UK scaleup Radiant today announced its merger with Ori Industries, combining Ori’s distributed AI infrastructure platform with Radiant’s global infrastructure capabilities and marking the company’s transition into full operations.

Radiant is a vertically integrated AI infrastructure company combining utility-scale powered land, long-term capital, and a proprietary AI infrastructure software platform.

Radiant builds and operates AI factories for enterprises, telecommunications providers, and sovereign institutions, delivering scalable compute with utility-grade economics, operational resilience, and planning horizons aligned to the long-term demands of the AI economy.

Ori provides sovereigns, telcos, & corporates with the software stack to build, manage, and deploy AI cloud. Through this merger, Ori will be the 'spark' that fires up Radiant -- it will be the software & team layer sitting on top of its compute + physical data centres. 

As part of the merger, Radiant enters its operating phase as the first compute deployment vehicle and second seed investment for Brookfield’s AI Infrastructure Fund (“BAIIF”). BAIIF provides Radiant with a direct pipeline to a $100 billion investment program for AI Infrastructure, ensuring the company has the long-term capital required to deliver a fully integrated, utility-scale ecosystem that unites proprietary software, sovereign compute, and powered land into a single, global AI utility.

Radiant’s infrastructure will be based on the NVIDIA DSX reference design, offering AI compute infrastructure for sovereign governments, select global enterprises, and telecommunications providers under long-term contracts. 

Mahdi Yahya, Founder and CEO of Ori and President of Radiant, said:

“We could not be more excited to continue the Ori journey through Radiant. For more than seven years, our team has been building toward this moment - designing software that could enable infrastructure for AI at scale. It was immediately apparent that Brookfield was the ideal partner for Ori. 

Through Radiant we can challenge the supply-demand imbalance that has defined AI since the release of advanced LLMs in 2023. With deep, structural advantages in capital costs, powered land, compute, and software, Radiant is building the infrastructure to enable a global age of abundance for AI."

Radiant will continue to grow and operate the Ori Global AI Cloud for customers who need on-demand capacity and rapid deployment.

French foodtech startup Verley has raised €32 million in a Series A financing round, only four years after its inception. 

Verley develops functional whey protein ingredients, more precisely beta-lactoglobulin (BLG), designed to deliver the nutritional and functional performance expected by food and nutrition manufacturers. Verley has built its approach to integrate seamlessly into existing food value chains, responding to concrete industrial and market requirements. 

Verley’s ingredients made through precision fermentation use only a fraction of the natural resources required by conventional production, addressing a growing demand from manufacturers and consumers for reduced-impact products.  

The company focuses exclusively on B2B ingredient solutions, supporting manufacturers developing high-protein, clean-label and digestible products across multiple applications. 

Its portfolio, marketed under the FermWhey™ range, consists of functionalized whey proteins engineered for performance in real-world formulations (high-protein yoghurts,  protein shots etc), combining high purity, advanced solubility, emulsification, gelling properties and optimised nutritional profiles. 

High-protein nutrition has become a mainstream expectation, while demographic growth, evolving dietary habits, and the rapid expansion of GLP-1 treatments (1 in 8 adults in the US were taking a  GLP-1 drug in 2025) are further increasing demand for high-quality, digestible protein ingredients. At the same time, conventional whey protein production is facing structural constraints, limiting its ability to meet these needs at scale while reducing environmental pressure. 

Since its creation, Verley has followed a methodical development path, combining rapid execution with industrial discipline. In less than four years, the company has secured key regulatory milestones, including a self-affirmed GRAS status in 2024, followed by an FDA “No  Questions” letter in 2025, validating the safety and robustness of its approach for the US market. 

Beyond regulation, Verley has built a strong intellectual property portfolio around both fermentation and proprietary protein functionalisation technologies. These technologies do not aim solely to replicate dairy proteins but to enhance their performance, unlocking new formulation possibilities for manufacturers.  

Stéphane Mac Millan, CEO and co-founder of Verley, said: 

“Verley’s mission is to address the growing global demand for high-quality nutrition while preserving the planet’s natural resources.

Verley is now ready to help alleviate the pressure the dairy industry is facing. We are very proud to be building a European champion  leveraging decades of know-how in the dairy industry.”

The round brings together top European players: new investors, including Alven, leading the round, Blast, and the French Tech Seed fund, managed on behalf of the French government by Bpifrance as part of France 2030, and historical investors Sofinnova, Sparkfood, Captech and Founders Future. With additional non-dilutive support from Bpifrance, this funding round supports Verley’s next phase of industrial execution and market deployment. 

The proceeds of the round will primarily support Verley’s US market entry, including  commercial deployment and early customer scale-up, alongside a ramp-up of production  capacities.

