Startup news for the weekend week 48

Investments

Quantum Systems triples valuation and achieves largest dual-use financing round in Europe

Quantum Systems has increased its valuation to over three billion euros and raised a further 180 million euros with a Series C extension led by Balderton Capital. Together with the round already closed in May 2025, the total annual volume amounts to 340 million euros. This is the largest financing in the European dual-use sector to date. The company, a provider of unmanned systems, plans to use the capital to accelerate the further development of its AI, software and hardware technologies and to expand its multi-domain offering across air, land and water applications. Following recent acquisitions, including AirRobot, Nordic Unmanned and Spleenlab, further strategic acquisitions are to follow. Quantum Systems now employs up to 1,000 people at locations worldwide and supports NATO forces in Europe, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and especially Ukraine with its platforms.

New investors strengthen Tiger Media

Tiger Media, provider of the children's audio streaming platform tigertones and the tigerbox devices, has acquired EDEL SE & Co. KGaA and the Wack brothers from let's dev. Both partners invested a mid-seven-figure sum at the beginning of September 2025 as part of a capital round. The company sees this as an important step in the implementation of its growth strategy, particularly for the expansion of the streaming platform and the launch of the new tigerbox MINI in October 2025. Tiger Media emphasizes the long-term cooperation with the new investors, who contribute both media competence and technological expertise. Following revenue growth of over 30 percent in the previous year, the company expects a similar increase in 2025 and believes it is well positioned for its planned international expansion with the expanded shareholder structure.

Cerrion receives 18 million US dollars

Cerrion, a Swiss-founded platform for AI-powered video agents in production, has closed an 18 million US dollar Series A funding round led by Creandum and backed by investors including Y Combinator, Goat Capital, 10x Founders and Session VC. The company develops AI video agents that monitor production lines in real time, detect deviations and safety risks and thus help manufacturers reduce downtime and waste by up to 50 percent. The technology is already being used by international producers such as Unilever, Riedel and Schott Zwiesel.

Overstory receives USD 43 million for the expansion of AI-supported forest fire prevention

Overstory, an Amsterdam-based provider of AI-based vegetation and risk models for utilities, has closed a USD 43 million Series B funding round led by Blume Equity with participation from Energy Impact Partners and existing investors. The company uses high-resolution satellite data and proprietary AI models to accurately identify risks from vegetation along critical infrastructure, prevent power outages and reduce wildfire hazards. Overstory intends to use the funding to further develop its AI risk models, expand its forest fire prevention offering and grow internationally. The company also unveiled the next generation of its Wildfire Intelligence, which is based on a proprietary fuel detection model.

Rencore expands Series A to 15 million US dollars

The Munich-based company Rencore has expanded its Series A financing to a total of 15 million US dollars. The expansion round was led by European tech investor Hi Inov, while existing investors UVC Partners and Capnamic Ventures participated again. With the additional capital, Rencore aims to accelerate its international expansion in Europe and North America and further strengthen its position as a provider of governance solutions around Microsoft 365, the Power Platform and AI-powered services such as Copilot. The cloud-based Rencore system helps companies to centrally manage collaboration, security, compliance and automation and reduce risks in AI and agent integrations.

Awards & Events

That was the Mittelhessen start-up fair

The Gründungsmesse Mittelhessen took place in the Hessenhallen Gießen, which had recently been in the spotlight due to reports on the new youth organization of the AfD. Despite rather moderate visitor interest, numerous guests took the opportunity to seek advice at the stands, where local business development agencies and the regional council were also represented. The offers of bmh Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen mbH and RKW Hessen aroused particular interest. One highlight was the keynote speech by Hesse's Minister of Economics Kaweh Mansoori on the Hesse Fund, whose volume of 1 billion euros is divided into 750 million euros in low-interest loans and 250 million euros for investments and subsidies. The StartMiUp Factory Sustainable Life of the Universities of Giessen, Marburg and the TH Mittelhessen was also positively highlighted.

