MENLO TIMES

Minitap , an AI-powered mobile development platform, led by Nicolas Dehandschoewercker and Luc Mahoux-Nakamura, has secured $4.1 million in seed funding from Moxxie Ventures , Mercuri , EWOR , Tekton Ventures , Amigos Venture Capital , and six unicorn founders - Thomas Wolf (Hugging Face), Stefan Glanzer & Michael Breidenbrucker ( Last.fm ), Paul Muller (Adjust), Petter Made (SumUp), Daniel Krauss, Jochen Engert & André Schwämmlein (FlixBus), and Saturnin Pugnet (Worldcoin).

Marble Imaging , the Earth Observation Data & Insights company, led by Robert Hook, Dr. Gopika Suresh, and Alexander Epp, has secured  a €5.3 million seed round led by HTGF. In addition, Marble has attracted a strong group of further investors who share the mission, including BAB Beteiligungs- und Management-gesellschaft Bremen mbH (BBM) , Lightfield Equity,  Oslo Venture Company ,  nwk | nwu Beteiligungsgesellschaften der Sparkasse Bremen ,  Sentris Capital ,  Auxxo Female C

Black Forest Labs , building state-of-the-art technology that advances how the world is seen and understood, led by Robin Rombach, Andreas Blattmann, Sumith Kulal, Axel Sauer, Patrick Esser, and Tim Dockhorn, has announced Series B funding of $300M at a $3.25B post-money valuation from a16z , NVIDIA , Northzone , Creandum , Earlybird VC , BroadLight Capital , and General Catalyst , and welcoming Salesforce Ventures  and Anjney Midha (AMP), as co-leads, alongside Temasek , Bai

6 Degrees Capital , an early-stage investor backing companies at Seed & Series A, with substantial follow-on capital available for later rounds, led by Filip Coen, Maxime Vanderstichele, Lucas Stoops, Wouter Volckaert, Thomas Olszewski, Thibault D'hondt, and others, has closed  a €154 million fund, with the fund backing enterprise software, AI and fintech startups at seed and Series A stages. Fund III marks 6DC’s third fund since its launch in 2023. The vehicle will write ini

Gravis Robotics , the earthmoving autonomy platform, led by Ryan Luke Johns, Dominic Jud, Marco Tranzatto, Burak Cizmeci, and Neil Woodfin, has secured $23M co-led by IQ Capital  and Zacua Ventures , with Pear VC , Imad (CVC of Nesma & Partners), Sunna Ventures , Armada Investment  and Holcim. Gravis systems are already in use with major construction and quarry operators, including Holcim, enabling autonomous site prep, stockpile management, and material loading. The company

Quantum Systems , transforming decision-making processes through aerial data intelligence, led by Florian Seibel, Sven Kruck, and Dave Sharpin, has secured  €180 million in a Series C Extension led by Balderton Capital, following its €160 million Series C in May this year, bringing the total amount secured in 2025 to €340 million, which marks the largest private capital raise in Europe’s dual-use sector. This values the company above €3 billion. Quantum Systems has establishe

Future Energy Ventures , supporting ready-to-scale start-ups active in Europe, Israel, or the USA whose mission is to accelerate the energy transition and decarbonize society, led by Jan Lozek, Veronique Hördemann, Patrick Elftmann, Ohad Mamann, and others, has announced  the closing of Future Energy Ventures Fund II with a volume of €205 million, along with a dedicated capital fund for Italy of €30 million. With this milestone, FEV becomes the largest European advisor for...

IQM , a global leader in building superconducting quantum computers, led by Dr. Jan Goetz, Dr. Mikko Välimäki, Dr. Juha Vartiainen, Sylwia Barthel de Weydenthal, Jan Kuerschner, and others, announced  an over €40 million investment to expand its state-of-the-art production facility in Finland. The expansion will accelerate the development, fabrication, and testing of advanced quantum processing units, as well as the assembly of full quantum computers, laying the foundation fo

Procure AI , the world’s first AI native Procurement Automation Platform, led by Konstantin von Büren, Yves Bauer, and Francesco Peroni, has secured  $13 million in seed funding led by Headline , with participation from C4 Ventures  and Futury Capital , as well as other notable angel investors from within the procurement industry. Procurement teams are under pressure to do more with less. Operational complexity affects 47% of B2B buyers, while 90% of companies cite limited he

Helio AI , an AI-powered recruiting platform with ATS and a gamified personality test, led by Iako Jikia , Nini Mosiashvili , Natia Kukhilava , and Sulkhan Sakhvadze , has secured a $1M seed round led by SABAH.fund , joined by  DOMiNO Ventures , Axiom, Tetrad VC , and Angel investor Bas Godska. The new funding will support global expansion of Helio’s AI Recruiting Agent, enhance product capabilities, and transform hiring processes in fast-growing markets. Helio AI pairs an in

