European Tech Weekly - Week 8 / 2024
25+ rounds were announced last week.
Welcome to the latest edition of European Tech Weekly, a newsletter that provides a weekly summary of seed+ funding rounds in Europe.
About the author - my name is Chirag Modi, and I am a tech investor based in London.
Funding Announcements in Europe by Stage
Note: Minimum deal size of $1m for seed and $10m for Series A; excludes several sectors such as biotech; non-exhaustive; excludes debt funding
Selected Thematic Clusters
Based on recent fundraising activity in Europe and the US, I have identified interesting thematic clusters with increased funding activity.
Emergence of Domain/industry-specific LLMs
“The era of large models is over, and the focus will now turn to specializing and customizing these models. Real value is unlocked only when these models are tuned on customer and domain specific data.”
– Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI
According to Infosys, Generalist LLMs are often characterized as being proficient in a variety of areas yet lacking mastery in any one specific domain. In fields that demand a high degree of precision and expertise, such as medicine, finance, engineering, and law, errors or inaccuracies can have significant consequences. Experts have begun developing specialized LLM programs tailored to specific domains, which utilize the same foundational techniques such as self-supervised learning and RLHF.
There are several attractive domains:
Healthcare: Medical LLMs can assist in diagnosing diseases, suggesting treatments, and interpreting medical records, leading to improved patient care and medical research.
Illustrative vendors: BioOptimus*
Finance: Financial LLMs can analyze market trends, assist with investment decisions, and provide personalized financial advice to clients.
Illustrative vendors: BloombergGPT
Law: Legal LLMs can aid in legal research, contract analysis, and even generate legal documents, streamlining legal processes and increasing efficiency.
Illustrative vendors: Harvey AI*
Advanced materials: According to Jonathan Godwin (founder of Orbital Materials), foundation models can assist in discovering industry-defining technologies in areas like Clean Air (e.g. CO2 capture), Clean Energy & Natural Chemicals (e.g. Sustainable Aviation Fuel) and Clean Water (e.g. removing forever chemicals from our drinking water).
Illustrative vendors: Orbital Materials*
*recently raised capital
Emergence of AI in Healthcare
Generative AI is transforming the healthcare sector by introducing innovative solutions that enhance efficiency, accuracy, and personalized care. According to Morgan Stanley, AI has the opportunity to infiltrate a number of workflows/products in healthcare as shown below.
The four key areas that have the potential to disrupt healthcare at scale include:
Care Delivery: How AI can optimise the current state of care a patient receives from a scheduling to post-appointment follow ups in order to improve outcomes and prevent high-cost emergency care
Illustrative vendors: Baseimmune* (Personalised Medicine)
Reducing adminstrative burden: Actively implementing AI to save physicians/nurses time to focus more on patients and reduce administrative costs
Analytics: Companies can leverage their internal and customer data to provide better insights for their customers
Commercial intelligence: AI can be used to improve commercial intelligence offerings for companies selling into hospitals/physicians
*recently raised capital
Company Profiles
SEED ROUNDS
Biooptimus (https://www.bioptimus.com/)
Biooptimus is building the first universal AI foundation model for biology to fuel breakthrough discoveries and accelerate innovations in biomedicine and beyond.
Ethena (www.ethena.fi)
Ethen provides bond-based synthetic dollars and internet native yields.
Monite (www.monite.com)
Monite is a leading provider of embedded invoicing and bill pay automation solutions for businesses. With Monite's API, businesses can easily add robust financial management capabilities to their platforms, including accounts receivable and accounts payable automation, integrated payments, and compliance with multiple geographies.
ATMOS Space Cargo (www.atmos-space-cargo.com)
ATMOS Space Cargo offers a return service for life sciences research in space. The company's mission is to provide affordable, reliable, and eco-friendly transportation for life sciences experiments. Its service allows researchers to launch experiments to space for the research of monoclonal antibodies, stem cells, organoids, and protein crystallization
Spektr (www.spektr.com)
Spektr is a leading provider of compliance solutions. The company's software platform automates 90% of ongoing due diligence tasks, freeing up compliance and operations teams to focus on higher-value work. Spektr's platform includes risk automation, real-time monitoring, and client renewals, all tailored to the specific needs of businesses.
