The Next Web TNW

British VC fund Founders Factory has launched the Mining Tech Accelerator in partnership with Rio Tinto, as the metals giant seeks to find better ways to cash-in on surging demand for lithium, copper, and other materials critical to the clean transition. In April, Rio Tinto committed 14.4mn Australian dollars (€8.8mn) to the accelerator, which will support pre-seed and seed-stage startups over the next three years. The partners unveiled the first cohort of six startups today. The fledgling companies will now enter a four-month programme that will conclude in Perth, Australia in December.   “We understand the vast opportunity ahead in decarbonising and technologically transforming one of the world’s most important industries — mining,” said Henry Lane Fox, CEO of Founders Factory.  The six startups include Denver, US-based Endolith, which uses microbes for a greener way to increase copper recovery from low-grade ores, and Cambridge, UK-headquartered ProSpectural, which is building low-cost spectral cameras that can “see” the composition of materials lying beneath the Earth’s surface.  Cashing-in on lithium Then there’s Magmatic, from Austria. The startup is cultivating a “library” of metal-binding proteins that extract lithium from natural saltwater brines — no mining required.    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! As the world electrifies, demand for lithium-ion batteries is booming, for use in everything from smartphones to EVs. As a result, the global demand for lithium is predicted to more than quadruple by 2030.  This is a trend that hasn’t gone unnoticed to the likes of Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest metals and mining corporation. Today, the British-Australian corporation announced the acquisition of Ireland-based Arcadium Lithium, a lithium producer born in January from the Allkem-Livent merger.     Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm said the acquisition would allow the firm to create a “world-class lithium business alongside our leading aluminium and copper operations to supply materials needed for the energy transition.” The push into the lithium business comes as Rio tries to make its mining operations — marred by a poor track record of environmental compliance — more sustainable.   No doubt it’s investment into startups focusing on cleaner, more efficient mining techniques is part of this green push. Arcadium is also an expert in so-called direct lithium extraction (DLE) — a technique with a smaller environmental footprint than traditional methods. Rio Tinto’s latest investments make one thing clear: the future of mining will be driven by technology, and with environmental regulation tightening, those who innovate cleaner solutions will be best positioned to lead the pack. source

In November 2023, violent Atlantic storm “Domingos” struck the northern coast of Portugal, generating record-high waves and leaving a path of destruction across much of Western Europe.  People on land were grappling with flooded homes, closed roads, and landslides. But just offshore, a potentially game-changing wave energy device was happily bobbing up and down, side to side — seemingly, in its element.  Built by Swedish startup CorPower, the giant golden buoy turns the raw power of the ocean into a clean, reliable electricity source. CorPower claims its tech is at least five times more efficient than the previous state-of-the-art. “We’ve proven that our technology is both energy efficient and can survive the harshest ocean conditions — two problems that have plagued the industry for decades,” Patrik Möller, Corpower’s co-founder and CEO, tells 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! Today, the company announced that it has secured €32mn in funding, history’s largest single investment in a wave energy startup.  In an industry haunted by the ghosts of failed projects, wasted ideas, and bankrupt ventures, has wave energy finally found its golden buoy?  CorPower’s co-founder and CEO, Patrik Möller. Credit: CorPower Huge source of baseload energy  In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in wave energy, driven by the need for more reliable sources of clean power.  “Think about wave energy as a buffer of electricity,” Amin Al-Habaibeh, wave energy expert and professor of intelligent engineering systems at Nottingham Trent University, tells TNW.  Energy from waves is available 90% of the time, compared with 20-30% for wind and solar power, and is easy to predict and forecast.  “When the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining you still have waves rolling in from thousands of kilometres away, day and night. If we manage to harness this in a commercially viable way, we have a huge source of baseload energy,” says Al-Habaibeh.  Wave energy can be harnessed across huge swathes of the world’s coastline, where most of the world’s major cities are located. Credit: CorPower In theory, waves carry enough potential energy to power the entire planet. Yet, last year wave energy devices only generated about 1MW of Europe’s total electricity, according to Ocean Energy’s latest report. That’s only enough to supply around 1,000 homes.  