The 28th Regime is a recommendation for legal frameworks of European Union rules, which do not replace member states' own national rules but are an optional alternative to them. 

Check out our earlier interview with the co-initiators of EU Inc., Andreas Klinger, an investor with Prototype Capital and former CTO of Product Hunt and Simon Schaefer, Founder and CEO of Factory and member of the Advisory Board at Allied For Startups and angel investor.

With over 13,000 signatures from Europe’s most prominent tech leaders, VCs, and political figures, EU-Inc demonstrates a clear consensus for immediate change.  

EU Inc today publishes an industry blueprint for the ‘EU-Inc’ entity. The proposal builds on the success of previous community efforts promoting the needs of European founders including the Not Optional campaign for European stock option reform. as well as prior documentation, including the recently published non-paper from France Digitale, and discussions with the startup community and with policymakers across the continent. 

The petition has been highlighted at the highest level of the European Union, with commitments to introduce proposals in 2025:  

• Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission, included the 28th regime for innovative companies in the Political Guidelines for the Commission, and last month added:

"A startup from California can expand and raise money all across the United States. But our companies still face way too many national barriers that make it hard to work Europe-wide with way too much regulatory burden.”  

• Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research, and Innovation, intends to propose a framework for the 28th regime in 2025, “to help innovative companies grow and benefit from a simpler, harmonised set of rules throughout the Union.” 

• Michael McGrath, Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and the Rule of Law, has also committed to preparing a specific proposal on an EU-wide company legal status.

Today’s blueprint outlines how the new European Commission can unlock Europe’s potential as a startup powerhouse, introducing:

• Standardised company structure: EU-wide company type with harmonised corporate governance, capital and share capital maintenance rules 

• Digital-first approach: Fully digital registry, dashboard, and standardised investment documents EU-FAST investment: 

• A new, standard, open source investment instrument inspired by convertible instruments such as SAFEs and BSA AIRs EU-ESOP: EU-wide employee share option scheme with standardised rules 

These pan-European standardisations are critical to help European startups scale, attract talent and capital, and succeed globally.

The proposal builds on the success of previous community efforts promoting the needs of European founders including the Not Optional campaign for European stock option reform. 

According to  Andreas Klinger, the European startup ecosystem is fragmented in national silos, competing globally isolated from each other:

“If we don’t act now, Europe risks falling further behind. We urge policymakers in EU Member States, and those in Brussels, to act with urgency and begin work on legislative proposals immediately.”

Official partners include European Startup Network, Allied for Startups, France Digitale, Dutch Startup Association, Danish Entrepreneurs, Deutscher Startup-Verband, Startup Hungary, Austrian Startups, Adigital, Rise Europe, IE.F, Prompting Europe, EsTech, EBAN, Startup Disrupt, and more.

To support the final push for implementation, EU-Inc calls on the wider startup community to actively engage and provide feedback on the EU-Inc proposal before its formal submission to policymakers by January 2025. 

Lead image based on Freepik.

“Venture debt is a killer”, “venture debt should not exist”, “companies should not draw venture debt…”

Recently, there have been various public, blanket, statements on venture debt, mostly by investors and management of companies that have become insolvent after taking it on.

What these statements neglect is that it is not the debt itself that can be problematic: it’s when, where and how it is deployed that can be detrimental. Both the investment timing and structure – where lenders, investors and companies all play a part – can be the issue.

At its core, the scenario is as follows: (1) entrepreneurs dislike dilution and will take steps to avoid it, (2) lenders are incented to lend money.

In the middle you have venture debt, which when used at the right time and in the right quantity, is a powerful tool that can make a big difference to the dilution suffered by founders and early-stage investors when used to fuel organic growth and finance M&A.

At the same time as lowering the cost of capital, venture debt allows management and shareholders to optimise the timing of future capital raises, maintain governance and control, and benefit from the lenders’ extensive network.

Used the in wrong way debt can hurt a business. It’s pretty difficult to damage a company with the capital injected via equity (although of course what is done with that funding could do so!). But what is the “wrong way” to apply venture debt?

Too soon

Companies that are very early in their journey - whilst exciting, high growth and great equity investments - might not always be the best home for venture debt.

Without scale, a solid (ideally repeatable and growing) customer base to validate the product, pricing power and product market fit, the company is likely to have the wrong risk profile. There may not be enough data points to suggest the business will scale and reach a level of maturity or steady state to service the debt comfortably.

Too much

Debt is not equity and should not be treated as such. Too much debt becomes problematic when repayments kick in – and even more so if the business loses momentum and growth, or cannot maintain efficiency.

Repayments will be out of kilter versus revenues and the company’s cost base. So whilst bumper cheques in comparison to revenues might seem appealing on closing days’ bank balance, they might look like an ugly balance sheet burden 12 months later.

Whilst it is cheaper, debt is not as flexible as equity (it needs to be paid back!) – so the pathway to repayment should be given just as much focus as how much should be raised (the two are linked in any case).

