Good morning there,

Buyers are snapping up baby onesies, beanies and other swag embroidered with the names of your favourite European spacetechs. So what's going on? As I reveal below, it's the sign of an industry that takes itself less seriously than it once did. Scroll on for that. 

Elsewhere today: 

• Battery giant Northvolt is closing its R&D centre in San Francisco

• Nuclear unicorn Newcleo to move holding company from UK to France to tap EU funds

— Éanna Kelly, contributing editor

/A message from our sponsor Future of Capitalism Competition

🇬🇧 Nuclear unicorn Newcleo is moving its holding company from the UK to France as it looks to tap institutional funding in the country and wider EU region. The startup, which is developing small modular reactors (SMRs) fuelled with radioactive waste, is currently raising a €1bn equity round. 

• It announced an €87m first close of that round in May and says it expects a further close this year.
• “While we are moving the location of our holding company, our plans for the UK are unchanged and we remain committed to investing and building next-generation SMRs to generate electricity for the UK grid and industry,” a Newcleo spokesperson told Sifted.

🇸🇪 Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt is closing its R&D centre in San Francisco to focus its research efforts at its site in Västerås, outside Stockholm, the company said in a statement.

• The site in San Francisco was developing lithium-metal battery technology and was run by US startup Cuberg — a fully-owned subsidiary acquired by Northvolt in 2021. With the centre closing, employees have been encouraged to apply for open positions matching their skill set across Northvolt sites in Sweden and Canada, the company said.
• “By centralising our efforts, we are better equipped to deliver the next generation of energy solutions to meet the growing demands of the global market,” said Sami Haikala, Northvolt's chief development officer.

To the merch store - and beyond

If things don’t work out for Europe’s spacetech companies, maybe they can become lifestyle brands?

Isar Aerospace, Exotrail, Space Forge, Orbex, Skyrora and PLD Space are just some of the big space names that have gravitated towards the merchandise game. 

Cardiff-based Space Forge, which aims to create “mini-factories” to develop new materials and components in space, sells hoodies, t-shirts and tote bags. The company’s merch store was “accidentally born as demand [grew] from the wider space-obsessed community,” Space Forge says. Some of its products sell out quickly — the £10 babygrows, for example, are gone. 

Meanwhile, Germany’s Isar Aerospace, which is building rockets, sells socks, beanies and t-shirts. Its baby onesies — which go for €20 — are still in stock. Stuck for a nice gift for your mate? For €125, you can buy a postcard from space — one of several items being sold by The Exploration Company, another Munich company that’s also developing rockets.

This tide of space merch tells us that the industry is loosening up, says Thomas Sinn, founder and CEO of Munich-based Dcubed, which makes components for satellites. Dcubed has also invented the “space selfie stick”, so companies can take snaps of their satellites in-orbit. 

“These kinda things were unthinkable in the classic space days, where there was a mindset that because it’s space technology, it should be highly secret. ‘New space’ is totally different — you can be much more open,” says Sinn. 

The Dcubed founder was born in a German village that’s beside the site where they test the propulsion systems for Europe’s Ariane rockets. “You would see the smoke rising out of the forest and feel the windows shake — so it always had to be a career in space for me.” He credits SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk with helping the industry to take itself less seriously. “When his rockets exploded, he'd say, ‘well, at least the pieces were bigger this time’,” says Sinn.

Europe’s space companies are doing it differently now, too. Italy’s D-Orbit, which plans to open its own merch store, gives fun names to its rocket missions — past launches include “Second Star to the Right” and “Spacelust”. 

No spacetech company would tell me how profitable its merch lines are. But even if sales don’t add a lot to the balance sheet, they help push a brand into the public imagination. “I see so many people wearing Nasa shirts around Munich,” says Sinn, who’s also had Dcubed t-shirts made (Munich, incidentally, has a growing claim to being Europe's space capital; it’s a place where techies like Sinn hold regular "Space Brewery" sessions — essentially space chat and beers).

Should more startups open merch stores? Probably not. A speedy delivery company, say, might have a hard time selling stuff that gets us excited about takeaways (beyond eating them).

But a t-shirt with a picture of a rocket on it? Sure, why not. Most people are awed by space: it won't hurt companies to try to cash in on it.

— Éanna Kelly, contributing editor

Big businesses are all in on AI adoption but a lack of adequate skills is holding them back, according to a new report from UST. The digital transformation solutions provider surveyed 600 senior IT decision-makers in large companies ($500m+ revenue firms with a combined revenue of $10tn) across a range of industries in the UK, US, India and Spain. 

The report found:

• 54% of businesses are using and integrating AI throughout their organisations; 28% are using it throughout the business but in an unstructured way; and 16% are just starting to experiment with AI. 
• But 76% of respondents cited a severe shortage of AI-skilled personnel as a key barrier to using AI properly in their businesses.
• More than half (53%) of businesses in the UK find AI implementation challenging. Security concerns, compliance and regulation challenges and too many legacy systems were cited as reasons why.
• In Spain, the main barrier to implementation is the lack of an AI framework or policy for use; only 29% of the companies in the dataset considered their system ‘very effective’.

What’s new in Greek tech?

Our report brings insider intel from founders, investors and senior executives about the fast-growing Greek startup hubs and the trends taking shape, to find out how the Greek tech ecosystem is really doing in 2024.

Today | Online. Want to turn one-time customers into lifelong advocates? Looking to boost your revenue consistently? The key could be subscriptions. Join us for our next free Sifted Talks to learn the ropes of a successful subscription strategy. RSVP.

August 28 | Online. In the era of remote work and global teams, startups continue to face the challenge of making employee equity clear. So how can CFOs and CPOs provide robust stock options wherever the employee? Sign up for our next Sifted talks to find out. RSVP.

September 4 | Online. Getting the most out of a prospective M&A deal starts with location. With both US and UK firms competing for your business, where do you place your bets? Join our next Sifted Talks to find out. RSVP.

September 18 | Online. Tapping into the gulf: What are Middle Eastern investors expecting from their European investments and what can founders expect from them in return? Sign up to find out more. RSVP.

Prague-based Bookbot, an online platform for buying and selling second-hand books, raised €4m in Series A funding. Genesis Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Miton.

Oslo-based SportAI, which uses machine learning and computer vision to help sports players improve their technique and broadcasters deliver better commentary and analysis, raised $1.8m in seed funding. Skyfall Ventures led the round.

If you’d like to submit a deal, get in touch. 

For more deals, analysis and M&A insight, become a Pro subscriber to receive our weekly Deals newsletter.