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Amsterdam-headquartered Nebius, which builds full-stack AI infrastructure for tech firms, has secured $700mn in a private equity deal led by Nvidia, Accel, and asset manager Orbis.  The funding comes in the form of a private placement — when a company sells stocks directly to a private investor instead of on the public market. The deal will see Nebius issue 33.3 million Class A shares at $21 apiece.   Nebius, which is the rebranded European arm of “Russia’s Google,” Yandex, is investing more than $1bn across Europe by mid-2025 as it seeks to cash in on booming demand for AI computing power. It also recently announced plans to build its first GPU cluster in the US.    “We have demonstrated the scale of our ambitions, initiating an AI infrastructure build-out across two continents,” said Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of Nebius. “This strategic financing gives us additional firepower to do it faster and on a larger scale.” What day is today? It’s CYBER MONDAY! TNW Conference is offering an exclusive 30% discount on their startup and scaleup programs this week only. This is the best deal you’ll get before prices change in January. Nebius’ expansion strategy includes constructing new custom data centres and expanding existing facilities, like its data centre in Finland which we visited in October. It will also deploy additional capacity through colocation.  Volozh aims for Nebius to be a Phoenix rising from the ashes of what remained of Yandex following the company’s divestment from Russia earlier this year. The $5.4bn deal constituted the largest corporate exit from the country since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine over two years ago.  Nebius’ core product is an AI-centric cloud platform for intense AI workloads. The company is also one of the launch partners for Nvidia’s fabled Blackwell GPUs, however, this investment does not guarantee that. “The deal is not about the GPUs,” Volozh told Bloomberg. “But, of course, it shows our close relationship, which we hope will influence our pipeline.” Investors are pouring huge sums of money into AI compute. The global AI infrastructure market size is projected to grow from $46.15bn in 2024 to $356.14bn by 2032, according to Fortune Business Insights. One competitor to Nebius, US firm CoreWeave, is preparing for an IPO that could put the company, founded in 2017, at a $35bn valuation.  source

PLD Space has secured an €11mn loan to help fund the development of a liftoff site for its partially reusable Miura 5 rocket, which is set to become Europe’s first privately developed satellite launcher — unless one of its competitors gets there first.  The loan will help the Spanish startup construct the launch facility, located at Europe’s primary spaceport in French Guiana and estimated to cost around €16mn overall. PLD Space launched its first, smaller rocket, Miura 1, from Spain last year. However, for a bigger orbital launcher like Miura 5, the company needs a facility with specific capabilities. These include a large launch pad, a comprehensive mission control centre, and access to a geographically optimal location for orbital trajectories.   PLD Space plans to conduct test and flight campaigns for MIURA 5 from the site. The rocket’s maiden flight is scheduled for late 2025.  Raúl Torres and Raúl Verdú, university classmates, founded PLD Space in 2011 with a vision to create something akin to a European version of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The company now employs over 250 people. It has raised €170mn in funding to date. What day is today? It’s CYBER MONDAY! TNW Conference is offering an exclusive 30% discount on their startup and scaleup programs this week only. This is the best deal you’ll get before prices change in January. The company’s ambitions extend beyond MIURA 5. It plans to develop Miura Next,  a family of heavy-lift reusable rockets by the 2030s and the Lince capsule, Europe’s first private manned spacecraft. Europe’s space race is firing up  Morgan Stanley predicts the space economy will grow from €355 billion in 2020 to over €1 trillion by 2030 — and competition for the rewards is fierce. The USA remains a global leader, while China is emerging as a powerful challenger. Then there’s Europe, which has historically lagged behind in the space race.  Against this backdrop, companies like PLD Space are seen as crucial for ensuring Europe doesn’t become too dependent on foreign powers — and companies like SpaceX — for access to space. PLD Space hopes to be the flagbearer for a new era of private European spaceflight. But it’s not alone. The company faces stiff competition from other startups with similar ambitions and similar timelines.  