KOMPAS VC, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on physical industries, has announced the €160 million final close of its second fund. The fund attracted support from existing backers such as VKR Holding, as well as new institutional investors including Realdania.

With Fund II, KOMPAS VC will continue investing in technologies aimed at improving productivity, resilience, and decarbonisation across sectors such as manufacturing, the built environment, energy, advanced materials, and logistics. These industries are characterised by complex infrastructure and legacy systems, where transformation is both necessary and challenging.

The investor focuses on solutions that can be deployed in real-world industrial environments, including industrial AI, robotics, and cybersecurity. Its strategy centres on supporting technologies that integrate with existing workflows and enhance how companies design, operate, and maintain physical assets.

Founded in 2021, KOMPAS VC invests from seed to Series B across Europe and North America, typically deploying initial cheques between €1 million and €5 million. With the new fund, KOMPAS VC plans to expand its investment and platform teams, strengthening its ability to support founders through domain expertise, industrial partnerships, and commercial access.

The investment strategy focuses on three core priorities: increasing productivity, strengthening resilience, and enabling decarbonisation. In practice, this includes backing technologies that optimise industrial workflows, secure critical infrastructure, and support retrofit and electrification efforts.

Sebastian Peck, partner at KOMPAS VC, said the focus is on addressing barriers to adoption in industrial environments, ensuring that innovations can scale effectively within complex, real-world systems:

We prioritise understanding the operational friction from legacy infrastructure to complex buying cycles that often stall transformation. By solving these real-world constraints, we ensure our investments don't just offer performance gains, but actually scale within the industry.

The fund is expected to support a portfolio of early-stage companies and has already made several initial investments across industrial technology, energy, advanced manufacturing, and data infrastructure. 

SPREAD AI has raised $30 million in Series B funding to support international expansion, enhance its platform capabilities, and strengthen its position across key industries. The round included new investors such as DTCP Growth, IQT, OTB Ventures, Salesforce, and Thesiger Capital, alongside angel investor Christian Schulz. Existing backers, including HV Capital and Nauta Capital, also participated.

The investment deepens the company’s collaboration with Salesforce, combining SPREAD’s product data capabilities with Salesforce’s Customer 360 platform to help address the gap between customer expectations, engineering, and operational execution.

SPREAD’s platform integrates and contextualises product-related data across the entire lifecycle, from design through to production and operations. By connecting structured and unstructured data across enterprise systems, it enables the creation of “Product Twins” that help engineering and operations teams understand dependencies, assess trade-offs, and make decisions more efficiently.

The company works with global manufacturers across industries, including automotive, aerospace and defence, and industrial equipment, and reports that its platform has contributed to faster development cycles, improved troubleshooting times, and significant cost savings.

Commenting on the round, Robert Göbel, co-founder and co-CEO of SPREAD, said:

Working with Salesforce gives us the reach to bring Engineering Intelligence to the industrial companies that need it most: the teams developing, operating or servicing defence systems, vehicles, and industrial machinery. Together, we're making sense of industrial data scattered across a sprawl of legacy systems with our AI-native data foundation that lets engineering, sales and service teams decide and act with speed and confidence. This is Industrial AI delivering tangible impact.

Philipp Noll, co-founder and co-CEO, added that the focus is on helping manufacturers operate more efficiently by providing an AI-native foundation built on existing engineering data and designed to support long-term performance.

The investment comes as European policymakers place increasing emphasis on AI capabilities in strategic industries, with initiatives aimed at strengthening regional leadership in industrial AI. SPREAD is positioning its platform to support manufacturers globally with data-driven operations aligned with European standards for transparency and data protection.

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Málaga-based Magnific, formerly known as Freepik, has relaunched with a new identity as an AI creative platform bringing image generation, video, audio, upscaling, collaboration tools, 3D features, and stock assets into one production environment.

The company reported €196 million ($230 million) in ARR, alongside more than 1 million paid subscribers and adoption by over 250 enterprise clients, including BBC, DeliveryHero, Guess, Mayoral, Huel, R/GA, Damm, and Job&Talent – all without a single round of US VC funding.

