Sifted Studio

What does it take to build a brain surgery AI, fly Europe's first private orbital re-entry mission, and create the battery passports soon to be mandatory across the EU?

In this episode of the Sifted Studio Podcast, recorded in partnership with EIC & EIT, Sifted's Aditi Mishra sits down with the three winners of the 2026 European Prize for Women Innovators, announced at the EIC Summit in Brussels: Katerina Spranger, founder and CEO of Oxford Heartbeat, whose AI software lets surgeons rehearse brain stent procedures with over 96% accuracy in clinical testing; Marta Oliveira, cofounder and CEO of Atmos Space Cargo, the space startup behind Phoenix One and a €25.7m Series A; and Ella Cullen, cofounder and CMO of Minespider, building the digital product passports transforming battery supply chains.

They share the untold stories behind Europe's most exciting deep tech startups: why Katerina spent nine months interviewing 34 surgeons before writing a line of code, and what it meant to donate her technology to hospitals in wartime Ukraine. How Marta walked away from the James Webb launch campaign to co-found a space cargo company. How a marketer ended up building blockchain traceability for the world's tin supply. Plus, an honest look at what EIC and EIT backing actually unlocks for founders, from grants and patient capital to credibility and networks, and the advice each would give her younger self.

A must-listen for anyone interested in European tech, women founders, deep tech startups, health tech, space tech and supply chain innovation.

Timestamps:

00:00 Meet Europe's women innovators 2026
03:14 Katerina Spranger: 34 surgeon interviews before a line of code
07:39 The first real patient
10:11 Marta Oliveira: from James Webb to founding Atmos Space Cargo
11:33 The day Phoenix One flew
14:32 Ella Cullen: a marketer in deep tech
19:42 EU battery passports explained
21:20 Donating surgical AI to Ukraine
26:00 The brutal reality of medtech timelines
31:25 What EIC and EIT backing really unlocks
39:44 Advice to their younger selves

As general AI models become increasingly commoditised, the ultimate advantage now lies in industry-specific data and local market execution.

In this podcast, Sifted's associate editor Freya Pratty is joined by Lexroom CEO and cofounder Paolo Fois to unpack how he built one of Europe’s fastest-growing legaltech companies from a three-person startup.

This podcast dives into the realities of the company's growth: the playbook behind Lexroom’s recent Series B fundraising, their strategic expansion into Germany and Spain, and their upcoming M&A roadmap.

Europe’s AI opportunity is a new podcast mini-series brought to you by Sifted and Nebius, an AI infrastructure company building full-stack cloud for the AI era. 

In this episode, Sifted’s Europe Editor Mimi Billing will be exploring what the next phase of Europe’s AI growth will look like.

This episode focuses on everything from infrastructure and compliance to how companies can find the right European talent.

Joining the conversation were Mona Li, VP at Nebius, Hakob Astabatsyan, CEO and cofounder of Synthflow, and Luca Bocchio, partner at Accel.

Europe’s AI opportunity is a new podcast mini-series brought to you by Sifted and Nebius, an AI infrastructure company building full-stack cloud for the AI era. 

Over the next three episodes, Sifted’s senior reporter Daphné Leprince-Ringuet will be exploring the potential of AI for Europe’s enterprises.

This episode focuses on what the AI opportunity looks like for Europe in the next few years — what are Europe’s AI founders focusing on to differentiate themselves in the AI race, what they need to scale and stand a chance against their competitors and why, ultimately, investors betting on European AI.

Joining the conversation were Tom Blackwell, chief communications officer at Nebius, Albane Dersy, cofounder and COO of Inbolt, Steffen Tjerrild, cofounder of Synthesia, and Philippe Botteri, partner at global investor Accel.

Europe's AI opportunity is a new podcast mini-series is brought to you by Sifted and Nebius, an AI infrastructure company building full-stack cloud for the AI era.

Over the next three episodes, Sifted's senior reporter Daphné Leprince-Ringuet will be exploring the potential of AI for Europe's enterprises.

This episode was recorded live from VivaTech in Paris — France’s flagship tech event that brings together startups, corporates and industrial leaders. 

This episode focuses on whether, and how, European enterprises are adopting AI, and what this means for the AI startups they partner with — or, in some cases, don’t.

Joining the conversation were Claire Nouet, cofounder and COO of Pathway, Olivier Gomez, cofounder and CEO of IAC.AI, and Anubhav Maheshwari, head of venture partnerships at Nebius.

We discussed the most effective ways to measure and communicate trust in AI systems, how existing frameworks can help validate new AI systems and how the technology poses new questions for mitigating risk. 

Participating in the discussion were: 

• Song Hwee Chia, deputy CEO of Temasek, a global investment firm headquartered in Singapore.
• Sebastian Hallensleben, chief trust officer at AI test lab Resaro.
• Dr Kerim Galal, executive vice president at corporate development across strategy, AI, M&A and in-house consulting at German machine tools and laser tech company Trumpf.
• Dr Frauke Goll, managing director at the AppliedAI Institute for Europe GmbH.

Europe's AI opportunity is a new podcast mini-series is brought to you by Sifted and Nebius, an AI infrastructure company building full-stack cloud for the AI era. 

Over the next three episodes, Sifted's senior reporter Daphné Leprince-Ringuet will be exploring the potential of AI for Europe's enterprises.

This week, she unpacks Europe’s position in the AI race — its ambitions, gaps and what role infrastructure plays when it comes to building the next generation of AI leaders — with special guests, Roman Chernin, cofounder and chief business officer of Nebius, Thomas Wolf, cofounder and chief science officer at Hugging Face, and Jonas Andrulis, founder and CEO of Aleph Alpha.

Drug discovery and development is an arduous, expensive process that usually results in failure. An estimated 90% of clinical drugs don’t make it to market, after an R&D process that can take as long as 15 years, and cost up to $2bn. 

With AI, those numbers could be dramatically improved. Drug development could become more efficient, clinical trials could happen faster and production processes could be optimised so that every batch is just right. But to drive progress and unlock billions of dollars in value, the pharmaceutical sector needs to learn how to use AI-powered technologies at scale. 

Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical and healthcare company headquartered in Paris, is one company which recognises this. It recently announced the launch of a new digital manufacturing and supply (M&S) accelerator in Lyon, where Sanofi employees will use AI to find and scale new innovations that will deliver life-changing treatments to patients faster, sometimes in partnership with startups.  

Daphné Leprince-Ringuet, Sifted’s senior French tech reporter, sat down with Emmanuel Frenehard, chief digital officer, Sanofi, and Brendan O’Callaghan, executive vice president for manufacturing and supply, Sanofi, to find out more. 

Every week, startup life reporter Anisah Osman Britton will be sitting down with resilient founders and expert investors to discuss operating in a downturn. From what we can learn from previous financial crises to the anatomy of mergers and acquisitions, we'll be getting top tips on how to survive during tough economic times — and what to be optimistic about. This podcast is brought to you by EQT Ventures and Sifted.

Every week, startup life reporter Anisah Osman Britton will be sitting down with resilient founders and expert investors to discuss operating in a downturn. From what we can learn from previous financial crises to the anatomy of mergers and acquisitions, we'll be getting top tips on how to survive during tough economic times — and what to be optimistic about. This podcast is brought to you by EQT Ventures and Sifted.