Forbes 30 Under 30 DACH 2025 takes place at Factory Berlin for the first time

Forbes is hosting this year's "30 Under 30 DACH" Summit on December 4 and 5, 2025 for the first time together with Factory Berlin, where over 300 young innovators are expected. For Factory Berlin, the role as host and content partner marks a further step in its development from co-working space to "neo company builder". Forbes emphasizes the importance of the curated Factory community, which includes more than 3,000 members and over 1,500 founded startups. The summit is themed "Creating Cultural Capital" and offers AI art co-creation labs, panel discussions on European future topics, impact dinners and contributions from the Berlin creative scene, among other things.

Proxima Fusion receives the German SME Award 2025

Proxima Fusion, Europe's fast-growing fusion energy company, was awarded the German SME Award 2025 in the Enterprise category by the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion (MIT) in Munich on November 25, 2025. With this award, the MIT recognizes organizations that are particularly committed to freedom and the social market economy. Founded in 2023 as a spin-out of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Proxima Fusion works closely with research institutions and industrial partners to further develop the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator technology on an industrial scale. At the beginning of 2025, the company presented the "Stellaris" stellarator concept together with the IPP and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Central German Institute for Security Industry starts operational work

Following its foundation in September 2025, the Central German Institute for the Security Industry (MISI) is now entering the operational phase with a high-level founding event in Leipzig. Around 120 representatives from the German Armed Forces, research, industry and politics discussed the role of Central German companies in the security policy turnaround. The aim of the MISI is to make Central Germany visible as an efficient location for the security and defense industry, to increase regional value creation and to facilitate market access for companies. Under the guiding principle of "Sustainable Defense", the institute promotes networking, technology transfer and dual-use innovations and brings together companies, research institutions and associations under one institutional umbrella. The aim is to strengthen the region's competitiveness through transparency regarding procurement channels, the establishment of regional supply chains and support for companies setting up in the region. The event marks the start of a roadmap until 2027 with initiatives on market access, innovation, regional value creation and networking, including industry workshops from January 2026.

Water Future Day provides impetus for water innovation in the Ruhr region

At the Water Future Day on November 26 in Essen, the BRYCK WaterHub, together with the Wilo-Foundation, brought together start-ups, research, industry and investors to discuss new approaches to dealing with extreme weather, modern water infrastructure and digital monitoring systems. Five European startups from the BRYCK Extreme Weather Program presented their technologies, with Riskwolf receiving the HTGF Pitch Award for its parametric insurance platform. Another item on the program was the excursion to the RAG control room at the Pluto colliery, which, as a central control and monitoring facility for dewatering processes, offered insights into digital water management in post-mining. The event underlined the importance of the emerging real-world laboratory for water technologies as part of the BRYCK WaterHub and highlighted the region's potential.

Cooperations & partnerships

LEG Immobilien becomes a partner of ATechX

ATechX, Aroundtown's startup accelerator, is expanding its partner network to include LEG Immobilien, thereby strengthening its position as an innovation platform for the sustainable and digital transformation of the real estate industry. The cooperation gives startups access to test environments in a total portfolio of around EUR 130 billion, which includes the portfolios of Aroundtown and its partners. ATechX supports young companies that develop technological or sustainable solutions along the entire real estate life cycle and offers them real-life application scenarios in the four-month program. LEG Immobilien, one of Germany's largest housing companies with around 172,000 apartments, is contributing its own innovation initiatives such as intelligent heating control, efficient heat pumps and digital refurbishment processes.

Personnel

Anja Kühnel becomes Vice President Operations at Credibur

Berlin-based infrastructure fintech Credibur has appointed Anja Kühnel as Vice President Operations. In this role, she will be responsible for Finance, People, Processes and Communications and, together with founder and CEO Nicolas Kipp, will support the management of the young company, which develops digital infrastructure for structured credit portfolios. Kühnel brings extensive experience from the banking and fintech environment, including from Deutsche Kreditbank AG and Lendico/ING Germany. Credibur closed a USD 2.2 million pre-seed funding round in July 2025 and launched its credit infrastructure platform, which automates the refinancing processes between alternative lenders and institutional investors. The expansion of the management team is intended to support the development of scalable structures and the company's international expansion.