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French accounting software platform Pennylane has launched in Germany, its first overseas market, and is targeting 100 hires in the country next year.

Founded in 2020, unicorn Pennylane is a financial management and accounting platform for startups, SMEs, and their accountants across Europe.

It sells itself as an “all-in-one” accounting and financial management platform that centralises the financial function of businesses and their accountants in one shared workspace, enabling them to work closer together.

It centralises accounting, expense management, invoice and financial reporting into one shared workspace. By doing so, it says it frees up accountants from data chasing. It is also leveraging GenAI while its API ecosystem, featuring integrations with the likes of Shopify and HubSpot, helps its clients work flexibly across different systems, it says.

Pennlylane employs more than 900 people and works with over 6,000 accounting firms and over 600,000 SMEs in France, it says.

In Germany, it will go up against German powerhouse DATEV, which dominates the accounting software landscape.

Pennylane is locating its German HQ in Munich and also has an office in Berlin, as well as sales executives dotted in cities like Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and Cologne.

Tobias Janiesch, who is heading up Pennylane’s German operations,  said one of the reasons for choosing Munich as its German HQ was being close to lead investor Sequoia.

He said: “Sequoia is in Munich, one of our lead investors, so it made sense to be closer. And the Munich ecosystem in tech with OpenAI there is also growing."

On why Germany is a potentially ripe market for Pennylane, he said: “It’s a big market, with 80,000 accountants. Germany is one of the most complex accounting markets in the world - yet also one of the slowest in terms of digitalisation."

Future possible international launches include Poland, Spain and Belgium but unlikely the UK, where Sage and QuickBooks dominate, Janiesch said.

Earlier this year, Pennylane raised €75m in a funding round co-led by Sequoia Capital, Alphabet’s CapitalG, and Meritech Capital Partners, with DST Global also participating.

German e-mobility technology startup Pionix has raised over €8 million to scale its open-source-based products for the global e-mobility industry. The late seed round was led by Ascend Capital Partners, with participation from Start-up BW Seed Fonds (managed by MBG Baden-Württemberg), Pale Blue Dot, Vireo Ventures, Axeleo Ventures, and additional investors.

Despite rapid development across e-mobility in recent years, EV charging remains fragmented. A growing ecosystem of hardware and software providers relies on proprietary, closed systems that often do not communicate smoothly with one another. This lack of interoperability has contributed to reliability issues, inefficient infrastructure maintenance, and charging session error rates of up to 25 per cent.

Founded in 2021, Pionix provides products that offer a shared software foundation for EV charging technologies, with the aim of improving reliability, interoperability, and long-term compatibility of charging infrastructure. In response to industry-wide challenges, Pionix initiated and has been a key contributor to EVerest, an open-source software platform that serves as a common base for charger manufacturers, charging operators, automakers, and fleets. EVerest is designed to reduce compatibility issues and support faster innovation across the EV charging ecosystem.

EVerest has evolved into a major open-source initiative in cleantech, with support from around 600 contributors across more than 70 organisations, and is used to power hundreds of thousands of chargers worldwide.

Pionix founder and CEO Marco Möller noted that reliability is essential for the e-mobility transition and that the current landscape of incompatible systems and high error rates has hindered progress. He added that open-source technology provides a sustainable way to address these challenges.

With EVerest at the core and our Pionix Cloud services and ChargeBridge hardware on top, we make it radically simpler to build, integrate and operate chargers that just work - every time. That’s what the industry needs to deliver a transition that sticks.

Pionix will use the new investment to address fragmentation in the EV charging sector by delivering open, modular enterprise products for both software and hardware.

The company also plans to accelerate the growth of the EVerest open-source ecosystem, working with its global community to deepen collaboration and support future initiatives that will shape the development of EV charging.

London-based Planet Smart has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to launch its first product. The round was led by General Inception and Vertical Venture Partners, with additional support from Innovate UK and the Undaunted Accelerator, and marks the company’s official launch after two years of scientific development.

Planet Smart is a deep tech startup developing biomaterials to reduce environmental impact. Its flagship product, PlanetSorb, is a naturally biodegradable, high-performance superabsorbent polymer (SAP) designed to replace fossil-based plastics used in nappies, sanitary products and other applications such as agriculture, packaging, and mining waste management.

The material is reported to biodegrade within six months without leaving microplastics, while absorbing more than 1 litre of liquid per gram (up to twice as much as conventional SAPs) at a comparable cost. This higher performance means manufacturers can use less material to achieve the same result, enabling thinner and more comfortable products.

The company’s technology is based on poly-amino acids that naturally degrade in soil or landfill, positioning PlanetSorb as a potential solution for an industry facing growing regulatory and market pressure. The global hygiene sector is estimated to discard around half a million disposable nappies and pads every minute, and measures such as the EU ban on intentionally added microplastics and upcoming deforestation regulations are prompting large manufacturers to seek scalable, biodegradable alternatives.

Planet Smart has signed three letters of intent with leading hygiene manufacturers and secured two purchase orders from European brands. Independent lab-scale testing indicates that PlanetSorb is non-toxic, dermatologist-approved, and achieves high absorbency and liquid retention compared with industry benchmarks.

Beyond hygiene, the company sees potential for its biodegradable absorbents in agriculture, wound care, food packaging, and mining waste management, any area where materials are required to absorb, hold, or manage liquids.

