Sifted - Vance vs. France

Good morning there,

Well, it's been an interesting couple of days for Sifted's pop-up Paris bureau.

French president Emmanuel Macron brought the two-day AI Action Summit in the French capital to a close yesterday promising to fight for Europe’s place as a global tech leader, the EU announced it would invest €200bn in homegrown AI efforts — and US vice president JD Vance told a roomful of dignitaries the whole thing was pointless unless they quit over-regulating.

If you're in the city and haven't managed to catch Sifted yet, fear not. Later today my colleague Daphne and I will be floating around the American Cathedral for "Visionaries Unplugged", a star-studded showcase of tech bigwigs, including Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap and Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch. 

Elsewhere today:

• Klarna power players: Meet the team steering the Swedish fintech’s IPO
• 10 French AI startups to watch
• Nina Capital announces first close of €50m fund to back early-stage healthtech founders

— Martin Coulter, news editor

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💉 Barcelona-based VC firm Nina Capital has reached the first close of its third fund, of €50m, to back 25 pre-seed to Series A healthtech startups in Europe, the US, Canada, Israel and Australia.

💰The EU announced a new €200bn initiative to invest in AI, with some of the money being used to fund four AI gigafactories focused on training the most complex and largest AI models.

Here come the builder bots

It’s an elusive dream. Robots hold promise for construction but the technology has proven difficult to perfect. The founders and investors in our report with Leonard, say this is all going to change. Meet the most innovative builder bots from across Europe and beyond. 

😤 This week’s AI Action Summit in Paris felt like a call to arms from European leaders — much at odds with the region’s reputation for leaning too heavily on the side of regulation. 

• So was it rhetoric or reality? Sifted asked the experts if the event really is the start of a new chapter in European tech.
• As the sun set on the event, we also compiled a list of the buzziest French startups we caught wandering the hallways of Station F, including Mistral, Photoroom and Bioptimus.

🤝 Swedish fintech Klarna is gearing up to IPO, with a lucrative debut on the US markets expected in the coming months. We broke down the power players piloting the buy now, pay later giant towards its upcoming public listing. 

🛫 How startups and corporates can best collaborate on airport innovation. (Sponsored by Groupe ADP) 

How to raise money for your deeptech startup.

The deeptech sector is capturing the attention of LPs. But where are investors placing their bets? How are deeptech startups securing capital in this tough-to-raise environment? Join this Sifted Talks on February 19 to find out. RSVP here.

What’s keeping CFOs up at night?

With funding scarce, how are startup CFOs turning strategy into growth? Join this Sifted Talks on February 26 and hear from Holibob, Kindred Capital, Peppy and Pleo. RSVP here.

Bruyères-le-Châtel, France-based Eclairion, which offers modular infrastructure and is involved in hosting AI clusters, raised €50m in funding from Tikehau Capital.

Oxford, England-based Salience Labs, which provides photonic solutions targeting connectivity for AI datacenter infrastructure, raised $30m in Series A funding. ICM HPQC Fund and Applied Ventures led the round.

Barcelona, Spain-based Exoticca, which offers travel services, raised €25m in debt funding from BBVA Spark.

Madrid-based Libeen, which operates a smart-housing model, raised €25m in funding. Andbank led the round and was joined by investors including Cusp Capital, Íñigo Juantegui, Enrique Linares and Juan Velayos.

London-based Plain, which develops a platform for B2B customer support, raised €14.5m in Series A funding. Battery Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Index Ventures and Connect Ventures.

Milan, Italy-based Akamas, which specialises in AI-driven cloud optimisation, raised €9.6m in funding. United Ventures led the round.

Milan, Italy-based Krill Design, which focuses on transforming organic by-products into sustainable biomaterials, raised €6m in Series A funding. Algebris Investments led the round and was joined by investors including Primo Capital and Crédit Agricole Italia.

Zurich, Switzerland-based Etfbook, which provides a data and analytics platform for the ETF market, raised €4m in Series A funding. BlackFin Capital Partners led the round.

London-based Noxus, which is developing and scaling an AI workforce platform, raised €1.4m in pre-seed funding. SFC Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Antler, Bynd VC, Caixa Capital, AltaIr Capital, I2BF Global Ventures, Yellow Rocks and Smart Partnership Capital.

Hamburg, Germany-based Wyrld, which is building a social commerce platform blending traditional e-commerce with the creator economy, raised €1m in pre-seed funding. Jochen Krisch, Sven Rittau, Kevin Tewe and Matthias Schrader all participated in the round.

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