Stéphane Paillard
Covering European fundraising, first-time fund managers, and the founders behind the rounds. Previously built event and community products across the French tech ecosystem; now runs Sesamers and hosts the Sesame Summit.
Latest from Stéphane
465 articles
Coherence Quantum raises €2.78M seed for cryogenic quantum control
Three Aalto physicists raised €2.78M from Lifeline Ventures to fix the part of quantum computing nobody photographs: the wiring and control electronics inside the…
Plinto raises €2.9M pre-seed for AI financial controlling
Four Peakon alumni raised €2.9M from People Ventures and Emblem to replace month-end controlling with AI agents that catch bad invoices the minute they…
XRlabs raises $8.4M seed to put surgical AI in every operating room
A practising neurosurgeon raised $8.4M from Playground Global to make the operating room's machines work as one AI system - with Medtronic's former chief…
Nouscom raises €120M Series D to intercept cancer before it starts
M Ventures and Revelation Partners co-lead a €120M Series D for Basel's Nouscom, funding one global registration trial of NOUS-209, its vaccine to stop…
Linkener raises €7.5M to digitise business energy management
Alantra's Klima fund leads a €7.5M round in Valencia's Linkener, a 2011-founded energy management platform with 2,000 customers and 1.7 TWh under management -…
CoComply raises £1.9M to govern the hidden contractor workforce
Mercia's NPIF II leads a £1.9M round into CoComply, the Alderley Park platform that finds workers hidden in supplier contracts and classifies them before…
Vessla raises $3.3M pre-seed for AI agents in property management
Seedcamp leads a $3.3M pre-seed into Vessla, the Stockholm startup founded in 2026 that puts AI agents to work across the fragmented systems running…
Unravel Health raises £2.5M pre-seed for at-home hormone testing
London's Unravel Health has closed a £2.5M pre-seed co-led by Conduit EIS Impact Fund and Wrightwood. Its Glasgow-born Micro Lab reads four hormones from…
Goodweek raises $12M to become the AI manager for SMBs
Eight funds and Bpifrance back Strasbourg-born Goodweek with $12 million to give SMBs one governed place to run Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Mistral. The…
Microbiotica raises £36M Series C for precision microbiome medicines
British Business Bank leads a £36M first close for Cambridge's Microbiotica, with Tencent back in, to test an eight-strain gut capsule in Phase 2…