Artificial Intelligence

Dutch Public Transport Operator Qbuzz Launches AI Assistant Quby to Streamline Customer Service

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Qbuzz, one of the first public transport operators in the Netherlands, launched Quby, an AI assistant that provides immediate answers to travelers and supports customer service staff during conversations. The assistant retrieves real-time travel information, supports multiple languages (Dutch, English, German, French, Arabic, Turkish), and intelligently routes complex issues to human agents while automating administrative tasks like transcriptions and summaries.

Swedish Robotics Startup Staer to Host Autonomy Conference in Malmö Next Year

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Staer, a Swedish robotics startup, is organizing Autonomy, a one-day conference on September 14, 2026 in Malmö that brings together researchers, innovators, investors, and industry players in robotics and physical AI. The event is positioned between ECCV 2026 and The Drop conference, creating a convergence of key stakeholders in the Öresund region’s deeptech ecosystem.

KickstartAI Extends Partnership with Dutch Giants Through 2029, Doubling Down on AI Implementation

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KickstartAI, founded in 2019 by Ahold Delhaize, ING, KLM and NS, extended its partnership agreement with these founding members until 2029. The organization focuses on accelerating AI adoption in practice across various sectors, with successful implementations including baggage detection for NS, package volume prediction for Bol, digital financial guidance for ING, and food waste reduction planning for KLM. The new phase aims to broaden the partner network to additional sectors and organizations.

KPMG Portugal Launches Managed Services Division to Scale Enterprise AI Implementation

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KPMG Portugal announced the launch of its Managed Services division focused on helping organizations transform AI adoption from isolated pilots to scalable, governed operations. The launch is aligned with an IDC study showing 98% of business leaders consider AI implementation critical, 91% see Managed Services as relevant for agentic AI delivery, and 87% have integrated these models into their digital transformation strategies.

Portuguese Development Bank Distributes €72 Million in Advance Payments to Over 1,100 Companies

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Banco Português de Fomento made advance payments of 72 million euros to 1,113 companies under the IFIC program covering reindustrialization, defense and security, and AI sectors. This represents 30% of approved support, with remaining 70% to be paid upon validation of expenses during investment execution. The bank has approved projects for nearly 3,000 companies totaling over 2.2 billion euros in investment, with approximately 1,500 contracts currently in execution representing 436 million euros in eligible investment.

Israeli AI Agent Startup NanoCo Secures $12 Million Seed Funding to Build Enterprise-Grade AI Assistants

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NanoCo AI has raised $12 million in seed funding to commercialize NanoClaw, an open source enterprise-friendly AI agent harness. The company aims to provide enterprises with secure, one-to-one ‘professional assistant’ AI agents for each employee that build personalized knowledge graphs and execute tasks within sandboxed Docker environments. NanoClaw remains MIT Licensed open source while NanoCo AI offers managed commercial services.

Major French Companies Form AION Consortium to Compete for European AI Gigafactories Program

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A consortium of major French companies including investment firm Ardian, telecommunications company Orange, energy company EDF, consulting firm Capgemini, and others have formed AION to bid for the European AI Gigafactories program, representing France’s acceleration in AI infrastructure development

Warsaw AI Startup Viktor Raises €64.7 Million in Series A to Expand Enterprise Agent Platform

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Viktor, a Warsaw and Munich-based AI startup that develops an AI coworker operating in Slack and Microsoft Teams, raised €64.7 million in Series A funding led by Accel. The company has reached €12.9 million revenue run rate within 10 weeks of public launch in February 2026 and serves over 2,000 organizations globally.

Portugal Consolidates AI Gigafactory Plans in Sines, Scraps Secondary Pego Hub

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Portugal’s Iberian candidacy for a European Commission AI gigafactory project will concentrate all operations in Sines rather than establishing a secondary hub in Pego. The €8 billion investment from public and private funds will create an AI infrastructure facility with 150 MW computing capacity, expected to be fully operational by 2028. Spain’s location is Tarragona in Catalonia.