Avatar photoMarco Bianchi

Marco covers Southern Europe's vibrant and fast-growing startup landscape. Based in Milan, he reports on funding rounds, product launches and ecosystem developments across Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta and Cyprus, with a keen eye for foodtech, mobility and consumer innovation.

Galp Withdraws Aviation Fuel Batch From Azores Airport Over Quality Concerns

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Galp reported a quality issue with aviation fuel JET A-1 supplied to Lajes Civil Aerodrome in the Azores. The fuel batch from the Sines refinery failed internal quality tests, likely due to an operational issue during maritime discharge. The company activated emergency procedures including additional supply shipments from São Miguel and planned replacement of the non-compliant fuel. Progressive normalization of operations is expected by May 23, 2026.

Happy Horizon Acquires B&S Media Internetmarketing in Second Phase of Buy and Build Strategy

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Happy Horizon announced the acquisition of B&S Media Internetmarketing, a digital marketing agency serving over 500 SMB clients in northern and eastern Netherlands. The acquisition marks the second phase of Happy Horizon’s buy and build strategy, with financial details undisclosed. The deal is supported by MG Partners, Happy Horizon’s external investor since 2020.

D-Orbit Sends Mandalorian Helmet to Orbit in Disney Partnership

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D-Orbit, an Italian spacetech scaleup, collaborated with Disney Italia to send a 3D-scanned replica of the Mandalorian helmet to orbit aboard the Wayfinder mission on March 30, 2026, launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base via SpaceX’s Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter-16 mission. The helmet was deployed at approximately 510 kilometers altitude in sun-synchronous orbit and captured unique images with Earth in the background using cameras developed internally by D-Orbit.

Milan-based Legal AI Platform Lexroom Secures €50 Million in Series B Funding

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Milan-based legal AI company Lexroom raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Left Lane Capital. The company develops AI infrastructure for legal professionals using a proprietary database of over 6 million verified legal sources. The platform is used by over 8,000 law firms and corporate legal teams globally, with plans to expand across civil law jurisdictions in Europe starting with Spain and Germany.

Redis Launches Iris Platform to Handle AI Agent Infrastructure Demands at Enterprise Scale

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Redis launched Redis Iris, a context and memory platform designed to replace RAG infrastructure for enterprise agentic AI. The platform addresses the structural problem that AI agents generate orders of magnitude more data requests than human users, requiring a different retrieval architecture. Iris includes data integration via CDC pipelines, semantic context retrieval with auto-generated MCP tools, agent memory capabilities, and Redis Flex storage engine running 99% of data on SSDs at sub-millisecond latencies.

Portuguese Textile Maker Riopele Partners with John Varvatos for Men’s Fashion Collection

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Portuguese textile company Riopele announced a partnership with American designer John Varvatos to create a men’s fashion fabric collection inspired by textile heritage, vintage aesthetics, and craftsmanship. The collection will be presented at Milano Unica in July as Riopele prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The collaboration aims to strengthen Riopele’s international presence, particularly in the North American market, where it already exports over 98% of its production to more than 50 countries.

Metro Mondego Surpasses Expectations With One Million Validations, Government Plans Regional Expansion

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Metro Mondego, the electric metrobus system serving Coimbra, Lousã, and Miranda do Corvo, reached one million validations since transitioning to a paid system. Demand exceeded expectations by 20%, with April validations up 57.4% from January. The Portuguese Government announced plans to expand the system to serve additional municipalities including Cantanhede and Condeixa-a-Nova, with integration planned around the upcoming high-speed rail station.

Ford Motor Company Eyes Defense Sector Expansion Through Government Negotiations Across North America and Europe

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Ford Motor Company is in early-stage negotiations with multiple governments in North America and Europe to supply commercial vehicles and software technologies for defense and military needs. CEO Jim Farley confirmed ongoing discussions with the US government regarding defense-related requirements. The article also notes that European automakers Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen are similarly exploring defense sector production opportunities.

Portuguese Hospitality Giant Pestana Hotel Group Secures 38 Nominations at World Travel and Golf Awards 2026

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Pestana Hotel Group received 38 nominations at the World Travel Awards 2026 and World Golf Awards 2026. The nominations include 33 World Travel Awards and 5 World Golf Awards across properties in Portugal (Porto, Lisboa, Tróia, Algarve, Madeira, Porto Santo) and internationally (Spain, Netherlands, USA, Brazil, Venezuela, Morocco, and São Tomé and Príncipe). Notable nominations include Europe’s Leading Hotel Brand 2026 for the group overall, and multiple category nominations for properties like Pestana CR7 Times Square and Pestana CR7 Gran Vía Madrid.