Common routes to repayment are through cashflows (or at least manageable payments versus monthly revenues and OpEx), proceeds from equity fundraising, refinancing or M&A (the achievability of which are all generally dictated by scale, growth, and efficiency). Understanding how, and how much can be repaid, and what cash burn will be, should be key considerations. 

Too risky

The benefits of anti-dilution and maintained governance from using venture debt are most enhanced in the strongest performing businesses. On the contrary, companies that are ex-growth, flat or shrinking, and/or companies with very high burn, might not be suitable candidates. And structurally loss-making businesses? Not suitable for venture debt. It will only make a weak situation worse.

It should be well noted that venture debt is not the capital of last resort (as it may have been incorrectly assumed to be in years gone by) – for example, it should only be used in situations where a business could raise equity, but either chooses not to, or opts to compliment part of an equity round with some less dilutive capital. 

So two things are important when structuring a debt deal: one is quantity and the other is timing. Too much debt and you have a problem. Take it on too early and you have a problem. The lender offering you more debt may no longer be your friend and may not be around when the deal becomes difficult. But the debt will be.

So when should it be used?

Deployed responsibly into the right situations, venture debt is an excellent tool to help fuel organic growth or M&A in a less dilutive way. And when used correctly it should enhance enterprise valuations at a much lower cost, and result in a positive outcome for all stakeholders. 

There are multiple use cases in which venture debt suits. Often it is used to support organic growth, funding the burn of a business so that it grows its revenues as quickly as possible, and therefore scales the enterprise valuation of the company.

In other situations, it might be used to fund M&A, where the leading tech players in a market look to consolidate others and finance the acquisition of such targets without raising equity. To date, at Claret Capital Partners, we’ve backed over 180 companies – including the likes of Butternut Box, Quantilope, Deciphex, and Paysend - supporting each one in various situations like this. 

The slightly more nuanced bit – and where a lot of focus is pointed – is in selecting the right timing. There is typically a time in every growth tech or life science business where it should have access to alternative forms of capital aside from equity, to support its growth before turning profitable or exiting. 

Most companies will have multiple events along the way where they need to raise capital – and at certain points, they should be able to unlock alternative, less dilutive financing options to equity – either reducing their dependence on equity or substituting an equity round entirely. 

At a high level (although there are exceptions) businesses that are the right fit are those that are revenue generating, with a track record of sustained revenue growth, and have good business models with strong margins and ideally a decent level of forecastability.

The majority – but not all – of these companies are VC or equity-backed.

Sensible amounts, at the right time, in the right companies - that is the path to lower dilution, and where venture debt is not a killer.

With the funding the company plans to accelerate its hiring efforts, further product development, and expand its footprint globally.

Netbird's "Zero Trust Security" approach, based on the principle of "never trust, always verify," ensures continuous authentication for all users and devices.

Large cybersecurity vendors are extensively leveraging the "Zero Trust Security" approach. NetBird was founded by Misha Bragin and Maycon Santos, engineers passionate about network security and open-source development. Their journey began in Brazil while working at PSafe, a cybersecurity startup later acquired by CyberLabs. After moving to Berlin, they built the company with a simple ethos: secure private networking is a fundamental right of every modern company.

At the heart of its technology is a zero-configuration business VPN that seamlessly integrates a peer-to-peer, WireGuard-based network with an intuitive access control system. The open-source, community-driven approach has been a key driver of NetBirds’s success.

"The open-source community has been incredibly supportive, and that feedback loop allows us to innovate quickly," said CTO and co- founder of NetBird, Maycon Santos. "We listen to our users, and their input helps us make network security better for everyone."

"This funding round is a significant milestone for NetBird," said co-founder and CEO at NetBird, Misha Bragin. “Together with a small team of incredibly talented engineers, we've built an open- source platform that reflects the needs of today’s connected world and sets the foundation for the secure networks of tomorrow. We’re at the right time to scale our mission, as the Zero Trust security market is rapidly growing, and we’re excited to lead the charge in making these advanced technologies accessible to organizations of all sizes.

"Our mission has always been to level the playing field, ensuring that when engineers think about secure connectivity, NetBird is the first solution that comes to mind. This commitment has already been showcased, as our platform has connected hundreds of thousands of users and devices from customers around the world. With this investment, we’re ready to accelerate our mission, expand globally, and redefine what secure network access can look like for the modern world."

It provides European IBAN accounts and issues physical and digital VISA cards alongside custodial addresses in Ethereum, Tron, Polygon, and Arbitrum. Customers can seamlessly exchange crypto for Euro, USD, GBP, and other currencies, send their money to friends and family, or spend it on purchases online and offline. 

It's particularly relevant to remote workers earning in crypto, particularly employees of Web3 startups. 

Brighty allows users to earn interest on their balance with free deposits and withdrawals. Physical and digital VISA cards support contactless payments  through ApplePay and Google Pay.-

Businesses can open wallets in stablecoins, while crypto communities can list custom tokens, stake coins in branded accounts, and receive cashback.  AI Investment Management provides data-driven strategies for diverse portfolios based on sectors, including Momentum, Industrial, Nasdaq, S&P    500, Energy, Real Estate, and Dividends.

