I think we can all agree that 2023 was a bit crap, in many ways. A new war broke out, fundraising dropped off a cliff, founders became less optimistic and signs of impending climate doom came thick and fast.
I have higher hopes for 2024.
Climate tech investment will, I hope, continue to go up and up — and an increasing number of climate tech solutions will, more importantly, come to market and start having an impact in the real world. The chatter around AI will sober up, and we’ll start getting excited about fintechs once again, as significant companies in the sector make big moves. Startup exits will pick up, VCs will start returning more capital to their LPs and the wheels of the ecosystem will start turning, faster, once again.
So, here’s what I’m asking Sifted’s reporters to watch very closely this year. What else would you add to their radar? Message me — it’s always a pleasure to hear from our readers.
Climate infrastructure
We called it early. 2023 was the year of the climate infrastructure startup. All of the year’s biggest tech deals went to climate infrastructure companies — H2 Green Steel, Northvolt, Zenobe Energy and Verkor — and we expect to see a whole lot more this year. Subscribe to our climate tech reporter Freya Pratty’s weekly newsletter for all the latest.
AI
Silly season should be coming to an end soon. Everyone and their grandma will no longer be able to raise an above-average-sized round at an above-average valuation just because their company name includes the word ‘AI’. Instead, a handful of companies will rise to the fore — and we’ll be tracking them closely. Lots of large-language model AI companies that raised this year are trying to sell now, but are big companies they want to land as customers really ready to implement AI? And are their products even fit for purpose?
Staying skinny and living forever
We’ve just seen the start of the impact drugs like Ozempic will have; both on people’s health, and a whole range of industries, from pharmaceutical giants to food companies and healthcare. The popularity of nutrition app Zoe in the UK, and body scanning startup Neko Health in Sweden, suggest investing in companies helping us to live healthier and longer isn’t a bad idea. But will companies on the more experimental end of the spectrum — those offering stem cell therapies or working on gene therapies to help us live much longer — take off?
M&A
Investors and founders widely anticipate that 2024 will be a big year for M&A. We want to tell you about those deals as they’re happening, but we also want to get into the dynamics of what makes a good deal, for founders, for investors, for employees — and how investors and startups can best position themselves to get good deals to happen. We expect we’ll see a lot of this in the fintech sector, in particular; sign up to our Fintech newsletter for more. And, for heaps of practical advice and tips from top startup operators on everything from M&A to DEI, hiring to firing, sign up to our Startup Life newsletter.
The investors who aren’t VCs
Family offices, lone angels and angel syndicates, corporates, pension funds and universities; I want to better understand who they are, what they’re thinking and where they’re allocating their money. Sign up to my weekly newsletter on investors for more on this.
The ‘murky’ side of things
Europe’s startup scene is far from perfect. Funding is clustered in the coffers of a fairly homogenous bunch; bureaucracy holds back innovation in a few too many places; universities don’t commercialise research as much as they could; and startups and investors all too often fail to look after their people. We want to write about those issues, so they can change. Sifted has multiple ways for you to contact us confidentially.