Cyclize (www.cyclize.de)
Cyclize's innovative plasma technology allows the reforming of waste plastics into new intermediate chemicals, which can be used to create sustainable alternative products. By using environmentally friendly processes, they aim to mitigate CO2 emissions and reduce plastic waste pollution. The plasma process generates syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, offering an efficient replacement for fossil feedstock.
Avatar Medical (www.avatarmedical.ai)
Avatar Medical has developed aVR platform for healthcare professionals. This platform enables surgeons and patients to visualize and interact with 3D medical images in real-time, empowering them with a deeper understanding of medical conditions and treatment options.
Embea (www.embea.com)
Embea provides digital insurance policies includng cancer insurance, critical illness insurance and life insurance. According to Insuretech Insights, “in response to the growing demand for embedded insurance solutions, Embea enables digital platforms such as digital banks and fintech firms to diversify revenue streams by integrating life insurance offerings. This integration process is made efficient and accessible through Embea’s highly customizable, no-code embedded checkout technology.”
EST Floatech (www.est-floattech.com)
EST is a leader in design, development, and supply of energy storage solutions for various maritime applications. EST-Floattech offers a wide range of maritime battery systems, from small-scale systems for recreational boats to large-scale systems for commercial vessels, offering customized solutions to meet specific requirements
Hakio (www.hakio.com)
Hakio is a demand forecasting software provider that helps fashion retailers make better decisions. Its advanced algorithms leverage real-time data to accurately anticipate trends, seasonal patterns, and market performance. This empowers fashion brands to optimize working capital, improve product availability, and streamline forecasting processes.
ZeroLend (www.zerolend.xyz)
ZeroLend is a leading lending protocol that operates on layer 2 (L2) networks. Its user-friendly platform empowers users to experience frictionless lending, onboarding them to the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem seamlessly.
CoLumbo (www.columbo.me)
CoLumbo empowers radiologists with enhanced efficiency and improved accuracy in reading and reporting lumbar spine MRI scans. Through its machine learning algorithms and robust image analysis capabilities, CoLumbo automates time-consuming measurements and offers accurate pathology detection, reducing errors of omission by up to 15% while accelerating the reporting process by up to 48%.
PeopleForce (www.peopleforce.io)
PeopleForce is an all-in-one HR platform that helps businesses manage their employees' experience. The platform includes modules for: Recruiting, Performance management, Time tracking, Pulse surveys and Employee self-service
Juniper (getjuniper.co.uk)
Juniper is a provider of reproductive health insurance providers for employees. According to Tech.eu, “Juniper is addressing the sensitive area often overlooked by traditional insurance packages. The startup offers coverage including contraception, STD testing, endometriosis, erectile dysfunction, and reproductive organ cancer.
MeVitae (www.mevitae.com)
MeVitae provides blind recruiting solutions to businesses. Their software helps to mitigate bias in the hiring process by anonymizing 20+ protected characteristics (gender, age, ethnicity etc.). This allows recruiters to focus on the candidate's qualifications, rather than their personal characteristics.
Januar (www.januar.com)
Januar is a Danish Payment Institution that provides financial infra services to crypto businesses. The company's suite of products and services includes:
Januar Acount: A payment account with an IBAN that is designed for crypto businesses.
Januar Instant: A real-time fiat payments network that offers instant, free, 24/7 settlement.
Januar Wallet: A secure crypto custodian that provides institutional-grade security for digital assets.
Januar Trade: A multi-exchange execution platform that provides access to the best prices for crypto trades.
