Griffin, the UK bank that lets fintechs and platforms embed accounts and payments into their own products, has raised a $20M Series B led by Octagon Partners. The round values the London-based company at over $100M and will fund its expansion into card issuing and stablecoin services. Notion Capital, A+ Ventures, Nordic Ninja, Breega, and […]

SE3, the Munich startup building spatial intelligence software for autonomous systems, has raised a $30M Series A led by Accel, with Keen, Lakestar, and Seedcamp participating. The round comes just five months after the company emerged from stealth with a €5.5M seed. SE3’s pitch starts from a gap: AI can automate swathes of knowledge work, […]

Vilnius-based Biomatter has raised $18M in a Series A round to scale its AI enzyme design platform. Astanor led the oversubscribed round. Existing investors UVC Partners, Inventure and Metaplanet also took part. The company announced the round in a press release distributed by Business Wire on 12 November. It did not disclose a valuation. TNW […]

Agile Robots has raised $500 million in a funding round led by SoftBank, valuing the Munich-based robotics company at $8.5 billion. The company announced the investment in a statement Bloomberg reported, bringing total funding to around $2 billion. Nvidia, Hitachi, and T.Capital also participated in the round. The investment comes five months after reports emerged […]

GITEX GLOBAL 2026 returns to Dubai this December with new dates, a new venue and a new format. A one-day summit opens the event on 7 December at Dubai World Trade Centre. A four-day expo follows from 8 to 11 December at Dubai Exhibition Centre in Expo City Dubai. The organisers have named Huawei, Microsoft, […]

Biomatter, a company specialising in custom enzyme design, has raised $18 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round led by Astanor, with participation from existing investors UVC Partners, Inventure and Metaplanet.

Biomatter develops computational technology to design enzymes tailored to specific chemical reactions and industrial applications. Rather than modifying existing natural enzymes, the company focuses on creating enzymes based on the chemistry required for a particular process.

Enzymes play an important role in industries such as pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, agriculture and industrial biotechnology. However, conventional enzyme development can take months or even years, particularly when naturally occurring enzymes are unsuitable for specific applications.

To address these challenges, Biomatter combines computational models with laboratory testing to develop enzymes with properties suited to customers' requirements. Its technology draws on a proprietary dataset of experimentally characterised enzymes, which expands with each development programme. According to the company, its enzyme design process currently takes weeks rather than months or years.

Biomatter has developed custom enzymes for enterprise customers across Europe, the United States and Japan, including AstraZeneca, BASF, Sanofi and Tereos. Its technology is also used in commercial products, including an enzyme developed in collaboration with Thermo Fisher Scientific to improve stability for molecular biology and mRNA research applications.

The company has also designed a methylase for mRNA vaccine manufacturing that operates without S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), an expensive additive required by naturally occurring methylases, enabling a chemical reaction not found in nature.

Our goal is to make a custom enzyme as easy to order as a catalog product, including for reactions that don’t have one today,

said Laurynas Karpus, CEO and co-founder of Biomatter.

With the new funding, Biomatter plans to establish a 2,000-square-metre enzyme design and testing facility in Vilnius, scheduled to open in 2027. The facility is intended to bring more development and testing activities in-house and reduce enzyme development timelines from weeks to days.

The company will also expand its commercial team and presence in the United States, while continuing to develop its computational platform and proprietary enzyme dataset.

Nebuly, a platform that helps enterprises measure the business value of their AI agents, has raised $21 million in a Series A funding round led by Planven. The round included participation from Exor Ventures, Tenacity Capital, TGVG Capital and Fastweb+Vodafone (via Founders Factory), alongside returning investors and angel investors. CDP Venture Capital SGR also supported the round through its Digital Transition Fund, backed by the European Union's NextGenerationEU programme.

As businesses increase their investment in artificial intelligence, measuring its impact on productivity, operational efficiency and revenue has become an important challenge. While AI agents are increasingly used to support employees, handle customer enquiries and automate everyday tasks, many organisations still struggle to determine the returns on these investments.

The challenge is particularly complex for enterprises using AI agents from multiple providers alongside internally developed solutions. Traditional metrics, such as the number of users, prompts or responses, provide insight into adoption but do not necessarily show whether AI is saving time, improving workflows or generating additional revenue.

