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Danish startup Teton has used Gefion, one of Europe’s most powerful supercomputers, to turbocharge the development of its AI “care companion” for hospital staff.  Teton installs cameras and sensors in hospital rooms to gather real-time data. This gets fed to an AI algorithm, creating a virtual “digital twin” of the room. The model monitors patient and staff behaviour such as movement, breathing, or posture...

Unprecedented power cuts swept across Portugal, Spain, and parts of France on Monday — instantly unravelling the tech-dependent lives of me and tens of millions of others.  At first, I wasn’t worried. Then the owner of my Lisbon apartment forwarded me a link: an article in The Sun newspaper titled “Spain & Portugal hit by huge power cuts…” I tried to open it, but...

Swedish electric plane startup Heart Aerospace is relocating its headquarters from Gothenburg to Los Angeles in a move it says will “bolster product development.”  The company will lay off all of its 75 employees in Sweden, company spokesperson Christina Zander told TNW. “Recruitment in the US is ongoing,” she added.   Founded in 2018, Heart Aerospace is building a hybrid-electric 30-passenger airliner called the ES-30....

Dutch neobank Bunq today launched a crypto trading service for over 300 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The service launches today and is available to Bunq users in the Netherlands, France, Spain, Ireland, Italy, and Belgium. It’s offered via Kraken, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.   Bunq plans to “gradually expand” the offering to the rest of the European Economic Area (EEA), the...

German defence tech startup ARX Robotics has secured €31mn to ramp up production of its autonomous battlefield robots, which look like mini tanks — minus the guns.  ARX — backed by NATO’s Innovation Fund — will also use the fresh capital to advance its operating system, Mithras OS. The software is designed to modernise existing military vehicles through AI, sensor systems, and autonomous driving...

In the global race to become the next big tech hotspot, many countries pour billions into nurturing homegrown talent, courting VCs, and crafting startup-friendly policies. While some struggle to gain momentum, others seem to leap forward—fast. So, what sets apart these rapid risers? What’s the secret to ecosystem transformation? Look no further than Bulgaria—a country that’s quietly but confidently building one of Europe’s most...

Five standout scaleups from Southern Europe have reached the finals of TECH5 — the “Champions League of Technology.” They’ll now face off with rivals from across Europe to be crowned the continent’s hottest scaleup. Southern Europe’s digital scene is still maturing — but growth is accelerating. Deep talent pools and academic strength are now backed by rising support from investors and policymakers. These developments...

As our favourite Dutch holiday approaches, TNW is celebrating the tech titans shaping the future in the Netherlands. Our beloved home country is the proud parent of a prodigious brood of digital talent. It’s given birth to cultivated meat, raised Booking.com to become the world’s largest online travel agency, and watched with joy as ASML grew into Europe’s most valuable tech company. The family...

Researchers at Toshiba Europe have used quantum key distribution (QKD) cryptography to send messages a record 254km using a traditional fibre optic cable network. It’s the first time scientists have achieved a coherent quantum communication using existing telecomms infrastructure. The breakthrough marks a step closer to ultra-secure quantum encryption, which could fend off hacks from even the most advanced classical and quantum computers of...

Poland is set to power up its first full-stack quantum computer this year, following a deal with Helsinki-based startup IQM. IQM, Europe’s best-funded quantum hardware company, will install the machine at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology (WUST) in Poland.  Named “Spark,” the device is a superconducting quantum computer. This means that it uses superconducting circuits to create and manipulate quantum bits or...

Last year, NN Group and Rubio Impact Ventures launched the NN Social Innovation Startup Award providing grants and mentoring to startups to tackle mental, physical, and financial well-being challenges with tech-backed solutions. Over 360 startups applied. Based on the success of the first edition, NN Group and Rubio Impact Ventures will be hosting a second edition of the NN Social Innovation Startup Award at...

Europe’s climate tech startups raised $2.3bn (€2bn) in the first quarter of this year — the lowest total since Q3 2020, according to Dealroom data.  Behind the headline figure lies a complex mix of growing pains, shifting investor focuses, and broader VC market dynamics, experts told TNW. More specifically, they said the slowdown stems from a blend of market maturity, strategic repositioning, AI’s outsized...

