Another quarter, another reminder that building technology is only part of the story. Scaling it, securing it and embedding it into everyday life is where much of the value is now being created. Here is what we have been seeing across our portfolio, the market and the KPN Ventures team.
MARKET & PORTFOLIO
The push for greater European technological sovereignty continues to drive investment across the digital stack. This quarter's announcement of KPN's sovereign cloud partnership with STACKIT and Schwarz Digits highlights how strategic control over infrastructure, data and AI is becoming a priority across Europe. The same forces are creating momentum for many of the companies in our portfolio, from connectivity and digital identity to semiconductors and AI.
Wirepas secured €24 million in financing from the European Investment Bank. The company connects more than 20 million IoT devices worldwide across applications including smart manufacturing, energy metering, asset monitoring and smart lighting. The investment is another sign of growing support for European connectivity infrastructure. Regulatory moves away from SMS-based authentication are driving the demand for stronger identity verification, creating momentum across digital identity and thereby benefitting portfolio companies such as IDlayr and Ubiqu. Meanwhile, Europe's proposed Chips Act 2.0 underlines the importance of semiconductor capabilities and companies such as SMART Photonics.
Adoption continues to grow across connectivity and AI. Sentiance launched Sentiance Insights 3.0, bringing AI-driven insights into day-to-day operations. Following the successful launch off AI Gateway, Cequence also introduced AI Security Companion as organizations look to strengthen governance and security around AI deployments.
As technologies mature, many of them increasingly fade into the background. Airalo surpassed 30 million subscribers, showing how seamless connectivity is becoming an expectation rather than a feature. Sensara's collaboration with Tinybots is another example of technology quietly supporting daily life. Whether in AI, connectivity, identity or semiconductors, competitive advantage is increasingly built beneath the surface.
BEYOND DEFENSE: THE RISE OF OFFENSIVE SECURITY
Europe's push for greater technological sovereignty is also elevating cybersecurity to a strategic priority. As governments and enterprises seek greater control over critical digital infrastructure, digital resilience becomes just as important as ownership.
This growing focus on cybersecurity was evident throughout VivaTech 2026 in Paris this month, where security featured prominently alongside AI and sovereignty in discussions with founders, corporates and investors. Rather than focusing solely on defensive tools that detect and respond to threats, organizations are increasingly investing in offensive security capabilities that proactively identify weaknesses before attackers can exploit them.
This shift is driving adoption of continuous penetration testing, red teaming and attack surface management solutions. The market is seeing growing interest in platforms that continuously simulate attacks, identify vulnerabilities and validate whether security controls work as intended. The objective is simple: understand where vulnerabilities exist before adversaries find them.
AI is accelerating this trend on both sides. Attackers can automate reconnaissance and exploit development at unprecedented scale, while defenders are using AI-powered testing platforms to uncover weaknesses and strengthen security more efficiently. As a result, offensive security is becoming an increasingly important layer within the cybersecurity stack.
Sovereignty requires more than owning critical technology. It also requires continuously testing and strengthening digital resilience.
AI IS SCALING FAST, BUT NOT BLINDLY
At KPN's AI Conference this month, one message came through: AI is no longer just a technology story, it is becoming an operational one. The challenge is shifting from experimenting with AI to deploying AI agents that help customers and employees while remaining reliable, secure and scalable.
Across the sessions, we saw a strong focus on moving beyond pilots and proofs of concept. And while AI adoption is accelerating, but impact remains uneven. One example shared at the conference showed that more than 80% of AI agents in production delivered only modest productivity gains, while a small minority generated outsized value. We learned that success is not about deploying more AI, but about finding and scaling the use cases that make a meaningful difference.
More capable and autonomous AI agents come with new trade-offs. While more advanced models can improve usability, they also increase risks around hallucinations, oversight and control. Privacy, security and reliability remain essential as AI becomes part of everyday products and processes. New capabilities only matter if customers and employees can trust them.
Our portfolio company ElevenLabs, also a strategic partner of KPN, contributed to the programme with two hands-on workshops. Participants used voice and audio AI to create complete campaign concepts in a matter of minutes and built working voice agents for use cases such as reception, appointment scheduling and customer support.
For us, the ElevenLabs workshops illustrated one of the day's key messages: the value of AI does not lie in the technology itself, but in its ability to improve products, services and customer experiences.
TEAM UPDATE
In case you missed it - We published a new article exploring how corporate venture capital can help startups scale beyond funding alone. Using our collaboration with Openlayer as a case study, it highlights how access to customers, distribution channels and strategic partnerships can accelerate growth for both startups and corporates. The piece also reflects on the changing perception of corporate investors from strategic risk to strategic growth partner for ambitious founders.
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