Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast

Sequoia has just shut down its scout programme after 17 years. Northzone, the $3.1bn VC behind Spotify, Klarna and Black Forest Labs, has launched one.
Northstars brings together 25 operators from AI-native companies across Europe, including ElevenLabs, Black Forest Labs, Neko Health and Langdock. They'll source deals, co-invest alongside the firm and mentor its founders. Most of them aren't C-suite either. They include chiefs of staff, heads of engineering and talent leads.
So why look to operators over angels? How does the co-investment actually work? And what does success look like in three years?
Joining host Freya Pratty on this episode of the Sifted podcast is Elena Pantazi, partner for talent and portfolio development at Northzone. The pair also dig into how the war for talent is changing and the rise of the "player-coach" hire, and how investors can best do diligence on a pre-product AI team in two weeks. Elena also shares the sectors she wants scouts to bring her, from robotics infrastructure to preventative health.
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Sequoia is closing its London office after six years. The Silicon Valley firm, which has backed European companies like Ineffable Intelligence and Stark, says it can still support Europe's best founders from the Bay Area. Its European scout programme is being cut, and three of its four London partners are staying in Europe rather than moving to California.
On this episode of the Sifted Podcast, senior reporter Anne Sraders tells guest host Daphné Leprince-Ringuet why Sequoia is refocusing on San Francisco as the AI boom pulls capital to the Bay Area, and why other European VCs are also following suit. She explains what Sifted data shows about Sequoia’s European dealmaking: 12 announced primary rounds so far this year, down from 18 at this point in 2025 but up from 10 in 2024. She also explains why Sequoia feels confident it can cover Europe from abroad. The pair also discuss how founders and VCs have reacted, from talk of "managed decline" to claims that people are overreacting. They ask whether Europe still relies too heavily on US money for big rounds, and whether Sequoia's exit opens the door for local investors.
Read Anne's story on Sequoia's exit.
Sign up to Anne’s weekly VC newsletter, Up Round
Sign up to Sifted's free newsletters: https://sifted.eu/newsletters
This episode was sponsored by Chargebee — billing, metering, and monetisation infrastructure for fast-scaling AI-native startups and enterprises.

Charles Maddock has been betting on AI agents since before most people knew what they were. His Stockholm-based startup Strawberry makes an AI browser where teams create “companions”: virtual colleagues that find leads, book calls and take notes across your tabs, and get better the more you use them.

Strawberry is backed by General Catalyst and EQT Ventures, and this week launched its first full product, Strawberry 1.0.
On the podcast, Maddock talks to host Freya Pratty about Europe’s need to build its own sovereign agents, how Legora’s Max Junestrand helped Strawberry land General Catalyst, and why he thinks Europe needs a voice on AI safety.

This episode was sponsored by Chargebee — billing, metering, and monetisation infrastructure for fast-scaling AI-native startups and enterprises.

With former DeepMind researchers raising record sums for their own startups, few investors are better placed than Aaron Rosenberg. Once Demis Hassabis’s deputy and later head of strategy and operations at Google DeepMind, he now leads Canadian firm Radical Ventures’ UK presence and runs a 70+-member London alumni group on WhatsApp for the lab’s former staff.
On this episode of the Sifted Podcast, Aaron tells host John Thornhill why he’s often among the first people DeepMind researchers call when they’re weighing whether to leave — and why his advice is sometimes to stay. He explains why London’s new crop of neolabs is breaking away from what he calls the “assembly line” of frontier model development, what could stop them from becoming global champions and why Hassabis remains his model of what a great CEO looks like.
The pair also discuss Radical’s new $1bn-plus growth fund, the firm’s investments in Inherent and Latent Labs and what the UK’s planned non-compete reforms could mean for founders leaving big labs.
Read Sifted's profile of Inherent: https://sifted.eu/articles/inside-londons-weirdest-neolab

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This podcast was brought to you by Chargebee — billing, metering, and monetisation infrastructure for fast-scaling AI-native startups and enterprises

Harry Stebbings needs little introduction. The founder of 20VC has built a venture and media empire, and a reputation for punchy takes.

Among the most memorable: London is overrun by phone snatchers, the best founders have experienced some form of childhood trauma and people should be working 9am to 9pm, six days a week.

Recorded live at Sifted Summit in October, this conversation sees Harry sit down with host Freya Pratty to walk back several of those claims and explain the difference between “brand Harry” and Harry himself. 

The pair also discuss bro culture in tech, his political ambitions and which company he thinks will return the 20VC fund.

This podcast was brought to you by HSBC Innovating Banking.