From 2024 on we'll be bringing you monthly long-form interviews with the biggest names in European startups. We'll hear from the founders, operators and investors behind the continent's biggest tech companies, to learn what makes them tick and what they've learnt as they've built their businesses.
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Sifted Wheat was created to bring conversation about relationships and real life situations. There is a lot of information available to us, a lot of opinions, but with Leslie’s combined experience of ministry and mental health, it’s designed to be a safe place to learn and to grow and to discover that we can heal. As humans we can go through a lot and pick up a lot along the way, and here we can explore what we need to hold us together, where we can be challenged to think differently, and ho ...
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*Trigger Warning* This week’s episode is about exploring why it’s important to realize that sex isn’t everything and everything isn’t sex. I wrestled with what to name this because I didn’t want people to push it away without giving it a chance.. so, I might have given it a bit of a “clickbaity” title to encourage some curiosity? Maybe that’s why y…
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Replacing fossil fuels: Proxima Fusion’s Francesco Sciortino on his mission to revolutionise clean energy
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On 2024's last episode of the Sifted Podcast, Amy is joined by an entrepreneur on a very big mission. Munich-based startup Proxima Fusion is developing a nuclear fusion reactor — a technology which many hope could help solve the climate crisis by producing clean, cheap and abundant energy that could replace a lot of fossil fuel power. But the techn…
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Podcast host and Sifted editor Amy Lewin sits down with Petteri Lahtela, founder of smart wearable company Oura Ring, to discuss how the business has grown to making $500m in revenue, hitting profitability and selling more than 2.5m devices in the process. They discuss the big idea behind Oura, how Petteri has turned down multiple offers from buyer…
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In this conversation we are going to address how my own misuse and exposure to pornography has impacted my heart, my identity and my marriage. I’m opening up space for us to sit with the following questions: Where did you learn about sex? How did you learn what it sounds like, looks like or should feel like? Were you told that porn and masturbation…
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This is the final topic in the conversation of the two worlds we occupy - spiritual and physical, and the first topic in a conversation about sexuality. In this space, I have done a lot of deconstruction and repairing from my own personal trauma and misinformation, and my hope is that this conversation can help you sit with the following questions:…
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Is this a topic that interests you or confuses you? It's true that not everything is a demon, but anything that creates divisiveness and pride and moves outside of the truth, tempting us into misconceptions about God and our identity in Him, this is spiritual gameplay. The spiritual world is very real and moves in and out of the things we do and sa…
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We are continuing the conversation about being in a physical world and spiritual world, and this time we are considering how it relates to who we are and how that informs what we do! We will look at the following question: Who does God say you are? I believe we are each born with a purpose that informs our identity, and that God-given identity info…
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This month we’re joined by Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, managing director at global VC firm General Catalyst and cofounder of La Famiglia VC — a Berlin-based early-stage investor which merged with General Catalyst last year. Jeannette’s investments include companies like HR platform Deel, logistics startup Forto, HR tech unicorn Personio, defence unic…
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Too often deliverance and casting out demons is misused and misunderstood. This is another space where the belief that we live in a spiritual and physical world matters and requires deeper perception and empathy to help the hurting around us and continue to support them. We look at the story of "the demoniac" and the woman at the well to understand…
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Do you believe we live in two worlds? Regardless of whether you do or don't, this is a conversation about where that shift of worlds might have started and how knowing that can empower us to live more impactful lives. It's not that the spiritual world doesn't exist, and to be honest some can even be too focused on it, but rather, it's acknowledging…
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Avid Larizadeh Duggan, senior managing director at Ontario-HQed growth-stage investor Teachers’ Venture Growth, is one of Europe’s first operator-turned-VCs. Her career in tech began with stints as a product manager at places like eBay and Skype, and has switched between operational and investing roles ever since. In 2021 she joined TVG, which is p…
