Plus: How Zenobe bypassed VC; UK Labour party's startup promises
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Good morning there,

 

We’re back at HackSummit today — the annual climate conference in the picturesque Swiss city of Lausanne. There’s been a lot of chatter about which family offices are backing climate funds — and whether the young’uns can convince their elders to go green. More on that below.

 

Plus… join us for our Startup Life panel discussion in London, on July 9, where we discuss the impact of AI on work. Our expert panel, hosted by Startup Life’s Anisah Osman Britton, will be discussing things like what's possible with AI right now, how you take advantage of new technology as you scale and whether AI really can replace humans at work. There’ll also be networking and (free) canapés and drinks. Spaces are limited — RSVP now to secure your place.

 

Elsewhere: 

  • Eu/acc wants to show European tech isn’t just a meme
  • UK startup Zenobe bypassed VC - then bagged £600m from KKR

  • What are the UK Labour party’s plans for startups?

— Freya Pratty, senior reporter

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The big story

‘Dad, what are we doing?’ - Europe’s junior family office members want greener deals 

 

At the speaker’s dinner for climate and foodtech conference HackSummit on Wednesday — where we ate finger food from rustic baskets hanging from trees in a Lausanne vineyard — the conversation turned to the elusive world of family offices, and their growing interest in climate tech funds. 

 

That chatter continued on the conference floor yesterday. Greg Michel, the solo GP behind Ananke, which backs seed and Series A companies working on sustainable food tech production, told Sifted that his fund’s core LP is the Francis Family office — the vehicle that invests the private wealth of Nicholas Francis, the cofounder of video game software company Unity Technologies, which IPO’d in 2020 for $1.3bn. 

 

It's a young office compared to those who are investing generational wealth. But punters at Hack Summit suggest that older offices are being pushed towards greener funds by younger family members. 

 

“The younger generation of these family offices are banging on the table like ‘what the fuck, Dad, what are we doing?” said one VC.

 

Nadim El Khazen, who manages LP relationships at Peakbridge, said older family offices which made their wealth in heavily polluting industries are backing impact funds as a way to start offsetting that impact. “They're starting to think, ‘we owe it to our kids and to the planet to back less polluting companies.’” He added that he’s seeing more second-generation millennials join senior family office members when they meet VCs. 

 

The VC who wanted to remain anonymous also said they aren't wholly convinced of the impact so far. “It’s 95% talk and 5% investing,” they told Sifted. They said when some investors they'd met at events returned home to the “grownups” — the more risk-averse older family members and the board, who prioritise protecting the family wealth — they often had their climate tech ideas vetoed.

 

The world of family offices is notoriously secretive, so stats on the trend can be hard to come by. That said, there are other examples. KIRKBI, the investment company that holds the wealth of the family behind LEGO, is focused on sustainability investments. So is Abacon Capital, which invests the wealth of the Hamburg-based Büll family. They made their money in real estate but Abacon now focuses on energy and mobility investments.

 

It also helps that lots of family offices own land, said Michel. “They see the impact of climate change on their own land,” he said.

 

Several land-owning families in the UK are understood to be acting as LPs in agritech funds — with an eye on how the tech could one day change their own estates.  

 

We’re keen to learn more about this shift — so whether you’re a fundraising VC who has noticed younger family office members taking over pitch meetings, a family office interested in the space and willing to chat or have some intel on the topic, get in touch at freya@sifted.eu and sadia@sifted.eu.

 

— Sadia Nowshin, reporter, & Freya Pratty, senior reporter

The news

🇬🇧 The UK Labour party’s manifesto was released yesterday, and it does something the Conservative Party’s doesn’t, it mentions the word “startup” — albeit only once. Here are the bits that could impact UK tech folk from the 133-page document.

 

💪 London-based startup Niya has raised £1.5m from angel investors and Google.org for its AI-powered career management platform to help refugees, migrants and people from low-income backgrounds progress in their careers via upskilling, mentoring and employment opportunities. The startup is addressing the steep skills gap and tech talent shortages facing UK businesses, which many fear will worsen with government attempts to curb immigration this year.

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Get your startup ready for the spotlight 

 

We’re seeking startups in both Southern Europe and the Benelux region showcasing exceptional growth to feature on our upcoming leaderboards — rankings of the fastest-growing startups. Want to gain unparalleled exposure and credibility for your startup? 

Apply today
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🇪🇺 The tech meme circuit is full of jabs at Europe. Regulation over innovation, European founders not working as hard as Americans and policymakers putting rules on things that don’t exist yet are the typical lines. But a new movement in Europe, eu/acc, wants to accelerate the continent’s progress and show that it’s more than a meme — and Sifted’s Zosia Wanat caught up with one of the main men behind it.   

 

🤯 How UK startup Zenobe raised £600m from KKR — without raising a penny from VCs first.

 

🔎 Sifted Scout: 20 agritech and foodtech startups to watch (Sifted Pro subscribers)

 

🙌 How to improve the gender pay gap at your startup.

 

📣 Readers, we want to hear from you. What’s the best thing on European tech you’ve read recently? Drop us a line.

Data-(for-the-flagship)
Screenshot 2024-06-13 at 18.32.23

German VC investments are off to a slow start in 2024, with 220 deals made in the first quarter of this year, compared to 312 deals in Q1 of 2023, according to new data from Pitchbook. Deal value in Q1 this year, however, exceeded the amount from the same period last year — €1.9bn was invested in Q1 2024 compared to €1.6bn in Q1 2023.

  • Venture growth rounds and late-stage VC made up the majority of the share of VC deal value in Q1 2024. Only 20% of VC deal value went to early-stage rounds.
  • The top five VC deals by deal value in Q1 2024 were green hydrogen tech startup Sunfire, which raised the biggest round at €315m; smartphone rental site Everphone; antibody-drug conjugates startup Tubulis; e-fuels startup INERATEC; and banking-as-a-service fintech Solaris.
Deals

Dublin-based AccountsIQ, a cloud-based accounting platform for SMEs and non-profits, raised €60m in Series C funding from Axiom Equity.

 

Cambridge, UK-based Echion Technologies, which develops niobium-based, fast-charging battery materials for heavy-duty vehicles, raised £29m in Series B funding. Volta Energy Technologies led the round and was joined by CBMM, BGF and Cambridge Enterprise Ventures.

 

London-based Real World Health, which provides predictive and prescriptive analytics for healthcare organisations, raised £1.37m in funding. Maven Capital Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Dowgate Capital.

 

If you’d like to submit a deal, get in touch. 

 

For more deals, analysis and M&A insight, become a Pro subscriber to receive our weekly Deals newsletter.

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