Tech startups weekly: AI mitigates recruitment bias, Spot robot now available in Europe & Canada, and more

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Though the pandemic situation hasn’t completely eased all over the world, the European tech startup ecosystem appears to have come out of the worst-hit era. Several tech startups across Europe are hitting the headlines as they receive funding that will help them grow further and boost their business goals.

European tech startups weekly

As a part of a weekly roundup, here is a list of some of the most important tech startups that have hit the headlines in Europe this week.

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Picture credits: reciTAL

AI-driven ‘Document Intelligence’ solutions

Paris-based reciTAL that specialises in ‘Document Intelligence’ solutions has secured €3.5M funding in a round led by Breega, a European VC firm. The company will use this initial funding to boost its development and make itself the reference platform for automated data extraction. reciTAL intends to perfect and industrialise their solution and speed up business development along with Breega.

Established in 2017 by Gilles Moyse and Frédéric Allary, reciTAL’s Document Intelligence solutions will pave the way for rapid information retrieval, email flow processing, contract analysis, due diligence processes, risk assessment, and more. This platform allows companies to search and retrieve any text document in natural language.

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Picture credits: Swyg

AI to reduce bias in recruitment

Based out of Dublin, Swyg has bagged €1M funding in a round led by Frontline Ventures, a B2B venture capital firm along with angel investors such as Martin Henk (Pipedrive co-founder) and Charles Bibby (Pointy co-founder). According to the company, the funding it raised this year will be used to strengthen its team and to further develop its product.

Founded in 2018 by Vincent Lonij, Swyg empowers candidates to review and interview each other via a series of one-to-one video chats, along with pre-defined structured questions. This peer-to-peer process sources its expertise from a diverse group of individuals and doesn’t rely on a single recruiter or hiring manager. Its AI technology calibrates interviewers in real-time to reduce bias and human error.

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Picture credits: Hedera-22

Solution to discover biomolecules

Hedera-22, based in Belgium, bagged €1M funding in a round led by Globachem, a family-owned international agrochemical company. The company intends to use this investment to accelerate the development of its activity towards both the discovery and production of new biomolecules.

Hedera-22 was founded in 2015 by Denis Baurain, Marc Hanikenne, Sébastien Rigali, and Pierre Tocquin as a spin-off of ULiège (University of Liège). The company provides customised bioinformatic services both in the biotechnology and healthcare industries. The company is also developing a strategy that combines bioinformatics and environmental microbiology to improve the discovery of new biomolecules that are useful for the agro-industry and human medicine.

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Picture credits: ThoughtRiver

Automated contract review technology

London-based legaltech startup ThoughtRiver has secured €8.4M in Series A funding round led by Octopus Ventures, a European VC that invests in technology innovation leaders. The other investors that support ThoughRiver are Syndicate Room, Entrée Capital, Local Globe, Crane, and angel investor Duncan Painter. With offices in London, Singapore, New York, Cambridge, and Auckland, this startup with focus more on growing its market share in the US and scale its sales and marketing efforts. Also, it will roll out integrations with leading technology partners.

Established by Tim Pullan, ThoughRiver’s automated contract review software enables companies that want to accelerate the process of reviewing, negotiating, and signing contracts. This way, companies can drive deal velocity and also make critical business decisions with data. Recently, the company announced Michael Lisowski, the ex-COO and divisional President as Ascential plc, as its COO.

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Picture credits: Mercury.io

B2B cryptocurrency payments infrastructure

Mercury.io, an Estonian startup has secured €2.5M in a seed funding round led by Target Global, a global VC fund with over €800 million under management. This investment comes as Target Global believes that fintech is a lot about infrastructure right now.

Founded in 2018 by Petr Kozyakov, Alex Vasiliev, and Greg Waisman, Mercury.io is a cryptocurrency exchange payment provider. It has offices in Tallinn and London and complies with PCI DSS international information security standards. The company’s standard is adopted by MasterCard, Visa, and AmEx as well.

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Picture credits: Seniovo

Safe living space for the elderly

Berlin-based proptech startup Seniovo has bagged €2.5M growth financing from existing investors IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft and PropTech1 and a few new investors. With the fresh capital, the company will be able to expand its B2B business. Notably, it is one of the first startups to receive funds from the Germany government’s COVID-19 relief aid for startups that exhibit exceptional growth potential.

Seniovo was founded in 2016 by Jonathan Kohl to renovate homes and make them safe for the elderly. Recently, Seniovo partnered with residential property group Vonovia to modernise bathrooms to make them suitable for the elderly. It is an online platform that provides a customised offer for renovating a user’s bathroom based on a five-step questionnaire on its homepage.

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Picture credits: Boston Dynamic

Spot robot goes global

Boston Dynamics, which is a global leader in mobile robotics has expanded the commercial sales of Spot robot. Well, Spot is an agile robot that can climb stairs and traverse rough terrain seamlessly. As a result of the global expansion, Spot robot will be available in the EU, UK, and Canada. This follows the launch of the commercial sales of this robot in the US.

Founded in 1992 by Marc Raibert, Boston Dynamics develops and deploys highly mobile robots that can tackle even the toughest challenges in robotics with ease. It operates with the mission to lead the robotics industry with offerings that have advanced mobility, intelligence, and dexterity.

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Picture credits: AppyWay

Smart parking technology

London-based AppyWay announced the launch of its £20M (nearly €21.7M) Series B funding round. This funding comes after the Series A funding from Sumitomo Corporation, Hyundai Motor Company, Aviva Ventures, West Hill Capital, and Breed Reply. AppyWay intends to use this investment for organic growth of the platform, further technological investment, strategic acquisitions, and global scalability.

Established in 2013 by Dan Hubert, AppyWay provides an advanced platform of precise and standardised data, APIs, and tools for smart kerbside management. It uses IoT sensors to establish kerbside demand data and enrich the same via a range of sources such as navigation, traffic solutions, mobility, payment operators and MaaS, and much more.

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Picture credits: Wallbox

E-vehicle charging startup acquires Electromaps

Wallbox, a Barcelona-based energy management company that manufactures smart e-vehicle charging solutions has acquired Electromaps. Notably, Electromaps is a leading digital platform to access free and paid-for electric charging points in Southern Europe. With this acquisition, Wallbox enters the public electric charging space.

Wallbox was founded by Enric Asunción and Eduard Castañeda in 2015 with the mission to change the way energy is used. Wallbox designs, develops, and manufactures smart charging solutions for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids for both domestic and business use.

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Picture credits: ScreeningEagle

Cloud-based tech platform

Screening Eagle, a cloud-based technology platform that connects sensors, software, and data for inspection of infrastructure and assets secured CHF 5M (nearly €4.6M) funding as an extension to the funding it secured in April 2020 – total funding of CHF 60M (nearly €55.7M).

This funding was led by a family office and will be diverted to accelerate Screening Eagle’s growth plans by helping talent acquisition, product development, M&A, and more.

The company was founded by Marcel Poser in Zurich and has over 220 employees across 9 worldwide offices with R&D technology hubs in Zürich, Málaga, and Singapore. Its blue-chip clients inspect the world’s most valuable assets including oil and gas, buildings and infrastructure, energy, and transportation.

Main image picture credits: Boston Dynamics

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The editorial team of Silicon Canals brings you technology news from the European startup ecosystem. 

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