WhatsApp has notified approximately 200 users, primarily in Italy, that they were tricked into installing a counterfeit version of the messaging app that was actually government spyware. The fake application was built by SIO, an Italian surveillance technology company that develops spyware for law enforcement and intelligence agencies through its subsidiary ASIGINT. WhatsApp said it […]

Karin Keller-Sutter, Switzerland’s finance minister and the country’s former president, has filed criminal charges for defamation and insult after Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok was prompted by an anonymous user to generate a torrent of sexist and vulgar remarks about her on X. The complaint, filed on 20 March with the Bern public prosecutor’s office, […]

SpaceX has confidentially filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell shares to the public, according to multiple sources familiar with the registration, setting the stage for what would be the largest initial public offering in history and almost certainly making Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. The offering, internally code-named Project Apex, […]

Eighteen months ago, Legora was a Stockholm startup with a handful of law-firm clients and roughly $1 million in annual recurring revenue. On Tuesday, the company told Business Insider that it has crossed $100 million in ARR, a milestone that in enterprise software typically takes the better part of a decade. Max Junestrand, Legora’s 26-year-old […]

What is it worth to increase your chance of success? Or to reduce the chance of a costly failure? For most of modern history, we have not been able to answer those questions clearly. We have relied on averages: simple, clean, and often misleading. That is starting to change. A new class of tools, which […]

Li Shufu, the billionaire chairman of Geely Holding Group and the man who bought Volvo Cars from Ford for $1.8 billion in 2010, has arrived at a conclusion that many of his peers in the global automotive industry have been slower to reach: the world has too many car factories, and building more of them […]

Mark Lanier, the folksy Texas litigator who doubles as a part-time pastor, held a jar of M&Ms in front of the Los Angeles jury and told them that each one represented a billion dollars of Meta’s market capitalisation. There were, by that maths, roughly 1,400 sweets in the jar. The jury awarded his client six […]

Somewhere in Hasbro’s network, someone was where they should not have been. The $14.4 billion toy and entertainment conglomerate, owner of Peppa Pig, Transformers, Monopoly, Dungeons & Dragons, Nerf, Play-Doh, and Power Rangers ,disclosed on Wednesday that it had identified unauthorised access to its systems, an intrusion first detected on 28 March that has since […]

Six weeks was all it took. On 9 February, OpenAI switched on advertisements inside ChatGPT for free-tier users in the United States. By late March, the company disclosed that the pilot had crossed $100 million in annualised revenue, drawn more than 600 advertisers, and reached fewer than a fifth of eligible users. Now OpenAI is […]

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Nexchip Semiconductor filed for a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday, joining a stampede of Chinese chip companies turning to the city’s capital markets as Beijing pours resources into building a domestic semiconductor supply chain that can withstand American export controls. The Hefei-based foundry, China’s third largest behind SMIC and Hua Hong […]

As France  and Germany push digital sovereignty up the policy agenda, a more practical question is emerging: who actually owns the data driving Europe’s AI systems? 

As models become increasingly commoditised, competitive advantage is shifting to the data layer, thereby raising the stakes around who owns and controls it. In an AI-driven economy, proprietary data — not models — creates an opportunity for competitive advantage.  

Analytics startup Countly is a product analytics and customer engagement platform built on an open-source, self-hosted foundation.  

The company helps organisations reduce reliance on third-party platforms by enabling them to capture, analyse, and act on their own user data—while maintaining full control over it. It operates on the belief that data privacy and actionable insights are fundamentally interconnected.

I spoke to Onur Alp Soner, CEO and co-founder of Countly, to learn more. 

The business opportunity

Embedding data sovereignty into a company’s commercial strategy can strengthen product differentiation, build regulatory trust, and unlock new partnership opportunities, particularly in sectors where data control is critical, such as healthcare, finance, and public services.

Countly’s platform is built on an open-source, self-hosted foundation that helps companies collect and process operational and usage data from their software products, essentially enabling them to understand how users interact with apps and services and improve those experiences. 

Soner sees his company as an early mover. Founded in 2013, Countly was built around self-hosted analytics long before data sovereignty became a defining issue in Europe. 

