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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Creative tech in Europe runs on grants. San Sebastián’s finalists prove it
Ten startups pitched at the San Sebastián Film Festival on 24 September. I went through every one of them afterward and couldn’t find a single disclosed…
Ben Costantini
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 CostantiniThe 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
Aptadir Therapeutics
First-in-class demethylating RNA medicines that reactivate silenced genes in genetic diseases and cancer
Latest
bilt.me raises $700K pre-seed to turn prompts into mobile apps
Six engineers in Tallinn hit six-figure ARR in a year, then raised $700K from Superhero Capital and the founders of Bolt and Lightyear to turn plain-language prompts into native mobile…
Granite raises €4M to ship sovereign cloud for AI agents
Bifrost Studios leads a €4M round into Granite, whose containerised sovereign datacentres give AI agents compute, memory and permissions under European jurisdiction.
Humanos raises $3.2M seed to give AI agents a risk score
Anthemis leads a $3.2M seed into Lisbon's Humanos, whose 0-100 risk scores and risk passports aim to let insurers and lenders underwrite autonomous AI agents – 350+ deployments already.
Complaion raises €13.5M to automate SME compliance in Europe
Milan's Complaion pairs software with certified auditors and says it automates up to 80% of compliance work. Eurazeo and Italian Founders Fund just co-led a €13.5M round to take that…
Bessemer Venture Partners closes $5.75B, mostly for growth
Seven in ten Bessemer deals are seed or early stage, yet 70% of its new $5.75B goes to growth. Legora's climb from Stockholm shows what that money buys in Europe.
Latest funding
| Company | Round | Lead | Sector | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aptadir Therapeutics Unclassified · Italy | Seed | 4BIO Capital | Unclassified | €40M |
| Rayon Unclassified · France | Series A | Partech | Unclassified | €10M |
| IPercept Unclassified · Sweden | Series A | Isogon Ventures, 2150 (co-leads) | Unclassified | €14.6M |
| DoD Solution Unclassified · Unclassified | Pre-seed | – | Unclassified | €1.9M |
| bilt.me Unclassified · Estonia | Pre-seed | Superhero Capital | Unclassified | €620K |
| Granite Unclassified · Denmark | Bifrost Studios | Unclassified | €4M |
Browse the ecosystem
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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