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Hi Sifted Reader,

Happy Friday! Today's line up:

🍜 The startup bringing private chefs to your home
💻 What the no code movement means for companies
🇮🇹 The top Italian startups to watch
🛍️ Online grocer Kolonial raises €223m and announces plans to expand

\Foodtech

A private chef for all! At-home dining platform Yhangry raises $1.5m

Having a chef over to your house to cook you dinner used to be an experience exclusive to the wealthy. Now tech platform Yhangry is bringing the experience to a broader market — and makes booking a private chef as easy as ordering a takeaway.

But can the startup compete with the rise of fancy meal kits and the reopening of the hospitality sector?

Kai Nicol-Schwarz finds out more (and gets to try some tasty food in the process).

\A message from our sponsor Huckletree

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Use code SIFTEDFFA21 for 20% off tickets.

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\Deeptech

How the no code movement is changing companies

No code startup Tines, based in Dublin, has raised $26m. The company is emblematic of the growing interest in the no code movement, which Tines' founder says has the potential to change the way companies work.

We found out more about no code and what it could mean for the way we all work.

Freya Pratty investigates.

\For Members Venture Capital

The 28 Italian startups to watch, according to top investors

Italy’s tech scene hasn't quite taken off in the same way other country's have in the past few years. Last year, investment into Italian tech was a tenth of what France or Germany received.

But some VCs see it as a country of hidden gems and emerging talent.

See their list of the startups to watch.

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\Foodtech

Online grocer Kolonial raises €223m from SoftBank and Prosus to take on Europe

Oda, a Norwegian online grocery startup (formerly called Kolonial) plans to expand to Finland and Germany after raising one of the biggest funding rounds ever for a Norwegian startup.

But that's not the only thing it has to boast about. From a pretty impressive tech breakthrough to enviable market penetration, Oda has not had a bad year.

Amy Lewin finds out more.

News that Matters

🛥️ XShore, the 'Tesla of boats', has raised €15m, which it will use for US expansion. The Swedish startup wants to help the boating industry transition to electric power, as companies like Tesla are doing for the automotive sector.

💰 British fintech TrueLayer, which helps apps like Revolut and Freetrade connect with customers' bank accounts using APIs, has raised $70m, which it plans to use to expand in Europe before targeting rollout in Australia.

🐣 Index Ventures has raised a new $200m seed fund. There’s no such thing as “too early” at Index, says Index.

🇳🇴 Attensi, a Norwegian corporate training startup, has raised $26m from New York-based Lugard Road Capital, DX Ventures and Viking Venture. Attensi wants to gamify training, putting employees in 3D simulations of their workplace.

🍲 Food waste tech continues to attract investors. Smartway, a French company offering retailers an AI solution to get control of their food waste, has raised $12m. The Nantes-based company helps track the best output for a product based on margins and weather forecasting.

👩 Crypto bank Bitwala, based in Berlin, has got a new CEO. Kristina Walcker-Mayer will take over from founder Ben Jones. She originally joined the startup from N26. We spoke to Bitwala in February about what's next for the company.

👨‍⚕️British healthtech startup Maxwellia has raised €3.7m in a round led by Praetura Ventures. The company wants to make it easier for people to gain faster access to treatments by converting prescription-only medicines to versions that can be bought in a pharmacy.

🇵🇹 Shilling, an early stage VC firm in Portugal, has launched a new $35.6m fund. Shilling Founders Fund is backed by over 35 tech founders, as well as VC firm Atomico. The fund will focus primarily on Portugal, but with 40% of capital available for international companies.

Sifted Suggests

🍎 Plastic free groceries? According to a new study, we're all getting more single-use plastic dropped off at our doors than ever before. Refillable grocery delivery businesses are popping up across Europe, but there are key challenges the industry needs to tackle. Sarah Drumm finds out more.

🏢 Meetings. According to Harvard Business School, we're all having more than ever before. We asked our readers for tips on how to make those meetings as productive and enjoyable they can be.

🖥️ Want to finally get your inbox under control? We liked this piece on how to send better emails. The top tip: every email should be process-centric, and push a task further towards completion.

😬 Got a diversity problem at your accelerator? Check out these recommendations from Founders Intelligence and SoftBank to fix it.