Once upon a time, Mistral was Europe’s buzziest tech company — raising a huge €105m seed round in 2023 to build GenAI models and compete with the likes of OpenAI.

But as the sector's matured, and we’ve seen application-focused AI startups like app maker Lovable and defence tech Helsing rise to the top of the hype pile, how is the Paris-based startup living up to its early promise?

The company has won some big clients, announced partnerships with giants like Nvidia and grown substantial annual revenues, but do they justify its $6bn valuation?

On this episode of Startup Europe — the Sifted Podcast, senior reporter and French tech correspondent Daphné Leprince-Ringuet tells host Amy Lewin what the company is focused on today and whether she thinks it’s moving fast enough against ever-increasing competition.

If you work in tech, you’re likely in one of two camps: thinking about using AI agents, or already deploying tens of them.

That’s why Emma Burrows cofounded Portia AI, a platform which helps businesses build and use AI agents securely, in-house — and which secured £4.4m in a seed round led by General Catalyst back in April.

Emma's no stranger to a breakneck sector: before founding Portia, she was UK chief technology officer at payments giant Stripe, and previously built out the ecommerce stack at Charlotte Tilbury.

In this week’s episode of the Sifted podcast, Emma joins editor Amy Lewin to talk about what AI agents can and cannot do, the very real risks they pose to junior engineering jobs — and why she doesn’t feel ‘mum guilt’.

Key moments:

0.00: Intro and about Portia AI

3.00: How companies are using AI agents

9.00: Impact of AI agents on junior engineers

15.07: What AI Emma uses to code

16.00: Transition from Stripe to founding a company

19.15: Being a female founder in AI

22.40: On 996 and hustle culture

24.30: Emma's angel investing

25.40: General Catalyst relationship

27.30: The AI Act

33.00: Quick fire questions and outro

Defence tech unicorn Helsing — which raised a whopping €600m in June at a €12bn valuation — has swiftly become one of Europe's most intriguing and closely-watched startups. 

Defence is top of the agenda for many policymakers and investors at the moment, and four-year-old Helsing has been crowned the poster child for the rising European defence tech wave. 

But, despite all that, the Munich-based company is remarkably secret about what it actually does. 

On this episode of the Sifted podcast, defence tech and VC reporter Anne Sraders and editor Amy Lewin share what they know of the rather mysterious company's products and clients, what murmurings they've heard from defence experts and investors and discuss what they think Helsing will do with all that money in the bank.

Key moments: 

00:00: Intro to Helsing
02:47: What does Helsing actually do?
06:02: Shifting attitudes to defence tech
08:49: Challenges and criticisms facing Helsing
12:06: What will Helsing do with €600m?

French fintech Qonto is a rare beast in startup land: it's actually profitable. Founded in 2016, the company provides banking and other financial services to 500,000 small businesses customers across eight European markets, helping them do everything from banking to accountancy, lending, savings, and as of recently, payment terminals.

And being in the black gives it plenty of opportunities to expand further, via new product development, acquisitions — and by becoming a fully-licensed bank.

In this episode of the Sifted podcast, CEO Alexandre Prot joins Amy to talk about how soon Qonto might apply for a banking licence, how it's using AI to tackle fraud and what lies ahead on the path to an IPO.

Key moments:

02:30 Acquisition strategy 
14:05 Becoming a ban
19:24 Secondaries and fundraising plans
22:57 IPO?
25:37 Challenges ahead 
28:14 Fraud and AI
35:45 What Alex would do differently building Qonto again 

Secondhand marketplace Vinted needs little introduction, with tens of millions registered users around the world who use its app to sell everything from clothes to furniture to even lava lamps.

But the (profitable) company is swiftly becoming far more than a marketplace: it also has its own shipping infrastructure, a payments business and — as of recently — a venture arm.

Despite that, CEO Thomas Plantenga is far from complacent: “If we really want to make secondhand first choice, then everything that we have needs to be a lot better.”

“The only thing that protects you is if you consistently improve what you have, because if you don’t, somebody’s going to see an opportunity to do things better than you do. And if somebody else is delivering more value to users than you, then you don’t deserve the position you’re in.”

