Good morning John,

Depending on which corners of LinkedIn you find yourself in, you’d be forgiven for believing the UK is currently an awful, or a brilliant, place to run a business. 

Serial entrepreneur Debbie Wosskow is a firm believer that Britain’s currently a really rather “shit” place to be a female founder, with capital invested in female-led startups decreasing recently — down from 2.5% of all equity investment in the UK in 2023 to 2% in 2024. But she doesn’t want it to remain that way, and — with the backing of UK chancellor Rachel Reeves — is on a mission to raise a £250m fund of funds to deploy into female fund managers, who will then invest it into female founders. 

“This hasn’t happened anywhere else in the world,” she tells me in an interview published today. “This is an ‘Avengers Assemble’ moment.” 

There are also those — like former UK chancellor Philip Hammond, who seem reasonably optimistic that, while America is busy “shooting itself in the foot”, London has a good opportunity to revamp its attractiveness as an IPO destination. 

Yet changes to capital gains tax and a reduction in entrepreneurs relief introduced by the Labour government have not been popular with UK founders, and the murmurings about those who’ve upped sticks and moved to Dubai, or New York, or sunnier parts of Europe, are increasing. 

“It's quite conceivable that 12 months from now, a good fraction of all UK startups will incorporate not on UK Companies House but in Delaware directly,” legaltech platform SeedLegals’ founder Anthony Rose posted on LinkedIn over the weekend, receiving hundreds of responses.

How much is social media hype, and how much is reality, remains somewhat unclear. But, as Rose told me on a video call from New York yesterday, “a lot of what people do is based on sentiment” — and the UK government needs to quickly change the mood music.

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🇹🇷 Exclusive: Istanbul-based VC Revo Capital, which scored big on its investment in speedy grocery unicorn Getir, has closed $86m for its third fund. The VC is targeting an $100m final close.

• Revo backed Getir in 2017 and cashed out in a secondary sale at the height of the speedy grocery boom in 2021, when Getir was valued at $7.5bn. The sale comfortably returned Revo’s first fund, worth $66m.

🌏 Exclusive: Navro, a London-based fintech, has raised $41m, which it will use to expand globally and fund an upcoming crypto product.

🩺 Doctolib, one of France’s most high-profile health companies, has publicly shared its financial results for the first time — and says it will reach profitability in just a few months.

☁️ AI cloud infrastructure startup Nscale is looking to raise $2.7bn and courting TikTok owner ByeDance, according to Bloomberg, as a wave of European tech companies look to take advantage of rising demand for access to high performance compute across the region.

🦸‍♀️ Inside the plan to make the UK the best place in the world for female founders.

🥸 Not-so-secret agents: this year’s big tech obsession is, of course, AI agents which promise to do your work for you. Here’s the list of 65 digital labour providers who raised in Europe in Q1.

🏦 London’s IPO market could benefit from ‘Americans shooting themselves in the foot’, Philip Hammond, former chancellor of the UK, tells Sifted in an exclusive interview.

🌳 Barking up the right tree: Could the bioeconomy make Europe money, while solving its biggest climate challenges? (Sponsored by ECBF)

The UK & Ireland’s fastest-growing startups

What do Vertice, RobinAI and Switchee have in common? They’ve all made the top spots in our 2025 leaderboard, ranking the fastest-growing companies across the UK & Irish ecosystems in order of revenue growth.

Sifted Talks | Online. AI is transforming workflows across industries, pushing startups to innovate faster than ever. Today, senior reporter Kai Nicol-Schwarz will discuss with our expert panel where AI is delivering real value, the common pitfalls founders should avoid and how startups can integrate AI responsibly for long-term success. RSVP here.

Female founders pitch event 📣 Join the Female Founders Summit organised by Businettes on 30 April. This event designed by female founders, for female founders looks to open doors to investors, networks, and opportunities that can help take businesses to the next level. Grab your tickets today with Sifted's unique discount link.

Barcelona-based Deepull, a medical technology company developing non-culture diagnostic solutions for rapid pathogen identification in whole blood, raised €50m in Series C funding. Columbus Venture Partners, Panakès Partners and Mérieux Equity Partners led the round.

Helsinki-based IXI, which is developing innovative prescription eyewear that automatically adjusts using eye-tracking and liquid crystal lens technology, raised $36.5m in Series A funding. Plural led the round and was joined by investors including Tesi, byFounders, Heartcore, Eurazeo, FOV Ventures and Tiny VC.

Utrecht, the Netherlands-based iwell, an energy tech company that develops modular, software-based energy management and battery storage systems for the commercial and industrial sector, raised €27m in funding. Meridiam led the round and was joined by investors including Invest-NL and Rabobank.

Münster, Germany-based eeden, which specialises in chemical textile recycling, raised €18m in Series A funding. Forbion led the round and was joined by investors including Henkel Ventures, NRW.Venture, TechVision Fund (TVF), High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and D11Z Ventures.

Ghent, Belgium-based Azalea Vision, a healthtech company developing a medical-grade smart lens platform, raised €9m in Series A funding. SPRIM Global Investments led the round.

Eindhoven, the Netherlands-based Astrape Networks, a deeptech startup focused on improving short-distance data network performance, raised €7.9m in seed funding. PhotonVentures, Join Capital and Brabant Development Agency (BOM) led the round.

London-based Sprive, a fintech app that helps reduce mortgage costs for users by encouraging faster mortgage repayments, raised £5.5m. Ascension led the round and was joined by investors including Velocity Capital, Two Magnolias and Channel 4 Ventures.

Pisa, Italy-based Next Generation Robotics, which specialises in railway robotics, aiming to reduce risks for railway personnel, raised €4.5m in funding. CDP Venture Capital led the round.

Olomouc, Czech Republic-based Kardi AI, a healthtech that's developed an AI-powered chest strap for detecting heart arrhythmias, raised €1.1m in funding. Investors include BrightCap Ventures, DEPO Ventures, Garage Angels and Lumus Investment Collective.

Bilbao-based Landatu Solar, which designs and manufactures supports for photovoltaic installations on land and water, raised €1m. Suma Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Faraday Venture Partners.

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