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space, social networks and AI

Euro Intel 03 March 2025

• social networks made in Europe
• space, the new investment frontier
• AI app layers betting

 

 

Highlights

Europe does consumer social networks

🇺🇦 ​Yope​, developing a photo-sharing app which lets users share still images to private groups, raised a seed round of $4.65 million led by Goodwater Capital, with Inovo VC, Redseed and angels participating.

  • traction: 2.2 million MAUs and 800k DAUs, 30X growth in the last six months. 

It's a cycle Yope is dubbed as the new Instagram, and admittedly has intriguing numbers. Every once in a while, you run into a team taking a stab at the consumer social network market, a hard task in itself, given that i) Europe is a multilingual continent composed of 30 distinct markets and ii) Europeans do not really have a precedent for building a massive network - the most popular ones have been traditionally developed and operated by American tech, heavily localised and enjoying early entrants network effects hard to be beaten. And as such the challenge for incumbents is not getting it off the ground but rather scale it and turn it into a massive business. That simply means directly targeting English speaking users. 

Encore un fois That's exactly the story of Bereal, a French startup that has had explosive growth in France in 2022, raised significant venture money from tier one investors and was eventually flipped to a French media group for peanuts last year, when it was evident it won't make it to the next level.

Yope is not alone A quick one coming to mind is yet another French crew going after the same consumer social network market as we speak (​Amo​) done by Antoine Martin of Zenly fame, and backed solely by French investors with a hefty 18 million seed in 2023 - yes, it's arguably a lot of ego and personal history baked into pricing that opportunity. Alas, one more, there's also a British startup taking an early stab at it with an ​AI native social media app​ - part of YC this winter.

 

The European take of the space business

🇬🇧 ​Magdrive​, developing a new type of plasma thruster for satellite propulsion, raised $10.5 million seed led by redalpine, joined by Balerion Space, Founders Fund, Alumni Ventures, 7percent, Outsized Ventures, and EF.

  • USP: propulsion systems for satellites with a mass of 10 to 400 kilograms. 
  • traction: they have a thruster product to be tested live on a space flight this summer - if positive, they'll proceed with mass production. 
  • redalpine's GP ​Harald Nieder​ led the round: "Propulsion is literally driving the emerging space economy"

Growth baby, growth The space ecosystem is an emergent category poised for tremendous change in the following decade - data has it at an expected $1.8 trillion by 2035, up from $600 billion in 2023. It's been growing nicely for some time now, driven mainly by the US, both at the governmental level and by private companies (i.e. SpaceX, Blue Origin) which pushed costs down significantly and created tremendous commercial opportunities. 

Yes, but Europe? While Europe is not exactly at the forefront of impacting this industry, there's nice signals of good businesses emerging from the continent (and active investors too i.e. ​Plural​) - however, they usually go to the States because that's where the money is. Magdrive above is not an exception either, as it specifically says to open a sales office in Los Angeles for taking the business to the next level - FF's ​Delian Asparouhov​ is key person here as not only he sits on the board as an investor but also is a co founder of a space company as well. Fwiw, Delian was the lead investor of Magdrive's first-money-in transaction ​back in 2020​ and is one of the go-to-investors when it comes to space business in the USA.

Since we're at it, it's also worth mentioning ​Starcloud​, done by two Brits and a Romanian and moved to the US from the get-go - they're doing data centers in space and just announced grabbing a ​$10 million​ seed extension this week. Has Europeans in the captable too i.e. Tiny and Nebular. 

 

The $ from the app layer

🇸🇪 ​Lovable​, developing an autonomous code framework for building web-based apps, raised a $15 million seed extension led by Creandum, joined by Hummingbird, Visionaries Club, byFounders and 20VC.

  • USP: a combination of OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Anthropic, distilled into a platform that can generate the software behind easy to deploy prototypes or apps.
  • traction: 500,000 users who are building over 25,000 new products daily - 30k of those are paying customers producing about $16 million ARR
  • pre-seeded at the end of 2023, and seeded with $7.5 million late last summer by byFounders, Hummingbird, Emblem and a bunch of angels. 

