Interactive content now generates 52.6% higher engagement than static formats, with users spending significantly longer interacting with dynamic media and showing higher recall for brands that use it. In practical terms, that shift may have transformed expectations around how digital content should be produced, especially in commerce and B2B environments, where attention is often a […]

The current wave of investment in artificial intelligence reflects one of the largest capital shifts in modern technology, yet questions around financial return remain central to how this growth is being interpreted. According to a report, global venture capital investment in AI firms reached over $258 billion in 2025, accounting for 61% of all global […]

Bjørn Ottar Elseth, an aerospace engineer and strategic advisor, has dedicated his career to connecting technology, leadership, and collaboration in ways that support meaningful industrial progress. His work is shaped by a longstanding commitment to helping organizations navigate complexity while unlocking new opportunities across the evolving space and energy landscape.  The global space economy is […]

The South Korean fabless AI chip company, backed by Samsung, SK Hynix, and Aramco, raises $650M in six months and targets Meta and xAI as US customers. Korea’s National Growth Fund chose Rebellions as its very first investment. Rebellions, the South Korean AI inference chip company, has closed a $400 million pre-IPO funding round led […]

The New York and Israel-based startup, founded by a former Run:ai engineer and professional triathlete, has grown 350%+ year-on-year and counts Adobe, Wiz, DocuSign, and Salesforce among its customers. Insight Partners led the Series C. ScaleOps has raised $130 million in a Series C round at a valuation of more than $800 million, led by […]

The Berlin-based RWA tokenisation platform, which has powered $1.7B+ in asset issuance and won EU regulatory approval to serve retail investors, is using the round to launch Midas Staked Liquidity, a dedicated liquidity layer designed to make instant redemptions the default for on-chain investment products. Midas, the Berlin-based platform that tokenises institutional investment strategies into […]

The deal, financial terms undisclosed, expected to close by end of 2026, arrives weeks after Uber launched its own Uber Elite chauffeur service and positions the ride-hailing giant as a serious player in the corporate and executive travel segment. Uber has agreed to acquire Blacklane, the Berlin-founded global chauffeur platform, in a move that accelerates […]

The number of mainland Chinese companies listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rose from 30 in 2024 to 76 in 2025, an increase of 153 per cent, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Hong Kong reclaimed the top global position for IPO fundraising last year, with 119 listings raising HK$285.8 billion, more than double the previous year. […]

The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has fined Apple Distribution International, Apple’s Ireland-based subsidiary, £390,000 for making two payments totalling more than £635,000 to a sanctioned Russian entity through the App Store in 2022. The fine is, by Apple’s standards, negligible: roughly 0.00001 per cent of the company’s annual revenue. The precedent it sets […]

A US federal judge has dismissed Elon Musk’s antitrust lawsuit against advertisers who pulled their spending from X, ruling that the company failed to state a valid legal claim and barring it from ever refiling the case. US District Judge Jane Boyle, presiding in Dallas, dismissed the suit with prejudice on Thursday and denied X […]

Empirical Ventures, a specialist deeptech Fund, has secured an additional £10 million British Business Bank commitment to back the UK’s best venture scientists, bringing its total support to £15 million.

This partnership will accelerate Empirical’s mission to back the best venture scientists in the UK.

Empirical Ventures was built to solve a specific problem: exceptional scientists often lack investors who speak their language. Empirical Venture Scientist's thesis suggests that the most valuable companies of the next century will not be built by generalist entrepreneurs, but by deep domain experts who can navigate the boundary between fundamental research and commercial reality.  

By focusing on Deetech and Life Sciences, Empirical Ventures is actively de-risking the "hard science" sector, proving that with the right support, scientific founders can deliver outsized returns and high-skilled regional employment.

The commitment from the British Business Bank, via its Regional Angels Programme, will allow Empirical Ventures to write high-conviction cheques to these founders across the UK. 

By combining patient capital with their unique SEIS & EIS Fund and Syndicate, Empirical Ventures is providing the financial fuel for scientists to leave the lab and build technologies that bend the physical world, from novel energy generation and advanced materials to next-generation life sciences and everything in between. 

Mark Barry, Senior Investment Director at British Business Bank, said:

“We are delighted to expand our commitment to Empirical Ventures. Their team has identified a powerful untapped resource in the UK economy: the ‘Venture Scientist.’ 

By backing technical founders who solve hard problems, Empirical is helping to bridge the critical funding gap for science-led businesses outside London. This partnership ensures that the UK’s brightest scientific minds have the support they need to turn research into category-defining global companies.”

Dr Johnathan Matlock, Co-Founder and General Partner at Empirical Ventures, said:

“The greatest companies of the next 30 years will be built by scientists. We call them ‘Venture Scientists’ — founders who bring rigorous scientific methodology to company building. But for too long, these founders have been underestimated or misunderstood by generalist investors. 

