Portuguese-founded defencetech startup Tekever has opened its biggest UK site, where it will manufacture drones for surveillance and intelligence purposes. The 254,000-square-foot facility is located in The Spectrum Building, a historic Grade 11-listed building designed by architect Sir Norman Foster in Swindon and is expected to open in 2026.

The defencetech startup, which became a unicorn in May this year, says it will produce one of its largest drones in the UK for the first time, and increase production of another from the site. The UK has already brought £270m of Tekever drones supporting Ukrainian forces attacking Russian air defence systems.

The opening of the new site forms part of a five-year Tekever initiative aiming to create over 1,000 highly skilled jobs in the UK and invest more than £400m into British drone production and advanced AI warfare capabilities. It will be the manufacturer's fourth UK site and its largest so far. Swindon has a long-standing history linked to UK defence. 

It produced the Supermarine Spitfire during the Second World War while drone companies Stark and Munin Dynamics are located in Swindon.

Karl Brew, Tekever, head of defence unit, said: "Our new facility will not only increase Tekever’s capacity to innovate and meet the rapidly evolving needs of our clientele, but also enable our business to operate more efficiently as we continue to scale our ambitions in line with our fervent commitment to transforming the UK’s defence industry into a leading powerhouse on the global stage.” 

Will Stone, MP for Swindon North, said: "This announcement supports my ongoing commitment to establishing a Drone Cluster of excellence in Swindon, creating highly skilled, well-paid jobs while also fostering new education and training opportunities for young people in our community.”

feld.energy, a Munich-based agricultural photovoltaics (Agri-PV) startup, has secured more than €10 million in Seed funding to scale its dual-use solar and farming systems across Germany.

The round was led by HV Capital, with backing from Future Energy Ventures, AENU, and Angel Invest.

Dr Adrian Renner Co-founder and CEO, says “Securing this Seed round is a decisive step forward for feld.energy. Our vision is to prove that farming and renewable energy can complement each other to create lasting value. By empowering farmers to generate clean electricity without compromising food production we improve agricultural resilience and accelerate the shift toward a climate-neutral economy. This funding will help us strengthen our team and scale our solution so that farms everywhere benefit from this dual-use approach.“

Founded in 2024 by Dr Adrian Renner and Lukas Zels, feld.energy aims to enable farmers to simultaneously grow food and generate clean electricity using modular, machine-friendly Agri-PV systems.

The company operates across the full deployment chain – from feasibility assessment to construction – and positions its tech as both subsidy-free and economically compelling. Under its lease model, farmers can earn over €100k over 20 years, all while reportedly maintaining full agricultural output.

“The Agri-PV sector is at an inflection point, and feld.energy is exceptionally well positioned to unlock its enormous potential,” noted David Kuczek, General Partner at HV Capital.

Germany’s energy transition is creating a fertile ground for such innovation. The country aims to achieve 60% renewable energy in gross final consumption by 2050, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) estimates that Agri-PV could unlock up to 2,900 GW of technical potential across the nation.

With land-use pressures mounting and water conservation becoming increasingly vital, solutions like feld.energy’s are uniquely positioned to address both climate and economic concerns simultaneously.

Operating on a mission to make solar-agriculture co-existence the norm, not the niche, feld.energy focuses on areas ranging from arable fields and pastures to speciality crops. Its technology promises machine-compatible solar installations that preserve farming workflows while delivering decentralised energy output.

“Agri-PV is rapidly trending because it brilliantly addresses the growing land competition for food and energy production, offering win-win solutions for farmers through diversified income and enhanced crop resilience, all while driving the green energy transition forward. We believe that feld.energy’s exceptional Founders are the ones who will bring Agri-PV from niche to the mainstream,” said Jan Palasinski, Partner at Future Energy Ventures.

With this fresh funding, feld.energy plans to grow its team, scale operations, and bring its model to more farms across Germany – and potentially beyond. The startup’s long-term goal is to transform dual-use farmland into a climate-resilient, income-generating standard for modern agriculture.

Philip Specht, Partner at AENU, praised the founders’ vision: “feld.energy is leading the charge in the fast-growing Agri-PV market, transforming agricultural land into hybrid powerhouses that blend energy generation and farming.”

The post Farm to fuse box: Germany’s feld.energy harvests over €10 million to double up farmland as solar fields appeared first on EU-Startups.

Turin-based Plino, which uses generative AI to streamline analysis of accounting, cost, revenue, and cash-flow data for SMEs, has closed a €650,000 funding round.

Investors include Exor Ventures, Berkeley SkyDeck Europe (UC Berkeley’s accelerator with Cariplo Factory and Lendlease), and a syndicate of Italian backers led by Techaround.vc, joined by Zooga.vc and several business angels, including CFOs and accountants.

Incubated since 2024 at I3P, the Innovative Companies Incubator of Politecnico di Torino, Plino was founded by Pietro Galimberti, Viola Bonesu, and Enrico Castelli. The founders combine backgrounds in philosophy, engineering, finance, and AI, convinced that innovation happens at the intersections.

Italian SMEs struggle with fragmented financial workflows - data scattered across accountants, software, and banks; manual analysis spread over dozens of spreadsheets; and delays that push managers to rely on instinct rather than evidence.

