The Sifted Podcast

Last Friday, Europe's tech ecosystem was abuzz with the news AI godfather Yann LeCun was launching an AI VC firm.Then, hours later, he quit.This week on the podcast, reporter Maya Dharampal-Hornby joins host Freya Pratty to discuss the curious tale of Yann LeCun's shortly-lived firm, Extelligence Invest. The pair chat about where Extelligence was going to invest, who was involved and why Yann might have left the fund.The former Meta chief AI scientist still has a lot on his plate. Earlier this year, he raised $1bn for his Paris-based world models startup AMI Labs, after targeting $500m. He also advises London and Luxembourg-based VC firm Hiro Capital.Read our reporting on Extelligence here: https://sifted.eu/articles/yann-lecun-new-vc-firmSign up to our daily newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

Liz Kendall was appointed as the UK's Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology just under a year ago. But will she keep her role under the country's new prime minister?There is one area her views diverge from those of Andy Burnham, widely tipped to be the country's new leader: autonomous vehicles. While Burnham's team is reported to have reservations about the technology, Kendall has thrown her support behind the British companies building it."We should be backing British companies in this technology, because if we don't, we'll end up reliant on US companies," she tells host John Thornhill on this week's episode of the Sifted podcast.The pair also discuss whether the brief of AI and online safety minister Kanishka Narayan is too big, the challenge of unlocking more growth capital for British tech companies — and why she'd "love to stay" in her role.Sign up to Sifted free daily newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

The UK is home to the third-highest number of unicorn startups in the world. Does it make sense to lock it out of the EU's new Scaleup Fund?The €5bn fund, which is yet to deploy a cent of capital, has already been through a hotly contested race to find a manager (Swedish firm EQT came out on top), and now it's caught up in a political tussle over whether the UK — which famously left the bloc back in 2016 — will get a look-in.This week Sifted reported that France is pushing to block UK participation in the superfund, casting doubt on hopes that British startups could tap into the bloc's flagship late-stage investment vehicle.On this episode of the podcast, host Freya Pratty is joined by news editor Martin Coulter to unpack France's move to block the UK, ask whether it was “the MOST French move imaginable” and break down the quota system being discussed by EU officials as a compromise.Read this week's reporting here: https://sifted.eu/articles/eu-scaleup-fund-uk-france-blocked-eqt-british-business-bankhttps://sifted.eu/articles/eu-scaleup-europe-fund-uk-france-block-reactionhttps://sifted.eu/articles/scaleup-e5bn-uk-franceSign up to Sifted free daily newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

While the UK's tech scene booms, political uncertainty looms.In this week's episode of the Sifted podcast, John Thornhill is joined by serial entrepreneur and investor Brent Hoberman. Brent, who cofounded Lastminute.com in 1998, is one of the UK's most experienced and best-connected operators. Today, he runs the early-stage VC firm Firstminute Capital and Founders Forum, a global community of entrepreneurs that co-hosts London Tech Week.John and Brent discuss Keir Starmer's resignation as UK prime minister — less than two years after Labour's landslide 2024 election victory — and whether Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester who looks set to collect the keys to 10 Downing Street in the coming weeks, is likely to bring a new era of socialist politics to the country. Brent also shares how he's changed his mind on "LLM wrapper" companies, the rising scale of ambition on show at London Tech Week and what it is actually like taking a business public.Disclaimer: Brent is a personal shareholder in Sifted. Sign up to our Daily and Deeptech newsletters here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

Late last week, the European tech ecosystem got a glimpse of a future many had worried about. US AI giant Anthropic announced it had been ordered by the US government to suspend access to its most advanced AI models for foreign nationals. In response, Anthropic cut access to all customers, including those in the US, to ensure compliance. The move is the first example of the US activating a so-called digital “kill switch” with the potential to disrupt or turn off access to technologies that European organisations heavily depend on to run critical services. The restrictions may prove temporary but they've caused a big reaction in Europe.On this week's episode of the Sifted podcast, host Freya Pratty chats to senior reporter Daphné Leprince-Ringuet about what happened, why it matters and what Europe should do next.Read our reporting on the ban here: https://sifted.eu/articles/anthropic-kill-switch-european-sovereigntySign up to Sifted's free newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

This week on the Sifted Podcast, host John Thornhill is joined by Anu Adebajo, former Atomico partner and, as of February this year, CEO of the Newton Venture Program.Launched in 2020 by VC firm Phoenix Court and London Business School, the educational programme aims to train new generations of VC talent — whether they are experienced investors or simply exploring new career paths.Anu began her career in Sheffield in 2012, where she joined a fund and later went into the British Business Bank. After nearly five years, she moved to the LP side, where she personally deployed over £365m into funds, before moving to Atomico where she led its fund of funds strategy.The pair discuss what LPs want from Europe's VCs now, how far away a Newton Venture's fund might be and the dangers of Europe's re-emerging “boys' club mentality”.Sign up to Sifted's daily newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newslettersRead John's article about the needs for reinventing VC: https://sifted.eu/articles/vc-needs-to-reinvent-itselfFind out more about Newton Venture Program here: https://newtonprogram.vc/This podcast was brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking.

