German startup Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Spaceport in Norway today, marking the first-ever vertical orbital rocket launch in Western Europe. Spectrum blasted off at 12:30 PM CEST (11:30 BST) but lost control at about 25 seconds into the flight. A video from the launch shows the rocket wobble, pitch over, and then plummet back to the ground, where it collided with the ocean, causing a large explosion. The launchpad remains intact and no one was injured, Isar said. Drone and pad footage from Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum launch. You can see it avoided the pad when it…

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Five high-flying scaleups from the Benelux region have made it into TECH5 — the “Champions League of Technology.” The classy quintet joins an exclusive group of Europe’s fastest-growing tech companies. Over the next two months, they will join six other regions — the Nordics, Southern Europe, France, the Baltic States, DACH, and the UK & Ireland — in a competition for the crown of hottest scaleup on the continent.  The contest will conclude on June 19-20, when the TECH5 champion will be announced on the main stage of TNW Conference. But first, the contenders have to win their regional title. The…

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A coalition of European startups has urged swift action to slash burdensome EU regulations after a landmark declaration from the D9+ group of digitally advanced nations. The declaration stressed the need for “removing barriers” and “simplifying EU rules and procedures.” Ministers from all 13 countries in the D9+ — Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden — signed the statement. They emphasised the need for a “reviewed digital rulebook” that is “deregulated where possible” and “avoids unnecessary red tape.” A startup group has called for the ministers to back up their…

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Tesla’s sales in Europe have plummeted by 42% this year, according to the latest figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. Tesla’s slip came despite total EV sales on the continent rising 28% over the same period. Analysts have linked the slump to Tesla’s aging model lineup and growing backlash against CEO Elon Musk’s increasingly polarising behaviour.   Whatever the reason, Andrew Fellows, an automotive and mobility expert at global tech consultancy Star, told TNW he thinks the recent sales slide has opened “a rare window of opportunity” for rival European carmakers to regain lost ground from Musk’s firm. Tesla’s Model…

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In the summer of 2018, a devastating fire tore through Greece’s Attica region. In its aftermath, four scientists from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London — including two Greeks — set out to answer a simple yet crucial question: why did some houses burn while others were left untouched? That question set off years of research into computer simulations for predicting wildfire risk and behaviour. In December 2023, the scientists founded Pinepeak to bring their idea out of the lab and into the market. Pinepeak’s wildfire prediction technology combines machine learning algorithms trained on satellite data with cutting-edge…

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