Bird vs HubSpot

European Tech Weekly Recap: Over €2B Invested Across 65+ Deals

This weekly recap summarizes European tech funding and M&A activity for the week of September 21-27, 2026. More than 65 funding deals raised over €2 billion, with robotics, AI, and healthtech leading the sectors. Portugal, the Netherlands, and the UK were the top countries by funding amount. Notable deals include TEKEVER's $580M Series D, Bird's $450M debt raise, and Verda's $189M AI cloud funding. In M&A, feld.energy is acquiring AckerKapital, EYSA acquires Joinup, Mistral AI acquires Pimento, and Luno acquires GXTN. The recap also highlights various smaller funding rounds across Europe.

• Over 65 tech funding deals raised more than €2 billion in Europe during the week of September 21-27, 2026.
• Top industries: robotics (€508.3M), AI (€406.6M), and healthtech (€305.8M).
• Leading countries: Portugal (€510.9M), Netherlands (€435.9M), UK (€273.9M).

Bird secures $450M and opens its infrastructure to AI agents

Bird announced securing $450M in financing and opening its infrastructure to AI agents, as featured on the company's blog.

Bird Raises $450M Debt, Cuts Headcount to 120

Bird, the business communications platform formerly known as MessageBird, has raised $450 million in debt financing led by JP Morgan, Capital One, and Citi. The funding includes a $400 million term loan and a $50 million revolving credit facility, with seven banks participating. The proceeds will provide liquidity to existing shareholders, including current and former employees. The company has drastically reduced its headcount from over 1,000 at its peak to 120, driven by automation and a strategic pivot toward AI. Bird is focusing on its AI Agentic Harness platform, which enables AI agents to communicate via SMS, calls, and email. The company reported $165 million in profits last year.

• Bird raised $450 million in debt financing led by JP Morgan, Capital One, and Citi.
• The financing comprises a $400 million term loan and a $50 million revolving credit facility.
• Bird's headcount has been reduced from over 1,000 at its peak to 120 employees.

Data sovereignty in marketing: What if HubSpot fails?

This article is a first-person commentary by a sixclicks team member on data sovereignty in marketing. It argues that critical business data often lies outside visible tools like CRMs, and discusses the importance of protecting 'crown jewels' like process knowledge and concepts. The author details their setup: a local Obsidian vault with Markdown files, version-controlled and hosted on Hetzner, to avoid vendor lock-in. They emphasize that personal data should only be anonymized before entering language models, and domain knowledge should not be uploaded to public models. The piece advocates for a 'kill-switch plan' with data exports and tests like vacation handover. It also notes that European alternatives are not automatically more sovereign; portability matters more than location. The article includes three actionable checks and mentions piloting local open-source models via Ollama.

• sixclicks uses Obsidian Vault with Markdown files for knowledge storage.
• The knowledge base is hosted on a Hetzner server.
• The author anonymizes personal data before using it in language models.

Zendesk Names Rachita Sundar as CFO

Zendesk announced the appointment of Rachita Sundar as Chief Financial Officer, effective September 28, 2026. Sundar, who brings over 20 years of experience in finance and operations at technology companies including Microsoft Azure, HubSpot, and Qualtrics, succeeds Julie Swinney, who transitions to Chief Administrative Officer and executive sponsor of Zendesk's Employee Service business. At Qualtrics, Sundar helped finance and close the $6.75 billion acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta. CEO Tom Eggemeier highlighted her financial rigor and operational expertise as Zendesk scales toward a multi-billion-dollar AI business.

• Rachita Sundar appointed CFO of Zendesk, effective September 28, 2026.
• Sundar has over 20 years of experience at Microsoft Azure, HubSpot, and Qualtrics.
• At Qualtrics, Sundar helped finance and close the $6.75 billion acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta.

Convelly Launches AI Platform for SME Customer Communication

Viennese startup Convelly has launched a platform for small and medium-sized service businesses that integrates customer communication, sales, and appointment booking into a single application. The AI-powered platform consolidates messages from multiple digital channels into a shared inbox, with a customer-facing AI assistant that handles inquiries, suggests appointment times, and records bookings. The internal assistant 'Elly' can execute tasks described in natural language. Convelly runs on open language models hosted on servers in Germany, emphasizing data sovereignty for EU-based businesses. The platform is available as a web app and on iOS/Android, in German, English, and Arabic. The company faces strong competition from established players like HubSpot and Zendesk, as well as specialized messaging platforms like Superchat, but differentiates itself with open models and European hosting. No pricing or funding details were disclosed.

• Convelly launched its AI platform for SME customer communication on September 25, 2026.
• The platform uses open language models hosted on servers in Germany.
• Convelly is available as a web app and for iPhone and Android.