The company will also continue investing in R&D to further strengthen the performance, efficiency and sustainability of its technologies. Following the US launch,  Europe and the Middle East will be priority regions for expansion. 

A Dutch chipmaker which designs and manufactures chips for AI inference use has raised more than $250m, with backing from new investor BlackRock.

Innovation Industries, the European VC fund, is the lead investor in the round in Axelera AI.

The round also features new investors BlackRock and SiteGround Capital as well as existing investors, including Bitfury, CDP Capital, the European Innovation Council Fund and Samsung Catalyst Fund. The startup has raised more than $450m in total to date.

Axelera AI makes chips and software for inference, the computing process of running an AI model, as opposed to training an AI model, which has become increasingly important as more enterprises embrace AI.

The startup's chips are designed for use locally on edge devices, such as mobile phones, as it looks to make AI more energy efficient by processing data directly on devices rather than in the cloud.  

The startup said the funding represented the largest ever by an EU AI semiconductor firm. It said it had 500 customers across industries such as defence, agritech and robotics.  

Describing its approach, it said: “Axelera AI’s success is rooted in a fundamental insight: to deploy AI at scale, the industry must first solve for energy consumption and cooling requirements.   

“The company’s edge-first architectural approach delivers uncompromising AI inference performance that fits within the power and thermal envelopes of real-world deployment environments to drive real business value."

Fabrizio Del Maffeo, CEO and co-founder of Axelera AI, said: “Data centres are hitting power and cooling limits, and as analytics move closer to where data is being created, edge AI solutions must operate within strict energy and bandwidth constraints.    

“We designed our architecture from the ground up to overcome these obstacles. Our edge-first approach isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about making AI deployment economically viable at scale for real-world applications while protecting data and privacy by processing customer information locally.”

Glasgow-based Quantcore has secured £2.5 million in seed funding to develop a sovereign supply chain for quantum hardware, as the UK seeks to strengthen domestic capacity in technologies linked to national security and economic competitiveness. The round was co-led by PXN Ventures, Blackfinch Ventures, and Scottish Enterprise, with additional backing from Quantum Exponential and STAC.

Founded in 2025 by Dr Jack Brennan, Dr Valentino Seferai, Wridhdhisom Karar, and Prof Martin Weides as a spin-out from the University of Glasgow, Quantcore designs, manufactures, and tests superconducting processors, resonators, and sensors that underpin quantum computers and advanced sensing systems.

Quantcore manufactures niobium-based components, a material that can operate at higher temperatures than aluminium, which is widely used by global competitors. By leveraging niobium, the company aims to help customers, including UK national laboratories, reduce energy consumption while improving the scalability and performance of quantum components.

Beyond computing, Quantcore’s quantum sensors support secure communications and high-precision medical imaging beyond the capabilities of classical technologies, with potential applications in neuroscience, early disease detection, secure infrastructure, and fundamental physics.

Highlighting the strategic implications, Quantcore CEO and co-founder Dr Jack Brennan said quantum computing’s code-breaking potential makes domestic manufacturing increasingly important, arguing the UK must build sovereign capability as classical computing approaches its limits.

The investment comes amid geopolitical uncertainty and follows the UK government’s commitment to invest £670 million in quantum computing as part of its 10-year modern industrial strategy.

Following the funding, Quantcore plans to expand its team with new engineering roles across design, manufacturing, and cryogenic testing, alongside commercial hires.

London-based Power Protocol, a blockchain infrastructure platform for gaming and digital entertainment, has secured a $3 million investment from BITKRAFT Ventures, bringing total ecosystem funding to $15.4 million.

Power Protocol is a Web3 gaming ecosystem designed to connect games, studios, players, and digital assets through shared infrastructure. Powered by the $POWER token and developed by Pixion Games, the platform is built to support multiple game titles, in-game economies, and live service features while enabling digital asset ownership and long-term player engagement.

The protocol is designed to scale economic systems across multiple titles rather than a single game. It supports multi-game interoperability, progression systems, reward distribution, live service functionality, and on-chain asset tracking. BITKRAFT’s investment targets the protocol layer, enabling third-party studios to integrate into the $POWER ecosystem and use shared infrastructure instead of building standalone token utilities.

The ecosystem is anchored by Fableborne, a mobile-first action role-playing game from Pixion Games that is currently in global open beta. Early performance data shows more than 400,000 players have participated across open playtests. Previous beta phases reached a peak daily active user count of 108,000 and generated $21.5 million in NFT presale revenue ahead of the POWER token listing.

