Umberto Azadi

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Europe’s energy transition is going to need a MUCH smarter grid. ⚡ And here are 10 European startups that are going to make it happen. This sector is particularly close to my heart: I worked in the energy sector for more than 5 years, so I’ve seen first-hand how difficult it is to modernise infrastructure that was never designed for today’s energy system. More renewables. More EVs. More batteries. More heat pumps. More data centres. I came across this great list of 10 European GridTech startups worth watching: ⚡ Axle Energy 🇬🇧 founded by Karl Bach & Archy de Berker ⚡ Bohr Energie 🇫🇷 founded by Julien Haure, Luis Urday & Julien Chollet ⚡ Capalo AI 🇫🇮 founded by Henri Taskinen, Riku Kukkonen, Eerik Jauhiainen & Teemu Lappalainen ⚡ Companion.energy 🇧🇪 founded by Thomas Vyncke & Jonas Verstraeten ⚡ Eddy Grid 🇳🇱 founded by Sam Rohn, Renno Welberg, Emma Wolthuizen, Maxim Sprey & Jasper Cramwinckel ⚡ Einklang Energy 🇩🇪 founded by Lucas Jonas, José M. Neri, Paul Ziche & Jonathan Schulte ⚡ Entrix 🇩🇪 founded by Steffen Schülzchen ⚡ Hybrid Greentech - Energy Storage Intelligence 🇩🇰 founded by Rasmus Rode Mosbæk ⚡ metiundo GmbH 🇩🇪 founded by Dennis Nasrun & Felix Mücke ⚡ tem 🇬🇧 founded by Joe McDonald, Jason Stocks, Bartlomiej Szostek & Ross Mackay Europe needs around €584 BILLION of investment in electricity grids by 2030. Around €170 billion could go towards digitalisation. It's a massive startup opportunity! Because we don't necessarily need to solve every grid problem by building more cables. We can make the existing grid smarter, more flexible and more efficient with: AI optimisation, virtual power plants, battery orchestration, smart meters and demand flexibility. This is the software layer that can help make Europe's electrification possible. And having worked in this industry for years, I couldn't be more excited to see European founders attacking this problem. ⚡🇪🇺 Kudos to all the founders building the energy infrastructure Europe will need next. 👏

Since I was very young, everyone kept telling me "just get really good at ONE thing" and honestly, I never f***ing wanted to! 😡 I wanted to understand how everything worked! And then I discovered startups 🤩 The best startup founders don’t just master one thing. They need to understand product, finance, sales, operations, and often even tech. They need to jump between problems, learn quickly, and connect the dots. That’s the power of being T-shaped: deep expertise in some areas, combined with broad knowledge across many others. I’m proud I was able to develop that mindset as a Head of Ops. And I’m even prouder that I can now use it to help other founders navigate all these different areas. But for a long time, I thought I was an outlier. Turns out... I’m definitely not. I recently discovered Milly Tamati and the incredible community she created: Generalist World 🌀, with 60,000+ people who feel the same way. And honestly, I love it! I honestly believe that being a generalist is a superpower ♥️ 🚀

What if your accelerator gave you 2,000+ potential customers before you even graduated? 👀 Congratulations to the startups selected for AcceleratorX.eu Cohort 1! What makes this accelerator particularly interesting is that it goes beyond the usual mentors + workshops + demo day model. The selected founders get access to 2,000+ potential clients from day one across 30 European markets, with real client pilots and real budgets to turn traction into real business! 🇪🇺🔥 They also get: → Hands-on support from experienced founders and industry experts → Warm introductions to VCs and investors → Capital + hands-on support across GTM, branding, sales and more → A long-term European founder community And here are the teams joining Cohort 1: 🚀 ModelRoom founded by Mikita Khazau & Dmytro Hrybov 🚀 Eva Social AI founded by İsmail Bahadır, Nazlı Adal, Canberk Bulgurcu, Ata Türkman & Sarp Türkman 🚀 Protaigé founded by Chrissy Lim & Wawa Gilewski 🚀 Loopcv founded by George Avgenakis 🚀 Vidai UK founded by Nagu Gopalakrishnan & Dr. Sivapriya (Priya) Mothilal Bhagavathy 🚀 Nextage.ai founded by Jean-Marc Segati & Ludovic Vossovic 🚀 Curious Endeavor founded by Lukas Richthammer & ASSAF DAGAN 🚀 GreenBrain Science founded Rubén Cuevas Rumín & Ángel Cuevas 🚀 Brault founded by Daniel Grimaldos & Pablo Martí 🚀 DINNA AI founded by Ina Markovik A great mix of founders building across AI, marketing, creative technology and the broader European startup ecosystem. Huge congratulations to all the founders! 👏 Big kudos to Vlad Popovici, Axel Thoma and the entire AcceleratorX.eu team for putting this together and creating such a strong launchpad for European AI founders. 👏🚀 And if you missed Cohort 1, stay tuned! 📻 Cohort 2 applications will be opening soon. 👀

🔬 Raising money for your healthtech startup? You might want to look at these 2 programmes first Two EIT Health opportunities could give European healthtech startups up to €650K, and they target different stages of the journey. 1️⃣ Transformative Healthcare Instrument For high-potential European SMEs developing transformative healthcare innovations across biotech, medtech, diagnostics and digital health. To qualify, you generally need: ✅ At least 4 FTEs ✅ At least €2M raised in equity in the last 36 months ✅ A technology that has reached the required maturity level What do you get? 💰 €300K–€500K funding The funding can support product development, commercialisation, investment readiness and preparation for the next funding round. 2️⃣ Innovation Uptake This one is for more mature healthcare technologies that are already clinically validated and ready to move into real-world adoption. You need: ✅ At least 2 organisations from 2 different eligible countries ✅ Partners covering at least 2 sides of the Knowledge Triangle ✅ An SME or industry player leading the commercialisation What do you get? 💰 Up to €650K per project 💰 Up to €500K when an SME leads 💰 Up to 50% of project costs covered The funding can be used for pilots, market adaptation, reimbursement strategy, health economics and commercialisation. 📅 Both opportunities have a deadline of 16 September 2026 ‼️ The European digital health market is projected to grow from around €11B in 2023 to €61B by 2035. That's a 15%+ CAGR. So this isn't just about getting funding. It's about helping European healthtech companies move from innovation → validation → adoption → scale. If you're building in healthtech, medtech, biotech, diagnostics or digital health, these are two opportunities worth checking! 🚀 P.S. Kudos to Emily Rose Jordan, PhD and the entire EIT Health team for working hard to make these opportunities available to European healthtech founders. 👏