Fundraising

The personal care industry confronts a data infrastructure gap The global personal care industry, valued at approximately $3 trillion, faces a mounting challenge: an estimated 80 per cent of products will require reformulation by 2030 as regulatory frameworks tighten around ingredient transparency, sustainability standards, and consumer safety. Yet the infrastructure connecting ingredient suppliers with the brands that formulate consumer products remains remarkably fragmented, relying on manual processes, siloed databases, and inconsistent data standards. Zurich-based Covalo has raised €3.5 million in a funding extension to accelerate its transformation from an ingredient marketplace into the shared data backbone for the personal care sector. The round was led by Hi inov, with continued participation from existing investors HTGF and seed + speed Ventures. The capital will fund the expansion of Covalo’s enterprise data platform, development of AI-based tools for workflow automation, and scaling of its infrastructure across key markets as the company positions itself at the centre of an industry-wide data modernisation effort. From marketplace to industry data infrastructure Founded in 2021 by Yann Chilvers and Timo von Bargen, Covalo initially operated as an ingredient discovery marketplace — a digital platform enabling cosmetics and personal care brands to search for and compare raw materials from suppliers worldwide. Over five years, the platform has grown to connect more than 1,500 ingredient suppliers with over 6,000 brands across 145 countries, with a database exceeding 50,000 ingredients. However, the company’s strategic vision has evolved significantly beyond marketplace transactions. Covalo is now building the connective tissue between suppliers’ product information management (PIM) systems and brands’ research and development and product lifecycle management (PLM) workflows — effectively creating a standardised data exchange layer for an industry that has historically lacked one. “What the industry needs is one common data backbone,” said Yann Chilvers, co-founder and co-CEO. “Inefficiencies in how product data is managed and shared contribute to delays and unsuccessful product launches, whilst limiting the industry’s ability to respond to regulatory changes and evolving market demands.” Enterprise clients validate the platform approach The quality of Covalo’s client base speaks to the platform’s growing credibility within the industry. Givaudan and Symrise — two of the world’s largest fragrance and flavour houses — alongside luxury group PUIG and premium skincare brand La Prairie, are among the companies using Covalo’s infrastructure. These partnerships with industry leaders suggest the platform has moved beyond the early-adopter phase and is gaining traction with the established players whose participation is essential for any industry-wide data standard to succeed. The €3.5 million funding extension will support the launch of several AI-powered capabilities, including conversational analytics, automated RFI and RFP processing, intelligent data extraction and enrichment, and regulatory compliance tools. These features are designed to reduce the significant manual effort currently required to source, evaluate, and qualify ingredients — a process that can take months for complex formulations and represents a major bottleneck for product development teams. Regulatory tailwinds drive urgency for data transparency The personal care industry faces an increasingly complex regulatory landscape across its key markets. The European Union’s Cosmetic Products Regulation continues to evolve, with stricter requirements around ingredient documentation, safety assessments, and environmental impact reporting. Similar regulatory tightening in the United States and Asia-Pacific markets is creating a global compliance challenge that is particularly acute for brands operating across multiple jurisdictions. For ingredient suppliers, the ability to provide standardised, verified data to brand partners is becoming a competitive necessity rather than a convenience. For brands, having a reliable infrastructure to access and manage supplier data across their entire product portfolio is essential for maintaining regulatory compliance and accelerating time to market. Covalo’s positioning as a neutral, industry-wide data layer — rather than a proprietary system controlled by any single supplier or brand — gives it a structural advantage in an ecosystem where trust and data interoperability are paramount. As the reformulation wave accelerates and regulatory demands intensify, the case for a shared data infrastructure in the personal care sector appears increasingly compelling. Summary Company: Covalo HQ: Zurich, Switzerland Founded: 2021 Round: Seed extension Amount: €3.5 million Lead investor: Hi inov Participating investors: HTGF, seed + speed Ventures Use of funds: Enterprise platform expansion, AI tool development, market scaling

European demand for sovereign intelligence technology accelerates The geopolitical landscape reshaping European defence and security priorities is driving unprecedented demand for sovereign technology platforms — systems that operate entirely within national borders without dependence on foreign cloud infrastructure. With European governments investing close to €1 billion in defence technology through the European Defence Fund alone, and the continent’s tech sovereignty spending exceeding €1.5 trillion in 2026, the market for AI-native intelligence tools built on European soil is expanding rapidly. Galway-based Octostar has raised €6.1 million in a seed extension round to scale its sovereign AI intelligence platform across European government agencies. The funding round attracted participation from existing strategic and venture capital investors alongside a notable new commitment from The Techshop, a Milan-based venture capital firm, and several new national institutional investors. The capital will accelerate deployment of Octostar’s platform, which serves national security, law enforcement, and financial intelligence organisations across Europe and beyond. A European alternative to Palantir gains traction Founded in 2023 by Dr Giovanni Tummarello, Robert Fuller, Varun Sharma, and Simone Scarduzio, Octostar has been identified by Intelligence Online as one of only two European alternatives to Palantir — the American data analytics giant that dominates the global intelligence software market. The distinction is significant at a time when European governments are actively re-evaluating their technology supply chains for intelligence and security applications. “Nations are re-evaluating their technology supply chains for intelligence and security,” said Dr Tummarello, CEO and CPO of Octostar. “The question is no longer whether sovereign alternatives are needed, but how quickly they can be deployed.” Octostar’s platform provides investigative intelligence capabilities including link analysis, communications intelligence, document intelligence, and GenAI-powered agents — all deployed within a fully sovereign, air-gapped architecture that operates without cloud or internet connectivity. This approach addresses a critical concern for European security agencies that increasingly view dependence on American hyperscalers as a strategic vulnerability. Rapid