ctg. morning brief, 6 Nov 2026
On 6 Nov 2026, Helsinki's Vensum Power raised €9m Series A co-led by Lifeline Ventures, Larsen & Toubro and Eviny Ventures. Total raised: €15.2m. The money funds volume manufacturing of its software-controlled power converters by 2027, with AI data centres next after EV charging, storage and DC microgrids.
Why it matters: Every conversion loses heat. Vensum says 3-5% losses vs 7-10% conventional, and it is shipping the line, not another deck. L&T is building AI campuses; Eviny runs renewables. Power electronics is the quiet bottleneck of European compute.
Source: https://techfundingnews.com/vensum-power-9m-series-a-ai-data-centre-power-converters/
Rheinmetall Q3: nine-month sales €8.4bn (+38%), operating result €1.34bn (+69%), backlog €78.0bn. New plants are live in Telford, UK (empty hall to gun barrels in eight months) and Albacete, Spain (medium-calibre). Full-year guidance cut to about €13.2bn sales and ~18.5% margin on Arminius and ammo acceptance delays.
Why it matters: Europe is finally buying, and the capacity is coming online. The miss is bureaucracy, not demand. Edition candidate: what serial production looks like when the order book is €78bn and the bottleneck is a German project still in final negotiations.
Source: https://www.rheinmetall.com/en/media/news-watch/news/2026/11/2026-11-05-rheinmetall-news-quarterly-statement-q3
London's Fractile is assembling roughly $700m at about a $6.5bn mark, with the UK Sovereign AI Fund joining Lightspeed, Redpoint and Thrive. Companies House filings show about £577.4m of Series C shares allotted Sep-Oct; TFN tallies nearer $774m. Anthropic has a first agreement for about $250m of Fractile inference chips, deployment not before 2027. Formal statement may land next week.
Why it matters: SRAM next to compute, no volume ship yet, and a taxpayer fund is putting a stamp on a sixfold step-up this year. Second Sovereign AI ticket in a week after Callosum. Their numbers from filings and reporting, not a company press release.
Source: https://chipnews.io/a-uk-inference-startup-puts-a-government-fund-in-its-round/
Munich's VÆRIDION raised €30m Series A2 led by SHIFT Invest and Invest-NL, with World Fund, Project A and Vsquared. About €60m equity to date, plus selection for a €94.5m EU Innovation Fund grant. Microliner: battery-electric nine-seater, ~400km, commercial target 2030; first conforming aircraft next.
Why it matters: Former Airbus managers building hardware in Oberpfaffenhofen, not a pitch deck. Regional electric flight only works if someone funds the prototype and a factory path. The grant is the scale signal.
Source: https://tech.eu/2026/11/05/german-aerospace-startup-v-ridion-raises-30m-for-zero-emission-regional-fights/