🚀🚀🚀 Lovable is one of the hottest SAAS startups to emerge from Europe in quite a few years (Hopin is quick to come to mind, which was rather a Covid oddity that led to investor carnage), and from Sweden, ever - that's because they got from zero to $16M ARR in roughly 3 months. ​Here​'s how they stack up:

​StackBlitz​ (​Bolt.new​) from 0 - $20M in 2 months ​Lovable​ from 0 - $20M in 3 months ​Together AI​ from 0 - $100M in 10 months ​Cursor​ from 0 - $100M in 12 months ​Sierra​ from 0 - $20M in 18 months ​Midjourney​ from 0 - $100M in 18 months ​ElevenLabs​ from 0 - $100M in 2 years ​Mercor​ from 0 - $75M in 2 years ​Harvey​ from 0 - $50M in 2.5 years ​Glean​ from 0 - $100M in 3 years ​Codeium​ from 0 - $40M in 2.5 years As a point of comparison ​Wiz​ was the fastest SaaS company to reach $100M ARR. They did it in 18 months

Reading the tea leaves And so, all the signals for an imminent pre-emptive round were there for Lovable, and am aware of a few investors who looked closely at it - not only for the fast growth or the ease of use, but also because there's an emerging economy developing on top of it already, with many indie developers building their business by using Lovable's framework. 

Transition to greatness To be honest, Creandum was not in my bingo cards to be the investor taking it over, kudos to them - probably the Swedish connection had some weight for closing the deal. Also worth nothing 20VC and Visionaries popping in the round as well - Creandum is not exactly known for sharing deals in the market. All they need to do now is to upmark it properly to a tier 1 American investor able to take the boys to Silicon Valley and to transform this early trajectory into a sustainable multi billion business as fast as possible. Because the Swedes have hit the spot and are riding a fast-paced wave - as Satya ​says​, the network effects are at the app layer. Lovable is it.

One more thing It's also worth mentioning ​Databutton​ in this context, a Lovable-like startup that's also crushing it from the Nordics afaik. While Lovable got traction on the long tail, Databutton is seemingly more suitable for larger projects. Seeded with $5 million by Maki and Skyfall 18 months ago - ​CEO​ & ​his email​ (nope, I have no connection with them :-))

 

 

Deals

Nordics

🇸🇪 ​Veyra​, developing a next-gen manufacturing analytics platform for real-time SPC and Process Capability, raised $600k from angel investors.

🇫🇮 ​Solid IO​, developing a tumor-on-chip platform used to replicate the patient’s tumor microenvironment, raised $800k pre-seed led by Nordic Science Investment, joined by BSV Ventures and Helsinki University Funds.

🇩🇰 ​TrackSights​, developing an AI-based intel platform for the automotive industry, in a $1 million pre-seed funding round led by Maki VC, joined by angel investors.

🇸🇪 ​SponsWatch​, developing an AI-powered SAAS helping brands measure logotype exposure in relation to sponsorships, raised $1 million pre-seed led by Node VC, joined by Venrex.

🇳🇴 ​Kvist​, building SAAS for environmental assessment in the construction and real estate business, raises $1.7 million seed with Kiilto Ventures, joined by Ferd and DNB Ventures.

🇫🇮 ​Videobot​, developing an online video advertising marketplace, raised a $2.9 million seed extension round led by Volta Ventures, joined by Expon Capital and Superhero Capital.

🇸🇪 ​Scaleout Systems​, building an ML platform used for federated learning development, raised a $3.2 million equity deal co-led by Fairpoint Capital and Navigare Ventures, joined by Almi Invest, Uppsala Uni, Beijerstiftelsen and angel investors.

🇩🇰 ​Fuse Vectors​, building a vector engine used to develop a therapeutic pipeline, secured $5.2 million in pre-seedfunding led by HCVC.

🇳🇴 ​Metric​, developing an AI ad optimisation platform for Shopify merchants, raised $8.3 million in Series A round from private investors in Norway.

🇩🇰 ​Seaborg​, producers of nuclear energy via molten salt reactors, raised $27.8 million in a deal backed by existing investors Heartland and Team Europe.

 

UK

🇬🇧 ​WilsonAI​, developing an AI-driven platform designed to streamline legal operations for businesses, raised $1.7 million pre-seed round led by Nomad Ventures, joined by Autopilot Ventures, Entrepreneur First, Transpose and angels.

  • incubated at EF London last summer, now operated from the American West Coast, where it also concluded this deal.

🇬🇧 ​Bourn​, fintech selling a business credit and payment solution helping SMEs with cash flow, closed a $1.9 million seedround led by Haatch, alongside Love Ventures, Portfolio Ventures, and Aperture.

🇬🇧 ​Medly AI​, developing an AI-enabled student tutor, raises $2.1 million in seed funding, led by Eka Ventures with participation from Ada Ventures.

