Tech has waded into another feud with artists. After a week of wrangles about AImimicry of pop stars and training models on copyrighted content, Spotify has sparked fresh controversy over a new royalty scheme.
The streaming giant announced on Tuesday that its new payment policy will exclude songs with fewer than 1,000 annual streams. According to Spotify, more than 60% of the platform’s catalogue doesn’t reach this threshold. However, they account for under 1% of the streams.
Spotify said it would not make any extra money under the model. Instead, the company has pledged to redistribute the payments to all eligible tracks.
This plan has proved divisive. Opponents of the move include DIYcreators, music companies, and legal experts.
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Damon Krukowski of the dream-pop duo Damon and Naomi, compared the model to a “regressive tax.” In a blogpost, he claimed the plans would cut payments to artists who already receive less, in order to boost payments for those who already receive more.
“This will move an estimated $40-$46 million annually from artists like Damon & Naomi to artists like Ed Sheeran,” Krukowski added on X. “Spotify will tell you it’s not about artists you know. Why would you believe them?”
One critic has argued that the move could even face a legal challenge.
Amelia Fletcher, a competition law expert and independent musician, described the model as “discriminatory and exploitative.” In an open letter sent to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek before the plans were confirmed, she warned that the move would create an unlevel playing field.
“Not only is it intrinsically unfair, but it is also anti-competitive and seriously risks constituting an abuse of dominance under UK and EU competition law,” she said.
I have sent a personal letter to Spotify, regarding its proposed ‘demonetisation’ of those tracks which currently account for the lowest 0.5% of royalty payments. pic.twitter.com/JKiGGKB1Tt
Spotify, however, argues that independent artists will benefit from the changes. The streaming giant said tracks with under 1,000 annual streams generate $0.03 per month on average.
The company added that many creators don’t even get this payment. Because of fees, withdrawal requirements, and simply forgetting about the payments, the money often doesn’t reach the uploaders. Yet they reach an annual total of about $40mn per year, which could be redistributed into the stream-share pool.
Some independent artists and companies have welcomed the move to expand these payments. They have also praised the potential to fight the fraudulent streaming tactic of uploading an extremely high volume of songs.
They should soon see how it works out in reality. Spotify plans to roll out the new model early next year.
Oura, the Finnish health wearable startup, is suing one of its biggest rivals, claiming it copied its ring device and accessed proprietary information.
The Oulu-based company, which makes the Oura Ring health tracking device and has raised more than €140 million, has filed legal action against Indian company Ultrahuman.
In a lawsuit filed in a court in Texas in early September, Oura accuses Ultrahuman of violating its patents and accessing proprietary information through ex-Oura employees and investors to develop its competing smart ring product.
Oura, which is valued at over €2 billion, has one million users of its ring and has garnered celebrity fans.
The company has released three iterations of its smart ring to date. It tracks metrics like heart-rate variability, blood oxygen rate and sleep patterns. Unlike wearables like Fitbit wristbands, Oura markets its device as a smaller, more compact product that can do similar tasks but with a sleeker look.
The Oura ring… Credit: Oura
Ultrahuman meanwhile initially developed sensors for health and exercise tracking. It released its first device to be worn on a finger called the Ring last year, and a new iteration called the Ring Air earlier this year.
Ultrahuman did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations. The company has also yet to respond to the allegations contained in the legal filing.
Allegations
Oura claims that Ultrahuman designed its ring by “blatantly copying Oura’s technology,” infringing on patents held by the Finnish company.
Oura alleges that Ultrahuman gained access to proprietary information about its ring technology through former employees.
“Ultrahuman’s efforts to copy Oura do not stop at infringement, but have extended to hiring former Oura employees, soliciting current Oura engineers, and potentially benefiting from some of its primary investors gaining access to Oura’s proprietary and confidential information prior to launch of the Ultrahuman Ring,” Oura stated in its legal filing.
…and Ultrahuman’s ring. Credit: Ultrahuman
It added: “Moreover, Ultrahuman has hired and solicited a number of Oura’s employees and engineers to assist with development of the Accused Instrumentalities [Ultrahuman Ring].”
In the filing, Oura sets out several details and features in Ultrahuman’s ring that it claims the rival company has copied.
This includes the titanium used in the device, skin sensors and PPG sensors, which measure various health metrics for the wearer, and the fact that the device uses similar batteries from the same suppliers.
According to Oura, Ultrahuman is “supported by an investor” that gained access to confidential and proprietary information on the Oura Ring in December 2021. Oura has not disclosed the name of the investor, nor is it clear if Oura is referring to one of its own investors.
No coincidence?
Oura claimed that the “similarities are not a mere coincidence”. The Finnish company goes as far as to claim Ultrahuman imitated its social media content for promoting the device. Oura is seeking damages of “amount to be proved at trial.”
A spokesperson for Oura declined to answer any further questions about the allegations made in the lawsuit but said the company planned to defend its intellectual property.
“We will fiercely protect the innovative work of our team, and defend against those looking to take a shortcut,” they said.
The case could initiate a lengthy legal battle between two of the wearable industry’s most significant startups.
What’s at stake?
Both companies have attracted a sizable amount of venture capital funding.
In April of 2022, Oura announced that it was valued at $2.5 billion following an additional injection of capital from investors, though a figure for the latest investment was not disclosed.
