London-based startup First Concepts, an AI-powered workspace for early-stage creative work, has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding less than nine months after its founding. The round was led by Arāya Ventures alongside Antler. Additional participants included industry leaders such as Jez Jowett (former Managing Partner at Havas), Nathan McDonald (founder of We Are Social), Sean Williams and Sam Winward (partners at UNKNOWN), and Hugo Rodger Brown (founder of YunoJuno).

Creative agencies often work on multiple pitches each month, investing significant time and resources in the process. However, much of this time is spent rebuilding context across fragmented tools and systems.

First Concepts aims to address this challenge by introducing an AI layer that sits above existing tools and coordinates leading AI models through a shared context and “taste” framework. This approach helps creative teams maintain consistency in ideas, brand identity, and decision-making throughout the pitching process.

Founded by Conor Hoey, Polina Sali, and Marin Godechot, who bring experience in design, AI, and product development, First Concepts has developed a system that brings context and creative judgment to the development of pitches.

The product is built around three core components: a Creative DNA engine that learns individual and brand preferences, a unified interface that treats context as the central source of information, and a tool-agnostic infrastructure that connects creative tools while maintaining coherence across outputs.

Explaining the company’s vision, Conor Hoey, co-founder and CEO of First Concepts, said:

First Concepts has a simple mission to transform creative context from something fragile and ephemeral into a structured, compounding asset. We are building an operating system that understands the value of creative thinking and taste. This will transform creative workflows for teams around the world.

The new funding will be used to further develop the company’s AI-native workspace for creative work.

The all-in-one SaaS platform for independent restaurants, processing 1.5 million orders a month across nine CEE markets, is now targeting Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Choice, the Prague-founded restaurant management platform that bundles ordering, payments, reservations, and marketplace integrations into a single subscription, has closed a $7.1 million Series A. The round […]

Tracebit, a cloud-native cybersecurity company focused on threat detection, has raised a $20 million Series A round led by FirstMark, with participation from Accel. MMC Ventures, Tapestry VC, and CCL also joined the round. The funding follows the company’s $5 million seed round in 2024, led by Accel, bringing Tracebit’s total funding to $25 million.

Founded in 2023 by former Tessian employees Andy Smith (CEO) and Sam Cox (CTO), Tracebit develops cloud-native deception technology designed for modern infrastructure. The system enables organisations to deploy decoy assets, known as canaries, across their environments to detect threats early and support an “assume breach” approach to security.

The solution is designed to scale threat detection across cloud environments through a cloud-native deployment that generates tailored canaries across enterprise networks to identify malicious activity and reduce detection times.

The platform currently supports thousands of accounts, monitors around five billion events each week, and generates millions of canaries daily for customers, including Riot Games, Snyk, Synthesia, Docker, and Admiral Insurance.

To address the growing complexity of cloud environments, Tracebit has expanded its capabilities beyond AWS. The system now supports canary deployment across Azure, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, developer workstations, and identity providers.

Alongside the Series A funding, the company is introducing new products, including Perimeter Canaries, Deceptive Artefacts, and support for Google Cloud Platform.

Traditionally, decoys have been placed deeper within systems to detect intrusions. Perimeter Canaries extend this concept by placing decoys at the edge of SaaS and cloud environments, creating an additional layer of defence and enabling faster detection. This approach is increasingly important as organisations face evolving threats, including AI-driven attacks that can rapidly scan systems for vulnerabilities.

The company plans to use the Series A funding to support the rollout of these new products, expand its customer base, and grow its go-to-market and engineering teams.

First Concepts, a London-based startup that has built an AI intelligence layer that applies context and taste to creative pitches, has raised €871.7k ($1 million) in pre-Seed funding less than nine months after the startup was founded.

The round was led by Arāya Ventures in partnership with Antler. Notable industry leaders also participated, including Jez Jowett, former Managing Partner at Havas; Nathan McDonald, founder of We Are Social; Sean Williams and Sam Winward, Partners at UNKNOWN; and Hugo Rodger Brown, founder of YunoJuno.

