It’s been another tough year in European tech. For many VCs and founders, fundraising was an uphill battle: startups raised just $45bn in 2023, half as much as in 2021.
But fundraising in certain sectors defied the gloom, with France’s Mistral — which wasn’t even a company at the beginning of 2023 — hitting a $2bn valuation in December. Climate infrastructure deals, meanwhile, accounted for 2023’s four largest deals in Europe.
Little surprise, then, that stories about Mistral, AI generally and climate tech breakthroughs piqued the interest of Sifted readers in 2023.
Check out our 10 best-read stories of the year below.
Solar energy storage breakthrough could make European households self-sufficient
One of the major issues with solar energy is inter-seasonal storage: figuring out how to store energy created when the sun is shining for the days, weeks and months when it is not.
A startup in Norway, Photoncycle, claims to have found a solution, using solid hydrogen. Sifted’s Mimi Billing got the lowdown.
See the pitch memo that raised €105m for four-week-old startup Mistral
Mistral took the tech world by storm in June 2023 when it emerged from stealth mode to announce a massive €105m raise, just four weeks after launch and with no product.
So, how did the AI company do it? Sifted got hold of the pitch deck.
UK government to reform 'equity for visas' residency application system
The UK government announced that it would finally make it easier for entrepreneurs to relocate to the country and found startups, by replacing its current startup and innovator visas and scrapping the requirement for founders to have £50k to invest.
What Rishi Sunak’s government thinks of the matter nine months later is, however, anyone’s guess.
Lawsuit claims VC firm Target Global 'concealed' company’s links to Russia
A lawsuit was brought against VC firm Target Global claiming it concealed the Russian citizenship of the directors of an associated company amid western sanctions against Kremlin-linked individuals. On November 29, the court said it would not proceed with the case as it had not been properly served, and that the defendant did not have an arguable case.
Tech 'broetry' is out of control and needs to be stopped
Surfing LinkedIn, aka Dead Broets Society, Sifted’s Éanna Kelly finally snapped, lashing out at the wholesale abuse of the English language by tech founders indulging in what he dubbed: broetry.
“Winning mindshare leads to market share” was one of a number of particularly egregious examples. “Building a business is about the serendipity of connection” was another. Be warned.
Spotify founder Daniel Ek officially launches new startup — and this time, he’s taking on healthcare
Sifted’s Mimi Billing followed up her November 2022 scoop on Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek’s pivot into healthtech, revealing that his new startup, Neko Health, would offer advanced full-body scanning to help doctors find and prevent disease. It was launched after four years of research and development. She later tried it out.
The 'crazy' £20bn subsea cable to bring Moroccan solar power to the UK
Proving once again that Sifted readers love a scientific breakthrough, Freya Pratty had the lowdown on a plan to bring solar power from sunny Morocco to cloudy Britain with a 3,800km undersea cable. For the small sum of £20bn, the project could deliver 8% of the UK’s energy demand, enough to keep the lights on in 7m homes.
Leaked deck raises questions over Stability AI's Series A pitch to investors
When generative AI startup Stability AI raised a $101m Series A round in October 2022, many wondered where the company had come from. CEO Emad Mostaque — a former hedge fund manager — was a relative unknown in the machine learning community. Sifted got hold of the pitch deck that Stability used to raise the money, and discovered that things were more complicated than they at first seemed.
It’s not just the CFO who’s quit: Meet the people left with power at Revolut
After Revolut CFO Mikko Salovaara quit the neobank over personal reasons in May 2023, Sifted’s Amy O’Brien revealed that several other senior leaders had also left the company. She was also able to pull together a picture of the 30-odd senior decision-makers that would steer the fintech through a crucial period of 2023.
Founder of VC firm DN Capital accused of sexual harassment by former employees — allegations he denies
The allegations ranged from bullying and sexualised comments to physical touching in the office. Marovac denied all allegations and DN set up an independent investigation.
