Federico Scolari

3 weeks ago | sifted.eu | Federico Scolari

This year’s Sifted 100 leaderboard of the fastest-growing startups in the UK and Ireland is younger and leaner than the 2024 cohort. The average launch year for the 2025 companies has jumped more than a year (from 2016 to 2018) on the 2024 leaderboard, while the average number of employees is down by 27.9%.

1 month ago | sifted.eu | Mimi Billing |Federico Scolari |Éanna Kelly

VCs have Lovable fever. The Swedish startup, which has developed an AI tool that lets people without coding skills create apps and websites in minutes, is one of the fastest-growing companies ever in Europe, had the mettle to turn down famed US accelerator Y Combinator and had investors such as Creandum coughing up $15m for a pre-Series A round a couple of weeks ago. Why the hype?

1 month ago | sifted.eu | Éanna Kelly |Jonathan Sinclair |Federico Scolari

Will we see a dealmaking bump in 2025? Or will it be another year of muted M&A? Many predicted an explosion in tech deals in 2024. It didn’t happen. But there were standouts, including London-based biotech EyeBio’s acquisition by US pharma group Merck for $1.3bn and Italian unicorn Bending Spoons’s takeover of Dutch file transfer service startup WeTransfer for a (Pitchbook reported) $700m. So far in 2025, M&A activity hasn’t meaningfully ticked up.

2 months ago | sifted.eu | Federico Scolari

Convergence AI has only existed since June 2024 but already it’s raised one of Europe’s largest pre-seed rounds ever: a $12m deal led by Balderton Capital, announced last September. The London-based startup has developed a prototype AI agent named Proxy which it claims is — in some respects — outperforming agents tested by leading AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. AI agent makers say their tools can accomplish valuable real-world tasks, rather than merely provide assistance to humans.