This week's funding round-up is now live! With this being the last one for September, it can be said we have seen a major upturn in activity since the famous summer lull - let's see it continue into Autumn! 🍁 💸 eu-startups.com/2026/09/week…

NUSX has just launched Nova, an AI-powered platform designed to identify commercial opportunities for university research, match technologies with potential industry partners, and accelerate the path from patent to market. 🚀 eu-startups.com/2026/09/nus-…

When Apple's App Store launched in July 2008, more than 500 applications were available from day one showcasing what the iPhone could do. Among these apps, one stood out.📱🍺 The simply named #iBeer turned the iPhone screen into a virtual glass of beer and became one of the most memorable examples of the early App Store era. In this article, we look at the story this viral app, the magician who created it, and how a simple visual trick became an early #smartphone phenomenon. eu-startups.com/2026/09/ibee…

Duqu, an Amsterdam-based #FinTech startup that gives businesses immediate access to money tied up in outstanding #invoices, has raised €1.5 million in a pre-Seed #round from Curiosity VC and No Such Ventures. 🇳🇱 💶 🧾 eu-startups.com/2026/09/amst…

Naples-based @clastixio, an infrastructure software company helping #enterprises run #Kubernetes more efficiently at scale, has raised €2.9 million in a #Seed round. This marks the company’s first external #funding round. 🇮🇹 ☁️ 🔐 eu-startups.com/2026/09/ital…

NUS Enterprise is deepening its global reach as NUSX through a new partnership with UnternehmerTUM, connecting the Singapore and Munich innovation ecosystems. 🚀 ▶️ Read the full article here: eu-startups.com/2026/09/nusx…

Reykjavík-based @50skillsHR, a #startup building the #operating system for #people workflows, has raised a €5.3 million #funding round to accelerate #hiring in #sales, #marketing, and #community, while continuing to invest in the platform. 🇮🇸 🤖 👥 eu-startups.com/2026/09/reyk…

Metycle, a Cologne-based #supplier of #secondary #copper and #aluminium, has secured a €131.7 million #credit facility. 🇩🇪 ♻️ 🔩 eu-startups.com/2026/09/colo…

Expanding to the US is often discussed long before a European startup is truly ready to make the move. ✈️ 🇺🇸 The challenge is getting the order right. Customers, immigration, fundraising, structure and banking are closely connected, and tackling them in the wrong sequence can make expansion slower and more expensive. In this article, we see what European founders should prepare before expanding to the US and how to approach the move in the right order. eu-startups.com/2026/09/expa…

The @EU_Commission and the @EIB Group have launched the European Institutional Investors Pact (EIIP) to boost #investment in European tech scale-ups. 🇪🇺 💶 🚀 eu-startups.com/2026/09/eu-a…

This week, we welcomed Andreas Flodström, co-founder and Chairman of Varangians, to the podcast to discuss his journey to investing in Ukraine’s DefenceTech sector. 🇸🇪🛡️🇺🇦 We discussed how more than a decade of building companies in Ukraine has shaped his view of resilience, engineering and #innovation. We also explored what makes frontline-tested #DefenceTech attractive to investors and how Varangians is approaching opportunities across autonomous UAV systems, secure communications and technologies for contested environments. 📖 Read: eu-startups.com/2026/09/the-… 🎥 Watch: piped.video/watch?v=tWeKSK4k…

Spiich, a Stockholm-based #AI #sales agent startup, has raised a €3 million #Seed round. This announcement comes ten #months after the company raised a €600k pre-Seed round, bringing its total #funding to €3.6 million. 🇸🇪 🤖 🤝 eu-startups.com/2026/09/stoc…

Germany’s @SPRIND and its Dutch counterpart, the National Agency for Disruptive Innovation (NADI), have launched a joint €40 million #programme to #fund European AI #chip design. 🇩🇪 🇳🇱 🧠 eu-startups.com/2026/09/germ…

mika AI, a Berlin-based #vertical #AI startup building an AI-native #alternative to the traditional #tax firm for Germany’s small limited companies, has raised €6 million in #Seed funding to grow and further develop the platform. 🇩🇪 🤖 🧾 eu-startups.com/2026/09/berl…

For decades, startup headcount was a useful shorthand for measuring #growth. But that relationship is changing fast. 🤖 ♻️ In this article, Abtin Aghagolian, co-founder and CTO of Pikd, explores how #AI and new technology are allowing much smaller teams to build and operate companies at a scale that once required dozens of people. Production backends, rendering engines, AI components and international commercial operations can now be managed by teams of fewer than a dozen. Is headcount still the right metric for measuring startup growth? eu-startups.com/2026/09/the-…

Verda, a Helsinki-based AI #infrastructure company, announced today that it has raised €164.8 million in fresh #funding to scale its full-stack #AI #cloud. With this funding, the company has become Europe’s latest unicorn. 🇫🇮 ☁️ 🦄 eu-startups.com/2026/09/hels…

Women founders remain significantly underrepresented in European venture capital. In 2024, companies founded solely by women received just 0.5% of total VC investment in Europe. 📊 🚺 Against this backdrop, more funds are developing investment strategies focused on women founders and more diverse founding teams. In this article, we highlight 10 European funding vehicles with a stated focus on women founders and diverse teams, from dedicated strategies to broader diversity and impact mandates. eu-startups.com/2026/09/10-e…

Lightspring, a Besançon-based #DeepTech startup that designs and #manufactures the #optical interfaces of #photonic integrated circuits, today announced the close of a €3.1 million #Seed round and has raised a total of over €3.5 million. 🇫🇷 💡 🔬 eu-startups.com/2026/09/besa…