🌟 QUICK INTRO
Hello and welcome back.
Last week was a big week for European Tech. Atomico’s annual report was released, Denmark got a new unicorn, and Lovable, Fuse and Quantum Systems are all raising their second rounds this year.
And it was Slush. Lots to get in to.
On a personal note my X is starting to see good traction - if that’s of interest please follow along here.
Harmonic are sponsoring this newsletter - check them out here.
💰 BIG ROUNDS
Danish fintech Flatpay became a unicorn after raising $170m from AVP and Smash Capital at a $1.7bn valuation. Read more here.
German Voize, the AI voice tool for frontline workers, raised a $50m Series A from Balderton Capital. I interviewed the founder here.
Swiss Flexion Robotics, which is building a learning platform for humanoid robots, raised a $50m Series A from DST Global Partners. Read more here.
French spacetech Infinite Orbits, which builds software and hardware to provide in-orbit services such as refuelling and repairing satellites, raised €40m from Matterwave Ventures and Wind Capital. Read more here.
French Crypto-banking startup Deblock, a platform that combines everyday banking with on-chain self-custody wallets, raised a €30m Series A led by Speedinvest. Read more here.
French GetVocal AI, the leading provider of conversational AI agents for enterprise customer support, has raised a $26m Series A led by Creandum. Read more here.
German Peec AI, the marketing platform for AI search which hit $4m ARR in just 10 months, raised a $21m Series A led by Singular. I interviewed the founder here.
UK-based Condukt, the compliance platform founded by ex-Revoluters, has raised a $10m round led by Lightspeed and MMC Ventures. I interviewed the founders here.
💸 SMALLER BUT INTERESTING ROUNDS
French La Fraise, which has built AI agents that help dentists save time, simplify patient communication and make treatment plans clearer, raised €3.2m from 20VC, Seedcamp and Kima Ventures.
Spanish Voltrac, which has designed and built Thor - an autonomous / tele-operated tractor, raised a €7m seed led by Extantia alongside Antler, FoodLabs and Andreas Klinger's PROTOTYPE capital.
German Cellbyte, has built an AI platform that helps pharmaceutical companies launch new drugs worldwide, raised a $2.75m seed round led by Frontline Ventures. I interviewed the founders here.
🇪🇺 THE SCALING EUROPE SHOW
This week I conducted 15 interviews at Slush with several billion-dollar founders and some of the world’s best VCs. I will be publishing them ASAP.
I also interviewed and published four founders who announced funding rounds this week:
Marius Meiners: Co-Founder and CEO at Peec AI announcing their new $21m Series A. Check it out here.
Fabio Schmidberger: Co-Founder and CEO at voize announcing their $50m Series A. Check it out here.
Paulo Guichard: Co-Founder & CEO at Condukt announcing their $10m round. Check it out here.
Daniel and Felix: Co-Founders at Cellbyte on $2.75m raise. Check it out here.
These funding round interviews seem to be doing really well. If you know of anyone raising let me know!
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📰 STARTUP NEWS
Lovable
Europe’s hottest startup hosted its 1st birthday party this week to celebrate launching its product a year ago.
As part of the celebrations it announced surpassing $200m in ARR.
In other news:
It’s rumoured to closing a round at a $6.3bn valuation from CapitalG, Menlo Ventures and Khosla Ventures.
It’s been criticised for not paying any VAT in Sweden to date. This has caused a lot of debates over the weekend as some standup for Lovable and some see it as a indicator of incompetence. The company have made it clear that it whatever it owes. Read more here.
Fuse Energy
The startup, founded by Revolut executives Alan Chang and Charles O. in 2022, supplies UK homes with cheaper and cleaner electricity and has seen amazing growth this year:
Hit $100m ARR over summer and then hit $300m months later
Went from 50k customers to 150k customers in 3 months
The company became a unicorn in July this year when it was valued at $1bn.
It’s now raising a round at a $5bn valuation 5 just months later. US-based investment fund Lowercarbon Capital is set to lead the round, which will also include Balderton Capital.
Read more here.
Vinted
Vinted became Lithuania’s first unicorn back in 2019, before raising a mammoth round of €250m that valued the company at €3.5 billion.
It's now being reported that the company is on track to surpass a €1bn in revenue, and sell some secondaries to enable early investors to cash out at an €8bn valuation.
It was last valued at a €5bn valuation in 2024 when it sold $300m+ of secondaries.
The company is profitable and recorded €77m of net profits last year.
Read more here.
Quantum Systems
German drone maker Quantum Systems is about to close a €200m round at a $3bn valuation just months after becoming a unicorn.
The round could close in the next few weeks and is being led by Balderton Capital who led their unicorn-round in May.
The company has consistently grown revenue by over 100% over the past few years.
It's also eyeing up another round and a potential IPO in 2026.
Read more here.
The State of European Tech Report
Atomico released its yearly report on European Tech. Here are the highlights:
Funding is up slightly on last year - $44bn will be raised in 2025, topping the $43bn and $41bn picked up across 2023 and 2024.
Deep Tech and Defence investments have grown over 50% YoY,
European Tech Nationalism is on the rise with 51% of founders building in Europe as they believe it’s important to do so, even if it’s harder.
Pension funds are massively under-investing in VC compared to the US.
Overall optimism is up across the continent.
💶 FUND NEWS
New British VC Firgun Ventures closed its first investment round at $70 million (£53 million) this weekend. Read more here.
🔎 IN OTHER NEWS
Project Europe and ElevenLabs are teaming for a hackathon in Warsaw. I’ll be live-streaming the whole thing.
The European Commission is making progress at reducing bureaucracy in Europe as it rolls back cookie consent banners among others. Read more here.
THAT’S ALL. Thank you.
Seb