an AI-based startups assorted portfolio
• early stage checks for startups doing health, no-code, vertical AI and manufacturing.
• expensive deals closed by a Swiss semiconductor startup (seed) and a Bulgarian cargo drone airline (pre-series A)
• investor profile: an AI-based startups assorted portfolio
Interesting deals
Nordics and Baltics
🇸🇪 Nuverica, doing a SAAS solution for verifying nutrition and health claims for commercial food products, raised $300k from local angel investors.
🇫🇮 Aino.ar, developing a AR/VR configurator framework generator for mobile e-commerce shops, raised $450k from FOV Ventures.
🇩🇰 Pufin ID, developing digital hash-codes using physical unclonable functions for physical products to secure originality of brands, raised $500k from local angel investors.
🇸🇪 Soultech, doing a B2B SaaS platform for conversational commerce, raised $500k from local angel investors.
🇱🇻 Trace.Space, developing collaborative traceability tools used for product development, in a $1.5 million pre-seed funding round led by Fiedler Capital, with participation from Nebular, Tiny VC, Foreword VC and Change Ventures.
🇩🇰 wawa fertility, doing a mobile app used for guidance for fertility treatments, raised $2.7 million seed backed by MMC Ventures, Founders and Lysgaard.
🇫🇮 Verge Motorcycles, working on three models of electric motorcycles expected to hit the market this summer, raised $5.4 million seed from local angel investors.
🇳🇴 Airthings, manufacturer of products used to monitor and identify radon levels in indoor air, raised $7.3 million from local angel investors Aksel Lund Svindal and Geir Førre.
🇸🇪 CarbonCloud, developing a climate intelligence platform for packaged food and drink producers, raised $8 million series A round co-led by Cusp Capitaland Peak, joined by TS Ventures and Maki VC.
France
🇫🇷 Metafight, developing a multiplayer platform in which players can make their NFT Fighter cards encounter between them in leagues, raised seed funding from angel investors.
🇫🇷 DeftHedge, developing a SAAS application that helps with the management of commodities and currency risks, raised $1 million from French angel networks.
🇫🇷 Crew, YC alum (2021) that's been in closed beta while building a recruitment CRM SAAS used by 1000 MAUs last month, raised $2.3 million seed from Rebel Fund, Kima Ventures, Secret Fund and multiple angel investors.
🇫🇷 Pongo, developers of an intelligent loyalty program for merchants, raised $5.3 million series A led by Evolem and joined by Techmind and Altavia Adventures.
🇫🇷 Orosound, developing smart noise cancelling headphones, raised $5.4 million in a round led by Go Capital.
The UK
🇬🇧 Sun Bear Bioworks, working on reimagining farming by blending the natural process of fermentation with modern science and technology, raised pre-seed funding from Unruly Ventures, Tiny VC and Plug and Play.
🇬🇧 Tangle, developing an open source platform providing access to reusable components, drag and drop capabilities without requiring any code, raised $750k pre-seed from Blackfinch Ventures.
🇬🇧 Flawless, doing a no-code data activation platform used for operational monitoring, raised $1 million from Picus Capital.
🇬🇧 Pydantic, developing a Python library and open source data-validation framework with 48 million downloads each month, went out of stealth with a $4.7 million seed deal led by Sequoia, joined by ParTech, Irregular Expressions and angel investors.
🇬🇧 Sikoia, developing an API marketplace and data platform for the next generation of financial services, raised $6 million seed from investors led by MassMutual Ventures joined by Coalition Capital, Earlybird and Seedcamp.
🇬🇧 Vivacity Labs, an urban traffic sensor and AI-based data developer, raised $8.4 million from EnBW New Ventures, Foresight Group and Gresham House Ventures.
DACH
🇩🇪 Kerith, developing a cloud-based platform used for the planning process of the energy supply of manufacturing companies, was pre-seeded by Earlybirdand Point Nine Capital.
🇩🇪 Kern AI, developing a modular NLP dev platform helping other companies embed modern natural language processing into their products, raised $2.9 million seed in a round co-led by Seedcamp and Faber.
🇩🇪 Knowunity, a peer-to-peer learning app used by 5.7 million school students in 5 Euro countries, raised a $9 million series A extension backed by Stride and Redalpine.