In 2021, Oura raised $100 million in a Series C round led by The Chernin Group and sports tech investor Elysian Park Ventures. Its other investors include Temasek, MSD Capital and Salesforce boss Marc Benioff. Oura appointed a new chief executive last year in Tom Hale.
Ultrahuman raised a $17.5 million Series B round a year ago from VC firms like Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures and is backed by some high-profile angel investors like Zomato chief executive Deepinder Goyal.
Wearable market
The global market for fitness trackers is expected to be worth over $258 billion by 2032, according to analysis firm Precedence Research.
That covers a wide range of products from smart watches to trackers like FitBit. Smart rings are a relatively smaller subset of that market.
Oura, having burst on the scene in 2013, has taken a lead in that space, regularly featured on consumer guides for smart rings.
It now boasts over one million devices sold and celebrity users like Jennifer Aniston and Kim Kardashian. While based in Finland with offices in Oulu and Helsinki, the company has also opened offices in San Francisco and San Diego as it targets the US market.
Oura’s ring began as a consumer wearable product focused on sleep tracking, but has gradually expanded that remit to be a broader health tracking device. For instance, it has integrated its product with fertility and contraception app Natural Cycles to enable users to track period cycles.
It has also rolled out a subscription service, bringing the company into the SaaS arena. A ring can cost up to €500 but the access to software products on top of that, with a monthly subscription, aims at diversifying the company’s income stream with recurring monthly revenue.
Meanwhile, Oura has deepened its investment in R&D.
Health data and privacy
Playing in the space of health data is a risky bet given the sensitivity of the information that Oura collects. Earlier this year, Oura acquired San Francisco-based digital ID startup Proxy, which specialises in encrypting sensitive data.
When Oura CEO Hale announced the deal, he described the acquisition as “paving the way for new opportunities in areas such as payments, access, security, identity, and beyond, fuelling future growth.” This hinted at a much bigger vision for Oura and its wearable device.
Ultrahuman has its own vision too. The Indian company may be new to the smart ring game, but it is not new to health tracking and wearables. Its first flagship product was a smart glucose tracking patch that monitored a user’s glucose levels and generated insights based on the data. Much like Oura, it too operates a subscription service.
Ultrahuman dipped its toes into the smart ring game in early 2022 when it acquired LazyCo, another Indian startup, which had built a smart ring product.
Oura is seeking a jury trial. Ultrahuman has yet to respond in the Texas court but will in all likelihood do so soon. At that stage, the case will take greater shape but both sides could be facing a lengthy process.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was directly responsible for over 1 million fatalities in 2019, and the death toll keeps rising. It occurs when bacteria become resilient to antibiotics, making infections more difficult to treat — or in some cases impossible.
In Finland, scientist Windi Muziasari has made it her mission to tackle this “silent pandemic.”
In 2018, after completing her PhD studies at the University of Helsinki, Muziasari founded Resistomap — a tool to help doctors and researchers track the global distribution of antibiotic resistance in the environment. Since then, the startup has compiled a database of over 10,000 environmental samples across 45 countries worldwide, one of the largest of its kind.
Basically, the scientists at Resistomap collect samples from sites like water treatment plants, hospitals, and farms to test for the presence of bacteria containing antibiotic-resistant genes. Many of these facilities have a high presence of resistant bacteria but don’t test for them regularly or only test for certain types.
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For hospitals, for instance, Resistomap conducts continuous resistance monitoring and recommends preventative measures to limit the spread of these bacteria. It does this by installing an automatic wastewater sampler in the sewer system of the healthcare facility which collects samples for testing at the company’s lab in Helsinki.
Samples are then analysed using a high-throughput qPCR system (a technology used for measuring DNA) to detect and quantify antibiotic resistance genes. Results are then displayed on an interactive dashboard which helps authorities identify potential areas for intervention.But that’s just the beginning.
The startup announced today it has secured €2mn in a seed funding round which it will use to develop the company into a biosecurity intelligence platform.This platform will feature the integration of early-warning systems, in-depth genetic results, advanced prediction models, and personalised recommendations for reducing the spread of AMR.
Going forward, Resistomap plans to expand to other diseases. “Our vision goes beyond AMR to build a comprehensive biosecurity platform that addresses a diverse array of disease-causing pathogens, encompassing both those already identified and those that remain undiscovered,” said Muziasari.
While the glittering lights of Europe’s cities hold the promise of new opportunities, ideas, and fun, they also hold smog and a growing air pollution problem. Not to mention the fact that it’s hard to live your dream city life as you’re trapped in bumper-to-bumper traffic or spending your morning folding yourself into one metro after another. As the population of urban dwellers increases across cities from Stockholm to Milan, getting from point A to point B will only get that much more difficult.
“We believe it doesn’t make sense for people to spend one year of their lives commuting while sitting in queues and congestion,” says Fredrik Hanell, Director of Impact Ventures at EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative started by the European Union to address some of the biggest mobility challenges facing Europe’s cities.
Hanell’s focus is on identifying startups with viable solutions to these problems and providing them with support through matchmaking and funding opportunities. Since its inception in 2019, EIT Urban Mobility has invested in 86 startups.
With an eye on the latest innovations and tech trends in mobility, we asked Hanell: will our futures actually be filled with drones and hoverboards?
