Mike Butcher

Editor At Large, TechCrunch

Mike Butcher (M.B.E.) is Editor-at-large of TechCrunch. He has written for UK national newspapers and magazines and been named one of the most influential people in European technology by Wired UK. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum, Web Summit, and DLD. He has interviewed Tony Blair, Dmitry Medvedev, Kevin Spacey, Lily Cole, Pavel Durov, Jimmy Wales, and many other tech leaders and celebrities. Mike is a regular broadcaster, appearing on BBC News, Sky News, CNBC, Channel 4, Al Jazeera and Bloomberg. He has also advised UK Prime Ministers and the Mayor of London on tech startup policy, as well as being a judge on The Apprentice UK. GQ magazine named him one of the 100 Most Connected Men in the UK. He is the co-founder ThePathfounder.com newsletter; TheEuropas.com (the Annual European Tech Startup Conference & Awards for 12 years); and the non-profits Techfugees.com, TechVets.co, and Coadec.com. He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2016 for services to the UK technology industry and journalism.

Mike Butcher

Latest from Mike Butcher

Bardeen has raised $3M to build its platform that uses a natural language interface to automate repetitive knowledge work.

AI business agent startup Bardeen pulls in strategic investment from Dropbox and HubSpot

Europe is routinely castigated by tech industry observers for having too few “growth capital” funds, and, compared to the U.S., that’s true. That said, it is nowhere near nonexistent on…

Hey, there ARE growth funds in Europe — Kennet raises $287M for its largest fund to date

We’ve been covering U.S.-based insurtech startup Faye way back since 2022 with its seed round, and the Series A round in 2023, and it seems they continue to be on…

Packing travel insurance products into an app helped Faye to a $31M Series B

With the CrowdStrike update continuing to cause havoc across the planet, a startup has raised $13.5 million to at least improve some level of security for the kinds of devices…

ZeroTier raises $13.5M to help avert CrowdStrike-like network problems

Public market investors have a large variety of infrastructure and software that helps them keep track of, analyze and manage their investments, but that’s not the case for investors in…

bunch raises $15.5M for its platform that simplifies investment management for VCs

Exoticca’s platform connects flights, hotels, meals, transfers, transportation and more, plus the local companies at the destinations.

Spanish startup Exoticca raises a €60M Series D for its tour packages platform

HERO Software has closed a €40 million Series B financing round, and plans to expand across Europe. 

A startup set out to fight climate change — it did it by helping plumbers

The capital will be used to expand in Europe, the U.S. and Asia.

Exein raised $15M Series B to stop robotic arms going haywire

Helsing has created a new entity in Estonia and plans to spend €70 million on Baltic defense projects over the next three years.

Defense AI startup Helsing raises $487M Series C, plans Baltic expansion to combat Russian threat

After announcing a whopping $20 million seed last year, Unlikely AI founder William Tunstall-Pedoe has kept the budding U.K. foundation model maker’s approach under lock and key. Until now: TechCrunch…

Alexa co-creator gives first glimpse of Unlikely AI’s tech strategy

Quantum Rise, a Chicago-based startup that does AI-driven automation for companies like dunnhumby (a retail analytics platform for the grocery industry), has raised a $15 million seed round from Erie…

Quantum Rise grabs $15M seed for its AI-driven ‘Consulting 2.0’ startup

According to a recent Dealroom report on the Spanish tech ecosystem, the combined enterprise value of Spanish startups surpassed €100 billion in 2023. In the latest confirmation of this upward trend, Madrid-based…

Spain’s exposure to climate change helps Madrid-based VC Seaya close €300M climate tech fund

Forestay, an emerging VC based out of Geneva, Switzerland, has been busy. This week it closed its second fund, Forestay Capital II, at a hard cap of $220 million. The…

Forestay, Europe’s newest $220M growth-stage VC fund, will focus on AI

Vaire Computing, based in London and Seattle, is betting that chips that can do reversible computing are going to be the way forward for the world.

Vaire Computing raises $4.5M for ‘reversible computing’ moonshot which could drastically reduce energy needs

While startup valuations have plummeted since the bull run of 2021-2022, a factor that’s hit the European startup ecosystem particularly hard, there’s one region of Europe where the correction has…

As Spain gets its latest VC fund, Southern Europe appears to be on a roll

EasyTranslate is headed in a new direction with a new, generative AI-driven platform that it calls HumanAI.

EasyTranslate thinks augmenting LLMs with humans will give it an edge over pure AI translation services

U.K. startup Climate X has raised $18M to help financial services providers assess the impact of climate change on their physical assets.

Climate X’s founders mortgaged their house to stay afloat — now they’ve raised an $18M Series A

The company says its platform functions like a search engine for materials, enabling the fast evaluation of a “vast number of novel structures.”

CuspAI raises $30M to create a GenAI-driven search engine for new materials

Former Autonomy chief executive Mike Lynch issued a statement Thursday following his acquittal of criminal charges, ending a 13-year legal battle with Hewlett Packard that became one of Silicon Valley’s…

Autonomy’s Mike Lynch acquitted after US fraud trial brought by HP

While the transport industry does use legacy software, many of these platforms are from an earlier era. Qargo hopes its newer technologies can help it leapfrog the competition.

Qargo raises $14M to digitize and decarbonize the trucking industry

Neural Concept lets designers model how components will perform before they can be manufactured.

Swiss startup Neural Concept raises $27M to cut EV design time to 18 months

FintechOS competes with other companies such as Ncino, Meridian Link, Abrigo and Backbase.

Romanian startup FintechOS raises $60M to help old banks fight back against neobanks

Exactly.ai says it uses generative AI to help artists retain legal ownership of their art while being able to reproduce their designs faster and at scale.

Exactly.ai secures $4M to help artists use AI to scale up their output

Ifeel is being offered as part of an employer’s or insurance provider’s healthcare coverage.

Mental health insurance platform ifeel raises a $20 million Series B

Featured Article

Signal’s Meredith Whittaker on the Telegram security clash and the ‘edgelords’ at OpenAI 

Among other things, Whittaker is concerned about the concentration of power in the five main social media platforms.

Signal’s Meredith Whittaker on the Telegram security clash and the ‘edgelords’ at OpenAI 

If you thought autonomous driving was just for cars, think again. The “autonomous navigation” market — where ships steer themselves guided by AI, resulting in fuel and time savings —…

Autonomous shipping startup Orca AI tops up with $23M led by OCV Partners and MizMaa Ventures

Praktika has secured a $35.5M Series A round to apply AI-powered avatars to language-learning apps.

Praktika raises $35.5M to use AI avatars to make learning languages feel more natural

Venture firm Shilling has launched a €50M fund to support growth-stage startups in its own portfolio and to invest in startups everywhere else. 

Portuguese VC firm Shilling launches €50M opportunity fund to back growth-stage startups

Trawa simplifies energy purchasing and management for SMEs by leveraging an AI-powered platform and downstream data from customers. 

Berlin-based trawa raises €10M to use AI to make buying renewable energy easier for SMEs

Cargo ships docking at a commercial port incur costs called “disbursements” and “port call expenses.” These might include port dues, towage, and pilotage fees. It’s a complex patchwork and all…

Shipping logistics startup Harbor Lab raises $16M Series A led by Atomico