Founders Robert Kim (CEO) and Dinmukhamed Mailibay (CTO) grew up together in Kazakhstan, studied at KAIST, and worked side by side in London before founding Laminar. Robert built infrastructure at Palantir and Bloomberg; Din built payment infrastructure at AWS. They are YC S24 alumni. 

The observability tools that exist today were designed for single LLM calls and simple chains. They weren't built for agents that run for hours, generate thousands of spans per session, and need browser session replay to debug ---Laminar was. 

With a single line of code, Laminar captures everything an agent does: every LLM call, tool use, and function execution.

For browser agents, Laminar even captures browser session recordings and syncs them directly with traces, so developers can see exactly what the agent was looking at when it made a decision.

Its Signals feature uses AI to automatically surface failure patterns and anomalies at scale, turning raw observability data into a continuous improvement loop.  Its Agent Debugger lets developers rerun an agent from any step, preserving full prior context, so they can iterate without starting from scratch. 

According to Robert Kim, CEO, Laminar:

"When your agent fails 40 minutes into a task, today's tools show you a wall of thousands of spans and say 'good luck.' We built Laminar so you can pinpoint the exact decision that went wrong and rerun from that point."  

Since launching in 2025, Laminar already counts Browser Use, OpenHands, Rye.com, and Alai among its customers.

Its SDK is directly integrated into OpenHands' software agent and benchmarking infrastructure, and it is the default observability solution in Browser Use's documentation. 

Multiple companies have chosen Laminar over incumbent platforms specifically for its Signals feature, and at least one well-funded AI company has built a similar capability in-house, validating that agent-native observability is becoming a critical layer in the stack. 

"Robert and Din are technically exceptional and deeply customer-obsessed. Agent observability is a critical infrastructure layer for the next generation of AI, and Laminar has the right architecture to own it,” shared Lukas Erbguth, Principal at Atlantic.vc 

The funding will accelerate product development and go-to-market expansion as AI agents move from prototypes into production at scale. 

Lupin & Holmes, named after Arsène Lupin (the fictional master thief, created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc, which went on to become a Netflix show) and Sherlock Holmes, the startup has captured lead investment from Harry Stebbings' 20VC and Seedcamp.

Kima Ventures, Purple Ventures and the founders of Hugging Face and Wiz also invested. Founder Roni Carta made a name for himself as a hacker early in life, inspired by Lupin. At the age of 17, he spent several years as a senior security engineer and “professional bug bounty hunter”, effectively a researcher paid by companies to legally hack and find security vulnerabilities before criminals do.

He would get a ”bounty” reward from companies depending on the severity of his findings. By age 23, he had earned nearly $800,000 in rewards from Fortune 500 and FAANG companies like Google, Amazon and Netflix and was named Most Valuable Hacker at two of Google's Live Hacking Events.

His endeavours earned him a job "red teaming", security testing, at ManoMano, the French e-commerce company. With his earnings through hacking, he invested into R&D for his startup. His key insight, which is central to his startup, is that hackers were not breaking through the front door, but were moving through the upstream layers of a company’s code. With this in mind, the startup has built an upstream security platform for enterprises.

The startup says its platform, called Depi, maps real attack paths, giving enterprises the chance to spot attacks before they happen. Carta says the startup has several Fortune 500 clients. He names Ledger, the French security platform, as one client.

On bagging a high pre-seed round, Carta said: “It is higher because we have some traction. We have a track record of helping the major tech companies in the world. We have some interesting early clients, mostly Fortune 500 companies, which makes our company more interesting than others for a pre-seed round. We are really grounded in the hacking culture. We prevent them proactively. I feel that this hacker culture is really important for us.”

The startup is hiring around 10 people. The funds from the funding round will be used to “hack the planet”, for research purposes and more investment into the product. Lupin & Holmes had two co-founders, but Carta is now running it alone.

The SoftBank-backed bank, however, delayed its net zero target by ten years. OakNorth said it now hopes to reach its net zero target in 2045, not 2035, as it set out in 2022.  

It cites moving into new geographies, changing regulatory expectations, and changes to green targets by its suppliers as some of the reasons for the delay. It said the new net zero target would ensure its actions “remain realistic and accountable”. The disclosure was first revealed by CityAM.

OakNorth makes money by providing loans to small businesses in the "lower mid-market".

In 2025, OakNorth, valued at around $2.8bn in a 2019 funding round, extended £1.7bn of new loan facilities in the UK, with half supporting commercial firms. In the US, a market it entered in 2023, new loan facilities hit $1.4bn, more than tripling from $0.4bn in 2024, it said.

Last year, OakNorth made its first US acquisition, a Michigan-based bank which serves retail and business customers.

Rishi Khosla, co-founder and CEO, OakNorth, said: “The fact that 40% of our originations now come from the US, demonstrates that this model is transferable and competitive in one of the world’s largest lending markets.

"With significant runway for growth across the UK and US, we're primed to make our next decade even more impactful than our first.”

As global business travel continues to grow and cross-border work becomes more common, companies face increasing complexity in managing tax, social security, immigration, and labour law obligations across jurisdictions. 

Founded in 2022 in the Netherlands, WorkFlex now processes more than 100,000 cross-border trips annually, with volume growing more than 250 per cent year-over-year across more than 1,000 distinct country combinations.  

In 2024 alone, European residents made more than 120 million business trips, according to Eurostat, creating millions of potential compliance events for employers operating internationally. 

WorkFlex’s compliance risk engine enables organisations to manage these obligations through  automated compliance workflows and audit-ready documentation.

The platform supports processes such as A1-Certificates and Certificates of Coverage (COC), Posted Worker Directive (PWD) notifications, visas, and tax exposure assessments.   

Through automated decision logic and integrated documentation management, the platform replaces fragmented manual workflows and advisory processes with structured, scalable compliance technology. 