deployment across EU institutions The company’s commercial momentum has been striking for a startup founded less than three years ago. In Q1 2026 alone, Octostar completed three new deployments within EU national law enforcement and judicial bodies, with more than 15 additional deployments expected by year-end. The platform has also been deployed for national security purposes across the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, and the company has announced joint work with BAE Systems, one of Europe’s largest defence contractors. Headquartered in Galway with a research and development centre in Bergamo, Italy, and offices in London, Octostar benefits from backing by Platform94, an Irish Government and EU initiative supporting deep-tech companies. The cross-border structure reflects the broader European approach to building sovereign technology: leveraging talent and institutions across multiple member states whilst maintaining independence from non-European infrastructure. “Octostar is well positioned for an intelligence market that increasingly demands digital sovereignty,” noted investors from Cysero VC, highlighting the structural nature of the opportunity. The sovereign AI imperative in European defence The timing of Octostar’s funding aligns with a fundamental shift in European security thinking. US hyperscalers still control approximately 70 per cent of the European cloud market, a dependency that has become increasingly uncomfortable as transatlantic relations evolve. The European Commission has responded with initiatives including the EURO-3C project, which brings together more than 70 organisations to build sovereign cloud and AI infrastructure. The Europe AI and analytics in defence market is projected to grow at 8 per cent annually through 2030, with information superiority commanding more than 10 per cent of the European Defence Fund budget. For intelligence software specifically, the shift towards sovereign platforms represents a generational procurement cycle that could reshape the competitive landscape for years to come. With its air-gapped architecture, rapid deployment track record, and growing roster of European government clients, Octostar appears well positioned to capture a meaningful share of this expanding market — offering European agencies a credible, homegrown alternative to the American platforms that have long dominated the intelligence software sector. Summary Company: Octostar HQ: Galway, Ireland (R&D in Bergamo, Italy; offices in London) Founded: 2023 Round: Seed extension Amount: €6.1 million Key investors: The Techshop (Milan), existing strategic and VC backers Use of funds: Scaling deployment across EU government agencies Total funding: €6.1 million

Europe’s fintech infrastructure race intensifies with major investment Europe’s financial technology infrastructure sector is undergoing a profound transformation as traditional banks increasingly seek API-first solutions to modernise their legacy investment systems. The shift from monolithic banking platforms towards modular, cloud-native infrastructure has attracted significant investor attention, with B2B fintech infrastructure alone drawing €6.3 billion in the first nine months of 2025. Against this backdrop, Berlin-based Upvest has secured $125 million in fresh capital to cement its position as the continent’s leading investment API provider. The funding comprises $90 million in equity from Sapphire Ventures, Tencent Holdings, Bessemer Venture Partners, and BlackRock, complemented by a $35 million credit facility. Coming just twelve months after its Series C, the round underscores the accelerating demand for infrastructure that enables banks and wealth managers to offer seamless investment experiences without building proprietary technology from scratch. Global investors back European fintech infrastructure play The participation of Tencent — one of the world’s largest technology conglomerates — alongside established venture firms Sapphire Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners signals growing international confidence in Europe’s fintech infrastructure layer. BlackRock’s involvement is particularly notable given the asset manager’s own strategic interest in democratising investment access globally. Founded in 2017 by Martin Kassing, Dr Til Rochow, and Tobias Auferoth, Upvest operates as a regulated securities institution that provides banks, brokers, and wealth managers with API-based infrastructure encompassing trading, custody, and back-office services. The platform effectively replaces the fragmented legacy systems that have historically constrained European financial institutions from launching competitive digital investment products. “Banks choose Upvest for infrastructure to grow investment propositions profitably at scale for new investors,” said Martin Kassing, CEO and co-founder. “The $125 million round, just 12 months after our Series C, underscores our momentum to be the top choice for financial institutions launching and scaling best-in-class investment experiences at lightspeed in Europe.” Scaling across Europe’s largest markets Upvest’s client roster reads as a directory of Europe’s most prominent digital financial institutions. DKB, Santander’s Openbank, Revolut, N26, Webull, and Raisin all rely on Upvest’s infrastructure to power their investment offerings. The platform currently processes more than 100 million orders annually for over 30 financial institution clients, supported by a team of 280 employees. The fresh capital will fuel expansion into Europe’s largest markets, with a particular focus on localised pension products — including Germany’s forthcoming Altersvorsorgedepot and the United Kingdom’s Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs). This pension strategy positions Upvest at the intersection of two powerful trends: the digitisation of retirement savings and the European Commission’s push to deepen capital markets union across the bloc. Upvest is also investing in AI-driven wealth solutions, including autonomous advisory services designed to personalise investment strategies at scale — a capability that could prove transformative as European regulators increasingly encourage retail investor participation in capital markets. The broader European fintech infrastructure opportunity The European embedded finance market is projected to reach $143.2 billion by the end of 2026, growing at 11.1 per cent annually. Within this landscape, investment infrastructure represents one of the most underpenetrated segments, as the vast majority of European banks still operate on decades-old core systems that were never designed for real-time digital investing. The median European funding round grew 32 per cent between 2024 and 2025, the largest increase since 2020, with fintech infrastructure consistently ranking among the most active investment categories. Upvest’s ability to attract $125 million just twelve months after its previous round suggests the company is approaching an inflection point, with management indicating a clear path to profitability in the near term. As European regulators continue to push for greater retail investor access to capital markets and the pension landscape undergoes digital transformation, infrastructure providers like Upvest stand to benefit from a structural tailwind that shows no signs of abating. Summary Company: Upvest HQ: Berlin, Germany Founded: 2017 Round: Series D ($90M equity + $35M credit facility) Amount: $125 million Lead investors: Sapphire Ventures, Tencent Participating investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, BlackRock Use of funds: European market expansion, pension product rollout, AI-driven wealth solutions

