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London-based energy company Fuse Energy, today announced an additional €59 million ($70 million) in funding to accelerate international expansion and fast-track their products to market – boosting its valuation to €4.2 billion ($5 billion).
The round was led by Lowercarbon Capital and Balderton Capital with participation from Ribbit Capital, Lakestar, Latitude, QuantumLight – the venture capital company founded by Revolut founder Nik Storonsky – Future Positive Capital, Creandum, Accel, Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg through Rosberg Ventures, and DSquared.
“From source to socket, we are simplifying the entire energy system by bringing every stage in-house,” says Alan Chang, co-founder and CEO at Fuse Energy.
This year has shown continued investor interest across a broad range of European energy and EnergyTech business models, providing useful context for Fuse Energy’s raise.
In France, Spark Cleantech secured €30 million to develop cleaner energy solutions for heavy industry, while Spain-based Clevergy raised €3.2 million to scale its smart energy retail platform across Europe – notable given Fuse Energy’s planned expansion into Spain.
Northern Europe also featured prominently, with Estonia’s PowerUP Energy Technologies raising €10 million to expand hydrogen-powered electric generator manufacturing, and Amsterdam-based Chapter securing €3 million for its AI-driven energy transition software.
Germany remained active in energy optimisation and management, with EU-Startups covering funding rounds for Ecoplanet and etalytics, each raising €16 million to scale enterprise energy-management and optimisation technologies, alongside smaller raises such as Delta Charge (€3.7 million) focused on grid and storage infrastructure.
At the infrastructure end of the market, the Netherlands-based Return announced €300 million in growth capital to expand battery storage capacity.
Taken together, these rounds amount to roughly €390 million in disclosed funding during 2025, underlining sustained capital flows into European energy startups across software, hardware, infrastructure and vertically integrated models – the latter aligning closely with Fuse Energy’s approach of combining generation, supply, trading and consumer hardware under one company.
“Combined with a relentless focus on efficiency and execution, we’re solving problems no one else can. This new capital and continued investor demand reinforce that we’re building one of the defining companies of the next decade,” adds Chang.
Founded in 2022 by ex-Revolut executives Alan Chang and Charles Orr, Fuse Energy aims to reshape the energy sector by making energy lower cost, and more abundant.
By combining all parts of the energy process in one company – spanning renewable site construction, power generation, trading, supply, installations and hardware – Fuse Energy reportedly eliminates many of the inefficiencies that drive up costs for consumers in traditional energy models.
As a result, Fuse Energy says they can scale quickly, operate with greater efficiency, and deliver power at prices that average around 10% lower than incumbents, saving households up to €228 (£200) a year on their energy bills.
Daniel Waterhouse, General Partner at Balderton, comments: “Europe needs sustainable, scalable and resilient power to support the next wave of technological and economic growth, as AI accelerates and energy demand rises. Fuse is rebuilding the entire energy system from first principles: vertically integrated, relentlessly efficient and engineered for scale.
“Alan and Charles’ massive ambition to redefine how the future is powered is what first got us excited three years ago, and the pace and quality of execution since has been beyond our wildest expectations. We’re proud to continue supporting this phenomenal team as they power Europe’s future.”
As of December 2025, Fuse Energy has hit €341 million ($400 million) ARR, growing 8x year-on-year to become cash flow positive – all before it enters its fourth year.
The company will use the latest funding to meet rising demand at scale, expanding across Ireland, Spain, and the US from the UK, where it already supplies power to over 200,000 households.
Fuse Energy is also preparing to launch its first in-house consumer hardware products: a micro solar and battery solution that makes generating your own solar power more accessible and affordable while helping to balance the grid, reduce overall system costs, and deliver savings for consumers.
Recently, the company also announced the launch of The Energy Network, a system that rewards customers for shifting usage to off-peak periods, with a public rollout planned for January 2026.
Clay Dumas, General Partner at Lowercarbon, added: “We keep reinvesting in Fuse because they’re proving that a verticalised energy company can be more profitable and scale faster than incumbents, while serving customers with a better product: lower-cost, more reliable, easier-to-access power.”
Swiss-based
Neural Concept has raised a $100 million Series C round led by Growth Equity at
Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with participation from existing investors Forestay
Capital, Alven, HTGF, D.E. Shaw Ventures, and Aster Capital.
Founded in 2019
and spun out of EPFL in Lausanne, Neural Concept develops an AI-focused
engineering platform for product development. The company embeds AI into design
and simulation workflows to help engineering teams accelerate
development and improve product performance across efficiency, safety, and
sustainability.
(You can check out our earlier interview with Pierre Baqué, CEO and co-founder, on how the company’s 3D AI platform is being used to reshape engineering workflows at OEMs.)
Neural Concept’s
CAD-native enterprise AI is designed to interpret geometry, constraints, and
design intent. The company says the platform supports physics-aware design
copilots that enable teams to evaluate more design options earlier in the
process and reduce late-stage changes.
Neural Concept
reports growing adoption as engineering organisations move from pilots to wider
deployments, with activity across sectors including automotive, aerospace and
defence, energy, semiconductors, and consumer electronics. It also reports
partnerships with global OEMs and component suppliers.
Dr. Pierre Baqué,
CEO and founder of Neural Concept, said the company was created to enable
AI-driven design for complex systems such as future vehicles and spacecraft:
Advances in AI are transforming engineering from a process of trial and
error into a data-driven workflow where tradeoffs and constraints can be
understood and optimised from the start.
This investment enables us to fast-track our progress toward
establishing the intelligence layer powering every engineering team,
worldwide.
The company plans to use
the funding to accelerate product development, including a planned generative
CAD capability in early 2026, expand its global go-to-market teams, and deepen
partnerships with companies such as Nvidia, Siemens, Ansys, Microsoft, and AWS.
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18/12/2025 03:59 PM
With Nvidia, Siemens and Microsoft as partners, Lausanne-based Neural Concept raises €85 million
Neural Concept, a Lausanne-based AI platform and innovator in Engineering Intelligence powering product development, today announced it raised an €85 million ($100 million) Series C funding round.
The round was led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with existing investors Forestay Capital, Alven, HTGF, D.E. Shaw Ventures and Aster Capital.
“We founded Neural Concept with the ambition to enable complete AI-driven design of advanced systems like tomorrow’s cars and spacecrafts,” said Dr Pierre Baqué, CEO and founder of Neural Concept.
In 2025, EU-Startups reporting shows continued investor activity across European AI platforms operating in adjacent or partially overlapping domains to engineering intelligence.
Vienna-based Optimuse raised a €4 million Seed round to scale its AI-driven building engineering software, while London’s PolyAI secured €73.2 million in a Series D to expand its enterprise conversational AI platform. Also in London, Ankar closed a €17 million Series A to grow its AI-driven intellectual property software, and Iconic raised €11 million at Seed stage for an on-device AI platform focused on gaming. In Sweden, Stockholm-based Lovable announced a €281 million Series B to scale its AI-native full-stack software creation platform.
Taken together, these 2025 rounds represent approximately €386 million of disclosed funding moving through the European AI software and platform sector.
Against this backdrop, Neural Concept’s €85 million Series C positions it among the larger mid-to-late-stage raises in Europe this year, and notably at the upper end of financings for AI platforms specifically focused on industrial engineering and product development, a segment where other reported rounds remain earlier-stage and smaller in size.
“Advances in AI are transforming engineering from a process of trial and error into a data-driven workflow where tradeoffs and constraints can be understood and optimised from the start. This investment enables us to fast-track our progress toward establishing the intelligence layer powering every engineering team, worldwide,” adds DrBaqué.
Founded in 2019 and spun out of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Neural Concept provides an AI-first engineering platform for product development. By embedding AI natively into design and simulation workflows, Neural Concept aims to empower engineering teams to compress development cycles from “months to days“, improve product performance across efficiency, safety, and sustainability, and scale AI adoption without costly, years-long integration.
The company drives product development across automotive, aerospace, energy, consumer electronics, semiconductors and defense industries, working with the world’s leading global OEMs and component suppliers.
By helping its customers build and deploy physics-aware design copilots, the platform enables teams to explore millions of design options earlier and avoid costly late-stage changes, accelerating the entire product development cycle.
“Neural Concept’s technology represents a rare leap forward in enterprise engineering AI,” said Lambert Diacono, Executive Director Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.
The team will use the funding to accelerate product development, including unveiling a generative CAD capability in early 2026, expand global GTM teams and strengthen its position as the intelligence layer across engineering systems, deepening partnerships with industry leaders such as Nvidia, Siemens, Ansys, Microsoft and AWS.
