Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast

Last month, the US AI giant Anthropic released a new Claude tool for the legal industry, triggering a sell-off in publicly listed firms like Salesforce and reigniting concerns that AI-native startups could wipe out traditional SaaS giants.
So will Europe’s VC-backed SaaS giants survive the AI area? And what about the VCs who’ve heavily backed them?
In this episode of the Sifted Podcast, host Amy Lewin is joined by senior reporters Freya Pratty and Anne Sraders to unpack what the rise of AI means for Europe’s VC-backed software companies — and the investors who’ve poured billions into them.
Read more here: https://sifted.eu/articles/european-vc-saaspocalypse

The AI debate has been dominated by large language models used to power the likes of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. But could the next wave of AI look very different?
Yes, some European AI watchers say. Attention is shifting to so-called “world models” — systems designed to build internal representations of how the world works, rather than simply predicting the next word in a sentence. 
A number of prominent researchers, including former Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, have argued this approach could overcome some of the limitations of today’s LLMs — and have launched startups to prove it.
On this week’s episode of the Sifted Podcast, host Freya Pratty is joined by senior reporters Daphné Leprince-Ringuet and Anne Sraders to unpack the hype around world models. What exactly are they? What real-world applications might they unlock? And with researchers like LeCun choosing to base new ventures in Europe, could this be an area where the continent builds a competitive edge in the global AI race?

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Europe's in a state of emergency — but when will we all wake up and recognise that?
That’s the question posed on this week’s episode of the Sifted Podcast by Judith Dada, general partner at European VC Visionaries Club, newsletter author, mother and setter-upper of numerous side projects. 
Judith started her career in venture almost a decade ago at La Famiglia, the Germany-based early-stage investor, which later went on to merge with US megafund General Catalyst. She’s now come full circle, joining forces with La Famiglia founding partner (and fellow former Sifted podcast guest) Rob Lacher at Visionaries.  
Visionaries’ portfolio includes plenty of companies that are on a tear right now — Lovable, Black Forest Labs, N8n, Solve Intelligence and Tandem Health — and their thesis, that Europe is in a fantastic position to shape the next wave of disruption in business, seems more relevant than ever.
Amy and Judith sit down to discuss whether legacy SaaS companies can survive in this AI era, why Europe is in “a state of emergency” and what we can do about it, and when Visionaries will raise a new fund.
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Check out Judith's newsletter: https://dadalogue.substack.com/
This episode was sponsored by HSBC Innovation Banking.

How do European startups like Lovable and Black Forest Labs find and hire top tier talent? 
This week Amy Lewin sits down with VP of talent at European VC Creandum Michelle Coventry, who spends a lot of time advising super fast-scaling companies on how to build out their teams and what, exactly, the scaling playbook should look like in the age of AI. 
The pair discuss how hiring is changing, what happens when buzzy European companies scale in the US, when exactly startups should bring in senior talent and what founders should know before they set their pay. 
Read highlights from Creandum’s founder compensation report here: https://sifted.eu/articles/founder-salaries-2025/ 
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It’s been a busy start to the year for Europe’s tech ecosystem.

We’ve already had five new unicorns born, €5.2bn raised, a $1bn acquisition and Sifted’s landed several scoops revealing that some of the continent’s most interesting investors — the likes of Plural and QuantumLight — are raising big new funds.

To discuss the bumper start to 2026, host Amy Lewin is joined by contributing editor Éanna Kelly, who spends his days sussing out which companies are fast on the rise, which investors are getting in on the buzziest deals and which ecosystems and sectors are hotting up.

They also cover the 26 startups Sifted will be watching especially closely (and why) and what investors tell us they have planned for the next 12 months.
Read Sifted Predicts here: https://sifted.eu/studio/sifted-predicts-european-tech-2026
Explore Sifted Pro here: https://sifted.eu/sifted-pro
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