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Programmable plants and neurotech devices: Inside the UK government’s £800m “inventions” agency
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This month we’re joined by Ilan Gur, CEO of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (or ARIA), a government body set up last year to fund ambitious, breakthrough innovations. Before joining Aria, Gur was a programme director at ARPA-E, the US government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was established to develop new cutting-edge t…
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She’s one of the three founders of Pale Blue Dot, a Malmö-based early-stage climate tech fund which launched in 2020 and backs pre-seed and seed-stage startups reducing and reversing the effects of climate change, in Europe and the US. Pale Blue Dot came along just ahead of the wave of climate tech funds which launched in Europe amid the tech boom.…
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This week on the pod we’re joined by Jarek Kutylowski, founder and CEO of German AI startup DeepL. He’s built a profitable business in a field where he’s had to compete with the likes of Google, by developing cutting edge language translation technology. The company says it now has “a customer network of 100k+ businesses, governments and other orga…
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Do you love the church? Even if (especially if) that question makes you uncomfortable or even offends you, I encourage you to listen in! If we are going to make a difference in the world around us for the GOOD, then we must see the church for who she is (the good and the bad), who she is intended to be, and who she can become. Unsure of what I am t…
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Do you love your enemies? If that question makes you uncomfortable or even offends you, I want to challenge you to hit “play” and keep listening! If we are going to make a difference in the world around us for the GOOD, then we have to start seeing our enemies the way that Jesus taught us in Luke 10. He met the question about love and flipped it on…
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Name a big European tech company, and there’s a high chance Martin Mignot, partner at Index Ventures, invested in it. Martin’s portfolio includes some of the continent’s big winners, like car sharing platform BlaBlaCar, digital bank Revolut, digital health provider Kry, HR platform Personio and delivery company Deliveroo — and some of its big failu…
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We are moving deeper into the relationships of our lives, and how to love one another in order and safely, with a conversation about friends. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” We hear this a lot, but are we really considering what it means? Or if we are, do we think that somehow our relationships could be …
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This is an episode that stepped all over my toes... but don't let that scare you away because even in creating the content, I experienced encouragement and empowerment to make changes in my marriage! I take the time evaluate why Ephesians 5 feels threatening and the revelation the LORD gave me to help me distinguish His plan for love in my marriage…
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This week on the podcast we are joined by Cherry Ventures general partner Sophia Bendz — formerly global marketing director at Spotify — who talks us through what she's seeing across the European early-stage startup ecosystem in a challenging market. She tells us about the AI effect on young companies launching today, how founders can look after th…
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Do you want to understand your children better? Do you want to love them in a way that will make them healthier individuals? Do you desire to have a better impact on your kids? Young or old, in school or in a crib, this conversation opens up some practical ways to love your children well. Another purpose of this episode is to reach into the hearts …
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Andreessen Horowitz is one of the world’s best known — and biggest — VC firms, with over $35bn in assets under management, over 500 employees and a portfolio including Airbnb, GitHub, Instacart, Instagram, Lyft, Slack and Wise. But for a long time it merely dabbled in investing in Europe.So it was big news last year when the firm announced it was o…
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Are you struggling with setting boundaries with your parents? Do you need support to assess the relationship and give yourself permission to say "no" or create space? Or on the other side, do you struggle with not involving your parents in your lives, having them take responsibility for your kids or your emotions when that is no longer their role? …
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We’ve all heard the statement “The church is a hospital” but if we are honest, we are looking less like a hospital where people can come and find healing and leave better, and have become more like a hospice where we choose to remain comfortable until we die. If those feel like harsh words, maybe it is because they fatefully ring true. This episode…