With the new funding, Planet Smart plans to scale up from its current lab operations and run pilot trials. Looking ahead, the company aims to reach a production capacity of one kilotonne of PlanetSorb, equivalent to around 45 million nappies, by the end of 2028 and intends to raise additional funding in 2026 to expand manufacturing and establish licensing partnerships with global brands. 

Peec AI, a German marketing platform built for the age of AI search, today announced a €18 million ($21 million) Series A to accelerate product development, expand its team, and establish a New York presence.

The round was led by European VC firm Singular, with participation from Antler, Combination VC, identity.vc, and S20. The round follows Peec AI’s Seed financing led by 20VC in July 2025 (as reported by EU-Startups) and brings total funding to €25 million ($29 million).

“We are obsessed with precision. Clean data, clear workflows, and a UI that teams actually love to use,” says Marius Meiners, co-founder & CEO of Peec AI. “Our job is to help marketers win where AI is shaping the narrative, without adding complexity.”

Peec AI’s €18 million Series A enters a European funding landscape in which AI-driven marketing and brand-visibility tools continue to attract investor attention in 2025.

Other activity in adjacent sectors includes France-based Massive Dynamic with a €3 million pre-Seed round to develop an AI-native marketing-ops suite, the Netherlands’ aizy raising €1.5 million to expand its AI-driven marketing software for SMEs, and the UK’s Plain securing €14.5 million for its collaborative AI-powered support platform.

Germany also features strongly in this segment: Berlin-based Talon.One closed a €114 million round to scale its AI-enhanced loyalty infrastructure, placing it in the upper tier of funding volumes this year.

With approximately €133 million flowing into comparable or adjacent European startups, Peec AI’s raise positions the Berlin-founded company in the mid-scale funding bracket of an increasingly active sector, complementing earlier EU-Startups coverage of its 2025 Seed round.

“Our ethos is simple: care, authenticity, and craft. We will continue to move fast, listen to customers, refine details, and build a product that marketing teams love to use every day”, adds Meiners.

Co-Founders Daniel Drabo, Tobias Siwonia, and Marius Meiners met in Antler’s Berlin-based Winter 2024 cohort, united by a shared fascination with the future of search and product discovery. Peec AI enables marketing teams to see how their brand appears in AI-generated answers, which sources shape those results, and what actions drive visibility, sentiment and reach – all from one intuitive platform.

Since launching in February 2025, Peec AI has onboarded 1,300+ brands and agencies (adding 300+ customers per month) across industries and markets – including n8n, Attio, ElevenLabs, Chanel, TUI, Axel Springer, Peak Ace and DEPT – and grown to over €3.4 million ($4 million) in ARR.

“I like the opinionated design that Peec uses where you can quickly complete the most important steps in your workflow. Set up prompts, see how you appear in AI answers, check visibility, position, and sentiment. Then you can take action based on the most common citations.

Peec avoids the issues we see with other SEO/AEO platforms where there can be an overload of features as well as features or information that isn’t of primary importance,” says Ethan Smith, founder and CEO of Graphite.

AI search is rapidly becoming the new discovery layer for both consumers and B2B buyers. Yet the company outlines most marketing teams still fly blind – unable to see how their brand is represented across platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini, or to understand which sources shape that narrative and how to influence it.

One of the biggest challenges in this emerging category is combining analytical depth with ease of use. Peec AI is designed to keep complex data accessible, helping marketing teams move from insight to action without friction.

“AI search is rewriting the rules of discovery, and Peec AI is the team redefining how brands show up in that new landscape,” said Henri Tilloy, Partner at Singular. “AI marketing is a very nuanced and vibrant new product category where technical challenges emerge in real time as the market expands. Building for scale and reliability, while delighting customers is a challenge in a market moving so quickly.

Tilloy adds: “Peec AI combines depth, design, technical excellence and ruthless product velocity in a way that is rare at this stage. They are building real technology with the potential to lead a defining category.”

With this new funding, Peec AI will:

• Open offices in New York
• Hire 40+ new team members over the next six months
• Expand its platform beyond analytics to build the marketing software stack for the AI era

The post Berlin’s Peec AI lands €18 million as demand grows for AI-based brand visibility tools appeared first on EU-Startups.

Newcastle-based biotech InvenireX has secured £2 million in Seed funding to accelerate commercialisation of its DNA nanotechnology platform that can detect disease at the earliest biological stages.

The round is led by DSW Ventures, with participation from XTX Ventures, Cambridge Technology Capital and angel investors with biotech experience, and includes grant funding from Innovate UK.

Founded in 2023 through Conception X, InvenireX builds on Dr Dan Todd's PhD research at Newcastle University, and was born to address a fundamental limitation in modern science: molecular detection has barely advanced in the past 40 years.

Check out our earlier interview with Dr Riam Kanso, CEO and founder of Conception X 

Current methods, such as PCR, were designed for different purposes and repurposed for disease detection, but require extensive sample preparation that can lose up to 50 per cent of the molecular markers being sought, making early signals effectively invisible.

InvenireX's platform uses programmable DNA nanostructures, or "Nanites", to capture specific genetic markers inside custom microfluidic chips. A proprietary AI-powered reader then identifies and quantifies targets in real time, enabling the detection of disease markers at concentrations existing methods cannot capture. 

