The Next Web TNW

When the modern-day internet began emerging in the early 2000s, finding hosting services and resources to run the new wave of dynamic web applications was hard. You needed a database to store application data. These were slow, expensive, and unreliable, regularly bringing applications to a grinding halt when a single instance failed. You needed a server to run interpreted languages like PHP, Python, or Ruby. These were equally expensive, often needed configuration, had security issues, and frequently ran out of memory or CPU resources, again bringing applications to a grinding halt. For anyone on a small budget, running web 2.0-era applications required constant configuration tweaking, tight performance streamlining, and cost reduction, all within the typically tight confines of what a provider would even let you change and manage yourself. Between those heady days and now, an increasing patchwork of hosting providers emerged to cope with the complexity and scale that web applications demanded. For the past 10 years, a significant proportion of applications have moved to a new generation called “cloud hosting”. The term “cloud” is a bit vague, and there’s a popular (but not altogether accurate) phrase that says, “The cloud is just someone else’s computer”. The cloud abstracts and simplifies the complexity of managing the infrastructure mentioned above. Instead of thinking about servers, you think of services and instances of services. In the modern infrastructure world, when a database is struggling, you add another instance. The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! If you have so many database and application instances that you’ve lost track of what’s happening, add another service or three for that, too. Taking this abstraction to an extreme, “serverless” has reached its peak popularity in the past few years. This approach aims to reduce servers and services to something more like a function call. Of course, a server still handles all these function calls and responses behind the scenes, but the argument is that you shouldn’t need to worry about that and should only focus on sending and receiving data. More than 20 years later, web-based application developers’ lives are surely easier, aren’t they? No, not really. There are many issues with developing and maintaining apps that run in the cloud. Thankfully, several European operators are trying to make developers’ lives easier again. Before getting to them, here’s a quick terminology guide. Private cloud: Services used by only one customer. Public cloud: Services shared by more than one customer. In both cases, customer data and details remain private, and everything could run in one or more locations. The main difference is that the provider carves out a digital tranche of territory just for that customer. This is probably defined in software, but it could be in hardware, and it could be a dedicated server running remotely or locally to the customer. With that in mind, let’s dig into the problems in the cloud computing world. The cloud is consolidated and monopolised Cloud computing has hundreds of providers, yet most people only think of three: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure (Azure), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) — known as the “hyperscalers” of the hosting industry. The web is a big place, brimming with public and privately available sites, so precise numbers of what runs where are hard to come by. However, according to statistics from builtwith.com, about 12% of websites — approximately 86.8 million in total — run on AWS. The other two “only” host roughly another 12% combined. If you look at hosting companies that call themselves “cloud”, then according to techjury.net these percentages increase to 32% for AWS, 23% for Azure, and 10% for GCP. Yet with these statistics, defining what constitutes a website is complicated. Hyperscalers offer hundreds of different services that developers use for one or more parts of an application, some of which perform crucial functions that break an application if unavailable. This has caused problems in the past. Remember the various times when large amounts of online services were unavailable? That was probably due to one of these major companies experiencing an outage. This has led to many developers taking a multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud approach with their applications, spreading risk by hosting services across multiple providers. This solves a technical issue but brings more revenue to all cloud providers and increases complexity. This consolidation puts a tremendous amount of power into a handful of companies. If they change their policies, thousands of businesses could be left without a place to run. More concerning is that all of the top three — in fact, all of the top five — are US companies, except for Alibaba, based in China. The US already has data privacy, security, and law enforcement policies that concern many companies and jurisdictions, and while all the companies