Hydrosat secures €51 million to expand thermal infrared data Luxembourg- and US-based Hydrosat, a provider of thermal infrared satellite data and AI-powered analytics, announced it has closed a €51 million (about $60 million) funding round. The company said the capital…

Parloa lands €310 million Series D in rapid follow-on round Parloa, a Berlin-based developer of enterprise customer AI agents, has raised €310 million (about $350 million) in a Series D financing, just seven months after closing its Series C. The…

Luna Systems secures €1.5 million late-seed to commercialize AI safety camera Luna Systems has raised €1.5 million in a late seed funding round as it prepares to bring its first AI-powered safety camera hardware product to market. The financing is…

AINA lands $1M seed round to streamline recruiting AINA, a Limassol-based recruitment technology company, has raised a $1 million seed round as it targets one of the most persistent pain points in modern hiring: the time and cost required to…

Automation changes how startups raise capital Automation is increasingly reshaping the fundraising playbook for tech startups, as new software tools streamline everything from investor outreach to reporting. What was once a process dominated by spreadsheets, email threads, and manual updates…

Cyb3r Operations raises €4.6 million to expand cyber defence efforts London-based cybersecurity startup Cyb3r Operations said today it has raised €4.6 million (about $5.4 million) as it looks to expand its offering for organisations seeking to improve their security posture…

Spot Ship secures €1.15 million to digitise ship chartering London-based maritime technology startup Spot Ship has raised €1.15 million (about £1 million) in a fresh funding round aimed at modernising the global ship chartering market, the company said. The capital…

osapiens announces decarbonization agreement osapiens, a Mannheim-based provider of enterprise software positioned around sustainable growth, announced today that it has entered into an agreement related to Decarbonization. The company did not disclose the counterparty, commercial terms, timeline, or the specific…

SkyFi closes $12.7M oversubscribed Series A SkyFi, an Austin-based satellite imagery and analytics company, has raised $12.7 million in an oversubscribed Series A round as it looks to make Earth-observation data easier to access and use across the defence, agriculture…

Aikido Security becomes Europe’s fastest cybersecurity unicorn Aikido Security has raised a $60 million Series B round at a $1 billion valuation, accelerating its push to build autonomous “self-securing” software that can identify and remediate security issues with minimal human…

OpenCode claims rapid adoption as enterprises take notice A developer tool built by Jay V and his team at OpenCode has surged from launch to roughly 650,000 monthly users in just five months, according to the company. The pace of…

Cambridge biotech Nuclera targets a key drug discovery bottleneck Nuclera, a Cambridge-based BioTech company, is positioning itself to accelerate drug discovery by tackling one of the industry’s most persistent challenges: reliable, rapid access to functional proteins. The company’s benchtop eProtein…

Deepgram lands $130M to accelerate real-time Voice AI Deepgram, a developer-focused Voice AI company focused on real-time speech recognition and voice agents, has raised $130 million in a Series C funding round at a reported $1.3 billion valuation. The company…

Anthropic enters healthcare AI amid intensifying rivalry Anthropic has introduced Claude for Healthcare, a new version of its AI assistant tailored for hospitals, clinics, insurers, and other care providers. The launch comes only days after the debut of ChatGPT Health,…

Midnight positions privacy tech for regulated Web3 Midnight used its November 2025 summit in London to frame privacy as the next major inflection point for Web3, spotlighting zero-knowledge proofs and selective disclosure as core tools for regulated adoption. Organizers said…

NetBird lands €8.5 million Series A to expand open-source network security NetBird, a Berlin-based open-source network security platform, said it has raised a €8.5 million (about $10 million) Series A round as it looks to scale operations, grow headcount, and…

NetBird secures Series A to scale open-source Zero Trust networking Berlin-based cybersecurity company NetBird has raised $10 million in Series A funding as it looks to accelerate global growth and push deeper into a market long dominated by traditional virtual…

Avenue Biosciences announces €4.8M seed extension Avenue Biosciences, a Helsinki-based protein engineering technology company, said it has raised a €4.8 million seed extension (about $5.7 million) as it looks to scale its operations and accelerate the development of its technology…

Communication, not code, is the recurring failure point In the race to build and deploy artificial intelligence, many startups assume their greatest existential risk is technical: model performance, infrastructure costs, or the ability to ship faster than competitors. But according…

Dassault Aviation leads $200 million round for Harmattan AI Dassault Aviation has teamed up with Harmattan AI to lead the startup’s $200 million Series B funding round, a sizable raise that underscores growing interest in artificial intelligence applications across aerospace,…

Tucuvi secures €17 million to expand certified voice AI Tucuvi, a Madrid-based HealthTech company focused on “certified voice AI,” has raised €17 million (about $20 million) in a Series A round to accelerate adoption of its technology across healthcare settings.…

