Europe
The latest startup and technology news coming out of Europe.
Solo GP fund Andrena Ventures hopes to carry startup talent onto its next challenges
Gideon Valkin’s solo VC firm Andrena Ventures is raising $12 million from backers, including several VCs and entrepreneurs, and made its first investment into AI startup Nustom.
Carbonfact is a carbon management platform designed specifically for the fashion industry
French startup Carbonfact believes that the best carbon accounting solutions will focus on one vertical. That’s why the company has decided to provide a carbon management and reporting tool exclusively…
Apple’s iPadOS will have to comply with EU’s Digital Markets Act too
The European Commission said it will apply its flagship market fairness and contestability rules to Apple’s iPadOS.
OpenAI inks strategic tie-up with UK’s Financial Times, including content use
OpenAI, maker of the viral AI chatbot ChatGPT, has netted another news licensing deal in Europe, adding London’s Financial Times to a growing list of publishers it’s paying for content…
ChatGPT’s ‘hallucination’ problem hit with another privacy complaint in EU
OpenAI is facing another privacy complaint in the European Union. This one, which has been filed by privacy rights nonprofit noyb on behalf of an individual complainant, targets the inability…
London’s first defense tech hackathon brings Ukraine war closer to the city’s startups
Last week, the U.K. announced its largest ever military support package for Ukraine. The bill brings the U.K.’s total support for this financial year to £3 billion — not quite…
Ultra-fast fashion e-commerce giant Shein will be subject to an additional layer of governance rules targeted at very large online platforms (VLOPs) under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA),…
Global Founders Capital will deploy Rocket Internet’s cash instead of raising a new fund
Global Founders Capital, the Berlin-based early-stage VC firm with close ties to the German startup factory Rocket Internet, is going to become the venture arm of Rocket Internet. The VC…
Watch it and weep (or smile): Synthesia’s AI video avatars now feature emotions
Its latest version features avatars that provide more emotion, better lip tracking, and what Synthesia says are more expressive natural and human movements when they are fed text to generate…
Meta could face further squeeze on surveillance ads model in EU
Meta’s tracking ads business could be facing further legal blows in the European Union: An influential adviser to the bloc’s top court affirmed Thursday that the region’s privacy laws limit…
TikTok pulls feature from Lite app in EU over addiction concerns
TikTok suspended a gamification feature in the European Union following an intervention by the bloc. With attention on TikTok’s growing pile of U.S. legal woes, the announcement went mostly unnoticed…
It’s still unclear whether cloud gaming will ever become the next big thing. The appeal is clear: The game you’re playing runs in a data center near you, and the…
Edonia grabs €2M to turn microalgae into less bitter-tasting ground meat alternative
The company produces plant-based ingredients from raw microalgae biomass, generated from spirulina or chlorella, that it claims is more nutritious than meat.
EU opens probe of TikTok Lite, citing concerns about addictive design
The European Union has opened a second formal investigation into TikTok, announcing Monday that it suspects the video sharing platform of breaking the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), an online…
European police chiefs target E2EE in latest demand for ‘lawful access’
The director general of the UK’s National Crime Agency has targeted Meta over its planned expansion of end-to-end encryption to Instagram.
Seraphim Space launches second VC fund with 9 investments already under its belt
Following its first close with limited partners, including Eutelsat, the early-stage fund will build a global portfolio of 30 startups that will be backed at the seed and Series A…
TikTok Shop expands its secondhand luxury fashion offering to the UK
TikTok Shop, TikTok’s social commerce marketplace, is launching a secondhand luxury category in the U.K., putting it in closer competition with The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, Depop, Poshmark, and Mercari, among…
Equities platform Midas raises $45M Series A as fintech retains its sparkle in Turkey
Midas, a fintech startup that allows people in Turkey to invest in U.S. and Turkish equities, says it has raised $45 million in a funding round led by Portage of…
Langdock raises $3M with General Catalyst to help companies avoid vendor lock-in with LLMs
Plenty of large corporations want to join the AI revolution, but many feel it’s too early to be locked into one foundational model. That means there’s a market for a…
Internet users are getting younger; now the UK is weighing up if AI can help protect them
Artificial intelligence has been in the crosshairs of governments over how it might be misused for fraud, disinformation and other malicious online activity. Now, a U.K. regulator wants to explore…
Adtech giants like Meta must give EU users real privacy choice, says EDPB
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has published new guidance that has major implications for adtech giants like Meta and other large platforms. Since November 2023, the owner of Facebook…
ByteDance gets 24 hours to show EU a DSA risk assessment for TikTok Lite
TikTok owner ByteDance is facing fresh questions about its compliance with the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), an online governance and content moderation framework that puts a legal obligation…
EU privacy body adopts view on Meta’s controversial ‘consent or pay’ tactic
Incoming guidance by an expert steering body on European Union data protection law could have major implications for Meta’s advertising business model. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has decided…
Flatpay rings up $47M to target smaller merchants with simple payment solutions
Flatpay plans to use the money to expand into new markets in Europe and to build out more products alongside the point-of-sale and card terminals that it sells today.
Apple will soon let users in the EU download apps through web sites, not just the App Store
Apple is opening up web distribution for iOS apps targeting users in the European Union starting Tuesday. Developers who opt in — and who meet Apple’s criteria, including app notarization…
Finmid raises $24.7M to help SMBs access loans through platforms like Wolt
finmid is building an embedded finance product that targets that relationship between marketplaces and sellers, and raised a Series A round to further build out its product and enter new…
Big Tech’s ad transparency tools are still woeful, Mozilla research report finds
“We feel there are major gaps between the spirit of the EU regulation and these repositories in practice,” the report authors write.
Meta’s ‘consent or pay’ tactic must not prevail over privacy, EU rights groups warn
Nearly two dozen rights groups are urging the EDPB to not endorse a strategy used by Meta that they say is intended to bypass the EU’s privacy protections.
Lawhive raises $12M to expand its legal tech AI platform for small firms
Lawhive has raised £9.5 million ($11.9 million) in a seed round to offer AI-driven services to ‘main street’ law firms.
UK’s antitrust enforcer sounds the alarm over Big Tech’s grip on GenAI
The UK’s competition watchdog, the CMA, has sounded a warning over Big Tech’s grip on the advanced AI market, with CEO Sarah Cardell expressing “real concerns” over how the sector is…