Startup news for the weekend week 22/2026

Funding

welevel celebrates Series A and its fifth anniversary

The Munich-based game studio welevel has announced its Series A financing to mark its fifth anniversary. Transcend, Burda Principal Investments, BITKRAFT Ventures and "Whiteout Survival" creators Xiang Shen and Chen Qi are among those participating in the round. The team develops AAA survival city builder games and, in addition to handcrafted assets, also uses its own AI technologies to customize game experiences. With the fresh capital, welevel intends to further expand its vision of the next generation of survival games and hire new talent. The amount of the Series A was not disclosed.

Loom Ventures launches with 100 million euros for Europe's new infrastructure generation

Loom Ventures is launching as a new European VC for so-called "InfraTech" start-ups with a fund volume of 100 million euros. The focus is on young companies in the fields of digital infrastructure, energy and industrial systems. The spectrum ranges from AI and data center technologies to robotics, grid software and resilient energy systems. The fund is supported by the construction and infrastructure group STRABAG, among others, which will provide access to industry expertise and real fields of application. Loom Ventures invests in seed and Series A start-ups across Europe with tickets of between 1 and 5 million euros and focuses on technologies that are intended to make infrastructure more autonomous, efficient and resilient.

NENNA AI brings Groundshift on board

The Berlin-based startup NENNA AI has secured a new investor in the form of Zurich-based VC Groundshift, thereby expanding its presence in the European market. The platform enables companies to use leading AI models such as OpenAI, Claude, Gemini or Mistral without passing on sensitive data to external providers. NENNA AI is thus positioning itself as a European alternative for data protection-compliant enterprise AI, particularly for regulated industries such as banking, insurance and the public sector. Founded in 2023, the company has already been named "Best Legal Tech Startup 2025" and counts Groundshift, IBB Ventures and DFV Mediengruppe among its investors.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Code Gaia and Planted merge

The ESG software providers Code Gaia and Planted are merging under the umbrella of the new holding company "House of Gaia", creating one of the leading providers of holistic sustainability management in the European SME sector. With more than 630 customers and a profitable core business, the companies want to position sustainability more strongly as a business success factor. While Code Gaia provides AI-supported solutions for ESG reporting, data collection and compliance, Planted complements the offering with specific climate protection and reforestation projects. The Group is also planning targeted acquisitions of further specialized ESG software providers in order to expand its portfolio over the next two years. The aim is to offer SMEs an integrated platform that creates regulatory certainty and simplifies operational processes.

CONVOTIS strengthens Swiss business through acquisition of GLAUX

The CONVOTIS Group is continuing its growth course in Switzerland and is integrating GLAUX GROUP AG into CONVOTIS Schweiz AG. With this step, the company is expanding its market presence and extending its portfolio, particularly in the area of e-government and digital specialist solutions for public authorities, the judiciary, healthcare and social institutions. While GLAUX brings many years of experience and strong customer relationships in the public sector, CONVOTIS complements this expertise with cloud, security, platform and managed services competencies.

Xait acquires SAE and expands into the DACH region

The Norwegian software provider Xait, backed by Main Capital Partners, acquires a majority stake in the German company SAE GmbH, thereby strengthening its CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) and variant management business. SAE develops modular software solutions for manufacturers of complex industrial products and is particularly well established in the SAP environment and in sectors such as mechanical and plant engineering, industrial equipment and automotive. With this acquisition, Xait is significantly expanding its presence in the DACH region for the first time and at the same time extending its range of collaborative document creation and quotation preparation services.

DPE acquires majority stake in the NTA Group

The investment company Deutsche Private Equity (DPE) acquires a majority stake in the Mainz-based NTA Group, thereby focusing on a fast-growing market for security, communication and IT infrastructure solutions. With around 360 employees at nine locations in Germany and Luxembourg, NTA primarily serves SMEs, public authorities, healthcare providers and operators of critical infrastructure, generating sales of over 60 million euros.

Cooperations & partnerships

STACKIT and bunny.net expand European edge infrastructure

The cloud provider STACKIT, part of Schwarz Digits, and the Slovenian CDN company bunny.net are entering into a strategic partnership to offer companies in Europe a powerful, data protection-compliant and EU-sovereign solution for content delivery and edge security. STACKIT CDN powered by bunny.net gives customers access to a global edge network with low latency, high performance and integrated security features such as web application firewall, DDoS protection and rate limiting. The cooperation is a response to increasing requirements from regulations such as GDPR, NIS2 and the EU Data Act and is intended to enable companies to keep data under European jurisdiction without compromising on speed or security.

More exciting news

QIMP puts new deep tech start-ups on course for growth

The state-funded QIMP High-Tech Incubator in Braunschweig is entering its second round with five new deep tech start-ups. Selected from 28 applications, the teams are now working on growth, pilot customers and investment readiness. The topics range from quantum internet and robotics to AI-supported quality control and battery technology. The start-ups are supported by Braunschweig Zukunft GmbH and a network of coaches, research institutions and investors. By the end of 2028, a total of around 8 million euros in funding will be available for up to 30 start-ups.