Conor Hoey, co-founder and CEO of First Concepts, commented, “First Concepts has a simple mission to transform creative context from something fragile and ephemeral into a structured, compounding asset. We are building an operating system that understands the value of creative thinking and taste. This will transform creative workflows for teams around the world.”

Founded in 2025 by Conor Hoey, Polina Sali, and Marin Godechot, First Concepts is a taste-aware AI native workspace for early-stage creative work. Hoey previously served as a product marketing leader at Amazon, where he expanded Amazon Fresh to generate €436 million ($500 million) in revenue. Sali is a brand and systems designer who has managed creative programmes throughout Europe. Marin Godechot is a full-stack and AI engineer with ten years of experience developing mission-critical software.

According to the company, agencies currently pitch up to 10 times per month and can spend as much as €231.5k (£200k) per pitch, yet up to 40% of creative time is lost reconstructing context across fragmented tools.

First Concepts claims to address this by operating above the stack to coordinate leading models and creative tools through a shared taste and context layer. “The platform is built on three foundational pillars: a Creative DNA taste engine that learns individual and brand judgment, a unified interface that treats context as the source of truth, and a tool agnostic infrastructure that ensures creative coherence across every output,” explained the company. 

The company states that it makes workflows tool-agnostic and aligned with judgment, allowing teams to progress from brief to pitch-ready ideas 70% faster. It is built for creative agencies, and unifies briefs, research, references and generation into a single persistent context system. 

The UK startup reveals that at its core is Creative Memory, an infrastructure layer that preserves taste, maintains coherence and compounds creative decision-making across projects.

Adam French, Partner at Antler, commented,  “The founders of First Concepts possess the rare combination of technical depth and creative intuition required to redefine how teams collaborate. By building a taste-aware layer that sits above the current AI stack, they are ensuring that human judgment remains the central driver of creative work. We believe First Concepts will become the essential infrastructure for any brand or agency looking to thrive in an AI native world.”

Currently, First Concepts works with over 40 independent creative agencies across London and New York, including Mother and R/GA. It reports that agencies using the platform have witnessed up to 70% time savings for reaching concepts that have ultimately won pitches whilst elevating their creative quality using AI.

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Webel, a Madrid-based digital marketplace for home services, has closed a €4.3 million pre-Series A funding round to accelerate its growth, enhance its technology, and broaden its presence across the European market. 

The round was mainly supported by existing investors, led by Trind Ventures, with Decelera Ventures, Tiburon, and others also participating. Mantas Mikuckas, co-founder and ex-COO of Vinted, has joined as a new investor.

“The confidence of leading investors and the entry of profiles such as Mantas Mikuckas reinforces our vision of building the leading platform for hiring any home service. Our goal is to simplify access to these services while helping thousands of professionals find new work opportunities,” said Nacho Tejero, CEO and co-founder of Webel. 

Webel was established in 2018 by Carlos Estévez Rincón, Guillermo Mateo, and Nacho Tejero Mancho, with a dual purpose: to make people’s everyday lives easier by simplifying the process of booking home services, and also to create new job opportunities for professionals who operate their work through the platform.

The company states that it currently has over 2 million users and approximately 350,000 registered professionals, with nearly one million service listings available on the marketplace.

The company states that the global home services industry is valued at over €1 trillion, but its digitalisation level is still relatively low when compared to other e-commerce sectors.

“More and more services are being requested digitally and delivered at home. Just as people order food or products online in a few clicks, users are now beginning to hire any type of home service through an app,” the company explained. 

Webel revealed that home cleaning, ironing, and handyman services remain the most requested services, but recently, other categories are gaining popularity. These include small home renovations, moving services, manicure services, appliance repair, private tutoring, and childcare.

The startup reports steady business expansion. Since 2022, it has grown by 7.5x, 6.6x, 3.3x, and 2.2x, with the latest year seeing lower marketing investment as the company focused on product development. This approach has led to a notable rise in organic traffic. 

Another distinguishing feature of Webel’s model is its cost structure. It enables the company to provide prices that are 30 to 40% lower than those of competitors. Meanwhile, professionals benefit from lower commissions than the industry average and retain full control over their pricing, schedules, and clients.

