VC Angle Weekly Briefing #33: Octopus Energy Spins Off Kraken at $8.65B, European Markets Hit Records, VC Data Shows Mixed Recovery
VC Angle Weekly Update #33
Hey - welcome to the thirty-third edition of VC Angle Weekly Updates! As always, we're keeping tabs on what actually matters across 🇪🇺 European tech, as well as relevant global tech news. If something broke the news this week and it's worth your time, it's probably below. Scroll on for the deals, reads, and reports you'll want on your radar.
In This Edition:
Octopus Energy spins off AI unit Kraken Technologies at $8.65B valuation after $1B fundraise
European stocks hit all-time highs led by Dutch semiconductor company
FT warns AI bubble mirrors 1929 but central banks will prevent depression
Robeauté raises $28M for brain surgery microrobots targeting 2026 human trials
European university spinouts collectively valued at $398B across 76 unicorns
⏱️ 2:55 Reading Time
💥 Main Events Past Week
British energy company Octopus Energy is spinning off its AI unit Kraken Technologies at an $8.65 billion valuation after raising $1 billion led by D1 Capital Partners. Kraken serves over 70 million utility accounts globally with $500 million in contracted annual revenue—quadrupling in three years—and will operate independently under CEO Amir Orad by mid-2026, with Octopus retaining a 13.7% stake.
European markets hit record highs in first trading session of 2026
European AI and semiconductor stocks surged at the start of 2026, tracking Asian gains after Samsung's CEO expressed bullish sentiment on high-bandwidth memory chips. Dutch companies led with BE Semiconductor up 9.7%, ASM up 6.3%, and ASML up 3.7%, while STMicroelectronics rose 3.25%.
TechCrunch: European VC data lags optimism despite recovery signals
“European VC enthusiasm doesn’t match reality”: deal volume flatlined at €62B since 2023 while US surpassed prior years, and fundraising hit decade-low at €8.3B. Recovery signals include US investor participation rebounding from 19% low, Klarna’s IPO, Lovable and Mistral securing massive US-led rounds, and EQT doubling European investment to $250B over five years.
📰 Other News
Robeauté raises $28M for brain surgery microrobots, targeting human trials by 2026
2025 sees 15 mega-rounds exceed $2B with OpenAI’s $40B topping list dominated by AI companies
Top European 2026 IPO candidates
EIC launches Scaleup Europe Fund seeking fund manager for multi-billion late-stage vehicle
Top 10 European VCs in 2026
European university spinouts valued at $398B as 76 companies reach unicorn status
EIF commits €1.25B to ETCI 2.0 after backing 35 companies and 9 unicorns
👇🏼 Read some of our previous weekly reports to stay in the loop with 🇪🇺 European tech news:
🔍 Reads & Reports
The Financial Times warns that AI euphoria mirrors the Roaring Twenties with hyperscalers spending $600 billion on infrastructure while consumers spend just $12 billion annually on AI services, creating a mathematically untenable capital structure that will burst like the railway boom where technology survived but investors didn't. However, unlike 1929, any crash won't trigger a Great Depression as central bankers will provide market safety nets and the US will remain the global borrower of last resort.
Google dropped 60 AI updates in 2025, from Gemini 2.0 evolving to Gemini 3.0 by year-end to AI Mode completely changing how Search works. The standout moves: computer-use capabilities that let Gemini actually control interfaces, the Pixel 10 launch, and their new Ironwood TPU built specifically for AI inference. Nano Banana, their image editing model, proved popular enough that Google expanded it across Search, NotebookLM, and Photos.
👋 That’s a wrap for this week.
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