Hello everybody,
Welcome to Sunday CET. Hectic period already, with little reflection time. Since it’s my birthday this week, below a lil’ gift for all of you - my usual weekly piece about what I’ve seen interesting in Europe last week, I think it is the best intel piece covering the local market you will find. Already sent to our customers this morning - you should join too.
Have a good one,
Dragos
Have you tried Nordic 9 yet?
Nordic 9 sits on a comprehensive startup deals and investors database - dead simple UX, no frills and well-structured with proprietary data covering all the 30 European countries.
Nordic 9 is the best way to get familiar fast and stay updated with who’s who in the Euro VC land. Data is assorted with a comprehensive cheat sheets library + weekly intel covering verticals, geographies and whatnot from the European startup world.
👇 Try it now. 👇
The intel lineup of the past week
strategic moves into the secondary market
significant Euro liquidity for defence
European mega funds in the making
Highlights
🇸🇪 EQT acquired the British secondaries investment firm Coller Capital for $3.7 billion - 3.2B in stock and 500M in cash.
Coller is the world's largest secondary-focused manager, overseeing $33B of fee-generating AuMs, and operating in 11 countries.
They'll be incorporated as a new business unit within EQT Partners under the brand Coller EQT.
Deal done as State Street had acquired a minority stake in Coller Capital just a few months ago - State Street will now become an EQT investor.
This fills an obvious gap in EQT's product offering, as the Swedes did not have a dedicated secondaries fund before the acquisition.
Notably, EQT preferred to buy than raise its own fund, indicating a high opportunity cost - the time is now, power play for Per Franzén, who was appointed CEO last year: "I believe we can double the size of Coller’s business in less than four years"
Mentioned this here a few times - in the past years, the IPO as a mean to liquidity has become a vulnerability for the buy side ecosystem, making the secondary market, once a distress signal, a viable alternative.
This is a market even less transparent than the VC one, with different sources showing different numbers. Alas it is very hard to track secondary transactions in the private market either - put some numbers together to get a broad picture (data sources: 1, 2):
The secondary market is one of the fastest-growing segments of private markets - grew 41% in 2025 with deal volumes reaching $226B, and is expected to 2X by 2030.
The market is split between LP-led transactions ($120B) and GP-led deals ($106B), such as continuation funds.
Out of this, the global venture secondary volumes is in the $120B - $150B range.
The European market accounts for 20-25% of the global market, estimated at $45B - $55B, with the venture direct secondary transaction volume accounting for $12B to $15B annually.
The continuation fund mechanism originated in the PE world and is now being increasingly adopted by VC firms - Lakestar and Speedinvest have each announced one last year (there's more in the long tail afaik but not publicly announced though).
Some notable recent secondary VC transactions in Europe - Revolut, Trade Republic, Odoo, Picnic, Deel.
One final observation - the top of the market VCs acting as PE is a two way street, as lately PE firms have also started venturing to the tech/venture space, since they have stayed private longer i.e. EQT just did Mews and Lovable out of its PE fund, and is also said to have in the works an official 500M continuation fund.
💲 This week, the US equity funds recorded their largest outflows on record - about $16–17 billion, while European and Asian equity funds attracted net inflows, reflecting a relative shift in investor positioning.
The European market is nervous about geopolitical tensions and policy uncertainty, especially the Nordic countries, most recently due to the American claims of taking over Greenland.
On point:
🇩🇰 Danish pension fund AkademikerPension dumped all its $100M worth US Treasury holdings
🇸🇪 Sweden’s pension fund Alecta has also divested most of its US Treasury holdings (worth $7.7–8.8B).
Both funds cited increased risk and unpredictability in US politics.
It should be noted that the outflows are rather specific, and not a coordinated or systemic 'sell everything US' event.
Alas, a flex that didn't go un-noticed though - European funds are usually being named in the media only when a fund voluntarily announces a divestment, which is rare.
🇨🇿 CSG raised €3.3 billion at a €25B valuation in an IPO event at Euronext in Amsterdam - and then saw its shares jump 30%.
the major owner cashed out €2.554B - that'd be a Czech industrial holding controlled by local business man Michal Strnad.
dude is currently the most valuable individual in the Czech Republic, with a fortune equivalent to roughly 10% of the national economy. He inherited CSG in 2018 from his father, Jaroslav Strnad, who founded the business in 1995 as a small firm trading Soviet-era military surplus.
CSG reported consolidated revenue of €4B for 2024 and €4.5B for the first nine months of 2025, €1.7B of which from Ukraine sales. The company expects revenue to rise further to €7.4-7.6B for the full year 2026.
