Sifted - What shaped European AI in 2024

Good morning there,

The end of 2024 is near — and it’s clear that this year AI took the tech spotlight again. 

VC funding for AI startups kept growing, and reached an estimated $11bn in 2024. That included some headline-grabbing megarounds worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, European governments doubled down on the “AI for sovereignty rhetoric”, getting behind some of the region’s companies showing the most promise.

It wasn’t all fun and games, though. The past 12 months also saw drama unfold — from cofounders leaving top startups to the EU’s AI Act coming into force to the concern of some founders and VCs.

Today, I round up the key developments that shaped Europe’s ‘year of AI’. 

Elsewhere:

• Longtime Sequoia partner Matt Miller departs to start his own Europe fund

• Stability AI says Getty has increased damages claims for copyright infringement to up to $1.7bn

• Europe’s 10 fastest-growing B2B SaaS startups by revenue

• 5 spacetech startups fundraising right now

— Daphné Leprince-Ringuet, French tech reporter

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👋 Longtime Sequoia partner Matt Miller is departing to start his own Europe fund after 12 years at the Silicon Valley VC giant. London-based Miller posted on LinkedIn and X yesterday that he plans to "start [his] own fund focused on the great founders of Europe".

📷 Stability AI has stated in its latest company accounts that Getty Images is seeking up to $1.7bn in damages in a lawsuit alleging that the startup trained its image generation model on copyrighted works.

• It marks an increase on the roughly $1bn that Stability said Getty was claiming for in its previous company financial report, published in September.
• The document, filed last week, says that Getty is now seeking damages of up to $150k for 11,383 works in the suit, compared to the previously given figure of 7,300 images. Getty itself alleges that Stability may have wrongfully used as many as 12m images, which would equate to damages of $1.8tn. 

🍬London-based insurtech Marshmallow says it’s on track for profitability this year. This week it posted revenues of £184m for the year ending December 31 2023, a 75% increase on the previous year. Losses fell to £208k, down 98% from £16.1m in the year ending December 2022.

• The company, which provides car insurance, said in its company filing that 2023 was its “first year being EBITDA positive since the launch of our own insurance carrier in 2021,” while forecasting profitability in 2024.
• Marshmallow grew its headcount by 80 people in 2023, bringing the total to 310 people. According to LinkedIn the company now has more than 500 employees.

🛻Swedish-German truck maker Scania is in discussions to acquire one of Swedish gigafactory company Northvolt’s battery subsidiaries, Impact Loop reported this week. The two are said to be discussing the sale of components owned by Northvolt Battery Systems, a subsidiary which counts mining equipment manufacturer Epiroc as a client. 

• Scania and Northvolt have a long history: the truck manufacturer signed an offtake agreement to buy batteries from the startup. Scania also invested in Northvolt, lending it $100m under its bankruptcy deal in November.

🎵Californian music rights company Verifyyed is set to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), following the agreement of preliminary terms for UK acquisition company Acceler8 to buy the startup, at a proposed valuation of £96m.

• Acceler8 will temporarily suspend its LSE listing, before seeking to raise £10m-20m in growth capital. It will then re-list as Verifyyed.
• David Williams, Acceler8’s chair, said: “We are delighted to have reached agreement with Verifyyed and have the opportunity to bring to London such an exciting, high growth technology company.”

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🦾 The year of AI: 12 events that shaped the sector in 2024.

📈 B2B SaaS companies featured more on the Sifted 250 list of Europe's fastest-growing startups than any other vertical.

• Here are the 10 that grew the quickest.

• European spacetech has recovered after investment fell by 70% in 2022. It grew for the second consecutive year in 2024 to €874m.
• Munich is the epicentre of European space development, and is home to SpaceX competitor The Exploration Company — which raised a €147m Series B led by Balderton and Plural in November and was the third-highest ranked deeptech startup on the Sifted 250.
• Satellite launcher Isar Aerospace is also based in Munich, and its €18.5m debt round (alongside its €65m Series C) is the largest of only three spacetech debt fundraises announced this year — signalling that it’s often still too risky a bet for banks and debt providers in a capital-intensive industry where later-stage funding is badly needed.
• Spacetech is drawing attention from VCs and politicians alike, but it still has a long way to go to be competitive, as our latest spacetech briefing (exclusive to Pro subscribers) shows.
• Sifted also reached out to all of the early-stage companies in that briefing to find out which ones were raising; here are the 5 that told us they were.

Pro subscribers also have access to Sifted’s full back catalogue of sector briefings. Interested in subscribing? Find out more here.

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London-based BVNK, which offers infrastructure for stablecoin payments, raised $50m in Series B funding. Haun Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Coinbase Ventures, Scribble Ventures, DRW VC, Avenir and Tiger Global.

Amsterdam-based Excess Materials Exchange, a provider of waste management services, raised $5m in Series A funding. Wa’ed Ventures led the round.

Lund, Sweden-based Lightbringer, an AI-driven platform for safeguarding intellectual property, raised €4.2m in funding. Luminar Ventures and Alliance VC led the round and were joined by investors including Zenith Ventures.

Belfast-based Loadar, a freight procurement and management tool, raised $4m in seed funding. Frontline Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Techstart Ventures.

Prague-based Zuri, a developer of hybrid vertical take-off and landing aircraft, raised €3m in Series A funding. Jan Barta led the round and was joined by investors including 10X and Boris Renski.

Madrid-based Mogu, a SaaS platform for travel agencies, raised €2.2m in funding. 4Founders Capital, Athos Capital and Bynd Venture Capital led the round.

Paris-based SkyVisor, which develops drone-based inspection and asset management software for renewables, raised €1.2m in funding from investors including Tomcat and Bpifrance.

Pisa, Italy-based Fluid Wire Robotics, which specialises in the construction of robotic arms, raised €1.2m in funding. RoboIT led the round and was joined by investors including Deep Blue Ventures, Scientifica Venture Capital and Pariter Robotics.

Lanaken, Belgium-based Ceriter, a smart wearable technology startup for gait rehabilitation, raised €1m in seed funding. LIOF, Birdhouse Ventures and Imec.istart led the round.

Antwerp, Belgium-based Nox Energy, which connects electricity markets with manufacturers of energy-efficient assets, raised $1m in funding. Volve Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Seeder.

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