It's been a curious fortnight in European tech.There was a fresh bout of anxiety after US AI giant Anthropic announced its latest funding round — which, at $65bn, is nearing the amount raised by the entire European ecosystem last year.But there's also growing pushback against the doom and gloom. This week, VC firm Balderton launched its “Built in Europe” campaign, aimed at celebrating the continent's successes and reshaping the way the ecosystem portrays itself. On this week's episode of the Sifted podcast, host Freya Pratty chats to senior reporter Daphné Leprince-Ringuet and news editor Martin Coulter about whether European tech is finally shaking off its inferiority complex and if a new, more confident narrative can help the ecosystem better compete on the global stage.Sign up to our daily newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters 

In this episode of the Sifted podcast, host John Thornhill sits down with Carissa Véliz, AI ethicist, philosopher and associate professor at Oxford University to explore how algorithms and data are reshaping our lives and workplaces. Carissa's latest book, Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, describes how ancient oracles, medieval soothsayers and modern-day AIs all tend to tell the powerful what they want to hear. What does that mean, for example, when we apply AIs to hiring and firing decisions at our companies or VCs?John and Carissa also explore whether tech giants are capable of meaningful self-regulation and what it would look like to build AIs that work for people rather than surveil them.Sign up to Sifted's Daily and Deeptech newsletters here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

The competition that captivated European VC has concluded.Earlier this week, the EU chose Swedish investment firm EQT to manage its new €5bn Scaleup Europe Fund after a closely-watched race among the region's top firms like the UK's Atomico and France's Eurazeo.On this week's — somewhat emergency — episode of the Sifted podcast, host Freya Pratty chats to senior reporter Anne Sraders about the selection process to run the fund, when it will begin deploying and which lucky companies might be backed. Fresh off an interview with EQT investors, the pair also dig into how the firm wants to manage the fund, their reaction upon hearing the news — and whether there could be a second scale-up fund on its way soon.Sign up to our daily newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

This week on the Sifted Podcast, host John Thornhill is joined by James Wise, partner at Balderton Capital. Since joining the firm in 2012, James has led investments in second-hand shopping platform Depop, AI agent maker Convergence and bank payment fintech GoCardless — as well as AI frontier lab Prior Labs, which was acquired by German software giant SAP earlier this month.James discusses how the acquisition came about, including his meeting with the cofounders before the company even existed. James also shares about his new gig as chair of the Sovereign AI Unit, a £500m initiative launched by the UK government earlier this year. He talks through its investments to date — which include Isomorphic Labs, Ineffable Intelligence and Callosum — and responds to the backlash it has received.The pair also discuss AI's public perception problem, James's biggest investment miss and whether Europe is ready to seize the moment in the race for AGI.For quarterly updates of the Sovereign AI Unit's progress, check out James' blog: https://www.jameswise.com/author/james-wise/Sign up to the Sifted Daily Newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

This week on the Sifted Podcast, host John Thornhill is joined by James Wise, partner at Balderton Capital. Since joining the firm in 2012, James has led investments in second-hand shopping platform Depop, AI agent maker Convergence and bank payment fintech GoCardless — as well as AI frontier lab Prior Labs, which was acquired by German software giant SAP earlier this month.James discusses how the acquisition came about, including his meeting with the cofounders before the company even existed. James also shares about his new gig as chair of the Sovereign AI Unit, a £500m initiative launched by the UK government earlier this year. He talks through its investments to date — which include Isomorphic Labs, Ineffable Intelligence and Callosum — and responds to the backlash it has received.The pair also discuss AI's public perception problem, James's biggest investment miss and whether Europe is ready to seize the moment in the race for AGI.For quarterly updates of the Sovereign AI Unit's progress, check out James' blog: https://www.jameswise.com/author/james-wise/Sign up to the Sifted Daily Newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

On this episode of the Sifted podcast, associate editor Freya Pratty sits down with news editor Martin Coulter, to unpack how Silicon Valley giant Anthropic is making big waves in European tech.The LLM builder and OpenAI rival has released new products that go head-to-head with some of Europe's buzziest AI companies like Loveable and Legora, raising questions about the defensibility of businesses built on top of third-party models.Freya and Martin also discuss how Europe's fintechs are scrambling for access to Anthropic's new model Mythos and a possible deal with chip maker Fractile, an Oxford spinout that's winning support from the UK government.Sign up to Sifted's Daily and Deeptech newsletters here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