The fintech also uses decentralised finance to provide daily rewards of up to 5 per cent APY on all stablecoin card balances.

Brighty was built by Revolut’s alumni and executives from leading Swiss banking institutions. The company’s financial services fully comply with national and international regulations in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. 

 According to Roger Buerli, CEO and co-founder of Brighty, Europe and the UK demonstrate increased crypto usage for everyday spending: 

“We firmly believe in crypto's ability to effectively cross borders, making it an ideal platform for earning and saving for digital nomads. We want to make crypto payments in the real world simple.”

 The funds will be used to expand the company’s presence in Europe and the UK.

This capital will be used to accelerate the company's growth and support the launch of two new commercial products, O-Predict and O-Validate.

Founded in 2023 by Fanny Jaulin, PhD, Diane-Laure Pagès, PhD, and Gustave Ronteix, PhD, Orakl is a spin-off from the Gustave Roussy Institute. The majority of drugs fail in clinical trials due to inaccurate and disjointed decisions made from heterogeneous data and models that do not translate well in humans. To solve this challenge, Orakl has developed an AI-powered techbio platform that combines real-world patient data with biology into a unique and integrated decision-making engine for the entire drug development process.

Orakl’s technology delivers predictions to improve the recruitment of responding patients and clinical trial probability of success. Dr. Fanny Jaulin, Orakl Oncology CEO & Co-Founder, commented:

“Our mission at Orakl is to revolutionize drug development by offering an unparalleled decision-making platform that empowers drug developers to de-risk clinical trials and expedite the availability of new transformative medicines. By addressing the urgent unmet needs in digestive cancers, we aim to redefine the future of precision medicine and deliver breakthroughs that patients desperately need."

Orakl also plans to use the platform to inform in-licensing decisions and build its own internal pipeline.

Prof. Fabrice Barlesi, General Director of Gustave Roussy, added: "As Europe’s leading cancer center and a pioneer in precision medicine, we are proud to innovate through our spin-off, Orakl, which develops ex vivo patient avatars for therapeutic decision-making and accelerates the discovery of next-generation cancer therapies."

Jeremy Uzan, General Partner at Singular, commented: "A key strength of Orakl lies in its team - a mix of deep expertise in cancer research, cell biology, and computational biology. With the recent addition of Jessica Atkinson as Business Advisor, the company is better positioned than ever to forge strategic partnerships in the pharmaceutical sector. Backed by a solid scientific foundation and a clear business focus, Orakl is set to drive meaningful progress in oncology—and we are proud to support the team on this journey." 

This capital will enable CoachHub to accelerate its investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and further expand its product offerings.

CoachHub allows to create scalable and measurable personalised coaching programs for their workforce, with  3,500 certified business coaches in 90 countries across six continents with coaching sessions available in over 80 languages. The company has over 1,000 clients so far,

Matti Niebelschütz, CEO of CoachHub, commented: “AI plays a crucial role in our growth strategy, allowing us to deliver powerful, personalised coaching experiences at scale to meet the evolving needs of our clients. This strategic capital marks a significant milestone as we further our mission to democratise coaching, making it accessible and impactful for people worldwide - especially at a time when support and resilience are critical to navigating change.”

Jean-Laurent Pelissier, Managing Director and Head of Enterprise Software at HSBC Innovation Banking UK, commented: “It’s been a pleasure to provide financing support to CoachHub, enabling the business to drive investment into AI and enhance its product offering. CoachHub’s unique proposition has a positive impact on the development of talent across organisations, and we look forward to supporting the business as it continues to grow and innovate.”

Typically, organisations struggle to track their carbon footprint effectively or accurately, due to siloed functions and a reliance on tools like Excel. 

By leveraging advanced data analytics and AI, carbmee’s centralised platform enables companies to manage, reduce, and report on their carbon emissions with accuracy and efficiency.

With a rapidly growing team of over 60 international colleagues and offices in Berlin, Munich, and New York, Carbmee serves well-known enterprise customers, including Lufthansa Technik, Kärcher, Hilti, Miele, Coca-Cola, Schaeffler, and Anglo American. 

The funds raised will be invested in further developing carbmee’s Environmental Intelligence System, the platform EIS™, with a focus on features like collecting granular LCA data and carbmee Studio, the recently launched customisation tool that enables users to create tailored, AI-driven reports and dashboards with ease.

According to CEO and co-founder Christian Heinrich, the funding is “a clear confirmation that we made the right decisions already 4 years ago anticipating the importance of scope 3 emissions in manufacturing industries."

“With over 80 per cent of emissions being rooted in the supply chain, we have built a platform that not only meets the evolving needs of complex industry enterprises but also plays a critical role in the global shift toward sustainability.”

Long term customers of carbmee’s platform, some of which are customers since the funding year, are seeing transformative results in their sustainability.

Toine Rombouts, lead of expert hub procurement direct material and services at KWS Saat, states that with carbmee, the company was able to calculate their supplier carbon footprint 94 per cent faster than with traditional methods.

