AI and Fintechs in the spotlight at Elevate Festival

🔥 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞: 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞’𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞’𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐱 - Europe is lagging in capital flows to artificial intelligence compared to the United States and China, despite possessing strong academic foundations and engineering talent. - Investor hesitation stems from fragmented regulation, weak scaling infrastructure, and lack of unified strategy across the European Union. - The article posits the solution is clear: mobilise public capital, harmonise regulatory frameworks, and create continent-wide funding platforms to catalyse private investment. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐠𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐬 - Fragmented markets inhibit venture capital mobility—national borders hamper seamless investment across Europe. - Excessive regulatory caution dampens breakthrough AI initiatives, reducing risk appetite among institutional investors. - Infrastructure gaps—especially in cloud, semiconductor, data pipelines—raise costs and slow deployment at scale. 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞’𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 - Establish a pan-European sovereign AI investment fund to act as anchor investor and de-risk capital for private entrants. - Align regulation under a unified regime to eliminate “regulation arbitrage” and certainty in cross-border projects. - Invest aggressively in common digital infrastructure (data lakes, compute grids, networks) to provide the backbone for AI scaling. 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 - Without decisive action, Europe will cede control of AI leadership to US and China, becoming primarily a consumer, not a creator. - Delay in funding could result in “brain drain” where top AI talent migrates abroad. - Uneven progress may deepen divides: leading hubs will leap ahead, while peripheral regions fall further behind. 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 - Governments must endorse and underwrite capital pools for deep technology. - Institutional investors should commit to multi-national AI mandates, not just local deals. - Corporates need to form cross-border consortia, combining markets, data, and use cases. - Venture funds must expand reach beyond national borders, adapting to European scale. Source: https://lnkd.in/eu7cwFqw #ArtificalIntelligence #AutonomousAgents #LLMAgents #AgenticWorkforce #AgentApplications #AIProductivity #AIAgentNewsletter #AgenticAI #AgenticWorkflows #AIAutomation #AIAgents #AgenticAI #FutureOfWork #Innovation #AIInvestment #AIBusiness #AIBank

I’m excited to announce that Maiwand Ahmadzai has joined Nordic Blocksmiths as our new Head of AI & R&D. Nordic Blocksmiths is on a mission to tackle Europe’s structural startup challenges and help catalyze the first trillion-dollar company from Europe and from Sweden. Strengthening our AI and research capabilities is a critical part of that journey, and Maiwand Ahmadzai brings the perfect combination of technical depth, applied AI expertise, and strategic vision to help us get there. In this role, Maiwand Ahmadzai will lead the development of AI infrastructure, research programs, and strategic innovation pipelines that position the Nordics at the forefront of global technological progress. From scalable compute strategies to applied research and ecosystem collaboration, their work will be central to shaping our long-term AI roadmap. The Nordics have the talent. The vision. The ambition. Now it’s about building the right AI foundations to turn that potential into lasting impact. Please join me in welcoming Maiwand Ahmadzai to the team as this is a big step forward for Nordic Blocksmiths and for the broader ecosystem we’re building.

Parmy Olson, Bloomberg Opinion columnist Europe doesn’t have an AI problem — it has a money problem. Despite producing 30% of the world’s scientific research and hosting nine of the top 25 AI institutes, the continent attracts only 14% of global unicorns. DeepMind’s 2014 sale to Google for £400 million was a turning point — a brilliant European innovation, financed and scaled elsewhere... The issue isn’t regulation, as critics of the EU’s AI Act often claim. It’s capital. European pension funds invest just 0.018% of their assets in venture capital — compared with roughly 2% in the US. If they matched that, it could unlock more than €230 billion for Europe’s most innovative firms. The recent Mansion House Compact is a start, but the gap remains vast, especially at the scale-up stage where most AI builders stall. If Europe’s next DeepMind or Wayve is to stay European, how do we persuade its institutional investors that the bigger risk lies in caution, not ambition? #artificialintelligence #venturecapital #deeptech #europeantech #innovation

🚨 Big News from the Netherlands and Europe! 🇳🇱🌍 We’re proud to announce that General Intuition, Medal's AI research lab, has closed a landmark $133.7M seed round! 💰🚀 Led by Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst, this funding will propel the development of foundation models that require deep spatial and temporal reasoning — transforming AI for both gaming and real-world applications. 🎮🌐 A special shoutout to CEO Pim de Witte and Iggy Harmsen — the Dutch entrepreneurs whose resilience, passion, and innovation have made this journey incredible. ✨💪 Their vision truly exemplifies the power of European talent to shape the future of AI. 🌟 This achievement underscores: ✅ Europe’s growing leadership in groundbreaking AI research ✅ The importance of nurturing local talent to build global impact ✅ A positive vision for responsible AI that benefits society and creates new opportunities 🌱🤝 At Techleap, we celebrate their journey and are committed to supporting European researchers, engineers, and startups to continue leading in AI innovation. 🚀🌍 Congratulations to the entire team, investors, and partners! 🎉🙌 General Intuition is hiring AI researchers in Europe. For more info, visit: generalintuition.com 💼✨ Read the full press release in the FD: https://rb.gy/s4pi4d

AI is spurring more concentration around London in Europe's technology scene "Over the last 12 months or so we're seeing more founders come from continental Europe to build here [London]. I thought of the reasons why. First of all, proximity to the labs is important and obviously these labs have their biggest offices here. And some of the best AI universities in Europe... We're seeing more concentration of AI companies in London and I think that's a good thing for the European ecosystem," said Luciana Lixandru, Partner at Sequoia Capital, at the Sifted Summit. #SiftedSummit2025 #technology #AIstartups

