VC Angle Weekly Briefing #25: EU Backs Deeptech with €1.4BN & Anthropic Opens European Offices
VC Angle Weekly Update #25
Hey - welcome to the twenty-fifth edition of VC Angle Weekly Updates! As always, we're keeping tabs on what actually matters across 🇪🇺 European tech. If something broke the news this week and it's worth your time, it's probably below. Scroll on for the deals, roles, reads, and events you'll want on your radar.
In This Edition:
100+ founders launch €80M United Founders
Spotawheel raises €300M for car subscriptions
Anthropic opens Paris and Munich offices
EIF invests €20M in TIN Capital cybersecurity
EU allocates €1.4B for 2026 EIC programme
McKinsey: 88% use AI, 80% see no impact
📰 What Happened This Week
100+ European founders launch €80M United Founders fund for deeptech
Over 100 founders and operators from 26 countries launched United Founders, a Pre-Seed and Seed fund targeting deeptech and emerging tech. The fund writes checks up to €1 million for hardware, dual-use innovation, and medtech.
Founded by Vít Horký (Brand Embassy, acquired by Nice in 2019) and Jakub Havrlant (Rockaway Capital), early investments include Israeli automation startup Wonderful and German healthtech Every Health.
Greek used car startup Spotawheel raises €300M for European subscription expansion
Athens-based Spotawheel raised €300 million in equity and debt financing, including a senior secured credit facility from Pollen Street Capital. Founded in 2016, the company operates a subscription model for used cars as an alternative to ownership.
The platform uses data analytics to identify vehicles and offers warranties up to five years. Capital will scale its subscription fleet across Europe and develop new fintech offerings for car access.
“Cars have become one of the most inflationary items in our daily lives. Consumers desperately need an option that doesn’t drain their disposable income,” said founder Charis Arvanitis.
Anthropic opens Paris and Munich offices as EMEA becomes fastest-growing region
Anthropic is opening offices in Paris and Munich, expanding its European footprint alongside existing hubs in London, Dublin, and Zurich. EMEA has become the company’s fastest-growing region, with run-rate revenue up 9x year-over-year. Large business accounts exceeding $100,000 in run-rate revenue grew 10x over the past year.
The company tripled its EMEA headcount in the past year. New leadership includes Thomas Remy as Head of EMEA South (based in Paris) and Pip White as Head of EMEA North (London). A Head of DACH & CEE will be announced to oversee Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, and Czech Republic.
EIF invests €20M in TIN Capital’s cybersecurity fund as final close exceeds €80M
The European Investment Fund invested €20 million in TIN Capital’s European Cyber Tech Fund V under the InvestEU programme. With participation from Invest-NL and other investors, the fund reached a final close exceeding €80 million.
The fund targets Series A and B rounds in European cybersecurity scale-ups, with recent investments including companies securing software supply chains, cloud infrastructure, and advancing privacy-tech.
EU allocates €1.4B for 2026 European Innovation Council deep tech programme
The European Commission adopted the 2026 EIC work programme, allocating €1.4 billion for deep tech entrepreneurs. Key improvements: EIC Accelerator proposals reduced from 50 to 20 pages, evaluations every 2 months instead of 6.
The programme pilots Advanced Innovation Challenges inspired by the US ARPA model. The Commission is also preparing the Scaleup Europe Fund for late-stage growth capital. The EIC Fund has made €1.4 billion in direct investments across 300+ startups, leveraging 3.5x in co-investments.
🔍 Reads & Reports
McKinsey: 88% of organizations use AI, but most remain in pilot phases
McKinsey’s 2025 Global Survey on AI finds 88% of organizations report regular AI use in at least one business function, up from 78% a year ago. However, approximately one-third have begun to scale their AI programs—the majority remain in experimenting or piloting stages.
Despite widespread adoption, over 80% report no tangible enterprise-level EBIT impact from gen AI. Only 1% of executives describe rollouts as “mature.” Less than 20% track KPIs for gen AI solutions—the practice most correlated with bottom-line impact.
A great strategy is not just a plan or a vision—it is a decisive, clear explanation of “how we will win” in a competitive and complex environment. The article by Jason Cohen outlines key qualities that distinguish truly effective strategy from mere planning, wishful thinking, or generic goals.
A bad strategy, on the other hand, is overly complex, vague, non-confrontational, indecisive, generic, linear in risk/reward, or obsessed with short-term challenges rather than shaping the long-term future. It fails to address what truly matters, is not memorable, and does not create unique competitive advantage.
💶 Where Funds Went (Or Will Go)
Startups
🇬🇷 Spotawheel → €300M (equity + debt) used-car platform
🇫🇷 Upway → $60M Series C refurbished e-bikes
🇩🇪 octonomy → $20M seed agentic AI workflows
🇳🇱 Source.ag → $17.5M Series B AI for CEA
🇩🇪 The Icon League → €15M Series A five-a-side league/media
🇫🇷 Tsuga → $10M seed AI-era observability
🇬🇧 Fit Collective → £3M fashion fit/returns
🇫🇷 Freeda → €3.4M AI for construction plans
🇩🇪 Maesn → €2.3M unified API platform
🇳🇱 Struck → €2M seed building compliance AI
🇪🇪 Leil → €1.5M storage infra software
🇨🇭 Motley → $1.5M pre-seed AI business reporting
🇨🇭 BTRY → $5.7M seed ultra-thin solid-state cells
🇬🇧 Cambridge Photon Technology → £1.56M solar efficiency materials
🇪🇸 Kabilio → €4M AI accounting/tax
🇬🇧 GitLaw → $3M pre-seed AI legal companion for businesses;
🤝 M&A
🇬🇧 Homemove acquires Home.co.uk → combines AI moving tools with market data
Investors
🇪🇺 Aspirity Partners debut fund → €875M (B2B tech)
🇵🇹 Armilar Fund IV → €120M first close
🇵🇱🇩🇪🇱🇺 Balnord — €70M frontier & dual-use fund; offices in Gdańsk, Berlin, Luxembourg
🇪🇺 United Founders — new pre-seed/seed VC for deeptech & emerging tech
👋 That’s a wrap for this week.
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