CorPower is one of a small but growing number of companies looking to bring wave energy out from the depths and into the ring with renewable heavyweights like solar, wind, and hydro. And the Swedish venture believes its technology has what it takes to do just that.  Tapping the ocean’s rhythm  The inspiration for CorPower’s technology came not from the sea, but from rhythmic beating of the human heart. This vital organ only uses energy when it contracts and pushes blood out and into the body. To suck blood back in, it simply relaxes, pumping blood in two directions from one action.  In 1984, Swedish cardiologist Dr Stig Lundbäck patented the Dynamic Adaptive Piston Pump, a system that replicates the dual-action of the heart. Over the years that followed, the doctor-turned-inventor schemed elaborate ways to put the pump to good use. In 2011, he teamed up with Möller, a tech entrepreneur, and founded CorPower Ocean.  The C4 is a point absorber, a type of floating wave energy device that is anchored to the seafloor and converts the up and down motion of a buoy into electrical power. It measures 18 metres high, 9 metres across, and weighs about 70 tonnes.  The C4 being towed out to sea. Credit: CorPower As the buoy moves with the waves, a Power Take-Off (PTO) mechanism — a series of springs, gears, and pistons — converts the vertical motion into rotational energy. This then drives a generator, producing power which is transferred to shore via a subsea cable. When a wave pushes the buoy up, a specially designed “wave spring” stores up pressure in a pneumatic cylinder. When the buoy goes back down, this built up pressure provides a returning force — the C4 captures two forces from one action.   Crucially, C4 uses algorithms to predict the motion of incoming waves, boosting the amount of energy it can harness. When waves get too rough, the AI sends a signal to the power control system telling it to enter “‘storm survivability”’ mode — a de-tuned state comparable to when wind turbines pitch their blades during strong gales. Over the course of a six-month trial last year, the C4 achieved a maximum power output of 600KW, electricity it exported to the Portuguese grid.   Möller called its first commercial-scale pilot a “massive breakthrough” that tackles two key issues in harnessing this huge untapped clean energy source: efficiency and survivability.    A troubled past  Moored off a harbour in the Orkney islands lies the rusted wreckage of a 180 metre-long wave energy convertor built by Scottish startup Pelamis. In 2004, the giant red sea snake-looking machine became the world’s first grid-connected wave energy device.  The sea snake was a wave energy attenuator, made up of five connected sections that flexed and bent in the waves. Hydraulic rams located in the joints harnessed the movement, driving electrical generators and sending power to the grid via a subsea cable.   Pelamis went on to build several more of the 1,350-tonne behemoths. In 2008, three machines installed off the coast of Portugal were generating enough clean energy to power 1,500 homes.  Pelamis undergoing testing at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Scotland in 2008. Credit: Falt i det fri (Public domain) But the company’s success was short-lived. High installation and maintenance costs, frequent breakdowns, poor efficiency, and a subsequent lack of funding forced Pelamis into administration in 2014. The company’s remaining wave energy converters are now little more than scrap metal.   “Pelamis is largely symbolic of an industry that has struggled with commercial viability,” 

AI startup Poolside has raised a whopping $500mn — and it still hasn’t even launched a product. Despite the barren release schedule, the company has become an investors’ darling. The new Series B round brings Poolside’s total funding to $626mn. Its valuation now stands at a cool $3bn. The cash magnet is a AI-powered coding. Poolside has developed its own language model, which promises to accelerate software development. The company also boasts two eye-catching co-founders. CEO Jason Warner helped create GitHub Copilot, while CTO Eiso Kant is a serial founder of AI startups. 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! At Poolside, the pair are building three things: foundation models, an API, and a coding assistant. According to Warner and Kant, the tech is currently undergoing “pressure-testing” in “the toughest” office environments. “The enterprise is the proving ground,” they said in a blogpost. “But our goal is over time to make Poolside accessible to anyone in the world who wants to build software.” Poolside is not the the only company with this objective. The market for AI coding assistants has become fiercely competitive, with Copilot at the lead and a range of challengers chasing. The emerging rivals are attracting major capital. August alone saw a $320mn investment in Magic, a $150mn round for Codeium, and a $60mn raise Anysphere. Replit, Augment, Supermaven, Cognition have also recently received big cash injections. Poolside’s Series A adds another eye-watering sum to the sector. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures, Bloomberg reports. Additional funds came from HSBC Ventures, DST Global, StepStone Group, and Citi Ventures. You can learn more about Poolside first-hand at VDS, one of Europe’s premiere tech events. Poolside’s VP of Operations, Margarida Garcia, is speaking at the show, which takes place in Valencia on October 23 and 24. TNW is a strategic partner at the event. Update (11:00PM CEST, October 3, 2024): A previous version of this article referred to Poolside as a “Paris startup.” This was based on reports that the company had relocated to Paris. Poolside has now confirmed that it remains headquartered in San Francisco. source

