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Hi Sifted Reader,

On this week's podcast, Amy's reporting on the ground from Switzerland, getting the lowdown from founders at the FoodHack Summit in Lausanne. 

Meanwhile back in the studio, Eleanor finds out how the US tech stock crash is impacting European startups and what North American expansion means for NFT trading platform Sorare's valuation. Listen to it on Spotify and Apple, plus...

• Brunch with Northzone's PJ Pärson
• The next climate tech unicorns
• Fighting Russia with NFTs

 — Kai, reporter & Tom, digital editor

Mimi Billing grabs a bite to eat with one of Europe's most successful VCs this week, one who built his reputation on shrewd early investments in companies like Spotify and payments fintech iZettle. 

They talk bad actors in the VC space, convincing the Northzone investment committee to back a fresh-faced 23-year-old Daniel Ek and getting rejected by Europe's most valuable startup.

Here's how brunch played out.

Startups need the cloud to succeed, but it's also key to optimise cost before it gets out of hand. Find out how in DoiT and Google Cloud's new ebook.

Find it here.

The NFT trading card platform Sorare is crossing the Atlantic to tap into North America's 350m-strong sports-mad market, with baseball top of the agenda as it agreed a deal with MLB.

The French startup's trading volume grew a whopping 3,885% between 2020 and 2021 amid an NFT craze in Europe, and it snapped up $680m in funding last autumn.

But what does the latest move mean for its valuation?

Europe's crop of billion-dollar climate techs is expanding, but which startups are going to hit unicorn status next?

Using data from Dealroom, Freya Pratty has put together a list of the top 10 sustainability startup "soonicorns".

Can you guess who they are? 

Growing a startup at breakneck speed is a gamble. If it works out the rewards are big — but the train to the unicorn stable is easily derailed. 

So what can founders do to avoid disaster? Sifted looked into the hurdles that startups on the warpath to scale need to overcome to get there. 

Here's what you need to watch out for.

There's a new frontier in Ukraine's defence against the Russian invasion: Web3.

Ukrainian founder Maksym Petruk knows he wouldn't make much of a soldier, so he's aiding his country's war effort by selling NFTs. The Crypto Cossacks Club flogs NFTs for €330 a pop and half the proceeds go to the Ukrainian government.

Éanna Kelly finds out how it works.

💻 Web3 continues to fly high. Sweden's Moralis, which is creating infrastructure for developers building Web3 apps, has just raised $40m in a Series A round led by EQT Ventures. Since breaking into the mainstream last year, VC interest in Web3 has shown no signs of cooling off — $23.7bn was invested globally in 2021, and this year has already seen its fair share of deals.

🇩🇰 Danish CX platform Fullview raises €7.5m. The Copenhagen-based startup helps SaaS companies deliver more personalised customer support and has just raised a seed round led by Lightspeed. It's the latest customer experience (CX) startup to open VC wallets recently — others being Paris's Arianee and Berlin's Superlist.

🏦 Crypto bank bags $40m. London's BVNK has snapped up a Series A round led by Tiger Global — despite the VC firm losing $17bn during this year’s tech stock sell-off. The startup provides banking services to crypto-native businesses and will look to compete directly with Maltese unicorn MoonPay.

ℹ️ Fighting Ukraine’s information war. Tech-savvy Ukrainians with UX writing, social media and cybersecurity skills are taking the fight to Russia through a number of unlikely channels. From tackling fake news to hacking Russian websites, here’s how they’re fighting back.

On June 2 hear from Sifted Sessions at ViennaUp, as we host an afternoon of rooftop drinks and panel discussions covering everything from navigating corporate investment to innovating from the inside. 

Get your ticket today.

Kai Nicol-Schwarz

Reporter

Get in touch with him at kai@sifted.eu 
Or @NicolSchwarzK

Tom Nugent

Digital Editor

Get in touch with him at tomnugent@sifted.eu 
Or @TJNugent92

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