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, HumanForest continues to shape e-mobility, the importance of sustainability for employees, and a new fund for Italian startups.
Launches and Expansions
- Sun Finance is expanding its product range with BNPL. It’ll begin by launching in its home nation of Latvia.
- Angelini Industries, a Rome-based multi-sector industrial group, launched Angelini Ventures with a fund of €300 million to support tech development in Italy.
- After opening its European hub in Amsterdam this February, Swiss fintech Yokoy continues its growth plan and announced its expansion to Spain. In addition to setting up a new office in the region, Yokoy has hired a local team to support regional operations from Madrid.
- HumanForest, London’s sustainable eBike pioneer, is leading innovation within the micro-mobility sector and has just integrated a new style of eBike into its existing fleet. The latest model offers users a range of upgraded specifications which improve accessibility, ride quality and operational efficiencies, without compromising on safety and durability.
- VenturePort AB, a tech startup specialising in investor relations, announced the beta launch of its new online investor relations platform. The VenturePort platform is designed to make it easy for startups to keep investors happy, and balance these crucial relationships.
- Mosa Meat, a player in the cultivated meat space that grows beef directly from animal cells, announced the next step in the scale-up of the company’s cultivated beef production facilities. A new industrial production development centre is being developed close to Mosa Meat’s existing pilot facility in Maastrich.
- SyncReality announced the alpha version of its responsive spatial design tool for developers and creators. Coming out of a 2-year stealth mode, the Berlin-based start-up is disrupting the VR scene by tearing down digital guardian fences inside of digital experiences by auto-adapting to individual physical spaces.
Acquisitions and Collaborations
- OVER, the decentralized infrastructure for an open, AR (Augmented Reality) enabled metaverse, is partnering with Decentraland to host the second edition of the interactive Metaverse Music Festival. The virtual music festival will be the first cross-metaverse collaboration between both platforms and will feature performances by DJs, producers, and artists, including Regard and Nicola Fasano.
- Silico, the advanced business process simulation platform, announced a new strategic partnership with edgeTI, a leader in real-time digital operations software, that will give organisations the ability to create a digital twin of their entire enterprise.
- iDenfy struck a new deal with CoinBeam, the digital banking platform helping banks, credit unions, and financials generate cryptocurrency revenue. The startup will be responsible for the crypto platform’s identity verification process enhancing new client onboarding.
- Sendcloud and CM.com joined forces to improve the tracking experience for customers, and thus bring more data-driven results.
- Mews and Quartz Inn Hotels joined forces to create a more sustainable hotel industry at a time where the industry is under mounting pressure to improve its ecological and environmental footprint.
- Displayforce, the AI-powered DooH performance marketing automatization platform, signed a partnership agreement with experienced suppliers in the DOOH industry in Finland and Sweden, Bluebell Digital.
- Tuum, the API-first and modular core banking platform, announced a new partnership with Salv, the regtech company founded by Wise and Skype employees to combat financial crime.
- CELUS, a leading provider of cloud-based electronics engineering automation software, shared that Würth Elektronik, a global manufacturer of electronic and electromechanical components, has signed up to become a Component Partner to the CELUS Engineering Platform.
- Bitpanda has a new partner for its White Label Solution – N26. Customers in Austria will be the first to be able to trade almost 200 cryptocurrencies directly in their N26 App in just a few taps, with N26 Crypto set to roll out to customers in other markets over the coming months.
- Relai partnered with Checkout.com to bring instant and 24/7 bitcoin purchases to Europeans as it aims to become Europe’s simplest bitcoin app.
- Abris Capital Partners, an ESG transformation specialist and private equity investor, supported Alsendo, a Central European technology shipping solutions business, in acquiring a majority stake in Innoship and teaming up with the founders for building the leading e-commerce shipping technology solutions business in the CEE.
Other Milestones & Insights
- A Berlin venture studio is to be created through a new joint venture from German telecoms giant, Deutsche Telekom, and Founders Factory. This studio will build the next generation of tech startups out of Berlin and will see Founders Factory’s reach expand across Europe.
- New data released by Supercritical, the software platform that helps businesses get to net zero, reveals that over a third (35%) of UK employees are willing to quit their job if their employer takes inadequate action to reduce its carbon footprint. The data, taken from a survey of over 2,000 UK office workers, reveals that climate remains top-of-mind for employees but many do not feel that reflected in their employer’s current pledges, creating real problems for businesses already facing an increasingly tense macroeconomic environment.
- FARFETCH Limited, the leading global platform for the luxury fashion industry, and Outlier Ventures, the leading global Web3 accelerator and investor, shared the first cohort of startups for the Dream Assembly Base Camp accelerator program. The eight companies who are part of the first cohort are focused on defining the future of Web3 luxury commerce and were selected from over 200 applications from around the world.
- CommerzVentures, Europe’s leading fintech specialist VC and the region’s largest Climate FinTech investor, have published their H1 2022 updated report on the sector, where fintech driving net-zero continued to attract record VC funding over the period.
- New research conducted by the Irish mobility app FREE NOW reveals that more than half (52%) of taxi drivers who are not currently driving an electric vehicle hope to make the switch to an EV in less than two years. One in two (53%) drivers say government grants are the biggest motivating factor to go electric, while 38% view the net savings in driving an EV taxi versus a petrol vehicle as the main reason to switch. When it comes to barriers, one in three drivers feel the biggest obstacle to going electric is the initial cost of the vehicle.
- Salt Edge has partnered with allpay, a UK-based payments specialist, to offer seamless payment services to their clients, including those with a vulnerable financial situation, which will prove important during this cost-of-living crisis.
- Unlimitd establishes itself as a key player in BtoB financing as it shared it has granted €10 million in loans in less than 6 months.