 Welcome to the new episode of the TNW Podcast — the show where we discuss the latest developments in the European technology ecosystem and feature interviews with some of the most interesting people in the industry. In today’s special episode, we’re featuring an interview with Ilkka Paananen, co-founder and CEO of Supercell, recorded with live audience at the Italian Tech Week conference in Turin last week. Andrii and Ilkka discussed the history of the gamedev industry, the mistakes entrepreneurs make at the start of their journey, the unique culture and structure of Supercell, the changes AI is bringing to the ecosystem, and much more. And of course we’d got a bunch of great questions from the audience. 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! Here are the stories and things mentioned in the episode: Music and sound engineering for this podcast are by Sound Pulse. Feel free to email us with any questions, suggestions, and opinions at [email protected]. source

Finland’s vast green forests are famously restorative. So restorative that they can even treat diseases. That’s according to Uute Scientific, a biotech firm based in Helsinki. The company has created a unique remedy: a microbial extract that replicates Finnish nature. Today, the startup revealed new evidence of the organism’s powers. The extract targets a growing health problem. Immune systems, Uute says, are being weakened by urbanisation and oversanitation. As a result, city dwellers have higher rates of many allergic, inflammatory, and auto-immune diseases. Biodiversity could give their bodies a boost. Unfortunately, the benefits aren’t always readily available on tap. But you can, apparently, put them in a pot. Calling all Scaleup founders! Join the Soonicorn Summit on November 28 in Amsterdam. Meet with the leaders of Picnic, Miro, Carbon Equity and more during this exclusive event dedicated to Scaleup Founders! Uute’s extract combines plant material and composts to recreate Finland’s microbial biodiversity. The rich soil, pure water, and clean air blend into a new substance. Uute calls the product Re-Connecting Nature (RCN). To test the benefits, Uute studied the impact of RCT on atopic dermatitis — the most common form of eczema. The results suggest the treatment really works. Finnish nature vs eczema The study team recruited 142 participants with atopic dermatitis. Half of them were given an RCT lotion, while the other half received a placebo. Both the groups applied the lotion alongside any conventional medication they wanted. After seven months, Uute measured the effects on their skin. According to the startup, the RCT lotion strengthened the skin’s protective barrier. It also prevented irritation. The benefits increased during winter, when many eczema sufferers find their skin gets itchier. In the placebo group, meanwhile, the deterioration was significant. Tellingly, the RCT group also felt less need for conventional treatment. At the beginning of winter, 49% of them used atopic medication. In the placebo group, the figure jumped to 77%. Uute’s CEO, Kari Sinivuori, said the results prove RCT has real health benefits. “For the first time in the world, we were able to show that nature exposure helps people who already have immune-mediated disease,” Sinivuori told TNW. There’s potentially a big market for the treatment. Over 200 million people across the world live with atopic dermatitis. The current medication can have many side effects. RCT could provide a compelling alternative. But for Uute, atopic eczema is just the start. “Other immune-mediated diseases, such as different allergies, asthma, Parkinson’s disease, or Alzheimer’s, are also likely to benefit from this,” said Sinivuori. Uute Scientific is part of a new healthtech wave that’s transforming treatment options. You can find out all about them at next year’s TNW Conference, which has just announced six new themes for the event. Early birds can now buy 2-for-1 tickets for the event. source

German “teledriving” startup Vay has secured €34mn from the European Investment Bank (EIB).   In January, Vay launched a commercial remote-controlled car service in Las Vegas. Now it wants to roll out the technology on its home turf. In 2023, the company successfully conducted test drives without a safety driver on public roads in Hamburg. Vay says it has been working closely with authorities to launch a commercial service in the German city.  “This investment will play a crucial role in strengthening the confidence and trust that EU regulators, partners and consumers have in Vay, paving the way for the commercial rollout of our services in European cities,” said Thomas von de Ohe, Vay’s CEO.   When users open the Vay app and request a ride, an electric vehicle comes to collect them. Just like an Uber — except there’s nobody in the car.  