5 Luxembourg Startups to Watch

If there’s a textbook example of a nation that punches well beyond its weight on the international stage, that nation is Luxembourg. Tucked discreetly between Belgium, Germany and France, its well known for its diminutive dimensions: you can drive the whole length of the country in around an hour and a half, and its population is less than a fourteenth the size of London’s.

Yet Luxembourg’s size is inversely proportional to its wealth and influence. According to the latest country rankings by the IMF, Luxembourg has the largest GDP per capita at purchasing power parity. It’s one of the nerve centres of the European Union, with much of its population made up of foreign nationals boasting elite-tier connections across the globe. And it’s a key financial hub, home to the European Investment Bank (the lending arm of the EU) and numerous corporate banking institutions.

All of this provides fertile soil in which startups can take root and grow. Indeed, a report commissioned by the government has shown that founders in Luxembourg are “significantly more likely than other European entrepreneurs to be motivated by opportunity rather than necessity”. In other words, they’re more likely to launch businesses because they have identified specific opportunities for innovation and revenue creation, rather than as an alternative to unemployment or lower-paid work.

So what are some of the startups which have been making waves in Luxembourg in recent times? Let’s run through a handful which have landed on investors’ radars.

The rise and rise of the electric vehicle industry spells opportunity for all manner of startups within the wider tech ecosystem, from firms specialising in on-board software solutions to companies involved in the core physical components that have made the revolution possible. A case in point is battery upcycling startup Circu-Li-Ion, whose process dismantles, disassembles and prepares battery packs for reuse or recycling.

Circu-Li-Ion’s contracts with OEMs, as well as other types of companies such as power tool manufacturers, have earnt it the attention of investors, with a $9.2 million seed round secured in October last year. Leveraging AI to optimise the upcycling process, Circu-Li-Ion’s longer-term goal is to upcycle a whopping three billion batteries by 2035. Its more immediate gameplan is to use the investment money to boost its R&D initiatives and expand collaborations with OEMs.

Given Luxembourg’s status as one of Europe’s capitals of finance, it’s fitting that one of its most-talked-about startups provides SaaS solutions for financial organisations. Its data management and analytics platform streamlines information from multiple sources for asset managers, making it easier to assess investment behaviours and risk-based metrics and comply with complex finance industry regulations.

It raised $8.7 million in an April 2023 funding round, with the cash infusion being used to further develop its suite of software services. More recently, the company enjoyed another boost with the addition of Philippe Seyll, CEO of Clearstream Fund Services and a prominent figure within Luxembourg’s finance community, to the board. Seyll lauded the firm’s SaaS solutions as helping to “reshape the fund distribution chain”.

2023 was a banner year for digital media startup Videobot. As well as being the winner of the prestigious Creative Young Entrepreneur Luxembourg (CYEL), the company secured $2.2 million in seed funding, helping it along its path to one day becoming – in the words of its CEO – the “Coca-Cola” of the short-form interactive video sector.

The company’s platform allows clients to embed short, informative videos which function like chatbots, thereby aiding navigation, showcasing and selling products and services, and generally boosting engagement with potential customers. One of Videobot’s co-founders has described this interface as a “paradigm shift in online communication”, and it has certainly enjoyed immense success since its inception. The startup has landed hundreds of clients across more than 15 countries, including Supercell, the leading Finnish games company behind Clash of Clans.  

One of the biggest investments in a Luxembourg-based company last year was the $37 million Series B windfall for climatetech startup, SustainCERT. Its digital platform verifies climate impact claims, an increasingly important solution as companies around the world race to meet their emissions targets and burnish their green credentials.

As SustainCERT’s CEO puts it, the point of the platform is to “bring credibility to climate action”. Among other things, it provides a digitalised process for the verification of carbon credits to ensure that carbon offset projects do what they say on the tin. By shining a light on such projects and ensuring they deliver on their promises, SustainCERT is providing the robust certification standards that can counter the ever-present problem of greenwashing.  

Not to be confused with the famous mattress company, Emma’s name is actually an acronym for “enterprise multi-cloud management application”. While the phrase is a bit of a mouthful, it does sum up what the company does, which is to integrate multiple cloud environment on one no-code management platform.

Businesses can use Emma to manage and scale their cloud services, and to make use of a real-time database of pricing offers from top cloud providers such as AWS and Azure. Last year, it raised $6 million in seed funding, with the aim of developing its platform, boosting its team and increasing its presence in North America, where – as noted by Emma’s CEO – companies “are struggling to manage their cloud environments, with many using six or seven tools to manage just two cloud providers.”

As we’ve seen, Luxembourg’s startup scene encompasses a spectrum of sectors, and here at Hampleton Partners we have specialists in all of them – from fintech to autotech to enterprise software. If you’re a founder or senior decision maker interested in exploring M&A opportunities in Europe, get in touch with our Managing Partner, Dr Jan Eiben.