Two of the most promising are Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) and Isar Aerospace, both from Germany. These startups are developing partially reuseable, orbital launchers with a similar carrying capacity to Miura 5 — 1000-1500kg.  All three contenders are rushing to become the first private company to launch a European-built satellite launcher into orbit.  RFA faced a setback in August when its rocket blew up during testing, pushing back its projected launch date to 2025 at the earliest. Meanwhile, Isar Aerospace commenced hot-fire tests of its Spectrum rocket in September, but with the year almost over it looks like the company’s original 2024 launch date projection will slip away.  Whoever gets there first, one thing’s for sure: Europe’s private space race is heating up. And that’s good for the continent’s celestial ambitions whichever way you slice it. source

UK startup PhysicsX, founded by former Formula 1 engineering whizz Robin “Dr. Rob” Tuluie, has unveiled an AI tool that could fast-track the time it takes to design a new aircraft from months to just a few days.  Dubbed LGM-Aero, the software creates new designs for aeroplanes. Using advanced algorithms trained on more than 25 million geometries, the model predicts lift, drag, stability, structural stress and other attributes for each shape. It then tailors the design according to what you want your plane to do. PhysicsX said the AI is the first-ever Large Geometry Model (LGM) for aerospace engineering. A barebones version of the model, Ai.rplane, is also accessible free of charge. “This is a first step in transforming the way engineering is practised in advanced industries [like automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing],” said Tuluie, founder and chairman of PhysicsX. 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! “Over time, we will bring new capabilities to LGM-Aero and Ai.rplane, allowing users to select powertrains, add controls and further content to reach mature designs in days rather than months or years,” he said.   Tuluie wasn’t always an entrepreneur. For the first half of his life, he worked alongside Nobel Prize winners as an astrophysicist. Then, at 41, he entered the F1 scene where he devised designs that helped Renault, and later Mercedes, win four Formula One world championships between them.  In 2019, Tuluie founded PhysicsX alongside Jacomo Corbo, a Harvard-educated engineer who ran McKinsey’s AI lab. Together, the duo have assembled a 50-strong team of some of the world’s top minds in data science, AI, and machine learning. PhysicsX, based in London, emerged from stealth in November 2023 with €30mn in funding. The company is on a mission to reimagine simulation for science and engineering using AI in sectors such as automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing.  PhysicsX says it is looking to help engineers better anticipate design bottlenecks, such as the drag of a new aeroplane or car design before they set out on building a physical prototype — saving them time and money. Its software acts like a supercharged wind tunnel for ideas.  “In the same way that large language models understand text, Ai.rplane has a vast knowledge of the shapes and structures that are important to aerospace engineering,” explained Corbo.  “The technology can optimise across multiple types of physics in seconds, many orders of magnitude faster than numerical simulation, and at the same level of accuracy.” Corbo called LGM-Aero “an important stepping stone” towards developing physics foundation models. These are AI systems designed to simulate and solve complex physical problems by learning patterns from data and physical laws. Applying AI to complex scientific problems is gaining traction. In 2020, Google Deepmind’s Alphafold model famously cracked a puzzle in protein biology that had confounded scientists for centuries. The discovery has accelerated research in drug discovery, molecular biology, and bioengineering.   Other companies, like Dutch scaleup VSParticle, are using algorithms to fastrack the discovery and synthesis of potentially game-changing materials.   While the applications of AI in science may differ from discipline to discipline, the benefits are shared: artificial intelligence can supercharge scientific discovery by analysing data, simulating complex systems, and uncovering insights faster than humans ever could. So AI isn’t all about asking ChatGPT what to eat for dinner? No, dear reader, it’s a actually pretty big deal.  source

