Sifted - H cofounder takes top Meta job

Good morning there,

Chips: great on a plate, even better in a supercomputer. Everyone’s hungry for these tiny bits of tech powering the boom in chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude and Grok. Just look at the AI spending plans of the great tech powers. Google will invest $75bn in chips and data centres this year; Microsoft will spend $80bn and Meta’s committing up to $65bn.

A small wrinkle: Europe’s entirely reliant on AI chips made by a handful of US companies, most often world-leading chip designer Nvidia, and to a lesser extent Advanced Micro Devices and Intel. VC investment for European chip challengers is small fry: these startups raised just €192.9m in equity and grants in 2024. 

One of Europe’s few chip hopefuls is Fractile, a London startup that raised a $15m seed last year. Founder and CEO Walter Goodwin sums up the opportunity — “this is the biggest infrastructure build-out in history” — but also the challenge of developing a new AI chip from scratch while the AI industry is catapulting forward: “It’s like shooting an arrow at a fast-moving target and the arrow is going to take two years to land.” Pro subscribers can read an interview with Goodwin in our newly published AI chips briefing. 

Elsewhere today:

• H Company cofounder takes top job at Meta's AI research lab in Paris
• 14 wealthtechs to watch, according to VCs
• AI infra startup Ori raises $140m and rolls out access to Nvidia superchips
  
  

— Éanna Kelly, contributing editor

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🇫🇷 Karl Tuyls, the cofounder of buzzy French AI startup H Company, has taken a job as director of AI research at Meta’s lab in Paris.

• In August, Tuyls left the business alongside two other cofounders, just three months after H Company raised a $220m seed round.

🍟 Ori Industries has raised $140m to scale its compute-as-a-service business as governments across Europe ramp up spending on the infrastructure powering AI. 

❌ Anti-misinformation startup Logically has laid off dozens of employees. Two sources close to the company tell Sifted around a fifth of the company's 200-strong headcount has been made redundant.

💳 Investors from Northzone, Seedcamp, Creandum Ventures, Molten, Augmentum and Dawn Capital share their picks of European wealthtech startups to watch.

Yes, construction robots are a thing — and they’re just getting started

The global population is growing, many countries have large housing deficits and there is a shortage of skilled manpower. In convergence with the advance of technology, investors sense a growing opportunity for builder bots.

Europe's small fry face crunch time

• It’s going to be difficult — some say impossible — for Europe to magic up anything like the raw computing power of Nvidia. 
• The region doesn’t lack for semiconductor specialists, but there are no AI chip competitors like the Silicon Valley market leader. 
• There are a few meaningful raises — London’s Fractile feels like one to watch — but a lot more VC firepower will be needed. 
• Fortunately, Chinese startup DeepSeek has shown Europe that powerful AI systems can be made using far fewer computer chips than many experts thought possible. It’s the sort of tech trickery Europe needs to learn from.
• Dig into that and more in our latest briefing on AI chips — exclusively for Pro subscribers.

Want to gain access to Sifted's entire library of briefings? Find out more about Sifted Pro.

Milan, Italy-based Newronika, which is developing a brain interface device to better treat neurological disorders, raised €13.6m in Series B funding. Fondazione ENEA Tech e Biomedical led the round and was joined by investors including Indaco Venture Partners SGR, Innogest SGR, Wille Finance, TNBT Capital and F3F.

Berlin-based Snuggs, a period pants brand, raised €5m in funding. TripleB led the round.

Milan, Italy-based Timeflow, which centralises and digitises IT supplier management, raised €4m in funding. Investors included European Union-Next Generation EU, Vertis SGR and Azimut.

Cambridge, UK-based Flit, which builds folding electric bikes for commuters, raised £1.2m in funding from ACF Investors, Cambridge Angels and Tony Purnell.

Gothenburg, Sweden-based Verigraft, a biotech startup which optimises tissue transplantation procedures by personalising donated tissues to their recipient, secured €1.2m in a Eurostars grant.

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