Nebuly addresses this gap through a platform that analyses how AI agents are used across an organisation, bringing together data from employee-facing tools and customer-facing assistants to measure their business impact.

For internal AI applications, the platform evaluates efficiency gains, including time saved and additional capacity, as well as new tasks that employees can perform with AI assistance. It also identifies how different teams use AI, whether it is being applied to high-value activities and where additional training could improve its effectiveness.

For customer-facing AI assistants, Nebuly measures AI-influenced revenue and identifies potential customer churn risks and upselling opportunities. The platform also allows leadership and finance teams to review and adjust the assumptions behind its calculations.

Every enterprise is about to face the same question from its board: what is AI actually worth to us? Nebuly exists to answer it.
Until now, companies have measured AI by counting users, prompts and responses, which has fueled the recent rise of ‘tokenmaxxing’, where usage itself becomes the goal. None of that tells you whether an employee got an hour of work back or a customer got the answer they needed. Companies are now making decisions about hiring and headcount based on assumptions about AI productivity, not evidence. Decisions of that weight need real data,

said Francesco Signorato, co-founder and CEO of Nebuly.

Nebuly integrates with existing enterprise AI systems, including custom-built tools and assistants based on Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. Its models analyse agent behaviour at scale and can operate on-premises or within a customer's private cloud, allowing organisations to process enterprise data without sending it to external model APIs.

With the new funding, Nebuly plans to expand its go-to-market team across the United States and Europe and further develop its platform to support enterprises in measuring the business value of AI.

Nvidia’s board met late on Wednesday to consider whether Jensen Huang should remain chief executive, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Yet, no decision had been announced by the end of the night. The meeting followed a Wall Street Journal report that Nvidia was preparing to remove its co-founder. The company’s shares fell […]

Nebuly, a Turin-based company that helps businesses measure the financial return from their AI agents, has raised $21m in a Series A round led by Planven. Exor Ventures, Tenacity Capital, TGVG Capital and Fastweb+Vodafone also participated, alongside CDP Venture Capital’s AI and Digital Transition funds. Nebuly is addressing a question that more companies are starting […]

Europe's most successful B2B technology scaleups are building strong businesses at home, but data released today shows many still lack the foundations to compete in the US.

The inaugural Scaling Stateside 50, developed by US Expansion Partners (USXP), assesses European scaleups across commercial strength and US market readiness.

The 50 companies average 86 out of 100 for commercial strength but just 17 out of 100 for US readiness, highlighting a substantial gap between domestic success and preparations for transatlantic expansion.

The ranking draws on more than 500 US readiness assessments, alongside ongoing monitoring of European companies. It includes 50 businesses from 15 countries, with Germany and the UK each contributing 12.

It is supported by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and ecosystem partners HSBC Innovation Banking, Carta, Frazier & Deeter, Dealroom.co and London & Partners. 

I spoke with Matt Oxley, Co-Founder and President of USXP, and Daniel Glazer, Founding Partner of Wilson Sonsini's London office, about the findings and what European founders need to consider before crossing the Atlantic.

Strong at home, unprepared for America

According to USXP, 96 per cent of the scaleups assessed lack the US corporate entity, employer identification number (EIN), banking or payroll infrastructure needed to transact locally.

More than 80 per cent have no US-based employees, while more than 80 per cent have no US trademark or patent filings.

The assessment also identifies differences between sectors, with fintech and cybersecurity companies lagging behind SaaS and deeptech businesses in establishing US operations.

How are the startups scored and ranked?

The Scaling Stateside 50 uses two separate scores:

Foundation Score:

Measures commercial strength across product, finance, marketing, metrics and sales.

US Readiness Score:

Evaluates intellectual property, talent readiness, site selection, US operations, go-to-market strategy and market traction.Importantly, companies are ranked primarily by their Foundation Score, with US Readiness used only to break ties.

The ranking therefore identifies commercially strong European scaleups rather than necessarily those best prepared to enter America.

The scores are based entirely on publicly available information, including company filings, funding announcements, hiring activity, named customers and product releases.

Companies need a Foundation Score of at least 55 to qualify.

Milan-based Lexroom tops the ranking with a Foundation Score of 96 but scores just eight for US readiness. Meanwhile, London-based poq and Cambridge-based Onthos/Theia Insights, ranked 49th and 50th, have US readiness scores of 61 and 58, respectively, putting them among the furthest along in their American preparations.

