HonwinOne: How Keith Honwin builds global infrastructure from eswatini

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08/19/2026

HonwinOne: technology and infrastructure for growth Keith Honwin

HonwinOne is building technology and infrastructure designed to connect people, businesses and institutions across markets while reducing digital fragmentation.

Keith, could you start by introducing yourself and telling us what inspired you to found HonwinOne?

I’m Keith Honwin, founder and CEO of HonwinOne. I come from Eswatini, but a significant part of my education and professional development took place in Azerbaijan, where I studied International Relations at ADA University and later worked around technology, education and innovation through organisations including Taskool and INNOLAND.

Living and working between very different environments changed the way I thought about technology.

I began to notice that many of the problems people experience are not caused by a complete absence of technology. Often, technology already exists, but it is fragmented, difficult to access, disconnected or simply not designed around the person who is supposed to use it.

A business might need several different systems just to serve one customer. A young person looking for a scholarship might search through dozens of websites, social-media pages and application portals. Someone trying to discover a nearby service, attend an event or make a payment may move between several disconnected platforms.

That stayed with me.

HonwinOne grew from a belief that technology should make life simpler, expand access and give people more possibilities—not create another layer of complexity.

I also came to understand something personally: if you genuinely want to change something, you eventually have to be willing to dream beyond borders.

That means geographical borders, industry boundaries and sometimes even the limits people place on what they believe is possible.

Eventually, I stopped waiting for somebody else to build the systems I wanted to see and decided to start building them myself.

What exactly is HonwinOne, and which core problem or opportunity is at the heart of the company?

HonwinOne is a technology company building intelligent digital infrastructure for people, businesses and institutions.

The core problem underneath almost everything we work on is fragmentation.

A customer may discover a business in one place, communicate with it somewhere else, pay through another system and receive very little visibility afterwards.

A young person looking for an international opportunity may have to search hundreds of scattered sources.

A merchant may need separate systems for orders, payments, promotions, staff management, customer communication and reporting.

These appear to be very different problems, but underneath them is the same issue: systems do not communicate well enough, and people are often forced to do work that technology should be doing for them.

Our approach is therefore not simply to ask:

“What application can we build?”

We ask:

“Where is friction being repeated across an entire system, and what infrastructure could remove it?”

That thinking has led us into local commerce and discovery through Pickly, global youth opportunity infrastructure through GYAP, payment orchestration through H1Pay, event technology, APIs and our broader work around artificial intelligence.

The long-term opportunity for HonwinOne is not simply having several products.

It is creating reusable infrastructure around discovery, identity, intelligence, transactions and action that can support many different services.

HonwinOne works across AI, commerce, local discovery, payments, event technology and youth opportunity infrastructure. How do these different areas fit together within one company and one overarching strategy?

This is one of the most important questions about HonwinOne.

From the outside, it can initially look as though we are building several unrelated products.

Internally, we see something different.

We see one infrastructure company expressed through different use cases.

Pickly deals with local discovery and demand. Someone may want to find a restaurant, discover an event, book a service, order something or interact with a nearby business.

GYAP deals with another form of discovery: opportunity. Instead of asking, “What can I find around me?”, somebody may be asking, “Which scholarship, fellowship, university, internship, grant or programme is right for me?”

Our event technology addresses ticketing, verification, access, event operations and the infrastructure surrounding physical experiences.

Our work around H1Pay addresses the transaction layer and the possibility of intelligently orchestrating payments across different systems and payment rails without requiring every HonwinOne product to become a financial institution itself.

Artificial intelligence sits across all of these as an intelligence layer.

So the connection is not the industry.

The connection is the infrastructure underneath the industries.

We are building around recurring functions:

discover, understand, identify, transact and act.

The individual products allow us to solve specific problems and reach different users.

The shared infrastructure gives HonwinOne leverage.

Over time, the objective is that improving one part of our infrastructure can strengthen several products rather than requiring us to rebuild everything independently.

Which products and technologies have you already launched, and which of them are currently the most important for HonwinOne’s growth?

Our two immediate priorities are Pickly and GYAP.

Pickly is our local discovery and commerce platform. It is designed to bring restaurants, stores, services, events, local experiences and other everyday needs into one intelligent discovery environment while giving merchants tools to establish and manage their digital presence.

Rather than forcing people to already know exactly where to search, Pickly is designed around discovery: helping somebody understand what is available, what is happening around them and what they can do next.

GYAP—the Global Youth Aspiration Platform—is focused on opportunity discovery.

It brings together scholarships, fellowships, internships, grants, training programmes, education pathways and other opportunities that are often scattered across the internet.

GYAP is particularly meaningful to me because education, youth development and international exposure have been an important part of my own journey.

Both Pickly and GYAP are publicly accessible and are now entering the most important stage for us: market activation, distribution and real-world adoption.

We have also developed significant technology around H1Pay and our event systems.

However, I think founders have a responsibility to distinguish between technology that has been built and infrastructure that has completed every commercial, regulatory and partner integration required for full-scale operation.

H1Pay, for example, remains in the integration and partnership stage rather than something we would describe today as a fully connected payment network.

One of our biggest lessons has been that having the ability to build many things does not mean we should try to scale everything simultaneously.

Our priority now is turning technology into sustained usage.

You are building HonwinOne from Eswatini with the ambition to serve global markets. What advantages and challenges come with building a technology company from a relatively small and underrepresented startup ecosystem?

Building from Eswatini gives you a very interesting kind of discipline.

In a smaller market, problems are close to you.

You can see how businesses actually operate. You see where people improvise because a system does not work properly. And you see where digital services are too complicated, too expensive or simply unavailable.

That proximity can be a major advantage because you are not solving theoretical problems.

You are surrounded by the consequences of systems that do not work well enough.

It also forces resourcefulness.

You cannot assume that unlimited capital, specialised talent or infrastructure will always be available. You have to find ways to build efficiently, reuse systems, automate repetitive work and make each decision count.

The challenges are equally real.

Founders from smaller and less represented ecosystems often have to prove two things simultaneously.

First:

Does the technology work?

And second:

Can a serious global technology company really come from this place?

Access to venture capital is more limited. Specialised technical talent can be harder to find. Certain APIs, payment systems and integrations that startups in larger ecosystems may take for granted can require considerably more work.

But I do not see Eswatini as something HonwinOne has to overcome.

I see it as part of our perspective and potentially part of our advantage.

If you can build technology that is simple, resilient and useful under real constraints, many of those lessons can travel.

And sometimes being underestimated gives you the freedom to think differently.

Many startups in emerging ecosystems initially focus on solving problems within their domestic markets. Why did you decide to think internationally from the beginning?

Partly because my own life taught me to think internationally.

I grew up in Eswatini, studied in Azerbaijan and have worked with people and organisations across different countries and cultures.

Once you experience different parts of the world closely, borders begin to look different.

You realise that people living thousands of kilometres apart can experience remarkably similar problems.

A small business in Eswatini struggling with digital discovery may have something in common with a small business in Mozambique, Azerbaijan or another emerging market.

A student in Southern Africa searching for an international scholarship may experience many of the same frustrations as a student in Central Asia or somewhere else in the world.

The interface may change.

The language may change.

The payment method may change.

The regulation may change.

But many of the underlying problems are universal.

That is why I never wanted Eswatini to become the ceiling of HonwinOne’s ambition.

It can be an excellent place for us to learn, build, test and prove things.

But the architecture has to be capable of travelling.

At the same time, international ambition cannot mean blindly copying exactly the same product into every market.

Countries have different languages, cultures, regulations, payment behaviours and commercial structures.

The challenge is to build technology that can localise without losing its core.

I have come to believe that meaningful change requires us to dream beyond borders and to work with people who do not necessarily come from the same place we do.

The biggest problems do not respect borders, so our thinking should not be limited by them either.

Artificial intelligence is a central part of your work. How are you currently using AI within HonwinOne, and where do you see the greatest potential for AI across your products and infrastructure?

I believe artificial intelligence becomes most valuable when it stops feeling like a separate feature and starts quietly improving how an entire system works.

Within HonwinOne, we are applying AI in areas including discovery, matching, information organisation, business onboarding, personalisation and decision support.

A merchant should not need to understand complicated software just to establish a useful digital presence.

A young person should not have to manually search hundreds of opportunities to find the few that are genuinely relevant to their goals.

A customer should not eventually have to navigate exactly the same generic interface every time if the system can, with appropriate consent, understand their context and what they are trying to accomplish.

However, I am also careful about calling every automated process “AI”.

The longer-term thesis for us is much more ambitious.

Most software today still waits for the user to tell it almost everything.

You open an application, navigate menus, repeat information and constantly instruct the system.

We believe software will increasingly become adaptive.

It should understand where somebody left off, what they usually need, what they are trying to achieve and what the most useful next action may be.

That does not mean removing human choice.

It means removing unnecessary friction.

Our long-term thinking is toward increasingly personalised digital intelligence—systems that become more useful because they learn from context, history and user preferences, while keeping the user in control of that relationship.

For us, therefore, the future of AI is not simply putting another chatbot inside every product.

It is building adaptive digital infrastructure that progressively becomes more useful to the person using it.

You mention building multiple products with limited resources. How have these constraints influenced the way you develop products, set priorities and make decisions as a founder?

Constraints have shaped HonwinOne profoundly.

When resources are limited, you cannot solve every problem by hiring another department.

You have to think architecturally.

You ask whether something can be reused.

And you automate repetitive work.

You create shared components.

You become extremely conscious of where time and money are going.

It has also kept me very close to the products.

I spend a significant amount of time testing flows myself, looking for things that break, questioning assumptions and asking where we are creating unnecessary friction for users.

