So you want to understand European tech? Well, the best place to start — apart from just reading Sifted, of course — is signing up to a whole load of the great newsletters out there.
But which are the best newsletters? We asked our crack journalist team at Sifted to select their favourites... and here they are.
Let us know any we should add.
*This article was last updated on July 9, 2024.
General startup news (Europe and the US)
Sifted — Our latest and greatest pieces, plus our take on the top startup news stories, sent to your inbox every weekday.
StrictlyVC — A daily funding news roundup. (A lot of rounds from the US and Asia, but European funding rounds get in there too. Useful to see which sectors are getting a lot of attention.)
Term Sheet — Fortune's daily funding news roundup. (Similar to StrictlyVC, a lot of rounds from the US and Asia, but European funding rounds get in there too.)
Midas Touch — Forbes's paid newsletter covers startup funding and VC, with mostly a US focus.
Weekly roundups
Sunday CET — Sent every Sunday by VC/entrepreneur Dragos Novac, who muses on the European investment space. Also useful for checking that you haven’t missed any big news over the week.
Benedict's Newsletter — A weekly take on the tech stories of the past week, from former Andreessen Horowitz partner and current venture partner at Mosaic and EF Benedict Evans. Can skew very Big Tech, but full of very smart takes on trends, interesting ideas and data.
Overlooked — A smart take on overlooked European trends from investor Alexandre Dewez.
Consumer
Top 10 things I saw in consumer: Susie Stanford — A VC's analysis of big consumer news. Comes monthly.
Heartcore Insights — The VC rounds up interesting consumer deals in Europe and the US every week. Useful for tracking what's going on in this sector.
Data
Beauhurst — The data company sends weekly emails with its reports on high-growth companies in the UK. It looks beyond companies in London and at funding beyond venture capital. Worth subscribing to.
CB Insights — Useful for trends and market analysis (like "The State of Healthcare") — but unfortunately very US-focused. Some content is also behind a paywall.
Dealroom — Taking a more European view is fellow data organisation Dealroom, which also sends a weekly missive including its latest ecosystem maps and reports.
PitchBook — "The Daily Pitch: Europe" is worth a skim, although not if you're very tight on time. The bottom section of the newsletter lists VC, PE and M&A deals (although it's not comprehensive).
Specter — Specter is an alternative data platform that top VCs use to hunt deals before anyone else gets to them. The newsletter highlights interesting upcoming companies and founders.
Deeptech / AI
The Algorithm — From MIT Tech Review.
Exponential View — A newsletter mostly about AI, for smart people into AI, written by Azeem Azhar.
Your guide to AI — Monthly take on AI tech, research and startups from Nathan Benaich, a UK-based AI investor and author of State of AI annual report. Also pretty geeky.
Diversity in tech
Colorintech — For a newsletter that enjoys emojis even more than Sifted, sign up to this for diversity and inclusion news and interesting reads from Europe and the US.
Femstreet — A weekly round-up of stories about women in tech. A useful source for discovering new female-run companies. Paying subscribers also get a Friday newsletter and more perks.
Fintech
Sifted's Fintech newsletter — Every Tuesday, Sifted's fintech correspondent Tom Matsuda shares his take on what's hot... and what's not, in fintech each week.
This Week in Fintech — Fintech news from around the world.
Startup Life
Sifted's Startup Life newsletter — Each Wednesday, Sifted's DACH and future of work correspondent Miriam Partington, alongside coauthor Anisah Osman Britton, take a theme — from transparent salaries and alternatives to VC funding to employer branding and bullying in the workplace — and quiz the brightest brains at European startups about it. They also share juicy new senior hires at startups and review a new book or podcast.
Sustainability
Sifted's Climate Tech newsletter — No greenwashing here. Every Thursday, Sifted's climate tech reporter Freya Pratty casts a critical eye over the startups making a positive impact on the planet — and investigates just how sustainable they really are.
Green Daily — Bloomberg Green shares the day's climate and sustainability news. When it comes to tech, it's more focused on the big companies.
CTVC — A weekly round-up of climate tech deals around the globe, good reads, jobs and analysis of topics like carbon capture, carbon accounting and hydrogen.
Food
The Trim — A great roundup of good (and often very fun!) food sector reads, from the former managing editor of trade magazine The Grocer.
The Spoon — For a more techy take on the food world, subscribe to The Spoon. It offers news round-ups and smart analysis on ghost kitchens, delivery companies, robot chefs and plant-based food innovations — although mostly focuses on the US.
Healthtech
Labiotech — Top stories from Europe's biotech businesses every Friday.
