Paris appeals court has rejected Meta’s challenge to emergency orders that require it to resume talks with French news publishers over payment for their content, Reuters reported on Thursday. France’s competition authority, the Autorité de la concurrence, imposed the interim measures in July after talks between Meta and the publishers broke down. The Facebook and Instagram owner appealed in […]

Bleu Robotics, a Paris-based startup building AI models for industrial humanoid robots, has raised a €5 million pre-Seed round, to reach its goal of reducing the full humanoid robot deployment process to one hour or shorter.

The round was co-led by Contrarian Ventures and OVNI Capital, with participation from Kvanted, WEPA Ventures, Motier Ventures and Charlie Songhurst, and board members at Meta.

Benoît Berkoukchi, co-founder of Bleu Robotics, says, “Humanoid robots in manufacturing are the next automotive sector, with the potential to help Europe and the US reshore production. But most robotics companies are trying to train humanoids with millions of data points and build fully general-purpose models. That approach isn’t suited to manufacturing. There isn’t enough data on factory work, and there won’t be internet-scale data, the kind LLMs were built on, for robots for a long time. Our methodology means we can do more with less.”

The round comes amid continued European investment in robotics software, humanoid systems and Physical AI during 2026.

In France, Paris-based Inbolt raised €11 million to expand its hardware-agnostic robot intelligence platform, while Norway- and US-based Trener Robotics secured €26 million to develop AI-powered skills for industrial robots.

Elsewhere, Belgium’s Motion raised €1.7 million for humanoid deployment, Spain’s THEKER secured €73 million to scale generalist industrial robotics, and London-based Humanoid raised €133 million for its industrial humanoid platform.

Together with funding rounds for Germany’s Sereact, Switzerland’s Enact Intelligence and Poland’s Nomagic, these financings total €372.7 million in 2026, rising to €377.7 million when including Bleu Robotics’ latest round.

Thomas Poitrineau, Investor at Contrarian Ventures, adds, “We were attracted to Bleu Robotics because of their ambitious choice to rethink how humanoid robotics software should work from first principles. It’s rare to find a company led by two world-class robotics researchers and a manufacturing expert, which is also why their software works differently from their competition. Their goal is far bigger than simply making the best model in a lab. It’s an approach that can already scale, putting robots to work in factories within months rather than years.”

Founded in Paris in 2025 by two INRIA researchers and a former Renault manufacturing manager, Bleu’s abductive learning technology reportedly lets robots learn new tasks from only a handful of operator demonstrations.

Its software runs on any humanoid platform and includes the AI model and training devices needed to teach robots on the factory floor.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, there were 5 million industrial robots operating globally in 2025. However, these robots are built to repeat fixed tasks, and are unable to adapt to the high-mix, low-volume production now common in modern manufacturing, so that work still falls to human workers.

Humanoid robots are needed to automate a wider range of complex tasks. While hardware has advanced significantly in recent years, software development has struggled to keep pace, limiting real-world deployment.

Interact Analysis found that of the 20,000-plus humanoids produced last year, only 10% reached real-world applications. Most of these robots today rely on end-to-end models, which learn everything in a single black box and require massive amounts of data to achieve production-ready reliability.

As a result, deployment remains costly and time-consuming for manufacturers, often requiring hundreds of hours of training data, with no guarantee the robot will perform reliably.

Instead of an end-to-end model, Bleu Robotics’ abductive learning model allows the robot to learn a new task from as few as ten operator demonstrations, while keeping the explainability required for industrial safety and the 99%+ accuracy that production lines demand.

The post French startup Bleu Robotics secures €5 million to teach humanoid robots new tasks with fewer demonstrations appeared first on EU-Startups.

London-based startup VitVio is bringing its AI system to every operating room at Hospital Español de Veracruz, a private hospital on Mexico’s Gulf coast. It is the company’s first deal in Latin America. The system, called Vetro, uses cameras and sensors to create a live 3D model of an operating room, showing the people, equipment, […]

San Francisco startup Collective, which handles the finances of one-person businesses, has raised $100M. The money comes in two parts: a $40M Series B and $60M from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund. General Catalyst, QED Investors and Gradient Ventures led the Series B, with Intuit Ventures, FT Partners and SemperVirens also investing. The Customer Value Fund […]

The trick at the center of this campaign is not an exploit. It is a feature. Pluto Security’s analysis of a cryptominer operation on the Hugging Face Hub shows that the attacker never needed to break anything. The model-loading library runs the Python that infects a machine exactly as designed. Three doors, one left open […]

Strollme, a German provider of children’s mobility on subscription, has secured €22 million in equity and debt financing to support their growth in its existing markets and lay the foundation for future expansion into other European countries.

Existing investors including Hanse Ventures, HGDF, JOSS and business angel Kristina Schreiner from the better ventures network are participating again, alongside new investor BMH Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen mbH (BMH), investing through its managed fund Hessen Kapital I. The credit facility is provided by Growth Credit Partners (GCP).