According to Soner:

“Basically, our main focus is data control and data ownership. We want companies to have complete control over the data they collect — that’s why we’ve existed since day one.”

He contends that the conversation has simply evolved in waves. When he founded Countly, he started from a simple idea: if you don’t control your data, you don’t control your systems. 

From GDPR to AI: how the data ownership debate evolved

Long before AI regulation entered the conversation, Soner was already working with European organisations in finance, telecoms, healthcare, and the public sector that needed to know precisely where their behavioural data lives, who can access it, and how it’s used.

“Right now, the spotlight is on AI. Before that, it was GDPR. Even when we started, the issue was that products in the market were collecting your data and giving you free analytics in exchange for using that data for their advertising business.

I’m not just talking about Google — there were other competitors too. One of the most prominent was Flurry. That model was fundamental at the time.

What’s changed is that different events — whether regulation or growing concerns about US companies using your data — have brought more attention to the importance of ownership. So we started Countly with the idea that businesses should control their own data. We didn’t want a third party using that data for purposes the business doesn’t even know about.”

AI is making data ownership economically viable

There’s been a long-standing idea that people or companies should own and monetise their data by extracting economic value from data assets, but that model never fully materialised in earlier innovation waves like IoT and website browsing (Gener8 is an interesting outlier).  

But AI is now changing the equation, with the data that fuels machine learning systems, as a highly valuable company asset, whether directly (selling data) or indirectly (using data to generate revenue). 

However, for Soner, that positioning around data ownership hasn’t always been straightforward. Of the big themes — data monetisation, regulation, and AI — he believes AI is the most promising for helping businesses understand the importance of the data layer and data control.

“Before that, it was really hard to market concepts like privacy, data ownership, and data control. It always ended up being framed as a regulation issue.

But it’s not just about regulation. Your data is the only truly unique thing about your business.”

“Your data is your only moat”: the challenge for startups.

However, the challenge is that large players give away so much for free. How do you compete with that?

Soner admits that for large companies, it might be easier, but for startups, it’s very difficult to say: ‘We won’t use all these free tools — we’ll stick to our principles.’ That’s a hard stance to maintain.”

AI doesn’t create value in isolation. Rather, it amplifies the quality of the data it is trained on. Without control over that data, companies risk outsourcing their long-term competitive advantage.

The missing layer in Europe’s AI debate

So what are we talking about when we talk about a sovereign data layer? At the heart of Soner’s argument is a simple framework where the AI ecosystem exists as three layers:

• First, compute: GPUs, infrastructure, and physical machines.
• Second, models: LLMs like OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral.
• Third, the data layer.

“The first two layers get most of the attention. But the data layer is just as important and arguably more so — and it’s not being discussed enough.”

He contends that conversations with large companies, this often becomes a regulation issue: 

“Because of GDPR, we can’t do this.” But the real question is — why are you sending that data to external tools in the first place? This is operational data that feeds your AI models. It’s what makes AI valuable. AI amplifies whatever you already have — or don’t have — as a business.

But because everyone is afraid of missing out on AI, they focus on the exciting parts and ignore the “boring” ones: data control, data cleaning, and organisation-wide tracking strategies. Those are actually the critical conversations.”

Making sovereignty sell: from regulation to user value

So how do you incentivise companies to prioritise data ownership while still staying competitive? Soner points to Apple as a rare example of successfully turning privacy into a product feature.

“They communicate clearly: your data stays on your device. That’s the right approach. It’s not about saying, “We’re a German company, we follow strict regulations.” Customers don’t care about that. They care about what’s in it for them.” So you need to translate data sovereignty into tangible user benefits:

“This is how we protect your data. This is how we keep it in our infrastructure. And you still get great functionality.” That’s a much more understandable story.”

Europe wants control but runs on foreign tech

But can a European company really claim digital sovereignty if it relies on US infrastructure, analytics, or models? Soner admits that even Countly, which is building infrastructure for this purpose, still relies on technologies from US or Chinese companies.  This creates a paradox. He admits:

“There’s no way around it. Take databases — almost all major ones are US-based. So the question isn’t whether you use external technology—it’s how you use it. It’s about layering.”