According to Pieter Manden, co-founder of WorkFlex, every cross-border work event triggers a chain of legal and compliance consequences. 

“Companies need systems that make those decisions consistent, traceable and defensible. Compliance cannot live  in spreadsheets and inboxes anymore — it needs technology.” 

Parag Khandelwal, Managing Director at Spectrum Equity, shared: 

“As regulatory complexity and enforcement increase, organisations need systems that operationalise compliance across jurisdictions. WorkFlex has built a differentiated platform in this emerging category, and we are excited  to support the team as they scale.”

The new investment will allow WorkFlex to accelerate European expansion, deepen product capabilities, and expand into adjacent areas of mobility risk management.

In Italy, the phone remains the main communication channel for patients, with more than 7 out of 10 appointments booked through this channel and about a third of calls going unanswered. CiaoDott autonomously handles 70 per cent of calls — from reservations to common enquiries — allowing healthcare organisations to focus on patient care. 

The company operates in a market with significant growth potential, considering that in Italy 9.4 per cent of GDP is dedicated to health spending (OECD data) and there are 123,000 facilities between medical centres, diagnostics and dental offices, which need advanced technological tools to optimise processes.

CiaoDott has already collaborated with companies such as Politerapico Monza, Benacus Lab, and Centro Medico Manara.  "This round represents an important recognition of the work we are doing to bring concrete innovation to the Italian healthcare sector",  comments Riccardo Morotti, CEO & Co-Founder of CiaoDott.

"In this sector, a generic solution is not enough, and only a vertical approach allows AI to follow the correct flows with reliability.  We want to give back valuable time to professionals, allowing them to focus on what really matters: patient care.

This capital will enable us to accelerate technological development and deliver our solution to an increasing number of healthcare organisations across Italy. " 

According to Gianluca D'Agostino, Founder and Managing Partner of The Techshop SGR, CiaDott embodies a close-knit and competent team and a well-calibrated solution for a real problem, corroborated by ambition and "fast learning attitude".  

"The evidence of product-market fit is concrete and measurable: active collaborations with clinics, contracted revenues and customer satisfaction in the management of complex booking flows. 

The maturity achieved by voice models today opens a real window to automate end-to-end processes that until yesterday absorbed a significant share of professionals' time, and CiaoDott is in the best position to grasp it." 

The funds will be used to strengthen CiaoDott’s platform to expand to the reservation needs ot orthopaedic, dental, dermatological, as well as strategic marketing initiatives. 

The capital raised will be deployed into high-growth companies across Albion Capital’s core conviction sectors, including deeptech, healthcare, and B2B software. They provide investors with access to a diversified portfolio of innovative businesses, ranging from early-stage disruptors to established scale-ups.

The fundraise follows a period of strong portfolio momentum. Over the past five years, the Albion VCTs have raised over £405 million. Over the past three years, 64 per cent of portfolio companies have advanced from the growth stage to the scaleup stage.

Notable holdings include Quantexa, the global leader in decision intelligence solutions; Oviva, Europe’s leading digital health company for weight loss, which recently raised a £200 million Series D; and tem, the  AI-powered infrastructure that’s cutting energy costs for businesses.

Recent activity also includes significant growth rounds for deeptech and fintech innovators such as Gravity and TransFICC. 

Will Fraser-Allen, Managing Partner at Albion, commented:

"Reaching our £90 million hard cap, oversubscribed, reflects the growing recognition investors have that VCTs are one of the most effective ways to back the next generation of UK entrepreneurs, while targeting long-term, tax-efficient returns.

In an environment where tax efficiency and long-term growth are paramount, VCTs continue to offer a compelling proposition for those looking to back British breakthroughs.

With a strong pipeline of investment opportunities across our core sectors, we are well-positioned to deploy this capital into companies driving technological and scientific progress, supporting ambitious founders in sectors where the UK is a global leader, while creating value for our shareholders and the wider economy alike."

Founded in 2023, the company combines bio-nanotechnology, quantum chemistry, and computational science to design synthetic catalysts, or nanozymes, that aim to overcome the limitations of both traditional catalysts and enzymes. By building catalysts from first principles, Level Nine seeks to deliver the precision of biological systems alongside the robustness required for industrial-scale use.

Its technology is focused on enabling the conversion of biomass and waste streams into renewable chemical building blocks, supporting a shift away from fossil-based inputs. The approach is designed to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and operate under milder conditions, making it better suited to complex, bio-based feedstocks.

Level Nine is positioning its platform to address structural challenges in the chemical industry, where legacy processes often struggle to adapt to alternative inputs. By developing catalysts that can process locally available, lower-cost feedstocks, the company aims to support more resilient and sustainable production across sectors such as materials, fuels, and consumer goods.

Beyond catalyst discovery, the company is building an integrated platform that takes technologies from research through to industrial deployment, working with partners to scale applications. This model is intended to bridge the gap between early-stage innovation and commercial adoption, enabling broader use of next-generation chemical processes.

Looking ahead, Level Nine plans to expand its catalyst platform across a wider range of industrial applications and further advance its technology from lab to industrial scale. The company also aims to partner with industry players to accelerate commercialisation, with a continued focus on enabling the use of biomass and waste streams in more sustainable chemical production.

eYou integrates real-time fact-checking tools directly into the social media experience, allowing users to verify the accuracy of claims — an approach its founders believe will help restore trust in online debate. 

I spoke to CCO Grégoire Vigroux to learn more. 

eYou has been built on European privacy and data protection standards at its core, ensuring that user data is safeguarded from the outset.

The startup was founded by Grégoire Vigroux (CCO) and Jasseem Allybokus (CEO), two French entrepreneurs who have been based in Romania for more than a decade and chose Bucharest as the launchpad for the European-scale social media initiative, but it is open to users globally.

