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Hi there Sifted reader,

After the summer hiatus the new startup year is well under way, as VCs blow off the cobwebs and start inking deals left, right and centre. We've got a bumper edition of news today, including almost €4bn (!) in new funds announced in just the last week. 

Straight from the Sifted newsroom:

• Northzone's new €1bn fund
• The US VC raising a fund for Ukrainian entrepreneurs
• Inside BVNK, the mysterious fintech backed by Tiger Global
• Is it worth sacrificing your marriage for your startup?

— Alex, writer & Amy, editor

💰 Northzone raises €1bn fund. One of Europe's leading VCs, which has backed the likes of Spotify, Hopin and Klarna, has just raised its biggest fund to date as it looks to keep momentum going in European tech despite wobbles in the market. The firm's partners, pictured above, tell Sifted where they plan to put the money, and why their "platform team" sets them apart from other VCs.

🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ+ angel syndicate launches to back marginalised founders. I³ investing, a community platform for queer entrepreneurs and investors, set up the syndicate to meet investor demand for deals involving LGBTQ+ founders. The angels will use special purpose vehicles to support pre-seed deals below £100k to Series A deals in the low millions.

🇹🇷 500 Emerging Europe raises €50m for third fund to invest in CEE. The Istanbul-based VC firm, formerly known as 500 Istanbul, is looking to expand its dealflow beyond its native Turkey by seeking out promising startups from the Baltics to the Bosphorus. It’s aiming for a €70m close and plans to invest in early-stage companies, writing cheques of up to €1m.

🏦 Claimer raises $4.2m to streamline tax credits for startups. The London-based fintech is digitising the application process for the UK government’s R&D claims and cutting down the time it takes to fill out the forms to just 10 minutes, it says. Its seed round was backed by Berlin-based VC Project A Ventures.

🇺🇦 American VC targets Ukrainian founders with its eighth fund. New York-based ffVC — which also has an office in Warsaw — already has $30m committed and is targeting a final close of $50m. It wants to tap into the "enormous human and tech potential" in Ukraine, as the country's war with Russia continues. It’s planning to invest in 20 or so companies up to Series A, with tickets ranging from $500k to 2.5m.

🌍 US climate tech VC Energy Impact Partners launches in Europe with €390m fund. The firm says it's targeting later-stage startups focused on the clean energy transition or advancing the shift to net zero. It's already backed the likes of Zolar, Ev.energy and Grover, and a lot of its LPs are energy companies, including EDF, Shell and Japanese supplier Chubu, which means it's particularly focused on startups looking at renewable power.

☀️ SunRoof's future looks bright with €15m round. The Swedish startup has developed solar panels that can be integrated into the roofs of new-builds and can generate more energy than the average household needs. The EU is looking to make solar panelling compulsory on all new buildings by 2029, so lead investor Klima Energy Transition Fund is targeting at a potentially huge market.

🇩🇰 Danish deeptech ATLANT 3D raises $15m Series A. The Copenhagen-based company has developed an AI-powered manufacturing tool that could make microchip production simple and cheap enough to be done in every corner of the world, rather than relying on shipping from a few global hubs. It also hopes its tech can promote new innovation in chip design.

💶 EQT Growth launches with €2.4bn fund. You read that right — the growth-stage sister of Sweden's EQT Ventures has an enormous wallet to give European scaleups the funding they need to go global. Recently European VCs have been few and far between in later-stage rounds on the continent — they accounted for just 30% of investors in $50m+ rounds raised by European startups last year — so EQT hopes it can address that balance.

Meet the biggest fintech you've never heard of. Launched just 11 months ago, BVNK, a B2B crypto payments company — and not a bank — closed a $40m Series A led by Tiger Global in May. 

It was a pretty ballsy entry into the European fintech scene, and the company has since been poaching talent from the continent’s biggest players, including Revolut and Checkout.com.

Amy O’Brien looks inside the fintech that wants to be “the Stripe of crypto”. 

Get even more from Sifted with our range of specialist newsletters, covering everything from climate tech and venture capital to fintech and startup life. Sign up for bonus news, wisdom and gossip you won’t find anywhere else — not even on the Sifted site.

Don’t miss out.

If you spend enough time around founders and investors, you’ll likely have heard that age-old belief: that founders have to choose between work or life. Coupleness founder Jenny Holmström thinks that’s a load of junk.

Here are her tips for getting it right.

So, you’ve created a successful, homegrown business — but now it’s time to expand to new markets. On September 21, we’ll map out which channels, campaigns and countries will give you the highest returns when looking to go global.

Register today.

💰 The current state of the market, explained by a VC, a lawyer and a founder. (In partnership with Latham & Watkins).

Alex Oscroft

Writer

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

Amy Lewin
Editor 

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

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