Sifted - Northvolt collapse

Good morning there,

Battery manufacturer Northvolt filed one of the largest bankruptcy cases in Swedish history on Tuesday, bringing the company’s long-running financial saga to a head.

After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US in November, Northvolt had spent the past few months trying to secure enough investment to stay afloat — but failed.

The company, which has more than 3,000 employees, will now work alongside the bankruptcy administrator in Sweden to determine what can be salvaged or sold across its various entities, including a factory in Skellefteå, an R&D centre in Västerås and its headquarters in Stockholm. 

The fate of its US operations and its factory in Germany remains uncertain. I’ll be following the proceedings in the weeks to come and if you have thoughts to share, get in touch.

Elsewhere:

• The European startups on the hunt for M&A deals
• Lovable FOMO has VCs hunting for the next super fast app builder
• Harry Stebbings to lead scheme looking to help build Europe’s next €100bn companies

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🎙️ A host of Europe’s top founders from companies including Klarna, Mistral and Delivery Hero have launched ‘Project Europe’, a new scheme led by podcaster-turned-VC Harry Stebbings designed to help build Europe’s next €100bn companies.

🪫 Swedish battery maker Northvolt has filed for bankruptcy in Sweden, prompting unease among some of Europe’s energy investors. We charted the rise and fall of Northvolt here.

🌊 Helsinki-based deeptech firm OpenOcean has raised €100m for its fourth flagship fund, with a target to close €130m by the first half of 2025. Here’s where it wants to put its money.

Sifted Summit 2025 — tickets have dropped!

Registration for Sifted Summit 2025 is officially live! From October 8-9 at Magazine London, 3,000+ founders, operators and investors will come together to shape the future of European tech. Experience the Sifted magic live and in person.

💘 Meet the startup building an “AI OnlyFans”. London-based Oh raised a $4.5m round in January for its platform, which uses AI to generate NSFW adult content with fictional characters and digital twins of real content creators. Now it has plans to roll out agentic “erotic companions.”

🤝 In the last few weeks AI analytics company Quantexa and period-tracking app Flo have both told Sifted they’re looking for other startups to buy — and they’re not the only ones hunting M&A deals.

😍 VCs have Lovable fever. Why? Because in the last three months the Swedish startup, which has developed an AI tool that lets people without coding skills create apps in minutes, reached $17m in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and set the AI agent market alight. Here are the other startups like it racing to grab market share.

Amsterdam-based Thorizon, which is specialising in molten salt reactor technology, raised €20m in funding. Invest-NL led the round and was joined by investors including Positron Ventures, Pdenh and Impuls Zeeland.

Taastrup, Denmark-based Atlant 3D, which is building an advanced atomic-scale manufacturing platform, raised €13.7m in Series A funding. West Hill Capital led the round.

Stafford, UK-based Strolll, a digital therapeutic software company that uses augmented reality (AR) glasses for neurorehabilitation, raised €12.2m in Series A funding. IW Capital led the round.

Berlin-based Dance, which offers e-bike and moped subscription services, raised €12m in equity and debt funding from investors including Smart Lender Asset Management, Elemental, Uli Schöberl and Piotr Brzezinski.

Munich, Germany-based Vantis, which focuses on technologies for primary care, particularly focused on chronic disease management, raised €10m in funding. Angelini Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Bayern Kapital, Twip Impact Ventures, Firstminute and B2venture.

London-based Mimo, which is a platform that simplifies global payments, cash flow and financial management for SMBs and accountants, raised $8.5m in funding. Project A led the round and was joined by investors including Northzone and Seedcamp.

Antwerp, Belgium-based Aloxy, which offers Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions for the chemical and oil & gas industries, raised €7.4m in funding from investors including Dow Venture Capital, Emerson Ventures, Qbic fund, Industrya fund, Innovation fund, Imec.istart fund and the University of Antwerp.

Hamburg, Germany-based Elea, an AI powered pathology operating system, raised €4m in seed funding. Fly Ventures and Giant Ventures led the round.

London-based Merx, which is building an AI conversational platform for brands, raised £1m in pre-seed funding. VentureFriends led the round and was joined by investors including Ascension.

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