Plino replaces this with a single platform for real-time tracking of sales, costs, revenue, and cash flow, liquidity forecasting, and automatically generated, easy-to-read reports.

Today, Plino supports more than 100 SMEs across Italy in sectors such as manufacturing, services, food, hospitality, and construction. The goal is simple: give SMEs a fast, accurate system for making strategic, data-driven decisions.

The new capital will accelerate the development of AI features such as cash-flow forecasting, natural-language report generation, and profitability analysis at the product or project level.

In parallel, Plino will grow its product, technology, and sales teams and deepen partnerships with professional firms and trade associations, bringing AI-driven innovation into the accounting profession.

Radlett-based Jam 7, creator of the Agentic Marketing Platform (AMP), has closed its €312k Seed funding round in order to transform how B2B tech companies innovate, compete and grow – this round places its valuation at a whopping €10.4 million.

The round was led by Stephen Altman, Founder of New World Private Equity Partners.

“This round isn’t just fuel, it’s validation,” said Mitchell Feldman, CEO of Jam 7. “It validates the belief that marketing can be smarter, faster, and more effective when human creativity is amplified, not replaced, by AI. AMP gives ambitious brands the strategic edge they have been missing.”

Founded in 2023, Jam 7 aims to reshape the marketing landscape with its AMP offering, a central marketing brain that claims to fuse human expertise with AI precision. Built for B2B tech brands, AMP reportedly enables faster decision-making, campaign execution at scale, and measurable marketing impact directly tied to business outcomes.

AMP is a hybrid system combining multiple specialised AI agents with human oversight (Growth Agents). The AI agents focus on discrete functions – such as content generation, SEO, PPC (paid advertising), analytics, social frameworks, and organic growth – while the Growth Agents provide oversight, ensuring brand alignment, compliance, and overall strategic clarity.

AMP emphasises three core value-propositions: Faster Decisions, Greater Efficiency, and Smarter Execution. Examples of these are: moving from planning to production in days rather than months; automating repeatable tasks so internal teams can focus on strategy; and refining targeting, messaging and spend as campaigns grow.

In terms of what they provide concretely, Jam 7 supports various marketing-services/modules:

• Product-Market Fit (validating market need, refining messaging)
• Brand & Positioning (story alignment, consistent differentiated market position)
• Marketing Strategy (data-led strategy engine, planning, prioritisation, OKRs)
• Campaigns & Content (fast generation of conversion-focused assets across channels)
• Web Development (performance-driven UX, scalable copy, clear messaging)
• Organic Growth (SEO, social frameworks, content mapping)
• Paid Advertising (smarter creative & targeting, real-time optimisation).

They claim metrics such as 60% Faster GTM launch speed across campaigns, 20× Faster content creation with AMP, and 70% of customers see CAC drop in < 90 days. Early adopters report up to 300% more campaign output and triple-digit lead growth.

Pilot customers include SS&C Blue Prism, with ten additional companies now trialling the platform.

Stephen Altman, Founder of New World Private Equity Partners, said, “What excites us about Jam 7 is their vision and execution. AMP tackles one of B2B’s most pressing challenges: how to scale marketing with consistency and commercial impact. Mitchell and his team are building something uniquely powerful.”

With the Seed round secured, Jam 7 will launch AMP with its first enterprise customers in Q2 2026, while expanding its portfolio of AI-powered agents. New modules will include content intelligence, customer insight, and campaign optimisation, alongside the ability to generate multi-modal content such as imagery and video.

The post British startup Jam 7 secures Seed investment to innovate B2B growth with its Agentic Marketing Platform appeared first on EU-Startups.

It's not every day that someone leaves a job in one of the world's most successful fabless semiconductor companies – ARM – to join a startup, but Noel Hurley met a startup that was solving a problem in Edge AI that had plagued the sector for decades.

When he first came across Literal Labs in the summer of 2023, it was spinning out of Newcastle University in collaboration with the Centre for AI Research in Norway. They had been working for five years on logic-based AI and what's called second machines – more on that shortly.

Having spent 30 years in the processor and computer science space, Hurley was familiar with the challenges around AI adoption — especially in industrial markets.  He admits, "promises were made about edge AI, but progress was limited."

"Neural networks required expensive new hardware, consumed a lot of energy, and were slow to deploy."

When he saw Literal Labs' research results, he had an "aha!" moment. Here was a technology that solved many of those problems — and could run on existing hardware. 

"That meant we could engage customers early and deploy quickly. It was clear to me this wasn't just interesting research; it was the basis for a company," he shared.

I sat down with Hurley to learn about Literal Labs. 

What exactly is a second machine? 

Today's neural networks are built around multiplication — multiplying numbers together. Multiplication is an expensive operation on a chip: it requires large circuits and burns a lot of energy.  That's why our power consumption skyrocketed. 

"Many chips now advertise 'neural network accelerators,' which are essentially just large arrays of multiplication circuits," contends Hurley, explaining that a second machine works differently. 

"Instead of heavy mathematics, it uses propositional logic—'if/then" statements — combined through a voting algorithm. 

