Today we meet a rare beast — one of Europe's few new unicorns for 2023 and an AI startup that's figured out how to make a fair bit of money. There are also two new VC funds in town, plus layoffs at one of the continent's most notable tech companies.
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The paddock of new European unicorns has been a lonely place in 2023. Just seven businesses have hit a $1bn valuation this year, compared to more than 150 in the previous two years combined.
One of them is London-based Synthesia — a startup that uses generative AI to create videos using virtual avatars, which it sells to enterprises that use the product to automatically generate training and communications videos.
It might not be the sexiest use case for the shiniest technology in town at the moment, but it’s a perfect case study in how you can work towards a big idea in deeptech while building a solid business.
Speaking to Sifted, Synthesia cofounder and CEO Victor Riparbelli describes how — ever since seeing the first research papers demonstrating that AI could generate videos — he’s wanted to build tech that lets anyone with a laptop automatically generate a full Hollywood movie.
“The problem with that as an entrepreneur is: that’s awesome, but we can't really build a product that hasn't been invented. We need to get there somehow. We sat down and figured out how to sequence our way to that north star while building a business,” he tells me.
For Synthesia, that meant first building a product for video dubbing, then pivoting to building a product for business teams who wanted to create video but didn’t have the skills or resources to do so. It’s not creating blockbusters — yet — but, with more than 50k customers and half of the Fortune 500 using its technology today, Synthesia is making money.
And that enables it to employ more than 250 people who have a strong focus on R&D, to keep pushing its AI video generation abilities forward — and keep Riparbelli’s Hollywood vision alive.
🕸 Heartcore secures €15m of new Web3 fund. Many people had written Web3 off as a temporary hype — but Copenhagen-HQ'd VC firm Heartcore is doubling down on the sector. It aims to raise a total €20m for its first dedicated Web3 fund — and tells Sifted that it isn't deterred by the risks that digital tokens pose.
🎧 Spotify set to cut 17% of staff. The CEO of the streaming giant, Daniel Ek, announced the layoffs — which will affect around 1,500 jobs — via a memo sent to employees on Monday and later published on its website.
Affected departments have not yet been specified. Ek wrote that "we still have too many people dedicated to supporting work and even doing work around the work rather than contributing to opportunities with real impact. More people need to be focused on delivering for our key stakeholders — creators and consumers."
The cuts are the latest in a string of layoffs at the company this year: in January, it shared that 6% of staff would be let go; and in June, another 200 roles were cut from the podcast team.
💬 Matt Clifford steps aside as CEO of Entrepreneur First. Alice Bentinck, who cofounded the London-based accelerator and company builder with Clifford, will now be taking the helm. Clifford's role will shift to focus on AI full time, he tweeted, after 12 years as the company's CEO.
🌍 How to adapt your product to a new market. Jon Jain, head of product at elderly-care startup Birdie, shares his top tips on tailoring to unfamiliar customers.
Here’s your chance to catch up on some of the conversations from the event. Our on-demand hub hosts recordings of all the panels from the Main Stage, including our talk on The American Dream: the how and when of scalin’ USA, with Thomas Holl, chief technology officer and founder at Babbel, Joaquín Cuenca Abela, CEO and cofounder at Freepik and Eshita Kabra-Davies, founder and CEO at By Rotation.
71% of partners at UK VC firms went to private schools,according to the latest report from Diversity VC. Across all roles at VCs, that stat drops to 48%. For context, just 7% of people are privately educated in the UK.
That has a knock-on effect on how people access the industry: 35% of those privately educated VCs got the job through their network, compared to 25% of those who attended a state-funded school.
Network also seems to have an impact on non-white investors. 27% of black respondents saidthey founded or started the fund they're currently at, compared to 9.7% of white respondents —suggesting that non-white talent may be more likely to found their own firms as a way in, rather than joining existing ones.
Lyon-based mylight150, which designs and distributes solar management systems, raised €100m in funding. Investors included Eiffel Investment Group, Azora Capital and Andera Partners.
Utrecht-based Rentman, which makes software for the events and media production industry, raised €20m in funding. Expedition Growth Capital led the round.
London-based Mytos, which enables life sciences companies to automate the entire human cell manufacturing process, raised $19m in Series A funding. Buckley Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including IQ Capital and Wing VC.
Paris-based Wakeo, a SaaS platform offering real-time tracking for logistics companies, raised €18m in funding. Statkraft Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Promus Ventures, 360 Capital, 50 Partners and Techstars.
Berlin-based Banxware, an embedded financing platform, raised €15m in Series A funding. UniCredit and Fabrick led the round and were joined by investors including 13books Capital (previously Element Ventures), VR Ventures, D4 Ventures and Force Over Mass.
London-based Keyless, a biometric authentication startup, raised $6m in funding. Rialto Ventures led the round.
Vienna-based Lignovations, an eco-friendly biomaterials developer, secured €2.2m in funding. Borregaard led the round and was joined by investors including Valnon Holding, AWS and FFG.
Luxembourg-based Databourg, an environmental data analytics startup, secured $1m in seed funding. Asian Development Bank (ADB) Ventures led the round.
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