The Berlin HR‑tech startup Empion, founded in 2022, has been sold to Spanish HR platform Factorial. In an interview, founder Annika von Mutius discusses the reasons for the sale, the future of Empion under Factorial, and her new role within the larger company.
In the latest “5 sips of coffee” roundup, the most notable startup event was the merger of Polish tech firms cyber_Folks and Shoper, which values the combined company at almost one billion dollars, signalling the creation of a new heavyweight in the European SaaS/e‑commerce market.
Swedish skier and influencer Jon Olsson founded the bag brand Db in 2011. In 2024, the French luxury conglomerate LVMH acquired the company. Olsson later said he sold too early and would have earned hundreds of millions had he stayed.
LexisNexis completed the acquisition of French legal‑AI startup DOCTRINE for an undisclosed amount, creating a combined group of about 800 employees and roughly €200 million in revenue in France.
Palo Alto Networks bought the AI‑focused security automation startup Console, founded in 2024 by Romanian Andrei Serban. The deal, terms undisclosed, will allow Console’s AI agents to be integrated into Palo Alto’s security platforms, accelerating its vision of AI‑enhanced security workflows.
London‑based movement‑intelligence platform HITAI bought the technology and intellectual property of YC‑backed fitness‑gaming studio Quell, adding its camera‑less, real‑time motion‑recognition tech to enhance HITAI’s sports video analytics platform.
German cognitive‑robotics startup NEURA Robotics, fresh from a record €1.2 billion Series C raise, announced the acquisition of Ulm‑based Adlatus Robotics to add AI‑driven “brains” to its cleaning robots and expand its Neuraverse ecosystem.
Hostersi bought TIDK, consolidating two Polish AI and data‑science firms into a new cloud‑and‑AI technology group, with backing from bValue Fund.
Vienna‑based ENPULSION, an industrial manufacturer of electric spacecraft propulsion, raised €22.5 million in growth funding and is now acquiring British chemical‑propulsion specialist Lift Me Off to create a full‑stack spacecraft mobility backbone.
Romanian private medical services group MedLife acquired a 75% stake in Qualipat, a pathology and molecular testing startup founded in 2016, to bolster its advanced diagnostic portfolio and accelerate the development of personalized medicine in Romania.