The new funding will be primarily allocated to marketing and product development, with the aim of scaling the model and increasing visibility for the new categories recently introduced on the platform.

“We are evolving from being perceived as a cleaning app to becoming a true home services super app, with categories such as electricians, plumbers, renovations, moving services, tutoring, and childcare or elderly care, among the more than 30 service categories currently available,” explained Tejero. 

This strategic shift greatly broadens the company’s Total Addressable Market and will enable the platform to expand its reach in the coming years.

The platform currently operates in 31 Spanish cities, including Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Bilbao, and has already begun its international expansion in the United Kingdom.

In 2024, the company secured €1.4 million in funding from Goodwater Capital, Decelera Ventures and ZAKA VC.

Following the latest funding round, Webel’s immediate goal is to enhance its presence in Spain, especially by promoting the newly launched service categories. It plans to triple its revenue in 2026 while continuing its path toward profitability.

The company also intends to expand its team, which currently comprises around 30 employees, by hiring new staff in marketing, technology, and product development to speed up the creation of new features and further enhance the user experience.

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In the ubiquitous age of artificial intelligence, the technology appears as if it is largely earmarked for optimizing the mechanics of work. Buzzwords like speed, automation, efficiency, and productivity often dominate conversations that are shaping the digital era. Today, AI’s capability has expanded into streamlining operations at an unprecedented scale, yet even this magnitude of […]

We are not divided by accident; we are distracted on purpose. The antidote to that manipulation is to reconnect with what makes us human, often through something as simple as play. Spend five minutes scrolling, and you can feel the machinery of social media outrage at work: the pulse of outrage, the invitation to pick […]

Artificial intelligence has become a central topic in business strategy discussions, yet many organizations continue to struggle with how to integrate it into everyday operations. Gateway Global AI, a technology company developing voice-first infrastructure, is approaching that challenge from a different angle. According to CTO Jason Trindade, the company focuses on simplifying how businesses deploy […]

Malta is known for its year-around sunshine, rich history, and strategic location in the Mediterranean. Increasingly, however, the island is earning a different reputation: one as a fast-growing hub for startups, venture capital, and innovation.

With a combination of international connectivity, supportive public policy, a growing investor ecosystem, and a vibrant calendar of entrepreneurial events, Malta is becoming one of Europe’s most interesting places to build and fund new companies.

At the heart of this transformation is Malta’s ability to connect global networks. Situated between Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, the country has long been a crossroads for trade and finance. Today, that same position is helping it attract international founders, investors, and technology companies looking for a gateway to European markets.

By the way: If you are interested in doing business in Malta and would like to learn more about the opportunities at hand, make sure to fill out this form in order to receive a free consultation with Malta Enterprise during the EU-Startups Summit on May 7-8 or online.

Venture capital and new funding initiatives

Venture capital is playing an increasingly important role in shaping Malta’s innovation ecosystem. A growing number of investment firms are now anchored on the island, supporting both local startups and international ventures.

Venture capital investors with activities in Malta include Malta Venture Capital, GO Ventures, Growth Box Ventures, MEP Capital, the HCi3 fund and many more.

Public institutions are also central to the development of Malta’s startup ecosystem. Malta Enterprise, the country’s national economic development agency and headline sponsor of the EU-Startups Summit, operates several funding schemes designed to help early-stage companies reach market readiness. Through programmes such as the Startup Finance initiative, the agency provides non-dilutive capital that helps founders reduce risk, attract private investment, and offers other measures which can support R&D growth and skills development.

The government has also taken steps to strengthen venture capital structures. Malta Venture Capital, launched in 2024 with €10 million in funding, co-invests alongside private investors in high-growth digital and technology-driven businesses. The fund aims to reinforce Malta’s innovation pipeline while ensuring promising startups can access early-stage capital.

A business-friendly environment

Malta’s appeal is theither limited to its investment and innovation ecosystem nor its business-friendly taxation framework. The country also offers practical advantages for entrepreneurs looking to establish companies.

