Series A: AI and Enterprise Software Lead the Way
The headline raise of the day came from the enterprise software world, where recruitment technology attracted significant institutional backing.
- Spott (Leuven, Belgium), $21M Series A, led by Balderton Capital, with Base10 Partners, Y Combinator, and Fortino participating. The company builds an AI-native applicant tracking system and CRM platform purpose-built for recruitment agencies.
Seed and Pre-Seed Rounds: Deep Tech, Fintech, and Edtech
Several early-stage companies closed rounds spanning hardware, financial services, and learning technology.
- Lightspring (France), approximately 3M euros seed, led by Atlantic and OVNI Capital, with Concept Ventures, Ixcore, and Plug and Play Ventures participating. The company is targeting bottlenecks in photonic chip manufacturing.
- Benford (fintech), 5M euros pre-seed, to build a tech-native financial audit firm capable of running statutory audits end to end.
- Gamindo, 1.4M euros seed, to expand its no-code platform that converts corporate training content into interactive experiences.
- Eevi (Amsterdam), pre-seed led by Rockstart, building a voice-first AI language tutor focused on spoken conversation from day one.
Energy and Climate Tech
Clean energy operations attracted fresh seed capital from a strong syndicate of specialist investors.
- Metris Energy (London), approximately 4M euros (roughly $5M) seed, led by PT1 Ventures, Octopus Ventures, AENU, and Blackfinch Ventures. The company offers an AI-native platform for managing renewable energy assets at scale.
Entertainment and Creative Tech
One of the larger rounds of the week came from a company reimagining live music.
- Unit1 Studio (London), approximately 23M euros (20M pounds), combining oversubscribed equity led by Balderton Capital with production financing, to scale its mixed-reality avatar concert technology beyond fixed-venue productions.
Biotech and Life Sciences
A Belgian regenerative medicine company secured convertible financing to advance a pivotal trial.
- Novadip Biosciences (Belgium), approximately 10M euros convertible round, led by New Science Ventures, with Fund+, Wallonie Entreprendre, VIVES Fund, and other existing backers. Proceeds will fund a pivotal clinical trial and unlock a tranche of European Investment Bank financing.
Fund Closes and Ecosystem News
Beyond individual company rounds, several new funds and institutional moves shaped the day's broader picture.
- NewSchool VC (Belgium) closed its maiden fund at 10M euros to back pre-seed B2B technology companies, supported by roughly fifty investors including six family offices.
- Project Ventures launched a debut 5M pounds fund to back pre-seed and seed deeptech and AI startups connected to the Imperial College London ecosystem.
- Final Frontier and Myriad, two Danish defence-tech VCs, announced a merger under one brand targeting a combined 100M euro fund as European defence spending continues to climb.
What Today's Raises Signal
A few clear threads run through September 22's activity. First, Balderton Capital appears twice in a single day as lead investor, backing both Spott and Unit1 Studio, a sign that generalist top-tier funds are comfortable leading across very different verticals when the product thesis is strong. Second, the cluster of sub-5M euro pre-seed rounds in photonics, audit technology, and language learning reflects continued founder appetite for capital-efficient starts in technical niches, even as Series A bars rise. Third, the fund closes from NewSchool VC and Project Ventures point to a maturing regional ecosystem story: university-linked and geography-specific vehicles are multiplying, suggesting LP confidence that deal flow outside the major hubs is deepening. Taken together, the day reinforces that European early-stage activity remains broad-based, with hardware, AI software, climate tech, and entertainment all finding backers on the same morning.