#001 - The Early Stage Review
A round up of the latest news, deals and resources on the Europes early stage startup eco-system from 06/02/22 - 13/02/22.
🗞 In the news 🗞
Early-Stage Irish Startups to get €90M boost : Minister for Enterprise Leo Varadkar announced that a new fund is to be established to help 45 early stage Irish start-ups go global. The fund will receive a 30 million contribution from the Department of Enterprise, matched by the European Investment Fund (EIF) and Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF).
Specialist VC announces €50M Fund II: The newly established fund will provide critical capital to early stage Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Finnish entrepreneurs who are building their business in those countries or abroad. They will also support Ukrainian and Belarusian founders whose startups are headquartered in the baltic region.
Creandum Introduces new diversity, equity & Inclusion Policy: The leading European early stage VC has announced a series of changes and targets it aims to achieve to improve DE&I both internally and in the wider ecosystem.
European VC Leadership still male dominated: Research by Sifted found that there is a massive lack of of females in leadership positions in VC. With only two female partners being promoted in 2021, compared to 9 males in the 22 most prominent VC funds in Europe.
💰 Notable Investments 💰
Pre-Seed
🇬🇧 Actable AI | €1M | Investors - Begin Capital (Lead), Charlotte Street Capital, Malta Enterprise & Angels : The London based startup is building an AI-powered no-code platform that makes advanced data analytics more accessible.
🇨🇭 EthonAI | $1.3M | Investors - Wingman Ventures (Lead) & Acequia Capital: The ETH Zurich spin-off is developing a platform that uses artificial intelligence to detect and prevent quality defects in manufacturing.
🇬🇧 Smarter.ai | £1M | Investors - Fuel Ventures & Hambro Perks: The London based startup is building a global marketplace that levels the AI playing field between SME’s and big tech by connecting business with the world's leading AI creators.
🇬🇧 Interplay | $1.2M | Investors - ACT Venture Capital (Lead), Enterprise Ireland & others: The Cork- based startup is building a platform that connects and automates design and code workflows.
🇩🇪 Clare&me | €1M | Investors - Antler (Lead), YZR VC (Lead) & Angels: The Berlin based health-tech startup is creating an innovative automated AI-driven audio bot to support people with mental health illnesses.
Seed
🇫🇷 E-Space | $50M | Investor - Prime Movers Lab: The space-tech startup founded by industry veteran, Greg Wyler, is working on a new pioneering sustainable communication satellite network in space.
🇫🇷 JOIN | €4.5M | Investors - Seedcamp (Lead), Xange (Lead) & Angels: The Parisian startup is developing a turnkey solution for creating, publishing, and monetising stories on all communication channels such as websites, mobile apps and e-mail.
🇬🇧 Peequal | £250K | Investors: British Deign Fund, Tom Blomfield & others: The female founded startup has created the world’s first first touch-free, stand-alone, flatpack and portable women’s urinal made from recycled sea plastics.
🇬🇧 m3ter | $17.5M | Investors - Kindered Capital (Lead), Union Square Ventures (Lead) & Insight Partners : The startup is working on innovative usage-based pricing technology for SAAS businesses and recently came out of stealth.
🇹🇷 Midas | $11M | Investors - Earlybird VC (Lead), Spark Capital (Lead), Revo Capital & Nigel Morris: Turkey’s first retail investment app offering low commission trading, fractional shares and US equities.
🇬🇧 Re:infer | $7.6M | Lead Investor - Crane Venture Partners: The zero-code conversational data Intelligence platform that transforms messages into actionable data at speed.
🇭🇷 Sportening | £5.3M | Investors: Sacha Dragic (Lead), Sequoia Capital Global Equities (Lead), Clarium Capital (Lead), Luka Modric & Others: The social network for sport fans officially launched after a successful public beta which saw it amass 250,000 users in 10 months.
🇪🇸 Rosita Longevity | €2.4M | Investors: Ship2B (Lead), Seedcamp, JME Ventures, KFund, Seedlink Health and others: The longevity startup is working on an app that aims to help seniors increase lifespan and avoid the risk of dependency.
🇫🇷 Starton | €3.8M | Investors: Speedinvest (Lead), Daphni VC, Kima Ventures, Ledger & Others: The paris based is creating a platform to help train the next generation of blockchain developers.
Series A
🇫🇷 Elicit Plant | €16M | Investors: Sofinnova Partners (Lead), ECBF, Bpifrance & Others: The AGtech startup is developing sustainable solutions to tackle the global challenge of crop water resistance.
🇩🇪 remberg | €11M | Investors - Earlybird VC (Lead), Speedinvest & Fly Ventures: The Munich-based IoT startup is developing software that helps companies digitise their processes around their equipment.
🇪🇪 eAgronom | €6.4M | Investors: ZGI Capital (Lead), Yolo Investments (Lead), Trind Ventures, Specialist VC and Iron Wolf Capital: The Estonian Agtech startup is building a farming based carbon credits platform.
🇫🇷 Seyna | €33M | Investors: White Star Capital (Lead), Elaia (Lead), Global Founders Capital, Financiere Saint James and Allianz: The french insuretech is working on an innovative new platform that helps insurance brokers better protect customers and grow their businesses.
🇮🇪 Perfuze | €22.5M | Investors - LSP (Lead), Seroba Life Sciences (Lead, SV Health Investors, Enterprise Ireland & Others : The Galway based startup is. developing a catheter-based technology for treating acute ischemic stroke.
🇬🇧 Fintern | $11M | Investors - Hambro Perks (Lead) & Varengold Bank : The London based startup is aims to improve access to fair credit for the masses through its innovative new platform.
🇫🇷 Zefir | €20 million | Investors - Sequoia Capital (Lead), Stride VC, Heartcore Capital & Kima Ventures: The Parisian startup is building a platform specialising in instant real estate sales.
🇬🇧 FloodFlash | $15M | Investors - Buoyant Ventures (Lead), PropTech1, Pentech, Local Globe, Insurtech Gateway and others: The London based insuretech reduces the stress by paying catastrophic flood claims in 48 hours.
🇳🇱 Insify | €15M | Investors - Accel (Lead), Visionaries Club, Frontline Ventures and Fly Ventures. : The Amsterdam-based startup is creating a digital insurance platform designed for Europe’s entrepreneurs and SMEs
🇬🇧 Hullablook | $8.2M | Lead Investor - Nauta Capital (Lead), Conviction VC & Playfair Capital : The London based startup helps retailers build high converting e-Commerce sites through its innovative new software.
🛠 Useful Resources 🛠
📖 Recommended Read: Atomico State of European Tech Report
👂🏼Must Listen: Riding Unicorns Podcast - S3E10 - Michelle Kennedy, Founder & CEO @ Peanut -
🧵 Thread of the Week: Exit Multiples by @nic_detommaso