Startup Life 

Thinking about becoming a young founder? Read this first

Statistics show that the majority of 16-21-year-olds today want to start their own business. So did Joe Binder — he set up a personal branding agency, WOAW, at the age of 21. 

Although he doesn't regret the decision, Binder warns that entrepreneurship has been glamorised and says that the more tricky parts of being a young founder should be talked about more.

Here, Binder shares his top tips for young founders.

Is this the end of the water cooler?

In our newest report with Globalization Partners, we analyse what’s next for the startup workplace.

Should startups hire a permanently remote workforce? What will happen to Europe’s freelance economy? How long will Covid-19’s shadow stretch?

Read our future of work report to find out.

 Fintech 

Reddit's run on GameStop shuts down Europe's trading apps

After Redditors decided to push up the stock price on games company GameStop to stop institutional investors shorting the stock, trading apps like Trading212, Robin Hood and FreeTrade saw frenzied activity from amateur investors looking to buy in.

But this quickly caused problems for the apps, with some halting their handling of new orders for GameStop stock completely, meaning investors couldn’t close out their positions to make a profit.

Chris Stokel-Walker looks at what happened. 

 Sustainability 

Sustainable products can’t just be green — they need to be good

Interest in buying sustainable products is growing — 60% of people are spending more on them now than before the pandemic hit. 

From flushable sanitary towels to KeepCups, products that are marketed as sustainable alternatives may well help reduce waste — but are they actually as good as their less eco-friendly counterparts at getting the job done?

Find out more.

 Diversity 

VC has a diversity problem — can this fellowship change that?
 

It's no secret that the VC industry has a diversity problem. In the UK, for example, only 1% of decision-making VC partners are black, and only 27% of all VC workers are female.

One fellowship, Included VC, wants to change that by taking individuals from diverse backgrounds around the world and giving them intensive training to go into VC firms. 

But are initiatives like this enough, and what else needs to change?

 Sponsored by Oracle NetSuite 

Why do VCs love SaaS?

2020 was a good year for European SaaS companies — stocks in listed SaaS giants like Docusign, Zoom and Twilio soared — and the continent gained its first SaaS decacorn in Romanian company UiPath.

VCs love SaaS too — in Europe, they pumped €12bn into the sector last year.

Karam Filfilan speaks to Accel and Northzone to find out.

News that matters

🛩️ The UK’s first air hub for flying taxis and delivery drones is to be built in Coventry. The hub will be run by Urban Air Port and is expected to be completed by November this year. 

💄 Booksy, a Polish beauty and wellness appointment booking app, has raised $70m in Series C funding, in one of the largest-ever rounds for a Polish-born company. The startup has had a rollercoaster year, with revenue falls caused by the first lockdown followed by strategic mergers and its most profitable months ever.

⭐ Robot delivery company Starship has raised $17m. The company is known for its white, cool-box-sized delivery bots that currently operate in some parts of the UK and the US. Starship says it's now looking at developing robots that can climb stairs too.

☕ 'Employee success' platform Peakon acquired for $700m. HR software company Workday is buying the Danish startup, which is backed by VCs like Atomico, EQT Ventures, Heartcore and Balderton.

🌐 Israeli software company DriveNets has secured $208m in new funding, bringing it to a $1bn valuation. The company provides cloud-based alternatives to network routers. 

🏦 Lendify founder and CEO Nicholas Sundén-Cullberg will leave the company at the end of the year, after four years at the Swedish challenger bank. In a press release, Lendify said the board and Sundén-Cullberg had come to the conclusion it was the right time for him to go. 

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. 

In case you missed it 

💉 A new healthtech fund with €100m to give out has been launched by Lauxera Capital Partners. They're looking to fund healthtech companies that could boost medical systems in the wake of the pandemic. 

🛴 E-scooters aren't as green as public transport, but they're on the way. Read the highlights from our Sifted Talks discussion with Voi, Beryl and the UK’s Department for Transport.

🎧 Clubhouse has seen an explosion of growth in recent weeks, with some of the biggest names in tech now hosting regular panels and discussions on the social app. Sifted's Berlin correspondent Miriam Partington finds out more. 

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Sifted Suggests 

🌳 US tech giants are so obsessed with inventing new technologies they’re failing to see that solutions to carbon capture already exist, argues Hana Sutch in an op ed for Sifted. 

🩺 Today’s healthcare systems are seeing such widespread digitalisation, this piece from Heal Capital proposes, that over the following years we will see healthcare become inseparable from digital health, and they'll become one and the same.

🚬 Making remote work, work. From setting up 'Storytime' to using 'code' emojis, here's a thread of top remote working tips.

🇫🇷 In France, more and more local town halls are experiencing cyber hacks. This piece from Les Echos looks at the problem, which usually sees the victim receive extortion attempts after malicious software is downloaded onto the systems.