This article is visible for CLUB members only. If you are already a member but don’t see the content of this article, please login here. If you’re not a CLUB member yet, but you’d like to read members-only content like this one, have unrestricted access to the site and benefit from many additional perks, you can sign up here.

The post Weekly funding round-up! All of the European startup funding rounds we tracked this week (Jan. 19-23) appeared first on EU-Startups.

Norwegian AI hospitality startup Altek AI has raised €423k ($500k) in a pre-Seed round in order to deepen integrations with hotel systems (including PMS and booking engines), expand its autonomous workflows across more channels, and accelerate growth across Scandinavia and Europe.

The round was led by StartupLab; an incubator, accelerator, and early stage investor for Norwegian technology startups.

Altek AI was among the startups selected to take part in the FutureTravel Summit 2025 (a former sister brand to EU-Startups), an industry event that brings together early-stage travel and hospitality technology companies to pitch their solutions to investors and corporate stakeholders.

“We’re not building another tool that just helps staff write replies faster,” said co-founder Jon-Fredrik ‘Joffen’ Hopland. “We’re building AI agents that can handle a large part of guest communication end-to-end and, where possible, act inside hotel systems. We’re building digital employees.”

Recent EU-Startups coverage shows that Altek AI’s pre-Seed round sits within a wider but highly stratified flow of capital into European hospitality and AI-driven hotel operations in 2025–2026.

At the large-cap end, Amsterdam-based Mews raised €255 million in a Series D this month to expand automation, payments and AI-enabled workflows across hotel operations, while Barcelona-based Amenitiz secured €38.9 million in Series B funding to accelerate AI-led product development for independent hotels.

Earlier-stage rounds point to more focused investments in guest communication and operational automation: Vienna-based chatlyn raised €8 million to build an AI-driven guest communication hub, London-based Inntelo AI closed a pre-Seed round of more than €576k for its AI concierge platform, and Amsterdam-based Toppi secured close to €1 million to scale AI solutions for hospitality businesses.

In parallel, broader tech-enabled hospitality models have also attracted substantial capital, such as Madrid-based Room00 Group, which announced up to €400 million to expand its urban hospitality platform across Europe.

Against this backdrop, Altek AI’s pre-Seed round is in line with other sub-€1 million raises focused on automating guest communication through deeper system integrations, while the overall funding disclosed across these deals exceeds approximately €700 million.

“Hospitality has become extremely complex, and guest communication is still largely manual,” said co-founder Kristoffer S. Pedersen. “Guests don’t care whether they contact a hotel via email, web chat or Instagram – they expect fast, accurate answers and that the hotel knows who they are.”

Founded in 2024, Altek AI is building what it describes as an AI operating layer for hotels: autonomous AI agents that handle guest communication across email, web chat, messaging, social channels and phone.

The company began with direct operator research. Before incorporating, the founders interviewed multiple hotels to map where guest communication breaks down in day-to-day operations.

That led to a pilot project in early 2024 with a spa resort outside Oslo, where the team built and tested four different AI solutions in live operations. The pilot validated that hotels adopt automation quickly when it removes repetitive work – especially if it doesn’t add another system staff have to manage.

The company says it now has 37 hotels live across Norway, Sweden and Denmark. As of January 2026, the company is reporting around €119k ($140k) ARR and ~26% month-over-month growth.

Among its users is The Well, a large spa resort in Norway. Altek AI says its agents have handled 23,000+ messages and 16,000+ conversations over the past year, helping reduce response times on routine guest inquiries and speed up handling of more complex requests.

“Altek AI is tackling a global operational challenge with the ambition to build a new infrastructure layer for hotels,” said Jørgen Veiby, Investment Manager at StartupLab. “The team has shown strong execution and an ability to win paying customers early.”

Hotels are facing a perfect storm: more communication channels, higher guest expectations, and staffing constraints. Altek AI argues that guest communication has become an overlooked operational cost centre.

Based on figures from one customer, a mid-sized hotel can handle about 87,000 guest inquiries per year through email and phone alone. At an average of roughly six minutes per inquiry, that equates to more than 8,700 hours annually – before factoring in lost upsell opportunities and service issues caused by slow responses.

Unlike single-channel chatbots or ‘assistive’ AI tools, Altek AI outlines that their approach focuses on autonomous execution through deep integrations – so agents can resolve requests with context, reduce handoffs, and improve personalisation over time.

Altek AI plans to use the funds to deepen integrations with hotel systems, expand automation across the guest journey, and accelerate growth beyond the Nordics.​

The post Oslo-based Altek AI secures €423k to expand autonomous guest communication for hotels across the Nordics appeared first on EU-Startups.

This week, we tracked more than 70 tech funding deals worth over €2.7 billion, and over 10 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.

Alongside the week’s top funding rounds, we’ve also curated the most important industry stories you need to know.

This week saw the launch of EU Inc at the World Economic Forum in Davos in response to months of lobbying and a policy movement backed by over 22,000 signatories, including Europe's leading founders, investors, and the broader startup community.

Its co-initiator, Andreas Klinger, also launched his third investment fund at PROTOTYPE to back startups in robotics, automation, and physical or frontier AI.

If email is more your thing, you can always subscribe to our newsletter and receive a more robust version of this round-up delivered to your inbox. Either way, let's get you up to speed.

? Notable and big funding rounds

?? Cloover secures over $1.2B to develop an AI operating system for energy independence

?? Accounting software platform Pennylane raises $200M

??  Language learning edtech Preply hits $1.2B valuation with $150M Series D

??‍?? Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers

?? Tourmanagement BV acquires Beatswitch in live music software deal

??. AB Tasty merges with its Indian rival VWO

??  The American company ClickHouse is acquiring the Berlin-based startup Langfuse

??. IN4 Group makes swoop for Midlands apprenticeship provider

? Interesting moves from investors

? Vanagon Ventures closes €20M Fund I to back deeptech startups

? PROTOTYPE Capital launches Fund III and hits 5.6x returns by backing "crazy ideas"

?  Ananda Impact Ventures secures €73M first close for fifth Core Impact Fund

? Vi Partners marks 25 years with first close of €161M new venture fund

??. Metavallon VC launches €5m “Brain Gain” fund to reverse Greece’s tech talent exodus

