The European startup ecosystem is full of interesting and exciting news, twists and turns. At EU-Startups, our aim is to keep you informed on everything that’s going on and share the inspiring entrepreneurial spirit this continent has to offer. From big funding announcements, duocorns picking up pace, to new partnerships and conscious collaborations – there’s never a dull day!
So, with this in mind, we decided to pull together all the big milestones that we saw this week into one place. It’s impossible for us to cover every announcement with an article, but perhaps this is one way we can continue to share as much as possible about up-and-coming innovators and ideas. Let us know what you think!
This week, MMA fighter Conor McGregor joined the world of crypto trading, impact funds got launched, and startups are leading the way in supporting employees to navigate the spiralling cost of living.
Launches and Expansions
- Sisu Clinic, a doctor-led aesthetic medicine destination offering a comprehensive range of non-surgical beauty treatments, opened the doors to its 15th Irish clinic this month as part of the business’ rapid global expansion plan with clinics across Ireland, the UK and the US.
- Austrian fintech unicorn Bitpanda has added a new asset class to its platform, enabling investors to benefit from short-term price movements of commodities like oil, natural gas, aluminium, wheat and more.
- Fintech Fairown launched in Poland, expanding their circular economy solution to new markets
- Estonian startup Meet Future opened its seed round of €400k to launch mycoprotein-based chicken in the Baltics’ market.
- European fintech and embedded finance company SWAN opened a new office in Germany to unlock the continent’s biggest market.
- “AI for Ukraine” – a series of workshops and lectures to be held by international artificial intelligence experts launched to support the development of Ukraine’s tech community during the war. Yoshua Bengio (Mila/U. Montreal), Alex J. Smola (Amazon Web), Sebastian Bubeck (Microsoft), Gaël Varoquaux (INRIA), and many other well-known specialists have joined the initiative.
- GLAM LAB launched a service that allows mobile makeup and hair freelancers to connect with new clients, get booked and get securely paid for their services by the clients.
- Checkout.com has launched Integrated Platforms, a fully flexible, bespoke solution to support marketplaces and the independent sellers that use them to receive payments seamlessly
- Capagro announced the launch of the second fund of €200 million to support the growth of the most promising startups in the European AgTech and FoodTech sectors.
Acquisitions and Collaborations
- Treatwell, the European leader in online booking of beauty and wellness services, announced a merger with Uala, an app active in Southern Europe that brings together the best salon locations.
- The HiPets platform, which today offers booking appointments with vets, groomers, behaviourists and other specialists, is taking over the psy.pl and koty.pl portals from Petstar, as well as the rights and organisation of the Serce dla Zwierząt and Zerwijmy Łańcuchy campaigns.
- Orbus Software, a cloud solutions provider for digital transformation, unveiled a partnership with Lucidchart, an intelligent diagramming application to support enhanced data-driven decision-making around processes, systems, and projects.
- Tech Soft 3D, the provider of engineering software development toolkits, announced that it acquired Redway3D, creator of the REDsdk, a software component providing advanced photo-realistic and real-time rendering capabilities.
- Armut.com joined forces with Italian company ProntoPro and the new company raises €15 million
- Happytal, an expert in the digitalization of hospitals and interactive patient care, joins La Poste’s Health and Autonomy branch and becomes a subsidiary.
- Eddy Travels from Lithuania, was acquired by the New York-based TripAdd travel product marketplace, part of the Blue Ribbon Bags group.
- Homepilot was sold to French unicorn iad
Other Milestones & Insights
- UFC and MMA superstar Conor McGregor joined Swiss-regulated retail-trading fintech Tiger Trade as their new brand ambassador as it continues to grow and begins to tackle new international markets.
- Redstone launched a new €50M impact fund Tane for the built world. The fund will support founders with the dedication to making the built environment a better place, from decarbonizing the sector to facilitating access to the opaque asset class.
- Lily Arkwright has announced that it is offering all staff up to £500 to support with rising energy bills this winter. The Manchester-based business will pay the sum in two £250 instalments with staff receiving the first payment this October which will be followed by a second instalment in January 2023 if energy prices rise further.
- EIT InnoEnergy, the innovation engine for sustainable energy supported by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, a body of the European Union (EU), has entered a collaboration with Norwegian Crystals to accelerate photovoltaic (PV) ingots production in Europe.
- Typeform, a leading, no-code SaaS platform that powers customer interactions at scale to generate leads, identify prospects, conduct research, collect feedback, and more, has announced a new discount for startups. Startups can now apply to receive 75% off of Typeform’s Business Plan.
- The Norrsken Foundation announced the winners of both the Impact/100 2022 Rising Star and Shining Star awards: The company developing carbon-negative cement, Brimstone (US) wins the Rising Star award; and online educational platform, Unacademy (India), takes the Shining Star award.
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