Marco Bianchi 
Italian startup Clastix secured €2.9 million in seed capital, led by CDP Venture Capital, to enhance its open‑source and commercial solutions for managing Kubernetes clusters at scale, targeting AI and enterprise workloads across Europe and North America.
Icelandic startup 50skills raised $6 million to scale its AI operating system that automates HR and people workflows, with the round co‑led by Frumtak Ventures, Swiss Post Ventures, Avant and DRD Investments. The funds will be used to grow sales, marketing and community teams and further develop its AI agents.
Netherlands‑founded Bird (formerly MessageBird), a business communications SaaS platform, secured a $450 million debt package led by JP Morgan, Capital One and Citi. The financing will be used to give liquidity to shareholders rather than fund growth, as the company has cut its workforce from a peak of over 1,000 to 120 employees while repositioning around AI‑driven messaging services.
Portuguese spin‑off TEKEVER, a 25‑year‑old autonomous drone specialist, secured $580 million in a Series D round led by UC Investments and Baillie Gifford, pushing its valuation to $6.4 billion. The funding will fuel international expansion, technology development and further acquisitions, reinforcing its role as Europe’s top AI‑powered defence drone provider.
Spanish risk‑technology startup Mirai RiskTech secured €5 million from investor Inveready to fund its expansion across Europe and the UK, strengthening its integrated asset‑liability management solutions.
Spanish healthtech startup Tucuvi Care, which provides certified conversational AI for clinical patient follow‑up, received a €5 million investment from Axis (ICO’s VC arm) via Fond‑ICO Crecimiento. The capital will be used to boost growth and expand the company abroad.
The article explains that Europe creates more tech startups than the US but has far less venture capital. To help startups bridge the gap, NSBProject created a comprehensive readiness assessment that evaluates technology, manufacturing, integration, commercial, team and legal aspects. The methodology has been tested on more than 30 technologies and validated with the Flandersmake hub in Belgium. A case study on a Greek university spin‑off shows how the tool identifies gaps and provides a roadmap for market entry, especially in digital health.
Italian startup Tiledesk, founded in 2022, raised €1.1 million in a seed round backed by Zest, Vertis and OpenT. The funding will be used to speed up the development of its open‑source platform that lets companies create AI agents and automate business processes through natural‑language descriptions, targeting sectors from telecom to public administration.
Portuguese defence startup Terasi secured an €11 million investment from the National Investment Fund, marking a significant milestone for the company as it pushes forward its advanced defence solutions in the European market.
BrainMapp Software Solutions has been established as a new spin‑off from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the Computer Vision Center (CVC) to bring to market a digital technology that assists medical teams during brain tumour surgeries by improving brain mapping and identifying critical zones.