This week on The Startup Vagabond, we are covering September 7th through September 21st with a bigger batch of global startup news across Asia, LATAM, and Europe.
The big theme: the startup world is getting more physical, more industrial, and more tied to infrastructure.
In Asia, Japan-founded CADDi became a manufacturing AI unicorn, Algomatic Dynamics launched with funding to build robotic hands and physical-AI infrastructure, JCB started stablecoin-backed retail settlement trials, and Taiwan’s Wistron raised $1.47 billion as AI-server demand keeps rising. Singapore also had a major fintech infrastructure story with Grab acquiring control of Atome Financial, while dtcpay showed how stablecoins are becoming normal payment infrastructure.
In LATAM, the strongest stories are about financial infrastructure, enterprise AI, and digitizing offline systems. Brazil’s A5X raised nearly $70 million to build a new derivatives exchange, Mexico’s Primero raised $12 million to help large companies actually use AI, OrderEAT is modernizing school cafeteria operations, and Colombia’s Plenti is using stablecoins underneath ordinary financial products.
In Europe, space tech, AI cybersecurity, physical AI, and deeptech growth capital dominated the week. Germany’s The Exploration Company raised $450 million, Isar Aerospace reached orbit, France’s Arlequin AI is betting on a different AI architecture, the UK’s Mantic raised after outperforming humans at forecasting, and Italy’s Exein became a physical AI security unicorn.
The bigger takeaway: startups are no longer just building apps on top of the internet. They are building manufacturing intelligence, robot hardware, stablecoin rails, AI-server infrastructure, derivatives exchanges, space transportation, cybersecurity for physical machines, and the deeptech capital stack behind the next technology cycle.