Sifted - Mistral x Microsoft 🤝

Good morning there,

Europe’s AI poster child Mistral is back in the headlines this morning after it announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft, which will see its latest model — Mistral Large — distributed via the US tech giant's Azure cloud computing platform. Tim Smith digs into that below. 

Elsewhere today, the UK parent company of London-based events tech startup Hopin is entering liquidation as it transfers its HQ to the US, defence tech Helsing strikes a deal with Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries and Pfizer Ventures leads a £40.5m round into a biotech developing new cancer drugs.

— Sadia Nowshin, editorial assistant 

The importance of building an inclusive product

How can you build inclusivity into your product's design process? Find out in episode two of The Inclusive Startup Playbook podcast where imagi’s Dora Palfi, Unfabled’s Hannah Samano and OKO’s Simon Schwall dive into why inclusive products are important.

Mistral joins the Microsoft family

Yesterday was a big day in European AI. News broke that Paris-based startup Mistral has signed a strategic partnership with Microsoft that'll see its large language models (LLMs) distributed via the US company's cloud computing platform, Azure.

It's the second company working on LLMs to get cosy with the Big Tech giant. The first, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, has led the market in producing powerful generative AI models that can create text, images and video. The news that Microsoft sees Mistral as a serious player and producer of cutting-edge AI will be welcomed by the European tech community as proof that innovators on this side of the pond can mix it with Silicon Valley-based rivals.

One explanation for why Microsoft’s also paired up with Mistral, after investing more than $11bn in OpenAI, is because the Parisian startup has focused on building AI in multiple languages. Its latest model, Mistral Large — the one that'll be available on Azure— is fluent in five European languages, according to the company.

ChatGPT, on the other hand, has been found by researchers to struggle with multilingual jobs, particularly when translating from English into other languages, having been primarily designed as an English language-first LLM.

Microsoft and Mistral’s new partnership serves to validate an argument I’ve heard from many European founders and investors over the past year: that there’s genuine commercial value in creating alternative AI systems to those developed in the cultural bubble that is Silicon Valley. Building an LLM that serves English, French, Spanish, Italian and German-speaking users is no mean feat, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s been achieved by a team of founders who all speak more than one language.

Mistral’s team isn’t the first to spot the commercial opportunity of getting generative AI into markets outside of the English-speaking world. Finnish startup Silo has built an LLM that works in both Finnish and English, while German company Aleph Alpha has released multilingual systems of its own. 

As part of its partnership with Mistral, Microsoft will also take an ownership stake in the company — but European tech sovereignty watchers can hold off on sounding the alarm. Sifted understands it’s a “small” stake, which doesn’t drastically change the startup’s cap table. 

While the partnership speaks to the saying “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”, as Europe works out how to pick its battles in an AI economy that’s currently controlled by Big Tech, it also shows that you don’t need a Bay Area postcode to be developing world-beating technology. 

— Tim Smith, news editor

💻 The UK parent company of London-based events tech startup Hopin is entering liquidation as it transfers its HQ to Delaware in the US. A Hopin spokesperson tells Sifted the move is “part of our larger internal corporate consolidation initiative, which involved simplifying our capital structure and operations to drive efficiency across our business”.

• Last year, the company sold off some of its assets, including its original product, the Hopin events platform, to California-based RingCentral for a reported $50m. Its founder Jonny Boufarhat also stepped down as CEO. However, Hopin continued to operate several of its remaining assets, including live streaming platform StreamYard.
• In 2021, the company became Europe’s fastest-growing startup ever when it raised a $400m Series C at a $5.65bn valuation, a year after launching.

🔭 French spacetech Unseenlabs has bagged an €85m Series C, a mix of equity and debt, to expand its 11-strong satellite constellation — which it says can spot clandestine ships undertaking illegal maritime activities, from unauthorised fishing to drug trafficking. 

• The company says its technology can track vessels even when they have gone “dark” and switched off all other means to be localised. Its secret? The satellites can pick up radio frequency signals that are emitted by ships and which can’t be turned off. Unseenlabs has already helped bust boats damaging protected coral reefs and fleets of ships practising illegal fishing.