?️ In other (important) news

??  The European Commission launches EU Inc., the long-awaited ‘28th regime’ for startups

??. Tech “trailblazers” to get visa reimbursement fees, as government says Britain is "haven of stability" for startups

??. The Estonian Startup Awards mark a milestone night for Estonia’s startup ecosystem

? Recommended reads and listens

??. Profile: The Danish fintech boss who says “no” a lot

??. Building a European digital stack: The alternatives to US big tech you should know

⚡.Soldera’s 10x growth story: building the Stripe for renewable energy

? European tech startups to watch 

?? Medtech Cancilico closes €2.5M round to advance AI in oncology

??  Anzen Industries raises $2.2M for chemical production innovation

??  Allocation Strategy secured £1.6M to advance asset allocation technology

??  Lovinn receives €300,000 investment

Artificial intelligence is increasingly moving beyond single-task tools towards systems that can operate with a higher degree of autonomy. One of the most significant developments in this evolution is agentic AI, a new generation of AI systems designed to pursue goals, make decisions and carry out sequences of actions across multiple tools and data sources with limited human intervention.

This article explores what agentic AI is, why it matters for organisations and policymakers, and how well Europe is positioned to adopt it at scale. Drawing on a new report by the StepUp StartUps Initiative, it examines Europe’s strengths, the structural challenges slowing deployment, and the policy and investment measures needed to support safe, large-scale adoption.

The report shows that while Europe benefits from strong AI talent, a growing investment base and a regulatory framework focused on trust and accountability, significant gaps remain that could limit competitiveness if left unaddressed.

From isolated automation to autonomous systems

Agentic AI represents a step change in how AI systems operate. Unlike traditional models that generate outputs based on predefined inputs, agentic AI can perform sequences of actions across interconnected tools and data sources. These systems are able to break down a goal, identify the required steps, execute them autonomously and refine their behaviour through feedback.

This capability is beginning to reshape sectors where efficiency, accuracy and responsiveness are critical. Early applications can already be seen across public administration, financial services and healthcare, where complex workflows and decision-making processes stand to benefit most from autonomous systems.

Investment momentum and Europe’s AI strengths

Investment trends reflect the growing momentum behind agentic AI. Europe now allocates a higher share of venture capital to agentic AI than the United States, with France and Germany emerging as leading hubs. A broader network of innovation cities, including Amsterdam, Stockholm, Munich and Barcelona, is further strengthening Europe’s role in this space.

Public funders play an important catalytic role within this ecosystem. Organisations such as the European Innovation Council and EIT Health help attract global investors while supporting experimentation and early-stage deployment of agentic AI technologies across Europe.

Structural challenges slowing adoption

Despite these strong foundations, the report highlights three systemic barriers that continue to slow Europe’s ability to scale agentic AI.

First, new regulatory and operational risks are emerging. Multi-step, autonomous actions can blur responsibility across systems and tools, challenging existing compliance frameworks and increasing the need for continuous traceability and meaningful human oversight.

Second, fragmented data and technological dependence remain significant constraints. Only a small share of Europe’s industrial and public-sector data is currently reused, while reliance on non-European cloud providers and hardware limits technological sovereignty.

Third, adoption capacity varies widely across Member States. Differences in digital readiness and supervisory resources, combined with risk-averse implementation cultures, often lead organisations to delay agentic AI pilots due to compliance concerns, reputational risk and the lack of established reference cases.

Recommendations for scaling agentic AI in Europe

Drawing on its analysis, the report puts forward recommendations in three key areas. These include building clear and auditable control points to support safe deployment, accelerating the development of sovereign data and infrastructure foundations, and scaling adoption through flagship use cases in high-value sectors.

The report also emphasises the importance of increasing European participation in agentic AI open-source initiatives and making greater use of public procurement instruments to support adoption.

Policy context and next steps

In October, the European Commission adopted the Apply AI Strategy, aimed at accelerating AI adoption across key industries, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises. The strategy promotes an AI-first approach, encouraging organisations to consider AI solutions when making strategic and policy decisions.

The Apply AI Strategy forms part of the wider AI Continent Action Plan, which sets Europe’s ambition to become a global leader in trustworthy AI.

The full Agentic AI report is available to download and provides a detailed overview of the findings and policy recommendations for deploying agentic AI safely and at scale across Europe.

The post Agentic AI: Is Europe ready to scale it safely? appeared first on EU-Startups.

On May 7-8, Malta will once again transform into the heart of European innovation as it hosts the 2026 edition of the EU-Startups Summit. Bringing together around 2,500 founders, startup enthusiasts, investors, and corporates, this year’s edition is set to be one of the most ambitious and engaging in the event’s history.

Alongside two stages, strong networking opportunities, and a buzzing exhibition hall, the EU-Startups Summit will also be the place where the finals of our big annual Pitch Competition take place. Fifteen of Europe’s most promising seed and pre-seed startups will be selected out of more than 1,600 applications to pitch on the main stage in front of a high-profile investor jury, and in front of our large audience. Applications are now open!

The Prize Package

The stakes are high! Valued at over €610k! Packed with funding opportunities and credits for great tools and services to supercharge your startup’s growth, this prize could truly transform your entrepreneurial journey. Let’s see what is in it:

• €250k Funding Opportunity with Look AI Ventures. The winner will get fast-tracked and invited to pitch directly in front of Look AI Ventures‘ investment committee, and after the due diligence process, there will be a funding opportunity of up to €250k.
• $220k Funding Opportunity with Techstars. The winner will be fast-tracked for a priority interview to join Techstars. This ensures that the startups’ business plan will be reviewed by the Techstars investment team and the most relevant program managing director. Following a positive due diligence process, the startup will have the opportunity to join a Techstars accelerator programme, including a $220k investment.
• Up to €100k in Cloud Credits from IONOS to support your startups’ hosting and scaling needs with a trusted European cloud provider.
• $24k in credits from Cyscale. The winning startup will receive cloud security credits to monitor and secure its cloud environment, helping to detect misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and potential threats.
• $12k in credits from LUA AI to build an AI agent that helps automate tasks and interactions.
• Gain €12k in value at Make, including €6k in credits(Make Teams, 3.6m credits) and €6k in consultation services, to build no-code automated workflows using Make’s visual automation platform.
• Up to $12k in credits from Notion (6 months free Business Plan with unlimited AI), access to Notion Perks (exclusive discounts on other software) and to Notion Champions Community.
• €9,900 D-ID Video Maker Enterprise plan, 5-user package with one year of free use.
• $8k in Remote credits to support international hiring and help teams access global talent.
• €5k in value for an exhibition table at the EU-Startups Summit 2027, including 3 event tickets, and a 3-year CLUB membership

Who can apply?