Rather than full independence, data sovereignty becomes a deliberate architectural strategy, deciding what stays in-house and what can be outsourced. For example, you can control your data flows, decide what leaves your system and build proprietary datasets. He suggests that while you can use tools like Google Analytics, you should be mindful of what data you are sending and why. 

“Maybe you intentionally only use such a tool for high-level metrics, while keeping detailed user data in your own infrastructure. Because data is where long-term competitive advantage comes from.

Companies like Instagram, Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb are all data businesses. If you blindly use tools without thinking about your data flows, you lose that advantage.”

Make data ownership part of your company culture

Soner suggests that even for small companies, if you build data ownership into your story early, it becomes part of your culture.

“At Countly, every decision goes through that lens of data ownership. You can’t just say, “Let’s use this SaaS tool” or “Let’s plug in this AI." There’s always a level of mindfulness. That becomes part of how the organisation grows.”

Europe can build, but can it keep its companies?

Europe’s challenge is not building companies, but keeping them.

Looking ahead, I wanted to understand what a truly sovereign European digital infrastructure would look like. Soner explained that in the first instance, Europe needs strong infrastructure: data centres, electricity, and networking.

"Everything else depends on that."

However, this can not be considered in isolation from European talent. 

He asserts that while Europe is already building strong companies, the migration of companies to the US for capital and a broader ecosystem is a bigger issue, admitting, “We almost did the same ourselves."

"So the key question becomes: how do you make it attractive for founders to stay? That comes down to funding, incentives, and ecosystem support. If Europe can strengthen that, it can retain talent and companies—and that’s probably the most strategic investment it can make right now.”

Stop benchmarking the US and China and start building leverage

In terms of competitiveness, Soner asserts that we’re focusing on the wrong thing and that, while the debate often becomes "the US is ahead, China is ahead," the real race right now is about AGI and who gets there first.

“Still, that doesn’t mean Europe should wait. We can’t wait for others to define the future,” he says.

“We need to build our own systems, support our own companies, and retain our talent. If we do that, it’s perfectly fine to use global technologies—but on our own terms.

Control of the data layer — not just the models — will define who captures value in AI.”

The real opportunity for Europe lies not in competing on models, but in owning the data layer that underpins them.

Following our previous announcements, we are excited to unveil a new group of confirmed speakers for the Tech.eu Summit London 2026. The event will take place on 21–22 April 2026 at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London, featuring senior leaders, founders and investors from some of the most influential organisations driving technology forward across Europe and beyond.

This newly confirmed group brings together a diverse mix of perspectives, spanning global financial institutions, deep tech ventures, AI-focused startups and venture capital firms actively investing in the next wave of European technology. Their addition further strengthens a lineup built around practical insight and real-world experience from across the industry.

Meet the new speakers

Alexandra Edmonds - Mastercard / Vice President of Emerging Fin Tech & Agentic AI, Startup Investments & Partnerships

Axel Kalinowski - London Stock Exchange Group / Head of Central and Southern Europe

Dave Smallwood - Mollie / Managing Director UK & Ireland

Edmond Yang -  Yangmedia / Founder

Felix Martinez - Seedcamp / Principal

Gian Maria Gramondi - Shop Circle / Co-Founder

Greg Lawton - Nodes & Links / Co-Founder & CEO

Harshit Krishna - Multiverse Computing / Head of Funding and CorpDev

Jean-Michel Deligny - Triple B / Chair of the Investment Committee

Louis Mather - Axelera AI / VP Strategy

Maud Vinet - Quobly / Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Naseem Moumene - Northzone / Vice President

Payton Dobbs - Hoxton Ventures / Partner

Sam Ross - Remote / Chief Legal Officer

Sanghamitra Karra - Morgan Stanley / Global Co-Head of Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures

Sarah Kunst - Cleo Capital / Managing Director

Sedinam Simpson - The Tech Bros / Co-Founder

Ted Eltringham - Architect AI / CEO & Co-Founder

Tero Sarkkinen - Basemark / Founder & CEO

Wulfie Bain - OpenAI / International Applied AI Lead for Startups

Xavier Collins - WonderStudios / Co-Founder and CEO

Ziv Reichert - Phoenix Court / Partner

Here are the speakers we have previously announced for the Tech.eu Summit London 2026

What's on the agenda

The two-day event will bring into focus the trends and decisions shaping the next phase of European technology. Sessions will span artificial intelligence, fintech, deeptech, climate tech and beyond, with an emphasis on execution, market realities and the strategic choices facing founders and investors in 2026.