Microsoft’s cloud ambitions just hit a major snag in the UK. The tech giant is facing a £1bn ($1.27 billion) lawsuit over how it licenses software to customers using rival cloud platforms. Filed in the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal by Scott+Scott, the lawsuit accuses Microsoft of punishing businesses for choosing competitors like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Alibaba over its Azure platform. Here’s the gist: if you’re using Microsoft’s Windows Server but prefer another cloud provider, you’re allegedly stuck with higher costs. Maria Luisa Stasi, the lead claimant, argues this forces UK businesses into Azure’s arms and stifles competition. Backed by litigation funder LCM Funding, the case claims Microsoft’s pricing practices exploit its dominance in operating systems. “Put simply, Microsoft is punishing UK businesses and organisations for using Google, Amazon and Alibaba for cloud computing by forcing them to pay more money for Windows Server,” Stasi, who is head of law and policy for digital rights advocacy group Article19, told CNBC. 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! “By doing so, Microsoft is trying to force customers into using its cloud computing service Azure and restricting competition in the sector.” AWS and Google have already flagged Microsoft’s licensing policies to UK regulators, spurring an ongoing investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into the public cloud sector.  Microsoft, for its part, insists the industry is fiercely competitive and points to Google’s growing cloud muscle as proof.  Microsoft has not yet responded to our request for comment.   Big tech under the microscope Microsoft’s legal headaches aren’t just about the cloud. In June, the EU accused the tech giant of illegally linking its chat and video app Teams with its Office product, giving it an unfair advantage over rivals such as Slack. Microsoft could face a fine equal to 10% of its annual revenue for the alleged breach of the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).    Regulators in the UK and the EU are tightening the noose on other big tech companies too.  For instance, in September the EU’s Court of Justice, in two separate cases, ruled in favour of back taxes and fines against Apple and Google totalling a whopping €15.4bn. The court found that Apple had benefitted from “substantially and artificially lowered tax” in Ireland since 1991. Google, on the other hand, was found guilty of favouring its shopping service in internet searches and thereby abusing its market dominance in Europe.   With this latest lawsuit, Microsoft’s cloud dominance may face a reckoning. Whether the case delivers real change — or just more legal bills — remains to be seen. source

Dawn Aerospace has flown its rocket-powered aircraft past the speed of sound, the latest milestone on its path to its first commercial flights. During the test, which took place on New Zealand’s South Island, the startup’s Mk-II Aurora aircraft reached Mach 1.1 and an altitude of 25 kilometres. Dawn said this marks the first time a civil aircraft has flown supersonic since Concorde.  The feat comes after Aurora hit Mach 0.92 in August, which, at the time, was three times the speed and five times the height of its previous test conducted in 2023. Dawn’s aircraft just keeps on getting faster. The end goal is to go hypersonic (6,173–12,348 km/h) and fly over 100 km above the Earth — twice in one day.     “As a company, we have been working for more than seven years to design, develop, test, and deliver supersonic flight. We are now achieving this and will start commercial payload operations in the coming months,” said Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace. What day is today? It’s CYBER MONDAY! TNW Conference is offering an exclusive 30% discount on their startup and scaleup programs this week only. This is the best deal you’ll get before prices change in January. The company, headquartered in the Netherlands and New Zealand, claims that during the test last week the Aurora also broke the world record for the fastest aircraft to climb from ground level to 20 km. The spaceplane made the ascent in just 118.6 seconds, beating the previous record set in the 1970s by a highly modified F-15 fighter jet.  “This milestone sets the stage for Aurora to become the world’s highest and fastest-flying aircraft and paves the way for the first operational hypersonic aircraft, redefining what’s possible in aviation,” said Powell. Cheaper access to space Kiwi Stefan Powell and his brother James founded Dawn Aerospace in 2016 alongside Dutchman Jeroen Wink, and the two Germans Tobias Knop and Robert Werner. The team hopes to unlock cheaper, quicker access to space for applications such as microgravity research, atmospheric science, Earth observation, and testing high-speed flight.   Dawn has spent just $10mn on its flight programme to date and looks to complete it using just $20mn — pennies for an aerospace company. One can assume that these low production costs will also translate into cheap flights for customers.   Dawn’s lean approach to tech development stands out in an industry dominated by billionaire-funded startups and deep-pocketed governments. The company generates some additional revenue from its other business line, which builds low emissions propulsions systems for satellites. Nevertheless, it’s looking to do something quite remarkable given its limited cash runway.    The startup’s ultimate vision is to build an orbital stage aircraft, dubbed Mk-III, that could transport satellites into low-Earth orbit, putting it in direct competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.  source

