The wire — 22 September 2026

No single theme pulls today's five rounds into one sentence — two were announced on Sunday and Monday after the morning edition had already run, two landed this morning, and the sectors span entertainment, retail logistics, renewable energy, and corporate training. Two separate threads, and honesty about the shape of the day is worth more than a forced fil rouge.

The first thread is catch-up: Unit1 Studio and Kheops were announced on September 20 and 21 respectively — after Monday's edition closed — and are published here alongside today's new rounds. The second thread is what arrived this morning: Metris Energy, Gamindo, and Eevi.

The September 20–21 carry-over

Unit1 Studio (London, 20 September) raised $20 million (~€18.4 million) in a round led by Balderton Capital, with Mercuri, Gilston Music, and Paul McGuinness — U2's former manager — as investors. The company produces AI-generated hyper-realistic avatar concerts: digital likenesses of musicians built to perform live. The financing combines equity and production capital; stage is not stated in the source. KT Tunstall demonstrated an avatar concert at Tileyard London earlier this year. McGuinness, who built the ZooTV and 360° tours, backing the model that inverts the touring economics he spent a career mastering is the round's single most interesting data point.

Kheops (France, 21 September) raised €12 million in a Series A from Odyssée Venture, ISAI, and Elaia. Founded in 2021 by Caroline Poinsignon and Thibault Boyeux, Kheops connects local and regional food suppliers directly with individual supermarket stores, automating the full transaction cycle — listings, orders, delivery, invoicing, payment. It now reaches 500 stores, including 100 Carrefour locations, and gives access to 200,000+ products from 3,000+ local suppliers. Order volume quadrupled year-on-year; revenue tripled. The round funds 30 hires and an AI layer for per-store assortment personalisation. The thesis: AI turns logistics plumbing into category intelligence.

Tuesday's new arrivals

Metris Energy (London, 21 September) raised $5 million (€4.35 million) in a Seed led by PT1 Ventures and Octopus Ventures, with AENU and Blackfinch Ventures. Founded in 2023 by Natasha Jones, the platform manages more than 10,000 solar plants across 500+ megawatts of capacity and has grown revenue 8x year-on-year. The round funds wind and CHP expansion plus Germany entry, and the next platform stage: agentic AI that automates routine asset management decisions rather than merely surfacing data for human analysts.

Gamindo (Treviso, 22 September) raised €1.4 million in a Seed from Club degli Investitori, Vento, Doorway, Zanichelli Venture, four co-founders of Bending Spoons, former Apple CFO Luca Maestri, Riccardo Zacconi (King.com), and others. The platform replaces passive e-learning modules with AI-generated scenario simulations that require employees to make decisions — built on the premise that corporate training fails not because of the topic but because of the format. CEO Nicolò Santin: "People don't hate corporate training. They hate wasting time." The angel roster — anchored by four Bending Spoons founders investing together — is the strongest signal that the Italian tech ecosystem is beginning to recycle its first-generation capital.

Eevi (Amsterdam, 22 September) raised an undisclosed pre-seed led by Rockstart. Founded in 2025 by Filemon Schöffer (previously co-founder of Hubs.com, acquired by Protolabs for up to $330 million) and Jago Gazendam, the startup is building a voice-first AI language tutor that gets learners speaking from their first session. Amount not disclosed.

Next edition: Wednesday 23 September 2026.