mentioned provide hosting options in a global variety of jurisdictions, what if politics in the US no longer respected these digital borders? No matter how unlikely some things can seem, consolidation is always dangerous. Diversifying the cloud Developers and their companies do not want to completely switch away from the cloud. Rather, they are looking for new options from the hyperscale hosts, especially in Europe, where there is a mixture of increased regulations and insecurity around using American services, alongside a degree of nationalism encouraging people to use European services. These trends create new global opportunities for alternative hosting providers, new and old, especially in Europe. I spoke to three of the largest hosting providers in Europe to find out if they are noticing the same trends and what they think the next 20 years of web hosting might look like. Two of them — France’s OVH (the host of around 4% of websites) and Germany’s Hetzner (around 5.5% of websites) — have existed since the late 1990s, before the web 2.0 revolution and “cloud” was a term. The

As Elon Musk was saluting Donald Trump in the US Congress yesterday, the South African’s divisive politics were opening new doors to his business rivals in Europe. Musk’s role in the White House had already been linked to Tesla sales and stock tanking. Now, the repercussions appear to have spread to SpaceX. The fallout centres on the company’s Starlink satellite internet service. The network has provided a vital communications system to Ukraine’s military since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. But concerns are now growing that the service could soon be disrupted. TNW Conference – The 2025 Agenda has just touched down Discover the insightful and dare we say controversial sessions that will take place June 19-20. According to Reuters, US officials recently raised the prospect of cutting off Kyiv’s access to Starlink. Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, refuted the report. Nonetheless, his control over Ukraine’s connectivity has caused growing alarm. The anxieties have escalated as he and Trump have become increasingly critical of the country’s government. Amid the rising tensions, European satellite internet providers have proposed replacing Starlink with their own systems. Europe’s rivals to Starlink and Tesla On Tuesday, Franco-British rival Eutelsat said it was in talks with the EU about extending its internet service to Ukraine. By the day’s end, shares in the company were up by 77%. As the stock surged, French satellite firm Thales fired another apparent warning about Starlink. Speaking at a results briefing on Tuesday, Thales CEO Patrice Cain pointed to the risks of governments relying on certain network providers. “Government actors need reliability, visibility and stability,” Caine said. “A player that — as we have seen from time to time — mixes up economic rationale and political motivation is not the kind that would reassure certain clients.” Similar concerns have been raised about Musk’s impact on Tesla. Capitalising on the blowback from his political moves, Swedish EV maker Polestar offered Tesla owners a discount on leases for its latest SUV. Jordan Hofmann, head of sales for Polestar US, said the response had been “incredible.” “This week saw some of the highest order days for Polestar 3”, he wrote on LinkedIn. Now, concerns over Starlink may have created another opening for Musk’s competitors. source

Europe’s space launch industry reopened for business today when the Ariane 6 heavy rocket lifted off at 17:24 CET from a spaceport in French Guiana. Originally scheduled for December, the Ariane 6 mission was delayed first to February 26 and subsequently to March 3 due to issues in transporting the satellite to the launchpad. However, just minutes before Monday’s launch, engineers identified an “anomaly” in one of the refuelling pipes, postponing the launch further. Finally, Ariane 6 had its first successful commercial launch today. The milestone came seven months after the rocket’s maiden flight, which restored sovereign access to space for Europe.  Ariane 6 carried CSO-3, a French military spy satellite capable of taking high resolution images of Earth. The probe is the final piece of a three-satellite system designed to improve France’s ability to monitor global activities from space. The first two probes were launched aboard Russian Soyuz rockets in 2018 and 2020. TNW Conference – The 2025 Agenda has just touched down Discover the insightful and dare we say controversial sessions that will take place June 19-20. Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, Europe has been unable to access Soyuz rockets. Meanwhile, the retirement of the Ariane 5 in 2023 and delays to the new Vega-C small-launch vehicle left the continent without independent access to space. Europe was forced to rely on Elon Musk’s SpaceX for over a year. The Ariane 6 mission In 2023, Europe completed only three successful orbital launches — its lowest total since 2004. The US, meanwhile, had 109 — the most a single country has ever made. However, with Ariane 6 now up-and-running and Vega-C having launched in December, things are looking up for Europe’s space capabilities. And it’s not just publicly-funded missions that are on track. German startup Isar Aerospace is ready to blast Europe’s first privately-funded rocket in orbit from Andøya Spaceport in Norway, pending regulatory signoff. Isar is one of several startups like PLD Space and Rocket Factory Augsburg looking to provide a local alternative to SpaceX. Both of those companies are also set to launch for the first time this year.  The progress of European rocket startups — and veterans like Arianespace and Avio (the company behind Vega-C) — couldn’t come at a better time. European states have long sought to strengthen their security autonomy, a priority that has gained renewed urgency following the Trump administration’s thawing relations with Russia. However, Europe might not be able to replace SpaceX altogether. Ariane 6, unlike SpaceX rockets, is not reusable. And while Europe is fostering private companies with reusable, light-lift rockets, it likely won’t have a reusable heavy-lift option until the 2030s, when a successor to Ariane 6 may emerge.  Nevertheless, while not a panacea for Europe’s autonomy in space, the boost in local capabilities is still good news for the region’s broader space tech sector. “The increased access [to space] will no doubt accelerate the pace of innovation and deployment of new space technologies in Europe,” Mark Boggett, the CEO of investment firm Seraphim Space, previously told TNW.  The progress could also yield immense financial rewards. McKinsey and the World Economic Forum expect the global space economy to rise from $630 billion in value in 2023 to $1.8 trillion by 2035. Update (7:45PM CET, March 6, 2025): This article has been updated to show that the launch was successful. source

Hospitality scaleup Mews, based at TNW City in Amsterdam, has secured $75mn in its third major cash injection of the last year. The round follows a raise of $100M in credit financing in September and a $110mn equity round in March 2024 — when the startup became a unicorn. In total, Mews has bagged over $500mn to date, making it one of the Netherlands’ most cash-flooded scaleups. Mews was founded in 2012 by Richard Valtr, an ex-hotelier on a mission to transform the way hotels do business. “Digital transformation is challenging for many hospitality brands because too many run their systems with legacy, on-premise technology,” Valtr previously told TNW. Mews has built a cloud-based system that helps hotels and other hospitality businesses handle tasks like booking rooms, checking guests in and out, processing payments, and managing housekeeping. It also provides tools for reporting and analytics. The company is riding sustained growth in global travel to fuel its expansion. Mews reported 50% year-on-year growth in 2024, processing more than $10bn in payments volume and surpassing $200mn in revenue. It has also acquired 12 companies in total at it looks to swallow up market share. The most recent acquisitions include Sweden’s Atomize, a cloud-based revenue management system for hotels, and Germany’s HS/3 Hotelsoftware. The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! Mews plans to continue its shopping spree, aiming for up to four acquisitions in 2025. Fuelled by fresh funding, it’s also looking to expand its presence in the US. It’s no surprise then that the main investor in this latest capital raise was American investment firm Tiger Global. “Tiger Global is a compelling partner for the next chapter of our journey,” said Valtr. “Their experience with high-growth technology companies and category winners in the US, including Toast, Procore and ServiceTitan, is invaluable as we continue to expand our footprint, accelerate innovation, and pursue strategic acquisitions.” source

Edge Impulse, a TNW community member that produces an AI platform for developers, has been acquired by American chip giant Qualcomm for an undisclosed sum.  Qualcomm said it had bought Edge Impulse to boost its machine learning software capabilities, particularly for its Dragonwing line of AI-powered chips.  Nakul Duggal, Qualcomm’s head of IoT, said the acquisition would strengthen his firm’s “leadership in AI” and bolster “critical sectors such as retail, security, energy and utilities, supply chain management, and asset management.” Under the deal, Edge Impulse will integrate its operations with Qualcomm’s, but maintain its own offices, employees, and website.     “Our team and mission remain the same, only now, we will have even more opportunities and capabilities to accelerate what we do best,” said Zach Shelby, Edge Impulse’s co-founder and CEO.  The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! Shelby, an engineer and entrepreneur from Finland, founded Edge Impulse in 2019 alongside Dutchman Jan Jongboom. The pair met while working on IoT systems at British chip firm Arm.  