Europe’s defence and intelligence technology sector is experiencing a decisive inflection point, driven by governments’ growing determination to reduce dependence on non-European vendors for critical national security infrastructure. The movement gained further momentum when Switzerland terminated its contract with Palantir in early 2026, citing concerns over US intelligence agencies’ potential access to sensitive defence data — a development that underscored the urgency of building genuinely sovereign alternatives. Against this backdrop, Irish startup Octostar has closed an extension of its seed round, bringing total funding to €6.1 million. The investment attracted participation from existing strategic and venture capital investors, alongside new backers including Milan-based venture capital firm The Techshop and several national institutional investors. Strategic investors back sovereign AI growth The funding reflects accelerating institutional demand for investigative intelligence platforms that operate entirely outside US jurisdiction. Gianluca D’Agostino of The Techshop described the investment thesis: “Giovanni and his talent-dense team represent a rare combination of deep domain expertise. Octostar is one of the very few teams delivering on such demand.” The Galway-headquartered company, founded in 2023 by Dr Giovanni Tummarello, Robert Fuller, Simone Scarduzio, and Varun Sharma, has built an AI-native intelligence platform designed for national security, law enforcement, and financial compliance organisations. Its architecture supports deployment in fully air-gapped, No Cloud/No Internet environments — a critical requirement for government agencies that cannot risk data exposure through cloud-based systems. Octostar’s platform integrates link analysis, communications intelligence, document intelligence, and generative AI-powered investigative agents within a fully sovereign and extensible architecture. Clients can customise workflows and adapt the system to their specifications without vendor intervention, maintaining complete operational independence. Positioning as a European Palantir alternative The company has been recognised by Intelligence Online, a specialist intelligence industry publication, as one of only two European alternatives to Palantir in the investigative intelligence space. This designation carries significant weight within the sector, signalling that Octostar has achieved the technical and operational credibility required to compete with the dominant US incumbent whilst offering genuine sovereignty guarantees. Traction has been building rapidly. In Q1 2026 alone, Octostar completed three new deployments within EU national law enforcement and judicial bodies, with more than 15 expected by the end of the year. The company has also secured national security deployments across the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, and announced joint work with BAE Systems, the UK defence contractor. CEO Dr Giovanni Tummarello framed the opportunity in geopolitical terms: “Nations are re-evaluating their technology supply chains for intelligence and security. The question is no longer whether sovereign alternatives are needed, but how quickly they can be deployed.” European defence tech investment reaches record levels Octostar’s funding arrives at a moment of unprecedented investment in European defence and security technology. Private investment in the sector reached a record €5 billion in 2024, representing a fivefold increase compared to 2019. The European Commission has committed €307 million to advancing trustworthy AI and strategic digital technologies, whilst the European Investment Bank Group has pledged €15 billion through the European Tech Champions Initiative. The sovereign AI opportunity is substantial. McKinsey estimates that sovereign AI capabilities could unlock up to €480 billion in value annually by 2030 across Europe. However, capturing this value depends on European companies demonstrating genuine technological and operational independence from US jurisdiction — precisely the positioning Octostar has established. With offices in Galway, a research and development centre in Bergamo, Italy, and a sales presence in London, Octostar is building from a foundation that reflects its cross-border European identity. The company’s previous funding — a €2 million seed round in November 2024 from Italian investors including Cysero, Euveca, and Kilometro Rosso — provided the initial capital to develop the platform and secure early government contracts. The fresh capital will support expanded deployment capacity and product development as European governments accelerate procurement of sovereign intelligence solutions. Company Octostar Headquarters Galway, Ireland Founded 2023 Round Seed Extension Amount €6.1 million (total) Key Investors The Techshop, existing strategic and VC investors, national institutional investors Use of Funds Expanded deployment capacity and product development Total Funding to Date €6.1 million

Growing investment in rehabilitation robotics The funding, which closed in late March 2026, comprises €6 million in equity from a consortium of family offices, entrepreneurs, and private investors, supplemented by €2 million in non-dilutive financing awarded through the France 2030 national investment programme. The blended structure reflects a pattern increasingly common among European medtech startups, where government innovation grants complement private capital to derisk the commercialisation of novel therapeutic devices. Lifebloom’s core product, the Lifebloom One, is a robotic exoskeleton system designed to restore autonomous walking in patients with reduced mobility — conditions stemming from neurological injuries, strokes, spinal cord damage, and age-related mobility decline. Unlike fitness-oriented wearable robotics, the Lifebloom One is a clinical rehabilitation tool, deployed within healthcare facilities under medical supervision as part of structured therapy programmes. Scaling deployment across French healthcare facilities The primary use of funds is the rapid deployment of Lifebloom’s Walking Units, with the company targeting 30 healthcare facilities across France within the coming year. This rollout strategy is critical: exoskeleton rehabilitation technology has shown clinical promise for over a decade, but adoption has been constrained by high unit costs, limited insurance reimbursement pathways, and the need for specialised clinical training. Lifebloom’s approach — providing integrated walking units rather than standalone exoskeletons — is designed to lower the operational barrier for rehabilitation centres, packaging the hardware, software, and clinical support into a deployable system. The company’s longer-term target is ambitious: enabling 1,000 patients to regain autonomous walking by 2028. While the number may appear modest in absolute terms, it represents a significant milestone in a field where each successful rehabilitation outcome requires dozens of supervised therapy sessions and careful patient selection. European medtech finds its stride in rehabilitation robotics Lifebloom’s funding arrives during a period of growing investor interest in rehabilitation and assistive robotics across Europe. The global rehabilitation robotics market, valued at approximately $1.2 billion in 2025, is projected to grow at a compound annual rate exceeding 20 per cent through the end of the decade, driven by ageing populations, rising stroke incidence, and mounting pressure on healthcare systems to deliver cost-effective long-term care. In France specifically, the government’s France 2030 programme has emerged as a significant catalyst for medtech innovation, providing non-dilutive capital to companies developing breakthrough health technologies. The programme’s backing of Lifebloom signals institutional confidence in exoskeleton therapy as a viable component of France’s future rehabilitation infrastructure — a vote of confidence that may help accelerate regulatory and reimbursement pathways for the category. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Lille, Lifebloom has spent the intervening years refining its technology and building clinical evidence. The transition from development to deployment — marked by this funding round — represents the classic inflection point for European medtech companies: the moment when a promising laboratory technology must prove it can scale within the practical constraints of real-world healthcare delivery. For the consortium of family offices and private investors backing the round, the thesis rests on a straightforward demographic reality: Europe’s population is ageing, its healthcare workforce is shrinking, and technologies that can multiply the effectiveness of rehabilitation professionals will command growing value. Lifebloom’s challenge now is execution — placing its Walking Units in clinics, training therapists, and generating the patient outcome data that will underpin broader adoption. Summary Company: Lifebloom HQ: Lille, France Founded: 2019 Round: Seed (equity + France 2030 grant) Amount: €8 million (€6M equity + €2M non-dilutive) Investors: Consortium of family offices, entrepreneurs, and private investors; France 2030 programme Use of funds: Deployment of Walking Units across 30 French healthcare facilities; target of 1,000 patients walking autonomously by 2028

Europe’s building energy efficiency sector is attracting growing investor attention as tightening regulations force property owners to rethink how they manage energy consumption across commercial and residential portfolios. French software group Enersweet has secured €45 million in a funding round that combines equity investment from Ring Capital with debt financing from Zencap Asset Management and Bpifrance, positioning the company to accelerate its acquisition-led consolidation strategy in the building energy transition market. Strategic investors fuel Enersweet’s acquisition-led growth Ring Capital has entered the capital of Enersweet alongside debt financing from Zencap Asset Management and Bpifrance, replacing the group’s previous debt partner Pictet Asset Management. The €45 million round — comprising equity investment from Ring Capital and a unitranche debt facility — gives Enersweet the firepower to pursue two to three acquisitions annually across adjacent segments of the building energy management value chain. Pierre-Alexis de Vauplane of Ring Capital joins Enersweet’s supervisory board as part of the transaction, though the management team, led by founder and chief executive Mickaël Cabrol, retains majority ownership and full operational control of the business. A buy-and-build strategy delivering rapid scale Since its founding in 2022, Enersweet has completed five acquisitions in three years, assembling a portfolio of complementary software businesses that serve real estate diagnosticians, engineering firms, property companies, and large commercial occupants. The group’s subsidiaries — Liciel Environnement, Arobiz, Sogexpert, Quotidiag, and eGreen — collectively provide tools spanning energy performance diagnostics, building technical management, and energy monitoring systems. The acquisition of Liciel Environnement, France’s leading provider of energy performance diagnostic software, gave Enersweet a dominant position in the regulatory compliance segment. The more recent integration of eGreen, a pioneer in energy management systems, extended the group’s capabilities into real-time energy monitoring and building automation — technologies that are becoming essential as French regulations tighten around building energy consumption. This acquisition-driven approach has propelled Enersweet to 85 employees, more than 7,000 clients, and over €10 million in revenue by its second full financial year in 2025 — a trajectory that underlines both the fragmented nature of the market and the demand for integrated software solutions in the building energy sector. Regulatory tailwinds and a €100 million ambition The timing of Enersweet’s funding round reflects a broader wave of investment into building decarbonisation across Europe. In France, the building sector accounts for 43 per cent of national energy consumption and approximately a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, making it a priority target for policymakers. The tertiary energy decree (Décret Tertiaire), which mandates progressive energy consumption reductions in commercial buildings, and the BACS decree requiring building automation systems, are creating sustained demand for the kind of software infrastructure Enersweet provides. Across Europe, the regulatory push is intensifying. The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive sets a pathway toward zero-emission buildings by 2030 for new public buildings, with the broader stock following by 2050. This regulatory framework is channelling significant capital into proptech and energy efficiency solutions, with building energy management emerging as one of the fastest-growing segments of the European climate tech ecosystem. Enersweet’s ambitions match the scale of the opportunity. The group has set a target of deploying €100 million by 2030, with plans to expand beyond its current core of energy diagnostics and monitoring into adjacent verticals including air quality management, waste management, and building maintenance software. The strategy positions Enersweet as a potential one-stop platform for the full spectrum of building sustainability services — a consolidation play in a market where hundreds of small, specialised software providers serve fragmented customer needs. For Ring Capital, which focuses on growth-stage technology investments in France and Southern Europe, the deal represents a bet on the intersection of regulation-driven demand and software-enabled consolidation — two forces that, when combined, tend to produce durable market leaders. Summary Company: Enersweet HQ: Paris, France Founded: 2022 Round: Growth (equity + debt) Amount: €45 million Lead investor: Ring Capital (equity); Zencap Asset Management and Bpifrance (debt) Use of funds: Acquisition strategy (2-3 per year), expansion into air quality, waste management, and building maintenance software Total funding to date: €45 million

