Summary: The leading funding rounds in Europe for the week of March 23–29.

      A week that included advancements in semiconductor physics, orbital logistics, defense interceptors, and carob-based chocolate illustrates the current diversity of European and nearby capital. The prevalent theme isn’t confined to a specific sector but instead reflects a collective instinct: support the infrastructure layer, which encompasses chip interconnects, satellite transfer vehicles, or the foundational AI elements within enterprise workflows.

      **Kandou AI – $225M Series A | Lausanne, Switzerland**

      Kandou AI, a Swiss semiconductor firm established in 2011 and recently renamed from Kandou Bus, has secured $225 million in a Series A financing led by Maverick Silicon, with strategic contributions from SoftBank, Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems, and Alchip Technologies, valuing the business at $400 million. The company's copper interconnect technology, utilizing a signaling approach called Chord, can double to quadruple bandwidth while reducing power consumption by half, positioning it as a viable alternative to the optical interconnects anticipated to prevail in AI infrastructure.

      **Air Street Capital – $232M Fund III close | London, UK**

      Air Street Capital has successfully closed its third fund at $232 million, making it the largest solo GP venture fund ever established in Europe, as reported by Sifted. The London-based firm, operated by Nathan Benaich, focuses on backing AI-first startups in their early stages and plans to issue initial checks ranging from $500,000 to $15 million, with a small portion allocated for growth-stage investments of up to $25 million.

      **Granola – $125M Series C | London, UK**

      Granola, an AI meeting application based in London, has raised $125 million in a Series C round led by Danny Rimer at Index Ventures, bumping its valuation to $1.5 billion—a sixfold increase from its previous $250 million valuation less than a year earlier. This funding round brings Granola’s total financing to $192 million and positions its meeting recording capabilities as enterprise AI infrastructure rather than merely a productivity tool.

      **Ysios Capital InceptionBio – €100M fund | Barcelona, Spain**

      Ysios Capital, Spain's largest life sciences venture capital firm, has introduced InceptionBio, a €100 million fund focused exclusively on developing biotech companies spun out from Spanish universities and research centers, with CDTI as an anchor limited partner. This fund aims to target the most challenging and usually avoided stage in biotech, transforming laboratory discoveries into legal entities equipped with sufficient capital to attain preclinical data that can capture institutional investors' interest.

      **Credo Ventures – $88M Fund V close | Prague, Czech Republic**

      Credo Ventures has closed its fifth fund at $88 million, marking its largest fund to date and an increase from the €75 million raised in its fourth fund in 2022. This continues the firm’s fifteen-year strategy of being the first institutional investor for founders from Central and Eastern Europe and their diaspora. Based in Prague and Krakow, the firm has made early investments in companies like UiPath and ElevenLabs and plans to issue checks typically between $1 million and $5 million at the pre-seed stage.

      **360 Capital – €85M deeptech fund | Paris, France**

      360 Capital, the Paris-Milan venture capital firm managing over €500 million in assets, has raised €85 million for a new deeptech fund supported by at least one European defense contractor, as the firm shifts its focus towards dual-use technologies at the intersection of software, hardware, and national security. This fund signifies a clear integration of European defense aspirations into a deeptech investment strategy, a trend evident across several continental funds.

      **PaperShell – €40.3M EU Innovation Fund grant | Tibro, Sweden**

      PaperShell, a Swedish deeptech firm specializing in structural composite materials made from kraft paper and a biobinder sourced from agricultural waste, has signed a grant agreement with the European Commission under the EU Innovation Fund. This unlocks €40.3 million from an €83 million project to expand its Tibro facility to a capacity of 23,000 tonnes per year by 2030. The material, already approved by NATO and currently being shipped to customers in construction, defense, electronics, and transport, is touted by the company as stronger than plastics and lighter than aluminum.

      **PAVE Space – $40M seed | Renens, Switzerland**

      PAVE Space, a Swiss startup launched in 2024 from EPFL’s student rocketry program, has raised $40 million in what stands as one of the largest seed rounds in European space, led by Visionaries Club and Creandum. The company is developing a fleet of orbital transfer vehicles intended to relocate satellites from their launch to operational orbits within 24 hours, significantly faster than the six to twelve months typical of current onboard electric propulsion systems.

      **Lace Lithography – $40M Series A | Bergen, Norway**

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