Plan A acquired by Diginex Plan A, a Berlin-based carbon accounting startup, has been acquired by Diginex, a London-based sustainability regulation technology provider. The deal brings together carbon measurement and reporting capabilities with regulatory-focused ESG tooling as companies face expanding…

CES 2026 highlights: What mattered—and why CES 2026 arrived with a familiar promise—thousands of launches, demos, and bold claims—but this year’s most compelling announcements shared a common thread: practical deployment. Rather than flashy prototypes, many exhibitors emphasized products and platforms…

Perceptra secures €1.2M to scale Raman sensing on a chip Perceptra, an MIT spin-off developing chip-scale Raman spectroscopy sensors for chemical monitoring, has raised €1.2 million in funding from PhotonDelta. The company said the investment will support product development and…

United Manufacturing Hub secures fresh funding to scale industrial data tools Cologne-based United Manufacturing Hub (UMH), an open-source industrial data management platform built for modern factories, announced it has raised €5 million in new funding. The company said the capital…

Engitix signals progress in ECM-focused drug development Engitix, a British biotechnology company developing therapies that target the extracellular matrix (ECM), said it “today announced” an update related to its efforts to create transformative treatments for cancer and fibrosis. The company’s…

Protege raises $30M to tackle AI’s data bottleneck Protege, a startup focused on unlocking and operationalizing real-world data for training artificial intelligence models, has raised a $30 million Series A extension led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The new capital brings…

Luxury Presence secures $37M to expand AI platform for real estate agents Luxury Presence, a proptech company building marketing and relationship tools for real estate professionals, has raised a total of $37 million to accelerate the rollout of its new…

BrightHeart secures €11M Series A to scale AI-guided fetal heart screening BrightHeart, a European healthtech company building real-time AI assistance for prenatal ultrasound, has raised €11 million in Series A funding to accelerate its expansion in the United States and…

Vitrealab closes oversubscribed €9.4 million Series A Vienna-based deeptech company Vitrealab, which develops Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) for laser-based augmented reality display systems, has raised €9.4 million (about $11 million) in a Series A financing round. The company said the…

NVIDIA broadens its CES 2026 agenda beyond GPUs At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, NVIDIA presented itself less as a graphics-card maker and more as an end-to-end infrastructure company for artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, autonomous vehicles, and robotics. The announcements,…

AI is compressing the unicorn timeline The race to build billion-dollar startups is accelerating—and AI is the main catalyst. A decade-long analysis by global early-stage venture firm Antler, covering 1,629 unicorns and 3,512 founders from 2014 to 2024, suggests that…

A viral “whistleblower” story unravels A Reddit user who claimed to be a whistleblower at a major food delivery platform has been exposed as a fake after a viral post alleged the company was exploiting drivers and customers through opaque…

AI dominates CES 2026 as hardware giants unveil new platforms CES 2026 is underway in Las Vegas, and after several days of press conferences and early previews, the show floor has opened with a familiar theme: AI is again the…

Europe arrives at CES 2026 with deeptech and accessibility in the spotlight As CES 2026 opened in Las Vegas this week, European startups and scaleups used the world’s biggest consumer technology show to push beyond flashy gadgets and into a…

AMD pushes “AI for everyone” with new PC processors at CES 2026 AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su opened the company’s CES 2026 keynote with a clear message about where personal computing is headed: “AI for everyone.” Framing artificial intelligence…

A market pivot from “AI tourism” to measurable value After a year defined by rapid adoption and headline-grabbing demos, 2026 is shaping up to be the moment the AI boom grows up. Industry executives and investors across Europe say organisations…

£2.5m investment positions lighting as a growth engine in agriculture Bloemteknik has secured a £2.5 million investment aimed at accelerating the company’s push to make lighting a strategic lever for growth in modern agriculture. The funding will support expansion of…

Nvidia used CES 2026 to lay out an expansive bet on what it calls physical AI: robots and machines that can perceive, reason, and act in the real world without being confined to single-purpose, preprogrammed tasks. The company announced a…

Uber, Lucid Motors and Nuro lift the curtain on a production-intent robotaxi Uber, Lucid Motors and autonomous driving developer Nuro have revealed the production-intent version of their jointly developed robotaxi at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show, offering a clearer look…

Teradar emerges from stealth to pitch a new sensor class Just two months after revealing a $150 million funding round, Boston-based Teradar is using CES 2026 to introduce its first flagship product: a terahertz sensing unit called Summit. The company…

Google expands Gemini on Google TV with CES 2026 upgrades Google is pushing deeper into the living room with a new wave of Gemini-powered features designed to make television more conversational, more personalized and easier to control. At CES 2026…

Amazon brings Alexa+ to the web Amazon is extending its AI-powered digital assistant overhaul, Alexa+, to the open web with the launch of Alexa.com. The company announced the new site Monday at the start of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)…

