European startup news, funding rounds and events
Fundraising intelligence, founder interviews and the events that actually move the ecosystem.
Agenda – next 30 days
See the full agenda →From the backstage
AI is taking the work around the event. The room is what’s left
Cvent’s own events team broke its job down task by task and concluded that AI can now support about 40 percent of it. In the same…
Ben Costantini
Informa just bought the rooms. Here’s how startups get in
Every week another AI agent promises to book your meetings, score your leads and write your follow-ups. So why did Informa just agree to pay £2.24…
Ben Costantini
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 CostantiniThe Selected podcast
Tips & advice
Music startups and their buyers go to different conferences
Music Innovation Consulting (MIC) keeps an agenda of 96 music and tech events for 2026. Fifteen carry its music-tech label, and eight of those are in-person…
Ben Costantini
Pick the LP first, then the 2027 conference
A communications director at a German VC firm sent me a two-line question recently. Her investor relations team wants conferences in 2027 with exposure to LPs,…
Ben Costantini
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 CostantiniSpotlight
Sonexos
Electronically controlled, solid-state acoustic panels that cut low-frequency noise from fans, compressors and motors without bulky materials or moving parts.
Latest
Intuitivo raises €1.35M seed to take teacher tools to Brazil
Seventy-five thousand Portuguese teachers already grade through Intuitivo. A €1.35M seed co-led by Caixa Capital now points the Porto company at Brazil, a market twelve times the size.
Volare raises €7.1M and opens its insect protein factory in Pori
Three of Europe's best-funded insect companies died inside eighteen months. Volare opened a 10,000 m2 plant in Pori on a €15 million budget and raised €7.1 million to ramp it.
Beyond Vision raises over €28M to scale drone production in Portugal
Two Lisbon funds put over €28 million into a 13-year-old drone maker that builds its own hardware. The money doubles a factory at Alverca do Ribatejo and aims the next…
Enact Intelligence raises $30M pre-seed for robots that feel force
Seven months old and twelve people strong, Enact Intelligence came out of stealth with $30M from redalpine, Notion Capital and firstminute capital to make robots feel what they touch.
Cognitive Credit raises $40M to put AI on top of verified credit data
Summit Partners has put $40 million into London's Cognitive Credit, whose verified models cover 3,500 bond and loan issuers. The money goes to US sales and a push into private…
Latest funding
| Company | Round | Lead | Sector | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sonexos Unclassified · Switzerland | Valquest Partners | Unclassified | €5.4M (CHF 5M) | |
| adsilico Unclassified · United Kingdom | PXN Ventures | Unclassified | €11.9M (£10M) | |
| Nous Unclassified · United Kingdom | Heartcore Capital | Unclassified | €15.2M ($17M) | |
| Volare Unclassified · Finland | Not disclosed – raised through Springvest | Unclassified | €7.1M | |
| Intuitivo Unclassified · Portugal | Seed | Caixa Capital, Impact Innovation Fund (co-leads) | Unclassified | €1.4M |
| Cygrid Unclassified · Germany | Pre-seed | Atlantic | Unclassified | €2.7M |
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Upcoming events
it-sa Expo&Congress 2026
NürnbergMesse Exhibition Centre0100 International 2026
0100 International is a startup conference in Milan, Italy, running 27-29 October 2026.MoneyLIVE Nordic Banking 2026
MoneyLIVE Nordic Banking is a fintech conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, running 27-28 October 2026.Investor corner
Call for startups
EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2026
Frontier research towards breakthrough technologies is the remit here, funded by the European Innovation Council for participants in the EU. Projects are mostly consortium-based…
MediaTech Hub Accelerator 2026
<p>Equity-free accelerator for early-stage media and technology startups, run by MediaTech Hub Potsdam at Studio Babelsberg, Germany. The nine-month programme covers two tracks –…
ROBOTICS AWARD 2027 (Hannover Messe)
<p>HANNOVER MESSE’s award for robot-based automation and logistics solutions, open to startups, established companies and research institutions from Germany and abroad. Three nominees receive…
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