Munich-based startup OroraTech has secured €25mn in funding to scale up its AI-powered wildfire detection system.  Korys, the investment arm of the Colruyt’s — a Belgian noble family — led the funding round. The EU’s Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) also chipped in, alongside existing investor Bayern Kapital.  OroraTech will use the fresh funding to fuel the next phase of its growth. The company looks to expand into global markets beyond Europe, and keep refining its technology. OroraTech’s so-called Wildfire Solution collates imagery from its own probes, as well as over 20 other Earth observation satellites. The startup has trained an…

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The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a €119mn contract with Italian scaleup D-Orbit for its first in-orbit servicing mission, RISE.  Scheduled for launch in 2028, RISE will attempt to rendezvous with, maneuver, and detach from an ESA satellite in geostationary orbit. Then it will embark on an 8-year mission, visiting several other satellites and giving them a new lease on life.   RISE, which is about the size of a minivan, will be like a car mechanic, but for aging spacecraft. It will refuel them, repair them, relocate them to a different orbit, and even attach them with a module…

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In what could be a big win for the EU’s chip industry, Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council Minister, Wu Cheng-wen, says TSMC is planning to further expand operations in the bloc. TSMC broke ground in August on a €10bn chip plant in Dresden, Germany — its first in Europe. The German government will provide half of the funding with €5bn in state aid, under the EU’s Chips Act. The fab will produce semiconductors for automotive and industrial applications. It’s a joint project between the Taiwanese tech giant, the Netherlands’ NXP, and Germany’s Bosch and Infineon. “They [TSMC] have started…

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Poppy Gustafsson, the co-founder and former CEO of UK cybersecurity darling Darktrace, has been named Britain’s new minister of investment as the new Labour government looks to win favour with big business. Gustafsson will head up the revamped Office for Investment as part of a wider “Whitehall shake-up” designed to bring more money to British shores, the government said. The appointment no doubt comes as a relief for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who struggled for months to fill the role. It also comes just days before the government’s international business summit on Monday, where Starmer will look to pitch the…

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Amsterdam-based scaleup Lumicks has secured €20mn from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to accelerate the discovery of immunotherapy drugs for cancer.  The venture debt funding will help Lumicks further develop and market its cell avidity analyser, a machine with the potential to transform the way researchers study and develop treatments for Europe’s second most deadly disease.  Lumicks’ tech allows scientists to gather real-time data on the bonds between immune cells and cancer cells. Unlike traditional methods, which rely on indirect biomarkers, the analyser precisely measures the actual strength and duration of those interactions directly and in real time. This is…

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