Mike Butcher
Editor At Large
The Latest from Mike Butcher
France’s IRIS Capital reaches €110M first close for its new €150M venture fund
According to Atomico’s new State of European Tech 2022 report, France has taken the UK’s title as the third largest listed tech nation, with Britain moving down to fourth. Nothing to do with Brexi
Harbor Lab secures €6.1M to make shipping dock more easily and cheaply
When a ship goes into a commercial port, there are lots of port call-related costs. These are called things like “disbursements” and “port call expenses.” They can include port
How Chargifi pivoted to Kadence, a platform to enable hybrid co-working, then pulled in $10M
Coordinating people, projects and their various locations has become a headache for companies in the post-pandemic world of remote and hybrid working. There is expensive office space to maintain and l
As demand for real estate VR booms, Founders Fund leads $16M round into Giraffe360 platform
The property industry now requires high-quality photographs, floor plans and virtual tours, so the industry for software providers in the space is booming. The whole area was accelerated during the pa
GoStudent uses its warchest to acquire large network of traditional tutoring centres in Europe
GoStudent — the Austria-based late-stage tutor marketplace that has raised $686.3 million (and attained a €3 billion valuation) to date — has acquired Germany-based Studienkreis, a traditional t
Natives Rising wins backing to help Native Americans into tech and startups
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Black, Latina and Native American women represent approximately 16% of the total U.S. population, but make up only 4% of students obtaining b
BackingMinds raises new €50 million fund to power-up normally overlooked entrepreneurs
Sweden-based venture fund BackingMinds, founded in 2016, likes to think it takes a different approach to venture in Europe. Its new €50 million fund will aim to take a road less traveled by most VCs
A new wave of solo GP VCs is coming to Europe and Hypernova hopes to power it
The U.S. has had solo VC fund managers for many years but the trend is only just starting to catch on in Europe. One of the newest is Underline Ventures, started this year by Bogdan Iordache in Romani
Anne Hathaway backs Pact, an all-women led VC for mission-driven startups, from West to East
How many VC funds can you name where the three partners all had babies whilst raising the fund, have deep connections in Asia as well as Europe and the U.S. and include actress Anne Hathaway as an LP?
Slush revokes $1M pitch prize from Russian founders after industry outcry [Updated]
This post was published (November 21, 2022 @ 08:37:07) and was updated with new information at (November 21, 2022 @ 11:54:08) San Francisco time. Immigram — a talent immigration platform founded
Zennström calls the end of high-valuations era, says founders and VCs must remove stigma of down rounds
As the world moves into economic headwinds and geopolitical uncertainty, European founders must get used to taking tough decisions to ensure the survival of their startups. This will include getting u
Index Ventures thinks new startups will emerge in the downturn and is putting $300M behind that bet
Back on April 8, 2021, Index Ventures, one of the very few “original gangsters” of the European VC scene, said it was kind’ve going “back to its roots.” It announced the laun
Tiger Global-backed Algorithmiq to collaborate with IBM over drug discovery using Quantum
Algorithmiq, a Helsinki-based quantum computing startup, has pulled in a deal with IBM to super-charge its exploration of quantum algorithms applied to the life sciences. The collaboration will attemp
Startup founders go to war with UK government over its moves to appoint bank into key ecosystem role
Nothing less than a war has broken out between an influential swathe of the U.K. tech startup community and the British government, after the latter has allegedly sought to hand the curation and promo
Lisbon’s Indico VC launches €25M Opportunity Fund for its scale-ups, taking it to €141M total
Indico Capital Partners, the Lisbon, Portugal-based VC, has launched a €25 million Opportunity Fund with the help of previous LPs, to invest up to an additional €5 million in the most promising fo
Real-time data startup Quix raises a $12.9M Series A round led by MMC Ventures
The complexity of streaming data technologies — not just streaming video but any kind of streaming data — has created a headache around dealing with that high-speed data processing. Accord
Pet insurance startups chase the market as pet ownership booms among Gen Z and millennials
Walk through any public park these days and you will see a hell of a lot more dogs than you might have three years ago. The loneliness of the pandemic lockdowns led to an explosion in pet ownership. P
‘Self-therapy’ startups are blooming in the ‘moderate mental health’ space
Mental health problems — and the tech products which aim at them — come in all shapes and sizes. There are “mental wellness” products like Calm and Headspace. On the more sever
Satellite startup Constellr wins backing to build out its water-monitoring platform
We are living in the era of so-called microsatellites, which are equipped with thermal cameras and other regalia to, for instance, alert farmers before crops are damaged, predict droughts and aid in t
Evolito, with an axial-flux motor lighter than Tesla’s, starts ramping up its team
Last year YASA, a British electric motor startup with a revolutionary “axial-flux” motor, was acquired by Mercedes-Benz to develop ultra-high-performance electric motors for Mercedes’s AMG.EA el