In pilot testing, InvenireX has demonstrated 200-fold greater sensitivity than qPCR and 60-fold improvement over digital PCR, while reducing both time and cost per test each by half, with quantitative results available in minutes rather than hours or days.  

The implications are wide-ranging: tumours as small as one millimetre could be detected up to a decade earlier than currently possible, vaccine manufacturers could verify the presence and concentration of active ingredients for the first time at production scale, and researchers could discover biological markers previously impossible to detect.

"Our machine could pick up cancer, HIV or sepsis earlier – any disease with a nucleic acid trace," InvenireX CEO and founder Dan Todd says.

"We're made of DNA – that's the source code. If you can pick up traces of faults and errors in that code, you can detect problems across the board before symptoms appear.

We've built the ultimate needle-in-a-haystack detector – a tool that we can put in the hands of scientists to enable the discoveries of tomorrow.”

Jonathan O’Halloran, founder of molecular diagnostics PCR company QuantuMDx and angel investor in InvenireX, said:

“There are moments in your life that make you tingle.

The first one for me was watching Craig Venter announce the first draft of the human genome, then next was hearing about Solexa, then Oxford Nanopore’s DNA sequencing technologies.

Most recently, it was listening to Dan Todd describe InvenireX’s technology. I believe it’s the UK’s next big technology.”

InvenireX has completed a successful pilot with a diagnostics company that has committed to purchasing the first instrument, with further pilots underway in vaccine manufacturing and infectious disease diagnostics. The funding will support team growth and expanded pilot programmes.

Berlin-based Peec AI, a marketing platform built for the era of AI search, has raised a $21 million Series A round led by European VC firm Singular, with participation from Antler, Combination VC, identity.vc, and S20. The round follows Peec AI’s seed financing led by 20VC in July 2025 and brings the company’s total funding to $29 million.

As AI search becomes a key discovery layer for both consumers and B2B buyers, many marketing teams still lack visibility into how their brands are represented across different platforms (such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini), which sources drive that representation, and how they can influence it. Peec AI is designed to address this gap. Although AI search may appear simple on the surface, delivering accurate, contextual, and reliable results at scale is technically complex.

Peec AI’s platform is built on a proprietary data pipeline that tracks source influence, visibility, and sentiment across major AI engines in real time. This infrastructure supports a user-friendly interface while relying on advanced engineering and data systems. Co-founders Daniel Drabo, Tobias Siwonia, and Marius Meiners have focused on combining data depth, quality, and product design to provide marketing teams with clearer insight into their performance in an AI-driven landscape.

The platform enables marketing teams to see how their brand appears in AI-generated answers, understand which sources contribute to those results, and identify which actions can affect visibility, sentiment, and reach, all within a single environment. Since launching in February 2025, Peec AI has onboarded more than 1,300 brands and agencies across different sectors and markets.

As adoption grows, one of the main challenges in this emerging category is balancing analytical depth with ease of use. Peec AI is designed to keep complex data accessible, helping teams move from insight to action with minimal friction. By emphasizing product design and data accuracy, the company aims to help marketing teams work more efficiently, make informed decisions, and remain visible as AI search reshapes how brands are discovered.

We are obsessed with precision. Clean data, clear workflows, and a UI that teams actually love to use. Our job is to help marketers win where AI is shaping the narrative, without adding complexity,

said Marius Meiners, Co-founder and CEO of Peec AI.  

With the new funding, Peec AI plans to open offices in New York, hire more than 40 additional team members over the next six months, and expand its offering beyond analytics to build a broader marketing software stack for the AI era.

Infinite Orbits, a Toulouse-based pioneer of in-orbit servicing, today announces securing an oversubscribed €40 million financing round to deploy its GEO inspection and life-extension satellite fleet and expand its pan-European operational footprint.

The European Innovation Council Fund, along with Matterwave Ventures, Wind Capital, Balnord, IRDI and Newfund Capital, have taken part in this financing round.

“This financing round illustrates how the coordinated mobilisation of European private capital can strategically support the emergence of a leader in in-orbit servicing. With its positioning, the relevance of its service offering, and the excellence of its technical expertise, Infinite Orbits clearly stood out as the ideal European candidate, earning the confidence of customers and investors,” said Adel Haddoud, CEO of Infinite Orbits.

In 2025 the European SpaceTech ecosystem has seen a scattered but meaningful set of funding flows across niches like in-orbit servicing, satellite inspection and infrastructure, propulsion systems and space-traffic awareness.

France’s Look Up raised €50 million to expand its radar-based space-traffic management network. Belgium’s EDGX secured €2.3 million to advance onboard edge-computing capabilities for satellites, and Spain’s Kreios Space closed an €8 million Seed round to develop propulsion systems for very low-Earth orbit. The UK’s Spaceflux raised €6.1 million to scale its satellite-tracking network, and Germany’s HyImpulse Technologies attracted €45 million to support work on launch and propulsion systems.

These rounds sum to around €111 million  of disclosed investment in these adjacent segments.

A recent EU-Startups article noted that the UK’s share of SpaceTech funding remains modest compared with continental Europe, where France and Germany continue to dominate headline investment in sovereign-capability areas.

This suggests that while the broader servicing and orbital-logistics vertical is gaining traction, much of the capital remains concentrated in a handful of geographies and sub-sectors.