Januar has obtained a regulatory license from the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority
Clave (www.getclave.io)
Clave provides users with a secure and user-friendly way to manage their crypto assets. The company's flagship product is a mobile wallet that allows users to store, send, and receive cryptocurrencies, as well as pay for goods and services. Clave's wallet is non-custodial, meaning that users have full control over their private keys and assets. The company also offers a suite of other services, including a hardware wallet, a custody service, and a staking platform.
SERIES A
Flower Labs (www.flower.ai)
Flower is an open-source federated learning framework that enables developers to build, deploy, and manage federated learning systems easily and efficiently. It provides a unified approach to federated learning, analytics, and evaluation, making it accessible to a wide range of users, from researchers to practitioners.
Flower is compatible with various machine learning frameworks, including PyTorch, TensorFlow, and scikit-learn, and can be deployed on different platforms, including cloud, mobile, and edge devices. It offers features such as scalability, security, and usability, making it suitable for real-world applications where data privacy and collaboration are critical.
Azmed (www.azmed.co)
Azmed is a healthcare technology company that develops AI-powered solutions to augment doctors' capabilities. The company's flagship product, Rayvolve, is an FDA-cleared AI diagnostic tool that detects fractures on X-rays, saving doctors time and improving diagnosis accuracy.
Azmed's solutions are deployed in over 1,000 healthcare centers in 40 countries
Orbital Materials (www.orbitalmaterials.com)
Orbital Materials is an advanced materials company harnessing the power of AI to accelerate the development and production of innovative materials. Led by a team of AI scientists, the company utilizes its proprietary foundation model, LINUS, to design and optimize materials with tailored properties for specific industrial applications.
Currently, Orbital Materials is focused on developing a pipeline of advanced materials for new industrial processes. These materials aim to enhance efficiency, reduce emissions, and drive sustainability across various sectors.
Altilium (www.altilium.tech)
Altilium is a UK-based clean technology group dedicated to decarbonizing the automotive supply chain and supporting the transition to net zero. The company focuses on recycling waste streams to create sustainable, low-carbon battery materials.
Altilium's "full battery circularity" model includes:
Zero-carbon EV battery collection
Black mass recycling
Chemical refining to produce battery-ready cathode active material (CAM)
Baseimmune www.baseimmune.co.uk)
Baseimmune is focused on vaccine development through its proprietary AI platform. Their mission is to generate mutation-proof vaccines by combining scientific expertise with AI.
Baseimmune's unique approach leverages genomic, proteomic, epidemiological, and immunological data to create multi-target antigens, validated in their laboratory. By modeling pathogen evolution and immune response, they design vaccines that target emerging and complex pathogens that traditional approaches have failed to combat.
Their current pipeline includes candidates for malaria, pancoronaviruses, and African swine fever. All vaccines are undergoing testing as mRNA/LNP or viral vectors.
SERIES C+
GeoPura (www.geopura.com)
GeoPura specializes in providing zero-emission energy solutions for a variety of industries, including construction, film and TV production, outdoor events, and transportation.
Services include EV charging and transport solutions, Renewable off-grid energy generation, Hydrogen production and Custom energy solutions
Planity (www.planity.com)
Planity is an online appointment booking platform that simplifies beauty appointments. It allows customers to search for, book, and manage their beauty appointments ( with hairdressers, barbers, nail technicians, and aestheticians) with ease and, currently operates in France, Germany, and Belgium.
Ev.energy (www.ev.energy)
With its award-winning app, ev.energy enables drivers to automatically charge their EVs when electricity is cheapest and greenest, saving them money and reducing carbon emissions.
Disclaimer
This post and the information presented are intended for informational purposes only. The views expressed herein are the author’s alone and do not constitute an offer to sell, or a recommendation to purchase, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security, nor a recommendation for any investment product or service. While certain information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, neither the author nor any of his employers or their affiliates have independently verified this information, and its accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. Accordingly, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on, the fairness, accuracy, timeliness or completeness of this information. The author and affiliated persons and companies assume no liability for this information and no obligation to update the information or analysis contained herein in the future.