Fintech 

Fintech's billion-euro question

UK fintech Monzo last week launched its "plus" card, hoping users will pay £5 a month to get some additional services.

But are customers ready to pay for a souped-up current account? And might this be a route to profitability for all European fintechs?

Isabel Woodford takes a look.

🙏 The talent Bible for scaleups 🙏

Having top talent is the key to true success, but how do you really master the likes of leadership, culture and more? 

The ‘People & Culture Scaleup Guide’ by thought leader Techleap.nl shows you how. It’s a goldmine of valuable top tips and tricks from founders, leaders and experts.

Sign up to get the latest announcements. [Sponsored post]

 Startup Life 

Students want to be startup founders

Student entrepreneurship is a thing now. It must be, because a VC has gone and written a whole report about it. 

The first 'State of Student Startups' report, released today, looks at what student founders in the UK are working on, who they are and where they're based.

Amy Lewin looks into the findings.

 Fintech 

Young Frenchies deteste banks

French youth want to set money aside to buy a flat as well as invest more — but according to a new poll they don't think any of the banks around today can help them do it.

Enter new fintechs like Moka spying a gap in the market. 

Sifted Suggests 

🧑‍💻 Need to catch up on the Digital Services Act? Get up to speed with these webinars surrounding the EU Commission-led legislation which aims to foster innovation for digital services. From discussions on ecommerce to the digital economy, there’s heaps of helpful content here. And for more on the Digital Services Act and how startups can get involved, read this Sifted piece here. 

🗺️ Mapping the European B2B market landscape. Point Nine investor Julia Morrongiello is back with an updated version of the European B2B Marketplace Directory. Check out over 250 companies across retail, property, logistics and more.

👋 The CO2 ghostbusters, startup edition. A handful of startups are on a mission to suck carbon dioxide directly out of the air (yes, really) in order to combat climate change. But who are they? And how does it work? The FT reports.

🤖 A selection of AI-generated tweets on entrepreneurship. What do you think of them? Entrepreneur First's Matt Clifford is a fan (sort of).

🇬🇧 Britons love their work-life balance. The home office has become a welcome addition to many Brits’ lives. Here are some anecdotes from The Economist.

🎮  Conference call in Minecraft at 9, team meeting in Fortnite at 10. Meetings in video games — this wacky trend seems to be catching on. But how did it start? What’s it like? And could it go mainstream?

In case you missed it 

🕵️ The secretive figure behind some of the world’s biggest fintechs.

🤗 Slack-rival Element wins largest ever collaborative software deal.

💉 Top 25 healthtech influencers to follow on Twitter.

Events [digital only]

🏥 HealthHub 2020 Launch Event | 20 July
Wayra, the Telefonica-backed digital business accelerator and disease cure developer Novartis showcases the healthtech companies from its cohort.

🇫🇷 Good vibes with Francois | 21 July
The Family catches up with Francois Jaubert, chief executive and cofounder of The Keepers, a customer experience improvement company. Apparently you’re going to love him.

🏅 FounderFuel LIVE: In conversation with Olympian Alex Partridge | 30 July 
Join weare3Sixty for a conversation with the Olympic medallist, now part of the scaleup Wagestream, for top tips on how to build a stellar team, acing performance and more.

🇩🇪 Silicon Allee Online Meetup | 4 Aug
A one-stop shop for anyone interested in networking with all sorts of people in the startup ecosystem.

🙏 Forward this on, please 🙏

If you're a Sifted fan, please forward this email on to a friend who might love it too and CC Amy (amy@sifted.eu). Introduce yourself — hey, maybe we're writing a story you could help us on.

P.S. Does this newsletter sometimes end up in your spam  or promotions folder? Add amy@sifted.eu to your contacts to stop it going astray again.