Wonderful raises $550M, Mykhailo Fedorov's new defencetech investment fund, and Londoners can now hail AVs (with safety drivers)

This week’s Europe tech roundup was a busy one: more than 50 funding deals topped €4.6 billion, alongside over 10 exits, M&A moves, rumours, and other related stories. The headline number is doing a lot of work here. So are the names attached to it.

The biggest raise on the list was Dutch AI startup Wonderful, which brought in $550 million at a $5 billion valuation. Right behind it, UK-based Nscale closed a $3 billion debt package for its AI infrastructure buildout across the US, and FNZ raised $450 million. Those are not small checks, even by the standards of an already overfed AI market.

On the dealmaking side, Nvidia confirmed its $12.93 billion purchase of Hugging Face, while Factorial, from Spain, acquired Berlin AI startup Empion. There was also a string of smaller but telling acquisitions: eComID bought Nilum after a €14.6 million seed round, and Oslo-based Pistachio picked up Hugin.io to expand into cybersecurity compliance.

Investor moves had a different tone. Mykhailo Fedorov, the former Ukraine defence minister, is planning a new defencetech investment fund. The British Business Bank is committing up to £46 million to Zinc’s new deeptech fund, Uplift Ventures launched a €100 million fund for European deeptech startups, and Cummins came in as a limited partner in Emerald Technology Ventures to speed up industrial innovation.

Elsewhere, August was a rough month for the region: European tech funding fell 63% as dealmaking slowed. And in a more concrete sign of where autonomy is right now, Londoners can now hail Wayve autonomous vehicles through Uber, with safety drivers still in the car.