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Dear Sifted Reader,

Before we get into today’s newsletter, we first need to apologise. Some of you here will have accidentally got our sustainability-focused newsletter Sustain yesterday which you had not signed up to. This was an error, sorry.

We are putting in place processes to stop this ever happening again.

Now back to business, here’s today’s line up:

👶 At-home fertility treatments
🖥️ A quantum computing breakthrough
💰 VCs don’t add as much value as they think
🐦Top VCs to follow on Twitter

\Healthtech

Fertility-as-a-service startup Béa Fertility raises $1m

Around one in seven people have trouble conceiving, but infertility still remains a taboo topic. At the same time, there are often significant barriers for people trying to get treatment — particularly around cost, as one round of IVF treatment can cost upwards of £5k.

Béa Fertility, a UK-based healthtech, wants to help. The company plans to offer at-home fertility treatments via a monthly subscription service. The treatment's yet to go through clinical trials but, if it works, it could be revolutionary.

Kai Nicol-Schwarz reports.

\Our new report Pet tech on the rise

The pet tech market is looking paw-sitive

Sifted’s ulti-mutt pet tech report is finally here.

What are the biggest challenges pet tech entrepreneurs are facing? Who are the disruptors leaving a paw print on tech’s future? How can tech make pet ownership and adoption more ethical?

Read our report to learn mo re.

\Deeptech

Quantum Motion unveils 9-second silicon qubit

British startup Quantum Motion has just announced a computing breakthrough. The team were able to isolate a single electron and measure its quantum state for nine seconds.

It may not sound like a very long time — but in the world of quantum computing, where quantum states are more commonly measured in nanoseconds, it is an unimaginably long stretch.

Maija Palmer investigates.

\For Members Venture Capital

VCs don't add as much value as they think, say founders

Startup founders are after more than just cash from VCs; but the majority feel they don't get it. That's according to a new report, showing that 92% of VCs describe themselves as 'value-add investors', but 61% of founders say VCs bring less value than they promise.

So what can VCs do to improve? And what value-add are founders really after?

Freya Pratty dives into the findings.

If you're not yet a Sifted member, subscribe here for as little as £19 per month.

\Sponsored by Aion

Inside the next big trend in wealth management

'Embedded finance' — the idea that tech companies could offer financial services alongside their usual offerings — is a hot topic for investors and fintechs alike.

But one particular aspect of embedded financial services is getting a lot of attention: wealth management. Wealth management tools allow users to grow their wealth by easily investing the money they hold in their current accounts, and this provides fintechs with a new way to engage with their customers.

Find out more.

\Venture Capital

32 UK VC investors to follow on Twitter

It’s easy to mock VCs for spending too much time on Twitter. But often, when they're not boasting about their latest success story, they're providing real insights into the latest tech and startup trends.

To help you find the best ones to follow, Sifted has curated a handy list of the most active and engaged accounts.

Read the list here.

News that Matters

🥡 Glovo raises €450m. The Barcelona-based delivery company has raised the biggest ever funding round in the history of Spanish startups. The company was a pioneer of super-fast delivery from 'dark stores' in Europe and will use the capital to build 200 across the continent. But competition is hot on its heels...

📦 Zapp, an on-demand delivery and 'dark store' startup, has picked up backing from Lightspeed and Atomico. Insiders say it's now raised around $100m in total.

🚴‍♂️ Deliveroo's shares plummeted on its stock market debut yesterday, falling 26% and wiping £2bn off the company's valuation. It comes after a number of investors expressed concerns about its gig economy worker model.

👚 Otrium, a Dutch startup which helps brands sell their excess stock at the end of each season, has raised a $120m Series C round. The company describes its mission as ensuring "all clothing gets worn."

💳 Monzo's CFO departs. Alwyn Jones is set to leave the fintech after two years and head to cryptocurrency exchange Luno. He's the latest to leave Monzo after a major reshuffle in its top ranks over the last year.

✈️ British Airways has invested in hydrogen aviation startup ZeroAvia. The startup's raised £17.6m to accelerate its plans for a 50-person hydrogen aircraft, which it's aiming to launch commercially in 2024.

💉 Variant-proof vaccines. Baseimmune, a London-based healthtech, has raised a £685k seed round to develop its variant-proof vaccine concept. The company wants to use a combination of data and machine learning to predict the way that a virus is likely to evolve.

📱 Craft, an app that helps people work on collaborative documents, has raised an $8m Series A round led by Creandum and Gareth Williams, former CEO and cofounder of Skyscanner.

😷 Munich-based healthtech Vantis, which is developing digital therapies for cardiovascular patients, has raised €3.8m in seed funding. Its treatment should come on the market in the second half of 2021.

Sifted Suggests

🌱 It's tricky to work out exactly how sustainable the products we buy are. That's where Dayrize, a Dutch startup, comes in. The ecommerce site rates its products from 0 to 100 on things like how long the product tends to last, the treatment of labour and the sustainability of the materials used. We looked at what that means for consumers.

👪 Can business communities ever be that good? They're today's go-to business perk — and every other brand, startup and VC wants to set one up. But can they ever come close to 'real' communities, asks Daisy Onubogu from Backed VC. Find out what she has to say.