Grégoire Vigroux is a long-time entrepreneur and investor active in the Central and Eastern European startup ecosystem. He has four successful exits under his belt, including CallPoint, which sold to global customer experience platform TELUS Digital and became TELUS Digital Europe, and mobile food waste app Bonapp.

From Twitter frustration to a new platform

The idea behind Vigroux’s project was sparked by his own experience using today’s dominant platforms.

“I actually loved Twitter in the early days,” he explains.

“But last year I logged in and my feed was dominated by posts from Elon Musk — even though I had never followed him.”

For Vigroux, the moment illustrated how easily social platforms can be shaped by the priorities or influence of their owners.

“That made me realise how easily platforms can be influenced by the people who control them,” he says.

Another incident reinforced his concerns. Shortly before the Romanian presidential election, Telegram founder Pavel Durov sent a message directly to all Romanian users, accusing France of interfering in the vote, on the very morning people were heading to the polls.

“When something like that happens just before people vote, you realise how powerful these platforms have become in shaping public opinion,” Vigroux says.

Those experiences convinced him that social media platforms now play a growing role in politics and democratic processes — and that entrepreneurs have a responsibility to address the risks. “As entrepreneurs, our job is to identify problems and build solutions,” he explains.

“Social media is increasingly influencing elections and public debate. At the same time, discussions around digital sovereignty were gaining traction across Europe.

That’s when I started thinking the timing might be right to build a European alternative. “

Unlike traditional social networks that amplify engagement at any cost, eYou has been built to prioritise trust,” said Vigroux.

“Social media was originally meant to connect people and democratise information. But over time, it has also become a powerful engine for polarisation and misinformation. We believe there is a real need, and urgent demand, for a new type of platform built around transparency, accountability and trust.” 

Fighting misinformation and fake news with real-time AI fact-checking

 One of the biggest problems in social media is that fake news spreads much faster than real news — some studies suggest up to six times faster. To tackle this, the eYou platform includes a fact-checking button under every post. When someone clicks it, the system analyses the post and evaluates the factual accuracy of its claims. 

Posts can be up to 3,000 characters, so there might be 20 or 30 individual claims in a single post. Each claim receives an accuracy score — for example, 2 per cent, 55 per cent, or 100 per cent — along with an explanation. By clicking the post, the user will get an AI-generated pop-up assessment based on credible, neutral sources that summarises the veracity of each claim. This enables users to challenge misinformation in real time while maintaining the flow of discussion. 

According to Vigroux, there’s also an educational element to it. Over time, users develop a reputation score based on the accuracy of the content they share. 

He explained that people who consistently post reliable information will appear more often in feeds and recommendations. 

“Users spreading misinformation will simply not be promoted by the algorithm.”

Using multiple AI models to reduce bias

However, determining what counts as fake news or fact can be subjective. For example, satirical sites like The Onion, Beoota Advocate, and The Daily Mash are technically news sites but could be misconstrued as fact. 

In response, eYou decided not to rely on a single LLM. Vigroux explained:

“Instead, we use several models simultaneously. Four LLMs compete in real time to provide the most accurate fact-checking response.

Because each model has its own biases, having multiple models helps reduce the risk of relying on a single perspective.”

And in terms of satire, which has been classified as factual news in the past, the founders tested a publication on the day of the interview, and the system correctly recognised the content as satire. The fact-checking flagged it as satirical content created for humour.

The eYou interface is intentionally simple. At the centre of every post is the fact-checking button, which is our core feature. On the left side, there are two reactions: a thumbs-up labelled “Agree”, and a thumbs-down labelled “Disagree.”

If a user disagrees with a post, they must leave a comment explaining why. The goal is to encourage debate rather than passive reactions. On the right side, there’s a comment button and an emoji reaction feature. 

“Initially we debated whether to include emojis, " explained Vigroux, but our focus groups told us the platform shouldn’t feel too serious. People still want some sense of enjoyment.”

Making algorithms transparent

The platform also introduces a transparency feature that allows users to see and edit the profile the algorithm builds about them. Rather than operating as a hidden “black box” as other platforms do, eYou’s recommendation system allows users to modify the signals that shape their feed - giving them the option to broaden their content exposure  to a wider diversity of viewpoints and step outside algorithm-driven echo chambers. 

Given the growing complexity of moderating online platforms — from deepfakes and harassment to the spread of harmful content — I asked eYou how it plans to address the challenge. Vigroux acknowledges that the company is still actively working through the issue.

“This is something we’re still thinking about very carefully,” he says.

“For example, with content related to conspiracy theories, homophobia, or misogyny, we’re considering different approaches. One option is to ban it outright. Another is to allow it to exist but heavily penalise it through the algorithm so it never gains visibility.”

According to Vigroux, the central challenge lies in balancing open expression with responsible moderation.

“Finding the right balance between freedom of expression and moderation is difficult,” he says.

“We’re still defining exactly where that line should be.”

And, in terms of identity verification, Vigroux says the priority in the early stages is to make onboarding as frictionless as possible. “In the beginning we want the onboarding process to be extremely fast — ideally under a minute,” he explains. “If signing up becomes complicated, many people will simply abandon the platform.”

Instead, users will initially self-declare that they are over 16 years old, with the possibility of stronger verification mechanisms introduced later as the platform evolves. Bot detection, he says, will rely primarily on technical safeguards built into the system. “My technical co-founder has developed systems to detect suspicious activity and remove bots quickly,” says Vigroux.

Building a social network with a “tiny team”

Vigroux explains that the technology behind the platform has been built entirely in-house by his co-founder, Allybokus. Rather than scaling a large internal organisation, the founders have deliberately chosen to keep the team extremely small and work with specialised external partners.

“We intentionally run a very small team — just the two of us — and rely on external partners instead of hiring large numbers of employees.”

For areas such as user acquisition, the company works with entrepreneurial agencies rather than building large internal departments.