This £10 million commitment from the British Business Bank allows us to back these Venture Scientists with the conviction they deserve. 

Whether they are in Bristol, Manchester, or Edinburgh, we are here to ensure that the founders capable of rewriting the rules of what’s possible get the resources to do so.” 

This commitment directly supports the UK government’s 2026 Modern Industrial Strategy by unlocking the commercial potential of the UK’s world-leading research base.

Today, VC firm P101 released the tenth edition of the "State of Italian VC" report, an analysis of the evolution of the Italian innovation industry.

The Italian tech sector includes more than 14,000 innovative companies – nearly 12,000 of which are startups – that, in 2025, generated a production value of 10 billion euros and employed around 62,000 people. Of these, about a third work in startups that, alone, last year, recorded a production value of about €2.8 billion.

According to Andrea Di Camillo, Founder and Managing Partner of P101, we are today looking at the evolution of an industry that barely existed in Italy a decade ago. 

Italy has moved from a handful of operators with limited resources and marginal impact to a venture capital ecosystem with solid foundations, consistently investing between 1 and 2 billion euros per year into the real economy.

"Corporate participation is essental"

Di Camillo shared that the broader context has also changed dramatically: the era of incremental innovation is over:

“We are now facing a phase of deep technological discontinuity, with AI and critical infrastructure reshaping capital allocation, alongside a growing awareness that digital sovereignty is no longer a choice, but a strategic necessity. 

Everything is moving faster, and if we want to keep pace, growing capital alone will not be enough — despite the support of institutional investors such as CDP and EIF, and players like Azimut.” 

He asserts that corporate participation will be essential, as it remains limited to a few virtuous cases, along with a more efficient public capital market. 

“Above all, what is needed is a truly international perspective: from funds, which must look beyond national borders; from companies, which must compete globally; and from investors, who must become increasingly international. In a continent that remains too fragmented, the future of this industry — central to innovation — will depend on strengthening venture capital as a European asset class.

The ‘28th regime’ represents a first step in this direction.”

Evolution of investments: VC quadruples, but Italy slips in the European ranking

Over the past decade, the Italian VC has invested a total of about €10 billion in startups, 7.5 of which in the last 5 years. This growth trajectory has led to a fourfold increase in annual investment capacity, from €363 million in 2016 to €1.4 billion in 2025.

However, despite Italy being the fourth-largest economy in Europe, per capita VC investment remains disproportionately low:

Fewer deals, bigger tickets: 2025 marks the maturation of the market

In 2025, investments in Italy reached €1.4 billion, up 17 per cent compared to 2024, despite a decline in the number of transactions to 637 (-35 per cent). This trend reflects an increase in average deal size, with the median doubling to 1 million euros.

Startup valuations in Italy have increased over time, from €1.8 million in 2016 to nearly €5 million in 2025. However, this remains roughly half of European levels and significantly below the US, where average valuations approach €49 million.

Exit: the structural bottleneck of public markets In 2025

Italy recorded 22 exits, down from 31 in 2024, mainly due to lower corporate acquisitions (from 25 to 14 transactions). Buyouts increased from 6 to 8, indicating a growing role for financial investors.

As in 2024, no IPOs were recorded for VC-backed companies.  Over the last decade, only 22 IPOs in Italy have involved VC-backed companies, confirming the limited role of public markets in the industry.

In 2025, fundraising totalled nearly €400 million across 9 funds (-13 per cent year-on-year), with the market heavily concentrated on smaller fund sizes and no vehicles above €150 million.

Overall, over €8 billion was raised in Italy over the last decade through 123 funds. 

Although Italy has doubled its fundraising capacity in ten years, it still accounts for a small fraction of Europe's funding, with total funding reaching almost €11 billion, down sharply from € 25 billion in 2024. 

Investors: institutional are growing, but domestic capital still dominates

Italian venture capital remains heavily reliant on domestic investors (71 per cent), highlighting limited international diversification:

European investors account for 19 per cent of funding, followed by North American investors at 4 per cent, while Asian investors are notably absent.

The Middle East contributes 6 per cent, making Italy unique among its peers in attracting a meaningful share of capital from the region.

The LP base is relatively balanced despite concentration:

• Direct investments: 17 per cent
• Banks: 15 per cent
• Funds of funds: 14 per cent
• Foundations: 10 per cent
• Pension funds: 9 per cent
• Insurance companies (4 per cent) and corporates (12 per cent) remain underrepresented, compared to more mature ecosystems such as France, where they account for 14 per cent and 21 per cent respectively

In general, the interest of institutional investors is growing, thanks to the support of investors such as CDP, EIF, and Fondo Italiano, which have invested 63 times in Italian funds over the last 10 years, as well as Azimut, and driven by new regulations aimed at incentivising investments in VC. 

