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Hi Sifted Reader,

This week, reporter and podcast producing maestro Tim Smith steps up to the microphone, as he joins Amy to cohost this week's episode of the Sifted Podcast.

They're talking all the latest startup news, challenges for femtech founders and more staff trouble at speedy delivery scaleup Gorillas. Listen on our podcast page, plus...

• The startups helping companies prepare for extreme weather

• Hottest Spanish startups (not from Madrid or Barcelona)

• How to scale without VC funding
• Why startups shouldn't negotiate salaries

— Kai, reporter & Amy, editor

After years of generous investors and ego-boosting valuations, financial uncertainty looms over the startup scene.

So how can founders cut through VCs newfound caution and bag a fundraise?

We asked six VCs for their advice.

That's how annoyed your customers feel when they are trying to import their data. Let them see the value of your product faster with Flatfile's AI-assisted data onboarding solution.

Test it for free here.

Audience engagement startup Mentimeter is a household name in corporate Sweden — but it's never raised capital from VCs.

From smart hiring to giving up a lot of control to the board, Mimi Billing spoke to founders Johnny Warström and Niklas Ingvar about how they did it.

Here's how to bootstrap your way to profitability.

In Spain, Madrid and Barcelona share the spoils for scaleups created and capital raised. But, outside of the country's two main cities, a number of startups are thriving.

We asked four top VCs investing in Spain which ones they've got their eyes on.

Here are the startups you should have on your radar.

Paris-based edtech 360Learning hasn't negotiated salaries with employees since 2019 — and instead uses salary bands which chief people officer Nicholas Wagner says have been hugely beneficial to the company's culture.

From increasing transparency to reducing bias, Wagner explains why it's worked for 360Learning.

Should you reconsider how you pay employees?

💸 Swedish fintech Juni raises $206m in debt and equity. The startup's Series B is one of the largest in Europe this year, and comes at a time when a number of fintechs are grappling with falling valuations and laying people off. The $106m equity round was led by UAE's Mubadala Capital and topped up with $100m in venture debt financing raised from US-based Triple Point Capital.

🇺🇦 EU announces €20m fund to help Ukrainian startups. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has made life difficult for the country's booming tech scene, with many startups having to relocate offices in the country and some struggling to keep their companies afloat. The EU hopes its fund will help 200 businesses survive or relocate.  

🐬 Orca Computing raises $15m. The quantum computing company, an Oxford University spinout, has snapped up its Series A in a round led by Octopus Ventures. It's been a bumper couple of weeks for the London-based startup, and last Thursday it also announced a deal with the British Ministry of Defence to develop future data processing capabilities.

👩‍🏫 Multiverse becomes Europe's largest edtech unicorn. Founded by the son of former UK prime minister Tony Blair, the London-based startup has raised a $220m Series D to hit a valuation of $1.7bn. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst, and comes on the back of a busy eight months for Multiverse that's seen the startup double its valuation. 

🇫🇷 France gets its first-ever Web3 dedicated fund. Global VC firm Cathay Innovation and French fintech unicorn Ledger are launching an early-stage fund dedicated to backing blockchain-powered tech. Cheques will range from $500k up to $4m-5m and the majority of the fund will be invested at seed or Series A — with the rest kept for follow-ons.

A downturn is on the horizon. What's your startup doing about it?

Laying off staff, freezing hiring, making other cutbacks? Or is everything running as normal?

We're looking into how startups are responding to the global economic uncertainty and we want to hear from our readers. The survey will only take a few minutes and we'll share the results soon.

Take our (totally anonymous) survey.

🌊 The companies preparing the world for more extreme weather. Corporates are beginning to build climate risk into their day-to-day decision-making. To do this, they're turning to a number of European startups providing them with climate intelligence — using AI and satellites to help businesses prepare for the worst. Should you be measuring your business's climate risk?

📈 How to measure impact. The "mission" is something a lot of startups harp on about, but how do you practically measure whether you're doing what you say you're doing? We got the lowdown from edtech platform Perlego’s design director, Kim Lomba. 

💰 Could embedded insurance be the next big thing in fintech? Insurtech is booming, and embedded insurance — where an insurance product is bundled in with the purchase — could well shape the future of the sector. Here's how. (In partnership with Qover)

Kai Nicol-Schwarz

Reporter

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

Amy Lewin

Editor

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

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