Europe – Page 6

Another European eVTOL startup delays launch amid certification hurdles

Europe, eVTOL, Next Featured, Startups and technology, Sustainability / Mike M. / May 30, 2023

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

Linnea is the senior editor at TNW, having joined in April 2023. She has a background in international relations and covers clean and climat (show all) Linnea is the senior editor at TNW, having joined in April 2023. She has a background in international relations and covers clean and climate tech, AI and quantum computing. But first, coffee.

If you, like me, have been waiting for the day when urban sprawls begin to resemble your favourite sci-fi scene with flying taxis journeying in silent files high up amongst the skyscrapers, it seems you may have to wait a little while longer.

Bristol-based urban air mobility (UAM) startup Vertical Aerospace is the latest in a long line to announce the (second) delay of entry into service of its aircraft, the VX4. The company has told investors it is now targeting certification from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) by the end of 2026 – two years behind the original timeline.

Setting dates to get the first electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (eVTOL) certified was always bound to be something of a gamble. Most of the companies developing these zero-emission ‘air taxis’ are aerospace startups (albeit supported by established OEM partners) with little to no experience of the actual aircraft certification process required.

As acknowledged by Vertical’s CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick in a letter to investors seen by the Financial Times, “Attempting to predict a date with certainty when it is several years away is challenging and achieving it depends on agreeing compliance methods for new technology with the authorities.”

First mover problems

Straddling the axis of innovation and sustainability, eVTOL technology has the potential to revolutionise urban and regional mobility of both passengers and cargo. However, with new technologies come new regulatory requirements. This will be especially true for the fully autonomous aircraft predicted to enter the market in a decade or so.

A report by Morgan Stanley in 2019 predicted that the global eVTOL market would grow to $1.5 trillion by 2040. Two years later, the figure was downgraded to $1 trillion. However, by 2050, the company estimates the market will have reached a staggering $9 trillion.

Furthermore, the report acknowledged that the industry’s first movers had a “regulatory Mount Everest” to confront before launching their aircraft into service.

It’s not as if Vertical hasn’t been groundbreaking in the sector; the company has already been flying full-scale prototypes for the past four years. In March it received what is known as a design organisation approval (DOA) by the CAA – the first time any regulator has granted one to an eVTOL maker.

And there are many customers waiting eagerly to begin making a dent in net-zero pledges; Vertical Aerospace has a pre-order book of 1,400 aircraft. Prospective customers of the four-passenger-one-pilot VX4 include American Airlines and Virgin Atlantic, as well as Irish aircraft leasing giant Avolon.

Who will actually make it to market?

Currently, there are about 500 electric vertical takeoff and landing developers worldwide. The market is concentrated in North America (with the notable exception of Embraer in Brazil), Europe, and Asia.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have taken slightly different approaches to certifying eVTOL. The FAA has adapted its existing aircraft certification framework, whereas the EU has developed draft regulations and a new eVTOL certification framework. The UK CAA announced in June last year it would use the same standards set out by EASA.

Both approaches seem to be having the same kind of impact on many manufacturer timelines. In the US, notable new developers such as Joby Aviation and Archer first proclaimed entry-into-service dates in 2024, but recently pushed them to 2025.

Brazil’s seasoned aircraft manufacturer Embraer has taken a more conservative approach, stating it will have its EVE eVTOL delivered to customers in 2026. Meanwhile, European aerospace giant Airbus has had to push back the first flight of its CityBus NextGen prototype to 2024, a year later than planned when announcing the project back in 2021.

Nonetheless, there are developers that are still bullish on their original plans. Germany’s Volocopter is adamant that it will have certified its aircraft in time for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Its compatriot Lilium (setting itself apart from other companies by developing a eVTOL jet), however, has delayed its early estimate of 2024 by a year.

Meanwhile, Lilium has commenced wind tunnel testing of a 40%-scale prototype at a joint German-Dutch facility in the Netherlands after securing a new round of funding at the beginning of May.

Most likely, as predicted by Morgan Stanley, the first movers will have the largest regulatory mountain to climb. Perhaps after the summit, the UAM revolution will begin in earnest, and we can all catch a silent, zero-emission rideshare and reminisce about the time we used to waste in noisy, polluting traffic jams.

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Google launches €10M social innovation AI fund for European entrepreneurs

Artificial Intelligence, Ecosystems, Europe, Google, Next Featured, Startups and technology / DJ Henderson / May 25, 2023

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

In conjunction with a visit of CEO Sundar Pichai’s visit to Stockholm yesterday, Google announced the launch of the second Google.org Social Innovation Fund on AI to “help social enterprises solve some of Europe’s most pressing challenges.”

Through the fund, Google is making €10 million available, along with mentoring and support, for entrepreneurs from underserved backgrounds. The aim is to help them develop transformative AI solutions that specifically target problems they face on a daily basis.

The fund will provide capital via a grant to INCO for the expansion of Social Tides, an accelerator program funded by Google.org, that will provide cash support of up to $250,000 (€232,000).

In 2021, Google put up €20 million for European AI social innovation startups through the same mechanism. Among the beneficiaries at that time was The Newsroom in Portugal, which uses an AI-powered app to encourage a more contextualised reading experience to take people out of their bubble and reduce polarisation.

Mini-European tour ahead of AI Act

Of the money offered by the tech giant this time around €1 million will be earmarked for nonprofits that are helping to strengthen and grow social entrepreneurship in Sweden.