The EIC Fund added: “We warmly congratulate Infinite Orbits on this successful funding round. Their pioneering in-orbit servicing technology – extending the life of satellites and enhancing the sustainability of space operations – embodies the kind of breakthrough innovation Europe needs.”

Founded in 2017, Infinite Orbits is a NewSpace company that is innovating In-Orbit Services with spacecrafts powered by its Rendez Vous solution, an autonomous vision-based navigation software.

Backed by a €150 million order book to be delivered in the next 3 years, a key factor in securing investors’ confidence, Infinite Orbits is pursuing a growth strategy designed to build a pan-European footprint. Its goal  is to strengthen Europe’s space sovereignty.

In line with its pan-European growth strategy, Infinite Orbits also aims to replicate the trusted partnerships it has established with the French sovereign institutions, working closely with other European sovereign counterparts to strengthen cooperation and resilience in orbit.

Wind Capital shared: “The quality of the team was one of the strongest reasons that led us to invest in Infinite Orbits. It’s rare to see a young team that combines such deep scientific expertise with strong commercial acumen. We’re excited to support Infinite Orbits in its mission to strengthen space resilience and sustainability as well as European sovereignty; a perfect fit with Wind’s investment thesis.”

The company is preparing an expansion of its geographical footprint, with new offices being opened in Luxembourg, Spain, UK, Germany and Poland.

At the same time, this financing round will help the company accelerate the deployment of its fleet of satellites dedicated to inspection and life-extension of critical GEO assets to ensure security and sustainability of orbital operations.

Matterwave Ventures added: “We were impressed by Infinite Orbit’s pragmatic focus on serving commercially relevant satellite operator use cases in GEO orbits. And the dual use applicability of their capabilities bodes well for the inclusion of Infinite Orbit’s servicers into Europe’s growing sovereign space defence infrastructures.”

The funding follows 2024’s €12 million raise to build the first life extension satellite “Endurance” – as reported by EU-Startups.

This new round marks the beginning of a new phase for Infinite Orbits, set to significantly increase its backlog and open the market to new space use cases beyond 2030.

The post French Spacetech startup Infinite Orbits lands €40 million for satellite servicing growth appeared first on EU-Startups.

Artios Pharma Limited, a British biopharmaceutical company committed to realising the therapeutic potential of targeting the DNA damage response (DDR) in cancer, today announced the successful close of an oversubscribed €99 million ($115 million) Series D financing.

The investors who supported the round include Andera Partners, Avidity Partners, EQT Life Sciences, Invus, IP Group plc, Janus Henderson Investors, M Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund, Omega Funds, Pfizer Ventures, Piper Heartland, RA Capital Management, Sofinnova Partners, Schroders Capital, and SV Health Investors.

“This Series D accelerates our potential path to registration for both alnodesertib and ART6043, broadening development for the next generation of DNA damage response (DDR) therapeutics to indications among the highest of unmet need across pancreatic, colorectal, and breast cancers, where median survival is often measured in months,” said Mike Andriole, Chief Executive Officer of Artios.

In 2025, several European oncology-focused or adjacent BioTech startups secured notable funding rounds alongside Artios Pharma’s €99 million Series D.

Germany’s Tubulis raised €308 million to advance its antibody-drug conjugate platform, while France’s Adcytherix secured €105 million to progress its novel ADC pipeline. The UK also saw activity through T-Therapeutics, which extended its Series A to approximately €78.2 million for next-generation TCR-based therapies, and CHARM Therapeutics, which raised €68.5 million to develop treatments for resistant cancers. Switzerland’s NUCLIDIUM closed an €84 million Series B for its radiopharmaceutical platform, and France’s Exeliom Biosciences raised €2.85 million to advance immuno-oncology development.

Together, these financings represent roughly €646.6 million of capital flowing into European oncology and adjacent BioTech fields in 2025.

Artios’ €99 million raise represents a significant addition to this sector and places it in the upper echelon of funding rounds raised this year.

Nikola Trbovic, Managing Partner, SV Health Investors, added, “We are thrilled to have supported Artios’ evolution, from an early-stage DDR pioneer when we founded the company to the established company it has become, distinguished by a promising and differentiated pipeline. We look forward to continuing to do so as it deploys the Series D proceeds to drive late-stage development of alnodesertib as well as its pipeline.”

Founded in 2016, Artios is innovating next-generation approaches in the (DDR) field through its comprehensive anti-cancer approach and the deep experience of its team of DDR drug developers.

The company’s clinical-stage candidates, ATR inhibitor alnodesertib and DNA Polymerase theta (Polθ) inhibitor ART6043, as well as its pre-clinical programs, including DDRi-ADCs, are designed with differentiated pharmaceutical properties and novel biological approaches to precisely eliminate a cancer cell’s remaining survival mechanisms.

The Series D proceeds will expand the clinical evaluation of Artios’ lead program, alnodesertib, to enroll additional ATM-negative patients in each of second-line pancreatic cancer and third-line colorectal cancer, for which the programme was recently granted U.S. FDA Fast Track Designation.

At the AACR meeting in April 2025, Artios reported that alnodesertib, in combination with low-dose irinotecan, demonstrated a 50% confirmed overall response rate in patients with ATM-negative solid tumors at the recommended Phase 2 dose in the STELLA Phase 1/2a trial.

There are currently no approved therapies specifically for patients whose tumors harbor ATM-deficiency, a population where alnodesertib has demonstrated durable responses across eight different solid tumors.