The Dutch labour market is experiencing a persistent talent shortage, according to a new salary survey report. The research also flags that when it comes to hiring in 2025, artificial intelligence, automation, and machine learning are expected to be among the hottest functional areas companies are most likely to recruit talent for next year. In line with this, a recent study by Indeed found that over the past year, job postings mentioning generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) or related phrases have increased dramatically across the US and Europe. In Germany, for example, there has been a 3.9x increase, France has seen a 6.8x increase in jobs seeking generative and aligned AI skills, and Ireland has seen a 4.6x increase. 5 software jobs to apply for now Cloud Software Developer, ChipSoft, Amsterdam Developer OutSystems, Bytes Recruitment, ZH DevOps Engineer ROO/RIO, Jobcatcher, Den Haag Principal Engineer, Yoast, Wijchen Outsystems Software Developer, Van Iperen, Westmaas Webinar: Unicorn DNA: The Blueprint for Scaling Success What does it take to build a unicorn? Top executives of unicorn companies reveal the mindset, strategies, and innovative thinking that propelled their companies to the top. These aren’t standalone requests. “Data analytics was the sector where GenAI was most likely to be mentioned in job descriptions,” Indeed’s research states, adding “GenAI is also prominent in software development.” Further intel from BairesDev is of particular interest to software developers who may be job-seeking in 2025. The company recently conducted research across more than 500 companies to understand what the most requested skills are from clients. It found that machine learning was the fastest-growing skill, with a 383% growth rate, followed by Angular, Flutter, Kotlin, and Terraform. Rising interest in AI is also causing an increase in the need for core technical skills, which are essential for building AI platforms and applications. Those include technologies like React, .NET, Python, Node, and Java. The report also notes that this year there was a 77% rise in demand for skills related to data infrastructure. “Over the past five years, we’ve seen a steady and sometimes steep increase in demand for developers who specialise in tools like Snowflake, MongoDB, and Databricks, amongst others,” says BairesDev’s CTO, Justice Erolin. “If AI is a gold rush and you’re a developer, you might want to be selling the pickaxes. In this case, the pickaxes are skills related to data because a well-maintained data infrastructure is the engine that drives a successful AI product.” Skills gaps emerging That’s all useful information for software professionals who are seeking career advancement in 2025. However, alongside these predictions is a warning about the urgent need for the right talent to satisfy growing demand, with a tech skills gap emerging as a blocker. Worryingly, in the EU, the European Digital Economy and Society Index found that every third person lacks basic digital skills. According to The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), the future employment growth average in the Netherlands for the period 2022-2035 is estimated at 0.3%, but in terms of ICT roles, this figure is far larger at 12.9%. However, this figure may be stymied by a perfect storm of factors that are contributing to the tech skills gap. Rapid digital transformation is one factor, and as organisations come under pressure to modernise their operations to remain competitive, this leads to a significant increase in the need for tech talent. Combine this with the fact that about 40% of adults working in Europe lack basic digital skills, and the fact that one-third of individuals employed in Europe do not possess adequate digital competencies, and the problem becomes more concerning. This deficit starts early with fewer younger people pursuing STEM subjects at school or university, a problem that then knocks into the workforce, with a limited talent pool available to meet industry needs. Despite these warnings, a recent report indicates that 35% of Dutch companies will expand their permanent roles in 2025, with 27% expecting to hire for flexible roles. When it comes to salaries, the report notes that “salary adjustments in 2025 will primarily be driven by recognising outstanding employee performance and retaining top talent.” The outlook for those with the right skills looks broadly positive. The Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis predicts a 15% increase in tech job openings by next year. And amid those concerns around the tech skills gap, another piece of good news is that 30% of software engineers in the Netherlands hold a Master’s degree in a specialised field related to software engineering. Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Utrecht, and Rotterdam are just some of the cities where software developers can look for jobs. That’s thanks to the home-grown giants of Booking.com, ING bank, Unilever, Philips, and Heineken. Additionally, many huge tech firms have locations in the Netherlands such as IBM, Microsoft, Netflix, and Amazon. If you’re a software engineer with the right skills, then the Dutch job market represents a rich playing field of opportunities across cloud computing, data science, cybersecurity, AI and machine learning, full-stack development, and more. Ready to find your next software job? Check out The House of Talent Job Board source

It’s been a tough year for air taxi startups. The UK’s Vertical Aerospace is running short of cash, while Germany’s Lillium faces bankruptcy. Targets for commercialisation keep getting extended. Investors are hesitant to commit. The reason for all the struggles is pretty simple. Building, certifying, and commercialising brand-new aircraft designs like electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) is complex, notoriously expensive, and depends on lengthy regulatory processes.  That’s partly why German startup Vaeridion is pursuing a simpler, potentially cheaper, route to electric flight using an aircraft it calls the “microliner”.  “The microliner looks like a regular plane and it takes off from a runway — the only difference is that it will be powered by batteries,” Vaeridion’s co-founder and CEO, Ivor van Dartel, told TNW. “For operators and passengers, the experience will be essentially the same. Similar to what Tesla did for cars, but for planes.” Today, Vaeridion announced that it has secured a Pre Application Contract (PAC) with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), in a big step towards commercial flight.  Think of this contract as a dress rehearsal for aircraft certification. Before a company can officially apply for approval to fly its aircraft (called type certification), this contract lets it discuss the process with regulators, get feedback on its design and plans, and identify potential hurdles.   EASA’s pre-application service was launched last year. Vaeridion said that it is the first general aviation manufacturer to win a contract under the scheme.  Vaeridion’s head of engineering, Markus Kochs Kämper, called it “a huge milestone” in the development of its microliner. “This initiative allows us to de-risk our core technology and the path to certifying our electric aircraft prior to submitting a type certificate application,” he told TNW.  Van Dartel and Sebastian Seemann — both former Airbus and ZF engineers — co-founded Vaeridion in 2021. Their vision was to build an electric plane to replace jet-fueled aircraft on short-haul, regional flights.  Preliminary tests put the range of the microliner at about 500km, said the company. In 2022, almost a third of flights in the EU covered this distance or less, according to Eurocontrol. And it’s double what most eVTOL startups are advertising.  London to Amsterdam? Berlin to Munich? Madrid to Lisbon? No problem.  The microliner — fitted with a single propeller in its nose — can achieve this range despite a rather modest load of batteries, which are located in the wings for better weight distribution. The plane’s design was inspired by gliders, which have an aerodynamic shape to minimise drag and boost efficiency.     Vaeridion’s design is similar to existing regional aircraft, which could reduce development and manufacturing costs compared to more experimental eVTOL models that often require intricate propulsion systems and vertical lift capabilities.   Vaeridion plans to fly its first prototype in 2027. The company aims to make this first iteration fully conform to EASA’s type certificate requirements. This means it won’t have to build a costly demonstrator plane as well. Vaeridion will make one prototype, get it certified, and then it’s ready for the first commercial flights, scheduled for 2030.   By tapping into established aviation technologies and infrastructure, Vaeridion’s microliner could position it as a more achievable and scalable option for regional air travel than some of the more flamboyant designs out there. Nevertheless, it will still need to secure significant funding to fuel its growth, something which Van Dartel hints is on the horizon — while being careful not to overshare.        Vaeridion plans to build the planes from scratch and sell them directly to customers. The company also expects to generate ongoing revenue by periodically replacing the aircraft’s batteries. Each upgrade will take advantage of newer battery chemistries, which means the range of the aircraft is set to increase over time.  With an estimated seat price range of between €150–300, the microliner is targeted at business people who want to travel in style and comfort.     source