During his brief stay, Pichai met with the country’s prime minister and visited the KTH Royal Institute of Technology to meet with students and professors.

Googles vd Sundar Pichai gästade KTH och pratade om artificiell intelligens. Han konstaterar att det är ok att vara rädd om rädslan används till någonting vettigt. https://t.co/imbtxxbSVn pic.twitter.com/oWal43dc2a

— KTH Royal Institute of Technology (@KTHuniversity) May 24, 2023

Sweden currently holds the six-month-long rotating Presidency of the European Union. Pichai’s visit to Stockholm preceded a trip to meet with European Commission deputy chief Vera Jourova and EU industry chief Thierry Breton on Wednesday.

Breton is one of the drivers behind the EU’s much-anticipated AI Act, a world-first attempt at far-reaching AI regulation. One of the biggest sources of contention — and surely subject to much lobbying from the industry — is whether so-called general purpose AI, such as the technology behind ChatGPT or Google’s Bard should be considered “high-risk.”

Speaking to Swedish news outlet SVT on the day of his visit, Pichai stated that he believes that AI is indeed too important not to regulate, and to regulate well. “It is definitely going to involve governments, companies, academic universities, nonprofits, and other stakeholders,” Google’s top executive said.

However, he may be doing some convincing of his own in Brussels, further adding, “These AI systems are going to be used for everything, from recommending a nearby coffee shop to potentially recommending a health treatment for you. As you can imagine, these are very different applications. So where we could get it wrong is to apply a high-risk assessment to all these use cases.”

Will Pichai be successful in convincing the Commission? Then, just maybe, Bard will launch in Europe too.

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The future of Dutch aerospace? Meet Fokker Next Gen’s hydrogen plane

Corporates and innovation, Europe, Next Featured, Sustainability / DJ Henderson / May 23, 2023

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

Dutch aerospace pioneer Fokker is looking to make a comeback. This time however, it won’t be polluting Jet A fuel propelling the company’s aircraft. Instead, in the revived guise of Fokker Next Gen, it is playing the long game and joining in on the clean-burning hydrogen hype.

With €25 million in funding from the Dutch government, and an additional EU Clean Aviation grant of undisclosed amount, Fokker is aiming at a 2035 entry into service of a clean-sheet aircraft design operating on liquid hydrogen. The plane’s intended range is 2,500 km, meaning it could fly across Europe from London to Kyiv – without generating any CO₂ emissions.

Fokker Next Gen intends to be done with the conceptual design stage of the aircraft by 2027, with a critical design review coming up three years later. Assembly of the new plane will happen in 2032, with the first prototype flight scheduled for 2033. That is, if everything goes according to plan, which is seldom the case with new aircraft projects.

Meanwhile, the envisioned timeline is understandable, given that 2035 is the year proclaimed by European aerospace giant Airbus as the arrival of its ZEROe hydrogen-powered commercial aeroplane.

Spacious and quiet

Looking at the first digitally generated images of the airframe-to-be, Fokker Next Gen is hoping to build a dual-aisle aircraft with 2-3-2 seating, most closely resembling the layout of an Airbus A330.

Airplane seats rendering — Flexible display panels will offer “customisable views or entertainment options” (that middle seat isn’t going anywhere though). Credit: Fokker Next Gen

It is difficult to glean the total passenger capacity though, as there is no length specification. What’s more, plenty of space in the fuselage has been dedicated to the storage of the hydrogen – one of the trickiest puzzles to solve in making hydrogen-powered commercial flight a reality, considering volume and weight constraints.

What we do know is that Fokker has opted for liquid hydrogen and direct combustion, as opposed to hydrogen-electric fuel-cells favoured by a majority of startups in the clean aviation space. Furthermore, it has already found an intended engine partner in the UK’s Rolls-Royce.

Rendering of hydrogen storage and engines — The hydrogen would be stored in the back of the fuselage. Credit: Fokker Next Gen

Meanwhile, just in case there won’t be enough green hydrogen to go around (a projected future constraint in the scaling of the technology), Fokker Next Gen has safeguarded its commercial appeal by designing the plane to also be able to fly on both good old kerosene and sustainable aviation fuel.

Much more investment needed

Of course, €25 million is not going to cut it when it comes to delivering a brand new plane with tremendous R&D demand. Billions more will be needed in investment to hit the intended target of 150 units rolling off the final assembly line per year. But, as Fokker Next Gen CEO Juriaan Kellermann told Luchtvaartnieuws over the weekend, “We think it’s realistic.”

Meanwhile, building both an entirely new airframe and propulsion architecture at the same time would be a tall order. As such, the company will first convert one of its Fokker 100 regional jets. In fact, Fokker Next Gen has already begun adapting the plane to run on liquid hydrogen. The first test flight of the modified jet is currently scheduled for the start of 2028.

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Spain’s Crowmie empowers everyone to invest in green energy

Europe, Next Featured, Startups and technology, Sustainability / DJ Henderson / May 15, 2023

Story by

Jill Petzinger

This profile is part of the main prize of the Pitch Battle at TNW Valencia 2023 won by Crowmie. Want your company to get featured as well? You’ve only got a few days to join the startup contest at TNW Conference in Amsterdam on June 15 & 16!

Valencia’s hottest green-fintech startup is on a mission to break down the high barriers to investment in the energy sector and make it easy for everyone to fund renewable projects.

Crowmie, which launched February last year, is jumping into the micro-investing space by allowing anyone with as little as €100 to spend the chance to invest directly into renewable energy projects in Spain, and see monthly returns.

