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Zeit AI raises €5M seed to automate mid-market data engineering

Two Palantir alumni raised €5M with no lead investor for ZeitMind, an AI data engineer already inside 30 mid-market firms – Munich's second agentic-AI seed this week.

Stéphane Paillard · September 6, 2026 · 4 min read

Funding

Backbone raises €4M pre-seed to automate food quality compliance

Funding

Octave.energy raises €10M Series A for European battery storage

Funding

AI Score raises £4M seed to keep enterprise AI agents in check

Agenda – next 30 days

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8-10 Sep 2026 · Paris IPEM Global The world's private capital hub: three days in Paris where LPs, GPs, advisers and… 6,584 attendees 8 Sep 2026 · Cologne DIGITAL X Deutsche Telekom's free digital business festival in Cologne's Rheinauhafen, aimed at German SMEs adopting… 5,000 attendees 8 Sep 2026 · Kaunas Startup Social Kaunas Evening startup meetup in Kaunas run by Startup Lithuania, this edition built around meeting… 125 attendees 8-12 Sep 2026 · Frankfurt Automechanika Frankfurt The world's leading automotive aftermarket tradeshow. 108,000 attendees Deadline · 2 days Slush 100 2026 A EUR 500,000 equity-free prize for seed-or-earlier startups pitching at Slush in Helsinki. EUR 500,000 Deadline · 5 days MEDICA Start-up Competition 2026 Stage time and health-industry exposure at the MEDICA fair in Dusseldorf for medical technology teams worldwide. No cash prize Deadline · 6 days How to Web Spotlight 2026 Matched funding of up to EUR 700,000 for early-stage Central and Eastern European teams pitching in Bucharest. Up to EUR 700,000 matched funding pool · Matched investment… Deadline · 10 days Sirha Innovation Awards 2027 An award and event-wide visibility at Sirha in Lyon for foodservice and hospitality innovation; no cash prize. Award, visibility and laureate listing

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The most digital companies in the world are opening coffee shops

Startups

August 11, 2026

The most digital companies in the world are opening coffee shops

The AI industry runs on GPUs, APIs and Discord servers. So why is an AI insurance startup valued at $4 billion signing a lease for a…

Ben Costantini

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The Selected podcast

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Episode 120

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.

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The show tackles what buyers & builders actually solve.

01 André Loesekrug-PietriSelected 23:01

02 Hila CohenSelected 19:47

03 Antonio CellieSelected 24:36

04 Maxim SegerenSelected 23:10

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The empty startup area: why tradeshows fail at startup sales

Events

August 10, 2026

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

Startup of the week

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Climate

Octave.energy

Battery storage and energy management systems (BESS/EMS) helping businesses cut costs and add grid flexibility

Mechelen

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Funding · Sep 5

Atira raises $15M seed to automate industrial sales engineering

Accel leads a $15M seed into Munich's Atira ten months after founding, betting AI agents can turn industrial RFQs into finished bids in a CPQ market growing 15.74% a year.

Stéphane Paillard

Funding · Sep 5

Ki 13 raises $5M seed for affordable synthetic fuels

London's Ki 13 raised a $5M seed led by HICO Investment Group to pilot biomass electrolysis, splitting wood residues into the two feedstocks synthetic fuels need at a fraction of…

Stéphane Paillard

Funding · Sep 4

Pharosyn raises $3M seed to speed up pharma’s commercial decisions

Two Cambridge graduates founded Pharosyn in 2025; a year later a top-ten biopharma uses it to cut report work from four hours to 15 minutes. Moonfire just led their $3M…

Stéphane Paillard

Funding · Sep 4

iPremom raises €15M seed to predict pregnancy complications early

Valencia's iPremom raised a €15M seed led by Amadeus Capital Partners to predict preeclampsia from a first-trimester blood test, built on 26,000 samples from Spain's PREMOM study.

Stéphane Paillard

Funding · Sep 4

HyImpulse raises over €50M to scale Europe’s hybrid rocket launches

HyImpulse adds over €50M to its Series A, co-led by JOIN Capital and Ace Capital Partners, to fly SR75 from SaxaVord and put the 600 kg SL1 orbital rocket on…

Stéphane Paillard

The Money Map

Latest funding

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Company	Round	Lead	Sector	Amount
Octave.energy Climate · Belgium	Series A	SPDG Growth	Climate	€10M
AI Score AI · United Kingdom	Seed	Fuel Ventures	AI	€4.7M
Zeit AI AI · Germany	Seed	–	AI	€5M
Backbone AI · Belgium	Pre-seed	Pitchdrive	AI	€4M
Atira AI · Germany	Seed	Accel	AI	€12.9M
Rightcharge Climate · United Kingdom	Growth	Soulmates Ventures	Climate	€580K

€43.5B across 1,371 rounds tracked · Sesamers round tracker · methodology

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Funding

QuantumLight Closes $500M Fund II – and Algorithmic VC Stops Being an Experiment

Stéphane Paillard · Aug 28

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Funding

The EIF’s €15B ETCI 2 Is Europe’s Biggest Bet Yet on Fixing the Scaleup Gap

Stéphane Paillard · Aug 28

Competitions & opportunities

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Slush 100 2026

Slush stages its flagship pitch competition in Helsinki, and the prize is a EUR 500,000 investment and no equity is taken. Eligibility is tightly…

Deadline · September 7, 2026 Apply →

MEDICA Start-up Competition 2026

Medical technology teams pitch on the MEDICA trade fair stage in Dusseldorf, across tracks covering AI in medicine, robotics, laboratory diagnostics, and cybersecurity and…

Deadline · September 10, 2026 Apply →

How to Web Spotlight 2026

Held alongside the How to Web conference in Bucharest, Spotlight is Central and Eastern Europe’s early-stage pitch competition. Entrants must be under five years…

Deadline · September 11, 2026 Apply →

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The insiders' advantage to European tech.

Zeit AI raises €5M seed to automate mid-market data engineering

Backbone raises €4M pre-seed to automate food quality compliance

Octave.energy raises €10M Series A for European battery storage

AI Score raises £4M seed to keep enterprise AI agents in check

Agenda – next 30 days

From the backstage

The most digital companies in the world are opening coffee shops

The Selected podcast

André Loesekrug-Pietri

Tips & advice

The empty startup area: why tradeshows fail at startup sales

Spotlight

Octave.energy

Latest

Atira raises $15M seed to automate industrial sales engineering

Ki 13 raises $5M seed for affordable synthetic fuels

Pharosyn raises $3M seed to speed up pharma’s commercial decisions

iPremom raises €15M seed to predict pregnancy complications early

HyImpulse raises over €50M to scale Europe’s hybrid rocket launches

Latest funding

Browse the ecosystem

Upcoming events

IPEM Global

DIGITAL X

Startup Social Kaunas

Investor corner

QuantumLight Closes $500M Fund II – and Algorithmic VC Stops Being an Experiment

The EIF’s €15B ETCI 2 Is Europe’s Biggest Bet Yet on Fixing the Scaleup Gap

Call for startups

Slush 100 2026

MEDICA Start-up Competition 2026

How to Web Spotlight 2026

Join the community