Sifted - Can Mistral win the LLM market?

Good morning there,

France’s Mistral AI has been the talk of the town for the past year or so. With good reason: it’s not often that a European startup raises more than €1bn in less than a year, nor that it's considered a serious competitor to some of the US’s biggest tech giants. 

But beyond the excitement, stardom and presidential tweets, how has Mistral been doing — as a business — for the past 12 months? And does it stand a chance against the OpenAIs and Llamas of our world? I quizzed the startup’s investors, customers and execs to find out.

Elsewhere, Sifted reporters Freya Pratty, Miriam Partington and Kai Nicol-Schwarz dig into a gloomy year for companies like Northvolt, Lilium and Graphcore and ask: can deeptechs actually scale in Europe?

Also today:

• Oura Ring founder Petteri Lahtela on fending off acquisition offers from Big Tech.

 — Daphné Leprince-Ringuet, French tech reporter  

How to find (and attract) top talent
In the fast-paced world of startups, slow hiring can hold back your growth. Learn how to hire faster — and smarter — at our free, virtual Sifted Talks on December 12.

👀 Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) Sriram Krishnan is leaving the firm at the end of the year — and is reportedly in discussion with Elon Musk about joining his US government advisory group to cut federal spending. 

• Krishnan moved to the UK to help set up the VC firm’s first office abroad in 2023. Since then, a16z has been on a charm offensive in the country, hosting its first overseas demo day for its crypto startup accelerator, in London, and rubbing shoulders with UK policymakers.
• Earlier this year, however, it was announced that a16z crypto’s chief operating officer Anthony Albanese was relocating to the UK to head up UK policy efforts, with Krishnan transitioning to work on the firm’s international strategy.

💪 Mistral started cashing in on its first commercial products less than a year ago, and the scaleup is on track to achieve €30m in annual recurring revenue (ARR) this year, sources tell Sifted (Mistral declined to comment). 

• But France’s AI champion is facing competition from tech behemoths like OpenAI, Meta and Google — in a sector that investors predict will only see a few winners. 
• So, does Mistral have what it takes to be one of them?

🥴 Europe’s deeptech credentials have taken a battering in 2024. Swedish gigafactory company Northvolt filing for bankruptcy last week capped off a gloomy year that has also seen German flying taxi company Lilium file for insolvency and electric van maker Arrival file for administration. Elsewhere UK chip maker Graphcore was sold to SoftBank for less money than the nearly $700m investors put into the business. 

• While each company faced its own unique challenges, together they show the struggles of scaling and entering production for businesses like them in Europe: a continent with less capital than the US and less access to a cheap supply chain than China. 
• It’s left investors questioning whether the companies would have been better off if they’d chosen to scale up elsewhere.

🎙️ Must listen: Oura Ring cofounder on fending off acquisition offers from Big Tech. Sifted editor Amy Lewin sits down with Petteri Lahtela, cofounder of smart wearable company Oura, to discuss how the business has grown to make $500m in revenue, hit profitability and sell more than 2.5m devices.

• They discuss the big idea behind Oura, how Petteri has turned down multiple offers from buyers and how the company is well-poised to pounce on the AI boom with the data it has.

🪫 From pioneer to bankruptcy: the rise and fall of Northvolt. After a dramatic week for the Swedish battery maker, Europe editor (and Swedish native) Mimi Billing digs through the media archives and asks: why did Northvolt fail?

Europe’s angel community is growing quickly and networks across the continent are doing deals at a higher value, according to new research from management consulting firm BCG.

• The total number of angels joining the European VC community increased by around 10% in 2022. 
• The number of angel networks in Europe has consolidated, with 360 accounted for in 2022, down from 400 in 2020
• The percentage of angel investors affiliated with a network grew 16% annually between 2020 and 2022; the average investment per network also grew during that time, from €1.9m to €4m.

December 4 | Paris. Sifted's cofounder and editorial director John Thornhill will be at 'Airport Innovation Days' at Groupe ADP's HQ in Paris next Wednesday with a bunch of founders, aviation experts and industry leaders. Keen to attend? You can register your interest here.

December 12 | Online. How to find (and attract) top talent for your startup. Learn how to attract top talent, streamline your recruitment process, and hire smarter to drive your startup's success, at our free, virtual Sifted Talks. RSVP.

European founders, this one’s for you

Get Sifted for Startups, our free subscription for founders and senior management teams looking to grow and scale their businesses. You’ll unlock unlimited access to our journalism for the entire team, plus chances to be featured across our media.

Paris-based Raidium, which aims to build a foundation model for 3D medical imaging, raised €16m in seed funding. Newfund and Kurma Partners led the round and were joined by investors including Founders Future, Galion.exe, Techmind, Debiopharm and the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency.

London-based Tembo, a digital savings and mortgage platform, raised £14m in Series B funding. Goodwater Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Aviva, Ascension Ventures, Love Ventures and McPike Family Office.

Munich, Germany-based Predium, a sustainable real estate intelligence platform, raised €13m in Series A funding. Norrsken VC led the round and was joined by investors including UVC Partners, B2venture and Mutschler Ventures.

London-based SatVu, which develops thermal imaging technology for earth observation, raised £10m in funding. Molten Ventures and Adara Ventures led the round and were joined by investors including NOA, Lockheed Martin, Seraphim, Ridgeline and Stellar Ventures.

London-based Volter, which helps billing, monitoring and reporting for solar energy systems, raised $3.2m in pre-seed funding. Transition led the round and was joined by investors including Seedcamp and Neptunia.

Milan, Italy-based Movopack, which provides e-commerce platforms with circular and sustainable packaging, raised £2m in seed funding. 360 Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Greiner Innoventures and Techstars.

London-based Bleap, which is building a payments app to let customers spend stablecoins with a debit card, raised $2.3m in pre-seed funding. Ethereal Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Maven11, Alliance DAO and Robot Ventures.

Edinburgh-based Biotangents, which is developing molecular diagnostics for livestock, raised £2.3m in funding. Eos Advisory and British Business Investments led the round and were joined by investors including Kelvin Capital and Scottish Enterprise.

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.

• Sign up to our specialist newsletters if you want more on fintech, climate tech, startup life and VC.
• Startups can now get unlimited access to Sifted's journalism with our free Sifted for Startups subscription. 
• Tune in to Sifted’s podcast, Startup Europe.
• Join Sifted’s journalists for live Sifted Talks with industry experts, diving into the biggest questions facing startup Europe.
• Access investment-grade research and verified startup data on the hottest sectors, rising stars and success stories from across European tech by subscribing to Sifted Pro.
• Follow us on LinkedIn and X.