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!
This week, one startup is making it easier to study abroad, and social impact startups launching new initiatives and partnerships caught our eye. We love to see it!
Launches and Expansions
- Barcelona-based startup StudiesIn launched its app that is aiming to make study abroad more accessible and democratise the sector. The impact-driven team aim to make the process much simpler and empower more students to embark on this life-changing experience.
- London-based YuLife embarks on US expansion, bringing its new approach to life insurance to new soils.
- Dutch startup Loop Biotech expanded to Austria, with plans to keep growing in the pipeline.
- Investing.com launched a new premium service – InvestingPro – which offers tools that makes investing more accessible and effective.
- Harper, a company pioneering new science in mental health, from identification to personalised care, is launching Tune by Harper. The first of its kind, Tune’s wellness kit uses a lollipop to test saliva for multiple evidence-based markers of health, providing an accurate and objective measure of wellbeing when combined with digital assessments.
- Open innovation accelerator “Future Hub” has launched its third co-creation program where well-established local Baltic market leaders are challenging startups to come forward with innovative solutions for their business challenges. Compared to previous programs where Central Europe dominated the applications, the latest one has seen a growing interest from local Baltic and Nordic startups.
- Edinburgh-based, online scheduling company, Appointedd announced the release of its new localization feature, which will enable all its customers to translate and use the backend of the software in five different languages: English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
- Paris-based hotel tech startup Namastay announced the launch of its direct booking technology in the UK and Irish markets. The Namastay seamless booking experience is already live on the website of Henrietta Hotel, a 4-star boutique hotel located in Covent Garden.
- Flo, the #1 leading female health app, has launched a multi-year prosocial initiative aimed at improving menstrual and reproductive health literacy across the globe. With this effort, Flo will grant access to its subscription membership, Flo Premium, including extended product and content features, to women in 58 countries that need it most for free. The countries were selected based on health literacy and health satisfaction rates data from the World Health Organization (WHO), GDP per capita rankings from the World Bank and other metrics. Starting today, Flo will grant access to Flo Premium to millions of women in 21 countries such as Ethiopia, Cameroon, Haiti, Gabon and many more. Flo will continue granting access to Flo Premium, worth over half a million dollars, to 37 additional countries over the next year.
- Satispay, Italy’s newest unicorn, announced that it is opening a new 8-story, 8,500 smq headquarters in Milan to support its growth in Europe, with plans to double its headcount from 300 to 600 in the next 18 months.
- Spendesk, the 7-in-1 spend management solution for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), revealed plans to will expand into Spain and Italy, opening two new offices in 2023. The new locations build on the company’s existing presence in the UK, France and Germany, as part of its strategic plan to become the spend management market leader across Europe.
Acquisitions and Partnerships
- Swedish fintech Zimpler partnered with Primer, a leading automation platform for payments and commerce. The partnership will allow merchants across different segments to immediately access Zimpler’s account-to-account payment solutions through Primer with clicks, not code.
- Climate edtech company Earth Warriors and global children’s charity Theirworld announced they will join forces to bring climate education to 20 rural schools across Zambia and Botswana. The support from Theirworld – chaired by respected women and children’s rights campaigner Sarah Brown – means that students aged 3-11 in these schools will receive a comprehensive climate curriculum for the first time. The programme will also be delivered to Botswana’s Dukwi Refugee Camp, which is home to 3,500 refugees from across Africa, thanks to the Botswanian social impact organisation Learn To Play
- Embedded finance integrator AAZZUR and alternative asset manager Channel Capital (Channel) formed an embedded lending partnership. The multi-faceted partnership will see AAZZUR supporting Channel’s digital SME lending strategy. Channel has invested significantly in developing proprietary systems using APIs, Open Banking and cloud-based technologies to provide much-needed finance to small businesses. AAZZUR will use its front-end expertise to build interfaces that can turn these systems into genuine lending products for the end-user.
- Raison merged with Raison Asset Management to build a new-generation wealthtech platform. Besides VC deals, the app’s mission is to provide a complex wealth management solution for retail and high-net-worth individual investors. The new features will include the stock market, crypto, and tracking of all personal assets in one place. The development will be possible thanks to the merger with investment company Raison Asset Management.
- Mdoloris, the Lille-based startup in the field of continuous and non-invasive pain monitoring, has announced a new partnership with HypnoVR, leader in virtual reality hypnosis to develop the next generation of therapeutic virtual reality dedicated to the treatment of pain and anxiety.
- ServBlock, the Irish pharmaceutical compliance company that employs blockchain for automated quality assurance and compliance checks, will be announcing a milestone collaboration with Microsoft. ServBlock is the first company of its kind in the pharmaceutical industry and is collaborating with Microsoft’s early access engineering programme to produce a novel business case for the use of NFT technology in meeting compliance standards in the supply chain.
- eToro, the social investing network, acquired Bullsheet, a provider of portfolio management tools designed exclusively for eToro users.
Milestones and Insights
- Expats’ startup Matutto raised investment from Techstars London to make it easier to move abroad
- Market One Capital announced a new, €80 million fund for startups. In only four years since the launch of the first fund, the firm established itself as one of the top VC funds from CEE. Today they are launching a new larger fund, MOC II. With €80 million in size, they plan to invest in around 30 technology companies
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