Weekly RoundUp #03 — The €1B Edition
Megarounds are back in style. Dive into the data on Cloover, Odoo, and more.
📅 January 19 – 23, 2026 | Read time: 5 mins
👋 The Week in Review
This week was defined by the return of the Mega-round. It’s been a while since our dealflow was so densely packed with Series D and E rounds. From Cloover and Mews to Oviva and Pennylane, European scale-ups are thriving at the start of 2026, signaling a year of aggressive consolidation and global expansion for our regional champions.
Meanwhile, our unicorns continue to see valuations climb, supported by a surge in secondary sales providing much-needed liquidity for LPs. The question now: will this recycled capital spark a new wave of reinvestment? The rumors of a €1B vehicle for Plural suggest the answer is a resounding “yes.”
Let’s dive into the data.
📰 News of the Week
Cloover secures €1.04B to scale its “Shopify for Energy” platform across Europe
The Berlin-based climate fintech combined a Series A equity round with a massive €1B debt facility backed by a European bank and a €300M EIF guarantee to provide the software and financing infrastructure necessary for SME installers to deploy residential solar and heat pumps at scale.
Odoo reaches €7B valuation following secondary stake sale to General Atlantic
The Belgian open-source ERP leader saw its valuation jump from €5B to €7B as General Atlantic acquired an additional minority stake from regional investment arm Wallonie Entreprendre, underscoring Odoo’s rare position as a profitable, high-growth European software incumbent serving over 170,000 global customers.
ElevenLabs eyes $11B valuation to become the UK’s most valuable AI startup
Just two years after its Series B, the generative audio pioneer is in talks for a strategic funding round that would nearly double its valuation to $11B, fueled by $330M in annual recurring revenue and its expansion from simple voice cloning into enterprise-grade media dubbing and real-time agents.
Ledger eyes $4B+ NYSE listing as crypto IPOs heat up
The French unicorn has reportedly tapped Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays for a potential New York IPO following a record 2025 with triple-digit million revenue. This $4B+ target, up from its $1.5B mark in 2023, mirrors BitGo’s recent NYSE debut and highlights a clear trend: Europe’s hardware champions are heading West to capitalize on the US’s aggressive pro-crypto stance.
Nvidia moves to back Yann LeCun’s new “World Model” startup, AMI Labs
As Meta’s Chief AI Scientist departs to launch a Paris-based venture focused on autonomous machine intelligence, Nvidia is in talks to lead an oversubscribed €500M seed round that values the lab at nearly €3B, signaling a massive investor bet on LeCun’s vision of AI that reasons through physical world models rather than just text.
Plural targets €1B for its third fund to cement its status as Europe’s premier operator-led VC
Founded by the creators of Wise and Songkick, the London-based firm is raising a landmark €1B vehicle — potentially the largest ever for a European founder-led VC — to double down on its “unscarred” investment philosophy and provide hands-on capital to the region’s most ambitious deeptech and sovereign interest startups.
🇪🇺 Deals of the Week
🔍 The Deep Dive
Optalysys (DeepTech) | €26.3M Series A Extension
The Deal: Leeds-based developer of photonic computing chips designed to accelerate fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) raised €26.3M.
The Investors: Led by Northern Gritstone, backed by imec.xpand, Lingotto Horizon, UK government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund
The Analysis: Traditional computing faces a “decryption vulnerability” where sensitive data must be exposed to be processed, creating a massive security gap for cloud and AI applications. Optalysys solves this by harnessing silicon photonics to execute complex mathematical operations through light interference rather than electron flow, enabling massive parallel processing with minimal power consumption. This optical acceleration allows Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) to operate at commercial speeds, transforming “Always-Encrypted” data from a theoretical ideal into a functional reality. Notably, they are bridging the gap between abstract cryptography and scalable hardware with their LightLocker™ Node, positioning the company as the essential infrastructure for a multi-billion dollar confidential AI and post-quantum secure economy.
What’s Next: The funding will be used to accelerate the commercialisation of its proprietary photonic chips, further develop its programmable computing technology for AI, cloud and security applications, and US expansion
Fanvue (CreativeTech) | Series A | €18.7M
The Deal: London-basedAI-powered creator monetization subscription platform secured €18.7M.
The Investors: Led by Inner Circle, backed by Moonbug’s René Rechtman.