Tech-wise, Crowmie has built a platform to create digital security tokens (STO, Security Token Offerings) for the total amount of each project they want to finance. This automated process means all investment transactions are registered in the blockchain.

The 12-person startup, led by founders Fernando Dávila (26), Pablo Valverde (29) and Joshua Cleveland (29) won the Pitch Battle at TNW Valencia in March this year.

“The jury was impressed with the team’s vision and goal of making it easier to invest in renewable energy,” said Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, co-founder of TNW and jury member of the Pitch Battle. “This is such an amazing opportunity that people like you and I can now finally get active in. This is one of those startups that you hope become very successful, not just for the team, or the investors but for the whole world.”

Crowmie (the name is a mashup of “crowd” and “homie”) has received €300,000 in pre-seed funding so far and is going after a €1.5 million seed round this year. The company will deploy the funds towards marketing, tech, opening up the investment platform to people in the US and building a presence in Mexico and Colombia.

Tokenised investment inspiration

CEO Dávila, who studied astro-engineering in Valencia before becoming a founder, told TNW that innovation in property tech was one of their main inspirations.

“The idea came about because we saw an incredible trend in the tokenisation world, especially in the real estate sector,” Dávila said, citing RealT in the US and Reental in Spain as two pioneering companies in real-estate tokenised investments.

The trio thought that the same model of fractional, tokenised investment could totally work in the renewable energy sector too — and no one was doing it in Spain.

“Right now only those with high amounts of capital can invest in the renewable energy vertical, and we want to do it with tokenisation, because impact investment is growing now and will grow much more in the future,” Dávila added.

Crowmie CEO Davila presenting at TNW Valencia — Crowmie’s CEO on stage during the TNW Valencia pitch battle. Credit: TNW

“We are really digitising a completely traditional sector like investment, using blockchain technology that allows us to open the doors to anyone from anywhere in the world, making it easy to invest in renewable energies, which until now was completely impossible.”

Spain is a promising base for green-energy initiatives. Just over 42% of the country’s electricity was generated from renewable sources in 2022, and it wants to increase this share to 74% by 2030.

According to a Reuters report from December 2022, Spain has the largest solar pipeline in Europe, with so many solar projects in planning that the government is struggling to get all the permits issued.

Zero-hassle investing

Getting up and running on the Crowmie app is simple, according to Dávila. Once someone signs up and completes the legal verification steps, they just need to select which of the Crowmie energy projects they want to invest in, and how much.

They then receive a minted token for that monetary value giving them economic rights to the project. They can resell their tokens with one click any time.

Crucially, Crowmie’s business model is not purely about facilitating investment and financing the projects, as they actually own the installations and plants themselves. Once they’ve built an energy plant, typically for a large company or factory, they sell the energy from it to the customer, and distribute the money to all investors.

Two solar plants are up and running so far, with, Dávila says, a total of 66 investors from multiple countries on board, with an average investment ticket of €2,000.

¡𝗗𝗬𝗔 ya está en producción! ☀️

𝗔𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗹 será el primer mes que dará rentabilidad…

¿Estáis 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘀? 🌱 pic.twitter.com/tyBfV0cxNk

— Crowmie (@crowmie_es) April 10, 2023

Crowmie’s photovoltaic plant supplying the TYPSA factory in Zaragoza was financed with €114,000 and started operating in February this year. Investors started getting dividends from the first month of operations and it is expected to deliver a return of 7.5% per year for five years for investors, and save 1,365 tonnes of CO₂ per year.

The startup also makes money by taking 5% of the value of tokens that they mint on the platform (giving them 5% of the economic rights of any one project) and a 2% processing fee.

Chickens and eggs

“Our biggest challenge is to balance the projects and the investors – it is chicken and egg,” said Dávila. “You have to balance the volume of investors on the platform, and the volume of projects that you have, in order to finance that project fast, really timing when the projects are coming, then creating FOMO among those investors that they are going to miss this opportunity.”

“We have three kinds of investors,” he added. “On one side, we have professional investors, who invest between €10,000 and €50,000. Then there are retail investors, who go in for about €2,000 a ticket. The third level is those who put in between €100 and €2,000.”

Compliance and due diligence across finance, technical and legal before they sign contracts with clients for the energy projects is the expensive part of doing business for Crowmie, and needs to be outsourced.

For now, the founders are cutting their teeth on projects in Spain, but they’re already looking at expanding into Mexico and Colombia, where their partners have other energy projects. These 25 partners, Dávila said, have already created a pipeline of 40 potential projects for Crowmie to the value of €20 million.

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Wingcopter bags €40M from EU to scale ‘new era for drone delivery’

Europe, Next Featured, Startups and technology, Sustainability / DJ Henderson / May 12, 2023

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

German drone solution startup Wingcopter announced today it had landed €40 million in funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to scale up services and ramp up production of its latest model.

According to its developers, the Wingcopter 198 introduces a “new era for drone delivery.” Additions to the latest version of Wingcopter’s aircraft, “the world’s first triple-drop delivery drone,” include delivery of up to three packages to multiple locations during one flight.

What’s more, a single operator can fly up to 10 units simultaneously and beyond visual line of sight. The model also features an AI-based visual detect-and-avoid solution and smart precision landing capabilities.

The Wingcopter 198 has a wingspan of, you guessed it, 198 cm, and stretches 152 cm from front to tail. It can carry up to 6 kg and when carrying a 5 kg payload, it has a range of 75 km. Without any cargo, it can fly for up to 110 km.

