VC Angle Weekly Briefing #40: Europe's Biggest Ever Seed Round
VC Angle Weekly Update #40
Hey - welcome to the fortieth 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:
EIC backs 61 startups with €467M
Biggest seed raise in European history
Klarna drops 68% since September IPO
European climate tech faces $13.5bn Series B gap
OpenClaw founder joins OpenAI
Mistral’s first acquisition
Cybersecurity VC surges 47% to $13.97bn
& more
⏱️ 3:33 Est. Reading Time
💥 Main Events Past Week
EIC Accelerator selects 61 startups for €467M in latest funding round
The European Innovation Council selected 61 startups and SMEs from 121 finalists for €467M in funding, with 85% receiving blended grants and equity. Companies span 17 EU countries led by Germany, Spain, France, and Sweden, with 28% having women in CEO, CTO, or CSO roles. An additional 60 applicants received Seal of Excellence for alternative EU funding access.
Ineffable Intelligence raising $1B at $4bn valuation before product launch
Ineffable Intelligence, a London-based AI startup founded by former Google DeepMind principal scientist David Silver, is reportedly raising $1bn at a $4bn valuation with Sequoia leading. Founded last November without a product, the company plans to build on Silver’s reinforcement learning work from DeepMind, including AlphaGo and AlphaZero. Alphabet, Nvidia, and Microsoft are reportedly considering investing.
Will be by far the largest seed round in European history.
Klarna shares fell 27% after reporting a $273M net loss for 2025 and $250M in Q4 credit loss provisions (up 60% YoY). Stock has declined 68% since September’s $15B IPO, cutting market value to $5.3B. Q4 revenues hit $1.1B (up 38%), with 118M active users generating $107 per banking customer versus $30 for average BNPL users. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski attributed rising provisions to the company’s push into longer-term financing products.
📰 Other News
OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger joins OpenAI [See below]
Mistral AI buys Koyeb in first acquisition to back its cloud ambitions [See here]
Legora set to triple valuation to $6bn with latest funding [See here]
Bending Spoons offers €1.5 million in tech scholarships through new Fellowship [See here]
Drone startup Stark reaches unicorn valuation following German armed forces deal [See here]
Lagarde reported to consider early exit from ECB [See here]
FT ranking: Europe’s leading start-up hubs 2026 [See here]
👇🏼 Read some of our previous weekly reports to stay in the loop with 🇪🇺 European tech news:
VC Angle Weekly Briefing #39: Mistral’s Revenue Jumps 20X & Station F Unites AI Giants for Startups
💶 Where Funds Went (Or Will Go)
Startups
🇬🇧 SatVu - £30M | Thermal-intelligence satellites; accelerating multi-satellite constellation.
🇬🇧 SurrealDB - $23M | Database for AI agent “memory”; launched SurrealDB 3.0.
🇱🇹 Copla - €6M | Regtech infrastructure for EU regulatory compliance (Series A).
🇦🇹 Flinn - $20M | AI tools for product lifecycle management in medtech + pharma.
🇩🇪 Plato - $14.5M | AI operating system for wholesale distributors.
🇸🇪 Agaton - $10M | Agentic AI for sales teams using voice analysis.
🇩🇪 happyhotel - €6.5M | AI hotel revenue management (Series A).
🇮🇪 Wayflyer - $250M in credit facility
Venture Funds
🇬🇧 British Business Bank - up to £45M | Investment into a VC fund targeting consumer brand startups.
🇫🇷 Quantonation Ventures - €220M | Closed quantum-tech VC fund (backed by Toshiba).
M&A 🤝
🇦🇹 Mondra ↔ inoqo — merged | Product intelligence platform for the food sector.
🇪🇺 Firecell ↔ Accelleran — merged (backed by €7.9M) | Simplifying private 5G networks.
🔍 Reads & Reports
World Fund report: European climate tech faces $13.5bn Series B funding gap
European climate tech companies face a $13.5bn Series B funding gap versus the US between 2020-2024, according to a World Fund report analyzing Dealroom and CleanTech Group data. European Series B rounds averaged $35.2m versus $45.5m in the US (20% lower), with only 15% of European climate techs graduating from Seed to Series B compared to 25% in the US.
Europe needs an additional $2.4bn annually to match US graduation rates. Just 30% of European VC fundraising comes from private institutional sources versus 72% in the US, with EIF accounting for 31% of European VC versus 4% in the US.
FIRSTPICK releases 2025 Baltic startup funding report tracking 741 early-stage rounds
FIRSTPICK and Practica Capital (with Change Ventures for 2019-2024) released their annual Baltic startup funding report based on original transaction-level data from 741 pre-seed and seed rounds, representing 62% of all early-stage deals in the region over the past six years. The report covers startups headquartered in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, including teams building primarily in the region regardless of HQ location.
Vestbee: Global cybersecurity VC hits $13.97bn in 2025, up 47% YoY
Global cybersecurity VC totaled $13.97bn in 2025 (up 47%), Europe €2.7bn. Google acquired Wiz for $32bn, Palo Alto bought CyberArk for $25bn. Largest rounds: Saviynt $700M, Cyera $900M combined.
👋 That’s a wrap for this week.
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Europe’s startup ecosystem is heating up, with record-breaking seed rounds and strategic moves highlighting both immense opportunity and persistent funding gaps