Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast
Get to know the brightest and boldest names in European tech with Sifted’s weekly podcast, hosted by Amy Lewin. She interviews the founders, operators and investors building Europe’s most exciting startups and, in conversation with Sifted’s expert journalists, pulls back the curtain on the most intriguing companies they’ve been reporting on.
Episodes
132 episodes
'Reverse acquihires are incredibly dangerous': Tech lawyer Mike Turner
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 edg...
•
26:20
Lovable’s Anton Osika on churn, calculating ARR and his newfound celebrity status
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...
•
19:54
How AI is transforming startups — for better or worse
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 ...
•
25:59
.png)
Quantum Systems CEO Florian Seibel: ‘Having a dictator has advantages’
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 Ma...
•
48:39
.png)
Meet Europe’s ‘other’ defence tech unicorn: Tekever
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 surveilla...
•
14:15
.png)
‘We don’t need to raise capital to grow’: Factorial CEO Jordi Romero
Barcelona-based Factorial has come a long way since its early days as a software startup offering free HR services. The business management platform is now used by more than 13k companies for everything from expense tracking to project manageme...
•
38:02
.png)
The secret behind Revolut's product blitz
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 break...
•
18:49
.png)
Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen: "Europe doesn't need to become Silicon Valley"
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, d...
•
33:59
.png)
Is Mistral worth $6bn?
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...
•
25:37
.png)
The days of making easy money from coding are over, says former Stripe UK CTO turned founder Emma Burrows
If you work in tech, you’re likely in one of two camps: thinking about using AI agents, or already deploying tens of them.That’s why Emma Burrows cofounded Portia AI, a platform which helps businesses build and use AI agents securely, in...
•
35:26
.png)
Helsing: Challenges ahead for the defence tech unicorn
Defence tech unicorn Helsing — which raised a whopping €600m in June at a €12bn valuation — has swiftly become one of Europe's most intriguing and closely-watched startups. Defence is top of the agenda for many policymakers and inve...
•
13:29
.png)
Tackling financial fraud with AI: Qonto CEO Alexandre Prot
French fintech Qonto is a rare beast in startup land: it's actually profitable. Founded in 2016, the company provides banking and other financial services to 500,000 small businesses customers across eight European markets, helping them do ever...
•
37:10
.png)
Vinted CEO Thomas Plantenga: ‘Vinted is not a company that’s going to exit’
Secondhand marketplace Vinted needs little introduction, with tens of millions registered users around the world who use its app to sell everything from clothes to furniture to even lava lamps.But the (profitable) company is swiftly beco...
•
43:01
.png)
'Defence is where we can play all our superpowers': Visionaries Club’s Rob Lacher
This week on Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast, Amy speaks with Rob Lacher, founding partner at early-growth VC Visionaries Club.Rob unpacks the challenges of defence procurement, why Europe has less than a year to get serious about it...
•
45:09
.png)
What's so special about Lovable?
If you work in tech, you’ve probably heard about Lovable — the AI agent startup that's helping users make websites without writing a line of code.The company hit $50m in annual recurring revenue earlier this year — just 12 months after l...
•
13:51
.png)
'We haven’t made a pitch deck since we started the company': Granola CEO Chris Pedregal
If you’re in venture, it’s quite likely you’re already a Granola user, and if not, you’ve probably heard VCs bang on about how much they like it. The London-based note-taking startup is growing fast, with users increasing 10% week o...
•
33:43
How to make partner in less than three years: Cherry Ventures' Dinika Mahtani
Today on Startup Europe — the Sifted Podcast, Amy is joined by Dinika Mahtani, London-based partner at European early-stage VC Cherry Ventures.Dinika explains why she thinks deeptech is 'back', why Europe is having a moment — and what im...
•
43:12
Three exits and a failure: Motorway's Tom Leathes on how to disrupt big industries
On this episode of Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast, Amy sits down with Tom Leathes, CEO and cofounder of used car marketplace Motorway. The company, founded in 2017, has helped more than half a million people sell their cars, and has raised...
•
46:55
.png)
Nord's Tomas Okmanas on why he had to launch an AI startup
Tomas Okmanas is no stranger to scaling a company in a highly competitive space. When he launched NordVPN in 2012, the market was crowded with competitors, but today his company has 15m users, a $3bn valuation and a consistent stream of new fea...
•
30:17
The 101 of angel investing with Jenny Tooth
To kick off 2025, we're talking "business angels": the people who take big bets investing their personal wealth into startups at their earliest stages, and without whom most companies would never get off the ground.So, how do you actual...
•
47:25
Replacing fossil fuels: Proxima Fusion’s Francesco Sciortino on his mission to revolutionise clean energy
On 2024's last episode of the Sifted Podcast, Amy is joined by an entrepreneur on a very big mission. Munich-based startup Proxima Fusion is developing a nuclear fusion reactor — a technology which many hope could help solve the climate crisis ...
•
30:33
Oura Ring founder Petteri Lahtela on fending off acquisition offers from Big Tech
Podcast host and Sifted editor Amy Lewin sits down with Petteri Lahtela, founder of smart wearable company Oura Ring, to discuss how the business has grown to making $500m in revenue, hitting profitability and selling more than 2.5m devices in ...
•
36:17
General Catalyst’s Jeannette zu Fürstenberg on how to scale European moonshot ideas
This month we’re joined by Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, managing director at global VC firm General Catalyst and cofounder of La Famiglia VC — a Berlin-based early-stage investor which merged with General Catalyst last year.Jeannette’s inve...
•
45:42
Mistral, DeepL and Kry investor Avid Larizadeh Duggan on where AI is creating value
Avid Larizadeh Duggan, senior managing director at Ontario-HQed growth-stage investor Teachers’ Venture Growth, is one of Europe’s first operator-turned-VCs.Her career in tech began with stints as a product manager at places like eBay a...
•
45:55
Programmable plants and neurotech devices: Inside the UK government’s £800m “inventions” agency
This month we’re joined by Ilan Gur, CEO of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (or ARIA), a government body set up last year to fund ambitious, breakthrough innovations.Before joining Aria, Gur was a programme director at AR...
•
38:20