Cities are changing shape
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Perhaps one of the most apparent changes that are taking place across Europe’s cities is the reclaiming of busy central streets. From Brussels, where the once busy Place la Bourse has been repaved and designated pedestrian-only, to the more cautious “Open Streets” project in Bucharest, which shuts down central streets for vehicles over a weekend and hosts events to get people out and about.
“We don’t hate cars, but we see that the natural place for them needs to change. We need to look at initiatives that can contribute to change in the city. One of the consequences you see from this is that life expectancy increases, accidents decrease, and of course, pollution decreases,” says Hanell.
Rather than a new initiative, this can be seen more as a return to the historic plaza, piazza, or plateía that Europe’s cities have historically been built around, giving it an advantage in this new urban movement over sprawling car traffic-built cities like Los Angeles or Hong Kong.
In fact, EIT Urban Mobility is headquartered in Barcelona which was one of the first to introduce ‘superblocks,’ or small traffic-regulated groups of city blocks, in 2016. The most recent study of the project found there has been a 25% decrease in NO2 levels and a 17% decrease in PM10 particle levels. To put this into perspective, studies estimate that, if implemented more widely across the city, the initiative could prevent almost 700 premature deaths a year.
However, while this project has been lauded by city planners in fellow EU cities, some residents in the neighbourhoods where it’s been introduced have been less than enthusiastic. The pilot superblock project in the Poblenou neighbourhood faced political and civil society resistance. Several court cases have been brought against the project with a judge ruling in September 2023 that superblocks in the Eixample district would have to be restored to their former state.
Therein lies the quintessential challenge of urban mobility. Put simply, cities are full of people with different needs, jobs, attitudes, beliefs, political leanings, and behaviours. Any change being introduced by city planners has to come with a comprehensive plan to get residents on board. While superblocks might be a great concept for a parent who has more safe space to take their kids out, it might be a bigger burden for a business owner who needs to find a new way to transport goods.
Enhanced logistics planning will be key as traffic flows change. With this in view, one startup EIT Urban Mobility has invested in is Vonzu, a SaaS delivery and logistics management platform, aimed at giving businesses a full overview of all their urban deliveries from supply chain to couriers. As urban logistics become more complex with changing streets and caps on emissions, AI-powered recommendations and automation will be a necessity.
Image by Vonzu
Along with reducing pollution and congestion, city planners also hope these changes will encourage citizens to choose healthier and more sustainable transport options. Rather than taking a car or bus to work, pedestrian zones and bike lanes could encourage more walking and biking. But changing behavioural patterns is even more complex than changing cityscapes.
Another interesting startup EIT Urban Mobility has invested in is Nudged, a company that encourages sustainable choices through behavioural design. A pilot in Gotland was able to reduce car commuting by 14% simply by ‘nudging’ commuters to choose more climate-friendly options. Another in Gothenburg helped make users 76% more positive about switching to cycling.
Waterways make a comeback
Many of Europe’s historic cities flourished along rivers and canals as boats were the fastest and most efficient way to transport large cargo, before the invention of motorised vehicles. These waterways were key to the movement of both goods and people.
Now, with the evolution of sustainable, autonomous mobility, we’re seeing a revival in waterborne transportation routes. “There are a lot of cities in Europe where public transport across harbours, rivers, and lakes could contribute a lot to changing the mobility patterns and making it much more environmentally friendly,” Hanell says.
On June 8th, Stockholm launched the world’s first commercial autonomous, electric ferry providing a shortcut for passengers across the harbour between Kungsholmen and Södermalm. Solar panels on the roof allow it to charge during the day, and it can be charged via electric plug at night. The ferry, built by Zeabuz, features radar, lidar, cameras, ultrasonic sensors, AI, and GPS technology which allow it to scan and navigate the waters safely.
Image by Zeabuz
Meanwhile, the city of Paris is planning to introduce its own smart ferries, built by Norwegian startup Hyke, to provide extra transport routes across the Seine for visitors during the Summer Olympics in 2024.
Of course, cars aren’t going anywhere…
No matter how many pedestrian and cycling-friendly lanes we build in our cities, we’ll still need cars for longer haul journeys.
While the EU’s shift towards electric vehicles is a great step towards reducing both air and noise pollution, it’s also increasing its dependence on batteries. In fact, the EU predicts EV battery demand and production will increase at a rapid rate until 2030, but the bloc faces a looming shortage of raw materials to meet future demand. As Hanell explains, policymakers are already concerned about the effect this could have across the bloc:
One of the big challenges of Europe is that we’re currently very dependent on China and importing batteries. There are a lot of discussions going on about limiting the import of Chinese electric vehicles and also how we can make ourselves more independent of battery technologies.
Swedish startup Elonroad believes the solution could lay in electrifying Europe’s roads. Much like a power bank, the company has developed a conductive rail that can charge cars as they pass over them on the highway or trucks as they’re parked at a loading bay.
“If vehicles can charge while they’re driving or when they’re parked, then you don’t need as much battery capacity,” Hanell says.
The startup is already beginning a large project to electrify highways across France.
Image by Elonroad
Another interesting startup working to meet this challenge is Circu Li-ion which aims to maximise the potential of each battery through upcycling. Rather than focusing on producing new batteries, giving existing batteries a second life is a great way to save CO2 and get the most out of the valuable raw materials inside. And investors are seeing the potential here too. Circu Li-ion recently raised €8.5mn in seed funding.
