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
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
Buntar Aerospace
Builds the Buntar-3 vertical take-off reconnaissance drone and the Buntar Copilot mission software for GPS-denied operations
Latest
Deepslate raises €7.7M seed for European speech-to-speech AI
Berlin's Deepslate raised a €7.7M seed led by 42CAP to train Opal, a speech-to-speech AI model for European languages, hosted on EU infrastructure at €0.02 a minute.
Osavul raises €8.5M Series A for hybrid threat intelligence
Ukrainian-founded, Luxembourg-based Osavul has raised €8.5M from 33N Ventures, Balnord, G+D Ventures and 42CAP after quadrupling contract value in 2025. Next stop: enterprise.
Mallow raises €11M seed for screen-free AI play
Cédric O's Mallow raised €11M from General Catalyst and Balderton two years before anyone saw the product – a Paris bet that the $1.43bn kids audio market is ready for…
Trustly secures $40M from Nordic Capital for AI payments push
Three weeks after cutting a quarter of its staff, Trustly's own shareholders committed more than $40M to turn its $120bn payments network into an AI business intelligence engine.
Inovus Medical raises £15M growth round for surgical simulators
A St Helens medtech that trains surgeons on hydrogel organs has landed around £15M from PXN Ventures, Mercia, Hayfin and Texas-based Unorthodox Ventures, most of it pointed at US residency…
Latest funding
| Company | Round | Lead | Sector | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buntar Aerospace Unclassified · Ukraine | Freedom Fund | Unclassified | €14.3M | |
| Omnio Unclassified · Sweden | – | Unclassified | €2.9M | |
| Zymofix Agritech · Belgium | Series A | First Imagine! Ventures | Agritech | €6M |
| Trustly Unclassified · Sweden | Growth | Nordic Capital, Alfvén & Didrikson | Unclassified | €35.5M |
| Certo Aerospace Defence Tech · United Kingdom | Growth | New and existing shareholders (undisclosed) | Defence Tech | €5.9M |
| Vasco Unclassified · France | Series A | Aquiti, makesense | Unclassified | €1.7M |
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Upcoming events
Devoxx Belgium 2026
Kinepolis AntwerpenResilience Conference London 2026
Resilience Conference London is a cybersecurity conference in London, United Kingdom, running 5-6 October 2026.Mindtrek Conference 2026
Finnkino Cine Atlas (Koskikeskus)Call for startups
ESA BIC Noordwijk — Fall 2026
Incubation under the European Space Agency’s business incubation network, hosted in Noordwijk and open to entrepreneurs based in the Netherlands who can demonstrate a…
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