Instead, it’s piloted to the pick-up spot by a remote driver. The customer then takes the wheel for the journey to their destination. Once they depart, a teledriver takes control again. Teledrivers control the vehicles remotely from a purpose-built station equipped with a driver’s seat, steering wheel, pedals, and three monitors providing visibility in front of the car and to its side. Road traffic sounds, such as emergency vehicles and other warning signals, are transmitted via microphones to the teledriver’s headphones. This operator could technically be sitting on the other side of the world. However, most will be nearby at one of Vay’s teledriving centres.  For customers, teledriving is billed as a cheaper, more convenient alternative to traditional car-sharing. For operators, it could mean the difference between success or failure. “Remote driving can increase profitability in a sector known for fine margins,” explained Justin Spratt, chief business officer at Vay. The company claims its technology can double the amount of time vehicles are in use, boosting revenues.   Teledriving is billed as a midway point between conventional cars and autonomous vehicles, which are proving much more difficult to implement than operators had hoped for. “Given recent challenges in the autonomy industry, automotive-grade teledriving can offer an alternative path to safe ‘driverless’ transportation, as a human driver is always in control,” von de Ohe previously told TNW. In December 2023, Vay raised $95mn (€87mn) in a Series B round. The funding signals investor confidence in a technology that could offer a faster route to market than fully autonomous vehicles.  source

Munich-based startup OroraTech has secured €25mn in funding to scale up its AI-powered wildfire detection system.  Korys, the investment arm of the Colruyt’s — a Belgian noble family — led the funding round. The EU’s Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) also chipped in, alongside existing investor Bayern Kapital.  OroraTech will use the fresh funding to fuel the next phase of its growth. The company looks to expand into global markets beyond Europe, and keep refining its technology. OroraTech’s so-called Wildfire Solution collates imagery from its own probes, as well as over 20 other Earth observation satellites. The startup has trained an AI algorithm to scan these images and automatically detect signs of wildfires. The system can also predict how they will spread. 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! A spin-out from the Technical University of Munich, OroraTech has so far launched two satellites. The most recent of these blasted off into low Earth orbit upon a SpaceX Falcon 9 in June last year.   Battling the blaze  As climate change accelerates, wildfires are spreading faster, burning longer, and raging more intensely. More than 500,000 hectares of land across the EU burnt last year — an area twice the size of Luxembourg.   Faced with this mounting problem, authorities are increasingly turning to high-tech solutions.  In June, Greece’s Ministry of Digital Governance awarded OroraTech a €20mn contract to build a satellite-based early warning system for wildfires. The national defence system will consist of four thermal satellites and a network of ground sensors and processing services. OroraTech will develop it in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and several Greek universities and companies.  Greece’s national wildfire system will go into full operations once OroraTech has got its entire constellation of 100 shoebox-sized satellites in orbit, which is scheduled for 2026.  “However, we will be delivering data to Greece immediately with our current network of thermal platforms, including our Wildfire Solution platform,” a company spokesperson previously told TNW.    OroraTech’s third satellite, FOREST-3 (pictured top), is scheduled to launch next month. The company is currently testing eight new thermal-imaging satellites, which it plans to roll out in early 2025. OroraTech joins an emerging cohort of “firetech” startups that have popped up in recent years.  Dryad Networks, a German company, has created an “internet of trees” sensor network that “smells” fires in the forest, before they burn out of control. Other ventures include BurnBot, which has built a robot that performs prescribed burns, and Rain, which wants to deploy autonomous helicopters to fight fires. In Europe, several fire brigades have been trialling long-range drones like those built by Dutch scaleup Avy to detect wildfires early and help firefighters on the ground track the blaze in real time. Researchers in Portugal are even developing a drone that douses flames from above.   As climate change worsens, we’ll likely see all kinds of technologies being deployed to battle the blaze, ultimately saving lives. source