During training, the model decides whether to include, exclude, or ignore each of these statements. The result is a dense network of logic that can be deployed onto silicon far more efficiently."

Low-cost meets low power

Literal Labs' AI models are designed to run on very low-cost, low-power hardware — specifically, devices priced under $5. dollars.

These devices are typically modest microcontrollers or system-on-chip units rather than sophisticated, high-performance computing platforms. The key point is that no GPU or specialised accelerators (like TPUs or custom AI chips) are required for inference.

Hurley attributes Literal Labs' lower-energy results to logic-based circuits, which are more energy-efficient than multiplication circuits.

"Our approach is about matching algorithms to the strengths of existing silicon, rather than forcing silicon to handle operations it wasn't optimised for."

Most of the operations come down to lookups or comparisons, which microprocessors already handle extremely efficiently, according to Hurley.

By replacing multiplication-heavy circuits with logic-based circuits, you can achieve similar outcomes at a fraction of the cost and energy.

54× faster, 52× greener

If this all sounds a bit complicated, well, the results speak for themselves when it comes to MLPerf benchmarking standards — these provide fair, representative, and repeatable ways to measure how well different hardware and software systems run AI workloads.

Literal Labs' benchmarks show dramatic results: 54 times faster performance and 52 times less energy use compared to equivalent neural networks. 

According to Hurley, when he joined in October 2023, the team were already seeing speedups ranging from 5x to 250x over traditional algorithms. 

"Last year, when we published our MLPerf benchmarks, we confirmed 54x faster performance with 52x lower energy consumption.

What was even more encouraging was that the datasets used in MLPerf were significantly larger and more complex — up to 400 gigabytes compared to the one-megabyte sets we tested earlier.

Despite this increase in complexity, the gains held up. That demonstrated the robustness of our approach."

Further, logic-based AI is naturally explainable, ensuring accountability for the model's decision-making. 

Literal Labs shows a cheaper path forward in edge AI

Literal Labs sees immediate traction in industrial and edge AI.  All in all, Literal Labs creates true commercial value because it reduces system costs by lowering compute complexity, inference costs, and bill of materials:

"Think about battery-powered devices, safety-critical products, or heavily regulated markets. In these environments, explainability, energy efficiency, and compute constraints all matter," Hurley explains. 

Historically, attempts to apply AI in these markets either failed or were severely limited. Companies couldn't afford to replace equipment already in the field, so they tried to bolt on connectivity, send data to the cloud, and process it there. That added costs, dependencies, and supply chain complexity without delivering a clear bottom-line return.

"By contrast, what excites customers about our approach is the ability to deploy AI directly onto existing devices—without expensive upgrades. We can bring intelligence to the edge in places that were previously off-limits," he shared.

 Literal Labs empowers engineers to train their own models

Part of Literal Labs' vision is to let customers train their own models. Literal Labs' commercial product is a toolchain that allows customers to train models on their own datasets. The target user is a competent software engineer — not necessarily a machine learning specialist.

According to Hurley, the tool is highly automated: 

"Typically, you don't just train a single model—you train hundreds, then prune and select the best. We've built automation into that process.

Customers can run it on-premise, in their private cloud, or directly at the edge. This has several advantages: it addresses data sensitivity concerns for customers unwilling to send datasets off-site, and it makes adoption easier by fitting into their existing infrastructure."

Company CTO, Leon Fedden, previously led the deep learning platform at AstraZeneca. He brings that expertise in combining classic AI techniques with automation to ensure its toolchain is robust and scalable.

The company is collaborating with utilities to develop smart wastewater systems, where sensors can identify what constitutes "normal" and "abnormal" flows, triggering early warnings. The same applies to electricity networks or other utility grids with vast numbers of remote sensors.

Another key area is machine health, which involves predicting wear and tear and sending maintenance before a machine fails. That's hugely valuable in industrial settings.

Right now, it's focusing on time-series data — such as vibration sensors or audio — and on tabular data. These domains are full of opportunities for better forecasting and process decisions.

"We're building capability for image data as well, but our initial focus is time-series and tabular," explains Hurley. 

By avoiding costly hardware swaps, Literal Labs eases Edge AI adoption

Many startups in edge AI have struggled to commercialise, due to the challenge that deploying AI in many instances requires changing hardware. Companies didn't want the expense or disruption of installing new equipment. Hurley explained:

"Our advantage is that we don't require special accelerators—just a standard microprocessor, which every industrial IoT device already has. 

The only fundamental constraint is whether there's enough memory available for an additional function. That's a big difference from approaches that depend on entirely new hardware."

Currently, Literal Labs is running five proof-of-concept projects with customers and aims to launch our product in the second half of this year.

Hurley admits that AI is a noisy space for startups: 

"A lot of promises get made. But we see ourselves as a disruptor. Our strategy is to stay focused: find strong problem areas, work closely with customers, and deliver measurable value. That was something I learned early on at ARM.

Robin Saxby, ARM's first CEO, always stressed focus.

I joined as employee number 40-something, and that lesson still applies today."