The Analysis: The creator economy faces a critical “scalability bottleneck” where individual creators are physically limited by the time required to produce content and engage with fans in manual direct messages. Fanvue addresses this by providing an AI-integrated monetization ecosystem that features proprietary tools for AI messaging, synthetic voice notes, and image generation, allowing both human and virtual influencers to maintain 24/7 fan engagement and scale personalized interactions. Operating on an 80/20 revenue share model across subscriptions and tips, the platform has reached a $100 million annualized revenue run rate with over 17 million monthly active users and 250,000 creators. As 77% of marketers plan to shift budgets toward AI-generated content in 2026, Fanvue is positioning itself as the primary infrastructure for the “Creator AI Economy”, a sector within a broader industry projected to reach $500 billion by 2030.
What’s Next: Funding will be used to expand operations and its development efforts
⚡ Deal Flow
🇩🇪 Mews (HospitalityTech) — €255M Series D: Amsterdam-based hospitality OS hitting a $2.5B valuation.
🇩🇪 Oviva (HealthTech) — €200M Series D: Berlin-based AI-powered chronic care for obesity and diabetes, fully integrated into European health systems.
🇫🇷 Pennylane (FinTech) — €175M Series E: Paris-based Financial OS for European SMEs consolidates its lead in France and targets Germany.
🇪🇸 Preply (EdTech) — €127M Series D: Barcelona-based global language learning marketplace combining human instruction with AI-powered tutoring tools.
🇬🇧 Stream (FinTech) — €76M Series D: Workplace finance platform scaling out of London
🇩🇪 Orbem (DeepTech) — €55.5M Series B: Munich-based AI-powered MRI technology for non-invasive quality assessment in food production.
🇫🇷 Stoïk (InsurTech) — €20M Series C: Paris-based AI-powered cyber insurance for mid-market.
🇬🇧 Infinitopes (BioTech) — €13M Seed: Oxford-based vaccine biotechnology company developing therapeutic solutions for hard-to-treat cancers.
🇩🇪 Twentyfour Industries (DefenseTech) — €10M Seed: Munich-based European sovereign drone manufacturer.
🇩🇪 NEOintralogistics (Robotics) — €3M Seed: Dusseldorf-based Robotics-as-a-service provider offering end-to-end warehouse picking automation.
👉 See the full database of 60+ rounds from this week: here.
💸 New Dry Powder
Spotlight: Prototype Capital — €15M
Solo GP Andreas Kingler, notorious for being behind the EU-Inc initiative, secured €15M for the third vintage of Prototype Capital. Aiming for a €20M close, the fund targets “pre-founding” stages, writing $200k–$400k checks for obsessed founders in robotics, automation and manufacturing. Boasting an impressive track record, Prototype Capital currently ranks in the top 1% to 5% of its respective cohorts worldwide. Its portfolio companies, including successes like Luma AI, Dust, and Sunrise Robotics, have collectively raised over $1B in follow-on financing. If you have a “weird” idea and the obsession to match, Klinger is the partner you want in your corner.
Other Fund Launches:
🇨🇭 Vi Partners ($189M): Backed by ETH Zurich and Nestlé for European DeepTech.
🇩🇪 Ananda Impact Ventures (€73M): First close for their fifth Core Impact Fund.
🇬🇧 Epidarex Capital (£50M+): Edinburgh-based life science specialist secured a £50M cornerstone to seed university spinouts in oncology and neuroscience.
🇬🇧 IQ Capital (£50M): Cornerstone boost from the British Business Bank for Fund V.
🇪🇸 Mission (€35M): New Madrid-based pre-seed fund to back 80 Spanish founders.
🇬🇷 Metavallon VC (€5M): The “Brain Gain” fund dedicated to reversing Greece’s talent exodus.
🇫🇷 Gamevestor (€1M): A new investment platform dedicated specifically to the indie gaming sector.
🇬🇧 Quantum Light: Revolut founder Nik Storonsky is reportedly back in market for a second, larger fund for his AI-driven VC firm.
Thank you for reading !
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Best,
Agathe
Regarding the topic of the article, this realy builds on your previous insights. It’s fascinating to see such aggressive consolidation. I wonder how sustainable this recycled capital is, but you make a compelling case.