Fintech 

Meet Europe's digital bank 'mafia'

Monzo and Revolut have had thousands of employees between them, and several have gone on to start companies themselves.

But are they looking likely to be as successful as The PayPal Mafia (LinkedIn, Tesla, Palantir) and The Skype Mafia (TransferWise, Starship Technologies, LocalGlobe)? 

Isabel Woodford finds out.

☎️ Calling B2B & SaaS startups ☎️

Don’t miss out on the B2B Rocks #REBOUND conference by Axeleo from the 7th-11th September. Hear from over 60 B2B & SaaS leaders on the latest trends and connect with startups, VCs and journalists alike.

 
Grab your ticket for free. [Sponsored post]

 Healthtech 

Leading Germany’s healthcare revolution

A sweeping new Digital Healthcare Act in Germany means that for the first time, doctors will be able to prescribe sleep apps and mental health apps to patients for free.

The rules open up a potentially huge new market for digital healthcare startups.

But who are the startups ready to take advantage of the new rules? And what will it really mean for them?

Mimi Billing finds out. 

 Investing 

We need an angel investing revolution

Europe has some brilliant angel investors — but it needs a whole lot more. 

What will it take to get them?

Sarah Drinkwater has some (smart) ideas.

News that matters

🚀 Rocket Internet, the German startup factory behind the likes of Zalando and HelloFresh said on Tuesday that it will delist its stock, citing current greater availability of private capital than when it went public in 2014. Shares in Rocket, which is infamous for copying other companies, has largely traded below its IPO price of €42.50 a share. It's hard to see the delisting as anything other than a humbling of Europe’s most-hyped startup incubator.

🍗 Solar Foods, one of the most exciting and innovative startups in Europe (according to us at Sifted), closed a €15m Series A funding round and is building its first commercial production facility. The company has a technique for producing food largely out of water, electricity and air. The idea is that it will create a food source that is not dependent on weather, irrigation or soil. Amazing, right (if it really works at scale). For more on the company, read here.

👏👏 The humorous parody VC account @VCBrags has shut itself down, saying that what was intended to be light-hearted fun had become a "bit stale" and was being seen as "mean spirited". Sifted thought the account was basically pretty funny and is sad to see it go. We wrote about this (and other similar ones) a few months ago. 

🕵️‍♂️ Cosmose AI, which taps smartphone data to track shoppers' in-store behaviour, has raised $15m in venture capital funding. A little-known startup based between Shanghai and Warsaw, the company boasts luxury brands such as LVMH, Richemont, Kering, Estée Lauder and L'Oréal as clients. Fun fact: the company has software tracking the exact location of 1.1bn people around the world, as we wrote in our last profile of the company. A little scary, that.

🤸‍♀️ Callaly, the first British period product B-Corp, has raised around €1.9m via a Crowdcube campaign, as it announces its expansion into Europe with its innovation, the ‘tampliner’.

👪 French startup Coot, a tool to help families organise their lives (shared messaging, calendar etc.), has raised €3.7m from a family office and Bpifrance, and re-branded as Share(d). The fresh funds and new name will prepare the team for its expansion across France and beyond, according to the company. 

🍄 Compass Pathways, the UK startup at the forefront of using psilocybin (the drug in magic mushrooms) to help treatment-resistant depression, filed for an initial public offering in the US. The company, which is backed by big names like Peter Thiel, is raising around $100m at a valuation of around $500m.

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 

🙅‍♀️ Startups promote idealistic "mission-driven" messages to recruit employees, raise funding and attract customers. But when the reality of working there doesn't match the message, employees are speaking out (New York Times).

✈️ The most capable computer on board a UK fighting platform, the F-35 jet, can perform 400b operations per second. You could find better in a truck, writes Wired in a piece about rubbish tech and innovation in the British military. Check out our piece from last year about attempts to change this. 

💰 Should you discuss salaries at work? Quite interesting replies to this Tweet from the digital bank Monzo... Tell us what you think, email Michael.

🏦 Nobody wants an online bank (and other wisdom from investing $100bn in fintech), in Forbes. 

🤸‍♀️ Share the fun 🤸‍♀️

If you like our newsletter, please forward it on to somebody else who might like it too. It really helps us grow our audience. Thanks!