# European Startup News

German spacetech Isar Aerospace’s second rocket launch reaches orbit in milestone

The rocket reached orbit in a big step for the Munich-based company after multiple scrubs this year

Drone startup Uforce targeting upwards of $4bn valuation in new raise, sources say

The new talks come less than six months after the startup’s $50m fundraise

UK air defence startup Cambridge Aerospace hits $3.4bn valuation in new fundraise

The two-year-old startup raised $300m

222 spinouts, €4.9bn raised: Europe’s top universities for spinout funding in H1 2026

Bessemer, Atomico in talks to lead The Exploration Company funding at $2bn valuation

The scaleup recently opened its first US lab

Drone maker Quantum Systems raises $1.2bn, eyes humanoids

The scaleup has hit an $8bn valuation

SAP agrees to acquire German AI startup Prior Labs

The startup raised €9m in early 2025 and will receive more than €1bn in investment in the next four years

Vinted hits €8bn valuation following big secondaries sale

The scaleup has become one of the hottest commodities on the secondaries market, insiders have told Sifted

It isn’t just London calling. Here are the UK’s most investable regions

Discover the regions across the UK generating excitement among investors and founders

Nvidia in talks to back Yann LeCun’s new AI startup in bumper funding round

The startup's round was quickly oversubscribed, sources tell Sifted, with the final close expected to be higher than €500m

European defence founders and VCs weigh in on Trump’s Greenland threats: ‘A serious distraction’

Some VCs believe the US's aggression could benefit pure-play defence startups

Leaked pitch deck reveals Yann LeCun’s plan to build ‘first world model for business’

Sifted reported earlier this week that LeCun has poached key team members from Meta and Google DeepMind

Satellite startup Iceye hits €2.4bn valuation as it zeroes in on defence

Finnish startup working with defence primes and governments in countries like Finland and the Netherlands

Defence tech Stark hires Project A investor Uwe Horstmann as CEO

Horstmann’s firm backed Stark’s latest fundraise

German AI strike drones maker Stark acquires Berlin startup to boost swarming capabilities

The autonomous strike drones maker was founded in 2024 and is reportedly backed by Peter Thiel

Meet three prize-winning European women founders

Last month in Brussels, three entrepreneurs were announced as winners of the European Prize for Women Innovators

Isar Aerospace’s first rocket test flight crashes — but its CEO dubs it a 'great success'

The rocket crashed early on, but the startup aims to challenge the likes of SpaceX by providing satellite launch services for Europe

Comand AI raises €8.5m to build battlefield AI software for officers

The startup’s team hails from the likes of OpenAI and Palantir — and it’s on the hunt to hire more from those companies

SpaceX competitor The Exploration Company nears deal to raise €150m in fresh funding

The Munich and Bordeaux-based startup is building a reusable space capsule

Tapping into the Gulf: What are Middle Eastern investors looking for in Europe?

The Middle East might be rapidly modernising, but business practices remain rooted in tradition. From networking to due diligence, here’s what you need to know

Earlybird Digital East - the team behind one of Europe’s most successful VC funds - is breaking away from the Earlybird family

It is one of the top performing European VC funds — helped majorly by its early bet on Romanian software firm UiPath.

German AI defence startup Helsing raises €450m as defence tech heats up with VCs

The three-year-old company, which develops AI software for use on the battlefield, says the round is subject to government approval

Exclusive: Climate risk startup Climate X raises $18m Series A to expand to the US

The company, which helps businesses analyse their exposure to climate change, is opening an office in the US

Quantum startup Multiverse Computing triples valuation as it takes on AI

While everybody is training AI models so they can chat like humans, this San Sebastián-based startup is working on how to make them forget