• Startups in pre-seed or seed stage
• Less than 3 years old, with no or less than €750K venture capital raised
• Based in Europe (EU or UK, Norway, Switzerland, etc.)

How to Participate

You can apply via this link. After that, we will carefully sift through all of the applications and hand-pick the finalists who will join us on the main stage at this year’s EU-Startups Summit on May 7-8 in Malta, where they will pitch for 3 minutes in front of our jury and a huge audience of investors, media, and startup enthusiasts.

OUR EVENT SPONSORS

Malta Enterprise is Malta’s economic development agency, facilitating economic growth, investment, and innovation by offering a range of support services for local and foreign enterprises setting up a productive presence in Malta. As a key player in Malta’s economic landscape, it contributes to the nation’s prosperity by attracting investments, supporting businesses, and driving innovation, thereby reinforcing Malta’s position as an attractive destination for entrepreneurs and investors alike. Malta Enterprise actively cultivates a vibrant startup ecosystem, playing a pivotal role in fostering a conducive environment for startups and offering tailored support and incentives to empower emerging businesses.

M. Demajo Group is a leading business player in Malta, with a successful history spanning 115 years. The Group’s growth and diversification have resulted in a wide coverage of business sectors through a commitment to long-term results. M. Demajo Group’s workforce is 500 strong, and their various activities have been developed through organic growth, acquisitions, partnerships, and startups. Its strong financial situation and ethical standards, its business reputation, and its renowned track record as a business partner are all key factors in its continued expansion.

The post Apply now for your chance to join the finals of our big Pitch Competition at this year’s EU-Startups Summit appeared first on EU-Startups.

This week saw the  official launch of Cyber Alloy, an independent connecting network organisation designed to bring together companies, governments, knowledge institutions, venture capitalists, and security specialists in a unified effort to build a cyber-resilient ecosystem.

It aims to transform the cybersecurity landscape by harnessing collective intelligence, shared insights, and collaborative innovation. In a world where digital threats evolve at an unprecedented pace, CyberAlloy exists to make organisations stronger together against digital threats by connecting knowledge, people, and technology within a trusted ecosystem. 

It aims to relieve CISOs and their teams by bringing together insight, expertise, and solutions, enabling them to act faster, better, and with greater confidence. By enabling collaboration where it currently stalls, fragmented efforts are transformed into collective defence. “

Cybersecurity is no longer an individual battle; it is a shared mission,” said Aernout Reijmer, CEO of CyberAlloy.

“We envision a connected, secure world where trust and collaboration drive cybersecurity innovation. By building bridges between all levels and sectors, we make cyber resilience accessible and achievable for everyone.”

A defining feature of CyberAlloy is its role as a neutral, independent platform for trusted collaboration.

“Data plays a crucial role in understanding and anticipating cyber threats,” says Lizzy Klijs, Trusted Data Advisor and Chief Data Officer at CyberAlloy.

“When organisations collaborate and responsibly share insights, they gain a clearer, more complete view of risks. 

CyberAlloy creates the governance, trust, and structure needed to turn data and collective intelligence into faster decisions and real-world impact, in which the risk is mitigated faster.”

By enabling organisations to share real-time threat intelligence and align people, processes and technology, CyberAlloy brings together the “good” network—making defence as fast, smart and scalable as attack. 

Taxation is one of the key factors investors consider when deciding where to establish a business. In this context, Europe stands out for offering a range of jurisdictions with competitive corporate tax rates.

At the same time, tax rates are only part of the equation. Investors also look closely at regulatory stability, compliance requirements, transparency, and access to international markets. Many European countries combine these elements with the advantages of the EU single market, creating an attractive environment for both entrepreneurs and established companies. Below, we share a list of some of the most attractive European jurisdictions from a fiscal point of view

Cyprus has a new 15% tax rate

Without a doubt, corporate taxation is one of the main reasons investors from all over the world are attracted to Cyprus, as the 15% rate is one of the lowest on the continent. The rate was recently increased from the previous 12.5% to align the country’s financial policy with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Pillar Two requirements. The legislative changes are broader and include other modifications; however, it is worth noting that Cyprus remains quite appealing from a tax perspective.

Another reason foreign investors choose Cyprus is that it is an English-speaking country. As a result, the conditions on how to incorporate a company in Cyprus are easy to understand. Furthermore, there are plenty of English-speaking specialised service providers, such as BridgeWest Cyprus, which help make communication more effective.

Ireland, which has one of the lowest corporate taxes in Europe

Another appealing country from a taxation point of view is Ireland. The government imposes a 12.5% corporate levy on domestic companies, while offering excellent infrastructure for large enterprises, especially considering that many tech giants have their European headquarters in Ireland.

The favourable tax system is complemented by a simple and fast business setup process. To find more details on forming an Irish company, investors can consult BridgeWest Ireland, an agency specialising in company registration services.

Bulgaria, the champion of low corporate taxes in Europe

Bulgaria stands out as one of the most competitive jurisdictions in Europe from a corporate tax perspective. Businesses operating in the country are subject to a flat 10% tax on profits, making it one of the lowest rates within the EU and particularly attractive for cost-conscious entrepreneurs.

The country also offers relatively low operational costs and access to the EU single market. From 2026 onwards, Bulgaria is set to adopt the euro as its official currency, a move expected to facilitate cross-border trade further and reduce transaction-related complexities for international businesses.

Malta, unique through its taxation system for companies

At first glance, Malta’s standard corporate tax rate of 35% appears high compared to other European jurisdictions. However, this figure does not reflect the country’s effective tax burden for many businesses due to its shareholder refund system.