CommerzVentures led the round with participation from Fly Ventures.

Paul Morgenthaler, Managing Partner at CommerzVentures commented,

“Christian and Robin have already achieved phenomenal growth since founding carbmee. They are at the forefront of a vital industrial step-change as businesses worldwide demand the knowledge and support to manage their carbon emissions.

Their powerful software reduces the complexity of decarbonising global supply chains, solving a key problem for industries.”

Lead image: Freepik.

Solaris, which offers white-label banking services and is known as a BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service) provider, is one of Germany’s most high-profile fintechs.

However, the fintech has recently made dramatic job cuts amid industry challenges and was reportedly seeking urgent funding.

The German fintech has been urgently seeking fresh funding of between €100m and $150m, as it was running out of money, Tech.eu previously reported.

According to reports in German media, Solaris had convened an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), a hurried shareholder meeting to deal with an urgent matter, which took place today.

During the meeting, it is understood that Solaris managers and investors discussed whether the funding would be green-lighted.

Highlighting the urgency of the situation, a proposal to wind-up the unicorn, should the funding not be forthcoming, was on the agenda, according to German media.

Solaris did not divulge specific details of the meeting, but sources close to Solaris said that a deal to secure fresh funding is close.

A spokesperson for Solaris said:

“Today we have taken an important step towards a long-term and sustainable financing solution for Solaris.

"Together with our investors, we will finalise the agreements reached in the coming days.”

Just six weeks after getting back on the Nasdaq after a three-year break, Nebius is now raising money.‍

The funding supports Nebius’ previously announced plans to further build out its full-stack AI infrastructure – including large-scale GPU clusters, cloud platforms and tools and services for developers – for AI pioneers globally.‍

Nebius’ core AI infrastructure business has around 400 engineers with decades of knowledge of building world-class tech infrastructure, as well as an in-house LLM R&D team.

The AI-native Nebius GPU cloud is designed to manage the full ML lifecycle – from data processing and training through to fine-tuning and inference – all in one place.

The recently launched Nebius AI Studio inference service expands the company’s offering to app builders, with access to a range of open-source models in a flexible, user-friendly environment at among the lowest price-per-token on the market.

The company combines investments in build-to-suit data centers at greenfield sites with additional capacity deployments through colocations and expanding its existing facilities.  

Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of Nebius, said:

“We have demonstrated the scale of our ambitions, initiating an AI infrastructure build-out across two continents. This strategic financing gives us additional firepower to do it faster and on a larger scale.”‍

In the private placement, Nebius will issue 33,333,334 Class A shares at a price per share of $21.00, implying a 3 per cent premium on the stock’s average price since trading resumed in October.‍‍

In addition, having considered the strong trading dynamics and liquidity profile in the Company’s shares since the resumption of trading on Nasdaq on October 21, 2024, the Board has determined that a potential repurchase by the Company of its Class A shares is no longer warranted.‍

At the Company’s Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in August 2024, shareholders approved a general authorization for the Company to repurchase up to 81 million Class A shares within certain parameters, including a maximum repurchase price of $10.50 per share.

This price represented the pro-rata amount of cash on the Company’s balance sheet following the final closing of the Company's divestment of its Russian business, net of tax and transaction costs, and was not an indication of the value of the current business.

According to John Boynton, Chairman of the Board of Nebius, the authorisation to potentially repurchase shares was originally intended to provide legacy shareholders who wanted to exit our new business an opportunity to do so. 

However, the company believes that those shareholders have had an opportunity to do so at a price higher than the maximum repurchase price authorized by shareholders.  ‍

“The Board has determined that the best way to maximise value for the Company’s shareholders is to invest our capital into our core AI infrastructure business, where the Company believes there is a substantial market opportunity.”

Nebius expects to deliver an ARR by year-end 2025 of $750 million to $1 billion.

Designed to address the complex needs of both clinical trials and clinical practice, Raidium’s technology marks a critical leap in radiology, promising faster, more accurate, and scalable insights for complex cases like metastatic cancer tracking and whole-body diagnostics.

The demand for precision diagnostics is rising, yet radiologists are hindered by outdated tools that limit productivity and accuracy. Radiological workflows are becoming increasingly complex, particularly with 3D modalities such as MRIs and CTs, which current systems struggle to handle efficiently. 

In clinical research, where one-third of trials depend on imaging endpoints, traditional software tools often allow only a single measurement at a time, limiting adaptability and speed. Despite the proliferation of AI solutions, adoption remains low due to their narrow, fragmented scope and limited integration into daily workflows.

Raidium has developed the world’s first radiological AI-native foundation model, transforming precision radiology with its holistic and multimodal approach. 

Embedded in an intuitive, interactive viewer – dubbed as the “GPT of radiology” – it enables the creation of an imaging biomarker factory for both clinical practice and research. 

Radium provides detailed 3D segmentation, advanced measurements, and automated analysis of complex biomarkers with unprecedented speed—2,500 times faster than manual methods. 

