Sifted

LIVE: Europe’s fastest-growing startups in 2025 🌟 This year’s cohort generated €6.3bn in revenue in the last financial year, proving Europe’s startup ecosystem is building companies that could define Europe’s future. Meet the rising stars 👉 sifted.eu/intelligence/r…

NestAI wants to help Europe reduce reliance on foreign models for defence. Sifted spoke to Nest AI's founder Peter Sarlin about launching AI models for defence and how this will help Europe own and control its own tech. Read the full interview now. sifted.eu/articles/peter…

LATEST: Exclusive: Defence tech Project Q lands €15m Series A 11 months after last raise Polish investor Expeditions led the round, which also included German defence specialist Hensoldt and VC Heliad. sifted.eu/articles/exclu…

‘When we see an opportunity, we’ll go for it’ Sifted spoke to Harvey’s EMEA boss Jorge Bestard on M&A, hiring and pushing beyond law across Europe. Read our latest interview to see what's next for Harvey in 2026. sifted.eu/articles/jorge…

NEW: This founder sold his startup to Klarna for €110m. Now he's raised €12m to build again Munich-based AI tax and accounting startup Skalar has raised €12m in combined pre-seed and seed funding. sifted.eu/articles/skala…

NEW: The 25 companies Europe’s startup insiders watched most closely in H1. Sifted Pro readership data reveals which European startups and scaleups investors, corporates and advisers were monitoring most actively in H1. sifted.eu/articles/the-2…

Tune into our latest podcast episode with UK's tech secretary Liz Kendall. She sits down to discuss Andy Burnham, autonomous vehicles, AI and the challenge of unlocking more growth capital for British tech companies. Watch or listen now. sifted.eu/articles/liz-k…

LATEST: Hive raises $15m for ‘silicon brain’ that cuts hourly cost of running machines by 80% Hive, a physical AI startup building a "silicon brain" to automate industrial machines, has raised a $15m pre-Series A round led by SuperSeed. sifted.eu/articles/hive-…

Can AI really cure all diseases? In an era of 'AI dread', Basecamp’s work is a great reminder of the benefits the technology could yet bring about, writes John Thornhill. sifted.eu/articles/can-a…

NEW: IQM investors applaud ‘very good’ debut on public markets. The Finnish quantum scaleup became Europe’s first publicly traded quantum company when it floated last week. sifted.eu/articles/iqm-d…

LATEST: Drone maker Quantum Systems raises $1.2bn, eyes humanoids. The scaleup has hit an $8bn valuation. sifted.eu/articles/quant…

Anthropic, the US AI giant behind Claude, has unveiled a new suite of tools designed to automate scientific research. But how have startups reacted? Find out now in our latest analysis. sifted.eu/articles/anthr…

JUST IN: H1’s biggest M&A deals Take a look at European exits so far this year. Some stats to note: - M&A dealmaking decreased in the 1st half of 2026 - B2B SaaS startups topped the exit charts with 174 deals - The UK dominated Europe’s exit scene in H1 sifted.eu/articles/h1s-b…

NEW: EU offers quota deal to end UK-France standoff over €5bn Scaleup fund. The talks follow France’s attempt to block UK participation in the fund EU offers quota deal to end UK-France standoff over €5bn Scaleup fund. sifted.eu/articles/scale…

French bid to block UK from €5bn EU fund sparks backlash. Founders and investors divided over British involvement in Scaleup fund French bid to block UK from €5bn EU fund sparks backlash. sifted.eu/articles/eu-sc…

Why this AI founder ditched bootstrapping for a $17m deal with 20VC. Fonio founder Daniel Keinrath spent years avoiding VCs. But a shift in pricing — and a meeting with Harry Stebbings — changed his mind. sifted.eu/articles/fonio…

LATEST: Startups praise UK’s long-awaited defence investment plan. Some of Europe's top drone startups are eagerly awaiting more UK defence spending. sifted.eu/articles/start…

NEW: University of Edinburgh spinouts looking to raise. Sifted breaks down pre-seed to Series B spinouts from the university that are courting investors. sifted.eu/articles/unive…

Alan Chang is hiring a ‘performance manager’. Should other CEOs follow his lead? The Fuse Energy boss wants someone to keep staff performing at their best. sifted.eu/articles/shoul…

EXCLUSIVE: British Business Bank to back UK scaleups with £400m per year. The state bank will write first-time cheques of £10m-40m . sifted.eu/articles/bbb-s…

NEW: One simple and radical idea to transform Britain’s tech sector. A popular, effective policy that would help boost Britain’s innovation economy and cost the Treasury nothing. sifted.eu/articles/one-s…