Roko Karanusic
Hey - welcome to the fortieth edition of VC Angle Weekly Updates!
As always, we're keeping tabs on what actually matters across 🇪🇺 European tech, as well as relevant global tech news. If something broke the news this week and it's worth your time, it's probably below. Scroll on for the deals, reads, and reports you'll want on your radar.
In This Edition:
- EIC backs 61 startups with €467M
- Biggest seed raise in European history
- Klarna drops 68% since September IPO
- European climate tech faces $13.5bn Series B gap
- OpenClaw founder joins OpenAI
- Mistral’s first acquisition
- Cybersecurity VC surges 47% to $13.97bn
- & more
⏱️ 3:33 Est. Reading Time
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💥 Main Events Past Week
EIC Accelerator selects 61 startups for €467M in latest funding round
The European Innovation Council selected 61 startups and SMEs from 121 finalists for €467M in funding, with 85% receiving blended grants and equity. Companies span 17 EU countries led by Germany, Spain, France, and Sweden, with 28% having women in CEO, CTO, or CSO roles. An additional 60 applicants received Seal of Excellence for alternative EU funding access.
Ineffable Intelligence raising $1B at $4bn valuation before product launch
Ineffable Intelligence, a London-based AI startup founded by former Google DeepMind principal scientist David Silver, is reportedly raising $1bn at a $4bn valuation with Sequoia leading. Founded last November without a product, the company plans to build on Silver’s reinforcement learning work from DeepMind, including AlphaGo and AlphaZero. Alphabet, Nvidia, and Microsoft are reportedly considering investing.
Will be by far the largest seed round in European history.
Klarna stock drops 68% from IPO as loan provisions surge
Klarna shares fell 27% after reporting a $273M net loss for 2025 and $250M in Q4 credit loss provisions (up 60% YoY). Stock has declined 68% since September’s $15B IPO, cutting market value to $5.3B. Q4 revenues hit $1.1B (up 38%), with 118M active users generating $107 per banking customer versus $30 for average BNPL users. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski attributed rising provisions to the company’s push into longer-term financing products.
📰 Other News
- OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger joins OpenAI [See here]
- Mistral AI buys Koyeb in first acquisition to back its cloud ambitions [See here]
- Legora set to triple valuation to $6bn with latest funding [See here]
- Bending Spoons offers €1.5 million in tech scholarships through new Fellowship [See here]
- Drone startup Stark reaches unicorn valuation following German armed forces deal [See here]
- Lagarde reported to consider early exit from ECB [See here]
- FT ranking: Europe’s leading start-up hubs 2026 [See here]