Good morning Sifted reader,

Planned IPOs from Klaviyo and Instacart — as well as Arm’s public listing this week — have pundits punditing about whether or not the IPO winter is over.

There are certainly many European scaleups that would like to go public if the time were right.
Last week, UK neobank Zopa said it was “ready to IPO” when the markets open up; it also hired an IPO-experienced CTO over the summer. German HR tech company Personio told Sifted in September it could IPO in 2024.
One big growth investor also told us this week that many of their portfolio companies were ready for exit — it was only a matter of time.

But a few listings aren’t enough to predict when IPOs will be back.

What we should be gleaning from them is what kinds of companies public markets are willing to absorb. And the hurdles are much, much higher than in 2020 or 2021.

Take Instacart — its public debut will likely value it at less than a quarter of its 2021 price.
In Europe, many of the likely candidates for an eventual IPO might also be struggling for the metrics. Only 4 of the top 20 most valuable private European tech companies have been confirmed to be profitable.

An IPO isn't to be rushed, and it won't be the right path for everyone. At the Sifted Summit, we'll be digging further into the IPO waiting game — to join us on October 4-5, grab your ticket here.

— Eleanor, deputy editor & Kai, reporter

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Time to move to the US?

Having a footprint in the US is the dish of the day for Europe’s tech founders.

German HR tech unicorn Personio announced this week that it’s opened an office in New York — and plans to double the size of its team out there.
“Having an office footprint in the US will help us to better tap into the substantial talent pool that exists there,” Hanno Renner, Personio’s cofounder and CEO, told Sifted.

But it’s not just the US’s talent pool attracting European startups. European climate techs are being pulled in by the huge incentives offered by America’s $369bn Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Companies working on things like renewable energy projects, hydrogen or batteries can apply for tax credits based on the amount of battery capacity or energy they produce.
Direct air capture startup Climeworks is working on several projects in the country.
Norwegian battery maker FREYR is moving its HQ to the US — building its next gigafactory in Georgia. It expects to earn $1.4bn annually from IRA tax credits.
“The IRA is the most ambitious climate act in history, and one year after it was signed into law, it's forecasted to generate roughly $1.7tn of new investment in the US over the next decade,” says Tom Jensen, cofounder of FREYR battery.
Europe’s largest battery startup Northvolt is reported to be deciding whether to build its next gigafactory in the US or Canada. “The IRA has been an immense catalyst for us reshuffling our industrial rollout plan,” its cofounder told Sifted earlier this year.

US customers are also more excited by innovative technology, Romanian founder Andreea Pleșea told us on the Sifted Podcast this week.

Her startup DRUID, which raised $30m this week, did the Delaware flip last year and is now headquartered in the US.
It was a great move, she said: “There’s a higher interest in innovation in the US compared to other regions."

But for some, the US is losing its appeal. Ex-Silicon Valley design and tech strategists Lisa Baird and Ame Elliot swapped the Bay Area for Paris and Berlin, fed up of its “seemingly unabashed bro culture”.

“For both of us, something was amiss. As more and more epidermal layers of ‘the good life’ kept getting peeled away in the US, and the tech utopia we thought we were building failed to emerge, casual daydreams morphed into escape planning,” they wrote in a Sifted oped.
“More and more Americans have finally reached a tipping point that has made many consider one question for the first time: Might I be better off elsewhere? For us, the answer was yes.”

Are you a European founder with your eyes set on the US? Or did you move and are desperate to return? We want to hear from you for a new series we’re planning on everything related to moving your startup stateside. Get in touch here.

— Tom Nugent, digital editor & Freya Pratty, senior reporter

🇮🇪 OpenAI picks Dublin for its first EU office. The US-based creator of ChatGPT, which currently employs 10 people in London, will be setting up in Ireland's capital to access the “impressive growth and advancement” of the country's ecosystem.

🇫🇷 Verkor raises a record €850m equity round. The three-year-old French gigafactory's Series C is Europe's second largest equity round this year and a historical record for a French startup. Macquarie Asset Management led the round.

The startup said it is also on course to secure an additional €1.2bn of non-equity funding, making for a total €2bn in financing and confirming earlier Sifted reporting.

🛡 Defence startup Helsing raises €209m Series B to develop AI software for the armed forces.

US firm General Catalyst led the round, with the participation of Swedish group Saab, which will invest €75m for a 5% stake.
The company declined to disclose its valuation after the deal.
Helsing will use the cash to boost its growth in France, Germany and the UK, as well as pump more money into its core technology projects.

🇪🇺 The EU will allow European AI startups to use supercomputers to train new models, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in her annual speech.

“Europe has now become a leader in supercomputing, with three of the five most powerful supercomputers in the world. We need to capitalise on this,” she said.
There are doubts over the continent's capability to deliver though. Some people in the AI research community are worried Europe's new supercomputers aren't optimised for AI research.

In more AI-related news, across the channel one of Europe's most powerful supercomputers is coming to Bristol.

The UK government has picked the city for its new £900m supercomputer — dubbed ISAMBARD-AI after the city’s famous resident engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Sifted has approached the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to ask whether the supercomputer will be built using Nvidia chips — the industry standard — and if it will also make use of chips from Bristol-based company Graphcore. "No decisions have yet been taken," a spokesperson said.
Some investors aren't convinced. One suggested "it will take more than a few thousand GPUs" for the UK "to obtain science and tech superpower status".

🥗 Recipe box startup Gousto announces H1 profitability. The UK company says it’s on track for a record full year profit of more than £20m and positive cash generation by the end of 2023.

🔥 19 spinout soonicorns on the cusp of $1bn valuations.

🔥 How circular startups are set to gain from the EU’s carbon border tax. (Sponsored by Up!Rotterdam).

👎 Only four of Europe’s top unicorns are profitable. Of the 20 most valuable unicorns in Europe, only Revolut, Zepz, Lendable and SumUp have confirmed they are profitable on an annual basis.

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🔥🔥

Fipto, a French payment platform that helps companies accept digital currencies, has raised a €15m seed round from investors including Serena and Motier Ventures.
IOMED, a Spain-based startup offering AI-powered healthcare data activation, has raised a €10m Series A round led by Philips Ventures and XTX Ventures.

🔥

UK-based Ometria, a customer data and experience platform, has secured £8m from CIBC Innovation Banking.
Norwegian app builder Databutton has raised a €4.8m seed round from Skyfall Ventures and Maki.vc.
Spain's Caravelo, which offers subscription solutions to airlines, has raised €3.5m in Series A funding led by Samaipata.
Germany's VIDA, which offers climate ESG data for infrastructure investors, has secured €3m from Cusp Capital.
Crypto trading infrastructure startup IMMIX, based in London, has raised a $2.7m seed round from MassMutual Ventures and Ripple Ventures.
Scotland's Oceanium, which makes ingredients and materials from seaweed, has raised $2.6m led by Builders Vision.
Swiss startup viboo, which measures building temperatures to help smart thermostats save energy, has secured €1.7m in seed funding. High-Tech Gründerfonds, Swisscom Ventures and ETH Medal were among the backers.
Quantum-as-a-service startup ColibriTD, based in France, has raised €1m in seed funding led by Earlybird Venture Capital.

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