With over 700k women in the UK waiting for gynecological care, why is half the population still so underserved by its health system?Yes, women have historically been left out of clinical trials, but there are logistical reasons as to why, Hertility CEO Helen O'Neill tells host Amy Lewin. “ Collecting data from women on the third day of their menstrual cycle at scale is actually feasibly and technically very difficult to do.”Helen is more familiar with these difficulties than most: Hertility has built a diagnostic testing system to support women through their fertility journeys, and provides onward clinical care — from telemedicine gynecological appointments and ultrasounds to IVF and egg freezing.The result? Hertility, Helen says, can diagnose endometriosis with 98-99% confidence in eight days — the same condition which takes on average nine years to diagnose via the UK's National Health Service (NHS).In this episode of the Sifted podcast, Helen shares how she's building a foundational model for women's health, why Hertility “started off trying to be a baguette and has twisted itself into a pretzel for every investor” and why it's important to demystify the “homogeneous idea of women's health”.

On this episode of the Sifted podcast, host Amy Lewin is joined by Marianne Vikkula, CEO of delivery giant Wolt — one of Europe's only ‘superapps' — and chair of Slush, the iconic European startup conference. Wolt began life delivering restaurant food to customers in Helsinki, before steadily expanding into groceries, medicine, electronics and offering services like revenue-based financing. It was acquired by American delivery giant DoorDash in May 2022.Marianne and Amy discuss how European superapps can compete globally, Wolt's newest partnership with Dott and why the company posts all vacancies externally.Get tickets to Sifted summit here: https://summit.sifted.eu/2026-tickets

What do hazardous inspections, fighting and cooking crêpes have in common? All three are tasks that robots are now capable (ish) of performing.In 2025, equity investment into European robotics startups more than doubled, reaching €1.45bn — and in the first quarter of this year, European robotics startups raised €522m.But what's triggered this uptick?On this week's episode of the Sifted podcast, host Amy Lewin is joined by editors Éanna Kelly and Tom Nugent to discuss the booming sector. The trio dig into whether Europe's robot makers are moving fast enough, and whether everyday consumers will have robots unloading their dishwashers anytime soon.Sign up to Sifted's Daily and Deeptech newsletters here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

Last year, Kitty Mayo was catapulted into the public eye when she took the helm of Project Europe. The accelerator, launched to much fanfare by Harry Stebbings and about 200 entrepreneurs, has a bold mission: to support and invest in founders under the age of 25 to build Europe's next €100bn companies.But, one year on, what's it achieved? What's been the most unexpected challenge? What will Kitty do differently with the  second fund? And who's really in charge?On this episode of the Sifted Podcast, Kitty sits down with host Amy Lewin to discuss all the above, plus: The most telling questions on Project Europe's application formWho makes the best mentors to foundersWhy 996 is “outdated”Why she's stopped trying to be likeable Why more women shouldn't wait to play before a "perfect system" comes alongThis podcast was brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking.

European seed rounds are ballooning. Last month Yann LeCun's AMI Labs picked up $1bn at a $3bn valuation while David Silver's Ineffable Intelligence was reported to be raising $1bn at a $4bn valuation. “Thankfully, the billion dollar seed round is not the standard across Europe — yet,” Philipp Moehring tells host Amy Lewin on this episode of the Sifted podcast. “That would be concerning.”Philipp started microfund Tiny VC with Andy Chung almost a decade ago to invest in the hottest companies in Europe before anyone else. Its portfolio of 450+ startups includes self-driving car company Wayve, AI-powered video creator Synthesia, legal tech Lawhive and workflow automation platform N8n. But unlike many VCs, Tiny doesn't join boards, or lead rounds and doesn't really ‘do' media. It last raised a third £53m fund in 2023, and was crowned 20VC's ‘top European microfund' earlier this year.This week on the podcast, Philipp and Amy discuss:How VC will change over the next 10 yearsWhen Tiny takes money off the table Why young people make awesome foundersAnxiety-inducing LinkedIn postsAnd, for better or worse, the return of the tech bro

Within a relatively short space of time, Laura Modiano has come to play a fairly unique and valuable role in Europe's startup scene. Laura, who leads OpenAI's startup team in Europe, hops from city to city, attending hackathons, events and dinners with Europe's leading AI companies and investors.This week she sits down with host Amy Lewin to discuss what the best startups have in common, how she's automated her work and what she looks for as an angel investor.This podcast was brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking.

