Sifted

Buy now, close later? 💳 IPO-bound Klarna is closing three overseas offices in a cost-cutting push. On Friday the company filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange and plans to close offices in Amsterdam, Mannheim and Columbus — which once served as it's launch pad for its U.S. expansion. “As part of our strategic decision to drive operational efficiency, leverage Al and reduce administrative costs in our business, we have decided to reduce the size of our office space,” CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said. The filings also reveal that Klarna reduced its staff numbers from 5,527 employees in 2022 to 3,422 employees by the end of last year. 📖 Explore the full article by Tom Matsuda: https://lnkd.in/ezVqZqCR

Scaling tech companies is a major challenge for European players. With IQM Quantum Computers we are on a strong track to be a global leader in quantum! We are selling our products globally, have an ambitious tech roadmap for error-correction, and the best team in place to execute our plans. Thanks Miriam Partington for this great article in Sifted about our ambitions and journey: https://lnkd.in/dNZ8gbxa Sylwia Barthel de Weydenthal (she/her) Mikko Välimäki Juha Vartiainen Inés De Vega Tomi Riipinen Juha Vartiainen Blair Robertson Andreas Theer Michael Bruce, MCIPR Milja Kalliosaari Jouni Flyktman

Excited to have contributed to Sifted's list of FemTech startups to watch alongside some great investors from EQT Life Sciences, Sandwater, Sie Ventures, Fund F and more 🚀 Women's health isn't a niche, it's a massive and underserved market opportunity. Particularly given women control the vast majority of consumer spend (70%+ depending on which sources you're looking at), it's a blue ocean ready for conquering. The companies at the helm of this are tackling long-overlooked challenges and I'm excited to share some of the startups I've been tracking in this space. Thank you Maya for involving me! If you want to see my top picks, link in the comments below 👇

Startup NÜWIEL GmbH provides electric mobility solutions for cities —known as ‘the world’s first eTrailer’. ⚡️ The startup is part of Morgan Stanley’s startup accelerator programme —Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures (MSISV) and its founder and CEO, Natalia Tomiyama, says that the accelerator solidified her goals, even when the economic landscape was challenging. In a challenging economic climate, mentorship can make the difference between failing or scaling. Applications for MSISV’s 2025 cohort are now extended until March 31. Learn more about Morgan Stanley Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures and how to apply at morganstanley.com/ventures. Read more on MSISV here ▶️ https://lnkd.in/e2YGm8iz

With the US growing far less supportive of Europe and geopolitical tensions rising, defence tech is squarely in the spotlight. Investors hope that recent initiatives from the EU and its countries could mean a future payday for young defence upstarts vying for government and military money. I recently polled four VCs, including from Project A and the NATO Innovation Fund, on which defence tech startups they're eyeing now — with the caveat that they couldn't nominate companies already in their portfolio. Browse the full list here on Sifted. Thanks to Uwe Horstmann Chris O'Connor Nicola Sinclair Nicholas Nelson https://lnkd.in/dm6DRnBz

The Financial Times just dedicated a full-page article to STATION F, calling it “flying the flag for France’s tech and AI development.” It features some of our incredible startups shaping the future, including Hugging Face, Alan, Presti (YC S24), .omics, Finegrain, Entalpic, Sonio, Datakalab, Quickwit, and more—alongside key partners like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Apple. None of this would be possible without our amazing community—the startups and partners who make STATION F one of the biggest #AI communities in Europe. And thank you, Éanna Kelly, for this great article! 🤗 https://lnkd.in/edrgeuwr

Women founders have you struggled to access funding? 👩💻 You are not alone. According to a poll of more than 400 women in the UK, 70% said they had faced difficulty accessing funding, receiving disproportionately smaller shares of venture capital, grants and loans than their male counterparts. The study was conducted by Female Founders Rise (FFR) and Boardwave — the group plans to submit the results to the UK government's parliamentary inquiry into female entrepreneurship. "I feel like I’m constantly seeing this kind of data, and I don’t want to keep reporting this. I want to see solutions and see things actually happening," Emmie Faust, a serial entrepreneur and founder of FFR, tells Sifted. Read more on the survey results and FFR’s recommendations to the UK government in our article by Martin Coulter >> https://lnkd.in/eDrS-naX

New: Helsinki-based deeptech VC OpenOcean raised €100m for its fourth flagship fund, with a target to close €130m by the first half of 2025 — and it's targeting AI and PE rollup-style startups with the new fund. More from me Sifted https://lnkd.in/d7C-3iUV

📣 Incoming Sifted Talks — Going East: How to take your startup overseas 🌏 Expanding into APAC is a huge opportunity, but navigating different cultures, regulations and customer needs can be tough. So how can startups get it right? Our panel of experts featuring Oana Andreea Jinga, cofounder of Dexory, Yasuhiro Saito, managing director of innovation division, Yamato Transport Co.,Ltd. and Tom Miller, project manager at Intralink will be discussing: 🔹 Common challenges and how to overcome them 🔹 Top tips for successful expansion 🔹 Corporate partnerships: How to find and build a successful one 🔹 From the UK to APAC: What support is out there? 📅 April 9 / 10:00 BST / Online Register for free – link in comments.

When the Swedish body scanning startup Neko Health raised $260m at a $1.7bn valuation in January, the valuation sounded quite large for a healthtech with only two clinics. It does however have Daniel Ek (and Hjalmar Nilsonne) as founders. Is Neko another genius move from the Spotify founder and worth every penny or, is it crazy overvalued? I dug into the numbers and spoke to some investors to make sense of it. https://lnkd.in/drvA3MCJ