Strategic health investors back digital therapeutics for cognitive decline Europe’s digital health sector is witnessing a quiet but significant shift in investor appetite, with growing capital flows towards therapeutic applications that address chronic neurological conditions — an area historically underserved by both pharmaceutical innovation and venture funding. As populations across the continent age and healthcare systems strain under the weight of dementia-related costs, digital therapeutics platforms that can deliver clinically validated interventions at scale are attracting attention from a new class of strategic health investors. Five Lives, the Franco-British healthtech startup developing digital therapies for dementia prevention and cognitive decline, has raised €1.7 million from strategic investors Open CNP (the investment arm of French insurance group CNP Assurances), 50 Partners, and Family Ventures. The company is supplementing the round with a crowdfunding campaign on Sowefund, targeting an additional €300,000 to €500,000. Combined with previous rounds totalling over €3 million from investors including Headline, Speedinvest, and Boost Capital, Five Lives has now secured approximately €5 million in total funding. From prevention to treatment: a dual-product strategy Founded in 2019 by CEO Xavier Louis, Five Lives has evolved from a consumer-facing brain health app into a clinically validated digital therapeutics platform operating across two distinct product lines. The original Five Lives Mental Health Prevention app targets at-risk individuals without a clinical diagnosis, offering personalised lifestyle guidance across five evidence-based pillars: physical exercise, cognitive stimulation, nutrition, sleep, and social engagement. In January 2026, the company launched Five Lives Care, a prescription-grade therapeutic application designed specifically for patients with mild cognitive impairment — the clinical stage that often precedes Alzheimer’s disease. The app includes over 500 adapted exercise videos, memory and attention training games, and AI-powered personalised treatment sessions. Within its first two months, Five Lives Care has enrolled 5,000 patients, demonstrating strong early adoption in a market where treatment options for early-stage cognitive decline remain severely limited. “When diagnosed with Alzheimer today, patients go home with no meaningful medical perspective,” Xavier Louis has noted, highlighting the therapeutic gap that Five Lives aims to address. The company’s approach draws on accumulating clinical evidence that lifestyle interventions can meaningfully slow cognitive decline when delivered early and consistently. Clinical validation underpins reimbursement strategy The strength of Five Lives’ positioning lies in its clinical evidence base. A randomised controlled trial conducted across seven hospitals — five in the United Kingdom and two in France (Broca Hospital in Paris and La Timone in Marseille) — involving 180 patients demonstrated significant improvements in executive function and quality of life within three months of using the platform. The new funding will partially finance a second clinical trial, designed to strengthen the company’s case for healthcare reimbursement — a critical milestone that would unlock substantially larger market access. The reimbursement pathway is central to Five Lives’ revenue model. While the consumer app operates on a subscription basis at approximately €30 per month, the clinical product commands a reimbursement rate of €135 per month. Securing formal reimbursement approval, which the company is targeting for 2027, would transform its unit economics and addressable market. Five Lives projects revenues of €1 million in 2026, rising to €5 to €10 million in 2027 if reimbursement is achieved, with a longer-term ambition of reaching €100 million in annual revenue and 500,000 patients by 2030. A growing European digital therapeutics market The investment by Open CNP is strategically significant. As the investment vehicle of CNP Assurances, one of France’s largest insurance groups, its participation signals that major health insurers are beginning to view digital therapeutics as a viable complement to traditional care pathways — and a potential tool for reducing the long-term costs associated with dementia, which currently represent one of the largest financial burdens on European healthcare systems. Five Lives’ commercial expansion is focused on three markets: France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with the new capital supporting customer acquisition and AI integration to further personalise treatment protocols. With over 200,000 cumulative app downloads and a growing clinical evidence base, the company is building the foundation for a platform that could scale across Europe’s fragmented but increasingly receptive digital health landscape. Summary Company: Five Lives HQ: France / United Kingdom Founded: 2019 Round: Funding round Amount: €1.7 million (+ up to €500k crowdfunding) Investors: Open CNP (CNP Assurances), 50 Partners, Family Ventures Use of Funds: Commercial expansion (France, UK, US), second clinical trial, AI integration for personalised treatment

General Catalyst leads seed round as enterprise AI agent adoption accelerates The enterprise AI landscape is evolving rapidly from experimental chatbot deployments towards autonomous agents capable of executing complete business workflows. As organisations across Europe grapple with the practical challenge of moving AI from proof-of-concept to production-ready systems, a new generation of platforms is emerging to bridge the gap between AI capability and enterprise-grade deployment — particularly for non-technical teams that lack dedicated engineering resources. Nexus, the Brussels-founded agentic AI platform backed by Y Combinator, has raised $4.3 million in a seed round led by General Catalyst. Additional investors include Transpose Platform, Twenty Two Ventures, Phosphor Capital, and prominent angel investors Gokul Rajaram, Raphael Schaad, and Jake Mintz. The funding will support the company’s expansion into enterprise markets across Europe and the United States. Enabling non-technical teams to deploy AI agents Founded in 2024 by former McKinsey consultant Assem Chammah and AI engineer Shady Al Shoha, Nexus has developed a platform that enables non-technical business teams to build and deploy production-ready AI agents without writing code. The platform integrates across more than 4,000 enterprise systems — spanning CRM, ERP, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other core business tools — allowing agents to execute complete workflows end-to-end rather than simply answering queries or generating content. What distinguishes Nexus from the crowded field of AI agent builders is its embedded governance and compliance layer. Enterprise deployment of autonomous agents raises significant questions around data handling, audit trails, and regulatory compliance, particularly in heavily regulated European industries. Nexus addresses this by building governance controls directly into the agent deployment process, enabling organisations to maintain oversight while benefiting from automation. Early traction with major European enterprises Despite its early stage, Nexus has already secured notable enterprise clients, including Orange Group, the global telecommunications operator with operations across Europe