Combined with EU membership, a stable regulatory framework, a great pool of English-speaking talent, and an extensive network of double taxation treaties, Malta provides a structure that many international founders and investors find attractive.

Setting up a company is also relatively straightforward – usually taking 2-5 working days. Most entrepreneurs choose to establish a private limited liability company, which requires a minimum share capital of €1,165 and typically involves at least two shareholders, one director, a company secretary, and a registered office.

Malta also just passed a new law to support youth entrepreneurship. More announcements that facilitate the growth of the startup ecosystem are expected to follow soon.

Malta’s startup ecosystem is also becoming more closely integrated with the wider European innovation landscape, and according to the 2024 Startup Nations Standard report, the country ranked fourth in Europe for innovative startups.

Public-backed programmes have supported dozens of ventures, creating new jobs and helping founders move from early concepts to market-ready products. Participation in European innovation programmes has also grown significantly, connecting Maltese startups with international research networks, funding opportunities, and investors.

A calendar packed with startup events

Another important ingredient in Malta’s growing reputation is its thriving events scene. Throughout the year, the island hosts tech and business conferences and gatherings that bring together founders, venture capital firms, policymakers, and ecosystem leaders.

One example is the Malta Startup Festival. The event brings together entrepreneurs and investors from across Europe and beyond to celebrate innovation and explore new collaborations.

Of course, one of the most prominent fixtures on the calendar is our very own EU-Startups Summit, which will take place again this year on May 7-8. The event gathers some of Europe’s most promising startups and leading venture capital firms, creating a space where founders, investors, and industry leaders can meet, exchange ideas, and explore new opportunities.

Malta, beyond just business

Malta’s appeal also goes beyond its startup ecosystem. The island combines a rich historical heritage with a vibrant, cosmopolitan atmosphere that makes it an attractive destination for founders and investors alike.

Valletta, the capital and a UNESCO World Heritage site, is known for its honey-coloured limestone buildings, narrow streets, iconic balconies known as gallariji, and centuries-old architecture. Many venues across the city carry layers of history – some having served as hospitals, military command centres, or government institutions over the centuries.

Beyond Valletta, visitors can explore medieval towns such as Mdina, historic forts, museums, scenic coastal hikes, and a thriving food scene. It is this blend of culture, history, and Mediterranean lifestyle that makes Malta not only a great place to do business, but also a memorable place to live.

Interested in exploring opportunities in Malta?

Founders, investors, and companies interested in setting up or expanding their operations in Malta can register their interest via this short form to receive a free consultation with Malta Enterprise regarding potential support measures and opportunities at hand.

Meetings can take place during the EU-Startups Summit in Malta on May 7-8 or online, where the Malta Enterprise team will provide tailored guidance on establishing and growing your business on the island.

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London-based BioTech startup Ternary Therapeutics has raised €4.1 million (£3.6 million) in Seed funding to scale an AI platform designed to create a new class of medicines known as molecular glues.

The round was led by European venture firm daphni, with participation from Pace Ventures, the i&i Biotech Fund and the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, managed by Future Planet Capital.

Dr Chris Tame, co-founder and Chief Executive of Ternary Therapeutics, says: “Molecular glues have delivered some of the most exciting breakthroughs in drug discovery over the past decade, but historically they’ve been discovered largely by chance rather than through a systematic process.

“Our platform is designed to change that by combining physics-informed AI with rapid experimental validation to engineer these molecules intentionally and at scale. That allows us to approach drug discovery more like an engineering problem than a process of trial and error.”

EU-Startups has seen similar rounds across European startups developing AI-enabled platforms for drug discovery and adjacent BioTech tools.

London-based Sable Bio secured €3.15 million in Seed funding to expand its AI platform designed to predict drug target safety and reduce clinical trial failure rates. In Austria, Graph Therapeutics raised €3 million in pre-Seed financing to advance an AI-driven drug discovery platform focused on inflammatory diseases. Oxford-based Scripta Therapeutics also attracted €10.3 million in Seed funding to build a data-rich platform combining experimental biology and computational modelling to identify new therapeutic candidates.