AI-assisted development has dramatically changed what small teams are capable of building.

A very small team can now experiment, design, test and develop at a speed that would have required considerably more resources only a few years ago.

But that creates another danger.

Software can sometimes be produced faster than it can be properly validated.

So testing becomes even more important.

One of the biggest things I have learned is that speed and quality should not be treated as opposites.

The objective is to create a development system where you can move quickly, test aggressively, learn from reality and continuously improve.

Constraints have also forced us to become more disciplined about priorities.

We have built a lot.

The next chapter is not about proving that we can build another product.

It is about proving that we can take the strongest products we already have and create meaningful, repeatable adoption around them.

What is the business model behind HonwinOne, and how do you plan to build a sustainable and scalable company across different products and markets?

The commercial model varies by product, but the broader HonwinOne strategy is to create recurring infrastructure and platform revenue rather than depending on a single source of income.

For Pickly, the business side of the network creates several potential revenue streams, including merchant services, subscriptions, transaction-related revenue, promotions and value-added operational tools.

For GYAP, the commercial opportunity is primarily institutional.

Universities, education providers, foundations, NGOs and other organisations can use the platform for opportunity distribution, recruitment, programmes, profiles and related infrastructure.

Our payment work is designed around orchestration and APIs rather than the assumption that HonwinOne itself must become a bank.

As the appropriate commercial and regulatory integrations mature, that can create infrastructure and usage-based revenue.

Our event systems create additional B2B opportunities around ticketing, access infrastructure, verification, cashless experiences and event operations.

At the HonwinOne level, there is another important layer.

We can license technology, APIs and specialised digital infrastructure to companies, institutions and governments rather than requiring every organisation to build the same underlying capabilities from the beginning.

So the broader opportunity is a combination of consumer distribution, business software, transactions, licensing and infrastructure.

However, at our current stage, I believe there is something more important than trying to monetise every possible feature.

We first need to prove repeatable usage and measurable value.

If people genuinely choose the products, businesses receive measurable outcomes and institutions can achieve better results through the infrastructure, sustainable monetisation becomes much easier to build.

What stage is HonwinOne currently at in terms of users, customers, partnerships and traction, and which milestones have been particularly important so far?

We are still an early-stage company, and I prefer to be transparent about that.

We do not yet have the enormous user, GMV or revenue figures that later-stage technology companies can point to, and I would rather build those numbers than manufacture a story around them.

Our most important milestone so far is simpler:

We moved beyond ideas and presentations into working products.

Pickly is publicly accessible and includes the foundations for consumer discovery, merchant onboarding and digital commerce.

GYAP is also publicly accessible and is evolving into a technology platform for global opportunity access.

Alongside these products, we have developed payment, ticketing, AI and API capabilities.

We are now actively pursuing merchants, institutions, businesses, ecosystem organisations and public-sector relationships across different markets.

That is the stage HonwinOne is entering now:

commercial validation and distribution.

The milestones that matter next are very clear:

active merchants, active users, repeat usage, transactions, institutional customers, strong partnerships and evidence that our products are becoming part of people’s normal behaviour.

We are also entering HonwinOne’s pre-seed chapter because the bottleneck has changed.

Earlier, the biggest question was:

Can we actually build?

We have answered a significant part of that question.

The next question is:

What happens when that ability to build is matched with the capital, team, partnerships and distribution required to scale it?

That is the chapter we are now working toward.

From your perspective, what needs to change for more technology companies from African and other emerging startup ecosystems to compete successfully on a global level?

The first thing is access to serious risk capital.

There are many competitions, programmes, incubators and small grants across emerging ecosystems, and they can be valuable.

But companies with global ambitions eventually need investors who are prepared to finance uncertainty.

Technology companies are built around things that have not been proven yet.

Someone has to be willing to take that risk alongside the founder.

The second issue is access to markets.

Governments and large corporations regularly speak about supporting innovation, but startups need procurement systems that allow young companies to become actual suppliers—not only participants in conferences, competitions or innovation programmes.

Third is global connectivity.

Talent, investors, technical partners, mentors and distribution are not evenly spread around the world.

A founder’s access to the right network can sometimes matter almost as much as the quality of the technology.

But I also think something needs to change in the way founders from emerging markets see ourselves.

We should not believe that every African technology company must remain an “Africa-only” company.

We should solve local problems deeply.

And we should understand our environments better than anybody else.

But we should build to global standards.

Innovation does not have a nationality.

A technology company should ultimately be evaluated on whether its technology works, whether people need it, whether its economics make sense and whether its team can execute.

The next important global technology company does not necessarily have to come from the place everybody is currently watching.

It can come from somewhere unexpected.

And creating more pathways for those unexpected companies to access capital, markets and global networks will benefit everyone.

Where do you want HonwinOne to be in the next three to five years, and what is your long-term vision for the company?

In three to five years, I would rather have two or three HonwinOne products creating genuine value at meaningful scale than twenty impressive demonstrations.

I want Pickly operating across multiple markets with strong local merchant and consumer networks.

I want GYAP to become genuine infrastructure connecting young people with universities, institutions, programmes and opportunities across borders.

And I want our payment and API infrastructure integrated wherever the appropriate commercial and regulatory partnerships exist.

I want businesses, governments and institutions to be able to use HonwinOne infrastructure rather than rebuilding the same underlying systems from the beginning.

And across all of those products, I expect artificial intelligence to become less visible but considerably more important.

It should quietly improve discovery, personalisation, decision-making and how people interact with technology.

But my long-term vision goes beyond products.

During this journey, I came to understand that if we genuinely want to help change the world, we have to be willing to dream beyond borders and work together across them.

No individual founder, company or country solves the world’s biggest problems alone.

And I am very aware of the odds.

Startups fail.

Technology changes quickly.

Markets can reject you.

Capital can disappear.

Things can go wrong.

There are thousands of reasons why an ambitious idea may never become what its founder imagined.

But I think there is something worth pursuing even in the smallest probability.

Even if there were only a 0.0001% chance that something we build could eventually improve the lives of millions of people, create opportunities for people who previously did not have them, help a small business grow, or allow somebody to access something they once believed was beyond their reach, I believe that possibility is worth working toward.

That is the kind of company I want HonwinOne to become.

A company built from Eswatini, working across borders, collaborating with people from different parts of the world and using technology to expand what is possible for others.

I also want a young person from a small country or an overlooked community to see HonwinOne one day and realise that where you begin does not have to determine where your ideas can go.

We are under no illusion that what we are trying to accomplish is easy.

The odds of failure are real.

In many ways, we are trying to prove something that can sometimes feel impossible.

But perhaps that is precisely why it is worth attempting.

We are here to build useful technology, help people, work with others and pursue that tiny possibility that something we create can leave the world better than we found it.

We are here to try to prove the impossible.

And if HonwinOne can help demonstrate that meaningful technology can be built from anywhere, that people from different countries can build together, and that even the smallest starting point does not have to define the size of an ambition, then this journey will have meant something far beyond the company itself.

Picture credit: Eddie Honwin / Private

Thank you Keith Honwin for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

From Construction Sites to AI Founder: How Alin Hoisan Built Prompt Director

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StartupValley

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08/18/2026

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Prompt Director: AI for creators with Alin Hoisan -Founder

Prompt Director combines AI with a practical creative workflow, helping creators turn their ideas into images, videos, campaigns and other creative projects.

Alin, could you start by introducing yourself and telling us how your journey from working on construction sites in the UK eventually led you to become the founder of Prompt Director?

I am Alin Hoisan, a Romanian creator living in the UK. My path into this world did not begin in a startup office. It began on construction sites. I started as a labourer, then became a traffic marshal, supervisor and eventually an assistant manager. Those years taught me discipline, responsibility and what it means to keep showing up even when the work is hard.

At the same time, I always had ideas. I wanted to write, create music, make videos and build things, but I did not have a team, a big budget or a technical background. When I discovered generative AI, I realised that the distance between an idea and a finished project had become much smaller. I began learning every day after work and family time. Prompt Director grew out of that journey: it is the platform I wished had existed when I was trying to turn imagination into something real.

You describe opening ChatGPT in 2023 as a moment that changed everything for you. What happened after that first encounter with generative AI, and when did curiosity turn into the ambition to build something yourself?

At first, I opened ChatGPT simply out of curiosity. I wanted to understand what it could do. Very quickly, it became clear to me that this was not just another app. It could help a person learn faster, organise ideas, write, research, solve problems and create things that previously required several specialists.

Curiosity became ambition when I started finishing real projects. I wrote and published books on Amazon, even though they did not make money. Then I built BounceVoid, my mobile game, working on it before the gym and after work for almost a year. Each project proved the same thing: I did not need permission to begin. I needed patience, consistency and the willingness to learn. Once I saw that I could take an idea all the way to a public release, I stopped seeing AI only as a tool. I started seeing it as a bridge between having an idea and having the ability to build it.

What exactly is Prompt Director, and what problem are you trying to solve for creators with the platform?

Prompt Director is an AI creation platform designed to help people move from a rough idea to a clear creative result. It began as a professional prompt library, but it has grown into a wider studio for creating images, video concepts, storyboards, AI advertising ideas, music-related concepts and creative campaigns.

The problem I am trying to solve is simple: many people have strong ideas but feel blocked by the technical side of AI. They do not know how to write a useful prompt, which tool to choose, how to keep a visual style consistent or how to turn one thought into a complete piece of content. They end up jumping between websites and copying prompts without knowing why something works.

Prompt Director gives them a clearer path. It combines ready-to-use professional prompts, visual prompt-building tools and direct creation features in one place, including Romanian-language support. The goal is not to make everybody a prompt engineer. It is to help more people express what they already have in their heads.