This week at Sifted we launched our third UK and Ireland Leaderboard — a ranking of the 100 fastest-growing startups by revenue-growth across these two countries, as well as a new research report, in partnership with law firm Marriott Harrison. The timing was fortuitous, given all the ‘Londonmaxxing' going on at the moment. The capital looks set to have a very strong first quarter of 2026, at least in comparison to its usual competitors Paris and Berlin, with a lot more deals done and equity raised.On the podcast this week, Amy discusses the findings of the leaderboard — along with why London is ‘in' again with the tech crowd and why Fuse Energy's Alan Chang is an amusing person to interview — with her colleagues from Sifted's Intelligence team, Éanna Kelly and Jonathan Sinclair. Read Sifted's interview with Sovereign AI Unit's Joséphine Kant here: https://sifted.eu/articles/josephine-kant-sovereign-ai-unit

Hélène Huby, founder and CEO of spacetech startup The Exploration Company, is not afraid to take risks — or fail.Her company, which is only five years old, builds reusable and refillable vehicles to carry cargo to and from space stations in low-Earth orbit — and beyond. It's already (semi-) successfully sent cargo into space — and back — at a fraction of the cost, and time, achieved by other companies. On this episode of the Sifted podcast, Hélène shares The Exploration Company's roadmap for 2026, including fundraising plans for a “significant amount of money” to build a high-thrust rocket engine. Hélène and Amy also get into: Why the space industry is set to more than double in value over the next decade Collaborating in space during a decidedly antagonistic geopolitical momentContracts in the works The ideal funding roadmap for a deeptech company Dealing with very public failure as a CEO And Hélène's hopes and dreams for Europe's space future 

Last month, the US AI giant Anthropic released a new Claude tool for the legal industry, triggering a sell-off in publicly listed firms like Salesforce and reigniting concerns that AI-native startups could wipe out traditional SaaS giants.So will Europe's VC-backed SaaS giants survive the AI area? And what about the VCs who've heavily backed them?In this episode of the Sifted Podcast, host Amy Lewin is joined by senior reporters Freya Pratty and Anne Sraders to unpack what the rise of AI means for Europe's VC-backed software companies — and the investors who've poured billions into them.Read more here: https://sifted.eu/articles/european-vc-saaspocalypse

The AI debate has been dominated by large language models used to power the likes of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. But could the next wave of AI look very different?Yes, some European AI watchers say. Attention is shifting to so-called “world models” — systems designed to build internal representations of how the world works, rather than simply predicting the next word in a sentence. A number of prominent researchers, including former Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, have argued this approach could overcome some of the limitations of today's LLMs — and have launched startups to prove it.On this week's episode of the Sifted Podcast, host Freya Pratty is joined by senior reporters Daphné Leprince-Ringuet and Anne Sraders to unpack the hype around world models. What exactly are they? What real-world applications might they unlock? And with researchers like LeCun choosing to base new ventures in Europe, could this be an area where the continent builds a competitive edge in the global AI race?Sign up to our AI and deeptech newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters

Europe's in a state of emergency — but when will we all wake up and recognise that?That's the question posed on this week's episode of the Sifted Podcast by Judith Dada, general partner at European VC Visionaries Club, newsletter author, mother and setter-upper of numerous side projects. Judith started her career in venture almost a decade ago at La Famiglia, the Germany-based early-stage investor, which later went on to merge with US megafund General Catalyst. She's now come full circle, joining forces with La Famiglia founding partner (and fellow former Sifted podcast guest) Rob Lacher at Visionaries.  Visionaries' portfolio includes plenty of companies that are on a tear right now — Lovable, Black Forest Labs, N8n, Solve Intelligence and Tandem Health — and their thesis, that Europe is in a fantastic position to shape the next wave of disruption in business, seems more relevant than ever.Amy and Judith sit down to discuss whether legacy SaaS companies can survive in this AI era, why Europe is in “a state of emergency” and what we can do about it, and when Visionaries will raise a new fund.Sign up to Sifted's daily newsletter: https://sifted.eu/newslettersCheck out Judith's newsletter: https://dadalogue.substack.com/This episode was sponsored by HSBC Innovation Banking.

How do European startups like Lovable and Black Forest Labs find and hire top tier talent? This week Amy Lewin sits down with VP of talent at European VC Creandum Michelle Coventry, who spends a lot of time advising super fast-scaling companies on how to build out their teams and what, exactly, the scaling playbook should look like in the age of AI. The pair discuss how hiring is changing, what happens when buzzy European companies scale in the US, when exactly startups should bring in senior talent and what founders should know before they set their pay. Read highlights from Creandum's founder compensation report here: https://sifted.eu/articles/founder-salaries-2025/ Sign up to the Sifted daily newsletter: https://sifted.eu/newsletters/

It's been a busy start to the year for Europe's tech ecosystem.We've already had five new unicorns born, €5.2bn raised, a $1bn acquisition and Sifted's landed several scoops revealing that some of the continent's most interesting investors — the likes of Plural and QuantumLight — are raising big new funds.To discuss the bumper start to 2026, host Amy Lewin is joined by contributing editor Éanna Kelly, who spends his days sussing out which companies are fast on the rise, which investors are getting in on the buzziest deals and which ecosystems and sectors are hotting up.They also cover the 26 startups Sifted will be watching especially closely (and why) and what investors tell us they have planned for the next 12 months.Read Sifted Predicts here: https://sifted.eu/studio/sifted-predicts-european-tech-2026Explore Sifted Pro here: https://sifted.eu/sifted-proSign up to the Sifted Daily here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters 