German biotech startup Ovo Labs has developed new technologies to “rejuvenate” human eggs, potentially boosting the chances of conception.  The therapeutics are designed to enhance in vitro fertilisation (IVF), one of the most transformative advances in reproductive medicine. The first baby was born via IVF more than 40 years ago. Since then, the technology has helped millions of women get pregnant. However, IVF can...

UK startup Aquark Technologies has used Boaty McBoatface — the internet’s best-loved submarine — to test its quantum sensing technology underwater for the first time. The NATO-backed company put its so-called “cold atom” system inside the autonomous submarine. Boaty McBoatface then descended to the bottom of a giant indoor tank at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton. The idea was to test how...

Europe can dramatically cut its dependence on imported fossil fuels by adopting electricity-based technologies, according to a new report. Electric vehicles, heat pumps, and renewables could cut global reliance on imported fossil fuels by 70% when used to replaced them in transport, heating, and power, according to energy think tank Ember. They would also save importers an estimated $1.3 trillion (€1.14 trillion) globally each year,...

Highly dependent on imported fossil fuels and renewable energy technologies from foreign powers such as the US, China, and Russia, Europe’s energy security is in a precarious state. One potential fix? Harnessing nuclear fusion — the same atom-colliding reaction that powers the Sun and stars. While not yet proven commercially, fusion energy could provide Europe with a vital source of safe, locally produced, always-on...

Europe’s housing crisis is deepening. High building costs, tight regulations, and labour shortages have choked the supply of affordable homes. As cities swell with new arrivals and construction workers retire en masse, the gap between supply and demand is only widening. Endless solutions have been proposed. Mass housing projects, revamping the planning system, modular buildings, pre-fabricated materials, rent controls, and restrictions on corporate acquisitions...

IBM and the European Space Agency (ESA) today launched TerraMind, a new open-source AI model with an “intuitive” understanding of Earth. According to the research team, the system is the best-performing AI model for Earth observation. In an ESA-led evaluation, TerraMind beat 12 leading AI models on the PANGAEA benchmark — a community standard for Earth observation. The model excelled at various real-world tasks,...

As the Trump administration ramps up what academics call a  “war on science,” US researchers are increasingly looking to Europe for new opportunities — which could be good news for the continent’s tech sectors. France, in particular, is positioning itself as a safe haven for scientists. In a not-so-subtle appeal to disaffected US talent on Friday, the country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, called on researchers...

Five flourishing French scaleups have made it into TECH5 — the “Champions League of Technology.” The quintet will now compete for the title of top scaleup in Europe. The contest concludes on June 19-20, when the TECH5 champion will be announced on the main stage of TNW Conference. But first, the contenders have to win a regional crown. For the French challengers, that’s no...

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope say they have detected the “strongest evidence yet” that life exists outside our solar system.   Scientists at the University of Cambridge found signs of the gases dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b. On Earth, these gases are only produced by living organisms like phytoplankton, suggesting that K2-18b may also support...

Songs generated by AI tools such as Suno and Udio are flooding Deezer — but the French music streaming platform is trying to fight back.  Deezer said on Wednesday that users are adding over 20,000 fully AI-generated tracks to its platform each day. This bot-made audio now makes up 18% of “total uploaded content” — almost double the 10% figure the company shared in...

A new contest is searching for solutions to a defining problem of the AI era: soaring energy consumption. The Energy Innovation for AI Startup Challenge launches amid growing concern over the environmental cost of artificial intelligence. Just last month, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that global electricity demand from data centres is set to more than double by 2030 — with AI the...

The Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs have ruffled feathers across the world — and reignited Europe’s push for digital sovereignty.  One of the key focus points has been Europe’s cloud infrastructure, which is currently dominated by US tech giants: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Together, the “big three” account for more than 50% of the continent’s cloud market. “Europe...

“The Future is Here,” declares a glowing neon sign at the entrance to IQM’s quantum data centre in Munich. It’s a bold claim — but one the Finland-based startup is determined to fulfil. To the right of the entrance sign stands a hefty, metal blue door. My host, physicist Frank Deppe, IQM’s head of quantum processing unit (QPU) technology, ushers me inside. Opened last...