The drone’s default cruise speed is 100 km/h, but it has a maximum speed of 144 km/h. Additionally, its developers say it can withstand strong winds due to a patented tilt-rotor technology – 15 m/s average, 20 m/s gusts.

Creating jobs at home and abroad

The €40 million investment is backed by the European Commission’s InvestEU programme under its sustainable infrastructure window, and the funds are provided as a quasi-equity investment, meaning that it ranks between equity and debt.

Of course, EIB, the lending arm of the European Union, does not splurge on projects simply because it features some cool tech. It also looks for broader social and environmental benefits when deciding whether or not to fund a project.

“Our goal is also to improve lives by creating many jobs — in R&D and manufacturing at our headquarters in Europe, as well as in the countries where we provide services, where we train and qualify local young people to operate our drone delivery networks,” said co-founder and CEO Tom Plümmer.

Woman servicing the Wingcopter drone — Credit: Wingcopter

Furthermore, replacing carbon-intensive modes of light cargo transport with electric drones will reduce emissions and help further the bloc’s climate agenda.

“Backing European cleantech pioneers with global reach like Wingcopter is central to our mission,” said EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle. “Electric cargo drones are an important vertical segment for a future of sustainable transport and logistics.”

Bringing it home

Wingcopter expects to operate its flagship model for the first time in Germany this summer. It will launch in a pilot project that will test the potential of on-demand transport of groceries and consumer goods.

The project, in turn funded by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport and conducted together with the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, is intended to improve local supply in rural German communities through a sustainable delivery service

Wingcopter was founded in 2017, by Tom Plümmer, Jonathan Hesselbarth and Ansgar Kadura. To date, the advanced air mobility startup has raised over €100 million over nine funding rounds. Investors include European retailer REWE Group, ITOCHU, Xplorer Capital and Uber co-founder Garrett Camp’s investment arm Expa.

The Darmstadt-based developer is both a manufacturer of aviation-grade drone technology and a service provider for a wide range of drone operations. It has already deployed its unmanned aircraft, such as the Wingcopter 178, to deliver goods across small-scale commercial and humanitarian missions, as well as carry out geological surveys and infrastructure inspection in difficult to reach terrain.

One of the major advantages of drones in cargo operations in hard-to-reach and rural environments is that they require no additional infrastructure for take off and landing. Last summer, the company raised close to €40 million to deploy some of its drones in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Wingcopter has also participated in a joint project between UNICEF and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Malawi, delivering life-saving medicines and medical supplies.

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Google releases Bard to the world – but leaves the EU behind

Artificial Intelligence, Corporates and innovation, Deep tech, Europe, Google, Next Featured / DJ Henderson / May 12, 2023

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

During its I/O 2023 event yesterday, Google announced it had officially removed the waitlist for its AI-powered chatbot Bard and made the service available in 180 countries and territories.

Sadly for most Europeans keen on testing the tech giant’s contribution to the generative AI race, the countries of the European Union are not included in the list.

The company has not made any comments on why the EU has been left out. However, it would not be too far-fetched to assume it has something to do with how members of the bloc have reacted to the introduction of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

In all likelihood, Google is also waiting for the finalisation of the EU’s much-anticipated AI Act, before unleashing Bard across the continent. The leading European Parliament committees gave their approval for the act earlier today, with a tentative plenary adoption date scheduled for 14 June.

While not offering any specific plans for increased geographical access, Google says it will “gradually expand to more countries and territories in a way that is consistent with local regulations and our AI principles.”

Trained on Google’s new model

Along with the release of Bard to much of the world (and sharp VPN wielders), Google also introduced a range of new features to the chatbot. First of all, it is now powered by Google’s newest large language model: PaLM2, an upgraded version of PaLM, released in April. Meanwhile, Bard was still introduced as a “conversational AI experiment.”

According to Sissie Hsiao, Google VP and General Manager for Google Assistant and Bard, the chatbot has now been trained in 20 programming languages. This means that users can ask it to produce, debug and improve code in, for instance, C++, Python, and JavaScript.

In addition, users can now switch to the apparently much-requested dark mode. But what’s more, they can also create images through Bard, using Adobe’s AI art generator Firefly via an extension feature that allows it to integrate with third party apps and platforms.

An image of a unicorn at a kids birthday party — Soon you can ask Bard/Firefly to generate unicorns and cakes for you. Credit: Google

Thus far, Bard is available in English, Japanese, and Korean, but Google says it is on track to support 40 languages.

Will it be up to snuff?

In a move generally considered to have been premature, Bard was released two months ago for select users in the US and the UK. Consensus has been that in effort to keep up with competitors, Google rushed the introduction of the chatbot before it was ready.

As a result, the company faced the ridicule of not only tech savvy commentators, but also its own employees. As reported by Bloomberg, phrases such as “pathological liar” and “cringe-worthy” were thrown about on internal messaging boards. But what is one of the big five to do when its very core business is under threat?

To say that Google is enamoured by artificial intelligence at the moment would be something of an understatement. For I/O 2023, it came armed with a ton of new AI announcements, beyond Bard. In fact, Sundar Pichai opened the event by once more stating that Google has “reimagined” all its core products.

Pretty sure Google is focusing on AI at this year’s I/O. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/RxlFQw2l8b

— The Verge (@verge) May 10, 2023

And speaking of core businesses, Google Search is getting something the company calls “AI-powered snapshots.” When users opt in for the brand new Search Generative Experience, the search engine will produce AI-powered answers at the top of the results.

