365 Finance secures £150M debt facility, Prosus' €4.1B acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway, and Web3 companies to watch - Related to watch, secures, debt, voice, takeaway,

365 Finance secures £150M debt facility, Prosus' €4.1B acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway, and Web3 companies to watch

This week, we tracked more than 80 tech funding deals worth over €2 billion and over 5 exits, M&A transactions. Rumours, and related news stories across Europe. In addition to this week's top financials, we've also indexed the most important/industry-related news items you need to know about.

🇬🇧 365 Finance secures £150M debt facility.

🇬🇧 Fintech Flow48 secures $69M Series A to expand into Saudi Arabia.

🫱🏽‍🫲🏻 Noteworthy acquisitions and mergers.

🇳🇱 Prosus moves to acquire Amsterdam-based Just Eat Takeaway in € deal.

🇩🇪 Edyoucated acquires AI-powered HRtech Peers Solutions.

🇪🇸 Embat acquires Necto to boost bank API connectivity and instant payments.

🇫🇷 Technis acquires the French corporation Videtics.

🇬🇧 Cambridge Innovation Capital launches £100M Fund for deeptech and life sciences.

🇪🇸 Spanish Investment Firm IDC Ventures announces €150 Million Fund of Funds I.

👭 Athena VC Elevate launched to support female founders.

🇬🇧 CIC tackles UK late-stage funding gap with £100m deep tech fund.

🇪🇺 Thoma Bravo invests billion euros in European tech.

⚛️ Welinq and QphoX partner to tackle quantum computing's scaling problem.

🇬🇧 UK fintech The Payment Firm hit with onboarding restrictions.

🇪🇪 Estonian startups hit € revenue mark as DeepTech takes centre stage.

🛰️ CTO unveils first 5G mmWave satellite payload, pioneering space-based internet connectivity.

🇺🇦 Ukraine’s startup ecosystem continues to shine.

🇩🇪 Powering global change: Germany’s tech ecosystem.

🇫🇮 Solid IO secures €800,000 to transform cancer treatment with tumour-on-chip technology.

🇬🇧 Monument Therapeutics secures £850,000 to advance schizophrenia treatment with MT1988.

🇧🇪 Jurimesh raises € to streamline contract analysis with AI-powered due diligence.

🇳🇱 EvidenceHunt raises € for medical data analysis platform.

🇸🇪 SponsWatch raises €1M seed for sports sponsorship analytics.

🇩🇪 Climatetech ctrl+s raises €1M to approximate supply chain emissions.

🇧🇬 Proptech AIoTCloud closes a €750,000 investment round.

🇨🇭Verretex raises €159,000 to transform damaged glass fibres into high-performance textiles.

Table of Contents Table of Contents Trusting the engineering Looking out the window Picking the perfect spot Crushable honeycombs Race to the moon.

Hunters have been preparing meals, sharpening their weapons, and. Sharing all the best tips and tricks for months waiting for Monster Hunter Wilds to a...

Earlier in the day, Byju Raveendran alleged that he had received a document with “conclusive evidence of criminal collusion” between EY India, the len...

Hugging Face launches FastRTC to simplify real-time AI voice and video apps

Hugging Face, the AI startup valued at over $4 billion, has introduced FastRTC, an open-source Python library that removes a major obstacle for developers when building real-time audio and video AI applications.

“Building real-time WebRTC and Websocket applications is very difficult to get right in Python,” Freddy Boulton, one of FastRTC’s creators. stated in an announcement on “Until now.”.

WebRTC technology enables direct browser-to-browser communication for audio, video and data sharing without plugins or downloads. Despite being essential for modern voice assistants and video tools, implementing WebRTC has remained a specialized skillset that most machine learning (ML) engineers simply don’t possess.

Building real-time WebRTC and Websocket applications is very difficult to get right in Python.

Until now – Introducing FastRTC. The realtime communication library for Python ⚡️ — Freddy A Boulton (@freddy_alfonso_) February 25, 2025.

The voice AI gold rush meets its technical roadblock.

The timing couldn’t be more strategic. Voice AI has attracted enormous attention and capital — ElevenLabs not long ago secured $180 million in funding, while companies like Kyutai, Alibaba and have all released specialized audio models.

Yet. A disconnect persists between these sophisticated AI models and the technical infrastructure needed to deploy them in responsive, real-time applications. As Hugging Face noted in its blog post, “ML engineers may not have experience with the technologies needed to build real-time applications, such as WebRTC.”.

FastRTC addresses this problem. With automated elements handling the complex parts of real-time communication. The library provides voice detection, turn-taking capabilities, testing interfaces and even temporary phone number generation for application access.

Want to build Real-time Apps with @GoogleDeepMind Gemini Flash? FastRTC lets you build Python based real-time apps using Gradio-UI. ?

? Transforms Python functions into bidirectional audio/video streams with minimal code.

?️ Built-in voice detection and automatic… — Philipp Schmid (@_philschmid) February 26. 2025.