💡 What do UK and European tech businesses need to become global champions in the age of AI? Ambition. Be Bold. Think globally from day one. #AI levels the playing field for ambitious tech businesses and with great universities, accessible talent, and a vibrant start-up community, there is fundamentally nothing stopping the UK and Europe building world-class tech companies. 🚀 🎯 But we need to #Believe. This, for me, was a golden thread running through the excellent #BoardwaveLive2025 in London yesterday – a vibrant gathering of some 450 European software leaders and easily one of my favourite events of the year. Inspiring tech leaders from a broad range of organisations spoke enthusiastically about the inflexion point caused by #AI and the opportunity that creates for European businesses. 💬 Vishal Marria from Quantexa set the tone in the opening session - “We can build foundational technology right here in Britain.” “Ambition must stay strong.” 💬 Microsoft titan Jean-Philippe Courtois, urged European founders looking to get ahead in the AI race to “Be bold.” “It’s a unique time.” 💬 And Husayn Kassai, who led fintech Onfido to a $650m exit in 2024 before founding start-up Quench.ai, shared his belief that the US has lost the capital advantage, with the cost of building companies dropping significantly in the age of AI. “There’s ample capital here. The US has lost its key edge.” As NVIDIA boss Jensen Huang said last week as he declared the ‘UK will be an AI superpower’ us Brits, in particular, have a tendency to be “too humble” and not capitalise on the strength of our tech research. Now is the time for our tech leaders to seize the moment and believe. 💫 With huge thanks to Kath Easthope, Phill Robinson and the amazing Boardwave team for another awesome event and the work they are doing with Europe’s software community to Shape the Future. Community runs through Boardwave's DNA and it was lovely to see old friends and make new connections between the sessions at Boardwave Live. 🙏

Emergent Raises $30M to Expand AI Agentic No-Code Platform into MENA and Asia Emergent, an artificial intelligence company with rapid growth, has secured $30 million to grow its agentic vibe-coding platform to other parts of the world, including the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Lightspeed led the $23 million Series A, with support from YC, Together, Prosus, and several leading tech angels. Read More: https://lnkd.in/eTtXrkKT #AI #NoCode #BusinessInnovation #DigitalTransformation #TechLeadership #MENA #AsiaMarkets #StartupFunding #EnterpriseAI #TechExpansion #AIinBusiness

A Glimpse Into the Future of European Innovation, Bits & Pretzels 2025. This week, STAMP had the honor of participating in Bits & Pretzels. Hosted in Munich and supported by the German government, this year’s edition broke records in attendance and marked a symbolic shift, with Germany aiming to lead in the age of AI. For us, it was more than just a conference. It was a platform for conversation, connection, and recalibration. Representing Spain at the Spanish Alley, #STAMP proudly stood among startups shaping the future of #travel, #retail, and #finance. The topics were timely and urgent:  🚀 How can Europe compete with the US in AI and innovation?  🚀 What role should public funding play in scaling tech?  🚀 How can startups and corporates collaborate without compromising agility? From our point of view, the answer is clear: true transformation requires trust, speed, and user-first design. And for #GlobalShopping, that starts with rethinking what #TaxFree should actually mean. A huge thanks to the Bits & Pretzels team and the entire ecosystem for the meaningful conversations. We leave with #insights, #energy, and #clarity on where Europe is headed, and our place within it. #AskForSTAMP #Bits25

𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 talking to 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 at gm AI. What started as an idea to connect DeAI founders we admire turned into one of the most high-signal days of TOKEN2049 Singapore. Thanks to Almanak, CreatorBid, FLock.io, Monad Foundation and OpenServ for co-hosting and joining us along with their chiefs and core team: - 0xJeff (@Defi0xJeff), Jeff, Researcher & Investor - Lars, Co-Founder & CTO at Almanak - Phil, CEO at Creatorbid - Vincent, CFO & Jiahao Sun, CEO at FLock - Cookies, Ecosystem at Monad Foundation - Tim & Lucas, Co-Founders at OpenServ If you’re pushing boundaries in the industry, you will want to be at the next one. Check out our recap piece “TOKEN2049 in Retrospect (2025 Edition)” in the comment below ↓ covering: - Reflections on the Token Experience in SG - Shift in Event Vibe from 2024 to 2025 - Dominance of Prediction Markets - DeAI Ecosystem Maturation - DEFI Revival and Institutional Interest

“Testing different AI tools is useful, but real value comes from choosing a real business problem and finding the right tools with a trusted partner to solve it.” – Kalle Kuusik, Managing Director of Tilde Estonia. At 𝗘𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗔𝗜 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗩𝗼𝗹. 𝟭𝟱: 𝗔𝗜 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗠𝗘𝘀, part of Tallinn Entrepreneurship Day, Kalle shared why local expertise and privacy matter when implementing AI in business. 🔐 In his presentation, Kalle highlighted that: ▪️ Privacy is critical when adopting LLMs for core business tasks. ▪️ Over 200 million Europeans speak languages underrepresented in LLMs developed outside Europe. ▪️ With TildeOpen LLM, Europe proves it can build its own tools and reduce dependence on big market players who have little interest in Estonian or European languages in general. The event brought together around 150 participants and sparked lively discussions on AI adoption for SMEs. Interest is high, but many don’t know where to start. One of the 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 from presenters? Focus on real business challenges and measurable gains, whether you choose to buy it or build it. 💡 Big thanks to the organisers: Founderly, Estonian Founders Society, and Tallinn Enterprise Centre.  #EstoniAI #AIforSMEs #EstonianBusiness