Sifted

A great end to a great first day! 🍻 A huge thank you to all our speakers and exhibitors today — your contributions made today truly special. We hope everyone who attended enjoyed the experience as much as the Sifted team did. Stick around for networking drinks at the main stage and we look forward to seeing you all back here tomorrow for day 2! #SiftedSummit #europeantech #startupevent

“It’s not difficult to know what to do with your company, just ask your customers.” — Miki Kuusi, Cofounder and CEO - Wolt Amy Lewin, Editor at Sifted, interviewed Miki Kuusi on the Sifted Summit main stage exploring how to scale startups — the key is nailing your product-market fit and staying connected with your customers. Miki communicated his passion for sustainable growth and advised on the importance of remaining grounded as a founder, even when expanding globally. In addition, he makes it a point to order from Wolt as a customer and work as a courier, emphasising the importance of stepping out of the CEO's ivory tower. #founders #startupeurope #siftedsummit

It’s no secret that the startup scene is stressful. Whether struggling to close clients or raise much-needed funds, some founders can’t help but wonder, ‘is it time to call it a day?’. Here are today’s panels top tips at avoiding founder burnout, keeping themselves and their business healthy: 🔥 It’s difficult to find the space to share how you really feel - prioritise taking genuine breaks to recharge.   🔥 Acknowledge stressful situations, but focus on how you can control your ability to cope with them.  🔥 When you’re experiencing burnout it’s hard to know it — use journaling as a way to regularly check in with your emotions and mental state. 🔥 Identify what truly matters outside of work, and invest time and energy into those areas to create a healthier balance. Thank you to our speakers for their contributions and insights at Sifted Summit — Emma Joy Obanye, Cofounder and CEO of OneTech, Hannah Samano, Founder and CEO at Unfabled, Reeva Misra, Founder and CEO of Walking on Earth, and moderator Miriam Partington, Senior Reporter, Sifted. #founderburnout #startupevent #siftedsummit

The golden ticket for Fintech — M&A. But where do you begin?  🎫 M&A is sweeping the startup world, as fintechs battle with low valuations and VC capital scarcity. To maximise the value of a potential M&A deal our panel suggests some tips below to maximise the value when a potential deal comes knocking. 🌟 The process doesn’t happen overnight, start a partnership where the potential buyer becomes integrated early on as a customer/user and establish a track record working together. Build up a trusting dynamic where companies are aligned. 🌟 The really sensitive details of a deal do not need to be disclosed beyond senior management but it's typical for 50-60% of employees to be involved in the wider process as the transaction moves towards completion. 🌟 Avoid common pitfalls including sending a forecast that is too ambitious — it's an easy reason for a buyer to walk away A big thanks to our Sifted Summit panel featuring Jon Fox, Associate at Latham & Watkins, Roxana Mohammadian-Molina, Chief Strategy Officer at Blend Network, Husayn Kassai, Cofounder and former CEO at Onfido, Magnus Karnehm, Principal for Left Lane Capital and Kai Nicol-Schwarz, Reporter at Sifted. #fintech #startupeurope #M&A

Accessing capital has never been harder. Here’s the advice from our Startup Life Live panel for founders looking to secure Series A funding in the coming year: 💎 The macro market really matters — understand the key trends and external factors shaping the market. 💎 Remember, funding is ultimately fuel to achieve something — it isn’t the end goal. The challenges of fundraising will actually strengthen your company. 💎 Craft a compelling narrative for investors, and ensure your data supports the story you want to tell.  💎 Be upfront with investors — ask them directly about any concerns or doubts to gauge their level of commitment early on to save you time.  💎 Conduct thorough due diligence on your potential investors. The deal isn’t done until the funds are in your bank. Thanks to our speakers for joining us; Murvah Iqbal 📦, Founder and co-CEO of HIVED, Tim Chong, Cofounder and CEO at Yonder, Pauline Paquet, Director of Operations for XAnge and moderator Anne Sraders, Sifted Senior Reporter. #seriesA #funding #startupeurope