“For example, our user acquisition campaigns on TikTok and Meta are managed by a marketing agency we trust,” he says.

“If something doesn’t work, we can simply change partners.”

Vigroux describes the approach as a deliberate operating model. “We follow what I call the ‘tiny team’ philosophy — working with specialised entrepreneurs instead of building large internal teams,” he says. The company is also preparing to reveal more about the platform’s identity. “We’ll soon unveil the platform’s full branding and design.”

Lessons from failed European social media platforms

There is a long history of entrepreneurs attempting to create alternative platforms to the US heavyweights. Historically, many have failed to gain traction. Vigroux studied previous European social media attempts and spoke with some founders whose platforms failed.

He contends:

“One of the biggest challenges they mentioned was moderation. For example, one founder told me a user began posting illegal images and they didn’t remove them quickly enough, which caused users to abandon the platform. So moderation is extremely important for us. We combine AI moderation with a small team of human moderators.

We didn’t want to replicate anything. In business, simply saying “we’re European” isn’t enough to convince people to use a platform. Our differentiator is the built-in AI fact-checking system.”

Targeting opinion-driven users leaving X

eYou arrives at a time when policymakers, regulators and citizens across Europe are increasingly concerned about disinformation, algorithmic echo chambers and the dominance of non-European tech platforms in shaping public discourse.

Last year, the founders ran a survey with 400 respondents across 35 questions, which revealed a growing appetite for platforms that go beyond photo sharing or superficial content.

According to Vigroux, many users are looking for spaces where ideas and current events can be discussed more seriously.

“Based on our focus groups and survey, we believe Europe needs an opinion-driven social platform built with European values — fighting misinformation, prioritising data privacy, and storing user data within the European Union,” he says. 

The platform is targeting people who were previously heavy Twitter users but are now leaving the platform, as well as users who spend time on Medium reading longer-form content.

Vigroux describes their ideal users as:

“People interested in discussing ideas and current events — journalists, professionals, urban and educated audiences who want something more substantive than typical social media content. We believe respected journalists with strong reputations could become early influencers on the platform.”

To spread the word, the startup is focusing on partnerships with influencers who support democracy, European identity, and data privacy, as well as running advertising campaigns on TikTok and Meta platforms to attract users.

Growth first, monetisation later

With Vigroux’s background in sales and business development, he initially had many monetisation ideas.

“But my investor and business partner told me to stop thinking about that for now — and they were right. In social media, the priority is user growth and retention. Once you have scale, monetisation becomes possible.”

eYou aims to reach 10 million users by 2030.  Jasseem Allybokus, cofounder and CEO, is a serial exited entrepreneur and former CTO of digital marketing company Visiperf.

“Most social platforms today are designed to show users more of what they already agree with,” said Allybokus.

“That reinforces echo chambers and allows misinformation to spread faster than facts. eYou introduces a radically different approach to online discussion - one built around European principles of transparency, accountability, and exposure to diverse viewpoints.

By combining a feed that encourages diverse perspectives with instant fact-checking tools, eYou users can verify claims in real time, understand the sources behind those claims, and engage in more informed conversations.”

The early investment will support eYou’s product development and early community growth ahead of public launch.

“Our motto is ‘capital for the bold,’ and eYou embodies exactly that,” said Matei Dumitrescu, partner at Fil Rouge Capital.

“The founders bring strong entrepreneurial experience, a clear vision, and they are tackling one of the most important challenges facing digital platforms today: trust. eYou has the potential to become the leading European social media player.”

As part of its pre-launch phase, eYou has opened a public waitlist ahead of its official release planned for May 2026. Users can register on the platform’s landing page to gain early access, secure their preferred username, and receive updates as the platform prepares for launch. 

Technology secretary Liz Kendall said: ”I am determined this country grasps the benefits quantum computing will bring. It is only by keeping pace with technological progress that we can deliver the high-paid jobs, cutting-edge public services, and innovations which change lives.

"Today’s announcements are an investment in our future - unlocking better health, wealth, and more opportunities for communities across the country. This government is ushering in a quantum leap - making the choice today to back UK scientists, companies, and innovators so we can deliver a future that works for all.”

The commitment from the government to buy the next generation of quantum computers is seen as a way to ensure startups and companies stay in the UK, according to reports. In total, the government announced £2bn in quantum computing investment, but £1bn has previously been announced. 

The new £1bn is a commitment from the government to buy a new generation of quantum computers for use by scientists, the public sector and businesses, while another £1bn, previously announced, will help firms and researchers in deploying quantum tech in areas like finance and energy over the next four years.

Some experts see quantum computing as the next big breakthrough in tech, rivalling AI and being crucial to UK economic growth. The government said the UK will become the first country to benefit from "revolutionary" quantum computers, sensors and networks, and support the emergence of the next generation of leading British companies who will help shape the curve of progress.

It said its quantum plans will help deliver personalised treatments, potential cures for diseases, safeguard our national security and deliver high-paid jobs. Commenting on the investment, the boss of one of the UK's leading quantum firms said it said it was "critical" for the UK to maintain its leadership.

Ashley Montanaro, CEO and co-founder of Phasecraft, said: 

The investments announced today are critical to Britain's continued leadership in the quantum race. The scope of today's announcement shows the level of ambition and conviction required for the UK to maintain our advantage. It's essential that the procurement programme includes a significant quantum software element - the full potential of quantum computing can only be unlocked when quantum algorithms development is prioritised alongside hardware development. Thanks to the UK's rich academic heritage, and world class R&D ecosystem, Britain is primed to lead the world in quantum algorithms and software. That's why we're particularly proud to be growing our global quantum algorithms company from our British headquarters.

The company is expanding beyond its origins as the “Wikipedia of Farming,” a free agricultural knowledge platform used by more than 12 million visitors in 17 languages. It is now developing a platform to support the full lifecycle of agricultural trade, from pricing and negotiations to logistics, payments, and financing. Through its “from learning to earning” model, farmers who use the knowledge platform can also participate in the marketplace.

