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It's Friday, which means the Sifted Podcast has hit the airwaves. This week the founder of Aleph Alpha — Europe's answer to OpenAI — chats about how the continent can compete in generative AI.

From the Sifted newsroom:

• Monzo's after a US CEO
• Should the UK ditch tech transfer offices?

📸 The snapshot: 

Tech investors, accustomed to chasing the shiniest, newest inventions, are turning their attention to an age-old commodity: timber. 

This week, Sweden’s Modvion raised €11m to build wooden wind turbines. Last week, Austria’s Gropyus announced €100m for its timber homes. 

The other poster child of the wood world is Timberhub, a Dutch timber marketplace, which raised a €5.8m seed round last year. It’s been backed by Speedinvest, HV Capital and Creandum — plus a roster of angels, including the cofounders of digital freight-forwarding company Sennder.

🖼 The bigger picture: 

Wood is far greener than concrete and steel — two materials which produce a hefty chunk of the construction industry’s emissions. Buildings and the construction sector together are responsible for 30% of total global final energy consumption and 27% of total energy sector emissions. 

Real estate companies are looking for greener building solutions — and that’s creating opportunities for startups working with more eco materials, like wood.

⏩ What’s next?

Building regulations are set to tighten in Europe, prompting more real estate companies to turn to greener materials. France has been poised to bring in a law stipulating that all new public buildings have to be constructed from 50% timber. 

The EU’s crackdown on single-use plastic (it banned the most common items in 2019 and plans to extend it to include packaging too) could also spur on interest in wood — companies like Sweden’s Paptic are working on combining wood with other materials to produce more sustainable alternatives to plastic.

— Freya, climate tech reporter

🤖 Can Europe compete with OpenAI? The founder of Aleph Alpha, a German generative AI competitor to the Microsoft-backed Open AI, reckons so.

🇺🇸 Monzo plans for licence-less US expansion. The neobank is doubling down on its plans to set up shop over the pond by starting the search for a US CEO — but it has no immediate plans to get a banking licence once there. 

⛔️ The European startups gone bust in 2023. Though investors warned startups to extend their runways, some simply ran out of cash. Here are the companies that have gone out of business this year and who invested in them. 

🏫 Should the UK get rid of tech transfer offices? Despite their potential for innovation, university spinouts represent just 3% of the UK’s scaleups — could a better tech transfer system be the answer?

💰 The SaaS tools saving startups cash. There are no shortage of products that claim to increase productivity and cut costs — but which ones actually deliver on the promise? VCs share their thoughts. 

💼 How startups decide who's getting laid off. When there's no option but to cut jobs, choosing which roles will be affected can be a tough choice. 

😎 What an entrepreneur in residence does. VCs and companies like to keep smart people who can't commit to a full-time role close... but what's the appeal for either party? 

📲 How to create a B2B social media strategy. An online presence is great for attracting new consumers and driving sales — here's how to nail socials and reach the right people. 

💰 Series B+

• Private equity investment platform Moonfare has capped its Series C extension at around $15m. It welcomed new investor 7 Global Capital (7GC). Insight Partners led the Series C.

• The Bank of London — a global clearing, agency and transaction bank — has raised a $40m Series C extension, bringing its total fundraise to $160m.

💰 Series A

• House of Math, a Norwegian edtech startup that offers tutoring for students in primary school, lower and upper secondary school and higher education, has raised NOK 45m ($4.4m).

• Avicenna.ai, a French AI radiology screening startup, has raised €7m.

💰 Pre-seed + seed

• Warsaw-based Plenti, a marketplace that rents out electronic devices — including phones, laptops and Starlink terminals — has raised €5m in seed funding.

• 181travel, an Italian travel startup offering tourist experiences, has raised €2.5m in seed funding.

• Growblocks, a Copenhagen-based revenue planning and execution platform, announced a raise of $6m in seed funding, led by Project A Ventures.

• London-based fintech Kennek has raised a $4.5 million pre-seed funding round led by Dutch Founders Fund, ffVC and Plug and Play Ventures.

• German fintech Degura, which is building a digital solution for offering and managing company pension plans, closed a €2.2m seed round led by btov Partners. 

• Humasana has raised a €1.25m seed round for its online marketplace dedicated to clean and effective health and wellness products.

• Pebble, which connects care and activity providers with parents to book and manage childcare, announced a £5m seed extension led by Koru — the venture foundry of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board.

• Fanbase, a startup developing software that delivers mobile ticketing and a better fan experience for sports clubs, has raised £1m.

If you've got intel for a story you think needs to be told, let us know — confidentially. 

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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