Meanwhile, Swiss startup FluoSphera secured €1.23 million to scale AI-enabled imaging and analysis tools aimed at improving preclinical drug discovery workflows.

Against this backdrop, Ternary’s €4.1 million round places it within a broader wave of early-stage investment targeting AI-driven approaches to drug discovery and biomedical research infrastructure across Europe.

These rounds suggest roughly €21.8 million in funding has flowed into startups operating in this segment during 2025–2026 alone. The presence of other UK-based companies such as Sable Bio and Scripta Therapeutics also highlights the UK’s continued role as a hub for AI-enabled BioTech platforms, particularly those seeking to apply machine learning and computational modelling to previously difficult areas of therapeutic discovery.

Dr Tame adds: “This investment enables us to expand the platform, grow our team and accelerate programmes towards the clinic, while building the foundations for long-term partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.”

Founded in 2024, Ternary is developing a platform that combines machine learning, physics-based molecular modelling and rapid laboratory testing to design a new class of medicines known as molecular glues – drugs capable of targeting proteins long considered undruggable.

The approach has already produced several multi-billion-euro Biotech companies in the field of targeted protein degradation. However, the company says that most molecular glues have historically been discovered by chance rather than deliberately designed.

Ternary’s platform aims to change that by turning the discovery process into a repeatable engineering system. Its AI models predict how proteins behave and suggest molecules that could bring them together. Scientists then test those molecules in the lab, feeding the results back into the system so the next round of designs becomes progressively more accurate.

The company has already generated a pipeline of preclinical programmes focused on inflammatory and neuroinflammatory diseases, and has secured early research collaborations with pharmaceutical and specialist biotechnology partners.

Cristian Pinto, Investor at daphni, says: “Designing molecular glues predictably is one of the hardest problems in drug discovery. Ternary has built a disciplined platform that integrates machine learning, physics and experimental biology to tackle that challenge.”

Today’s investment follows the launch of Daphni Blue, a €260 million fund focused on science-led DeepTech companies – as reported by EU-Startups.

The new funding will be used to expand Ternary’s computational and laboratory teams and advance lead programmes towards preclinical development.

Oliver Sexton, Investment Director, UKI2S, managed by Future Planet Capital adds, “Ternary’s approach to drug design is enabled by its compute power. The combination of expanding knowledge of biology and recent developments in AI allow it to understand massive complexity and the resulting molecular glue drug candidates target areas that have historically been considered out of reach. This is a world class example of huge ambition with significant potential for patient benefit that UKI2S is delighted to back.”

A large proportion of disease-driving proteins lack obvious drug-binding sites, limiting the reach of traditional medicines. Molecular glues offer a way to bypass that limitation by creating new interactions between proteins.

If platforms like Ternary’s can design these interactions reliably, they could significantly expand the number of druggable targets and open new opportunities for partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies.

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Würzburg-based DeepTech startup WeSort.AI has secured €10 million in funding to further scale its AI-based technology for recovering critical raw materials from recycling plants.

The capital comes from impact investors Infinity Recycling, Green Generation Fund, and Vent.io, the SPRIND agency, and other public funding sources. The financing is being provided with the support of the BayStartUP investor network. With the fresh funding, the company aims to expand the market presence of its AI sorting system and strengthen European raw material sovereignty.

Co-founders Nathanael Laier and Johannes Laier explain: “By recovering previously unused critical raw materials from waste, we are tapping into a previously untapped ‘urban mine’ and contributing directly to the implementation of EU requirements.”

Recent funding activity highlights continued investor interest in technologies that improve recycling efficiency and recover valuable materials from waste streams and adds context to today’s announcement.

Germany saw three companies recently raise significant funding in this sector: METYCLE (Cologne) secured €14.1 million in Series A funding to expand its digital platform for global secondary metal trading and improve transparency and quality certification in recycled metals markets. aevoloop (Leipzig) raised around €8 million in Seed and public funding to advance circular plastics technology designed to reduce waste and microplastics. ScrapBees (Neuss) secured €4 million to expand its recycling logistics services for tradespeople and construction sites.

Beyond Germany, Jälle Technologies (Tallinn) raised €2 million in pre-Seed funding to develop technology that recovers value from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and converts graphite waste into advanced materials. Meanwhile, Rotterdam-based Xycle secured funding to build its first commercial chemical recycling facility converting difficult-to-recycle plastics into pyrolysis oil, although the amount was not disclosed.

Together with WeSort.AI’s €10 million round, financing across comparable recycling and resource-recovery startups amounts to approximately €38 million, underlining sustained investment in circular-economy technologies aimed at improving resource efficiency and strengthening European supply chains for critical raw materials.

“Our investment reflects our strong confidence in WeSort.AI’s business model and innovative technology. By preventing fires and recovering critical raw materials, WeSort.AI solves one of the industry’s biggest problems. This investment, our first in Germany, demonstrates our commitment to expanding the circular economy in Europe,” adds Nicky van ‘t Hof, Investments at Infinity Recycling.

Founded in 2021, WeSort.AI develops AI-based analysis and sorting systems for the recycling industry with a focus on the recovery of critical raw materials. The sorting technology identifies electrical appliances, batteries, and other valuable raw materials and enables their professional recycling.

The company says it addresses “a massive problem” for the circular economy: that over 50% of all discarded electrical appliances and batteries do not end up with specialised recyclers, but in residual waste or the yellow bin. This causes numerous fires in the recycling process and results in the loss of valuable raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earths – materials that the EU classifies as Critical Raw Materials (CRM) and whose availability is crucial for independence from third countries.

The EU Critical Raw Materials Act sets ambitious goals for European raw material independence. Today, Europe is heavily dependent on imports of critical materials – rare earths from China, lithium from Chile, cobalt from Africa. These dependencies harbor economic and geopolitical risks.

“We were particularly impressed,” adds Peter Dorfner, partner at Green Generation Fund, “by the fact that the Battery Sort solution is unique in its form worldwide and, with its patent, is strongly protected from competition on the international market.”

WeSort.AI’s AI sorting system uses AI, special cameras, and X-rays to detect batteries and electronic waste in incorrect waste fractions and sort them back into proper recycling. But that is only one use case. The technology can sort out a wide variety of hazardous or valuable critical raw materials from various types of waste, such as:

• end-of-life vehicles
• electronics
• construction waste
• industrial and household waste.

The system has been in use since 2024 at waste management companies such as KORN Recycling and PreZero, part of the Schwarz Group, and not only prevents fires in waste processing plants, but also ensures the recovery of strategically important raw materials.

Today’s round is intended to enable further scaling of the technology and position WeSort.AI as the leading provider of AI-supported recovery of critical raw materials in Europe.

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We are pleased to announce that Mikael da Costa, founder and CEO of WP SEO AI, will take the stage at the EU-Startups Summit 2026 on May 7-8 in sunny Malta for a keynote on the growth stage.

Mikael is an entrepreneur with extensive experience building and scaling technology companies across digital marketing and software. Throughout his career, he has founded several ventures, led companies to millions in annual recurring revenue, and completed three exits. Among his ventures is Leadoo Marketing Technologies, a platform designed to help businesses convert website visitors into leads, which was later acquired by SalesManago.

Today, Mikael leads WP SEO AI, a bootstrapped AI-powered SEO startup that in just two years has grown to over 170 employees and more than 2,000 customers, surpassing €12.5 million in ARR. The platform helps businesses improve their search visibility through AI-driven tools designed for SEO, generative engine optimisation, and search marketing – serving companies across Finland, the Netherlands, and Germany.

At the EU-Startups Summit 2026, Mikael will explore “How to win search in the modern AI era”. As search engines increasingly answer questions directly, many companies are experiencing declining search traffic and must rethink their strategies. Drawing on insights from more than 1,500 companies, Mikael will explain why search traffic is declining, how search behaviour is evolving, and what companies can do to adapt and remain competitive in this new era of AI-driven search.