Sebastian Reichelt, co-founder and Managing Director of StrollMe, says: “This financing is a milestone for StrollMe. The equity from our existing and new investors and the credit facility from Growth Credit Partners enable us to significantly expand our fleet and offer families even more choice on subscription. We have also laid the foundation to strengthen our position in Europe step by step and in a capital-efficient way.”

StrollMe’s financing comes amid further investment in European subscription and asset-backed business models in 2026.

In the UK, London-based Raylo secured €34.5 million in equity and debt to expand its electronics subscription offering, while GIN e-bikes received €215k in fleet-backed debt to grow its bicycle rental service. In Germany, Berlin-based Everphone obtained €15 million in refinancing for its leased device fleet, while London’s equipal announced €18.84 million in equipment financing and equity.

Together with StrollMe, these announcements represent approximately €90.6 million in combined financing, including debt and refinancing facilities.

Lena Lang, Senior Investment Manager at BMH, adds: “A circular economy needs business models that scale. StrollMe shows that using rather than owning works for children’s products, and we are delighted to continue supporting the growth of the Hesse-based team.”

StrollMe was founded in 2020 by Timon Beutel and Sebastian Reichelt and is headquartered in Frankfurt. The company offers children’s mobility on flexible subscription in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands: kids’ bikes, balance bikes, strollers, car seats and accessories from brands such as Woom, Bugaboo, Doona, Nuna and Thule, matched to the child’s age.

After each subscription, products are professionally refurbished and rented out again; at the end of their rental life, sister brand Kiddly sells them on as refurbished products.

The company’s model is built on circularity, with more than 100,000 rentals completed since its founding.

Luke Wilson, Growth Credit Partners, says: “StrollMe offers families a compelling alternative to buying children’s products outright and has built a strong subscription business around a high-quality fleet. We’re delighted to support Sebastian, Timon and the team as they expand the fleet and grow the business in Germany and across Europe.”

According to the company, revenue increased by around 70% in 2025, but limited availability of popular models meant the company could not fully meet demand.

The additional funding will therefore support the expansion of the rental fleet, broadening the range and increasing the availability of kids’ bikes, balance bikes, strollers, car seats and accessories, and making high-quality children’s products accessible to even more families.

EU-Startups previously listed StrollMe in its November 2023 funding round-up.

The post StrollMe bags €22 million to put more bikes, strollers and car seats into European homes appeared first on EU-Startups.

Riders of Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Houston are reporting long detours and pickup points the app will not accept, Business Insider reported on Wednesday. The problems come days after Tesla greatly expanded the area the service covers. Tesla announced the larger service area on Monday with a post reading “Houston, we have liftoff.” The new zone, […]

The UK government has put startups and scaleups firmly on its economic agenda, but the bigger question is whether its latest measures can help more British companies stay and scale at home.

As Tech.eu reported yesterday, the Budget introduced a new Founders’ Relief, expanded the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme and announced new support for young and female entrepreneurs. It also included further commitments around AI investment, talent and scaleup support.

Chancellor John Healey summed up the problem the government is trying to address:

“Britain does not lack great entrepreneurs. Too often, we invent technologies the world wants here in the UK and see the jobs and profits go somewhere else.”

Europe's funding leader still has a scaleup problem

Britain is hardly starved of venture capital by European standards. The UK remains Europe's biggest destination for startup funding, and Tech.eu's H1 report recorded €14 billion in UK startup equity funding across 423 rounds in H1 2026, up 117.5 per cent year-on-year.

But can British companies access enough patient, later-stage capital to remain independent and scale globally from the UK, rather than eventually looking to US investors, buyers or markets?

Sam Goodsell, Partner and Head of Technology Sector at Menzies LLP, sees the tax change as an incentive for entrepreneurs to keep building rather than accept an early exit, but argues that tax incentives alone will not solve Britain's scaleup problem.

“Becoming a global leader still means raising hundreds of millions of pounds to be noticed,” he said, pointing to the gap between the capital available from many UK investors and the sums deployed by Silicon Valley venture funds.

Owen Ensor, co-founder and CEO of cultivated meat startup Meatly, made a similar distinction:

“The new Founders’ Relief is a welcome announcement and a positive signal that Britain wants to reward entrepreneurs who take risks and build successful companies.

But the bigger opportunity is making Britain the best place in the world not just to start a company, but to scale one.”

Female founders welcome support — but barriers remain

The new programme for female founders adds to existing efforts to tackle the gender gap in venture funding, including the government-backed Women Backing Women initiative, which reached a £130 million first close earlier this year.

Laura Ashforth, co-founder and CEO of Lateral, welcomed the Budget's support but argued that encouraging entrepreneurship requires looking beyond investment incentives.