How do you spot Europe's next unicorn founder before anyone else does? And where can investors still make outsized returns?This week on the Sifted Podcast, host Amy Lewin is joined by Linda Rottenberg, founder of global tech network Endeavor, one of the world's most influential communities of high-growth entrepreneurs.For nearly three decades, Linda has backed founders long before they hit the mainstream, including Bending Spoons' Luca Ferrari and ElevenLabs' Mati Staniszewski. Endeavor is built on a simple idea: that world-class entrepreneurs can come from anywhere — not just Silicon Valley. Today, Endeavor supports more than 3,000 entrepreneurs across 50+ countries, whose companies include over 90 unicorns. Amy and Linda discuss what Europe's most successful founders have in common, why investors should be looking beyond the usual hotspots and how Endeavor Catalyst, the organisation's investment arm, is backing companies at the scale-up stage as it raises a new fund.

If you've been following the recent wave of data centre announcements across Europe, you'll have noticed one thing: governments are suddenly obsessed with compute. Why is that — and how will France, the UK and others fare in the AI infrastructure arms race? Can startups really compete with Big Tech and is this a sector VCs can play in?This week, host Amy Lewin is joined by senior reporters Daphné Leprince-Ringuet and Freya Pratty to dig into the fast-moving — and expensive — world of AI infrastructure, from data centres and GPUs to energy and political power plays.The conversation also explores the risks of overbuilding, parallels with failed battery gigafactories and the unresolved tension between Europe's dreams of “sovereign AI” and reliance on Nvidia. Plus: what does all this mean for climate tech and local communities  — and is AI infrastructure the safest bet investors can make, or the next bubble waiting to burst?Sign up to Sifted's AI newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters 

If 2025 was the year of the AI agent, what will 2026 be? Which companies will make headlines — for all the right, or all the wrong, reasons? And will optimism around Europe's startup ecosystem continue to mount, or will geopolitical tensions throw spanners in the works?On this episode of the Sifted Podcast, news editor Martin Coulter joins editor Amy Lewin to discuss what they think will be the big topics this year in European startups and VC — and what you, our dear listeners, should be watching out for. They cover: If — or when — the AI bubble will burstWhich shiny sectors will attract a lot of venture funding What the year might hold for ‘sovereign' tech startupsWhich tech billionaire might run for president (in Europe)What developments are likely to be in store for the VC industry This episode was produced by Maya Dharampal-Hornby.Further reading: A spacetech IPO, a robot decacorn and a (European) entrepreneur running for president: Sifted's predictions for European tech in 2026Sign up to Sifted's Daily newsletter 

When NATO announced plans to launch a €1bn innovation fund back in 2022, heads turned. €1bn? To invest in defence and security? Backed by 24 countries? At the time, most European VCs were still incredibly wary of backing defence companies — and nothing like this had ever been attempted before.Three years on, host Amy Lewin is joined on the Sifted Podcast by Dame Fiona Murray, current chair and former vice-chair of the Nato Innovation Fund (NIF), to take stock of how the experiment is playing out.Since becoming operational in 2023, the fund has faced significant scrutiny. Four of its original founding partners have left, one of them pursuing legal action over a compensation dispute, while former chair Klaus Hommels stepped into a new role last September following questions around potential conflicts of interest.Amy and Fiona discuss these controversies, as well as what the fund is actively looking to invest in today, the structural challenges facing Europe's defence tech startups and what still needs to change if European nations are to build long-term technological resilience in an increasingly unstable world. 

When Markus Villig founded Bolt 12 years ago, it was one of dozens trying to take on Uber. Today, it's the only major European ride-hailing company left — worth €7.4bn and expanding across taxis, scooters, car rental and delivery.This week, Europe editor Mimi Billing sits down with Markus to discuss why it's now almost impossible to build a new ride-hailing network, why he thinks Europe is sleepwalking into a “disaster” on self-driving cars and physical AI, and how he's helping shape Estonia's defence tech landscape.Markus also explains why founders should engage more with politicians, what Europe needs from a single capital market — and his experience as the youngest board member of any US public company, thanks to buy now, pay later giant Klarna.

Kanishka Narayan, the UK's AI minister, joins us on the Sifted Podcast hot off the heels of the big reveal of UK chancellor Rachel Reeves' latest budget, which announced some fairly positive moves for Britain's entrepreneurs — as Amy and Kanishka discuss in this episode.In his role as AI minister — which he's had for just two months — Kanishka holds some pretty chunky responsibilities: including ensuring that the UK seizes upon the opportunities AI presents to us — and leverages tech for growth.In this episode of the Sifted Podcast, Amy asks Kanishka if he thinks the UK is moving fast enough on adopting and regulating AI, what the biggest risks the technology poses to the nation are and where he thinks the government should put its resources to have the most positive impact on the tech sector.