Literal Labs' focus this year is on execution: expanding the team, delivering proof-of-concepts, and preparing for its product launch. From there, it'll broaden its data capabilities beyond time-series and tabular, and continue building out customer-facing tools.

In the longer term, the vision is to make logic-based AI a mainstream alternative to neural networks, especially in energy- and compute-constrained environments.

Building a successful software product takes more than a great idea and a few developers. It requires a solid team structure, a shared vision, and individuals with the right combination of skills and mindset. Without this, even the most promising projects can lose direction or stall completely.

For a startup software product to succeed, it needs a development strategy that fits the budget and delivers value on time. Many startups fail to launch, not because of weak ideas, but because they run out of funds for essentials like marketing, feedback, new features, or investor appeal. That’s why the team is critical: they must adapt quickly, deliver on time, and stay focused on value and quality while keeping the budget in check.

In this article, we will focus on two essential components to build and maintain a high-performing software team. First, we outline the individual traits and technical capabilities that matter most. These include adaptability, ownership, collaboration, user focus, and the ability to solve problems efficiently.

Second, we highlight the key functional roles that support successful software delivery. From software architects and developers to QA, product managers, and customer support, each role contributes to a stable and scalable product. Understanding these components will help you build a team that can move fast, stay aligned, and deliver real results.

Key skills and expertise that fuel business growth:

When building a high-performing team, it’s important to focus not only on technical ability but also on the qualities that drive collaboration, ownership, and long-term impact. The following traits help create a team that can move fast, solve real problems, and support product growth from the ground up:

• Technical excellence and versatility: Look for engineers who can work across front-end, back-end, and DevOps. A scalable architecture and clean codebase from day one prevent future bottlenecks. Versatility allows the team to stay lean and move fast.
• Growth mindset and adaptability: Prioritise people who embrace change, learn quickly, and improve through feedback. A “can-do” attitude and intrinsic motivation are key traits in fast-paced environments.
• Strong collaboration and communication: Great teams share ideas, ask questions, and resolve issues constructively. Clear communication keeps everyone aligned and builds momentum.
• Product and user orientation: Developers should understand the product vision and care about solving real user problems. Product-thinking leads to more meaningful and valuable features.
• Ownership and accountability: Hire people who take responsibility, not just tasks. Proactive problem-solvers drive progress and raise team standards.
• Speed and efficiency: The ability to prioritise, deliver quickly, and iterate is crucial. Speed matters, but not at the expense of quality.
• Passion and intrinsic motivation: Team members who are passionate about building and solving problems bring energy and resilience to the team.
• Cultural fit and values alignment: People who share your values and mission help build a stronger, more cohesive culture that supports growth and retention.
• Problem-solving ability: Beyond technical knowledge, great team members think critically, break down complex issues, and find practical solutions.
• DevOps and operational awareness: Developers should understand infrastructure, deployment, and monitoring. This reduces downtime and supports scalability.
• Network and community engagement: Candidates active in open-source or tech communities stay ahead of trends, help attract talent, and boost your company’s visibility.
• Customer empathy: Understanding end users leads to better product decisions. Regular feedback keeps development focused and impactful.

Essential software development roles and why they’re critical to business success:

Beyond mindset and culture, a high-performing team needs a balanced mix of functional roles. Each brings critical expertise. Below is a breakdown of key components:

• Business analysis: Defines requirements and connects development with business goals. This prevents misalignment and ensures what’s built solves real problems.

• Software architecture: Designs the high-level structure of the system and sets technical standards. Good architecture enables faster development, scalability, and long-term maintainability.

• Infrastructure and DevOps: Handles deployment, automation, cloud infrastructure, and system reliability. This keeps delivery smooth, reduces downtime, and supports product stability.

• Software development: Builds features, fixes bugs, and implements integrations. Developers are the backbone of the product, turning ideas into working software.

• Quality assurance (QA): Tests the product before release to catch bugs and performance issues. QA helps maintain quality, prevents costly errors, and ensures features meet requirements.

• Product/project management and delivery: Sets the vision, prioritises features, and ensures timely delivery. This role keeps teams aligned and focused on what matters most to the business.

• Budgeting and finance: Manages financial planning and resource allocation. This ensures the company can scale sustainably without cash flow issues.

• Marketing and product analytics: Drives user acquisition, market positioning, and tracks product performance. A strong go-to-market strategy backed by data is key to growth.

• Customer support: Handles user issues and collects feedback. This builds trust, improves satisfaction, and provides input for future product improvements.

Recruitment as a service: The role of strategic recruitment 

Knowing what roles you need is one thing. Finding the right people to fill them is something else entirely. Building a strong product team takes more than posting jobs on boards, running CVs through an AI filter, or LinkedIn, which mostly reaches only the people who are actively looking for a job, and often misses the really skilled ones.

This is where having a recruitment partner who truly understands tech delivery makes all the difference. AccentonPeople.com works more like an extension of your own leadership team than a traditional agency. They act like part of your team, not just a vendor, bringing years of experience in IT and software delivery to help you build teams that can actually ship.