From complex infrastructure to five lines of code.

Additionally, the library’s primary advantage is its simplicity. Developers can reportedly create basic real-time audio applications in just a few lines of code — a striking contrast to the weeks of development work previously required.

Moving to another aspect, this shift holds substantial implications for businesses. Companies previously needing specialized communications engineers can now leverage their existing Python developers to build voice and. Video AI attributes.

“You can use any LLM/text-to-speech/speech-to-text API or even a speech-to-speech model,” the announcement explains. “Bring the tools you love — FastRTC just handles the real-time communication layer.”.

hot take: WebRTC should be ONE line of Python code.

this changes everything — Gradio (@Gradio) February 25, 2025.

Building on these developments, the coming wave of voice and. Video innovation.

The introduction of FastRTC signals a turning point in AI application development. By removing a significant technical barrier, the tool opens up possibilities that had remained theoretical for many developers.

The impact could be particularly meaningful for smaller companies and. Independent developers. While tech giants like Google and OpenAI have the engineering resources to build custom real-time communication infrastructure, most organizations don’t. FastRTC essentially provides access to capabilities that were previously reserved for those with specialized teams.

The library’s “cookbook” already showcases diverse applications: voice chats powered by various language models, real-time video object detection and. Interactive code generation through voice commands.

What’s particularly notable is the timing. FastRTC arrives just as AI interfaces are shifting away from text-based interactions toward more natural, multimodal experiences. The most sophisticated AI systems today can process and generate text, images, audio and video — but deploying these capabilities in responsive, real-time applications has remained challenging.

By bridging the gap between AI models and real-time communication, FastRTC doesn’t just make development easier — it potentially accelerates the broader shift toward voice-first and. Video-enhanced AI experiences that feel more human and less computer-like.

For customers, this could mean more natural interfaces across applications. For businesses, it means faster implementation of elements their end-customers increasingly expect.

In the end. FastRTC addresses a classic problem in technology: Powerful capabilities often remain unused until they become accessible to mainstream developers. By simplifying what was once complex, Hugging Face has removed one of the last major obstacles standing between today’s sophisticated AI models and. The voice-first applications of tomorrow.

Table of Contents Table of Contents Session: Skate Sim Returnal Jeanne d’Arc.

Moving to another aspect, the last weekend of the month is always a bit of an awkward spot. While ...

James Gunn loves to interact with curious fans on social media. His latest interaction might disappoint fans of Harry Potter.

Founded in 2004. Virtuos has grown into a big enterprise when it comes to the production of games. As an external developer, Virtuos‘ team has crossed 4,...

CTO unveils first 5G mmWave satellite payload, pioneering space-based internet connectivity

Less than six months after securing € million in funding, Constellation Technologies & Operations (CTO) unveils its first regenerative operational payload, the Early Test.

The startup is developing a constellation of very low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellites that enable telecom operators to provide high-speed, low-latency internet access from space — just as they do today with terrestrial networks.

Tested on the ground under simulated space environmental conditions, the Early Test payload has been integrated into D-Orbit’s ION satellite platform, which will allow it to operate in orbit.

It is now scheduled to be launched into space in June 2025 and marks the first-ever use of the 5G millimetre wave (5G mmWave) spectrum for high-speed, low-latency internet data transmission via satellite anywhere on the planet.

The Early Test was designed to integrate and. Validate CTO’s essential hardware and software technologies for high-speed connectivity.

After its assembly, it underwent rigorous testing to confirm its functionality on the ground before being successfully integrated into the satellite platform that will support its operation once deployed in orbit.

CTO provides operators with alternative access to unsaturated spectrum and a competitive edge over dominant players like SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper. It positions the business as a future operator of space connectivity services, reinforcing Europe’s autonomy and competitiveness in the space telecommunications market.

“Our regenerative 5G mmWave payload is a world first that confirms CTO’s ability to accelerate the convergence between terrestrial and space connectivity.”.

CTO provides an efficient and cost-effective way to deliver high-performance connectivity in rural, remote, and. Underserved areas—without requiring heavy investment in expanding terrestrial networks to low-density regions.

Further, it offers a strategic alternative to large-scale constellations launched by new entrants, allowing telecom operators to manage a shared space-based telecommunications network, just as they do today with terrestrial networks. This model enables them to diversify their service offerings beyond fiber and cellular solutions.

Following its funding round, CTO has expanded its team to 30+ experts. Led by a highly experienced management team in the space and telecommunications industries.

Lead image: Constellation Technologies & Operations. Photo: uncredited.

Belgian platform for pharmacists Salvus Health has raised €500,000 to improve patient services. With its smart service platform, Salvus Health helps p...

Jason Struss joined Digital Trends in 2022 and has never lived to regret it. He is the current Section Editor of the Entertainment vertical and heads ...

Founded in 2004. Virtuos has grown into a big enterprise when it comes to the production of games. As an external developer, Virtuos‘ team has crossed 4,...