For the past few months, Meta has been sending recipes to a Dutch scaleup called VSParticle (VSP). These are not food recipes — they’re AI-generated instructions for how to make new nanoporous materials that could potentially supercharge the green transition.  VSP has so far taken 525 of these recipes and synthesised them into nanomaterials called electrocatalysts. Meta’s algorithms predicted these electrocatalysts would be ideal for breaking down CO2 into useful products like methane or ethanol. VSP brought the AI predictions to life using a nanoprinter, a machine which vaporises materials and then deposits them as thin nanoporous films. Electrocatalysts speed up chemical reactions that involve electricity, such as splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, converting CO2 into fuels, or generating power in fuel cells. They make these processes more efficient, reducing the energy required and enabling clean energy technologies like hydrogen production and advanced batteries.   The problem is that it typically takes scientists up to 15 years just to create one new nanomaterial — until now. 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! “We’ve synthesised, tested, and validated hundreds of nanomaterials at a scale and speed never seen before,” Aaike van Vugt, co-founder and CEO of VSP, told TNW. “This rapid prototyping gives researchers a quick way to validate AI predictions and discover low-cost electrocatalysts that might have taken years or even decades to find using traditional methods.”  VSP put each batch of the new materials in an envelope and shipped it to a lab at the University of Toronto for testing. The findings were then integrated into an open-source experimental database, which can now be used to train AI models to become more better at predicting new material combinations.   Larry Zitnick, Research Director at Meta AI, said the research is “breaking new ground” in material discovery. “It marks a significant leap in our ability to predict and validate materials that are critical for clean energy solutions,” he said.   The Alphafold of nanomaterial discovery? But to really crack the code for material discovery, AI models need to be trained on much larger datasets. Not hundreds but tens or even hundreds of thousands of tested materials.  Van Vugt said that VSP’s machine is the only technology available today that could synthesize such a large number of thin-film nanoporous materials in a reasonable time frame — about two to three years, said the founder. “This could create an AI that is the equivalent of Google Deepmind’s Alphafold, but for nanoporous materials,” said Van Vugt. He’s referring, of course, to the breakthrough algorithm that cracked a puzzle in protein biology that had confounded scientists for centuries.   If that’s true, then it puts the company in a pretty sweet position. The world’s tech giants — think Google, Microsoft, Meta — are all racing to build bigger, better forms of artificial intelligence in a bid to find solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges, including climate change. Ironically, these models could also think up solutions for their endless appetite for energy. For companies like Meta, investing in material discovery using AI is a win-win.   VSP is working with many other organisations to build out its dataset and mature its technology. These include the Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, the San Francisco-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Materials Discovery Research Institute (MDRI) in the Chicago area, and the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER). The Dutch firm is also fine-tuning its nanoprinters to be faster and more efficient. The current machines are powered by 300 sparks per second, but the team is working on a new printer that would increase this output time to 20,000 sparks per second. This could supercharge material discovery even further. source