Its AI model can analyse the entire human body, addressing complex cases such as metastatic cancer spread across multiple organs, and virtual biopsies for liver diseases like NASH. 

As a result, the platform enhances productivity and diagnostic accuracy while generating comprehensive, automated reports. 

In less than two years, Raidium has established partnerships with academic centers in France (AP-HP, Centre Imagerie du Nord), and secured its first contracts with pharmaceutical clients.

Dr Paul Herent, Raidium’s co-founder and CEO, commented:

“As a radiologist and passionate about AI, I see firsthand how current solutions fail to truly support radiologists and, by extension, patients who rely on timely and accurate diagnoses.

At Radium, our mission is to create a scalable, life-saving solution that transforms radiology into a more precise and accessible field.”

The funding will strengthen Raidium’s technological leadership in biomedical imaging, accelerate its expansion in Europe and the United States, and advance key regulatory milestones such as FDA approval and CE marking. 

The numbers tell a compelling story of growth and potential. In 2023, Spain's ICT sector boasted a turnover of over €129 billion, representing a 5,2% year-on-year growth. With 35,729 national and international ICT companies and a direct workforce of 764,128 professionals, the sector's impact on GDP reached an impressive 3.84%.

Ever-looming climate change and global economic challenges have accelerated digital transformation and investment, and Spain is at the forefront of this revolution pursuing rapid development of its AI, Quantum, IoT, Cybersecurity, and other sectors – 36.7% of Spain’s innovative companies belong to the ICT sector.

Innovation powered by physical and personal networks

All of the above is made possible by EU-leading infrastructure paired with a country-wide support network for innovators and entrepreneurs – two factors international founders have found extremely attractive.

With 93% of the population accessing fixed networks operating at more than 100 Mbps, Spain leads the European Union in very high capacity network coverage. It also ranks fourth in the EU for advanced digital skills – nearly one in four 25-34-year-olds are STEM graduates.

Having the tools and talent to shape tomorrow’s digital landscape is a powerful combination. It’s further enhanced by the country’s tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem that empowers individuals, ideas, and innovation to thrive. Technology parks, universities, and research centers collaborate closely, fostering an environment that transforms digital potential into market-ready solutions. The synergy between academic institutions, government support, and private sector innovation enables startups to rapidly scale and compete on the global stage.

To sustain its technological momentum, Spain has developed a strategic approach to attracting global innovators. ICEX-Invest in Spain serves as the country's international gateway, creating targeted pathways for foreign founders to integrate into the vibrant Spanish tech ecosystem. By proactively breaking down barriers to entry, the organization ensures that international talent can seamlessly connect with Spain's robust digital infrastructure.

The Rising Up in Spain program is one of the cornerstones of this international outreach strategy. Designed to support foreign entrepreneurs, the initiative offers end-to-end assistance – from navigating legal complexities to establishing critical local connections. Its bilingual approach ensures accessibility for founders from diverse linguistic backgrounds, providing market guidance, visibility support, and a structured pathway to success in the Spanish tech landscape and beyond.

3 companies Rising Up in Spain and building for the world

Currently in its 7th edition, Rising Up in Spain is welcoming interested applicants until year's end to apply for the program and join a distinguished lineup of current participants and alumni, such as:

1. Lyzer – A Portuguese startup transforming logistics technology for retail and e-commerce. Their Logistics-as-a-Service platform optimizes order management through an intelligent task allocation algorithm, delivering impressive results: 52% faster picking, 18% delivery cost savings, and 70% reduction in manual interactions. Born from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company evolved from 360hyper, an essential goods marketplace, to a sophisticated technology provider.
2. Finalrentals – A global leader transforming the car rental industry with cutting-edge digital solutions. Finalrentals has redefined vehicle rentals by leveraging advanced technology to seamlessly compare prices and negotiate rates across an extensive network of providers. Operating in 41 countries across the Middle East, Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and beyond – including key markets such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UK, Italy, Turkey, the USA, Grenada, and more – Finalrentals simplifies the rental experience. By prioritizing simplicity, efficiency, and affordability, Finalrentals empowers travelers worldwide to secure the best deals with minimal effort, setting a new standard for convenience and innovation in the car rental industry.
3. Okulyo – An EdTech startup from Turkey revolutionizing school management through a comprehensive digital platform. Their innovative solution streamlines campus operations by integrating building access, automated attendance tracking, and smart communication tools. Designed to simplify administrative processes, Okulyo helps educational institutions enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve stakeholder experiences with a single, seamless system. As the team puts it: “Okulyo is an all-in-one platform designed to simplify campus management by streamlining daily workflows, ensuring better preparedness and an elevated experience for all stakeholders. Our innovative solution integrates fintech capabilities, replacing traditional access cards with multifunctional banking cards. These cards facilitate building and classroom access, balance top-ups, payments, and purchases, all within the daily operations of a campus.”

Plug into the network and rise up

Spain provides a holistic innovation ecosystem. With competitive labor costs, world-class infrastructure, and a government actively supporting digital transformation, the country presents an unparalleled opportunity for tech startups.

