The European startup ecosystem is full of interesting and exciting news, twists and turns. At EU-Startups, our aim is to keep you informed on everything that’s going on and share the inspiring entrepreneurial spirit this continent has to offer. From big funding announcements, duocorns picking up pace, to new partnerships and conscious collaborations – there’s never a dull day!
This week, B-corp accreditations, new updates in greentech, and the corporate cheese giant taking an interest in a European startup.
Launches and Expansions
- Insurtech pioneer Qover unveiled embedded insurance orchestration technology, a new insurtech category. Embedded insurance orchestration promises to allow any business where customers or employees would or should adopt insurance to do so, bringing the industry up to speed with the digital age.
- Luna launched in the UK, as an app dedicated to teen health & wellbeing. luna acts as an older sister, demystifying teen issues that historically may be seen as embarrassing and can make teens feel alienated.
- Brite Payments announced further expansion to offer full product coverage across the Baltic region, following the successful launch of its instant pay-ins solution in Estonia earlier this year.
- Monneo, a complete end-to-end payment ecosystem provider, announced the launch of its new central London office. In opening the office, the company has taken an important next step in its overarching global expansion plan.
- TIER, the world’s largest micro-mobility operator, piloted wheelchair-accessible e-scooters in France ahead of possible wider roll-out to provide greater freedom and autonomy to those with reduced mobility.
- Ecosia, the green search engine which uses 100% of its profits to reforest the planet and tackle the climate crisis, launched a new climate pledge rating feature to help users understand the climate action commitments of major organizations. The Climate Pledge Rating now appears in the search results of the most-searched companies on Ecosia, including Amazon, Meta and Spotify.
Acquisitions and Partnerships
- Bel Group, a major player in healthy snacking with cheese brands such as Babybel®, The Laughing Cow® and Boursin®, and the startup Standing Ovation announced an exclusive partnership to incorporate casein milk protein, the main milk proteins, produced thanks to Standing Ovation’s technology, in Bel’s alternative cheese offerings. In September, Bel acquired an equity stake in Standing Ovation.
- Stora Enso, the renewable materials company, announced a partnership with Voodin Blades to develop sustainable wind turbine blades, using LVL (laminated veneer lumber). Under the agreement, the two companies are committed to developing sustainable alternatives for wind turbine blades and creating a competitive and reliable supply chain.
- Noventiq (LSE: SFTL), the global digital transformation and cybersecurity solutions and services provider, announced the signing of an agreement to acquire the majority of Serbian software and digital solutions leader Saga Group.
- Algorithmiq, a Helsinki-based quantum computing startup, signed a partnership deal with IBM with the view to achieving useful quantum advantage within life sciences. This collaboration brings together IBM Quantum’s world-leading hardware, software and quantum applications expertise with Algorithmiq’s cutting-edge algorithms developers, to explore ways to dramatically cut the time and cost of drug discovery and development.
- RetailNext, the leading analytics solution for brick-and-mortar retailers, announced the acquisition of Retail Performance, the UK-based people-counting and footfall solutions from Ipsos.The deal strategically positions RetailNext for further rapid growth in the UK and European retail intelligence space.
- EIT Health, Europe’s largest health innovation network, announced that Irish startup, Akara, has signed an MoU with Tartu University Hospital, Estonia’s largest healthcare provider and core partner of EIT Health. The partnership was forged after the two were matched on EIT Health’s ‘Start-ups Meet Healthcare Providers’ accelerator programme, earlier in 2022.
- Leading property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) announced its partnership with our company Know Your Customer to accelerate and expand the digital transformation of its client due diligence and anti-money laundering operations.
- AI-powered writing assistant platform ProWritingAid is the latest tech name to work with leading enterprise CMS Storyblok. The collaboration will help drive ProWritingAid’s global expansion.
Milestones and Insights
- Swiss-Ghanaian startup Koa received recognition for its social-responsibility, picking up B-Corp accreditation just 5 years after the establishment of its innovative cocoa fruit venture.
- Berlin-based Green Generation Fund presented tangible and impactful foodtech solutions to mitigate climate change at COP27, bringing innovation straight to decision-makers
- ‘DPhi’- an ecosystem envisioned to educate and build AI for All, rebranded itself to ‘AI Planet’
- Crowdcube announced it has earned B Corp certification reinforcing the equity crowdfunding platform’s commitment to building a business making a positive impact in the world. The fintech received a score of 87.2 out of 200 (compared to the average score of 50.9).
- TurinTech, the leader in AI-powered code optimisation, unveiled the first project in its new AI Lab series: a free five-week virtual training course for both professionals and students who are interested in developing quality AI code.
- British agri-tech Vitæ exceeded its crowdfunding target in its mission to lead the way for sustainable urban agriculture.
- The YoungPlanet app – a platform used by families across the UK to give and receive second-hand parenting and children’s items for free – has enabled over 30,000 children’s items and toys worth over £1m to find new homes, rather than be chucked away.
- Swedish fintech, Dreams, announced the establishment of a new entity, Dreams Technology, reflecting the company’s ongoing expansion into the B2B space. It initially launched as a B2C money-saving app in the Nordics in 2016 – where it has helped over 500,000 users across Sweden and Norway become better at saving, investing and debt management.
- Fiberplane, the first real-time collaboration notebook specifically designed for developers and DevOps teams to debug their infrastructure, announced the public beta of their real-time collaboration tool for site reliability engineers.
- Microverse, the online school for remote software developers where students around the world pay nothing until they land a life-changing job in tech, announced an initiative for companies to trial full-stack remote developers for 30 days risk-free before hiring them.
via https://www.AiUpNow.com
November 21, 2022 at 11:27AM by contact@bcurdy.com (Patricia Allen), Khareem Sudlow
