Hello Sifted reader,

There is, it seems, nothing a tech billionaire likes better than investing in futuristic health technology.

Bezos has an anti-ageing company, Musk has a brain implant startup and now Spotify founder Daniel Ek has discovered a way to diagnose big bad medical conditions before they become a problem.

His new startup Neko Health is offering full-body scans for €180 a pop — and our Nordics correspondent Mimi Billing just couldn’t resist the opportunity to try it out.

But, while tech folks might be going wild for Ek’s vision of a future where we can catch problems before they become serious, the medical community is far from convinced.

“[These founders] seem to have a very technocratic view on health — the more you measure and the more accurate measurements you have, they think you can solve the problem,” says Marina Tuutma, president of the Swedish Union of GPs. “That is not the case.”

“There are a lot of people that ‘know’ how to fix the problem. But I wouldn’t say I know how Spotify should fix its problems,” says Magnus Isacson, chairman of the Swedish Association for General Medicine.

There’s also the possibility that having too much information can be as unhelpful as having too little.

“There are no easy solutions to hard problems, not even AI. Deviations in our bodies are happening all the time, many that the body takes care of itself and therefore never become a disease. To start treating those issues before they become diseases is a cost both in resources and money, and there's no evidence that more screening will make healthcare cheaper. It may cause unnecessary suffering and complications,” Tuutma says.

So are these tech billionaires going to be a help, or a hindrance? Hit reply with your views.

— Amy Lewin, Sifted editor

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR VANTA

February 23 | The dream SaaS sales team

“Do more with less” is fast becoming the new rule of business, so how do you make sure your sales team is firing on all cylinders? Learn to boost growth through team structure and maintain the integrity of your brand at our next Sifted Talks.

Hear from the experts

👀 Hoxton Ventures has a new (male) partner. News broke earlier this week that founding partner Rob Kniaz is leaving the London VC to start his own deeptech fund. But Sifted has learnt that Hoxton already has a new partner in the wings — and is actively hiring for another too.

💰 Startup Wise Guys raises €25m. The Estonian accelerator and early-stage investor plans to use the capital to back “overlooked” global markets, from Italy to Africa.

🛴 Was the escooter hype worth it? Before the current Gen AI craze, there was the speedy grocery delivery mania. And before that, VCs had quite a thing for escooter startups. From 2017-22, they threw more than $5bn at the sector — but did any of that powder catch? Here's how Europe's big escooter players are doing, five years on.

🏥 Sifted tries Daniel Ek's healthtech solution. The Spotify founder claims his new venture could revolutionise preventative care — and Sifted's Mimi Billing was one of the first to have a go on the secretive body scanner. Read what she thought of it here — or listen to her describe her visit on the latest episode of the Sifted Podcast.

🤷‍♀️ Just 12.9% of GPs at funds backed by one of Europe’s biggest LPs are women. At the 85 funds Germany's KfW Capital has backed to date, female partners are in the minority — big time. Of the 22 VC funds in which KfW Capital invested in 2022, only half had at least one female partner.

🇩🇪 Should Germany make English its second language? Politicians are floating the idea in an attempt to tackle the country's labour shortage. Here's what Sifted readers on Twitter thought of the proposal.

🇺🇦 Ukrainian startups VCs are watching.

🦄 The VCs that have backed the most European unicorns. Accel, Index, Eurazeo and SoftBank take the top podium spots — but who else has backed more than 20 European unicorns?

🌍 How to scale global remote engineering teams.

🇱🇹 Why Lithuania could be set to be Europe’s next deeptech hotspot. (Sponsored by Innovation Agency Lithuania)

Powered by Jobbio

In the quiet quitting phase of your job? Then check out these roles:

1. Senior react native engineer. Salary payments platform Kadmos is looking for a senior mobile engineer to write high-quality code and keep on top of novel technologies. Apply here.

2. Head of commercial (partnerships). Home insurance provider Urban Jungle is on the lookout for a new partnerships head with “an entrepreneurial mindset”. Apply here.

3. Senior devops architect. IT security company Mimecast is looking for a senior devops architect to build platforms and frameworks. Apply here.

💰 Series B+

French online talent platform Brigad, which connects self-employed talent to hospitality brands, has raised €33m.

💰 Series A

Cambridge-based Maxion Therapeutics, which is developing novel treatments for previously untreatable or under-addressed diseases, has raised a £13m round led by LifeArc Ventures.

💰 Pre-seed + seed

UK-based Metaverse Learning, which offers immersive learning programmes, raised £1.5m.
France's Sline has raised €6m — it helps retailers launch and manage rental options for its products.
AI-powered virtual styling platform PTTRNS has raised €2m.
Crypto index platform Alongside has raised $11m, led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Sikoia, a platform that automates the process of customer onboarding, has raised $6m.
Deeptech Previa Medical, which is developing an AI-powered platform to help healthcare providers detect sepsis early, has raised €2.1m.
Battery recycling factory builder Cylib has raised an $8.5m extension, bringing its total seed funding to $12.6m.
Transferz, a mobility platform offering B2B ground transportation bookings, has raised €6.5m.