These results indicate early interest in Fableborne’s hybrid ARPG and base-building gameplay and align with Pixion Games’ view that skill-based mobile design combined with optional on-chain features can support competitive gaming experiences at scale.

Commenting on the investment, Kam Punia, founder and CEO of Pixion Games, said:

Capital in gaming and Web3 is selective right now, which makes their belief in what we’re building even more meaningful. The response to our open beta and the $POWER launch showed us there’s a strong foundation to grow from.
This investment helps us keep moving toward that vision and develop an ecosystem built on progression, competition, and lasting engagement. BITKRAFT’s support gives us confidence to keep improving thoughtfully for the benefit of our players and partners.

The new funding will be used to accelerate product and ecosystem development, including content expansion, competitive season design, new progression systems, and deeper integration of the $POWER economy across gameplay loops.

The New Era of Shopping today announced the close of a $1.4 million Pre-Seed round to help traditional brands become discoverable, trusted, and purchasable inside AI assistants and agent-driven shopping experiences. ​

The investment was co-led by a European VC firm Presto Ventures, and an NYC-based AI accelerator Alliance, with participation of a16z Scout Fund, a super angel and a founder of ZFellows Cory Levy, AI-focused fund Davidovs VC, Ukrainian VC hi5 Ventures, Japanese Rokubunnoni, early-stage Typhon VC, and a group of angels: Greg Tkachenko (Unreal Labs), Guillaume Roux-Romestaing (Wordware), Kacper Kielak (Magic), Andrei Nenadov, Quinn Campbell, Urvit Goel, Evgeny Yurtaev, Nicole Buss, Matthieu Tissot, and Zituo Chen. ​

The storefront is moving into the chat window

Today, millions of shoppers are abandoning traditional keyword searches in favour of direct answers from AI assistants, and the storefront is moving into the chat window. ​

Roughly 5 per cent of consumers ask AI chatbots what to buy instead of browsing online stores. ​ Industry projections suggest that figure will reach 15 per cent by 2027 and could exceed 50 per cent within two years after that. ​

When AI agents become the buyer

Agentic shopping describes a new shopping lifecycle in which AI agents — acting on user preferences, history and explicit prompts — discover products, request checkout authorisation, and complete purchases on behalf of people. ​

The Agentic Commerce Protocol and related platform tooling are lowering the bar for both agents and merchants to transact programmatically, and instant checkout inside assistant experiences is already live in early platforms. ​

Era is an agentic commerce platform that helps brands make their product catalogues discoverable, trusted, and purchasable inside AI answer engines — including ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity. ​

By combining catalogue sync, AI visibility analytics, competitive intelligence, and prompt-level demand research in one platform, Era gives merchants the infrastructure to compete in the next generation of e-commerce. ​ “If you’re not optimised for AI, you don’t exist”

I spoke to Era co-founder and CEO Oleksii Sidorov, who told me that in the old era, being on the second page of Google was bad. In the new era, if your product metadata, content, and flows aren’t optimised for AI agents, you don’t exist. ​

“We built Era so that every brand, not just the ones with large engineering teams, can be present and purchasable wherever consumers are asking to buy.

The future of commerce is being written right now, and we are here to make sure our merchants are in it.” ​

Key features of Era’s platform include two-way catalogue syncing with PIMs/ERPs, SKU-level intelligence to measure AI visibility and product ranking in LLM responses, user prompt analysis for trend and volume insights, and automated content optimisation to improve how products rank in conversational answers. ​ The product is already integrated with all major eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, Wix, etc., as well as the main AI discovery platforms: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity. ​

The company is currently running pilots with the first cohort of brands and will use the Pre-Seed to expand pilots with the Enterprise segment, scale data infrastructure, and integrate new platforms. ​

Why brands aren’t moving fast — yet ​

Pilots so far have revealed that, even though this seems like an obvious edge, not every brand is rushing to capture it. Sidorov explained: ​

“E-commerce brands especially are still conservative — they're busy with channels that already work, and a lot of them genuinely have no idea what's going on in AI search. Enterprises are particularly slow-moving. Where it's been easier is with tech startups and software companies.

They're more AI-literate; they use LLMs themselves to find tools and write code, so they immediately understand the value.

We've broadened our focus as a result — we don't limit ourselves to e-commerce anymore. Any brand that benefits from online traffic is a potential client.”

According to Sidorov, there are already companies that exist almost entirely on AI traffic — they happened to be well-indexed by accident, and now that's where most of their traffic comes from. ​

Two YC alumni bet on agentic commerce ​

The company was founded by a team with deep experience at the intersection of AI, eCommerce, and advertising.

Between them, the two co-founders have been through Y Combinator twice — and sold two companies.

