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Growth vs cost: The new CFO mindset

With cost discipline top of mind, CFOs are rethinking their strategy — balancing rapid growth with profitability. But where should startups invest, and where should they cut back?

💰 Swedish startup Elvy, which offers consumers 15-year long energy tariffs, has secured $3.5m in equity funding and $150m in debt funding. The round includes angel investment from Klarna’s former deputy CEO, as well as VCs Essential Capital and Giant Ventures.

⚠️ Paris-based AI startup Spore.Bio has raised a $23m Series A. The startup has developed a technology that lets manufacturers detect contamination in products like fresh food, cosmetics and drugs, which it says gives results in minutes instead of days.

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👀 A16z general partner Anjney Midha may be based in San Francisco, but as a board member of French AI darling Mistral and Germany’s Black Forest Labs, he’s got an eye on what’s going on at two of Europe’s buzziest startups. Sifted asked him what he sees as Europe’s biggest challenges when it comes to AI; spoiler alert, it’s not regulation.

⚡ As Europe shifts to renewable energy, startups are stepping up with smart software solutions — but who’s leading the way? Discover the key players here.

👼 The 25 most active angel investors in Europe.

🐶 Cross-pawder: Can Europe scale international pet techs?

Cambridge-based Cambridge GaN Devices, which develops gallium nitride (GaN) power devices for high-power industrial, data centre and automotive markets, raised €30.5m in Series C funding. Investors included British Patient Capital, Parkwalk, BGF, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Foresight Group and IQ Capital.

Brno, Czech Republic-based Whalebone, which develops user-centric cybersecurity products for the telecommunications sector, raised €13.35m in Series B funding. Unbound led the round and was joined by investors including Day One Capital.

Baden-Württemberg, Germany-based Atmos Space Cargo, which is developing a logistics platform to transport goods between earth and space, raised €13.1m in funding led by the European Innovation Council.

Madrid-based Wooptix, which produces equipment for semiconductor chips, raised over €10m in Series C funding. Samsung and Spanish Society for Technological Transformation led the round and were joined by investors including the European Innovation Council, Intel Capital, Mondragón Corporation and TEL Venture Capital.

Amsterdam-based Stacks, an AI-powered workspace for accounting teams, raised €9.5m in consecutive funding rounds. EQT Ventures led the pre-seed round while General Catalyst led the first-tracked seed round and was joined by investors including S16vc, Mike Taylor and Simone Rüschenberg.

Utrecht, Netherlands-based Deeploy, a machine learning operations platform, raised €7.5m in funding. The European Innovation Council led the round.

Solothurn, Switzerland-based Eleven Dynamics, which develops smart automation solutions for manufacturing, raised €3.7m in seed funding. EquityPitcher Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Seed + speed Ventures, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Bertrand Gili, Bloomhaus Ventures and Schauenburg Ventures.

Hamburg, Germany-based Kynda, which produces alternative proteins for the food and pet food industries, raised €3m in seed funding. Enjoy Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including PHW Group and Clima Now.

Stockholm-based Serverpod, an open-source, scalable app server for Flutter developers, raised €2.7m in seed funding. Node.vc led the round and was joined by investors including Greens Ventures and PreSeed Ventures.

Turin, Italy-based Focoos AI, which develops a web platform providing efficient and low-energy consumption artificial vision models for smart cities, industrial production and satellite image analysis, raised €2.65m in seed funding from investors such as Galaxia, PiemonteNext, VC Partners SGR, Vertis SGR, Vento and Exor Ventures.

Paris-based Fullenrich, which is a data enrichment aggregator, raised $2m in seed funding. Flex Capital led the round and was joined by investors including M-Fund, Kima Ventures, First Degree, Offord Ventures and Duro Ventures.

Rennes, France-based Ochy, which provides real-time biomechanics assessment tools aimed at democratising gait analysis and reducing running injuries, raised €1.7m in pre-seed funding. Redstone VC led the round and was joined by investors including Look AI Ventures, Bpifrance, Berkeley SkyDeck and Agile Physical Therapy.

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