Where generic recruiters or automated platforms chase keywords, Accent on People brings:

• Custom candidate pipelines that go beyond job boards, reaching not just active job seekers but also high-potential people who aren’t looking yet (often the strongest hires).
• Real human insight, spotting potential and mindset in ways an algorithm never could.
• A trusted network of proven specialists built through long-term relationships, not cold outreach.
• Careful role fit analysis, growth mindset evaluation, and cultural fit checks to ensure candidates aren’t just confident in their skills, but are genuinely motivated and aligned, ready to thrive with your vision and pace.
• Flexible ways of working, from ongoing Recruitment-as-a-Service to short, focused team build projects, shaped around your stage, your runway, and how quickly you need to move.
• A 100% transparent process where you can track exactly where effort is going and what’s working, so you can adjust fast and focus on what drives growth.
• Support beyond the hire, helping shape team structure, identify skills gaps, recommend roles, analyse motivation, assess flight risk, and manage onboarding, exit interviews, and more.

With a partner who understands both the people and the product side, you avoid the painful mis-hires that set startups back months, and instead build a team that can truly scale your vision.

To sum up: Building a high-performing IT or non-IT team requires more than technical skills. It demands the right mix of mindset, cultural alignment, and clearly defined roles. With a strong foundation of specialised roles and a recruitment partner like Accent on People to help find and attract the best talent, startups can confidently scale and turn big ideas into market-defining successes.

The post The roles that make or break your startup: Hire a growth-impact team with Accentonpeople.com (Sponsored) appeared first on EU-Startups.

1.7 million people who aren’t formally registered as visually impaired, but still suffer from sight loss severe enough to affect their daily lives. While services such as Be My Eyes – an app which connects blind and low-vision users with sighted volunteers and companies, through live video and AI to tackle the inaccessible parts of everyday life – do a stellar job in providing support for blind and low-vision people, there is always room for more, especially in real-time, hurried scenarios such as navigating public transport.

Many people in the UK struggle to navigate public transport because they simply can’t read the signage.  

Zooming in with a smartphone only distorts the text further, while mainstream transit apps often lag or fail to capture real-time updates. The result? Missed buses, wrong trains, the risk of getting stranded and dependence on strangers.

But now there’s a solution. Founded in March by UCL students, Solora has developed the RideOnTime app, which uses AI to translate transport signage into clear visuals—and audio if desired—in real time, offering people with sight loss a dramatically easier way to navigate bus and train stations.

Despite being in the thick of his dissertation in Human-Computer Interaction, CEO Jun Bak was kind enough to offer some insights into the solution and the company behind it.  

From academia to an app store

Bak has a background of around a decade in UX design and digital strategy, with deep experience in user experience, conversion optimisation, and product strategy across in-house and agency roles. More recently, he completed a Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction at UCL.

During the course, he met four classmates, and together they worked on a disability interaction module, co-designing an application with a visually impaired user, which eventually became Solora. The technology is both simple and powerful. The app detects the signboard using AI. 

“Then, we adjust technical factors like shutter speed and exposure to reduce distortion," explained Bak.

“Combined with additional coding and AI enhancements, we’re able to “fix” the display so users can clearly read the information. We’ve gone through several rounds of testing, and the results have been very positive.”

UX-testing with those with lived experience

I was curious about the UX testing, as I’ve unfortunately met a robotic wheelchair startup that only tested its tech in able-bodied people and a smart home platform for blind and low-vision people, which was only put forward for testing weeks before its launch. 

According to Bak, the team was fortunate that the project began as part of a disability interaction module, which allowed them to co-design the solution directly with a visually impaired user living with Stargardt disease.

“By learning about her daily transit challenges, we identified LED signboards as a major issue.”

For broader testing, Solora collaborated with Vision Ability, a nonprofit in East London. 

“We hosted a workshop with about 20 visually impaired users, took them to a station, and allowed them to try the app in real-world situations.  Their feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

Some participants told us they were just beginning to travel independently, and that this was one of their biggest frustrations.”

Solora launched on the UK App Store as a pilot and now has about 50 active users. 

“We’re continuously monitoring performance through analytics and recordings to measure accuracy and optimise further,” explained Bak. 

Why mainstream transit apps and support services aren’t enough

In the UK, disability rights in public transport are primarily protected under the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations, which require transport providers to make reasonable adjustments, so I was curious why public transport authorities weren’t doing more about the problem.

According to Bak:

“Quite rightly, there is extensive guidance and regulation concerning the level of support that should be offered to sight-impaired and severely sight-impaired people on our transport network. 

And visual cues, such as a guide dog or mobility cane, mean it can be easier for passenger assistants to proactively identify when a sight-impaired or severely sight-impaired individual may require additional help in a bus or train station. 

But there is a massive group of underserved people in the UK who suffer from varying degrees of sight loss. 

We know that individuals with different forms of sight loss find it difficult to navigate the transport network, but for a number of reasons, they may be reluctant to ask for assistance."

Further,  some larger authorities may be aware of the specific challenge with the signage, but they often assume that having a live feed solves it. 

“The issue is that LED signboards display the most accurate, real-time information — based on the actual movement of buses and trains. 

Apps may lag or require multiple steps to check timetables, but with RideOnTime, users can just point their camera and instantly get the information.”  

