Gerald Miller - StartupMafia - News from startup industry

Saporo raises €7 million to address the gaps attackers exploit

News

Saporo raises €7M Series A as identity-based attacks dominate cyber incidents

Lausanne-based identity security startup Saporo has raised €7 million in a Series A round, one of the largest identity-focused investments announced so far in...

Gerald MillerDecember 2, 2025

News

France’s Rift Raises €4.6M to Build Europe’s First On-Demand Aerial Reconnaissance Network

Paris-area startup Rift has raised €4.6 million to accelerate its plan to deploy what it calls Europe’s first fully on-demand aerial intelligence network—a drone-based...

Gerald MillerNovember 20, 2025

SpaceTech startup Infinite Orbits lands €40 million for satellite servicing growth

News

France’s Infinite Orbits Secures €40M to Accelerate Europe’s Satellite-Servicing Ambitions

French SpaceTech startup Infinite Orbits has closed an oversubscribed €40 million round to scale its in-orbit servicing fleet and cement its position as one...

Gerald MillerNovember 17, 2025

Semiconductor pioneer FMC raises €100 million to set new standards for memory chips

AITech

Germany’s FMC raises €100M to cut AI data-centre energy use and boost Europe’s chip sovereignty

Dresden-based semiconductor startup FMC has secured €100 million to scale its low-power memory chips for AI data centres — one of the largest funding...

Gerald MillerNovember 13, 2025

London’s FALKIN raises €1.7M to fight scams before they happen As AI-driven scams surge across Europe, London-based digital safety startup FALKIN has raised €1.7 million ($2 million) in pre-seed funding to stop fraud before it starts. The round was led by TriplePoint Ventures, with backing from Notion Capital, BackFuture Ventures, Aviva/Founders Factory, Haatch, Found Capital, and Founders Capital. Individual investors include fintech veterans Pierre Decote, Group Chief Risk Officer at Revolut, and Ben Enckevort, CTO and co-founder of Metomic. Shifting protection from payments to persuasion “The new battlefield isn’t payments – it’s persuasion,” said Boaz Valkin, co-founder of FALKIN. “Protection has to move earlier, to the moment before someone clicks, replies, or transfers. We’re turning AI from a weapon of deception into a tool for defense.” Founded in 2024, FALKIN builds embedded AI tools that detect manipulation and deception before a transaction ever takes place. Instead of monitoring fraud after money moves, the company integrates real-time behavioral analysis directly into banking and customer-service apps, helping financial institutions prevent scams at the source. According to co-founder and COO Joel Frisch, “Modern scams are sophisticated, and no single red flag tells the whole story. The key is to analyze all the signals that reveal deception to build a complete picture. When we embed that intelligence inside the banking apps people already trust, protection becomes effortless.” A growing European battle against AI-enabled fraud FALKIN’s funding comes amid a broader wave of investment in anti-fraud innovation. Across Europe, startups like Hawk (Germany), Resistant AI (Czechia), and Acoru (Spain) have collectively raised over €80 million this year to tackle rising financial crime driven by AI. A recent EU-Startups report found that AI-related fraud losses in Europe have surpassed €1.3 billion, as deepfakes, voice cloning, and synthetic identity attacks become mainstream tools for scammers. “AI has blurred the line between what’s real and what’s fake, and traditional systems aren’t built for that reality,” said Sam Stone of TriplePoint Ventures. “FALKIN’s vision to make proactive safety universal has the potential to redefine digital trust.” The invisible enemy Scams now represent one of the fastest-growing financial threats worldwide. Deloitte projects that U.S. losses from authorized push payment fraud could hit €12.9 billion ($15 billion) by 2028, while the U.K. saw over seven million victims last year—most of whom never reported the crime. Despite heavy investment in fraud detection, most tools still activate after funds have left an account. FALKIN’s approach moves protection upstream, targeting the psychological manipulation that precedes scams. Early trials with bank innovation teams and tens of thousands of users across the U.S. and U.K. have shown promising results: 78% of users reported feeling safer online, and over half said prevention was more valuable than reimbursement. Next steps: embedding safety everywhere The fresh capital will accelerate hiring, product development, and financial-institution integrations, as well as support the launch of Safety Labs — a program helping community banks and credit unions deploy scam-prevention tools with minimal technical effort. FALKIN is also expanding its integration ecosystem, allowing financial institutions to embed digital safety layers across customer journeys and communication systems. “Scammers are using AI to scale deception,” Valkin said. “We’re using it to scale trust.”

News

London’s FALKIN raises €1.7M to fight scams before they happen

London-based digital safety startup FALKIN has raised €1.7 million ($2 million) in pre-seed funding to stop scams before they start, as banks and consumers...

Gerald MillerNovember 11, 2025

BTRY raises €4.9 million as Switzerland enters the solid-state battery race to challenge Asian dominance

News

Switzerland’s BTRY Secures €4.9M to Push Europe Into the Solid-State Battery Race

Zurich-based BTRY AG has raised €4.9 million in an oversubscribed Seed round, positioning Switzerland on the map in the global race for next-generation solid-state...

Gerald MillerNovember 6, 2025

Rubio Impact Ventures has secured a third investment fund worth €70 million.

BioTech

Rubio Impact Ventures Raises €70 Million for Third Fund to Back Climate and Social Innovators

Amsterdam-based Rubio Impact Ventures has announced a €70 million close for its third impact fund, reinforcing its commitment to tying 100% of financial returns...

Gerald MillerNovember 4, 2025

Zurich-based company Qala has received €1.7 million in investment to strengthen its enterprise data management capabilities.

News

Swiss Startup Qala Raises €1.7M to Redefine Enterprise Data Governance in the Age of AI

Zurich-based startup Qala AG has raised €1.7 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate development of its platform that helps enterprises gain real-time visibility and...

Gerald MillerOctober 30, 2025

Grasp raises €6M to automate the manual grind in finance and consulting

FinTech

Stockholm’s Grasp raises €6M to automate the manual grind in finance and consulting

Stockholm-based AI startup Grasp has secured €6 million in Series A funding to accelerate development of its multi-agent platform that automates the analytical and...

Gerald MillerOctober 28, 2025

Uncategorized

Why Australian Gamblers Are Abandoning Crown for Digital Startups: A $4B Market Shift

Australia’s casino landscape is witnessing an unprecedented customer migration. In the past 18 months, an estimated $4.2 billion in annual gambling spend has shifted...

Gerald MillerOctober 24, 2025