  • 30k MAUs and retention metrics similar to Duolingo - 49% D1, 21% D7 (​KPIs meaning​)

🇬🇧 ​Audiomob​, developer of AI-generated audio ads for apps and games, secured $5 million in series A extension from Samsung, Founders Capital, Backstage VC, Makers Fund and Supernode Global.

  • initial series A was $14 million at a valuation of ​$110 million​ in 2021 - the captable includes the likes of Lightspeed, Sequoia and Google.

🇬🇧 ​Flow48​, selling revenue-based loans, raised $69 million in a debt and equity round led by Breega, joined by 212, Speedinvest, Daphni, Endeavor Catalyst, Evolution Ventures, and +VC.

Also notable:

🇬🇧 Monument Bank, which provides regular banking services, is in talks to raise a ​£200 million​ Series C round ahead Nasdaq IPO.

 

DACH

🇩🇪 ​Qrago​, developing a mediation and scheduling SAAS used for logistics tasks in healthcare, raised $2.8 million in a seed funding co-led by Āltitude and MobilityFund, joined by Segenia Capital and capacura.

🇩🇪 ​hema to​, developing an AI automation tool for the clinical analysis of blood data raised a $3.7 million seed extensionround led by Lumo Labs, joined by investors including Bayern Kapital, Elaia Partners, Heal Capital and HTGF.

🇨🇭 ​Unique​, selling AI-enabled SAAS for research, compliance, and KYC in the financial industry. raised $30 million in a Series A funding deal co-led by CommerzVentures and DN Capital, joined by VI Partners and Pictet Group.

  • the Swiss started by selling an AI SAAS used by sales people in finance for video anaylsis and training, and pivoted in 2022, when they ​acquired​ a German intel SAAS provider.
  • they have previously raised a $6 million seed round in 2021, extended three times to a total of 23M 

🇩🇪 ​Relay​, developing a delivery platform for e-commerce companies, raised $35 million in Series A funding led by Plural, joined by investors including Project A and Prologis Ventures.

🇨🇭 ​Sparta Commodities​, developing a live trading insights platform for oil traders, secured $42 million in Series Bfunding led by One Peak Partners, joined by Singular VC and FirstMark Capital.

🇩🇪 ​Taktile​, producing SAAS enabling enterprises to easily develop business critical Machine Learning applications, raised a $45 million series B round led by Balderton Capital, alongside Index Ventures, Tiger Global, Y Combinator, Prosus Ventures, Visionaries Club.

  • traction: 3.5X growth yoy in 2024.
  • went to YC in the summer of 2020, Index seeded it with 4.7M post program, and Tiger led a 20M series A a year later, in 2022.
  • opportunistic round -> "There was no need to raise from a money perspective - we still had more than two years of runway - but we saw huge investor demand because of strong growth in 2024"

 

Benelux

🇳🇱 ​Langwatch​, building an API platform used to monitor, evaluate and optimize LLM models, raised $1 million pre-seed in a round led by Passion Capital, joined by Volta Ventures and Antler. 

🇳🇱 ​EvidenceHunt​, developing an AI-powered research platform that streamlines the process of gathering, analyzing and utilizing medical evidence, raises $1.2 million in a pre-seed deal led by Keen Venture Partners, Dff Ventures and Slimmer AI, joined by Dutch angel investors.

🇧🇪 ​Jurimesh​, developing a platform used for automating the legal due diligence from start to finish, raised $1.7 million pre-seed with Belgian angel investors via Syndicate One.

🇳🇱 ​Lemni​, developing AI workers able to deliver a personal customer experience at scale, raised $3.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Sequoia, joined by Designer Fund, Interface Capital and angel investors.

🇳🇱 ​Vivici​, dairy-alt ingredient manufacturer for the food and beverage companies, raised $34 million in Series A funding led by APG, joined by InnovationQuarter, DSM-Firmenich and Fonterra.

 

France

🇫🇷 ​Edumapper​, developing education platform helping students compare higher education programs, raised $5.2 million pre-seed led by daphni, joined by Kima Ventures, HEC Ventures, Ring Capital, and angel investors.

🇫🇷 ​Tyba​, developing an energy storage optimisation platform, raised $13.9 million in a Series A round led by Energize Capital, joined by Pear VC, Mobilize Climate, Borusan Ventures, Powerhouse, Wireframe, Virta, and Lorimer.

 

Spain

🇪🇸 ​Orain​, developing an omni-payments platform, raised a $6.2 million seed extension round co-led by Acurio Ventures and Leadwind, joined by Bonsai and Actyus.