Under this system, shareholders may claim a refund of up to 6/7 of the tax paid by the company upon dividend distribution, reducing the effective tax rate to approximately 5%. Combined with Malta’s EU membership, robust regulatory framework, and extensive network of double taxation treaties, the incorporation procedure in Malta is more appealing than in some countries with lower nominal corporate tax rates.

Hungary, another country with a tax rate below 10%

Hungary offers one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe, applying a flat 9% levy on company profits. This straightforward tax structure has positioned the country as an attractive destination for businesses seeking fiscal efficiency within the EU.

In addition to taxation, Hungary’s central European location provides strong logistical advantages. Companies based in Hungary benefit from proximity to key EU markets, particularly Germany, as well as a well-developed transport infrastructure and a skilled labour force.

Romania, one of the EU countries with low corporate taxes

Romania applies a 16% corporate tax rate on business profits, placing it among the more competitive EU jurisdictions from a fiscal standpoint. The country also offers specific tax regimes and incentives for certain sectors, including IT and research-driven activities.

Beyond taxation, Romania is attractive due to its large and well-educated workforce, particularly in technology and engineering fields. Competitive labour costs and growing digital infrastructure have further strengthened its position as a destination for international companies and outsourcing operations.

Non-EU countries with low taxes for businesses

Several non-EU European countries also offer highly competitive corporate tax rates, making them worth considering despite not being members of the Union. Bosnia and Herzegovina applies a 10% corporate tax rate, while Albania and Montenegro both impose a 15% levy on company profits. North Macedonia also offers a 10% corporate tax rate.

These jurisdictions often appeal to investors seeking low taxation combined with emerging market opportunities. Notably, North Macedonia and Montenegro hold EU candidate status, which may increase their long-term attractiveness for businesses looking to establish an early presence ahead of potential EU accession.

Europe remains a strong option for business incorporation from a taxation perspective. While corporate tax rates play a crucial role, factors such as regulatory stability, market access, and workforce availability also significantly influence the overall attractiveness of each jurisdiction.

The post A closer look at Europe’s low corporate tax jurisdictions (Sponsored) appeared first on EU-Startups.

For more than a decade, Europe has relied on US Big Tech for the core layers of its digital economy — from cloud infrastructure and productivity software to search, social platforms, and, more recently, foundation models. 

But as regulation tightens, geopolitics hardens, trade tensions and tariffs reshape global supply chains, and AI becomes strategic infrastructure, that dependence is no longer seen as just a commercial issue.  

Last week, the European Commission launched a fresh consultation on open source, signalling its ambition for Europe’s developer communities to move beyond simply reinforcing US platforms and instead help build and maintain the core digital infrastructure on which Europe’s long-term technological independence will depend.

Solutions built by Europeans for Europe are not just about innovation but also about representing local values around privacy, sovereignty, resilience, and industrial capability. 

And when it comes to replacing Big Tech, many layers of the stack, Europe already has new and established credible players, ready to deliver efficient, responsible, and privacy-respecting digital services to European users.

I’ve written this as a living guide that will be regularly updated. Many of the companies naturally span more than one category. Feel free to message me to add your company. 

Core internet infrastructure and cloud (alternatives to AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, etc.)

• Crypt.ee (Estonia)
• DNS4EU (Czechia) a privacy-compliant DNS resolver alternative to Google Public DNS and Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 — keeping internet name resolution inside the EU.
• Evroc (Sweden) hyperscale cloud
• Exoscale (Switzerland)
• Hetzner (Germany) 
• IONOS Cloud (Germany) – enterprise + public sector
• Open Telekom Cloud (Germany) Public cloud computing service provided by Deutsche Telekom AG
• OVHcloud  (France) 
• Scaleway (France) 
• UpCloud (Finland)
  

AI & Foundation Models (alternatives to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and more)

• Aleph Alpha (Germany) – enterprise + government-grade AI
• Dataiku (France)
• DeepL (Germany) – AI language models & translation
• eTranslation (European Union)
• Internxt AI (Spain) conversational AI
• LightOn (France)  enterprise GenAI
• Mistral AI (France) frontier LLMs, open and sovereign
• Noxtua (Germany) Europe's first sovereign Legal AI
• Silo AI (Finland, now part of AMD)
• Tilde (Latvia) an open-source foundational LLM with over 30 billion parameters designed for Baltic and Eastern European languages

Developer and work platforms 

• Capacities (Germany) digital information management 
• Firebase (Armenia/US)
• GitLab (Ukraine-founded, now global)
• Lovable (France) Vibe coding  
• Infobip (Croatia)  CPaaS, messaging, voice, APIs, etc
• Krock.io  (Estonia) A cloud-based media review, creative collaboration, and project management platform for video production teams, agencies, and content creators.
  

Collaboration and Chat (alternatives to Slack, Teams, Zoom etc.)

• Element (UK) decentralised secure messaging
• Jitsi (France) video conferencing
• Nextcloud Talk (Germany)
• Olvid (France) private text messaging)
• Wire (Switzerland) enterprise secure comms

Email & Productivity (alternatives to Gmail, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365)

• Infomaniak (Switzerland) Full productivity and cloud
• Nextcloud (Germany) Self-hosted Workspace alternative
• OnlyOffice (Latvia)
• Proton (Switzerland) Mail, Calendar, Drive, VPN
• Tutanota (Germany) encrypted email

Search & Browsing (alternatives to Google, Chrome etc)

• Brave (EU-founded, now global, privacy browser)
• Ecosia (Germany) – climate-focused search  
• Mojeek (UK)
• Qwant (France)
• Startpage (Netherlands) 
• Vivaldi (Norway)

VPN

• Nym (Switzerland)

Maps and Location (alternatives to Google and Apple Maps)

• OpenStreetMap (EU-led open infrastructure) 
• Organic Maps (Estonia)
  
  

Consumer marketplaces (alternatives to Amazon, Ebay etc. 