“We desperately need more people to take on the enormous personal and financial risks required to build the businesses that will drive the UK's future growth.

However, you can’t build a genuinely entrepreneurial economy through investment incentives alone.”

As a female founder with two young children, Ashforth highlighted childcare costs and the £100,000 childcare threshold as examples of policies that can discourage people from taking greater financial risks.

“If we want more people to take entrepreneurial risks, we need to stop making the financially rational choice the least ambitious one.”

The government is also working with its Women in Tech Taskforce to develop two voluntary industry standards. The Inclusive Investment Standard aims to improve transparency in venture capital funding decisions, while the Tech Forward Standard will focus on workplace culture, retention and career progression.

According to WeAreTechWomen's 2025 Lovelace Report, between 40,000 and 60,000 women leave the UK technology sector annually, costing the economy an estimated £2 billion to £3.5 billion.

However, the standards have yet to be finalised, and their voluntary nature raises questions about adoption and accountability. Dr Vanessa Vallely OBE, Founder and CEO of WeAreTechWomen, said:

“The real test will be what happens next. We need to ensure these commitments translate into action, that employers and investors are encouraged to participate, and that progress is measured.”

Taking the startup push beyond London

The UK's funding strength also disguises a longstanding geographic imbalance. While 53 per cent of high-growth businesses are based outside London, they receive only 39 per cent of the funding. As Tech.eu explored in an interview with Jenson Brook, founder of Britain's Got Startups, closing that gap is critical to unlocking the potential of regional startup ecosystems.

Oxfordshire's recently launched Equinox 2035 Strategy, for example, aims to create 20 billion-dollar companies, attract more than £1 billion in annual investment and generate 30,000 jobs by 2035. That sits within a broader regional investment push.

The 2026 Budget includes £1 billion over four years for Priority Innovation Clusters, while UKRI's £500 million Local Innovation Partnerships Fund is targeting clusters across the UK. The British Business Bank is also deploying dedicated regional funds, including the £150 million Northern Scaleup Fund, targeting high-growth companies and university spinouts across northern England.

By July 2026, the Bank's Nations and Regions funds had invested more than £465 million into 1,254 businesses, attracting another £417 million in private capital. Government-backed funds can help fill regional investment gaps, but their success should ultimately be measured by whether they attract enough sustained private investment to reduce the need for public intervention.

Beyond funding: helping British startups commercialise and scale

The Budget includes £25 million for a new Venture Doctorates scheme and £16 million in proof-of-concept funding to help turn university research into commercial businesses.

The British Business Bank will receive an additional £5 billion, taking its total capitalisation to £30.6 billion.

Beyond expanding investment in venture capital funds, the Bank plans to introduce a venture debt product, giving growing companies another financing option without requiring them to surrender equity. But access to capital is only part of the challenge. Startups also need customers.

Planned public procurement reforms include a new Innovation Marketplace, launching in spring 2027, to connect innovative businesses with public-sector buyers. As the UK Business Angels Association notes in its Budget analysis, reforms to the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) also leave some industry concerns unresolved, including calls to increase the age limit for eligible businesses.

AI puts industrial policy to the test

The government's focus on AI offers a test of whether its investment strategy can translate into industrial growth. The Budget includes an additional £60 million for the Sovereign AI Fund and £80 million to expand early-stage AI procurement, alongside support for the Sovereign AI Unit, AI Security Institute and a new Sovereign AI R&D Procurement Scheme.

Amy Nauiokas, founder and Group CEO of Anthemis and Director of CommonAI, said Britain already has “world-class AI founders, technologists and academics”, but argued that much of that domestic expertise remains untapped. AI companies need compute, energy, customers and procurement opportunities if they are going to become globally competitive businesses.

Peter Griffiths, founder and Executive Chairman of Argyll Data Development, pointed to an even more fundamental constraint:

“The Government has finally recognised that Britain's AI ambitions depend on electricity as much as investment.”

He contends that without compute, power and domestic customers, Britain risks financing the early stages of AI companies whose eventual economic value is captured elsewhere. From starting companies to keeping them

The UK has already shown it can produce promising startups and attract substantial venture investment. The harder task is ensuring those companies can access the capital, infrastructure and customers they need to become global businesses without leaving Britain.

The real measure of these initiatives will not be how many programmes are launched or how much funding is announced, but how many companies build lasting businesses in the UK.

Digital Science, a UK company providing researchers with data, tools and infrastructure, has acquired Jenni AI, an AI-native platform trusted by more than 8 million students and researchers in 189 countries.

Jenni AI helps students and researchers get from a first idea to a finished piece of work. Users can upload papers or import their reference libraries, explore and make sense of their chosen sources, draft and refine their writing, and check citations against the original material. 

Over the coming months, Jenni AI will further enhance its capabilities by incorporating Digital Science’s extensive research data, starting with Dimensions’ 171-million-publication database and leveraging its full-text search capabilities to help researchers discover, understand, and cite scholarly literature more effectively.

