rebuilding professional networks from scratch.

These are not minor inconveniences. They are structural friction layered on top of war.

And yet, Ukrainian startups continue to launch, raise capital, and scale internationally. But in the last four years, we’ve seen airSlate, Unstoppable Domains, Creatio,, Preply, and mono become unicorns.

Since 2020, the estimated value of the Ukrainian startup ecosystem has tripled to more than $25 billion. According to Digital State UA , there are approximately 2,600 startups in Ukraine, of which around 2,100 were founded by Ukrainian crews and more than 500 foreign startups that have opened offices in Ukraine.

Further, the exodus of Ukrainian talent across the US, UK, and Europe has created unlikely dividends — new networks, new markets, new paths to scale.

Has Europe done enough? Definitely not.

Ukraine is holding the line — not just for itself, but for Europe’s security. ​

It’s been bizarre for me to see the investors go from anti-defencetech to scrambling for a foothold. Ukraine did not “pivot into defence tech” as a trend. It had to. And what began as an urgent, frontline necessity is increasingly translating into exportable dual-use technologies with broader European relevance, especially for startups. building autonomous counter-UAS systems, battlefield communications platforms, AI-enabled targeting software, logistics optimisation tools, and space-enabled capabilities.

What started as survival is becoming strategic capability.

Russia’s invasion has underscored a stark strategic shortcoming for not only Ukraine but neighbouring Europe: its reliance on systems like Starlink, owned by an American company headed by one of the most megalomaniac people in tech, to power satellite communications infrastructure in times of conflict.

It has also highlighted the need for an expansion of localised, decentralised energy systems — from microgrids to renewables and storage — capable of withstanding sustained attacks on centralised infrastructure. ​ And, where to from here on? The rebuilding of Ukraine will be one of the largest infrastructure and governance challenges Europe has faced in generations.  

But startups are focused on rebuilding, demining, and creating the necessary digital infrastructure. ​

Once the war ends, I predict cities like Lviv and Kyiv will become beacons for founders abroad looking to find a place to found their companies.   A single state portal  Diia, developed over the last few years, includes over 70 digital services — you need only 2 seconds to become an entrepreneur in Ukraine, and 30 minutes to found a limited liability company.

Over 1,000,000 private entrepreneurs and more than 14,000 companies have already used the service.

Ukraine is not waiting to be rebuilt. It is already being built.

The question is whether the rest of Europe is ready to build alongside it.

Lead image: Freepik.

EU-Startups has learned that Hybrid Greentech, a Copenhagen-based provider of virtual power plants (VPP) and renewable energy asset market integration, recently raised over €15 million from growth fund Nordic Alpha Partners.

The investment from Nordic Alpha will support Hybrid Greentech’s Europe-wide expansion, including customer acquisition in new markets and integration with additional energy exchanges. With the investment, Nordic Alpha becomes a significant minority shareholder.

“Storage and flexibility are essential to a renewables-heavy grid. We are excited about Nordic Alpha Partners’ investment, which supports our expansion into more European markets and helps our customers unlock more value from their assets while strengthening grid resilience,” says Rasmus Rode Mosbæk, CEO and founder of Hybrid Greentech.

Alongside Hybrid Greentech’s €15 million raise, EU-Startups has reported several comparable funding rounds in 2025 and 2026 across the virtual power plant (VPP), battery optimisation and grid flexibility segment.

Helsinki-based Capalo AI (€11 million) secured Series A funding to scale its AI-powered VPP platform for battery storage across Europe, while Antwerp’s LIFEPOWR (€5.65 million) raised growth capital to advance its FlexiO virtual power plant technology. In Germany, Berlin-based Ostrom (€20 million) attracted Series B funding to expand its NeoGrid VPP and smart meter-driven energy platform, and Cologne-based Einklang (€2.2 million) raised capital to scale its battery-optimised electricity tariff solution for SMEs.

Meanwhile, Amsterdam’s Dexter Energy (€23 million) secured Series C funding to expand AI-powered forecasting and trade optimisation services for renewables and storage portfolios.