Dutch neobank Bunq, Europe’s second-largest digital bank, is gearing up to expand across the Atlantic. The fintech company has filed for a broker-dealer licence with US regulators, completing the first phase of its two-step expansion strategy. The licence will allow Bunq to offer American users investment options — stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds — alongside cash management tools. These will include features like automatic...

If you’ve been scrolling social media over the past week, you may have noticed miniature action figure versions of friends, family, or colleagues neatly wrapped in a blister pack. These plastic-fantastic portraits are the latest AI-powered photo trend to sweep the internet — especially LinkedIn. After digital avatars and Studio Ghibli-inspired selfies, we now have the action figure, produced using ChatGPT’s free image generator. ...

Motorheads have long theorised that the extreme downforce generated by high-performance cars could one day let them drive upside down. Now, British carmaker McMurtry has turned that wild idea into a reality for the first time. In a stunt that would make Batman jealous, McMurtry drove its insanely fast electric Spéirling flipped over. More impressively, it did that for over a minute while keeping...

Quantum professionals around the world overwhelmingly agree that quantum utility will arrive within the next decade, according to a new survey by Economist Impact. Quantum utility refers to the point at which quantum computers provide practical advantages over classical computers in solving specific real-world problems. A whopping 83% of the survey’s respondents think that moment will come within 10 years or less.  One-third of them...

Five fast-rising scaleups from the DACH region have qualified for TECH5 — the “Champions League of Technology.” The DACH entrants fought off off stiff competition to reach the finals, which will crown the hottest scaleup in Europe. Comprising Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, DACH blends deep industrial roots, high R&D spending, elite research institutions, and a growing startup scene. Collectively, the three nations have created a...

After steering Dutch chip giant ASML to become Europe’s most valuable tech firm, Peter Wennink is now focused on the next frontiers of deep tech. Wennink has already been involved in numerous breakthroughs in the field. Over his 25-year career at ASML — including over a decade as CEO — the company laid foundations for countless deep tech innovations. Under his leadership, the business...

US biotech startup Colossal Biosciences has resurrected the dire wolf — or at least that’s what the company would like you to believe. Social media is abuzz with viral videos, memes, and images of fluffy white wolf puppies. The Game of Thrones references are — predictably — omnipresent. The news even made it to Time magazine’s latest cover.  But behind the hype lies a...

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published its first major report on the AI gold rush’s impact on global energy consumption — and its findings paint a worrying, and perhaps contradictory, picture.   Energy use from data centres, including for artificial intelligence applications, is predicted to double over the next five years to 3% of global energy use. AI-specific power consumption could drive over half...

German startup ARX Robotics has announced plans to invest £45mn into a new UK facility, where it will build autonomous battlefield robots for deployment in war zones around the world. Located at an undisclosed site in southwest England, ARX expects the plant to produce 1,800 ground-based drones each year once up and running. ARX’s battlefield robots look like small tanks — but without guns. The...

Body-scanning startup Neko Health has opened its largest clinic yet, continuing its expansion in London — just six months after launching its first site in the city. The futuristic new facility expands access to Neko’s high-tech health vision. Blending body scans, lidar sensors, and AI with blood tests, eye pressure checks, and strength tests, the startup maps millions of data points in minutes.  The...

Hospitality software firm Mews raised Dutch tech’s biggest funding round in the first quarter of 2025, in what was a tough start to the year for the sector. Dutch startups raised around €460mn in the quarter, with a 59% decline in growth-stage funding raising alarm bells, according to the Quarterly Startup Report. Together, the top 10 deals accounted for over €320mn — more than 75%...

A UK startup wants to build a cosmic radio station in the Moon’s orbit to listen to radio waves from the early universe.   Blue Skies Space has secured a contract from the Italian Space Agency to design a fleet of tiny satellites that could orbit the Moon and listen for signals from the cosmic “dark ages.” That’s the time before the first stars lit...

