OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 sets new records on professional benchmarks
OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 sets new records on professional benchmarks

The new model introduces native computer use, a 1-million-token context window, and a reworked tool-calling system. Whether it actually holds off Anthropic and Google is less clear. OpenAI is moving fast enough these days that it teased its next model …

Swedish data startup Validio raises $30M to fix the AI readiness problem nobody talks about
Swedish data startup Validio raises $30M to fix the AI readiness problem nobody talks about

The Stockholm company has spent six years building infrastructure that ensures enterprise data is actually fit for AI, and it has just secured $30M to make that case globally. The pattern is familiar to anyone who has spent time around enterprise techn…

FIRSTPICK closes €25M second fund to back Baltic founders before anyone else does
FIRSTPICK closes €25M second fund to back Baltic founders before anyone else does

When FIRSTPICK backed Emilė Radytė in 2021, her company Samphire Neuroscience was still building its first product and the risk, by the fund’s own assessment, was high. There was no revenue, no clear route to market, and a proposition, a neurotechnolog…

FIRSTPICK closes €25M second fund to back Baltic founders before anyone else does
FIRSTPICK closes €25M second fund to back Baltic founders before anyone else does

When FIRSTPICK backed Emilė Radytė in 2021, her company Samphire Neuroscience was still building its first product and the risk, by the fund’s own assessment, was high. There was no revenue, no clear route to market, and a proposition, a neurotechnolog…

FIRSTPICK closes €25M second fund to back Baltic founders before anyone else does
FIRSTPICK closes €25M second fund to back Baltic founders before anyone else does

When FIRSTPICK backed Emilė Radytė in 2021, her company Samphire Neuroscience was still building its first product and the risk, by the fund’s own assessment, was high. There was no revenue, no clear route to market, and a proposition, a neurotechnolog…

From a dragonfly’s wing to a WorldTour saddle
From a dragonfly’s wing to a WorldTour saddle

Thomas Rettenwander was writing his doctoral thesis at Austria’s Montanuniversität Leoben when he first studied dragonfly wings in detail. Not for their beauty, but for their engineering. Dragonfly wings are a masterclass in structural minimalism: heav…

From a dragonfly’s wing to a WorldTour saddle
From a dragonfly’s wing to a WorldTour saddle

Thomas Rettenwander was writing his doctoral thesis at Austria’s Montanuniversität Leoben when he first studied dragonfly wings in detail. Not for their beauty, but for their engineering. Dragonfly wings are a masterclass in structural minimalism: heav…

From a dragonfly’s wing to a WorldTour saddle
From a dragonfly’s wing to a WorldTour saddle

Thomas Rettenwander was writing his doctoral thesis at Austria’s Montanuniversität Leoben when he first studied dragonfly wings in detail. Not for their beauty, but for their engineering. Dragonfly wings are a masterclass in structural minimalism: heav…

A German battery firm bets dry electrodes can keep Europe in the game
A German battery firm bets dry electrodes can keep Europe in the game

The town of Flintbek is not somewhere you would expect to find one of Europe’s more credible answers to Chinese battery dominance. It is a quiet commuter settlement south of Kiel, better known for light industry than deep tech. But tucked inside a clim…

A German battery firm bets dry electrodes can keep Europe in the game
A German battery firm bets dry electrodes can keep Europe in the game

The town of Flintbek is not somewhere you would expect to find one of Europe’s more credible answers to Chinese battery dominance. It is a quiet commuter settlement south of Kiel, better known for light industry than deep tech. But tucked inside a clim…