The US Department of Justice may be on the verge of seeking a break-up of Google in a bid to make it less dominant. If the government goes ahead and is successful in the courts, it could mean the company being split into separate entities – a search engine, an advertising company, a video website, a mapping app – which would not be allowed to share data with each other. While this is still a distant prospect, it is being considered in the wake of a series of rulings in the US and the EU which suggest that regulators are becoming increasingly frustrated by the power of big tech. That power tends to be highly concentrated, whether it’s Google’s monopoly as a search engine, Meta’s data gathering from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, or by small businesses becoming dependent on Amazon. But what would a breakup of these tech giants achieve for consumers? Those in favour of shaking up Silicon Valley in this way argue that it would lead to more competition and more choice. And the best-case future scenario might look something like this: The year is 2030, and you are on your way to meet a friend for a meal. You receive a message notification on WhatsApp, which was sent by your friend using her Signal messaging app. Sending and receiving messages from different apps is now so common you barely notice it. In fact, “interoperability” – where different systems and tech work seamlessly together – is everywhere. In the same way you could send an email from Gmail to Hotmail back in 2024, you can now choose from a range of social media apps – alongside Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat – with text, pictures and video posted on one network easily accessible via another. You choose an app because you like the way it looks or the way it filters and presents content – not just because everyone else is on it. Similarly, your choice of restaurant and information on directions came from apps you have chosen from a much wider selection than the one you had access to back in 2024. You look at reviews produced by people you follow, irrespective of the platform they used to share it. Product placement and AI-generated content have practically disappeared, as the mapping app does not want to risk giving you advice you don’t want. If it did, you would simply switch to a competitor which provides a superior service. This increased level of competition is central to those who argue for breaking up big tech. Instead of app developers having to pay 30% of their sales to Google or Apple, there would be numerous app stores available, all competing to offer the best apps by cutting their profit margins. The theory is that the app market – and technological innovation – would thrive as a result. Research also suggests that the existence of competing apps makes consumers less lazy, and forces businesses to deliver better products, and better value for money. Private browsing In 2024, you would have had to trust the results provided to you by Google search, Google Maps, or a Google advert. And because Google owned your data, it could auction information about you to other businesses trying to reach you, without your say. You might have found Google’s services useful, but most of the benefit from personalised data would have gone to Google. And another big change that could come from breaking up big tech is that you might finally become the unique owner of that data. Potentially, you would be the only one with full access to your browsing history – the products you searched for, the ones you bought and the ones you almost bought. You would own the information about where you went for lunch, what you ordered, and how much you spent. Other information that would be owned by you might include how you commute to work, which video clips make you laugh, and which books you finished and the ones you abandoned immediately. The same goes for how you met your partner online, your dating history, and the health data your watch has collected about how hard you work at the gym. Your workout, your data. PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock In the imagined year of 2030, you would keep this data on an encrypted server, and different companies would offer apps to help you organise and manage your information. Whenever you wanted to, you could decide to use your data for your own purposes. Breaking up is hard to do Splitting up big tech companies is not without risks however. An obvious consequence is that those big companies would be less profitable. Right now, Google and Meta make (a lot of) money from advertising, and this is only possible because they own so much information about us. If they didn’t, they might end up charging users for the services they provide. Interoperability and greater competition may also provide more room for scam app operators. And while more choice about apps may be fine for some, it may be problematic for those who find modern technology challenging enough already. For regulators though, the challenge of modern technology seems to be a sense of powerlessness. And if they do decide to take the radical option and break up dominant companies, it could make a big difference to the online world for all of us. source