How does Prompt Director work in practice? If a creator comes to the platform with just an initial idea, what can they create and what does the process look like?

A creator can begin with something very simple: a product, a song, a character, a mood or even one sentence. From there, Prompt Director helps turn that starting point into a structured creative direction. They can use the prompt library, a visual prompt builder or dedicated tools for storyboards, AI ads and directing scenes.

For example, someone with a product idea can create a cinematic image concept, develop it into a short video sequence, build a storyboard and write the creative prompt needed for generation. A musician can shape cover art ideas, visual scenes and campaign content around a release. A small business can build a clearer AI advertising concept without needing an agency for every first draft.

The platform is made to reduce the friction between the first idea and the first usable result. It does not replace taste or imagination. It gives creators a practical structure so they can spend more time developing their idea and less time fighting with the tools.

There are already numerous AI tools for generating images, videos, music and marketing content. What makes Prompt Director different from using several individual AI tools separately?

The individual tools are powerful, but using them separately can be confusing, especially for someone who is new to AI creation. You might have an image generator open in one tab, a video generator in another, a prompt document somewhere else and no consistent system connecting them.

Prompt Director is built around the creative workflow, not just around one model. It gives users direction before generation: structured prompts, visual builders, storyboards, AI advertising formats and creative guidance that help an idea stay coherent from one stage to the next. The platform also brings those parts together in a simpler environment, with a focus on practical use rather than technical language.

I built it from the perspective of someone who actually creates music videos, visual campaigns and content every day. I know that the hard part is often not pressing Generate. It is knowing what to create next, how to describe it and how to make all the pieces feel like they belong to the same project.

Who is Prompt Director primarily designed for, and which types of creators or businesses do you believe can benefit most from the platform?

Prompt Director is for independent creators first: musicians, content creators, filmmakers, designers, writers, photographers, social media creators and people who have an idea but do not yet have a production team. It is also useful for small businesses that want to create more original visual content, product concepts, short-form ads or social campaigns without having to start from zero every time.

I especially care about people who may feel outside the traditional creative or technology world. You do not need to come from a design agency, a software company or an art school to have a powerful idea. Many people have creativity, life experience and stories, but they need a more accessible way to bring them to life.

For experienced creators, the platform can save time and help organise a workflow. For beginners, it can remove the fear of the blank page. In both cases, the purpose is the same: make AI creation feel more understandable, more practical and more human.

You built Prompt Director without coming from a traditional technology or startup background. How did you acquire the skills necessary to turn your idea into a working platform, and what were the biggest challenges along the way?

For me, learning came through building. I used AI as a learning partner, but I did not expect it to do the work for me. I spent countless hours testing, researching, watching tutorials, asking questions, breaking things and trying again. Every project taught me something different: publishing books taught me how to finish; BounceVoid taught me product thinking and persistence; music and video work taught me creative direction; Prompt Director brought all of those lessons together.

The biggest challenge was not one technical problem. It was carrying a big idea while still working, looking after my family and doing almost everything alone. There were moments when I did not know what the right next step was, when something did not work and when it would have been easier to stop.

But not coming from a traditional background also gave me a useful perspective. I build for people like me: people who want to create but do not speak in technical terms. My goal has always been to make complicated things feel more possible.

What is the business model behind Prompt Director, and how do you plan to turn the platform into a sustainable company?

Prompt Director currently uses a simple one-time lifetime-access model. I wanted the entry point to feel fair and accessible, especially for independent creators who are already paying for several AI services. The platform is designed to give value through a growing prompt library, creative tools, visual builders and a more connected creation workflow.

Long term, sustainability will come from continuing to improve the product around real creator needs: useful features, reliable generation workflows, premium tools where they genuinely save time, and partnerships or services that fit the platform naturally. I do not want to build a business that depends on keeping users confused or locked in. I want people to stay because Prompt Director helps them make better work.

At this early stage, I am realistic. The focus right now is product quality, trust and listening carefully to how users create. If I build something people return to because it removes friction from their creative life, the business model can grow in a healthy way around that value.

What stage is Prompt Director currently at in terms of users, traction and product development, and what kind of feedback have you received so far?

Prompt Director is live and still developing quickly. It has grown far beyond the first prompt-library idea and now includes more than 260 professional prompts, visual prompt-building tools, storyboards, AI Ads, AI Director, AI Beats and direct image and video creation tools. I keep improving it from real use, because I am also one of the people using it every day in my own creative work.

I prefer to be honest about the stage: this is an independent, bootstrapped product, not a company claiming huge numbers before they exist. The most meaningful traction for me is that people understand the purpose immediately: they want a clearer, less intimidating way to work with AI. The feedback I value most is when a creator says, “I finally know how to start,” or when a feature saves them from losing hours between different tools.

The product is not finished, and that is exciting. I see it as a living platform that becomes stronger as more creators show me where the real obstacles are.

You also created the AI music artist Selyna Turcu and developed projects such as BounceVoid. What did these experiments teach you about AI-driven creativity, and how have they influenced Prompt Director?

Selyna Turcu and BounceVoid taught me that AI is most powerful when it helps a person finish a complete vision, not just generate isolated pieces. With Selyna, I created the artist identity, music, production, visuals, videos, lip-sync content and social storytelling. The project has now generated more than 30 million organic views across TikTok and Facebook, with no advertising spend. That showed me that AI-made work can still connect emotionally when there is real creative direction behind it.

BounceVoid taught me a different lesson: building something alone requires patience, testing and a willingness to improve the small details nobody sees. I spent around a year on it, often working in the small hours around my job and family life.

Both projects shaped Prompt Director. They showed me that people do not only need a generator. They need a process: how to begin, how to develop an idea, how to keep it consistent and how to turn it into something they are proud to release publicly.

Generative AI is rapidly changing the creative industries while also raising questions around copyright, originality and human creativity. How do you see this development, and how do you address these issues with Prompt Director?

I understand why people have concerns. AI is moving quickly, and creative work is personal. Questions about copyright, consent, training data and attribution deserve serious attention, not just marketing answers. We need clearer rules, responsible platforms and respect for the people whose work and identities are involved.

At the same time, I do not believe AI removes human creativity. A tool can generate options, but it cannot replace the life experience, taste, decisions and emotional intention of the person using it. The difference is visible when someone simply presses a button compared with when someone directs a project from beginning to end.

With Prompt Director, my approach is to make the creative process more intentional. The platform is built to help users develop their own ideas and describe their own vision, rather than copy somebody else’s identity or work. I also believe transparency matters. With Selyna Turcu, for example, I have been open that she is an AI artist. Honesty is important if this new creative space is going to earn trust.

Where would you like Prompt Director to be in the next three to five years, and what is your long-term vision for the company?

In the next three to five years, I want Prompt Director to become a trusted creative home for people who have ideas but do not yet have a full team, technical background or large budget. I would like it to be known not only as a place for prompts, but as a practical studio where someone can shape an idea into images, videos, campaigns, stories and new creative projects.

I also want to keep the platform accessible. My own story is proof that talent and ambition do not always arrive with the traditional opportunities around them. A person can come from construction, retail, parenting, music or any other walk of life and still build something meaningful when the right tools and guidance exist.

The long-term vision is bigger than one feature or one AI model. I want Prompt Director to help creators keep their voice while technology changes around them. If it gives someone the confidence to start, the structure to improve and the tools to finish, then it is doing what I built it for.

Picture credit: Ionut Alin Hoisan, AI-assisted portrait based on my own original photo

Thank you Alin Hoisan for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

PSTRYK: Smart Electricity and Dynamic Pricing in Poland

By

StartupValley

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07/30/2026

0

PSTRYK: Smart Electricity & Dynamic Energy Pricing in Poland Jacek Szlendak

The Polish energy tech pioneer PSTRYK is redefining how consumers buy electricity by offering real-time dynamic pricing, smart app-driven management, and an integrated trading model.

Can you briefly introduce PSTRYK and tell us how the idea for building a technology-driven energy company first came about?

Pstryk is a Polish energy tech company that sells households electricity at real hourly market prices, with a mobile app that helps them act on those prices: shift consumption to cheaper hours and get the most out of rooftop solar, heat pumps and EVs. We were founded in 2024 and operate across Poland.

The starting point was a simple observation: banking and telecoms went through their consumer revolutions years ago. Energy is the last major industry still waiting for its paradigm shift. In Poland, the way households buy electricity hadn’t changed for generations: flat tariffs, zero transparency, zero control. Meanwhile, all the technology needed to do it differently already existed. Someone just had to be stubborn enough to enter the market everyone else preferred to complain about.

Who are the people behind PSTRYK, and what experiences have shaped the company’s journey so far?

Our team deliberately combines two worlds that rarely meet: consumer brand building and deep energy expertise. Together with Magdalena Górska-Warchoł, our CFO, we previously co-created Health Labs Care, one of Poland’s fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands, for which we received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2022. Earlier, we worked together on Perfect Gym Solutions, a Polish technology company that went international. Leszek Jastrzębski, Pstryk’s co-founder and a technology investor, leads strategy. The regulated side of our group is run by Mirosław Bieliński, former CEO of ENERGA, one of Poland’s largest utilities, with decades of experience in regulated energy markets.

That mix is the point. We believe the energy market has lacked one skill above all: building products and brands that genuinely follow customers’ needs. That is exactly what consumer-brand founders bring.

What is PSTRYK’s long-term vision, and how do dynamic electricity pricing and technology help you achieve it?

Our mission is to move Polish consumers from being passive energy buyers to informed participants who decide when and how they use electricity. Long term, we see Pstryk as the missing link between households and the energy system. Our lead investor, Future Energy Ventures, called it “the type of neo-utility that will define the next decade of energy innovation”, and we fully subscribe to that direction.

