🌟 QUICK INTRO
Hello and welcome back.
Sir Demis Hassabis stepped down as CEO of Google DeepMind to become Chair, Bending Spoons landed its first post-IPO deal with a $1.3bn Airtable acquisition, and London AI cloud startup Volta exited stealth at a $2.4bn valuation with a reported $10bn compute deal with Anthropic.
Check out the Scaling Europe instagram page here where we just hit 11k!
💰 BIG ROUNDS
London-based OLIX raised a $312m Series B at a $3.3bn valuation led by Fundomo to scale its AI chip infrastructure for frontier AI inference. Read more here.
Spanish-founded HappyRobot raised a $150m Series C at a $1.2bn valuation led by Prysm Capital to expand its AI agents for enterprise automation. Spain's newest unicorn. Read more here.
Munich-based NavVis raised a €73.2m Series D to build its spatial data engine for photorealistic digital twins of buildings and industrial facilities. Read more here.
Cyprus-based Omilia raised a €58.1m Series B to scale its self-learning AI agents for enterprise customer service. Read more here.
Dutch Ore Energy raised a $43m Series A led by Plural to commercialise long-duration iron-air batteries that store electricity for up to 100 hours. Read more here.
UK-based 10x Banking secured £40m in equity and debt to expand its core cloud banking software for banks and financial institutions. Read more here.
Glasgow-based Mironid raised a €39.9m Series B to develop new treatment options for patients with rare inherited kidney diseases. Read more here.
Berlin-based Moss raised a €30m Series C at a €1bn+ valuation to expand its Finance AI suite. Germany's newest unicorn in SME finance automation. Read more here.
Aix-en-Provence-based Chargepoly secured €23m to scale its DC charging infrastructure for heavy-duty commercial vehicle fleet electrification. Read more here.
Helsinki-based Aiforia secured €20m in EIB financing to advance its AI-powered cancer diagnostics and digital pathology platform. Read more here.
Lisbon-based Neuraspace raised a €15.6m Series B to scale AI-driven space traffic management and defence-grade space domain awareness. Read more here.
UK-based AEM secured £16m to develop rare-earth-free electric motors for automotive, industrial and marine applications. Read more here.
💰 SLIGHTLY SMALLER ROUNDS
🎙️ Podcast of the Week - Francesco Sciortino, Proxima Fusion
Proxima Fusion recently raised €411m at a €2.4bn valuation, the largest funding round in European fusion. The company is building a fusion reactor designed to produce clean, safe energy continuously, without the risk of a runaway reaction.
Francesco Sciortino is Co-Founder and CEO of Proxima Fusion. The company published its commercial fusion power plant design in 2025, and its next milestone is a full-scale magnet that will prove the reactor design works, expected by the end of 2027.
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📰 BIG NEWS
Demis Hassabis
Sir Demis Hassabis stepped down as CEO of Google DeepMind to become Chair of DeepMind and Chief Scientist of Alphabet, with deputy Koray Kavukcuoglu taking over as SVP of Google DeepMind. Longtime chief scientist Jeff Dean also left, alongside three colleagues, to launch Discovery Loop, a science-focused AI startup backed by Google.
Pathfounders reported that Hassabis wanted to leave outright but was persuaded to take the Chair role to avoid a share-price shock. Google stock fell 5% on the news anyway.
With David Silver now at Ineffable Intelligence and John Jumper at Anthropic, London's frontier AI centre of gravity is visibly thinning. Hassabis is expected to lean more into Isomorphic Labs.
Read more here.
Bending Spoons buys Airtable for $1.3bn
Milan-based Bending Spoons acquired Airtable for $1.3bn in its first post-IPO deal, folding the no-code workflow platform into a portfolio that already includes AOL, Vimeo, WeTransfer and Eventbrite.
People on X have been quick to point out the irony in some of the US tech's most impressive companies being acquired for very cheap by Europe's most ruthless operator.
Read more here.
Volta emerges with $300m and a reported $10bn Anthropic compute deal
London-based Volta exited stealth with a $300m Seed and Series A at a $2.4bn valuation backed by Nvidia and Michael Dell, to build and operate AI factories with dedicated infrastructure.
Volta reportedly landed a $10bn compute deal with Anthropic and is selling power, land, compute and financing as a single stack.
Read more here.
📰 SMALLER NEWS
Wayve and Uber received private hire vehicle licences from Transport for London to run autonomous rides in the capital. 100,000 Londoners have already signed up. Read more here.
The founder of Revolut is in line for a new pay deal that would see him worth $200bn if the company hits a $500bn valuation
The EU AI Act began enforcement, introducing transparency obligations for general-purpose AI models, bans on prohibited practices and fines of up to 3% of annual global turnover.
Yann LeCun joined 224 Ventures, a new $100m AI fund co-led by ex-DeepMind's Oriol Vinyals and Shaun Johnson.
Modal Labs, the New York-headquartered AI infrastructure startup, is opening a London office. Read more here.
💰 M&A
💶 FUND NEWS
The Scaleup Europe Fund made its debut investment, co-leading ICEYE's €1bn Series F at a €10bn+ valuation. Read more here.
The British Business Bank and HM Treasury committed £100m to the next tranche of the Investor Pathways Capital Initiative, backing early-stage regional VC funds across the UK.
London-based White Star Capital closed Fund IV at $250m to back globally ambitious founders at Series A and B, bringing total capital raised across Fund IV and its debut North American Seed Fund to over $350m. Read more here.
Mobilise launched Mobilise Platforms & Investments to combine strategic investment, telecom expertise and shared technology for specialist telecom software businesses. Read more here.
🎪 EVENTS
Tickets are available for Wave, the leading tech conference in Turin. Confirmed speakers include Dario Amodei, Jony Ive, Charlie Songhurst, and many more. Get 10% off using discount code SCALINGEUROPE-WAVE10 at checkout here.
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Thank you.
Seb