According to Stephen Leicht, CEO of Digital Science, researchers already use AI as a matter of routine.

What they can’t get from a general-purpose tool is a citation that has been checked against the actual paper. 

“Jenni AI has built an experience millions of students and researchers choose, often from the very beginning of their careers.

Inside Digital Science, every source it suggests can be verified against Dimensions and its 171 million publications, and that stays true as their work grows from a first thesis chapter to a funded lab. We’re glad to have David, Marc, Shailesh and the team with us.”

Jenni AI joins Overleaf, Papers AI and ReadCube in Digital Science’s portfolio of research tools. It also strengthens Digital Science’s direct relationships with PhD and master’s students at the start of their careers, supporting them as their research grows.

David Park, CEO of Jenni AI, said:

“We started Jenni with the belief that the future is written with AI, not by AI. We built Jenni to empower researchers to explore their curiosity and publish great work.

By joining Digital Science, we're taking a major step toward a future where every researcher has access to the knowledge, tools, and confidence to push the boundaries of human discovery.”

Jenni AI will continue as a standalone product under its own name, with the same team, pricing and subscription plans.

The Pentagon is investigating whether hackers caused freezers to fail at shops on US military bases in August, after a similar attack hit hundreds of supermarkets in France this month. Four officials told Reuters on Thursday that investigators are treating the US incidents as a suspected cyberattack. One official said they had also spoken to […]

German mixed reality software startup VUSE XR has raised €1.2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by IACD, a Düsseldorf-based business angel network, with participation from additional angel investors.

Founded by Niclas Matthias and Dr Paul Matthias, the company develops the VUSE XR Hub, an enterprise software platform designed to help industrial and life sciences companies create, manage and deploy mixed reality training.

Traditionally, mixed reality training has relied on customised projects, with each training experience developed separately. This approach can make content creation expensive and time-consuming, while limiting the ability to update and scale training across different products and locations.

VUSE XR aims to address these challenges by providing a software-based approach that allows companies to create and adapt training content as products and processes evolve.

The platform uses existing CAD models, engineering data and other technical materials to generate photorealistic 3D models, which can be used to develop interactive training experiences. Companies can create training sequences using AI-assisted tools, text prompts or drag-and-drop functionality, adding explanations and practical tasks. Once completed, the training can be deployed across different locations and accessed through web browsers, mobile devices and XR headsets.

Mixed reality hardware is advancing rapidly, but creating mixed reality training content remains the biggest barrier to broader enterprise adoption. The VUSE XR Hub removes this bottleneck, enabling companies to unlock significant business value from mixed reality,

said Niclas Matthias, co-founder and CEO of VUSE XR.

The company already works with customers including ZEISS, Witron, Hologic and Badenova, which use its platform to explain complex products and processes and provide practical training without requiring physical equipment on site. Its customers operate across several industries, including medical and laboratory technologies, energy and mobility solutions.

VUSE XR operates through a recurring software licensing model, allowing customers to create, manage and deploy mixed reality training content. The company also provides onboarding support and assistance with implementing initial training applications.

Alongside the funding announcement, VUSE XR has expanded its leadership team with the appointments of Jan Hendrik Degner as Chief Commercial Officer and Robert Günther as Vice President of Sales and Service Delivery.

The new funding will be used to further develop the VUSE XR Hub, expand its AI-assisted content creation capabilities and support the company's commercial growth.

Photo credit: VUSE XR GmbH

Biotechnology company ALLOX has raised $10.5 million in a seed funding round to expand its drug discovery platform and advance its internal development programmes. The round was led by Asabys through its Sabadell Asabys II fund, with participation from CDTI through SICC Innvierte and the Institut Català de Finances (ICF).

ALLOX is developing a drug discovery platform that combines high-throughput genetics, experimental biology and artificial intelligence to identify previously unexplored opportunities for developing small-molecule therapeutics.

Drug discovery remains challenging for certain biological targets, particularly protein-protein interactions and transcription factors, which have historically been difficult to address with conventional approaches. ALLOX aims to overcome these limitations by identifying regulatory regions within proteins that could serve as potential targets for new treatments.

The company's platform measures the effects of thousands of genetic mutations in parallel to map regions that influence protein folding and interactions. This approach enables the identification of allosteric, orthosteric and other regulatory sites, including potential binding pockets that could be used to develop targeted small-molecule drugs.

Júlia Domingo, CEO and co-founder of ALLOX, said:

By combining large-scale functional data with predictive AI, we aim to unlock a much broader range of challenging drug targets and accelerate the discovery of truly differentiated small-molecule therapeutics.

Alongside the funding announcement, ALLOX has appointed Morten Graugaard as Independent Chair of its Board of Directors. He brings more than two decades of experience in life sciences investment, R&D and business development, having previously held senior positions at Orbis Medicines, Novo Holdings and Lundbeck.