As part of this shift, Wikifarmer aims to create what it describes as an operating system for agricultural trade, a platform combining data, analytics, and transaction tools for global agricultural commerce.

Rather than focusing solely on digital marketplaces, the company is working to digitise multiple stages of the trading process, including pricing, negotiations, quality assurance, logistics, payments, and financing, with artificial intelligence supporting many of these functions.

We are not just matching buyers and sellers - we are using AI to restructure the supply chain and unlock value that is currently lost to inefficiency, opacity, and outdated processes. This round allows us to take our model global,

said Ilias Sousis, co-founder and CEO of Wikifarmer.

AI capabilities are being integrated across several areas of the platform. These include price intelligence and market forecasting based on commodity data and seasonal trends, automated matching between buyers and verified suppliers based on product specifications and certifications, and transaction management tools that support processes such as requests for quotes, offer comparisons, documentation, credit risk assessment, and trade execution.

Artificial intelligence is going to transform agricultural supply chains faster than most people expect. We're building a world where AI removes the friction, opacity, and inefficiency that have defined agricultural trade for centuries - and both sides of every transaction benefit. We intend to lead that transformation,

Sousis added.

Piraeus Bank’s involvement represents a strategic partnership rather than a typical venture investment. Together with Wikifarmer, it has launched FarmClick, a digital marketplace for agricultural inputs and services in Greece aimed at helping farmers access financial and operational resources.

The funding will support the expansion of Wikifarmer’s AI-powered trading platform, growth of its producer network in regions such as Latin America and Africa, and the launch of FarmClick in Greece in partnership with Piraeus Bank. 

The deal underscores the ambitions of Nscale, which only came out of stealth in 2024, in the US, as it acquires one of its largest data centre sites. The data centre site deal will see Nscale buy American Intelligence & Power Corporation, which owns the Monarch Compute Campus in West Virginia.

The 2,250-acre data centre site expects to have two gigawatts of power by the first half of 2028, expanded to eight gigawatts by 2031. Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale, said: “Nscale is a global company, and the US is the world's largest AI infrastructure market. AI infrastructure needs to be built where demand is, and right now a significant share of that demand is in the United States. Monarch allows us to meet that demand. The acquisition builds on our existing US footprint and reflects the pace at which we are scaling to serve customers around the world."

According to The Information, which first reported the story, Amazon and Meta were also interested in acquiring the site, which it says will require billions of dollars of financing to develop AI data centre faciilities at the site. Nscale was not available when asked about this. 

The report also says that Nscale told investors that acquiring the data centre campus would triple its projections for near-term revenue. It is not known what Nscale’s current revenue is.

Nscale, which recently raised $2bn in a funding round, has also announced a deal with Microsoft, which will rent 1.35 gigawatts of servers underpinned by Nvidia Vera Rubin chips, beginning in 2027 at the site.

Last year, Nscale bagged a contract valued up to $14bn with Microsoft to build AI data centres in Texas. It has also announced plans to operate data centres in the UK and Norway. The startup is providing AI infrastructure for OpenAI’s AI data centre in Norway, called Stargate Norway, and its UK equivalent, Stargate UK.

Companies invest significant resources in employee training each year, yet traditional learning management systems (LMS) and learning experience platforms (LXP) often struggle to drive consistent engagement. According to Blify, many systems see limited monthly participation, with employees frequently forgetting what they learned shortly after completing training.

Blify aims to address this challenge by embedding training directly into the tools employees already use in their daily work. Instead of requiring users to access a separate learning platform, the system integrates training into communication environments such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, and WhatsApp.

The solution uses a multi-agent AI infrastructure that analyses contextual information about employees and their roles to deliver relevant knowledge at the right moment within existing workflows. According to the company, this approach helps increase participation and improve knowledge retention compared with traditional learning systems.

Blify was founded by HR tech operators Clément Lhommeau, Tristan Vié, and Minh-Tu Hua, whose combined experience in European SaaS shaped the company’s approach to workplace-integrated learning.

As trainers, we've seen it firsthand: people learn and improve, then forget everything within weeks. LMS and LXP platforms barely reach 10% monthly engagement. The reason is simple - people don’t want to log into yet another platform to sit through a generic course disconnected from their daily work,

said Tristan Vié, co-CEO and co-founder of Blify.

Clément Lhommeau, co-CEO and co-founder of Blify, added that the main challenge lies not in the content but in the model behind it:

In a world where skills become obsolete quickly and hiring is increasingly difficult, continuous learning is no longer optional - it is essential.

The new funding will be used to accelerate product development and expand the engineering team. After spending 2025 developing and testing its first use case focused on manager training, the company plans to launch a broader platform in 2026 for creating, distributing, and managing company-wide training supported by AI.

Founded in Berlin in 2017, Upvest is a technology company and regulated securities institution in Europe and the UK. It provides banks, brokers, and wealth managers with API-based infrastructure for their securities businesses, covering trading, custody, and back-office operations.

The platform is designed to help firms modernise legacy systems, improve operational efficiency, and scale their investment offerings. Its clients include digital banks such as DKB and Santander’s Openbank, as well as fintech companies including Revolut, N26, Webull, and Raisin.

As a result, financial institutions are facing increasing pressure to modernise legacy systems and expand retail investment offerings, driving demand for Upvest’s modular, API-first infrastructure. The company has scaled significantly, now processing over 100 million annual client orders for more than 30 financial institutions, with continued growth supporting its path toward profitability.

Upvest plans to use the new capital to enhance its platform for banking, wealth, and brokerage clients, including managing the complexity of local tax wrappers and enabling faster deployment of pension products with improved user experience and cost efficiency.