Solora has already been recognised with awards, including Most Inclusive Product at UCL’s latest Venture Builder Programme and the SustainTech Pitching Competition, winning £1,500 and £1,000, respectively. Now its applying to UCL’s Hatchery program, which supports spin-off startups over two years.” 

In terms of business model, the app will always be free for visually impaired users. Long term, Solora is looking at white-labeling — integrating its solution into existing platforms run by transit authorities. According to Bak, the current UK launch is essentially a pilot to gather data, prove impact, and run focus groups. 

“We’re already in conversations with transport authorities about integration, and we’re actively seeking our first client.”

The team is also exploring EU mobility funding opportunities and ways to expand beyond the UK. However, the biggest challenge has been accommodating individuals with varying levels of vision loss — some people are severely visually impaired or blind, and they want to use the app too.

“We’re developing features like AI-guided detection: users can wave their phone, and the app will guide them with audio cues to point toward the signboard.  This requires extensive testing with blind users, but it’s our next major step,” shared Bak.

Solora is proving that startups can tackle real-world problems when they put lived experience at the heart of design. By working directly with people across different levels of vision loss to shape and test new features, the team is building technology that doesn’t just work in theory — it genuinely meets the needs of those who rely on it every day. Its a valuable playbook for all social impact startups.

Plino, the Turin-based startup that simplifies and speeds up the analysis of accounting, costs, revenues, and cashflow data for SMEs through genAI, has closed a €650k funding round.

Investors in this round include Techaround VC, Vento, Exor Ventures, Cariplo Factory, Berkeley SkyDeck, and zooga VC.

“One of our clients in the food sector told us they used to spend over 10 hours a week manually reclassifying revenues and costs to identify their largest customers, best-selling product families and cost-absorbing areas. Managing five bank accounts was also entirely manual, without real-time visibility on cash flows. With Plino, this entire process has been automated, and managers now make strategic decisions in seconds, with clear, always up-to-date data,” explain Plino’s founders Pietro Galimberti, Viola Bonesu and Enrico Castelli.

They added: “And cases like this are not isolated: every day we meet dozens of companies in sectors ranging from manufacturing to construction, from hospitality to food service, facing the same difficulties. Our goal is to help them say goodbye to manual processes and Excel spreadsheets, replacing them with reliable insights for informed strategic decisions.”

Founded in 2023 within the venture-building programme Vento, Plino was founded by Pietro Galimberti, Viola Bonesu and Enrico Castell i.

Together they decided to tackle “one of the biggest and most underestimated” challenges for Italian SMEs: financial planning and analysis, which is often slow, manual and based on
incomplete information.

The capital raised will allow Plino to accelerate the development of its platform with new AI-based features, such as cash flow forecasting, automatic generation of natural language reports, and profitability analysis for individual products or projects.

At the same time, the startup will strengthen its team – currently composed of nine people across product, technology and sales – and aim to consolidate partnerships with professional firms and trade associations, bringing AI-driven innovation into the accounting profession itself.

“We chose to invest in Plino because it represents the perfect combination of a determined, multidisciplinary team and one of the most relevant yet overlooked challenges of the Italian economy: financial planning and analysis for SMEs. The market is vast, still largely untapped, and the timing is right: more and more SMEs are realising the need to structure financial management in a more rigorous and strategic way,” explains Pietro Invernizzi, Managing Director of Techaround.vc.

He adds: “Plino’s solution stands out for its ease of use, making it accessible even to entrepreneurs and managers with limited digital literacy, lowering the technological barrier that has often the hindered adoption of similar tools. Combined with a solid product vision and a data-driven approach, this convinces us that Plino can become a benchmark in the Italian market and successfully scale across other European markets as well.”

The company says that Italian SMEs face a fragmented process on a daily basis: data scattered across accountants, management software and banks; manual analyses spread over dozens of Excel files; and waiting times that force managers to rely on intuition rather than numbers.

Plino aims to overturn this, offering a single platform that enables real-time monitoring of sales, costs, revenues, and cash flows, as well as forecasting future liquidity and automatically generating clear, immediate reports.

Today, Plino supports more than 100 SMEs across Italy in strategic sectors such as manufacturing, services, food, hospitality and construction.

With this round, the startup aims to consolidate its presence in Italy, enrich the product with new areas of analysis such as labor costs and production performance, and further expand the team.

The post Italy’s Plino raises €650k round to improve SMEs’ financial planning and analysis with generative AI appeared first on EU-Startups.

Germany-based agricultural photovoltaics company feld.energy has closed a seed round of more than €10 million led by HV Capital, with participation from Future Energy Ventures, AENU, and Angel Invest.

feld.energy enables farms to grow food and generate solar power on the same land with modular, machine-friendly agricultural photovoltaics (Agri-PV) systems for arable fields, pastures, and speciality crops.

Operating end-to-end, from feasibility to construction, the company makes dual land use easy to deploy and economically attractive, even without subsidies. Under its lease model, farms can earn over €100,000 across 20 years while maintaining agricultural output. This supports the company’s vision to show that farming and renewable energy can reinforce one another to create lasting value.

By pairing clean energy with agriculture, feld.energy strengthens farm income and resilience, reduces water use, and advances Germany’s energy transition.