The proceeds from the financing will also be used to initiate a Phase 2 randomised clinical trial for Artios’ second potential first-in-class candidate, ART6043, in patients with BRCA-mutant HER2-negative breast cancer who are eligible to receive a PARP inhibitor. The DNA polymerase Theta (Polθ) inhibitor, ART6043, demonstrated an attractive tolerability profile, expected PK/PD activity, and promising clinical signals in data from a Phase 1/2a study presented at the ESMO Congress in September 2025.

The company is also advancing a first-in-class and highly differentiated DDR inhibitor-Antibody Drug Conjugate (DDRi-ADC) program and expects to name a lead candidate in Q1 2026.

Jake Simson, Partner, RA Capital Management, commented, “We are excited to co-lead this financing round to advance the next generation of DNA damage response therapeutics. Artios’ differentiated clinical programmes, alnodesertib and ART6043, together have the potential to meaningfully expand the impact of DDR-targeted therapies.

“The rate and durability of responses observed to date for alnodesertib across a range of solid tumors and the early clinical results with ART6043 underscore the strength of Artios’ approach and ability to deliver novel, potentially first-in-class treatments for patients while building significant long-term value.”

The post €99 million Series D fuels Artios’ expansion of precision cancer treatment pipeline appeared first on EU-Startups.

Biotech company Artios today announced the successful close of an oversubscribed $115 million Series D financing. 

Artios is pioneering next-generation approaches in the DNA damage response (DDR) field through its comprehensive anti-cancer approach and the deep experience of its team of DDR drug developers. 

Artios’ mission is to develop new classes of medicines that exploit DDR pathways with the aim of improving outcomes for patients with hard-to-treat cancers.

The company’s clinical-stage candidates, ATR inhibitor alnodesertib and DNA Polymerase theta (Polθ) inhibitor ART6043, as well as its pre-clinical programs, including DDRi-ADCs, are designed with differentiated pharmaceutical properties and novel biological approaches to precisely eliminate a cancer cell’s remaining survival mechanisms.

There are currently no approved therapies specifically for patients whose tumours harbour ATM-deficiency, a population where alnodesertib has demonstrated durable responses across eight different solid tumours.

The round was co-led by founding investor SV Health Investors and new investor RA Capital Management, with participation from new investor Janus Henderson Investors and broad support from Artios’ existing investors. 

Other investors who supported the Series D round include Andera Partners, Avidity Partners, EQT Life Sciences, Invus, IP Group plc, M Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund, Omega Funds, Pfizer Ventures, Piper Heartland, RA Capital Management, Sofinnova Partners, and Schroders Capital.

The Series D proceeds will expand the clinical evaluation of Artios’ lead program, alnodesertib, to enroll additional ATM-negative patients in each of second-line pancreatic cancer and third-line colorectal cancer, for which the program was recently granted US FDA Fast Track Designation. 

The proceeds from the financing will also be used to initiate a Phase 2 randomised clinical trial for Artios’ second potential first-in-class candidate, ART6043, in patients with BRCA-mutant HER2-negative breast cancer who are eligible to receive a PARP inhibitor.

“This Series D accelerates our potential path to registration for both alnodesertib and ART6043, broadening development for the next generation of DNA damage response (DDR) therapeutics to indications among the highest of unmet need across pancreatic, colorectal, and breast cancers, where median survival is often measured in months,” said Mike Andriole, Chief Executive Officer of Artios.

 “As we address these indications and prepare for others, I would like to thank our existing investors, led by SV Health, for their ongoing support, and also our new investors, RA Capital Management and Janus Henderson Investors, for joining our mission to bring these potential medicines to patients as quickly as possible.”

Nikola Trbovic, Managing Partner, SV Health Investors, added:

“We are thrilled to have supported Artios’ evolution, from an early-stage DDR pioneer when we founded the company to the established company it has become, distinguished by a promising and differentiated pipeline. We look forward to continuing to do so as it deploys the Series D proceeds to drive late-stage development of alnodesertib as well as its pipeline.

This financing, and the recent appointment of Mike Andriole as CEO, are exciting steps in Artios’ continued growth and its transition toward becoming a commercially oriented organisation.”

Jake Simson, Partner, RA Capital Management, commented:

“We are excited to co-lead this financing round to advance the next generation of DNA damage response therapeutics. Artios’ differentiated clinical programs, alnodesertib and ART6043, together have the potential to meaningfully expand the impact of DDR-targeted therapies.

The rate and durability of responses observed to date for alnodesertib across a range of solid tumours and the early clinical results with ART6043 underscore the strength of Artios’ approach and ability to deliver novel, potentially first-in-class treatments for patients while building significant long-term value.”  

Lead image: Freepik

voize is adamant that the global nursing shortage has reached crisis point. The WHO predicts a global deficit of 4.5 million nurses by 2030, as aging populations and rising care demands stretch teams thin. Europe alone is short 1.2 million healthcare workers, whilst the US has an expected deficit of up to 450,000 nurses a year.

By multiplying the total estimated hours spent on nonclinical administrative tasks, over 5.5 billion hour annually, voise has calculated that nurses lose 30% of their time to admin work, costing €212 billion ($246 billion) in labour across the US and Europe.

The result: burnout, high turnover, and less time for patients – the heart of care.