The future of mobility in Europe won’t be the same
As Hanell emphasised, there is no one size fits all solution to Europe’s mobility challenges. Copenhagen, with its bicycle culture, won’t necessarily follow the same urban mobility path as Madrid. “There are local flavours of everything.”
While the future of urban mobility may not look like a sci-fi movie with flying cars dotting the horizon, Hanell posits that:
The best solutions are pretty much low tech but every once in a while we find these gems, these innovations that can help people change.
Want to learn more about the future of mobility in Europe? EIT Urban Mobility will be hosting a session at Slush 2023 on “Where to invest next in the mobility sector.” Fredrik Hanell and other experts will address topics like how investment in mobility differs from other sectors, the opportunities, traps and where the sector is heading in the coming years. Check it out on 1st of December, 11: 30 am GMT+2.
Apple has faced a major setback in its longstanding €14.3bn tax dispute with the EU after an adviser to the bloc’s highest court said an earlier ruling over the tech giant’s business in Ireland should be thrown out and the case re-run.
Advocate General Giovanni Pitruzzella of the EU Court of Justice said in an advisory opinion that Apple’s win in a lower EU court should be shelved because of a series of legal errors. “It is therefore necessary for the General Court to carry out a new assessment,” Pitruzzella said.
While the opinion is non-binding, such statements often hold sway over final judgements made by the EU’s highest court. The court is set to rule on the case in the coming months.
Spanning a seven-year period, the case is the most high-profile of EU watchdog chief Margrethe Vestager’s campaign against so-called “sweetheart” deals that offer multinational companies favourable tax terms in EU states.
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Much to the furry of the Cupertino giant, back in 2016, Vestager accused Apple of benefitting from “substantially and artificially lowered the tax” in Ireland since 1991. The Commission believed that tax arrangements between Ireland and Apple constituted illegal state aid, giving the tech giant an unfair advantage over its competitors.
In 2016, the Commission found Apple guilty of underpaying taxes totalling €13.1bn between 2003 and 2014 and ordered it to pay the money to Ireland along with €1.2bn worth of interest — totalling a whopping €14.3bn. The money was subsequently recovered from Apple and placed in an escrow fund.
Apple and Ireland of course appealed the decision and the case was heard in the EU’s General Court (its second highest) over two days in 2020. They won the case, and the court overturned the judgement. However, the money remained in the escrow account in case the EU decided to appeal — which it did.
And that’s where we find ourselves now, and that’s why Pitruzzella’s words carry so much weight. The Apple versus EU tax dispute concerns one of the largest corporate tax fines in history (in fact a recovery order, technically not a fine). Should the EU’s top court overturn the 2020 decision, the Commission will be given a fresh opportunity to extract its proverbial pound of flesh.
What happens now remains to be seen, but I for one will be grabbing the popcorn to watch the next chapter of this case unfold — in all its legal wishy-washy glory.
A German satellite that will test new AI technologies in orbit for automatic detection of anomalies on planets and asteroids is set for launch.
Despite its ambitious mission, the so-called SONATE-2 is a six-unit cubesat, a type of nanosatellite that’s no bigger than a shoebox. It was designed and built by a team led by aerospace engineer Professor Hakan Kayal from Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Germany.
According to Kayal, projects of this sort are quite uncommon. “What is unique about our mission is that the AI is trained on board. Normally, this training is done on Earth with powerful computers,” he said.
“Let’s assume that a small satellite is to investigate a new asteroid in the solar system in the future,” Kayal explained. “It cannot be trained for this task on the ground, because the object of investigation is largely unknown.”
In typical scenarios, this would mean that data collected from space would need to be sent back to Earth and then be used to train the AI remotely — which is a lengthy process for long-distance missions. But a higher level of autonomy supported by AI on board would be much more efficient.
Artist’s impression of the SONATE-2 in orbit. Credit: Hakan Kayal / University of Würzburg
The team will initially test SONATE-2 in Earth orbit. To help train the AI, the satellite features four cameras that will provide images directly. The model will first learn about conventional geometric patterns on the Earth’s surface, so it can find anomalies on its own.
The mission will also test a number of other small satellite technologies, including a system for the automatic detection and recording of lightning as well as an electric propulsion system.
In lack of a European launcher, SONATE-2 will take off aboard a SpaceX rocket in March 2024, and is expected to be operational for at least one year. The project is funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs with €2.6mn.
Launches of nanosatellites as a testbed of new technologies have been gaining traction recently, aiming to advance intelligent systems for use both in space and on the ground. These include Open Cosmos’ Menut, with the mission to monitor and fight the impact of climate change on our planet, and Estonia’s ESTCube-2, tasked with deploying plasma brake technology to deorbit satellites faster and reduce space debris.
News broke last month that the European Space Agency (ESA) had engaged SpaceX to launch four of Europe’s Galileo satellites into orbit in 2024. The decision to turn to Elon Musk’s US-based company comes in the wake of delays to Europe’s own Ariane 6 rockets, which mean the continent is without its own means to deliver large payloads into space.
Though it’s only designed to bridge the gap in our current capabilities, it’s a disappointing development for Europe’s spacetech community. But one that, unfortunately, many of us saw coming.