Together, these rounds amount to over €61 million, and when combined with Hybrid Greentech’s €15 million investment, bring the total capital raised across this segment to roughly €77 million in reported deals. The concentration of funding into software-led orchestration, battery optimisation and distributed energy aggregation platforms indicates continued investor focus on digital infrastructure designed to enhance grid flexibility and integrate renewable assets at scale across Europe.

“Hybrid Greentech is already a local leader, working with some of the biggest renewable companies in Denmark. Their technology is a critical component in global reindustrialisation and will play a central role in pivoting society towards a fully electrified economy. They have the potential to become a vital European player, and they fit well into our model of capital efficient internationalisation of technologies that drive new waves of transformation,” adds Marius Ipsen  Vice President, Investments, at Nordic Alpha Partners.

Founded in 2018,  Hybrid Greentech builds cloud-based VPP platforms that connect energy storage, flexibility, and renewable assets. As a BRP and retailer, it operates a vertically integrated stack that includes trading, multi-market optimisation, asset interfaces, analytics, and settlement in one platform.

According to data provided by the company, current EU estimates show that energy consumption will increase by 60% by 2030. At the same time, 40% of the European grid is more than 40 years old. To effectively digitalise, decentralise and make the grid more flexible, the EU will have to spend almost €600 billion to keep up with the pace of transformation in the next four years.

Hybrid Greentech’s technology looks to save Europe billions by enabling owners of renewable energy assets and storage capacity to interact on one coordinated system.

Specialising in AI-powered VPPs that operates and trades battery assets, Hybrid Greentech offers standalone systems as well as co-located systems with renewables, and behind-the-meter installations.

Its cloud-based and fully algorithmic platform allows asset owners and utility companies to access storage integrate assets seamlessly. ​Using live asset data, Hybrid Greentech aims to enable massive performance increases while removing unnecessary battery cycling.

“The Hybrid Greentech team is second to none, and with additional commercial capacity they will be able to scale at an impressive rate. Coupled with our previous experience in e-mobility platforms, battery technology and energy systems, our investment in Hybrid Greentech is familiar territory,” says Shari Rana, Investment Director at Nordic Alpha Partners.

Hybrid Greentech’s platform is also designed to support flexibility: the interconnection between distributed energy resources such as EV batteries, household batteries, and consumer sunroof installations.

Aggregating these resources can strengthen local grids, reduce peak demand, and improve system stability, especially as electrification accelerates.

The company outlines that bringing new energy storage capacity unto the grid system is not just an executional challenge, but technical one as well. Permits, certificates, grid connections, and market approvals can take months or years.

As a vertically integrated player, Hybrid Greentech is positioned to demystify regulatory complexities, shorten project-to-market timelines, aggregate and offer VPP services.

The post Danish startup Hybrid Greentech attracts €15 million investment to accelerate European grid flexibility rollout appeared first on EU-Startups.

OpenAI is broadening how it helps large organizations put artificial intelligence into real use. The company announced a new initiative, Frontier Alliances, teaming up with four major consulting firms, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), McKinsey & Company, Accenture, and Capgemini, to help enterprises move beyond pilot AI projects and embed intelligent systems deeply into business workflows. […]

Finland-based quantum computing startup IQM today said it plans to go public in the US via a SPAC, with a $1.8bn valuation.

Helsinki-headquartered IQM, founded in 2018, is merging with SPAC firm Real Asset Acquisition Corp (RAAC) as part of the deal, the startup said today.

SPACs are an alternative route for companies to go public, instead of a traditional listing.

A SPAC listing is seen as attractive to startups as they can fast-track a listing, without the expense, time and hassle of going through a conventional IPO.

SPAC IPOs leapt in popularity in 2020, but then fell out of favour, amid falling stock prices and big investor losses.

IQM said the transaction values IQM at a pre-money equity valuation of approximately $1.8 billion and would make IQM the first European quantum company to go public. 

It said it was going public on one of the two leading US stock exchanges, but did not share further details. RAAC is listed on the Nasdaq.

The deal, which is subject to the approval of IQM and RAAC shareholders, is expected to be completed in June this year, ahead of the listing.

