Hi everyone, I'm Loli from Taipei.I'm still slowly recovering from the nasty cold I caught at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago – but at least I have my voice back! After conducting more than 30 interviews in less than a week, including some with my colleague Cheng Ting Fang, my voice was so deep that I sounded like a less musical Miley Cyrus. By the end of the industry event, I could barely make a sound.And that wasn't the only little drama. On the first day of the trade show, as I was heading to…
Author: ricardofrancois
The author is a writer for Sifted, an FT-backed site for European startupsAsk the founders of any startup in Munich how they got their business off the ground, and they're likely to mention UnternehmerTUM, the start-up laboratory of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), founded by German heiress Susanne in 2002. Klatten.The nonprofit offers 20 programs that support startups with the basics of starting a company: from building a prototype, to pitching to venture capital groups, and learning how to become a CEO. RecommendedEvery year, 5,000 people participate in start-up programs at UnternehmerTUM, and 50 new companies are created.The founders…
The author is a writer for Sifted, an FT-backed site for European startupsIn the university city of Lille, in northern France, a building resembling Google's campus stands in the middle of the Bois Blanc district – an area that 15 years ago was known for crime, drug dealing and prostitution.It is now home to the main campus of startup incubator and accelerator Euratechnologies, nestled behind the red brick walls of what was once one of the country's most productive cotton mills.Nearly 2,500 jobs were lost when the factory closed at the end of the 1980s, and the entire surrounding area…
In the FT-Statista-Sifted ranking of startup hubs for 2024, Spain and Portugal score generally higher than all other European countries, with the exception of the UK and Germany.In Spain, it was Barcelona-based programs that had the best results, due to their low costs, the city's supportive ecosystem, and the wealth of available talent.Data provider Startup Heatmap Europe ranks third, behind London and Berlin, while website EU-Startups.com ranks sixth. Either way, Barcelona is ahead of Madrid and, with the exception of Munich, is the only city in the top ten that is not a financial capital.RecommendedEntrepreneurs cite the Catalan city's welcoming,…
Steve Brierley didn't have to negotiate intellectual property rights when he resigned from his academic position at the University of Cambridge to create a start-up. But he was still happy that he had founded his tech company there and could benefit from the broader benefits of the enterprise.A former senior research fellow in computational mathematics, he launched Riverlane in 2016 to help correct the high level of errors made by quantum computers. Today, with 100 employees spread between Cambridge, Boston and San Francisco, it is well placed to evaluate and compare the value of the university's links to entrepreneurs.RecommendedHis experience…
The past year has been tough for startups globally, as money raised by venture capital groups — major investors in startups — declined sharply due to rising interest rates, rising inflation, and economic uncertainty.In the UK – Europe's largest technology market – venture capital groups worldwide invested nearly $20 billion in 2023, compared to about $37 billion in 2022, according to an analysis of global venture capital funding published by the professional services firm. KPMG.RecommendedThe broader technology industry has also suffered, with more than 250,000 jobs cut across the sector, marking the end of the pandemic-era boom.As a result, the…
Mention startup hubs, and most people think of Silicon Valley. Think of startup hubs, and you might think of Y Combinator: the famous American accelerator, whose motto is “Make something people want,” has attracted budding entrepreneurs from all over the world who dream, like Steve Jobs of the famous Apple, of creating startup hubs. . “””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””” “Since 2005, Y Combinator has nurtured and funded 4,000 startups with a combined value of $600 billion, including Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe.Every region of the world has looked enviously at this model of entrepreneurial dynamism and has tried to imitate the West Coast rules.…
This article is an on-site version of our Unhedged newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent directly to your inbox every weekdayGood morning. Dollar Tree was Unhedged's top stock pick for 2024, up about 14 percent. But it brought it all back yesterday, when it announced it would close 1,000 of its 16,000 stores and take charges. We knew that closing stores was a risk, and that the decision to downsize for growth seemed smart, but knowing when a restructuring plan would pay off was difficult. Stock picking is difficult. Send me your exhausted stories: robert.armstrong@ft.com. Reconsider the…
Deep tech is on the rise in Europe, driven in part by the match between artificial intelligence and the local flavor of excellence in mathematics. But it also benefits from a growing community, public support, and increasing amounts of funding. Elaia's third deep-tech fund, DTS3, is a case in point: “It's twice the size of the previous two funds,” Anne-Sophie Carrese, managing partner at the French VC firm, told TechCrunch. With a first close of €60 million, it is set to reach €120 million by the time the fundraising is complete, which it said should happen by early 2025. It…
In August 2016, Twitter secured a $5 million advertising deal with Donald Trump's election campaign, including the promise that an emoji could automatically play alongside a custom hashtag. Most brands use an image for their logo, but the campaign wanted to use an emoji of a robber running away with a bag of money. Hashtag? #FraudHillary. Days before it was scheduled to go live, Twitter rejected it. Trump's team was furious, and withdrew part of the deal. “to [then chief executive Jack] “Dorsey and Twitter were an awkward and costly introduction to dealing with Trump,” Bloomberg journalist Kurt Wagner wrote…