• BackMarket preloved consumer electronics 
• Bought (Finland) pre-loved clothing
• BuyCycle (Germany)  e-bikes
• Codressing (Germany) buy, sell, and rent clothing
• Faircado (Germany) A browser extension that automatically suggests better second-hand alternatives when you shop online
• Liki24 (Ukraine) pharmaceutical, health and wellness products
• NOLD (UK) pre-loved clothing 
• OnBuy (UK)  retail marketplace 
• Swappie (Finland) refurbishes and resells iPhones and iPads. 
• Uphavin formerly El Green Mall) Germany ecofriendly marketplace
• Valyuu (The Netherlands) preloved consumer electronics
• Vinted (Lithuania) preloved clothing, goods and more
  
  

Social & Content Platforms (altneratives to X, Meta, YouTube etc)

• Daily motion (France) YouTube alternative 
• Lemmy  Reddit alternative
• Mastodon (Germany)
• Open Vibe (Czechia) 
• PeerTube (France) YouTube alternative  

Consumer hardware

• Nothing (UK) Smartphones, headphones, earbuds and more
• Murena (France) 
• Fairphone (The Netherlands)  Repairable smartphones and accessories

  
  

Speaking of sovereign tech, I also want to do a call out to the open-source world’s most successful government interventions: the German Sovereign Tech Agency. 

Through its Sovereign Tech Fund, a public-sector investment initiative launched in October 2022 and managed by the Agency as a subsidiary of SPRIND under the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Germany has created a blueprint for how states can strategically support digital sovereignty at the infrastructure layer. 

Financed by the federal government and operating under public procurement law, the fund targets foundational open-source base technologies: the low-level libraries, tools, protocols, and frameworks that underpin most of today’s digital systems. 

In its first two years alone, it invested €23 million across more than 60 projects worldwide, treating open digital infrastructure not as a by-product of innovation, but as a critical public good.

ClearScore, the London-based fintech that provides credit score services, has acquired UK mortgage platform Acre Platforms, as it looks to diversify its offering. The move marks ClearScore’s first move into mortgages and follows its move last year into secured loans with its acquisition of Aro Finance.

London-based ClearScore also acquired Edinburgh-based online personal budgeting service Money Dashboard in 2022. Acre bills itself as an end-to-end mortgage platform for brokers.

ClearScore says the purchase of London-based Acre, which has 47 staff, for an undisclosed amount, will mean it can route mortgage demand from its millions of users into Acre’s mortgage broker ecosystem. ClearScore says it will leverage Acre's tech across its businesses in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Justin Basini, co-founder and CEO of the ClearScore Group, said: "The acquisition allows us to accelerate our mortgage strategy with Acre technology powering our home lending business and helping us deliver compelling new experiences for our users.”

Justus Brown, CEO, Acre, said: "Our data-driven approach has led us to building a platform that’s transformed brokers' businesses in the UK. Joining the ClearScore Group is an exciting next step in our evolution that allows us to accelerate our drive to become the leading tech platform for the mortgage industry."

Comper, a Dutch software intelligence platform helping teams understand, navigate, and collaborate inside complex code landscapes, today announced the close of its pre-Seed round led by Productfirst.

While the round remains undisclosed, co-founder Juan Uijtewaal shared with EU-Startups that “It’s still early for Comper, so we chose not to disclose the amount or set a valuation yet. Together with our investors, we agreed to stay flexible and focus on further developing the product and growing the team, with plans to formalise this in a Seed round at a later stage.”

This recent funding will be put towards expanding Comper’s early access programme and continue working with product-led teams navigating fast-growing codebases.

“I started building Comper for myself as a CTO cockpit, but it turned out to be useful for a lot of people, even non-technical ones. Now, with the acceleration of AI coding, software teams are scaling faster than their ability to understand their own systems. Staying on top of your code landscape is more relevant than ever; our timing couldn’t be better,” says Jouke Waleson, technical co-founder of Comper. “We’re building Comper to remove that black box and give teams shared clarity across their codebases.”

Recent sector rounds point to sustained funding activity across developer tooling, AI-enabled software platforms and internal tools, providing useful context for Comper’s newly announced pre-Seed round.

In 2026, Milan-based Bricks.sh raised €1.6 million at pre-Seed to automate internal admin panels, while Spain’s Fracttal secured €29.8 million to expand its AI-powered maintenance software across Europe and Latin America.

In 2025, Stockholm-based Lovable closed a €281 million Series B to scale its AI-native application-building platform globally, while fellow Swedish startup Ivy Interactive raised €917k at pre-Seed to accelerate internal tool development using AI.

Elsewhere, London-based Ankar secured €17 million to grow its AI-driven IP software, and Prague-based Bandits raised €400k to streamline AI integrations for business workflows.

Taken together, these disclosed rounds represent well over €330 million invested into software, AI and developer-focused platforms across Europe in 2025 and 2026, situating Comper’s undisclosed pre-Seed round within a broader pattern of capital flowing into tools designed to help teams better build, understand and scale complex software systems.

Perry Oostdam, Investor at Productfirst, adds: “After meeting the team and seeing the product, I called Pawel immediately. We didn’t want to miss this opportunity. Comper brings immediate clarity to something every scaling company struggles with; understanding their codebase as a living system. The speed at which this came together reflects the strength of both the product and the founders behind it.”

Founded in 2025 after a year in stealth, Comper is a software intelligence platform that helps teams understand and work inside their codebases with clarity. By turning a company’s codebase into a shared, explorable system, Comper looks to enable better collaboration, faster onboarding, and more confident decision-making.

Comper was founded by Jouke Waleson, ex-Mendix, software engineer, CTO, then fractional CTO; and Juan Uijtewaal, ex-Miro, and experienced COO. Each have previously worked across high-growth companies where codebase complexity directly impacted velocity, quality, and team health.

According to the company, they are rethinking how engineering, product and leadership teams collaborate by making codebases visible, explorable, and shareable across entire organisations. Described as “Figma for codebases,” Comper enables faster onboarding, clearer decision-making, and more resilient software development at scale.

Pawel Smoczyk, former CTO turned investor, shares: “After years of leading engineering teams, I’ve learned that most risk doesn’t come from bad code, but from a lack of shared understanding across the team. What convinced me about Comper is that it addresses this at the root – not with more documentation, but with a clear, shared view of how the software actually works and how teams are structured around it.“

The post Utrecht’s Comper raises pre-Seed round to improve visibility across large codebases – described as “Figma for codebases” appeared first on EU-Startups.

The CEO of Danish payment unicorn Flatpay is not a "yes" man. Sander Janca-Jensen says: “We say 'no' a lot. We pride ourselves on saying ‘no’ internally.”

