Sifted - Bolt acquires Denmark’s Viggo

Good morning there,

Estonian ride-hailing unicorn Bolt has bought Danish taxi startup Viggo for an undisclosed sum, in the company’s first ever acquisition. 

Bolt says the purchase makes it the biggest ride-hailing service in Denmark, outpacing industry stalwart Uber, which reentered the country in January after years spent wrangling with Danish regulators. 

Is this a sign of more European M&A activity to come? Deals still haven’t meaningfully ticked up from the lows of 2024 but, keeping our finger on the pulse, Sifted put together a rolling list of companies in the market for acquisitions this year.

Elsewhere, Miriam Partington spent last week schmoozing with VCs and founders in the Alps at Start Summit — Swiss city St Gallen’s annual startup conference. Scroll on for her dispatch.

Also today:

• Mistral CEO rules out IPO for now, doubles down on open-source
• Opinion: Should UK tech look east or west?

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🙅‍♂️ An IPO isn’t on the cards just yet for French AI darling Mistral, according to CEO Arthur Mensch. He had previously said the startup was “not for sale” and was instead eyeing a public listing.

💡 Exclusive: NATO Innovation Fund leads €25m Series A in photonics startup Camgraphic.

🚕 Estonian startup Bolt is bringing the taxi app wars to Denmark with its acquisition of ride-hailing firm Viggo, challenging Uber’s local presence. 

0100 Europe | Amsterdam. Senior reporter Anne Sraders will be at investor networking event 0100 Europe from April 2-4. Drop her a line if you're going too.

Sifted Talks | Online. On April 9, senior reporter Freya Pratty is bringing together panellists from Dexory, Yamato and Intralink to discuss how to take your startup overseas. From navigating new markets to building the right partnerships, our expert panel will share practical strategies for global growth. RSVP here.

Sifted Summit: From the page to the stage

Sifted Summit 2025 is where the most influential founders, investors, and operators come to scope out what’s next for startup Europe . Across two days, explore the trends shaping funding, AI growth and resilience and meet the people shaping the future of European tech.

🇬🇧 Caught between an increasingly hostile Trump administration and defiant EU leaders, UK tech can chart a course towards business success and economic growth, writes our editorial director John Thornhill.

VCs are circling around Swiss AI

Spring descended on St Gallen last week, as more than 7,000 people flocked to the small city at the foot of the Alps for Start Summit, the local university’s flagship startup conference. But most of the attendees spent the two days of the conference sitting in dark rooms lit up by strobe lights; watching panels and mingling; and, for those who had a few late nights at student bar Trischli Club, nursing bad hangovers.

The usual hot topics dominated the stage. AI was front and centre; cofounders of Hugging Face, Black Forest Labs and Ethon AI all spoke on panels. Climate tech also came up, as well as the debate about Europe vs the US. And backstage? The hype surrounding AI agent-maker Lovable and why VCs — who previously said they’d never fund military applications — suddenly want in on defence deals.

Investors I spoke to were there less to scout for deals and do “serious” meetings and more to meet up with old friends (many are St Gallen university alums) and stay to ski at the weekend. Many conference-goers quipped that the event felt more international and less German-speaking than previous years.

Some of the VC events were unsurprisingly swanky. Swiss firm Redalpine and Balderton hosted a pre-conference dinner in the mountains close by and Zurich-based early stage VC Founderful hosted a seven course LP-GP dinner with a wine pairing for each course. 

There was a vibe that the Swiss ecosystem is starting to bubble up. Some VCs on the ground in Zurich told me that Switzerland is beginning to get more international attention and that US investors call them up more often to enquire about the ecosystem, its startups and ask for advice for how to get around — even if there’s not much active dealmaking at this point. Accel, Sequoia, Benchmark and Lightspeed all had at least one person at Start Summit this year.

Some VCs and founders told me they stopped by Zurich on their way to St Gallen. Their interest was driven by a few factors. One is the research and spinouts coming out of ETH Zurich, especially at the intersection of AI and industry. The university’s track record is strong, with alumni including carbon capture company Climeworks, travel experiences platform GetYourGuide and plant-based meat alternative Planted. 

The other is AI talent, which Zurich is becoming a hotbed for thanks to ETH and local Big Tech firms — Google and IBM have long had a presence in Zurich, and OpenAI and Anthropic recently moved in. Onlookers are hopeful these big brands will attract more international talent to Zurich and will spawn new startups, to help get the city, and the broader Swiss ecosystem on the global startup map. There are faint signs this could be happening: Sequoia hosted an invite-only dinner with ETH’s AI centre during Start Summit. Founders I spoke to don’t yet seem concerned that Big Tech and its high salary offers will snap up all the talent.

A few tech folk told me that there are great things happening in Switzerland, but a lot remains under the radar as founders aren’t good at shouting about their successes. What the ecosystem needs? More exits, more funding and maybe a better PR strategy.

— Miriam Partington, senior reporter

Stockholm-based Rerun, which is developing a new way of visualising multimodal data, raised $17m in seed funding. Point Nine led the round and was joined by investors including Costanoa Ventures, Sunflower Capital and Seedcamp.

Oxford, UK-based Brainomix, which develops AI-powered imaging tools for the treatment of stroke and lung fibrosis patients, raised £14m in Series C funding. Parkwalk Advisors, Hostplus and Boehringer Ingelheim participated in the round.

Berlin-based Theion, which develops advanced lithium-sulfur batteries, raised €15m in Series A funding. Team Global, Geschwister Oetker Beteiligungen and Enpal led the round.

Stockholm-based Novatron Fusion, which is developing a fusion reactor that relies on stable plasma confinement to achieve sustained fusion reactions, raised €10m in Series A equity funding. St1 led the round and was joined by investors including TomEnterprise, Unit E Investments, Axon Partners, Climentum Capital, Santander InnoEnergy Fund, Granitor and Industrifonden.

Oslo-based Kosli, an automated governance platform for software delivery processes, raised $10m in Series A fund. Deutsche Bank Corporate Venture Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Heavybit, Defined Capital and Transpose Platform.

Stockholm-based Evroc, which is developing sustainable data centres which house AI chips, raised €8.6m in Series A funding, bringing the total round to €50.6m. Blisce/ led the round and was joined by Giant Ventures, EQT Ventures and Norrsken VC.

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