Startup Europe. Grown up reporting
Startups have always embraced the unknown, the uncertain.
Well, they’d better be on their game now.
New problems, new opportunities, new chances to contribute.
It’s time to step up. And tech reporting has to adapt too.
Backed by the Financial Times, Sifted is about in-depth reporting on startup Europe for startup Europe.
From Bristol to Bucharest, our journalists go beyond the press release to find out what you didn’t know you needed to know.
We put the questions that don’t get asked to the people who should be asked.
We’re for anyone who wants the fuller picture. Because if you don’t know what’s happening right across Europe, you’re only half-informed.
Sifted. Because the future’s already here. Just not where you expected.
John Thornhill
Founder / Editorial Director
Caspar Woolley
Founder / CEO
John is also the Innovation editor of the Financial Times, where he writes a regular, award-winning column on the impact of technology, hosts the weekly Tech Tonic podcast, and is the founder and editorial lead for the FT125 forum for senior business executives. In a 30-year career at the FT, John has been deputy editor, news editor, European edition editor, and bureau chief in both Paris and Moscow.
Caspar is a seasoned digital entrepreneur and intrapreneur who’s had fun starting businesses ranging from Johnlewis.com to Hailo the taxi app. He loves working at the intersection of the editorial, operational and digital worlds, and bringing great ideas to life in both the public and private sectors. He is also a Non-Exec Director at London’s UCLH hospital.
Editorial
Michael Stothard
Editor
Amy Lewin
Deputy Editor
Michael previously worked at the Financial Times, where his roles included Madrid bureau chief, Nordic and Baltic bureau chief and senior correspondent in Paris. He is a Europhile, technophile, and a science fiction geek who hopes to live on Mars one day (don’t laugh). Before journalism, he briefly worked at a VC in London, where he realised picking winners is hard and a good idea is not the same as a good business.
Amy is intrigued by the ‘human side’ of companies – because, as all founders know, people are the trickiest bit of any startup. She's particularly excited about the recent burst of initiatives to make the tech sector more enticing and accessible to everyone, and intrigued by the future of healthcare and cities. Previously, Amy spent three years covering startups as features editor at Courier magazine, where she also hosted and programmed talks and workshops.
Maija Palmer
Innovation Editor
Mimi Billing
Senior Reporter
Maija previously worked at the Financial Times, including roles as European Technology correspondent, founding member of the FT social media team, and deputy editor of special reports. She developed and hosted the World Tech Founders podcast series, and launched the 50 Ideas to Change the World special report. She is interested in the geeky side of tech — basically if it involves visiting a farm or a factory, bring it on.
With a rapidly changing world, Mimi is intrigued to find out how new innovation can help create a sustainable future. Based in Stockholm she covers the Nordics as well as healthtech in Europe for Sifted. Previously she worked at the Swedish tech and business site Di Digital, where she hosted a number of events and podcasts.
Isabel Woodford
Kit Gillet
Eastern Europe Correspondent
Isabel covers the elusive world of fintech and is tracking the tech-driven revolutions happening inside developer caves. She has been featured in The Guardian, Reuters, The New York Times, and most recently was a reporter at US fintech news outlet, The Block.
Kit has been covering developments in Eastern Europe since 2013, writing for publications like The New York Times, The Guardian and The Economist. Over the years he's watched with keen interest the growth of the startup scene across the continent, and the often youthful cohort of entrepreneurs who are increasingly putting the region on the global map.
Miriam Partington
Germany Correspondent
Tim Smith
Iberia correspondent
Miriam is Sifted's Germany correspondent based in Berlin. She's particularly interested in sustainability, the future of work, female entrepreneurship and the human side of tech.
Tim started his career on the Guardian's tech weekly podcast, before becoming a producer at BBC World Service Radio. He's been reporting from Spain since 2017, working for BBC, Deutsche Welle, Pink News and Radio New Zealand. Tim is interested in how startups and innovation can address big issues like climate change, citizen participation and workers' rights.
Freya Pratty
News Reporter
Connor Bilboe
Editorial Assistant
Connor is interested in exploring multiple facets of European tech and writes Sifted's flagship newsletter. He’s particularly intrigued by sustainability and the ways in which the tech sector is paving the way for a better planet (and where it could be doing better).
Cecile Bussy
Social Media Journalist
Isabella Pojuner
Editorial Intern
Cecile loves playing with new formats to tell and share tech stories. From breaking down a complex data report in a Twitter thread to producing multimedia stories, she seeks to bring more creativity in journalism. When she’s not looking for new emojis, you can find her chatting about climate tech and ocean tech.
