Hi Sifted Reader, Europe’s refurbished electronics companies have hoovered up heaps of capital recently. Back Market, Swappie and refurbed have raised more than €1bn in the past year alone. All seems well for the time being, but just how much room is there for this sector to grow? Get the story below, and also see:
What do refurbished electronics startups Swappie, Back Market and refurbed have in common? They've all landed big funding rounds in the past six months, with Swappie raising €108m in Series C funding just last week.
But will this success continue? Does the market risk becoming oversaturated with too many players? And do consumers really think about the environment when they buy tech?
The metaverse, robot builders, smart cities… property technology — or "proptech" — startups are getting serious. Find out how companies are changing the way we design, build and experience spaces at the Sifted Proptech Report launch event, in partnership with Pi Labs and Shoosmiths.
Register for the March 10 event in London (and online) here.
Applying algorithmic decision-making to everything from healthcare to education, public safety to credit assessment is one way to catch the attention of investors.
But it’s important to make sure the AI is actually good, or you’ll face the biggest business risk of all — your customers calling you out.
Here are six questions to keep asking yourself about your AI.
In 2021, more than $3bn was invested into fusion startups — a sign that this clean nuclear energy source might be getting closer to reality. Not much of the dosh has gone into European startups — but there are a few that investors have singled out.
Who are they? And what approaches are fusion startups taking?
With a team of 2,500, the green battery startup has managed to pull in top talent from tech giants like Tesla, Amazon, Google and Spotify. It's also convinced them to work in locations like Skellefteå, a small Swedish town 200km away from the Arctic Circle. And it’s not stopping there. It’s looking to grow its headcount by 3,000 to work in its new gigafactory and R&D centre in Gothenburg. So how does it make that many hires — and entice them to move to the middle of nowhere?
Take a marriage, add a boardroom and a cheque, then subtract true love, and you might be left with something similar to an investor-founder relationship.
💸 More €€€ for late-stage European startups. Berlin and Munich-based VC HV Capital has launched a €430m "continuation" fund. It'll help it hang onto its stakes in startups for longer, with the hope of making bigger returns in the future. It will also provide LPs with a way to cash out. Miriam Partington reports.
🏪 Mini convenience stores. Serena Capital led the €25m funding round for Paris-based Boxy, a startup opening small autonomous stores in recycled shipping containers. The stores currently offer 250 products, from groceries to take out. Boxy wants to open 1,000 of them in France by 2025 and double its workforce to 100 by the end of this year.
📱 The Twitch for travel. Heygo, a London-based livestreaming platform for guided tours, bagged a $20m Series A led by Northzone. People seem to love these virtual tours; the six-year-old company has reported a 300% growth in bookings in January and claims it has reached 2m bookings in total.
💡 How to onboard remote developers. Vidya Mani, a serial team-builder, knows a thing or two about how to onboard engineers remotely. Here's how.
🌱 Green Glossary: carbon negative. Is it a way for offsetting companies to make a bit more money, or can it genuinely do good? Learn more here.
🦄 Europe's unicorns — the full list. Did you catch 'em all?
💰 200+ female VC partners in Europe. Have we missed anyone?
🌟 40+ Black and mixed-race female founders in Europe. The first list of its kind.
Amy Lewin 
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