Entrepreneurship 

Your European tech pioneers

🏆 Startups: apply for the Digital Top 50 Awards 🏆

The DT50 Awards is bursting with rewards for Europe's startups and founders. 
 
Winners receive top support and mentoring from industry leaders like McKinsey, Freshfields, Google, 468Capital and HeringSchuppener.
 
Learn more here. [Sponsored post]

 Sales 

Go to market — or die

 Healthtech 

$60m for doctor-friendly fitbits

 Data 

How to actually be 'data-driven'

💡 Want to write an opinion piece for Sifted? 💡

We love sharing your perspectives and smart takes on our site — from how business jargon is bullshit to why Estonia is leading the way with its digital nomad visa, many of our most popular reads come from our readers.

If you have something to share (the more funny/controversial/personal/unusual the better!) please read this guide first and then get in touch with Amy (amy@sifted.eu). 

News that matters

🏠 Digital bank Bunq moves into mortgages. That puts the Dutch neobank ahead of rivals like N26 and Monzo (neither of which offer mortgages). CEO Ali Niknam tells Sifted it could be a nice source of revenue from day one. So why isn't everyone doing it?

🏦 Thought Machine, the London-based core banking tech firm, has extended its Series B to $125m. Eurazeo Growth and British Patient Capital join existing investors Draper Esprit, Lloyds Banking Group, Backed and Playfair Capital, among others. 

👋 Revolut has lost one of its top dogs. Richard Davies, the banking 'grownup' who was brought in last year to help the digital bank sort out its compliance and workplace culture, is leaving to join business lender Allica Bank. 

🛫 Travel that is taking off. Berlin-based air freight booking marketplace Cargo.one has raised $18.6m in a Series A led by Index. People might not be as interested in travelling by planes as they used to be — but cargo bookings are on the up. 

👮 Fighting financial crime. ComplyAdvantage, the London-based fintech, has raised $50m to help cut down on dodgy digital financial dealings. Investors include the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, Index and Balderton. 

👾 Taking a leaf out of NATO's book. RangeForce, a cyber security training platform which uses virtual reality to simulate attacks in real-time, has raised $16m. Cisco is one of the Estonian startup's backers.

👀 Watching while you shop. Advertima, a Swiss startup which uses AI to track customers as they wander around supermarkets and clothes boutiques, has raised $17m. In a tricky time for brick-and-mortar retail, Advertima thinks it can help give a boost to its clients — which include Porsche and Red Bull — through smart inventory management and personalised in-store adverts and signage.

🏩 Better sex for the people! Blueheart, a sex therapy app, has raised £1m in seed funding to help "improve the sex lives of 100m people." The therapy is designed for people who either do not want to, or cannot afford to, talk to a real person — and is currently focusing on women experiencing low libido.

🦗 Bye bye bed bugs. Spotta, a Cambridge-based startup, has raised $1.2m for its smart pest control system. Its technology can monitor bed bugs and farm pests. They're small creatures, but it's a big ($400bn) market — and infestations are on the rise. 

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 

🤨 What the heck do VC job titles really mean? Suranga Chandratillake from Balderton explains.

🙀 How London's Silicon Roundabout dream turned into a nightmare. An interesting read from Wired.

😇 Meet angel investor Deepali Nangia. The latest in a series of interviews with angel investors about what they do, how they do it and what they think of the investment landscape.