Lithium-ion batteries have served us well, powering much of the modern world. However, today’s tech — everything from drones and EVs to the wretched Tesla cyber truck — demands denser batteries that charge faster and take you further. This push is driving scientists to conjure up new battery chemistries or refine old ones. Naturally, it is also spawning a new generation of startups looking to scale the next, best battery. One of those is Molyon.  Molyon recently emerged from 15 years of research at the University of Cambridge to commercialise a lithium-sulfur battery that it claims delivers twice the energy density of lithium-ion. Today, the startup secured $4.6mn to kickstart manufacturing at its first pilot facility.  Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries not only store much more energy than lithium-ion, but they also don’t rely on rare minerals like cobalt, nickel, and graphite. They could help technologies like electric vehicles, drones, and planes become far more efficient.    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! However, to date, Li-S batteries have yet to be commercialised because of one big problem. Sulfur from the battery’s cathode tends to dissolve into the electrolyte – causing the anode to corrode and the battery to fail after only a few cycles.   “The promise of lithium-sulfur batteries has been there for decades but until now it has not been possible to realise this potential because of the inherent chemistry challenges of working with sulfur,” explained Dr Ismail Sami, co-founder and CEO of Molyon.  To overcome this problem, Molyon has developed a cathode technology based on metallic molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a compound made up of sulfur and molybdenum, an abundant element found in the Earth’s crust. MoS2 remains stable and provides high energy density over hundreds of cycles – potentially revolutionising the Li-S battery field. Sami co-founded Molyon in February of this year alongside his lab partner Dr Zhuangnan Li, who acts as the company’s CTO. The pair met whilst studying under the third co-founder Professor Manish Chhowalla. A fourth co-founder, Dr Sai Shivareddy (co-founder of Nyobolt) is a commercial advisor to the company. Since patenting the discovery, the team has demonstrated practical batteries with energy densities of 500Wh per kg – approximately twice that of the typical Li-ion battery. Fuelled by fresh funding, Molyon will expand its team and work on its pilot facility. It will initially focus on making Li-S batteries for drones and robots, which could greatly benefit from the lighter weight and improved range. After that, the company plans to scale to electric cars, trucks, and planes.  Molyon’s funding round — its first ever — was co-led by London-based deep tech investors IQ Capital and founder-led VC Plural, which launched a €400mn fund back in January. “The UK is uniquely positioned to lead in lithium-sulfur technology,” wrote Carina Namih, partner at Plural, in a blog post. “We are already one of the world-leading innovators in this emerging field, with the top labs and researchers based here.  “The UK also has the talent base and scar tissue from earlier failed attempts to commercialize this technology — as is so often the case with technological progress, the lessons learnt from these failures will feed the second wave.” source

Zurich-based startup Poncho has officially launched its weather insurance platform — and bagged some fresh funding to boot.   Founded in 2023, the company aims to transform how the travel and hospitality industries handle unpredictable weather.  Poncho’s tech integrates with booking systems, allowing customers to opt for weather protection at checkout. If bad weather, such as heavy rain or wind, occurs during their scheduled event or trip, a refund is processed automatically. You don’t need to file a claim. Maybe torrential rains turn your Alpine ski trip to slush or maybe you’ve splurged on a Mediterranean yacht adventure only to have rough seas keep you stuck at the dock sipping overpriced cocktails. Either way, it sucks. But with Poncho, at least your budget stays intact when Mother Nature doesn’t play nice.    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! Poncho uses real-time weather data and algorithms to predict conditions at specific locations and times. In this way, it can calculate a fair insurance price based on an accurate estimate of whether a certain event or activity will get cancelled or not, it said. “After months of hard work, we are thrilled to announce that Poncho’s weather insurance solution is finally available! Our product allows travel and leisure businesses to seamlessly offer weather protection to their customers at the time of booking,” said Omar Jerrari, founder and CEO of Poncho.  Today, the startup announced it has raised €589,000 in seed funding. WeBuild Ventures, a finance-focused VC fund from Switzerland, led the round.  Poncho, with a lean team of just three, will use the cash injection to refine its platform, scale operations across Europe, and build partnerships with insurers. It also plans to develop additional features, such as weather-triggered promotions. The startup’s initial focus is on the travel sector, where weather unpredictability often discourages bookings, but its vision extends to other industries, such as outdoor dining and events.  The company says it has already signed up five leisure and travel businesses in its home stomping grounds of Switzerland.  source