Mind The Gap #W21

European Tech & VC: weekly signal over noise. News, deals, funds, & exits.

May 25, 2026

📅 May 18– 22, 2026 | Read time: 5 mins

Oura files for NYSE. EQT takes the wheel on a €5B EU fund. Cohere goes back to Germany for seconds. Viktor hits $15M ARR in 10 weeks. Fresha quietly becomes a unicorn via KKR. Two French AI startups raise $40M on the same day. And somewhere in Geneva, a team from EPFL is building a foundation model of the human cortex.

Let’s dive into the data.

📰 News of the Week

Oura files confidentially for NYSE IPO

The Finnish health wearables company has submitted paperwork to the SEC, with no share count or price range disclosed. Valued at $11B in October 2025 after doubling revenue in consecutive years, it is heading toward one of the most credible healthtech exits the continent has produced in this cycle.

EQT wins mandate to manage the EU’s €5B Scaleup Europe Superfund

The Swedish private equity giant will oversee the EU’s largest state-backed tech fund, with over 100 companies already in its pipeline. EQT is pushing to extend eligibility to UK-based startups, which would mark a significant post-Brexit policy shift.

Cohere acquires its second German AI startup in a month

Weeks after the Aleph Alpha merger, Cohere acquired Berlin-based Reliant AI, a healthcare AI startup whose customers include GSK, Ipsen, and Kyowa Kirin. Cohere is using European M&A to build vertical AI capabilities fast, with each deal framed as an AI sovereignty play.

🇪🇺 Top Deals of the Week

Fresha | $80M | United Kingdom | Wellness | KKR Next Generation Technology Growth

REPS | $23.6M | Austria | CleanTech | undisclosed

🚪 Exits

Oura | Confidential NYSE filing |Finland | Health / Wearables

Emmi AI | Acquired by Mistral | Austria | AI

Reliant AI | Acquired by Cohere | Germany | Healthcare AI

🔍 My Personal Favorite

Neurosoft Bioelectronics | MedTech / Brain-Computer Interfaces | Seed | $7.5M

Neurosoft builds soft, stretchable brain-computer interfaces that sit on the surface of the cortex without penetrating brain tissue, a meaningful departure from the implant-and-puncture approach that has defined the BCI field since the beginning. The platform has already been tested in 10 patients across clinical trials at UTHealth Houston and UMC Utrecht for epilepsy surgery guidance. The real play here is a cortical foundation model: the company is using data from its clinical devices to train a model of the human cortex, the same logic that underpins large language models but applied to neural recordings. Spun out of EPFL, the team holds 25+ patents. Skybound Venture Capital led the round, which was oversubscribed and brings total funding to over $20M.

💸 New Dry Powder

Lauxera Growth II | Lauxera Capital Partners | €520M | France / USA | European healthtech growth equity, €20-50M tickets, 12-15 portfolio companies targeting US expansion

Earlybird + AVP Defence Fund | Earlybird / AVP | €500M | Germany / France | Defence Tech

Mouro Capital Fund III | Mouro Capital | $400M | Europe | FinTech / AI Infrastructure

Ispania Growth Fund | COFIDES / QIA | €300M | Spain | Green and digital transition

Skybound Venture Capital | Skybound | $38M | Europe | Deep Tech, early stage

Thank you for reading. Don’t just read the market: understand it.

If you enjoyed this edition, share it with someone who should be tracking European VC.

See you next Monday.

Agathe

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