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 agendaFrom 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 launch, Cvent published a Forrester study in which 70 percent of 459 marketing and…
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 billion for a company whose product is a hall, a badge and a few…
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 venture round. The biggest cheque on the day was the festival’s own: €30,000 for…
Ben CostantiniThe Selected podcast
André Loesekrug-Pietri
What if Europe had its own DARPA? André Loesekrug-Pietri, co-founder of JEDI, explains how a privately funded agency runs moonshots on rare-earth refining, laser communication and antibiotics, who pays for them, and why he thinks Europe keeps funding projects instead of winners.
Up next
The show tackles what buyers & builders actually solve.
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 events in Europe. Only one of the eight, Music Frontiers in Hamburg, belongs to…
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, other GPs and good sponsors. Is there a list? Not a good one. So…
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 one booth. The show runs on a multi-year cycle, so a failed launch means…
Ben CostantiniSpotlight
Nebuly
The ROI platform for enterprise AI
Latest
Week 46 funding recap: €1,652.4M raised, led by London and Munich
Europe's startups announced 19 equity rounds worth €1,652.4M between 7 and 13 November, 260% more money than the previous seven days.
Stéphane Paillard
SPARETECH raises $20M Series B from Blume Equity and Insight Partners for spare parts AI
German spare parts AI company SPARETECH raised a $20M Series B co-led by Blume Equity and Insight Partners, with North America next.
Stéphane Paillard
Oyster Therapeutics raises $60M Series A for an oral tau degrader
Eli Lilly joins a $60 million round led by 4BIO Capital in London's Oyster Therapeutics, which is developing oral tau degraders designed to reach the brain.
Stéphane Paillard
sennder raises €228M in equity and debt for road freight
Berlin's sennder pairs €73M of equity from Scania and Poste Italiane with €155M of credit from Coface, the EIB and Deutsche Bank, with profitability reached.
Stéphane Paillard
PORT raises €14.5M to put delivery robots on its courier hubs
London's PORT runs 3,500 courier e-bikes from 24 micro-hubs. Its €14.5M round, led by the EBRD and Balnord, pays for the AI driver and the robots meant to follow them.
Stéphane PaillardLatest funding
| Company | Round | Lead | Sector | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NebulyItaly | Series A | Planven | Unclassified | €19M ($21M) |
Agile RobotsGermany | Series D+ | SoftBank | Unclassified | €452.4M ($500M) |
UforceUnited Kingdom | Series A | Valor Equity Partners, UK National Wealth Fund | Autonomous Systems | €633.4M ($700M) |
GamaFrance | Seed | — | Unclassified | €15M |
AnorakUnited Kingdom | Pre-seed | Play Ventures, Backed VC | Unclassified | €4.5M ($5M) |
Tendrils ComputeUnited Kingdom | — | Benchmark | Unclassified | €27.1M ($30M) |
€57.3B across 1,843 rounds tracked · Sesamers round tracker · Methodology
Browse the ecosystem
Investor corner
Call for startups
Occitanie EMERGENCE 2026
Occitanie’s regional call funds public research and higher-education bodies maturing early deep-tech results towards application. It covers half of eligible project costs up to a ceiling of EUR 100,000, and the money is a grant with no equity attached. Applicants…
EIT Urban Mobility Financial Support to Startups (2026)
Join the community
Discover the events and opportunities worth your calendar. Get free tickets and build your European event roadshow.
Founders, investors and organisers across Europe