Commenting on his appointment, Graugaard highlighted ALLOX's approach to drug discovery, which combines experimental biology and computational methods to identify therapeutic opportunities that have traditionally been difficult to address:

Importantly, ALLOX fills a critical data gap, enabling the development of functional molecules rather than simply identifying binders.

The new funding will support the expansion of the platform's capabilities and the development of proprietary AI models designed to predict therapeutic opportunities from large-scale biophysical datasets.

ALLOX also plans to strengthen its internal drug discovery team, advance multiple research programmes towards a pipeline of proprietary small-molecule drug candidates and establish research collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners.

Chinese robot maker Pudu Robotics has opened its European headquarters in Neuss, near Düsseldorf, as it builds out its business across the region. The Shenzhen-based company announced plans for the German site in September, following a showcase of its robots at the IFA trade fair in Berlin. The headquarters is now fully operational, bringing together […]

Key points:

• Why impact should be treated as a design problem built into a business model from day one, rather than a values commitment bolted on later
• The difference between impact by intention and impact by design – and how founders and investors can tell the difference
• What it takes to prove impact with evidence, and why investors should fund proof rather than claims
• What replaces the ESG scorecard as the scorecard era comes to an end
• A ten-year vision for the European workforce if talent, capital, and opportunity finally connect across borders

In this conversation, recorded ahead of the MeOut Summit in Budapest, we sit down with Jack Mardack, co-founder of Oyster, the global employment platform that became one of only a handful of companies in the world to reach unicorn status while holding B Corp certification.

Jack shares what he learned scaling Oyster, why he believes the perceived trade-off between financial success and impact is a design failure rather than an economic law, and what the role of Chief Impact Officer actually involves day to day.

We also get into the bigger picture: why the ESG debate has become more ideological than useful, why the notable impact investing market suggests investors have already moved past that argument, and what it would mean for European capital allocation if investors started funding evidence of impact instead of claims of impact.

Finally, we look ahead: whether Europe is measuring itself against the US on the wrong dimensions, what the European workforce could look like in ten years if we get better at connecting talent, capital, and opportunity across borders, and why Jack will be sitting down at the MeOut Summit in Budapest with the founder of Hungary’s first B Corp. His book, “Impact Unleashed: Building Businesses That Scale Positive Change“, unpacks many of these ideas in depth.

The post The EU-Startups Podcast | Interview with Jack Mardack, co-founder of Oyster appeared first on EU-Startups.

Seraphim, a global leader in SpaceTech investment, today launched the Seraphim Academy, a selective programme that will invest $150,000 in early-stage companies through two funding stages and provide up to 12 months of tailored support to help founders raise capital, secure customers and scale internationally.

Founded in 2016, UK investor Seraphim Space spans early-stage investment through the Seraphim Academy, venture capital, growth-stage investment and public markets, supporting companies across the SpaceTech lifecycle. Seraphim manages approximately $1 billion in assets across its investment platform.

Across its wider platform, it has backed more than 150 companies in 33 countries, supporting 11 companies that have achieved unicorn status and six through an IPO, while companies supported through its accelerator have collectively raised more than $1.7 billion.

The Academy builds on Seraphim’s experience supporting companies such as Xona Space Systems, which is developing the world’s first commercial low Earth orbit satellite navigation constellation. Xona joined Seraphim’s previous accelerator programme in 2019, after which Seraphim led its early funding rounds and continued to back the company as it scaled. Xona has now raised a $250 million Series D round at a $2.45 billion valuation, just seven months after its $170 million Series C.  

The Academy is designed to find the next Xona and support its journey from inception to global leadership and beyond.  

Early investment. Tailored support. Long-term ambition.  

The Academy builds on Seraphim’s accelerator model, assessing companies on a rolling basis and tailoring support to their commercial priorities, funding plans and international growth ambitions.  

Selected companies will receive $150,000 of investment and complete the core programme within four to six months, with up to 12 months of tailored support:  

• Fundraising: direct support from Seraphim’s specialist team to strengthen investment propositions, prepare professional materials, and reach more than 800 co-investors across early-stage, late-stage, and public markets.
• Commercial growth: sales, business development, and international expansion support, with a particular focus on the Space and defence markets.
• Mentoring: access to experienced SpaceTech entrepreneurs and major industry players through the Prime-in-Residence programme, helping founders understand customer requirements and build commercial relationships.
• Global connections: targeted introductions to investors and corporate partners in the UK, Europe and the US, expert-led sessions and international SpaceTech events.International partnerships: access to Seraphim’s investment-readiness initiatives, including its work with Space Florida and Florida’s aerospace finance and development authority.
• Long-term support: continued access after the formal programme to Seraphim’s mentors and investor, industry and founder networks for future fundraising and commercial development. 

