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Hi Sifted Reader,

If this week is anything to go by, it's going to be a big year for European tech. Just yesterday, Back Market, Qonto, Bolt and GoStudent all announced huge rounds and all cemented their unicorn status. In this issue, Sifted's Kit Gillet speaks to Bolt founder and CEO Martin Villig about the super-app's hypergrowth plans for 2022 and its expansion into on-demand groceries, plus...

• Sovereign wealth funds increase investment into European startups
• Is the Europe on the edge of a dotcom bubble?
• The startups fighting fake news

Just five months after its last mammoth raise, Estonia's Bolt has snapped up another €600m+ megaround.

The mobility startup is now valued at €7.6bn, has arguably become Europe's first super-app and it's not about to slow down. Bolt's looking to more than double in size again next year, founder and CEO Marcus Villig tells Sifted.

Whether paying for travel, routine expenses or software subscriptions, TripActions Liquid™ simplifies employee spending with virtual and physical smart cards — while finance teams stay in control.

Find out more here.

Over the past year, sovereign wealth funds from across the Middle East and Asia have doubled down on European investments, analysis by Sifted shows.

The most active sovereign fund, Singapore's GIC, participated in European rounds worth a total that was 273% higher in 2021 than 2020. Compatriot Temasek, UAE’s Mubadala fund and the Qatar Investment Authority have all also sharpened their focus on the region. But why's this happening now?

Freya Pratty finds out.

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Public stock markets are turning bearish, interest rates are likely to go up soon and VCs sound lost when it comes to putting a price on a funding round, says Sifted columnist Nicolas Colin. 

It’s a sign that tech funding in Europe is cooling, he adds, but we’re not on the cusp of a dotcom-style bust. 

Here’s why Europe's startup scene will endure.

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) has tapped into changing consumer behaviour, but now the market is full of providers joining the party, how can merchants expand in the future?

Listen in today to find out.

Fake news can travel six times faster than information that's true, according to a study by MIT — but an increasing group of startups are helping to counter it. 

Paris-based Buster is one of them, and it's just raised a €2m seed round as investors begin to cotton on to the potential of companies tackling disinformation.

Here's how it plans to monetise the fake news fightback.

🏦 Neobank Qonto cashes in. The French fintech has reached unicorn status with a €486m round — hitting a valuation of $4.98bn — led by now-familiar faces on the European startup scene, US-based Tiger Global. The raise made Qonto France's most valuable startup, a record it held for all of one day, until...

📱Back Market raised $510m at a $5.7bn valuation. The race to the top is truly under way in French tech, as the refurbished gadget platform snatches the title of the country's most valuable startup. It takes the total pumped into the French ecosystem in the first two weeks of 2022 to €1.5bn — nearly as much as the whole of 2016. 

👩🏫 European edtech is flying high. Austria's GoStudent has raised €300m, just months after its last unicorn-making round. Before 2021 VC interest in the sector was minimal, but after a major uplift last year investors seem only too keen to continue splashing the cash. Here are the edtechs you should keep an eye on.

🧠 Mental health startup Sanctus raises £4.25m. The London-based company works with businesses to provide staff with mental health support, and the funding comes amid increasing investor interest in the sector. Over the summer, founder James Routledge penned these two opeds for Sifted — on alternative funding and why founders don't need to be a CEO.

💵 Gen Z: Open banking’s blind spot. Open banking has received a whole lot of hype in recent years, and it now powers around 4m UK users and has had considerable support from the UK government. But, fintechs focused on Gen Z are struggling to see a use case with their demographic, they tell Sifted. Here's why.

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