Examples of Flatpay’s thumbs down mentality include saying “no” to new business opportunities, "no" to new distribution channels, "no" to potential new customers, and "no" to new tech. The 36-year-old father of two has also recently said “no” to eating candy (“one of the best decisions in my entire life”).

It’s not that Janca-Jensen is a naysayer; it’s that he doesn’t want Flatpay to spread itself too thin because, as he says, everything comes with an opportunity cost. “We don’t try to be something for everybody,” he points out, speaking over video. 

Flatpay becomes a unicorn

Flatpay became Denmark’s latest unicorn last year (following the likes of Lunar, Pleo and Tradeshift) after landing $170 million in funding, reaching the $1bn valuation accolade in only three years. At the time Janca-Jensen pointed out that Flatpay was one of the few “non-AI” European startup unicorns. 

Valuing Flatpay at $1.7bn, the funding round was led by AVP, the European and North American investor and Smash Capital, the backer of consumer internet and software firms, with other investors including Hedosophia, Seed Capital, and Dawn Capital.

Flatpay’s offering

Flatpay offers payment hardware and software for small and medium-sized merchants, such as retailers and restaurants, including payment terminals, all-in-one point of sale systems, and online payment solutions.

As it says on the tin, Flatpay’s USP is the flat transaction rate it charges merchants for the use of its kit. It primarily targets brick-and-mortar merchants, which make up around 95 per cent of revenues, with online merchants the rest.

Flatpay says it has around 70,000 customers (up tenfold from early 2024) and Janca-Jensen says Flatpay is adding between 10 and 15 per cent new customers each month.

It operates across its native Denmark, which accounts for around 25 per cent of revenues, as well as Finland, Germany, Italy, France, the UK, the recently-launched Netherlands, and is planning one unnamed new market for 2026.

Recruitment charge

It employs around 1,500 staff, or “Flatplayers”, and, says the CEO, is now on a manic recruitment drive, employing nearly 200 people a month.

Along with its flat fee, merchants are also enticed by its daily settlements, 24/7 customer service and “old school” in-person sales calls to sell its payment kit, he says.

He says: “Ninety-nine per cent of the cases we are going there in person, having a meeting with the person who owns or manages the store, and then we sign a contract at that meeting, we then come back with the same person and install the physical product.”

Moving into banking services and ambitious ARR targets

Janca-Jensen, who lives in Copenhagen, reveres the metric du jour, ARR (annual recurring revenue), posting on LinkedIn last year that Flatpay had topped €1m ARR in one day. 

In 2025, its ARR quadrupled from €35m to €135m, while a €400m ARR is the ambitious goal for 2026.

How will Flatpay reach this target? He says: “The business is very stable. That means we don’t have to do much better than we are already doing. Of course, we will have to grow the sales force over the year.

“This year is about basically three things: making sure we get the Netherlands off well and we open our eighth market successfully. Then it’s about scaling in the market where we are. And we want to go out and build the product."

Soon-to-launch “light” banking services for merchants, such as business accounts, cards and expense management, as well as software to help merchants build their brands, could provide fresh revenues.

Managerial style and relationship with co-founders

Flatpay has four co-founders: Janca-Jensen, Rasmus Hellmund Carlsen (head of marketing), Peter Lüth (CTO), and Rasmus Busk (head of international), all of whom have worked together in the past co-founding startups.

He says: “There have never been any founder-related issues. It also means we run the business together. I am obviously the CEO, but it doesn’t really matter too much that I have the title of CEO, because we try to be aligned on the direction of the company.”

Janca-Jensen says the co-founders are keen to push autonomy down through the startup. He says his strengths are on the commercial side of the business and scouting talent. Being self-critical, he says he can be a “pain in the arse” and can micro-manage too much.

Focused approach

Fundamental to Flatpay’s success has been eschewing a scattergun approach, launching multiple products, going after new markets willy-nilly, and being wooed by new tech. Janca-Jensen says: “We try to limit the number of things we do at the same time."

Likewise, the startup does not like to get too far ahead of itself. “I don’t spend too much time on building the vision for the next five years,” he adds, pointing out that there are too many variables to think that far ahead.

Competitors and challenges

Flatpay has a big opportunity, playing in a multi-billion-dollar market in Europe alone, where many merchants are locked up with legacy players which dominate the market.

That said, it is going up against hyper-competitive businesses like Square, SumUp and Dojo.

One recent big deal in payments has been Mollie buying GoCardless. “I don’t know who got the better end of that deal,” he rues.

Other challenges facing Flatpay include a possible cyber-attack and, says the CEO, a Covid repeat, which would “really suck”.

Virtues of being a Danish startup

The advantages of being Denmark-headquartered are that the Danes are digitally savvy, with a strong pool of talent, he says.

However, looking ahead, which is not the Flatpay way, he says that “Denmark is potentially not the most sexy stock market to list in”.

Denmark has long been outshone by its neighbour, Sweden, AKA Silicon Valhalla, as a startup hub. Given the relative similarity in population sizes: Denmark, around six million, Sweden, around 10 million, Janca-Jensen says it’s not wrong to compare the two countries.

He says: “The biggest difference between Sweden and Denmark is that they have been very successful in the past on building phenomenal companies. And there is a lot of very smart people there.

“There is also a lot of capital from people who have been successful over the past that can be put back into the ecosystem.”

Outside work

Janca-Jensen, who lifts weights three times a week and looks ripped, is something of a fitness fanatic, clocking up 10,000 steps a day, wearing and sleeping with his Oura ring.

“If you don’t measure stuff, you can’t manage stuff,” he opines.

And why was cancelling candy such a good move? It helped with both weight loss and controlling his energy levels, he says.

In 2025, European tech companies raised more than €2.4 billion in seed funding, representing 3.3 per cent of the total €72 billion raised across the sector. While seed rounds accounted for a relatively small share of overall capital, they made up 14.2 per cent of all tech deals, highlighting the ongoing role of early-stage investment in the European tech ecosystem.

The largest seed rounds were concentrated in a limited number of countries, most notably the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the Nordic region.