Also notable:
🙊 This one has less to do with figuring European market signals, which is the purpose of this email - nonetheless useful read for anybody interested in understanding technology in 2026 (you'll need an account to read it). The gist of it:
[in the world of LLM models] ... 1 GW gets you about $10B ARR and can serve up to ~400M WAUs
OpenAI at almost 2 GW with $20B ARR and 800M WAUS.
Anthropic at almost 1 GW with $9B ARR.
Grok at 1 GW and at $421M ARR (as of Q3 '25) but a lot of their capacity is still being used for training vs. inference
If we hold 1 GW = $10B ARR capacity constant, OpenAI is working to give themselves the 30 GW capacity to grow to $300B in ARR beyond 2030.
Based on their revenue growth, they'll need more than 13 GW to deliver their 2029 target revenue number (ARR is of course higher)
We're still very early in terms of adoption, and AI will not be zero-sum given demand for intelligence and compute is infinite.
Media rumours
🇬🇧 Two fundraising rumours published in the media this week:
Plural is planning a new investment fund that could reach €1 billion. One of the good ones in Europe - fwiw, Plural last raised an over-subscribed €500 million fund in 2024.
QuantumLight, of Revolut's Nik Storonsky fame, is also out raising money for a second fund - following a debut $250 million multi-stage fund announced earlier last year.
Afaik, there's more similar roadshows happening in Europe as we speak, based on at least a few selling points:
the European sovereignty sense of urgency
the market imbalance of heavily under-developed late stage capital pools countered by quite a few local promising assets
a mirroring of the US market, with a16z's mega $15B funding announced earlier this month.
startup working on a new AI model, famous for its French founders - chair is Yann LeCun (ex-Meta) and CEO is Alex LeBrun (ex-Nabla)
investors in the mix include: 20VC, Hiro Capital, Daphni, HV Capital, Cathay and Greycroft.
🇫🇮 Oura is in talks to run a secondary deal that would let existing shareholders sell shares at a 25% discount to its $11 billion Series E valuation.
Oura announced series E closing in October.
last public fundraising event was a series C extension at €1.3B in March 2023 - European captable includes Cathay, Molten and Felix Capital.
last traction data is also as of 2023, when they did $36.7M in turnover, which later turned into a 'triple-digit million revenues' PR packaging in 2025.
Also notable:
🇫🇷 Mistral AI has a $1 billion revenue target for 2026 and is due to spend the same amount on capex.
Recent VC deals in the Nordics
🇸🇪 Skygrid Engineering - intelligent orchestration layer that transforms idle processors of EVs into virtual data centers.
pre-seed equity deal with Automotive Ventures and WakeUp Capital
$1.4 million with local angel investors
pre-seeded earlier last year by Lifeline Ventures and Index Ventures scouts
50k users
$5 million pre-seed led by General Catalyst, joined by angel investors.
$6 million seed led by First Round Capital, Y Combinator, 20VC and angels investors.
deal closed post last summer's YC graduation.
🇩🇰 Octarine Bio - manufacturer of alt pigments
$6 million series A extension with Edaphon, Ginkgo Bioworks and angel investors.
initial round was resumed last summer at $9M, led by the Dutch from DSM Venturing.
$7.6 million in Series A funding led by Newion, with participation from Specialist VC, Vendep Capital, and Business Finland.
seeded by Vendep with $1.4M in 2023.
$22 million in Series A funding co-led by MMC Ventures and QED Investors, joined by Lowercarbon Capital, BNVT Capital, Bosch Ventures, Centrotec, and Earthshot Ventures.
equity assorted with a $1.2B debt facility
traction: €85 million in 2025 turnover - 8X yoy, projected to keep similar growth pace this year.
The UK
🇬🇧 Anzen Industries - biomanufacturer of high-value chemicals using cell-free enzyme systems
$2.2 million pre-seed round with LocalGlobe, Creator Fund and angel investors.
🇬🇧 Asymmetric Security - AI-native cyber forensics platform
$4.2 million seed with investors led by Susa Ventures, with participation from Halcyon Ventures and Overlook Ventures
🇬🇧 Antidote Legal - automated billing compliance for law firms
$5 million seed round, led by Lakestar, joined by Concept Ventures, The LegalTech Fund and angel investors.
🇬🇧 Solve Chemistry - organic synthesis platform for pharmaceutical and agrochemical companies
$5.3 million seed round led by XTX Ventures, with Endgame Capital, SuperSeed, Creator Fund, Inovia Capital, Redbus Ventures
$13 million Series A led by Blackbird, with participation from Y Combinator and Pi Labs
made a hard pivot from an B2B energy marketplace last year, which they got funded for at YC in 2023.
traction: 500 healthcare sites globally
🇬🇧 Eolas Medical - AI clinical knowledge platform
$12 million series A led by Acton Capital, joined by Ascension, Kindred Capital, Portfolio Ventures, Samaipata, ScaleX Investments
seeded by 7percent, Ascension and Samaipata back in 2021.