Why Europe is falling behind in space
Europe is currently lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to spacetech, and the agreement with SpaceX is emblematic of a frustrating situation that’s hampering opportunities to advance its capabilities.
So why has Europe had to turn to a US-based company? After all, there is no shortage of demand, and it’s not like the region is short on the kind of top level engineering talent that’s needed to develop its own rockets.
One of the main problems is that there’s simply a lack of competition to fuel the development of new capabilities. I’d also argue that governments aren’t helping the situation.
Compared to the US and China, European spacetech companies face a huge funding gap. In the US, funding largely comes from NASA and the Department of Defence who invested more than $62 billion in 2022.
It’s a similar story in China, where government support totalled $12 billion. Compare that with ESA, which has an annual budget of just 7.5 billion euros, and it’s easy to see why the region is lagging behind.
How did we get here?
It’s clear that dependency on foreign imports and companies like SpaceX will, in the long run, leave Europe’s sovereignty vulnerable. So, why have we fallen so far behind?
In part, ESA suffers from regulations on “geographic return.” This means that when a country funds ESA, an equivalent amount of money must be reinvested into its own domestic industry.
“Geographic return” was originally introduced to encourage investment and share the load (and returns) across big and small nations. In recent years, however, it has come under increased scrutiny for hampering the European space sector’s ability to be competitive, because in short, innovation and competition aren’t evenly spread. Finance should go to the best products, the best ideas and the most scalable commercial innovations, regardless of geography.
Earlier this year, ESA’s Director General Josef Aschbacher wrote that the region should move towards a “fair contribution principle,” which means adjusting the contribution of each European member state according to the outcome of the industrial competitions and the actual share gained by its industry in these competitions.
While it’s undoubtedly a step in the right direction, I would say this does not go far enough. Scrapping “geographic return” entirely would be the kind of game changer that Europe needs to keep pace with the global space tech race.
The power of partnership
Another reason Europe is falling behind its global counterparts is the absence of public-private partnerships, which would support growth in the continent’s space sector.
Take the US for example, where NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme backed SpaceX’s development of Falcon 9, the first (and cheapest) partially-reusable rocket. The success of Falcon 9 set the stage for an atmosphere of enduring public-private partnerships, which foster competitiveness in the US today.
NASA’s administrator Bill Nelson has also stated that he backs fixed-price contracts with companies working on space exploration. Fixed-price contracts assume companies building technical systems absorb any unanticipated expenses, not NASA. This makes the market more competitive for growth-stage companies selling low-cost services to the agency.
Here in Europe however, we simply don’t have the same atmosphere of public-private partnerships. That’s in part because we don’t have a joint defence initiative. We also don’t have an Elon Musk or a Jeff Bezos who are willing to invest billions. According to NASA’s own independently verified numbers, SpaceX’s development costs of both the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets were approximately $390 million in total.
Unlike the US, there’s also no single European country big enough to go it alone. This is where collaboration between public-private partnerships and like-minded companies could make all the difference. After all, it’s a process we’ve seen flourish with pan-European success stories like Airbus and defence systems specialist MBDA.
Europe needs to ignite its space tech landscape
Spacetech has the potential to advance innovation across every aspect of our lives. Europe is full of companies that are developing technologies that won’t just advance our extra-terrestrial ambitions, but improve lives down here on terra firma too. However, they can only succeed if they have the support and backing they need to flourish.
If the current disparity continues, Europe runs the risk of becoming a mere spectator as space industries in countries like the USA and China surge ahead. Left unchecked, it’s a situation that won’t just hamper our ability to launch our own satellites into space, but potentially jeopardise our economy, our security, and even our defence capabilities.
And that’s a space race that we simply cannot afford to lose.
Jean François Morizur, founder and CEO at Cailabs. Credit: Cailabs
Jean-François Morizur is the founder and CEO of Cailabs and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree in Science & Healthcare. Prior to founding Cailabs in 2013, he was Senior Associate at Boston Consulting Group and is co-inventor of Cailabs’s groundbreaking Multi-Plane Light Conversion technology.
Intel Ignite, Intel’s deep tech accelerator for early-stage startups, has launched its sixth cohort in Europe. Starting on November 6, 10 startups will participate in a 12-week programme in Munich.
As part of the scheme, the selected companies will receive customised support on their growth journey, which includes mentorship, access to industry players and investors, and the opportunity to leverage Intel’s own resources.
The overall aim of the programme is to accelerate how entrepreneurs scale their technologies, find their product-market fit, and raise funding at higher valuations. Notably, Intel Ignite takes no equity stake, and the startups don’t need to pay a participation fee.
The 10 companies (chosen from a pool of nearly 300 applicants) span across a wide range of deep tech, from AI and machine learning to fusion power, chip-scale photonics, and quantum computing.
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They have an average of €3.9mn in seed funding and originate from seven European countries: Germany, Switzerland, Croatia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, and France.
Here’s the full list:
Deep Detection: Multispectral X-ray cameras for industrial inspection and material separation.
Dotphoton: Lossless raw data image compression for scalable and reliable AI in critical applications.
Electric SQL: Local-first software platform for building modern apps that feel instant to use, support multi-user collaboration, and work offline.
FononTech: Impulse printing for electronics via fine-grained patterns in the micro to millimetre range.
Giskard: Testing and monitoring interface for ML models.
