Sifted - Who’s in charge at Helsing?

Good morning there,

This time last year, Sifted surveyed our VC readers and found they had been fundraising hard. 60% of our respondents were out asking for money at the time — and 51% had spoken to over 100 LPs in the past two years about fundraising, 

Has this year been as much of a slog? If you’re a partner at a European VC firm, please take this speedy survey and tell us (anonymously) how fundraising has been going as well as what LPs have been asking for this year. We’ll share the results in this newsletter soon. 

Elsewhere:

• Who’s in charge at Helsing?
• Oura’s cofounder: “We’ve had multiple acquisition offers from Big Tech”

— Amy Lewin, editor

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🪖 Who’s in charge at Helsing? German AI battlefield software startup Helsing has caught investors’ and governments’ eyes in recent years — but little is known about the company, which has raised over $820m to date and was most recently valued at a reported €4.95bn. It now has around 350 employees — but who are its power players? Sifted maps out the startup’s org chart here. 

🗣️ “We’ve had multiple acquisition offers from Big Tech.” The latest guest on the Sifted podcast is Petteri Lahtela, cofounder and former CEO of Oura, the smart wearable company behind that ring, favoured by investors and founders alike. He spoke to editor Amy Lewin about what’s next for the company — which has just hit a $5.2bn valuation and has apparently been batting away acquisition offers for years. It now has a treasure trove of health data, says Lahtela, which gets stronger by the day and, in this AI era, holds a lot of potential… Listen here — or read the lightly edited highlights. 

🎄 How to run a great end-of-year holiday event.

🤝 The tech helping people buy property abroad.  (In partnership with Upscore)

📈 Meet two early-stage climate startups scaling breakthrough technologies.  (Sponsored by Breakthrough Energy)

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December 5 | Paris. Sifted's cofounder and editorial director John Thornhill will be at 'Airport Innovation Days' at Groupe ADP's HQ in Paris on Wednesday with a bunch of founders, aviation experts and industry leaders. Keen to attend? You can register your interest here.

December 10 | London. Sifted’s head of Intelligence, Jonathan Sinclair, will be moderating an exclusive VC panel discussion on the Nordics and Finland, hosted by the Finnish Ambassador’s residence. The event will bring together VCs and LPs for networking opportunities. To RSVP email 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.

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Berlin-based Akhetonics, which is developing an all-optical digital processor, raised €6m in seed funding. Matterwave Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including 468 Capital, Bayern Kapital, Runa Capital and Rheingau Founders.

Brussels-based AnyKrowd, an event management and crowd experience platform, raised €4m in Series A funding. Finance & Invest Brussels led the round and was joined by investors including Tony Mary (Collibra chair) and Michael Verschueren (Anderlecht football club former director).

Amsterdam-based Cargoplot, an e-commerce and freight forwarders platform, raised €3.8m in funding. Ubbo Hempenius (H&S Group former CEO) led the round.

• The startup was featured on Sifted’s recent Nordics & Benelux leaderboard, which ranked the 75 fastest-growing companies across the regions by revenue growth.

Paris-based Darwin, which helps consultants and ESG SaaS providers to assess businesses’ biodiversity impact and create plans to reduce them, raised €1.5m in pre-seed funding. Asterion Ventures led the round.

Valencia, Spain-based Ziknes, which develops large-format 3D printing technologies with industrial robots, raised €1m in funding from investors including Akka, First Drop, Demium VC, Mango Startup Studio, IVF and Enisa. 

Coleraine, Northern Ireland-based Dia Beta Labs, which is developing drugs targeting obesity and type 2 diabetes, raised £1.2m in funding. DSW Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Qubis and Innovate UK.

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

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