European tech weekly recap: €1.4B in deals and January's highlights

Last week, we tracked more than 70 tech funding deals worth over €1.4 billion, and 5 exits, M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe.

📊 European tech startups raised €5 billion across 265 deals in January 2026, marking a 9 per cent drop in deal volume and a 24 per cent decline in funding compared with the same month the year before. Regionally, Germany 🇩🇪 stood out, with startups raising €1.8 billion, reinforcing the country’s growing share of European funding despite the broader slowdown. Sector activity remained fragmented, with fintech 💳 attracting €1.5 billion during the month.

Fr more detailed review and more in-depth analyses of the European tech ecosystem, including industry and country performance, exit activities, and more, check out our January report.

❗ Now, let's get you up to speed on everything that happened last week, including your handy.csv file, allowing for an even more in-depth analysis.

Have a great week!

Funding deals by amount

• UK: ElevenLabs raises $500M, says building towards IPO
• SWEDEN: Polestar nabs $400M from banks to fuel EV fightback
• UK: newcleo raises $85M in financing
• SPAIN: Kings League receives $63M investment
• UK: Legaltech Lawhive raises $60M as looks to crack US
• SPAIN: Biorce raises $52M to support global rollout of its AI clinical trial platform
• FRANCE: Healthtech platform Hublo secures €40M Revaia reinvestment to support post-exit growth phase
• UK: Artificial Labs raises $45M in Series B funding
• NETHERLANDS: Stripe alumni raise €30M Series A for Duna, backed by Stripe and Adyen execs
• SPAIN: BCAS secured €30M to strengthen its position in flexible student financing
• GERMANY: E-motor technology cuts energy losses by up to 70% as Additive Drives secures €25M
• UK: $26M funding round backs Veremark’s international expansion and service rollout
• UK: OneDome raises $25M pre-Series C funding
• UK: Bound secures $24.5M Series A to expand FX hedging tools
• CROATIA: Daytona raises $24M Series A to build agent-native compute infrastructure
• LUXEMBOURG: R3 Robotics raises €20M to automate EV dismantling at scale
• NETHERLANDS: Enshift raises €18.5M to scale integrated energy-transition solutions
• GERMANY: Morpheus Space receives a $15M investment
• SWEDEN: Bits raises €12M to deepen automation across fintech compliance workflows
• UK: Incard closes £10M Series A to expand its financial platform
• FINLAND: Capalo AI raises €11M to expand battery storage optimisation
• SWITZERLAND: Chiral bags $12M to scale robotic platform for graphene chip integration
• FINLAND: Vexlum raises €10M to scale semiconductor laser manufacturing for quantum and space applications
• FRANCE: Healthtech MyC secures €10M to digitise medical operations for complex worksites
• SWEDEN: Holyvolt closed €9.4M investment
• UK: Sidekick raises £7.8M to expand access to investment products
• GERMANY: Gardia secures €8.5M to scale its mobile emergency system for seniors
• UK: Apexx Global raises $10M for payments orchestration platform
• FRANCE: UBEES secures €8M to support global expansion of regenerative pollination
• UK: Polaron completes $8M funding round for materials science intelligence
• UK: Uplift360 secures €7.4M to target composite supply-chain resilience
• UK: Refute raises £5M seed round to address disinformation threats
• UK: NuVision Biotherapies raises further £4.8M in funding
• DENMARK: Synthesia and Flatpay founders back Pluto.markets in $6M raise
• LITHUANIA: Axiology raises €5M to develop tokenised capital markets platform
• SWEDEN: Power drone Airpelago fills the coffers with €4.2M
• UK: Sparxell raises €4.2M to scale plant-based colour technology for fashion and textiles
• GERMANY: Enclaive closes €4.1M round focused on multi-cloud confidential computing
• NETHERLANDS: QT Sense closes €4M round to support real-time cell analysis
• UK: AppFactor raises $4M in seed funding
• FINLAND: Willo secures €2.9M to commercialise alignment-free wireless power
• UK: Healthcare and financial wellbeing startup for over 60s Lateral raises £2.5M
• UK: Ex-Facebook engineers launch Slashwork from stealth with £2.5M investment
• UK: Nyxium lands £2.4M for agentic AI that slashes energy permitting timelines by 75%
• UK: Linda AI raises €2.6M to expand AI workflows for dental practices
• GERMANY: Qontext closes $2.7M pre-seed round to develop a context layer for AI
• ROMANIA: Edtech Kinderpedia raises €2.2M
• SWEDEN: Berget AI lands €2.1M as demand grows for sovereign AI in Europe
• SWITZERLAND: Haelixa received €2M in funding in a round that included 212 NexT
• DENMARK: TechBBQ secures €2M grant to boost Denmark’s global startup presence
• FINLAND: Optivian secures $2.3M to build AI agents that replace entire sales teams
• SPAIN: Valeria lands $2M to fix payroll for the frontline economy
• SWEDEN: Fintower completes €1.5M oversubscribed seed round
• BELGIUM: HR tech company talentguide raises €1.3M to expand data-driven skills management in Europe
• CZECH REPUBLIC: Readmio secures €1M from Polish Simpact Ventures
• BELGIUM: AI running analysis platform Runeasi raises €1M for global growth
• UK: Dataline raises $1M to let teams query data in plain English
• UK: TaxNova gets $1M backing from a16z’s accelerator and Revolut and Miro operators
• DENMARK: Shotling raises €700,000 in pre-seed funding
• UK: ‘Uber for barbers’ app rebrands to Doorly after £600,000 investment
• ITALY: Financial consulting startup Omney closes a €510,000 pre-seed round
• NORWAY: AI startup Watchdog raises $600,000 to catch costly invoice errors
• SPAIN: Biotasmart closes a €500,000 funding round
• UK: SmartyPlants closes £190,000 funding round for smart plant care technology
• SWITZERLAND: Besso receives a €65,410 grant
• GERMANY: Solarize received a seven-figure sum investment
• GERMANY: Lanes & Planes receives an undisclosed sum of investment
• UK: Novum scores UK pension fund backing
• FRANCE: Fleet opens its capital at a €100 million valuation after seven years of bootstrapping
• UK: Ailsa backed by Monzo co-founder & ex-Tesco Bank CEO
• TÜRKİYE: Orion Twin, a company developing digital twins, received investment at a valuation of $2.5M
• TÜRKİYE: Promake received investment at a valuation of $15M

Exits and M&A activity

• SWEDEN: Spotify-backed Soundtrack acquires Tunify and Ambie to build local power with global scale
• GERMANY: Banyan Software is taking over the Munich-based fintech Gini
• UKRAINE: UK2 Group acquired by Your.Online
• UK: Masabi acquires Passenger Technology Group
• UK: TNS completes acquisition of BT Radianz