Other products that are getting an AI makeover are Gmail and Docs, where you can prompt AI to “help me write” things such as potentially tricky emails or job applications. Sheets now has a function called “help me create” to help you set up tables with anything you may need when it comes to, say, running a business (dog walking was the example offered by Google during the presentation probably because, well, dogs).

Maps is getting something called Immersive View, which will allow you to visually walk, cycle, or drive a specific route complete with predicted weather conditions, before you actually get out the door. It will be rolled out across 15 cities, including Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, Florence, London, Paris, and Venice by the end of the year.

Whether or not much of Europe will get to test the mettle of the ‘new and improved’ Bard by then is another matter.

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Revitalising European democracy: AI-supported civic tech on the rise

Artificial Intelligence, Europe, Next Featured / DJ Henderson / May 9, 2023

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

According to a study by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) released late last week, digital technologies will become an increasing factor in European democracy in the coming decade. This is perhaps not entirely surprising; after all, the pandemic shifted much of our lives into the digital realm, why shouldn’t our political participation?

The report, based on interviews with more than 50 government and industry representatives, finds that the market for online participation and deliberation in Europe is expected to grow to €300mn in the next five years, whereas the market for e-voting will grow to €500mn. The respondents also state that there is a “window of opportunity” for European providers of democracy technology to expand beyond Europe.

Authors of the report further believe that digital democracy technology can support outreach to demographics that may otherwise be difficult to reach, such as youth and immigrant communities. This also includes broader populations under difficult circumstances, such as those brought on by the pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

“In case of war, electronic democracy tools have to be even stronger. Because we understand we have to live for the society and give citizens tools,” said Oleg Polovynko, Director of IT at Kyiv Digital, City Council of Kyiv, and one of the speakers at the TNW Conference 2023.

Not without controversy

Digital democracy refers to the use of digital technologies and platforms to enhance democratic processes and increase citizens’ participation in government decision-making. This is also referred to as civic tech (not to be confused with govtech, which focuses on technologies that help governments perform their functions more efficiently).

Examples of tools include online petitions, open data portals, and participatory budgeting systems, where citizens come together to discuss community needs and priorities and then allocate public funds accordingly.

In a best-case scenario, it has the potential to reinvigorate democracy by allowing citizens to participate from anywhere at any time. In a worst-case scenario, it could be used for disinformation or just plain good old online toxic behaviour.

Furthermore, the discussion of a potential ‘digital divide – who will benefit and who will be excluded due to access or lack thereof to technology – is not one that is easily settled.

Inviting AI into collective decision making

IDEA states that there are more than 100 vendors in Europe in the online participation, deliberation and voting sector, most of whom are active on a national level. The majority of those operating internationally are startups with between 10 and 60 employees, but expanding quickly.

Many of these democracy technology platforms have already begun taking advantage of the recent step-change developments in artificial intelligence to introduce new features or enhance existing ones.

“We foresee a future where citizens and AI collaboratively engage with governments to address intricate social issues by merging collective intelligence with artificial intelligence,” Robert Bjarnason, co-founder and President of Citizens.is tells TNW.

“We advocate for a model in which citizens work alongside powerful AI systems to help shape policy, rather than allowing centralised government AI models to exert excessive influence.”

Following the collapse of Icelandic banks in 2008, distrust of politicians was at an all-time high in the Nordic island nation. Together with a fellow programmer, Gunnar Grímsson, Bjarnasson created a software platform called Your Priorities that allows citizens to suggest laws and policies that can then be up- or down-voted by other users.

Just before local elections in 2010, the open-source software was used to set up the Better Reykjavik portal. Five years later, a poll on the site managed to name a street in the Icelandic capital after Darth Vader (well, his Icelandic moniker of Svarthöfði, or Black-cape, which already fitted well with the names of the streets in the area).

Of course, there have been much ‘weightier’ decisions influenced by the platform, such as crowdsourcing ideas on how to prioritise the City’s educational objectives.

Thus far, over 70,000 of the capital’s inhabitants have engaged with Better Reykjavik. Pretty impressive for a population of 120,000. Furthermore, Your Priorities has been trialled in Malta, Norway, Scotland, and Estonia.

The Baltic tech-forward nation has adopted several laws suggested through the platform, which features a unique debating system, crowdsourcing of content and prioritisation, a ‘toxicity sensor’ to alert admins about potentially abusive content – and extensive use of AI. In fact, Citizens.is recently entered into collaboration with OpenAI, and has deployed GPT-4 for its AI assistant – in Icelandic.

GPT-4 now empowers digital democracy and collective intelligence in Iceland 🤖❤️ Thnx to a collaboration btw @OpenAI, the government, and Miðeind, we’re launching our AI assistant in Icelandic. Thanks @sama, @gdb, @vthorsteinsson, @cohere, @langchain, @weaviate_io & @buildWithLit pic.twitter.com/LNxAAFe2nf

— Citizens Foundation (@CitizensFNDN) March 19, 2023

Don’t worry if the language barrier felt a little steep. Citizens.is has been kind enough to provide TNW with a screenshot of the company’s AI assistant in action from a project in Oakland, California.

Screenshot of OpenAI chatbot conversation — Credit: Citizens.is

Other examples of civic tech focused companies in Europe include Belgium-founded scaleup CitizenLab, which now works with more than 300 local governments and organisations across 18 countries, and Berlin-based non-profit Liquid Democracy. Liquid’s open source deliberation and collaborative decision-making Adhocracy+ software platform also helps facilitate face-to-face meetings throughout the timeline of participation projects.