Ukrainian-born Sidorov previously conducted AI research at the University of Oxford and Meta AI Research before pivoting into entrepreneurship. He first founded Suggestr, an AI-driven e-commerce startup accepted into Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 cohort. ​

He later launched two additional ventures — Slise (advertising analytics) and Dise (an AI-native CRM) — both of which were acquired. Much of this was built while relocating across Europe after fleeing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and supporting family back home.

Sidorov studied in Ukraine, then continued his education across Europe through Erasmus, moving from physics into computer science and eventually AI. He worked in Belgium and Oxford, built a research track record, and then joined Facebook AI Research right after my master’s.

He moved to Silicon Valley and followed a very academic path — conferences, papers, internal research.

“But when COVID hit in 2020, I realised I wanted to build something tangible. I had deep expertise in AI, but I wanted to apply it in the real world — not just write papers. Being in Silicon Valley definitely reinforced that instinct.”

His first startup, Suggestr, sat at the intersection of AI and e-commerce.

“We joined YC Winter ’22, which was an incredible experience. Suggestr was an AI recommendations engine that brought Amazon-level personalisation to smaller e-commerce brands.

We worked with more than 100 brands and generated over half a million dollars in additional sales for customers.

But ultimately, we felt the market was too small to scale to the level we envisioned. So we made the hard decision to shut it down and start again.”

The next venture was Slise, a Web3-based media analytics company built on blockchain data, which was acquired in a full exit, including IP and clients. While building Slise, Sidorov identified another gap — this time in Telegram-based sales infrastructure.

“In crypto, especially, a lot of deals happen on Telegram, but there wasn’t proper tooling for sales teams. So we built Dise, an AI-native CRM for messenger-based sales. It gained traction, but by 2025, we stepped back and asked ourselves: Why are we building a niche SaaS for Telegram when AI is reshaping the entire internet?

We sold it and redirected our focus toward what we believed was a much larger opportunity — AI-driven search and product discovery. That became ERA.”

His co-founder and CTO, Sergey Drozdkov, is a serial founder and CTO with more than 12 years of experience in software development and AI. As CTO of Sensorium, he built one of the first AI chatbots two years before ChatGPT's release, and later went through Y Combinator’s W23 cohort with one of the first AI sales agents, Intently AI. ​

Hype vs reality in AI commerce

Given his research background, I was curious how Sidorov sees AI platforms changing the way people shop. He admits, “I'm genuinely sceptical of the hype. What's already happening is real but still early. You can now buy products directly through ChatGPT in the US without ever visiting a merchant's website. The orders still flow to the merchant on the back end, so they receive the data and fulfil it — but the customer experience is increasingly detached from the brand's storefront.”

He asserts that there are good arguments that, in five to ten years, as we now ask AI assistants questions instead of Googling and exploring links, people will also use them to find and buy products.

“Especially when you consider that ChatGPT already stores your payment information and remembers your address — it's becoming a one-click experience. But this varies a lot by category. Food and beverage, you don't think much about. But supplements, personal care, health-related products — you want to compare specific ingredients, formulas, dosages, pricing. You don't care what the packaging looks like.

That's where chatbots are genuinely efficient.”

Reputation as a ranking signal In terms of customer brand relationships, the retail shift represents a substantial change. Sidorov contends that when someone buys through ChatGPT or Google Shopping, they're not really thinking about which brand or store they're choosing.

“So the traditional levers — beautiful storefronts, brand storytelling, direct customer relationships — become less powerful. What matters now is your internet footprint: your reviews, your content, your references, what AI crawlers can find and interpret about you.”

However, the upside is that once you build that reputation, it's more durable than paid ads. But the downside is you can't change it overnight, and the ranking factors shift constantly.

“Six months ago, Reddit was enormously influential on LLM outputs,” explained Sidorov. “Then it dropped off. Now, HTML structure and other signals matter more. It's nearly impossible for one marketing manager to keep up with all of that — which is why we exist.”

In the AI era, discoverability is no longer about search rankings — it is about being legible to machines that decide on behalf of humans. Era is betting that brands will need infrastructure, not intuition, to compete in that world. ​

Vienna-based nyra health, a provider of an AI-based platform for neurological therapy, announces the completion of a €20 million Series A financing round to further expand its technology platform in the DACH region, accelerate its expansion in the US, and pursue its goal of establishing a new standard for data-driven neurorehabilitation.

The round is led by Armira Growth. Existing investors such as Wellington Partners, Crane Venture Partners, which now oversees MassMutual Ventures’ investments, and EVER Pharma are participating again. This follows a €4.5 million Seed raise back in 2023, as covered by EU-Startups.

