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It’s been one other robust yr in European tech. For a lot of VCs and founders, fundraising was an uphill battle: startups raised simply $45bn in 2023, half as a lot as in 2021.
However fundraising in sure sectors defied the gloom, with France’s Mistral — which wasn’t even an organization in the beginning of 2023 — hitting a $2bn valuation in December. Local weather infrastructure offers, in the meantime, accounted for 2023’s 4 largest offers in Europe.
Little shock, then, that tales about Mistral, AI usually and local weather tech breakthroughs piqued the curiosity of Sifted readers in 2023.
Take a look at our 10 best-read tales of the yr under.

Photo voltaic power storage breakthrough may make European households self-sufficient
One of many main points with photo voltaic power is inter-seasonal storage: determining how you can retailer power created when the solar is shining for the times, weeks and months when it isn’t.
A startup in Norway, Photoncycle, claims to have discovered an answer, utilizing stable hydrogen. Sifted’s Mimi Billing obtained the lowdown.

See the pitch memo that raised €105m for four-week-old startup Mistral
Mistral took the tech world by storm in June 2023 when it emerged from stealth mode to announce a large €105m increase, simply 4 weeks after launch and with no product.
So, how did the AI firm do it? Sifted obtained maintain of the pitch deck.

UK authorities to reform ‘fairness for visas’ residency utility system
The UK authorities introduced that it will lastly make it simpler for entrepreneurs to relocate to the nation and located startups, by changing its present startup and innovator visas and scrapping the requirement for founders to have £50k to speculate.
What Rishi Sunak’s authorities thinks of the matter 9 months later is, nonetheless, anybody’s guess.

Lawsuit claims VC agency Goal International ‘hid’ firm’s hyperlinks to Russia
A lawsuit was introduced towards VC agency Goal International claiming it hid the Russian citizenship of the administrators of an related firm amid western sanctions towards Kremlin-linked people. On November 29, the court docket stated it will not proceed with the case because it had not been correctly served, and that the defendant didn’t have an debatable case.

Tech ‘broetry’ is uncontrolled and must be stopped
Browsing LinkedIn, aka Lifeless Broets Society, Sifted’s Éanna Kelly lastly snapped, lashing out at the wholesale abuse of the English language by tech founders indulging in what he dubbed: broetry.
“Successful mindshare results in market share” was considered one of numerous notably egregious examples. “Constructing a enterprise is in regards to the serendipity of connection” was one other. Be warned.

Spotify founder Daniel Ek formally launches new startup — and this time, he’s taking over healthcare
Sifted’s Mimi Billing adopted up her November 2022 scoop on Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek’s pivot into healthtech, revealing that his new startup, Neko Well being, would provide superior full-body scanning to assist docs discover and forestall illness. It was launched after 4 years of analysis and growth. She later tried it out.

The ‘loopy’ £20bn subsea cable to carry Moroccan solar energy to the UK
Proving as soon as once more that Sifted readers love a scientific breakthrough, Freya Pratty had the lowdown on a plan to carry solar energy from sunny Morocco to cloudy Britain with a 3,800km undersea cable. For the small sum of £20bn, the challenge may ship 8% of the UK’s power demand, sufficient to maintain the lights on in 7m houses.

Leaked deck raises questions over Stability AI’s Collection A pitch to buyers
When generative AI startup Stability AI raised a $101m Collection A spherical in October 2022, many questioned the place the corporate had come from. CEO Emad Mostaque — a former hedge fund supervisor — was a relative unknown within the machine studying group. Sifted obtained maintain of the pitch deck that Stability used to boost the cash, and found that issues had been extra difficult than they at first appeared.

It’s not simply the CFO who’s stop: Meet the individuals left with energy at Revolut
After Revolut CFO Mikko Salovaara stop the neobank over private causes in Might 2023, Sifted’s Amy O’Brien revealed that a number of different senior leaders had additionally left the corporate. She was additionally in a position to pull collectively an image of the 30-odd senior decision-makers that will steer the fintech by an important interval of 2023.

Founding father of VC agency DN Capital accused of sexual harassment by former workers — allegations he denies
The allegations ranged from bullying and sexualised feedback to bodily touching within the workplace. Marovac denied all allegations and DN arrange an impartial investigation.
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