Seb Johnson

The UK is building hard things again. One of the great stories of 2026 will be the resurgence of Deeptech in the UK. So far this year: > OLIX raised $220m and became a unicorn > Ineffable intelligence is raising a $1bn seed > Wayve raised $1bn+ at an $8bn+ valuation > Nscale raised a $2bn Series C to become a decacorn > Cambridge Aerospace is raising at a unicorn valuation > UFORCE raised $50m at a $1bn valuation > Roark raised $210m at $1.6bn valuation. The UK is now building across chips, data centres, defence, AV, and frontier AI. On top of that we've seen the Sovereign AI fund launch as well as the UK government committing £2bn to quantum computing. LETS GO

@paulbonnet @elonmusk @British_Airways @Starlink Two under two is peak babymaxxing. Nice

Say what you will about @elonmusk… But I am embarking on a 10h flight on @British_Airways with no wifi (thanks BA, very premium!) and my two babies under two… And I pray to the gods of @Starlink that finally they will soon be on board all planes 🤲🙏

Tom Hulme of GV has got one of the best track records of any investor in Europe: > Monzo > Stripe > Blockchain dot com > Nothing > Lemonade > GoCardless > Multiverse > Snyk These are lots of great European investors with a few unicorns to their name but @thulme is approaching double figures. And a lot of these are multi-billion unicorns. The @GVteam has been betting BIG on Europe recently and has more than doubled its investments in Europe from $500m to $1.2bn since 2023. NICE

@LaindonFEMINIST Thank you!

Like to read positive news? Read this and follow @SebJohnsonUK Love hearing about new businesses thriving under Labour. Expect more in the coming years.

It is AMAZING that the EU has officially proposed @euinc_petition but the the work is not done yet. It is a great step in the right direction but it's not good enough in its current form. Last week the EU-INC team highlighted the major issues: 🇪🇺 It defering legal authority to national courts 🇪🇺 Using local registries Which opens interpretation up to every member state and doesn't allow for proper standardisation and productisation. It is AMAZING to see the EU listen and be responsive to the tech community but the work is not DONE YET. The team who have worked tremendously hard work on this have truly done something amazing. This would have been unimaginebale 18 months ago. Great stuff from Andreas Klinger (@andreasklinger), Iwona Anna Biernat (@_iwonabiernat), Vojtech Horna and many others.

Victoria Weller (@vic_weller) on removing all job titles at @ElevenLabs: "it's unlocked so much in terms of agility, growth, clarity that has been so worth it" "The downside I've seen is that its hard to explain the tenure or responsibility level of a role that we're hiring for" Anyone else tempted to remove all job titles?

Neko Health is genuinely building the healthcare of the future and it's coming straight out of Stockholm 🇸🇪 The company, founded in 2018 by @HNilsonne and Daniel Ek (@eldsjal), focuses on preventative health technology, offering full-body, non-invasive scanners designed to detect potential health issues early. It became a unicorn after its $260m Series B in early 2025 and has a waitlist of over 300k people. This morning I visited all four London clinics and finished in their Spitalfields site for my own scan. The experience is was genuinely insane and you can't help but walk away thinking that this is the future of healthcare. Amazing stuff from the @NekoHealth team @HNilsonne, @shak, @eldsjal

Accel are absolutely crushing it across European AI. They're invested in: > Synthesia > Lovable > n8n > Legora Four of the continents brightest AI companies. Is there any other firm in Europe is as many of the hottest AI companies? The only contender I can think of is Matt Miller of Evantic (@MattEvantic) who is also in n8n, synthesia and Lovable but also @ElevenLabs (although I think at later stages). Nice @Accel

A Senior Apple exec has left to join Finnish decacorn @ouraring. The trend continues. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

@Alicebentinck @jonnyclifford @ScalingEurope Love to see it!

Customers move faster in the US. This means startups can move faster. This is something I previously massively underrated. @jonnyclifford on @ScalingEurope

@MosesOpen @fuseenergy The CEO told me

@SebJohnsonUK @fuseenergy sources?