Seraphim’s ambition is for the Academy to support up to 15 companies each year over the next decade and beyond.

Alexander Holt, Managing Director at Seraphim Space, said:  

“Technologies once considered decades away are becoming commercial realities.

Through the Academy, we want to help early-stage founders turn that technical potential into businesses with customers and international reach. Our ambition is to build relationships that last well beyond the programme.”  

Applications are now open to pre-seed and seed-stage SpaceTech companies developing differentiated technologies for global markets.  

A former UK government minister has launched an AI insurance startup, his co-founder has confirmed, which has reportedly raised nearly £5m in seed funding.

Bim Afolami, who served as the UK’s economic secretary to the treasury between 2023 and 2024 under former prime minister Rishi Sunak, has launched the startup, called i23 along with Anand Sambasivan, one of the co-founders of PrimaryBid, the UK fintech that provides retail investors with access to public company capital raises.

Sambasivan said: “We are building an AI-native insurance broker. Sprinting fast and it feels so great.”

He added: “It’s great to see such a vibrant early-stage ecosystem for UK startups. A lot different to ten years ago. London is very much thriving."

The startup has raised £4.9m in seed funding, according to Sky News, which first reported the news. Investors include Four Cities Capital, which jointly led the round, along with Outward VC, Seedcamp and Insiders Ventures.

The startup is targeting the insurance broker market.

According to the report, i23 is developing an AI operating model which will carry out insurance brokers’ routine administrative work.

The UK insurance broker market is worth up to £22bn a year, according to market data, but it is highly fragmented.

Former PrimaryBid COO Mike Coombes and Salman Valibeik, the co-founder of Opriva, the marketing startup, are also part of the founding team. PrimaryBid was acquired by US fintech giant SoFi last year.

IMAGE: Pixabay

Hamburg-based deeptech company MuRay has raised €7.1 million in funding to further develop its Active Muon Imaging technology and bring it to industrial customers.

The financing includes a €3.5 million private investment round led by First Momentum Ventures and co-led by Caelora, a wholly owned subsidiary of Marvel Fusion. Other participants include Superangel, Mätch VC, Arcas VC and Tiny VC, alongside existing investor Nordic Science Investments. The company also received €3.6 million in non-dilutive public funding, including a grant from the EU's Horizon Europe programme.

Founded by Dr Andi Hektor and Dr Kristjan Põder, who serve as co-CEOs, MuRay is developing imaging technology that uses controlled muon beams to examine the internal structure of dense materials and components.

Quality assurance is the company’s initial focus, particularly for complex, safety-critical components such as 3D-printed rocket engines and gas turbine parts, where detecting internal defects remains a challenge.

Conventional X-rays struggle to penetrate dense materials, while MuRay's technology uses muons to produce high-resolution 3D images of components made from metals, ceramics and composites. The system can identify differences in material composition and density, enabling inspections within minutes rather than hours.

According to the company, the technology could allow manufacturers to detect defects directly on production lines while operating at a significantly lower radiation dose than conventional X-ray methods.

Dr Andi Hektor, co-founder and co-CEO of MuRay, said:

X-rays reach their limit at a few centimetres of steel, yet much of modern industry, from reusable rockets to gas turbines, is built from metal far thicker than that. Active muon imaging lets manufacturers see inside those large, dense components.

Beyond manufacturing quality assurance, MuRay is exploring applications across the space, aerospace, defence and energy industries, where more detailed inspections could help shorten maintenance cycles for components such as reusable rocket engines and jet engines.

In collaboration with the German Space Agency at DLR, MuRay has modelled the inspection of a rocket engine and plans its first real-world assessment in 2027. The project aims to demonstrate the technology's ability to detect internal defects in safety-critical components.

Dr Kristjan Põder, co-founder and co-CEO, added:

Defects that manufacturers can't see keep parts out of service for longer than they should be. Our technology helps them find those defects and get components back into service faster.

MuRay is also exploring applications in cargo and border security, where its technology could detect nuclear materials such as uranium within dense cargo. Longer-term possibilities include radioactive waste monitoring, the inspection of large structures such as bridges and buildings, and clinical diagnostics.

The new funding will support further technology development and MuRay's commercialisation plans, including a mobile imaging system approximately the size of a shipping container, designed to enable inspections directly at industrial sites.

The company plans to launch its first imaging service for industrial customers in 2027, combining DESY's existing electron beam in Hamburg with its own imaging system, followed by its first full-scale system incorporating a laser-driven accelerator in 2029. 

Foodtech app FLTRD has received more than half a million euros from an impact investor, 4impact capital, and a group of angel investors from the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector.  

The app lets shoppers scan a product in the supermarket and instantly see whether it is an ultra-processed food (UPF), along with healthier alternatives.  More than 70 per cent of products on supermarket shelves are ultra-processed.