Few founders have the know-how — or the guts — to take on Apple. But Carl Pei, founder and CEO of London-based startup Nothing, is one of them. Nothing makes smartphones and earphones at a fraction of Apple's price, has shipped millions of units, raised $200m in September at a $1.3bn price tag — and is now exploring AI-native devices and apps.In this episode, host Amy Lewin sits down with Carl to explore how Nothing is approaching prototyping new devices, why Europe has struggled to produce globally successful hardware startups and what a future of personalised phones might actually look like.Carl also shares how spending time in China taught him the hardware ecosystem's secrets, why India represents one of the biggest opportunities of our lifetime and which early-stage founder he has on his radar.

It's that time of year again: Atomico's State of European Tech report has landed.In case you don't have the time to wade through its mammoth 183 charts, this week host Amy Lewin is joined by senior reporter Miriam Partington to bring you the report's most surprising findings, with a focus on talent.And it paints a rosy picture: respondents say it's getting easier to recruit and retain top-tier talent in Europe, and the continent's pool of senior tech tech employees has grown faster than the US over the last decade.But do founders actually feel that shift on the ground? And how much appetite is there to finally fix Europe's long-lamented market fragmentation? And why, a decade on, is the gender funding gap showing no signs of closing?Read Atomico's report, here: https://www.stateofeuropeantech.com/Read our top highlights, here: https://sifted.eu/articles/state-european-tech-report-2025Read about the Mistral and SAP partnerships, here: https://sifted.eu/articles/france-germany-partnership-mistral-sapRead about why VCs are ditching the boardroom for operator life, here: https://sifted.eu/articles/vcs-becoming-operatorsIf you would like to sponsor the podcast, please email commercial@sifted.eu

This week it's another special episode from the Sifted Summit, with senior reporter Kai Nicol-Schwarz sitting down with serial entrepreneur Alex Depledge — founder of Resi and Hassle.com, and now entrepreneurship advisor to UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves.Alex shares her experience of navigating government and trying to make changes for the UK's tech sector, and discusses how to tackle the exodus of startup talent from the country. Her and Kai get into how to unlock more late stage capital for high-growth companies, how pension funds can play a bigger role and how the UK government is bringing in business experience to help guide policy.Want to sponsor the podcast? Email commercial@sifted.eu to express your interest.PLUS: Take our listener survey here: https://form.typeform.com/to/WbVxsSv7 (T&Cs apply)

This week, Daphné Leprince-Ringuet is joined by head of research Jonathan Sinclair and senior reporter Kai Nicol-Schwarz to unpack the state of AI in Europe.Funding for European AI-native companies has nearly doubled to €8.9bn this year, and acquisitions hit a record high of 18 last month — all while valuations continue to climb. But do the numbers tell the full story?The trio digs into insights from Sifted's inaugural AI ranking, alongside recent reporting, to explore questions like: Should France still be considered Europe's AI hub? Why do 95% of GenAI pilots fail at big corporations? And when is the AI bubble going to burst?Read the report here: https://sifted.eu/rankings/ai-100-2025Want to sponsor the podcast? Email commercial@sifted.euPlus take our listener survey here: https://form.typeform.com/to/WbVxsSv7

This week host Amy Lewin sits down with Erin Platts, CEO of Octopus Ventures. Erin joined Octopus at the beginning of this year after a two decade stint at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), where she oversaw UK operations throughout its dramatic collapse in 2023.Erin walks Amy through the climactic weekend that SVB went under, revealing what really happened behind the scenes as industry partners scrambled to keep startups' cash safe.The pair also dig into the state of venture in the UK, including the ups and downs faced by Octopus Titan, the £1.4bn listed fund that's shed almost £600m in value since 2021 — and how Erin plans to steady the ship.They also discuss her views on the Mansion House Accord, her role on the UK government's industry taskforce and why Octopus Ventures has experienced such high churn in recent years.Want to sponsor the podcast? Email commercial@sifted.euTake out listener survey here: https://form.typeform.com/to/WbVxsSv7 (T&Cs apply)

This week it's another special episode recorded live at the Sifted Summit, with host Amy sitting down with Sequoia Capital's Luciana Lixandru.Luciana, who established the legendary Silicon Valley firm's presence in Europe in 2020, discusses the continent's “Act Two”, and ambitions to build $100bn companies. She talks about what Sequoia looks for in founders, how to build a defensible AI business and why she believes London is becoming the centre of Europe's AI renaissance.Luciana and Amy also discuss the resurgence of robotics, why fintech still matters and how founders can balance building in Europe with winning in the US.Want to sponsor the podcast? Email commercial@sifted.eu to express your interest.PLUS: Take our listener survey here: https://form.typeform.com/to/WbVxsSv7 (T&Cs apply)

