Summary: Key funding rounds in Europe for the week of March 16 - 22.

      The week of March 16-22 was less eventful in terms of headlines but revealed significant trends regarding where European venture capital is subtly focusing its efforts: AI agents for physical industries, agritech automation, and the expanding operator-to-VC pipeline. This period showcased a different quality of investments rather than sheer volume, characterized by smaller funding rounds, more specific investment theses, and a clearer pattern indicating where European capital is gaining confidence, particularly in AI agents adapting to complex physical settings and agricultural automation that aligns engineering capabilities with its goals.

      1. **Upvest – $125M Series D | Berlin, Germany**

      Upvest secured $125 million just a year after its previous funding round, increasing its valuation from €360 million to €640 million. The Berlin fintech underpins investment applications utilized by companies such as Revolut, N26, Openbank, and Zopa. Tencent's involvement highlights the rising global interest in European fintech infrastructure.

      2. **Partech Impact Fund – €300M close | Paris, France**

      Partech has successfully closed a €300 million impact fund targeting one of Europe’s longstanding gaps in climate technology: growth capital. The Paris-based firm plans to support around 15 B2B companies generating over €10 million in revenue across various sectors, including clean manufacturing, sustainable agriculture, green construction, mobility, and digital health. Its inaugural investment is in SustainCERT, located in Luxembourg. Notably, the fund's structure ties carried interest to impact outcomes as well as financial performance, and it has been registered as an Article 9 fund under EU sustainable finance regulations.

      3. **Montis VC – €50M first close | Warsaw, Poland**

      Montis VC has achieved a €50 million first close for a new fund concentrating on European startups in energy transition, industrial technology, and AI. Backers include the European Investment Fund, Poland’s Development Fund, and family offices from Central and Eastern Europe. The fund aims to invest between €0.5 million and €2 million in 20 to 25 pre-seed and seed-stage companies, with half of its capital allocated for follow-on investments.

      4. **Parallel – €20M Series A | Paris, France**

      The Paris-based startup Parallel, which develops AI agents for hospital billing and medical coding, has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Index Ventures, shortly after its seed funding. The company focuses on the French public hospital system, utilizing AI to work with older software without extensive integrations, claiming this method significantly reduces deployment times and may eventually broaden to encompass more hospital workflows.

      5. **Rivia – €13M close | Zurich, Switzerland**

      Rivia, a Zurich startup developing AI for clinical trial management, has secured €13 million to enhance its agent-driven data platform. The firm states its system enables biotech teams to consolidate fragmented trial data, uncover insights, identify anomalies, and mitigate operational risks in regulated settings. This funding follows a €3 million seed round in 2024 and represents a bolder commitment to AI capabilities beyond mere data storage.

      6. **Kupando – €10M Series A | Schönefeld, Germany**

      Kupando has raised an additional €10 million for its Series A round, totaling €23 million, which will facilitate the advancement of its lead drug KUP101 into a Phase 1b trial. The German biotech firm is focused on an innate immunity therapy for advanced solid tumors and drug-resistant infections, an area that is less competitive in immunotherapy. This funding implies investor confidence in the science's readiness to transition from preclinical promise to patient treatment.

      7. **eternal.ag – €8M seed | Cologne, Germany**

      Founded by former Honest AgTech co-founder Renji John, eternal.ag, a greenhouse robotics company, has raised €8 million. Operating from Cologne and Bengaluru, the firm is developing autonomous harvesting systems for greenhouses, beginning with tomatoes. Their approach involves simulation-based development, teaching robots in virtual greenhouses using NVIDIA Isaac Sim to expedite testing and iteration in challenging agtech automation scenarios.

      8. **Choice – €7.1M Series A | Prague, Czech Republic**

      Choice, a restaurant tech startup from Prague, has raised $7.1 million in Series A funding to expand its reach from Central and Eastern Europe into Western Europe, starting with Portugal. The company provides an all-in-one platform for restaurants that handles ordering, payments, reservations, and delivery integrations, and claims to serve over 7,000 paying customers across nine markets.

      9. **Ofiniti – $6.8M | Oslo, Norway**

      Ofiniti, a maritime fuel software startup from Oslo that originated from DNV, has raised $6.8 million to expand its operations beyond Singapore into major global bunkering markets. Its platform digitizes documentation, scheduling, and compliance related to fuel delivery, having processed over 25,000 bunker operations in 2025 and capturing approximately 40%