Proxima Fusion: First generation of fusion power plants using QI stellarators.
Quantum Diamonds: Quantum sensor-based technology for semiconductor failure analysis and quality control.
Semron: High-density AI inference chip for edge AI applications that reduces energy consumption, without compromising compute power.
SuperDuperDB: End-to-end framework to build and deploy AI applications on top of the data layer.
Zerve: Coding platform for data science, AI development, and visual data exploration with production-ready output.
“We believe the startups and founders in this new cohort have the opportunity and the potential to change the world,” said Markus Bohl, managing director of Intel Ignite Europe. “These entrepreneurs could shape the next innovations in AI, the way the devices we use everyday operate, and the future of energy.”
Intel Ignite was launched in 2019. To date, it counts 148 companies in its portfolio, which have raised a total of €1.6bn in funding. It operates four hubs across the globe: Munich, Tel Aviv, Boston, and London — launched in early September.
Deep tech startups interested in participating in Europe’s next cohort can start applying in January 2024.
When you hear “the future of food,” what comes to mind? Star Trek-like food synthesisers, pills to replace your lunch, lab-grown meat, and insects for protein? Yes, the future of food might contain those things. However, it will also be a lot less… strange.
That is according to Beatriz Jacoste Lozano, the director of the KM ZERO Food Innovation Hub. TNW caught up with her during last week’s Valencia Digital Summit, to learn more about the crucial work of transforming the way we source our food, while still catering to the emotional connection we have to what we eat.
“If we want a product to work in the market, it needs to be aligned with cultural identity,” Jacoste Lozano says. “Food is something very close to our identity, our memories, our desires. So it has to also be delicious, right, and that is our first requirement for a novel food. That being said, there is a lot that needs to change — our food system is broken.”
How our food systems are failing
And a broken system it is indeed. The food industry is largely dominated by multinational corporations that encourage unsustainable and unhealthy patterns of production and consumption. It is also the primary driver of biodiversity loss on the planet. In fact, agriculture alone is the identified threat to 24,000 of the 28,000 (86%) species at risk of extinction.
It is also responsible for 30% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and 80% of global deforestation is a result of agricultural expansion. And still, the system has not managed to eradicate hunger and starvation. “Our food system is also failing when it comes to providing nourishment to people,” Jacoste Lozano states. “900 million people are still hungry.”
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By 2050, it faces the enormous task of having to feed 9.8 billion people. Furthermore, diet-related diseases are one of the top three causes of death worldwide, putting public healthcare systems under enormous pressure, and at great cost to society.
Reforming the way we produce and consume food is absolutely essential for the health of the planet — and humanity.
Not all food tech is high tech
KM ZERO is looking to facilitate and accelerate that change through open innovation and investment. The hub analyses the needs of the food industry, which mainly take the form of sustainability challenges. These can be related to packaging, water usage, carbon emissions, soil quality, etc. But it doesn’t stop there, and it’s not all high tech.
“We think sustainability is not enough — we are now talking about regeneration and restoration,” Jacoste Lozano says. “We don’t believe all innovation has to be digital and technological, we also believe in looking back at regenerative practices.”
Lozano says we need to accelerate change in all parts of our food system. Credit: KM ZERO
Essentially, what KM ZERO does is scout for solutions from startups that are putting forward novel materials and products, and connect them with investors, the food industry, and retailers so that they can scale their ideas.
“We have 20 associated VCs that specialise in food — so they are smart money. And together, they have got more than €3,000,000,000 to invest in food tech. So we believe we can be a catalyser and speed up the change that is needed.”
Combating food waste by changing perceptions
One of the reasons we have lost our way when it comes to nutrition is how removed we have become from how we source our food. A lack of understanding of and connection to what it takes to produce it also contributes to the massive amounts of food wasted. Every year, around one-third of all food goes to waste.
Remember the nearly 1 million people still going hungry? Or the 30% of greenhouse gas emissions arising from food production? That means that 10% of all global emissions come from food that never reaches anyone’s stomach.
KM ZERO also works with education. Through its initiative Gastro Genius Lab, the organisation gives kids the chance to change their relationship to food, and perhaps learn to love a vegetable or two in the process. “We want to give children a chance to reflect on these challenges. But also, when cooking, they are more willing to eat, for example, broccoli, or other foods they usually don’t love,” Jacoste Lozano explains. “So that also changes the perception. And in terms of waste — if you put a lot of effort into something or if you realise that someone has put in effort, you tend to shift your behaviour.”
KM ZERO also hosts a food tech event called ftalks Food Summit. Credit: KM ZERO
One example of a startup looking to do its bit to reduce food waste is London-based Mimica. The company has developed a temperature-sensitive tag to put on food packaging to help discern when a product has actually gone bad, as opposed to relying on an often overly conservative best-before date. When the food starts to go bad, the sticker, called Bump, will go from a smooth to a bumpy texture.
Another company is Trazable, which is putting blockchain technology to good use with software that digitalises food supply traceability records. Contaminated food can thus be traced back to its source within seconds, speeding up response times to alerts, and lets suppliers control the lifecycle of a product in-house or through the whole farm-to-fork value chain.
New protein
Many startups look to workdirectly with the food itself, such as Mimic Seafood and MOA Foodtech. The latter combines biotechnology and AI to transform by-products of the agri-food industry through fermentation into a “next-generation protein” containing all nine essential amino acids. This powder can then be added to almost any product to enhance nutritional value.