🇪🇸 ​Flanks​, selling a SAAS on top of an intel platform for wealth managers, raised $14.5 million series B led by Motive Ventures, joined by Battery Ventures, Earlybird, JME Ventures, and 4Founders Capital.

  • USP: API data product used by wealth managers to aggregate data from all financial institutions where their clients have assets
  • traction: 100 clients active in 15 countries, connecting with over 350 financial institutions.
  • this is a round where the American investors have taken over - the Spanish were seeded locally in Spain, and raised an $8M A round led by Earlybird Venture, joined by JME Ventures and 4Founders Capital
  • Motive's second deal this year ​in Europe​, and its thirteen in the past twelve months, per our tracking at N9.
  • Battery's third, and its fifth in ​the past year​.

 

Other geo

🇮🇹 ​Arsenale Bioyards​, operating an end-to-end bio-manufacturing platform, raised $10 million in a seed round co-led by Planet A and ByFounders, joined by CDP Ventures, Acequia Capital and Grey Silo Ventures.

🇵🇱 ​Nomagic​, manufacturer of smart pick and place robotic solutions for order fulfillment, raised $44 million a deal comprising venture debt and series B led by EBRD, joined by Khosla Ventures and Almaz Capital.

  • traction: 220% growth in contracted ARR in 2024, targeting another 200% increase in 2025. 
  • series A closed at $22 million with Khosla, DN Capital, Hoxton and Capnamic in 2022.

 

 

 

 

Investors

Highlight

If one third of the French deal flow was AI startups last year - well, the situation is about the same in Germany. Below the breakdown with the more active AI investors in Germany:

Germans doing AI deals abroad:

 

Powder 

🇪🇺 Thoma Bravo raised ​€1.8 billion​ for its first Europe-focused buyout fund.

🇩🇰 IDC Ventures launched an inaugural fund of funds with a size of up to ​€150 million​.

🇬🇧 Cambridge Innovation Capital launched a ​£100 million​ growth fund to be invested in growth-stage deep tech and life sciences companies.

 

Europeans abroad

🇪🇸 Nina Capital contributed to a ​$2.4 million​ pre-seed deal closed by Sonar Mental Health, American startup that provides personalized, text-based mental health support to students.

🇩🇪 468 Capital and Deel executives Philippe Boaziz and Dan Westgarth chipped in to a ​$5 million​ seed raised by Firstwork, Americans doing an HR platform for shift and frontline workers - Google's Gradient was lead investor.

 

Also notable

🇮🇪 Stripe announced a new employee tender offer that values the Irish payments company at ​$91.5 billion​.

  • this is peak Stripe valuation, same $95 billion is what the company was priced during a 2021 fundraise

🇬🇧 Revolut is reportedly pushed to consider offering another secondary share sale at ​$60 billion​, up from a $45 billion liquidity event resumed six months ago.

🇳🇱 Prosus took private Amsterdam-based Just Eat Takeaway in ​€4.1 billion​ deal. Some comparable market cap points:

  • Delivery Hero - $8.1B 
  • Instacart - $11B
  • Zomato - $22.9B
  • DoorDash - $82B

 

Elsewhere

  • General Catalyst is in the very early stages of considering ​an IPO​

 

  • ​Komi Kyu​ was hired by HongShan Capital of China to head a new local office in Japan, after having spent nine years with Bain Capital.

 

 

  • a16z invested in a ​seed deal​ closed by Sesame, Americans that removed the display from AR glasses and built an audio-first assistant device - demo is ​pretty cool​.
  • Lachy Groom led a ​$10 million​ seed round raised by an American startup that hit 500k downloads, $1m in ARR, and a #1 app store ranking with no launch or press - for a consumer AI companion.
  • Accel:
    • led a ​$4.2 million​ seed raised by Paper, Americans developing a next-gen platform for designers. 
    • led a ​$4.7 million​ seed raised by Qanta, Americans building an AI-powered accounting service tailored for software companies
    • co-led with Lightspeed a ​$19 million​ series A raised by Bridgetown Research, Americans doing an AI due diligence AI product. 
  • First Round Capital invested in a ​$13.4 million​ in seed funding raised by Goose, Americans building an operating system for pet-care providers.
  • Founders Fund led a ​$15 million​ series A round raised by Prime Intellect, Americans operating a platform used to train and scale AI models by aggregating resources from multiple cloud providers.

 

 

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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.

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