A growing body of evidence on UPF’s

UPFs are designed to tempt, backed by clever marketing and often on special offer. In November 2025, an international team of researchers published a series in The Lancet linking the growing share of UPFs in diets worldwide to the rise in chronic disease.

Brussels has taken notice. In July, the European Commission asked its scientific advisers how the EU should define ultra-processed food. Their advice is expected in March 2027.

The Commission has also approached FLTRD co-founder Anke Kuik for her expertise.

“The fact that UPFs are now on the European agenda is an important step,” says Kuik. “It shows this isn’t a passing trend, but a problem that calls for a structural response.”

How does the PureScore work?

The PureScore rates products on three components that together determine the score:

Ingredients: the type and amount of added sugars, fats, salt and additives. Refined ingredients stripped of their nutrients also lower the score.

Processing techniques: processes such as heating, hydrogenation and extrusion that alter the natural structure of food. The more intensive the processing, the lower the score.

Organic certification: organic products score higher because they contain fewer pesticide residues. This structure reflects the three main ways UPFs are thought to affect health: loss of nutrients, the addition of harmful substances and a higher risk of overconsumption.

The FLTRD app now covers more than 150,000 products from seven supermarkets, all of which have a PureScore. This independent, science-based score rates a product’s degree of processing based on its ingredients and processing techniques, so people can easily make healthier choices. 

In the Netherlands, more than 35,000 people already use the app on iPhone and Android.

The goal is for 100 million people to use the PureScore to guide their grocery shopping within five years.

“In France, one in three people already uses a similar app. That’s a clear sign people want more insight and guidance,” says Kuik.

“This investment allows us to bring in the people we need to accelerate.

We’re expanding to Belgium before the end of the year, and we’ll be licensing the PureScore to food producers and retailers. We believe everyone has the right to understand the impact of what they eat.”

A structural shift in the market 

Victor Straatman, partner at 4impact capital, shared:

“The European debate on ultra-processed food signals a structural shift in the market. As the European Commission explores which policy frameworks are needed, transparency is becoming a commercial priority for the food sector.

Our investment is directly tied to that shift. FLTRD has the data and the methodology to objectively measure a product’s degree of processing, at exactly the moment verifiable product information is becoming a firm market requirement.”

Alongside 4impact, several angel investors from the FMCG industry have participated in the round. One of them is Jeroen Lubbers, who now invests in healthy food initiatives after many years in the sector. 

“Consumers have the right to see at a glance what’s really in a product and what healthier alternatives are available.

Clear information is essential, especially for people with food intolerances. Food producers also need a quick, objective way to assess their products and identify opportunities for improvement. FLTRD makes that information accessible and easy to use for consumers and producers alike.”

US tech stocks were set to open lower on Thursday after mixed results from Alphabet and Microsoft. Investors are weighing how much Big Tech spends on AI against how quickly that spending pays off. Nasdaq 100 futures were down 1.2% early on Thursday, Reuters reported. S&P 500 futures fell 0.4%, while Dow futures rose 0.35%, as […]

Entourage, the London-based early-stage VC firm founded by Showpad co-founder and former CEO Pieterjan Bouten, today announced the close of its €100 million second fund, just over two years after launching its first fund in 2024.

Entourage Fund II has been backed entirely by entrepreneurs, family offices and private investors, including founders behind Aikido, TechWolf and Collibra. It has surpassed its original €75 million target in just 2 weeks and has secured over €100 million in commitments before being capped at €100 million. 

“When we launched Entourage two years ago, we had a simple ambition: to back the next generation of legendary founders. We wrote the first cheques into companies like Aikido, Conveo and Lexroom. What these founders have achieved in such a short time has only strengthened our conviction in our founder-first approach. With Fund II, we’re doubling down,” said Pieterjan (PJ) Bouten, Founder and General Partner of Entourage. 

Founded in 2024 by Bouten, Entourage claims to bring a founder’s mindset and an operator’s experience to venture capital. It backs “exceptional founders” at the pre-Seed and Seed stages and invests across sectors, including AI, enterprise software, robotics, and DeepTech. 

Bouten co-founded and scaled Showpad into a global software company generating more than €89.84 million ($100 million) in annual recurring revenue. He then became an active angel investor before launching Entourage.

In this episode of The EU-Startups Podcast, Bouten reflects on his journey from co-founding In the Pocket and scaling Showpad to now building and funding the next generation of B2B SaaS companies through Entourage Studio and Entourage Capital.

According to him, this experience helped forge Entourage’s approach: build conviction, invest early and keep founders firmly in the driver’s seat.

The firm states that it extends its founder-first philosophy to governance as well, and therefore rarely takes board seats despite leading or co-leading most of its investment rounds. 