“As demand accelerates for AI that drives real impact in complex industrial workflows, Neural Concept is emerging as one of the leading companies in the market,” affirmed Christian Resch, Partner, Head of EMEA Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.
Neural Concept’s Series C marks the company’s latest funding milestone following its €23 million ($27 million) Series B in 2024.
Lovable, a Stockholm-based AI-native software creation platform enabling users to build full-stack applications without writing code, has secured €281 ($330 million) million in Series B funding – valuing the startup at €5.6 billion ($6.6 billion).
The investment round was led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures’ Anthology fund. Other backers in this round include NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture arm), Salesforce Ventures, Databricks Ventures, T.Capital (Deutsche Telekom), Atlassian Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, as well as Khosla Ventures, DST Global, EQT Growth, Kinship Ventures, and returning investors Accel, Creandum, and Evantic.
“It started with individuals building tools. Now some of the world’s largest enterprises trust Lovable – and apps built with Lovable – with their data. Apps built with Lovable have gotten over half a billion visits combined in the last 6 months,” said founder Anton Osika in a public statement.
In the context of 2025 European startup funding activity, several companies in AI-driven software and platform segments have also closed rounds this year – albeit generally at smaller scales compared with Lovable’s €281 million Series B:
Peec AI (Berlin, Germany) secured an €18 million Series A to develop and scale its AI-based marketing and brand visibility tools, reflecting investor interest in AI-powered SaaS platforms for marketing workflows.
Ankar (London, UK) closed a €17 million Series A to expand its AI-driven intellectual property software into the US, addressing patent workflows with an AI platform for patent capture, drafting and protection.
Against this backdrop, while Lovable’s €281 million Series B stands out for its size and valuation within the no-code/AI-native software creation category, other European startups are also attracting capital to build specialised AI-first platforms.
This broader activity suggests sustained momentum in Europe’s AI and software ecosystem, even as most rounds remain at early or mid-stage levels relative to Lovable’s landmark financing.
“Lovable is redefining how software gets built. By pairing great UX with AI, they’re giving anyone the ability to turn an idea into a production-ready application in minutes. It’s a category-defining company that shows why Europe is such a powerful place to build right now.
“The team has moved fast, built with conviction, and created a product and community that give them a real edge as AI-native development accelerates. We’re incredibly proud to support Anton, Fabian and the rest of the Lovable team,” said Victor Englesson, Head of Early Stage Technology & Partner at EQT Growth.
Founded in 2023, Lovable is redefining how software is built with their vibe-coding approach. In the last year alone, the platform has facilitated the creation of over 25 million projects, with more than 100,000 new ones launched daily.
The company was co-founded by Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin, who have guided Lovable into becoming a standout in Europe’s emerging AI startup landscape.
Its growing traction in both enterprise and individual use cases signals a broad appetite for tools that empower non-technical users to build and iterate digital products at speed.
“Lovable has done something rare: built a product that enterprises and founders both love. The demand we’re seeing from Fortune 500 companies signals a fundamental shift in how software gets built. We’re proud to lead this round and support Lovable’s vision of making software creation accessible to everyone,” said Laela Sturdy, Managing Partner at CapitalG.
Targeting what it calls the “age of the builder,” Lovable aims to empower a vast swathe of users who have ideas but lack the technical ability to realise them. From marketers stuck in engineering queues to healthcare professionals building tools for patient journeys, Lovable users span a wide range of professions and goals.
The platform offers a blend of design, prototyping, and deployment tools that allow users to turn concepts into production-ready applications quickly – without requiring traditional coding skills.
“Lovable is a beloved product for all the right reasons. They’ve done what was previously unimaginable by turning a latent market of tens of millions of people into web developers and content creators. We love category builders like our previous early investments in Uber and Anthropic – companies that have the opportunity to be enormous. Lovable is showing exactly that trajectory,” noted Matt Murphy, Partner at Menlo Ventures.
The Series B round is intended to accelerate Lovable’s development across three strategic areas: deeper integrations with platforms like Notion, Jira, and Miro; enhanced collaboration and governance tools for enterprise teams; and robust infrastructure to support the transition from prototype to full production deployment.
The platform already includes built-in hosting, authentication, payments, and database functionality, positioning it as a comprehensive no-code development environment.
Companies such as Klarna, Deutsche Telekom, and Uber are using Lovable to reduce development cycles and prototype ideas that previously took weeks or months.
For instance, a professional services firm has reported using the platform to streamline competitive bid processes, while Deutsche Telekom has integrated Lovable into its product development workflow to align stakeholders faster.
“AI is transforming how enterprises build and validate products. For a 2,000-person product and engineering organisation, this goes far beyond faster prototypes. It demands a new approach to how the best ideas come to life. Lovable shares that perspective, and their vision pairs naturally with how we will develop and ship products at Deutsche Telekom,” said Jonathan Abrahamson, Chief Product and Digital Officer at Deutsche Telekom.
On the founder side, Lovable is enabling a wave of new businesses to get to market quickly. Examples include:
Lumoo, an AI fashion platform with €800k ARR in nine months
ShiftNex, a healthcare staffing solution that reached €1 million ARR in five months
Q Group, a Brazilian EdTech company that generated €3 million in revenue in just 48 hours after launching a premium product built on Lovable.
This latest round marks a significant milestone not only for Lovable, but for the broader European tech ecosystem – demonstrating that scalable, globally relevant software companies can and are emerging from the continent.
The valuation and velocity of the company will undoubtedly make it one to watch as the no-code and AI-native movement continues to grow.
Stockholm-based Endra, an
AI-powered mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) platform, has closed a
$20 million seed round led by Notion Capital, with participation from existing
investor Norrsken VC.
The built-environment sector is
under pressure to increase delivery capacity substantially. Some estimates
suggest global construction output would need to grow by more than 40 per cent
by 2030 and close to 70 per cent by 2040 to meet projected demand. The IEA
projects total building floor area could expand by roughly 75 per cent by 2050.
In parallel, around 20 per cent of existing buildings may need to be
retrofitted by 2030 to align with zero-carbon-ready targets, implying a
retrofit pace significantly above today’s levels.
Housing demand adds to these
requirements, with projections indicating the need for about 21 million new
homes annually through 2030. Demand for digital infrastructure is also
increasing, with global data-centre capacity expected to more than triple over
the course of the decade as AI, cloud, and high-density computing workloads
expand.
As project volumes and
requirements increase, engineering teams are looking for ways to reduce design
time and manual work.
Endra’s AI-based platform is
intended to reduce these bottlenecks by replacing prolonged manual MEP design
work with an automated, end-to-end workflow. An architect’s 3D model can be
imported into Endra, which then automatically generates core MEP systems, such
as outlets, switches, lighting, fire alarms, cabling, and ventilation. The
platform produces building-code-compliant, clash-free 3D models and the
associated documentation, including drawings, schematics, calculations, and
schedules.
Work that typically involves
multiple consultants and extended design iterations can be completed in hours,
with outputs tailored to local regulatory requirements and designed to reduce
repetitive manual effort. This can support faster and more predictable project
delivery. In deployed projects, Endra reports efficiency gains of more than
70x, helping teams speed up the delivery of complex electrical, cooling, and
cabling systems.
Commenting on the funding round,
Niklas Lindgren, co-founder and CEO of Endra, noted that global construction
activity is accelerating and that MEP engineering underpins how buildings
function. He added that Endra significantly shortens design timelines, reducing
processes that typically take months to just hours.
By bringing generative design
to MEP engineers, we are helping leadership teams in design consultancies
address critical challenges, including labour shortages, the shift toward
outcome-based pricing and the growing complexity of managing outsourced design
units. This seed round helps us accelerate that mission.
The seed round follows a €3 million pre-seed completed
in May 2025 and will be used to support Endra’s next phase of growth, including
expanding into additional countries, serving customers across regions, and
progressing its product roadmap.
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18/12/2025 02:26 PM
Vibe-coding startup Lovable raises $330M at a $6.6B valuation
Lovable has raised $330 million in Series B funding at a $6.6 billion valuation, led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures' Anthology fund.
Additional investors in this round include the venture arms of leading companies building the future of work: NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), Salesforce Ventures, Databricks Ventures, T. Capital (Deutsche Telekom), Atlassian Ventures, and HubSpot Ventures.
