Northzone

Following our announcement this week, sharing more on our thinking around OpenFX. Our thesis is simple: cross-border payments are one of the largest yet least modernised financial systems. ~$200T moves annually on infrastructure built decades ago, with trillions locked in pre-funded accounts just to keep money flowing. We think this is finally changing. Stablecoins introduce a new primitive—money that moves instantly, globally, and 24/7. But the real opportunity is building the full stack around this: FX, liquidity, compliance, and seamless connectivity. That’s what drew us to OpenFX. In the words of our partner, Sanjot Malhi: “Institutions shouldn’t have to lock up capital or take on risk to move money globally—this is exactly the problem OpenFX is solving.” https://lnkd.in/eWzrj6U2

We’re excited to see Sona raise a $45M Series B, led by N47, with continued support from Northzone alongside Felicis, Gradient, and Italian Founders Fund. From the beginning, we’ve been impressed by the team’s ambition to rethink how frontline businesses operate — and the speed at which they’re turning that vision into reality. Sona is building the AI-native platform for the frontline economy, bringing together workforce management and real-time operational data into one powerful system. Proud to be on this journey with Steffen, Ben, Oli, and the team.

We've partnered with OpenFX and are excited to announce their $94M Series A, co-led by Northzone, Accel, Pantera Capital, M13, Lightspeed Faction VC, and Atomico. Cross-border payments move $200 trillion a year on SWIFT infrastructure designed in 1973. A single formatting error can stall a transfer for days. A payment can pass through five intermediary banks before reaching its destination. An estimated $4 trillion in working capital sits idle just to keep this chain moving. Stablecoins change the equation entirely — money can now move at the speed of the internet: instantly, programmatically, around the clock. But faster settlement alone solves only one layer of a deeply layered problem. Institutions don't just need speed — they need FX, liquidity, compliance, and seamless connectivity to global pay-in and pay-out networks. OpenFX builds that full infrastructure stack, connecting traditional finance to stablecoin-native rails. In just two years, the platform has scaled to $45B+ in annualized TPV, with more than 98% of transactions settling in under 60 minutes. As Prabhakar Reddy, Founder and CEO of OpenFX, puts it: "Institutions should not have to wait multiple business days to move capital across borders. We built OpenFX to deliver real-time, institutional-grade liquidity that reduces risk, lowers costs and allows capital to move as efficiently as the businesses behind it." In the words of our partner, Sanjot Malhi: "We've had a longstanding thesis on stablecoin technology disrupting global cross-border finance. OpenFX is a one-of-a-kind platform building truly enterprise-grade infrastructure, bridging the worlds of FX and stablecoins. Having personally known Prabhakar for a decade, it's a pleasure and privilege to be co-leading their Series A and partnering to build a category-defining business." Sanjot Malhi | Alex A. | Manavi Mehra

Great to see Tandem Health founder Lukas Saari challenging the default “go to the US” narrative. Europe is not just a stepping stone; it’s a place where category-defining companies can be built.

Is SaaS dead? Not quite — but it is being rewritten. Great report from firstminute capital and Tech Nation on how AI is reshaping software: • Building is cheap — operating is the moat • Horizontal tools are under pressure; vertical wins • Pricing is shifting from seats → outcomes • AI is expanding TAM beyond software As our partner Sanjot Malhi put it: “There’s been an overreaction… OpenAI isn’t going after every niche — especially where deep workflows and proprietary data matter.” The bottom line: SaaS isn’t dead — it’s being reborn. Worth a read 👇

The European IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) market is massive, fragmented, and facing three structural shifts at once: • A severe IT talent shortage • AI reaching real operational maturity • A generational wave of MSP founders approaching retirement Alphora is building an AI-enabled MSP platform that acquires strong providers and deploys AI agents to automate large parts of IT support - allowing technicians to focus on higher-value work while improving service quality and margins. Every acquisition strengthens the platform: more tickets, more data, better models. We believe the MSPs that combine customer relationships with AI automation will capture an outsized share of value in the coming decade. We’re excited to back Daniel Beck and David Czarny as they build this across Europe. 🚀 Wendy Xiao | Dominik Esen