Palo Alto Networks nears $400M acquisition of Israel’s Koi Security Palo Alto Networks is in negotiations to acquire Israeli endpoint security startup Koi Security in a transaction valued at around $400 million, according to reports. The deal has not been…

Plaud is expanding its lineup of AI-powered note-taking hardware and software ahead of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, introducing a new wearable recorder called the Plaud NotePin S and a desktop app designed to capture and…

DoorDash removes driver after viral claim of AI-generated proof DoorDash says it has permanently banned a delivery driver after a customer in Austin, Texas, alleged the driver used an AI-generated image to falsely claim an order had been delivered. The…

Subtle launches AI earbuds aimed at clearer calls and better transcription Subtle, a voice AI startup focused on voice-isolation models designed to help computers understand speech in loud environments, has launched a new pair of wireless earbuds it says can…

India orders X to change Grok safeguards after obscene content complaints India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has directed Elon Musk’s social media platform X to make immediate technical and procedural changes to its AI chatbot Grok, following complaints…

First studio, new responsibilities Moving into a first studio apartment is a milestone—often equal parts freedom and whiplash. Without roommates, the small conveniences you once took for granted can suddenly become your problem: replacing light bulbs, keeping floors clean, remembering…

Audio is becoming the interface layer for everyday life The next major shift in computing may not arrive as a new screen, a faster chip, or a lighter headset. It may arrive as something far simpler: sound. Across consumer devices…

StrictlyVC Download spotlights Sandbar’s AI “Stream” ring This week on StrictlyVC Download, listeners are getting a front-row seat to a conversation recorded at a Palo Alto event featuring Sandbar, a startup developing an AI wearable called the Stream ring. The…

Pragmatech secures €650,000 to advance AI in infectious disease research Pragmatech, a Spanish HealthTech startup developing artificial intelligence solutions for pharmacology, microbiology, and infectious diseases, has raised €650,000 in fresh funding as it looks to accelerate product development and broaden…

A blunt prediction about the iPhone’s future A striking forecast is reigniting debate over how long the smartphone era will last. In a recent remark, Callaghan said, “We’re not going to be using iPhones in 10 years,” adding that he…

Face-down phones and what they may reveal With most people reaching for their devices dozens of times a day, a small but noticeable behavior has become a modern social signal: placing a phone face-down during a conversation. Researchers who study…

Voice-first productivity is gaining momentum AI-powered dictation apps are quickly evolving from simple speech-to-text utilities into broader productivity tools used for email replies, note-taking, and even voice-driven coding. The shift reflects a wider trend in workplace software: using generative AI…

Meta outlines dual-track plan for Manus and messaging apps Meta plans to keep Manus operating as an independent product while also bringing its “agents” into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, according to a statement describing the company’s approach to expanding AI…

NanoXplore secures €20 million to accelerate defence push NanoXplore, a French fabless semiconductor company, has raised €20 million in fresh funding to speed up its diversification into the defence sector, the company said. The capital is expected to support the…

Octopus Energy Group raises €850 million for Kraken Octopus Energy Group has raised €850 million (about $1 billion) for its technology subsidiary, Kraken, in what the company described as the platform’s first standalone investment round. The fundraising highlights growing investor…

Clean energy’s metals demand is surging—and mining is struggling to keep up The global push to electrify transport, expand power grids and scale renewable energy is colliding with a hard constraint: metals. Industry and policy forecasts increasingly warn that clean-energy…

Apple Watch productivity apps aim for “glanceable” work A growing ecosystem of Apple Watch apps is helping users stay productive without the pull of constant phone checking. Designed around short interactions—quick taps, brief dictation, and timely alerts—many of today’s watch…

Equity podcast dissects tech’s 2025—and what comes next The hosts of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast closed out the year with a wide-ranging review of what “actually happened” in technology in 2025, framing the discussion as a reality check for builders, investors,…

Friendship apps expand beyond dating-style swipes A new generation of friendship apps is trying to solve a familiar modern problem: meeting people outside of work, school, or long-established social circles. From friend-discovery platforms like BFF to event-focused services like Timeleft,…

UK faces 2026 crunch to scale AI infrastructure The United Kingdom is heading into a defining year for artificial intelligence: whether it can build the infrastructure needed to compete with global leaders. The question is no longer whether the country…

A growing market for digital focus Whether the goal is to limit social media scrolling or block off time for concentrated work, a broad range of productivity tools is increasingly positioning itself as a practical solution to modern distraction. The…

UK fintech’s next AI wave: from cost-cutting to financial wellbeing After several years in which artificial intelligence was deployed largely to trim operating costs, UK fintech firms are expected to redirect their AI roadmaps in 2026 toward consumer financial health,…

