Events 

Hopin hits $2.1bn valuation — just 8 months after launch

Online event platform Hopin has raised a whoppin' Series B round of $125m and hit a $2.1bn+ valuation — all within 8 months of launching.

That makes it the fastest-growing startup in Europe and investors are calling it the "most insane deal ever in European VC".

But how is the team coping with such hyper-growth? 

Amy Lewin speaks to CEO Johnny Boufarhat.

🥇 Build a world class team 🥇

Want to know why diversity is essential for strengthening your team? Or what team-boosting tips you can learn from sports? Techleap.nl’s guide on talent for scaleups has all the answers.
 

Sign up to their newsletter to unlock all current and upcoming chapters. [Sponsored post]

 Deeptech 

Finding Europe's Elon Musk

Over the past few weeks, Sifted has done a deep dive into the European startups challenging the Musk empire from cars and batteries, to hyperloops, space rockets and brain tech.

We highlighted dozens of innovators, from Sweden’s Northvolt to Italy’s D-Orbit and Spain’s Zeleros. We found Europe has tech that is at least as good — if not better — than what Musk's companies have.

But why can't we tie it all together? Marie Mawad asks the tough question.

 Venture Capital 

Exclusive: Seedcamp raises a £78m fund

The last time Seedcamp went to raise a fund, Brexit happened; this year when it headed out fundraising, a pandemic hit.

But they pulled it off again and today, Seedcamp is announcing a new £78m fund — its fifth — to invest in pre-seed and seed-stage startups in Europe.

So far the firm has unicorns TransferWise, Revolut, Hopin and UiPath in its portfolio. What will the next fund get them?

Amy Lewin speaks to the team (and gets a look at the pitch deck they used to raise the money).

 🐱Creating Europe's first pet tech unicorn 🐱

With more than 140m pet dogs and cats in Europe, the time should be ripe for some serious pet tech investing, but so far the market is relatively small and scattered.

In partnership with Purina Accelerator Lab, Sifted is hosting a webinar with some of the biggest players in the market including Different Dog, Barkyn, Houlihan Lokey and Creandum to discuss the future.

Sign up here.

 Coronavirus 

BioNTech: the German biotech behind the coronavirus vaccine 

BioNTech, the German biotech which announced an possible vaccine for coronavirus on Monday, is a classic European startup story: created by Turkish immigrants, funded by US and Asian investors and listed on the Nasdaq.

But who are husband and wife founders Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci?

Sifted's Freya Pratty has more.

 Startup Life 

Will hotels be our new offices? 

The hotel industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and may not recover for years (even if there is a proper vaccine). At the same time, many believe that remote working is here to stay.

Looking at those two trends, a number of startups across Europe are connecting the dots —  turning empty hotel rooms and lobbies into office space to rent, helping hotels make extra money and giving remote workers a place to go.

Who are they?

📈 From SPACs to IPOs: four ways to list your company 📈

Listing on the stock market is the end goal for many startups — and their investors.

But what exactly does a public listing do for your company and what does it mean?

Find out here with this handy guide. [Sponsored post]

News that matters

🗿 HR tech startup Remote has raised $35m to help companies hire and pay employees from anywhere in the world (eg. covering international payroll, taxes and immigration services.) They are betting on a future where more and more companies have distributed global teams. 

🤖 IQM, the Finnish quantum computing hardware maker, has pulled in another €39m for its ongoing Series A funding round to hire more big brains. The company, which is planning to start delivering the first quantum computers to customers next year, is one of the few European startups focused on quantum computer hardware — a field where it is up against big US companies like IBM, and Google. Tencent joined the round.

🔷 Sapphire Ventures, the venture capital firm that spun out of German software company SAP in 2011, is opening an office in London, coming back to its European roots after years of having its main focus on the US market. The firm is planning to have a 10-person team in London, led by Andreas Weiskam. It's a sign of how confidence in European tech is really accelerating. 

💸 Want to invest in a VC fund with just €500? Well, Unconventional Ventures is launching a new microfund focused on women, people of colour and LGBTQ people. 

🧑🏿‍🚀 A British firm called Metalysis has won a European Space Agency contract to develop the technology to turn moon dust and rocks into oxygen, leaving behind aluminium, iron and other metal powders for lunar construction workers to build with. If the process can be made to work well enough, it will pave the way for extraction facilities on the moon that make oxygen and valuable materials on the surface, rather than having to haul them into space at enormous cost. For more on European space tech, read this Sifted piece here. 

🤸‍♀️ We're on the hunt for Europe's top Gen Z founders 🤸‍♀️

Believe it or not, some people start companies very, very young.

We want to know about Gen Z-ers who are already leading their own tech businesses and have caught investors' eyes. The idea is to shed light on the under-24s who you need to be watching.

Can you help us? Email us here!

Sifted Suggests 

💥 Here is an important question following the announcement of a likely coronavirus vaccine on Monday. What happens to high-flying startups if the pandemic trade flips? Are all the VCs that have been pouring them money into remote work and distributed teams going to get burnt?

🤦‍♀️ Have you ever wondered why the world is full of so many people who are incredibly incompetent at the very thing are paid to do? If so, a crotchety educationalist called Laurence J Peter may have the answer. It's called the Peter Principle. 

🌱 Fintechs, this is how to keep growing in a crisis. You have to invest to grow, but what should you be spending your cash on? Find out here.