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OCTOBER 5, 2022

Hello Sifted reader,

Lonely startup employees in Barcelona might finally get the community cohesion they’ve been missing thanks to Swedish nonprofit Norrsken Foundation, which is opening a coworking space for 800 entrepreneurs and hopes to emulate the impact it's had in native Stockholm.

In funding news, cybersecurity startup IriusRisk is bucking the downturn and has just raised $28.7m for its threat modelling software making engineer’s lives easier. And Paris-based SISTA has just announced the first close of its first fund, which will go to early-stage startups with at least one woman cofounder. 

Plus — the Sifted Summit starts today! The whole Sifted team will be around so come and say hi if you see us. We're also highlighting speakers who are on site below.  

Also from the Sifted newsroom:

• Startup salaries survey: what are C-suiters earning? 
• Brunch with Naren Shaam, founder of Omio
• Passion Capital founder to lead femtech Fertifa

🥑 Naren Shaam comes to Brunch with Sifted. It may still feel like a fever dream, but the founder of German travel booking unicorn Omio recalls the first Covid lockdown well, as millions cancelled their bookings overnight and shattered his company’s revenue. Since that chaos, however, he's bounced back, banking an $80m Series E in June this year. Over brunch in Berlin with Miriam Partington, he reveals how he did it.

Don’t miss Shaam on the Sifted Summit Main Stage today, alongside Station F, Balderton and Debite at 2:15pm.

💰 How much should a B2B SaaS startup spend on marketing? You don’t need us to tell you how vital marketing can be to a startup’s success — but when you're pursuing growth at the earliest stages, how much should you spend on getting the word out about your product? Sifted spoke to leading CMOs and B2B SaaS focused European VCs to find out how to calculate your marketing budget. 

👀 Startup salaries survey: what are C-suiters earning? A new survey from executive recruiter Erevena has collected the average pay across startup C-suites in 24 European countries. Amongst the nuggets, it suggests that CEOs at VC-backed firms tend to earn less than their peers at other companies. 

👭 SISTA doing it for itself (with help from many of France’s best-known founders). The Paris-based company has been working since 2018 to increase the funding going to female founders, and has even managed to change some of France’s laws to accommodate a more diverse workforce. It also just announced a first close of €30m (out of a target of €100m) for its new VC fund, which will invest between €250k and €3m into around 30 pre-revenue companies with at least one woman cofounder. 

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🏠 Norrsken tackles Barcelona’s community disconnection. Startup employees in Barcelona have been crying out for the community feel that other startup cities enjoy. And Swedish nonprofit Norrsken Foundation might be about to give them just that. It’s opening a coworking hub in the Spanish capital that will be home to up to 800 entrepreneurs — it’s also looking to raise an impact VC fund. 

🧡 Passion Capital founder to lead femtech Fertifa. Eileen Burbidge, one of the UK’s most well-known early-stage VCs, is adding “executive director of Fertifa” to her CV, according to her LinkedIn. The femtech helps companies offer fertility and reproductive benefits to their employees, and raised a £1m seed round in 2020. Passion Capital — where Burbidge is a founding partner — was the sole seed investor. 

💽 IriusRisk raises Series B round. The cybersecurity startup, which offers in-demand threat modelling software, drummed up $28.7m. It’ll use the money from the round — led by Paladin Capital, which also led its Series A round — to grow teams across engineering, customer success and customer support in the UK, US and its home country Spain.

SIFTED TALKS

In this uncertain economic climate, the investment pace for VCs has slowed and the focus has shifted from blitzscaling to cutting costs. On October 26, we’ll ask the experts how founders and revenue leaders can successfully navigate this new context.

→ Register to attend.

🥇 From PBs to VCs: the power of the pivot. Former Olympic gold medallist Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill swapped her trainers for raises when she founded femtech startup Jennis. Sharing her experience as a founder who pivoted her idea to tap into a new niche, she offers the advice she’d extend to others looking to do the same. 

Don’t miss Ennis Hill at the Sifted Summit tomorrow at 10:20, where you can hear her in conversation with Mimi Billing on the Main Stage. 

💻 The young people tech-xodus: Working in a company leading the way in fast, dynamic innovation might seem like every young person’s dream — but according to a survey by HR platform HiBob and global VC Eight Roads, almost a third of 20 to 30-year-olds are looking to leave their roles in tech. The most common reasons cited were career development, compensation and relationships with managers — but that’s not all that didn’t live up to the dream.

💸 Q3 in fintech: what happened? Q3 wasn’t a particularly lucrative one for fintech funding — in fact, it produced the lowest total since Q4 of 2020, with $2.8bn raised across 192 rounds. It also revealed where investors are turning their attention in the downturn. 

🌍 Carbon capture in data: What it means for startups and the energy transition. (In partnership with New Energy Challenge.)

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Sadia Nowshin

Editorial Assistant

Get in touch with her at

sadia@sifted.eu

She tweets from 

@sadianowshin_

Tom Nugent

Digital Editor

Get in touch with him at

tom@sifted.eu

He tweets from

@TJNugent92

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