Software update released to address lane-crossing behavior A company behind an autonomous driving system has issued a software update intended to fix a lane-crossing behavior that could cause the vehicle to drift or cross lane markings under certain conditions. The…

AI startups heading into 2026: a tougher, more disciplined era As artificial intelligence moves from experimentation to infrastructure, the playbook for building new companies is changing fast. In a recent conversation, serial entrepreneur and investor Dmitry Volkov described an environment…

Seven essential APIs shaping the modern tech stack As software teams race to ship faster, scale globally, and keep systems reliable, the “modern tech stack” has become less about a single framework and more about how well a product composes…

Hurree CEO warns 2026 will test whether AI can pay for itself After two years of rapid experimentation and headline-chasing, the next chapter for artificial intelligence will be less glamorous and far more demanding, according to the CEO of Hurree.…

OpenAI: Prompt injections are a lasting threat for agentic AI browsers OpenAI is cautioning that prompt injection attacks will remain an enduring security risk for AI browsers with agentic capabilities—systems that can interpret instructions and take actions on a user’s…

Artificial Intelligence platforms move from experiments to core business tools As organizations prepare budgets and product roadmaps for 2026, Artificial Intelligence is increasingly being treated less like a standalone initiative and more like an operating layer embedded across departments. The…

Conversion, not traffic, is the real test for a SaaS store Launching a SaaS-based online store is only the opening move. The defining metric comes after the site goes live: conversion—the share of visitors who complete a purchase and pay.…

Quiet innovation is changing how buildings get delivered Construction is being reshaped by technology, but not through headline-grabbing gadgets or dramatic overhauls. Much of the progress is happening in planning offices, on job sites, and inside the everyday software teams…

OpenAI expands tone controls inside ChatGPT OpenAI has rolled out new controls that let users directly adjust ChatGPT’s “enthusiasm level,” along with related tone attributes such as warmth and emoji use. The update, disclosed in a social media post from…

When Amazon introduced the first Echo and Google followed with what became the Nest smart speaker line, the pitch was intentionally modest: a convenient voice assistant for everyday tasks. Users could ask for the weather, set timers, play music, or…

Yann LeCun confirms new startup, rules out CEO role Yann LeCun, one of the most influential figures in modern artificial intelligence, confirmed Thursday that he has launched a new startup—formalizing what he described as the “worst-kept secret” in the tech…

Cisco flags active exploitation of a zero-day Cisco has issued a warning that China-linked government hackers are actively exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability, or zero-day, in some of its products, raising concerns that a broad set of organizations may be…

Nodu secures $1.45M pre-seed to expand stablecoin infrastructure in Europe Nodu, a London-based stablecoin infrastructure startup with Latvian roots, has raised a $1.45 million pre-seed round led by Digital Space Ventures. The company says the funding will accelerate development of…

Edison Scientific lands $70M seed to build Kosmos Edison Scientific, a spinout of FutureHouse, has raised a $70 million seed round to develop Kosmos, an artificial intelligence “co-scientist” intended to accelerate scientific discovery by combining literature review, data analysis, and…

Lovable secures €281M to accelerate AI-native software creation Lovable, a Stockholm-based, AI-native software creation platform that enables users to build full-stack applications without writing code, has secured €281 million in new funding, according to information provided in the announcement. The…

Neural Concept secures €85 million to expand engineering AI Neural Concept, a Lausanne-based AI platform focused on what it calls Engineering Intelligence for product development, announced it has raised €85 million in new funding. The company said the capital will…

InfiniteWatch emerges from stealth with $4M pre-seed InfiniteWatch, a new observability platform built for what it calls the “agentic internet,” has launched from stealth with a $4 million pre-seed round. The company was founded by former executives from CoverWallet and…

Neural Concept lands $100M Series C to expand CAD-native AI Neural Concept, a Swiss AI engineering company focused on bringing artificial intelligence directly into computer-aided design workflows, has raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by Goldman…

Canva has introduced its Creative Operating System. CEO Melanie Perkins‘ company is focusing on new AI tools and making the Affinity suite free. The visual communication platform Canva has announced its most comprehensive update to date, the Creative Operating System…

UnionDigital Bank adopts iProov solutions to enhance cybersecurity and protect users from fraud and account takeovers in the Philippines.

Holistic AI introduces a free LLM Decision Hub, providing comprehensive comparisons of over 20 AI models to streamline enterprise model selection.

AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su will headline CES 2026 in Las Vegas, on how AMD will deliver AI capability across cloud, enterprise and edge devices to customers. AI scope from data center to client devices The Consumer Technology…

FAITH Token, a blockchain project combining AI and decentralized finance (DeFi), announced its listing on Azbit and IndoEx exchanges, complementing its existing PancakeSwap presence. Simultaneously, the project detailed progress on its dual-AI ecosystem, aiming to empower users with advanced market analysis and trading tools.