Europe's big defense plan, fusion power, microfinancing breakthroughs, and much more...
What's Up Tech? #214
Welcome to our 214th newsletter, written with 🖤 by Annika Bautista, Sarah Luna Mongin, and Aris Sevastianos.
🔍 Topics we'll cover this weekGeneral news from the week: Paris Saint-Germain FC enters the startup game, and the EU unveils an €800B rearmament plan 💰
Fundraising news from the week: AI-powered data cleanup and crypto liquidity expansions are making waves in growth funding
Up-and-coming ventures to watch: a next-gen counter-drone defense startup and an affordable biomanufacturing product are landing major Seed fundings
Internships & Job offers of the week
🆕 Product news from the week: scroll to the end for one-liner, stand-out headlines on the latest tech that you should read more about 👀
Enjoy the read! 💛
🤑 Fundraising of the week📊 Quantexa raises $175 million to help companies clean up their messy data for AI (🇬🇧)
Quantexa just secured a $175 million Series F round, pushing its valuation to $2.6 billion — a solid jump from $1.8 billion last year. The round was led by Teachers’ Venture Growth, with backing from British Patient Capital.
Originally built to fight money laundering and fraud, Quantexa’s platform has found a new calling: helping enterprises make sense of their chaotic, unstructured data for AI applications. As companies rush to adopt AI, many realize they aren’t ready for it, because their data is a total mess. Quantexa steps in to clean it up, ensuring AI models run on reliable, structured information. 🗄️
The new funding will expand Quantexa’s AI-powered data solutions, including a Microsoft partnership to help US banks detect fraud, and a push into the public sector. The company is already seeing traction: license revenue is up 40%, and its customer list includes HSBC, Vodafone, and Accenture.
Founder and CEO Vishal Marria sums it up well: "To make AI work, you have to trust the data. That’s what we do."
Quantexa Nabs $175M at $2.6B Valuation to Double Down on Data Analytics for AI
🤑 Flowdesk raises $102 million to expand crypto liquidity services worldwide (🇫🇷)
Cha-ching, crypto’s getting a liquidity boost. 💸
Flowdesk secured $102 million in fresh funding, with HV Capital leading the equity round and BlackRock-managed funds providing debt financing.
Flowdesk is the backstage crew making digital assets tradable. Their Market-Making as a Service lets traders access liquidity across 140+ centralized and decentralized exchanges. After expanding globally in 2023, their revenue skyrocketed 8x the year after.
As more Bitcoin ETFs flood the market (now holding $115+ billion worth of BTC), Flowdesk wants to be the go-to liquidity provider. With institutional adoption on the rise, they’re making sure the crypto economy actually works.
The new funds will be used to scale their OTC derivatives business, launch a crypto credit desk, and beef up their proprietary trading infrastructure. They’re also ramping up compliance ahead of new EU regulations, and eyeing the UAE for their next expansion.
🪙 Lenkie raises £4 million equity, secures £45 million debt to fill the SME lending gap (🇬🇧)
Lenkie just locked in £4 million in equity and a £45 million debt facility for its Series A funding to help small businesses keep up with surging demand. The round is led by a major US private credit fund (who’s staying anon).
SMEs in the UK are short a staggering $28 billion in funding, thanks to banks retreating from small business lending. Lenkie’s solution? Instead of waiting until invoices are issued, it funds SMEs at the moment they land a new sale, ensuring they can actually fulfill big orders. Think of it as payables financing on autopilot. 🧑✈️
Their tech does due diligence in minutes instead of weeks, linking directly to bank accounts to assess financials and creditworthiness. Borrowers only pay when they use it, with fees starting at 1.5%.
With £70 million already lent to SMEs, Lenkie is now eyeing bigger expansion, especially in manufacturing, construction, and retail — industries that need cash upfront to scale.
Lenkie Raises £49 million in Series A to Address the £22 Billion Funding Gap for SMEs
📦 Swap raises $40 million in Series B funding to help e-commerce brands go global (🇬🇧)
E-commerce is chaos. Merchants juggle tariffs, supply chain disruptions, and rising costs while customers demand instant delivery. Navigating through that chaos is Swap. They’re streamlining cross-border e-commerce, handling logistics, returns, and inventory optimization. And, they just raised $40 million in Series B funding led by ICONIQ Growth and Cherry Ventures.
With 60% of customers expanding into new markets within months, Swap aims to become the backbone of global e-commerce — the Shopify for logistics. 🛍️
The company already processes $100+ million in annual transactions, helping brands like Pangaia and Drake’s navigate global shipping headaches.
⚛️ Renaissance Fusion is simplifying fusion reactors with fresh Series A funding worth $32 million (🇫🇷)
Fusion is literally heating up. 🔥 But, the real challenge is building reactors that don’t cost a fortune. French startup Renaissance Fusion just locked in a €32 million Series A1 to do just that. The round was led by Crédit Mutuel Impact with backing from Lowercarbon Capital.