IQM said it was also considering a dual listing that would see it listed on the Helsinki stock exchange.

IQM is a prominent player in superconducting quantum computers.

It provides both on-premises full-stack quantum computers and a cloud platform to access its computers. 

Last year, IQM raised $320 million in venture capital, the largest Series B raise ever in the quantum space, bringing its total funding raised to $600m.

Last year, Swedish autonomous truck startup Einride is to go public in the US via a SPAC, valuing it at $1.8bn.

Jan Goetz, co-founder and CEO, IQM, said: “We built IQM from the beginning for one purpose — to put working quantum computers in the hands of the people who will use them to solve real problems.

"Not someday. Now. Quantum computing is a science project no more. It is an industry where customers own, operate, and build on advanced quantum computers. That’s what IQM makes possible.”  

Peter Ort, CEO and co-chairman, Real Asset Acquisition Corp, said: “IQM has built and delivered more on-premises quantum systems than any other competitor to some of the most demanding research institutions on earth.

"This transaction will accelerate the growth of a company that has already earned its position in the field, with real customers, running real quantum systems, today.”

Financial anxiety may be stalking Europe’s entrepreneurs, but a return to traditional employment is not on the cards for most. New research surveying 1,600 founders and business owners reveal tension at the heart of European entrepreneurship: while 30% cite maintaining a regular income as their biggest financial challenge, more than 80% say they have no plans to give up independence over the next year.

The data, gathered in November 2025, paints a picture of a continent where entrepreneurship is driven less by necessity and more by choice. Across the four surveyed countries (France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), founders are primarily motivated by autonomy rather than economic pressure.

The research was conducted by Appinio on behalf of Paris-based FinTech startup Qonto.

Commenting on the findings, Alexandre Prot, co-founder and CEO at Qonto, said: “Our latest research confirms something we’ve always believed at Qonto: entrepreneurs don’t lack passion or ideas. They lack the financial infrastructure they need to build and grow their businesses. When 30% of entrepreneurs name income anxiety as their biggest financial challenge, more than double any other issue, we’re looking at a systemic problem.”

Work-life balance (31%) and creative freedom (31%) top the list of reasons for going independent, followed by the pursuit of a personal passion (17%). By contrast, only 11% say they were pushed into entrepreneurship by economic necessity, and just 4% cite hitting a financial ceiling in employment as a key driver.

In other words, most European entrepreneurs are not fleeing bad jobs; they are chasing a different way of working.

National differences add texture to the story.

In France, 36% of respondents point to work-life balance as their primary motivation – the highest in the survey. Germany stands out for its emphasis on creative freedom, selected by 37% of entrepreneurs. Spain presents a more pragmatic profile, with 17% citing economic necessity, the highest proportion among the four countries, and just 9% describing passion as their main motivator.

Yet independence comes at a cost. Income instability overshadows every other financial concern, with 30% naming it as their top challenge – more than double the next most common issues, such as separating personal and business finances (12%) or understanding and optimising taxes (11%). Compliance costs (8%) and planning growth investments (12%) rank lower, suggesting that many founders remain focused on day-to-day survival rather than long-term financial strategy.

There is also a notable geographical divide in income anxiety. In France, 33% of entrepreneurs report income as their main concern, compared with 18% in Spain – a 15-point gap between the highest and lowest levels of reported stress.

If predictable income is the dream, it is also the most missed feature of traditional employment. When asked what single change would most improve their situation, 25% of respondents selected more predictable income. This was followed by less administrative burden (19%), simpler tax and compliance processes (13%), and better access to benefits such as pensions and healthcare (9%). Only 4% said they would change nothing at all, rising modestly to 7% in Germany, the highest satisfaction rate in the survey.

The findings also reveal how entrepreneurs cope. One in three (33%) lean primarily on friends and family for emotional or financial support. Professional networks and communities (24%) and service providers such as lawyers and accountants (21%) also feature prominently. However, 21% report relying on no external support at all. Italy stands out here, with 30% of respondents describing themselves as entirely self-reliant. Spain, by contrast, appears more collaborative, with just 12% going it alone.