From Portland to US Expansion Partners

Matt Oxley, Co-Founder and President of USXP, has spent more than 25 years building and scaling technology companies. In 2011, he co-founded Opal, a marketing collaboration platform that went on to serve enterprise customers including Nike, Microsoft and Apple.

"I describe it as being pulled to America. It was the talent, the opportunities, the economics, the purchasing power and where the money was."

In 2013, he sold his possessions, rented out his flat and moved to Portland, Oregon, with two suitcases. Opal subsequently raised funding from investors including Madrona and Accel. After returning to the UK in 2023, Oxley spoke with between 300 and 400 founders, investors and other ecosystem stakeholders.

"The question I couldn't get out of my head was: why weren't more European founders making the journey I'd made?"

That question led him to co-found USXP. Over 18 months, the team developed a proprietary readiness assessment to help European startups evaluate their preparations for US expansion, which now underpins the Scaling Stateside 50. When should European startups make the move?

Oxley argues that European startups often focus so much on their domestic markets that preparing for the US becomes an afterthought.

"I made that move myself, and I know the timing and the build make all the difference: go too early, too late, or without the right foundations, and it costs millions."

He frequently encounters founders who regret waiting.

"We interview founders all the time who tell us they wish they'd gone to America two years earlier. They wish they'd started the journey sooner."

Relocation versus expansion

Glazer distinguishes between relocating an early-stage startup to the US and expanding an established European business after achieving product-market fit.

"Relocation typically happens at an earlier stage, when a founding team in the UK or Europe decides that the market it wants to win is the US."

This may involve moving founders to attract American investors and customers while retaining operations in Europe. Expansion, by contrast, is often driven by growing US customer demand.

"If the ambition is to win the US market, that might justify relocating senior leadership. But if America is one strong market among several, the company might choose to remain headquartered and managed from Europe." ​

Winning in the US requires a different playbook

For Oxley, success in America depends on having the right go-to-market strategy.

"To succeed in America, you need a strong go-to-market function that understands the local market, with the right talent and people in place."

Glazer argues that European founders need to recognise they're playing an away match, where the rules of business are different.

"The first question is: what are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to win the US market, or are you looking at America as one additional revenue source among ten different markets?"

Companies seeking a leading position may need to relocate senior executives and adapt their approach to American business practices.

"You're the visitor entering a new market, and it's up to you to adapt."

For Glazer, the key is to define the desired outcome, work backwards to identify the necessary resources and regularly reassess whether the opportunity justifies the investment.

Building bridges across the Atlantic

European founders can also draw on a growing network of US-based startup hubs and communities. In Silicon Valley, GBx connects British entrepreneurs and investors, while Entrepreneurs First's Bridge programme offers European founders an eight-week San Francisco residency.

Ukrainian initiatives include GOORT, a proposed physical hub, and Ukrainian Valley, a network of founders, technology professionals and VCs, and YEP Academy.

Meanwhile, the European Startup Embassy provides a shared base for European founders and investors, particularly those from Central and Eastern Europe, offering workspace and local connections without the immediate commitment of a permanent US office.

Check out our interview with Vladimira Činčurová, CEO of the European Startup Embassy, and Petr Šmíd, a General Partner at Rockaway Ventures and a founding participant.

For Oxley, the Scaling Stateside 50 is intended to empower founders: "We want to celebrate the companies on the list, but also educate, inform and hopefully inspire founders as they prepare for their own US expansion."

However, scoring based on publicly available information may not capture a company's internal plans or preparations. A low readiness score could reflect a deliberate decision not to prioritise the American market rather than a failure to prepare.

At best, the Scaling Stateside 50 offers European startups a useful framework for assessing their readiness to enter the US market and identifying gaps in their preparations. At worst, it risks becoming a promotional tool for US Expansion Partners and its market-entry services. Its longer-term value will depend on whether it offers meaningful insights into how European companies prepare for expansion.

Nevertheless, by encouraging European founders to think more strategically about US expansion, the initiative could help more promising startups turn their domestic success into international growth.

The ranking will be updated quarterly, with plans to track which companies are making the fastest progress towards US readiness from the first quarter of 2027.

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