Baobab Ventures , empowering early-stage, deep-tech founders to reach momentum, led by Carles Reina, has launched a $15 million solo GP fund to back pre-seed and seed stage founders building startups across AI, robotics, and defence. The fund has already backed companies like Murphy , Theker , Altan , and Omnia . The Fund is backed by institutional LPs Cendana Capital, Isomer Capital, RSJ Investments, Emergence Ventures, and Cyber Fund. Partners from Concept Ventures, Credo V

EcoG , empowering the scaling of charging infrastructure and accelerating emission-free mobility, led by Joerg Heuer, Johannes Hund, Sebastian Lucae, Pierdomenico Staglieno, and others, has raised  €16 million in a Series B funding round led by  GET Fund ,  Extantia , and  Bayern Kapital . The fast-charging market for electric logistics and commercial fleets is growing quickly, but fragmented systems still hinder scale and reliability. Munich-based EcoG addresses this with an

Kovant , an enterprise-grade AI agent executing operations autonomously, led by Ali Sarrafi, Dror Asaf, and Somil Gupta, has raised €1.5 million pre-seed capital led by Stockholm-based VC firm  J12 Ventures , with participation from  Ampli ,  Greens Ventures , and angel investors from tech veterans to industry leaders, including  Sara Öhrvall , board member at Axfood, Investor AB,  Verisure, and an angel investor, who will also be joining the Kovant board, and  Emmanuel Marti

Gosta Labs , an AI Operating System reducing administrative work and bringing clarity to complex clinical data, led by Lauri Sippola, Henri Viertolahti, Lionel Hadjadjeba, and others, has secured an oversubscribed €7.5 million seed round led by Voima Ventures , with participation from COR Group, the Aho family , and both existing and new investors, including Reaktor and a group of notable angel investors. Cancer care is becoming increasingly complex, with more than 35 million

BKN301 , a fintech architecture provider, led by Stiven Muccioli, Federico Zambelli Hosmer, and Luca Bertozzi, has secured a credit facility from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, and acquired  Planky , a UK-based tech company specialized in AI-driven financial analytics and open banking. The credit facility goes alongside its latest Series B round, taking the total amount raised to €33 million. The new financing will accelerate BKN301’s roadmap, supporting the expansi

Cerrion , a Switzerland-based AI video agent platform enabling real-time detection and resolution of production line disruptions, led by Karim Saleh and Dr. Nikolay Kobyshev, has raised  $18 million in Series A led by Creandum , with participation from existing investors Y Combinator , Goat Capital , 10x Founders  and Session VC , alongside prominent angels including Harry Stebbings (20VC), Oskar Hjertonsson, Thomas Wolf (Hugging Face) and Garret Langley (Flock Safety). Facto

BlackSky , accelerating earth observation from space for real-time monitoring, led by Brian O’Toole, Henry Dubois, Chris Lin, Lyn Chassagne, Nick Merski, Patrick O’Neil, and Kevin Rioles, has delivered  the first very high-resolution  images  from the company’s third  Gen-3  satellite less than 24   hours following the satellite’s successful launch in November. The company’s advanced, low-latency commercial architecture is providing decision-grade data at real-time, mission-r

PowerUP , developing and producing high-quality and sustainable energy generation products, led by Ivar Kruusenberg, Marit Riis, Kush Chadha, and Henri Kaar, has secured  a €10 million Series A funding round co-led by dual-use venture firms Mercaton and  ScaleWolf  and joined by Estonia’s SmartCap Green Fund  (funded by the European Union’s Next Generation EU), with strong participation from existing investors. The core of PowerUP’s strategy is a dual-use mission: providing r

Momentic , an automated testing platform built to help teams scale coverage, eliminate flaky tests, and ship with confidence, led by Wei-Wei Wu and Jeff An, has secured  a $15 million Series A led by Standard Capital , with participation from Dropbox Ventures  and existing investors Y Combinator , FCVC , Transpose Platform , and Karman Ventures . For years, automated testing has been promoted as the end of manual QA, with each new framework promising “write once, run forever”

Maritime Fusion , building a first-of-a-kind fusion reactor for marine and off-grid applications, led by Justin Cohen and Jason Kaufmann, has secured  $4.5 million in seed funding led by Trucks VC , with participation from Paul Graham, Aera VC , Alumni Ventures , Y Combinator , and others. The HTS magnet lab in San Francisco is now operational, enabling rapid testing of prototype cables and magnets. A recent bench test carried 5 kA through the SHIELD HTS cable using liquid ni