🇨🇭 EthonAI, developing an AI-powered platform that detects and prevents quality defects in manufacturing at scale, raised $6.8 million seed from Earlybird and La Famiglia. The company was pre-seeded in 2022 by Acequia and Wingman.
🇩🇪 Dance, running an e-bike subscription service, raised an additional €12 million in a debt and equity round led by existing investors HV Capital, Eurazeo and BlueYard. Dance last raised $17.7 million Series A in 2020.
🇨🇭 Unisers, semiconductor metrology startup developing universal liquid analyzers based on nanotechnology and Raman spectroscopy, raised $14 million seed in a funding round led by Intel Capital joined by M Ventures, RSBG Ventures and Swisscom Ventures.
Other geographies
🇵🇹 ScorePlay, developing a SaaS platform helping sports and entertainment brands manage media assets, extended its pre-seed round with backing from APEX Capital and Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s 35Ventures.
🇮🇹 Voiseed, developing a fast and scalable AI dubbing platform tailored for video games, raised $1 million seed from LIFTT and EIC Fund.
🇳🇱 PTTRNS.ai, selling AI-based SAAS solutions for personalised fashion and eyewear shopping experiences, raised $2 million from ECFG.
🇧🇬 Dronamics, building a cargo drone airline utilizing flying delivering vans, raised $40 million pre-series A funding round from Founders Factory, Speedinvest, Eleven Capital, and the Strategic Development Fund.
Please note that this is just a selection, all deals are available here.
Investors
Powder
🇪🇺 EIF announced a €10 billion fund-of-funds to back 10 to 20 European late stage investment companies.
🇺🇸 Summit Partners announced the first and final closing of its newest Europe growth equity fund with €1.4 billion in total commitments.
🇪🇸 Asabys Partners announced a €100 million first close for a second fund focused on health and biotech in Southern Europe.
🇫🇮 United Bankers announced a first close of €100 million for a capital fund investing in the forest sector.
🇬🇧 VeUP launches with €100 million growth fund to work with AWS tech companies.
🇫🇮 Innovestor announced a €90 million close for a new fund dedicated to life science startups from the Nordic and Baltic countries.
🇪🇪 Startup Wise Guys announced a €25 million first close of a new fund to be deployed very early stage in overlooked global markets - from southern Europe to Africa.
🇬🇧 Counteract announced a first close of £15 million on a debut fund to be deployed globally against startups doing carbon removal solutions.
🇳🇱 Capital Mills, the Dutch VC fund, announced Fortibus, a revenue-based financing vehicle that plans to invest a total of €12.5 million in 15 or more companies within the next 12 to 24 months.
🇫🇷 Kanopée, venture builder and investor in the French construction and proptech verticals, raised €11 million to be deployed to 30 local startups.
🇦🇹 Speedinvest announced the launch of a €3 million fund of funds to back emerging pre-seed and micro venture capitals.
On the move
🇬🇧 Payton Dobbs will start working as a full time partner at Hoxton Ventures, after having been an adviser since August last year. He is transitioning from being full time with Google in London and will replace founding partner Rob Kniaz, who is as well transitioning to launching a new fund focused on deeptech.
🇬🇧 Ines Streimelweger was promoted as principal at Hedosophia in the London office, after two years of work as senior associate.
🇩🇪 Jasper Masemann started a new gig as a partner for Cherry Capital, after 7 years with HV Capital, for which he set up the Berlin office and a B2B software team.
Also notable
🇳🇱 Pieter Pot, a grocery delivery startup with a circular packaging solution twist, was sold to an industrial Dutch supplier, as it was facing bankruptcy. The company raised a total of 14 million, last round in 2021, backed by ETF Partners, SHIFT Invest, The Future Food Fund and InnovationQuarter.
🇱🇺 SFI, a subsidiary of Patrinvest (holds the interests of some of the founding families of Anheuser-Busch InBev) acquired the stake of Peugeot Invest and invested an additional €400 million to become a key shareholder of Tikehau Capital, a French private equity group with €37.5 billion of AUM.
🇪🇺 Connect Ventures (UK) and NP-Hard (Dutch) backed a seed roundraised by San Francisco-based eDRV, a developer of an API-first electric vehicle charging management solution.
🇪🇸 Nina Capital led a $4 million seed round closed by NY-based Chiefy, a hospital and health care company that specializes in zero waste and zero harm in surgery.
