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Hi Sifted Reader,

It's only six more sleeps until our first ever Sifted Sessions event kicks off in Tallinn, Estonia (yep, we're pretty excited too).

We'll be playing host to some of the biggest names on the European startup scene, a whole herd of unicorns and a former president. Sound up your street? There's still time to apply for your ticket.

And if you're keen to brush up on your Baltic startup knowledge, check out our list of the most promising startups and scaleups in the region below. Plus...

• The compensation platform benchmarking startup salaries
• The new wave of fintechs for immigrants
• The "Deliveroo of clothing repairs"

— Kai, reporter & Amy, editor

The Baltic startup scene is growing up in a big way. In the past five years, 2,100 startups have launched in the region — including global success stories like mobility company Bolt, secondhand fashion marketplace Vinted and print-on-demand service Printful.

So with an abundance of tech talent in the region, which startups should you be keeping an eye on? We've put together a list of the most promising Baltic startups and scaleups to watch in 2022.

Check out the highlights here.

(For Sifted members who really want to test their Baltic know-how, see if you've heard of all the startups listed in the full ranking.)

Twilio's superclass is hands-on training for developers. Learn how to use its new engagement tools to solve communication challenges — with code.

Register for the May 12 class here.

Compensation insights startup Ravio thinks it has the answer. Today, it's emerging from stealth with a platform that aims to give companies access to market salary benchmarks and compensation analytics. 

It's just raised a $10m seed round led by Northzone. But will it take off — and can it help reduce the gender pay gap?

Miriam Partington finds out.

Opening a bank account, getting a credit card or building up a credit history outside your home country can be a real headache. And it's a problem a new group of fintechs is looking to remedy.

Amy O'Brien looks into the key players trying to shake up the incumbents, from a startup helping immigrants access credit to one helping build generational wealth.

But can they challenge the likes of Wise, Zepz and Revolut?

Have you recently taken a ripped or ill-fitting piece of clothing to a seamster to be fixed? If the answer's no, you're not alone: two thirds of fixable clothes are thrown away.

That's where London-based Sojo comes in. Since launching last year it's earned the label the "Deliveroo of clothing repairs" — and the startup has just bagged $2.4m to scale its service.

Can it modernise an industry that hasn't changed since the 1800s?

It’s not long now until Sifted Sessions \ Tallinn, and we’re excited to announce our latest speaker — Kersti Kaljulaid, former president of Estonia. Kersti will be chatting to us about the human cost of high growth — you won’t want to miss it.

Join us May 3.

👛 Revenue-based financing (RBF) fintech bags $20m. Outfund has just announced its Series A — alongside $120m in debt financing — as it looks to go global and double its team by the end of this year. It’s the latest RBF company to tempt investors, as startups’ alternative financing options grow ever broader.

🔎 Scout programmes aren't only for VCs. It seems like every VC has a scout programme these days, but revenue-based financing giant Clearco wants in on the party. The Canadian fintech is launching its Founders Fund in the UK this week, as it looks to put Clearco customers and others on the scent of early-stage ecommerce startups.

🗂️ The rise of the battery passport. Germany wants to make it easier to recycle the materials inside batteries — so it's giving its batteries a digital identity to track things like battery life and components. The three-year project is the first of its kind, and will bring together industry, academia and startups to the tune of €8.2m to solve the problem. But will it work?

🥛 Cow-free dairy for the masses. Israeli startup Remilk is building a lab-made dairy factory in Denmark after raising $120m in funding. The 750k sq ft facility will be the size of nine football pitches and will use Remilk's yeast-based precision fermentation process to produce dairy products like ice cream, cheese and yoghurt — the equivalent to the amount produced by 50k cows a year.

💰 Cambridge fund hits $1bn. Cambridge Innovation Capital has just snapped up £255m to pump into early-stage startups, bringing its total assets under management to $1bn. It's yet another sign of a booming tech ecosystem in the university town — VC investment there has more than doubled each year since 2017.

👉 How startups and corporates can nail innovation. Selling something that's yet to be created is no mean feat. But it's something that Kristel van den Bergh, director of innovation at Belgian 3D printing company Materialise, does on a regular basis. Here's what startups and corporates can learn from her approach.

🇵🇱 Pole position. Poland looks set for a record year of VC funding with its startups pulling in €250m in 2022 so far. Previously the country has lagged behind neighbours like Sweden and Germany, but investors' recent shopping spree could be another sign that momentum outside traditional tech hubs in Europe is on the up. Here are the key takeaways.

🇺🇦 Find your businesses purpose (and support Ukraine). Join founders and marketers at the Pursuit Summit this Friday, where they'll be discussing how to find purpose and build a community. All proceeds are going to help Ukraine. You can register for free here.

Amy Lewin
Editor 

Get in touch with her at amy@sifted.eu
Or tweeting at @amyrlewin

Kai Nicol-Schwarz

Reporter

Get in touch with him at kai@sifted.eu 
Or @NicolSchwarzK

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