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Fundraising

From potential unicorn to coronavirus-victim

Joe Adams spent the best part of January perfecting a pitch deck. His startup, The Plum Guide, an upmarket competitor to Airbnb, was planning a big Series C raise in the summer.

Then the coronavirus struck, his plans have been derailed and the company is looking at options like tapping into the UK government's startup bailout fund. "It couldn’t have come at a worse time,” he says, ruefully.

What’s his Plan B? And who else is thinking of applying to the Future Fund?

🎈 Are you improving people’s quality of life? 🎈

Do you want to test and launch your solution with an international partner?

The Ageas INsure Open Innovation Program is offering to fund your proof of concept — and, if it’s successful, help you scale up internationally.

Calling startups working on the future of healthcare, tech for insurance or wellbeing.

Find out more and apply here. [Sponsored post]

Deeptech

Gadgets to get us back to work again

From a necklace that buzzes when people get near, to a device that sits (spookily) in the corner of an office measuring everyone's breathing, no-touch technologies are being developed to help get people back to work amid social distancing.

Find out what's coming soon to an office near you.

Fintech

Good luck selling your neobank now

When Hughes le Bret sold his fintech — Compte Nickel, France’s first neobank – to financial giant BNP Paribas in 2017 it was one of the biggest fintech acquisitions ever.

But le Bret says that he doubts this new generation of challenger banks can pull off a similar trick, especially with an upcoming recession unlikely to help matters.

His comments come as Monzo is set to receive a 40% hit to its valuation in its upcoming funding round. Eek.

🤷‍♀️ What's happening to the talent market? 🤷‍♀️

Some startups have no choice but to layoff or furlough staff at the moment — while for others, it’s a good time to snap up great talent. But what will be the long-term implications of the coronavirus crisis on Europe’s startup talent landscape?

This Thursday, Sifted's gathering a panel of founders and people pros to discuss how they’re tackling hiring, firing and managing talent remotely for now — and what they think will happen six months down the line.

Thursday 21st May | 12.30pm | Sign up here.

Startup Life

The six mistakes of early-stage founders

Founders are generally a smart and enthusiastic bunch, but a fair few are also fantasists.

They crash ahead with creating a business without the right market research, a realistic business plan or any notion of how hard fundraising really is.

Kevin Smith shares how to avoid common early-stage pitfalls.

Growth Marketing Manager, Allplants, London
Product Designer, Tractable, London
Enterprise Account Executive, MongoDB, Paris

Check out our jobs board if you are looking for a job in fintech or product.

Sifted Suggests

🏌️ Clubhouse for 'X'. Audio chatroom Clubhouse just raised $100m from Andreessen Horowitz — and people are already plotting copycats. We list some of the more interesting ideas out there.

🗡️ 50% of startups have 6 months to live, according to this piece of research by the team at Soaked. 40% have slowed down or stopped hiring.

👍 Here are 9 tricks to be “Series-A ready”, laid out by seed-stage VC firm Point Nine.

🎖️ How Google and Apple outflanked governments in the race to build coronavirus apps, by Politico. For more on contact tracing, see our piece here.

📝 A new newsletter from the people at Founders Forum called Founders News serves you algorithmically-generated news and articles based on your interests (they ask for your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles). Sign up is here and latest issue is here.

🥁 UPDATE: Top virtual events this week 🥁

We've scouted out the best online discussions and workshops happening this week and next. And we've also compiled a handy archive of resources from brilliant events that have been and gone.

Discover the best webinars happening this week here.

Events (digital only)

💡 EMERGE | 1-3 June
Makers and doers in tech, hear from product and design leaders at TransferWise, Miro, Netflix and Farfetch at EMERGE's three day learning and online networking extravaganza. Use SIFTEDEMERGE for 20% off tickets. [Sponsored post.]

⭐ How to face the challenges of Covid-19 as a woman entrepreneur | 18 May
Join this AMA session from Techstars for tailored advice.