While many meat substitutes have failed to capitalise on the initial enthusiasm, often due to lack of nutrition or disappointing textures, new technologies are showing promise in converting more plant-based sceptic parts of the population.
“In the area of new proteins, we are seeing how we can use mycelium or algae and transform it through high-precision fermentation to make high quality protein that tastes good and that has the texture that makes products that people will actually want to eat,” Jacoste Lozano says.
These technologies, using, for instance, bioreactors, have long been deployed in the pharmaceutical industry. Now it is a matter of bringing them to the right level of scale so that the economics behind them makes sense for the food industry. And to get the right investors who understand that things might take a little longer than their usual exit strategy would dictate.
Invisible food tech innovation
Meanwhile, there is also a lot of innovation happening in the ecosystem around food production. For instance, in September this year, 40% of Spain was under drought alert or in “drought emergency.” This causes a decrease in production of foods such as grains and tomatoes.
“This means we need to import much of that food, and this means the price will rise and this will affect food access,” Jacoste Lozano says. “So, we are looking, for example, into regenerative agriculture. Because soil that is healthy needs much less water. In fact, we can reduce water demand by 75% if the soil is healthy. So we need these very ‘unsexy’ innovations as well.”
Another area ripe for disruption is the use of plastic. The fact that we all consume one credit card worth of microplastics in a week is a particularly sobering detail from our conversation. Another London-based startup, Notpla, is making seaweed-based packages for food, drinks, and care products that are entirely compostable.
“I think the press many times doesn’t do a very good job in speaking about the future of food in more natural terms, because they highlight what leads to clicks, right?” Jacoste Lozano states. “So normally, you find that the future food is going to be eating insects, so people are taken aback. That’s why we really emphasise that the future of food does not have to be strange. And that we are going to see a lot of invisible innovation.”
If you are generally interested in technology, and are not aware by now of the meeting that took place yesterday between Rishi Sunak and Elon Musk during the UK’s AI Security Summit at Bletchley Park, you have probably been living under a rock.
As others have already commented, the session more resembled a fan meeting, or at the very least a club of mutual admiration, than an actual interview. The PM’s fawning giggles were perhaps not entirely suited to the gravity of the occasion bringing the two together (but hey, who are we to judge).
You have probably also read Elon Musk‘s statements along the lines of “no work will be necessary in the future,” and that any AI safety conference not including China would have been “pointless.” He also predicted that humans will create deep friendships with AI, once the technology becomes… intelligent enough. But, perhaps less quote friendly or headline-making material, prompted by a question from the Summit’s selected audience, the tech tycoon also discussed what he believes it would take to shift the culture in the UK so that it could become “a real breeding ground for unicorn companies,” and turn being a founder into a more obvious career choice for technical talent. “There should be a bias towards supporting small companies,” Musk said, referring to policy and investment. “Because they are the ones that really need nurturing. The larger companies really don’t need nurturing. You can think of it as a garden — if it’s a little sprout it needs nurturing, if it’s a mighty oak it does not need quite as much.”
After praising London as a leading centre for AI in the world (behind the San Francisco Bay Area), accompanied by some smug nodding from the PM, Musk added that it would take sufficient infrastructure support.
“You need landlords that are willing to rent to new companies,” Musk said. “You need law firms and accountants that are willing to support new companies. And that is a mindset change.”
He further stated that he believes culturally, in the UK, this is happening, but people just really need to decide that “this is a good thing.” For Brits to become more comfortable with failing might be a more tricky cultural shift to facilitate.
“If you don’t succeed with your first startup it shouldn’t be a catastrophic sort of career-ending thing,” Musk mused. “It should be more like ‘ok, you gave it a good shot, and now try again.’ “Most startups fail. You hear about the startups that succeed, but most startups consist of a massive amount of work, followed by failure. So it’s a high-risk high reward situation.”
Every successful tech ecosystem needs an event that brings stakeholders together — both locally and from abroad. Obviously, in Amsterdam, we have the outstanding TNW Conference (shamelessly opportunistic, we know, but here is a 30% discount on a business pass for 2024 — come say hi). In the record-pace-growth startup hub of Spain’s third-largest city, it is the Valencia Digital Summit (VDS).
As far as conference locations go, VDS definitely delivers. The futuristic aesthetic of Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias inevitably tickles the imagination of where tech might take us (it was used as a filming location for Star Wars spin-off Andor, after all).
The conference is supported by Startup Valencia, a non-profit organisation committed to promoting local tech entrepreneurship, scaling digital businesses, and fostering connections between academia and corporations.
VDS takes place in a pretty spectacular location. Credit: VDS
While attending last week’s event, apart from enjoying the late October Spanish sunshine, we caught up with Startup Valencia’s founder as well as general partner of NextTier Ventures, Patricia Pastor, and the organisation’s CEO, Nacho Mas. We talked about how the event has grown since it first launched six years ago, what it takes to stay on course despite a shifting political landscape, and the keys to keep growing the ecosystem over the coming years.
Public sector alignment
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One of the crucial factors is the alignment between the public and private sectors, Mas and Pastor agree. And while administrations have come and gone throughout the years, Startup Valencia has remained a constant in identifying the needs of the ecosystem and innovation, representing the community with one voice when it comes to advocating for those needs in front of policymakers.