Today, 1,100 care facilities in Germany and Austria, and more than 75,000 nurses save up to 30% of their time each shift thanks to the AI. The company even says certain care homes now feature voize in job ads.

The post Berlin’s voize raises €43 million to use their AI companion to give nurses time for what matters most; care appeared first on EU-Startups.

Nursing care company voize  has raised $50 million in Series A funding led by Balderton Capital, with participation from existing investors HV Capital, Redalpine and Y Combinator. 

The global nursing shortage has reached crisis point. The WHO predicts a global deficit of 4.5 million nurses by 2030

Nursing, as ageing populations and rising care demands stretch teams thin. Europe alone is short 1.2 million healthcare workers, whilst the US has an expected deficit of up to 450,000 nurses a year. Nurses lose 30 per cent of their time to admin work, costing $246 billion in labour across the US and Europe — the result: burnout, high turnover, and less time for patients – the heart of care.

While many companies have built AI scribes for physicians, nurses — the backbone of healthcare — have been left behind. Their workflows are fundamentally different and too often overlooked, leaving them jotting vital notes on scraps of paper mid-shift. voize is changing that.

Founded in 2020 by twin brothers Fabio (CEO) and Marcel Schmidberger (COO), alongside Erik Ziegler (CTO), voize was inspired by the brothers’ experience when their grandfather entered a nursing home. Seeing firsthand how much time nurses lost to admin sparked a mission to return time to frontline care.

Developed hand-in-hand with nurses over tens of thousands of hours in care homes, voize’s AI companion doesn’t just document, it assists. voize listens as nurses speak during care, understands their notes, and handles admin like documentation and scheduling in real time. Seamlessly integrated with Electronic Health Records, voize fits naturally into nursing workflows, keeping nurses focused on patients, not paperwork.

voize’s proprietary AI models are purpose-built for nursing, developed entirely in-house. They accurately capture complex medical language, understand regional dialects, and support non-native speakers, empowering every nurse to document with confidence.

As well, unlike most AI models, voize’s system is so efficient that it runs locally on smartphones, with no constant internet connection required.

This ensures high data protection and continuous, reliable care, even when wifi connectivity fails — a first in healthcare AI.

Today, 1,100 care facilities in Germany and Austria, and more than 75,000 nurses save up to 30 per cent of their time each shift thanks to the AI. The impact is so profound that care homes now feature voize in job ads — making voize not just a tool, but a reason nurses choose where to work.

Fabio Schmidberger, co-founder and CEO of voize, said:

“Nurses enter the profession to care for people, and leave it because of all the admin work. For too long, they’ve had little technology designed to truly support them.

At voize, we’re building AI that redefines what it means to care, where technology works in the background, and people come first.

Seeing this come to life already across care homes and hospitals and hearing how nurses rediscover the joy in their jobs has been incredible."

Daniel Waterhouse, General Partner at Balderton, said:

“Nurses are the backbone of every healthcare system — yet too often, they’re overwhelmed by administrative tasks that pull them away from patients. voize recognised this disconnect and built a solution born from listening and understanding.

Their AI companion doesn’t replace human care; it restores it, removing friction from documentation and empowering nurses to spend more time where they’re needed most.”

The investment will accelerate voize’s expansion in Europe and entry into the US, and advance its mission to eliminate administrative burden in healthcare, giving nurses more time for what matters most: care.

Lead image: voize founders: Erik Ziegler, Fabio Schmidberger, and Marcel Schmidberger. Photo: uncredited. 

Paris-based Hummink, a DeepTech startup tackling manufacturing imperfections, has raised €15 million to expand deployment of its High-Precision Capillary Printing (HPCaP) technology, which enables manufacturers to print metals and functional materials with record-level accuracy and repair microscopic defects in real time.

The latest funding round, supported by historical investors Elaia Partners, Sensinnovat and Beeyond, was joined by the French Tech Seed fund managed on behalf of the French government by Bpifrance as part of France 2030, Cap Horn and KBC Focus Fund, and backed by the European Innovation Council Fund.

“Our mission is to bring precision where it has never been possible before,” said Amin M’Barki, co-founder and CEO of Hummink. “Microelectronics is at the heart of the AI revolution, and every micron matters”.

During this year there have been similar and notable funding rounds active in the advanced manufacturing / micro-electronics tooling space – useful in understanding the sector Hummink is operating raising funding in:

• Wooptix (Madrid, Spain) raised €10 million to advance its phase-imaging metrology tool “Phemet” for semiconductor manufacturing.

• Encube (Stockholm, Sweden) secured €19 million in launch funding to build AI-driven workflows for hardware development and manufacturing.

• Corintis (Lausanne, Switzerland) raised €20 million in a Series A to address the chip-cooling bottleneck in semiconductor manufacturing.

• Holdson (Huddersfield, UK) raised €1.7 million to scale its electro-form surface-finishing technology for advanced manufacturing.

Together, these rounds total approximately €50 million.

In this context, Hummink’s €15 million funding slots into a growing wave of DeepTech investment in Europe’s advanced manufacturing and hardware-tooling sector. The pattern shows investors backing companies that address critical manufacturing infrastructure – from metrology (Wooptix) to design-for-manufacturing (Encube), to cooling (Corintis) and finishing (Holdson).