Dynamic pricing is the engine of this vision. Once your electricity price follows the real market, every home device, from solar panels to an EV charger, turns from a cost into an asset you can optimise. Technology makes that optimisation effortless.

Who is your primary target audience, and what challenges are you solving for households and prosumers?

Our sweet spot is households consuming around 10,000 kWh a year: homes with rooftop PV, a heat pump and an electric car, versus a Polish median of 2,000–2,500 kWh. For these families, energy is a serious line in the household budget, and our product turns their installations into real sources of savings.

The challenge we solve is twofold. First, lack of transparency: people simply don’t know what electricity costs hour by hour. Second, lack of agency: even if they knew, flat tariffs gave them no way to act on it. We fix both.

Many consumers are still unfamiliar with dynamic electricity pricing. How do you build trust and encourage them to adopt this new approach?

Honestly, this is the hardest part of our market. Awareness that you can even switch your electricity supplier is minimal in Poland; Google searches for it number in the dozens per month. We are essentially marketing a freedom most people don’t know they have.

So we don’t start by educating about “dynamic tariffs” as a concept. We start with the bill: we show people, in plain numbers, what they actually pay and what they could pay. The app gives full visibility into prices and consumption in real time. Transparency, consistently delivered, is what builds trust.

What makes PSTRYK different from traditional energy suppliers and other companies offering dynamic tariffs?

Two things. First, we are end-to-end: we hold our own energy trading licence through our subsidiary Bankilo Obrót, we sell the electricity and we build the technology. We are not an app bolted onto someone else’s tariff. In practice, there is no other company on the Polish market offering this complete model.

Second, our DNA: we approach energy like a consumer brand, not a utility. The product has to be simple, transparent and genuinely pleasant to use, which is a sentence rarely spoken about electricity suppliers.

Your platform gives customers greater control over their energy consumption. Why is transparency so important in today’s energy market?

Household energy prices are a topic where emotions often run higher than facts, and where public debate changes direction frequently. Pstryk stays deliberately outside of that debate. We are strictly apolitical: our answer to price uncertainty is not an opinion but a number, updated every hour.

When customers see the actual market price of electricity, they can make their own decisions regardless of what is currently being discussed or promised around them. We believe an informed customer is the foundation of a healthy energy market, in any political weather.

The energy sector is evolving rapidly. What have been the biggest challenges for PSTRYK, and how have you addressed them?

The barriers to entry in our market are brutal, and that is precisely why we have effectively no end-to-end competitors. An energy trading licence in Poland takes six months to a year and requires PLN 10 million (~€2.5 million) in capital held with the regulator. The market is capital-intensive and demands patience with a regulatory environment that keeps evolving.

We addressed it the hard way: we went through the full licensing process, secured the capital, and built a group structure that pairs technology people with veterans of the regulated market. That combination is our strongest protection against competition, and it cannot be copied quickly.

How do digital tools and real-time energy insights help your customers make better decisions about their electricity usage?

The app shows the current price, the price curve for the day ahead, your live consumption, your solar production and your EV charging, all in one place and updated in real time.

On top of that, we give simple daily price guidance: use more between these hours, less between those. Increasingly, automation does the work, steering home devices to consume when electricity is cheapest. The customer doesn’t need to become an energy trader. The product does the trading logic for them.

What new products, features, or developments are currently on PSTRYK’s roadmap?

The new funding goes into three directions: deepening our technology, scaling operations and expanding the availability of our services to more households across Poland.

On the product side, our focus is increasingly on automation, making home energy assets work together intelligently without the user lifting a finger.

Where do you see PSTRYK in the next five years, and what role do you want the company to play in the future of the European energy market?

Our immediate ambition is bringing our offering to hundreds of thousands of households across Poland, a market which, in terms of household energy consumption, is as large as the rest of Central and Eastern Europe combined. There is an enormous amount to do at home.

Longer term, we want Pstryk to prove something bigger: that household flexibility, long discussed across Western Europe, can scale first in the market where prices bite hardest. If it works here, it works everywhere.

What are the three most important pieces of advice you would give to founders who want to build an innovative company in a highly regulated industry?

First: treat regulation as an ally, not an enemy. Licences, capital requirements and compliance feel like walls when you are outside. Once you are through, they become your strongest protection, because most competitors will simply never make the journey.

Second: pick a market that is hard for structural reasons, not broken ones. The most difficult markets are often the last to change, and that is exactly where the biggest change is still ahead.

Third: as in any business, hire the best people you can find, across every discipline you need. Our team brings together consumer brand and technology builders, but also veterans of the regulated energy world, and it is the combination that works: none of these perspectives would succeed here alone. Innovation gets all the headlines, but it is experience, in all its forms, that keeps the lights on.

Picturecredits Credits PSTRYK

Thank you Jacek Szlendak for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

5U AI Raises US$3.2 Million in Pre-Seed Funding

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07/28/2026

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AI Workers: 5U AI scales freight forwarding Team picture

TECH START UP 5U AI SCALES UP NEW DIGITAL WORKFORCE PLATFORM FOR EUROPEAN FREIGHT FORWARDING TEAMS AFTER RAISING US$3.2 MILLION IN PRE-SEED FUNDING

Munich, Germany, Wednesday 28th July 2026: 5U AI, the freight Agentic AI specialist building a digital workforce platform for European freight forwarding teams, has raised US$3.2 million in pre-seed funding to scale up its software offering.

The platform uses AI Workers to manage operational tasks across air, sea, and road freight, including quoting, bookings, shipment tracking, invoice reconciliation, data entry, and routine administration.

The AI Workers capture the reasoning behind each freight decision as they work, helping teams build knowledge that can improve future processes, rather than simply automating isolated tasks.

TECH START UP 5U AI SCALES UP NEW DIGITAL WORKFORCE PLATFORM FOR EUROPEAN FREIGHT FORWARDING TEAMS AFTER RAISING US$3.2 MILLION IN PRE-SEED FUNDING
Investment supports product development and European expansion
AI Workers automate complex freight operations
AI platform already deployed across Europe
5U AI expands its team
Founded by Technical University of Munich graduates
Supporting freight forwarders with Agentic AI

“Freight forwarding is full of decisions that are still trapped in inboxes, spreadsheets, and people’s heads,” said Yagiz Abik, Chief Executive Officer, 5U AI.

“We are not building another chatbot that answers questions and disappears, we are building AI Workers that understand freight operations, carry out the work, and capture the reasoning behind every decision, so teams can scale their knowledge as well as their capacity.”

Investment supports product development and European expansion

The pre-seed round was led by London-based Emerge Capital and will support product development and 5U AI’s European go-to-market programme.

AI Workers automate complex freight operations

5U AI works inside existing freight systems and uses multi-agent AI trained for logistics workflows, including the complex exceptions and manual decisions that make forwarding operations difficult to automate with generic AI tools or legacy automation.

Its Context Layer records how each AI Worker reaches a decision, giving operations teams visibility over what has been done, why it has been done, and how similar decisions can be improved over time.

AI platform already deployed across Europe

The company is already live with forwarders and carriers across Europe, including with TCI International Logistics, where its AI Workers are being used across air and ocean freight operations.

5U AI expands its team

5U AI is growing its team as part of the scale-up, with plans to hire across product, engineering, operations, commercial, and customer functions.

“AI is one of the most exciting developments logistics has seen for a generation, but its value will depend on people who understand the industry and want to build practical tools that solve real operational problems,” said Abik.

“We are actively looking for people who want to join us at this early stage and help shape the next chapter of freight forwarding.”

Founded by Technical University of Munich graduates

Founded in 2025 by Technical University of Munich graduates Yagiz Abik and Fehmi Şener, 5U AI is backed by senior logistics executives, including former leaders from DHL, GEODIS, DSV, Maersk, and Ceva Logistics.

Supporting freight forwarders with Agentic AI

5U AI solutions support freight forwarders, carriers, and 3PLs that want to reduce manual administration, improve operational decision making, and scale customer service without replacing their existing systems.

Picturecredits 5U AI

Source 5U AI

Pstryk Secures €7 Million Series A Funding

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07/28/2026

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Pstryk expands in the energy market with dynamic pricing Picture Pstryk Board Gorska, Warchol, Bielinski, Szlendak and Jastrzebski Credits Pstryk

European energy leaders invest in Pstryk

Pstryk, a Polish technology company offering electricity based on dynamic pricing, has announced the successful closing of its €7 million Series A funding round. The investment was led by Future Energy Ventures, one of Europe’s leading venture capital funds, founded by experts from E.ON and RWE. The round also included strategic investor Axpo, one of Europe’s largest energy producers and traders. At the same time, Pstryk is announcing changes to its management board as it prepares the company for its next stage of growth.

The €7 million funding round increases Pstryk’s total funding to nearly €13.8 million. The participation of Future Energy Ventures and Axpo provides strong validation of the company’s business model and its potential to play a significant role in the transformation of Poland’s energy market. The round also included Montis, as well as existing investors ffVC, Simpact Ventures and private investors.

“Energy-retail is shifting from a one-way relationship between utilities and consumers to a dynamic system shaped by millions of prosumers. Pstryk is building the missing link between households and the energy system, helping customers optimize consumption, manage assets and participate in energy markets through a seamless digital experience. This is exactly the type of neo-utility we believe will define the next decade of energy innovation,” said Moritz Jungmann, General Partner, Future Energy Ventures.

“The energy market is experiencing one of its most interesting periods of change in years, and technology is becoming one of the key drivers of this transformation. At Axpo, our active involvement in the creation of innovative energy solutions includes investing in projects that respond to emerging market needs. So we’re particularly pleased to be supporting Pstryk, a Polish company that is addressing those needs by developing solutions that will positively affect the future of the entire sector,” said Mateusz Marczewski, Managing Director of Axpo in Poland.