Moritz Schöllauf, CEO and co-founder, nyra health, says: “From the outset, our goal was to make our services widely available to those affected. Everyone who needs therapy after a stroke or other neurological disease should have access to effective, individualised care – regardless of where they live or how well their own healthcare system is set up. With this round of financing, we are taking another step in this direction.”

In the broader 2025–2026 funding landscape, several European health- and neurology-related ventures have also secured capital, illustrating sustained investor interest in neurological disease innovation and digital care tools.

Notably, Aerska in Dublin raised around €17 million Seed to advance RNA interference-based medicines targeting diseases of the central nervous system, aimed at addressing hard-to-treat brain disorders. EG 427, a Paris-based BioTech, completed a €27 million Series B to propel genetic medicine programmes focused on chronic neurological conditions.

Early-stage companies such as Strolll, with a reported €12.2 million raise for augmented reality applications in neurorehabilitation, and Neu Health (~€1.9 million) targeting AI-enabled care for Parkinson’s and dementia, further reflect activity at the intersection of tech and neurological care.

Meanwhile, Hemi Health in Denmark secured €4 million Seed financing to scale digital therapeutic and clinical services for migraine, concussion and headache disorders.

Within this context, nyra health’s €20 million Series A for its AI-based neurorehabilitation platform aligns with a broader trend of funding into neurological and HealthTech innovation across Europe.

Collectively these rounds add up to over €60 million in funding, pointing to a diverse but converging focus on neurological disease biology, digital therapeutics and AI-driven care solutions, with investors backing both drug-centric BioTech and software-enabled clinical tools in the sector.

Christian Figge, Managing Partner, Armira Growth, adds: “Neurological rehabilitation can be made significantly more effective through digital solutions, especially in the area of speech ability. nyra health is considered a true category creator with a proprietary AI-based solution that seamlessly connects the entire care chain – from inpatient therapy to outpatient aftercare to home use – for the first time.”

Founded in 2021 by an interdisciplinary team of experts in the fields of neurology, machine learning, and regulatory affairs, nyra health is developing an AI platform for neurological rehabilitation.

It is currently used in over 100 rehabilitation clinics, in the digital rehabilitation aftercare programme of the German Pension Insurance Fund, and by patients with the support of over 28 health insurance companies.

According to the company, neurological diseases such as stroke, dementia, and traumatic brain injury cause €65 billion in costs annually in Germany alone – mainly because care often stops or significantly decreases in intensity after discharge from the hospital. This results in gaps in care for those affected and rising costs due to inadequate follow-up care and avoidable long-term consequences for health insurance companies and cost bearers.

myReha has reportedly been shown to significantly increase therapy time while delivering substantial cost savings: 28 statutory and private health insurance companies already automatically reimburse myReha. More than 40 million insured individuals now have access to structured, AI-based home therapy with real-time feedback.

“We were also particularly impressed by the strong clinical evidence and deep integration into the German standard of care, which already gives nyra health access to over 40 million insured individuals. On this basis, the company is ideally positioned to define the market for digital neurorehabilitation internationally as well,” shares Christian.

At its heart is the MDR Class IIa certified medical device myReha. Patients train speech, cognition, fine motor skills, and everyday abilities with AI-supported real-time feedback. Specially developed speech models analyse pathological speech at the level of pronunciation, word retrieval, syntax, and semantic structure. At the same time, reaction times, error profiles, and training dynamics are continuously evaluated.

Based on this data, the therapy automatically adapts to performance level, fatigue, and progress. In a randomized controlled study, the additional use of myReha showed significantly greater improvements in cognitive and language functions compared to standard therapy.

At the same time, nyra insights structures the control by specialists: therapists see language developments, therapy intensity, and progress curves in real time, adjust programs, and create documentation automatically. This is complemented by the AI-supported Content Studio, which dynamically generates personalised therapy content specifically for therapy practices based on individual performance data.

After today’s announcement, additional clinic groups in the DACH region will be connected and existing reimbursement models in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland will be expanded in a targeted manner. At the same time, the company is preparing to enter the US market.

nyra health is also investing in the technological advancement of its platform. The focus is on expanding multimodal AI models for therapeutic interaction and diagnostics. These are being developed as part of a funded research project worth €4.2 million and scientifically validated in collaboration with leading US research universities.

The post With €65 billion lost each year to stroke and dementia in Germany, nyra health secures €20 million to scale digital neurotherapy appeared first on EU-Startups.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The post With high-protein nutrition now mainstream, Lyon’s Verley raises €32 million to expand production appeared first on EU-Startups.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

explains Roskam.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

added Rowan Dixon, co-founder of Tewke.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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