The opportunity is significant, as Germany targets about 60 per cent renewables in gross final consumption by 2050, and Fraunhofer ISE estimates 2,900 GW of technical Agri-PV potential nationwide.

Co-founder and CEO Dr. Adrian Renner says feld.energy aims to bolster agricultural resilience and accelerate the shift to a climate-neutral economy by enabling farmers to generate clean power without reducing food production.

This funding will help us strengthen our team and scale our solution so that farms everywhere benefit from this dual-use approach,

Renner added.

With fresh funding, feld.energy will accelerate growth, expand operations, and strengthen its team. Its long-term aim is to make dual-use farmland, boosting farmers’ income while helping the planet, the rule rather than the exception.

In its latest Seed round, Hamburg-based software company encentive has raised €6.3 million in fresh capital with its AI-driven platform that reportedly helps industries cut energy costs by up to 20% and reduce CO2 emissions.

The round was led by global investor General Catalyst and other existing investors. The funding will be used to expand their platform to connect to even more industrial assets, unlock new markets, and strengthen its technological leadership.

“Rising energy costs and mounting decarbonisation pressure are challenges faced by almost every industrial company today. Businesses unable to flexibly and intelligently manage their energy flows and adapt to the volatility and fluctuating prices of renewables are already putting their competitiveness at risk.

“Our solution enables companies to harness the economic potential of flexibility without interfering with existing processes. In doing so, our clients safeguard themselves against economic uncertainty and location disadvantages in the long term,” explains Torge Lahrsen, COO of encentive.

Industry is the world’s largest energy consumer and therefore a decisive lever for achieving a climate-neutral future. The electrification of industrial processes, which is essential for this transition, is further driving up electricity demand. At the same time, the expansion of renewables is making power supply and prices increasingly volatile.

In this environment, the ability to actively harness flexibility is becoming a key lever for the future of industry.

Founded in 2019, ecentie provides a solution that aims to reduce energy costs and emissions in industry. The company’s AI-based energy management platform automatically optimises electricity consumption so that companies use energy precisely when it is green and cheap.

The core element is the flexOn software, which acts as an intelligent control centre, coordinating energy flows bidirectionally with the availability of renewable energy locally at the company’s own site and in the markets and making targeted use of existing storage and flexibilisation potential.

The platform leverages latent flexibility in refrigeration, heating processes, batteries and production lines, generating intelligent schedules and automatically controlling these assets.

This allows companies to draw on on-site generation or tap into the intraday spot market exactly when wind and solar power are abundant and ​low-cost. flexOn is primarily used by medium-sized and large industrial players with annual consumption of at least two gigawatt hours (GWh).

“With the fresh capital, we are investing specifically in further developing our platform and expanding our team. Together, we are driving forward the only AI to date that is directly integrated into industrial machine rooms to actively control systems, thereby setting technological standards. Our vision is to become the leading address for controlling energy flows in industry.

The seven-figure order volume from our core industries underscores the success of our solution and confirms our commitment to establishing flexOn as the standard for intelligent energy management – scalable and deeply integrated,” adds Nicolás Juhl, CEO of encentive.

The solution is already in use at leading companies such as Metro Logistics, Dachser and Klingele, and is now also being deployed by well-known utilities as a flexibility platform.

To expand into further sectors and markets, encentive will invest the additional funds in new talent as well as in scaling core areas of the platform. This will enable major customers and partners to integrate flexOn independently via a dedicated onboarding suite.

“Energy has become one of the most decisive levers for competitiveness in European industry. It is no longer a background cost but a strategic factor in an era of volatility and sustainable transformation,” said Robin Dechant, Partner at General Catalyst.

He adds: “encentive turns this pressure point into an opportunity: its AI-driven platform helps industrials cut costs while enabling them to thrive on renewable power. What convinced us was what we believe is the team’s rare ability to bridge cutting-edge AI with the realities of factory floors, a capability that can strengthen Europe’s industrial backbone and accelerate the energy transition.”

Earlier in 2024, the company secured €2.7 million from investors such as Summiteer, S I Ventures, Vireo Ventures, Interface Capital, OMA Ventures, as well as business angels including Mario Götze and Christian Reber.

The post Germany’s encentive is using its recently raised €6.3 million to cut industrial energy costs by up to 20% appeared first on EU-Startups.

TAFALGIE THERAPEUTICS, a Marseille-based clinical-stage BioTech startup developing non-opioid treatments for pain, has secured €12 million in a Series A funding round – bringing its total raised since founding to €30 million.

The round attracted a mix of new business angels, particularly family offices, and returning investors. Previous investors include Bpifrance and the EIC.

“I would like to thank all the investors who participated in this new round of financing. Their commitment and trust reinforce our determination to provide safe and effective therapeutic solutions to the millions of patients suffering from pain as quickly as possible, without the harmful side effects of opioid-based medications.

“While many companies are struggling to secure financing, TAFALGIE THERAPEUTICS continues to strengthen its financial structure to support its roadmap and intends to extend this Series A round soon through an innovative arrangement,” said Eric Schettini, Co-founder and CEO of TAFALGIE THERAPEUTICS.

