Will fundraising improve?
plus: Journaling hacks for busy people
· 744 words
Melanie Gabriel & Christian Woese
September 10, 2024 • Read time: 4 minutes
Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,
Northvolt, Europe’s electric battery star, is in hot water — announcing major cost cuts, factory closures, and layoffs to secure its drastically deteriorating financial position (its losses hit $1.2bn in 2023). The move highlights the difficult situation of Europe’s electric vehicle supply chain as the industry faces fierce competition from US and Chinese players. Will they survive the battle? Follow the Gradient and stay tuned.
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Your talk track for this week’s cocktail party
$1bn for a safe AGI
While his former employer OpenAI prepares a new financing round, AI superstar Ilya Sutskever is raising $1bn for his new venture, Safe Superintelligence — with a simplistic website but sky-high ambitions: "a safe superintelligence”. Backed by a16z and Sequoia Capital, the firm is already valued at $5bn. Looks like the AI funding party isn’t over just yet! 🥳
Acquihires - Big Tech’s antitrust workaround?
As antitrust laws tighten, Big Tech is finding creative ways to secure top talent and tech. Enter: reverse acquihires. Instead of acquisitions, major US tech firms are hiring founders and licensing their technology. Microsoft hired Inflection AI’s team with a $650m licensing deal, Google brought on character.ai’s founders, Amazon scooped up 66% of Adept’s workforce and repeated the move one week ago with Covariant’s AI robotics team.
European VC on the rise
London-based Atomico has raised $1.24bn for two new funds: $485m for Series A and seed rounds, and $754m for Series B to pre-IPO. Definitely a sign of continued strength of the European VC ecosystem: Balderton raised $1.2bn in August this year for a fund dedicated to European founders, following European VC firm Index ventures raising $2.3bn in July this year.
What do you meme?
Food for thought
The walking dead
About a third of U.S. tech unicorns - private companies valued at $1bn or more, are struggling with no profits and declining sales, reports the Wall Street Journal. The end of zero-interest rates has exposed companies that relied on buying growth without strong fundamentals. Dubbed “walking dead",” these cash-burning startups are no longer attractive to investors, with many at risk to fail or be acquired at a discount. What learnings do we take from this? Is now the time to start a business — profitable from the start?
If you survived August, it can only get better
August saw the lowest European startup funding since April 2017, according to Sifted’s data. While it’s usually a slow month, this year was particularly quiet, with startups raising just €1.8bn across 247 deals—compared to €4.8bn last August. The night is darkest before dawn.
“To be founder-mode, or not to be, that is the question”
Mark your calendar
Denmark
Germany
Seamless in Munich, 10-11 September [Program: Payments & Fintech | Retail & E-Commerce]
Netherlands
Founders Growth Night in Amsterdam, 10 September [Register here]
Switzerland
Swisspreneur’s Scaleup Cruise in Zurich, 12 September [Apply for a spot]
UK
Sifted Talks in London, “If these walls could talk: Tackling the work-life conundrum for European startups”, 12 September [Register here]
Online
DartLabs webinar: What is the best legal structure for our US operations?, 10. September at 4pm CEST [Register here]
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Smart hack
We've all heard how life-changing journaling can be. Let's be honest—who has the time to do this on a daily basis? Founder Maximilian Fleitmann felt the same until he made one simple change: instead of journaling every day, he spent 30 minutes on Sundays reflecting on the week. He asked:
▶️ What went well?
▶️ What didn’t?
▶️ How did I feel?
▶️ What did I learn?
Bonus perk? If you ever want to write your autobiography, you’ve got your weekly recaps ready to go!
One good read
An all-time classic - good to read the original piece (again):