Hummink’s focus on sub-micron printing and defect repair complements these adjacent plays. It is also noteworthy that none of the four comparators are France-based, meaning the company adds a strong French voice to this landscape.

“With HPCaP, we give manufacturers a practical way to improve yields, cut waste, and make advanced technologies more sustainable,” adds Pascal Boncenne, co-founder and COO.

As microelectronics underpin the rise of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, the smallest manufacturing imperfections have become billion-euro problems. Each defect at the sub-micron scale can derail an entire batch of chips or displays.

Founded in 2020 as a spin-off from the École Normale Supérieure – PSL and the CNRS, Hummink was created by materials scientist Amin M’Barki and hardware startup operator Pascal Boncenne to tackle this precise issue.

With a team across the United States, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, Hummink expects to double its workforce by 2026 and double its revenue by year-end.

Its technology works like the world’s smallest fountain pen, writing at the nanoscopic level with a controlled flow of material. The process allows manufacturers to build and correct circuitry directly at the sub-micron scale, opening new frontiers for semiconductor packaging, next-generation memory, and advanced displays.

The company outlines that traditional lithography remains the workhorse of electronics production, but even the best processes generate flaws that lead to yield losses and material waste. In comparison, the company says their printing tools act as “surgical instruments at the micronic level“, complementing lithography by identifying and correcting those flaws.

The result is allegedly higher output, lower scrap rates, and reduced environmental impact across the industry.

“Yield improvement is becoming one of the most critical levers in advanced manufacturing,” said Francois Charbonnier, Investment Director at Bpifrance. “Hummink’s combination of precision, speed, and scalability makes it a foundational technology for the next generation of microelectronics.”

Hummink’s first integration use case focuses on next-generation OLED displays for smartphones and laptops, where up to 30% of production is discarded each year due to microscopic defects – representing around €16 billion in losses and enough wasted material to cover 6,000 football fields.

The company’s technology can correct most of these defects, helping manufacturers recover output that would otherwise be lost.

Revenue today comes from sales of Hummink’s NAZCA demonstrator, a first-generation printing machine designed for R&D labs. NAZCA brings Hummink’s high-precision printing technology to research environments, helping democratize access to sub-micron fabrication and repair. The company also produces tailor-made conductive inks.

Hummink’s NAZCA systems are already installed in laboratories and research centers across Europe, Asia, and the United States, including Duke University, where researchers recently used the technology to produce the first fully recyclable, sub-micrometer printed electronics.

The company is now under qualification with major display manufacturers in Asia whose factories discard large portions of production due to microscopic flaws. Early tests suggest Hummink’s solution could boost yields by around 10%.

Nuno Carvalho, Investment Director at KBC Focus Fund commented: “Hummink stands out as an exceptional DeepTech company that bridges academic excellence with industrial relevance. Their HPCaP technology is not only a breakthrough in nanofabrication – it’s a game-changer for defect repair in OLED and semiconductor manufacturing, where sub-5 micron precision is critical and unmet.

“We’re proud to support Hummink’s journey from lab to fab, and believe their scalable business model and strong team position them to become a key enabler of next-generation electronics manufacturing.”

The latest funding round will accelerate the development of Hummink’s industrial printing module and prepare the technology for full integration inside semiconductor and display fabs.

As the complexity of chips and displays continues to climb, the industry’s success will depend on technologies that can operate at the same scale as the challenges they face.

Hummink’s vision is to embed its sub-micron printing process directly within manufacturing lines worldwide, transforming how the smallest details in advanced electronics are produced and repaired for years to come.

“Breakthroughs like Hummink’s redefine what’s possible in manufacturing,” said Flora Coppolani, Partner at CapHorn. “Their ink-based nanoprinting platform unlocks a new paradigm of control and scalability, bridging the gap between research and industrial scale, a true cornerstone for the next wave of DeepTech innovation.”

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Danish fintech Flatpay has become the country’s latest unicorn, after securing $170 million in funding. Flatpay co-founder Rasmus Hellmund Carlsen said Flatpay has become the fastest firm in Denmark to reach unicorn status, reaching the milestone in three years.

Flatpay is now valued at $1.7bn following the funding round, it said, with the latest round led by AVP, the European and North American investor and Smash Capital, the backer of consumer internet and software firms. Other investors in the round were existing investors Hedosophia, Seed Capital, and Dawn Capital.

The Danish fintech, which provides payment software for SMBs, last raised funds in 2024, when it secured a €45m ($52m) Series B round two years after its founding in 2022. Flatpay offers businesses a point of sale and payment solution.

It says its no setup fees for terminals, no subscription fees, flat rate for all card types, alongside its data dashboards, sets it apart from rivals.

Flatpay, which says it has more than 60,000 customers and employs more than 1,500 staff, says it is on track to hit $500m in ARR by the end of next year.

Carlsen added: “Three years ago, Flatpay was an idea shaped by a clear ambition: build a payments company that puts small businesses first — with simple pricing, great service, and a product experience that removes friction rather than adds it.

“Since then, the momentum has been extraordinary. From our early days in Denmark to fast growth in Finland, Germany, Italy, the UK, and France, more than 60,000 merchants now rely on Flatpay every day.”

The funds will be used to expand its presence in European markets, as well as to target new markets.

Paris-based VC firm Sofinnova Partners has closed its latest flagship fund, Sofinnova Capital XI, at an impressive €650 million – a haul that surpasses its original target and reinforces its position as a major player in life sciences investment.