Bouten said, “Most VCs destroy value in early-stage boardrooms. Too few have built a company at scale. After more than a decade as a founder and CEO, and investments in over 60 companies, I’ve seen investors slow founders down with misplaced advice and operational interference. Great founders don’t need babysitting. They need trust, challenge when it counts and perspective at pivotal moments. That’s why we rarely take board seats, even when we lead a round.”

He also highlighted that the firm’s investor base reflects that philosophy. “Many of our investors have built companies themselves. They know what it takes. That creates a powerful alignment between the people funding Entourage and the founders we back,” he added. 

Since launching in 2024, Entourage reported that it has backed some of Europe’s fastest-growing technology companies, including Aikido Security, which reached unicorn status earlier this year; Conveo, which recently raised a €44.92 million ($50 million) Series A; and Lexroom, which reached €30 million in annual recurring revenue in just 24 months.

“Entourage was among the first investors in all three, backing their founders before major international venture capital firms arrived – often before a product launch or the first euro of Revenue,” the firm mentioned in the press release. 

Fund II will back around 25 companies at the pre-Seed and Seed stages across Europe and beyond, with initial cheques of €1 million to €5 million and “ample” capacity for follow-on investments. 

Entourage states that it seeks “driven, ambitious founders building their life’s work.” It argues that while the first fund focused primarily on software, Fund II will broaden its focus to include AI and enterprise software, robotics, physical AI, and DeepTech.

The London-based VC firm also builds companies through Entourage Studio, its venture-building arm. Alongside Fund II, Entourage has expanded its investment team around partners Pieterjan Bouten, Evert Beeckman and Maarten Mortier. It has added three investors—Erwan Gardelle, Sixtine Riescher, and Illja Schiller—opened a London office and established a presence in Paris.

The post Pieterjan Bouten’s Entourage closes €100 million second fund after surpassing €75 million target in two weeks appeared first on EU-Startups.

Hamburg startup MuRay has raised €7.1M to look inside dense metal parts, such as 3D-printed rocket engines and gas turbines. It does this with muons, tiny particles that pass through materials that block X-rays. The total combines a €3.5M private round with €3.6M in public funding, including a grant from the EU’s Horizon Europe research […]

Lovable has opened its first London office, giving the Swedish AI app builder a second home for its engineering, product and design teams. Around 70 people are already working there, and the company plans to increase that number to 100 by the end of the year. The company announced the opening on Thursday. Its London […]

Google Cloud more than doubled its revenue in the third quarter, beating analysts’ forecasts, Alphabet said on Wednesday. Weaker growth in search advertising, however, meant the group as a whole fell short of expectations. Cloud revenue rose 103% from a year earlier to $30.7bn, according to Alphabet’s quarterly results. Analysts had expected $29.57bn, Reuters reported, citing LSEG […]

BY Venture Partners, a global early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Dubai, today announced the successful $60 million close of its third vehicle, Fund III and the launch of its Portuguese office. 

The fund is anchored by the Dubai Future District Fund (DFDF), with participation from established regional institutionals, corporate venture arms, and prominent family offices - including Multi Lane, Transmed Capital, and the Idriss Family Office (KSA). Fund III expands BY Venture Partners’s total Assets Under Management (AUM) to over $200 million.

While anchored in the Middle East, BY Venture Partners operates with a global mandate. The firm invests across more than 16 international markets, with two-thirds of its capital deployed outside the MENA region across North America and Europe

Fund III will invest primarily up to $1 million at the Pre-Seed to Series A stages into AI-native companies that reimagine enterprise workflows and scale globally from day one.

Early momentum for Fund III is already underway, with 15 investments deployed to date out of a planned 40-company portfolio, including PQ Shield, Cosyne, Isometric, Huspy and Invisible.

According to Ghaith Yafi, Founding Partner at BY Venture Partners. 

“We are particularly excited to invest more across Europe, where hubs such as Madrid, London, Paris and Berlin are driving rapid advances in AI-native software.

Our thesis is designed to generate strong, long-term returns for our partners, and we’re incredibly excited about the opportunities ahead with this new fund."

BY Venture Partners has officially established its European footprint with a new office in Lisbon and two key local investment hires.

“Europe is producing some of the world’s most formidable technical talent, but European founders often face a barrier when bridging the gap to international capital and global commercial scale," said Sohrab Jahanbani, Partner at BY Venture Partners. 

"Having backed category leaders like Onfido, PQShield, and Huspy from our earlier funds, double-downing on Europe with our new Lisbon hub is a natural evolution.

Our goal is to give ambitious European founders direct access to global networks, cross-border deployment opportunities, and an operator-led team that knows how to build across international markets."

Built by Founders, for Founders

BY’s all four partners — Ghaith Yafi, Abdallah Yafi, Rami Jisr and Sohrab Jahanbani — are repeat entrepreneurs who built and exited businesses before joining forces as investors. Fund I and II have produced four unicorns alongside a growing group of companies now valued in the hundreds of millions, and the firm has already returned meaningful capital to its LPs.