Gender differences emerge in support structures. Women are more likely than men to turn to friends and family (36% versus 31%), while men are more likely to cite professional service providers as key resources (24% versus 18%).

Perhaps the most revealing insight concerns resilience. Although 70% of those surveyed describe starting and running a business as “complex” or “very complex” – particularly in Italy, where 79% report difficulty – 84% expect to remain independent through 2027. Germany, which self-reports the most favourable operating environment, sees 37% describing the process as “easy” or “very easy”.

Interestingly, the ease of doing business does not directly correlate with plans to stay.

France reports one of the more manageable environments, yet 25% of French entrepreneurs say they intend to return to employment by 2027, the highest potential exit rate among the four countries.

The data suggests that longevity is shaped less by regulation alone and more by a combination of personal motivation, expectations, adversity, and overall satisfaction.

Taken together, the results highlight a defining paradox of European entrepreneurship in 2026. Founders are anxious, often stretched, and navigating systems they describe as complex. They miss the security of predictable income and the safety net of employment benefits. Yet they remain committed to independence.

For most, entrepreneurship is not a fallback plan. It is a deliberate lifestyle choice – one that prioritises autonomy over certainty, even when certainty feels scarce.

The post Why 84% of Europe’s entrepreneurs refuse to quit despite income anxiety and regulatory hurdles appeared first on EU-Startups.

EnergyTech is reshaping global investment priorities because it delivers what capital ultimately seeks: predictable returns, cost advantages, and control over critical infrastructure.

The energy transition is no longer primarily about carbon. It is about price. Emissions reduction increasingly follows where energy becomes cheaper, more predictable, and economically superior. Rising energy prices, supply volatility, and grid constraints have turned energy from a background operating expense into a primary driver of margins, competitiveness, and asset value. What was once grouped under the broad ClimateTech umbrella has evolved into a distinctly economic investment category, driven by profitability rather than policy ambition.

Unlike ClimateTech, which often relied on long-term emissions narratives and regulatory tailwinds, EnergyTech attracts capital by generating tangible financial outcomes today. Investors are backing solutions that lower total cost of ownership, stabilise cash flows, increase asset utilisation, and create defensible infrastructure positions. Emissions reduction is no longer the investment thesis; it is the consequence of systems that are simply cheaper, more efficient, and economically superior.

Geopolitics has accelerated this shift, but it has not created it. The European Union’s plan to end dependence on Russian gas by 2027 underscores a broader realisation: energy independence is a financial imperative. Countries and companies that control their energy infrastructure reduce exposure to price shocks, improve planning certainty, and protect industrial competitiveness. In this environment, EnergyTech is no longer a sustainability play. It is a return-driven infrastructure investment class where capital flows because money is made.

The fundamental shift: From ClimateTech to EnergyTech

The shift from ClimateTech to EnergyTech marks a change not in ambition, but in capital discipline. For years, ClimateTech investments were largely justified by environmental impact and long-term emissions reduction, often with profitability and scalability deferred to the future. Today, capital is moving decisively towards solutions that generate returns, lower operating costs, and strengthen balance sheets. Sustainability is no longer the entry point for investment; financial performance is.

This reprioritisation is visible in market data. Global ClimateTech investment declined by 29% in 2024, falling from €73.5 billion to €52.1 billion, according to PwC (2025), signalling a broader shift away from narratives that rely primarily on environmental intent. EnergyTech, by contrast, attracts capital because its value proposition is economically verifiable. Control over energy infrastructure translates directly into reduced cost volatility, improved asset utilisation, and higher operational resilience.

Technologies such as AI-driven grid optimisation, demand-response platforms, and decentralised storage are backed not because they save emissions first, but because they save money, unlock flexibility revenues, and protect margins. Emissions reduction follows as a consequence of financially sound energy systems, not as their primary justification. This investor-led reframing has positioned EnergyTech as a core infrastructure allocation category, defined by cash flows, resilience, and long-term economic value.

