Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast

This week we’ve got a special episode focusing on Swedish tech. Sifted has been visiting the Nordic Nation for our Stockholm Sessions event, where we caught up with founders working in everything from electric-powered boats to a plan to build a metaverse-powered aquarium at the bottom of a real-life fjord.We were also joined by Klarna’s Sebastian Siemiatkowski, who gave an interview on what the media gets wrong about his company, and why it’s sometimes ok to lose $100m a month.

This week we discuss:02:18 Revolut reports its first-ever year of profit05:29 Klarna posts $1bn annual loss, its largest ever09:55 Want to drive using mind control?13:14 GitLab and Remote backer Inkef loses its sole LP17:16 Wise and Monzo founders back legal generative AI startup’s $10.5m Series A23:16 I’m not a billionaire — will I ever go to space? 

This week it's a long form interview with founder-turned-investor Taavet Hinrikus. He's half a year into his journey as a VC and says that his new fund Plural is going to do things differently. He came into the Sifted studio to tell us about why investor committees are useless, how you can't build a business on a four-day week and the biggest lessons he learnt from building Wise.

This week we discuss:01:13 Lumai lands £1.1m grant to achieve ‘world’s fastest computation’ and power the AI revolution04:16 German edtech Knowunity, a TikTok for kk, raises €9m Series A extension07:15 New €3.75bn European Investment Fund pot to back late-stage VCs08:40 Which investor has backed the most European unicorns?10:25 Inside Daniel Ek's new boday scanning startup15:10 Heart Aerospace hopes to build a plane even Greta Thunberg would fly on18:52 Counteract closes £15m fund for carbon removal solutions

In this special episode of Startup Europe, Sifted’s central and eastern Europe correspondent Zosia Wanat looks under the surface of some of the continent’s most resilient startups.Based on extensive interviews with Ukrainian founders, the episode reveals how people working in the tech sector — which is so vital to the country’s economy — have battled to keep their businesses alive.The podcast tells the stories of Ukrainian entrepreneurs in their own words, from colleagues trapped in basements with Russian troops on the streets, to investors pulling funding and big business pivots to stay afloat.

This week we discuss:01:59: Germany launches €1bn fund for climate and deeptech scaleups05:33: ‘Good news for startups’ — UK government launches new Science, Innovation and Technology department07:41: The French spacetech working with Elon Musk’s SpaceX09:22: Sifted's in-depth spacetech report10:17: Farming platform Wikifarmer raises €5m14:12: Three quarters of LGBTQ+ founders hide their identity from investors18:34: Aleph Alpha believes Europe can compete with OpenAI if it ‘picks its battles’27:22: Does size really matter? $80bn sextech market still too taboo for VCs

This week we discuss:02:33: PASQAL lands €100m after ‘world-first’ real-life quantum computer use05:17: Renaissance Fusion raises €15m to develop clean nuclear energy technology07:27: Monzo revenues surge more than twofold, putting it on track for 2023 profitability10:42: Tech Nation shutting down as UK government controversially pulls key funding14:55: France plans to use the startup downturn to come out on top in Europe22:02: How to raise a $33m Series A during an economic downturn

This week we're back with a longer form interview, digging into one of the most hyped tech sectors in recent times: speedy grocery delivery. After startups in the space raised millions in 2021 — shooting to massive valuations in a matter of months — the bubble has now somewhat burst, as the former superstar Gorillas was sold at a big loss to rival Getir at the end of 2022. Today we're asking whether these services can ever turn a profit, in spite of the big costs associated with getting groceries delivered to people within a 10-minute window.Our guest to discuss this juicy topic is Delivery Hero’s VP of quick commerce, Milena Lazarevska. Delivery Hero was founded in 2011 and in 2017 the food delivery company floated on the German stock exchange. Today it offers delivery services in more than 70 countries across four continents, and owns brands including Glovo, Foodpanda and Pedidos Ya in Latin America.

This week we discuss:Britishvolt goes into administrationCazoo's CEO steps downNew technology to store vaccines at room temperatureThe startup cleaning up Elon Musk's space junkDragon's Den star Steven Bartlett has a new startupStabilityAI's Emad Mostaque on OpenAI and lawsuitsDigging into FTX's European investments

This week we discuss:01:08: OXcan raises $3.7m to scale its cancer detection tech04:35  Autonomous vehicles everywhere: Oxbotica raises $140m07:54 Checkout.com's latest financial results10:47 Employee healthcare benefits platform Peppy raises $45m for US expansion17:28 ‘We can predict behaviour’: The former spook vetting founders on behalf of VCsThis podcast is brought to you by Zendesk for Startups. Zendesk helps startups build lasting customer experiences from day one. With the Zendesk for Startups Program, startups get Zendesk customer support software and CRM for six months FREE of charge. You’ll get access to expert advice and a community of likeminded founders and CX leaders to help you build the foundation for long-term growth. Learn more and claim your 6 months free at zendesk.com/sifted