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We're bringing you two new fund announcements this morning as Bootstrap Europe, which offers startups venture debt funding, has closed a third €130m fund to back 35 sustainability businesses, while Kindred Capital, a VC known for giving portfolio founders a share of its investment profits, has raised a $130m fund — it's got its eye on pre-seed techbio and infrastructure startups. 

Also from the Sifted newsroom: 

• Climate tech's most active angel investors
• How to raise a Series B

The average employee spends two hours a day tracking down information across company tools and five hours a week waiting for colleagues to answer questions. Sana's GPT-powered learning platform solves this.

🇬🇧 New UK report reveals barriers for disabled entrepreneurs. 

Put together by Small Business Britain & Lloyds Bank, the Disability and Entrepreneurship report consulted more than 500 disabled and neurodiverse founders across the UK: 

• 37% of founders said that they've been discriminated against
  because of their disability
• 56% had no external support — like financial help, training or advice — when starting up their businesses
• 72% couldn't find any role models in the industry to guide them 
• 84% felt they didn't have the same level of access to opportunities as non-disabled founders.

🏦 Bootstrap Europe closes third venture debt fund. It has €130m to back 35 sustainability startups, and will give loans of between €1m-15m over a period of three to four years. 

💸 Kindred raises new $130m fund — it'll invest at pre-seed and seed,

50% of the fund will be reserved for follow-on investments and the team will do around 10 investments a year. 

🇺🇸 Climeworks confirms US expansion plans. The Swiss carbon removal startup — which is one of Europe's best-funded climate techs — was tempted across the pond by Biden's $369bn climate bill. 

🌱 The most active angel investors in climate tech.

👼 Everything you need to know about angel investment — including how you become one, how to find the right match for your startup and the pros and cons of bringing angels on board.

💰How to raise Series B funding. When should you raise? How much should you aim for? And what do VCs want to see in your pitch deck?

🤖 European pre-seed deeptech founders are considering upping sticks and relocating to the US and Asia — but a new breed of VCs could help the continent keep them at home. 

🤖 17 Baltic startups to watch, according to VCs.

🏖 How to create a retirement policy — Yssine Matola, VP of people at healthtech Semble, shares what to include, and how to pull it together.

📝 Why corporate contracts matter — and the reality of securing them. (Sponsored by Wayra)

💰 Series A+ 

• Fintech Farm, a London-based platform for launching neobanks in partnership with traditional banks around the world, has raised a $22m Series B round from Nordstar.

• Foodtech KoRo has raised a €20m Series B extension round, closing the round at €75m.
• Dutch startup SenseGlove, which makes a VR system to be worn on the hands, has secured €3.25m in Series A funding. 

💰 Pre-seed & seed

• Plexigrid, which tries to make electricity grids more efficient, has raised €4.5m in seed funding. 
• Quanscient, which offers simulation technology powered by quantum and cloud computing, has raised a €3.9m seed round from Maki.vc.
• French IT-as-a-service startup Primo has raised a $3.4m seed round from investors including Headline and Global Founders Capital.

💰 Undisclosed

• E-magy, which makes a silicon material for lithium-ion batteries that it says could improve their efficiency by 40%, has raised €15m. 
• French electric micro-car maker Kate has raised €7m.
• Triver, which finances unpaid business invoices, has raised £7m from investors including Stride and scouts from Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. 
• Wayland Additives, which manufactures and sells 3D printing machines, has raised £4.6m.
• Game developer World Makers has raised a $4m extension from Makers Fund.
• Pharmacierge, a UK-based medicine delivery platform, has raised £2.4m.

Want to work for Sifted? We've got some exciting roles open right now:

• Senior reporter — deadline to apply is May 2. This is the Sifted wildcard — you tell us what you think we should be covering (or covering in more depth) and the floor is yours to do some digging.
  
• Sales operations manager. We're after a master of operational excellence, someone who's at ease working cross-functionally and who has a passion for all things European tech.
  
• B2B sales team leader. Do you want to define our next phase of growth? Then we want to hear from you.

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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