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The Latest on Pathfounders:
Granola started out as a note-taking app for meetings, but like all great startup Trojan Horses, it’s becoming a full-blown enterprise platform. After raising a $125 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation this week, Pathfounders’ Mike Butcher caught up with co-founder Sam Stephenson to find out where it’s heading next.
By Mike Butcher
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Is Europe's ‘Tech Bro renaissance’ really upon us? Or is AI about to level the game for women?
Recently, the European tech world has been debating both the apparent rise of a more masculine culture, such as the male domination of hackathons, amid the continued paucity of female participation in the industry across all sectors. But does this debate mask what is really happening in the tech industry itself, underneath the culture wars? Agata Nowicka of Female Foundry recently released a report which surveyed 1,000 women founders about their opinions.
By Mike Butcher
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Should infrastructure be considered part of a DefenceTech VC investment thesis now?
Europe is facing a 6 trillion Euro infrastructure transformation over the next decade, with over €2 trillion already committed. But that leaves a leaving a €4 trillion private capital gap. At the same time, intelligence warnings suggest Russia could invade NATO territory sometime before 2029, putting Europe’s defence systems under massive pressure. So could infrastructure be the next big category for VC and startups? Pathfounders’ Editor Mike Butcher spoke to Nikolas Zamios, Partner with Berlin-based VC PT1, to unpack the issues.
By Mike Butcher
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For the last few years, AI has often been about one model to understand language, another to generate images, and another to handle video. To tackle this, Luma AI has just launched Uni-1: what it calls a “unified intelligence model.” The idea, says the company, is not to be just another image generator, and in fact, might be poised to power Hollywood. Speaking to Pathfounders' Mike Butcher, Jason Day, head of EMEA for Luma AI, unpacked where he thinks AI for creatives is heading next.
By Mike Butcher
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A new report from the European VC redalpine (with Sifted) argues that Europe’s next wave will not come from copying Silicon Valley consumer internet playbooks, but from sectors where Europe has genuine structural advantages: intelligent enterprise, digital health, new energy, space, biology and robotics. But can Europe capitalise on these? One of the report’s Sebastian becker, general partner at reldapine, joined Pathfounders Editor Mike Butcher to discuss its findings.
By Mike Butcher
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The European VC firm sees Italy as “systematically underinvested” in deeptech relative to its industrial strength, and is putting at least 80% of its new Poli360 2 fund behind that conviction.
by Amelia Isaacs
The Pathfounders pick of the week’s headlines:
• A coalition of European enterprises and community organisations has launched Euro-Office, a Microsoft-alternative to reclaim digital sovereignty
• Bristol-based electric aircraft developer Vertical Aerospace has warned it may not have enough funding to continue operating beyond mid-2026
• In the UK, 53 per cent of high-growth businesses are based outside London, but they receive only 39 per cent of the funding.
• PAVE Space, a Swiss space infrastructure company,raised USD 40 million in seed funding to develop a new generation of spacecraft designed to move satellites rapidly between orbits.
• Hundreds of British teenagers are set to take part in a trial to find out how effective a ban or restrictions on social media would be.
• Ex-Google exec launches £43m AI venture fund- Mahir Sahin, a former senior Google employee, launched Cloudberry Ventures, a €50m (£43.3m) VC targeting European deep tech
• Solo investor Air Street raises $232mn to chase hot AI bets - Quite inusual for a Solo GP to raise so much in Europe, But then Nathan Benaich is something of an AI expert
Where to find Pathfounders next:
See our specially curated events guide
07-04-2026 — 09-04-2026 — Gitex Africa Marrakech
06-05-2026 — 07-05-2026 — Turing Fest
11-05-2026 — 13-05-2026 — PODIM Maribor
27-05-2026 — 29-05-2026 — Panathēnea Festival, Athens
Op-Eds and Contributed Columns
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