Gaining the trust of the citizen

The main product trends identified in the IDEA study are: artificial intelligence, voting, and administration and reporting. Meanwhile, it also found that it is important to address issues around inclusiveness, data usage, accountability and transparency, and to develop security standards for end-to-end verified voting.

One solution proposed is the introduction of a Europe-wide quality trust mark for democracy technologies.

“If a citizen can trust the banking application to make transactions, then equivalently our service can be trusted to make the citizen’s voice heard,” stated Nicholas Tsounis, CEO of online voting platform Electobox. “We want people to trust this application because we know that it is there for them to protect the right to speak and vote.”

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A new hope: HV Capital raises record €710M to invest in European startups

Europe, Investors and funding, Next Featured / DJ Henderson / May 5, 2023

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

The first quarter of 2023 was pretty bleak for the European startup ecosystem, to say the least. Funding fell a whopping 57% compared to Q1 of 2022, and fundraising is on pace for the lowest total since 2015. As such, the recent developments being heralded from Berlin might bring particularly welcome succour.

German VC firm HV Capital announced today it has raised its ninth and largest fund ever, with €710 million for investments across all growth phases – all the way from pre-Seed to Series D and beyond.

The fund is backed mostly by institutional investors from Europe and the US. HV Capital says it will be divided almost evenly into two vehicles: Fund IX Venture and Fund IX Growth. Ticket sizes will range from €500,000 to €60mn.

While the firm will look extensively at deals inside Germany, it also wants to place about 40% of the fund throughout Europe. Reiner Märkle, General Partner at HV Capital, said the record fund would provide the firm with “new opportunities to invest in the next generation of disruptive ideas.”

Indeed, HV Capital, who was an early backer of German e-commerce company Zalando, has already made four investments from the fund. One of these is in Berlin-based SPREAD, who makes augmented engineering intelligence platforms. Another is in GovTech startup Polyteia, also from Berlin, providing authorities with data infrastructure to help “improve and accelerate decision making.”

Fund IX has also invested in B2B energy management platform ecoplanet, based in Munich, and female-founded monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) software developer Agreena in Copenhagen, which supports agriculture with regenerative farming practices and carbon monitoring.

HV Capital said it had established the fund with a view of “advancing ESG in the venture capital ecosystem,” with commitments made under Article 8 of the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, or SFDR.

By the end of the fund’s lifecycle in a decade, the firm says it is targeting at least one-third of women in executive positions across the portfolio. Furthermore, HV Capital will aim to have at least 30% of the fund allocated to companies aligned with the climate goals of the European Investment Fund (EIF).

SFDR?

If this is the first time you have come across SFDR, consider yourself acquainted with one of the potentially most impactful principles in whether or not your company will receive funding moving forward. Basically, it is a set of rules laid out by the EU designed to counteract greenwashing, and to help investors make more informed decisions about sustainable investment.

Obligated firms will need to disclose potentially negative consequences an investment decision may have on sustainability factors (environmental and social), and how they are mitigating the impacts, on an annually recurring basis. While it is up to individual member states to decide on financial consequences, there are other potentially adverse effects of non-compliance, such as reputational penalties and sending poor signals to current and future investors.

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‘Break them open’ – new EU rules coming for Big Tech

Europe, Next Featured, Tech / DJ Henderson / May 4, 2023

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

As dry and bureaucratic as EU legislation may seem, it can also be groundbreaking and, dare we say it, radical. The bloc has taken a global lead in tackling regulation in areas such as green taxonomy and the much-anticipated AI Act. European lawmakers are also at the forefront in trying to curb the seemingly ever-growing dominance of Big Tech.

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is the EU’s tool to attempt to open the digital app marketplace up for smaller competitors. It sets criteria to identify the “gatekeepers” of the market and make them comply with a certain list of do’s and don’ts.

Among other things, the DMA will promote interoperability, forcing companies like Google, Apple, and Meta to let users link rival apps to their services. This means that Apple will need to release the tightly controlled (and heavily commissioned) grip it exerts through its app store.

In the words of Cédric O, France’s then-digital economy minister, upon the signing of the act last year, “Don’t break them up, break them open.”

Theoretically, it also means that users of different messaging apps will be able to contact each other from, say, WhatsApp to Telegram, but it is unclear how this would actually be implemented. It will also forbid the gatekeeper companies from doing things such as track their users outside core platforms for targeted marketing without consent.

While it entered into force on 1 November 2022, the DMA technically began applying yesterday, 2 May 2023. This means that potential gatekeeper tech companies now have until 3 July to notify their core platform services to the European Commission.

The Commission will then have 45 working days (until 6 September) to decide whether or not they pass the gatekeeper threshold. If the Commission concludes that the company in question does indeed meet the designated criteria, the gatekeeper will then have six months (until 6 March 2024) to comply with the requirements set out in the DMA.

In the case of non-compliance, the Commission can impose fines of up to 10% of the company’s total worldwide annual turnover. In the event of repeated infringements this can increase to 20% plus periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of the company’s total worldwide daily turnover.

Europe ‘strengthening digital sovereignty’

So who are the “gatekeepers?” According to the DMA, they are platforms in the digital markets that “have a significant impact on the internal market, serve as an important gateway for business users to reach their end users, and which enjoy, or will foreseeably enjoy, an entrenched and durable position.”

