Sifted - Europe's fastest-growing deeptechs

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Last week, Sifted’s leaderboard of Europe’s 250 fastest-growing startups by revenue dropped. It was a list dominated by fintechs and B2B SaaS startups — but one notable for a lack of deeptech companies. Only 11 made the cut, of which 9 sit outside the top 20.

A revenue-based ranking, it would seem, puts deeptechs — and their longer paths to monetisation — at a disadvantage. It’s also been a tough year for the sector, with the collapse of some of the biggest names, such as Northvolt.

That said, the 10 fastest-growing deeptechs on the leaderboard have found a way to make money — and some of them boast upwards of 200% in compound annual revenue growth over the last three years. Here’s who made the cut. 

Elsewhere today:

• Insurtech unicorn ManyPets reports falling losses amid layoffs and market exits
• No code and dev tool startups: early-stage market map
• BlackRock- and Bessemer-backed Upvest doubles valuation as it raises €100m

— Daphné Leprince-Ringuet, French tech reporter

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🐕 Pet insurtech ManyPets more than halved its losses in its latest accounting period up until March 31 2024, despite revenue falling for the second year in a row. 

• The results come amid a turbulent period that has seen the company shake up its leadership, make layoffs and exit all international markets, as rising inflation has battered the insurance market.

🇩🇪 Berlin-based Upvest, which provides investment APIs to fintechs, has raised €100m in Series C funding two months after it received the nod from regulators to launch in the UK.  

• Fintech VC Hedosophia led the round, which featured participation from Sapphire Ventures. 

🇬🇧 UK fintech Stenn collapsed into administration after the company and its Russian founder and CEO Greg Karpovsky were referenced in a Russian money laundering case in the US, which led its lenders to look into potentially suspicious transactions, reported the Financial Times yesterday. 

• While neither Stenn nor Karpovsky were accused of any wrongdoing in the case, the references triggered HSBC Innovation Banking — one of its lenders — to undertake an examination of the fintech’s dealings, people familiar with the matter told the FT.
• Karpovsky told the publication that he was “co-operating” with Stenn’s administrators and that it “would not be appropriate” to comment on that process. He added: “However, I am obviously concerned about any allegations of impropriety against me and I deny any wrongdoing in connection with Stenn.” Stenn did not respond to a request for comment from Sifted by press time.
• The new details follow Sifted reporting last week that Stenn was put into administration by HSBC Innovation Banking. At the time of reporting, a Stenn spokesperson said it was “actively defending” against the measure.

🇸🇪 Swedish buy now, pay later fintech Klarna was fined 500m SEK ($46m) yesterday for breaking anti-money laundering rules following a review of the company dated for the year to March 2022. It was fined by Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority for deficiencies in how it assessed how its services could be used for money laundering purposes. 

• A Klarna spokesperson told Sifted: "The decision from the SFSA follows a routine review, initiated in 2022, of Klarna's compliance with anti-money laundering regulations—not actual cases of money laundering. We have maintained constructive dialogue throughout this process which is part of our commitment to a robust and secure financial environment.”

What are the fastest-growing companies in Europe?

We ventured through 2024 to rank the region’s most innovative high-growth startups in fintech, green energy, healthtech and many other sectors. We also dig into the trends and data to understand what factors are fuelling their growth.

📈 The 10 fastest-growing deeptechs in Europe.

🏦 Banks lag in staying ahead of evolving AI regulation. Are fintechs poised to benefit? (Sponsored by BCGX)

🇱🇹 Lithuania is ranked the world’s happiest country for young people. Here’s why tech talent should move there. (Sponsored by Work in Lithuania)

• Plainly, no code is just someone else’s code — and that someone happens to increasingly be AI. 
• During Google’s quarterly earnings call in October 2024, CEO Sundar Pichai said that more than a quarter of new code created at the company is now generated by AI before it’s reviewed by engineers; in March last year, Microsoft executive Scott Guthrie said that 40% of GitHub Copilot’s AI-generated code is left unmodified by users; and at the Abundance360 summit Emad Mostaque — founder and former CEO of Stability AI — said he thinks there'll be no programmers within the next five years.
• The market’s been hungry for productivity boosts and efficiency gains, meaning cost-friendly tools — no code and dev tools — to complement both technical and non-technical talent are in hot demand.
• As shiny as it is, the sector will have to battle both moral and technical hurdles: are engineers killing their own jobs? And if they succeed, will there be a big enough market for them, particularly against legacy giants?
• We dive into the state of the market in our no code & dev tools briefing, exclusive to Pro subscribers.

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

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Basel, Switzerland-based Noema Pharma, a clinical-stage biotech researching central nervous system disorders, raised €36m in Series B extension funding. EQT Life Sciences led the round and was joined by investors including Forbion, Jeito Capital, Sofinnova Partners, Gilde Healthcare, Polaris Partners, Invus and UPMC Enterprises.

Stockholm-based Mynt, a corporate credit card provider and spend management software, raised €22m in Series B funding. Vor Capital led the round and was joined by investors including CNI and Incore.

Cologne, Germany-based SpotmyEnergy, a smart metering and dynamic pricing energy startup, raised €10.5m in seed funding. Norrsken VC led the round and was joined by investors including Vorwerk Ventures and Picus Capital.

Madrid-based Dcycle, an ESG data management platform, raised €6m in Series A funding. Samaipata led the round and was joined by investors including Ship2B Ventures, Sabadell Venture Capital, Draper B1, Decelera Ventures and Angels Capital.

Amsterdam-based CarbonX, which builds carbon black plants for graphene production, raised €4m in funding from Energy Transition Fund Rotterdam, Innovation Industries and Borski Fund.

Paris-based Yampa, which builds AI-native agents for customer service applications, raised €3m in seed funding. Partech led the round and was joined by investors including Arthur Waller (Pennylane cofounder) and Guillaume Desloges (Alma cofounder).

Ghent, Belgium-based Powernaut, which builds orchestration software for decentralised energy devices, raised €2.4m in pre-seed funding. Revent led the round and was joined by investors including Seedcamp, Pitchdrive and Syndicate One.

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