Anne Sraders

Berlin, Germany

Senior Reporter, Financial Times at Sifted

Senior reporter at the Financial Times' @Siftedeu. Covering European VC & deeptech startups from Berlin. 🇺🇸🇱🇻 tips: [email protected] Past: @FortuneMagazine

Articles

How AI will change the VC job

3 weeks ago | sifted.eu | Anne Sraders

VCs love to bang on about how AI is disrupting every industry in the biggest technology revolution since the internet. But the VC industry itself is also feeling the winds of change — and AI could have a huge impact on how investors do their jobs in the future, or if they have jobs. “I think that you are going to see AI-first or AI-only funds,” says Akshat Goenka, partner at London-based early-stage firm Moonfire.
Florian Seibel, controversial defence tech unicorn founder, wants to bring the Anduril mindset to Quantum Systems

3 weeks ago | sifted.eu | Anne Sraders

Florian Seibel thought he might be about to catch a bad cold. The German cofounder and CEO of autonomous drones startup Quantum Systems had spent the weekend wrapping up his company’s latest unicorn-making fundraise — and, as he spoke to me over a video call from his car while at the company’s offsite last week, thought the stress of the past couple of months might catch up with him.
Exclusive: Adams Street raises €270m for debut European VC fund

4 weeks ago | sifted.eu | Anne Sraders

US investor Adams Street Partners, one of the world’s largest fund of funds, has raised more than €270m for its debut European venture fund. The fund will primarily invest in new VC funds, with up to 30% of the capital reserved for secondaries and co-investments into startups, Europe-focused partner Ross Morrison tells Sifted.
Drones startup Quantum Systems hits unicorn status with €160m Series C

1 month ago | sifted.eu | Anne Sraders

Autonomous drones startup Quantum Systems has raised €160m in Series C funding led by British VC Balderton Capital, making it one of only a few unicorns in the European defence tech field. Other investors including Hensoldt, Airbus Defense and Space, Bullhound Capital, HV Capital, Project A, controversial German-American investor Peter Thiel, DTCP, Omnes Capital, Porsche SE and Notion also invested.
Hamilton Lane: 'We've seen a massive increase in GP-led secondaries'

1 month ago | sifted.eu | Anne Sraders

Europe is a “critical” geography, says giant US alternative investment manager Hamilton Lane. The firm, which has more than $950bn in assets under management and is known for its private equity, debt and real estate strategies, announced its latest dedicated $615.3m venture fund earlier this year.
Trump tariffs threaten cloud price hike for European startups

1 month ago | sifted.eu | Kai Nicol-Schwarz |Miriam Partington |Anne Sraders

European startups and their investors are bracing for a hike in cloud computing costs that could hit growth ambitions and delay profitability, amid fears that US tariffs could force hyperscalers to ramp up prices. US president Donald Trump sent markets around the world into meltdown earlier this month, after unveiling a sweeping package of import taxes on trading partners from around the world.
German accelerator EWOR raises €60m to challenge YC and find the next $1bn founders

1 month ago | sifted.eu | Anne Sraders

German accelerator EWOR, which aims to challenge Silicon Valley institution Y Combinator (YC), has raised €60m to find Europe’s next unicorn founders. It backs up to 35 founders per year, says it has a 0.1% acceptance rate and is run by six European serial founders, including Daniel Dippold, cofounder of AI services company NewNow, and Petter Made, cofounder of payments company SumUp.The €60m is split evenly between a Series A round for EWOR and an investment vehicle to back the startups.
‘Resilience’ is the new VC buzzword. But what does it actually mean?

1 month ago | sifted.eu | Anne Sraders |Miriam Partington

Spend any time on LinkedIn these days and you’re bound to come across VCs talking about one thing: ‘resilience’. European VCs are increasingly using it to describe everything from climate tech to space and new materials — and, most prominently, defence. It’s become a much-mentioned investment topic — and London’s now home to a Resilience conference, tagline: “Startups. Security. Defence”.
Exclusive: German deeptech VC First Momentum raises €35m fund to back energy, automation and AI

1 month ago | sifted.eu | Anne Sraders

German deeptech VC First Momentum, which invests pre-seed cheques into technical founders, has raised €35m for its second fund. The VC aims to back B2B companies in areas like computing and AI, industrial startups and energy. First Momentum has been raising its second fund — nearly 10x larger than its first fund of €4m in 2018 — since way back in 2022, and has already backed about 20 companies. It aims to invest in up to 35 companies in total, and writes first cheques between €200k-€1m.
The defence tech startups fundraising right now, according to VCs

1 month ago | sifted.eu | Anne Sraders

Defence tech has become the hot topic in Europe in 2025, with rising geopolitical tensions pushing the industry front and centre. It’s also prompting more founders to seek VC investment for ventures in the sector. “We’re seeing more founders building in defence tech than ever before,” says Jack Wang, principal at VC firm Project A.