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Hi Sifted Reader,

Rosie Wood — our (spoof) VC columnist — returns, giving us the lowdown on what it’s really like to close a deal on the European startup scene. Think kombucha, due diligence trips to Florence and a healthy dose of nepotism. Plus...

What founders talk to their coaches about
Europe’s top angel syndicates
The challenges of making lab-grown meat scaleable — and tasty

\Startup Life

The existential loneliness of the founder CEO

If you want to know what it’s really like to run a startup, there's only one person to talk to — a founder’s coach. Having a professional confidant is the "latest sleeveless vest" for the tech world, but it's not just a frivolous fad.

From nightmare investors and founder fetishes to sleepless nights and health problems, coaches hear it all.

Amy Lewin finds out what founders talk about with their closest confidants.

\A message from our sponsor Sailthru

Sleigh the competition with your holiday marketing

Around 80% of ecommerce traffic is mobile — so how can you optimise for customer acquisition? Read Sailthru’s holiday success guide for tips on the best strategy for the fast-approaching festive season.

Find the guide here.

\For Members Venture Capital

Europe’s top angel syndicates started by operators

It’s the age of the angel in Europe.

Angel investing is on the up — the number of angels splashing the cash grew 10% between 2016 and 2019 — and the rise has been accompanied by another trend: a boom in angel syndicates.

These are groups of investors that have clubbed together to combine their skills and plug more money into startups.

Here are the most interesting ones in Europe right now.

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

\Venture Capital

Dispatches from a new VC: we, too, invested in 10-minute grocery

Rosie Wood, our not entirely real but also not entirely fictional VC columnist, is back with another exclusive insider scoop.

The associate at VC firm Mild Conviction has just bagged her first deal, and sheds some light on how things really go down in the industry.

The key thing to remember, she says, is that investing as a VC is like dating, meaning it’s fine to be sleeping with a few different people at the beginning of any relationship — provided they live in different postcodes.

From kombucha calming techniques to ESG, Rosie peels back the VC curtain.

\Sustainability

Will lab-grown meat ever be tasty and profitable?

Billions have been pumped into the sector and lab-grown meat costs about 1% of what it did five years ago.

But questions still remain around the challenges of scaling production and manufacturing that on-the-money meaty taste.

Here's the state of play in the industry.

\Sponsored by Business Sweden

Meet the fintechs leading Sweden’s green revolution

Swedish startups are cleaning up in fintech.

Home to the second most valuable fintech in the world, Klarna, payments giant iZettle and open banking scaleup Tink, the Nordic nation has a pretty good record in creating world leading fintech companies.

But hot on their heels are a number of newcomers looking to make waves on the startup scene.

So who are the disruptors to watch?

News that Matters

☀️ Solar startup Enpal has raised a €150m Series C round from SoftBank. It comes as the European gas crisis has sparked increased interest in renewable energy solutions, and takes Enpal's total financing to €780m.

💰 VC Sofinnova Partners has raised Europe's largest early-stage healthcare fund, with €472m in the pot. It's the firm's 10th flagship fund, and will be deployed across 15 to 20 new biopharmaceutical and medical device startups.

🇺🇸 New York-based VC firm Coatue participated in N26's mammoth $900m raise on Monday — but it's not the only European deal the US firm has sunk its teeth in this year. Here are the 17 European startups the VC has backed in 2021.

🌿 Vegan meal delivery startup Allplants has just bagged £38m in its Series B. The startup will look to scale its industrial kitchen as the meat and dairy-free lifestyle continues to boom among consumers.

💸 Payments platform Primer has raised a Series B of $50m. The round sees the startup hit a considerable $425m valuation and was led by San Francisco-based ICONIQ Growth.

🦍 On-demand grocery startup Gorillas has raised a whopping $950m Series B round. Amid a crazy year for the sector, it's the company's second raise of 2021 and values the business at over $2bn.

💻 Remote workplace startup Hofy has emerged from stealth mode and announced $15.2m in funding from a roster of VCs including Stride.VC and Kindred Capital. It helps businesses setup and manage remote employees and has already been tasked with some tricky requests from customers. Hofy tells Sifted it had to stand up a 40,000 sq ft temporary warehouse to fulfil an order of 500 home offices within five days of taking a contract.

📄 Prague-based Rossum has announced $100m in Series A funding, one of the largest Series A rounds to ever come out of eastern Europe. The Czech startup is aiming to reinvent the way businesses send documents to each other.

Sifted Suggests

🙌 How startups can nail customer service. A Sifted-exclusive excerpt from former N26 COO Martin Schilling’s yet-to-be-released book on scaling startups. Here's how he says you can leave customers singing your praises from the rafters.

Amy Lewin
Deputy Editor

Get in touch with her at amy@sifted.eu
Or @amyrlewin

Kai Nicol-Schwarz
Editorial Lead (Membership)

Get in touch with him at kai @sifted.eu
Or @nicolschwarzk

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The existential loneliness of the founder 🐺

\Startup Life

The existential loneliness of the founder CEO

\A message from our sponsor Sailthru

Sleigh the competition with your holiday marketing

\For Members Venture Capital

Europe’s top angel syndicates started by operators

\Venture Capital

Dispatches from a new VC: we, too, invested in 10-minute grocery

\Sustainability

Will lab-grown meat ever be tasty and profitable?

\Sponsored by Business Sweden

Meet the fintechs leading Sweden’s green revolution

News that Matters

Sifted Suggests

Older messages

Revolut founder's $7bn family office 🤑

What makes Sweden so good at fintech? 💸

How many startups have a woman on their board? 👎

Visionrare: What went wrong? 😳

Top green deals last quarter 🌳

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