The company is also introducing AI-supported investment capabilities, using real-time, programmable execution APIs to enable automated and personalised investment services for retail investors at scale.

As investor structures become more sophisticated, onboarding has grown increasingly complex. Compliance processes often break down across layered ownership chains, leading to manual reviews, fragmented communication, and delays across the financial industry.

Steward addresses this by automating AML and KYC workflows for complex investor profiles. Its platform integrates document collection, screening, risk assessment, and ongoing reviews into a single system, using AI to interpret multi-layered and cross-border ownership structures. It also enables secure, shareable Investor Profiles, allowing firms to exchange compliance data more efficiently.

Founded by Arik Oslerne (CEO), former COO of Vauban, and Moshe Lieberman (CTO), an early employee at Lemonade and Fiverr, Steward draws on deep experience in financial infrastructure and software-driven transformation to address longstanding inefficiencies in investor onboarding.

Commenting on the challenges in compliance, Arik Oslerne said it has long scaled in a linear way:

Firms can’t keep up with growing workloads using existing resources, leading to repeated remediation cycles and increasing regulatory pressure. AI offers a path to address these challenges, which is what Steward is designed to do.

The company reports that its system enables same-day onboarding in 80 per cent of cases, regardless of investor complexity. Its clients include Connect Ventures, Unruly Capital, IAB Group, as well as Motive Partners and Outward VC, alongside several Tier 1 institutional allocators.

Dual-headquartered in New York and London, Steward plans to use the new funding to expand its product capabilities and scale its team.

Founded in 2018, Webel was created to simplify everyday life by making it easier for people to book home services while creating job opportunities for professionals who manage their work through the platform.

The company currently has more than 2 million users and around 350,000 registered professionals, with nearly one million service listings available on its marketplace. The platform operates in 31 Spanish cities and has recently begun its international expansion in the United Kingdom.

Among the most requested services are home cleaning, ironing, and handyman work. In recent months, demand has also grown in additional categories such as small home renovations, moving services, manicure services, appliance repair, private tutoring, and childcare.

We are evolving from being perceived as a cleaning app to becoming a broader home services platform, with categories such as electricians, plumbers, renovations, moving services, tutoring, childcare, and elderly care among the more than 30 services currently available,

said Nacho Tejero, CEO and co-founder of Webel.

A key aspect of Webel’s model is its cost structure. The platform allows customers to access services at prices that are typically 30–40% lower than those offered by competitors. At the same time, professionals benefit from lower commissions than the industry average while maintaining full control over their pricing, schedules, and clients.

The newly raised funding will be primarily allocated to marketing and product development to support the platform’s growth and increase visibility for the newer service categories. In the short term, the company plans to strengthen its presence in Spain while continuing to expand its offering.

Enterprises need more than AI that can answer when prompted; they need AI that can run and execute their workflows.

Legacy systems were not built for AI. Organisations spend months testing and stitching together tools, integrations, and prototypes, only to end up with expensive, fragile experiments that don’t deliver at scale.

Alo introduces a new paradigm: personalised AI at enterprise scale with a universal intelligence that works across any application, delivers business outcomes, and transforms AI from assistance into repeatable execution.

Over the past year, Alo Autonomous Engine has been deployed across finance, manufacturing, and pharma, powering mission-critical tasks such as risk and security flows, financial controls, operational automation, and advanced data analysis workflows, translating AI adoption into real EBITDA gains.  

According to Giuseppe Ettorre, co-founder and CEO of Alomana: 

“Enterprises waste enormous energy on prototypes instead of outcomes.“We abstract away the integration and customisation complexity.

Companies can run personalised AI across their systems and deliver production-level value immediately. Alo is building a future where autonomous AI won’t be a tool that companies use. It will be something they run on.”

Alo works across data, documents, applications, and code: from performing advanced data analysis on millions of database tables, to generating full-stack applications and custom AI agents for enterprise teams in minutes. It brings the power of entire AI teams into a single operational layer for organisations.

The company’s team brings experience from Bloomberg, the European Central Bank, BCG, and NASA, combining deep technical expertise with the rigour required in highly regulated environments.

The financing round, led by CDP Venture Capital through its Corporate Partners I – ServiceTech fund, will fund the expansion of Alo’s enterprise AI, strengthen its autonomy capabilities, and support large-scale enterprise deployments worldwide. Other investors in this round include Italia Venture II – Fondo Imprese Sud, Founders Factory, Kairos Ventures ESG One, Gresilent Holdings, Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), and Club degli Investitori.

According to Alessandro Scortecci, Director of Direct Investments at CDP Venture Capital, Alomana is redefining the future of Enterprise AI agents. 

“The team’s talent, ambition, and ability to execute are simply exceptional. Its technology is a perfect fit for the Service sector – our fund’s core focus - delivering real value in a fraction of the time compared to its competitors. 

Our verticalisation in the service industry and particular focus on financial services make us particularly pleased to support Alomana in the ongoing innovation and transformation of the financial service sector in Italy and Europe.”      

Partech Impact Fund was created to fill a structural gap in the European market: providing scale‑up capital and operational expertise to commercially mature companies, often exceeding €10 million in revenue, who need a partner to institutionalise operations and scale across international markets.

Launched by a first-time team, the fund’s closing marks one of the largest debut impact franchise launches in Europe in recent years.

I spoke to Rémi Said, General Partner at Partech Impact, to learn all about it.

Why impact startups face an even bigger funding gap

Said argues that Europe has historically lacked capital at the scaling stage of development for two key reasons.  First, more generally, in tech, Europe has historically fallen short because US buyout funds entered the European market very early. 

He contends:

“They opened offices and raised funds locally, which meant that instead of the ecosystem developing organically from venture through to growth stages, the buyout players were already present at the top end of the market.”