They’re joined by Khosla Ventures, DST Global, EQT Growth, Kinship Ventures, and returning investors Accel, Creandum, and Evantic, among others.
According to a blog post published by the company, Lovable was launched to empower the 99 per cent — the people who've had ideas but lacked the technical skills to bring them to life.
In response a new category of people has emerged: builders.
“They're the product manager who wants to show, not just tell. The marketer with projects stuck in engineering backlogs. The ops team using outdated software for internal tooling. The nurse who sees a better way to visualise patient journeys. The artist in need of a website with an e-commerce platform integration—in time for the holidays. The founder turning a side hustle into the main thing. And they're building at a scale we never imagined:”
The company has experienced prolific user growth:
100,000+ new projects built on Lovable every day25 million+ total projects created in its first year
Half a billion visits to Lovable-built websites and apps in the last six months
6 million+ daily visits to Lovable-built sites and apps (200 million+ monthly)
What they're building
Lovable's product-building platform is used by large enterprises such as Klarna and Deutsche Telekom are already doing.
Deutsche Telekom uses Lovable for UI projects that require rapid stakeholder alignment and time-boxed decision-making. Teams build functional prototypes early, making value tangible and enabling faster, more confident decisions across large, multi-layered teams. This has reduced time-to-market and development cycles from weeks or months down to days.
According to Lovable, a leading ERP platform, replaced traditional specs and slide decks with working prototypes, compressing a project that once took four weeks and 20 people into a four-day sprint with a four-person team. The change has allowed the organisation to take on four times as many projects, with around 75 per cent of its front-end now generated directly through the platform.
A global ride-sharing and delivery platform cut design concept testing from six weeks to just five days, enabling non-UX staff to build end-to-end flow demos themselves. In one case, a product manager created a functional prototype in 30 minutes — work that previously would have taken three months.
Jorge Luthe, Senior Director of Product at Zendesk, shared:
"Thanks to Lovable’s rapid prototyping and real-time collaboration capabilities, we’ve dramatically streamlined our product development process.
What once took six weeks — from idea to working prototype — now takes just three hours. This shift has enabled our product management, UX, and engineering teams to collaborate faster and more effectively than ever before."
Shipping real products in production
Other examples of compelling usecases:
A nurse at one of the world's largest healthcare organisations built an app that visualises patient journeys — it's now included with every invoice as standard.
A global professional services firm moved from static decks to functional prototypes for competitive bids, targeting 50% efficiency gains and helping their team win more business.
A leading enterprise human capital management platform rebuilt their onboarding workflow tools in days rather than months, adding complex features like task tracking, progress monitoring, and AI assistance.
New startups emerging
Lovable has showcased some of the startups that have emerged from the use of its tech:
Henrik and Peter built Lumoo, an AI-powered fashion platform with virtual try-on — $800K ARR in nine months, serving 15+ of the largest fashion brands in the Nordics.
Allan built ShiftNex, a healthcare workforce staffing platform — $1M ARR in five months with 5,000+ healthcare users.
Jaleel and Hussein quit their jobs with 60 days to make money, built QuickTables on Lovable, and are now making over $100K/year.
Brickwise got into Y Combinator and secured $500K to help tenants and landlords solve property management issues — built on Lovable.
Q Group, a leading Brazilian edtech company, built a premium version of their platform in one month and generated $3M in revenue in 48 hours.
According to Lovable, the investment accelerates its work in three key areas:
Deeper integrations. Builders don't work in isolation. They use Notion for docs, Linear for tickets, Jira for sprints, Miro for brainstorms. Lovable already connects to these tools, and we're going deeper — so the context you've already built informs what you create next.
Enhanced collaboration and governance. As more teams adopt Lovable, they need the features enterprises expect. We're continuing to invest in making Lovable ready for organisations of every size.
Infrastructure to take products from prototype to production. Lovable isn't just for demos. With built-in hosting, databases, authentication, and payments, people ship real products — not just mockups. We're continuing to build out the capabilities that make this possible.
According to Laela Sturdy, Managing Partner at CapitalG:
"Lovable has done something rare: built a product that enterprises and founders both love. The demand we're seeing from Fortune 500 companies signals a fundamental shift in how software gets built."
Matt Murphy, Partner at Menlo Ventures, shared:
"Lovable is a beloved product for all the right reasons. They've done what was previously unimaginable by turning a latent market of tens of millions of people into web developers and content creators.
We love category builders like our previous early investments in Uber and Anthropic — companies that have the opportunity to be enormous. Lovable is showing exactly that trajectory. "
According to Lovable:
“This is the age of the builder. A seismic shift in what's possible. The story belongs to the teachers, product managers, founders, and dreamers who now have the tools to bring their ideas to life. “
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Swedish startup TrialMe is fixing the data gap that keeps women out of clinical trials
For decades, modern medicine was built on male biology as the default and female biology as a deviation, a problem rooted in the long-standing exclusion of women from medical research.
Now, a Swedish startup is here to change all this.
TrialMe is a platform designed to make participation in clinical trials accessible, transparent, and less intimidating — particularly for women, who have historically had very poor experiences with medical research.
The platform is the brainchild of Hanna Kalesse, who I spoke with at Slush.
“It completely knocked me out for nine months”
Kalesse is a medical chemist, so she’s been aware of the gender health gap for a long time.
“It’s something we learn during our studies. But what really pushed me to act was experiencing it personally.”
Kalesse was prescribed medication that she was told would take about two weeks to adjust to, after which she could continue studying and working as normal.
Instead, she shared, “It completely knocked me out for nine months. I couldn’t ride a bike, couldn’t read, and couldn’t even have proper conversations. It turned my life upside down.”
It all started with a hackathon
Around this time, there was a women’s health hackathon at Skå Science Park. Her best friend wanted to participate but didn’t have a concrete idea. Kalesse told her: "I know a problem, and I have an idea."
“We joined together, placed in the top three, and Diana from Amazing Ventures encouraged us to turn it into a real company. That was the starting point for TrialMe.”
Why underrepresentation distorts diagnosis, dosing, and care
The exclusion of women from drug trials and medical research has a significant impact on the evidence for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of health conditions, especially those that disproportionately affect women, from autoimmune diseases and migraine to chronic pain and mental health disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, and cardiovascular disease.
Despite their prevalence and burden, these conditions frequently lack robust, sex-stratified clinical data, leaving critical gaps in how they are diagnosed, assessed, and treated.
When differences in women’s biology, hormones, and risk profiles are not factored in, critical variations in diagnosis, symptom presentation, treatment, and optimal dosing go unrecognised. The result is higher rates of misdiagnosis, suboptimal care, and adverse drug reactions among women.
The exclusion of childbearing age women a barrier to women's health research
One of the biggest problems is the exclusion of women of childbearing age from research, a sizable percentage of the population. How reproductive-age policies still sideline women in clinical trials
Historically, women of reproductive age were routinely excluded from trials due to concerns about fetal risk and assumptions that hormonal cycles made women “too complex” to study.
According to Kalesse, in Spain, for example, women of childbearing age are broadly excluded from clinical trials. In Sweden, where we’re starting, the approach is different.
“Here, participation is possible with safeguards — for example, pregnancy testing at each visit or using birth control. In my case, birth control wasn’t an option due to severe side effects, so instead I had to clearly state that I would do my best not to become pregnant and undergo regular pregnancy tests.
The blanket exclusion of women “just in case” remains a major barrier to building accurate medical evidence.”
Regulation is still catching up
Shockingly, it wasn't until 1993 that federal legislation mandated the inclusion of women and minorities in all NIH-sponsored clinical research, and that study designs allow analysis of sex-based differences. However, this does not apply to any research with other sponsors.
It wasn’t until 2022 in Europe — you read the right — that the EU Clinical Trials Regulation was amended to explicitly require trial populations to reflect the demographics of those likely to use the medication, including gender balance, “unless otherwise justified in the protocol.”
Sponsors must justify any lack of representation and can no longer omit women (or other demographic groups) without a scientific or ethical rationale.
That said, they can still claim they were unable to recruit an equal percentage of female trial participants to men.
The hidden cost of recruitment
Recruitment is one of the biggest bottlenecks in clinical research – around 80 per cent of trials fail to recruit on time. Recruitment typically accounts for around 40 per cent of a clinical trial’s total cost.
A considerable amount of that budget is wasted on inefficient screening — hundreds of phone calls to end up with a handful of eligible participants.
Initially, TrialMe reaches out directly to research organisations and trial sponsors.
