It’s been another week of increasingly big numbers in European AI. Mistral AI is reportedly discussing a €20bn valuation, is on track to surpass €1bn ARR this year, and wants to build up to 1 gigawatt of data centre capacity in Europe by 2030. London’s THENA Capital also made history this week as the first all-female GP-led fund to receive backing from the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds programme.
Let’s dive in.
💰 Funding rounds
Košice-based Definic raised €2.5m Seed as it rebranded from Nordics and expands its vendor intelligence platform across the DACH region, UK and US. Read more here.
Gothenburg-based Arkeon raised €594.2k Seed to advance its technology for improving precision and yield in superconducting quantum chip production. Read more here.
Oslo-based Mimir raised €518.3k pre-Seed to expand its AI-native platform that automates e-commerce operations, after growing 7x over the past year and reaching profitability without external funding. Read more here.
🌱 Startup news
Copenhagen-based Pleo has laid off around 50 employees across product, tech, design and data teams as the spend management company continues a broader transformation aimed at simplifying decision-making and accelerating product delivery. Read more here.
Paris-based Mistral AI is reportedly in talks to raise €3bn at a €20bn valuation, as the AI company looks to expand its computing infrastructure and compete with rivals in the US and China. Read more here.
📣 Fund news
London-based THENA Capital closed its inaugural £45m Fund I to back seed-stage digital health and medtech companies, becoming the first all-female GP-led fund to receive backing from the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds programme. Read more here.
🎧 Podcasts
TechTalks with TFN Podcast featured Merusha Naidu, Global Head of Partnerships at Paymentology, on the future of payments, fintech infrastructure, and why embedded finance, open banking and crypto are converging. Listen here.
The Scaling Europe Podcast featured Pablo Palafox, CEO and Co-founder of HappyRobot, on why AI’s biggest opportunity is helping businesses get work done, not building better chatbots. Listen here.
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