🇫🇷 Aglaé Ventures contributed to the $8.3 million pre-seed round closed by NY-based Twentyeight Health, a longitudinal healthcare platform for underserved women.
🇩🇪 Picus Cap was part of a $9 million seed round raised by Israeli Ledge, together with NEA, FJ Labs and Vertex. Ledge is doing a no-code payments command center built to empower CFOs and their finance teams.
🇩🇪 Picus Cap also followed on a $100 million series C raised by Aspire, a Singapore-based startup founded by Italian entrepreneurs and operating a financial platform providing earnings, payment, and expense management in Asia. Sequoia and Lightspeed led the round.
Investors profile
🇪🇸 K Fund
- founded in 2016 by Carina Szpilka, Ian Noel and Iñaki Arrola, leading a team of 18 people
- invests from a €250 million fund (third) announced in early 2022.
- HQ-ed in Madrid, increasingly looking to invest outside Spain, with first checks from €100k and followons of up to €10 million.
- co-investors: PRO Founders (UK), Creandum (Sweden), FJ Labs (US), Encomenda, Bonsai and Lanai (all locals)
- 7 new deals in the European portfolio closed in 2022:
🇪🇸 Banktrack - open banking SAAS used for providing a banking API with read-only access.
🇪🇸 Bloobirds - SAAS sales prospecting platform.
🇪🇸 Crescenta - marketplace for alternative investments.
🇪🇸 Dersu - a consumer travel app used to plan routes and connect lovers of hiking and the mountains.
🇪🇸 Kosmo - an aggregated logistics platform combining everything you need to integrate, manage and track local delivery.
🇪🇸 Rungie - developers of a framework helping brands build web3 communities.
🇩🇪 tl;dv - meeting productivity software tool
🇬🇧 7percent ventures
- Founded in 2014 by two ex-founders - Andrew Gault and Andrew J Scott - leading a team of 8 from London.
- One of the few European early stage investors with an articulated thesis and explaining why they are different, beyond the usual wooden VC language.
- They do first or second money-in in startups at the frontier tech or transforming a market - this reflects in the portfolio construction which includes a multitude of AI-based startups assorted with space tech developers.
- Public data shows they raised less than 50 million across two funds - notable exits include Oculus (Facebook), Magic Pony (Twitter), SourceDNA (Apple).
- co-investors: EF, Seedcamp, FJ Labs, Charlie Songhurst, Luminous VC
- 13 new deals in the Euro portfolio in 2022:
🇬🇧 Atreides - application that uses NLP to grade risk and control documentation in order to provide near real time feedback.
🇫🇷 Beyond Aero - manufacturer of electric private aircrafts using to hydrogen propulsion and able to reach 1000 miles.
🇩🇪 Bunch AI - AI-based digital coach used for personal development.
🇬🇧 Challau - developing an online 3D meeting platform that enables users to create their own virtual worlds for meetings and social gatherings.
🇬🇧 Charter Space - logistics software used by satellite companies to streamline missions and reduce wasted engineering hours.
🇬🇧 Circuit Mind - an AI-based tool that completely automates the design of Electronics Circuit boards.
🇬🇧 Hybryd - developers of a SAAS tool used for meetings management.
🇫🇷 Interstellar Lab - building biodomes - modules for growing plants in a controlled environment for the earth and the Moon.
🇬🇧 Lúnasa Space - developers of an innovative Reusable Orbital Transfer Vehicle to host and transfer SmallSats to anywhere in LEO.
🇬🇧 Metavoice - an NFT & AI-powered app that changes voices in real-time while preserving human emotion.
🇬🇧 Space DOTS - space tech operating a modular pico-lab for active in-space testing of advanced materials, from LEO to Cis-lunar and Interplanetary orbits.
🇬🇧 Versadex - developing tools helping creators producing immersive content and experiences monetise with 3D ad-units.
🇳🇱 Vosbor - digital grain & oilseed trading platform providing a spot and forward market to reconcile trade data & securely share documents.
Did you find this useful? 🤔
Questions or comments? Let us know!
Euro Intel
Data-based intel from the European startup ecosystem written professionally in an easy to understand format - tactical bits and industry-wide trends, curated deals, active investors and relevant early stage transactions.
Published every Monday morning and emailed to the Nordic 9 customers - investors, founders and decision makers willing to stay updated with the strategic moves from Europe.