Scaling Europe

Toby Mather, Co-Founder of Rig: BREAKING: Rig raised $2.8 Pre-seed

Rig just raised $2.8 pre-Seed led by Emerge Capital to build infrastructure that helps companies use their internal data with AI. The platform connects existing data systems so teams can build AI apps, workflows and agents more easily. Toby Mather is Co-founder of Rig. He says the biggest challenge is no longer building AI applications, but giving them secure access to the right internal context. Rig is designed to solve that problem by connecting data from across a business without teams having to stitch together dozens of systems themselves. The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk Sponsors: Mishcon: https://www.mishcon.com/pop-ups/scaling-europe Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:12 - Rig’s $2.8 pre-Seed 0:48 - What Rig is building 1:37 - AI workflows in practice 3:56 - Why Toby started the company 6:37 - Why investors backed the round 8:29 - Lessons from building a second company 10:03 - Building an AI-native startup 11:37 - Hiring for speed and learning 14:11 - How AI is changing careers 17:06 - Toby’s view on vibe coding 19:34 - Priorities after the raise

Jonathan Godwin, CEO at Orbital: Orbital raised $50m Series B

Orbital recently raised a $50m Series B led by Plural to scale its AI platform for developing advanced materials. Jonathan Godwin is Co-founder and CEO at Orbital Industries. The company is using AI to discover a new GPU cooling material for data centres, with plans to apply the same technology to hardware and manufacturing across sectors such as semiconductors, energy and aerospace. The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk Sponsors: Mishcon: https://www.mishcon.com/pop-ups/scaling-europe Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:20 - Orbital’s $50m Series B 1:50 - Discovering a new GPU cooling material 3:45 - The long-term vision for AI industrials 5:50 - Raising deep tech before the AI boom 8:20 - Why Plural backed Orbital 11:20 - The Orb open-source model 14:05 - Why Orb is open source 15:15 - Why Orbital builds hardware, not just AI models 20:40 - Building a mission-driven company

Seltz raised $12.5M seed: Antonio Mallia, CEO at Seltz

Seltz just raised a $12.5m Seed as it launches its first product and looks to build a new generation of web infrastructure for AI. Antonio Mallia is Founder and CEO at Seltz. The company is building for a world where AI agents become a new type of web user, requiring a completely different way to access information online. Instead of returning a list of links, Seltz is rebuilding the entire search stack so agents can access trustworthy, citable information and run hundreds of queries in parallel to complete tasks independently. The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk Sponsors: Mishcon: https://www.mishcon.com/pop-ups/scaling-europe Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:25 - $12.5m Seed announcement 1:15 - Why AI needs a different type of web search 3:20 - Why Seltz rebuilt the entire stack 5:00 - Why investors backed the company 7:20 - Building a research-heavy team 11:50 - Early traction and customer use cases 15:40 - The next 12 months 16:25 - Rethinking retrieval for AI agents 18:30 - Running hundreds of queries in parallel

Will Bennett, Principal at Seedcamp: BREAKING: Seedcamp closed $220M + $100M Funds

Seedcamp just closed $220M + $100M funds as it looks to support European founders from their first cheque through to later stages of company building. The new $220M core fund will continue backing early-stage companies, while the $100M select fund allows Seedcamp to double down on breakout portfolio companies from Series B onwards. Will Bennett is Principal at Seedcamp. He believes the definition of pre-seed is changing rapidly, with founder profiles becoming increasingly diverse and companies achieving more at an earlier stage. As more founders move to the US earlier in their journey, Seedcamp is expanding its presence there to help companies build customer, talent and investor networks. The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk Sponsors: Mishcon: https://www.mishcon.com/pop-ups/scaling-europe Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:25 - Seedcamp’s $220M + $100M funds 1:40 - Why the funds are getting bigger 2:30 - Why Seedcamp launched a select fund 3:50 - European founders moving to the US 6:30 - How founder profiles are changing 8:15 - What pre-seed means today 10:00 - Defence and frontier technologies 13:00 - What founders get from Seedcamp 15:20 - Building a stronger US presence 19:30 - The secret behind Seedcamp’s success

Matteo Benedetti, Founder at Debtist: Debtist scaled to €15M ARR in just 3 years

Debtist scaled to €15M ARR in just 3 years as it builds an AI-powered receivables management platform across Europe. Matteo Benedetti is Founder at Debtist. The company started from identifying a gap in traditional debt collection and built an end-to-end software platform that automates receivables management using AI across email, calling, document handling, and legal workflows. It now serves around 500 clients across Germany, the UK, Scandinavia and other European markets. The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk Sponsors: Mishcon: https://www.mishcon.com/pop-ups/scaling-europe Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026 SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/ Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:25 - $60m Series A announcement 3:01 - What Debtist does 5:39 - Novesta partnership 6:56 - Enterprise adoption and go-to-market 8:41 - Scaling across Europe 9:02 - AI in receivables management 10:37 - Building organisation and learnings 15:18 - Expansion strategy 20:37 - Hiring and culture