ICEX's Rising Up in Spain program is your chance to be part of tomorrow's digital landscape – apply today.

The UK's Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received 2,888 fraud complaints about Revolut in the six months to June end this year, a 31 per cent increase compared to the 2,208 complaints it received in the six months previous.

The complaints service received 1,864 fraud complaints about Monzo in the six months to June end this year, a 44 per cent increase compared to the 1,291 complaints it received in the six months previous, according to figures obtained through Freedom of Information (FoI).

The FOS received 378 complaints about a third UK challenger bank, Starling Bank, in the six months to June end this year, a nine per cent compared to the 348 complaints in the previous six months.

The fraud and scams data obtained by Tech.eu runs across push payment, chip and PIN fraud and disputed card transactions.

Revolut has over 10m customers in the UK, Monzo has more than 11m customers in the UK and Starling has over 4m customers in the UK.

Combating fraud is becoming an increasingly hot-button issue for challenger banks, as they look to grow their customer bases while maintaining rigorous measures to combat fraud.

The BBC revealed in October this year that Revolut, Europe’s most valuable privately held startup. was named in more complaints, nearly 10,000, than any other major UK bank, according to figures for the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber-crime Action Fraud.

Banks are required by law to conduct rigorous checks on new customers to prevent fraud and money laundering,

Customers who can’t resolve a complaint with their bank, can take their grievance to the FOS.

Any customer can raise a complaint with the FOS and the data obtained by Tech.eu does not show the number of upheld complaints.

Victims of scams and fraud typically complain to the FOS when they have been declined a reimbursement by their bank.

The FOS has the powers to force banks to reimburse customers if they judge that they have not safeguarded customer funds.

It is also likely that some fraud victims are unaware of the FOS and its services.

Revolut and other banks have criticised social media companies for being the biggest source of bank scams, saying Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is a “hotbed” for scams.

Revolut recently said it might refuse or delay certain payments, as it looks to crack down on fraud, according to UKTN.

Changes to its terms of services mean that cases of scams and fraud are now sufficient conditions for preventing both outbound and inbound payments to current accounts.

Revolut said it had invested “heavily” in its Financial Crime prevention team.

Revolut said: 

"Revolut takes fraud and the industry-wide risk of customers being coerced by organised criminals, incredibly seriously.

 "In 2023, we cut the number of fraudulent transactions in the UK through Revolut by over 20 per cent, in addition to preventing over £475m of potential fraud losses to our customers globally. This, despite new customers joining Revolut every month.”

Monzo said it invested heavily to stop fraud.

 Monzo said:

“Fraud is an industry-wide problem, with people nationwide losing £1.17 billion to fraudsters last year alone.

 "At Monzo our priority is to stop customers from falling victim to scammers in the first place.

 “We continue to invest heavily in protecting our customers, launching industry-first tools and leveraging our unique position as both a fully regulated bank and leading technology business to stop fraudsters in their tracks.”

 Starling was unavailable for comment.

The original target size for Alstin III was €100M, with a hard cap set at €125M, which was reached within just four months.

Following this, the hard cap was increased to €175M with the consent of the investors. Its investor base includes foundations, insurance companies, banks, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals.

Carsten Maschmeyer, Managing Partner of Alstin Capital, commented: “We are particularly proud that more than 90 percent of all investors from Alstin II have now joined Alstin III. We received so many commitments that we could have raised the hard cap to €250 million, but we chose not to. We aim to further internationalize our portfolio, and our first three investments already span three different countries.” 

Alstin III has already made the following investments:

• Flowit, based in Zurich (Switzerland), is the leading solution for employee development, motivation, and retention, targeting "frontline" workers such as caregivers, service staff, and production employees – precisely those roles facing the most severe labor shortages.

• NORBr, based in Amsterdam (Netherlands), offers software solutions that enable rapid establishment of payment infrastructures while significantly reducing administrative overhead.

• Etalytics, based in Darmstadt (Germany), develops and distributes AI-driven energy management solutions that significantly reduce energy consumption in data centers, achieving an average reduction of 37%. Background: Alstin I was initially funded exclusively with family capital, while Alstin II opened up to external partners, raising approximately €108 million in 2017. As of fall 2023, Alstin II is fully invested. Fundraising for Alstin III began in February 2024. Some of the most well-known and successful companies in Alstin’s portfolio include:

• Blacklane, Orderbird (exit), pflege.de (exit), alyne (exit), Deskbird, retraced, pliant, usercentrics, Klarna, and Nect. About Alstin Capital Alstin Capital is an independent early stage venture capital fund based in Munich. Its investment activities focus on fast-growing (B2B) technology companies in the DACH region and Europe, primarily in the Seed and Series A phase.

Coding Giants is a hybrid-model coding school offering live and online courses to students aged 6–19. 

Operating in 12 countries, the Polish company has rapidly grown to become a leader in digital education, reaching over 15,000 active students and conducting lessons for nearly 200,000 participants since its inception.