“The industrial revolution created the blue-collar jobs and the digital revolution created the white-collar jobs,” says Joaquín Cuenca, CEO of Magnific. “Creatives are about to become more powerful than anyone expected. That’s the no-collar economy. The economy of people who don’t wear a shirt collar. And it’s already underway.”

Founded in Málaga in 2010 by three friends, Freepik began as a search engine for graphic resources. Sixteen years later, the company has repositioned itself as Magnific, bringing together its stock content heritage with generative AI tools for creators, marketing teams, studios, and enterprise users.

Andreessen Horowitz named Freepik the top generative AI web company in Europe by users. Magnific says it has reached its current scale without a single round of US venture capital funding, growing its AI revenue while competing with US-based creative AI platforms such as Midjourney, Runway, and Leonardo.

“We started without any capital, three friends dreaming big,” says Joaquín. “We didn’t know what we’d build. We just knew we weren’t comfortable staying still. We found new things to build. Now we’ll find new stories to tell.”

The relaunch reflects a broader shift in the creative software market, where companies and individuals are moving from separate AI tools towards more integrated creative workflows. Magnific says enterprise teams are already using the platform to generate assets, prototype visuals, and scale content across campaigns and markets.

The company’s Business plan, launched in January 2026 for smaller teams, surpassed 2,000 subscriptions in six weeks and is currently growing by around 150 new teams per week. Magnific also reports that 72% of new creators joining the platform identify as beginners, which it sees as evidence that generative AI is lowering the cost and complexity of producing high-quality creative work.

“In the future, we will make films like we write books,” says Joaquín. “One person with a vision and the tools to execute it.”

Magnific’s platform has already been used across a range of professional creative projects. These include

• The Chronicles of Bones, an original series by Phantom X produced entirely on the platform
• APuma x Manchester City campaign produced by The Berry
• The Patchwright, a sci-fi production from Gossip Goblin
• An Alain Afflelou TV ad campaign produced by Xiaolongbao
• House of David, a series produced by The Wonder Project for Amazon Prime Video
• A Carl’s Jr. campaign with Paris Hilton created by Native Foreign.

The company frames these use cases around what it calls the “no-collar economy”, a term it uses to describe a new class of creators able to produce professional-grade work without traditional studio infrastructure. Rather than presenting AI as a replacement for creative workers, Magnific argues that these tools can expand who gets to participate in creative production.

The new Magnific platform combines image and video models, 4K generation with audio, AI upscaling, real-time collaborative workspaces, 3D and virtual scene tools, and a library of more than 250 million creative assets.

The company says tens of thousands of creators use its collaborative workspace daily.

“People saw fragments: Freepik as stock, Magnific as an upscaler”, says Joaquín. “This is the first time the full system is visible as one platform.”

The new Magnific identity was developed with brand and strategy agency Area17. Its logo, formed from two squares that expand upward, is intended to represent the company’s aim of helping creators make their work “bigger and better”.

The post No US funding, no problem: Málaga’s Freepik relaunches as Maginific with €200 million ARR appeared first on EU-Startups.

The UK government will develop an AI hardware plan, the Technology Secretary announced today, just days after US AI giant OpenAI paused a major UK data centre project. The announcement of the plan emerged today as Liz Kendall said that AI sovereignty was not about “isolation” and trying to “pull up the drawbridge and go it alone”.

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute, Kendall said: “We will continue to use the best technology and welcome inward investment because that’s what our public services and economy demand.”

Her comments come amid government fears about the dominance of US tech giants, which control vast amounts of global tech infrastructure and compute power.

The government recently announced the first investments from its £500m VC fund backing domestic AI startups. The government said it would announce the launch of its AI hardware plan at London Tech Week, which takes place in June.

Kendall said the plan would help secure Britain’s capability in chips and the semiconductor technologies that underpin the full AI hardware stack.

The government has already promised to buy emerging chip technology from British companies in a £100m bid to boost growth by supporting the AI sector.

Kendall has previously said the government would offer guaranteed payments to British startups producing AI hardware that can help sectors such as life sciences and financial services. 