💰 The next generation of data-driven lending | 20 May
A free event for anyone working with and analysing complex data and credit risk in their organisations with folks from Credit Kudos, N26 and Funding Options

🇵🇹 Southern European Stars 2020 | 20 May
An online pitch event organised by VCs in Southern Europe for founders to showcase projects.

🇪🇸 Virtual South Summit: Education | 20 May
This is a series of webinars in collaboration between Madrid-based startup conference South Summit and IE University. This one is about education.

🇬🇧 Female founder office hours | 4 June
Office hours for early-stage female founders with 30 investors from the UK. Sign up here by May 25.

Sifted resources

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Michael Stothard
Editor

Get in touch with him at michael@sifted.eu.
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Sifted - Monzo's 40% valuation drop 😬

Fundraising

From potential unicorn to coronavirus-victim

🎈 Are you improving people’s quality of life? 🎈

Deeptech

Gadgets to get us back to work again

Fintech

Good luck selling your neobank now

🤷‍♀️ What's happening to the talent market? 🤷‍♀️

Startup Life

The six mistakes of early-stage founders

Growth Marketing Manager, Allplants, London
Product Designer, Tractable, London
Enterprise Account Executive, MongoDB, Paris

Check out our jobs board if you are looking for a job in fintech or product.

Sifted Suggests

🥁 UPDATE: Top virtual events this week 🥁

We've scouted out the best online discussions and workshops happening this week and next. And we've also compiled a handy archive of resources from brilliant events that have been and gone.

Discover the best webinars happening this week here.

Events (digital only)

🇬🇧 Female founder office hours | 4 June
Office hours for early-stage female founders with 30 investors from the UK. Sign up here by May 25.

Sifted resources

🙏 Forward this on, please 🙏

If you're a Sifted fan, please forward this email on to a friend who might love it too and CC Amy (amy@sifted.eu). Introduce yourself — hey, maybe we're writing a story you could help us on.

P.S. Does this newsletter sometimes end up in your spam or promotions folder? Add amy@sifted.eu to your contacts to stop it going astray again.

Older messages

Why tech still doesn't understand periods 🩸

Unmissable virtual events: a list 🎪

Digital banks struggle across the pond 🇺🇸

Banking the ultra-wealthy ⛵

An enormous fintech flop 😱

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🚀 Axiom Facing Liquidity Issues

Shiftx AI, View AI Ready Data as a Service (DaaS), and hanabi.rest

Will We See a Better Exit Market Next Year?

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Sifted - Monzo's 40% valuation drop 😬

Fundraising

From potential unicorn to coronavirus-victim

Deeptech

Gadgets to get us back to work again

Fintech

Good luck selling your neobank now

Startup Life

The six mistakes of early-stage founders

Growth Marketing Manager, Allplants, London Product Designer, Tractable, London Enterprise Account Executive, MongoDB, Paris Check out our jobs board if you are looking for a job in fintech or product.

Sifted Suggests

We've scouted out the best online discussions and workshops happening this week and next. And we've also compiled a handy archive of resources from brilliant events that have been and gone. Discover the best webinars happening this week here.

Events (digital only)

🇬🇧 Female founder office hours | 4 June Office hours for early-stage female founders with 30 investors from the UK. Sign up here by May 25.

Sifted resources

🙏 Forward this on, please 🙏

If you're a Sifted fan, please forward this email on to a friend who might love it too and CC Amy (amy@sifted.eu). Introduce yourself — hey, maybe we're writing a story you could help us on.

P.S. Does this newsletter sometimes end up in your spam or promotions folder? Add amy@sifted.eu to your contacts to stop it going astray again.

Older messages

You Might Also Like

Growth Marketing Manager, Allplants, London
Product Designer, Tractable, London
Enterprise Account Executive, MongoDB, Paris

Check out our jobs board if you are looking for a job in fintech or product.

We've scouted out the best online discussions and workshops happening this week and next. And we've also compiled a handy archive of resources from brilliant events that have been and gone.

Discover the best webinars happening this week here.

🇬🇧 Female founder office hours | 4 June
Office hours for early-stage female founders with 30 investors from the UK. Sign up here by May 25.