Life Sci VC — Biotech analysis for the folks who can actually understand this stuff.
Digital Health Digest — A weekly newsletter from Digital Health, a UK-focused online publication which focuses on... digital health.
HR/recruitment
Welcome to the Jungle — A French recruitment platform, which also creates content on featured companies and shares advice around HR topics, like how to ask for a promotion. (In French.)
The People Geekly — This weekly newsletter from Culture Amp, the US-based people and culture platform, shares content on the topics at the top of people people's minds: remote work; hybrid company cultures; how to run a good one-on-one.
Manufacturing
The Future of Manufacturing — What it says on the tin. Written by former Point Nine investor Robin Dechant.
Mobility
City Lab — This Bloomberg newsletter is great on city innovation but mostly US-focused. The ‘What We’re Reading’ links at the bottom are worth clicking on.
The Micromobility Newsletter — A must-read for micromobility fans. A great weekly overview of what's happening with scooters, ebikes et al in Europe, the US and Asia. Also lists jobs open at micromobility startups.
Movements — Another excellent monthly read for all things micromobility.
Intelligent Transport — As nerdy as it sounds, and equally useful for smart cities and micromobility updates.
TMNT — Mobility analysis from Lufthansa’s innovation hub.
ZAG Weekly — covers e-scooters, bike schemes and urban design, mostly with a UK focus.
VC
Most VC firms (and many VC partners) have newsletters, and we’ve tried to include those that include information beyond just portfolio updates.
Sifted's Up Round newsletter — Every Friday editor Amy Lewin drops into your inbox with her take on the latest trends in Europe's VC scene, and lists new funds and people moves.
Daphni — French VC firm Daphni wins the prize for the most colourful newsletter, which sends a selection of good reads on a variety of topics every Thursday.
First Round Review — US VC firm First Round shares bucket loads of brilliant operational advice and insights in its newsletter (and online magazine). It's a shame that it mostly features US companies (but then again, that's what Sifted's here for).
Capital Enterprise — The UK startup network shares a useful lineup of events, grant and other funding opportunities and calls for applications from accelerator programmes.
Coworking spaces / incubators / accelerators
Most coworking spaces, incubators and accelerators send out half decent newsletters. We find they can be useful to skim through to find out about companies that are hiring and hear about events.
Station F — The Parisian mega campus has a monthly newsletter featuring updates from its resident startups, upcoming events and recommended reads.
Country/city-specific
Most countries and bigger cities have some kind of organisation promoting the local tech and startup scene, which can send out useful newsletters. Some countries also have media covering the local startup scene.
Barcinno — A very useful roundup of VC, startup and tech news from Barcelona (and Spain), along with good reads, events and local jobs.
Barcelona Tech City — Events and local startup news.
Dealflow.es — Weekly roundup of Spanish VC and tech news.
Der brutkasten — Austrian startup news.
Deutsche Startups — Known for not always getting its facts straight, but a valuable source of gossip on German startups nonetheless.
The French Tech Journal — A twice-weekly newsletter from Sifted correspondent Chris O'Brien about what's going on in one of Europe's fastest-changing startup nations.
Gründerszene — If your German's good, it's worth signing up to Business Insider-owned Gründerszene for hot-off-the-press startup and VC news.
Hamburg Startups — In which there is, rather fittingly, a fair bit of food-related news too.
Hunting Greek Unicorns — News, jobs, recommended reads and smart thoughts on the Greek startup ecosystem. Sent by VC analyst Alex Alexakis every two weeks.
#MaddyMoney — French startup funding rounds of the week (in French).
Nordic EdTech News — Published every other Monday, this is a fortnightly and free round-up of the latest industry news and updates from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystems.
Nordic Fintech Snippets — The most important and latest news in fintech and digital finance from the Nordic states.
The Northstack Memo — Newsletter on innovation, startups and VC in Iceland. Includes commentary and analysis of the investment landscape, public policy and the broader tech sector.
On Norwegian Tech — Biweekly newsletter of the most noteworthy in Norwegian tech.
Øresund Startups — Newsletter covering startups in the Greater Copenhagen and Skåne region.
Silicon Luxembourg — For all your Luxembourgish startup stories.
Startups — Ana Pimentel, a tech reporter at Portugal's Observador, fills you in on all things Portuguese startups (in Portuguese) on a Tuesday.
Startup Estonia — Monthly newsletter covering news and events from the Estonian startup scene.
Startup Lisboa — The non-profit community at the centre of much of Lisbon's startup activity.
Tech Polymaths — A great weekly dive into Lithuanian startups in English.
Which newsletters have we missed? Please email amy@sifted.eu.
