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Hi Sifted Reader,

Today sees the launch of Cocoa Ventures, a new VC fund designed to act like an angel. It won't be leading rounds, arguing over stakes or getting in the way of other investors. So will it work?

Elsewhere, if you're interested in how startups and corporates can make the most of partnerships, you can hear our journalists talk about just that at our next Sifted Sessions event. It's in Vienna on June 2 — sign up for free! Plus...

• We profile the women leading Europe's fintechs
• Steward ownership — a force for good?
• Rosie Wood bags a sought-after invitation

 — Alex, writer & Tom, digital editor

Most VCs want to lead rounds, get board seats and catch the spotlight for the deals they do. Carmen Rico is taking a different approach.

Today the former Blossom Capital partner is announcing the launch of Cocoa Ventures, a $17m VC fund designed to not lead rounds, not argue over stakes and not get in the way of other investors.

Is it genius — or madness?

Business owners and investors share the secrets they wish they’d known when launching their startups. Next-generation founders, this one’s for you.

Read the report.

Women hold just 28% of top management positions at Europe’s neobanks — something that seems to echo through the whole of the continent's fintech sector.

That said, there's a small handful of influential female founders and executives who have burst onto the scene and are breaking that trend.

So who are the top women in European fintech? 

Not a member yet? Use code NEWSLETTER10 for 10% off!

After years in the limelight, the traditional VC equity model is starting to wilt as companies question the "move fast and break things" ethos of Silicon Valley. Bootstrapping is back in the news, as are co-operatives and employee-owned businesses.

But in Germany another new idea is taking shape: steward ownership, where shares are split between employees and an independent foundation that reinvests any profits into the business or gives them to charity. 

Miriam Partington meets the founders doing things differently.

After thousands of steelworkers in Wales fell victim to a misselling scandal to the tune of £2.8bn, the UK's financial watchdog decided it needed to tighten rules around financial products.

The FCA's Consumer Duty mandate is expected in July and will bring a huge change to the way companies interact with their customers. But what will those rules look like?

We ask the experts.

It's a difficult time for VCs both real and fictional at the moment — the stock market scaries exist in fantasyland too. But Mild Conviction partner Rosie Wood hasn't let that stop her from making the most of life at the (cap) table.

This week, she was invited to a very exclusive angel coming-out ceremony — when a rich person announces they've made some investments — from a couple who coinvest together. #VCgoals! 

Don't worry — she's already planning her own.

Impact-driven startups are all the rage at the moment and companies are wearing their values on their sleeves, in the face of both a mounting climate crisis and a hyper-competitive jobs market.

So what does that mean for growth? We asked leaders in fintech, self-driving cars and capital access how to achieve growth in a sustainable way. 

Here’s what they said.

🍄 Meet the new alt-meat base, he's a real fungi. Plant-based meat is so 2020: a host of new startups think mycelium — the stuff that mushrooms grow from — could be where the real money is to be made in meat alternatives. Amy Lewin chatted with some of the seed-stage companies hoping to bring toadstool t-bones to a plate near you.

🏗️ The solution to managing construction workers? It might be Werk. The Estonian hiring platform, which raised a $1.3m pre-seed round this week, wants to give high-skilled builders a way to manage their work across borders as easily as office staff can. Automating paperwork, visas and relocation deals are vital in an industry 90% made up of small businesses. 

🛵 Flink snaps up Cajoo. The speedy grocery consolidation is upon us: after years of monster rounds and startups springing up like daffodils, the German company's acquisition of its French rival for an undisclosed fee is a sign that the small players are going to be squeezed out. It's either that or Flink is taking revenge on France finishing one spot above Germany in Eurovision. Impossible to say. 

💰 Elwood Technologies bags a $70m Series A. Crypto's tricky week may have hurt wallets (real and virtual) but that hasn't stopped Goldman Sachs and Dawn Capital opening theirs for the crypto trading platform. Elwood, founded by British hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard, sells its own tech to institutional investors to help them trade crypto, and said the deal was a "validation" of the sector. 

🤖 Revolut founder launches VC fund. Nik Storonsky plans to raise a $200m fund which will use machine learning to pick out promising Series B and C companies, he told Forbes. The firm will be called Quantum Light Capital, and he reckons he can do a much better job than most traditional VCs. He’s looking for a CEO and some more investors for now.

💡 Why your fund needs a head of research. The growth of climate-focused VC firms — as well as growing interest in deeptech, blockchain and AI — means that investors are increasingly judging companies based on extremely technical data. So why not hire someone to make sure you know what that means? Hampus Jakobsson, a general partner at Pale Blue Dot, explains why a head of research is a vital hire for any cleantech fund.

Catch big-name speakers from some of Europe’s hottest tech startups at our next event, Sifted Sessions \ Vienna, on June 2. As part of ViennaUP, you can expect fresh perspectives from ecosystem builders and super operators from Austria’s corporate and startup worlds.

What are you waiting for? It’s free!

Tom Nugent

Digital Editor 

Get in touch with him at tomnugent@sifted.eu
Or tweeting at @TJNugent92

Alex Oscroft

Writer

Get in touch with him at alex@sifted.eu 
Or @alex_oscroft

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