Arbio raised $36M to roll up and automate Europe's holiday-home management (interview)
In a Tech.eu interview, Arbio's CEO says the Berlin startup runs 1,000+ units in DACH and plans an AI-first, acquisition-led push across Europe.
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2,000 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDEx-Meta engineers' Airial bets AI that reasons over trip logistics, not just itineraries
Airial raised a $3M seed to plan flights, trains, hotels and routes end to end; tens of thousands visit monthly, and it is chasing users, not revenue.
Read the case22cans: Molyneux left Microsoft, ran a cube test, raised £500K for Godus (interview)
In a 2013 interview Peter Molyneux says Farmville pushed him out of Lionhead to start 22cans, whose Curiosity cube hit 5M downloads before a £500K Kickstarter.
Read the caseZum ditched Uber-for-kids to run school districts' electric bus fleets (interview)
In 2019 founder Ritu Narayan spent eight months deciding to abandon her consumer ride-hailing service when schools offered Zum their whole bus operation.
Read the caseZomato disabled its 10-minute Instant food delivery after failing to grow it
Pre-mixed bestsellers from partner kitchens couldn't stretch past a few dense neighbourhoods — Zomato pulled Instant ordering and moved to rebrand.
Read the caseEx-Meta AI leads launch Yutori: web agents that browse for you, starting with Scout alerts
Three of Meta's AI leads left to build agents that do the surfing; their $15M seed from Radical Ventures priced the team as much as the product.
Read the caseYT Industries, Ardian-backed since 2021, restructured its European arm as funding ran out
The German bike brand that scaled with PE money and US showrooms told customers in July 2025 its European operation had no funding left.
Read the caseXembly shut its $20M AI chief-of-staff service, citing changes in underlying AI platforms
Founded in 2020 before the LLM boom, the Seattle assistant startup wound down service on June 1, 2024, saying shifts in AI platforms made operating untenable.
Read the caseWheelhouse spun its pricing software out of pandemic-hit Lyric Hospitality with $16M
Lyric cut staff from 150 to 15 in 2020 and shut its operating company, then spun out its revenue-management software as Wheelhouse, raising $16M in April 2022.
Read the caseOpenAI's ChatGPT voice lead left to build $40M 'emotional' audio AI startup WaveForms
Alexis Conneau, who led the ChatGPT voice team, emerged from stealth with cofounder Coralie Lemaitre and a $40M a16z seed to build emotional AI.
Read the caseUnacademy's Cohesive pivots a third time, to a free generative-AI content tool
Cohesive went from dev tool to SaaS marketplace to AI writing in under a year, as Unacademy cut 12% more staff.
Read the caseTuSimple became CreateAI and pivoted from self-driving trucks to AI for games
After a $189M fraud settlement and Nasdaq delisting, TuSimple rebranded and bet on a Jin Yong game to break even in 2026.
Read the caseTortoise pivots its delivery robots into mobile smart stores for 10% of sales
Tortoise paused all last-mile deployments to launch up to 30 vending-style smart stores with 17 retailers, free hardware, 10% take rate.
Read the caseToridoll bets Marugame Udon can become a global fast-food category, starting in the US
Toridoll's founder wants udon alongside burgers and pizza, with about two dozen US outlets and none of the in-store noodle-making cut.
Read the caseTopi raised $45M to put hardware rental into B2B merchants' checkout, starting with Gravis
The Berlin startup bundled insurance, logistics and refinancing so retailers can sell hardware subscriptions; half of pilot renters came back.
Read the caseTipSnaps' founder built a creator subscription site at night and kept his J&J day job
Lyonel Dougé launched TipSnaps in 2017 as a side project; by 2022 CNBC reported 450,000 users, $2.5M paid to creators and no VC backing after about 40 pitches.
Read the caseTekpon bought TNW from the FT without seeing its financials (interview)
In a Tech.eu interview, Tekpon CEO Alexandru Stan says his SaaS marketplace took 100% of TNW's media and events brands from the FT without seeing financials.
Read the caseSymbolica launches on $33M to out-design transformers with category theory, not scale
An ex-Tesla autopilot engineer who quit over the 'scale knob' philosophy launched Symbolica on April 9, 2024 with a $33M Series A led by Khosla Ventures.
Read the caseSunfed took New Zealand's Chicken-free Chicken into Coles Australia
Tindall-backed Sunfed launched Chicken-free Chicken in Coles on 20 June 2019, straight off a $10M Blackbird-led Series A for its pea-protein whole cuts.
Read the caseSimplisales turned a side-project wholesaler app into a B2B ordering platform (interview)
In a Tech.eu interview, founder Ihsan Diskan says a 2019 side-project app for a wholesaler became an ERP-synced ordering platform at €1M monthly GMV.
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