At the same time, venture capital was already well established in both the US and Europe. As a result, the ecosystem developed strong VC funding in the early stages and large buyout funds in the later stages, but the middle — the scale-up stage — remained relatively underdeveloped. The imbalance becomes even more pronounced in impact investing, which remains a relatively young market.

“Many innovations linked to climate, health, or education only became priorities for governments, corporates, and large institutions about a decade ago.”

This triggered the typical innovation cycle: a wave of startups emerging that required venture capital funding.

As a result, most of the capital in impact over the past ten years has gone into early-stage VC investments. Large US private equity firms have also moved into the impact investing space, launching billion-euro buyout funds and dedicated strategies. However, these funds have often struggled to find sufficiently large, impact-native companies to back.

“Firms like KKR or Apax launched dedicated impact strategies,” explains Said.

“But in many cases, they struggled to find companies that were both large enough and truly impact-native.”

As a result, much of their activity has focused on co-investing alongside their main funds in companies undergoing ESG transitions, rather than supporting businesses that were built around impact from the outset.

“What we often saw instead were investments in companies transitioning toward ESG practices, rather than companies that were impact-native from the beginning,” Said adds.

This dynamic has created a structural imbalance in the market. Early-stage impact innovation has largely been supported by venture capital, while large buyout funds have targeted ESG transition plays. “In between those two ends of the spectrum, there has been a very clear gap,” says Said.

“Growth-stage capital for impact-native companies has simply been missing.”

This is exactly the segment which Partech Impact Fund aims to cover. Said contends that Partech has always liked to be a pioneer in launching new investment strategies.

“We believe this positioning is quite unique today, though in ten years I’m sure we’ll see more funds emerging in this space.”

Backing impact-native companies ready to scale

Partech Impact Fund is designed to back impact-native companies that have already reached commercial maturity, typically generating more than €10 million in revenue and preparing to scale internationally.

It invests across several impact themes, including decarbonisation, agriculture, mobility, health, education, and the circular economy.

Beyond capital, the Partech Impact team integrates deep-rooted private equity discipline with hands-on operational scaling, drawing on experience from Bain Capital, McKinsey, Bridgepoint, and Goldman Sachs. The team supports portfolio leaders on establishing operating systems, driving commercial acceleration and inorganic growth.

A private-equity approach to scaling impact startups

According to Said, the first point of differentiation is Partech Impact’s positioning. 

“When an impact-native technology company reaches €7–10 million in revenue and is growing well, it may need €15–25 million of capital to move to the next stage. 

In Europe, there are not many funds able to provide that level of funding for companies at this stage. That creates a very specific positioning where we can invest meaningful tickets into commercially proven businesses.”

The second element is the team background. 

“Many investors in this space come from venture capital, whereas our DNA is closer to the buyout world.

That experience gives us strong operational expertise.”

When a company reaches €10 million in revenue, it enters a different phase.

The company begins to transition from a founder-led organisation to a management-led organisation. Teams grow larger, coordination becomes more complex, and companies start thinking about topics like governance, organisational structure, and even their first acquisitions. These are areas where the Partech Impact team has significant experience. 

“My partner, I, and several members of the team have worked extensively on operational scaling in our previous roles,” shared Said.

“We believe this operational support is extremely valuable for companies at this stage of maturity, and it resonates strongly with founders.”

Building a portfolio across Europe’s impact economy

The fund is already 40 per cent deployed, with investments across several sectors shaping the transition to more sustainable value chains and includes: 

• Gireve — supporting the transition to electric mobility through EV charging interoperability infrastructure.
  
• xFarm — a digital agriculture platform helping farmers adopt more sustainable and data-driven practices.
  
• Makersite — enabling manufacturers to design more sustainable products using AI-powered lifecycle intelligence.
• FYLD — providing AI-powered field management software for infrastructure and industrial operations.

The importance of investing in “must-have” impact solutions

Impact investing has experienced several hype cycles — from ESG reporting platforms to sustainable mobility and even nuclear technologies — with many companies reaching Series B or later before ultimately failing. I wanted to understand how

Partech Impact evaluates risk when constructing its portfolio. According to Said, there are two levels to consider. At the macro level, there are clear structural trends: the shift toward electric vehicles, the growth of renewable energy, and the push toward decarbonisation.

These trends provide strong tailwinds across multiple sectors. But the real differentiation comes at a much more granular level. 

“When we analyse companies, we look very closely at their specific value proposition.”

For example, Makersite focuses on analysing the carbon footprint of manufactured products at the design level. That allows engineers to reduce emissions during the product development phase rather than simply reporting emissions at the company level later. 

More broadly, Partech Impact believes that many companies that failed in the past were offering “nice-to-have” solutions rather than “must-have” ones. 

“For example, ESG reporting tools or carbon reporting platforms are often perceived by companies as a cost rather than a source of value,” shared Said. 

"Our investment philosophy focuses on businesses that generate a direct return on investment for their customers.

Take xFarm as an example. The platform helps farmers reduce CO₂ emissions while improving yields, reducing water use, and lowering the need for chemical fertilisers. That creates a clear economic benefit for the farmer. In that sense, impact and financial value go hand in hand.

When a product delivers immediate operational value, it becomes much more resilient as a business.”

 Said contends that impact and financial performance reinforce each other. In other words, generating impact and generating returns are not contradictory goals.

“To reflect that philosophy, we structured our incentives so that both dimensions are equally important.

Our internal incentives are aligned 50-50 between financial returns and impact outcomes. For us, that’s a way to demonstrate that the two can — and should — be pursued together.”

Backed by a diversified and global base of institutional investors across Europe, the US, Asia, and Australia, the Partech Impact Fund attracted numerous existing limited partners, including Allianz, Bpifrance and the MC4 fund operated by Bpifrance on behalf of the State as part of France 2030, British Business Bank, EIF, as well as new limited partners to the Partech platform, including COFIDES, via the Social Impact Fund, Neuberger Berman, KBC, Legrand, QIC, SETT, and Visa Foundation among others.