Kalesse explained that if sponsors know they can access a verified, engaged community of women through TrialMe, they can significantly shorten recruitment timelines.
"Once we prove this through pilot studies, sponsors will increasingly come to us. Many women are still afraid of clinical trials, and that fear is rooted in real history.
My role is focused on education and trust-building: explaining what the gender health gap is, how it affects us, and what clinical trials actually look like in practice.”
Testing the system from the inside
To increase transparency, Kalesse is personally participating in a documented clinical trial, "so women can see what the process really involves — not just the theory.”She searched for a clinical trial for a medication she knew — as a chemist — would likely suit her better.
“It was almost impossible,” she revealed.
"“Websites were outdated, trials weren’t recruiting anymore, and many never replied at all. Eventually, I did find a trial, but it took an enormous amount of energy at a time when I was already unwell.
That frustration became core market research for TrialMe.”
The TrialMe mobile app is designed to be extremely simple. Instead of browsing endless listings or swiping like a dating app, users receive notifications when a clinical trial is suitable for them.
“The idea is to remove friction,” shared Kalesse.
“Women already carry a lot of cognitive and emotional load — participating in research shouldn’t add more.” TrialMe digitises pre-screening through the app, filtering out ineligible participants early. We don’t touch participant compensation — we make recruitment dramatically more efficient. That helps trials run faster, reduces costs, and ultimately brings safer, better-tested treatments to market sooner."
Through TrialMe, participants can earn points in exchange for things like gym memberships or therapy sessions. Even without points, participants gain early access to new women’s health products and discounts.
Why one dose doesn’t fit every date
TrialMe’s first pilots focus on menstrual cycles and medication interactions. According to Kalesse, there’s growing evidence that medication effects and side effects correlate with different phases of the menstrual cycle — but inadequate research.
“We’re starting with depression and anxiety medications, which are already known for having side effects linked to hormonal changes.
In my own case, antidepressants dramatically intensified my menstrual symptoms, including severe suicidal ideation just before menstruation. In an ideal world, this could lead to phase-specific dosing — adjusting medication depending on where someone is in their cycle. If the correlation is real, it would mean that many existing drugs need to be re-evaluated.”
From at-home diagnostics to digital health
However, Trialme is not only about drug trials. Many health products and services — including digital health tools — require testing, and women should be represented there too. For example, according to Kalesse, at-home endometriosis tests or at-home mammography tools still need validation.
“TrialMe allows women to discover and test these products, which are often hard to find once they reach the market because they come from small companies.”
TrialMe is looking global. Women aren’t the only underrepresented group in research — many minorities are systematically excluded.
"If we want medical evidence that actually reflects real populations, we can’t limit ourselves to Europe. That said, we’re starting with smaller countries to get the model right before expanding internationally,” explained Kalesse.
Clinical trials aren’t only for the ill
Further, clinical trials aren’t only for people who are ill. Healthy volunteers are just as important — especially when testing new health products and services.
“Most importantly, participation helps close the gender health gap. This isn’t a question of whether it should be solved — it’s a question of who will solve it first. And we believe TrialMe can lead that change.”
TrialMe recently won a global pitch competition organised by Tesla Ventures ahead of Web Summit. As a result, its been invited to Ireland for a one-week programme and received a year-long mentorship — led by women. Its also currently part of two incubator programmes supporting its early growth.
For decades, women were missing from the data that shapes modern medicine. TrialMe is betting that rebuilding clinical research around real populations — not theoretical defaults — is how that gap finally closes.
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18/12/2025 12:02 PM
Swiss BioTech FoRx Therapeutics closes €42 million for next-generation DNA repair cancer therapy
Basel-based FoRx Therapeutics, a clinical-stage BioTech company developing precision anti-cancer therapeutics, today announced the close of an insider-led €42 million ($50 million) Series A financing.
Existing investors including EQT Life Sciences, Pfizer Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund and M Ventures participated in the financing including a first closing in June 2024, which provided funding through the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for FORX-428 and the initiation of the Phase 1 trial.
Tarig Bashir, CEO of FoRx Therapeutics, says: “The FoRx team is proud to have earned the continued trust and conviction of this sophisticated syndicate of leading strategic and specialist investors. The funds from this investment will allow us to achieve initial clinical readout in our ongoing Phase 1 trial of FORX-428, which has shown very strong anti-tumor efficacy in multiple preclinical in vitro and in vivo tumor models.”
In the context of European oncology and adjacent BioTech funding in 2025, FoRx Therapeutics’ Series A sits alongside a steady flow of capital into companies advancing novel cancer mechanisms and platforms.
Hedera Dx, also based in Switzerland, raised €15 million to expand access to modern, targeted cancer care, underlining continued domestic momentum in the sector. Elsewhere, Highlight Therapeutics secured €15 million in Spain to progress immuno-oncology treatments for skin tumours, while T-Therapeutics raised €27.5 million in the UK to develop immune-based therapeutic approaches.
Larger later-stage rounds included Adcytherix in France, which closed a €105 million financing to advance antibody–drug conjugates, and Artios Pharma, which raised €99 million to expand its precision oncology pipeline.
Taken together, these rounds represent roughly €306 million of disclosed funding in 2025 across oncology-focused European BioTechs, positioning FoRx’s financing within a broader pattern of sustained investment into companies targeting differentiated cancer biology, from DNA damage response pathways to immuno-oncology and targeted delivery platforms.
“We are looking forward to reinforcing its best-in-class PARG inhibitor characteristics and potential to make a significant difference to patients, with initial clinical data expected in mid-2026,” adds Bashir.
Founded in 2019, FoRx Therapeutics is a privately held clinical-stage BioTech company innovating precision therapeutics targeting the DNA Damage Response in treatment-resistant cancers.
The funding will be used to advance Phase 1 clinical development of its lead drug candidate, FORX-428, a potential best-in-class PARG (poly (ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase) inhibitor designed to target and disrupt the DNA Damage Response (DDR) in advanced solid tumors.
The company explains that the discovery that distinct genetic subsets of cancer are exceptionally vulnerable to drugs that interfere with the DNA Damage Response (DDR) led to the approval of PARP inhibitors more than 10 years ago, transforming cancer treatment.
FoRx is pursuing a next-generation DDR target, PARG, which shows significant potential as a new treatment for patients whose cancers are resistant to, or have become resistant to, PARP inhibitors.
Vincent Brichard (EQT Life Sciences), Board member at FoRx Therapeutics, says: “Advances in PARG inhibition hold significant potential as a therapeutic strategy in Oncology. Our syndicate’s continued support of FoRx reflects our confidence in both, the lead candidate FORX-428, and the strong progress achieved by its experienced management team.”
FoRx’s ongoing first-in-human Phase 1study of FORX-428, a novel PARG inhibitor targeting the DDR in advanced solid tumors is progressing as planned, with initial data readout expected by mid-2026.
The open-label study, which began recruitment in August 2025 in the United States, is evaluating safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary efficacy in patients with advanced solid tumors who have exhausted standard-of-care options.
FORX-428 is a proprietary, orally available small molecule inhibitor of poly (ADP-ribose) glycohydrolase (PARG). PARG is a DNA repair enzyme considered important for the survival of certain genetically defined cancers with specific DDR deficiencies or high replication stress.
In preclinical studies, FORX-428 reportedly demonstrated robust anti-tumour activity across multiple solid tumour types underscoring the novel compound’s outstanding potential in both monotherapy and combination settings.
Modern AI
training increasingly depends on faster connections between GPUs, yet many
systems still rely on copper links constrained by bandwidth and power
consumption. As AI clusters and data centres scale, these limitations are
becoming more pronounced.
Enlightra’s
approach uses multiwavelength lasers that consolidate many discrete lasers into
a single integrated source, reducing power use, cost, and physical footprint.
Each wavelength functions as an independent data channel, enabling multiple
high-bandwidth connections from one laser source and supporting a shift from
copper wiring to compact optical links.
The world’s
AI infrastructure is hitting the limits of copper. Our lasers unlock a new
level of energy-efficient connectivity by turning light into the backbone of
GPU communication,
said Maxim Karpov, co-founder and co-CEO of Enlightra.
Using
additional wavelengths allows optical fibre networks to operate closer to their
full capacity, co-founder and co-CEO John Jost explained.
Our technology
enables AI clusters and data centres to scale more efficiently by decoupling
performance growth from energy and cost increases.
