European tech is showing strong signs of recovery with ecosystem valuation hitting $4 trillion and founder optimism at highest levels since 2021. However, climate tech funding has plummeted and the gender funding gap continues to grow.
Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko has officially stepped down as CEO, ten months after announcing the platform’s transition to a nonprofit. He’ll remain in an advisory role while new executive director Felix Hlatky takes over leadership of the decentralized social network.
Two former Revolut executives have secured $10 million in funding for Condukt, their know-your-business compliance platform. The startup uses real-time data and AI agents to automate manual verification tasks. Clients already include Wise, Tide, and Mollie.
Meadow AI has secured $6 million in funding to deploy multimodal AI that monitors restaurant and retail operations. The platform combines computer vision, audio analysis, and existing system data to automate secret shopper audits. The startup already has over $2.5 million in contracted annual recurr
Jeff Bezos has taken an operational role as co-CEO of Project Prometheus, a well-funded AI startup focused on the physical economy. The company has raised $6.2 billion and already employs about 100 people targeting computers, automobiles, and aerospace.
The UK’s economic development bank is shifting strategy to prioritize defense investments, with billions earmarked for VC funds and startups. Defense tech funding has already doubled this year across Europe, and the bank expects even more deal flow coming.
The former CFO of e-commerce startup Fabric has been convicted on four counts of wire fraud. Nevin Shetty diverted $35 million to his cryptocurrency business without authorization, losing nearly all the funds in high-risk DeFi platforms.
The AI coding tool space is heating up dramatically as Cursor secures massive funding while competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic sharpen their own offerings. This latest round values the company at nearly $30 billion just months after its previous funding.
Just weeks after becoming billionaires, Mercor’s founders abruptly canceled an AI project involving thousands of contractors. Hours later, they offered to rehire workers at significantly lower pay rates, sparking outrage among the workforce.
The shift to hybrid work and multi-cloud environments is fueling massive growth in enterprise networking. CRN has identified seven startups founded since 2019 that solution providers should be watching closely as the market heads toward $193.8 billion by 2030.
