Hello Sifted reader,

The name Adriaan Mol might draw a blank for anyone who’s not a fintech obsessive or part of the Dutch tech ecosystem. But the 39-year-old serial entrepreneur is the seventh richest person in the Netherlands and one of the richest startup founders in Europe.

He’s the man behind software unicorn MessageBird, which is valued at just under $4bn, and $6bn payments unicorn Mollie, which he founded when he was 18, bootstrapped for 15 years and has now grown to more than 700 employees.

He sat down for brunch with Sifted’s Amy O’Brien to talk bootstrapping, taking on payments giants Stripe and Paypal, and why he thinks all scaleups should do layoffs every year.

Also from the Sifted newsroom:

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Rising 100: The ultimate B2B SaaS startup list

Meet the top 100 B2B SaaS startups across Europe and Israel which we think could achieve $1bn+ valuations. Plus, explore the market forces shaping and shaking them.

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🛵 1,600 workers are set to lose their jobs as speedy grocery company Getir prepares to exit Spain. The news comes a week after it announced that it planned to exit France.

💰 UK early-stage founders to get a £100m boost from a new fund. London-based VC Fuel Ventures plans to write 30-40 initial pre-seed and seed cheques of between £150k-250k, and wants to deploy the full amount over the next 12 months.

🇨🇿 Czech startup IP Fabric has raised the country’s largest round this year, according to Dealroom — a $25m Series B led by British VC One Peak. The startup helps big companies manage and secure their IT networks, and counts Airbus, Air France and Blackberry among its customers. It wants to use the fresh cash to expand across Europe and North America.

🏙️ OpenAI chooses London for its first international office. Founder Sam Altman was reportedly looking at Poland and France as potential locations before settling on the UK (Bloomberg).

— that's the budget of British Patient Capital (BPC), the largest investor in the UK’s startup ecosystem. BPC invests in both VC and startups, and has already backed 40 fund managers across 70 funds. CEO Catherine Lewis La Torre says that it's facing higher demand than ever from VCs, but the number of funds you’ll see its name on has dipped as the managers it's backed are taking longer to raise.

Sifted sat down with La Torre to chat industry slowdown, deeptech and why we should unlock UK pension fund money for tech investments.

Who is she? Iliana Ivanova, a Bulgarian economist who's currently a member of the European Court of Auditors, the EU’s audit body, and was previously a member of the European Parliament.

Why is she in the news? She has been nominated to become the EU’s commissioner for innovation and research — the post overseeing the European startup ecosystem.

Why does she matter? Assuming her nomination is approved, she'll be responsible for implementing the EU’s flagship research programme, Horizon Europe, focusing on improving the performance of the EU’s research spending and overseeing the New European Innovation Agenda, the EU’s startup strategy. She would also work across the European Innovation Council and its investment programme.

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💷 Are UK pension funds finally going to invest in more tech? The UK’s retirement pot is a massive $3.6tn — and the government is keen to unlock some of that to back the country’s tech companies. But despite rolling back a regulatory hurdle that limited their investing, the race is far from won.

💡 The company that rose from the ashes of failed energy startup Bulb. The consumer tech branch of the company has been carved out into Zoa, a company which plans to sell its products to incumbent energy companies looking to modernise. Bulb’s former chief technology officer is the CEO, and it has backing from Sequoia (not that one).

💻 How to build a pitch deck for a first-time VC fund — five investors share their tips, including what LPs want to see and the red flags to avoid.

🦄 Only 28% of soonicorn leaders expect funding to pick up in the second half of this year — according to a Sifted survey of 100 up-and-coming SaaS startups in Europe. 36% say they’ll be looking to sign term sheets with investors outside of Europe to fund their growth.

The survey was part of our 2023 Soonicorns report, which ranked 100 B2B SaaS startups that could be on their way to $1bn valuations. Download the report free here.

🎬 How to close a business — Kenny Ewan, the former founder and CEO of now shuttered WeFarm, shares his advice.

🤖 Will financial services be banking on GenAI? (Sponsored by BCG X)

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💰 Series A+

UK startup Material Evolution, a low-carbon cement producer, has raised £15m in Series A funding led by KOMPAS VC.
German startup Bluu Seafood, which is creating a cultivated cell-based fish product, has raised a €16m Series A.
Service4Charger, the German EV charging infrastructure and maintenance provider, has raised a €10m Series A.

💰 Pre-seed and seed

Settly, an HR platform for employee relocation, has raised €6m in seed funding from French evergreen impact fund 2050 and Mediahuis Ventures, the Belgian VC arm of international publisher Mediahuis.
Vok Bikes, the Estonian e-cargo bike startup, has raised a €3.8m in a seed round.
Outdid, an end-to-end private ID verification solution, has closed its $2.5m seed round.
Statement, the platform comparing card payment providers for small businesses, has launched in the UK with £1.5m in pre-seed funding from global VC investor Northzone.

💰 Undisclosed

Spanish AI insurtech startup Bdeo has raised an additional €7.5m to accelerate its international expansion.
Versori, a provider of data infrastructure solutions, has raised $3.5m.