Under a “first customer” pledge Kendall’s department will commit in advance to buying AI inference chips that meet set performance standards.

The government is backing British strengths in the parts of the AI stack where it believes the UK has an edge, such as frontier research, compute and infrastructure, while working closely with other countries to shape the global AI ecosystem.

Earlier this month, it was revealed OpenAI’s plans to bring its flagship $500bn AI data centre project to the UK have been put on hold, with the ChatGPT developer citing energy costs and regulatory issues as factors which have halted its plans.

The new name unifies what was previously fragmented across Freepik (stock assets), Magnific (AI upscaling), and several other products. One million paying subscribers. 250 enterprise customers, including BBC, Puma, and Amazon Prime Video. CEO Joaquín Cuenca has never taken outside investment. The company is profitable. Freepik, the Málaga-founded AI creative platform, announced on Tuesday that […]

Freepik today announced its relaunch as Magnific, a new identity that confirms its transformation into the world’s most comprehensive AI creative platform, set against the backdrop of a new creative industry in full bloom. 

Magnific launches with $200 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), more than 1 million paid subscribers, and adoption across more than 250 enterprise clients, including the creative teams at BBC, DeliveryHero, Guess, Mayoral, Huel, R/GA, Damm, and Job&Talent, which are already running professional generative AI workflows on the platform. 

Freepik was founded in Málaga in 2010 as a search engine for graphic resources. 

“We started without any capital, three friends dreaming big,” said Magnific CEO Joaquín Cuenca.

 “We didn’t know what we’d build. We just knew we weren’t comfortable staying still. We found new things to build. Now we’ll find new stories to tell.” 

Check out our earlier interview with Magnific CEO Joaquín Cuenca.

Built from Malaga, Magnific was acquired by Freepik in May 2024. It was named by Andreessen Horowitz as the top generative AI web company in Europe by users, competing directly with American AI platforms without a massive capital base. The rebrand helps bring the company's full picture into focus post-acquisition.

“The problem was never the product,” said Joaquin Cuenca. 

“People saw fragments: Freepik as stock, Magnific as an upscaler. This is the first time the full system is visible as one platform.” 

The new no-collar creative class

The relaunch reflects a broader shift already underway: from fragmented tools to integrated creative infrastructure, and from traditional creative roles to what CEO Joaquín Cuenca describes as the “no-collar economy.” 

“The industrial revolution created the blue-collar jobs and the digital revolution created the white-collar jobs,” said Cuenca.

“Creatives are about to become more powerful than anyone expected. That’s the no-collar economy. The economy of people who don’t wear a shirt collar. And it’s already underway.”

The thesis is a direct counterpoint to the narrative that AI destroys creative jobs. Just as the digital revolution didn’t replace accountants, it multiplied them and allowed them to take on more complex tasks.

From experiments to campaigns

Enterprise teams are no longer experimenting with AI creative tools: they are actively building campaigns with them.  BBC, DeliveryHero, Huel, R/GA, Damm, and Job&Talent are among the more than 250 enterprise teams now running production workflows on Magnific, from generating assets and prototyping visuals to scaling content across campaigns and markets. 

The company’s Business plan, launched in January 2026 for smaller teams, surpassed 2,000 subscriptions in six weeks and continues to grow at 150 new teams per week. 

At the same time, a parallel shift is reshaping who participates in creative production.  72 per cent of new creators joining the platform identify as beginners. This signals a structural change: the cost and complexity of creating high-quality content is rapidly decreasing.

What historically required a studio, a team, and significant capital can increasingly be done by individuals with the right tools.

“In the future, we will make films like we write books,” said Cuenca.

“One person with a vision and the tools to execute it.” 

The relaunch brings together previously distinct capabilities — including image generation, video, upscaling, audio, and collaboration — into a single production environment. 

Magnific covers the full creative stack, end to end: 

• The best image and video models in the market, including 4K with audio.
•  Industry-leading AI upscaling technology. 
• A real-time collaborative workspace used by tens of thousands of creators daily.
•  Exclusive 3D and virtual scene tools. 
• A library of 250M+ creative assets. 
  
