NEWS
Elaia announces € 120m first close of Digital Venture Fund V to back European deep tech
Deep tech investor Elaia has announced the first closing of its fifth Digital Venture Fund( DV5) at € 120 million – reaffirming its mission to back enduring, IP-driven ventures shaping the future of European technology.
Building on more than two decades of experience scaling disruptive startups, DV5 supports founders developing foundational technologies and category-defining solutions.
The fund invests from Pre-Seed to Series B with tickets ranging from € 1 million to € 15 million across European B2B tech. Its focus spans AI, cybersecurity, Techbio and industrial innovation, reflecting Elaia’ s long-standing belief that European tech can compete globally.
The first close highlights continued investor confidence following the firm’ s four previous Digital Venture funds. Portfolio successes including Mirakl, Shift Technology, Vibe. co, iBanFirst, HarfangLab, Dexory and SeqOne demonstrate Elaia’ s ability to identify breakthrough innovation early and help transform it into market leadership.
Zurich-based Mimic Robotics, a physical AI company applying artificial intelligence to robotics, marks DV5’ s first investment. The move underscores the fund’ s ambition to support transformative technologies emerging from Europe’ s leading hubs.
DV5 received renewed backing from historical partners and new investors including Bpifrance, MACSF, BNP Paribas, SMABTP, Arundo Re and Groupe AG2R LA MONDIALE. Support from Lazard Frères Gestion was instrumental in completing the first close.
With DV5, Elaia aims to continue building resilient highgrowth companies that define Europe’ s next generation of technology leaders.
UKAI warns sovereign AI strategy must back British firms to close delivery gap
The UK’ s Sovereign AI ambitions risk falling short unless ministers take practical steps to back homegrown firms, according to Tim Flagg, Chief Executive of UKAI.
Speaking after a parliamentary roundtable at the House of Lords hosted by Lord Clement-Jones, Flagg said sovereignty should mean retaining control over critical AI systems, data and infrastructure while ensuring British companies can scale and compete globally.
Industry leaders, policymakers, academics and investors agreed the UK should avoid chasing hyperscale dominance or rigid self-sufficiency. Instead, sovereignty must focus on resilience, security and ensuring essential AI services cannot be disrupted by external dependencies.
However, participants warned of a widening gap between ambition and delivery. Risk-averse procurement and default reliance on overseas providers are unintentionally sidelining domestic capability, limiting scale-up pathways and weakening long-term resilience.
Flagg argued the UK’ s competitive edge lies in combining strong domestic innovation with global collaboration. Supporting British AI firms to win contracts and access data, compute and skills will be critical to sustainable growth.
Security leaders stressed that cyber protections must be embedded by design to prevent data leakage and system compromise. Technology executives added that becoming AI-native requires clear organisational goals and close collaboration between business leaders and technical experts.
The roundtable forms part of UKAI’ s ongoing work to develop recommendations for government, positioning Britain as a global benchmark for responsible AI that balances innovation, trust and democratic accountability.
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