It was another busy week in the world of European startups. Here were the biggest stories you need to know about:
Top news
🇪🇸 The 22-year-old bike courier who was killed while on delivery last Friday in Barcelona was not a registered Glovo worker, the Spanish startup has revealed.
🐾At last, the Swedish digital veterinary clinic Firstvet is getting a competitor. The digital health provider Doktor.se said it is now offering health care for animals. Is pet care more profitable than human care? (Swedish)
Get the Sifted Newsletter
☘️Stripe has hired Google veteran Matt Henderson to drive product strategy from Dublin. The US fintech is growing its engineering hub in Dublin tenfold after winning an e-banking licence from Ireland’s Central Bank to allow pan-European payments.
🛴The Swedish scooter company Voi won a tender to rent bikes in Stockholm. Is this what other cities should be doing too? (Swedish)
🧬 Company builder Entrepreneur First teamed up with biotech accelerator RebelBio. The past few cohorts of EF have leaned increasingly towards biotech; this move is confirmation that EF thinks this is a sector well-suited to its super-speedy model of company formation, which relies heavily on the prior experience and research of attendees for its success.
🗣️ When founders get powerful, they get political: Transferwise’s Taavet Hinrikus spoke out against the new Estonian government.
💬 One German politician wants the state to be able to decrypt all messages on demand. Do politicians need a good lesson in how the internet works?
🤖 The world’s first raspberry-picking robot did its first shift.
Follow the Money 💰💰💰
👛Good news for London entrepreneurs. MMC Ventures has launched a new £52m seed fund to support early-stage business in London. As well as investing in 170 companies, the fund will seek to secure at least another £103m in private sector investment.
💰Future Positive Capital, a new early-stage VC firm co-founded by ex-Index Ventures associate Sofia Hmich, announces €51m fund to invest in deep tech social impact startups.
Funding Hits
🇬🇧London-based yulife raises €11.3 million in funding to make life insurance a force for good
💶 iZettle veteran Louise Brandt raised $13.5m for her fintech Open Payments. The B2B company is riding the wave of PSD2 to help businesses tap into the banks’ customer information.
🇫🇷Paris-based Mindsay raises €9 million to deploy its AI customer relations solution in Europe and North America
🇬🇧London-based fintech Yapily raises €4.8m for its single API to connect businesses with banks
🇸🇪Stockholm-based fintech startup Open Payments raises €1.2 million in seed funding for its PSD2 compliant platform
🇪🇸Madrid-based proptech startup urbanData Analytics is acquired by Alantra CPA
Get the Sifted Newsletter