By industry, software and artificial intelligence led both in deal count and in the largest round sizes, reflecting continued investor interest in scalable, AI-driven businesses. Fintech, healthcare, and climate and energy followed with steady seed activity across several markets. Deeptech, robotics, semiconductors and quantum appeared less frequently, but indicate growing interest in more capital-intensive, long-term technologies.

Below, we highlight 15 companies that closed the largest seed rounds in 2025.

Amount raised in 2025: $70M Gradium is an AI technology company that develops advanced audio language models to power natural, expressive, and ultra-low-latency voice interactions at scale. Its platform unifies capabilities like real-time speech generation, transcription, transformation, and dialogue into a single neural architecture designed for seamless, human-like voice experiences. Gradium’s technology supports high-quality text-to-speech and speech-to-text in multiple languages and is built to enable scalable voice applications across industries. Gradium raised $70 million in seed funding to advance and scale its audio language models, with a focus on delivering natural, expressive, ultra-low-latency voice interactions.

Amount raised in 2025: $41M Mirelo AI is a German artificial intelligence company that develops cutting-edge generative audio technology to bring sound and music to silent video content. Through its platform, creators can upload videos and instantly generate perfectly synchronised sound effects, ambience, and music, with intuitive controls to fine-tune the results. Built on advanced foundational AI models and accompanied by APIs for integration into other products, Mirelo addresses a long-standing gap in audiovisual production by automating and enhancing the creation of immersive audio for video, games, films, social media and other media formats. Mirelo has raised $41 million in a seed round to accelerate the growth and development of its AI-driven audio technology.

Amount raised in 2025: €25M Donut Lab is a technology company redefining electric mobility with a unified platform of high-performance EV components. It develops advanced in-wheel electric motors, production-ready solid-state batteries, integrated control hardware, and software that simplify and accelerate electric vehicle design and manufacturing for automotive, powersports, industrial, and other sectors. Donut Lab’s innovations aim to boost efficiency, reduce complexity, and unlock new possibilities in electrification across land, sea and air. Donut Lab has raised €25 million in seed funding to expand R&D, scale manufacturing and operations, grow its international team, and accelerate commercial partnerships to bring its plug-and-play electric mobility components to market across multiple industries.

Amount raised in 2025: $27M Tulum Energy is a climate-tech startup developing a scalable and cost-effective way to produce clean (turquoise) hydrogen using methane pyrolysis. The process splits methane into hydrogen and solid carbon without CO₂ emissions, helping hard-to-decarbonise industries like steel, chemicals, and refining transition to lower-carbon energy. Tulum Energy has secured $27 million in seed funding to develop hydrogen production technology based on methane pyrolysis.

Amount raised in 2025: $26M Arago is a deeptech company developing a new class of energy-efficient AI processors powered by light to address the growing computational and power challenges of modern artificial intelligence. Arago’s proprietary photonic processor uses light (photons) instead of traditional electronic transistors to deliver high-performance AI compute with significantly lower energy consumption, while remaining compatible with existing AI software and infrastructure. Arago raised $26 million to accelerate the commercialisation of its photonic processor, codenamed “JEF”.

Amount raised in 2025: $25M Maisa AI is an enterprise AI platform that helps large organisations automate complex, knowledge-intensive business processes by creating and deploying AI-powered “Digital Workers.” Unlike traditional automation or generative models, Maisa’s system focuses on traceable, reliable, and auditable execution of workflows, enabling non-technical teams to build and scale intelligent automation using natural language. Its technology is designed to reduce errors and improve compliance across regulated industries while unlocking measurable operational efficiency. Maisa AI secured $25 million in seed funding to expand the team and to scale out the self-serve platform, Maisa Studio.

Amount raised in 2025: €21M Paid.ai is a technology company building an all-in-one revenue engine tailored for AI agents, software agents that act autonomously to perform work for businesses. Its platform helps companies track AI-related costs, manage pricing and subscriptions, automate billing and payments, and report on margins and value delivered by AI agents, replacing legacy SaaS billing systems that aren’t designed for AI-driven products. Paid.ai enables flexible, outcome-focused monetisation and financial operations for organisations deploying autonomous AI workflows. Paid.ai raised €21 million in seed funding to develop its results-based billing infrastructure using AI agents and expand its reach to more corporate clients. Just a few months before, the company closed a €10 million pre-seed funding round.

Amount raised in 2025: €20M Vertical Compute is a deeptech semiconductor company developing next-generation vertically integrated memory and compute technologies to overcome the performance and energy bottlenecks in AI and data-intensive computing. Its proprietary chiplet-based approach brings data much closer to processing, unlocking faster, more efficient hardware that can better support large-scale AI and advanced applications. Vertical Compute raised €20 million in seed funding to tackle AI chips’ memory bottleneck.

Amount raised in 2025: $23M DePoly is a climatetech company developing a novel chemical recycling process that breaks down PET plastics and polyester waste into high-quality raw materials used to make new plastics, helping reduce landfill, incineration, and dependence on fossil fuels. Its technology can handle dirty, mixed or difficult-to-recycle streams and aims to support a truly circular plastics economy by converting waste back into materials that meet industry standards. DePoly secured $23 million in seed to launch a PET recycling plant in Switzerland.

Amount raised in 2025: $22M Noah is a fintech company building API-first payment infrastructure that enables businesses to move money across borders instantly, transparently and at lower cost by combining traditional fiat systems with stablecoin technology. Its platform supports real-time settlements, multiple currencies, and compliant global payment rails, helping companies simplify international money transfers and access the global financial system more efficiently. Noah has raised $22 million in seed funding to build foundational infrastructure for fast, compliant, and cost-effective global payments using stablecoins.

Amount raised in 2025: $21M THEKER Robotics is a robotics and artificial intelligence company that builds intelligent automation systems capable of operating in complex, real-world industrial environments. THEKER combines deep learning, computer vision and adaptive robotics to automate tasks across sectors like waste management, logistics, food and manufacturing, offering customizable “robots as a service” that can recognise diverse objects and work reliably without extensive reprogramming. THEKER closed a $21 million seed round to expand its technical team, scale its production capacity, and strengthen its international presence.