Starting the Summit off strong with our spotlight panel — The Startup revival: How European tech is bouncing back 🌟 The recent story of European tech has been one of resilience and grit. However following a spike in activity and a return of the megaround, our panelists agree a true return to normality is on the horizon in 2025. Several key takeaways from the session include:  💡 The European startup ecosystem is navigating a complex polycrisis, often serving as a catalyst for rapid innovation. 💡 Europe experienced a year-on-year slowdown in funding, similar to trends observed globally; however, the volume of VC dollars has reached an all-time high. 💡 M&A activity rebounded toward the end of this year, in addition to a wave of new investors entering the market and a significant pipeline of upcoming IPOs. 💡 Looking to the year ahead, European tech is experiencing a surge of ambition and talent, with smart founders actively collaborating and an encouraging response from governments, signalling a readiness to capitalise on the existing ecosystem. Thank you to our panellists, Mike Turner, Partner at Latham & Watkins, Fiona Murray Board member of NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), Fredua A. Akosa, Founder and CEO of Berry Health, Alexandre Momeni, Partner at General Catalyst, Tessa Clarke, Cofounder and CEO Olio and Moderator Sifted’s Founder and Editorial Director, John Thornhill. #startuprevival #startupeurope #siftedsummit

Sifted Summit 2024 has officially begun! 🎆🎉 It is absolutely buzzing here at Magazine London. It’s great to see a number of new and returning faces coming together to be part of the European startup revival. Partners from Latham & Watkins, Key Capital, Morgan Stanley, ClearBank, HSBC Innovation Banking, and Pleo are entertaining our attendees with competitions to win AirPods, branded tote bags, keep cups, drink bottles, funky socks, pick n mix and more. As you arrive, please pick up your complimentary coffee from one of our partners, Pleo or Canva and head over to the main stage to join our Sifted Editor, Amy Lewin, for opening remarks before diving into the day’s agenda! #SiftedSummit #startupevent #techevent

NEWS: Dexory, a UK-based startup building autonomous robots for warehouses, has raised an $80m Series B round as it looks to expand in the US. The round was made up of 70% equity and 30% debt, and takes the startup’s total equity funding to $120m. DTCP, which spun out from Deutsche Telekom, led the round, with participation from Latitude Ventures, WaVe-X and Bootstrap Europe, alongside existing investors Atomico, Lakestar and Capnamic. DTCP partner Michael Rager joined Dexory’s board of directors. Earlier this year, the cofounder of autonomous vehicle startup Oxa told Sifted that recent developments in AI are ushering in a “revolution” for autonomous machines — and the same has happened on warehouse floors, says Dexory founder and CEO Andrei Danescu. “Gen AI was really what allowed us to go over vast amounts of data very quickly,” he tells Sifted, pointing to how the startup’s tech can now make sense of tens of thousands of items that are typically housed in the average-sized warehouse. Dexory launched its hardware and software as a commercial product in March 2023 — it was developing its technology for eight years before that — and now, it’s looking to scale operations in Europe and North America. Full story: https://lnkd.in/ehjVfMrV

The doors are almost open — can you believe it, Sifted Summit is TOMORROW 🎆 🎊 We can not wait to show you the incredible agenda, speaker line-up and experience our team has been working on behind the scenes. Here’s a sneak peek of the floor map to give you a preview of what’s to come… Roundtables, workshops, exhibitor expos, food trucks and four amazing stages where the who’s who of startup Europe will come together and share their expertise and forecasts on the year to come and changes to the ecosystem. Come and join the startup revival with Sifted Summit! 🌟 There’s still time to grab a last minute ticket, but hurry, they’re almost gone >> https://lnkd.in/eyWfkKnH If you have any questions on the day look out for our Sifted Summit stand and we’ll be glad to help! See you there, Sifted Team

The climate crisis is worsening, with the hottest year on record in 2023. Yet corporate progress to decarbonise the industry has slowed. 🌎 A report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and CO2 AI found that while progress on climate issues has stagnated, significant value was unlocked by companies which did engage in decarbonisation efforts, including financial benefits equal to more than 7% of their revenues. We dig into the report and what it means for companies below. #Ad with BCG X Featuring Diana Dimitrova, managing director and partner at BCG X  and Charlotte Degot, founder and CEO of CO2 AI.