The startup is reimagining stellarator fusion reactors, a notoriously complex design known for its wild, twisted magnetic fields. Instead of intricate 3D magnets, Renaissance flattens them into high-temperature superconducting carpets. Their reactor tubes will be wrapped in these etched magnetic sheets, making manufacturing easier and cheaper.
What’s next for the company is a demonstrator by 2026 to prove the concept works. If all goes to plan, a full-scale fusion reactor could follow in the early 2030s.
Renaissance Fusion Raised $32 million in Series A Funding to Simplify Complex Fusion Reactors
🔥 Up-and-coming startups to watch🛬 Alpine Eagle secures €10 million in Seed funding to advance counter-drone tech (🇩🇪)
Defense tech startup Alpine Eagle has raised €10.25 million in a Seed round led by IQ Capital.
Founded in 2023 by former Airbus and Microsoft Research executives, Alpine Eagle has developed Sentinel, an advanced air-to-air counter-drone system that leverages machine learning, computer vision, and advanced sensors to detect and neutralize hostile drones. The fresh funding will help scale commercial teams, further develop Sentinel, and support international expansion. 🌎
Already generating seven-digit revenues in its first year, Alpine Eagle has secured the German military (Bundeswehr) as a key customer, signaling strong demand for its cutting-edge defense solutions.
🍀 Arsenale Bioyards raises $10 million to scale biomanufacturing innovation (🇮🇹)
Arsenale Bioyards has raised $10 million in a Seed round led by Planet A and byFounders. The fresh funding will accelerate commercialisation in the food and cosmetics industries and support infrastructure expansion, solidifying Arsenale’s position at the forefront of sustainable biomanufacturing.
With its AI-powered platform, Arsenale Bioyards is combining advanced hardware and precision fermentation to create sustainable alternatives to petrochemicals and animal-based products. Its pilot site includes a 1,000L fermentation capacity with two high-tech 500L bioreactors. ♻️
Arāya Ventures closes £18.2 million super angel fund to back early-stage UK startups (🇬🇧)
Led by Rupa Popat, Arāya Ventures has completed the second close of its Arāya Super Angel Fund at £18.2 million, with a £5 million commitment from British Business Investments, a subsidiary of the British Business Bank. The fund aims to invest in up to 60 Pre-Seed and Seed-stage startups over the next four years, focusing on health, fintech, commerce, and the future of work, primarily in the UK.
Arāya Ventures Secures £18.2M to Invest in Seed and Pre-Seed 60 Startups
📰 Tech news of the week⚽ Paris Saint-Germain launches PSG Labs to back SportsTech startups
Paris Saint-Germain is kicking off PSG Labs, its own sportstech accelerator, with the first hub opening in Doha, Qatar. No big geographic surprise here, as PSG is owned by Qatar Sports Investments. More locations could pop up worldwide. 🌍
The program is a three-month boot camp designed to boost startups in areas like sports performance, fan engagement, AI, Web3, media, and stadium tech. Startups get hands-on access to PSG's teams, players, and business units to fine-tune their products with real-world feedback.
PSG isn't just playing coach here. The club could adopt or even invest in the best ideas, reinforcing its brand beyond the pitch. With sports teams becoming global business empires, PSG clearly wants in on the next wave of innovation.
🛡️ The EU is rearming with an €800-billion defence plan
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has introduced the ReArm Europe Plan, an €800-billion initiative aimed at strengthening Europe’s defense and security. This marks a historic shift in Europe’s approach to defense and strategic autonomy. 🇪🇺
In her press statement on the matter, von der Leyen says, “We are living in the most momentous and dangerous of times…The real question in front of us is whether Europe is prepared to act as decisively as the situation dictates.”
The plan includes €150 billion in loans for defense investments, increased EU budget allocations, and measures to mobilize private capital that would cumulatively measure up to the €800-billion sum.
Leaders have endorsed the proposal in response to mounting security concerns, including support for Ukraine and reducing reliance on the US for military aid.
‘Watershed Moment’: EU Leaders Agree Plan for Huge rise in Defence Spending
📰 Product news of the weekMajor product and funding release all in one: Anthropic reveals ClaudeCode and announces $3.5 billion fundraise
OpenAI’s latest agent yet: and it’s going to cost you
Can you see my screen? : Gemini is letting you share your screen and videos to answer your queries
👔 Internships & job offersInternships
Analyste VC - Epsilon (Paris)
Technical Working Student - PT1 (Berlin)
VC Working Student - Direttissima Growth Partners (Munich)
Jobs
Investment Associate - Inovo.vc (Prague)
Investor, Europe - Energy Impact Partners (Oslo)
Junior Analyst - High-Tech Gründerfonds (Bonn/Berlin)
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