Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast

This week we discuss: 01:05 Micromobility giant Tier lays off 22% of its workforce in push for profitability , Unicorn edtech Multiverse to lay off nearly a third of US employees 05:34 GenAI biotech Cradle raises $24m Series A led by Index Ventures 08:55 The top takeaways from Atomico’s State of European Tech report 20:13 Why hasn't EIF announced a single investment from its €3.75bn fund of f...

Sonya Iovieno knows European tech’s secrets. As head of venture and growth at HSBC Innovation Banking, where she works with thousands of VCs, startups and scaleups in the UK and Nordics, she has a view on who’s done an undisclosed down round, who’s been trimming headcount and who’s set up a “hunting line” for future acquisitions. And she also knows what it’s like to go through a merger, after her...

This week we discuss: Nordic merger between online grocers Oda and Mathem It ain’t Easee: How Norway’s EV rising star fell foul of regulators How Sequoia-backed e-bike refurbisher Upway raised $30m in a micromobility slowdown Grocery delivery is back as Crisp raises €35m to scale next-day delivery $400k graduate salaries and gun-for-hire ‘SWAT teams’ — inside the wild AI talent market of 2023 Why...

This week we discuss: 00:53  Aleph Alpha raises $500m Series B in one of Europe’s largest AI rounds ever 03:56  What the pitch deck from Adaptive, a new AI startup raising at a $100m valuation, tells us 07:15  French startup Quandela raises €50m to manufacture commercial quantum computers 11:03  Swedish startup wants to ‘stream energy like music’ on electric roads to charge cars as they drive 18:2...

This week we discuss: 02:26 Web Summit announces former Wikimedia boss as new CEO 04:16 More unions sign up to Klarna strike on Nov 7 06:36 Benetton scion moves into tech investing with new €30m fund 09:40 How a “miracle” weight-loss drug created Europe’s most valuable company, and a startup investment machine 17:23 UK gears up to major AI summit under the shadow of its own lack of regulation

This week we discuss: 02:05 French early-stage startups get a €500m funding boost in 2024 budget 04:33 Northvolt’s $20bn listing in Stockholm — a win for European stock exchanges 07:20 Solar energy storage breakthrough could make European households self-sufficient 12:30 Quantum computing is not a threat to national security. So why can't Europe work together? 20:35 Founder to reality TV star...

This week we discuss: 00:59 Germany is about to legalise cannabis. What does it mean for startups? 03:49 Payments fintech Modulr agrees with regulator to stop onboarding new customers 05:32 German fund La Famiglia merges with General Catalyst 09:29 Northvolt founder’s heat pump startup secures €87m 17:24 The rise — and fall — of Babylon Link to subscribe to the Sifted Fintech newsletter: https://s...

This week on the podcast we’re joined by Alex Kendall, CEO of self-driving car company Wayve, for a long-form interview on the challenges of getting autonomous vehicles onto our roads. Alex discusses how to win public trust for this technology, how he sees a future world filled with “embodied AI” and about how Elon Musk followed Wayve’s approach to self-driving tech. This podcast is brought to you...

This week we are live from the Sifted Summit — our annual event bringing together the best of European tech and startups. Today on the pod you’ll hear from Stripe cofounder John Collison, AI startup sensation Mistral cofounder Arthur Mensch and digital bank Monzo COO Sujata Bhatia . *And, if you want to learn how to live into your 100s, here's a write up of the top tips from longevity investo...

This week we discuss: 02:07 — Improbable’s refocus on the metaverse sees big reduction in losses 04:46 — ‘The economics of trading equity for compute are not great’ — Mistral releases its first model 07:15 — Dutch arm of vertical farming startup Infarm declared bankrupt 11:22 — US eyes British startups in chip sovereignty bid 13:50 — UK-France AI rivalry heats up with dual summits 14:48 — Why is a...

This week it’s a long form interview with Reshma Sohoni. In 2007 she cofounded the London-based venture fund Seedcamp, which has backed leading European tech companies like UIPath, Wise and Revolut. Reshma sat down remotely with Sifted’s Amy Lewin to share her thoughts on what she’s seeing in the market today, and lessons learnt from more than a decade and a half of investing in startups.

This week we discuss: 01:24 Getir valuation reduced 4x in new $500m funding round 02:14 The big French fire sale: record numbers of startups are selling at big discounts 05:51 German HR tech Personio opens New York office, plans to double US workforce 07:33  Smart chatbot maker DRUID raises $30m to double down on US business 14:48 Want to capitalise off America’s $369bn climate bill? Here’s how Ge...

