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July 21, 2025

European investors find purpose in purposeful tech

Homegrown startups quietly winning in high-impact sectors like defence and biotech

John Thornhill

3 min read

Serious-minded European founders and investors, we are often told, prefer to focus on purposeful tech rather than the vapid, if enormously lucrative, consumer tech companies popular in Silicon Valley. Judging by Sifted’s latest H1 funding report, there is something more to this than just Europe’s habitual virtue signalling. 

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John Thornhill

John Thornhill is Sifted’s founder and innovation editor of the Financial Times. He tweets from @johnthornhillft

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