Changes to Pstryk’s management board structure

Following the completion of the funding round, Pstryk is expanding its management board, combining the expertise of consumer brand builders with deep experience from the energy sector.

Joining the management board are Jacek Szlendak, who assumes the role of Chief Executive Officer of Pstryk Energy Group, and Magdalena Górska-Warchoł as Chief Financial Officer. Together, they co-created Health Labs Care, one of Poland’s fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands, for which they received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2022. Previously, they also worked together on the development of Perfect Gym Solutions, a Polish technology company that achieved international success. They bring to Pstryk what they believe the energy market has lacked the most to date – the ability to build products and brands that genuinely address customers’ needs and preferences.

Leszek Jastrzębski, co-founder of Pstryk and a technology investor, also joins the management board, taking on the role of Chief Strategy Officer. He is responsible for business development and the monetisation of the company’s activities in the energy market.

Responsibility for the Group’s regulated business rests with Mirosław Bieliński, formerly Chief Executive Officer of Pstryk Energy Group, who is now fully focused on his role as Chief Executive Officer of Bankilo Obrót, the Group’s subsidiary responsible for its licensed energy trading business. A former CEO of ENERGA SA and a long-standing executive in the energy sector, he is concentrating on the area that requires the deepest expertise in regulated energy markets – managing regulated operations and maintaining relationships with key market participants.

Pstryk prepares for the next stage of growth

“The most difficult markets are often the last to change. In the energy sector, change is measured in decades – the way Polish households buy electricity has remained virtually unchanged for generations. It took us far less time to demonstrate that a business model based on dynamic pricing works in the Polish market and responds to real customer needs. For the first time, customers have gained a genuine alternative and greater control over their electricity bills. That phase is now behind us. Our focus is now on scaling the business, which is why we secured new funding and adapted our organisation for its next stage of development. We have built a structure that combines the capabilities required to scale a modern technology business with the expertise of people who have a deep understanding of the regulated energy market. This allows us to consistently execute our strategy of bringing our offering to hundreds of thousands of households across Poland,” said Jacek Szlendak, Chief Executive Officer of Pstryk Energy Group.

Dynamic pricing transforms household energy use

Pstryk is developing a business model that changes the way households use electricity. Instead of passively buying electricity at a fixed price, consumers can actively manage their consumption and align it with real market prices. Combined with the growing adoption of rooftop solar installations, heat pumps, battery storage systems and electric vehicles, this creates a new model of participation in the energy market. Pstryk supports this transformation by offering electricity priced according to hourly market rates, together with a mobile application that helps users make informed decisions about their energy consumption and costs.

New funding supports technology and expansion

The company will use the newly raised capital to further develop its technology, scale its operations, and expand the availability of its services to more households across Poland.

Picture Pstryk Board Gorska, Warchol, Bielinski, Szlendak and Jastrzebski Credits Pstryk

Source Picture and Text Pstryk

EV Battery Warranty: AVILOO Launches Independent Battery Warranty in Norway and Denmark

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07/24/2026

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Baterry Warranty Certificat AVILOO has expanded its EV Battery Warranty to Norway and Denmark, giving used electric vehicle buyers access to an independent, financially backed battery warranty based entirely on objective battery diagnostics. The expansion strengthens buyer confidence and further extends AVILOO's growing presence across Europe's leading EV markets.

AVILOO has expanded its EV Battery Warranty to Norway and Denmark, giving used electric vehicle buyers access to an independent, financially backed battery warranty based entirely on objective battery diagnostics. The expansion strengthens buyer confidence and further extends AVILOO’s growing presence across Europe’s leading EV markets.

Key Takeaways

AVILOO has expanded its EV Battery Warranty to Norway and Denmark, enhancing buyer confidence in used electric vehicles.
The warranty offers a financially backed guarantee based on independent battery diagnostics, rather than manufacturer claims.
If a battery’s health falls below a determined limit, buyers can receive compensation of 23,000 kr in Denmark or 34,000 kr in Norway.
The warranty utilises the AVILOO FLASH Test, a quick battery health check covering 96% of EV models on the road.
This expansion adds Norway and Denmark to a list of markets including the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands where the warranty is already available.

For each vehicle, AVILOO uses its global diagnostics database to calculate an individual State of Health limit – the minimum the battery must maintain at 20,000 kilometres within the one-year warranty period. If the battery falls below that limit, buyers receive 23,000 kr in compensation in Denmark, or 34,000 kr in Norway, plus a full refund of FLASH Test costs.

The warranty is built on the AVILOO FLASH Test, a three-minute, manufacturer-neutral battery health check that assesses real battery capacity, thermal management and charging performance, covering 96% of EV models currently on the road.

Norway and Denmark add to the growing list of European markets where the warranty is already available, including the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Switzerland, France and Sweden.

AVILOO Expands Protection for Used EV Buyers

Marcus Berger, CEO of AVILOO, said:

“Norway and Denmark are two of the most mature EV markets in the world, so bringing the Battery Warranty here is a natural next step. Buyers deserve real certainty on the single most expensive part of their car, backed by data, not guesswork. This is about giving Nordic dealers and drivers the same level of protection and trust we’ve already built across the rest of Europe.”

Is an EV battery warranty worth it when buying a used electric vehicle?

An EV battery warranty helps reduce the financial risk associated with buying a used electric vehicle by providing protection for the vehicle’s most expensive component. Independent battery diagnostics also give buyers greater transparency about the battery’s actual condition.

What is included in the AVILOO EV Battery Warranty?

The AVILOO EV Battery Warranty provides financial compensation if the battery’s State of Health falls below the individually calculated warranty threshold during the one-year warranty period. The warranty is based on the independent AVILOO FLASH Test and objective battery health data.

Which electric vehicles are covered by the AVILOO FLASH Test?

The AVILOO FLASH Test supports approximately 96% of all electric vehicle models currently on European roads. It evaluates battery capacity, thermal management and charging performance independently of the vehicle manufacturer.

Is Holyvolt Europe’s answer to battery independence?

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07/17/2026

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Holyvolt battery manufacturing with screen-printing Mathias Ingvarsson CEO und Co Founder Holyvolt

Holyvolt is transforming battery manufacturing with a proprietary water-based screen-printing process designed to reduce costs, simplify production and support more sustainable battery manufacturing across Europe and North America

What was the founding insight behind Holyvolt – what gap in the market did you see that others were missing?

The way batteries are made hasn’t really changed since lithium-ion was first used in consumer electronics back in 1991. Slot-die coating and toxic, NMP-based wet slurries are still the industry standard, and there’s limited further development potential in that process. You can’t build a lasting advantage using the same manufacturing approach as everyone else.

Our founding insight was that the real constraint on cost, sustainability and flexibility was the manufacturing process rather than the chemistry. So, we built our own proprietary, water-based screen-printing process, drawing on more than 20 years of screen-printing and battery R&D.

You’ve replaced slot-die coating with a screen-printing process that eliminates toxic NMP solvents. What does that actually mean in practice – how much shorter are your drying ovens, and how much capex/footprint does it save versus conventional lines?

In practice, it changes the shape of the factory. Conventional slot-die coating flows a thin, solvent-based slurry onto the current collector. We press a high-solid-content, water-based paste onto it instead, building it up layer by layer. Because the paste has a much higher solid content, drying is far quicker, so our ovens run at around 20-30 metres, compared with 80-100 metres for solvent-based lines.

And because there’s no NMP in our technology, we’re able to remove entire stages of the process and simplify the factory layout. There’s no solvent vapour capture equipment, no filtration loop, and no hazardous chemical recycling infrastructure to build or run. That means smaller buildings, lower construction costs and lower energy consumption. And because NMP is toxic and highly flammable, our approach is safer and more sustainable. Our modular architecture also means we can add capacity incrementally, rather than committing to gigafactory-scale CAPEX before we’re ready.

How does Holyvolt’s screen-printing technology work, and what makes it more capable than what an OEM’s existing wet-slurry manufacturing line can do?

Where a wet-slurry line flows a thin slurry onto the collector, we use high-precision, high-pressure screen printing to press a thicker, water-based paste on, layer by layer, in a tightly controlled process.

That approach opens up capabilities a wet-slurry line doesn’t have. We can build multilayer electrodes, combining materials with different performance characteristics within the same electrode. We can microstructure electrodes to improve rate performance without sacrificing energy density. Design freedom is significantly greater too, which means it’s much simpler for us to produce bespoke shapes for specialised applications, rather than just traditional form factors.

We’ve also overcome the historical problems with water-based cathode production, such as cracking and reduced energy density, so our NMC cells are demonstrating competitive performance. We can print thicker electrodes too, giving a higher ratio of active to passive material, which again improves energy density, and because our tooling is quicker to modify than slot-die equipment, we’re not locked into a single slurry formulation the way conventional lines are.

Who are your primary customers – is it two-wheeler, robotics and drone makers, defence, or eventually EV OEMs – and how has working with Holyvolt changed their approach to sourcing battery cells?

Our near-term focus is short-cycle applications – two-wheelers, robotics and drones – which typically have a one-to-two-year validation window, compared with five-plus years for automotive. That lets us prove the technology before moving into longer-cycle applications. EV OEMs follow once we’ve demonstrated operational excellence at prototype scale.

What changes for these customers is the basis on which they’re sourcing. Rather than starting with an off-the-shelf cell format and designing the product around it, customers can specify the shape and performance they actually need first, because our process can be built around that specification rather than the other way round.