Built using
industry-standard silicon photonics fabrication processes, the lasers are
designed for large-scale manufacturing, enabling production at volumes suitable
for global data centre deployment. The company has developed 8- and 16-channel
lasers aligned with customer requirements for AI chip interconnects and reports
error-free data transmission at target speeds and power levels. Pilot
production is planned for 2027.
The
company’s vision extends beyond AI clusters. Its scalable comb-laser platform
could power future optical links across entire data centres, subsea cables, and
even chip-to-memory interconnects, with potential applications in quantum and
space-based communications.
The funding will support Enlightra’s next steps to
improve data-transfer speed and energy efficiency for AI infrastructure.
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Exein raises an additional €100M to expand its embedded cybersecurity platform
Italian-based Exein, a company focused on embedded cybersecurity for connected devices, has secured €100 million in new funding,
following its €70 million Series C round in July 2025. This brings the
company’s total capital raised in 2025 to €170 million. The round is led by
Blue Cloud Ventures, with participation from HV Capital, Intrepid Growth Partners, Geodesic Capital, and J.P. Morgan.
The €100 million comprises an
equity investment alongside a financing facility led by J.P. Morgan.
As cyberattacks increasingly affect physical
infrastructure, disrupting hospitals and airports, interrupting transport
systems, and compromising supply chains, manufacturers are placing greater
emphasis on security embedded directly into devices, rather than relying
primarily on perimeter-based defences.
Exein’s platform integrates AI-enabled runtime
security into firmware, enabling connected devices to detect, contain, and
respond to threats in real time, including in environments where continuous
connectivity is not available. This approach can support integrity and
provenance checks across supply chains and help organisations meet requirements
under frameworks such as RED 3.3, the forthcoming EU Cyber Resilience Act, and
the US Cyber Trust Mark.
The company says its embedded, hardware-agnostic
platform currently protects more than 1.5 billion devices across sectors, including energy, healthcare, defence, automotive, aerospace, industrial
automation, semiconductors, and robotics.
Exein expects the number of devices
running its software to exceed two billion in the first quarter of 2026, driven
by new deployments, growth in active devices, and increasing regulatory focus
on device-level security.
Commenting on the product roadmap, Gianni Cuozzo,
Founder & CEO of Exein, said:
We’ll unveil the first
wave of this breakthrough at RSAC in Q1, as we continue building the digital
immune system that will protect the connected world for years to come.
Exein plans to use the new funding to develop its
next generation of embedded runtime security technology for connected devices,
including AI-enabled protections for on-device AI and large language models,
with an initial release expected to be presented at RSAC 2026.
The company also
intends to support a multi-transaction M&A programme in 2026 across Europe
and the United States, and to accelerate international expansion, with a
particular focus on the US and APAC markets.
The company’s
valuation increased significantly in the five months between the July
fundraising round and this extension, reflecting changes in its commercial
position and broader demand for device-level cybersecurity.
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EU-Startups Podcast | Episode 149: Special episode with host Marcin Lewadowski
After more than two years, over one hundred episodes, and countless insightful conversations, the EU-Startups Podcast is marking a new milestone.
Our final episode of the year is also a special one – it marks the last episode hosted by Marcin Lewandowski, who has been the voice behind the mic for the past two years. In an unconventional and fittingly energetic farewell, we flipped the script: I, David Cendón Garcia, the News Editor at EU-Startups, interviewed Marcin on the padel court, live and in one take.
And yes, we played while recording.
This is not just a farewell – it’s a handover. From this episode onwards, I’ll be taking over the hosting duties of the EU-Startups Podcast. It’s an honour and a challenge I’m excited to embrace, especially after seeing firsthand the impact and value this podcast has brought to the European startup ecosystem.
Marcin’s journey into podcasting wasn’t a conventional one. His passion for storytelling and connecting with people was rooted in his early years in Poland, where he helped out in his father’s business – a company specialising in windows, doors, and technical components. From a young age, he supported operations in various ways, sometimes even unloading materials when shipments arrived. Working alongside his father and observing the entrepreneurial grind up close, planted the seeds of curiosity and drive that would later shape his global path through startups, storytelling, and eventually the mic.
That passion later took him across 50 countries, through various startups – including his own – and eventually to podcasting with a mission: to spotlight real, inspiring stories of founders and investors across Europe.
“I wanted to make it fun and personal and tell great stories of people from different backgrounds who became venture capital investors or startup founders,” said Lewandowski.
Before joining EU-Startups, Marcin had already launched his own show, TurnedVC. He was unsure whether a Zoom-based podcast format would bring the same energy, but quickly found that great conversations come from great people – not the medium.
“It turned out to be all about the people. If you meet on a weekly basis people who build something amazing and who you can learn so much from, you’re going to get excited – no matter how you meet them,” he noted.
Over the course of 100+ episodes, Marcin spoke with some of the most inspiring figures in tech and venture, including Guy Kawasaki, Steve Chen, and Jacqueline van den Ende.
“It’s hard to choose … but I think you become the sum of the people you meet. This has been an amazing opportunity to meet over 100 incredible people I could learn from and who, in a way, became part of me,” he reflected.
While many of the interviews were done from the studio or over Zoom, behind-the-scenes logistics could get intense – especially with TurnVC. One episode had Marcin and his cameraman Max flying from Barcelona to London at 6:30 a.m., filming in four different locations, and returning home by 2:30 a.m. the next morning, just in time to keep a promise to his daughter.
“She was missing me a lot when I was away filming. So I’d always promise her I’d be back to put her to bed – and bring her something from the trip,” he said.
Now, with the mic passed over, Marcin is diving into new ventures. One of them, Founders to Be, is a fresh initiative to bring Europe’s top founders back to their universities to share their journeys and mentor the next generation of entrepreneurs.
“I want to help entrepreneurs build a happier and more sustainable future that my daughter will be excited to live in,” he shared.
From all of us at EU-Startups, thank you, Marcin. You’ve built more than a podcast – you’ve built a platform and a community. And as for what’s next? Well, I’ll do my best to carry the torch forward with the same curiosity, warmth, and commitment to great conversations that made your tenure so memorable.
Subscribe to the EU-Startups Podcast if you haven’t already – and catch this final episode with Marcin to get an honest, fun, and heartfelt look behind the scenes of one of Europe’s most beloved startup podcasts.
Video version of episode 148:
Audio version of episode 148:
Key Takeaways:
→ Marcin’s story and how it all started
→ the conversations that made the biggest impact
→ the toughest moments
→ favorite guests + lessons learned
→ and what’s next
This episode of the EU-Startups Podcast is brought to you by Vanta. The trust management platform helps more than 12k companies, including Nando’s, Allica Bank and Granola, start and scale their security programmes while building trust with buyers. It saves security teams time and improves programme visibility by automating over 35 compliance frameworks, such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001, as well as GRC workflows like risk management. Click here to learn more!
In the first half of 2025, European deeptech is
characterised by a strong emphasis on engineering, a focus on climate and
industrial applications, and an increasing concentration on hardware-based
solutions. The landscape is dominated by technologies that require long R&D
cycles, specialised talent, and close ties to labs, pilot customers, and
regulated markets, yet many ventures are clearly moving from prototype into
industrialisation and early-scale deployment.
A lot of effort is going into making core systems cleaner
and more efficient, like energy, materials, and infrastructure that sit
underneath everything else. At the same time, there is a growing focus on
technologies that improve how industrial systems are monitored and managed,
enabling organisations to gain clearer visibility into complex operations,
identify issues earlier, and improve performance in reliability-critical
environments.
The following are the ten largest funding rounds in the
European deeptech industry during the first half of 2025.
Amount raised in H1 2025: €50M
Marvel Fusion is a company focused on developing commercially viable fusion power systems.
Founded in 2019, the company is pioneering a laser-driven approach to nuclear fusion that aims to deliver safe, reliable, and low-carbon energy at scale. Its technology combines intense, short-pulse lasers with advanced fuel targets to initiate fusion reactions, seeking a pathway to compact and efficient fusion power plants.
Marvel Fusion collaborates with industrial and research partners as it works toward building the first generation of fusion energy facilities, positioning itself as a leader in the emerging private fusion energy sector.
In March, Marvel Fusion secured a €50 million extension to its Series B round, bringing total funding in the round to €113 million, as the company moves from research and development toward industrial deployment.
Amount raised in H1 2025: €36M
H2SITE is developing advanced solutions to enable the sustainable production and transport of high-purity hydrogen.
The company’s proprietary membrane reactor and separator technology uses highly selective palladium-alloy membranes to extract and purify hydrogen from a range of feedstocks, including ammonia, methanol, syngas, and biogas, as well as from mixed gas streams.