Through a mix of sessions and discussions, attendees will hear directly from investors, founders and technology executives on the challenges and opportunities defining the current moment, from building and scaling AI-native businesses to navigating regulatory shifts, funding dynamics and the path to sustainable growth.

Get your ticket

Last Chance tickets are available for a limited time. Secure your place and join one of Europe's leading gatherings for founders, investors and technology professionals.

Start networking via the Tech.eu Events App

All registered attendees will have access to the Tech.eu Events App, available on both the App Store and Google Play, where they can browse attendee profiles, schedule meetings ahead of the event and stay up to date with the latest announcements and on-site updates.

More updates coming soon

Further speakers and the complete agenda will be revealed in the coming weeks as we continue to carefully curate a strong and diverse lineup for the Tech.eu Summit London 2026, ensuring a wide range of perspectives from leading founders, investors and technology experts across Europe and beyond.

We invite you to London this April for two days dedicated to innovation, knowledge sharing and building valuable relationships. We look forward to seeing you there!

Partners

Pavilion Partner

Gold Partner

Silver Partners

Supporting Partner

Community Partners

The Copenhagen-based health AI company built Symphony on peer-reviewed research from the largest medical coding study of its kind, treating coding as a reasoning task rather than a labelling problem. It’s available via API now. Medical coding, the process of converting clinical notes, diagnoses, and procedures into standardised alphanumeric codes used for billing, reporting, and […]

The Berlin fintech, which raised $2.2M in pre-seed in July 2025, has connected clients managing €2 billion in structured debt portfolios to its continuous monitoring and reconciliation platform, faster than almost any comparable infrastructure startup. Credibur, the Berlin-based infrastructure fintech building operational control software for non-bank lenders and their capital providers, has reached €2 billion […]

The Tallinn-based platform, formerly WOIS.io, hosts over 1,000 professionals including Rovio co-founder Peter Vesterbacka and ex-Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John. AI handles routine questions; high-value queries go to the expert via 1:1 asynchronous video. Pickmybrain, the Tallinn-based platform that turns professionals’ expertise into AI-powered “Digital Brains,” has raised a $2.1 million pre-seed round from a […]

Tallinn-based Pickmybrain, a startup developing AI-powered “Digital Brains” for professionals and public figures, has raised $2.1 million in a pre-seed funding round backed by business angels, Raison.app, and other investors.

The company is building a platform that enables experts to transform their knowledge into AI-driven digital counterparts, allowing users to access personalised, domain-specific insights at scale. The approach addresses a common challenge faced by professionals and public figures, sharing expertise without the need for continuous content creation or repetitive engagement.

Pickmybrain trains AI models on structured, expert-provided content, including interviews, articles, books, and recorded responses. This ensures that each Digital Brain reflects individual perspectives rather than generic data. Experts retain control over the materials used, while the platform also provides tools for those with limited existing content to generate training inputs.

The platform combines AI-driven responses with human interaction, handling routine queries automatically while directing more complex or high-value questions to experts through asynchronous one-to-one video. This hybrid model is designed to scale knowledge access while maintaining a level of personal engagement.

According to founder Sergei Verbitski, the platform reflects a broader shift toward more personalised AI applications, where models are built around individual expertise rather than general internet data, enabling professionals to scale and monetise their knowledge in new ways.

The company positions its approach as part of a broader transition from attention-based, advertising-driven models toward more utility-focused platforms that enable direct value exchange around expertise.

The funding will be used to expand the team, enhance the product, and support international growth.