Startup Life 

How not to pitch a deeptech investor

"My heart sinks when a new founder pitching us just talks about technology," writes Marcel van der Heijden,  deeptech partner at VC firm Speedinvest.

So here's what not to do when pitching your deeptech startup.

(Hint: VCs want to make money, not just back cool-sounding stuff.)

🐝 Planning life back in the office? 🐝

Looking for an inspiring space to work, to break up WFH? Huckletree’s new 2020 flexible packages are designed to help teams re-enter office life at their own pace. Spaces in London, Manchester & Dublin.

 
Find a space suited for you here. [Sponsored post]

 Greentech 

Europe's big "Green Deal" bets

Europe's new "unicorn factory" — otherwise known as the €10bn European Innovation Council — has backed a cohort of 64 startups pushing forward the green economy.

One of them turns any window into a solar panel. Another uses bioluminescence for lighting. And there are dozens more ranging from the weird to the wonderful.

Find out who they are.

 Fintech 

TechHub may be down and out in London, but not in Eastern Europe

TechHub, an office space which for a decade was home to hundreds of startups at the heart of London's 'Silicon Roundabout' tech scene, has gone bust. 

But all is not lost! In Eastern Europe, offshoots in Riga and Bucharest are still alive and kicking.

Find out what they are still doing for European tech.

News that matters

💉 Infermedica, the Poland-founded health tech startup, raised just over $10m in Series A. The funding is part of a wave of renewed interest from investors in health startups as the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the digitisation of the sector. Just like Ada Health, Babylon or Your.MD, Infermedica combines the expertise of doctors with its own algorithms to offer symptom triage and advice to patients. For more on European healthtech read these pieces here, here and here. 

🏖️ 71% of UK tech employees would move to a different country if they were able to work remotely, according to a study by Remote, an HR technology startup. This figure looks insanely high (don't some people have families and kids in school?) but it does give a sense of how the world could be restructured by remote working.

🛴 Swedish scooter startup Voi has been selected to run one of the first e-scooter trials in the UK in Cambridge as part of the government’s consultation on the new form of urban mobility. It's some good news for the company which failed to win the tender for operating in Paris. 

💸 Fast-growing small and medium-sized enterprises in the UK face a cash shortage of up to £15bn this year after investor funding fell away during the coronavirus pandemic, with businesses outside of London notably struggling for financial support, according to new research.

🧬 A small DNA-testing company that just months ago was trying to get its footing in consumer genetics is now part of an effort to make UK hospitals safer during the pandemic.

💡 Stockholm-based Krafthem has won around €500k in fresh funding to further develop AI-driven smart electricity contracts.

🚕 Uber has bought Autocab, which sells SaaS to the taxi and private hire vehicle industry. The idea is to build up its own platform by linking users who open its app in places where it doesn’t offer trips to local providers who do.

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 

⏲️ TikTok is having a rough time and could end up being broken up. Here are all the startup out there trying to replace them, according to Wired. Could a European TikTok be a real contender?

🔌 Employees working from home are facing higher electricity bills as a result. Employers should be paying for that.

🍔 To win in the 'next normal', European restaurants will need to embrace innovation in their channel strategy, menu offerings and business model, according to this report from McKinsey. For more on the future of food, see our Sifted report here. 

In case you missed it

🔋 Meet the startup building a sustainable alternative to Tesla’s Powerwall.

☁️ SoundCloud founders exchange music for mobility with new e-bike startup.

💪 Pioneers of the new world: Your winners.

🙏 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.