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After a turbulent 2022 that saw UK gigafactory Britishvolt mired in financial troubles and narrowly avoid collapse, yesterday the company announced it had failed to find enough money to continue operations and had filed for administration — making the majority of its team redundant.

The move follows a mass exodus from its senior management team over the last two months, and represents a major blow to the UK's hopes of shoring up its electric vehicle supply chain.

Also from the Sifted newsroom:

• Inside FTX trading arm Alameda’s European startup portfolio
• Stability AI boss slams "gated" OpenAI

— Kai, reporter & Tom, digital editor

💼 Inside Alameda’s European startup portfolio. A quarter of the $5.4bn invested by the trading arm of collapsed crypto exchange FTX was invested into 16 European companies.

Unsurprisingly, most of those were crypto startups, and the lion's share went to Cypriot bitcoin miner Genesis Digital Assets, which Alameda backed with $1.15bn across 2021 and 2022. But which other startups did it pump cash into?

Amy O'Brien's scoured blogs, company filings and half-built websites to map out FTX’s European venture portfolio.

Pay employees around the world in multiple local currencies. Just approve one single invoice in one currency with Remofirst.

🔋 Britishvolt fails to find the cash to carry on. The British gigafactory startup has filed for administration following a failed attempt to find a rescue deal to save it from collapse. It also follows two months in which the heads of procurement, project manufacturing, production, insurance, HR and cell design left the company — the majority of its employees will also now be made redundant with immediate effect.

🤖 OpenAI “fundamentally wrong” to block Ukrainians. The founder of generative AI startup Stability AI Emad Mostaque sits down for an interview with Sifted's Tim Smith. They discuss the future of the sector, how Stable Diffusion separates itself from the competition and what Mostaque makes of a new copyright infringement against the company.

🤝 How to nail the hiring process as an early-stage startup. Getting people who slot into a company's culture is crucial, as a mismatch of values can have a devastating impact on productivity and how teams work together. Here's a Sifted guide on how to nail hiring and ensure you're bringing in the cream of the crop.

💉 The vaccine startup trying to solve a $35bn-a-year problem. Keeping vaccines cold enough in transit has always been a big problem for the pharma industry, and each year one in two vaccines are wasted due to failures in the supply chain. But UK spinout EnsiliTech — which has just raised a a $1.2m pre-seed round — thinks it may have the solution.

From renewable energy to greenhouses growing wine, the possibilities of space seem endless. But what are Earth's limits? We take a look at where the money is being invested and the contenders hoping to become the shooting stars of spacetech.

📈 Startups need new metrics for a tough new era. The growth-at-all-costs approach is a thing of the past and business basics are back in fashion as startup funding dries up. Tessa Clarke, cofounder of food sharing platform Olio, shares how the startup has shifted how its measuring success. 

✉️ The case against OOO: Is it time to ditch the auto reply? "Out of office" messages just encourage an unhealthy working culture that assumes employees should always be online, says Scottish serial entrepreneur Russell Dalgleish. Here's his case for waving the OOO goodbye.

💪 Founders: you know you love the struggle. There's something exciting about running a company in a tough market, says Varos cofounder and CEO Yarden Shaked — here's why he thinks founders need to embrace the hard times. 

Kai Nicol-Schwarz

Reporter

Get in touch with him at

kai@sifted.eu

He tweets from 

@NicolSchwarzK

Tom Nugent

Digital Editor

Get in touch with him at

tom@sifted.eu

He tweets from

@TJNugent92

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