Energy as infrastructure, not ideology

EnergyTech is inherently pragmatic. It provides the digital and operational infrastructure that makes renewable energy scalable and economically viable. Without advanced control systems, load management, and storage solutions, even large volumes of solar and wind generation can create bottlenecks in electricity distribution and strain existing networks. Modernising grid infrastructure, therefore, matters not just for sustainability, but for functional reliability.

According to the International Energy Agency, global investment in electricity grids will need to reach around €690 billion per year by 2030 to support increasing electrification and the integration of variable renewable energy sources, nearly double current expenditure levels and reflective of the scale of infrastructure required.

These investments are not abstract figures. They represent the real cost of deploying technologies that allow grids to balance supply and demand in real time, coordinate distributed generation, and integrate battery storage effectively. By enabling operators to better manage these flows, EnergyTech infrastructure allows communities and companies to generate, store, and manage energy locally, reducing dependence on centralised fossil fuel infrastructure. In this sense, EnergyTech reframes energy not as a commodity, but as a digitally managed infrastructure asset that delivers control, security, and operational resilience.

The sovereignty premium: Energy dependence as national vulnerability

Dependence on energy imports has proven to be a significant risk factor for economic stability and national security. Price volatility, geopolitical leverage, and sudden supply disruptions can destabilise entire economies. According to Eurostat, Germany relied on energy imports for 67% of its total energy consumption in 2024. Across the EU, the average import dependence was 57%, meaning the bloc sourced more than half of its energy from abroad.

Between member states, dependence varied widely. Fourteen countries besides Germany imported more than half of their energy, with Spain at 69% and Italy at 74%, while twelve member states had import shares below 50%.

Countries that maintain control over their grids, storage assets, and local generation benefit from a sovereignty premium: reduced exposure to external shocks, more predictable supply costs, and greater economic resilience. EnergyTech provides practical ways to realise this premium. Local microgrids and intelligent load management systems help balance supply and demand, integrate renewable energy more efficiently, and manage energy flows in real time. These operational improvements not only enhance supply reliability but also translate into tangible economic benefits for businesses and communities. As such, the sovereignty premium has become a central driver of strategic investment in EnergyTech.

Europe’s opportunity: Innovation capacity meets urgent action

Europe combines strong technical expertise, a deep industrial base, and significant innovation capacity. According to the 2025 GreenTech Monitor, Germany alone hosts around 3,000 active GreenTech startups, with approximately one quarter operating in the energy domain. This highlights a substantial domestic ecosystem focused on energy systems, grid intelligence, and renewable infrastructure.

At the same time, Europe faces acute political and economic pressure to reduce external energy dependencies while meeting ambitious climate targets. This combination of innovation capacity and urgency creates a unique strategic window. EnergyTech offers

AI as an accelerator of the EnergyTech revolution

AI is not just a technological tool. It is a strategic enabler in the shift towards energy sovereignty. AI applications, particularly in data centres, drive higher electricity demand, but they also allow for smarter, more efficient use of renewable energy by forecasting production, managing peak loads, and coordinating local microgrids in real time. Nearly 50% of European power came from renewables in 2024, and global renewable generation is expected to grow by 60% by 2030, providing the infrastructure for AI to maximise efficiency and reliability, according to CNBC and the International Energy Agency.

By enabling precise control over energy flows, AI strengthens the operational backbone of locally managed renewable systems. This enhances energy independence, reduces vulnerability to external shocks, and increases resilience for industries and communities alike. In this way, AI directly reinforces the core message of EnergyTech: controlling energy infrastructure is synonymous with controlling economic stability and strategic autonomy.

EnergyTech is no longer a niche trend or a purely “green” investment category. It represents the strategic core of a resilient, economically robust, and sovereign energy future. The shift from ClimateTech ideals to EnergyTech realities makes one thing clear: control over energy infrastructure is now synonymous with control over economic stability and geopolitical independence. Startups and companies developing digital, intelligent, and locally controlled energy systems are not only shaping tomorrow’s energy markets, but also securing long-term sovereignty, resilience, and competitiveness.

The post The EnergyTech takeover: Why capital is moving where energy makes money appeared first on EU-Startups.