“Just as we learn about our physical environment in science classes, we must fully understand our digital surroundings,” said Radosław Kulesza, Co-Founder and CEO of Coding Giants. 

“Our goal isn’t just to create future programmers but to help everyone adapt to technology effortlessly and safely.”

The company’s hybrid model combines small-group live sessions with digital materials and works with the best local coding professionals to deliver effective, hands-on courses.

After dominating the Polish market, Coding Giants expanded internationally, with Spain and Italy as its key markets, growing over 4 times year-over-year internationally. 

True Global Ventures (TGV) led the round with follow-on participation from s. 

Coding Giants’ strong market position and unique approach to enriching human-to-human interactions with top-notch technology, including AI, make them a unique player in the digital education space,” said Konrad Wawruch, Founding Partner at TGV, now joining the Supervisory Board of Coding Giants.

Due to Coding Giants' outstanding results since their last funding round, PortfoLion Capital Partners also participated in this round. 

“Coding Giants has demonstrated extraordinary growth and scalability,” said Zsolt Mihály, Principal at PortfoLion. “Their results in Poland, Spain, and Italy validate the potential for international success.”

The funding will support Coding Giants’ expansion plans, including German and Spanish-speaking communities in the US, followed by additional markets in the next few years and further development of its AI-driven educational solutions.

Lead image: Coding Giants. Photo: uncredited. 

FHE is an advanced, quantum-resilient cryptography method that allows encrypted data to be processed without ever needing to be decrypted. It allows organisations to process data whilst maintaining privacy, opening up opportunities for safe collaboration across industries, even in untrusted environments. The partnership will see the integration of Zama’s FHE solution with Optalysys’ hardware acceleration product range, Enable, to expedite FHE adoption for its customers. 

The partnership aims to bridge the gap in FHE adoption by addressing its historically high computational demands.

Zama’s software solutions include encrypted machine learning and advanced confidentiality in blockchain smart contracts. Current cybersecurity solutions have significant limitations in protecting data in use, which is why the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) such as FHE, are fundamental for companies in protecting sensitive data.

CEO Dr Nick New said: “Our partnership with Zama is a significant step for us as we continue to accelerate the development of FHE. Historically, scaling FHE applications has been a challenge due to its demand for specialist infrastructure and computing power. Our work with Zama aims to overcome this barrier and enable us to develop this revolutionary technology at a rapid pace.”

Rand Hindi, CEO at Zama, commented: “At Zama, our mission is to equip developers with the best FHE tools — tools that are easy to use, practical, and fast. Our collaboration with Optalysys is an exciting step toward making FHE faster, a crucial milestone in our journey to make this technology ubiquitous. “We believe that this acceleration benefits machine learning applications and is equally transformative in the blockchain space, a key focus for us, where FHE has the unique ability to resolve the long-standing tension between transparency and confidentiality, unlocking new possibilities for privacy-preserving innovation onchain." 

The new funding will enable 9fin to invest in developing its algorithmic technology, grow its analytics team and accelerate its expansion in the US.

9fin's customers include global credit markets, including leading investment banks, distressed debt advisors, private equity, credit fund managers and law firms. The combined assets of its customers are worth over $17T.

Steven Hunter, Co-founder and CEO, said: “Debt markets are the biggest overlooked asset class in the world and yet they still rely on technology and information sources straight out of the 1980s - opaque, slow and messy. We started 9fin to give professionals in the market a data edge, with smarter, faster intelligence.

"I’m really proud of the product, team and company culture we’ve built so far at 9fin, and we’re just getting started. There’s a huge opportunity to build the #1 global provider of debt market analytics, and bring debt markets into the AI age. We’re delighted to welcome Highland as a partner to help us achieve that vision.”

Fergal Mullen, Co-founder and partner at Highland Europe added: “Debt markets are booming but data and technology offerings simply haven’t kept pace. 9fin’s vision, its relentless focus on technology, innovation and company culture, positions it as the go-to platform for those working in debt markets. We’re thrilled to support their ambition to become the global market leader.”

Focused on startups and SMEs, the fund prioritises companies with proof of concept and commercial customers.  

The PDF is designed to bridge Poland’s defence innovation gap and create over 3,000 high-skilled jobs with a focus on long-term technology transfer and production capabilities in Poland. 

It aims to foster technological sovereignty through collaborations that enhance both domestic and regional production and innovation, while enhancing Poland’s strategic autonomy and economic resilience. 

Poland’s defence sector has historically lacked a dedicated venture investment framework. Despite a significant contribution to the NATO Innovation Fund (€50 million), Poland has not reaped proportional benefits, with limited investments in its domestic technology landscape. 

The PDF aims to reverse this trend by targeting key gaps in capital availability, ecosystem support, and scalability for local defence and dual-use technology companies. 

With global defence investments surpassing $30 billion annually, this initiative ensures Poland remains competitive while enhancing its strategic autonomy and economic resilience.

Maciej Samsonowicz, advisor to the Minister of National Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, asserts that the need for the Armed Forces to achieve technological superiority has once again become apparent in the ongoing war in Ukraine. 