Universities: Bocconi and Politecnico drive new entrepreneurship 

In the last five years, startups founded by former students of Italian universities have raised over €7.3 billion in capital from the broader innovation ecosystem, which, alongside Italian VC, includes business angels, private, foreign, and corporate investors. 

Bocconi University (3.1 billion) and Politecnico di Milano (2.2 billion) lead the ranking, followed by:

• The University of Bologna (1 billion),
• LUISS (505 million),
• La Sapienza in Rome (338 million), and
• The Polytechnic University of Turin (196 million) contributed more modest, but still significant, investment flows.
  
  

The Redmond, Washington startup, which already has an Nvidia H100 GPU operating in orbit and has trained the first AI model in space, is now building a Starship-class spacecraft designed to be the first orbital data centre cost-competitive with terrestrial facilities. Starcloud has raised $170 million in a Series A round led by Benchmark and […]

German tech investor Maguar , which specialises in medium-sized B2B software companies, has acquired a significant stake in GlobalSuite Solutions, a multinational software company specialising in Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solutions.  

This transaction represents Maguar's first investment in the Spanish market.

Founded in 2007, with a presence in Iberia and Latin America and a team of more than 100 professionals, GlobalSuite Solutions supports more than 2,000 customers in highly regulated sectors, including banking, insurance, healthcare, and telecommunications, offering solutions that facilitate risk management, regulatory compliance, business continuity, and ESG. 

Companies are increasingly adopting technology platforms that centralise risk management, regulatory compliance, and corporate governance, replacing manual processes with integrated systems that provide real-time visibility and improve strategic decision-making.

Maguar's investment in GlobalSuite Solutions is part of this trend, aimed at driving the company's evolution in a market that is increasingly strategic for organisations.

Maguar plans to support GlobalSuite Solutions by strengthening its commercial organisation and partner ecosystem while driving innovation in automation, integration, artificial intelligence, and usability. The alliance also envisions geographic expansion into new markets, complemented by a selective acquisition strategy.

According to Arno Poschik, Founding Partner of Maguar, GlobalSuite Solutions has developed a solid and highly differentiated GRC platform in a market with great potential. 

“With this investment, we seek to support the continued development of its technology and accelerate its expansion to continue generating value for its customers."

Antonio Quevedo Muñoz, founder and CEO of GlobalSuite Solutions, shared:

"Maguar's entry marks a key moment for our company and opens a new stage of progression. Their extensive experience in the development and scaling of B2B software companies, together with their long-term vision, makes them the ideal partner to accompany us in this new phase.

Thanks to this alliance, we will be able to continue driving innovation on our platform and strengthening our presence in new international markets, thereby maintaining our commitment to delivering maximum value to our customers.”

Antonio Quevedo Muñoz, founder and CEO of GlobalSuite Solutions, will continue to lead the company, maintaining a significant stake in the business, alongside his team and Jaime Girón de Velasco, who will join GSS as Managing Director. 

Lead image: Antonio Quevedo Muñoz, Founder and CEO of GlobalSuite Solutions, and Arno Poschik, Founding Partner at Maguar.

Midas, a platform for composable on-chain investment products, has raised $50 million in Series A funding. The round was led by RRE Ventures and Creandum, with participation from Framework Ventures, HV Capital, Ledger Cathay, Franklin Templeton, Coinbase Ventures, M1 Capital, Anchorage Digital, FJ Labs, North Island Ventures and GSR.

The round brings total funding to $58.75 million, following an $8.75 million seed round in 2024.

Midas enables asset managers to convert institutional-grade investment strategies into regulatory-compliant tokens, providing investors with transparency, liquidity, and composability across decentralised finance protocols such as Morpho and Pendle.

As institutional adoption of tokenised assets continues to grow, many existing products still rely on delayed settlement processes, creating liquidity constraints for investors. To address this, Midas has introduced Midas Staked Liquidity (MSL), which deploys dedicated staked liquidity to enable instant redemptions without affecting underlying yield or composability.

We’re building toward a future where investing works like the internet: open, transparent, composable, and accessible by default,

said Dennis Dinkelmeyer, CEO and co-founder of Midas.

In addition to MSL, the company plans to expand its product offering into a broader range of institutional asset classes, deepen integrations across decentralised finance ecosystems, and further develop existing partnerships.

Developers, investors, and asset managers can access further information, including technical documentation and live products, via the Midas platform.

The newly raised capital will support the continued development of MSL as part of an open liquidity architecture designed to enable instant redemptions across on-chain investment products.