Founded in Bilbao in 2020 as a deep-tech spin-off, H2SITE’s innovations are designed to address key challenges in the hydrogen value chain by making hydrogen more accessible and cost-effective for a range of uses.
In January, H2SITE raised €36 million to support the next phase of development of the company’s hydrogen technology, including plans to increase purification capacity to more than 20 tons per day by 2026.
Amount raised in H1 2025: £17M
Intelligent Energy is a hydrogen fuel cell manufacturer that develops and produces proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell power systems.
The company offers zero-emission fuel cell products ranging from approximately 800W to over 300kW for various applications, including automotive, aerospace, stationary power, telecommunications, marine, rail, unmanned aerial vehicles, and materials handling.
Headquartered and manufacturing in the UK, Intelligent Energy works with partners and customers globally to support the deployment of hydrogen-powered solutions.
Intelligent Energy received £17 million in government-backed funding in June.
Amount raised in H1 2025: €18M
KEEY Aerogel is a materials company founded in 2015 that develops and manufactures aerogel-based thermal insulation solutions.
The company produces sustainable silica aerogel using a patented process that upcycles construction waste, positioning its material as a local, competitive alternative to conventional insulation products.
KEEY Aerogel also provides R&D support and scale-up services to adapt and industrialise aerogel products for customer needs, with a stated goal of building a network of local production facilities in Europe.
In January, Keey Aerogel raised €18 million in Series A to scale Europe’s first green aerogel.
Amount raised in H1 2025: €17.5M
SemiQon is a quantum hardware company developing silicon-based quantum processors designed to support the scale-up of quantum computers toward the “million-qubit era.”
The company builds quantum integrated circuits using standard semiconductor materials and manufacturing methods to improve scalability, cost efficiency, and sustainability.
In addition to quantum processors, SemiQon develops cryogenic CMOS (cryo-CMOS) chips for next-generation technologies that require reliable performance at very low temperatures.
SemiQon raised €17.5 million in funding in February to boost its cryogenic CMOS technology.
Amount raised in H1 2025: $17M
Chipiron is a French medical imaging company developing an ultra-low-field, portable MRI system designed to make MRI more accessible and easier to deploy.
The company’s approach uses very low magnetic fields and aims to reduce the size, cost, and infrastructure requirements of conventional MRI, while targeting diagnostic-quality imaging for broader screening and clinical use.
In April, Chipiron raised $17 million in a Series A round to complete the development of its compact and lower-cost MRI system.
Amount raised in H1 2025: $15M
ATLANT 3D is a deeptech advanced manufacturing company developing atomic-scale fabrication technologies for microelectronics, optics, photonics, sensors, and other high-precision industries.
Its proprietary Direct Atomic Layer Processing (DALP) platform enables atomically precise material deposition and patterning, supporting rapid innovation across the full value chain from materials R&D and prototyping to scalable production of micro- and nano-devices.
ATLANT 3D’s tools and services aim to reduce design iteration time, lower costs, and expand manufacturing capabilities for complex applications, while maintaining compatibility with semiconductor industry standards.
In March, ATLANT 3D secured $15 million for space manufacturing, with support from NASA and ESA.
Amount raised in H1 2025: $13.5M
Lidrotec is a laser systems company focused on high-precision wafer dicing and micromaterial processing for the semiconductor industry.
Its technology combines ultrashort-pulse laser processing with controlled fluids to cool and clean the cutting zone, aiming to reduce heat damage, particle defects, and material waste while improving yield and cut quality.
The company develops equipment for cutting and structuring microchips and other high-tech components, with applications also extending to areas such as electronics, energy, and medical technology.
In June, Lidrotec raised $13.5 million to tackle semiconductor yield bottlenecks.
Amount raised in H1 2025: €8.5M
FononTech is an advanced manufacturing company developing Impulse Printing, an additive manufacturing technology designed for high-volume assembly of complex 2D and 3D microelectronic structures used in semiconductor and display manufacturing.
The company’s core products (including an impulse printhead and plate system) are built for integration into production environments and aim to enable smaller, higher-performance electronics while reducing material waste, energy use, and the overall manufacturing footprint.
In May, FononTech raised €8.5 million to finalise the development of its first product and accelerate customer acquisition efforts.
Amount raised in H1 2025: €6M
Axiles Bionics is a company that designs and develops next-generation bionic prosthetics for lower-limb amputees.
The company focuses on intelligent ankle-foot prostheses that aim to better replicate natural movement by combining biomechanics with technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence to support improved mobility and comfort in everyday use.
In June, Axiles Bionics closed the first €6 million of its €8 million Series A round to globalise its biomimetic prosthetic foot.
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Destinus raises €50M facility to expand autonomous flight production
Dutch aerospace and defencetech company Destinus has secured a €50 million financing facility from Commerzbank, marking the company’s first commercial bank facility and supporting the next phase of its industrial expansion across Europe.
The Commerzbank facility complements €140 million in recently completed convertible instruments and shareholder loans, following the company’s earlier equity financing.
Together, these new financings build on more than €200 million in previously raised equity, bringing Destinus’ total capital raised to nearly €400 million to date.
Check out an earlier interview we did with Martina Lofqvist, Senior Business Development Manager at Destinus.
From fast hypersonic flight to dual-use tech
When Destinus launched in 2021, it captured my attention with a highly ambitious vision: hydrogen-powered hypersonic aircraft capable of flying at Mach 5+, potentially cutting intercontinental journeys such as Europe to Australia from around 20 hours to four.
Early experimental aircraft, including the Jungfrau and Eiger demonstrators, were explicitly designed to test aerodynamics, propulsion concepts, and materials for a future hypersonic “hyperplane,” positioning Destinus as one of Europe’s boldest bets on green, ultra-high-speed aviation.
Over the past two years, however, the company has recalibrated toward more immediate and commercially viable opportunities. Rather than prioritising a full-scale hypersonic passenger aircraft, Destinus has shifted its centre of gravity to near-term, dual-use aerospace technologies, particularly autonomous and uncrewed systems. Its current portfolio includes UAV platforms such as LORD, RUTA, and Hornet, aimed at surveillance, mapping, rapid response, and defence applications.
This strategic refocus was reinforced in 2025 with the acquisition of Swiss AI avionics specialist Daedalean in a deal reported at around $220–225 million, signalling that Destinus now sees its competitive edge less in raw speed and more in AI-driven autonomy and deployable systems — especially in defence and security markets where demand and timelines are clearer.
Destinus is strengthening its role within the Dutch and broader European defence industrial base. With 750 engineers and specialists across Europe, the company combines AI-driven engineering, vertical integration, and large-scale production to design and manufacture autonomous systems and effectors at an industrial scale.
“Securing this facility is an important milestone for Destinus and a strong signal of confidence in Europe’s ability to build high-performance autonomous flight systems at scale. It reinforces our production roadmap and accelerates the industrialisation of our platforms for European and allied customers,” said Mikhail Kokorich, Founder and CEO of Destinus.
The new capital will accelerate the expansion of Destinus’ production lines, integration facilities, and testing infrastructure, enabling the company to supply scalable, cost-efficient autonomous systems that reinforce European defence readiness and strengthen sovereign industrial capacity across allied nations.
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ÄIO wins €1.2M grant to scale fermentation-based flavoured fats for food
Tallinn-based ÄIO, a biotechnology company developing
sustainable, non-animal fats and oils through fermentation, has been awarded a
€1.2 million grant from Enterprise Estonia to advance its FERM-OIL project. The
total project budget is €2.3 million.
Founded in 2022 as a spin-off from TalTech (Tallinn
University of Technology), ÄIO produces food-grade fats and oils by using
specialised yeast to convert wood and agricultural by-products, such as sugars
derived from sawdust. The approach is designed to reduce reliance on animal
fats and palm oil through a faster, lower-impact production process.
To date, the company has raised €6.8 million in seed
funding and secured around €3 million in grants from Enterprise Estonia, the
Environmental Investment Centre, and the EU CBE-JU programme.
While alternative and plant-based proteins have seen rapid
progress, the food industry continues to face a shortage of sustainable lipid
ingredients that complement these products. Many early-stage lipid alternatives
struggle to scale or meet industrial and regulatory requirements. FERM-OIL aims
to address this gap by supporting the transition from laboratory development to
industrial food production.