“Modern technologies – including autonomous systems and drones used on a large scale – have allowed Ukraine to repel aggression from a stronger opponent effectively.

This is one of the reasons why drone troops are being created in Poland at an accelerated pace.”

While the fund is in its formative stage, it aims to invest in areas such as:

• AI
• Unmanned systems (air, land, sea) 
• Advanced materials and stealth technologies 
• Resilient communication systems 
• Optoelectronics 

The capital structure consists of an initial funding of €100M, with a controlling 51 per cent stake held by the Polish state (directly or indirectly). 

Additional funding is to be sourced from strategic and financial investors, and financial institutions from EU, NATO or allied countries. 

The PDF prioritises companies with proven Proof of Concept (PoC) solutions and first commercial clients, focusing on those contributing directly to Poland's national security. 

It is closely aligned with Poland’s Ministry of National Defense and Armed Forces, ensuring the fund addresses military priorities while maintaining flexibility for dual-use applications. A dedicated Advisory Committee will bridge gaps between military end-users and the technology ecosystem. ´

According to Samsonowicz, the project aims to develop defence and dual-use technologies by providing investment capital to Polish technology companies. 

“This will create an ecosystem of defence technologies that will enable the transfer of key technologies and know-how within the ecosystem itself and directly to Polish defence companies.

Poland will have the opportunity not only to maintain but also to transfer R&D and production capabilities to the country, which will significantly strengthen the local economy and ensure greater independence in the area of ​​defence.”

The fund is currently in the consultation phase, where key stakeholders and experts are shaping its structure and priorities. The launch is anticipated following the finalisation of legal, strategic, and financial frameworks. 

Lead image: Freepik.

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💸 Notable and big funding rounds

🇳🇱 Cradle raises €69.5M funding

🇬🇧 Vertical Aerospace raises €47.6M funding as part of €171.1 million rescue deal

🇧🇬 Ampeco secures $26M to accelerate global EV charging networks

🇳🇱 Pyramid Analytics receives $50M in financing from BlackRock

🫱🏽‍🫲🏻 Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers

🇮🇹 Bending Spoons is taking video platform Brightcove private in $233M acquisition

🇪🇸 Visma strengthens its offering with the acquisition of tugesto

🇮🇪 Accenture acquires Award Solutions

🚀 Interesting moves from investors

🇩🇪 This German VC taps founders of decacorn SumUp and Amsterdam’s Felyx as new partners

🗞️ In other (important) news

🔋 In the middle of the storm, Northvolt wants to give them bonuses - of SEK59 million

👮‍♀️ Monzo accused of ‘especially concerning’ regulatory breaches by competition watchdog

🔒 UK seeks collaboration for security research lab to counter Russia and ‘new AI arms race’

⚡️ Increased power needs ‘biggest challenge’ for data centres

📡 Recommended reads and listens

🤖 Why more unicorns shouldn’t be Britain’s end goal

🏭 Solaris says “close to finalising agreement” amid reports of urgent €100M funding round

🇫🇮 Corning offers bundle of commitments in bid to settle EU antitrust probe

🇪🇺 Innovations driving Europe's space industry

🔭 European tech startups to watch

🇨🇭 Insurtech Poncho raises €590,000 for weather-insured travel

🇬🇧 Vinter secures €1.4M for AI-powered recruitment

🇫🇷 Biodiversity startup Darwin secures €1.5M for nature data analysis

🇨🇿 Czech spinout DYNANIC secures €550,000 pre-seed

The Czech spinout has developed innovative technology that optimizes the use of programmable chips, boosting their throughput and simplifying their integration into high-performance applications. 

This startup marks the first investment from Tensor's second fund, and comes from Brno University of Technology. Their technology hopes to play a role in the development of programmable chips, which, in contrast to regular computer chips, offer the flexibility needed to keep pace with the fast- evolving demands of modern technology and data center environments. DYNANIC allows customers to customise chipsets by selecting specific parameters to meet their needs.

The technology was developed by a team of Czech researchers from Brno University of Technology, led by Pavel Korček.

"Programmable gate chips are very difficult to program, few people know how to do it, because it is not a common software development with its standard paradigms. We have acquired this capability over the past two decades, working on unique research on this very topic at the university and within the CESNET association," he commented. 

"Based on our experience, we founded a company in late 2021, with the university's ownership, with a vision that the client could use FPGA chips without having to have their own dedicated experts."

DYNANIC’s product has been licensed and adopted by all major FPGA chip manufacturers, including Intel and AMD, and Kakao Corp and Kaloom Networks use it  to accelerate applications in data centers. 

The company will now focus on technology for 800 Gbps networks, although chips for such extreme speeds are not yet available.

"We want to accelerate the whole process of our entry among the heavyweights of the global chip industry, targeting so-called hyperscaler companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and IBM," said Korček. "We chose angel investors using the same key. We had a lot of offers for funding, but only some investors had extra experience and valuable contacts, just like Tensor Ventures."