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Belated Merry Christmas Reader!

In today's holiday special, we look back at what happened in Germany’s tech scene in 2021, and look at what's in store next year. But that’s not all! Also on the lineup: 

• Why moving countries can save your startup
• Europe’s fastest growing tech companies 2021
• Brunch with the upper echelons of European tech

Not only has European tech funding blown through the roof this year, startups have continued to hire at hyper speed.

Using Dealroom data, Sifted has found which European startups topped up their teams like there was no tomorrow (spoiler: expect to see quite a bit of speedy grocery delivery).

Can you guess who they are? 

If you're not yet a Sifted member, subscribe here for as little as £19 per month. Treat yourself, it's the holidays!

What a huge year it’s been in German tech land: VC funding shot up to €19.7bn  from just €7.1bn in 2020; Amazon aggregators and speedy grocery startups hired thousands of people; and the first fund backing solely female founders launched.

The land of pretzels also minted seven unicorns, including digital freight forwarder Sennder and grocery delivery company Gorillas, and saw exits from companies like glasses brand Mister Spex and online fashion retailer About You.

But what were Sifted's highlights from the year?

Take a trip down memory lane.

Video games emerged from the pandemic stronger than ever. Find out how the chaos turned into cash for gaming startups in Sifted’s latest report.

Now you’ve looked into the past, what’s next for German tech?

We asked 10 German entrepreneurs, investors and community builders to go all crystal ball on what’ll happen to tech and startups in 2022.

From wearables to women in tech, see their predictions here.

When Matt Welle joined Mews as CEO in 2013, he found that money and momentum wasn’t building… Then, five years ago, the company made the move from the Czech Republic to the Netherlands — and success followed.

Here's how moving country could help save your startup.

Founders, think twice before you sleep on Vienna as a place to run your startup, says Birgit Reiter-Braunwieser, director of startups for the Austrian Business Agency.

With Vienna bagging its first unicorn — crypto trading platform Bitpanda — in August, and more than 2,600 startups founded in the country since 2009, what makes Austria the ideal startup playground?

VCs, talent, support and much, much more. 

From psychedelic investors to robot chefs, catch up on our Brunch with Sifted, series where we get into the minds of European tech’s greatest figures over an array of late morning treats.

👸 Europe’s VC queen. Sifted’s Katja Staple sat down with Accel partner Sonali de Rycker, who has been recognised as Europe’s top female investor for the past four years, with an order of avocado and eggs on toast. What’s she really like?

🤪 The psychedelic investor. Chaga mushroom coffee was on the menu during this brunch, where Michael Stothard chatted with German investor Christian Angermayer — perhaps the biggest financial force behind shifting psychedelic drugs to the mainstream in recent years. How did he get into this line of investment?

🧠 Startup community mastermind. Over in Berlin, Miriam Partington met Daisy Onubogu, head of network and communities at VC firm Backed, to chat about community, capitalism and the shallowness of company mission statements.

🇷🇴 Romania’s richest man. Kit Gillet took a trip to the headquarters of robotic automation software startup UiPath, and heard what the company’s cofounder Daniel Dines has learnt on his entrepreneurial journey.

🤖 Brunch with a robot. It served us a bowl of muesli and coconut yoghurt, with a helping of mixed berries on top. This robot chef is the brainchild of Barney Wragg, cofounder and CEO of London-based startup Karakuri. We found out how it all works.

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