In this week’s episode of the Sifted podcast, host Amy asks Thomas what’s next for Vinted, how does it plan to stay three steps ahead of the pack and what are its exit plans.

Key moments: 

2:53 - Vinted's key businesses

4.00 - Vinted's userbase

7.30 - Secondhand market globally 

9.00 - How can Vinted improve?

13.00 - About the logistics business

18.14 - About the payments business

25.06 - Thomas' stance on competition

27.30 - About Vinted Ventures

31.03 - M&A strategy 

33.26 - What does Vinted Ventures wants to invest in?

35.24 - What could go wrong at Vinted?

38.18 - Advice for CEOs

41.09 - Vinted's exit

This week on Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast, Amy speaks with Rob Lacher, founding partner at early-growth VC Visionaries Club.

Rob unpacks the challenges of defence procurement, why Europe has less than a year to get serious about its military capabilities and how VCs can do more than just write cheques in this space.

He also shares why Visionaries  doesn’t have an AI investment thesis, why new general partner Judith Dada is the 'single best person' he could have hoped to team up with — and the deals he still kicks himself for missing.

Key moments:

01.48: Lovable

06.30: Visionaries Club's relationships with other funds

12.24: Investing in defence companies

29.59: Challenges and opportunities for SaaS companies

39.39: Building a brand in VC

42.45: Quickfire questions

If you work in tech, you’ve probably heard about Lovable — the AI agent startup that's helping users make websites without writing a line of code.

The company hit $50m in annual recurring revenue earlier this year — just 12 months after launching — and recently poached a team member from 20VC. Not bad for a startup most people hadn’t heard of this time last year.

But how’s Lovable actually growing so fast? What’s its CEO Anton Osika really like? And is the hype justified?

On this experimental 13-minute episode of the Sifted podcast, editor Amy Lewin grills Europe editor Mimi Billing on what she’s found out.

If you’re in venture, it’s quite likely you’re already a Granola user, and if not, you’ve probably heard VCs bang on about how much they like it. 

The London-based note-taking startup is growing fast, with users increasing 10% week on week, and last week announced a $43m Series B at a $250m valuation — just a year after launching. 

But the 20-person team faces stiff competition — there are plenty of other ‘knowledge work’ tools out there — and there’s a lot to discover about how we all really want to use AI in our day-to-day lives. 

On the latest episode of the Sifted podcast, editor Amy asks Granola cofounder and CEO Chris Pedregal: What could the road ahead look like for a company like Granola? Why’s it being built in London? And what’s life like as a founder of a ‘hot’ AI startup?

This podcast was brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking, connecting you with what's next.

Today on Startup Europe — the Sifted Podcast, Amy is joined by Dinika Mahtani, London-based partner at European early-stage VC Cherry Ventures.

Dinika explains why she thinks deeptech is 'back', why Europe is having a moment — and what impact tariff turmoil is having on her portfolio companies.

She also shares how she made the jump from general manager at Uber to angel investing and then VC — and talks us through how she ensured she made partner within just three years of joining Cherry Ventures.

All of that, plus who Dinika would swap places with for a day and the most valuable piece of advice she's been given in her career to date.

This podcast is brought to you by Vanta.

Vanta is the fast, frictionless way for growing companies to get compliant, stay secure, and earn and maintain the trust of vendors and customers.  Head to Vanta.com/sifted to learn more. 

On this episode of Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast, Amy sits down with Tom Leathes, CEO and cofounder of used car marketplace Motorway. The company, founded in 2017, has helped more than half a million people sell their cars, and has raised $273m from investors like Index, Iconiq, LocalGlobe and BMW i Ventures.

Tom and his two cofounders have launched four startups before Motorway, with three resulting in successful exits, and one having to shut its doors. Tom and Amy discuss what he's learnt from that one failure, and what's now going right at Motorway, as the company takes on the formidable challenge of disrupting a huge and slow-changing automotive industry.

This podcast is brought to you by Vanta. 

Vanta is the fast, frictionless way for growing companies to get compliant, stay secure, and earn and maintain the trust of vendors and customers.  Head to Vanta.com/sifted to learn more.