As explained by Dr Mary-Liis Kütt, ÄIO’s Chief Innovation
Officer and lead of the project, FERM-OIL focuses on one of the most
challenging steps in food innovation: moving from lab-scale validation to
factory-scale manufacturing.
We already know that our Flavoured
Fat performs well in prototypes, from replacing cocoa powder and brown sugar to
adding a silky texture to broths and sauces. This project allows
us to validate the process on industrial lines, generate robust safety data for
the novel food dossier, and better understand consumer responses to these new
lipid ingredients.
Over the next three years, the project will advance ÄIO’s
Flavoured Fat, a lipid-rich yeast biomass designed to deliver umami flavour and
functional mouthfeel, from lab and pilot stages to validated industrial
production. The work will include optimising the fermentation process,
validating second-generation feedstocks sourced from food, forestry, and
agricultural side-streams, and transferring production to an industrial
contract manufacturing facility. Test batches will be used for downstream
processing optimisation, quality and shelf-life studies, and novel food safety
assessment.
By the end of the project, ÄIO aims to reach TRL6,
demonstrating readiness for industrial-scale production. This will include
confirming process requirements at scale and completing the safety work needed
to submit a novel food dossier to the European Commission. The project is also
expected to support follow-on investment plans for a 4,000-tonne-per-year
production facility and potential large-scale licensing agreements.
Fermentation gives us a way to turn side-streams into
stable, nutritious, functional lipids that are not dependent on climate,
seasons, or fragile global supply chains. This grant allows us to demonstrate
that our process can operate at industrial scale and that novel lipids can
become a reliable part of future food systems,
Within FERM-OIL, ÄIO will also evaluate Flavoured Fat
across savoury, bakery, and beverage applications, working with potential
customers to assess performance in their processes and gather feedback on
taste, texture, and consumer acceptance. The broader aim is to enable local
production of key lipid ingredients using manufacturers’ own side-streams,
reducing dependence on animal fats and land-intensive tropical oils.
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UK longevity startup GlycanAge raises €7.4 million to bring glycan-based ageing diagnostics into mainstream healthcare
UK-based longevity startup GlycanAge has raised €7.4 million ($8.7 million) in fresh funding to accelerate the clinical development of its technology and expand access to glycan testing for clinicians worldwide.
The round was led by Fifth Quarter Ventures, with participation from Guinness Ventures, BrightCap Ventures, South Central Ventures, Impetus Capital, Vesna Deep Tech VC, and Lightfield Equity. The round was also joined on a pro rata basis by existing backers, including LaunchHub Ventures and Kadmos Capital, among others.
“Our goal is to make glycan testing part of standard preventive diagnostics, where everyone over the age of 30 can access it through their healthcare provider,” said Prof Gordan Lauc, co-founder and chief scientific officer of GlycanAge.
In 2024, the company raised €3.9 million seed funding round, led by LAUNCHub Ventures and UK-based deep-tech fund Kadmos Capital.
England-based GlycanAge was co-founded in 2020 by father-and-daughter duo Prof Lauc and Nikolina Lauc with a mission to make personalised, preventative healthcare a reality. Its work is centred around glycans, which are complex sugars and are one of life’s four crucial building blocks, alongside proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. They coat every cell surface and are attached to over half of all human proteins, regulating immunity, cell signalling, and development.
The company specialises in interpreting these glycan signals, particularly those linked to chronic inflammation, a fundamental driver of the ageing process. Its analysis claims to provide a detailed assessment of an individual’s biological age, offering insights into how lifestyle choices, inflammation, and environmental factors influence ageing over time. Its flagship biomarker is an “inflammaging” clock based on IgG glycosylation.
With this new capital, GlycanAge plans to advance the development of its key clinical applications, including tools focused on stress and resilience, cardiometabolic health, weight management and hormones. It aims to package them into indication-specific products for practitioners.
“In parallel, the company plans to validate selected diagnostic indications and develop its first lab-developed tests (LDTs) for use in hospital and reference laboratory settings. This roadmap is underpinned by research collaborations with leading institutes worldwide, among which Northwestern University Hospital and Mayo Clinic,” the company mentioned in the press release.
St Catherine Specialty Hospital in Zagreb has become the company’s first pilot partner, as it advances the adoption of glycan testing within hospital settings. GlycanAge plans to deploy its technology into more than 10 hospitals across Europe and the Middle East in the next year.
The company has also partnered with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), which will host GlycanAge’s first laboratory in Saudi Arabia. The facility is set to serve as a central hub for glycan testing and method transfer across hospital and laboratory networks in the Kingdom.
Exein, a Rome-based innovator in embedded cybersecurity for connected devices, today announced €100 million in new funding in order to accelerate product development and international expansion – bringing its total raised in 2025 to €170 million.
The round is led by Blue Cloud Ventures, with participation from HV Capital, Intrepid Growth Partners, Geodesic Capital, and J.P. Morgan.
Gianni Cuozzo, founder and CEO, Exein, says: “This round demonstrates just how rapidly Exein is growing. In just one year, we’ve become a truly global company, expanding across the US and Asia-Pacific, and emerged as the world’s largest embedded runtime security provider by devices protected.”
In the context of cybersecurity and adjacent security technologies, Exein’s extension round stands out markedly in terms of scale. Most funding announcements this year in the sector have been early-stage and significantly smaller.
These include XFA in Antwerp, which raised €1.5 million to address emerging workplace cybersecurity risks; Equixly in Verona, which secured a €10 million Series A to scale its AI-driven API security testing platform – notably placing another Italian company in the broader cybersecurity landscape; and Paris-based Evertrust, which also raised €10 million to expand its digital trust and PKI offering.
At the earlier end of the spectrum, Zurich-based Soverli (€2.2 million pre-Seed), Ireland’s Mirror Security (€2.1 million pre-Seed), and Lithuanian startup CBRX (€540k pre-Seed) reflect continued investor interest in specialised security niches such as sovereign mobile security, encrypted AI, and cloud-based cyber tooling.
Taken together, these rounds account for approximately €28 million of disclosed funding in 2025, excluding Exein itself.
Against this backdrop – and following its already EU-Startups-covered €70 million Series C in July 2025 – Exein’s latest raise positions it at the very top of the funding distribution for European cybersecurity this year.
“This new funding allows us to accelerate even faster in 2026 and to support our M&A strategy as we scale into new markets. It will also enable us to introduce the next generation of runtime security technology, probably the most significant advance in our field in almost a decade. We’ll unveil the first wave of this breakthrough at RSAC in Q1, as we continue building the digital immune system that will protect the connected world for years to come,” adds Cuozzo.
Founded in 2018, Exein provides AI-powered runtime protection directly inside device software, securing more than 1.5 billion devices across critical sectors including industrial automation, automotive, energy, healthcare, semiconductors, aerospace and robotics.
Exein’s growth reflects both the mounting threat to global businesses and organisations from cyber attacks and a shift to secure connected devices at the source, rather than through conventional perimeter defences.
Within the first quarter of 2026, the number of devices running Exein software is expected to surpass two billion, as Exein rolls out new technology, the number of active devices rises and regulatory pressure for device-level security increases.
Rami Rahal, Founder and Managing Partner at Blue Cloud Ventures, says: “Connected devices are now the largest and least protected attack surface in the world. Exein’s mission is a vital one, and its solution – to place intelligent, real-time defence inside the device itself – is exactly what the market needs as cyberattacks increasingly spill into the physical world. We’re proud to back Exein as it builds the digital immune system for the next decade of global infrastructure.”
Exein will deploy the capital to:
Advance a new generation of embedded runtime security technology for connected devices, including AI-driven protection for on-device AI and large language models (LLMs), with the first wave of this breakthrough to be unveiled at RSAC 2026.
Support a multi-deal M&A programme in 2026 in Europe and the US
Accelerate international expansion, particularly in the US and APAC markets
As cyberattacks increasingly target the physical world, shutting down hospitals, and airports, disrupting transport systems, and compromising supply chains, the company explains that manufacturers are moving away from traditional perimeter defences and towards protection embedded directly in the device.
Exein’s platform places AI-powered runtime security inside the firmware itself, enabling devices to detect, contain and respond to threats in real time, even without continuous connectivity.
This model looks to give manufacturers deeper integrity and provenance checks across their entire supply chain, while ensuring compliance with global cybersecurity regulations such as RED 3.3, the forthcoming EU Cyber Resilience Act, and the US Cyber Trust Mark.