$30.9 million Series A extension round led by Northern Gritstone, joined by imec, Lingotto, and NSSIF.
follows an initial $26.5M series A announced in 2023, led by Exor (Lingotto)
🇬🇧 Infinitesima - producer of next gen semiconductor devices.
Series B investment round led by Maverick Silicon.
€200 million split between secondaries and series D with Kinnevik, Planet First Partners, AP Moller, Lunate, EGS, Norrsken VC, and Sofina.
all except Sofina are new investors in the company
huge jump from the $80M series C resumed in 2021.
already profitable, with high interest as they have unlocked the governmental reimbursement across three different geo - i.e. the product is embedded into national healthcare reimbursement rails
- in Germany, Oviva operates under DiGA / statutory reimbursement pathways
- in the UK, it contracts with NHS / ICBs
- in Switzerland, it works directly with insurers
Germany
pre-seed led by SIVentures
bold product claims:
- Speech Reasoning (91%), ahead of OpenAI
- Model Intelligence (77%), ahead of Google Gemini in Non Reasoning
- Latency (250ms), ahead of ElevenLabs
$2.7 million pre-seed led by Haatch
🇩🇪 Twentyfour Industries - manufacturer of war drones
$11.8 million seed from Lakestar, OTB Ventures, and 468 Capital.
out-of-stealth announcement as the Germans have been around since late 2024, with customers from multiple countries, including battlefield-involved i.e. Ukraine.
🇩🇪 GeneralMind - AI-based system for supply-chain driven operations
$12 million pre-seed round led by Lakestar, joined by Leo Capital, LucidCapital, Heliad, and BOOOM
16 new Euro startups officially added by Lakestar in the past 12 months - fwiw, they deploy from a $600M composite fund announced in 2024.
$12 million in Series A funding led by BlackFin Capital Partners, joined by ACE Ventures and TX Ventures.
🇩🇪 one • fıve - packaging manufacturer
$16 million in Series A funding led by Hans Riegel Holding, joined by Planet A and Speedinvest.
$64 million Series B led by Innovation Industries, joined by Supernova, General Catalyst, 83North, The Venture Collective, Possible Ventures
the Germans have done $32M series B in 2023, led by 83North.
$222 million in series A round led by Eurazeo, joined by RIVE Private Investment, Creandum, Norrsken, Earlybird Venture Capital, and Picus Capital.
the money is inclusive of a $93 million upsizing option putting the initial, binding financing round at $129 million - the option allows the total investment to reach the full $222M if exercised.
France
$1.3 million in a pre-seed led by SistaFund, joined by Kima Ventures, Olympe Capital and business angels.
$2.9 million seed with Bpifrance, Sowefund and Linksium
🇫🇷 AI Verse - platform used for automatic generation of synthetic datasets for artificial vision applications.
$5.8 million funding round led by Supernova Invest, with participation from existing backers Innovacom, Bpifrance Digital Venture, and Créazur.
🇫🇷 Symbiotic Security - real-time code security platform
$10 million seed round led by Alven, joined by Lerer Hippeau, Axeleo Capital, Drysdale Venture and angel investors.
$12.7 million Series A investment round with Blue Revolution Fund, Blast Club, SWEN Capital Partners, Elaia and MFS Investment.
$23 million Series C led by Impala and Opera Tech Ventures, joined by Alven and Andreessen Horowitz.
$200 million series E round led by TCV, joined by Blackstone, Sequoia, DST Global and CapitalG.
Netherlands
🇳🇱 AnGard Microwave - next gen counter-robotic systems
seed round led by Nunc Capital, joined by University of Twente and TNO.
$3.6 million in seed funding led by Matrix Partners, joined by YC and angel investors.
went to YC in the summer of 2022
$11.6 million series A led by FORWARD one
Other geo
pre-seed funding round co-led by Vento and Connect Ventures.
$128 million deal - $53 million in series D funding and a $75 million buyout with Azimut Group
based on Azimuth's claim of controlling an estimated 20% stake post, the implicit value of D-Orbit is north of half a billion.
worth noting that last year the Italians were looking to a SPAC listing at a $1.28 billion valuation, which didn't work out.
$300 million led by EQT Growth, joined by Atomico, HarbourVest, Kinnevik, Battery Ventures and Tiger Global
€2.1 billion post.
Investors on the move
🇬🇧 Hanna-Stina Sonts was promoted to a VP Insights position at Atomico, after four years with the London office.
