Get to know the brightest and boldest names in European tech with Sifted’s weekly podcast, hosted by John Thornhill and Freya Pratty. John interviews the founders, operators and investors building Europe’s most exciting startups and Freya, in conversation with Sifted’s expert journalists, pulls back the curtain on the most intriguing companies they’ve been reporting on.
VCs taking on interim roles at their portfolio companies is something that’s happened for a long time — as is VCs making the permanent switch to the operator side. But a new trend seems to be gaining steam in Europe: VCs adding a CEO or operator title alongside their investor role, and doing both at the same time. Judith Dada, general partner at Visionaries, for example, has made that move this month, taking a role as co-CEO at AI startup Langdock, while Carmen Alfonso Rico, who founded UK-based angel investment firm Cocoa, announced she’s joining her portfolio company, British chip startup Fractile, as VP of business operations. Both are retaining investment roles at their firms. Joining host Freya Pratty to discuss the trend is senior reporter Anne Sraders. The pair chat about why these moves are happening now and whether they could bring up issues for the firms further down the line. They also discuss further changes at Visionaries, as a number of partners transition from their full-time investment positions to entrepreneurial roles. Sign up to Sifted's weekly newsletter about VC here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters This episode was brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking.
Inside Mistral’s monster fundraise and Palantir-like repositioning
Mistral’s latest fundraise has got the ecosystem chattering. The French AI darling is reportedly raising a €3bn Series D round at a valuation of around €20bn. Last week, Sifted broke the news that the EU’s €5bn Scaleup Fund, managed by EQT, is in talks to lead or co-lead the round. This week on the podcast, senior reporter Daphné Leprince-Ringuet joins host Freya Pratty to discuss the EU Scaleup Fund’s potential involvement and who else might get in on the deal. And, as Mistral increasingly positions itself more like Europe’s answer to Palantir, Freya and Daphné discuss how the new positioning will play into the pricing of its latest round. Read our reporting on the round here: https://sifted.eu/articles/e5bn-scaleup-fund-mistral-eqt Sign up to our free daily newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters
Yann LeCun launched a new VC fund — then quit. What happened?
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-firm Sign up to our daily newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters
Liz Kendall: ‘I’d love to stay as UK tech secretary’
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
Should the EU block the UK from its €5bn superfund?
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-bank https://sifted.eu/articles/eu-scaleup-europe-fund-uk-france-block-reaction https://sifted.eu/articles/scaleup-e5bn-uk-france Sign up to Sifted free daily newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters
Brent Hoberman on UK tech post-Starmer: 'Are we going to tax everyone to high hell?'
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
What the Anthropic shutdown means for Europe
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-sovereignty Sign up to Sifted's free newsletter here: https://sifted.eu/newsletters
Newton Venture Program CEO Anu Adebajo on Europe’s ‘zombie funds’
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/newsletters Read John’s article about the needs for reinventing VC: https://sifted.eu/articles/vc-needs-to-reinvent-itself Find out more about Newton Venture Program here: https://newtonprogram.vc/ This podcast was brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking.
‘Built in Europe’: Can Balderton’s new campaign spark Europe’s vibe shift?
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
Carissa Véliz on the dangers of predictive AI
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
EQT has won the EU's €5bn superfund. Now what?
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
James Wise on why the Sovereign AI Unit criticism is wrong – and the one company he wishes he’d backed
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
Anthropic vs European AI
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
Hertility CEO Helen O’Neill on building a foundational model for women’s health
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”.
Wolt CEO and Slush chair Marianne Vikkula on building a superapp, leadership lessons and Slush’s secret sauce
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
Could Europe become a world leader in robotics?
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
Project Europe CEO Kitty Mayo: ‘Harry Stebbings is like our head of state and I’m prime minister’
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 form Who makes the best mentors to founders Why 996 is “outdated” Why she’s stopped trying to be likeable Why more women shouldn't wait to play before a "perfect system" comes along This podcast was brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking.
Tiny VC partner Philipp Moehring on when to take money off the table
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 years When Tiny takes money off the table Why young people make awesome founders Anxiety-inducing LinkedIn posts And, for better or worse, the return of the tech bro
OpenAI's Laura Modiano on hackathons, Lovable and how startups can partner with the tech giant
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.
Meet the 100 fastest-growing startups in the UK and Ireland
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
