• TransferWise is dead... (kind of) 😵
• German startups riding the e-mobility wave 🛴
• Bitwala's big Bitcoin break 📈
• Fame-seeking founders... ugh 😒

\Fintech 

TransferWise is no more...

\A message from our sponsor Techleap.nl

What's going on in the Netherlands? Gouda question...

The 2021 Techleap Summit has come to a close. Access the key takeaways from all the sessions, from deep dives into the state of Dutch tech, to sessions on raising Series A funding and scaling like a champ.

Read more of the key takeaways here.

\For members \Mobility

VCs name the German startups riding the e-mobility wave

\Fintech

Bitwala's big Bitcoin break

\Opinion

Founders, focus on building your product

Sifted Suggests

💡 How to sell and scale your SaaS startup. Missed our Sifted Talks on how to stay SaaSy last week? This handy Twitter thread highlights the best bits.

🤖 Europe’s deeptech startup ecosystem spawns some of the world’s most sought out innovation talent, from cutting edge startups like BioNtech and Ynsect. Still, that hasn’t been enough for Europe to come out on top of the technological revolution of the past two decades. Here’s how that can be changed.

👋 Barclays retires mobile payments app. The UK bank is closing Pingit, its mobile payments app, after a decade since launching. What happened?

🦘 Deliveroo: from bust to boom. An interesting read about how Amazon’s $575m investment in Deliveroo unfolded… and how it saved the food delivery company from collapse (with a cost).

🇫🇷 Frenchies are opening up to share buybacks. The sale of employee shares, which has long been taboo in France, is finally gaining momentum thanks to Cityscoot, an e-scooter rental startup part of La French Tech’s Next40 ranking.

💳 Most active fintech investors in the Nordics. Nordic9 has dug into the investors backing the most fintechs in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland in 2020. See who they are here.

👍 A gig economy win. The UK Supreme Court has ruled that Uber drivers are workers, entitling them to basic rights like paid holidays, contrary to Uber’s appeal against this. We’re all for improving the gig economy and recently looked into European’s rethinking of the gig economy model.

🇮🇪 Ireland’s most promising startups 2021. Who are investors funding? Which ones have the most rapidly growing headcounts? From fintech to mobility, find out here.

Events [digital only]

Sifted Talks - Crunching the numbers: How to use data to grow your startup | Online | 10 March

• How can you use numbers to make your product stand out?
• How do metrics empower nontechnical teams?
• Which data tools can make you more efficient? 

Check out the lineup so far here — one speaker to be announced!

The future of innovation in food & agri | Online | 23 Feb
Join ScaleUp Nation and Anieke Wierenga, former director of ScaleUp Food to find out how organisations are moving away from simply generating innovations to becoming truly innovative.

Building tech ecosystems in a distributed world | Online | 24 Feb
As the world has gone remote, what's changed for startup ecosystems? Has the playbook for success shifted? How do you manage culture, raising and red tape in a multinational startup? 

Live pitch competition #DSLive2 | Online | 26 Feb
Debut Sessions’ live pitch competition is this Friday! Catch Sifted's deputy editor Amy Lewin talking angel investing with super active angels Ian Hogarth, Deepali Nangia and Matt Robinson.

Your ultimate guide to 2021 | Online | 18-20 March
The FTWeekend Festival is back, with a new Spring digital edition. Join over 100 leading authors, scientists, politicians and FTWeekend writers and editors to explore the big ideas and the cultural, economic and political questions of the moment.

Sifted Opinion