The Lausanne startup, spun out of EPFL’s robotics lab, has deployed 15 pods across Switzerland and made its first international move with a unit in Toulouse. Its founder’s longer-term ambition: making commercial real estate itself modular and on-demand. The problem miros is solving is visible in any busy train station, airport, or hospital: people who […]

Anthropic’s massive AI interview study isn’t really about technology. It’s the largest mirror ever held up to human desire. In December 2025, a software engineer in Mexico finished his workday early enough to pick up his children from school. A lawyer in India sat down with an AI tutor and, for the first time in […]

TerraSpark, a developer of space-based solar energy systems, has raised over €5 million in a pre-seed financing round. Investors include Daphni, better ventures, the Hans(wo)men Group, and a group of strategic business angels.

TerraSpark is developing a long-term approach to energy generation based on space-based solar power, aiming to provide continuous energy independent of weather conditions or time of day. The concept addresses growing challenges in Europe’s energy infrastructure, including rising demand, grid constraints, and increasing energy needs from data centres.

While the concept of space-based solar power has existed for decades, recent reductions in launch costs and advances in satellite manufacturing and orbital robotics are making its implementation more feasible.

TerraSpark is taking a phased approach, beginning with the commercialisation of radio frequency-based wireless energy transmission for industrial use on Earth. This allows the company to validate safety, efficiency, and regulatory requirements before scaling towards orbital systems.

Space-based solar power has long been considered something for the distant future. Across Europe, energy resilience is now a practical concern. With a step-by-step approach, starting with commercially viable systems on Earth, we believe this can become real infrastructure within a realistic timeframe,

said Jasper Deprez, founder and CEO of TerraSpark.

The company is led by a team with experience in space technology, engineering, and scaling businesses, including Jasper Deprez (CEO), Sanjay Vijendran (CTO), and Matthias Laug (COO).

In the coming months, TerraSpark plans to prepare pilot applications and demonstration use cases, including wireless power transmission for live environments. An orbital technology demonstrator is planned for 2027, followed by initial space-to-Earth power transmission in 2028.

The funding will be used to further develop the company’s technology and support upcoming pilot applications and live testing.

miros, a Lausanne-based startup founded in 2023 and spun out of the EPFL ecosystem, announced the closing of a  €1.1 million (CHF 1 million) Pre-Seed funding round from various business angels.

miros is building a network of connected workpods to bring privacy, calm and comfort into public and semi-public spaces. Through its hardware and software platform, including a mobile app to locate, book and access pods, the company addresses the needs of a workforce that is increasingly mobile and flexible. 

“We start with pods, but the ambition goes far beyond that,” said Dr Fabio Zuliani, Founder and CEO of miros.

“We are looking at how commercial real estate itself can become flexible, modular and on-demand.  The pod is just the first building block. Seeing it already used throughout Switzerland and beyond makes  that vision feel very real.” 

The round follows a manufacturing partnership with Ducommun Menuisiers, initiated through the  SyNNergy grant from Innovaud.

The pods are designed in collaboration with Lakabi, a Lausanne-based furniture brand, and fully built in Switzerland. In parallel, the project also received support from the Canton of Vaud to develop a new version made entirely from Swiss wood (Bois  Suisse), reinforcing its focus on local sourcing and production.

Since its inception, miros has deployed 15 workpods and worked with partners including SwissTech  Convention Centre, Beaulieu, and Hôpital Riviera-Chablais. 

Through Geneva Airport’s GVA Runway Lab open-innovation program, miros was able to test its value proposition under real-world conditions and confirm strong product-market fit.

The company has also taken its first step internationally, with a pod deployed at Village by Crédit Agricole in Toulouse, France, since October. These deployments helped validate the product and lay the foundation for scaling, with nearly 350 hours of usage so far. 

The company plans to announce several new partnerships in the coming months as it continues to expand its footprint across Switzerland. 

miros will use the funds to deploy a network of connected and bookable workpods across Switzerland, with a  target of more than 100 units by the end of 2026. 

The Tech.eu Summit London 2026 is set to take place on 21–22 April 2026 at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London. With the event now less than four weeks away, this is one of the final opportunities to secure a ticket before pricing moves to its last tier.

Ticket pricing will be updated on 1 April 2026

Ticket pricing for the Tech.eu Summit London 2026 will be revised on 1 April 2026. From that date, the Last Chance ticket will be priced at £600 + VAT. Joining with colleagues or friends? A discounted group rate is available for purchases of three or more tickets, with Last Chance (3+ People) passes priced at £550 + VAT per person.

The Tech.eu Summit London 2026 will bring together founders, investors and technology professionals from across Europe and beyond. Sessions will cover artificial intelligence, fintech, deeptech, climate tech and other fast-evolving sectors, with speakers confirmed from organisations including OpenAI, Notion Capital, PolyAI, Oxa, Wise, NATO Innovation Fund, Upvest, 2150, Mastercard, Morgan Stanley, Mollie and many more.

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Secure your ticket before prices increase on 1 April. Join us at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre on 21–22 April for two days of discussions, networking and insight from some of the most influential figures in European technology and investment.

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