Despite recent claims that European startups aren’t working hard enough, new research shows the continent’s founders are putting in serious shifts to turn their ideas into successful businesses. A survey of 128 founders by early-stage VC firm Antler found that three-quarters of them work more than 60 hours weekly, with 19% exceeding 80 hours.  German founders emerged as Europe’s hardest workers, with 94% working...

Consumer tech devices, including smartwatches, have deplorably short lives. Most are tossed aside when the screen cracks, the battery dies, or the software falls behind — adding to the world’s whopping great pile of e-waste.   Scottish startup Una aims to upend this take-make-waste cycle. The company’s sports smartwatch is built to be repaired. Users can easily swap, replace, and upgrade individual components like the screen,...

Five fast-growing Nordic scaleups have reached the finals of TECH5 — the “Champions League of Technology.” They join a standout quintet from Benelux, unveiled last week, in the race to be crowned Europe’s hottest scaleup. The Nordics — comprising Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden — boast just 27 million people but punch well above their weight in innovation. The region has Europe’s highest density...

Future lunar bases could run on solar panels forged from molten moon dust, turning the Moon’s surface into an energy source, thanks to a new research breakthrough.  Scientists at the University of Potsdam have engineered so-called “moonglass” solar cells made by melting artificial moon dust or “regolith” and then combining it with a layer of perovskite crystal to create a working solar panel.  The...

Europe’s tech industry is bracing for impact after the Trump administration announced sweeping tariffs yesterday. The US slapped a 20% tariff on imports from the EU — twice the rate for the UK. Switzerland fared even worse, receiving a hefty 32% levy.  Several European tech firms, investors, and analysts told TNW that the measures could disrupt supply chains, force pricing adjustments, and stem the...

“Hello, I will be your driver for today,” says Bartek Szurgot, a software engineer at German startup Vay and my chauffeur for this ride. He disengages the handbrake, gently presses the accelerator and the new Kia Niro EV I’m sitting in slowly pulls out of the parking lot.    As we approach the first intersection, Bartek indicates, turns the steering wheel, makes his observations, and...

Google DeepMind’s reported clampdown on sharing research will stifle AI innovation, warns the CEO of Iris.ai, one of Europe’s leading startups in the space. The UK-based lab has tightened its rules on releasing AI studies, the Financial Times reported this week. Citing seven current and former DeepMind scientists, the newspaper said the company has introduced stricter vetting and additional bureaucracy, making it harder to...

One of Europe’s leading climate tech VC firms has called for a “fundamental redesign” of traditional computing methods amid surging energy consumption from AI applications. The Berlin-based World Fund warns that simply transitioning data centres to renewable power will not be enough to fully decarbonise AI compute.  “We need to rethink the way we go about computing, from the materials and chips we use to...

Gone are the days when a bean bag and free kombucha made your office cool. Today’s top tech talent wants something far more valuable: their health. That’s the view of Lucien Engelen, a renowned healthcare innovation expert, who believes workplace wellbeing is about to spark a seismic shift. This transition will not only transform employment perks, but also create a new tech market. Engelen’s...

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosalind Franklin rover is back on course for a landmark trip to Mars, where it will probe the red planet for signs of extraterrestrial life.  ESA initially designed the Mars rover alongside Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, as part of the ExoMars programme. The vehicle was set to launch in 2022, but when Russia invaded Ukraine, ESA severed ties with...

German startup Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Spaceport in Norway today, marking the first-ever vertical orbital rocket launch in Western Europe. Spectrum blasted off at 12:30 PM CEST (11:30 BST) but lost control at about 25 seconds into the flight. A video from the launch shows the rocket wobble, pitch over, and then plummet back to the ground, where it collided...

Five high-flying scaleups from the Benelux region have made it into TECH5 — the “Champions League of Technology.” The classy quintet joins an exclusive group of Europe’s fastest-growing tech companies. Over the next two months, they will join six other regions — the Nordics, Southern Europe, France, the Baltic States, DACH, and the UK & Ireland — in a competition for the crown of hottest...

A coalition of European startups has urged swift action to slash burdensome EU regulations after a landmark declaration from the D9+ group of digitally advanced nations. The declaration stressed the need for “removing barriers” and “simplifying EU rules and procedures.” Ministers from all 13 countries in the D9+ — Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain,...