European startup news, funding rounds and events
Fundraising intelligence, founder interviews and the events that actually move the ecosystem.
Agenda – next 30 days
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AI replaced 3D printing in composites pitches
In 2019, 3D printing was the loudest thing in composites. Across that year’s JEC Composites Startup Booster applications it ran at 24.7 mentions per 10,000 words…
Ben Costantini
IFA 2026: the twenty startups who pitched, and the one who won
A company that prints implantable human tissue won a pitch competition at a consumer electronics fair. Cellbricks Therapeutics took the IFA Pitch Battle 2026 on the…
Ben Costantini
Composites Are About High Performance. So Are Events.
A startup event strategy needs the same discipline. Spend enough time around (deep-tech) startups and you start noticing a familiar pattern. The same founders appear at…
The Selected podcast
Tips & advice
The empty startup area: why tradeshows fail at startup sales
Picture this. A strategy director at a major exhibition calls with six weeks to go before the show. The brand new startup area has sold exactly…
Ben Costantini
Why events are lying about their metrics
This week I read about a hackathon claiming 6,000 attendees over a single weekend. The venues hosting it can’t accommodate more than 1,000 people. Nobody in…
Ben Costantini
The hidden costs of events: Why founders get the math wrong
Most startup founders treat events like they’re going travelling: count the days, block the calendar, done. But event tickets don’t come cheap, and the actual affair…
Ben CostantiniSpotlight
Latest
Reecall raises €3.5M to sell white-label voice AI to software vendors
Lyon-based Reecall raises €3.5M led by Founders Future, with Holnest, Mesh, Evolem and BlaBlaCar co-founder Francis Nappez, to industrialise white-label voice AI across Europe.
Wealthcome raises €15M Series B to equip France’s wealth advisers
Breega leads a €15M Series B for Bordeaux's Wealthcome, whose WealthPro platform aggregates over €80bn for 6,000 wealth advisers. Next stop: banks, insurers and an AI assistant named Binom.
HighLife raises $90M+ to start US pivotal study for its mitral valve
Paris medtech HighLife has landed more than $90 million from four French co-leads to fund a US pivotal study, months after CE marking its transcatheter mitral valve system.
Kontext raises $4M seed to police what AI agents actually do
Munich's Kontext raised a $4M seed led by 42CAP with a16z CSX and HTGF to check every AI agent action against policy before it runs – agentic AI security is…
Benford raises €5M pre-seed to run audits, not sell audit software
Three Palantir, Goldman Sachs and One Peak alumni raised €5M from firstminute capital and fintech's best-known founders to run statutory audits end-to-end, not sell software to auditors.
Latest funding
| Company | Round | Lead | Sector | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prevision Medicine Unclassified · Switzerland | Seed | ACE Ventures | Unclassified | €4.8M |
| Kasvu Therapeutics Unclassified · Finland | Series A | Hadean Ventures | Unclassified | €30M |
| Wealthcome Fintech · France | Series B | Breega | Fintech | €15M |
| Reecall Unclassified · France | Founders Future | Unclassified | €3.5M | |
| Reply Next Unclassified · Spain | Pre-seed | 4Founders Capital | Unclassified | €400K |
| OWOW Venture Studio Unclassified · Netherlands | Undisclosed family offices and angel investors (eight backers, none named) | Unclassified | €2.7M |
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Upcoming events
Call for startups
Ultra Long Duration Energy Storage Project Development Studies (Relaunch) 2026
Innovate UK and UKRI relaunched this grant competition to fund project development studies for ultra long duration electrochemical energy storage – technology built to…
Expo AgriTech — AgriTech Startup Forum 2026
Agrifood-focused founders present at the AgriTech Startup Forum, part of Expo AgriTech in Malaga. It is aimed at startups improving competitiveness in agriculture through…
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