Good morning, tech reporter Beatrice Nolan here, filling in for Allie Garfinkle. I\u2019ve just returned from Slush, one of Europe\u2019s most startup-focused tech events. While the weather lived up to its name\u2014temperatures dropped to a toasty 26\u00b0F\u2014there was no shortage of founders and investors willing to brave the snow.<\/p>\n
More than 13,000 people, including 3,500 investors and 6,000 startups and scaleups, descended on Helsinki. Of these, 80% came from European countries, mainly northern Europe, Germany and France, but also central and southern Europe.<\/p>\n
The region has gotten a fair bit of flak over the last few years, both from investors and Big Tech companies that have taken issue with the EU\u2019s harsher regulatory landscape, especially the commission\u2019s AI Act, which has been blamed for stifling innovation and setting Europe back in the global AI race. <\/p>\n
Still, European founders and investors are feeling confident\u2014and that\u2019s all down to talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been more bullish about Europe,\u201d Creandum founder Staffan Helgesson said during a panel. \u201cThere are a lot of things we need to fix here, but we have great founders, investors, and talent. Europe has a talent advantage right now, with the U.S. cutting down on immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201ccost of talent\u201d is also much lower, according to Gravis Robotics CEO Ryan Luke Johns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that some of the initiatives in the U.S. that have made it hard for foreign students to be confident moving in and getting a visa, and knowing that they\u2019re going to be able to stay, have driven a lot of those students into Switzerland and into Europe, and that\u2019s bringing up the talent density very, very quickly,\u201d he told Fortune.<\/p>\n
The AI hype was also alive and well at Slush, but founders were keen to position Europe\u2019s comparatively quieter AI ecosystem as a positive for startups.<\/p>\n
Laurent Sifre, a former DeepMind<\/a> engineer and now-CTO of the French AI startup H-company, told Fortune that Europe was brimming with untapped AI talent, something that has become notoriously difficult and expensive to secure in the Bay Area. \u201cEurope\u2019s real advantage is its world-class talent: people who don\u2019t dream of Big Tech, but of building zero-to-one, moving fast, and working with purpose. It\u2019s a huge asset for our ecosystem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Later that day, Anton Osika, CEO of the Swedish AI \u201cvibe-coding\u201d unicorn Lovable, also credited Europe\u2019s tech scene with a large part of the company\u2019s rapid growth. Osika said that the fact that the AI market in Europe is not as fast-paced as the market in Silicon Valley has worked to the company\u2019s benefit.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone kept telling me that to be successful, I had to move to Silicon Valley. I resisted that and we kept the company in Stockholm, bringing talent from the U.S. to work for us\u2026Europe is in many ways a better place for AI development and especially for building a product company,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Last week, news also broke that the EU was proposing a plan<\/a> that would scale back some of its landmark privacy and AI laws, likely aimed at calming fears that harsher rules are undermining the bloc\u2019s competitiveness. The move, which is already facing some pushback, comes after months of pressure from Big Tech, Donald Trump, and prominent insiders like former Italian prime minister and ex-ECB chief Mario Draghi. The Commission is calling the changes a \u201csimplification\u201d of the rules rather than a weakening of them.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the mood in Helsinki was a unified one: Europe\u2019s tech ecosystem is feeling good. Or as the banner hanging at the entrance of Slush put it: \u201cStill doubting Europe? Go to Hel!\u201d<\/p>\n Beatrice Nolan Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today\u2019s newsletter.Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n VENTURE DEALS<\/p>\n – Sorcero<\/a>, a Washington, D.C.-based AI-powered intelligence platform for life sciences, raised $42.5 million in Series B funding. NewSpringGrowth led the round and was joined by LeawoodVentureCapital and BluVentures.<\/p>\n – NestHealth<\/a>, a New Orleans, La.-based health care platform designed for families, raised $22.5 million in Series A funding from SociumVentures, AmboyStreetVentures, ImpactAmericaFund, and others.<\/p>\n –Annie<\/a>, a Lehi, Utah-based developer of an AI model for dental practices, raised $4 million in seed funding. LasOlasVentureCapital and ChicagoVentures led the round and were joined by GambaVentures and others.<\/p>\n PRIVATE EQUITY<\/p>\n – Majesco, a portfolio company of ThomaBravo, agreed to acquire Vitech<\/a>, a New York City-based provider of cloud-native benefits administration software. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n
X: @beafreyanolan
Email: bea.nolan@fortune.com <\/p>\n