🇬🇧 Julian Bennet joined Keensight Capital as MD in London, moving on from six years in a similar position with Investcorp.
🇲🇽 Alberto Padilla-Rivera was promoted to an executive VP position at Insight Partners after almost seven years spent in the London office.
🇬🇷 Panagiotis Karampinis was promoted to regional MD for Europe at Endeavor in London, after 12 years with the company, last 5 as MD for Greece.
🇮🇹 Federico Fini joined 360 Capital Partners in Milano, after two years spent with Join Capital.
🇩🇪 Robert Stoecker was promoted to parter at AENU after four years in the Berlin office.
🇸🇪 Anton Åström was promoted to Director, AI & Analytics at EQT Ventures, after four years spent with the company.
🇸🇪 Jacob Toresson joined as VC & Growth investor with Forestay in Switzerland, after spending two years with Alliance VC in Stockholm.
🇪🇸 Darío Villena joined as principal for Armilar to lead the Portuguese VC's expansion in Spain out of Barcelona.
🇪🇸 Covadonga García-Valdés was promoted to principal at Kibo Ventures after more than four years in the Madrid office.
🇫🇷 Victoire Dumas joined Sparkfood as a VC Principal in Paris, switching a four year gig with Swen Capital Partners.
🇵🇱 Lech Kaniuk joined Eleven Ventures as venture partner in Warsaw, as the Bulgarian VC is building a presence in Poland.
Powder
🇳🇴 Credo Partners secured $160 million in funding commitments for a newly launched PE fund.
🇨🇭 Vi Partners made a first closing for a new CHF 150 million fund, targeting Series A and early-stage technology and healthcare startups.
🇩🇪 Ananda Impact Ventures closes €73 million for new deeptech fund
🇩🇪 Vanagon announced closing LP commitments of €20 million.
🇦🇹 Andreas Klinger announced raising €15 million for Prototype, his third solo GP fund, targeting €20 million.
🇬🇷 Metavallon VC launched a €5 million pre-seed fund for deep tech and life sciences founders out of Athens.
Also notable
🇫🇷 Louise Boucher made official kicking off Sisyphus Ventures, a VC fund she started late last year, looking to invest in defense startups out of a maiden fund targeting 20 million.
she's previously worked for Frst and Northzone and the new fund already chipped in to deals including Harmattan, ZeroPhase and Tiberius Aerospace, per our tracking.
🇬🇧 Athvance Capital is a newly minted fund targeting European sports investment, launched by ex-JP Morgan Karim Ben Rejeb and ex-Eurosport Danny Menken.
Exits
🇬🇧 General Atlantic, AVP and Alkeon bought €60 million worth of shares in Odoo in a secondary deal at a valuation of €7+ billion.
follows a similar transaction led by CapitalG and Sequoia at €5 billion last year.
€650 million in billings from 170k customers
🇬🇧 Aviva, Founders Factory and a group of local angels exited from Acre, a British software company operating an all-in-one mortgage platform acquired by its competitor Clearscore for an undisclosed amount.
the Brits have raised around $15 million since their 2018 start.
🇩🇪 eCapital, Giesecke+Devrient and Tikehau Capital exited from Build38, German developer of mobile application protection solutions acquired by US-based Onespan for an undisclosed amount.
Build38 has raised around $18 million from investors since 2018.
Also notable:
🇬🇧 Rocket builder Orbex has signed a letter of intent to sell to space logistics startup 🇩🇪 The Exploration Company.
Elsewhere
Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed co-led a $150 million seed at $800M post deal done with Inferact, American startup building LLM infrastructure.
Jeff Bezos, SV Angel, GV, and Emerson Collective chipped into a $480 million seed round at a $4.48B post raised by Humans&, American startup building a collaboartive AI platform.
SoftBank and Khosla Ventures co-led a $70 million Series B round at a $300M post (3X from 4 months ago), raised by Emergent, an Indian startup building a vibe-coding platform whose ARR grew from $100K to $50 million in just seven months.
Thrive Capital and DST led a $250 million series D at $12B post raised by OpenEvidence, a Miami-based ChatGPT for doctors.
IVP and CapitalG co-led a $300 million Series E at a $5B raised by Baseten, a SF startup that helps businesses deploy and run large AI models for applications development.
That’s all folks, have a wonderful week!
Did you find this email useful?
Thanks for reading! Please send me feedback by hitting reply.
To support my work, upgrade to one of the subscription options.
If this email was forwarded to you, please subscribe, it’s free!
Created every Sunday by @drnovac of Nordic 9 with weekly notes and observations from the European startup ecosystem.
You have received this email as you signed up at Sunday CET or are a Nordic 9 registered user.