Amount raised in 2025: $20M Endra is an AI-powered platform specifically built to modernise mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineering design. Using advanced artificial intelligence, generative design, and automation, Endra transforms traditionally manual workflows (such as system layout, 3D modelling, documentation, and code compliance) into fast, automated processes that integrate seamlessly with tools like Autodesk Revit. The platform helps MEP engineers and design firms generate coordinated 3D/2D models, schedules, diagrams, and other documentation with drastically reduced turnaround times, boosting productivity and reducing repetitive work. Endra closed a $20 million seed round (following a €3 million pre-seed completed a few months earlier) which will be used to support the company’s next phase of growth.

Amount raised in 2025: $20M Jack & Jill is a startup building an AI-powered recruitment platform that uses conversational agents to streamline hiring and job search. Its system pairs two AI agents, Jack, who engages job seekers in dialogue to understand their skills and goals and recommends relevant roles, and Jill, who works with employers to profile open positions and match them with well-suited candidates. The platform aims to make recruitment more efficient, personal and scalable than traditional job boards or agencies by automating screening, matching and introductions at scale. Jack & Jill has secured $20 million in seed funding to expand its AI-powered recruitment platform to the United States.

Amount raised in 2025: $20M MOTOR Ai is a tech company developing Level 4 autonomous driving software that is designed to be safe, explainable and compliant with European safety standards. Instead of relying on massive training data, its AI uses cognitive-inspired reasoning to perceive and understand complex traffic situations, enabling vehicles to make transparent decisions in environments they haven’t seen before. MOTOR Ai’s technology targets public transport and urban mobility solutions with the goal of certified, scalable autonomous mobility. MOTOR Ai closed a $20 million seed funding round to bring its certified, neuroscience-driven technology into full deployment, starting with German public roads.

Amount raised in 2025: $20M Octonomy is a company that builds intelligent AI agents to automate complex business support and service processes with human-level accuracy. Its platform understands technical documents, ERP/CRM systems, and workflows to deliver reliable end-to-end resolutions, reducing manual effort and enabling teams to scale without growing headcount. Designed for enterprise environments, Octonomy’s technology aims to make expert knowledge operational and automate work that traditional AI often fails to handle. Octonomy completed a $20 million seed round to accelerate the development and deployment of Octonomy’s agentic AI platform for complex service workflows.

The ClearScore Group, a British financial marketplace, today announced the acquisition of Acre Platforms Limited, a fellow British technology solutions provider to the mortgage industry.

The acquisition is set to accelerate ClearScore’s entry into the mortgage industry, adding to its position in unsecured credit broking. It follows their successful acquisition of Aro Finance in early 2025, which expanded its capabilities in secured loans.

Justin Basini, co-founder and CEO of the ClearScore Group, said: “Acre is a great addition to the ClearScore Group, and we will support the business on its exciting growth trajectory. ClearScore brings the brand, the reach, the user-permissioned data at scale and one of the most advanced, reliable and unique fintech stacks in the industry. Combine that with Acre’s leading CRM platform for intermediaries, and you have an exciting set of technology platforms , data assets and APIs spanning unsecured credit, auto finance and now mortgages.”

Sector analysis points to continued activity around mortgage, housing-finance and adjacent FinTech models, providing context for ClearScore Group’s acquisition of Acre Platforms.

In February 2025, Madrid-based Libeen secured €25 million to scale its “Smarthousing” model, which combines alternative financing structures with technology to lower barriers to home ownership in Spain, with funding earmarked for expansion, technology development and asset growth.

Elsewhere, Valencia-based Colibid was recently highlighted by EU-Startups as a digital mortgage marketplace connecting borrowers, banks and brokers through a bidding-style platform; the company has raised around €0.5 million to date to support product development and market entry.

Within this landscape, ClearScore’s move to acquire, rather than fund, Acre reflects a parallel trend of established FinTech groups expanding into mortgages through consolidation, complementing the venture funding seen among earlier-stage specialists in the same sector.

This also comes one year after ClearScore secured €36.1 million in debt financing from HSBC Innovation Banking UK.

“This perfectly complements our successful push into the secured loans market, building on the significant growth we have seen in our home lending business in 2025. The acquisition allows us to accelerate our mortgage strategy with Acre technology powering our home lending business and helping us deliver compelling new experiences for our users,” adds Justin.

ClearScore helps over 25 million people access credit, insurance and other financial products. Operating for over ten years, the Group founded its flagship UK credit marketplace in 2015 and has since expanded into markets across four continents, as well as into a new vertical with its DriveScore app.

ClearScore’s API integrations with financial institution partners help those partners convert more customers, boost revenue and manage risk, with over 200 partner relationships worldwide.

Serving over 25 million users around the world, ClearScore’s financial marketplaces work by matching users to credit cards, loans and car finance via a mix of credit and affordability data, facilitated through credit reports and open banking. ClearScore intends Acre to become an integral layer of the mortgage ecosystem, in the same way that D•One, its open banking service for lenders, has become an integral layer of the credit ecosystem.

On the other side of today’s acquisition sits Acre, founded in 2018, whose mission is to change the process of buying a property – making owning a home faster, easier, more transparent, and ultimately cheaper for consumers.

Justus Brown, CEO at Acre, says: Our mission has always been to simplify the mortgage journey, taking the pain out of the process so that consumers can get into their homes quicker. Our data-driven approach has led us to building a platform that’s transformed brokers’ businesses in the UK. Joining the ClearScore Group is an exciting next step in our evolution that allows us to accelerate our drive to become the leading tech platform for the mortgage industry.  

“We’re pleased to announce this acquisition as it sets up exciting growth opportunities aligned with ClearScore’s strong brand, tech platform and lender integrations.”

Under new ownership, Acre will continue to provide technology solutions for mortgage and protection businesses, and together with ClearScore, aim to deliver quality home-buying experience, meeting the demand of ClearScore’s 16 million user base in the UK.

ClearScore will then extend its mortgage platform into the ClearScore businesses in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

This partnership now means that ClearScore can now route demand for mortgages from its users to Acre’s broker ecosystem via the platform. Acre will provide the Group with additional property, mortgage, and affordability data, enriching insights for homeowners and home buyers within ClearScore’s platform.

The post ClearScore strengthens mortgage strategy with acquisition of fellow London-based Acre Platforms appeared first on EU-Startups.