Good morning Sifted reader,

Happy Monday. We’ve got only 21% of the year left (existential dread) and we just had Europe’s quietest quarter for investment since 2015. Let’s make some moves before the year’s over!

Now on to the news.

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Many VCs will cite previous experience in investment banking or corporate finance as stepping stones to their investment careers — but eating 70k calories in 24 hours, filming it and then putting it on YouTube?

More fool them, perhaps, because Sifted has learned that British YouTubers the Sidemen are adding a VC fund to their growing business empire, which includes everything from fast food to marketing and clothing brands.

And they wouldn't be the first YouTubers to swap streaming for VC life. Last year saw Caspar Lee launch $20m Creator Ventures with former private equity investor Sasha Kaletsky.

They also join a growing list of famous-figures-turned-investors, including active angels like footballers Mario Götze — who scored Germany's winning World Cup goal in 2014 — and rapper Snoop Dogg.

The trend means there are some blindingly star-studded cap tables kicking about: last week, Audoo — a UK music tech startup helping artists access royalties from having their songs played in public — announced that pop superstar Sir Elton John had led its latest $5m round, joining previous investors Sir Paul McCartney and Abba's Bjorn Ulvaeus.

And though it's easy to assume that all celebs bring is "a shiny sticker on a press release”, startups and investors alike have told Sifted that there are plenty of benefits beyond that — including access to a broad network of potential customers and partners, and insight into the industry celebs have built a name in.

🔋 Skeleton Technologies has raised another €108m to develop its fast-charging battery technology. The Estonian startup, a favourite of Wise's Taavet Hinrikus, uses its own patented raw material to produce tools such as supercapacitors — which can be used to power trams or industrial machinery — and superbatteries.

Unlike regular batteries, which can be charged around 1,000 times, Skeleton's products can be recharged around 1m times.
The €108m was a mix of debt and equity, and follows a €38m Series D last year. It brings its total funding to more than €300m — which makes it one of Europe's best-funded deeptechs. The round was backed by Germany's Siemens and Japan’s Marubeni Corporation.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Par Equity announces first close of fund to target startups in the North of the UK. The Edinburgh-based fund, which will focus on the often-overlooked regions of North England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, has raised £67m so far, with a target of £100m.

It'll back 12-15 B2B companies at Series A — with a particular focus on healthtech, climate tech and industrial tech — and is looking to decrease the huge funding gap between the “golden triangle” of London, Cambridge and Oxford and the rest of the country.
LPs include Scottish National Investment Bank and British Business Investments, alongside the Strathclyde Pension Fund.

➡️ Tech Nation to run visa programme until “at least” the end of 2024, says Carolyn Dawson, the CEO of global startup founder community Founders Forum — which acquired Tech Nation in April.

VCs and investors love a good summer holiday, so the tech ecosystem knows to expect a quieter Q3 when it comes to dealflow. But the current downturn has pushed that dip to the extreme: Q3 of 2023 saw the fewest number of deals closed since 2015, according to Sifted's latest Pro briefing.

Actual cash injections were at the highest level in 12 months, however, with $18.8bn raised against $19bn from the same quarter last year.
Though this could be a sign of better things to come, a breakdown by stage reveals that the lion's share of that funding was down to megarounds ($100m+) making up up 50% of total injections.

Subscribe to Sifted Pro — designed to help investors source vital market intelligence, track hot-topic trends and connect with industry rising stars.

👀 12 disability tech startups to watch. Despite the market size, tech that helps people with disabilities has never been considered a hot sector for many VCs — but these companies are out to change that perception.

🏥 Europe's most active healthtech investors — updated.

👩‍💻 Europe's software stans will be gathering in Ireland this week for SaaStock Dublin, taking place from 16-18 October.

🎙 Sifted's journalists will be heading up a series of Sifted Talks over the next few weeks — join:

Sadia Nowshin, who'll be talking to Skyfall Ventures, Cur8 and Moonpig about nailing product-market fit, on October 18.
Mimi Billing, who'll be asking Leapsome, Lawcubator, Invest Alberta and Eventcombo how to find success in North America, on October 25.
Kai Nicol-Schwarz, who'll be picking the brains of expert CFOs from Epidemic Sound, Motorway and Omio about their fundraising tactics, on November 16.

🩺 If you're building in healthtech right now, join Sifted's next pitch event — exclusively for Pro subscribers — on October 24.

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London-based fintech ALT21, a platform making currency hedging — a strategy that protects against potential financial losses — more accessible, has raised $21m in 'pre-Series A' funding.

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London-based Fifth Dimension AI has secured a pre-seed round of £2.3m to automate document-heavy jobs within real estate. Investment was co-led by Anthemis and Seedcamp.
France-based Albert, a SaaS HR platform, has raised €2.1m from existing investor 50 Partners and new investors Bpifrance and French Founders.
Milan insurtech ViteSicure has raised €2m from Italian investors CDP and Apside (the joint venture led by Intesa Sanpaolo and Digital Magics).
INTA, an Italian spinout developing portable diagnostics products, has raised €2m in seed funding from Eureka! and Deep Blue Ventures.
Ingosa, which develops AI customer service chatbots and is based in Turkey, has raised $1.5m.

There are plenty of ways to get your fix.

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