As with all legal texts, the criteria go into significant detail. Simplified, they entail that companies will be considered gatekeepers if they have a market capitalisation of more than €75 billion, and 45 million monthly active users in the EU.

There are 10 platform services listed in the DMA. These are:

Online intermediation services;
Online search engines;
Online social networking services;
Video-sharing platform services;
Number-independent interpersonal communication services;
Operating systems;
Cloud computing services;
Advertising services;
Web browsers;
Virtual assistants.

A company may be listed as a gatekeeper for more than one service.

Together with the Digital Services Act (DSA), the DMA forms one of the central columns of the EU’s digital strategies. They are both part of a regulatory program known as A Europe Fit For the Digital Age.

Adopted three years ago, it is part of the Commission’s ambition to make this Europe‘s ‘Digital Decade’ in which it will “strengthen its digital sovereignty and set standards, rather than following those of others – with a clear focus on data, technology, and infrastructure.”

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Europe’s first solar panel roof-covered bike lane unveiled in Germany

Europe, Next Featured, Tech / Mike M. / May 2, 2023

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

At the beginning of the year, news readers were treated to images of German police forcefully removing climate activists from the village of Lützerath to make way for an open-air coal mine. Indeed, Germany may have averted a looming energy crisis this past winter by upping its coal consumption.

While prioritising energy independence may have caused a detour from the transition to renewables, the country’s goal is to reach climate neutrality by 2045: five years ahead of the EU target. A small step on the way but a step nonetheless is Europe’s first solar panel roof-covered cycling path which opened this week in the city of Freiburg, about a two-hour drive south of Stuttgart.

The photovoltaic (PV) pilot project consists of a 300-metre-long installation featuring over 900 translucent glass solar panels, and will generate around 280 MWh of solar power per year. Solarwatt, the producer of the panels covering the path, says they are particularly durable as the solar cells are enclosed on the front and back by robust glass panes.

Existing infrastructure has increasing role to play

The cleantech company now has three decades of experience creating solar panels and currently employs over 800 people across Europe. In 2022, it acquired Utrecht-based battery-storage specialist REConvert for an undisclosed amount, establishing a Dutch subsidiary.

Solarwatt’s CEO Detlef Neuhaus believes rethinking photovoltaics will be essential for Germany’s transition to clean energy, and sees an untapped potential in already existing infrastructure.

“Already sealed areas such as parking lots, paths and roads are playing an increasingly important role,” Neuhaus said. “We are proud that we could contribute our part to the success of this innovative pilot project.”

Woman riding bicycle under solar powered roof — Credit: Badenova AG & CO

The modules used in the bike lane project have general technical approval from the German Institute for Building Technology (DIBt). This means that they can be used without any restriction for both private and public projects, without the need for case-by-case testing.

Solar-powered neighbour stadium

Meanwhile, the pilot bicycle lane is situated close to the SC Freiburg football stadium. The arena is already equipped with a 2.4MW solar panel roof, courtesy of around 6,000 heterojunction solar modules from Swiss manufacturer Meyer Burger.

This makes it the third-largest solar panel installation on any stadium in the world. (The largest belongs to Turkish Süper Lig football club Galatasaray’s home arena Nef Stadium, which comprises more than 10,000 panels.)

The potential for much longer PV-roofed paths

This may be Europe’s first solar panel roof-covered bicycle path (excluding several projects where the path itself has been covered with PV panels). However, since 2014, South Korea boasts a 9 kmbicycle lane covered by a roof made of solar panels.

This 4-metre wide lane runs in the middle of an eight-lane highway, and connects the cities of Daejeon and Sejong. Its 7,502 solar panels are capable of producing 2,200MWh per year – the equivalent of powering around 600 households, according to the country’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Several other Korean cities have implemented the technology, but this remains the longest and most power-generating project to date.

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Can plant-based meats be healthy? This foodtech startup says yes

Europe, Next Featured, Sustainability / Mike M. / April 27, 2023

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

Barcelona’s food tech startup Heura has unveiled its new patent-pending technology aimed at producing meat substitutes without the lengthy and sometimes off-putting ingredients list. The company says it is the first scalable technology of its kind to add “superior” nutritional value to plant-based foods.

The data is abundantly clear – if we are to have any chance at halting global warming, we need to revolutionise our food systems. Approximately 14.5% of all anthropogenic greenhouse gases come from the raising of livestock.

Furthermore, research has shown processed red meats to be carcinogenic. This means that what we choose to put on our plates matters, for the health of both the collective and the individual.

However, the initial enthusiasm for vegan meat alternatives has waned somewhat, with shares in one of the most eponymous alternatives, Beyond Meat, losing over 60% of their value over the past year alone.

Often, companies behind the fake meat revolution are criticised for relying too heavily on artificial additives, with long lists of unpronounceable ingredients. Furthermore, the ultra-processed products are often devoid of essential nutrients.

“I think that the worst enemy of the category are bad products,” said Heura’s co-founder Marc Coloma. “We see that there has been kind of a gold rush in this category where a lot of products had been launched super fast to the market without meeting consumer expectations.”

Patent-pending thermomechanical technology

Most approaches to creating vegan meat substitutes are sort of trial and error. Producers experiment with different blends of binders and additives as well as vegetable proteins to see what works.

Enter Heura’s patent-pending technology. The thermomechanical technique uses heat and mechanical energy to shape or modify a material’s properties. This, Heura says, allows it to create plant-based meat substitutes with higher quality inputs and a shorter ingredients list.

