As I write this, two contrasting regulations on the development of artificial intelligence — namely generative AI — are making their way through the European and British parliaments. The British approach is very simple — looking to ensure AI companies fit into existing laws governing technology companies. In contrast, the EU approach, as White & …
Flemish venture capital firm Imec.xpand has raised €300mn to invest in deeptech startups. The VC is a spinoff from Leuven-based Imec, one of the world’s largest microelectronics research institutions. The new fund targets AI, semiconductors, nanotechnology, photonics, and quantum computing. It will also invest in startups working on new ways to diagnose and treat medical …
Deeptech VC raises €300M in push for ‘semiconductor supremacy’Lire plus »
Estonian mobility startup Bolt has secured a €220mn credit facility as it plans to go public next year. This type of financing is a more flexible loan option, which allows a business to withdraw and repay funds as needed, on an ongoing basis. Kind of like a credit card for companies. The credit facility …
Lithuanian climate investment firm HeavyFinance has added over 700,000 football pitches-worth of farmland in Ukraine to its soil carbon credit programme. Modern agriculture has taken its toll on soils. Centuries of plowing, cutting, and overgrazing has made land less fertile. This has also released billions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. HeavyFinance pays farmers …
This tech investor will pay Ukrainian farmers to trap carbon in their soilLire plus »
Utrecht-based Vitestro has raised €20mn to bring its robotic blood drawing device to market. Founded in 2017, Vitestro aims to improve the blood draw experience for patients and address personnel shortages in healthcare — where the demand for skilled laboratory professionals is growing at a higher rate than any other occupation. The startup’s device relies …
Dutch startup to bring robotic blood drawing to hospitalsLire plus »
MindAffect, a Netherlands-based healthtech startup, has raised €1.1mn to bring its hearing diagnostics technology to market. A spinout from Radboud University, MindAffect has developed a patented brain computer interface (BCI) technology, which enables diagnosis of hearing impairments using brain signals. The startup aims to provide a more equitable testing solution that specifically caters for hard-to-test …
Dutch startup to test hearing via brain-computer interfaceLire plus »
In 2022, over 20,000 Lithuanians returned to their country of birth from abroad. A high quality of life coupled with a booming entrepreneurial ecosystem and a collaborative mentality has contributed to what investors are calling a “reverse brain drain.” Many of their minds reemerge in the country’s startup scene. It was on a visit to …
Why Lithuania is a hidden gem of Europe’s startup ecosystemLire plus »
Hallo, Netherlands! Welcome to TNW’s first weekly round-up of tech news from our glorious home country. As we count down to TNW conference in Amsterdam on June 20 and 21, we’re ramping up our coverage of the Dutch IT sector. We’d also love to hear your thoughts on the local ecosystem. Drop us a line if …
A British startup aims to launch science satellites into space in 2025 after raising a fresh £2mn. Blue Skies Space has devised a unique business plan for the stargazers. They will be the first-ever science satellites that provide data directly to researchers via a membership model, the company said. The approach offers a new route to the secrets of …
World-first satellites for commercial science set for launch in 2025Lire plus »
All of us will face the consequences of runaway climate change — unless, maybe, you’re living in one of Elon Musk’s new homes on Mars. But for the rest of us poor souls, tackling global heating is pretty much the top priority. The bad news is we are not on track to limit global temperatures …
3 carbon capture technologies you’ve probably never heard ofLire plus »
