‘We fought the regime. But now, who cares?’ say Belarusian founders in Warsaw

What was once a flourishing ecosystem in exile is now viewed with suspicion by its Polish hosts

UiPath’s cofounder uses GenAI to write poetry. That’s just the beginning

Daniel Dines tells Sifted that he wants to tap the AI wave and see UiPath become a $5bn business 

How Estonian startups are saving the forests

From putting forests on blockchain to setting up forest labs, Estonian startups are coming up with new ways of saving the country’s trees

EU’s €20m Ukrainian grant scheme delayed amid conflict of interest complaint

Despite claims that the funding would be fast-tracked, the EU has not even selected the startups that will receive the cash, Sifted has learned

EU will allow European AI startups to use supercomputers to train its models 

Announces European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her annual speech. But there are some concerns

Smart chatbot maker DRUID raises $30m to double down on US business

DRUID's platform helps companies build and design chatbots which can easily be applied to their existing tech stack

Estonia won’t intervene to help failing startups during economic downturn, minister says

Estonian minister Tiit Riisalo says the Baltic nation is “a true market economy” and will not “throw money around”

EU innovation boss nominee keen to open up Horizon Europe

Iliana Ivanova’s comments seem to suggest a will to reinclude UK and Swiss startups in the key funding programme

Future Fund was meant to save British startups. Now it risks bankrupting them

The three-year conversion deadline is now looming for hundreds of British startups backed by the £1.14bn Future Fund

Bankrupt ebike startup VanMoof finds a buyer

British technology company McLaren Applied will buy the ebike maker to stabilise and expand it

Weight-loss drug mania reaches Europe: Denmark’s Embla raises €10m

Startups hoping to bring weight loss medication to Europe face a challenging market

€426m funding hole brings Poland's early-stage VC market to a standstill

The unexplained year-long wait for the EU money threatens to push early-stage VCs in the country to closure

‘Europe’s Elon Musk’ joins seed round for fitness startup — Bosnia's largest ever

The Balkans are still a very nascent tech scene — but the founder of Croat unicorn Rimac has placed a fresh bet on the ecosystem

VanMoof files for UK insolvency as US firm submits buyout bid

As UK operations file for insolvency, American business Micromobility.com has made a non-binding bid to buy the bankrupt startup

Hung parliament leaves Spanish startups' hopes for pro-scaleup policies in limbo

The PP's victory in last night's election has ended the rule of a government with a strong pro-tech record. What can startups expect from the new party in power?

Why the World Bank Group’s investment arm is bullish about CEE — and wants others to follow suit

The International Finance Corporation has a remit to create jobs in all parts of the world. One of its directors tells Sifted why he thinks doing so in CEE will be easy

VanMoof: What happened to VCs' favourite bike?

Dutch e-bike company VanMoof was declared bankrupt this week, raising concerns among fans of the bikes

The unassuming Polish cofounder behind the biggest SaaS IPO ever is reinvesting in his home country

After leading Snowflake to huge success, Marcin Żukowski wants to give back to Poland. But becoming a public role model hasn't been smooth sailing

See the pitch deck solar SaaS startup PVcase used to raise a $100m Series B

Nato appoints investment team to manage €1bn defence tech fund

It will also set up regional offices in London and in Warsaw

Notion Capital closes its fifth fund at €300m — and appoints a new female GP

The early-stage VC has just closed its fifth fund with €300m 

Meet Radix, a new Polish VC for CEE deeptech startups and spinouts

CEE is short on deeptech funding compared to other parts of Europe — but this might be the start of a change

This Czech startup helps Airbus and Blackberry keep their IT systems afloat — and it just raised $25m

Hospitals, banks and manufacturers with thousands of separate networked devices need to keep them safe — IP Fabric is looking to do just that

Bulgaria’s Iliana Ivanova to become EU’s new research and innovation boss

The previous commissioner resigned last month to rejoin national politics in Bulgaria