UK telecommunications company TalkTalk secures a £100M deal, financial services firm Klarna receives UK EMI licence, and the European DIGITAL SME Alliance voices disapproval against the EU-US trade deal.
In the past week, European tech saw a significant surge in funding, acquisitions, and investments, with over 50 deals raising more than €967 million across various sectors. This activity underscores the growing prominence and diversity of European tech.
One of the most notable deals was the acquisition of Dutch drone maker Destinus by an AI pilot startup for $225 million, marking one of Europe's largest defense tech deals. Another significant event was the launch of PXN Group, a new UK VC firm with £670 million, aiming to challenge established hubs like London, Oxford, and Cambridge.
In the fintech sector, French fintech Kriptown secured a minority stake investment, while in Central and Eastern Europe, SR Robotics of Poland raised €8.4 million for its AI-powered underwater robotics and Robot-as-a-Service offering. Other top funding rounds in the region include Lightyear’s €20 million Series B and E2B’s €18.1 million Series A for cloud-based AI workflow execution platforms.
The scale of these deals, such as Destinus’ $225 million acquisition and PXN’s sizeable VC fund launch, highlights strong investor appetite for AI, defense tech, fintech, and robotics startups across Europe.
Other notable events include Klarna being granted a UK EMI licence, aiming to position itself as a "global digital bank". German AI startup Cognigy was acquired by US customer service firm NiCE in a near $1B deal. Manchester-based Hydrogen Safe was acquired by IACS, and the UK is making strides in quantum computing with scaling efforts.
In the AI sector, the UK also launched a coalition to protect against advanced AI. Meanwhile, TildeLM, a solution for most LLMs that ignore Baltic and Eastern European languages, and Psylink, a next-gen mental health biotech solution, each received significant funding.
In the realm of startups, Fal.ai in Turkey raised $125M at a $1.5B valuation, while Tilla raised €2M to accelerate global growth of its crew logistics platform. BlackWood Ventures closed its debut fund at $25M to back Europe’s next-gen founders, and Cofides (FOCO) invested €90M in Proeduca's growth in Spain.
Moreover, Cultipharm closed a $1M round, Fluid Focus raised £640,000 to grow its screen time productivity app globally, and IoT startup Uniot received $25,000 from YEP Accelerator. Tractive, a pet tracking scaleup based in Austria, is acquiring its US competitor Whistle.
Pina Earth and Tree.ly merged to create Europe's largest forest carbon platform, and 1KOMMA5° in Germany extended its pre-IPO round. Lastly, €600 million was mobilized by the Greek Guarantee Fund, impacting SMEs significantly.
These developments underscore the vibrant and growing tech ecosystem in Europe, with a wide range of sectors attracting significant investment and attention from both local and international investors.
[1] Source: TechCrunch [4] Source: Sifted [5] Source: Tech.eu
The PXN Group, a new UK VC firm with £670 million, launched to challenge established tech hubs like London, Oxford, and Cambridge, demonstrates the growing interest in technology startups in Europe. The significant funding raised by AI-focused startups TildeLM and Psylink, as well as the acquisition of Turkish startup Fal.ai, highlights the rising prominence of deeptech and AI in Europe's lifestyle and innovation sectors.