and Africa. Orange deployed a customer onboarding agent using the Nexus platform in just four weeks, reportedly achieving a 50 per cent increase in conversion rates and generating more than €5 million in annual lifetime value from a single agent deployment — a striking demonstration of the platform’s potential return on investment. Belgian telecommunications company Proximus Global is another early adopter, further validating the platform’s applicability in large, complex enterprise environments. These reference customers provide Nexus with a powerful narrative for its sales pipeline as it scales beyond its initial Belgian market. The European agentic AI market matures Nexus’s raise arrives at a pivotal moment for the European AI ecosystem. According to recent market data, AI-backed startups now attract 62 per cent of all venture capital funding in Europe, with enterprise AI solutions commanding an increasingly significant share. The shift from generative AI tools towards agentic AI — where software autonomously completes multi-step business processes — represents what many investors view as the next major value-creation wave in enterprise technology. General Catalyst’s decision to lead the round is noteworthy. The firm has been one of the most active global investors in enterprise AI infrastructure, and its backing signals confidence in Nexus’s approach to a market that remains highly competitive. Y Combinator’s continued involvement, following its initial support through its accelerator programme, adds further validation. For the Brussels-based startup, the seed funding provides the runway to expand its engineering team, deepen platform capabilities, and pursue the enterprise sales cycles that typically define growth in this segment. With AI agent deployment emerging as a strategic priority for large European organisations, Nexus is positioning itself at the intersection of two powerful trends: the democratisation of AI development and the enterprise demand for measurable automation outcomes. Summary Company: Nexus HQ: Brussels, Belgium Founded: 2024 Round: Seed Amount: $4.3 million (€3.7 million) Lead Investor: General Catalyst Use of Funds: Engineering team expansion, platform development, enterprise sales across Europe and the US

Strategic investors fuel Europe’s space-based solar ambitions The global race to secure clean, uninterrupted energy sources is intensifying, and a growing number of investors are turning their attention to one of the most ambitious frontiers in renewable technology: space-based solar power. Long confined to the realm of theoretical physics and government-funded research programmes, the concept of capturing solar energy in orbit and transmitting it wirelessly to Earth is now attracting serious venture capital — a signal that the technology may be closer to commercial viability than many assumed. Luxembourg-based startup TerraSpark has raised over €5 million in a pre-seed round to advance its space-based solar power technology, marking one of the earliest significant private investments in the sector. The round was led by Paris-based venture capital firm Daphni, with participation from Sake Bosch, better ventures, Hans(wo)men Group, the Luxembourg Business Angel Network, and Karaoke Club. From ESA research to commercial venture Founded in 2025, TerraSpark brings together a team with deep roots in European space research. Co-founder Dr Sanjay Vijendran was one of the principal leaders of the European Space Agency’s Solaris initiative, a three-year research and development programme launched in 2022 to evaluate the feasibility of space-based solar power for Europe. When ESA concluded in August 2024 that the technology was not yet mature enough to proceed to a full demonstration mission, Vijendran left to co-found TerraSpark alongside serial entrepreneur Jasper Deprez, who previously built HRTech platform Tradler into a global operation, and Matthias Laug, who serves as chief operating officer. Rather than attempting to deploy orbital infrastructure immediately, TerraSpark is pursuing a phased commercialisation strategy that begins on the ground. The company’s core technology centres on radio frequency-based wireless energy transmission, which it plans to demonstrate first in controlled terrestrial environments before scaling the system into orbit. This approach allows TerraSpark to validate critical parameters — alignment accuracy, energy density, and atmospheric tolerance — while simultaneously building a commercial pipeline for industrial wireless power applications. An ambitious roadmap to orbit TerraSpark’s development timeline is structured around a series of escalating milestones. In 2026, the company plans to demonstrate wireless power transmission over controlled distances on Earth. By 2027, it intends to launch an orbital technology demonstrator, and by 2028, it aims to achieve the first space-to-Earth power transmission — beaming solar energy from a satellite prototype to a ground receiver. Full commercial deployment, with a constellation capable of delivering continuous, weather-independent energy worldwide, is targeted for 2030 and beyond. The company has already secured a partnership with Dcubed to test its solar array technology on a SpaceX mission scheduled for 2027, providing an early orbital validation opportunity that could prove pivotal for subsequent fundraising rounds. European space-based solar power gains momentum TerraSpark’s raise reflects a broader shift in European energy and deep-tech investment. France’s national quantum and space strategies have allocated billions in public funding, while the European Space Agency continues to explore power-from-space concepts through its broader technology programmes. The European Commission’s long-term energy strategy has also identified space-based solar power as a potential contributor to the continent’s net-zero targets, lending policy-level credibility to the sector. The wireless energy transmission market itself remains nascent, but the convergence of improved satellite launch economics — driven by companies such as SpaceX — with advances in photovoltaic efficiency and power beaming technology is creating conditions for the first generation of commercial space solar ventures to emerge. TerraSpark’s decision to base itself in Luxembourg, a country that has actively positioned itself as a European hub for space commerce through its SpaceResources.lu initiative and favourable regulatory environment, adds a further strategic dimension to its positioning. For European deep-tech investors, TerraSpark represents a high-conviction bet on a technology that, if proven at scale, could fundamentally alter the global energy landscape. The pre-seed round provides the capital to reach the critical terrestrial demonstration milestones that will determine whether the company can attract the substantially larger investment required for its orbital phases. Summary Company: TerraSpark HQ: Luxembourg Founded: 2025 Round: Pre-Seed Amount: €5 million+ Lead Investor: Daphni Use of Funds: Terrestrial wireless power transmission demonstration, orbital technology development, team expansion marking one of the earliest significant private i— alignment accuracy, energy density, and atmospheric tolerance — while simultaneously building a commercial pipeline for industrial wireless power applications.