Max Hauer, Innovation Economy Banking at J.P. Morgan, says: “Securing the world’s connected devices is becoming essential to the resilience of modern infrastructure. Exein is playing a pivotal role in this, and we are pleased to support the company as it enters its next phase of global growth.”
The latest funding follows Exein’s €70 million Series C in July 2025, which enabled the company to accelerate its expansion across North America and Asia-Pacific, including the opening of a new Taipei office early next year.
This year, Exein has delivered 5x YoY revenue growth, expanded its customer footprint across critical infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, and made partnerships with leading manufacturers and chipset providers, including Kontron and Mediatek.
The company’s valuation has nearly doubled in the five months between the July fundraise and this extension, highlighting both commercial performance and surging demand for device-level cybersecurity.
Brussels e-bike company Cowboy has officially closed its deal with ReBirth Group Holding SA — the French mobility group behind renowned cycling brands including Peugeot, Gitane, and Solex.
This agreement signals a significant new phase for Cowboy, bringing together the company’s design, software, and product expertise with ReBirth’s robust industrial and recapitalisation capabilities.
ReBirth’s proven experience in supporting and scaling mobility brands gives Cowboy the new operational foundation it needs to stabilise production, increase delivery reliability, and move toward long-term sustainability.
The combined transaction, including new capital from ReBirth and reinvestment from existing shareholders (€15 million) for a majority stake in the company. In addition to the conversion of legacy obligations into equity, are new financial measures designed to stabilise and strengthen Cowboy for the long term.
The transaction includes a full financial restructuring with Cowboy’s primary lender, providing a stronger balance sheet and a clean slate. New funding will be received in several stages and is primarily dedicated to supporting the restart of the production and delivery of spare parts.
The move has been received positively by Cowboy’s existing shareholder base, with both investors and the Crowdcube community voting overwhelmingly in favour of this new chapter and endorsing the long-term vision shared by both companies.
A partnership built on shared expertise
ReBirth contributes deep expertise in industrial operations, supply chain management, and a robust distribution network in France.
In turn, Cowboy brings into the ReBirth Group a market-leading connected platform, award-winning design DNA, and one of the most engaged rider communities in the urban e-bike segment.
Cowboy’s digital expertise and platform capabilities will also support innovation across other ReBirth brands, applying the same data-driven systems and tools that have defined Cowboy’s approach to connected mobility.
This vertical integration enables greater production efficiency, cost optimisation, and shared innovation across ReBirth’s ecosystem of brands – with Cowboy maintaining its distinct design and technology-driven identity.
A stronger foundation for customers
With the transaction now complete, Cowboy reaffirms that its community of over 80,000 riders will continue to receive full support on the road. All existing bikes remain operational, with hardware, software, and customer services operating as normal.
The ongoing recall programme that has expanded its efforts into major cities around Europe and the UK already, will also continue, with a detailed progress update to be shared in the New Year.
Backed by ReBirth’s industrial strength, Cowboy’s production will restart at its French assembly facility in the New Year. A reinforced manufacturing schedule is now in motion, in addition to a comprehensive production plan of over 1,500 bikes in January, which will support the fulfilment of the existing backlog and beyond. In the coming weeks, all waiting customers will receive updated delivery timelines aligned with this new plan.
Operational planning for 2026 is being built around significantly improved capacity, predictability, and access to components. This enhanced industrial foundation allows Cowboy to operate with greater resilience and consistency, ensuring riders receive their bikes faster and enjoy the high-quality experience the brand is known for.
Marta, Head of Customer Success at Cowboy, said:
‘We previously set a high benchmark for after-sales service, and this new chapter allows us to return to that standard. With stronger operational capacity and clearer timelines, we’re focused on rebuilding trust and delivering the consistent support our customers expect from Cowboy.”
Industrial integration and supply chain excellence
While Cowboy bikes have already been assembled in ReBirth’s French production facilities, this next phase marks a deeper operational integration – improving quality control, lead times, and scalability across ReBirth’s established European and Asian supplier networks. This increase will enable Cowboy to offer shorter, more competitive lead times for new customers from Spring 2026 onward. This integration provides Cowboy with the industrial leverage necessary to return to stable, large-scale production, positioning the brand to achieve sustainable profitability.
Expanding retail and after-sales support
Leveraging ReBirth’s extensive retail and service network – including 95 Oxygen and 10 Ovelo bike stores as well as 500 Independent Bike Dealers – Cowboy will significantly strengthen its physical presence in France.
Plans include the rollout of new retail and service points in major cities, improving local availability, after-sales care, and visibility. Currently, Cowboy’s fourth-largest market behind the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, France is expected to become its fastest-growing market, supported by ReBirth’s infrastructure and logistics expertise.
Leadership for the next chapter
As part of this transition, Cowboy’s leadership team is now working in close alignment with ReBirth Group leadership. Together, they will guide the brand into its next phase, with a focus on operational excellence, customer satisfaction, and continued innovation.
Adrien Roose, Founder and outgoing CEO, has supported the transition period and has now left the company.
Grégory Trébaol, CEO of ReBirth Group Holding SA, said:
“I would like to thank Cowboy’s founders for their vision, ambition, and the remarkable company they have built in a difficult market.
This transaction opens a new chapter for Cowboy. Following Peugeot, Gitane, and Solex, Cowboy now stands as Rebirth Group’s fleuron for connected urban mobility, completing a string of pearls of iconic brands.
Combining our industrial capabilities with Cowboy’s innovation will enhance efficiency, reinforce margins, and create a strong foundation for long-term growth.”
Adrien Roose, Founder of Cowboy, said:
“My hope is that this new partnership will make Cowboy more reliable for riders in the long term. To keep them on the road and supported in the best way possible.”
Cowboy will continue to operate independently from its Brussels headquarters, maintaining its in-house design, engineering, and software teams. Working hand-in-hand with ReBirth, the company’s priorities are now to strengthen production, optimise supply chains, and expand its retail and service footprint across Europe.
Together, the two companies are building a more resilient foundation for the future, one that prioritises reliability, efficiency, innovation and rider satisfaction.
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Dutch-based TargED raises €21.5 million Series A extension to advance targeted treatments for thrombotic diseases
Dutch clinical-stage BioTech company TargED Biopharmaceuticalshas announced the closing of a €21.5 million Series A extension financing to accelerate the clinical development of its targeted thrombolytic, TGD001.
The round was led by BioGeneration Ventures (BGV), with participation from existing investors, including Andera Partners, Fund+, Hadean Ventures, Inkef Capital, Sunstone Life Science Ventures and Curie Capital. With this extension, TargED’s total Series A funding now exceeds €60 million.
“The momentum behind TGD001 continues to build — from compelling preclinical data to encouraging first clinical use — and this financing enables us to move decisively into the next stage of development. We believe TGD001 has the potential to fundamentally reshape the treatment of thrombosis, offering a novel approach to universally dissolving clots across multiple life-threatening indications,” said Kristof Vercruysse, CEO and co-founder of TargED Biopharmaceuticals.
This spin-off of the University Medical Centre Utrecht was founded in 2020 by Coen Maas, Steven de Maat, Marc van Moorsel, and Kristof Vercruysse. TargED stands for Targeted Enzyme Delivery, and the company develops targeted treatments for thrombotic diseases.
Its lead compound is TGD001, a targeted thrombolytic designed to treat a wide range of thrombotic events. As an antibody-enzyme fusion protein, TGD001 binds to von Willebrand factor (VWF) and promotes site-specific clot breakdown through the action of the enzyme urokinase, TargED explained.
Further explaining TGD001’s edge over other currently-approved therapies, the Dutch company mentioned that the thrombolytic leverages the ubiquitous presence of VWF in all clots, enabling broad clot lysis by degrading both VWF and fibrin
Earlier this month, the company reported positive Phase 1 first-in-human results for TGD001, citing a favourable safety profile and potent thrombolytic activity. It will be further developed for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and thrombotic microangiopathies (TMAs), including immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP).
With this new financing, TargED aims to initiate two Phase 1/2 clinical proof-of-concept studies across Europe and the U.S., with first data expected in 2026. Earlier this year, in June, the company was awarded a blended finance grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) under the EIC Accelerator programme. The funding included a €2.5 million grant and up to €10 million in equity investment.
This episode of the EU-Startups Podcast is brought to you by Vanta. The trust management platform helps more than 12k companies, including Nando’s, Allica Bank and Granola, start and scale their security programmes while building trust with buyers. It saves security teams time and improves programme visibility by automating over 35 compliance frameworks, such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001, as well as GRC workflows like risk management. 
