EU-Startups

It's been a minute! But we're finally back with our Quote of the Week segment. We've been juggling a few things recently (such as our acquisition by MeOut Group! 🎉 ) but we found a moment to vote once more for our QotW 👀 Congratulations to Hannah Samano, CEO and Founder of Unfabled. On Monday's article, we dove into recent data highlighting the gender gap in the UK tech scene, providing examples of companies helping to close it. Among which, Unfabled was featured due to their recent €3 million raise to fuel its community-driven health and wellness retail platform. In which, Hannah Samano shared with EU-Startups: "When women lead, you get stronger businesses and more inclusive decisions. For too long women’s health has been designed without women in the room; building diverse boards is how we stop history from repeating itself and ensure lived experience informs leadership from the very start." Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/dEue9EfU

Friday is here with a new edition of our weekly VC funding overview for our CLUB members. Below you’ll find this week’s overview of all the (equity) funding activities we tracked from across Europe. 🚀 https://lnkd.in/dygGGx4W

Barcelona-based Holo has closed a €1 million pre-Seed round to transform how people understand and manage their health through an all-in-one app integrated with devices such as Apple Watch, Garmin, and Oura 🇪🇸 🩺 The round was led by Calm/Storm Ventures and mission vc, with participation from Enisa | Empresa Nacional de Innovación and a group of business angels and early customers of the company, including Javi Lopez and Emilio Nicolás Riquelme (Magnific AI, Freepik), Carlos Villanueva (Google), Àlex Rodríguez Bacardit (MarsBased), Álvaro López (Polygon Labs), Samuel Fernández and Sergi Molins (Factorial), Jose de Cabo (Olapic, Remotely Works), Esteve Almirall (Node Living), and Luis S.(Carto). “Health should be something we understand – not something we ignore until something goes wrong. At Holo, we want everyone to have control over their well-being as easily as they manage their finances. We want to create the Revolut of health,” explains Francesc Navarro, CEO and co-founder. https://lnkd.in/df8wjeJX

French startup Dialog raised a €3.7 million Seed round to create AI agents trained on brand data, capable of selling both on e-commerce websites and through other AI agents such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini 🇫🇷🤖 The round was led by Galion.exe, with participation from Kima Ventures, Weaving Invest, and business angels including executives and leaders from Criteo, Hugging Face, Decathlon and AB Tasty. Dialog has also been backed by startup studio Hexa. “E-commerce websites haven’t really changed since the 2000s they’re still databases with categories, filters, and a search bar. Generative AI finally makes it possible to change that and recreate a true sales experience just like in-store,” said Antoine Grimal, co-founder & CEO, Dialog. https://lnkd.in/dxtSrB8h

Ghent-based Rookoo, which builds digital colleagues for events and hospitality teams, has raised €900k in a new funding in order to expand its platform, develop new modules, and offer data-driven insights 🇧🇪 🧳 Investors include Louis Jonckheere (Wintercircus), Jorn Vanysacker (100In, ex-Henchman), Gilles Mattelin (100In, ex-Henchman & Tout Bien), Jean-Michel Teerlinck (MTM Group, Artion), Stefaan Rossel and bernard rossel (Bavet, Burney’s, Frans & Bertha), Matthias Stevens (Dynamate), Pieter Vanermen, Gilles Teerlinck, Tanguy Serraes, Anthony De Clerck, Hendrik Isebaert, louis mahy, Piet Van Waes and Olivier Saverys. The round was supported by KBC Innovation Banking and PMV and was facilitated through a collaboration with Ghent-based funding agency The Harbour. “Event and hospitality teams spend far too much time on admin. We want them to be able to focus again on experience, creativity and hospitality,” says Jeroen Borloo, CEO and co-founder of Rookoo. https://lnkd.in/dSxbSAs4

Belgian EnergyTech innovator LIFEPOWR has secured €5.65 million in growth capital to fuel its next stage of expansion and bring intelligent energy flexibility to more homes and businesses across Europe 🇧🇪 🔋 The round was led by Noshaq and SPDG, followed by ROM InWest alongside existing shareholders reaffirming their confidence by reinvesting. “We are reshaping the way prosumers interact with the energy markets,” says Dries Bols, CEO of LIFEPOWR. “The results? They pay less for energy and balance the system. Together we accelerate decarbonisation and the path to lower energy fees. It’s a win win for everyone.” https://lnkd.in/diZ9ACv2

The EU-funded StepUp StartUps initiative recently released a comprehensive new report titled "Public Sector Services and the AI Opportunity", spotlighting how AI can transform public services across the EU while opening new doors for startups and SMEs. The report outlines how governments can leverage AI to improve citizen services, increase operational efficiency, and stimulate GovTech innovation – provided they take bold steps to reform public procurement and foster ethical, data-driven innovation environments. ▶️ https://lnkd.in/dFdwb_Cs

As the year winds down, it is a great moment to slow down and dive into ideas that inspire better work and better leadership. We've rounded up 10 highly acclaimed business books worth adding to your Christmas reading list 🎄✨ From innovation and AI to growth, culture, and decision-making, this selection brings together some of the most impactful titles published between 2022 and 2025. Hope you find something that sparks your curiosity. https://lnkd.in/dwimtm_Q

Dublin’s Lative, an AI sales planning platform for sales and go-to-market teams, today announced it has raised €6.4 million in funding to boost product development and expand its go-to market 🇮🇪 🚀 The round, co-led by Act Venture Capital and Senovo VC, has also been backed by Elkstone, Enterprise Ireland, WestWave Capital, Handshake Ventures and Shuttle. Industry clients include Seismic Intercom, Aiven, Avalara and Version 1. “We saw the same issue over and over again, in every company we worked in – sales planning was slow, manual, and stuck in spreadsheets,” said Werner Schmidt, co-founder and CEO of Lative. https://lnkd.in/dxnDUDm5