At Edge Impulse, Shelby and Jongboom built a platform the slashes the time it takes to create machine learning models for small devices such as sensors, microcontrollers, and cameras. Shelby said the team had identified a big gap in the market. “Recognising that the compute capabilities of microcontrollers had grown to the point where they were able to run domain-specific AI models directly onboard, we realised there were an endless number of use cases that would benefit from moving AI from the cloud to the edge,” he wrote in a blog post. Edge Impulse has raised $54.3mn to date. In 2021, the company bagged $34mn in Series B funding at a valuation of $234mn. Two years later, it reported revenues of $14.7mn. Its platform is currently used by over 170,000 developers to create, deploy, and monitor AI models on the edge. Shelby credited the platform’s popularity to helping developers eliminate laborious and manual tasks when setting up AI in edge devices.  “Edge Impulse gives developers a tool that automates data collection, simplifies model training, provides advanced optimisation tools, and offers one-click deployment to many types of hardware, from MCUs to CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs,” he said.  “The Next in Tech” is one of three key themes at TNW Conference, which takes place on June 19-20 in Amsterdam. Tickets for the event are now on sale. To get 30% off, use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 at the check-out. source

Fintech startup Cino, a TNW community member, has secured €3.5mn for its shared payments app that lets friends and family pay together.  Cino is designed for tech-savvy Gen Z’ers, who expect to split bills instantly and effortlessly together without “financial awkwardness,” the company said. Unlike payment request apps like Tikkie — ubiquitous in the Netherlands — Cino splits bills in real-time, so you don’t have to chase down your mates to cough up on that exorbitant sushi bill you covered last week.       Cino is available across the EU but, fuelled by fresh funding, the startup will now expand to the UK. Balderton Capital led the seed round, with participation from  Connect Ventures, Tera Ventures, and angels including founder of Cleo AI Barney Hussey-Yeo.  Cino’s CEO Elena Churilova, a former product lead at Bumble, and COO Lina Saleh founded the startup in 2023 to reduce financial friction between friends and family. “I realised that everyone was trying to solve the process of settling debt, instead of coming earlier, at the moment of payment,” Churilova previously told TNW.   Cino users link their bank card to the app, where they get a virtual card. They can then create or join custom payment groups with fully adjustable split ratios. Everyone’s share is then deducted at checkout. Every payment appears in a shared group feed for total transparency, and users can hop in or out of groups anytime. “Fintech has always been one-dimensional but we are social creatures,” said Churilova. “Our payments should reflect how we actually spend money — together. Back in the cash days, it was simpler. Now that we’ve gone digital, payments need to evolve to keep up.” Cino said it has seen 100% month-on-month growth in Finland and Italy. Groups use Cino 17 times a month on average, spending up to €3,000. source

Elon Musk’s allegiance to Trump is once again stirring up controversy — this time over Starlink. The satellite internet provider, owned by Musk’s firm SpaceX, has become embroiled in a hot debate among Italian politicians, as Rome weighs its strategic alliances amid mounting tensions between Europe and the US. Italy’s right-wing League party is pushing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government to choose Starlink to provide satellite communications for government officials, citing the superiority of its technology over French rival Eutelsat. Starlink has around 6,700 active satellites in orbit, while Eutelsat has just over 600. “In the Italian interest it would be odd to choose a French entity instead of a more technologically developed and avant-garde system like the American one,” the League said in a statement late on Thursday, Reuters reported.  Musk welcomed the remarks. He replied “much appreciated,” to a post on X that referred to the statement.  BREAKING: Italian Deputy PM Matteo Salvini releases statement questioning Italian government’s move away from Elon Musk’s “cutting-edge” Starlink to subpar French product with Chinese shareholders. Salvini: Telecommunications security is fundamental, USA is a strategic partner… pic.twitter.com/ygCeXPGihM — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 6, 2025 TNW Conference – Celebrating Women in Tech <3 Helping bridge the gap for women with our Women in Tech pass – all the benefits of the event for a discounted price. Meloni has considered using Starlink to provide encrypted satellite communications for officials in high-risk areas for a while now. However, opposition parties have warned against relying on Musk’s firm — a concern heightened by reports that the US may cut Ukraine off from Starlink if a minerals deal is not reached, potentially severing a critical tool in Kyiv’s fight against Russia.   