“To be aligned with the public sector is super important for the future of the city. Because when you work on something together, without barriers and problems, they [policymakers] can understand what we are looking for and what we want to be in the next 10 years now,” Pastor says.
Patricia Pastor and Nacho Mas in conversation with the author. Credit: VDS
Indeed, the Valencia startup ecosystem has seen impressive growth — increasing five times in value since 2015. According to Seedtable, in 2022, Valencia startups raised $64mn, or €60.5mn, in capital (after raising $57mn, or €54mn, in 2021). Until the start of October this year, they had raised $67mn, or €63.5mn — a not-insignificant vote of confidence from investors in the current funding climate.
Furthermore, the Valencian Community, with its three largest cities of Valencia, Alicante, and Castellón, has the largest number of startups per capita in Spain.
For its sixth edition, Valencia Digital Summit gathered close to 12,000 professionals from 91 different countries, breaking the attendance record for the second consecutive year. Startup Valencia, meanwhile, has 350 members and the support of the likes of Google for Startups and Valencia Port Innovation hub. Furthermore, it partners with Banco Santander, among others.
Wellbeing tech hub, in more ways than one
London has fintech, Berlin has software and AI, but what sets Valencia apart? According to Mas and Pastor, much of it revolves around health — individual and planetary.
“I think Valencia is becoming more and more the wellbeing hub,” Pastor shared. “Food tech, health tech, sports tech, but also water and energy. A lot of companies are coming together to develop a super ecosystem where we can work and live in a world of balance.”
The startup pitch stage was well-attended throughout the event. Credit: VDS
For instance, Lakan Health uses big data and AI for personalising cancer treatment; Ndiya’s app provides nutritional advice; Quibim has developed a tool for image recognition and processing technologies to determine complex medical treatments — including partnering with Microsoft for the development of virtual biopsies. Green Urban Data provides software for cities to gather accurate data to help make decisions and prioritise in regards to climate change mitigation.
But there are also plenty of startups in the industrial and digital transformation space, and AI-supported software for all kinds of applications, with the likes of ML translation tool developer Pangeanic, recruitment scouts Talentomnia, and Voicemod, which announced a €14.5mn funding round for its voice modulation software at the start of this year.
Attracting talent to the ecosystem
Key to growing the ecosystem in the years to come, Mas said, is attracting the right talent. He is hoping that the aforementioned quality of life in the city will do just that. Valencia has 300-plus days of sunshine per year, and an atmosphere that supports a healthy lifestyle and work-life balance.
“It is really this mix of quality of life and possibility of professional development that we believe is key to attracting talent in the future,” Mas stated, while also highlighting the proximity to Madrid (1.5 hours by train), a strong industry and innovation presence, and the relationship to universities.
But Startup Valencia is also helping homegrown entrepreneurs in broadening their horizons and bringing innovation back home to the city. The organisation has a programme that supports members in going to the US, or to the LATAM area.
The winners of this year’s startup pitch competition, Cafler and Ender Turing. Credit: VDS
The winners of this year’s startup pitch competition at Valencia Digital Summit were speech-to-text analysis software company Ender Turing based in Tallinn, and one-click car care platform Cafler from Barcelona.
If the last few years have shown us anything, it is that we really have no idea what the world will look like 12 months from now. But we feel that we can say with some certainty that the innovation gathering pace in Valencia, bolstered by a stand-out ecosystem event, will not be slowing down any time soon.
Amid the economic downturn, 2023 is expected to be the “most depressed” year in Europe’s VC exit value since 2013, data from Pitchbook has shown.
According to the report, during the first three quarters of 2023, exit value reached €9.1bn — down 72.8% compared to the same period in 2022. Unsurprisingly, public listing value continued its downward trend, seeing a 79.8% drop. Meanwhile, buyout exit value showed the biggest resilience, although it also declined by 56.4% compared to last year.
Against this backdrop, IT hardware was the most resilient sector in exit activity, while energy saw the biggest decline. Software remained the largest sector among the pack, but its exit value did drop 69.3% compared to the first three quarters of 2022. Still, software alongside biotech & pharma generated most of the value in Q3 2023. The biggest exit was the €1.2bn acquisition of Kerecis, an Icelandic biotech startup that uses fish skin to treat wounds.
VC fundraising continues to struggle
In the first nine months of 2023, the VC capital raised amounted to €13.9bn — about half of the €27.6bn invested for the full 2022. While there has been an upward trend since H1 2023, Pitchbook’s analysts don’t expect this year’s total fundraising to exceed 2022 levels.
Region-wise, France & Benelux and the DACH countries (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) raised the biggest share of capital through Q3 2023 compared to 2022 — reaching 27.8% and 24.3%, respectively. This was achieved thanks to a number of large closes in the Netherlands: NATO’s Innovation Fund’s €1bn close and Forbion Venture Fund VI’s €750mn close.
Cause for hope?
Although VC deal value is set to end 2023 well below 2022 levels, signs of recovery “could be evident.” According to the report, while VC activity in the first three quarters of this year didn’t match the peak levels of 2021 and 2022, it did echo prior-to-2020 levels, which could indicate structural growth in the long term. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether Europe’s unclear macroeconomic environment can sustain market recovery.
