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Despite having a population of just 1.3m, Estonia has just given birth to its sixth unicorn — identity verification startup Veriff, which just raised a $100m Series C. Anisah Osman Britton took a look at where Veriff plans to spend this fresh cash, plus...

• What do the new breed of chief impact officers at late-stage startups actually do? 

• Why do female founders in Europe own less of their companies than men? 
• How founders can tackle the cringeworthy question of building a "personal brand"

Startup sustainability teams were few and far between until a couple of years ago, but now they’re all the rage — as is the new role of chief impact officer.

But what do they actually do? Turns out their responsibilities can differ widely, depending on the kind of company.

Tasks can involve keeping on top of new impact regulations and engaging employees with sustainability topics — all while trying to avoid coming across as “preachy”.

Connor Bilboe found out more. 

Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab for women and ethnic minority entrepreneurs helps startups grow their businesses — even in a biased marketplace. Apply for mentorship, training and £200k in funding.

Join the five-month accelerator programme here.

It’s well documented how much harder it is for female founders to access capital than men, but there’s another gender gap that isn’t getting enough attention — the equity gap.

It refers to the fact that female founders often own far less of their companies than men, and it lies buried within their closely guarded cap tables.

Amy O'Brien took a look at who owns what at the UK's most valuable startups.

Estonian startup Veriff's identity verification technology just won it backing from Tiger Global, who led its latest funding round — a $100m Series C. Estonia has given birth to five other unicorns — Skype, Wise, Pipedrive, Bolt and Playtech. 

In many cases, alumni of those earlier successes have become drivers of the ecosystem, founding new companies or becoming angel investors in the ambitious ideas of others.

Anisah Osman Britton finds out more about how Veriff plans to spend the cash. 

The phrase "personal brand" is enough to make some feel quite nauseous.

It brings to mind annoying Facebook ads for “once in a lifetime” digital marketing workshops run by “gurus” preaching the secret to 10k followers. 

But for Sanctus founder James Routledge, building a personal brand has been a key hiring, fundraising and business development tool.

He shares his top tips here.

Insurtech may not seem like the most exciting area in fintech — but investors are seeing dollar signs. Global VC investment in insurtech grew from $1.8bn in 2016 to $10.5bn in the first three quarters of 2021 alone. 

But what are the key areas for growth in the year ahead?

We asked insurtech founders and CEOs to make their best claims. 

🌿 The startup making sustainable tampons from seaweed. Seaweed has been crowned a superfood in recent years, used in everything from meat substitutes to skincare products. A Berlin-based startup called Vyld thinks it’s also the key ingredient to making sustainable tampons, very catchily named "kelpons". Vlyd's just bagged pre-seed funding for exactly that. 

🤑 Another Estonian raise ... for fintech Tuum. It's just announced a €15m Series A funding, which it'll use to strengthen its European footprint. Tuum claims its flexible, lean and modular core banking platform enables banks to quickly roll out new financial products and services.

😬 N26 loses another high-profile employee. COO Adrienne Gormley has stepped down. It’s the latest in a string of high profile exits for the neobank — and one that leaves it with no full-time women in its C-suite.

There's still time to kick off the year landing your dream job — Sifted has got heaps of exciting roles up for grabs below: 

🖥️ We're on the hunt for a digital editor to manage our website, oversee newsletter production and whip articles into shape. You'll need to be super organised, pay fierce attention to detail and have a knack for getting the best out of writers. Sound a bit like you? Apply here. 

🇫🇷 Sifted is looking for a part-time or freelance reporter to join our fast-growing team of journalists covering the world of European startups and scaleups. This role will specifically focus on the French startup scene and be based in France.  

🎪 Sifted is looking for a head of events to lead (and grow!) the future of Sifted events. We have an exciting plan for 2022 events, and this is where you could come in as an experienced individual to help shape the future of in-person experiences at Sifted. Sound up your street? Apply here.

📊 Sifted is looking for a data analyst to build a data-informed company as we supercharge our growth. We want someone to provide daily research support to all functional Sifted teams, from analysing content performance for journalists through to creating insight-driven financial reporting. Could this be you?  

🏆 We’re looking for a new client success manager to make our advertising and sponsorship clients the happiest folk in town. You’ll be championing client projects internally and ensuring a seamless delivery of client campaigns across our growing portfolio of advertising and sponsorship products. Apply here!

🎬 Best of Sifted Summit 2021. Last December saw the inaugural Sifted Summit, our very first in-person event with inspiring speakers and a carefully curated guest list of 200 founders and startup leaders. Watch the best bits here. 

📈Lessons from Wise: How to run a growth team. Nilan Peiris has led the growth team at fintech unicorn Wise for over nine years. He shares what he learnt along the way. 

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