EU-Startups

23/06/2026

The fundraising conversation is dominated by tighter markets and scarcer capital. But focusing on headline venture numbers misses a much bigger shift happening beneath the surface. 📈🚀

In this article, Mike Lebus, founder and Director of Angel Investment Network, argues that while non-AI venture activity in Europe is shrinking, the cost of building a startup from scratch has fallen dramatically. As a result, founders are creating higher-quality businesses with far less capital than was required just a few years ago.

Read the full article here:

The early stage fundraising conversation right now is dominated by talk of tighter conditions and scarcer capital. Strip out AI from the European venture

23/06/2026

equipal, a FinTech funder of business equipment out of London, has secured €18.84 million in a combined investment in order to hire across business development, marketing, operations, credit and data 🇬🇧 💵

The funding includes a €1.4 million equity investment alongside a headline €17 million forward flow facility from Altum Capital Management, LLC – composed of initial full lease funding and contingent junior funding, with Altum Capital providing both the equity injection and funding capacity.

Eamonn McMahon, founder of equipal, said: “I’m thrilled to get this deal over the line. While the market environment has been challenging, our operating resilience and discipline on credit, while keeping the customer front and centre, has helped us get here. The structure of this deal allows for additional scale with senior funding in the years ahead and critically, provides us with operating flexibility. We look forward to scaling up, in partnership with our new shareholders and funders, Altum Capital.”

equipal, a FinTech funder of business equipment out of London, has secured €18.84 million (£16.25 million) in a combined investment in order to hire

23/06/2026

Astral Systems, a British DeepTech firm pioneering multi-state fusion (MSF) technology, has secured €26 million in Series A funding to bring critical medical isotopes to market by early 2027 🇬🇧 🌟

This first close investment was led by Mercia Ventures and supported by prominent tech investors including Tees River, daphni, and Blast Club, alongside previous investors Speedinvest and Playfair.

Talmon Firestone, CEO and co-founder of Astral Systems, says: “We are rewriting how we approach fusion and, in doing so, redefining what it means to be a fusion company. This is evident in our novel technology and its near-term applications in modern medicine, as well as facilitating the search for hybrid energy."

Astral Systems, a British DeepTech firm pioneering multi-state fusion (MSF) technology, has secured €26 million (£23 million) in Series A funding in order

23/06/2026

TRIMTECH Therapeutics Limited, a Cambridge-based BioTech company developing new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, has raised an additional €12 million in Seed funding 🇬🇧 🧬

The financing was led by Johnson & Johnson’s corporate venture capital organisation, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc., and BGF, who join existing investors. This brings the total for the round to €41 million – following a previous raise.

Dr. Nicki Thompson, CEO, TRIMTECH Therapeutics, says: “We welcome JJDC and BGF as investors in our Seed financing round and thank them for their support. This additional funding allows us to forge ahead with developing our portfolio of CNS penetrant degraders based on our unique platforms.”

TRIMTECH Therapeutics, a Cambridge-based BioTech company developing novel small molecule therapies that target and degrade protein aggregates associated

23/06/2026

A survey of 2,000 senior hiring leaders across the US and UK has found that 59% of companies admit having already made a bad AI hire, illustrating how hiring processes are prone to falling behind. :bar_chart::warning:

In this article, Wouter Durville, co-founder and CEO of TestGorilla, explores the hiring mistakes that may be quietly killing your startup’s momentum and reveals a hidden structural advantage that most founders overlook.

Read the full article here:

Talk to enough hiring leaders right now, and a pattern emerges. Companies say they're hiring for AI fluency - rewriting job descriptions, adding AI

23/06/2026

Looking to discover new startups in a specific industry, business stage, or location? 👀
EU-Startups can help you identify relevant European startups through our tailored Startup Sourcing Service 🔎

Follow this link to explore how we can help you➡️
https://www.eu-startups.com/startup-sourcing-research-service-for-investors-corporates/

23/06/2026

VARM, a Berlin-based startup training and deploying insulation specialists, has raised €17.5 million in a Series A funding round to expand its scalable home insulation model across Germany and, eventually, Europe.

The round was led by ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund and co-led by GET Fund, with participation from Aurum Impact and existing investors Emerge VC, Pale blue dot, and noa.

“Insulating Europe’s buildings is proven, fast, cheap and unbelievable effective. The hard part is doing it at scale, building by building. That’s the company we always have been building. Now we’re building the team to match the speed for our next phase,” said Christian Gruener, CEO and co-founder in a public statement.

VARM, a Berlin-based startup training and deploying insulation specialists, has raised €17.5 million in a Series A funding round to expand its scalable

23/06/2026

Tsuga, a Paris-based innovator in AI-Native Resilient Observability, today announced it has raised €30 million in a Series A funding round to scale its GTM motion and accelerate the rollout of their AI agent platform 🇫🇷 🚀

The round is led by existing investor Singular, with participation from General Catalyst alongside new investors DST Global Partners and QuantumLight. Picus Capital and Databricks Ventures are among the additional investors participating in the round.

“The incumbents built good businesses on a model that no longer works. Sending your telemetry to a vendor’s cloud made sense when data volumes were manageable and AI was not writing and deploying your code. Neither of those things is true any more. Every customer we speak to is paying more for observability than they were two years ago and getting less reliable coverage. We built Tsuga to end that,” says Gabriel-James Safar, co-founder and CEO, Tsuga.

Tsuga, a Paris-based innovator in AI-Native Resilient Observability, today announced it has raised €30 million ($35 million) in a Series A funding round

22/06/2026

AI-generated music may be flooding platforms, but Sónar+D 2026 proved there is European innovation pointing to a different kind of disruption, writes Alessandro Ravanetti for EU-Startups 🎵 🇪🇺

In his article, Alessandro looks at five European MusicTech startups tackling the industry’s hidden layers: club data, fan signals, merch sales, artist discovery, and music-based care.

Featuring: Music Magnet, 2am, Yaarz, Parkinsonic, and HAT Music.

Two years ago, a Sónar+D panel called "Generating Panic?" asked whether AI was about to overwhelm music. By April 2026, Deezer had a number: around 75,000

22/06/2026

Bionyra, a Paris and Boston-based clinical-stage biopharma company developing next-generation biologics for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, announced their launch and a €143 million Series A 🇫🇷 💊

The round is co-led by JEITO Capital and Sofinnova Partners. Arkin Capital, Sanofi Ventures, Sixty Degree Capital, VIVES Partners and Apollo Health Ventures also participated in this inaugural funding.

“More than half of patients suffering from immune-mediated inflammatory diseases remain inadequately controlled, highlighting a significant need for better treatment options. Across our pipeline, we are selectively modulating immune pathways that are central drivers of disease in indications where current therapies remain insufficient,” says Dr. Frederic Marrache, co-founder and CEO of Bionyra.

Bionyra Pharma, a Paris and Boston-based clinical-stage biopharma company developing next-generation biologics for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases,