With Brexit looming and the fragmentation of Europe a real possibility, at least the continent’s young tech entrepreneurs want to stick together. Take Milan-based Davide Dattoli, the founder of coworking and education space Talent Garden. His mission? To bring together techies, freelancers, investors and anyone with a stake in the sector to create blossoming relationships, products and careers.
“We are trying to create a place where all the ecosystem can meet, can connect, between each other and try to stay together,” says Dattoli, who’s raised $12 million for his enterprise to date. “In Talent Garden what we try is not only to create the coworking, but to really create a place where people feel at home. Where we can really feel and grow connections between each other and stay well.”
The talent across European nations is in no short supply, as the Forbes 30 Under 30 list attests. In particular, the young businessmen and women are pushing the boundaries of what artificial intelligence can do for consumers and companies alike.
Phoebe Hugh, founder of Brolly, is taking her London-based, AI-driven insurance assistant to the biggest of the U.K.’s insurance companies, partnering with the likes of Hiscox and AXA. Her business provides analysis and personalized advice to help people save time and money. It’s raised $2 million from investors like Pi Labs and Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures fund.
Hugh isn’t the only one trying to shake up the insurance game with next-gen tech. Sergi Baños Lara, CTO at Wefox, is building AI tech that assists insurance providers and brokers manage their portfolios. The firm has raised $180 million to date.
Elsewhere in artificial intelligence, Barney Hussey-Yeo, cofounder at London-based CleoAI, has raised $14 million for his AI tool that helps people better manage their finances. Carlos Pierre, founder and CEO of Badi, is running a Barcelona-based platform that uses machine learning to match tenants, roommates and landlords based on their preferences, personalities and interests. He’s raised $45 million in the process.
Cloud remains a hot space too. Take Aircall, which offers an all-in-one cloud-based phone system and call center. The company raised a series A of $8 million led by Balderton in 2016. It then built up to a $29 million series B in 2018. It claims to count Uber as a customer.
Then there are the truly novel areas. Tolulope Ogunsina, epitomizes that inventiveness. He’s cofounder and CTO of Playbrush, a technology company that digitizes oral care for children by gamifying the toothbrushing process. It has created connectors for manual and electric toothbrushes to hook up to Android and iOS games and a parent monitoring app. It’s partnered with big brands like Unilever and sold over 150,000 units.
There are plenty of tech folk with an altruistic side across Europe too. Simi Awokoya created Witty Careers to educate and equip the underrepresented in tech. The nonprofit puts on practical events to provide mentoring and give minority women the skills they need to succeed in the tech industry. Witty Careers is run by Awokoya and a team of other women in working in the tech industry in the U.K.
Even with the threat of political dissolution around them, the EU’s burgeoning tech talent is pushing for a welcoming, inclusive and exciting industry.
