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Europe's created nearly four times as many unicorns this year than last year. But which VCs are the best at unicorn hunting? We crunch the numbers on who's backed the most $1bn companies this year.

That's in today's newsletter, plus...

• The best founder photos, part two
• Longevity startups to watch
• The startups set to transform farming

We're back with part two of the article none of you asked for — our quest to find the perfect founder photo.

We run through some of our favourite examples, from using blur to indicate hypergrowth to a Rembrandt-inspired team photo, to help you take THE BEST photos.

See some of our favourites.

Steal secrets from top sellers based on data from over 60,000 sales demos by reading Gong’s top five tips and examples on how to build a winning sales demo script.

Read the article here.

Europe's minted a record-breaking number of unicorns in 2021, and startups continue to break the "fastest-to-unicorn-valuation" record.

And behind every unicorn are deal-hungry VCs vying to cash in on the next big tech success story.

Find out which VCs backed the most unicorns in 2021.

Outsourcing functions and talent is still uncommon among startups. Founders are wary of giving up control of their product, teams or customer relationships.

But, as business philosopher Peter Drucker famously said: “Do what you do best and outsource the rest.” 

Here’s how to know if it’s right for your business.

Finding a way to stem ageing has become a growing focus for European tech investors and startups. 

But which startups are likely to be the big winners? We asked seven longevity and healthtech experts to share the companies they’re keeping an eye on. 

Here are the startups that could keep us young.

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By 2050, our food system will need to provide for nearly 10bn people. 

That's going to require a big shift in how we farm and produce our grub — and some investors are starting to get excited about the new technologies that could help.

From microbial cell factories to upgraded fertilisers, here are the startups set to transform food.

🇪🇸 Seaya Ventures, the Madrid-based VC firm, has closed an oversubscribed €165m fund. It certainly helped that one portfolio company, electric vehicle charging startup Wallbox, had a pretty successful listing in October. Tim Smith spoke to the team about what's next for Spanish startups.

💰 Dealroom, the Amsterdam-based data and intelligence platform for startups, has raised a €6m Series A round. It was led by transatlantic VC firm Beringea.

📊 Brytlyt, a startup working on real-time data and analytics visualisation tech, has raised €4.4m in new funding from Albion VC, Amadeus Capital Partners and Finch Capital. It comes as the data analysis sector continues to accelerate at pace.

🌱 PreSeed Ventures, an early-stage investor in startups from Denmark and Sweden, has opened a new €55m fund. The new fund's already invested in 26 tech startups, from a no-code tool to AI data tool Abzu.

🏎️ Nico Rosberg the angel investor. Since retiring from Formula 1 in 2016, Rosberg's been actively investing in startups, backing 20 companies to date, including four unicorns. We sat down with him to discuss it.

🎮 Investing in gaming? VCs looking to cash in on the risky world of immersive, single player video games could be in for a large reward, but there are several things to consider first.

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