Belgian business software company Odoo, also a unicorn, has reached a fresh milestone. Growth investor General Atlantic has increased its stake in the firm, buying additional shares from regional backer Wallonie Entreprendre and pushing Odoo’s valuation to roughly €7 billion.  This move isn’t a typical funding round where a company raises new capital. Instead, it’s a secondary transaction: General Atlantic bought existing shares that were previously held by Wallonie Entreprendre, the investment arm of Belgium’s Walloon region. After the deal, Wallonie Entreprendre still holds about 3 % of the company.  Odoo was founded in 2002 in Belgium and has grown steadily…

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For a long time, tech events were built around scale. The bigger the crowd, the stronger the perception of success. Attendance numbers became a proxy for impact, and festivals grew year after year because that was what the industry expected. That model no longer fits how tech leaders work today. Over the past years, I have spent time in conversations with founders, executives, and operators who carry real responsibility inside their organizations. As a community builder, I often speak with them before they commit to attending events. Their questions are direct. They want to know who will be in the…

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Venture capital powerhouse Sequoia Capital is preparing to invest in Anthropic, the AI startup best known for its Claude family of large language models, in one of the largest private funding rounds in tech this year. The deal is being led by Singapore’s GIC and U.S. investor Coatue, each contributing roughly $1.5 billion, as part of a planned raise of $25 billion or more at a staggering $350 billion valuation. This move stands out for two reasons: the size and speed of the valuation surge and the fact that Sequoia, already an investor in rival AI builders such as OpenAI…

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When the European Commission announced on 15th of January a €307.3 million funding call for AI and related tech under Horizon Europe earlier this year, the press materials presented it as a strategic push toward trustworthy AI and European digital autonomy. The funding targets trustworthy AI, data services, robotics, quantum, photonics, and what Brussels calls “open strategic autonomy.” Viewed in isolation, the number itself isn’t eye-popping. By global standards, where the private sector alone pours hundreds of billions into AI, €307 million is barely a rounding error. Yet this sum matters less for its scale and more for what it…

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Legislation and digital policy European Commission opens call for evidence on Open Digital Ecosystems Signal: The EU is preparing a structural shift toward open, interoperable digital infrastructure. This marks a move from regulating dominant platforms to actively shaping alternatives and reducing strategic dependency. DMA and DSA enter an enforcement-heavy phase in 2026 Signal: Europe’s digital laws have moved from principle to execution. Compliance, fines, litigation, and operational constraints are now the central risk factors for large technology companies in the EU. Intellectual property and market structure EUIPO reports record trademark and design filings in 2025 Signal: European technology and business…

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