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, the app that is helping reforest the planet, lessons learned in edtech, and, the male sexual wellness brand that’s in demand.
Launches and Expansions
- Regulatory-compliant alternative asset platform Ctrl Alt launched with an aim to democratise the investment space, opening it up to everyday people. Investors can gain tokenised digital shares in the assets with as little as £10 on the platform
- Open banking platform, Tink, has announced the launch of Balance Check, enabling Tink customers to instantly verify account balances. It’s a key feature of Tink’s existing Account Check product, giving businesses the ability to confirm the owner of a bank account with real-time data, allowing for a smoother onboarding process.
- IriusRisk unveiled plans to launch a vendor-neutral community platform for developers, AppSec, and DevSecOps teams – Threat Modeling Connect.
- Appsilon, a data analytics company, built Future Forests – a data visualization app to show how different climate scenarios will affect European forests. The app is based on a study by Polish scientists, who analyzed projected ranges and threat levels for 12 European forest tree species under three different climate change scenarios.
- Helsinki-based Wave Ventures, Europe’s largest student-led VC fund launched its second fund at €2 million. It’s backed by unicorn founders such as Ilkka Paananen (Supercell), Kristo Ovaska (Smartly) and Miki Kuusi (Wolt), among others. The new fund looks to tap into exciting startups at the earliest stage when the aspiring founders are still considering leaping into entrepreneurship.
- GoodLegal launched as a legal infrastructure platform, with backing from early UiPath investors Earlybird Digital East Fund (leading the round), Credo Ventures, Daniel Dines (UiPath CEO as angel investor), and us, Underline Ventures.
- HumanForest launched a ‘tidy parking’ campaign for all dockless eBike companies in London. Members of the public can send a photo of a responsibly parked eBike belonging to any company in London to HumanForest’s Forest Guardians and they will be awarded 10 minutes free, along with the rider. The company wants to raise parking standards across the shared mobility sector and reinforce good behaviour.
- bValue launched bValue Growth, its third fund with a target total of €100 million, about €72 million has already been raised, and the fund will aim to invest in 8-12 profitable, growing companies from the CEE.
- Morrama launched Morrama Lab – a thinking arm of the consultancy firm aiming to accelerate solutions for tomorrow’s problems. The platform will be used to track cultural and consumer behavioural shifts and envision possible design solutions. Morrama Lab will be able to support organisations by exploring what’s next in emerging sectors – from beauty and cosmetics to technology, sustainability, personal health and wellbeing.
- Pact has launched its first £30 million fund to back early-stage European tech startups tackling key priorities for the next generation – economic inclusion, personal and professional well-being and climate solutions. The new venture capital fund is the first in the UK to be co-founded by three female partners – Tong Gu, Reem Mobassaleh and Monik Pham.
- Fy!, the home and living marketplace, launched a Generative AI tool to enable its customers to create and purchase their own art creations generated by word prompts alone.
- Tappx, a leading global AdTech company launched Techsoulogy, a new corporate brand that unifies a broad portfolio of companies powering solutions for digital advertising, video content, mobile apps and video gaming across mobile, desktop, and CTV platforms.
Acquisitions and Partnerships
- Paris-based money transfer company Tempo is partnering up with Elsa Care Technologies in the Philippines, to tap into a multi-billion dollar Remittance market.
- Edtech company Lepaya acquired Speak First, a UK-based provider of global communication and leadership training programmes. Speak First will significantly enhance Lepaya’s offering, allowing it to add communications and leadership programmes for senior management to its portfolio of technology-enhanced training.
- Moove partnered with Paua, the UK’s largest electric vehicle (EV) roaming network for business drivers, to support the transition to electric vehicles in London for Uber drivers. Together, Moove and Paua have created the Moove Charge app, the first end-to-end EV charging network app specifically designed for ride-hailing drivers.
- gridX and MAINGAU Energie teamed up to launch a pilot project that combines smart dynamic load management with local solar production to show how smart energy management makes charging cheaper and more eco-friendly.
- Infobip launched an NFT clothing line. In cooperation with the young Canadian-Croatian designer, Joshua Čirjak, Infobip enters the street fashion game, one of the first in the tech industry to do so.
- JetBrains, a global software development company building tools for over 12.8 million professionals is partnering with h Constructor University, an English-language university in Germany with over 1600 students from 110 countries.
- Refurbed, Ireland’s leading refurbished electronics marketplace, has launched a new partnership with 48. The two companies will work together to provide new and existing 48 customers with the option of buying a cheaper, sustainable refurbished smartphone through the 48 dedicated app and website.
- ENVIRIA and GALILEO form a joint venture to propel Germany’s solar power expansion – GALILEO ENVIRIA Solar GmbH. The pan-European renewable energy developer and the German solar startup are partnering to develop utility-scale ground-mounted solar plants across Germany.
- Open banking payments gateway Volt announced a partnership with Kriptomat, one of the fastest-growing crypto exchange platforms in Europe, to enable Kriptomat customers throughout Europe to make real-time account-to-account payments to buy, sell and exchange cryptocurrencies.
Milestones and Insights
- Square Sense, the proptech company that collects and analyses all the data produced during the operation of a building to optimise its use and its environmental and financial performance, picked up SmartScore accreditation.
- UK-based LOANHOOD unveiled their fast-paced first 6 months, seeing growth of over 103% since launch in the summer.
- Jobtech platform Honeypot just landed in Barcelona. On Honeypot, companies apply to developers in the reverse recruiting process. Since its founding in 2015, more than 270,000 professionals have registered on the site.
- WeWard has reported that 10 million users have been mobilised this year to help reforest the planet. Users joined forces with the Eden Reforestation project and multiple other partners to plant 233,084 trees worldwide. By encouraging walking, WeWard also promotes the importance of climate change awareness and reducing carbon emissions. WeWard has already paid out nearly $7 million to its users and, in turn, its users have already contributed over $500k to important causes, including global reforestation.
- Earlybird Venture Capital grew its nest, opening up a new office in central London that will serve as a springboard to connect with and support entrepreneurs, founders, and a growing number of existing portfolio companies across the UK ecosystem.
- Female-founded male sexual wellness brand, MYHIXEL has proved that their hi-tech ejaculation control solutions are still in demand. The crowdfunding campaign for MYHIXEL CONTROL more than quadrupled its goal of €20k less than a week since going live.
- The independent venture capital platform for transformative real estate technologies PropTech1 (“PT1”) has attracted further anchor investors as well as venture partners following the announcement of the start of fundraising for its Fund II. The first closing and thus the planned operational launch of the fund with a target volume of 100 million euros is scheduled for early 2023.
- CEE Logistics & Supply Chain Management Excellence Awards organized under the auspices of Translog Connect has selected log-tech startup GoRamp as the best logistics Service Provider of the year.
- London-based robotics startup BotsAndUs has rebranded as Dexory as it embarks on the next chapter of its story, focusing on data-led insights for the logistics and supply chain industry.
- Digital-first home healthcare provider, Cera, is celebrating its sixth birthday and has revealed that to date, its team of carers and nurses have now delivered 30 million at-home care visits. With more than 50,000 care visits made each day to over 20,000 patients.
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