This week, Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast is joined by Sachin Duggal, founder and CEO of Builder. AI , a company that uses AI to help customers build software applications more easily. He sat down with Eleanor in the studio to talk about competition for talent, building culture and the future of software development.

This week we discuss: 02:55 US AI startup Poolside raises $126m seed round and relocates to France 05:50 Klarna cuts losses and sees “huge opportunity” in generative AI 08:10  N26 CPO Gilles BianRosa steps down, becomes supervisory board member 08:42  Babylon finds buyer for its UK business (and GP at Hand service) 10:02  Dutch VC PhotonVentures bets all on photonic chips with new €100m fund 16:23...

This week we discuss: 02:25  Weight-loss drug mania reaches Europe: Denmark’s Embla raises €10m 06:47 Getir cuts 10% of staff in latest sign of speedy grocery industry's struggles 08:30 Northvolt raises $1.2bn convertible note from BlackRock 10:33 Scottish startup ENOUGH raises €40m for its alternative meat 13:12 NatureMetrics raises £10m as biodiversity moves up the ESG agenda 23:13 How is t...

This week we're talking about a single story that Sifted reported this week: serious allegations of workplace misconduct at one of Europe’s leading VC firms.  Seven people who worked at DN Capital — an investor in Shazam, Remitly and Auto1 — allege that its founder Nenad Marovac sexually harassed and bullied colleagues, creating a culture of misogyny at the fund. Marovac has denied all the al...

This week we discuss: 01:10 How much RingCentral paid for those Hopin assets               Was Hopin really such a failure? 03:41 Dutch startup Meatable raises $35m to scale cultivated pork products 07:58 Build-a-bot workshop: deepset.ai raises $30m for personalised AI models 10:58 Who's going to buy Babylon? 19:20 The machines have eyes: How GenAI is giving warehouse robots vision

This week we discuss: 01:07 Johnny Boufarhat steps down as CEO of Hopin 04:55 Prima Materia makes third startup investment — into longevity 08:31 European VCs see exodus of women investors 11:58 The ‘crazy’ £20bn subsea cable to bring Moroccan solar power to the UK 22:38 Can French startups overcome their elitist image?

This week we discuss: Getir calls on staff to go door-to-door with goodie bags as cashflow problems persist (1:36) Eurazeo's growth team quits to start new fund (5:31) VanMoof: What happened to VCs' favourite bike? (8:42) Are Oura rings and executive coaches the answer to founder burnout? (12:46)

We're back with another longer form interview and this week we're joined by Eileen Burbidge, cofounder of London-based, early-stage VC firm Passion Capital and director at reproductive healthcare company Fertifa. She came into the studio to reflect on the differences between Silicon Valley and London, her time at Monzo and how she wants to fix reproductive healthcare in Europe.

This week we discuss: 02:00 UK government unveils plan to direct £75bn from pension funds to startups 05:30  5 key questions that the Mansion House Compact doesn’t answer 07:34 The startup creating AI jobs for humans: Prolific raises £25m 10:39 Causaly raises $60m Series B to give scientists instant access to 'all of biology' 13:15 Aphea. Bio raises €70m Series C 24:00 Paris is burning (...

Our competition to win a ticket for the Sifted Summit has now closed, thanks for entering if you took part! We're still keen to learn more about who listens to the podcast,  please take this five-question survey if you have a minute to spare: https://ftx.typeform.com/to/L2ai27Fu This week we discuss: 02:14 Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s Neko Health raises €60m Series A amid European expansion pl...

Our competition to win a ticket for the Sifted Summit has now closed, thanks for entering if you took part! We're still keen to learn more about who listens to the podcast,  please take this five-question survey if you have a minute to spare: https://ftx.typeform.com/to/L2ai27Fu This week we discuss: 01:51 Data roaming outside the EU still sucks — but the AUTO1 founder’s new startup wants to...

Our competition to win a ticket for the Sifted Summit has now closed, thanks for entering if you took part! We're still keen to learn more about who listens to the podcast,  please take this five-question survey if you have a minute to spare: https://ftx.typeform.com/to/L2ai27Fu This week we discuss:  See the pitch memo that raised €105m for four-week-old startup Mistral A Human Genome Projec...

This week we sat down with Chloe Smith, the UK's acting secretary of state for Science, Innovation & Technology — the government minister tasked with supporting the growth of the country’s tech and startup sector. She told us about what the UK is doing to attract talent to its shores, and about how the country plans to unlock pension funds to invest in high-growth tech companies.