How do you create a standout B2B SaaS startup? 🚀
Introducing our new report, sponsored by
@awscloud
, where we’ve distilled the key insights from more than 15 B2B SaaS founders, investors and experts into a comprehensive checklist.
Download it here:
London is the second fastest growing tech ecosystem worldwide, ahead of San Francisco, New York and Shanghai 🚀
VC investment jumped from $3.5bn in 2016 to $10.5bn in 2020, according to
@dealroomco
&
@londonpartners
:
Meet London’s latest speedy grocery startup: Oja. 🇬🇧
@OjaHQ
, which has just secured a $3.3m seed round led by
@localglobevc
, will initially focus “on Nigerian, Ghanaian and Jamaican products”, says founder
@TheArtofMariam
. 💬
VC funding in Paris reached a record $5.3bn last year — and the French capital is now the EU's
#1
hub for startup investment 🇫🇷
#frenchtech
@ngpcapital
Investment into Turkey’s tech scene skyrocketed in 2020: Turkish startups raised a record $139m and local VCs raised $328m, according to
@startupswatch
🇹🇷
Let’s dive into Turkey’s VC landscape 🧵👇
The UK is now the first country in Europe to have 100 startups worth $1bn+ 🇬🇧
The 100 UK unicorns have already broken a record in the first half of 2021 –– by raising almost €28.9bn VC funding, according to
@TechNation
.
💥Afro and curly haircare product startups
@Afrocenchix
secures a $1.2m seed round from
@Google
.
It's only the ninth UK business run by a Black woman to secure VC funds in the last decade:
Germany’s first VC fund exclusively backing female-founded startups has launched today. 🇩🇪
Auxxo will write cheques of €100k-600k for a 3-5% stake in the business, and hopes to link up female founders with more established VC firms. 💸
Women are less likely to engage in investing than men, with men making up around 70% of the users on investment apps.
Enter Juno: launching today hot off a £250k pre-seed round, Juno tackles the gender financial literacy gap.💰
@i_woodford
reports.👇
Berlin was named Europe’s most attractive ecosystem by European founders, according to
@eustartup
's latest survey.
After a year marked by Covid and Brexit, London loses the top spot — Amsterdam and Barcelona rank
#3
. How have European tech hubs changed in the past year? 🧵👇
Exclusive: Slack-rival Element wins largest ever collaborative software deal
The win points to the growing concern about privacy in communications around the world.
European VCs keep on raising larger and larger funds, but the number of women in senior investment positions remains very low.
But who's counting?🙃
We did 💁♀️ Meet Europe's 130 women VC partners:
Only nine businesses in the UK launched by a Black female founder have gained VC backing.
Until now.
Meet the tenth: sustainable AI beauty brand
@yuty_me
which has just secured £500k in a pre-seed round led by
@adaventures
.
Did you know that one third of new European VC funds were raised in London over the last two years? 🤯
But how did Europe’s VC
#investment
landscape change in 2020? Take a look👇
#europe
#tech
#london
VC deals in Europe had one of the strongest quarters on record in Q3 2020 🚀
Here are 8 interesting figures👇
1/ According to
@PitchBook
's latest report, VC deals in Europe totalled €10.6bn in Q3 2020, bringing year-to-date funding to €29.5bn:
The 15 'most powerful VCs', top five industry focus and 50+ new VC funds. How’s the European venture ecosystem in 2021? 🚀
Here’s the breakdown per region👇
VC investment in European tech hit a record high in 2020: €42.8bn was injected into startups, including €23bn from deals with US investor participation 🚀
Source:
@PitchBook
#europe
#investment
#startups
What the European tech ecosystem needs, according to
@frank_thelen
:
- Tech literacy. Explain tech to politicians, big organisations and even startup people
-Money. Either from rich investors, companies or governments.
- Heroes. Any candidates? 😎
Top 5 tech ecosystems in Europe by total value of tech companies founded since 2000:
1.🇬🇧 London
2.🇩🇪 Berlin
3.🇳🇱 Amsterdam
4.🇸🇪 Stockholm
5.🇫🇷 Paris
#Europe
#tech
@dealroomco
Portugal is home to more unicorns than Spain and its capital city Lisbon was picked by founders as one of Europe's most attractive tech hubs this year 🇵🇹
As its ecosystem is maturing, we asked investors to share the best under-the-radar startups to watch:
Gen Z is shaking up the status quo as they enter the workforce — including in VC. 👀
With the help of Peak Capital, Sifted’s
@mparts_
has shortlisted Europe’s top Gen Z investors — all aged 25 or younger. 🔥
Sorare, a blockchain-based fantasy football game, has raised a $680m Series B, the biggest Series B round in Europe to date.
At a $4.3bn valuation, it's now France’s highest-valued scaleup — and it's taking the NFT craze into the mainstream. ⚽
(1/12) It’s been a huge year for European tech — with $113bn raised, 247 $100m+ rounds, and 78 new unicorns. 🦄
Here’s the highlights, in 10 charts. 🇪🇺👇🧵
75% of UK founders come from an advantaged socioeconomic background, according to a new report from
@Cornerstone_LDN
and
@diversityvc
that sheds light on UK founders’ privilege.
Here’s what the data says 🧵👇
A whopping €2.5bn has been poured into Turkey’s startup ecosystem this year, with on-demand grocery platform Getir and decacorn Trendyol racking up hefty valuations. 💰
So four VCs operating in Turkey pick out the country’s most up-and-coming startups.
Sifted is an FT-backed new media site taking a fresh look at Europe’s startup and tech world, building a readership of founders, investors, innovators and thinkers. If that sounds interesting, sign up to our newsletter at
Some good news! 94% of startups in Europe are going to survive the upheaval of the coronavirus pandemic.
