Some of Europe’s biggest startup names got behind Balderton’s new Built in Europe campaign today, with Revolut, Mistral, Wayve and ElevenLabs all backing the initiative. SoftBank also committed up to €75bn towards AI infrastructure in France, Runway opened its European HQ in London, and Salesforce snapped up Berlin-founded Contentful.
Let’s dive in.
💰 Funding rounds
Munich-based encosa raised €25m to expand its battery storage platform for German SMEs, helping businesses cut energy costs and generate revenue from energy trading. Read more here.
Eindhoven-based Invisix raised €20m in an oversubscribed Seed round to commercialise its ASML-developed soft x-ray technology, helping chipmakers measure increasingly complex semiconductor structures. Read more here.
London-based Gradient Labs raised $13m to expand in the US and scale its AI agents for customer operations across financial services. Read more here.
Dorset-based Circular11 raised €2.7m to scale its technology that turns low-grade plastic waste into construction materials, with plans to recycle 10,000 tonnes of plastic over the next two years. Read more here.
London-based Lune & Wild raised €2.3m Series A to scale its chef-led baby and children’s food brand, expand production and grow its retail presence across the UK. Read more here.
Swiss-based hephaistos.bio raised €161k to advance its custom enzyme design platform for pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing. Read more here.
🌱 Startup news
Elche-based PLD Space raised €35m to develop and deploy its launch complex at the Guiana Space Centre, supporting the first launch of its MIURA 5 rocket in 2026. Read more here.
💡 Other news
Balderton launched a six-figure “Built in Europe” campaign backed by more than 100 founders and CEOs including Revolut, Mistral, Wayve and ElevenLabs to encourage more people to build and join startups in Europe. Read more here.
Espoo-based ICEYE received a €28.3m grant from Business Finland to advance next-generation SAR and AI-enabled satellite intelligence, as the company targets producing 100 satellites annually by 2028. Read more here.
SoftBank committed up to €75b to build AI data centres in France, with €4.5b confirmed so far, as part of a broader push to expand AI infrastructure in Europe. Read more here.
Anthropic granted the EU access to its cybersecurity tool Mythos, which helps organisations identify and patch security vulnerabilities, after discussions between EU officials and the company in San Francisco. Read more here.
Runway committed more than $200m to expand its European operations and opened London as its European headquarters, where it will establish a new research hub focused on AI world models. Read more here.
🤝 M&A
Berlin-founded Contentful was acquired by Salesforce to strengthen its AI agent platform Agentforce with a content layer for personalised digital experiences. Read more here.
London-based Vertice acquired US software pricing platform Vendr to build an AI-powered procurement platform combining $75b in spend data and 250,000 negotiated contracts. Read more here.
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