As the COVID-19 lockdown is relaxing in Europe and various activities are trying to adapt to the new normal, businesses are coming up with new options suitable to the vulnerable situation. Tech startups in Europe are coming up with new solutions that will help them meet the challenges in the post- COVID-19 era. Here is a roundup from Silicon Canals of what happened this week in the tech startup ecosystem in Europe.
Former Xamarin product team launches Axiom
Data startup Axiom which helps companies deal with their internal data has secured $4 million (nearly €3.5 million) seed funding led by UK-based Crane Venture Partners along with participation from Fly VC, LocalGlobe, and Mango Capital. The notable angel investors are Nat Friedman, the former Xamarin founder and current GitHub CEO and Adam Wiggins, the co-founder Heroku. This takes the overall funding raised by the company to $7 million (nearly €6.2 million).
With this investment, Axiom founded by former Xamarin Product team Neil Jagdish Patel, Gord Allott and Seif Lotfy will launch an enterprise-grade solution to manage and analyse machine data across any infrastructure and at any scale. The company’s cloud-native insights hub lets DevOps teams access, analyse and query unlimited machine data from systems they rely on in a single place. Eventually, this reduces the cost by up to 10x than other products.
New matchmaking service to help Belgian companies
Antwerp-based Start it X guides Belgian corporates via a slew of innovation programmes. It provides the framework, tools, expertise, and experienced entrepreneurs to companies that take part in the Start it X Corporate Innovation Programme so that intrapreneurs (enterprising employees) can develop innovative ideas similar to a startup.
Start it X was established in 2019 by Lode Uytterschaut, the founder of Start it @KBC, the largest startup accelerator in Belgium. The programme stimulates innovation in the Benelux region by letting large companies with scaleups. This way, Belgian companies will know about global innovations and stay competitive in the space. Moreover, Start it X offers vibrant and dynamic co-working space for corporate intrapreneurs, startups and scaleups with six hubs across Belgium.
Swizz biotech firm secures funding
SwissDeCode, a biotech company based in Switzerland has received €2.5 million from the EU to support the development of an automated device to help food companies detect and react faster to pollution and contamination sans specialised personnel or laboratory. The device from this Swiss biotech company will be operated directly by the company’s staff and will analyse food samples and aims to provide ISO certified results in as quickly as 30 minutes.
SwissDeCode was founded in 2016 by Gianpaolo Rando, a PhD scientist, and Brij Sahi. During the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the company works to apply its experience in detecting viruses in plants and food. As of now, the company is transforming its rapid test solutions in an automated platform to change the way testing is done and make the process faster.
Luminor and FA Solutions partner for cross-border pension management operations
Luminor, the third-largest provider of financial services in the Baltics has teamed up with FA Solution, a Helsinki-based cloud portfolio management platform provider. This partnership enables Luminor Pensions to streamline cross-border operations and consolidate the multi-country systems into a single platform.
In 2019, Luminor Bank was formed by the merger of Nordic banks Nordea and DNB to combine their operations in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. On the other hand, FA Solutions founded in 1990 serves over 70 major banks, institutional investors, and independent asset managers in 15 countries. Recently, FA Solutions opened a new office in Latvia to provide the best fintech consultants for its consumers.
ConnectPay launches payment verification app
US-based ConnectPay, an online banking service provider for internet-based companies offers a wide range of payment solutions including SWIFT and SEPA payments, Mastercard online card payments, IBAN multi-currency accounts and merchant accounts. The online banking service provider released a new mobile app to help ensure payment security and prevent data breach during the COVID-19 crisis that causes vulnerable market conditions.
ConnectPay’s payment verification app as a direct response to COVID-related confidentiality concerns. The application provides multi-factor authentication to verify payment transactions. Founded by Michael Young and Paul Altavena, the company invests continuously in innovative ways to limit financial fraud and restricts the grounds for illicit financial activity.
UK biotech startup secures funding to lead mobile genetic analysis
UK-based biotech startup Hyris provides an integrated AI platform for DNA testing with a portable PCR called bCUBE, software and reagents. The patented bCUBE tech is affordable and easy to use and offers results in less than 90 minutes. In a recent development, Hyris completed a Series A funding round led by Astanor Ventures along with NEOS Medica, Idb Holding, and Pi Campus.
With this investment, the startup aims to create a global impact by providing the first at-scale library of food safety data to industries it serves. Also, it lets Hyris founded by Stefano Lo Priore strengthen its commercial deployment and marketing and make real-time and transparent food safety testing scalable for any market player.
Irish AI centre gets funding for new supercomputer
CeADAR, Ireland’s applied AI centre has secured €247k funding from Enterprise Ireland’s Capital Funding Programme for a new supercomputer that will help Irish companies engage in AI and big-data projects. CeADAR is the National Centre for Applied Data Analytics and AI in the country. The new high-performing computing platform dubbed LEON will be a great addition to the centre’s existing computing and storage infrastructure.
With this funding, CeADAR intends to provide the industry in Ireland with access to leading-edge and critical infrastructure along with its expertise in AI and analytics. And, it will help businesses exploit the latest advancements in AI. The LEON platform will meet the increasing demand of the industry when it comes to modelling, processing, and storage of large datasets.
Rabobank invests in Dutch Analytics
Delft-based Dutch Analytics has developed an AI platform that integrates massive volume of data and facilitates data analysis. Now, the platform collects funding from Rabobank to develop its software platform Xenia. This platform helps companies manage, operationalise, and integrate data science models in an accessible way with their existing IT systems. Notably, this funding round from Rabobank is an extension to the investment it raised back in late 2019 from Global Founders Capital.
Established in 2016 by Yannick Maltha, Dutch Analytics’ Xenia platform delivers value to those companies who are struggling to get their data science models in operation. This often requires in-depth knowledge of cloud technology and software development.
Main image picture credits: Start it X
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more European technology news.
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