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Hussein Kanji from Hoxton Ventures on how just much he made from investing in Deliveroo and Darktrace
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This week Sifted editor Amy Lewin is joined by one of London’s best-known VCs Hussein Kanji, founding partner at Hoxton Ventures. He reflects on the kinds of big returns he won, and missed out on, by making early bets on companies like Deliveroo, Darktrace and Babylon.توسط Sifted
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Disordered "love" opens us up to harm. If we aren't careful we can elevate our love for others, making what God created the SOURCE of our love instead of Him being the source through which we love others. This often happens through the magnification of others meeting our needs, allowing them to be "god-like." This opens us up to get hurt and for us…
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Oscar Pierre is one of, if not the, best-known entrepreneurs in Spain. His delivery company Glovo — which was bought by its bigger, listed competitor Delivery Hero in 2022 — is one of the country’s big international success stories, and now Pierre is using his experience (and financial resources) to help Spain’s next generation of entrepreneurs. He…
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Startup Europe is back for our new-look podcast, where we'll be focussing exclusively on longer form interviews with some of the biggest names in European tech. Last year we brought you conversations with founders, operators and investors behind companies like Wise, Monzo, Figma, Delivery Hero and Kry and we have a whole load more for you in 2024. …
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We are continuing to open up about the order of “love” with “Love Yourself” in part 2 of the Out of Order Series. Hopefully, you are learning what “love” is so that you can operate in it more fully and more safely. Remember, God wants to guard our hearts to guide our hearts, and He can only do that if we get the order right. So today we are allowin…
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We open a new series about the order of love and how we often get it out of order with the first episode and the first order: Love the LORD, your God. Do you ever wonder what love is? Do you wonder what God's love means and how it sets us up to have healthier relationships? This episode explores why this is the first and foremost commandment and ho…
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This episode is opening the door to my own sifting season that is presently being experienced. Sometimes what is happening in our lives doesn't reflect God's promises, and if we aren't careful, we might even think that it doesn't reflect His goodness. I want to take some time and talk through 4 things that I have committed to doing which has helped…
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What do Lidl, Auchan, Sephora and Flink have in common? They’re all customers of RELEX Solutions, one of Finland’s four private tech companies. RELEX makes supply-chain and retail-planning software — which might sound boring, but it's extremely important when you consider how much inventory, especially food, is wasted due to poor planning. Sifted s…
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We are continuing the conversation with Trey Oldham, and this time we are going to dive into more experiences of being obedient in the face of fear or even discomfort. We are called to be generous and loving regardless of our preferences or preconceived notions. Trey reminds us "Grace and love is messy" and as followers of Christ we are called to l…
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This week we discuss: 01:51 Hyme raises €8m for technology that could halve cost of storing energy 05:12 Xlinks raises $25m from TotalEnergies for 3,800km cable from the Sahara to the UK 07:46 Thought Web3 was over? This VC just raised €15m to back startups in the sector 19:27 Why Stability AI is launching a subscription fee…
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Join the first of our two part conversation about how we move from the love of God into making it the purpose of loving and caring for those around us. In this first episode, my pastor and friend, Trey Oldham, shares his own story of "reckless" obedience and how it wasn't just about helping others but freeing him from the power of "stuff." We move …
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This week we discuss: 01:05 Micromobility giant Tier lays off 22% of its workforce in push for profitability, Unicorn edtech Multiverse to lay off nearly a third of US employees 05:34 GenAI biotech Cradle raises $24m Series A led by Index Ventures 08:55 The top takeaways from Atomico’s State of European Tech report 20:13 Why hasn't EIF announced a …
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HSBC’s Sonya Iovieno on undisclosed down rounds, startups trimming headcount and SVB’s collapse
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Sonya Iovieno knows European tech’s secrets. As head of venture and growth at HSBC Innovation Banking, where she works with thousands of VCs, startups and scaleups in the UK and Nordics, she has a view on who’s done an undisclosed down round, who’s been trimming headcount and who’s set up a “hunting line” for future acquisitions. And she also knows…