🪖 Munich-based defence tech startup Helsing has struck a deal with Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries to strengthen the country’s defence with its AI software. 

• Ukrainian Defence Manufacturers Alliance — aimed at helping the Ukrainian defence industry access Helsing’s AI capabilities — will be set up as part of the deal. The main goal of the agreement is to allow Ukrainian-made drones to incorporate the startup’s AI-powered software platform, which processes data from sensors and cameras on vehicles and systems to create real-time views of battlefields.
• Helsing has been operating in Ukraine since 2022 and deployed personnel to the war-torn country. 

🤒 Swedish textile recycling company Renewcell — which counts fashion giant H&M as one of its largest shareholders — has filed for bankruptcy. The publicly listed company has had difficulties raising capital on the stock exchange for its factories, and its chairman told local media that he puts that down to “a lack of leadership and willingness for change in the fashion industry." 

💊 UK-based Curve Therapeutics, which is developing potential drugs for “difficult to address” cancer targets using its patented Microcycle screening platform, has raised £40.5m in a round led by Pfizer Ventures. 

How to successfully exit your fintech through M&A

In 2018, little over a week after Swedish fintech iZettle announced its intent to IPO, it was snapped up by PayPal for $2.2bn. At Sifted's first intimate breakfast session — at Norrsken House in Stockholm on March 14 — cofounder Magnus Nilsson will be digging into all of that, plus the challenges and experience of selling his company, with our Europe editor Mimi Billing. Want one of the 20 (free) spots? 👇

🇺🇸 Why German remote-driving startup Vay moved stateside.

💧 AI boom sparks concern over Big Tech’s water consumption. (FT)

🔨 Europe remains hard to crack for North American GPs. (TechCrunch)

🤖 Inside Nvidia’s AI workforce. (Wall Street Journal)

Sifted’s Cristina Gallardo is at MWC in Barcelona this week. The biggest scoop so far? The foodflation hitting the lunch menu. We’re talking €24 for fish and chips (with a salad), and €23 for a burger.

She did manage to get her hands on a slightly cheaper, single pizza slice for €12, with one request: in future, go easy on the salt please.

Munich-based RobCo, which provides robot automation solutions for repetitive manual industrial tasks, raised $42.5m in Series B funding from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Kindred Capital and Promus Ventures.

Brest, France-based BoondManager, a management tool that helps digital services and consulting companies manage projects, track invoices, handle prospecting and monitor expenses raised €32m in funding from Expedition Growth Capital.

Madrid-based Embat, a treasury management platform, raised $16m in Series A funding. Creandum led the round and was joined by investors including Samaipata, 4Founders and Venture Friends.

Brussels-based LIZY, a car rental platform for SMEs and professionals, raised €11.5m in funding from investors including D’Ieteren, Alychlo, NewAlpha Asset Management and Welvaartsfonds.

Copenhagen-based Bucket, a platform for companies to evaluate new features, spot upsell opportunities and track features customers use, raised $5.7m in seed funding from investors including Creandum and Project A.

Paris-based Sorella, which provides hybrid health clinics for women, raised €5m in seed funding. Blisce led the round and was joined by Vorwerk Ventures.

Paris-based Composable Prompts, an API studio for LLMs and generative AI applications, raised $4m in seed funding. Elaia Partners and Illuminate Financial led the round and were joined by investors including Motier Ventures, Kima Ventures, m-ai club and Super Capital.

Manchester, UK-based Pimberly, a product information management platform, raised £4m in funding from investors including NPIF - Mercia Equity Finance and Northern Venture Capital Trusts.

Leeds, UK-based Adsilico, which uses AI-assisted modelling and simulations to create synthetic populations on which to test medical devices before human trials, raised £3.5m in seed funding from Northern Gritstone and Parkwalk Advisors.

Paris-based Bolero, a platform for fans to invest in music rights, raised €2m in seed funding. XVC Tech led the round and was joined by investors including Newfund, French DJ and producer Petit Biscuit and Belgian singer Le Motif.

Amsterdam-based Rototip, a digital manufacturing startup focused on near-shoring that provides mechanical parts to engineers, raised €1m. ACT Venture Partners led the round and was joined by investors including APY Ventures and Heartfelt.

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