  
  

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Forest, London’s homegrown e-bike operator, has secured a further €31 million (£27 million) in funding, raising its total Series B round to €46 million (£40 million) in order to expand its operations, invest further in cycling infrastructure, and continue developing its technology, app, parking compliance and safety features.

This funding round sees OKAI and several existing investors – B8 Venture Partners, Fen Ventures and Güil Mobility Ventures, among others – contribute €19 million (£17 million) in fresh equity, building on the €3.4 million (£3 million) equity announced last year. A further €11 million (£10 million) in asset-backed finance is being made available by existing lender Fintex Capital, building on its earlier €11 million (£10 million) facility and bringing the total available up to €23 million (£20 million).

This follows their January 2025 Series B first close of €15.3 million – as covered by EU-Startups.

Jose Eluchans, CFO of Forest and Founding-team member, says: “This has been a period of exceptional growth for Forest. We’ve built one of the largest e-bike platforms in Europe by maintaining a disciplined focus on capital efficiency and sustainable operations.

“This latest investment reflects our shareholders’ confidence in our ability to scale responsibly while delivering real value to London. Our objective is that every Forest e-bike should generate more trips than any other shared bike on the street. That level of utilisation isn’t just a business metric – it’s how we justify our existence in a city with competing uses for public space.”

“As a single-city operator, we’re able reinvest directly into our home city London – expanding access to cycling, supporting the shift to cleaner, smarter transport,” adds Jose.

Founded in 2020, Forest is an environmentally sustainable micromobility platform. Forest was founded by Agustin Guilisasti (ex-Cabify) alongside co-founders Caroline Seton and Michael Stewart. The Company facilitates almost two million rides per month.

Its operations are ‘zero emission’, since every bike in its fleet, as well as all service vehicles, are powered only by renewable energy.

Seizing upon the global boom in demand for affordable and sustainable travel, the business has reportedly grown its user base to 1.5 million, representing 100% YOY growth and now completes two million rides per month across 18 boroughs in the capital.

The company also offers users up to 30 free cycling minutes a day; in total, it has gifted 110 million free cycling minutes to Londoners since 2021.

Today’s announcement follows a series of recent landmark tender wins – notably in Richmond where Forest was appointed sole operator – which means the company now operates the largest continuous operating area of any shared e-bike provider in London.

Robert Stafler, CEO of Fintex Capital, says: “Forest continues to grow and deliver. We’re delighted to extend our support by expanding our asset-backed facility to £20 million. Demand for Forest bikes keeps growing and we’re pleased to back the operator with the largest continuous service area across London.”

The new funding round supports the continued expansion of Forest’s operations as it scales across London. The company has invested in 2,600 parking bays and this funding will enable further investment in the city’s cycling infrastructure, as well as continued technology and app developments to drive ongoing improvements in parking compliance and safety features.

The company says that last week’s Tube strikes saw a major spike in demand for Forest’s service with rides up 30%, highlighting the importance of alternative modes of transportation across the capital.

With the micromobility market a core part of Londoners’ travel plans, Forest’s sees their growth to continue rising.

Blair McDougall MP, Minister for Small Business and Economic Transformation, says: “Forest is a great example of the kind of ambitious, innovative, and high growth business we want more of in the UK, bringing in investment, creating jobs, and boosting the economy. Which is why, as part of our Industrial Strategy and Plan for Small and Medium-sized businesses, we are channeling support to businesses like this, providing access to finance, help adopting new tech and upskilling opportunities.”

The funding round also sees Forest’s e-bike manufacturer, OKAI, take a minority stake in the Company. This partnership gives Forest direct input into the design and build of its fleet – improving both the quality and lifespan of its bikes to deliver a reliable and sustainable service for cities and users.

Mr Jiangtao Lu, CEO of OKAI, adds: “We’re delighted to invest in Forest and become more than a supplier: we’re collaborators, investors and co-creators. We have been impressed with Forest’s rigorous approach to maintenance, servicing and the management of their e-bike fleet.

“Forest’s input into the bike design and manufacturing process, based upon what they’re seeing on the ground in London, will help set new standards for e-bike quality and performance, as well as the rider experience.”

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