Startups
Jul 2, 2026
Global Startup Funding Hit a Record $510B in H1 2026
Venture funding shattered records in the first half of 2026, reaching $510 billion — more than all of 2025 combined. OpenAI and Anthropic alone accounted for 43% of that total, while IPOs and M&A activity hit their strongest levels since the 2021 boom.
Venture Capital
AI Funding
Startups
Jul 2, 2026
Visiblie Raises €500K to Get Brands Found in AI Search
Belgian startup Visiblie has closed a €500,000 convertible loan round backed by Seeder Fund, BeAngels, and entrepreneur Steven Tielemans. The platform helps SMEs and enterprises understand and improve their visibility in AI-powered search results — already serving users across five continents less than a year after launch.
AI search
Belgium
Funding
Jul 2, 2026
BidScript Tops $1M Pre-Seed for AI-Powered Tendering
UK-based BidScript has closed an $800,000 funding round, pushing its total pre-seed capital past $1 million. The AI-native platform helps businesses find, manage, and submit bids for public and private sector contracts — with early customers reporting win rate improvements of up to 50%.
AI
Funding
govtech
Jul 1, 2026
Crunchbase's Tracker Shows Who's Cutting Tech Jobs
Crunchbase is actively tracking layoffs across U.S.-based and U.S.-present tech companies, updated bi-weekly. The tracker covers both startups and public tech firms, pulling data from media reports, social posts, and crowdsourced databases. Here's what you need to know about the methodology behind the numbers.
data tracker
layoffs
Startups
Jul 1, 2026
Why LLMs All Say '7': One Startup's Fix for AI Groupthink
Most large language models are predictably converging on the same answers — from random numbers to band names to marketing taglines. Australian startup Springboards built a model called Flint specifically trained to break that pattern, and early users say it's already changing how they brainstorm.
AI creativity
chatbots
Generative AI
Jul 1, 2026
Arena Hits $100M ARR With Its AI Leaderboard
Arena, the team behind the widely used Chatbot Arena benchmark, has reached $100 million in annual recurring revenue less than a year after launching its commercial offering. The startup has quietly become an essential evaluation layer for AI companies racing to prove their models are best-in-class.
AI benchmarks
ARR
Enterprise AI
Jul 1, 2026
Ex-Speedinvest's Rick Hao Closes $50M Solo GP Fund
Former Speedinvest partner Rick Hao has closed a $50 million solo GP fund targeting deeptech startups across Europe and the UK. The fund focuses on early-stage companies in areas including advanced materials, semiconductors, and defense technologies.
Venture Capital
Deeptech
Europe
Jun 30, 2026
Acti Embeds AI Agents Into Your Smartphone Keyboard
Startup Acti is turning the smartphone keyboard into an AI command center. Its new iOS and Android keyboard lets users build custom AI-powered shortcuts using natural language — and it works across any app.
AI agents
Android
iOS
Jun 30, 2026
European Tech Roundup: €2.1B Across 75+ Deals
European tech had a busy week, with more than 75 funding deals totalling over €2.1B tracked across the continent. Fintech, security, and semiconductors dominated by sector, while Germany, France, and the Netherlands led by country. Tech.eu also launched its Funding Explorer — now free and open to all.
AI
European tech
Fintech
Jun 30, 2026
P101 Absorbs PranaVentures to Launch €100M Seed Fund
Italian VC firm P101 has integrated seed-stage specialist PranaVentures, combining over €600M in assets and creating a full-stack venture platform. The deal kicks off fundraising for Prana101, a new €100M fund targeting Pre-Seed and Seed investments in Italian and European tech.
Venture Capital
Seed Funding
Italy
Jun 30, 2026
German Pulse: SE3 Eyes Defense, Personio Under Fire
Germany's defense tech scene gets a new contender in SE3 Labs, HR giant Personio is under mounting pressure, and D2C scaleup Grenion Group — parent of HelloBody — files for insolvency. Here's what's moving in the German startup ecosystem.
DefenseTech
Germany
Startups
Jun 30, 2026
Meta, OpenAI Alumni Target $400M for Stealth Lab Aire
A trio of veterans from Meta and OpenAI are raising $400 million for a new AI research lab named Aire. The startup is focused on 'AI assistants' and research & development, and is already drawing comparisons to other well-funded European AI labs.
AI funding
AI research
European AI
Jun 29, 2026
Omen AI Raises $31M to Fight Data Center Bacteria
Omen AI has closed a $31 million Series A to deploy real-time monitoring technology inside liquid cooling systems at data centers. The startup's sensors detect bacterial contamination and coolant degradation before they cause costly hardware failures. As AI workloads push chips to their thermal limits, the company is betting that coolant health is the next critical infrastructure problem to solve.
Data Centers
Liquid Cooling
AI Infrastructure
Jun 27, 2026
Corgi Denies Stealing Open Source Vibe-Coding Code
Y Combinator-backed insurtech startup Corgi is pushing back against accusations from open source document-sharing tool Papermark, which claims Corgi lifted its software wholesale. The dispute is shining a harsh light on the risks of AI-assisted 'vibe coding' in early-stage startups.
AI development
insurtech
Open Source
Jun 26, 2026
Aseon Labs Raises $10M for Robotaxi Pitstops
Robotaxis are logging unnecessary miles just to get cleaned and recharged — Aseon Labs wants to fix that with dedicated pitstop pods. The Y Combinator-backed startup just raised $10M to deploy its infrastructure solution for autonomous vehicle fleets.
Autonomous Vehicles
EV infrastructure
Funding
Jun 26, 2026
Patronus AI Raises $50M for Simulated 'Digital Worlds'
Patronus AI, founded by former Meta AI researchers, has closed a $50M funding round to develop simulated environments that rigorously stress-test AI agents. Investor demand signals the market's growing urgency around AI reliability and safety infrastructure.
AI Agents
Funding
AI Safety
Jun 25, 2026
Ex-Databricks AI Chief Bets on 1,000x Energy Cuts
Ali Ghodsi's former AI lead has launched a startup claiming its technology can reduce AI's power consumption by up to 1,000 times. The company's first product, Un0, is an image-generation system that demonstrates the approach can replicate conventional AI workloads at a fraction of the energy cost.
AI
Energy
Startups
Jun 25, 2026
Vishal Sikka's New AI Startup Takes Aim at IT Services
Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka has launched a new venture backed by Mayfield and Aramco Ventures, assembling a team of veterans from SAP, Infosys, and VianAI to challenge the traditional IT services model with an AI-native approach.
AI
Enterprise
Startups