Six startups, five cheques not from a VC

• Quint Computing, Erlangen: €9.1M led by Vsquared Ventures, which the company calls the largest first round for a German quantum computing startup. On top comes a €2.2M Pathfinder grant from the EIC.
• Vitroscope, Trondheim: a $5M seed co-led by Cerberus Ventures and YZR Capital, plus $2M in non-dilutive funding from the Research Council of Norway. Its platform keeps living human tissue under controlled flow for drug research.
• Apolarion, an EPFL spin-off: CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick for first field trials of a device that treats seeds with cold plasma instead of chemicals.
• S-Sentia, a Université de Genève spin-off: CHF 100,000 from FIF Seed Tech, the Canton of Geneva's programme at FONGIT, paid as a convertible loan. It goes into a sensor chip for 3D vision.
• Symactiv, Neuchâtel: CHF 50,000 for first place at the Clima Now Spotlight, for pellets made from mushroom waste that regenerate depleted soil.
• Sortrace, Stockholm: around $800,000 led by Almi Invest, with Antler. Cameras on waste trucks show municipalities how well households sort.

In the two biggest rounds, the public money came on top of venture capital. In the next three, the cheque came from a foundation, a canton or a competition.