Sifted - 11x relocates to San Fran

Good morning there,

Startup insiders had hoped that 2024 would be a big year for M&A, as many VCs are anxiously awaiting liquidity. But that hasn’t quite panned out the way they hoped so far this year. Today, we speak to one banker about what's going on.

Elsewhere:

• ‘We had to move to Silicon Valley’ — 11x relocates to the US with $24m Series A
• Teachers' Venture Growth's Avid Larizadeh Duggan on how not to be a bad board member

— Anne Sraders, senior reporter

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✈️ One of Europe’s buzziest AI startups, London-founded 11x, has raised a $24m Series A led by Benchmark — and relocated its HQ to San Francisco. The company develops “digital workers” that automate junior sales roles.

• The company’s head of growth Keith Fearon tells Sifted its investors said it had to make the move, but added that it makes business sense due to the wealth of engineering talent in the Bay Area, higher valuations from VCs and the fact the bulk of its customers are in the US.
• 11x will use the round to invest heavily in its product as it tries to stay ahead of its competitors.

🇵🇱 Poland’s largest fund of funds, state-owned PFR Ventures, has distributed its first, long-awaited allocations of European public money to early-stage VCs. The capital was supposed to be handed out at the beginning of 2023, but was delayed by political squabbling, leaving a huge funding gap at pre-seed and seed. PFR now hopes to pump €490m into 40 early-stage Polish VCs, and says it's reviewed almost 100 pitches over the past six months. It's now in talks with 12 VCs for funding, while four VCs (listed below) have been successful:

• 24Ventures, which has done a €12.6m first close of a new fund, and aims to invest in 18 startups in the next four years in the fields of digital transformation and climate tech.  
• Digital Ocean Ventures Starter, which has done a first close of an €8.4m fund, to invest in fintech and AI companies.  
• Hard2beat, which has raised a €19.6m fund to invest in 20 deeptech startups.
• Tar Heel Capital Pathfinder, which has raised its second fund of €18.7m to invest in 30 startups in the fields of AI, SaaS, marketplaces, cleantech, edtech, medtech and cybersecurity.

🇫🇷 Noteus, the growth investment firm founded by four former VCs from major French investor Eurazeo, is seeking to raise a €600m debut fund, according to the Financial Times. 

• The new firm’s four cofounders — Yann du Rusquec, Nathalie Kornhoff-Brüls, Zoé Fabian and Guillaume d'Audiffret — left Eurazeo last year as the French investor underwent leadership changes.
• Noteus has already invested €300m in tech companies since the start of the year, according to the FT. A representative for the firm declined to comment.

🇪🇺 Thierry Breton has resigned and withdrawn his candidacy to serve in a future European Commission. Breton, France’s European commissioner for the internal market and the mastermind behind some of the EU’s flagship tech policies such as the AI Act, the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, has accused Commission president Ursula von der Leyen of undermining him just days before she is set to announce her new list of commissioners. Up until Monday, Breton was considered to be the top candidate to oversee industrial and tech policies in the upcoming commission mandate.

• In his resignation letter to von der Leyen, posted on X, he wrote: “A few days ago [...] you asked France to withdraw my name — for personal reasons that in no instance you have discussed directly with me — and offered, as a political trade-off, an allegedly more influential portfolio for France in the future College.”
• Stéphane Séjourné, the outgoing European foreign affairs minister, replaces Breton as France’s new candidate for the commissioner position.

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💸 Investors and advisors had hoped that 2024 was going to be a gangbusters year for M&A. That hasn’t quite panned out the way they hoped. But which sectors could see more action in the coming months and into 2025? GP Bullhound's Simon Miremadi shares his top predictions.

💡 'You need to know you can't do': Avid Larizadeh Duggan on how not to be a bad board member. To hear from Avid in-person, join the Sifted Summit on October 2-3. 

🎓 Investment this year into UK university spinouts is on track to surpass the total from last year, according to a new H1 2024 report from spinout investor Parkwalk Advisors and data platform Beauhurst. Close to £1bn has been invested so far, against the £1.75bn invested across all of 2023. Deal count is also holding steady. 

Elsewhere in the data:

• There’s a downward trend in the number of first-time deals being secured by UK spinouts. They peaked at 120 in 2021, but then dropped to 86 in 2022 and 67 in 2023. There were 32 first-time deals in H1 this year. 
• Foreign investors are becoming more likely to invest in UK spinouts. Between 2014 and 2020 most deals were done by UK investors but, since 2021, at least one in five deals has involved UK and foreign investors. The share of investment featuring solely foreign investors was 14% last year, up from 4.29% in 2022. 

Future of Flying. With environmental pressure mounting, this report takes a journey through the tech that is changing airports — and air travel — across the globe. Download it here.

Greeking Out 2.0. Is Greece fast becoming a go-to destination for tech? Our report explores the success stories of the Greek startup ecosystem, highlighting what the Mediterranean hub might look like in the future. Download it here. 

Going global through M&A. 90% of executives expect an increase in foreign M&A targets in 2024. If you’re looking to go global, our Sifted Guide will help you better understand how to navigate the complexities of moving to a new market. Download it here.

Paris-based Akur8, which has developed actuarial pricing software, raised $120m in Series C funding. One Peak led the round and was joined by Partners Group and Guidewire Software.

Milan, Italy-based BizAway, a corporate travel booking system, raised €35m in funding from Mayfair Equity Partners. 

Paris-based Samp, which has developed digital twin technology for construction companies, raised €6m from investors including Promus Ventures, Kvanted, Innovacom and High-Tech Gründerfonds.

Kyiv-based Swarmer, developer of drone coordination tech, raised $2.7m. R-G.AI led the round and was joined by Radius Capital, Green Flag Ventures and D3 Venture Capital.

Munich, Germany-based Symphera, a company that develops an all-in-one surgical system, raised €2.4m in seed funding. High-Tech Gründerfonds led the round and was joined by investors including Bayern Kapital, UnternehmerTUM and Carma Fund.

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