Do not miss the opportunity and secure your ticket today! Join us at the EU-Startups Summit 2026 for two days of learning, networking, and inspiration.

OUR EVENT SPONSORS

Malta Enterprise is Malta’s economic development agency, facilitating economic growth, investment, and innovation by offering a range of support services for local and foreign enterprises setting up a productive presence in Malta. As a key player in Malta’s economic landscape, it contributes to the nation’s prosperity by attracting investments, supporting businesses, and driving innovation, thereby reinforcing Malta’s position as an attractive destination for entrepreneurs and investors alike. Malta Enterprise actively cultivates a vibrant startup ecosystem, playing a pivotal role in fostering a conducive environment for startups and offering tailored support and incentives to empower emerging businesses.

M. Demajo Group is a leading business player in Malta, with a successful history spanning 115 years. The Group’s growth and diversification have resulted in a wide coverage of business sectors through a commitment to long-term results. M. Demajo Group’s workforce is 500 strong and their various activities have been developed through organic growth, acquisitions, partnerships, and startups. Its strong financial situation and ethical standards, its business reputation, and its renowned track record as a business partner are all key factors in its continued expansion.

The IONOS Cloud Start-up Program provides young companies with up to €100,000 in cloud credits for up to five years after their founding. Start-ups benefit from a sovereign IT infrastructure “Made in Germany,” offering 100% GDPR compliance and full legal certainty. IONOS Cloud guarantees technological freedom without vendor lock-in. Long-term support is also ensured: exclusive discounts after the first year enable a seamless transition into the IONOS Cloud ISV Partner Program. In this way, digital sovereignty becomes a strategic competitive advantage from founding to scaling.

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Filed in New York on 13 March 2026, the complaint accuses OpenAI of using the reference publishers’ content as AI training data without permission, then generating responses that reproduce it verbatim, six months after the same companies sued Perplexity on nearly identical grounds. Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster have filed a copyright and trademark lawsuit against […]

The London-based healthtech company, which lets clinicians practise emergencies and difficult conversations in virtual reality, will use the capital to deepen its US footprint and accelerate AI-driven product development. Oxford Medical Simulation has raised £5 million in growth financing from Salica Investments, the London-based investment firm formerly known as Hambro Perks. The funding will support […]

The five-year agreement expands an existing relationship between the two companies and will involve one of the first large-scale deployments of Nvidia’s new Vera Rubin chips. Nebius shares surged 14% in pre-market trading. Meta has signed a new long-term AI infrastructure agreement with Dutch neocloud operator Nebius Group worth up to $27 billion over five […]

Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS), a UK startup offering clinical simulation to healthcare and academic institutions, has secured €5.78 million (£5 million) in growth funding from Salica Investments, a UK-based investment firm supporting high-growth companies across the UK and Europe.

The funding will allow OMS to expand its presence in US health systems and academic institutions, invest in product innovation such as AI-driven scenarios, learning analytics, and workflow tools, and enhance the infrastructure required to provide safer, more effective clinical training.

“This financing allows us to invest confidently in the next phase of OMS. Our partners in US healthcare and academia are focused on outcomes – safer practice, better-prepared staff and more efficient delivery. This growth capital from Salica means we can move faster on exactly those priorities: expanding our breadth and depth of content, deepening our analytics capabilities, and supporting more institutions to transform their training for the new generation of learners,” said Michael Wallace, CEO of Oxford Medical Simulation. 

Founded in 2017 by Michael Wallace and Dr Jack Pottle, Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS) designs, builds, and delivers virtual reality healthcare training. It collaborates with hospitals, health systems, and universities worldwide to offer realistic AI-driven simulations for clinicians and students to practice anytime, anywhere.  

Using VR headsets, learners can engage in fully interactive clinical scenarios that simulate real life. They then receive personalised feedback and can repeat the scenarios as often as they wish to enhance their skills. 

In 2024, Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS) announced the completion of its €10.9 million ($12.6 million) Series A funding round, led by Frog Capital. In 2022, the company raised about €2.4 million in additional funding with support from ACF Investors. 