And because our lower-CAPEX, modular process doesn’t require gigafactory-scale commitments, customers who might previously have been priced out of a dedicated cell programme, or forced to accept a shared, generic product, can now commission something built specifically for them.

You recently acquired Wildcat Discovery Technologies. What problem does that solve, and why was their High Throughput Platform the missing piece alongside your manufacturing tech?

If you solve manufacturing but not materials development, the bottleneck simply moves from one to another rather than disappearing altogether. That’s the gap Wildcat closes for us. Their High Throughput Platform can synthesise and screen thousands of material combinations simultaneously, reaching optimal material systems up to ten times faster than conventional R&D, and it generates terabyte-scale, structured datasets that are well suited to AI-driven materials discovery.

Combined with our screen-printing process, new chemistries can move from lab to production on a far more compressed timescale. It turns Holyvolt from a manufacturing technology company into a fully integrated battery innovator, with end-to-end capability from molecular discovery through to pilot-scale production. Wildcat’s work on cobalt- and nickel-free materials also gives us real upside on performance and cost, with supply chains anchored in Europe and North America rather than further exposure to expensive and geopolitically sensitive materials.

Western supply chain independence from Asia is a growing priority, but scaling new battery manufacturing remains a barrier. How significant is that problem, and how does Holyvolt help solve it?

It’s a significant challenge. In October 2025, China’s Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs introduced export controls on cathode and anode materials and specialised battery manufacturing equipment, highlighting how dependent global battery production remains on a concentrated supply chain. For manufacturers looking to build cell production in Europe and North America, reducing that dependence has become an increasingly important priority. This is also essential for sectors looking to build sovereign capability as a strategic imperative, such as the defence industry.

The biggest barrier to scaling new manufacturing is capital. Conventional production lines require enormous upfront investment, hazardous solvent infrastructure and long lead times before any cells are produced. Our lower-CAPEX, smaller-footprint, modular process removes much of that barrier, enabling manufacturers to establish production closer to customers without committing to a single gigafactory-scale facility. Combined with Wildcat’s materials capability, it provides a credible, world-class Western alternative for advanced battery manufacturing.

How has the industry – OEMs, Tier 1s, defence primes – responded to what Holyvolt is doing, and where do you see the greatest urgency for wider adoption?

We’re in active projects with a number of significant partners across the battery value chain who are supporting us with co-development because they see screen-printing as a genuinely differentiated technology. Our policy is not to discuss specific relationships, but the level of engagement has been encouraging. Our investors have also been a valuable sounding board.

The greatest urgency for wider adoption is where manufacturers are looking for more resilient, localised supply chains alongside cleaner, more capital-efficient production. We’re initially focused on sectors such as robotics, drones and two-wheelers because their one-to-two-year development cycles allow us to prove the technology and scale commercially.

Beyond that, we see significant demand in grid-scale energy storage and solar, where growing requirements for energy security, sustainability and alternatives to Asia-concentrated supply chains are driving interest in new manufacturing approaches.

What has been the defining milestone for Holyvolt so far – the moment you knew the business had real traction?

For me, it was completing the acquisition of Wildcat Discovery Technologies. Wildcat is the world’s leading battery materials development firm, with more than 18 years of materials development history, and bringing their High Throughput Platform together with our screen-printing process gave us genuine end-to-end capability.

It followed our recent €20 million funding round, and it felt like real validation of the strategy we set out from the beginning: proprietary process technology, paired with world-class chemistry development, proven first in sectors where we can move quickly.

Where do you see solvent-free, screen-printed battery manufacturing fitting into the broader energy transition over the next five years – and what’s Holyvolt and Wildcat’s role in shaping that?

Over the next five years, I’d expect this technology to move from where it is today; short-cycle applications such as two-wheelers, robotics and drones, into automotive-qualification volumes. I also expect it to extend beyond batteries, into thin-film solar PV, where the same process removes the need for clean rooms or vacuum processing and bypasses the polysilicon supply chain entirely.

Both battery and solar PV production are dominated by China today. The next five years will be about Europe and North America building credible, sovereign capabilities in both. That’s the role we want Holyvolt and Wildcat to play; proprietary, water-based, capital-efficient manufacturing combined with genuinely accelerated materials development, delivering clean energy technology that’s cost-effective, sustainable and independent of Asia, built on local supply chains and production rather than another layer of dependency.

Picturecredits Holyvolt

Thank you Mathias Ingvarsson for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

Lissi GmbH secures €3.5 million: Ventech leads funding round for EUDI wallet integration

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07/09/2026

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Lissi Funding: €3.5 Million for EUDI Wallet Expansion Image: The Lissi founders, from left to right: Sebastian Bickerle, Helge Michael, and Adrian Doerk. Image credit: Lissi GmbH

Independence for Europe’s Financial Sector: Lissi GmbH secures 3.5 Million Euros led by Ventech for European, AMLR-compliant EUDI-Wallet integration

Frankfurt am Main, July 9, 2026 – Lissi GmbH, a European pioneer in the field of EUDI wallet connectivity and verifiable credentials, has successfully closed a new funding round of €3.5 million. The round is led by the European venture capital firm Ventech, joined by BM H Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen together with existing investors main incubator (Commerzbank Group) and Ninepointfive Ventures.

With this investment, Lissi is sending a clear signal in support of sovereign European digital identity. With investors from three EU countries – Germany, France and Belgium – and a partner network spanning the entire European Union, Lissi is positioning itself as an independent pan-European platform alternative.

The AMLR Clock Is Ticking for the Financial Sector

The timing of the financing round could hardly be more relevant. On July 10, 2027, the EU Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) will begin to apply, accelerating demand for trusted digital identity solutions across the financial sector. As banks and financial service providers prepare for the new regulatory framework, interoperable eIDAS-compliant identity solutions are becoming increasingly important.

Already today, 90 percent of Lissi’s customers come from the financial sector. These include banks, insurance companies, payment service providers, identity verification providers and qualified trust service providers, including market leaders such as itsme and Commerzbank.

Building on this, Lissi is using the new funding to provide financial institutions with a practical solution for meeting AMLR requirements and enabling new Open Finance business models based on identity wallets.

“We won the German Federal Government’s EUDI Wallet Challenge in 2025. Based on this experience, we are further expanding our EUDI Wallet Connector Suite and have started developing our own Software Development Kit. With this, financial companies can integrate all functionalities of modern identity wallets directly into their own apps,” explains Sebastian Bickerle, CTO and Co-Founder of Lissi. “This means that in the future, any banking app can be expanded into an ID wallet in no time at all.”

Connectivity for All European Wallets

Lissi’s goal is to enable seamless interoperability between public and private EUDI Wallets across the European Union through its EUDI Wallet Connector Suite, supporting implementations in both the public and private sectors throughout all member states.

Helge Michael, CEO and Co-Founder of Lissi, emphasizes the company’s strategic direction:

“Financial institutions need solutions that integrate seamlessly into existing IT environments while giving them full control over customer data. Our platform was built specifically for these requirements: eIDAS-compliant, highly flexible, and aligned with the strict security and compliance standards of the financial sector. The trust placed in us by numerous banks and financial service providers confirms that this approach resonates strongly with the market.”

Investors Back Europe’s Digital Sovereignty

Stephan Wirries, General Partner at Ventech, said:

“We’re thrilled to back the Lissi team. Many of their competitive advantages are based on the fact that Adrian, Sebastian and Helge aren’t theorizing about bank compliance — they initially built from inside Commerzbank, which means they understand bank IT priorities at a level that is hard to attain for outsiders. Their SDK approach, turning existing banking apps into wallets that will work across all European member state markets, will help regulated customers leverage eIDAS-compliant flows even further.”

Stephan Groß, Senior Investment Manager at BM H, added:

“Lissi is an excellent example of the kind of technology company we aim to support: rooted in Hesse, built on strong domain expertise and addressing a clear European market opportunity. The team has developed a highly relevant infrastructure solution for regulated industries and has already gained the trust of important market participants. We are pleased to join Ventech and the existing investors in supporting Lissi’s next stage of growth.”

Strong Ecosystem and Proven Market Experience

Lissi has been active in the field of digital identities since 2019 and has contributed to the development of the European EUDI Wallet ecosystem from an early stage, initially as part of the Commerzbank Group.

As the lead of the IDunion research project, the company contributed to key technical components now used in European digital identity wallets. Lissi also participated in the European Large Scale Pilots EWC and POTENTIAL and continues to contribute to new standards, interoperability and technical capabilities for EUDI Wallets through the ongoing WE BUILD consortium.

“As an active contributor to various EUDI Wallet initiatives across the EU, Lissi combines close involvement in standardization with practical implementation experience. We have already completed projects with more than 30 organizations from 10 member states or are currently working with them on EUDI Wallet integrations,” says Adrian Doerk, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Lissi.

Image: The Lissi founders, from left to right: Sebastian Bickerle, Helge Michael, and Adrian Doerk.
Image credit: Lissi GmbH

Source BM H Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen mbH

FIZ: What do freelancers expect from financial management today?

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StartupValley

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07/09/2026

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FIZ: AI for freelancers and smarter financial management petr kutis founder and ceo

FIZ is a financial platform for freelancers that combines AI with automation to simplify tax and financial management for independent professionals

Could you briefly introduce FIZ and tell us how the idea came about?

FIZ is a financial assistant — effectively a neo-accountant — for freelancers and small businesses in Portugal: certified invoicing, VAT, Social Security and income tax, all automated in one app, with an AI assistant on hand for tax questions day or night. The idea is personal. As entrepreneurs ourselves, we kept hitting the same wall — accountants who speak a language you do not understand and never seem to have time for you. We felt first-hand how much of a limitation that is for people like us: people who want to build, to create, to enjoy the freedom of working for themselves — not to lose their days to bureaucracy.