Founded in 2020 as a spin-off from CNRS and Aix-Marseille University, TAFALGIE THERAPEUTICS is focusing on the development of next-generation analgesics that modulate pain signals through TAFA4 protein-derived compounds. Its aim is to address acute, chronic, neuropathic, inflammatory, and post-operative pain without the risks associated with conventional painkillers such as respiratory issues, sedation, tolerance, and addiction.

This latest round, said to be an unusual funding strategy in the biopharmaceutical sector, reflects a growing interest from family offices in medium-sized, high-tech private equity investments.

The newly raised funds will be used to advance TT5, the company’s leading drug candidate derived from TAFA4 protein peptide, through Phase 2A clinical trials. Additionally, the money will support further development of two other candidates from its research platform and bolster its internal research and clinical teams as the company aims to establish a leading “Discovery Platform” focused on pain treatment.

The platform looks to tackle a serious public health issue. According to data provided by TAFALGIE, the United States has seen more than 727,000 deaths linked to opioid use between 1999 and 2022, with life expectancy dropping by 0.67 years in 2022 due to the crisis. In Europe, while the situation varies by country, opioid-related deaths increased significantly from 2000 to 2015. France has seen tramadol become the deadliest painkiller between 2013 and 2022.

“From an operational standpoint, the funds raised will enable us to continue developing TT5, which entered Phase 1 (TAFAFIRST study) this summer, until the completion of its Phase 2A trials, and to initiate clinical studies of our two other leads by 2027. At that point, TAFALGIE THERAPEUTICS should be ideally positioned to finalise discussions with pharmaceutical companies to finance the final clinical stages,” added Schettini.

The TAFAFIRST study, which began in Australia in partnership with CMAX and the Royal Adelaide Hospital, is evaluating TT5’s safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and biological response.

Conducted as a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, it involves 94 participants, starting with single ascending doses and moving to multiple ascending doses before testing TT5 in post-surgical settings. Initial results are expected between late 2025 and early 2026.

With additional non-dilutive backing totalling €6.5 million from Bpifrance and the EU, the company is on a strong path towards reshaping pain treatment across the board.

The post French BioTech startup TAFALGIE THERAPEUTICS locks in €12 million to tackle the opioid crisis with non-opioid drugs appeared first on EU-Startups.

German software company encentive has raised €6.3 million to expand its AI platform, connect more industrial assets, enter new markets, and strengthen its technological leadership. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from existing backers Summiteer, SIVentures, Vireo Ventures, HelloWorld, and angels Stefan Müller and Bernhard Niesner.

As industry, the world’s largest energy consumer, electrifies to reach net zero, power demand is rising, while expanding renewables increase supply and price volatility. In this environment, harnessing flexibility becomes a decisive lever for competitiveness and decarbonization.

encentive reduces industrial energy costs and emissions with its AI energy-management platform. Its core product, flexOn, serves as an intelligent control centre that aligns bidirectional energy flows with local and market renewable availability, automatically shifting consumption to green, low-cost periods and leveraging existing storage and flexibility.

By unlocking flexibility in refrigeration, heating processes, batteries, and production lines, flexOn generates optimised schedules and autonomously controls assets in real time, helping medium and large industrial users (≥2 GWh/year) cut electricity costs by up to 20 per cent while significantly reducing CO₂.

Already deployed at leaders such as Metro Logistics, Dachser, and Klingele, and now used by major utilities as a flexibility platform, encentive will use the new funding to hire talent and scale core capabilities. This will enable large customers and partners to integrate flexOn independently via a dedicated onboarding suite as it expands into new sectors and markets.

Evertrace – the founder detection engine for data-driven VCs – today announced the acquisition of Whisper AI. Whisper AI brings deep expertise in company data, trade registry integrations, and a strong foothold in the DACH market – a key step in Evertrace’s wider European and global expansion.

The acquisition accelerates Evertrace’s mission to give investors the earliest and most precise signals on emerging founders and companies. By combining Whisper AI’s registry and company data with Evertrace’s detection engine, the company moves closer to executing on this mission and be the key player in the market.

"Whisper AI’s expertise in company registries and their position in the DACH region give us access to a unique set of data sources and a crucial market. Together, we can strengthen our ability to surface the founders and companies investors need to know about - earlier than anyone else,” said Jacob Graubæk Houlberg, Co-founder at Evertrace.

We founded Whisper AI to make company and registry data more accessible and actionable to VC investors. Becoming part of Evertrace allows us to scale that mission significantly - and directly contribute to building the leading sourcing engine for early stage investors,” said Nikolai Niklaus, founder of Whisper AI.

Whisper AI’s technology will be fully integrated into the Evertrace platform, giving customers richer signals, faster updates, and broader geographic coverage.

About Evertrace

Evertrace is the founder detection engine for data-driven venture capital investors. Using machine learning and unique data signals, Evertrace helps funds identify founders earlier than anybody else

About Whisper AI

Whisper AI specializes in advanced company data and registry integrations, with a particular focus on the DACH market. Its technology enables the early detection of new companies and founders for European early stage investors by turning complex data pipelines into actionable insights