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The Czech Republic’s joined the AI race with its government planning a €55m fund of funds to back three independent VCs — €15m of which will be funnelled into a fund focused exclusively on university AI spinouts. 

What you need to know:

• The fund will be managed by the European Investment Fund.
• The money will be invested in early-stage startups that can show a link with the Czech Republic — i.e. at least one Czech university or Czech scientist in the research. 
• The final target size of the AI spinout fund is likely to end up somewhere in the range of €20-40m.

Also from the Sifted newsroom:

• Klarna reports biggest annual loss to date
• Are women bearing the brunt of layoffs?

Venture debt could be a safe bet, allowing you to focus on growing your startup and boosting your valuation. Klymb’s new founders’ guide outlines all you need to know about venture debt financing.

— how much buy now, pay later giant Klarna reported in annual losses in 2022, a 47% increase on the year before and its biggest annual loss to date. 

👩 Are women bearing the brunt of layoffs? Women make up just over a third of the European tech workforce — but they represent 41.6% of layoffs since October 2022.

🇳🇱 GitLab and Remote backer Inkef Capital loses its sole LP. The Dutch VC has lost the backing of Europe's largest pension fund ABP, which wants to focus on climate investments instead. 

🗣️ Should English be the default startup language? Having a common corporate tongue can be helpful — and CEO of Remote, Job van der Voort, argues that using English is the only way forward. 

💻 Southeast Europe's dev shops turned startup builders. Founders with an idea for an app but no developers have typically outsourced software building to southeast Europe's dev shops. But now some of the region's engineers are launching billion-dollar companies and writing VC cheques themselves.

🩺 5 healthtech ideas VCs want to see you pitch in 2023. 

The business of space has landed here on Earth, and with a surge of investment the industry’s only going to skyrocket. Hear from The Exploration Company, Mission Space and more in our latest report, diving into the space ecosystem and its sophisticated developments.

💰 Series B+

• UK-based insurtech Flock, which uses real-time data to incentivise safer driving, has secured $38m in Series B funding led by Octopus Ventures. 

💰 Series A

• France-based PILI, which uses renewable materials to decarbonise the colour and dye industry, has raised $15.8m led by Bpifrance.
• Doctorly, a German startup developing modern admin software for healthcare practices, has secured $10m in a round led by Canadian healthcare giant WELL Health Technologies and Horizons Ventures.

💰 Pre-seed / seed

• Scotland’s Desana, one of Sifted's future of work startups to watch, has raised $7.4m in seed funding.

• Cycle, a Paris-based product management platform, has raised $6m in seed funding.
• Polyteia, a German startup streamlining the organisation and analysis of data for governments, has raised €5m from HV Capital.

• The UK’s Devyce, which provides digital phone numbers to multinational businesses, has raised a $2.7m seed round led by Y Combinator. 

• Sourcerie, a personalised shopping marketplace for the beauty industry, has closed a £1.8m pre-seed round led by Playfair Capital and Vorwerk Ventures.

💰 Spinouts 

• University of Glasgow spinout Causeway Therapeutics, which is developing treatment for tendon diseases, has closed an £8.75m round.

• Cogitat, an Imperial College London spinout developing brainwave-reading AI-powered tech, has received a £500k grant from Innovate UK. 

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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