That is the conviction FIZ is built on: in Portugal, going freelance should not come with a second, unpaid job as your own accountant. Yet the moment you go independent, you are hit with recibos verdes, IVA, Segurança Social and IRS, each with hard deadlines and real fines for small mistakes. So we built FIZ to make the tax side simply disappear into the background. Today more than 15,000 people in Portugal rely on it.

What vision are you pursuing with FIZ?

No freelancer should have to become a tax expert to stay compliant. We want the fiscal side of running your own business to feel invisible — handled quietly and correctly in the background, so the only time you think about taxes is when we tell you they are already done. Simplification, for us, is not hiding complexity behind a prettier screen; it is removing the work itself — filing automatically, pre-filling the numbers, surfacing what matters, and answering questions in plain language the moment they arise.

Who is FIZ primarily built for, and which challenges do you solve?

FIZ is built for Portugal freelancers, sole traders on recibos verdes, and small businesses. They are brilliant at what they do, but were never meant to be accountants. We take on the everyday stress points: issuing certified invoices correctly, knowing exactly how much VAT and Social Security to pay and when, staying ahead of IRS. And when a mistake does slip through, we shield them from it — our Escudo Fiscal (Tax Shield) protects users against fines of up to 1,500 euros. In short, we give a one-person business the same backing a large company gets from its finance department.

Because in real life these are not separate problems — they are one continuous stream of obligations, and the friction lives in the gaps between them. Invoicing in one tool, VAT in another, Social Security in a third, and you become the integration layer, copying numbers by hand and hoping nothing slips. Bring it all together and the data flows on its own: an invoice you issue today already knows what it means for your next VAT and IRS. That is where both the time-saving and the accuracy come from.

What makes the combination of certified invoicing, tax automation and an AI assistant unique?

Two things. First, our invoicing is officially certified by the Portuguese tax authority — AT certification no. 3041 — so it is compliant at the source, not patched up afterwards. Second, we pair that with an AI assistant that genuinely understands the Portuguese tax context: a user can ask, in their own words, how much should I set aside this quarter, and get a clear answer at midnight, no appointment required. Certified compliance, a knowledgeable assistant and full automation in one place — that is what makes FIZ feel less like software and more like an accountant in your pocket.

How important is automation in helping entrepreneurs spend less time on admin?

It is the entire point. Admin drains your energy without creating any value — every hour on it is stolen from the thing you are actually good at. Automation reverses that: the routine, deadline-driven tasks are handled for you, reliably, so your focus returns to clients and growth. For a solo business, that is not a convenience — it is what keeps the business sustainable instead of heading for burnout.

How does FIZ ensure users feel confident with their financial data?

When you hold people financial data, trust is the foundation, not a feature — and you earn it two ways. Technically, through serious security and data-protection standards around sensitive information. And through being provably correct: our official AT certification means what we do is compliant and auditable, not merely claimed. We also keep users in the loop, showing exactly what is being filed on their behalf and why. When people see the system is both secure and right, confidence follows naturally.

What have been the biggest challenges building a fintech that works with regulatory requirements?

Regulation is not a wall you clear once — it is a moving landscape you have to stay inside of continuously. Rates, rules and reporting formats change, and here a mistake is not just a bug: it can cost your user real money. So the hardest work is being effortless and rigorously correct at the same time — two goals that constantly pull against each other. Staying certified as the rules evolve only works if tax expertise and engineering sit in the same room, solving the problem together.

How do you see AI shaping the future of tax and financial management?

AI turns financial management from reactive into proactive. You used to discover a tax problem only after it happened — at filing time, or when the fine arrived. AI lets FIZ understand your situation continuously and tell you what to do before the deadline, in language you actually understand. It also collapses the distance to expert advice: questions that once needed an appointment get answered instantly. Kept honest — always grounded in the real rules — AI makes good financial guidance something every independent worker can afford, not only those who can hire a professional.

What are the next major milestones and product developments planned for FIZ?

In the near term, we are extending FIZ from the individual freelancer toward small companies — bringing the same automation to their bookkeeping, so a growing business gets the same effortless, compliant experience its founders already trust as freelancers.

What are your long-term ambitions beyond the Portuguese market?

Portugal is where we are proving the model — but the problem we solve is not Portuguese. Independent workers everywhere face the same fragmented, intimidating tax systems. So expansion is very much the plan: in 2027 we will launch in Spain, with more markets to follow — and we are already actively studying Brazil. The ambition is to bring that same your-taxes-simply-take-care-of-themselves experience to freelancers well beyond Portugal.

What three pieces of advice would you give to founders building a fintech in a highly regulated industry?

One: get close to the regulation early and treat compliance as a core product feature, not a legal afterthought — in a regulated market, being correct is your product.

Two: obsess over one specific user and one specific pain before you broaden — we went deep on the Portuguese freelancer exact fiscal routine, and that depth is what earns trust.

Three: put domain expertise and engineering on the same team from day one; in regulated fintech, the magic happens when the people who know the rules and the people who build the product solve it as one.

Picturecredits FIZ

Thank you Petr Kutis for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

AVILOO: What’s Next for Trust in the Used EV Market?

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StartupValley

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07/08/2026

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AVILOO: Battery Warranty and battery diagnostics for used EVs Marcus Berger CEO of AVILOO

AVILOO develops independent solutions for electric vehicle battery testing and is advancing battery diagnostics with its Battery Warranty to increase trust in the used EV market

What was the founding insight behind AVILOO – what gap in the market did you see that others were missing?

The founding insight was a structurally broken used EV market: nobody could say, with any certainty, what state a battery was actually in. Dealers, buyers, insurers – everyone was relying on a dashboard readout generated by the car’s own system, with no independent way of verifying it.

We saw a market about to scale into the tens of millions of used EVs with zero independent infrastructure behind its most expensive component. Every other part of the used car industry has independent inspection – mileage, service history, mechanical condition. EVs had nothing equivalent for the battery. That gap was the founding insight.

You’ve built the world’s largest independent EV battery diagnostics database. What does that scale actually mean in practice – how many vehicles, how many data points?

Our database holds results from over one million real-world battery tests, and it grows every day – it’s the largest independent EV battery diagnostics dataset in the world. That scale means we’re not extrapolating from a handful of lab samples; we have enough data across nearly every model, age bracket and usage pattern to build genuine degradation curves rather than guesses.

In practice, when we test a five-year-old Model 3 or a two-year-old e-Golf, we can tell you exactly where that battery sits relative to thousands of comparable vehicles – and with the recently introduced AVILOO Battery Warranty, not just what it reads today, but whether it’s ageing normally, ahead of schedule, or better than expected.

How does AVILOO’s diagnostic technology work, and what makes your data more actionable than what an OEM or dealer might already have access to?

The AVILOO FLASH Test takes three minutes and measures real capacity against the vehicle’s original energy capacity. Crucially, it isn’t a readout of what the car’s battery management system reports – which is what all other battery analytics companies do – it’s an independent SoH calculation.

BMS data is self-reported, unverified and inconsistent across brands. Ours is benchmarked against our database of comparable vehicles. That benchmarking is one of the real differentiators: an independently calculated single State of Health number tells you a lot, but compared against thousands of same-model, same-age batteries, it tells you exactly where a vehicle stands – and whether the price on the windscreen reflects that reality.

Who are your primary customers – is it fleet operators, dealers, insurers, OEMs – and how has working with AVILOO changed the way they make decisions?

Our customers span the full remarketing chain – dealer groups like Hedin and Emil Frey, leasing companies such as Ayvens and Arval, auction platforms including BCA and Cox Automotive, and OEMs like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Hyundai, Porsche Holding and others who use AVILOO across their European dealership networks.

What’s changed for all of them is that battery health has moved from a soft assurance to a hard number in the pricing conversation. Vehicles with a verified AVILOO certificate command higher resale prices and spend less time on the lot, because buyers no longer have to price in uncertainty. It’s turned a guessing game into a data-backed negotiation – on both sides of the table. The AVILOO Battery Warranty comes on top, at no cost for dealers or consumers.

You recently launched a Battery Warranty product. What problem does that solve, and why was reinsurance backing the missing piece?

Before the warranty, an independent diagnosis gave you a snapshot – it told you the current state of the battery but offered no protection if it degraded faster than expected after purchase. Buyers had no financial recourse. The Battery Warranty closes that gap: if State of Health falls below a guaranteed minimum threshold within 12 months or 20,000 km, the owner is compensated with 3.000 EUR.

Reinsurance was the missing piece because without it, this is just a promise. With it, it’s a contractual, financially backed guarantee underwritten by AVILOO. That’s what turns a diagnostic certificate into real protection at the point of sale – and what makes a buyer willing to pay a premium for a verified vehicle rather than discount for the uncertainty.

What have been the hardest challenges in getting the industry to trust third-party battery data, and how have you overcome that scepticism?

The instinct in an industry built around manufacturer control is to treat the BMS as the single source of truth – and to be frankly suspicious of anything external that challenges it. We didn’t overcome that through persuasion; we overcame it through proof.

We had the methodology independently validated, and then we let the results speak. When Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Hyundai, Porsche Holding and others adopted the FLASH Test across their own dealership networks – choosing an independent measurement over their own readout – that settled the debate more cleanly than anything we could have said ourselves. Premium OEMs don’t make those decisions lightly, and the rest of the industry noticed.

The used EV market is growing fast but consumer confidence around battery health remains a barrier. How significant is that problem, and how does AVILOO help solve it?

