Deeptech 

The space balloon race turns ugly

Decades ago, Jose Mariano Lopez Urdiales had a dream: the MIT-trained aeronautics engineer wanted to fly a helium balloon 36km above the Earth to gaze down on our planet and enter space. 

He founded a space balloon startup, Zero 2 Infinity, to take others up there with him — and he asked another man, Kemel Kharbachi, to help him raise some investment.

Then the problems started. 

Maija Palmer has the full story.  

👑 Today: What will it take to make Europe the most entrepreneurial content? 👑  

Join us for a bonanza programme of talks this morning to find out.

Featuring:

- French government minister Cedric O in conversation with Sifted's editorial director John Thornhill.

- Index Ventures' Martin Mignot, France Digitale's Marianne Tordeux and Goldman Sachs' Clif Marriott on a panel.
 

(Virtual) tickets available here.

 Food 

Are food waste apps making the problem worse?

Food waste apps — the kind that let you pick up discounted meals from sandwich shops and restaurants which will otherwise go in the bin — are as green as green can be. Right? 

Perhaps not, according to the founder of one of Europe's best-known food waste apps, Karma. 

He thinks some of his competitors' models are actually reinforcing the behaviours that lead to the food waste problem in the first place.

Mimi Billing gets into the nitty-gritty.

 Startup Life 

A big workplace popularity contest

At Barcelona-based survey company Typeform, when employees do nice things to help out their colleagues they don't just get a (virtual) pat on the back or Slack high-five — they're also likely to be given a bunch of 'Typecoins'. 

This merit-based currency can cashed in to be spent on things like Amazon vouchers, Starbucks coffees or Uber rides.

But how do employees feel about it: nice perk — or a strange case of workplace social engineering, which pits workers off against each other in pursuit of rising to the top of the Typecoin pile?

Tim Smith finds out.

 Artificial Intelligence 

But are the workers happy?

Lakestar, Latitude, Octopus and Atomico: customer insights startup Streetbees has certainly attracted an impressive pack of investors to its Series B raise, announced this week.

The company, which gathers insights for brands using a global army of 3.5m people — or 'bees' — who answer questions via its app, also has an impressive customer list, including Unilever, Santander and Vodafone.

But what's in it for the 'bees'? Not that much, sometimes.

Freya Pratty investigates.

News that matters

🥨 HV Capital —the VC firm formerly known as HV Holtzbrinck Ventures — has raised a new fund of €535m. It will continue investing in mostly German startups, from seed to Series C. It now also has fuel to back companies it missed out on at the early-stage, at Series B or C. Freya Pratty speaks to HV partner Christian Saller.

🔺 VC deals in Europe had one of the strongest quarters on record in Q3 2020. Year-to-date funding has hit €29.5bn — and is on track to beat money raised in 2019. Kit Gillet pulls out the highlights of the latest Pitchbook report.

🔻 But UK angel investment has taken a hit this year. The number of deals is at its lowest since 2012, finds a new report from Beauhurst.

💥 Amazon launched in Sweden — and somewhat crash-landed. From translation mistakes to missing features on premium accounts, the tech giant made a few boo-boos.

🐱 Pet food startup KatKin has raised £4.5m to launch... cat food! The seed round, led by Octopus Ventures' newly-created consumer team, will be used to further develop KatKin's personalised moggy meals.

🧘 Digital therapeutics and wellness app users to reach 1.4 billion by 2025. The market is expected to grow 865% (!) over the next five years.

💊 Digital pharmacy Medino has raised £5.6m. Unsurprisingly, demand for the UK startup's services has shot up by 600% this year, as many have been unable to leave their homes to pick up essential medications.

🍹 Survey o'clock 🍹 

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Sifted Suggests 

🏭 Can Europe lead Industry 4.0? Absolutely, says a new report from Dealroom which looks at VC investment into industrial tech since 2015. Logistics is leading the pack, followed by robotics and autonomous vehicles, while when it comes to countries, Germany and France are pulling in the most capital. Freya Pratty has the data.

🏄 Preventive health apps are go. 68% of all deaths globally are linked to lifestyle-related diseases — but a new crop of startups, including Iceland's Sidekick Health (which raised $20m this week), the UK's Second Nature and Switzerland's Oviva are developing apps to help people manage conditions like diabetes. The market, with 60m people in Europe alone living with diabetes (not to mention other life-long conditions), is massive.

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