“Impact‑native companies reaching commercial maturity need investors who bring more than capital”, adds Arnaud Minvielle, General Partner, at Partech.

“They need strategic, operational, and scaling capabilities typically found in private equity. Our Fund was built precisely for this transition phase.”

EIF’s CEO Marjut Falkstedt shared that the EIF is thrilled to support the Partech Impact Fund’s successful final closing, which reinforces our commitment to scaling European tech solutions that generate measurable social progress — from inclusion and education to health and sustainability — and to backing innovators who deliver meaningful impact for communities across Europe.”

“Building a first‑time team and a first‑time fund in this environment was a real test of conviction,” shared Said.

“We are proud to have attracted a world‑class, global LP base and to be backing companies that are shaping more sustainable value chains across Europe, with tangible ROI for their customers; demonstrating that impact and strong economic performance are mutually reinforcing.”  

Lead image: Freepik.

Creative agencies often work on multiple pitches each month, investing significant time and resources in the process. However, much of this time is spent rebuilding context across fragmented tools and systems.

First Concepts aims to address this challenge by introducing an AI layer that sits above existing tools and coordinates leading AI models through a shared context and “taste” framework. This approach helps creative teams maintain consistency in ideas, brand identity, and decision-making throughout the pitching process.

Founded by Conor Hoey, Polina Sali, and Marin Godechot, who bring experience in design, AI, and product development, First Concepts has developed a system that brings context and creative judgment to the development of pitches.

The product is built around three core components: a Creative DNA engine that learns individual and brand preferences, a unified interface that treats context as the central source of information, and a tool-agnostic infrastructure that connects creative tools while maintaining coherence across outputs.

Explaining the company’s vision, Conor Hoey, co-founder and CEO of First Concepts, said:

First Concepts has a simple mission to transform creative context from something fragile and ephemeral into a structured, compounding asset. We are building an operating system that understands the value of creative thinking and taste. This will transform creative workflows for teams around the world.

The new funding will be used to further develop the company’s AI-native workspace for creative work.

Founded in 2023 by former Tessian employees Andy Smith (CEO) and Sam Cox (CTO), Tracebit develops cloud-native deception technology designed for modern infrastructure. The system enables organisations to deploy decoy assets, known as canaries, across their environments to detect threats early and support an “assume breach” approach to security.

The solution is designed to scale threat detection across cloud environments through a cloud-native deployment that generates tailored canaries across enterprise networks to identify malicious activity and reduce detection times.

The platform currently supports thousands of accounts, monitors around five billion events each week, and generates millions of canaries daily for customers, including Riot Games, Snyk, Synthesia, Docker, and Admiral Insurance.

To address the growing complexity of cloud environments, Tracebit has expanded its capabilities beyond AWS. The system now supports canary deployment across Azure, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, developer workstations, and identity providers.

Alongside the Series A funding, the company is introducing new products, including Perimeter Canaries, Deceptive Artefacts, and support for Google Cloud Platform.

Traditionally, decoys have been placed deeper within systems to detect intrusions. Perimeter Canaries extend this concept by placing decoys at the edge of SaaS and cloud environments, creating an additional layer of defence and enabling faster detection. This approach is increasingly important as organisations face evolving threats, including AI-driven attacks that can rapidly scan systems for vulnerabilities.

The company plans to use the Series A funding to support the rollout of these new products, expand its customer base, and grow its go-to-market and engineering teams.

To date, the company has raised a total of $11.6 million.

Founded five years ago, Choice began as a platform enabling restaurants to communicate with customers online. Since then, it has evolved into a comprehensive operating system for independent and multi-location restaurants. 

Choice positions itself as an alternative to standalone restaurant tech solutions, which often are focused on separate features like QR payments, marketplace, reservations, or online ordering.

Unlike single-function providers, Choice offers a fully integrated platform:

• Website builder with a custom domain connection
• Commission-free takeaway and delivery ordering
• QR menus, QR payments, and QR ordering
• Reservation management integrated with Google
• Marketplace integrations (Wolt, Bolt Food, Foodora, Glovo, Uber Eats, Just Eat Takeaway)
• Loyalty programs across all channels
• POS/EPOS integrations without requiring system replacement
• Everything operates from one admin panel, under one subscription, consolidating fragmented customer data into a single system.

Today, Choice serves more than 30,000 registered restaurants, including over 7,000 paying customers across nine active markets in Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, and Romania).

The company currently generates over 1.5 million monthly orders — representing approximately €35 million in monthly gross merchandise value (GMV). Choice has doubled year-over-year and is targeting €500 million in monthly turnover within the next three to four years.

With fresh capital, Choice plans to expand rapidly across Europe. The next markets include Portugal — where Alea Capital will support scaling efforts across Southern Europe — followed by Spain and Italy. France, Germany, and the Netherlands are planned for subsequent phases.

“We understand the fragmentation of the European restaurant market and the need for localisation,” said Alex Ilyash, Founder and CEO of Choice.

“But we see this as a competitive advantage. We know how to scale in Europe. By combining strong local sales teams, efficient capital deployment from our CEE base, and AI-driven product innovation, we are confident we can win market by market.”

Alea Capital Partners led the funding, with participation from Reflex Capital, Smartlink, and J&T Ventures. 

According to  Rui Escaleira, Co-Founder of Alea Capital Partners, the  Choice app is addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing restaurants today: operating efficiently in a highly dynamic market with structurally tight margins. 

“By giving restaurants greater control over digital ordering, additional revenue generation, and a more balanced relationship with delivery platforms, Choice App helps operators protect profitability while improving the end-customer experience.” 

The new investment will primarily fund product development — particularly AI-integrated modules — as well as sales and marketing expansion in target countries. Choice plans to hire local sales and support teams in each new market to ensure a strong on-the-ground presence and customer success.