Mega Round: Defence AI Sets the Tone
The day's most significant raise came from a company that has become a symbol of Europe's push to build sovereign defence technology.
- Helsing: $1.8B Series E, led by Goldman Sachs and Lightspeed, valuing the company at $18B. The Munich-based defence AI firm continues its rapid ascent as Europe's leading military AI platform.
Early and Seed Stage Raises
A cluster of seed and pre-seed rounds reflects continued investor appetite for frontier materials, fintech infrastructure, and AI tooling.
- NextGO Epi: €2M pre-seed, led by Vireo Ventures, with participation from Ultratech Capital Partners, IBB Ventures, and angel Boris Habets. The Berlin startup is Europe's only producer of Gallium Oxide epitaxial wafers for next-generation power semiconductors.
- Visibuilt: €3M seed, co-led by EIFO and Unconventional Ventures, with Proptechfonden and EMDFonden also participating. The Danish company is developing mycelium-based biobased alternatives to carbon-intensive construction binders.
- Promptwatch: €6M seed round. The AI monitoring startup, often compared to rival Peec, secured the capital to scale its prompt-safety tooling.
- Skalar: €12M seed, raised by a founder who previously sold a startup to Klarna for €110M. Details on lead investor were not disclosed at publication time.
- Nopan: €7.2M total funding to date, latest round led by Newion with follow-on from Crane and Seedcamp. The Amsterdam platform, founded by Netflix alumni, targets account and wallet payment performance across European merchants.
- Doctorsa: €1M, led by PranaVentures with participation from Vento and other backers. The platform connects travellers with doctors across 40 countries.
Series A: Defence and Construction Tech
- Project Q: €15M Series A, raised just 11 months after the defence tech company's previous round. No lead investor was named in available reporting.
- Sodex Innovations: €4M, led by Capmont Technology, with Bloomhaus and Look AI Ventures also joining. The Austrian startup automates surveying and documentation of construction sites, infrastructure projects, and mines.
Fund Launches and Institutional Commitments
Beyond individual company raises, several fund-level announcements shaped the day's funding landscape.
- Nous Research: In talks to raise at least $75M at a $1.5B valuation, led by Robot Ventures with participation from USV. The company builds Hermes, a widely used open-weight AI agent model.
- Acurio Ventures: Closed its Acurio Secondaries I FCR vehicle at approximately €115M. The Bilbao-based firm will deploy capital exclusively into fund-level secondary transactions involving European VC funds.
- CriteriaCaixa: Announced €300M earmarked across two new vehicles, Criteria Bio Ventures and Criteria Venture Tech, focused on Iberian biotech and deep tech companies.
- SFC Capital: Received an additional €11M from the British Business Bank under the Regional Angels Programme, bringing the bank's total commitment to SFC to €41M for early-stage UK companies.
Editorial Perspective
Today's activity reveals a European funding environment that is growing more thematically concentrated. Defence technology attracted the largest single cheque by a wide margin, and the pace at which companies like Project Q are returning to market suggests investors see the sector as one with durable, multi-year tailwinds. At the same time, the cluster of seed rounds in advanced materials, including Gallium Oxide semiconductors and mycelium-based construction binders, points to growing conviction that deep science bets belong alongside software in early-stage portfolios. The fund-level news is equally telling. Acurio's secondary vehicle and CriteriaCaixa's €300M commitment both signal that institutional capital is working to address structural gaps in European venture liquidity and regional deep tech coverage, problems that have long constrained the ecosystem's ability to retain high-potential companies through to maturity.