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Happy Wednesday folks! Here's an innovative line-up for all you forward-thinkers:

💄 What Sharmadean Reid did next
🚴‍♂️ What Deliveroo employees did next
💻 Which companies Hopin bought next

\Consumer

Sharmadean Reid launches new multimedia company, The Stack World

The serial founder and CEO of social ecommerce platform Beautystack has launched a new venture — The Stack World.

Combining content, events and booking services, Reid is officially going beyond beauty into the issues that affect "city-based women with a desire for change".

But why is this particular media-meets-ecommerce startup one to watch?

Isabella Pojuner finds out more.

\A message from our sponsor Tech Nation

What challenges will UK tech face post-Brexit?

Tech Nation has released its 2021 Report, which dives deep into not only how far UK tech has come in the past year, but where it’s headed next, post-pandemic.

Learn more about the Tech Nation 2021 Report here.

\For Members Workforce

Introducing the Deliveroo startup 'mafia': its employees turned founders

Deliveroo, which has just announced plans to list on the London Stock Exchange for £8.8bn, is having a pretty good year.

And so are several of its former employees, who've gone on to start their own pretty successful ventures.

From insurtech unicorn Zego to grocery delivery startup Dija to sextech Vibio, there's a growing number of startups run by Deliveroo alumni.

Kai Nicol-Schwarz meets their founders.

\In partnership with Mitek

Six lessons on online privacy and digital authentication

Data breaches are an unfortunate but inevitable part of digital life. It's more important than ever for startups to protect themselves, and user data, with biometric identification.

We explored the domain with a panel of privacy and security experts at our last Sifted Talks — from Mitek, Curve and iKey — and we've broken down the six key lessons for any startup looking to adopt or upgrade their biometrics.

Catch up here.

\M&A

Europe's startups on a spending spree

After hitting a $5.65bn valuation earlier this month, Hopin has announced it's acquired two new companies — the video hosting site Streamable and workplace video collab app Jamm.

But it's not the only startup splashing the cash to acquire other businesses — and boost its growth. Online car retailer Cazoo and online housing site HousingAnywhere have also bought four other businesses across 2020 and 2021.

Freya Pratty reports.

\Software

B2B networks are the next big software tool for SMBs

Investors love SaaS — but now there's a new B2B playbook that could also steal their hearts (and dip into their pockets).

Say hello to the ‘B2B marketplaces’: social networks in a business environment.

They have virality (tick!), network effects (tick!) and could add financial services over time (tick tick!)

LocalGlobe's George Henry makes the case for B2B networks.

\Startup Life

Work/Life balance

In today's issue of our weekly Startup Life newsletter, we hear what it's like to live with a founder, find out how you can help your team regain some work/life balance and list the latest juicy people moves in European startups.

Sign up here to receive it at 12pm CET.

News that Matters

💸 Scoop: It's a Greensill sell-off. Since collapsing, Greensill has been busy selling its remaining assets. Now, UK fintech Wagestream has stepped in to acquire one of the subsidiaries, Earnd Australia, to boost expansion 'down under'.

🛰️ The startup using Martian data analytics on Earth. (Kind of.) Utilis has just raised $6m from VC firm Beringea and harnesses satellite imagery to find underground water.

👑 Prince Harry is entering the startup world. He's taken up the role of chief impact officer at Silicon Valley startup BetterUp, an app and coaching platform focused on mental health.

🥩 Meatable has closed a $47m Series A round. This brings the Amsterdam-based cultivated meat startup's total funding to $60m. It plans to use the funds to advance small-scale production.

🔬 Bpifrance plans to double its deeptech funding in 2021. The French state-backed investor established a deeptech-specific funding plan back in January 2019 and now backs 28% of La French Tech's 120.

🌐 Open source is all the rage, and Finnish software company Aiven is a perfect example. The startup combines open source with cloud infrastructure and has just raised $100m in its Series C round.

Sifted Suggests

🔮 What are Index Ventures' fintech plans? Isabel Woodford spoke to partners Jan Hammer and Mark Goldberg to find out. Given the firm has 11 fintech unicorns in its portfolio, it's worth taking notes. [Member]

🇬🇧 The UK economy: one year on from the first lockdown. This overview from the FT is certainly one way to mark the anniversary of a world forever changed.

🇸🇪 Stockholm's going global. This feature on the Swedish capital documents how exports like Spotify, Klarna and Skype have cultivated the attention of VC firms all over the world.

🃏 The next big thing in neobroking? Social networks, reports Ryan Weeks.

🎓 Speaking of startup 'mafias', here's a list of BlaBlaCar's alumni-founders — who have gone on to launch companies like invoice B2B startup Libeo and coliving platform Colette.

🎵 Could TikTok replace LinkedIn? As the app crosses over into the commercial space, companies are using it to make big hires (alongside Instagram and Snapchat).