“Oxford Medical Simulation is exactly the type of business we look to support. The team has built a differentiated platform, proven at scale, and is working with leading health systems and universities to address a critical need: giving clinicians and students the chance to practise safely,” said Usman Ali, Partner at one of the funds at Salica. 

Salica was originally founded as an investment firm specialising in the most promising businesses. It has since developed into a diverse set of private market funds investing in equity and debt across various sectors and stages, primarily within the UK. Last year, in October, the investment firm announced the first close of its €173.5 million (£150 million) Growth Debt Fund II

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Choice, a Prague-founded all-in-one SaaS and QR ordering platform for restaurants, has raised $7.1 million in Series A funding.

To date, the company has raised a total of $11.6 million.

Founded five years ago, Choice began as a platform enabling restaurants to communicate with customers online. Since then, it has evolved into a comprehensive operating system for independent and multi-location restaurants. 

Choice positions itself as an alternative to standalone restaurant tech solutions, which often are focused on separate features like QR payments, marketplace, reservations, or online ordering.

Unlike single-function providers, Choice offers a fully integrated platform:

• Website builder with a custom domain connection
• Commission-free takeaway and delivery ordering
• QR menus, QR payments, and QR ordering
• Reservation management integrated with Google
• Marketplace integrations (Wolt, Bolt Food, Foodora, Glovo, Uber Eats, Just Eat Takeaway)
• Loyalty programs across all channels
• POS/EPOS integrations without requiring system replacement
• Everything operates from one admin panel, under one subscription, consolidating fragmented customer data into a single system.

Today, Choice serves more than 30,000 registered restaurants, including over 7,000 paying customers across nine active markets in Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, and Romania).

The company currently generates over 1.5 million monthly orders — representing approximately €35 million in monthly gross merchandise value (GMV). Choice has doubled year-over-year and is targeting €500 million in monthly turnover within the next three to four years.

With fresh capital, Choice plans to expand rapidly across Europe. The next markets include Portugal — where Alea Capital will support scaling efforts across Southern Europe — followed by Spain and Italy. France, Germany, and the Netherlands are planned for subsequent phases.

“We understand the fragmentation of the European restaurant market and the need for localisation,” said Alex Ilyash, Founder and CEO of Choice.

“But we see this as a competitive advantage. We know how to scale in Europe. By combining strong local sales teams, efficient capital deployment from our CEE base, and AI-driven product innovation, we are confident we can win market by market.”

Alea Capital Partners led the funding, with participation from Reflex Capital, Smartlink, and J&T Ventures. 

According to  Rui Escaleira, Co-Founder of Alea Capital Partners, the  Choice app is addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing restaurants today: operating efficiently in a highly dynamic market with structurally tight margins. 

“By giving restaurants greater control over digital ordering, additional revenue generation, and a more balanced relationship with delivery platforms, Choice App helps operators protect profitability while improving the end-customer experience.” 

The new investment will primarily fund product development — particularly AI-integrated modules — as well as sales and marketing expansion in target countries. Choice plans to hire local sales and support teams in each new market to ensure a strong on-the-ground presence and customer success.

The average marketing agency juggles between six and 12 different software tools to manage clients: one for email, another for CRM, a third for funnels, something else for scheduling, a separate platform for reputation management, and probably a spreadsheet holding the whole thing together. Every new client means another round of logins, another integration to […]

CDP Venture Capital leads the round for the Milan-based company behind Alo, an AI operating layer already deployed in finance, manufacturing, and pharma. Alomana, a Milan-based AI startup building an operating layer for enterprise automation, has raised €4 million in a seed round led by CDP Venture Capital through its Corporate Partners I, ServiceTech fund. […]

WhiteBridge AI, the Vilnius-based people-search and digital identity platform, has raised a $3 million seed round, equivalent to roughly €2.6 million, led by FIRSTPICK VC. The round also includes participation from First Degree, NGL.VC, Scalewolf.VC, BADideas.fund, Nectolabs, Plug and Play, and a group of angel investors. The company says the capital will fund expansion of […]