The European embedded insurance market is experiencing significant momentum, with market analysts projecting compound annual growth of 34.8 per cent through 2031, reaching $18.29 billion by the end of the decade. Within this expanding landscape, Brussels-based Qover has emerged as a critical infrastructure provider, embedding insurance capabilities directly into the platforms where consumers already spend their time. The company has now secured $12 million in growth capital, reinforcing its position as one of Europe’s leading embedded insurance orchestration platforms. CIBC Innovation Banking has led the facility, structured as non-dilutive debt capital designed to accelerate Qover’s technology roadmap without diluting existing shareholder interests. The funding arrives as Qover marks its tenth anniversary, a milestone that underscores the sustainability of its business model and the depth of its market traction. This Qover funding round reflects broader investor confidence in the embedded insurance thesis, particularly among capital providers focused on infrastructure-layer fintech solutions. A decade of building insurance infrastructure Qover was founded in 2016 with a straightforward conviction: that insurance could be simpler and more genuinely accessible across borders. A decade later, the company has validated this thesis at scale, protecting 15 million people across 32 countries with gross written premiums exceeding $173 million. The embedded insurance startup has built an API-based orchestration platform that connects insurance supply directly to digital customer moments, eliminating friction and creating seamless coverage experiences. The company’s partnership ecosystem demonstrates the platform’s strategic importance. Qover’s embedded insurance infrastructure supports some of Europe’s most recognised financial and consumer brands, including Revolut, Mastercard, Monzo, BMW, bunq, Deliveroo, Canyon, and Cowboy. Each partnership represents a distinct use case—from travel insurance within payments platforms to device protection in consumer electronics—illustrating the versatility of the underlying orchestration architecture. Quentin Colmant, Qover’s co-founder and chief executive, articulated the company’s ambition in response to the funding announcement. “We started with a simple conviction: insurance could be simpler and truly accessible across borders. Ten years and 15 million users later, that conviction has become a platform, and with AI now accelerating what’s possible, we are more ambitious than ever. Our goal is to protect 100 million people by 2030.” Colmant, a veteran of Allianz with a decade of insurance sector experience, brings both operational credibility and domain expertise to the embedded insurance startup’s leadership. Platform capabilities and artificial intelligence integration The $12 million in capital will fund three strategic priorities: advancing platform technology, integrating artificial intelligence capabilities, and expanding operational infrastructure to support international growth. Qover’s core platform addresses a persistent structural problem in insurance: the distribution of coverage has historically required friction-laden processes involving underwriting delays, customer verification, and compliance workflows. By embedding insurance orchestration directly into digital platforms, Qover eliminates these friction points and creates new revenue streams for its partners. The integration of AI capabilities represents a critical evolution. Machine learning algorithms can optimise underwriting decisions in real time, personalise coverage recommendations based on behavioural signals, and streamline claims processing. These enhancements are particularly valuable in cross-border scenarios, where regulatory complexity and language barriers have traditionally constrained insurance distribution. Embedded insurance reaches critical mass in Europe Market dynamics support continued expansion of the embedded insurance sector. The European embedded insurance market is projected to grow from $4.11 billion in 2026 to $18.29 billion by 2031, driven by regulatory tailwinds, consumer demand for seamless digital experiences, and the strategic realisation among incumbent insurers that platform partnerships represent a viable distribution channel. Qover funding at this juncture reflects the market’s maturation: capital providers now recognise embedded insurance infrastructure as essential rather than experimental. The company has secured recognition from leading technology and business institutions. Qover has been designated a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, included in CNBC’s Top 150 Insurtech list, and featured in CB Insights’ ranking of the top 50 insurance technology companies globally. These recognitions validate the company’s technical achievements and market positioning within the broader insurtech ecosystem. Qover’s trajectory toward its target of protecting 100 million people by 2030 now has enhanced financial backing. The non-dilutive structure of this growth capital facility allows the company to invest in product development and market expansion without compromise to founder control or existing investor positions—a strategic advantage in competitive fintech markets where speed and autonomy often determine outcomes. Summary Company Qover Headquarters Brussels, Belgium Founded 2016 Round Growth Capital Facility Amount $12 million Lead Investor CIBC Innovation Banking Use of Funds Platform technology, AI integration, international expansion Total Funding to Date $100M+ Key Metrics 15M users, 32+ countries, $173M+ GWP

Enterprise automation is undergoing a fundamental transformation. As organisations increasingly deploy distributed systems, artificial intelligence workloads, and complex data pipelines, the gap between legacy scheduler tools and modern operational requirements has become untenable. Legacy solutions like Apache Airflow, designed for simpler data orchestration, struggle to handle the breadth of modern enterprise needs. Into this gap steps Kestra, a Paris-based open-source orchestration platform that has announced a €21 million Series A funding round led by RTP Global. The round underscores a critical market shift: enterprises are ready to consolidate fragmented workflow tooling under a unified, developer-first control plane. With Kestra funding now secured, the company plans to accelerate its push into North America and Europe whilst launching Kestra Cloud, a managed SaaS offering. The Series A round brings Kestra’s total funding to €31 million ($36 million). RTP Global led the investment, with participation from existing backers Alven, ISAI, and Axeleo. Founded in 2021 by Emmanuel Darras—co-founder of gaming studio Ankama—and CTO Ludovic Dehon, Kestra has grown to serve 30,000 organisations globally, executing over 2 billion workflows in 2025 alone, a twentyfold increase from the prior year. The platform boasts 26,000 GitHub stars and hosts over 1,200 plugins, positioning it as one of the fastest-growing orchestration platforms in the open-source ecosystem. RTP Global leads bet on open-source orchestration RTP Global’s decision to lead the Series A reflects confidence in Kestra’s technical differentiation and market timing. Thomas Cuvelier, partner at RTP Global, stated: “As workflows become more distributed and AI-native, legacy schedulers and fragmented tooling can’t keep up. Kestra is positioned to become the global standard for workflow orchestration.” This assessment aligns with broader industry trends: the workflow orchestration market is valued at $64.26 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $108.65 billion by 2032, representing a compound annual growth rate of approximately 6.8 per cent. The Kestra Series A capital will fund three core initiatives. First, Kestra 2.0, the next-generation platform, introduces a distributed execution engine and agentic orchestration capabilities, enabling organisations to orchestrate not just data and infrastructure workflows, but increasingly autonomous AI systems. Second, Kestra Cloud will provide a fully managed SaaS experience for enterprises unwilling or unable to self-host. Third, the funding accelerates go-to-market expansion in North America and Europe, two regions where workflow orchestration adoption is highest. What distinguishes Kestra from competitors Kestra’s enterprise customer roster—including Apple, Toyota, JPMorgan Chase, BHP, Bloomberg, Crédit