Marco Bianchi 
Telum Therapeutics, a biotech company leveraging metagenomic datasets, synthetic biology, and generative AI to develop novel antimicrobial therapies, announced the closure of an 18 million euro Series A round. The funding will advance its primary program for hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia.
JD.com and Allianz have expanded their partnership to Europe, allowing customers to purchase insurance for electronics and home appliances directly on Joybuy’s platform. The service is initially available in the Benelux, France, Germany, and the UK, with plans to expand to other countries. Customers can choose from three insurance options during checkout.
Soverin, a Dutch email service provider, is expanding its tools to help businesses transition from US cloud services to European alternatives. The company offers products like SoSuite and SoSmart, focusing on gradual migration strategies, and aims to reach 2 million mailboxes within 18 months. It emphasizes user-friendly interfaces and partnerships, such as with The Sharing Group (TSG), to scale its operations.
The University of Edinburgh, known for its deeptech spinouts, is supporting emerging startups seeking funding to advance their technologies. A recent spinout has secured €3.5 million in growth-stage funding led by HBL.
California-based Tapestry VC has launched an $80 million fund targeting repeat founders in the European tech ecosystem, emphasizing its focus on the ‘repeat founder flywheel’ strategy.
London-based procurement software company Omnea has launched the Omnea Future Founders Fund with European angel fund Firedrop. The initiative offers employees with at least five years of tenure $250,000 in seed funding to launch their own ventures, along with mentorship and networking opportunities.
Baker, an AI-operated performance marketing agency, secured 525,000€ in funding led by Draper B1, with participation from Angels (Marina de Empresas) and Itnig.
The Dutch Public Prosecution Office (OM) has requested the court to declare Knaken Cryptohandel B.V. and Stichting Knaken Payments bankrupt after the Financial Markets Authority (AFM) raised concerns about the unlicensed provision of cryptocurrency services. The company allowed clients to convert fiat currency to cryptocurrency and vice versa without the required AFM license. The OM is concerned about the improper winding down of the company and potential risks to clients.
Kobo has activated integration with StoryGraph, enabling automatic synchronization of reading progress between Kobo devices/apps and StoryGraph accounts for e-books and audiobooks.
Italian VC P101 merged with PranaVentures to create a €100M fund targeting early-stage European tech startups, combining €600M+ in assets and expanding seed-stage capabilities.