Investment 

Wealthy Europeans need to stop investing in stupid stuff like hotels

In the US, the super-rich invest in tech and startups. In Europe, too many invest in old-world assets like hotels.

This has to change, says celebrity investor Frank Thelen, who is trying to convince his rich pals to put 10-15% of their money into technology companies.

Will he succeed?

 Sponsored by Tech Nation 

Want to work in the UK, post-Brexit?

 Fintech 

Exclusive: Starling Bank wants to buy a lender

Starling Bank, the digital bank steered by founder Anne Boden, is hunting for acquisition targets in the lending market. That could trigger a wave of consolidation in the fintech sector.

Speaking exclusively to Sifted, Boden said the company is now actively searching “for lending businesses to buy”, with Europe’s non-bank lenders (including P2P firms) squarely in its sights.

Read the full interview.

 Startup Life 

Why you don't want the EU as an investor

The European tech world has been abuzz with the news that the EU Commission has decided to become a direct investor in European startups.

But do startups want the EU as an investor? Or will that lead to — as one VC said — "F**d-up cap tables"?

Nicolas Colin says beware.

 Deeptech 

The startup that flavours drinks using just scented air

air up makes flavoured water using only scented air to trick your brain into perceiving a taste.

It's a crazy-sounding idea — but apparently gets the taste buds buzzing because 80% of flavour perception is really done through our noses.

Find out more about its strange scent pod product.

 Startup Life 

Latvia is the most 'startup friendly' country in the world

Latvia has joined fellow Baltic nations Lithuania and Estonia as the most startup friendly countries in the world, according to the Not Optional campaign run by Index Ventures.

The campaign ranks countries based on their stock option policies — which allows startup employees the right to purchase their company’s stock at a certain price.

The idea is that stock option friendly policies make it easier for startups to hire, retain talent and ultimately grow.

Which other countries made the list?

 Sponsored by Techleap.nl 

8 top tips on going international

Growing from a local startup to an international scaleup is an exciting move for any founder.

But how do you do it? And what are the pitfalls to avoid?

Read these eight tips from startups who’ve already done it. 

News that matters

🏆 Checkout.com is now Europe’s most highly valued startup — with a monster $15bn valuation. The London-based fintech, which yesterday announced a $450m Series C round, has seen its valuation triple since it last raised $150m in June. The round was led by Tiger Global Management, which is also an investor in Checkout.com’s digital payments rival Stripe. 

 🛵 Ultrafast delivery service Getir is closing in on a $800m valuation. The Turkish startup, which aims to fulfill grocery and household orders within 10 minutes, grew faster than predicted in 2020 due to the pandemic. Last year, it raised a $38m Series A led by US VC heavyweight Sequoia and it’s looking to raise another $100m this time round. It’s also planning to launch in London within the next few weeks — its first international foray — where it will face fierce competition from local competitors Deliveroo and Uber Eats.

🏦 Digital bank Revolut has applied for a UK banking licence. It currently holds an e-money licence meaning it holds customers’ money in external banks and funds are not protected by the UK government's deposit protection scheme (up to £85k for banks with a full licence). Revolut was granted an EU banking licence in Lithuania back in December 2018.

✊Delivery Hero has launched its own €50m VC fund. The Berlin-based tech giant is, outside of China, the world’s largest food network, operating in over 600 cities — but is now keen to try its hand at investing too. The new fund, DX Ventures, will operate independently and is looking to back on-demand services, food tech, sustainable innovation, AI, fintech and logistics.

🏥 Acquisition-hungry healthtech company HealthHero has bought Irish peer MyClinic. At just one year old, HealthHero has already acquired four other startups — most recently London-based Doctorlink in December. Now its services cover 20m people and 1,000 businesses.

🥡 Deliveroo is expanding into 100 more towns and cities across the UK, from Exmouth to Scarborough. Two thirds of the population will now be able to order from the household name, which like many others has experienced unexpected growth due to the pandemic. 20k new restaurants joined the platform in 2020, and the number of riders doubled from 25k to 50k. Catch more details in our coverage here.

🐷 Moonpig plans to IPO after a bumper year for online card sales. It’s eyeing a £1bn stock market flotation after a record Christmas period. Meanwhile, high street competitor Paperchase filed for administration earlier this month. 

🇧🇬 The largest-ever fund just launched in Bulgaria. Early-stage VC firm LAUNCHub Ventures has announced that it has raised €44m to invest in 25 early stage startups by 2025. It’s still raising capital — and hoping to close the fund at €70m. This is big news for southeast Europe, which has more than 10x less VC funding per capita than western Europe. Also notable: 50% of the firm’s employees are women.

🤖 German startup Energy Robotics has received €2m in a seed round led by Earlybird. It provides software which helps big companies — like Merck and Shell — improve how they use remotely-controlled robots that inspect environments which are potentially dangerous to humans.

🇫🇮 Finnish startup M-Files raised $80m, bringing its total money raised since 2012 to $127m. The round was led by Bregal Milestone, a growth capital firm, and will support its metadata-based content management tool which seeks to replace the standard file-based system.

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.

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Sifted Suggests 

🇪🇪 The Baltic beckons. Are Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia the new ultimate startup nations? They share a global mindset, due to huge immigration flows and high-level STEM education, and top global rankings of attractive regulatory environments, ahead of Israel, the UK and the US. 

🇱🇹 Check out this listicle of 10 promising Lithuanian startups to watch this year, from fintech startup kevin, which is supervised by the Bank of Lithuania, to Viezo, which converts vibrational energy to electricity without the need for batteries.
 

👎 55% of startups and 45% of companies end up dissatisfied with their partnerships. Maija Palmer tackles the complex risks that follow CFO experimentation in innovation, from running startup accelerator programs to corporate innovation funds.

💕 Some of Germany’s tech leaders — including GetYourGuide’s Tao Tao and La Famiglia’s Judith Dada — have founded 2hearts, a business community intended to support students and young entrepreneurs with immigrant backgrounds.