Agricole, and Xiaomi—demonstrates production credibility across demanding use cases. Yet the company’s competitive advantage lies not in customer prestige but in its architectural philosophy. Workflow orchestration landscapes are typically dominated by tools built for a single use case: Airflow for data pipelines, Prefect for modern data workflows, or Temporal for distributed systems. Kestra, by contrast, unifies data, AI, infrastructure, and business workflow orchestration under a single interface. Emmanuel Darras articulated the go-to-market strategy plainly: “Most enterprise software companies try to sell top-down and hope developers adopt. We took a different approach, focusing on building a product that engineers choose because it works in production.” This developer-first ethos, combined with open-source transparency, contrasts sharply with the sales-driven models of competitors. Kestra’s growth metrics—2 billion workflows executed in 2025, representing a 20-fold increase year-over-year—suggest the strategy is resonating. The orchestration gap: why enterprises need a unified control plane The fragmentation of workflow tooling reflects historical organisational siloes. Data teams adopted Airflow. Infrastructure teams deployed Kubernetes and Terraform. AI teams built bespoke orchestration. The result is operational complexity, duplicate tooling, and elevated maintenance burden. Modern enterprises recognise that open-source orchestration solutions offering unified abstractions across these domains reduce cognitive load, simplify security governance, and accelerate time-to-production for new automation initiatives. Kestra’s timing is fortuitous. As AI adoption accelerates, enterprises increasingly need systems capable of orchestrating both deterministic data pipelines and non-deterministic agentic workflows. Legacy tools were not designed for this fusion. Enterprise automation platforms must now support diverse execution models—batch processing, real-time streaming, agentic decision-making—within a single control plane. Kestra’s path forward involves expanding Kestra Cloud adoption among mid-market and enterprise segments whilst deepening open-source community engagement to secure long-term network effects. The €21 million investment enables both strategies simultaneously. Summary Company Kestra Headquarters Paris, France Founded 2021 Round Series A Amount Raised €21 million ($25 million) Lead Investor RTP Global Use of Funds Kestra 2.0, Kestra Cloud SaaS, go-to-market expansion Total Funding €31 million ($36 million)

European quantum computing has historically struggled to attract institutional capital, with the continent capturing roughly 5 per cent of global private quantum funding. However, IQM Quantum Computers’ latest financing round signals a meaningful shift in investor confidence toward European quantum champions. The Espoo-based company has secured €50 million in growth financing from BlackRock, one of the world’s largest asset managers, as it prepares for a landmark public listing on the New York Stock Exchange via special purpose acquisition company merger with Real Asset Acquisition Corp (RAAQ). This round represents a vote of confidence from mainstream institutional investors in IQM’s differentiated approach to quantum computing and its commercial viability. The funding brings IQM’s total capital raised to over $600 million since its 2018 founding. BlackRock’s participation underscores growing recognition that quantum computing infrastructure represents a material investment opportunity. IQM intends to deploy capital toward accelerating its technology roadmap, strengthening research and development capabilities, and expanding into new markets globally. The company follows its Series B round of $320 million in September 2025, led by Ten Eleven Ventures, demonstrating sustained momentum among lead-tier investors. BlackRock signals institutional confidence in European quantum BlackRock’s involvement carries particular significance within quantum computing investment circles. As a fiduciary managing trillions of dollars in assets globally, BlackRock’s participation validates the commercial maturity and long-term viability of IQM’s business model. The investment reflects growing institutional recognition that quantum computing is transitioning from research phase to enterprise deployment, a thesis IQM has substantiated through customer deliveries and commercial traction. The strategic rationale behind BlackRock’s investment lies partly in IQM’s differentiated go-to-market strategy. Unlike competitors focused on cloud-based quantum services, IQM has pioneered an on-premises deployment model that appeals to enterprises requiring data sovereignty, security, and integration with existing infrastructure. This approach has proven commercially viable: IQM has delivered 15 quantum computer systems to 13 customers across research and industrial sectors, establishing proof points for quantum computing’s practical applications beyond theoretical research. IQM’s commercial trajectory and technology position Founded in 2018 by Dr. Jan Goetz, a PhD researcher in superconducting quantum circuits and former Marie-Curie Fellow at Aalto University, IQM has grown to over 300 employees across 12 countries. The company’s superconducting quantum technology portfolio spans three core offerings: IQM Spark, a five-qubit system for research and development; IQM Radiance, a scalable platform supporting 20 to 150 qubits; and IQM Resonance, a cloud-accessible quantum computing service. This product architecture enables IQM to address diverse customer segments, from academic research institutions to commercial enterprises. The company’s customer base reflects its penetration across Europe’s leading scientific institutions. Key customers include the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre and Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany, as well as VTT Finland, a major research and technology organisation. These deployments demonstrate IQM’s ability to deliver complex quantum systems meeting institutional requirements for uptime, reproducibility, and integration with high-performance computing infrastructure. From Espoo to Wall Street: Europe’s quantum champion prepares for public markets The preparation for a public listing via SPAC merger with RAAQ represents a watershed moment for European quantum computing. The transaction values IQM at approximately $1.8 billion on a pre-money basis, positioning it as the first publicly listed European quantum computing company on a major US stock exchange. Expected closing in June 2026 would provide IQM with enhanced capital markets access and elevated visibility among institutional investors and strategic partners. Dr. Jan Goetz, IQM’s Chief Executive, commented on the financing: “This financing further strengthens our capital structure, increasing the resources available to enable us to execute on our technology vision and expand into new markets.” The statement reflects IQM’s strategy of leveraging institutional capital to accelerate commercialisation and scale manufacturing capacity for quantum systems. IQM’s trajectory occurs within a broader context of intensifying European quantum development. Competitors including Pasqal and Alice & Bob in France, each having raised €189 million and €100 million respectively, and planqc in Germany, which secured €50 million, demonstrate sustained venture and growth-stage investment flowing into European quantum infrastructure. However, IQM’s combination of commercial customer deployments, institutional investor backing, and path to public markets positions it distinctly within this competitive landscape. The BlackRock investment and anticipated public listing signal that quantum computing infrastructure has achieved sufficient commercial maturity to attract mainstream institutional capital. For European quantum computing more broadly, IQM’s trajectory suggests that differentiated technology platforms with clear commercial applications can compete effectively for investor capital despite historical funding disparities between European and North American quantum ecosystems. Summary Company IQM Quantum Computers Headquarters Espoo, Finland Founded 2018 Financing Round Growth Financing Amount Raised €50 million Lead Investor BlackRock Use of Funds Technology roadmap, R&D, market expansion Total Funding to Date $600 million+ Upcoming Milestone NYSE listing via SPAC merger (expected June 2026)