How To

July 15, 2022

How to pitch to Sifted

Grabbing our attention: what stories we're looking for — and who to pitch them to


Sifted

5 min read

Types of stories we cover

Investigations 

We are proud that in our short time we have already established an investigative reporting presence holding power to account. Such as:

If you have a story to tell about nefarious goings-on at your startup (e.g bullying or harassment, unfair hiring or firing practices, or toxic culture) or about your experience as a founder (e.g with untrustworthy investors or incompetent accelerators) — or anything else — please contact or any of our reporters. We are all experienced journalists and, of course, never reveal our sources.

News 

We always thought that there was too much commoditised funding news in startup reporting. We were never convinced that "X company has raised X money to do X" was really what people wanted to read. Having said that, we do write a fair bit of news and we do write some fundraising news. So what news stories does Sifted want from you?

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  • An unusual business model or a trend that has entered Europe from abroad. Sojo's raise fell into this category; the press release was the raise, but the story was a small startup with an interesting business model.
  • New funds when there's an interesting angle beyond the money raised — such as this piece on French VC Elaia's deeptech fund in partnership with a top research body in France.

Please note that we are a small team. If you want us to write about your announcement, the longer warning you give us the better. We definitely like getting a heads up about upcoming funding under embargo and organising interviews ahead of time. 

Send news — and ideally exclusive news — to news@sifted.eu. All the editors get this email, so someone will pick it up. 

Opinion Pieces 

We love getting pitched ideas for opinion pieces that take a slightly controversial or unusual view on an element of the European startup world.

Please read this article to find out how to do this and what we are looking for.

Pitch ideas (but not pre-written pieces, please) to op-ed@sifted.eu.

Data stories and lists

Our readers love a good list or an intriguing data story. But what data does Sifted want from you?

We also include links to reports and surveys in our Daily newsletter. Share these with our newsroom: news@sifted.eu

Topics we are most interested in

Fintech

Financial services startups are some of the most exciting in Europe. Companies such as N26, Revolut and Wise have already gone a long way to reshaping the way we bank.

Our recent fintech coverage includes:

Sign up to our weekly fintech newsletter. 

Venture Capital 

Like it or not, the VC industry is hugely important to European startups and tech, cutting across all sectors. We write about:

We try to stop our site being flooded by the musings of VCs (they do like to muse) but we do like to hear — and challenge — their opinions. 

Editor Amy Lewin (amy@sifted.eu) is the main point of contact (but it's also worth getting in touch with our local reporters too, see below).

Healthtech

Our recent healthtech coverage includes:

Healthtech is covered by our Europe editor Mimi Billing (mimi@sifted.eu) and reporter Kai Nicol-Schwarz (kai@sifted.eu).

Startup Life

We're intrigued by what goes on behind the scenes at fast-growing businesses, and cover everything to do with life at a startup. 

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We cover:

Reporter Miriam Partington (miriam@sifted.eu) leads on Startup Life-related coverage, writes our Startup Life newsletter and future of work. Often we cover this topic through opinion pieces from founders and investors. 

Deeptech

The deeptech sector — novel technologies that offer significant advances over those currently in use — is attracting huge interest. Leading companies in the sector have real potential to become world leaders, and there is big money going into them. Our news editor Tim Smith (tim@sifted.eu) is also across the AI boom. 

We're interested in:

Climate tech

The importance of climate tech in the fight against global warming seems more important every day. And in Europe there are a wave of startups catching investor attention. Our coverage has recently focused on:

Senior reporter Freya Pratty (freya@sifted.eu) leads our climate tech coverage, and writes our weekly climate tech newsletter. 

European ecosystems

We also write about local ecosystems. We have a team of reporters across the continent who cover stories from their regions as well as writing stories about all the topics above.

The Nordics: Mimi Billing (mimi@sifted.eu) in Stockholm

Germany: Miriam Partington (miriam@sifted.eu) and Anne Sraders (anne@sifted.eu) in Berlin

Central and eastern Europe: Zosia Wanat (zosia@sifted.eu) in Warsaw

France: Daphne Leprince-Ringuet (daphne@sifted.eu) and Chris O'Brien (chrisobrien@sifted.eu) in Paris

Spain: Cristina Gallardo (cristina@sifted.eu) in Madrid

This piece was last updated on February 6 2024.