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a €119mn contract with Italian scaleup D-Orbit for its first in-orbit servicing mission, RISE.  Scheduled for launch in 2028, RISE will attempt to rendezvous with, maneuver, and detach from an ESA satellite in geostationary orbit. Then it will embark on an 8-year mission, visiting several other satellites and giving them a new lease on life.   RISE, which is about the size of a minivan, will be like a car mechanic, but for aging spacecraft. It will refuel them, repair them, relocate them to a different orbit, and even attach them with a module that will take over their propulsion and navigation.  “Now that we are able to, we want to move away from single-use, disposable satellites and instead, as the technologies continue to develop, start extending satellites’ lifetime and service them right where they are, in orbit around Earth,” said Andrew Wolahan, RISE project manager at ESA.  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! The space mechanic’s first client is likely to be a telecommunications satellite that’s running low on fuel but still has the capacity to keep connecting people worldwide, said ESA. If successful, D-Orbit will be the first European company to demonstrate in-orbit servicing. A circular economy in space  Filling up our car with petrol, driving it until it runs empty, and then abandoning it on the side of the road isn’t something we’d do on Earth. But that’s how things have worked in space for a long time. This is not only expensive, but one of the root causes of space debris.  The aim of RISE is to extend the operational life of satellites and dispose of them safely, so that they don’t contribute to the growing cosmic traffic jam.   At present, there are over 34,000 pieces of space junk larger than 10 centimetres circling around our world. What’s more, there are about 6,500 operational satellites in orbit, a number expected to exceed 27,000 by the decade’s end.  All these objects are increasing the risk of collisions with other satellites, space stations, or even people down on Earth. If the build-up of trash continues at this rate, some regions of space could become unusable. And for those of us on Earth, the litter’s ruining our views of the cosmos. In parallel with RISE, ESA is collaborating with Swiss startup ClearSpace on a mission focused on debris removal. ClearSpace-1, scheduled for launch by 2026, aims to actively remove a piece of space debris from orbit. Both RISE and ClearSpace-1 highlight Europe’s commitment to creating a circular economy in space.  The news comes just two weeks since D-Orbit announced it had closed a €150mn Series C funding round, one of the largest space deals of the past year.  source

Private capital investment in Belgian startups has exceeded €470mn in the first half of 2024, compared to a total of €424mn in 2023. At the current rate of spending, the country’s tech ecosystem is heading for a record funding year. That’s according to the State of Belgian Tech Report, published today. It combines data from Dealroom, a survey of over 130 startup founders, and interviews with Belgian entrepreneurs and investors. According to the findings, the average amount of investment per round per stage has steadily increased between 2018 and 2024 to date. It has tripled at the seed and Series B stages and more than doubled at Series A. AI dominates investments Reflecting a wider European (and global) trend, AI startups attracted over 70% of the total capital invested in H1 2024. Calling all Scaleup founders! Join the Soonicorn Summit on November 28 in Amsterdam. Meet with the leaders of Picnic, Miro, Carbon Equity and more during this exclusive event dedicated to Scaleup Founders! This was driven by a number of larger rounds by companies including TechWolf and Robovision, which secured investments of $42.7mn and $42mn, respectively. Other sectors that attracted investment are energy, professional services, and consumer goods. Sings of a maturing ecosystem According to the report, the gradual increase in startup funding since 2018 is a signs that the Belgian ecosystem is entering a maturation phase. Another indication is a steady growth in exits, which rose from 13 in 2018 to 31 in 2022 and 36 in 2023. This year has seen 22 exits so far. Belgium also counts four home-grown unicorns: Collibra, Odoo, Deliverect, and team.blue. The latter reached a €4.8bn valuation in July. There’s also a continuous inflow of capital from foreign investors (accounting on average for 66% of the total funding since 2020), while there’s a renewed momentum among local funds and VCs. In 2024 to date, Belgian VCs have raised over €200mn in new funds and are projected to close the year with over double the amount. Nevertheless, difficulties still remain in the ecosystem’s journey towards maturity — especially when it comes to scaling and late-stage growth. Tellingly, in the past six years, early-stage funding rounds account for approximately 77% of the total capital raised by Belgian startups. That’s compared to 42% in Europe as a whole. “The challenges are clear, and they’re not that different from other ecosystems in this early maturation phase,” Robin Wauters, founding member of Belgian VC firm Syndicate One and co-author of the report, told TNW. One such challenge is attracting senior talent. “Anything that can be done to make it easier for founders to recruit, retain, and reward that talent will enable the ecosystem as a whole to move to the next level,” Wauters said. In addition to talent, the availability of growth capital and government reforms for businesses  can deliver “a good mix of elements that level up Belgian tech,” he said. Ecosystems is one of the main themes at next year’s TNW Conference. Early birds can now buy 2-for-1 tickets for the June event.  source