BREAKING: Fuse Energy has surpassed $500m of ARR and is doing MILLIONS of profit every month! It took the company 3 years to hit $100m ARR. It has then taken the company 9 months to surpass $500m ARR. @fuseenergy is quickly becoming one of Europe's most exciting companies. The startup, founded by Revolut executives @alanchanguk and @chrlsorr in 2022, raised at a $5bn valuation at the end of last year. Insane ARR growth is great, but doing it while achieving profitability is phenomneal. It's on track to surpass $1bn in ARR this year and has got to be one of the top picks to be Europe's next decacorn.

@AlexisG_Xuser @fuseenergy You may not but Fuse certainly does

@SebJohnsonUK @fuseenergy BREAKING we don’t use the term ARR for a energy supplier

One of Europe's most cracked hackers has just raised $6m from @20vcFund and @seedcamp. This guy had earned 800k by the age of 23 by legally hacking the likes of Google, Amazon and Netflix. He was also named Most Valuable Hacker at TWO of Google's Live Hacking Events. Today he (Roni Carta - @0xLupin) has announced a $5.9m pre-seed. It's being led by @alexandre_dewez of 20VC and Carlos Espinal (@cee) of Seedcamp. Europe continues to produce world class talent. It's great to see them get funded and build world class products. LETS GO

Alex is one of the greatest European entrepreneurs to ever do it Congrats @Bouazizalex

@MollySOShea @deel @Bouazizalex @shuooo What a BANGER

BREAKING: @deel Hits $1.4B+ ARR Co-founded by CEO Alex Bouaziz (@Bouazizalex) & CRO Shuo Wang (@shuooo), Alex shares their hypergrowth playbook.. Founded in 2019, at only 7 years old: - Deel has scaled to $1.4B+ ARR - Reached a $17.3B valuation - 40K+ customers across 150+ countries - 3+ years of being profitable Deel has rapidly become the #1 platform for hiring & paying employees worldwide. We discuss: • Scaling Deel to $1.4B+ ARR • Serving 40K+ companies across 150+ countries • Deel’s 10+ acquisition M&A strategy • Building a profitable hypergrowth SaaS company • The future of global hiring & distributed teams • How AI agents will transform the workforce Recent Financing: Oct 2025, Deel announced a $300 million Series E funding round, valuing the company at $17.3 billion co-led by Ribbit Capital (@RibbitCapital) as a new investor, alongside long-time partners Andreessen Horowitz (@a16z) & Coatue Management (@coatuemgmt). This was filmed in London February 12, 2026 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Alex Bouaziz, Co-Founder & CEO at Deel (02:05) Working with co-founder & CRO Shuo Wang (03:54) What Deel actually does (05:05) Biggest customers (05:54) $17B valuation and latest funding round (06:35) How Deel approaches fundraising (07:50) Hitting $100M ARR and early growth (09:25) Why raise money if you are already profitable? (10:35) Inside the latest funding round (12:03) Why payroll is a huge global opportunity (14:21) How Deel expanded its product stack (15:21) The challenges of hiring globally (16:18) Running a 7,000 person fully remote company (18:29) Tips for building remote teams (19:50) Why Deel went global from day one (22:47) How AI is changing hiring (25:00) Deel’s moat in an AI world (26:19) A question from Micky Malka (26:57) From airlines to oil and gas: who uses Deel (27:58) M&A strategy and integration playbook (34:33) Biggest mistakes companies make with acquisitions (35:56) How to retain founders after acquisitions (36:34) Deel's new CFO (39:09) What it takes to be IPO ready (40:29) How AI could affect Deel’s future (42:55) The "Dubai founder controversy" (46:00) Leading in a competitive market (50:47) The biggest misconception about Deel (53:27) The right people around you (56:51) The "default optimism" (58:33) What’s next for Deel (01:01:05) The future of autonomous agents (01:03:35) Biggest lessons from Shuo (01:06:34) What makes a great salesperson (01:08:32) Partnering with Arsenal

BREAKING: UK Defence company Cambridge Aerospace is about to become Europe's newest unicorn! Before 2026 the UK had 0 defence unicorns. It is now about to get its third in three months. Cambridge Aerospace is focused on drone and drone interception and is chaired by former UK defence minister Grant Shapps. It's speaking with investors about raising about $200m at a $1bn+ valuation, a LARGE increase from its $400m valuation last year. LETS GO - The UK is quickly becoming a defence hotspot and it is ABOUT TIME. Great stuff from @IvanLevingston linked below.

If Princess Beatrice has only got 167 connections on LinkedIn what hope do you have?