# Venture capital

Ex-LocalGlobe trio plots new VC firm

Catherine Lenson, Mish Mashkautsan and George Henry left the firm earlier this year

The most underrated areas in deeptech, according to First Momentum cofounder

Andreas Fischer of First Momentum Ventures thinks humanoids are overhyped — but three areas are getting less attention

The top junior VCs to watch in Europe, according to partners

Sifted polled partners across Europe to nominate the junior investors they believe are on the come-up

Meet the 30+ venture scouts A16z has hunting for deals across Europe

The US VC giant continues to grow its scout presence in Europe

Europe’s 50 most active equity investors in H1 2026

Yann LeCun joins new VC firm

This comes less than a month after the ‘AI godfather’ launched and quit Extelligence Invest

EU’s €5bn tech superfund officially open for business

The Scaleup Europe Fund, run by EQT, will be making its first investments in the coming weeks

12 investors who recently became founders

A growing number of investors are walking away from the cap table to launch their own startups

13 technical founders across Europe to watch, according to VCs

Featuring one builder who started their business from a sailboat

Index Ventures doubles down on AI with fresh $2bn fundraise

Fresh capital takes VC's assets to $3.5bn as it expands bets across seed and growth-stage startups

Blossom Capital is dipping into defence. Here’s what the VC is looking for

The firm invested in three defence startups in the last year

VCs are taking on operator roles. Why?

A new trend seems to be gaining steam in Europe: VCs adding a CEO or operator title alongside their investor role

13 early-stage deeptech startups Tier 1 VCs backed in H1 2026

Some of the continent’s most active investors backed companies tackling problems once considered too complicated

One of Europe’s most active LPs is looking for VCs with ‘industrial know-how’

British firm Molten Ventures is eyeing specialist funds in areas like space, defence and health

Visionaries cuts investment team to two lead partners for next fund

Sifted previously reported that at least two investors were leaving their full-time partner roles ahead of the upcoming fund

Every European unicorn exit of 2026 so far

Seven billion-dollar startups have already found a buyer or hit the public markets in 2026 — matching Europe’s previous annual record

UK pension providers in talks for £1bn Scale-Up Fund

Talks come weeks after France sought to block British participation in EU’s own scheme

Exclusive: Visionaries shakes up investment team ahead of new fund

Robert Jäckle and Marton Sarkadi Nagy are leaving their current partner roles

How Daniel Ek is building his ‘new European dream’

Neko Health and Helsing have raised rounds at higher valuations than most of their US competitors

Europe’s VCs are increasingly taking on jobs at their startups

More European VCs are adding operating roles to their CVs while remaining investors

The sectors with the most momentum heading into H2

Sifted dug into the data to discover the hottest sectors across Europe in the first half of 2026

Exclusive: EQT’s €5bn Scaleup Fund in talks to lead Mistral round

If the deal goes through, it could mark the €5bn superfund's first investment

Yann LeCun launched a new VC fund — then quit. What happened?

Extelligence Invest planned to invest in early-stage startups across Europe, Asia and North America

The incubator launching Scotland’s next generation of tech: ‘We need to pull the bigger players into the Scottish market’

The Venture Builder Incubator programme, in partnership with Techscaler, is working to turn Scotland’s world-class university research into scalable commercial businesses