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Let’s take a look deeper into the story of God through the parable of the prodigal son and the lost sheep. Let’s look beyond the players in the story to the teller of the story, Who is represented in the Father and the Shepherd, the conduit of both reckless love and sustaining love. This time we are going to move into the beauty of sacrificial love…
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This week we discuss: Nordic merger between online grocers Oda and Mathem It ain’t Easee: How Norway’s EV rising star fell foul of regulators How Sequoia-backed e-bike refurbisher Upway raised $30m in a micromobility slowdown Grocery delivery is back as Crisp raises €35m to scale next-day delivery $400k graduate salaries and gun-for-hire ‘SWAT team…
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This week we discuss: 00:53 Aleph Alpha raises $500m Series B in one of Europe’s largest AI rounds ever 03:56 What the pitch deck from Adaptive, a new AI startup raising at a $100m valuation, tells us 07:15 French startup Quandela raises €50m to manufacture commercial quantum computers 11:03 Swedish startup wants to ‘stream energy like music’ on el…
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This conversation is the second in a series that highlightsGod’s love for his kids and moves through the parable of “The Prodigal Son” from the younger brother to the older brother. Ultimately, it is about God’s “sustaining” love, the kind of love that we often overlook and take for granted and minimize in light of what it seems God is doing for ot…
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This week we discuss: 02:26 Web Summit announces former Wikimedia boss as new CEO 04:16 More unions sign up to Klarna strike on Nov 7 06:36 Benetton scion moves into tech investing with new €30m fund 09:40 How a “miracle” weight-loss drug created Europe’s most valuable company, and a startup investment machine 17:23 UK gears up to major AI summit u…
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This week we discuss: 02:05 French early-stage startups get a €500m funding boost in 2024 budget 04:33 Northvolt’s $20bn listing in Stockholm — a win for European stock exchanges 07:20 Solar energy storage breakthrough could make European households self-sufficient 12:30 Quantum computing is not a threat to national security. So why can't Europe wo…
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This conversation is about God’s “reckless love.” I realize that can be a controversial statement, but I’m not talking about the character of God, rather, His love for us. In life experiences and in the Word of God, over and over there is this expression of love where God shows up in spaces the “respectable” wouldn’t find themselves, yet, God is th…
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This week we discuss: 00:59 Germany is about to legalise cannabis. What does it mean for startups? 03:49 Payments fintech Modulr agrees with regulator to stop onboarding new customers 05:32 German fund La Famiglia merges with General Catalyst 09:29 Northvolt founder’s heat pump startup secures €87m 17:24 The rise — and fall — of Babylon Link to sub…
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This week on the podcast we’re joined by Alex Kendall, CEO of self-driving car company Wayve, for a long-form interview on the challenges of getting autonomous vehicles onto our roads. Alex discusses how to win public trust for this technology, how he sees a future world filled with “embodied AI” and about how Elon Musk followed Wayve’s approach to…
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Today’s conversation is about the fear of rejection and thepattern of comparison. It’s a problem that affects us all, and the answer is “love.” Fear informs comparison, but love informs belonging, something that all of us need, and all of us seek – to be loved and to be known. There is only One Who can perfectly meet that need and is our Perfect Pa…
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Stripe’s John Collison on launching his $50bn business at the age of 19 — Sifted Summit special
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This week we are live from the Sifted Summit — our annual event bringing together the best of European tech and startups. Today on the pod you’ll hear from Stripe cofounder John Collison, AI startup sensation Mistral cofounder Arthur Mensch and digital bank Monzo COO Sujata Bhatia. *And, if you want to learn how to live into your 100s, here's a wri…
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This week we discuss: 02:07 — Improbable’s refocus on the metaverse sees big reduction in losses 04:46 — ‘The economics of trading equity for compute are not great’ — Mistral releases its first model 07:15 — Dutch arm of vertical farming startup Infarm declared bankrupt 11:22 — US eyes British startups in chip sovereignty bid 13:50 — UK-France AI r…
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This episode is special to me because 1) I didn't plan it and I didn't write it, and 2) it became a beautiful conversation with my good friend and safe space, Shantray Smith. She invites me to elaborate on the term "detangle," what I mean by not being an island and the difference between self-sufficiency and independence, and how we can operate in …
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