It’s the single biggest barrier to used EV adoption right now. The battery is the most expensive component in the car – often representing 40–50% of vehicle value – and at the point of purchase it’s still a black box for most buyers. Manufacturer State of Health figures aren’t independently verified, aren’t standardised across brands, and consumers know it. That uncertainty gets priced in as a discount, which suppresses the whole market.

Our own research shows over 90% of B2B buyers cite battery transparency as decisive in the purchase decision. AVILOO addresses this on two fronts: the FLASH Test delivers an objective, independently verified SoH calculation, and the Battery Warranty backs that with real financial protection if the battery doesn’t perform as certified. Together, they give buyers something to anchor their confidence on.

How has the industry – OEMs, dealers, insurers – responded to what AVILOO is doing, and where do you see the greatest urgency for wider adoption?

The response at the premium end has been decisive. When Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Hyundai, Porsche Holding and others choose you as their preferred third-party testing provider across their European networks, that’s not a pilot programme — that’s infrastructure adoption.

The urgency for wider rollout sits further down the chain, with mid-market dealer groups and remarketing platforms where fleet and lease returns are landing at volume and the processes haven’t kept pace. That’s where the bulk of used EV transactions will happen over the next three to five years, and where the absence of independent battery data will create the most friction — for buyers, for lenders, and for the dealers trying to move stock efficiently.

What has been the defining milestone for AVILOO so far – the moment you knew the business had real traction?

The moment that confirmed we’d built something real was when Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Hyundai, Porsche Holding and others came in as partners. Being chosen as an independent battery testing provider across their European dealership networks told us that diagnostics wasn’t a nice-to-have – it was infrastructure these companies were prepared to build into their own standard processes.

Crossing one million real-world tests around the same period gave us something equally important: the statistical depth to back that trust with genuine confidence. Together, those two things confirmed we’d moved from a promising idea to real market infrastructure.

Where do you see battery diagnostics fitting into the broader EV ecosystem over the next five years – and what’s AVILOO’s role in shaping that?

Battery diagnostics will become as standard to the used EV transaction as mileage or service history is to a combustion car today – not a premium add-on, but expected infrastructure that dealers, lenders, insurers and platforms build their processes around.

What I expect to change is where the authoritative data comes from. The market will consolidate around independent, brand-neutral diagnostics rather than manufacturer-reported figures, because trust at scale has to be earned through transparency, not claimed through ownership. AVILOO’s role is to be that infrastructure layer – the diagnostic standard and dataset the whole ecosystem plugs into. We’re building the reliability layer the used EV market can’t function at scale without.

Picturecredits AVILOO

Thank you Marcus Berger for the Interview

Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.

HonwinOne is building technology and infrastructure designed to connect people, businesses and institutions across markets while reducing digital fragmentation.

Keith, could you start by introducing yourself and telling us what inspired you to found HonwinOne?

What exactly is HonwinOne, and which core problem or opportunity is at the heart of the company?

HonwinOne works across AI, commerce, local discovery, payments, event technology and youth opportunity infrastructure. How do these different areas fit together within one company and one overarching strategy?

Which products and technologies have you already launched, and which of them are currently the most important for HonwinOne’s growth?

You are building HonwinOne from Eswatini with the ambition to serve global markets. What advantages and challenges come with building a technology company from a relatively small and underrepresented startup ecosystem?

Many startups in emerging ecosystems initially focus on solving problems within their domestic markets. Why did you decide to think internationally from the beginning?

Artificial intelligence is a central part of your work. How are you currently using AI within HonwinOne, and where do you see the greatest potential for AI across your products and infrastructure?

You mention building multiple products with limited resources. How have these constraints influenced the way you develop products, set priorities and make decisions as a founder?

What is the business model behind HonwinOne, and how do you plan to build a sustainable and scalable company across different products and markets?

What stage is HonwinOne currently at in terms of users, customers, partnerships and traction, and which milestones have been particularly important so far?

From your perspective, what needs to change for more technology companies from African and other emerging startup ecosystems to compete successfully on a global level?

Where do you want HonwinOne to be in the next three to five years, and what is your long-term vision for the company?

Prompt Director combines AI with a practical creative workflow, helping creators turn their ideas into images, videos, campaigns and other creative projects.

Alin, could you start by introducing yourself and telling us how your journey from working on construction sites in the UK eventually led you to become the founder of Prompt Director?

You describe opening ChatGPT in 2023 as a moment that changed everything for you. What happened after that first encounter with generative AI, and when did curiosity turn into the ambition to build something yourself?

What exactly is Prompt Director, and what problem are you trying to solve for creators with the platform?

How does Prompt Director work in practice? If a creator comes to the platform with just an initial idea, what can they create and what does the process look like?

There are already numerous AI tools for generating images, videos, music and marketing content. What makes Prompt Director different from using several individual AI tools separately?

Who is Prompt Director primarily designed for, and which types of creators or businesses do you believe can benefit most from the platform?

You built Prompt Director without coming from a traditional technology or startup background. How did you acquire the skills necessary to turn your idea into a working platform, and what were the biggest challenges along the way?

What is the business model behind Prompt Director, and how do you plan to turn the platform into a sustainable company?

What stage is Prompt Director currently at in terms of users, traction and product development, and what kind of feedback have you received so far?

You also created the AI music artist Selyna Turcu and developed projects such as BounceVoid. What did these experiments teach you about AI-driven creativity, and how have they influenced Prompt Director?

Generative AI is rapidly changing the creative industries while also raising questions around copyright, originality and human creativity. How do you see this development, and how do you address these issues with Prompt Director?

Where would you like Prompt Director to be in the next three to five years, and what is your long-term vision for the company?

The Polish energy tech pioneer PSTRYK is redefining how consumers buy electricity by offering real-time dynamic pricing, smart app-driven management, and an integrated trading model.

Can you briefly introduce PSTRYK and tell us how the idea for building a technology-driven energy company first came about?

Who are the people behind PSTRYK, and what experiences have shaped the company’s journey so far?

What is PSTRYK’s long-term vision, and how do dynamic electricity pricing and technology help you achieve it?

Who is your primary target audience, and what challenges are you solving for households and prosumers?

Many consumers are still unfamiliar with dynamic electricity pricing. How do you build trust and encourage them to adopt this new approach?

What makes PSTRYK different from traditional energy suppliers and other companies offering dynamic tariffs?

Your platform gives customers greater control over their energy consumption. Why is transparency so important in today’s energy market?

The energy sector is evolving rapidly. What have been the biggest challenges for PSTRYK, and how have you addressed them?

How do digital tools and real-time energy insights help your customers make better decisions about their electricity usage?

What new products, features, or developments are currently on PSTRYK’s roadmap?

Where do you see PSTRYK in the next five years, and what role do you want the company to play in the future of the European energy market?

What are the three most important pieces of advice you would give to founders who want to build an innovative company in a highly regulated industry?

TECH START UP 5U AI SCALES UP NEW DIGITAL WORKFORCE PLATFORM FOR EUROPEAN FREIGHT FORWARDING TEAMS AFTER RAISING US$3.2 MILLION IN PRE-SEED FUNDING

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Investment supports product development and European expansion

AI Workers automate complex freight operations

AI platform already deployed across Europe

5U AI expands its team

Founded by Technical University of Munich graduates

Supporting freight forwarders with Agentic AI

European energy leaders invest in Pstryk

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Changes to Pstryk’s management board structure

Pstryk prepares for the next stage of growth

Dynamic pricing transforms household energy use

New funding supports technology and expansion

Key Takeaways

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Now Available in Norway and Denmark

EV Battery Warranty Powered by Independent Battery Diagnostics

AVILOO Expands Protection for Used EV Buyers

Holyvolt is transforming battery manufacturing with a proprietary water-based screen-printing process designed to reduce costs, simplify production and support more sustainable battery manufacturing across Europe and North America

What was the founding insight behind Holyvolt – what gap in the market did you see that others were missing?

You’ve replaced slot-die coating with a screen-printing process that eliminates toxic NMP solvents. What does that actually mean in practice – how much shorter are your drying ovens, and how much capex/footprint does it save versus conventional lines?

How does Holyvolt’s screen-printing technology work, and what makes it more capable than what an OEM’s existing wet-slurry manufacturing line can do?

Who are your primary customers – is it two-wheeler, robotics and drone makers, defence, or eventually EV OEMs – and how has working with Holyvolt changed their approach to sourcing battery cells?

You recently acquired Wildcat Discovery Technologies. What problem does that solve, and why was their High Throughput Platform the missing piece alongside your manufacturing tech?

Western supply chain independence from Asia is a growing priority, but scaling new battery manufacturing remains a barrier. How significant is that problem, and how does Holyvolt help solve it?

How has the industry – OEMs, Tier 1s, defence primes – responded to what Holyvolt is doing, and where do you see the greatest urgency for wider adoption?

What has been the defining milestone for Holyvolt so far – the moment you knew the business had real traction?

Where do you see solvent-free, screen-printed battery manufacturing fitting into the broader energy transition over the next five years – and what’s Holyvolt and Wildcat’s role in shaping that?

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Independence for Europe’s Financial Sector: Lissi GmbH secures 3.5 Million Euros led by Ventech for European, AMLR-compliant EUDI-Wallet integration

The AMLR Clock Is Ticking for the Financial Sector

Connectivity for All European Wallets

Investors Back Europe’s Digital Sovereignty

Strong Ecosystem and Proven Market Experience

FIZ is a financial platform for freelancers that combines AI with automation to simplify tax and financial management for independent professionals

Could you briefly introduce FIZ and tell us how the idea came about?

What vision are you pursuing with FIZ?

Who is FIZ primarily built for, and which challenges do you solve?

Why did you decide to combine invoicing, taxes and social security into one platform?

What makes the combination of certified invoicing, tax automation and an AI assistant unique?