We’ve partnered with XBOW and are excited to announce their $120M Series C, co-led by Northzone and DFJ Growth, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Alkeon Capital, Sofina, and Altimeter! Traditional penetration testing can’t keep up with today’s fast-moving software and expanding attack surfaces. Meanwhile, AI-powered attackers operate continuously at scale. The gap between how fast software is built and how effectively it’s tested is widening. XBOW is closing that gap. Founded by Oege de Moor (Oxford professor, Semmle/GitHub Copilot), XBOW uses autonomous AI agents to continuously identify and exploit vulnerabilities, outperforming human pentesters and protecting some of the world’s largest enterprises. In 2025, it became the #1 ranked autonomous penetration tester on HackerOne’s global leaderboard. As software accelerates and AI-powered attacks become the norm, XBOW is building the mission-critical platform for autonomous, continuous offensive security. Our Partner, Sanjot Malhi adds, “XBOW is fast becoming a true category defining company in autonomous offensive cybersecurity. Fortune 500 companies and global enterprises already rely on the platform as a mission-critical layer in their cyber stack, trusting it to protect their most vital applications. In a remarkably short time, Oege and the team have built one of the most capable AI security platforms in the world, and we’re excited to partner with them on the journey ahead.” Bloomberg link in comments — here’s why we invested 👉https://lnkd.in/eej_Hzq7 Sanjot Malhi | Alex A. | Manavi Mehra

VivaTech’s Top 100 Rising European Startups for 2026 is out now, recognizing the continent’s most promising technology companies across AI, healthcare, fintech, defence, and more. We’re delighted to partner on this prestigious list alongside Accel, HV Capital, Eurazeo, and Partech, as well as to celebrate the recognition of Northzone portfolio companies, including: Black Forest Labs 🇩🇪 CarOnSale 🇩🇪 CuspAI 🇬🇧 Finom 🇳🇱 Flower 🇸🇪 Kota 🇮🇪 Nivoda 🇬🇧 Reonic 🇩🇪 Sona (getsona.com) 🇬🇧 Stream 🇬🇧 Tandem Health 🇸🇪 TrueLayer 🇬🇧 Check out the full list here: https://lnkd.in/egA8cjRh #Top100RisingEuropeanStartups #startups2026 #EUStartups #VivaTech

From stellar seed rounds to resurgent growth rounds - the Northzone portfolio has been kicking on over the last month. Check out our February round-up below 👇 Subscribe to our newsletter for monthly updates to your inbox: https://lnkd.in/ezArBd7E 📍 duvo.ai 🇨🇿 has made its no-code automation platform available for general use, building on the success of its original enterprise application. 📍 Flink 🇩🇪 just announced $100M in growth funding to fuel its expansion into new select regions in Germany and the Netherlands. 📍 Graphy 🇬🇧 announced the launch of the Graphy Developer Platform, providing the first charting infrastructure for AI native products 📍 Lorum 🇬🇧 founder George Davis appeared on the Riding Unicorns podcast, talking about his career so far (from TrueLayer’s Head of Product to co-founder BVNK) and what they’re currently building at Lorum 📍 Seamflow 🇬🇧 announced their $4.5M seed round led by Northzone and Initialized Capital, with participation from Entrepreneur First, Nebular, and angel investors including Charlie Songhurst and Mario Götze. 📍 SolveAI 🇬🇧 raised $50M across seed and Series A, with investment from GV, Accel, Northzone, and other investors. Their platform allows employees to build fully compliant, enterprise-grade applications simply by describing what they need in natural language. 📍 Tana 🇳🇴 was named Product Hunt’s Launch of the Year and Product of the Year for 2025, out of around 7000 products that were launched on Product Hunt last year. 📍 Tandem Health 🇸🇪 announced its first multi-year ambient voice technology (AVT) partnership with the NHS, extending access to its AI medical scribe to over 1000 clinicians in the Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust 📍 TrueLayer 🇬🇧 launched their Pay By Bank service with Amazon, offering card-free checkouts to UK users Read our latest March newsletter here 👉 https://lnkd.in/evs6t8Ng

“Quick commerce works when it is built on operational discipline and realistic customer expectations.” - Julian Dames, CEO of Flink. Since 2020, Flink has emerged as a European category leader for quick commerce and speedy grocery delivery. Based in Germany and the Netherlands, Flink now operates out of roughly 160 hubs serving just over 22M people. Today, Flink has announced a further $100M in growth funding. Congratulations to Julian Dames, Oliver Merkel, Christoph Cordes, and the whole Flink team on this exciting stage in your journey 👏 Read more on Sifted: https://lnkd.in/ezg4YFdb cc Jessica Schultz