This week it's the first in a series of special episodes recorded in front of a live audience at the Sifted Summit, and we're kicking off with a bang: a fireside discussion between former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Sifted's founder and editorial director John Thornhill.They discuss the ongoing AI revolution, with Eric arguing that the technology is actually undervalued today, and why "industrial" bubbles can actually be a good thing after they burst. He also talks about what the rest of the world can learn from Ukraine when it comes to automation in the defence sector, and about how Europe can compete on the global stage in the new AI economy.PLUS: Take our listener survey here: https://form.typeform.com/to/WbVxsSv7 (T&Cs apply)

This week the Sifted Podcast comes to you live from Italian Tech Week, where Amy sat down with Milda Jasaitė, the head of second-hand marketplace Vinted's new investment arm: Vinted Ventures.It's fairly unusual in Europe for a startup like Vinted, that's only been profitable for a couple of years, to launch a venture arm but, as Milda explains, it's a trend that's far more common in the US.They discuss why a relatively young startup needs an investment arm and the kinds of companies that Milda is looking to back.They also get into how being representing her nation as an ice hockey player makes her a better professional, what can be done to get more women into senior leadership positions and onto company boards — and how Lithuania's startup scene is shaping up.PLUS: Take our listener survey here: https://form.typeform.com/to/WbVxsSv7 (T&Cs apply)This podcast was brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking, the bank built for innovation.

On this week's Newsroom episode, where we ask our journalists what they're hearing as they report on Europe's tech industry, Amy's joined by senior reporter Anne Sraders.Anne reports on one of the continent's most hyped sectors: defence tech, a market that is booming as governments put large sums of cash behind plans to rearm in the face of increasing Russian aggression. Meanwhile, Amy has been at Resilience, a conference full of startups, soldiers and spies who are all figuring out which new technologies will be assisting Europe's militaries in the coming years.They discuss why the VC herd is flocking around drone startups — and where they could be looking instead; the companies trying to future proof European supply chains; and just how likely it is that significant public money will flow into innovative startups, rather than the big primes.PS. Please take our short-and-sweet listener survey here.

This week Amy is joined by Zoe Hewitt, VP of talent at legendary Silicon Valley VC firm Sequoia, where she helps its portfolio companies find and hire talent based in Europe.That makes her one of the continent's best informed people as to what is going on with tech talent today, in a world where startups and scaleups are ripping up the hiring rulebook, as AI changes the art of company building.Zoe knows where top talent wants to work, how to spot a future founder, what 'the office of the CEO' really means and which roles are most in-demand (and highly remunerated!)In this episode she unpacks why management layers are thinning, how the role of CEO is changing and gives her tips for founders and tech employees wondering how to future-proof themselves in a fast-changing world of work.

Ever fancied hearing Brad Pitt speak flawless Mandarin? That's the kind of trick Synthesia's hyper-realistic video avatars can pull off.The London-based unicorn, which uses generative AI to make videos for corporate training and internal comms, has been a big hit among enterprise users — its customer list includes more than 80% of the Fortune 100, and it hit $100m ARR in April this year.It seems to be a pretty solid business model — and investors certainly like it. But where will the company take its technology next, how safe are its avatars from deepfake misuse and when might it brave an IPO?CEO Victor Riparbelli isn't shy about sharing his views on that front, recently declaring the London Stock Exchange a “complete disaster.”On this week's episode, host Amy and senior reporter Kai Nicol-Schwarz put Synthesia's avatars to the test, dig into its move into agentic AI and ask what, if anything, could go wrong for the AI unicorn.Sign up to our deeptech and AI newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/members/login?newsletter=deeptechTake our listener survey here: https://form.typeform.com/to/WbVxsSv7 (T&Cs apply)

Mike Turner, partner at law firm Latham and Watkins, has a bird's eye view of Europe's startup ecosystem: which sectors are on the up and which are on the down; which VCs play nice and which don't; and why more and more founders are getting edged out of their companies.On this week's episode of the podcast, Mike sits down with host Amy to discuss why climate tech's monetisation model remains unknown, the growth in strategic buyers' M&A activity and how European governments will react to sovereign wealth funds turning up on startups' cap tables.————————Want a new pair of headphones? Tell us what you think of the podcast and enter our prize draw, here: https://form.typeform.com/to/WbVxsSv7

It's pretty fun being the frontman of the world's fastest-growing company, says Anton Osika. But being swarmed by enthusiastic users, opportunistic investors and beady-eyed journalists can occasionally have its downsides.It's no surprise everyone wants a piece of Lovable founder and CEO Anton. Last month, just eight months after its launch, Lovable was crowned Europe's newest unicorn when it raised $200m at a $1.8bn valuation, and hit $100m ARR. On this week's episode of the podcast, Anton sits down with host Amy to discuss the company's push into enterprise, hiring mistakes he's made and the challenges of building Europe's startup du jour in public.————————Want a new pair of headphones? Tell us what you think of the podcast and enter our prize draw, here: https://form.typeform.com/to/WbVxsSv7This episode was brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking, connecting you with what's next.