Commercial
Helen Seidenberg
Partnerships Director
Georgina Ustik
Head of content
Helen’s role at Sifted is to build the business through sponsorship and partnerships. Prior to Sifted, Helen worked for several different publishers, including a FTSE 250-listed powerhouse and a startup business intelligence firm. She’s also sat on the other side of the fence, at a marketing agency. Outside of work, Helen likes conjuring up her own (arguably questionable) business ideas and seeking out Europe’s best waterfalls.
Georgina manages the editorial side of Sifted's branded content, and has previously worked as an editor and creative at TNW, Blendle and Tumblr. She's never without a book or podcast, and loves a good argument about music. She's especially passionate about finding new and creative ways to tell stories, loves a meme and a laugh, and wants to help make tech a more equal space.
Laura Balboni
Campaign manager
Hannah Baines
Events Manager
Laura's role at Sifted is to collaborate with clients, the sales team and the editorial team to prepare and execute client campaigns and measure and report on their effectiveness. Prior to Sifted, Laura worked briefly for The Stage media company as the commercial coordinator after returning from Australia where she had been living for five years. Laura has a great passion for theatre and travelling as much of Europe as she can.
Anuj Jivabhai
Sales Executive
Ella Batham-Read
Campaign Assistant
Intelligence Unit
Chris Sisserian
Head of intelligence
Becca Lipman
Intelligence Editor
A committed generalist Chris has had a diverse career spanning journalism, ski instructing, foreign policy analysis, primary research for private equity funds and business development at software startups. He now leads Sifted intelligence with a mission to understand the consequences of the fourth industrial revolution on both our economy and society. When not investigating tech trends he is most likely to be found in the alps either skiing or climbing.
Marie Mawad
Journalist, editorial strategist
Amelie Bahr
intelligence Analyst
Marie is based in Paris, where she’s covered tech and innovation for over 10 years, enjoyed a front-row seat to a flourishing startup ecosystem, and eaten her fair share of croissants. Previously at Bloomberg and Reuters, she’s obsessed with spotting the early signs of disruption. The rest of Marie’s brain is split between Verdi’s arias and disco tunes.
Emma Bakh
Intelligence Analyst
Bill Leaver
Product ANALYST
Bill is Sifted's data champion and in-house analyst, sitting at the intersection of Editorial/Commercial/Product. Previously he ran growth and sales at cord, an early stage SaaS start-up, and likes to automate boring things and build cool things. He's particularly interested in the subscription economy, no code, and how companies can best organise genius. In his spare time, he tries to survive supporting Arsenal football club.
Marketing
Alice Hankin
Marketing Manager
Oliver Spencer
marketing consultant
Product
Francesco Bellanca
Product Manager
Kai Nicol-Schwarz
Editorial Lead (Membership)
Stuart Turner
Consultant Software Engineer
Javier Romario
Software Engineer
Stuart has been a Software Engineer and Architect working in the media industry for over 13 years, previously working for the Financial Times. He's excited to be working with Sifted to build technology supporting their cutting edge journalistic mission.
A self-taught South London web developer and devoted skateboarder working with Sifted to deliver high performance web applications.
Experience meets experimentation. The Financial Times’ innovation editor John Thornhill leads a team of journalists who believe that European tech matters.
Bringing experience from the FT, Courier, Di Digital, Al Jazeera and Forbes, our mission is to tell your untold stories in engaging new ways, and to share with you must-read content wherever we find it.
Our HQ in London connects a network of correspondents across Europe.
At Sifted we will make the case for the importance of European tech startups, and the value of a differentiated European approach that charts a course between the techno-libertarianism of California and the digital authoritarianism of China.
The energy, ideas, and ambition on display all across Europe deserve to be heard around the world. Our aim is to be the voice of this community of European startup entrepreneurs.
Community isn’t a one-way conversation. We want you to hear from you.
Collaboration is the key to Europe’s edge. Tell us what you want to read, who you want to meet, and how your experience and insight can benefit others. We’ll help you make meaningful connections across the European tech community.
This is your story. Help us tell it.
At Sifted, we’re for leaders, for pioneers and technologists. We’re also for anyone interested in cutting-edge innovation across Europe.
That’s why we’re deep-diving into Europe’s pools of research and expertise to explore and surface companies in emerging areas of technology which don’t always get the profile they deserve. From blockchain to biotech, fintech to factories of the future, we are inspecting these topics from new angles and uncovering innovation wherever there’s a spark.
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