There are signs that Meloni might be cooling on Musk’s firm too. Bloomberg reported yesterday that the Italian government was having “growing doubts” about closing the Starlink contract, valued at €1.5bn, in light of escalating transatlantic tensions.  If Italy were to drop the proposed deal, an alternative provider that’s attracting interest in Eutelsat. The firm’s CEO Eva Berneke said Tuesday that the company was in talks with the EU about extending its internet service to Ukraine, sending its shares soaring 119%. In an interview on Thursday, Berneke said the company was also in discussions with Italy. However, Meloni’s office told Reuters that it had not yet entered any formal negotiations with Eutelsat or other operators.   The debate is part of a broader discussion in Italy and Europe about reducing reliance on non-European tech for critical infrastructure. Starlink isn’t the only Musk venture that’s recently come under scrutiny. The fortunes of his car company, Tesla, have also been linked to his political manoeuvres. New registrations of Tesla vehicles plummeted across Europe last month, a trend which analysts have linked to Musk’s role in the Trump administration and his open support of far-right politicians. However, Tesla registrations were up slightly in the UK and the US in February, so there’s one win for Elon. source

British autonomous driving startup Wayve is set to establish a testing and development hub in Germany as it prepares to deploy self-driving vehicles in Europe’s largest automotive market.  Wayve’s new hub will be built near Stuttgart, home to big name car brands including Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Audi. Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve, called it the “perfect place” for the company to accelerate the development and testing of AI-powered driving technology.   “2025 is a year of global expansion for Wayve, and we are incredibly excited to establish operations in Germany,” said Kendall. Wayve is already testing its technology in the UK and the US. The startup’s new testing hub in Baden-Württemberg will focus on refining its Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) features, including lane change assistance, and advancing automated driving technology. The site also offers access to Germany’s deep pool of software engineering talent, key to the company’s development efforts. Founded in Cambridge in 2017, Wayve fits a regular car with a range of cameras and sensors that interpret the surrounding environment. This data gets fed to Wayve’s so-called “embodied AI” system. Unlike many other self-driving AI models, which have to be trained on each possible driving scenario and are confined to geofenced limits, Wayve’s AI is more free to act and learn on its own. The more the AI “drives,” the better it becomes at responding to hazards. Wayve’s approach to autonomous driving is similar to Tesla’s. But unlike Elon Musk’s firm, Wayve will sell its technology directly to carmakers. This means you won’t have to buy a Tesla to access top spec self-driving tech. “I look forward to partnering with Germany’s world-leading manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers to bring safe, scalable, and production-ready AI software to vehicles worldwide,” said Kendall.  The news follows Wayve’s mega $1bn raise in May — the largest-ever single investment in a European AI startup. SoftBank led the Series C round alongside tech giants Nvidia and Microsoft.  “Wayve is a singularly important company for Europe,” Suranga Chandratillake, partner at Balderton and an early investor in Wayve, told TNW at the time.  “Embodied AI will be the next big frontier of artificial intelligence — bringing machine intelligence to the physical world around us and not just the computer screen that large language models are confined to.”   The approach has also attracted attention in the US. In August, Wayve secured a “strategic investment” from Uber, which is integrating autonomous driving tech into its fleet of taxis.     source

AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or DeepSeek have radically disrupted the way we access and generate information. However, these systems are general — they are jacks of all trades but masters of none.  Increasingly, though, scientists are training AI to solve very specific problems and fast-track everything from creating new drugs to designing fusion reactors. One area where they’re gaining traction is enhanced material discovery. Their advances are creating a growing range of promising startups. PhaseTree is one of them. Spun-off from the Technical University of Denmark in 2021, PhaseTree has developed a platform that integrates computer simulations, lab automation, and AI to develop new materials for clean technologies like batteries, solar panels, and wind turbines. While it’s not unveiling its secret sauce, the startup said the tech enables it to find new materials 10 times faster than traditional methods.  “Our approach accelerates discovery by combining physics-based modelling with AI, allowing us to rapidly identify and refine promising candidates that would traditionally take decades to develop,” Jin Hyun Chang, PhaseTree’s co-founder and CTO, told TNW.   The 💜 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol’ founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It’s free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! PhaseTree is in an increasingly crowded sector. AI-powered material discovery startups raised over $260mn last year, according to Dealroom data. Ten out of the 17 funding rounds in 2024 went to startups in Europe, including ExoMatter, Dunia, and Orbital.  PhaseTree promotes a different approach to its rivals. Unlike many other AI-powered material discovery tools, Chang said the startup prioritises using existing scientific methods first, and then applies machine learning in an approach it calls “physics-first, AI-on-top.”   “Many AI-driven tools rely heavily on data correlations, but we emphasise the physical principles governing materials such as composition, atomic structure, defects, and microstructures, to ensure a reliable prediction of the materials properties,” he explained. Today, PhaseTree announced that it has secured €3mn in funding from Denmark-based early-stage VC Heartcore Capital. It will use the fresh funds to boost R&D and expand its team, as it looks to deploy its science to solve real-world problems. Amit Luthra, co-founder and CEO of PhaseTree, emphasised the company’s focus on practical applications. “From the outset, we design materials with manufacturability in mind, ensuring they can be synthesised at scale rather than remaining a theoretical concept or lab-scale prototypes,” Luthra told TNW. “By prioritising low-cost, abundant materials with straightforward synthesis routes, we maximise the likelihood of adoption by key industrial players.” PhaseTree said it is currently working with some of the world’s largest battery, automobile, and steel producers, and is already optimising high-performance battery electrodes and advanced alloys.  “The Next in Tech” is one of three key themes at TNW Conference, which takes place on June 19-20 in Amsterdam. Tickets for the event are now on sale. To get 30% off, use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 at the check-out. source

Opera has previewed a new AI agent feature that promises to complete online tasks on your behalf, based on simple, written prompts.  Want to book a flight but don’t want to spend ages comparing prices? Tell the bot your preferred flight times, seats, and budget and it’ll get to work in the background, letting you carry on with whatever it was you were doing. Once it’s done, it’ll add the item to your cart and you can proceed to pay.  Unlike existing tools like Google AI assistant or ChatGPT, which help you find information by summarising search results, answering questions, and suggesting links, Opera’s AI agent does the browsing for you.  Opera claims the tool — dubbed Browser Operator — signals a “new paradigm” in the history of browsing.     TNW Conference – Celebrating Women in Tech <3 Helping bridge the gap for women with our Women in Tech pass – all the benefits of the event for a discounted price. “For more than 30 years, the browser gave you access to the web, but it has never been able to get stuff done for you. Now it can,” said Opera’s executive vice president Krystian Kolondra. “This is different from anything we’ve seen or shipped so far.”  Browser Operator isn’t just for shopping, though. It can search the web for whatever you need, potentially saving you time on menial tasks. Importantly, the tool comes with some built-in safeguards. You see what it’s doing at every step in the process and can easily pause or cancel any task.   Opera claims the AI agent is the first agentic browsing feature launched by any major browser. However, major AI firms are working on their versions of similar systems. Last year, Anthropic launched a “computer use” feature that allows its Claude chatbot to take over your computer and browse on your behalf. OpenAI unveiled a similar feature — “Operator” — in January.   Both of those tools, however, are virtual machines that operate in the cloud. Simply put, this means they’re slow. In contrast, Opera’s tool operates locally, directly on your browser, making it potentially much faster — and more secure.  Unlike Claude or Operator, Opera’s agent doesn’t take screenshots or capture videos of your screen. By processing tasks locally, it ensures user data remains on the device, which the company said enhances privacy. Opera plans to launch the full version of the Browser Operator in “the near future.” The tool is the latest in a long line of AI developments at the Norwegian company. In 2023, Opera launched a fully AI-enabled browser, and last year it became the first major browser to integrate large language models (LLMs).  source