reaching the summit
- Jul 17, 2025
- 5 min read
Dear Reader,
As the venture capital landscape continues to evolve, the Summit Fund remains at the forefront - backing transformative companies that redefine industries. From space to fusion, AI to antibody discovery, our portfolio companies are at the center of it all. In this edition, you’ll find Klarna expanding into telecommunications, Mistral AI launching their first reasoning model, Hilo by Aktiia receiving FDA clearance, and more.
We're also spotlighting new investments and updates from RAC VII, including Lyceum’s sovereign GPU cloud for Europe, DejaBlue’s all-in-one energy flexibility platform, Magdrive’s first in-space orbit, and Proxima Fusion’s record-breaking Series A round. Read on for all our updates...
summit fund news
A brief wrap-up of the latest news from our Summit Fund portfolio:
Hilo by Aktiia (Neuchâtel) just received FDA clearance, making it the first-ever cuffless blood pressure monitor approved for direct consumer access in the US! Starting in 2026, US consumers will be able to purchase the Hilo Band without a prescription. With CE approval secured in Europe, this marks a major leap forward in making medical-grade blood pressure monitoring more accessible to the 1.4 billion people living with high blood pressure. Read more in MobiHealthNews.
Klarna (Stockholm) - The Swedish Buy Now Pay Later unicorn is taking their next big step as a digital financial assistant with the launch of their own mobile phone service in the US, powered by Gigs and AT&T’s network. The US is just the beginning, Klarna has plans to launch in the UK and Germany soon. Read more in The Verge.
Mistral AI (Paris) - Mistral AI launched Magistral, their first reasoning model. Magistral is designed to excel in domain-specific, transparent, and multilingual reasoning, especially in European languages. The release marks another strong step in Europe’s growing momentum in generative AI. Read more in CNBC.
Furthermore, Mistral is in early talks to raise up to $1B in equity from Abu Dhabi fund MGX, alongside potential debt financing from Bpifrance. Already valued at €6B after last year’s €600M round, Mistral is seen as Europe’s top LLM contender to OpenAI. Read more in Sifted.
Sennder (Berlin) - At Transport Logistic 2025, Sennder shared new data showing that electric heavy-duty trucks are approaching cost parity with diesel. Based on 1.3 million scenarios across Europe, the study predicts major markets like Germany could see e-trucks become cost-competitive by 2025 - especially where power prices are favorable. Read more here.
SpaceX (Hawthorne, California) is reportedly preparing a secondary share sale that would value the company at around $400B - potentially making it the most valuable privately held US firm ever. SpaceX continues to dominate space launch and satellite internet infrastructure and its valuation has steadily climbed since the company was founded more than two decades ago. Read more in Bloomberg.
new RAC VII investments
To underscore its diversified approach and capitalize on early-stage opportunities in the tech world, the Summit Fund invested in our early-stage fund, RAC VII. The fund targets the most promising upcoming software and science startups across Europe. A brief wrap-up of our recent RAC VII investments:
Lyceum
Today’s breakthroughs hinge on massive GPU power. Yet for many of Europe’s developers, researchers, and startups, cloud infrastructure remains slow, complex, and controlled outside the region. Our new portfolio company, Zurich and Berlin-based Lyceum (RACVII), is changing this by delivering Europe’s first sovereign, user-centric GPU cloud. With instant deployment, intelligent workload scheduling, and transparent pricing, the platform strips away complexity while anchoring all infrastructure in EU-based, renewable-powered data centers.
We're proud to lead Lyceum's €10.3M pre-seed funding round, with participation from 10x Founders, and to welcome co-founders Magnus Grünewald and Maximilian Niroomand on board with their deep experience in AI, infrastructure, and systems engineering.
DejaBlue
DejaBlue (RACVII) is building a vertically integrated platform that connects EV charging, solar, and energy retail - turning energy flexibility into a strategic asset for commercial real estate and fleet operators. We're delighted to welcome DejaBlue to the redalpine family by leading their $8M seed round, with participation from Zeno Ventures and Bpifrance.
Based in Paris and founded by Parker Spielman and Baptiste Richard, who have deep operational experience at Uber, Google Fi, and Lyft, DejaBlue helps businesses reduce costs and stabilize the grid by shifting loads to times of abundant renewable energy. With a growing footprint and highly efficient team, DejaBlue is uniquely positioned to reshape the energy market through load optimization, demand response, and a seamless end-to-end customer experience that no other provider offers today.
RAC VII updates
To showcase the momentum across our VII portfolio, we’re sharing recent updates from selected portfolio companies. From scientific breakthroughs to commercial milestones, these highlights reflect the strength and diversity of the fund’s investments in Europe’s next generation of software and science startups:
Proxima Fusion
Proxima Fusion raised a record-breaking €130M Series A, the largest private fusion round in Europe to date. Spun out of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Proxima is developing the first commercially viable stellarator fusion power plant. Today, their simulation-driven, AI-enabled engineering approach allows Proxima to handle the stellarator design, solving one of fusion’s most complex engineering challenges and creating a path to clean, safe, and reliable fusion energy.
We pre-empted Proxima’s seed round in 2023, recognizing early that stellarators were crossing a critical inflection point. Since then, we’ve worked closely with the team to support their bold vision of making Europe the global leader in fusion energy. More about our investment hypothesis here.
With over €185M raised to date, Proxima is not just building a power plant - they’re building what could become Europe’s first trillion-dollar deep tech company. Read more about the latest funding in Bloomberg.
Magdrive
Magdrive has successfully launched its first plasma thruster, Rogue, into orbit- marking a bold leap forward in next-gen space propulsion. The in-orbit demonstration tested Magdrive’s compact electric plasma system, which uses solid metal as fuel to enable more agile and far-reaching satellite movement.
Backed by the European Space Agency and UK Space Agency, and delivered in partnership with D-Orbit, the mission represents the culmination of four years of R&D. It’s a major step toward commercial adoption across satellite servicing, debris removal, and in-space logistics. Performance results are expected later this summer.
We led Magdrive’s Seed round earlier this year, drawn to founders Mark Stokes and Thomas Clayson’s deep expertise in spacecraft engineering and plasma physics - and their vision to make maneuverability in space radically more efficient. Read more in BBC News.
Apoha
Apoha has released a new preprint unveiling the VIBE assay - a powerful new tool for identifying high-risk therapeutic antibodies early in development. Using just tiny amounts of material, VIBE provides high-dimensional insights that traditional assays can’t capture at this stage. In testing, its lead descriptor, VIBE1, flagged antibodies with a 90% chance of clinical failure, offering the potential to significantly boost overall success rates.
By combining biophysics with an AI-native approach, Apoha is laying the groundwork for faster, smarter drug discovery. Read the full preprint here.
the Summit Fund in the context of the broader growth equity market
The global venture capital market showed resilience in 2024, with investments rising 6% to $330 billion. AI led the surge, attracting one-third of global VC capital with a 62% increase in funding, while enterprise software remained the top-funded industry. In Europe, VC investments have grown nearly tenfold over the past decade, demonstrating the region’s strong momentum. Switzerland stood out in biotech and cleantech, with biotech funding up 50% to CHF 739 million and record-breaking cleantech financing rounds.
Despite challenges in fintech and ICT, optimism remains high, with 76% of Swiss investors expecting increased VC activity in 2025. The European startup ecosystem continues to expand, with early-stage companies growing fourfold and growth-stage firms eightfold since 2015. A maturing M&A and exit market further strengthens investor confidence. Looking ahead, venture capital remains on a strong trajectory, creating exciting opportunities for innovation and growth.