European startup news, funding rounds and events
Fundraising intelligence, founder interviews and the events that actually move the ecosystem.
Agenda – next 30 days
See the full agenda →From the backstage
Creative tech in Europe runs on grants. San Sebastián’s finalists prove it
Ten startups pitched at the San Sebastián Film Festival on 24 September. I went through every one of them afterward and couldn’t find a single disclosed…
Ben Costantini
AI replaced 3D printing in composites pitches
In 2019, 3D printing was the loudest thing in composites. Across that year’s JEC Composites Startup Booster applications it ran at 24.7 mentions per 10,000 words…
Ben Costantini
IFA 2026: the twenty startups who pitched, and the one who won
A company that prints implantable human tissue won a pitch competition at a consumer electronics fair. Cellbricks Therapeutics took the IFA Pitch Battle 2026 on the…
Ben CostantiniThe Selected podcast
Tips & advice
Pick the LP first, then the 2027 conference
A communications director at a German VC firm sent me a two-line question recently. Her investor relations team wants conferences in 2027 with exposure to LPs,…
Ben Costantini
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
Why events are lying about their metrics
This week I read about a hackathon claiming 6,000 attendees over a single weekend. The venues hosting it can’t accommodate more than 1,000 people. Nobody in…
Ben CostantiniSpotlight
CarbonFarm
Satellite-verified carbon credits and MRV for sustainable, methane-reducing rice farming.
Latest
Monopulse raises over €2M for jam-resistant NATO drones
Lithuania's Coinvest Capital leads over €2M into Danish-Lithuanian drone maker Monopulse, with 68 angels behind it, to take jam-resistant Falcon drones into Germany, France and the Netherlands.
1KOMMA5° raises €70m at $1.35bn valuation for Heartbeat AI
Hamburg's energy unicorn adds €70m at a $1.35bn valuation, with Tokyo cleantech fund Marunouchi Innovation Partners the only named backer, and points all of it at Heartbeat AI.
Scarlet raises $50M Series B to certify AI medical devices
A London notified body founded by ex-Babylon engineers just raised $50M from Headline to clear the queue between AI medical devices and the patients waiting on them.
OllyGarden raises $4M seed to clean up telemetry data
Berlin's OllyGarden raised a $4M seed to clean telemetry before it reaches the observability bill – with rivals Datadog and Grafana Labs both investing, a rare joint bet on the…
Pick the LP first, then the 2027 conference
A communications director at a German VC firm sent me a two-line question recently. Her investor relations team wants conferences in 2027 with exposure to LPs, other GPs and good…
Latest funding
| Company | Round | Lead | Sector | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CarbonFarm Unclassified · France | Series A | Colam Impact | Unclassified | €7M |
| CMR Surgical Unclassified · United Kingdom | Stryker | Unclassified | €358.1M | |
| HyLight Unclassified · France | Series A | Rubio Impact Ventures | Unclassified | €13M |
| Monopulse Unclassified · Lithuania | Coinvest Capital | Unclassified | €2M | |
| 1KOMMA5° Unclassified · Germany | – | Unclassified | €70M | |
| Scarlet Unclassified · United Kingdom | Series B | Headline | Unclassified | €44.7M |
Browse the ecosystem
Investor corner
Call for startups
Google for Startups Immersion EMEA 2026
Google for Startups Immersion is a hands-on technical programme for active founders, CTOs and technical leads who already have a live product and demonstrable…
JEC Composites Startup Booster 2027
The JEC Composites Startup Booster is a pitch contest for startups, entrepreneurs and academic spin-offs working in composites and advanced materials, covering raw materials,…
JEC Composites Innovation Awards 2027
Advanced materials and composites work is judged here, with a trophy and a showcase at JEC World in Paris for the winners. Notably it…
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