• Balderton's new $600m early-stage VC fund
• Europe's most active healthtech investors
• Our (spoof) VC columnist Rosie Wood shares her top under-the-radar startups

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Make your holiday emails merry — and more engaging

Email might seem traditional but it’s 40 times more effective at reaching your target customer than Facebook or Twitter. As the holidays are an important time to ramp up marketing, Sailthru’s annual holiday emails guide provides 19 top-notch examples for every step of your customer journey.   

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\Venture Capital

Balderton raises $600m for early-stage European startups

\For Members Healthtech 

Europe's 10 most active healthtech investors

\Venture Capital 

Dispatches from a London VC: Europe’s 8 hottest under-the-radar startups 

\Sifted Talks

From food to femtech: How to make your subscription model stand out

Switching from a transactional to a subscription-based business model isn't as hard as you'd think. On December 1, hear from our expert panel including founders from Chargebee, Freda and Oddbox for top tips.

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News That Matters

📈 The growth assistant. Pigment, a Paris-based planning and forecasting platform for fast-growth companies, has raised $73m in Series B funding. The two-year-old company, founded by former Index investor Eléonore Crespo and Criteo cofounder Romain Niccoli, has bagged some big clients including Deliveroo, Gong and BlaBlaCar.

👀 Eyes on ebikes. Berlin-based micromobility provider Tier has acquired German bike-sharing platform nextbike and its fleet of 115,000 push and electric bikes. The acquisition will vastly expand Tier's geographical coverage from 160 to 400 cities.

🤪 More metaverse madness. Dubit, a UK-based games developer focused on the metaverse, raised $8m. The fresh capital will be used to help launch the Metaverse Gaming League, a platform to host live esports events — which is a world first, according to the company. Meet more metaverse startups, cherry picked by VCs, here.

🚗 Cazoo’s consolidation streak continues. Following the online car retailer's recent acquisitions of logistics company SMH Fleet Solutions and data insights platform Cazana, it’s now snapped up Spanish car subscription marketplace Swipcar for €30m. This will help boost Cazoo’s presence in southern Europe. 

🎙️ Testing, testing. A recent report by Capgemini found that over half of companies surveyed lack the tools to test their software. London-based AI startup Virtuoso, which raised $13m on Monday, provides these tools and says it can cut down testing time by up to 10x and decrease costs by 80–90%.

Sifted Suggests

🇫🇷 Quantum computing: what Europe can learn from France. France recognises that quantum computing is not a homogenous industry and that various aspects require attention outside the development of actual quantum computers, writes Post-Quantum and Nomidio CEO Andersen Cheng in Sifted’s latest opinion piece.

🇮🇹 Italian B2Bs, what’s going on? This new report by Startup Wise Guys looks at the latest innovations in the Italian B2B digital startup scene and the most notable investment opportunities.