Venture Capital 

Top women investors in Portugal

🤔 How did Wirecard's collapse lead to fintech turmoil in the UK? 🤔

Last Friday, hundreds of thousands of UK consumers were somewhat perplexed to find their bank accounts frozen.

Somehow, the scandal around a German fintech was now affecting them.

Why? Learn how the fintech apps you use really work in our report.

 Venture Capital 

Enough nepotism

 Opinion 

Social entrepreneurs aren't always the good guys

 Healthtech 

Germany, let's talk mental health

👩‍🏫 Calling all data-driven policy makers 👩‍🏫

In partnership with data company Dealroom, we've launched European Startups, a database with all the info your heart could desire on the European startup ecosystem.

Learn how to get the most out of the platform in a free workshop for policy makers this Friday at 11am BST.

Sign up here.

News that matters

🧙 Beckley Psytech, a UK startup which hopes to turn psychedelic compounds into depression treatments, has raised £3m. Its investors include Innocent Drinks founder Richard Reed. Amy Lewin finds out just how wacky the idea is.

🎺 Artlist, which provides royalty-free music, stock video clips and sound effects, has raised $48m from investment firm KKR. Subscribers get access to digital assets to use in videos, games and music, without having to worry about licensing fees. Artlist, which is based in Tel Aviv, plans to boost its stock with the capital.

🥗 Infarm, the Berlin-based startup developing indoor farms, is raising $200m, according to the FT. Its vertical farms can be found inside supermarkets like M&S in the UK, Aldi in Germany and Kroger in the US. Investors include Atomico, Balderton, Cherry Ventures, LocalGlobe and LGT Lightstone, the impact investing arm of the Princely House of Liechtenstein.

🌞 SolarisBank, a German banking-as-a-service platform, has raised €60m. A whole load of banks, including BBVA, have piled into the Series C round, alongside corporate venture funds like Samsung Catalyst Fund and VC firms such as HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, which led the round. 

💰 The UK government has expanded its Future Fund. It has loosened the eligibility criteria, so that startups with parent companies outside the UK can apply and will invest more than the £250m initially promised.

💐 Colvin, a Barcelona-based flower delivery startup, has raised €14m in Series B funding. Colvin connects customers with growers directly, like Dutch startup Bloomon. 

🍀 VentureWave Capital, an Irish VC firm, has raised a new fund to invest in startups advancing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. It will invest €1m-25m in around 15 companies; the size of the fund is undisclosed.

📦 Delivery platforms in demand. Ziticity, a Lithuanian logistics startup, has raised €2.2m to expand further into Europe; it is currently active in France and the Baltics, where it provides same-day deliveries to local businesses. Meanwhile Scurri, an Irish software startup which helps businesses manage e-commerce orders and shipping, has raised €1.5m.

🛴 Scooter startups can hit the streets in the UK from Saturday. The rules of the road were announced yesterday; Amy Lewin finds out which scooter operators are lining up, and which cities want in.

🚌 In other mobility news, German transport startup FlixBus will launch coach services in the UK tomorrow.

👨‍⚕️ Owkin, a French-founded healthtech startup, has raised $18m from Bpifrance and Mubadala Capital. It uses machine learning to help clinicians, researchers and pharmaceutical companies collaborate on research, while protecting patient data.

🥕 Farmdrop, the London-based online grocer, has raised £6m. Like many online food businesses, it saw a spike in demand during lockdown — but was reported to be facing a cash crunch at the same time. For more on the startup's business model ups and downs, read our interview with founder Ben Pugh.

If you're a fan of our 'News that matters' and 'Sifted Suggests' sections, check out our newsfeed here, where we collect all of these gems — and more.

Sifted Suggests 

🤝 How Eileen Burbidge met Tom Blomfield — and made a "once in a lifetime" investment in Monzo.