Backing for the new fund came from a global pool of top-tier institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, pharmaceutical giants, insurance firms, foundations, and family offices. Among the contributors is the British Business Bank, which confirmed a €30 million commitment to the fund. This investment is aligned with the UK government’s Life Sciences Sector Plan.

Antoine Papiernik, Managing Partner and Chairman of Sofinnova Partners, said: “This fundraising marks a pivotal moment for Sofinnova. It gives us the firepower to double down on early-stage opportunities and reinforces our uniquely collaborative, science-driven investment approach. We’re excited to continue backing visionary entrepreneurs and advancing the next wave of breakthroughs in science and medicine to bring them to patients worldwide.”

In 2025, EU-Startups reported several notable life-sciences and health-focused funding rounds across Europe, providing useful context for Sofinnova Partners’ €650 million fund close.

France’s Adcytherix secured €105 million to advance its antibody-drug-conjugate cancer therapy into clinical development, while Sweden’s Cellcolabs raised €10.3 million to scale manufacturing of mesenchymal stem cells. In Switzerland, arcoris bio closed a €6.7 million Seed round to develop and commercialise its biomarker detection technology.

Altogether, these disclosed rounds amount to roughly €121 million – substantial activity at the startup level, yet still far below the scale of Sofinnova’s newly closed vehicle.

With another French company (Adcytherix) featured among the recent rounds, the data also points to a particularly active period for French life-sciences innovation in 2025.

Papiernik added: “Achieving this milestone in today’s volatile fundraising environment speaks to the strength of our model and the confidence our investors continue to place in us.”

Founded in 1972, Sofinnova Partners has carved out a strong legacy over five decades, with offices in Paris, London, and Milan, and a portfolio that spans more than 500 companies. With over €4 billion in AUM, the firm is recognised for its science-driven investment approach and hands-on company building throughout the life sciences value chain.

The fund aims to power early-stage biopharmaceutical and MedTech startups tackling unmet clinical needs across Europe and North America, signalling a continued appetite for scientific innovation in challenging times.

Sofinnova Capital XI is already deploying capital into select companies, continuing the firm’s active participation in both initial and follow-on funding rounds. The fund’s focus aligns with its long-standing mission to translate groundbreaking research into impactful therapies and technologies.

Mark Andrews, Investment Director, Funds, Life Sciences, British Business Bank, said, “Sofinnova is a key player in life sciences venture. Our commitment to them will create further investment into UK life sciences and help solidify the manager’s connection to the UK. We are pleased to formally welcome Sofinnova to the Bank’s portfolio and look forward to seeing the breakthroughs that come from this fund.”

The launch of Sofinnova Capital XI further solidifies Sofinnova’s role as a cornerstone investor in early-stage BioTech and MedTech ventures – just this past year, the total capital raised across Sofinnova’s platform has reached €1.5 billion.

With a fund size well above expectations and continued international investor support, the firm is poised to accelerate scientific advances and commercial success for the next generation of healthcare innovators.

Christine Hockley, Managing Director and Co-Head of Funds, added: “We are highly active in the UK life sciences sector, investing in innovative companies both through funds and directly. We want all high potential companies to be able to access the capital they need from initial innovation to full expansion and maturity. For that, we need more funds with deeper pools of capital to be investing in the UK and providing funding at the all-important growth stage. Sofinnova Capital XI will do exactly that.”

The post With over €4 billion in AUM, France’s Sofinnova closes Fund XI at €650 million to double down on MedTech magic appeared first on EU-Startups.

Milan-based Guidoio, the first fully digital driving school in Italy, has closed a €3.5 million seed round. The round was led by European venture capital fund 360 Capital, alongside Azimut Libera Impresa SGR S.p.A.

Founded in 2023 by Lorenzo Mannari and Giuseppe Cavallaro, Guidoio is developing a fully digital model for obtaining a driving license. The company’s platform is designed for digital-native learners and digitalises the entire process, from enrollment to exams.

Guidoio’s service is built around accessibility, transparency, and flexibility. Through the app, candidates can manage each step of the process via smartphone: enrollment, documentation, medical appointment scheduling, practical lessons with certified instructors, and personalised theoretical study supported by AI.

Two features are central to the experience:

• Tutor AI, which creates adaptive, personalised study paths based on individual learning progress, and
• Smart lesson booking, which allows students to schedule driving lessons near their home, simplifies logistics and bringing instructors closer to learners.

This model gives candidates greater control over their learning journey while providing support when needed.

A driving license today represents independence, employment, and freedom. Our ambition is to transform this journey into a simple, transparent, and accessible experience, aligned with the expectations of a generation that no longer tolerates bureaucracy and opacity. It’s this mix of experience, capital, and shared vision that will allow us to accelerate toward our goal of bringing Guidoio across Italy and building a new standard for digital mobility — more accessible, smarter, and closer to people,

explains Lorenzo Mannari, Co-founder and CEO of Guidoio.

The new funding will be allocated across three main areas: commercial expansion, product development, and team growth. The company aims to bring its driving school model to more than 30 Italian cities by the end of 2026 and plans to hire new team members in key roles to support this expansion.

On the product side, investments will focus on strengthening the e-learning platform to improve preparation for theory and practical exams, developing new digital tools for instructors, and further advancing the AI-based features already integrated into the platform.