The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Oct 2025

Founded in 2023 as an Inria spin-out, Probabl develops an open-source platform that lets data scientists inspect model assumptions, quantify uncertainty, and deploy probabilistic forecasts with scikit-learn familiarity. The company complements its free tooling with Skore, a premium product that adds version control, monitoring, optimisation, and other lifecycle-management features for enterprise data-science teams; Skore is currently in pilot testing with select clients. Probabl positions itself as a transparent, customisable bridge between academic research and production-grade AI systems, leveraging its founders’ deep involvement in the core scikit-learn project. Recent funding will be used to expand engineering and product headcount across Europe, improve real-time forecasting accuracy and interpretability, and grow the user community through training and certification programmes. The company also plans to evolve Skore into a comprehensive ML lifecycle management suite aimed at large enterprises. To date, Probabl has raised approximately €18.5 million in total funding.

Participated · Series B · Nov 2024

The Exploration Company is developing Nyx, a reusable spacecraft designed to carry up to 3,000 kilograms of cargo to and from Earth, with a target maiden flight to the ISS in 2028. The startup was founded three years ago by Hélène Huby, Sebastien Reichstat, and Pierre Vine and operates out of Germany, France, and Italy. The new funding will support continued development and testing after the company flew a demonstrator on Ariane 6 (not deployed) and plans a second sub-scale mission, Mission Possible, on a Falcon 9 next year. The company has won an ESA LEO Cargo Return Service study contract worth around €25 million ($27 million) running through 2026. Financially, the Series B brings the company’s total funding to over $208 million and follows a reported $770 million contract backlog, about 90% of which comes from private station developers Vast, Axiom Space, and Starlab. The Exploration Company is a space tech startup based in Bordeaux, France and Munich, Germany, founded in 2019 by Hélène Huby. It is developing Nyx, a modular, reusable and in-orbit refuelable vehicle designed to carry cargo and, in the longer run, humans, with open-interface software and hardware. The company raised €40m in a Series A to advance its vehicle program. The round was co-led by EQT Ventures and Red River West with participation from Promus Ventures, Cherry Ventures, Vsquared, Omnes Capital, July Fund, Partech, Possible Ventures, Habert Dassault Finance, Schlumberger and Sista Fund. The Exploration Company intends to use the funds to commercialize Nyx Mission Odyssey, finalize and launch a second vehicle, and expand the team. No operating metrics (revenue or user numbers) were disclosed in the article. The Exploration Company is developing Nyx, a reusable, refuel-able orbital vehicle composed of a service module and a reusable capsule. Nyx is designed to carry up to 4,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit for missions up to six months; the service module could be reusable and refueled using in-space resource utilization. The startup plans to fly the Bikini reentry demonstrator aboard an Ariane 6 rocket this October, follow with a full-scale prototype in 2024 on SpaceX, and target Nyx’s maiden flight in 2026. Founders Hélène Huby, Artur Koop and Jon Reijneveld (with Sébastien Reichstat and Pierre Vinet) left Airbus to form the company, and management largely comes from large aerospace corporations. The Exploration Company has raised around €11.5 million to date, including a €5.3 million seed led by Promus Ventures with participation from Vsquared and Cherry Ventures, and its headcount has grown to around 30 people. The company was selected for AWS’s 2022 Space Accelerator, has referred to Orbital Reef as a partner, plans to open a U.S. subsidiary next year, and intends to develop a human-rated version of Nyx longer term.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2022

FLYING WHALES is developing the LCA60T, a rigid airship designed to carry 60 tons for low-carbon heavy cargo transport. The company is creating FLYING WHALES SERVICES, the business that will run the LCA60T. It raised €122 million to finalise its aeronautics programme and accelerate development work. The funds will be used to complete the LCA60T programme and speed up the launch of FLYING WHALES SERVICES in France and Quebec, Canada. Management expects development activities for the future airline and airport company to be mature enough in 2023 to be spun off into a subsidiary and thus accelerate commercial activities. Strategic shareholders ALIAD and ADP Group are part of the company’s industrial coalition as it advances its aeronautical programme.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2022

Kayrros captures and analyzes data across the energy sector using satellite imagery, natural language processing, Internet of Things data, and machine learning to deliver near‑real‑time market intelligence. The company has established itself as a global leader in crude oil intelligence and reports customers representing half of the world’s crude oil trading volume. Kayrros combines its technology with in‑house energy expertise to help customers make more informed trading, investment, and operational decisions. The company plans to strengthen coverage across the crude oil value chain and expand into petroleum products, power generation, natural gas, and renewables. Kayrros has grown its team from 8 to 100 engineers and scientists and operates from headquarters in Paris with offices in Houston, London, New York, and Singapore. Financially, Kayrros has completed multiple funding rounds, the latest being a Series B that increases its total funding to €32 million. Kayrros is a Paris-based climate and energy data analytics company that analyses satellite imagery and other data to deliver geospatial detection and climate-impact measurements. Its platform helps public and private organisations manage climate risks, implement low-carbon transition strategies, track sustainability goals, and transparently communicate progress. Founded in 2016, Kayrros has raised €72 million in total funding to date, including a €40 million round announced in this article. The new capital will be used to support and develop the company's geospatial detection technologies and expand its toolbox for near real-time climate data. Kayrros plans to construct a 'New Space' to promote spatial sovereignty and align with French and European strategies for next-generation satellite intelligence under the France 2030 initiative. The company’s positioning attracted both public and private backers, reflecting policy interest in space-based climate monitoring and its role in energy security and decarbonisation efforts. Kayrros builds predictive analytics described as a "weather forecast" for oil and gas consumption, production and storage. It aggregates diverse data sources including road traffic, customs data, pipeline and oil tanker information, satellite images and social network data to feed prediction models. The product is currently being tested with beta clients. The startup recently raised $9.6 million (€9 million) from Index Ventures, with John Browne and Marcel van Poecke participating. Kayrros plans to recruit 40 new employees and expects to hire many data scientists and AI engineers to develop its models. Given the lucrative nature of the energy market, the company aims to sell expensive contracts to oil and gas companies and financial traders.