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Welcome to another edition of 🔍 Startup Researcher - Europe, your essential digest delivering the latest news and premium insights on startups and venture capital across the region 🌍
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📰 Important News
- Mistral AI launched Mistral 3, an open-model family with 3B, 8B, 14B, and Mistral Large 3 for document analysis and multilingual AI use cases.
- Yann LeCun, Meta's outgoing AI scientist, is building a startup in Europe focusing on world models, aiming for AI that understands the physical world.
- Swedish vibe-coding startup Lovable hoped to achieve 65% margins by the second half of 2026, according to a pitch deck circulated earlier this year.
- Tobias Billström, ex-Swedish foreign minister, became strategy director at Nordic Air Defence, backing its AI-driven Kreuger 100XR interceptor.
- The Flywheel formed a European venture studio to co-found industrial AI startups with up to $350,000 in early funding and operational support.
💸 Top Funding Rounds
- Brevo became a unicorn after a $582.7 million secondary sale, valuing it above $1 billion and is planning a $116 million US expansion.
- Black Forest Labs secured $300 million in Series B led by AMP and Salesforce at a $3.25 billion valuation to advance visual intelligence.
- Iceye secured $233 million led by General Catalyst at a $2.8 billion valuation to expand its SAR constellation and data services.
- Shop Circle expanded its credit line to $100 million with i80 Group to speed its AI-led acquisition strategy and product growth.
- Gradium raised a $70 million seed round backed by Eric Schmidt to build interactive AI voice systems across multiple applications.
💰️ Notable Exits
- OpenAI agreed to acquire neptune.ai, a Polish metrics dashboard platform, to fold its experiment tracking into OpenAI’s model training and research.
- Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Eventbrite in a $500 million all-cash deal to modernize the events platform with AI and new features.
- Wayve acquired German startup Quality Match to use its data analysis expertise to improve training for Wayve’s self-driving car AI models.
- Italian HR-tech firm TeamSystem acquired Arca24 to add AI-powered talent acquisition and recruiting tools to its broader HR solutions suite.
- MANUAL agreed to integrate German digital dermatology provider FORMEL SKIN to build a leading European healthtech group beyond skin treatments.
🏦 About Investors
- Expedition Growth Capital secured a $375 million fund to back bootstrapped software firms with strong ARR and high year-over-year growth.
- Growathon Ventures is launching as Europe's first women-of-color led VC fund, targeting $116 million to finance pattern-breaking founders.
- ISAI launched a new vehicle with a $93.2 million first close to invest in traction stage startups and support French founders in the US.
- SwissHealth Ventures doubled its fund to $124.8 million to invest in digital health startups and pursue twelve additional deals.
- Incore Invest, a Stockholm-based VC, secured $17.5 million in a second closing for its Invest II fund, bringing the total to $46.6 million.
🚀Startup of the Week
Introducing our Startup of the Week 🏆
Brevo
Brevo, founded in Paris in 2012 by CEO Armand Thiberge, has grown from its Sendinblue origins into a global customer engagement platform serving more than 600,000 companies. The company offers an integrated suite spanning marketing automation, CRM, customer data tools, and AI-powered agents built through the Brevo AI Lab. Backed by a $582.7 million funding round led by General Atlantic and Oakley Capital, with support from Bpifrance and Bridgepoint, Brevo is accelerating its U.S. expansion and deepening its product innovation while pursuing strategic acquisitions. With a strengthened founder-led ownership, Brevo aims to build Europe’s next global CRM leader and redefine how businesses connect with their audiences.
💼 Investor of the Week
Introducing our Investor of the Week 🏆
Expedition Growth Capital
Expedition Growth Capital, founded in 2020 with offices in London and Boston, has quickly become a leading growth equity investor backing Europe’s top bootstrapped software and AI companies. The firm focuses on founder-led businesses that have passed $5 million in ARR, pairing growth capital with hands-on operational support from its Operations Group. Led by Oliver Thomas, Expedition recently closed an oversubscribed $375 million fund in just four months, signaling strong market conviction in its capital-efficient strategy. With a portfolio across nine countries, Expedition aims to scale durable European software leaders and fill a critical gap in the continent’s growth-stage funding landscape.
🤑Opportunity Radar
Call for Applications: The HAX Program
The HAX Program, run by SOSV, is a global accelerator for hard-tech startups building solutions in hardware, climate tech, health tech, industrial tech, energy, and AI. Founders gain access to investment, hands-on engineering resources, a world-class mentor network, and long-term venture support through SOSV’s multi-stage platform. The program targets pre-seed hard-tech teams with early prototypes and strong customer insight. Apply now to join a globally diverse community and accelerate your path from prototype to scale.
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