If you work at a tech startup, AI is a boon and a bane, empowering tiny teams to build at scale while wiping out entry-level jobs and flooding LinkedIn with “AI slop.”In this week's episode of the Sifted podcast, Amy is joined by senior reporter Miriam Partington, to discuss how founders and operators at Europe's fastest-growing companies are using AI.She shares what she's hearing about how the technology is hurting trust in brands, how engineering teams are being totally re-shaped and about why we're going from "an era of specialism to an era of generalism" in the talent market.Tell us what you think of the podcast: https://form.typeform.com/to/WbVxsSv7

Germany-based defence tech Quantum Systems is one of Europe's leading makers of military drones, having completed thousands of missions in Ukraine and signed contracts with governments around the world. The company raised a €160m Series C in May 2025, hitting unicorn status, and is seeing its revenue double year on year.On this week's episode of the Sifted Podcast, host Amy sits down with Quantum Systems' CEO Florian Seibel to hear about what peace in Ukraine will mean for the growing defence tech industry, what the future holds for unmanned vehicles and why he thinks Europe could take a leaf out of China's book when it comes to long-term planning.Seibel, not one to mince his words, calls out the people and investors jumping on the defence tech hype, and explains how working in a war zone and competing against enemy Russian drones has been the ultimate motivator for innovation.

You might be forgiven for thinking Europe had just two big drone makers — Germany's Helsing and Quantum Systems — given how many headlines both attract.But there's a third defence tech unicorn on the continent: Lisbon-based surveillance drones maker Tekever.Its drones are used all over the world — by the European Maritime Safety Agency to survey the coastline around Europe and by the UK Home Office to keep an eye on the English Channel, by the Spanish police and Brazilian Navy and — unsurprisingly — in Ukraine.Tekever was founded way back in 2001 and bootstrapped for its first 21 years, but in May this year raised €70m in a round led by Baillie Gifford and the Nato Innovation Fund. It also announced plans to invest £400m to build drones in the UK alongside the country's Royal Air Force — and create thousands of jobs.On this episode of the Sifted Podcast, host Amy Lewin and senior reporter Freya Pratty discuss why Tekever's investors are so bullish on the company, how it compares to competitors and what else is on its roadmap.

Barcelona-based Factorial has come a long way since its early days as an HR software startup: it's now a full-blown business management platform used by over 13k businesses for everything from expense tracking to project management.With more than 1,300 employees and €110m in fresh funding from General Catalyst under its belt, Factorial is scaling fast — and CEO and founder Jordi Romero is finding ways to keep that momentum going, having onboarded 300 people in just six months.What does he look for in new hires? A “willingness to work.” What doesn't impress him? “Logos and CVs.”In this week's episode of the Sifted podcast, host Amy asks Jordi where AI is helping (and where it's not), how the “unusual” General Catalyst deal came about and whether an IPO is on the horizon.This episode was brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking, connecting you with what's next.

Revolut is Europe's most valuable private tech company — and is set to become even more so soon, with a fundraise in the works which would see it valued at a reported $65m. The digital bank manages to churn out new features at breakneck speed — from pet insurance to travel bookings, and now mortgages and mobile plans — despite having over 50m customers around the world. The secret? Its “new bets team”: small, startup-like squads tasked with testing and scaling new products fast.On this episode of Startup Europe — the Sifted Podcast, fintech reporter Tom Matsuda joins host Amy Lewin to dig into how this team works — and whether the strategy is paying off. They also discuss the status of Revolut's UK banking licence, the latest on its long-awaited IPO and what it's like working with cofounders Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko.

Supercell is one of Europe's leading video game companies — with enduring hit titles like Clash of Clans and Brawl Stars under its belt. But, as CEO and cofounder Ilkka Paananen explains on this episode of Startup Europe — the Sifted Podcast, developing new and popular games is a tough business.He sits down with Amy Lewin to explain how Supercell tries to foster creativity by empowering its game development teams by giving them maximum autonomy, and by taking the fear out of failure through celebrating the lessons learnt with less successful game releases.Paananen also lays out why he's bullish on European tech, how AI will change gaming and how VCs can help his industry grow even more.

Once upon a time, Mistral was Europe's buzziest tech company — raising a huge €105m seed round in 2023 to build GenAI models and compete with the likes of OpenAI.But as the sector's matured, and we've seen application-focused AI startups like app maker Lovable and defence tech Helsing rise to the top of the hype pile, how is the Paris-based startup living up to its early promise?The company has won some big clients, announced partnerships with giants like Nvidia and grown substantial annual revenues, but do they justify its $6bn valuation?On this episode of Startup Europe — the Sifted Podcast, senior reporter and French tech correspondent Daphné Leprince-Ringuet tells host Amy Lewin what the company is focused on today and whether she thinks it's moving fast enough against ever-increasing competition.