Five new European startups to know (20 to 27 October 2026)

Between 20 and 27 October 2026, five young European startups announced funding: Cortas (Copenhagen) for a new kind of property management, Cygrid (Berlin) for keeping AI agents away from confidential company data, Intuitivo (Portugal) for digital tests that grade themselves, Sonexos (Lausanne) for solid-state noise control and Indurex (Amsterdam) for cybersecurity in industrial plants. Below is what each one does, for whom, and what is new, based on public announcements. In het Nederlands: Vijf nieuwe Europese startups om te kennen.

Cortas: property management and its software from one company

Cortas, from Copenhagen, wants to run property management and build the software for it under one roof. Instead of selling a tool to property managers, it manages its clients' properties itself and develops its own tools while doing so, which, the founders argue, gives both owners and tenants a better service. It was founded by Christian Pind Schmidt (CEO) and Frederik Buchardt (COO), who both worked at the Danish property investor Thylander Group and saw the fragmented systems of the sector from the inside. Since June the company has built its operating model and software and signed its first property-investor customers; Denmark is the launch market. On 27 October 2026 it announced a 1.47 million euro pre-seed round led by PSV Tech, with JRNY Capital, EIFO and angels including founders of Flatpay and Spirii. Website: cortas.dk. Source: EU-Startups.

Cygrid: deciding what an AI agent may do, before it does it

Cygrid, from Berlin, builds an identity-enforcement platform for companies that use AI agents. Where conventional access tools grant access at sign-in and stop there, Cygrid checks each action an identity takes, human, machine or AI agent, and blocks or narrows it in real time; it also maps all those identities into one graph of what each is entitled to, what it actually does and on whose behalf. Founded in January 2026 by Dmitry Kharchenko (CEO) and Dekel Paz, both formerly of Israeli Military Intelligence, it says it already works with 19 design partners in fintech, e-commerce and SaaS, six of them in production. It came out of stealth on 23 October 2026 with a 2.66 million euro pre-seed round led by Atlantic, with D11Z. Ventures and angels including Zscaler's Boris Gorin, bonify CEO Andreas Bermig and Vlad Tropko. Website: cygrid.io. Source: EU-Startups.

Intuitivo: giving teachers their grading hours back

Intuitivo, from Portugal, is a digital assessment platform on which teachers create, schedule and grade tests and give feedback, from primary school to higher education. Teachers build tests from scratch, from a shared exercise library, or let AI turn an old PDF test into an interactive, auto-graded version; students open the test through a link, with no account or installation. Founded in 2021 by João Guimarães (CEO), Duarte Oliveira and Diogo Silva, it counts 75,000 registered teachers, more than 200 contracts with municipalities, school clusters and private schools covering over 500 Portuguese schools, and estimates it saves teachers about 165,000 hours in the 2025/26 school year. On 23 October 2026 it announced a 1.35 million euro seed round led by Caixa Capital and the Impact Innovation Fund managed by 3xP Global, with Techstars, COREangels Lisboa, COREangels Porto and Angels Way. The money goes to product, a team growing from 11 to 20 and a launch in Brazil. Website: intuitivo.pt. Source: EU-Startups.

Sonexos: a thin plasma panel against low-frequency hum

Sonexos, from Lausanne, develops solid-state noise control for the low-frequency hum of fans, compressors and motors, the noise that passes through walls and that bulky foam and headphone-style active cancellation struggle with. Its patented Plasmacoustic Metalayer is a software-controlled plasma layer that absorbs sound at a surface: thin, light and without moving parts. The company says prototypes have cut low-frequency noise by up to 20 decibels in ventilation systems and 16 decibels in domestic appliances, absorbing from 30 to 1,500 hertz in less than a fifth of the space and weight of passive silencers; the targets are appliances, HVAC, industry, infrastructure, cars and data centres. Founded in 2022 by Mark Donaldson (CEO), who earlier built the headphone audio company SoundChip, it announced about 5.4 million euro (5 million Swiss francs) on 26 October 2026, led by Valquest Partners with Bosch Ventures and private investors, to move from prototypes to industrial production with partners such as STMicroelectronics and the Vandewiele Group. Website: sonexos.com. Source: EU-Startups.

Indurex: AI that watches a plant's safety systems

Indurex, from Amsterdam, makes cybersecurity software for cyber-physical systems: the control, safety and alarm systems of oil and gas sites, energy and utility operators, factories and data centres. Its platform SafeGuard AI pulls data from those systems and from a site's IT security tools, and AI agents flag anomalies, engineering deviations and risks for a person to review; it also helps with automated reporting against cybersecurity and functional safety standards. Led by founder and CEO Jalal Bouhdada, the company was named a Cool Vendor in cyber-physical systems security by Gartner earlier this year and serves customers from mid-sized energy and manufacturing firms to large multinationals. On 22 October 2026 it announced a 7 million euro round led by Contrarian Ventures, with Axeleo Capital and Curiosity, for research and development and commercial expansion, first in Europe and the Middle East. Website: indurex.ai. Sources: Tech.eu and IO+.

Quick facts

• Cortas: Copenhagen, property management with its own software, 1.47 million euro pre-seed (27 October 2026)
• Cygrid: Berlin, real-time enforcement of what AI agents and other identities may do, 2.66 million euro pre-seed (23 October 2026)
• Intuitivo: Portugal, digital tests that grade themselves, 1.35 million euro seed (23 October 2026)
• Sonexos: Lausanne, solid-state control of low-frequency noise, about 5.4 million euro (26 October 2026)
• Indurex: Amsterdam, AI cybersecurity for industrial safety systems, 7 million euro (22 October 2026)

More new companies: Five new European startups to know the week before, New startups in Copenhagen (2026), New startups in Berlin (2026) and New startups in Portugal (2026).

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