The past week may not have been filled with major headlines, but it highlighted where European venture capital is focusing: AI agents for physical industries, agritech automation, and an increasing operator-to-VC shift.
During the week of March 16-22, investment trends were more varied and precise, indicating where European capital is being invested with confidence. AI agents are being utilized in complex physical settings, and agricultural automation now has the engineering to meet its goals. A new wave of European VC funds is emerging, drawing on operators experienced in scaling the continent’s companies.
1. **Upvest – $125M Series D | Berlin, Germany**
– Upvest raised $125 million, boosting its valuation from €360 million to €640 million. The Berlin fintech provides the infrastructure for investment apps used by Revolut, N26, Openbank, and Zopa, with Tencent showing global interest in European fintech infrastructure.
2. **Partech Impact Fund – €300M close | Paris, France**
– Partech closed a €300 million impact fund targeting growth capital in Europe’s climate tech gap. The firm will support around 15 B2B companies with over €10 million in revenue across sectors like clean manufacturing, sustainable agriculture, and digital health.
3. **Montis VC – €50M first close | Warsaw, Poland**
– Montis VC announced a €50 million first close of a new fund aimed at European startups in energy transition, industrial tech, and AI. Backers include the European Investment Fund and Poland’s Development Fund.
4. **Parallel – €20M Series A | Paris, France**
– Paris-based Parallel, developing AI agents for hospital billing and medical coding, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures.
5. **Rivia – €13M close | Zurich, Switzerland**
– Rivia secured €13 million to expand its data platform for clinical trials, helping biotech teams manage operational risks and unify fragmented trial data.
6. **Kupando – €10M Series A | Schönefeld, Germany**
– Kupando added €10 million to its Series A round, funding its lead drug KUP101 into a Phase 1b trial for innate immunity therapy.
7. **eternal.ag – €8M seed | Cologne, Germany**
– Eternal.ag, a greenhouse robotics startup, raised €8 million to develop autonomous harvesting systems, initially focusing on tomatoes.
8. **Choice – €7.1M Series A | Prague, Czech**
– Restaurant tech startup Choice raised $7.1 million to expand from Central and Eastern Europe into Western Europe, offering a comprehensive platform for restaurants.
9. **Ofiniti – $6.8M | Oslo, Norway**
– Ofiniti, a maritime fuel software startup, raised $6.8 million to extend its platform beyond Singapore into major global bunkering hubs.
10. **Reson8 – €5M pre-seed | Amsterdam, Netherlands**
– Reson8 raised €5 million in pre-seed funding to build speech AI for Europe’s linguistic challenges, supporting over 20 languages.
11. **BBLeap – €5M | Rijen, Netherlands**
– BBLeap secured €5 million for its precision spraying technology, which retrofits sprayers to adjust treatment in real time based on crop needs.
12. **Homaio – €3.6M seed | Paris, France**
– Homaio raised €3.6 million to allow retail investors access to the carbon allowance market, expanding beyond carbon allowances into energy transition markets.
13. **Elea & Lili – €2.5M seed | Finland**
– Elea & Lili raised €2.5 million to develop a cellulose-based alternative to current absorbents, aiming for biodegradable and microplastic-free products.
14. **Ringtime – €1.8M seed | Ghent, Belgium**
– Ringtime raised €1.8 million to develop AI agents for recruitment, automating candidate outreach and screening in multiple languages.
15. **eYou – €300K pre-seed | Bucharest, Romania**
– eYou secured €300,000 to launch a social media platform focused on AI fact-checking and offering users transparency in recommendation profiling.
The focus of the week’s investments was on AI agents entering physical and institutional settings historically resistant to automation, such as hospital administration, greenhouse harvesting, and farm spraying.