That's according to a survey by
@joinstationf
&
@roxannevarza
of more than 1000 startups.
Only four of Europe's 116 VC-backed 🦄s are university spinouts.
German venture capitalist,
@EarlybirdVC
, is launching a €75m fund aiming to invest in 40 university spinouts. Could this bring Europe towards successfully commercialising its tech talent?
VC investment into European impact startups tripled to €5bn between 2015 and 2020, according to
@dealroom
's latest report 🌍
From the fastest-growing startups to the most generous investors, here’s what you need to know about impact in Europe👇
💥 Green mobility startup
@arrival
is set to go public on the
@Nasdaq
today with a current valuation of $13bn — one of the largest-ever listings of a UK tech company 🤯
How did
@sorare
founder Nicolas Julia get to where he is today? ⚽️
@obrien
sat down for brunch with
@ni2las
at Sorare’s 🇫🇷 office to discuss everything from how he first became fascinated with NFTs, to juggling a US expansion with raising two children.
Who in Europe's startup ecosystem is at the forefront of the seismic change we're witnessing across sectors — and society — post coronavirus?
We asked our readers. Did you make the list?
We’ve officially launched the Sifted website today, bringing you a new take on European tech. The trials of WikiTribune, ageism in tech, lab-grown meat, agrobots, and the next wave of proptech are just some of the stories we are looking at:
📱 Has Europe joined the quest to build a single super app?
@LukeMassie
highlights the need for fintech founders to join the race to coin a European WeChat.
The UK government has promised £1bn worth of support for startups struggling to cope amid the coronavirus pandemic, bowing to the pressure of the local tech community.
Read the full story here 👇
Turkey's startups scooped $509m in the first three months of 2021, according to
@startups_watch
— 5x more than what they raised in total last year 🤯
The investment spike was mostly fueled by online grocery delivery
@getir
's $428m round:
More than 90% of angel investors in the UK are male, and 93% of them are white, but a new scheme by
@adaventures
is shaking things up:
➡️ Ada Ventures will invest in five entrepreneurs with direct experience in underrepresented communities:
#diversity
Last week,
@Atomico
’s State of European Tech report announced that Europe is on track to hit a record level of investment of $41bn this year.
But, how has the European
#investment
landscape changed in 2020? We tell you here 👇
🚨 Announcement!
We’re excited to share that we’ve raised £4m to continue scaling Sifted. 🇪🇺
The raise, led by ScaleUp Capital, allows us to expand our reporting on the European startup ecosystem, and double the size of our team. 🚀
Since
@WhatsApp
announced a change in its data policy, secure messaging app
@element_hq
has seen its number of new users risen by 400% 📲
What's the tech behind the French app that even convinced the German military to sign up?
#frenchtech
Investment into Finnish startups doubled to €951m in 2020, up from €505m in 2019, according to
@FVCAfi
🇫🇮
So, who’s plugged money into Finland’s tech ecosystem? 👇🧵
1/3 Summer hasn't stopped VC investment from flowing 🤑
Last month, European startups have raised a hefty €9.3bn –– almost 3x more than the €3.6bn raised in July last year.
European tech & startups in numbers so far in 2020:
🦄 15 new unicorns
🤝 21 IPOs
🚀 1,933 seed rounds
💸 €37.3bn of VC funding raised
Here are the most striking data sets:
👉
#Europe
#tech
#startups
Just 2.5% of
#European
startups have entirely female founder teams, while around a fifth of
#startups
have a female cofounder.
With this in mind, we’ve chosen to showcase a handful of fast-growth female-founded startups to watch in 2020.
📖⬇️
The UK government has struck an agreement with nine major pension funds to invest at least 5% of their assets into the nation’s startups and fast-growing companies
Just 1.1% of of Europe’s venture deals this year went to all-women founding teams. 👎
But a new fund from
@pinksaltvc
could help change that.
The micro VC is launching a new fund, and welcoming
@SaloniBhojwani
to join Samira Ann Qassim as cofounder. 🙌
Fintech has received more funding in Europe than any other sector, raising $8.5bn in 2019!
This is down to a key group of
#VCs
who have been particularly active, backing hundreds of early-stage
#fintech
startups in
#Europe
.
There aren’t enough female angels in Europe — but there are still more than you think. 👀
For the first time ever, we've compiled a comprehensive list of 150+ active female angel investors in Europe. 🇪🇺
#angelinvesting
#female
#VC
“I get really frustrated when I see European entrepreneurs giving up on their amazing visions by selling very early in the process… We need more super companies to raise the bar and can act as an inspiration" says
@eldsjal
from
@Spotify
#Europe
#startups
76% of co-ops survive their first five years of operating, compared to 50% of other startups.
And for co-ops who manage to attract investment? The all-time survival rate rockets to 92%. 🚀
Sifted’s
@timmpsmith
explores worker owned co-operatives.
VC heavyweight
@sequoia
has revealed the 17 European companies in the inaugural cohort of its Arc accelerator programme. 👀
So, what do we know about the cohort so far? These are the companies which made the cut. 🚀
#venturecapital
🦸♀️ More diverse hires like this please.
London-based VC firm
@atomico
has taken on two new female investors – consumer startups guru Sasha Astafyera as partner and former Google member Terese Hougaard as principal.
#VC
#startups
#diversity
❗️29
#deeptech
VCs in
#Europe
you need to know!❗️
Old, new, university-affiliated or corporate-backed, these are the investors who know how to evaluate and fund deeptech
#startups
.