Sifted - Fintech acquisitions a-coming

Good morning there,

'Tis the season for predictions, so let me get in there early. 2025 will, finally, be the year of acquisitions — and we'll see a lot of scaleups snapping up smaller startups.

Today, UK-based lender-turned-neobank Zopa is announcing a fresh €80m in funding to launch a suite of new products, including current accounts and a GenAI-powered financial assistant. Those could be built in house — or acquired, CEO Jaidev Janardana told Sifted's fintech reporter Tom Matsuda yesterday. 

It's not the only big European fintech with plans to consolidate the market. French neobank Qonto is thinking along the same lines — and has already acquired two startups.

Also today:

• Meet the ex-PayFit employees building startups of their own 
• Europe’s 10 fastest-growing climate tech startups by revenue
• How to sell a $3.5bn dollar company with Serg Bell

 — Amy Lewin, editor

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🩺 Johannes Schildt, cofounder of Swedish digital care startup Kry, has left his role as CEO, becoming chair of the board. Former COO Karl Conneryd-Lundgren will become the new chief exec.

• Schildt has held the role at the healthtech unicorn since 2015, and tells Europe editor Mimi Billing that the company’s focus is now to cement its position in its existing markets. 
• Kry operates in Sweden, France and the UK, and was valued at $2bn when it raised $160m in 2022.

🍫 Munich-based Planet A Foods, which makes chocolate without cocoa, has raised a $30m Series B round — defying a wider cooling in funding for foodtech startups. 

• The round is co-led by Burda Principal Investments, a division of German media group Hubert Burda Media, and Zinitinus, which invests in foodtech. The company raised its $15.4m Series A under a year ago.
• Unlike many startup-produced food alternatives, Planet A’s product sells at the same price as the one it replaces — and doesn't need regulatory approval, putting it in a stronger position than many of its foodtech peers.

👛 UK digital bank Zopa has raised €80m as it makes an ambitious push into new products including current accounts, investments and a GenAI-powered financial assistant. It’s also eyeing up acquisitions.

• The round was led by Danish investment firm A.P. Moller Holding. Existing investors, including IAG Silverstripe, Augmentum and Davidson Kempner Capital Management participated.

👨‍💻 London-based payments giant Checkout.com has appointed former Visa exec Philip Symes as interim CFO. Symes will take over the role from Nirupam Sinha, who is set to depart later this month after three years in the role. 

Meet Europe’s 250 fastest-growing startups in 2024

All year, we’ve been trying to find out: what are the fastest-growing companies in Europe? This leaderboard has the answers. We ranked 250 high-growth startups. In top spot? Fintech Allica Bank with a CAGR of 1438%.

🏎️ Europe’s 10 fastest-growing climate tech startups by revenue 

🤑 How to sell a $3.5bn dollar company with Serg Bell. Earlier this year, Bell sold a majority stake in his $3.5bn cybersecurity company Acronis to EQT. But it wasn’t his first rodeo. 

• In 2019 he sold software platform Acumatica to the same firm, so he knows a thing or two about how to get a deal over the line. Today he’s sharing lessons he’s learnt from the acquisition process, as well as looking back on an entrepreneurial life that began selling homemade toys to friends under the Soviet Union.

🧱 Meet the ex-PayFit employees building startups of their own 

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.

Sifted readers, have your say! 

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Oxford, UK-based Oxford Flow, which engineers and manufactures flow control valves and pressure regulators for industry, raised €23.7m in Series C funding. bp Ventures and Energy Impact Partners led the round.

Aachen, Germany-based FibreCoat, which specialises in coating metals and plastics onto fibres for use in the space and defence sectors, raised €20m in Series B funding from investors including NewSpace Capital, Goose Capital and Nova Saint-Gobain.

London-based Cerve, a food supply chain startup which aims to drive reductions in waste, raised £3.5m in seed funding. SuperSeed led the round and was joined by investors including Zenith, Ponderosa and The First Thirty.

Stockholm-based Talentium, an AI-powered hiring platform, raised €3.5m in pre-seed funding led by EQT Ventures.

Galway, Ireland-based Luminate, which is developing technology to deliver cancer treatments at home, raised €2.5m in Series A extension funding. Atlantic Bridge led the round and was joined by investors including Faber, Steve Pacelli and Finn Murphy.

Newcastle-based Newcells Biotech, a developer of 3D laboratory models that mimic tissues within the body for drug development testing, raised £1.2m in funding from investors including Mercia Ventures, Northstar Ventures and North East Finance.

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

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