Día histórico en Heura: hoy presentamos nuestra primera patente (de muchas que vendrán) y no podemos estar más felices. #Sucesores pic.twitter.com/1mwG7VbOK8

— Heura Foods #FoodActivists (@HeuraFoods) April 25, 2023

We haven’t been able to glean the exact details about the actual breakthrough. However, during the launch of the project platform, named Good Rebel Tech, last year, the company’s Science and Technology director Isabelle Férnandez, stated that,

“Instead of focusing on extracting and isolating proteins from legume seeds, we are researching ways to leverage the functionality of whole plants in their naturally occurring structures.”

For now, focus will be on products in the deli, cheese and whole meats. And as anyone who has ever dined in Spain can attest, these are far more popular categories than the most commonly substituted burger patty.

But, protein?

The company has already developed two products using the technology: a frankfurter-style sausage and ham-style slices, both made from soy protein. The frankfurters have a protein density of 72%, and the “ham” 70%. Heura is hoping to have both products hit store shelves by the end of Q4 2023.

List of ingredients for the frankfurter? Water, soy protein isolate, extra virgin olive oil, radish, carrot and paprika flavour concentrates, lemon juice from concentrate and vitamin B12.

You may have noticed it does not, like so many fake meat products, contain coconut oil. This is due to another milestone reached by Heura’s R&D department last year, where it managed to replace the saturated fat alternative with a 100% olive-oil-based analogue.

Successful equity crowdfunding

Heura Foods was founded in 2017, in a co-working office in the centre of Barcelona. Its first customer was a small, local business in the Poble-sec neighbourhood. The startup has raised €36 million to date – including an equity crowdfunding campaign which landed it €4 million in just 12 hours. In 2022, the company secured a turnover of €31.4 million, and in 2023, it grew 44% in Q1 compared to the same quarter the year before.

Furthermore, Heura has tripled its market share in Spain over the past three years, and has agreements with retailer groups in Austria, Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK.

Could the possession of a patent in an otherwise quite wild west low barrier-to-entry plant-based meats industry lure more investors to Heura’s cause? We will enjoy a cruelty-free frankfurter (or two) while we wait to find out, thank you very much.

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LOOP into orbit: Airbus’ new modular multi-purpose space station

Europe, Next Featured, Space / DJ Henderson / April 21, 2023

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket may have exploded during launch this week. However, that does not mean that Elon, or humanity for that matter, is not determined to enter a new era of space exploration.

To reach further out into the universe, we will need to not only figure out how to send people to Mars, but also how to upgrade our life-support systems and accommodations.

To that end, European aerospace manufacturer Airbus has dreamt up LOOP, a “multi-purpose orbital module” meant to replace the ageing International Space Station (ISS). According to Airbus, it has designed LOOP to “make long-term stays in space comfortable and enjoyable for its inhabitants.”

Sleek space accommodations

Compared to the iconic images of astronauts floating about in the tiny communal spaces on the ISS, the three-level deck of LOOP does indeed look a tad more agreeable. Looking at the images, it could almost be enough to make all your USS Enterprise fantasies come true. Although, as you would remain in orbit, you would not really get to “boldly go,” etc.

Rendering of LOOP living quarters — Living quarters complete with exercise bikes against the wall. Credit: Airbus

But don’t imagine swarms of futuristic uniformed space travellers beaming onto the platform. Airbus has designed the 8-metre diameter LOOP to comfortably house a four-person crew. Although, it could be adjusted to host eight astronauts at the same time.

The LOOP consists of three decks: Habitation, the Science Deck, and a Centrifuge that can create gravity conditions for the station’s inhabitants. The three-level structure also allows for “safe harbour” separation if necessary. Joining the decks together is the so-called Tunnel at the centre, surrounded by a greenhouse structure.

Rendering of science deck — One of the intended modules is the Science Deck. Credit: Airbus

Meanwhile, the modular approach is intended to be precisely that – modular. This means that customers could choose to replace any of the decks to adapt the station to individual mission profiles and objectives. An option could also be, according to the developer, to connect several LOOP modules into a larger station. With all the space tourism hype, could we see a boutique space station hotel? Never say never.

No assembly required

LOOP is designed to fit with an upcoming generation of superheavy launchers, such as the aforementioned Starship, that will be able to launch the entire module in one piece (once their own launches are successful). This means that it will be fully operational almost immediately when reaching orbit.

Under the LOOP concept umbrella, Airbus is also offering a whole range of space exploration supporting technologies, such as thermal control solutions, power generation and management, environmental control and life support systems, etc.

Airbus LOOP coupled with Spartan Space’s Inflatable Module and a visiting spacecraft. Credit: Airbus

While Airbus has presented several concepts over the years that haven’t gotten anywhere close to reality, the company does have a rich heritage when it comes to contributing to international space missions. Most recently, it became the first ever non-US company to build a mission-critical element for an American Human Spaceflight Mission.

The Kevlar-covered European Service Module and its 15,000 solar cells propels and manoeuvres NASA’s new Orion spacecraft. Furthermore, it supplies the crew with water and oxygen, as well as regulates thermal controls.

Will customers go for it?

As with many aerospace concepts, for LOOP to truly make it from the design stage and into development, Airbus will need signals from customers who are willing to purchase the product. In this case, there needs to be someone willing to part with sums of near-astronomical (pun intended) proportions. Especially considering that the cost of the International Space Station, including development, assembly and running costs over a decade, lands at around €100 billion.

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