Read the 2024 Sifted Rising 100 report in full here and check out which 100 startups Sifted selected.
London-based V7, a platform that helps AI systems understand images, videos and documents, has topped the third annual Sifted B2B SaaS Rising 100, which ranks Europe’s most promising business-focused software companies valued under $1bn.
Second place this year goes to Berlin-based conversational AI startup Parloa, which is developing artificial voices to handle customer queries; Dublin-based cybersecurity automation company Tines comes in third.
This year’s list unsurprisingly saw an influx of powerful AI tools — including systems to write bids for public contracts and help doctors treat their patients — along with a resurgence from the carbon accountants (Sylvera, Plan A and Sweep all finished in the top 25) and fintech startups. Six software businesses focused on helping CFOs and their finance teams also made the list, along with five crypto startups.
The 2024 cohort is much younger than the 2022 and 2023 editions and has raised significantly less capital. Average funding per startup has fallen by 24% since the first edition, from €96m to €73m.
Surprising no one: AI dominates
Launched in 2018, V7 enables users to label images and videos — so-called training data for AI. The company released its first generative AI tool, called V7 Go, in April which promises to automate everyday office tasks, such as processing invoices or speed-reading reports.
“We got 4,000 signups and saw £3m go into the pipeline over the course of a month,” cofounder and CEO Alberto Rizzoli told Sifted.
Seven GenAI companies made the list — and four made it into the top 10: V7, Berlin-based AI database Qdrant and Paris-based Poolside AI and Adaptive ML.
London cements its tech lead
London’s cements its place as Europe’s tech leader with 31 startups in the top 100 — the third year that the UK capital has led the Rising 100. Tel Aviv is the distant second most-represented city with 12, followed by Berlin and Paris with 11 apiece.
Enterprise software is the most dominant sector with 45 companies on the ranking; the next most-represented industry is fintech (30), followed by deeptech (11) and healthtech (8).
Early-stage is on fire this year: 47% of the class of 2024 are seed or Series A stage, compared to 26% in 2023 and 31% in 2022. Only 10 companies have raised a Series C or D.
The average launch year for the 100 is 2018. The youngest company to make the ranking is Adaptive ML, which was founded in October 2023.
VC firms Balderton Capital and Speedinvest are the two most-active private investors in the ranking, backing 12 companies apiece. Index Ventures follows with 10 investments. The most prolific angel investor is Personio founder Hanno Renner, who’s backed six companies on the list.
Only 17 of our 100 companies are founded by women.
The top 10:
- V7 — Automates office tasks and feeds AI systems with training data
- Parloa — Replaces human customer service with artificial voices
- Tines — Cybersecurity automation
- Sylvera — Rates carbon offset projects
- Poolside AI — ChatGPT-like tool that writes software code
- Qdrant — AI vector database
- Adaptive ML — Builds AI models for businesses
- Yokoy — Automates spend management for finance teams
- Juni — Neobank for ecommerce brands
- TestGorilla — Skills-based tests for company hiring
Methodology
In February 2024, Sifted compiled a list of 994 applicable startups headquartered in Europe or Israel from our proprietary database, as well as external providers Dealroom and PitchBook, that met the following criteria (consistent with previous editions):
- Launched in 2017 or later
- Estimated minimum valuation of $100m
- Maximum valuation of $999m
- Fundraised any funding round in or after 2018
- Private and independent
- Sells software products to other businesses (if there is a hardware component, it is off-the-shelf and a mechanism through which to sell software products rather than the core IP of the business)
Sifted Scout, Sifted’s proprietary startup sourcing tool which evaluates companies against their peers, was deployed (for the first time) to whittle the longlist down to 175 companies — based on funding track records and cap table strength.
A judging panel with representatives from Sifted’s editorial and research teams then assessed companies on three categories — market opportunity, competitive differentiation and momentum — and the top 100 scoring startups made the cut. The report was sponsored by VC Sapphire Ventures.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/london-genai-company-v7-tops-sifteds-b2b-saas-rising-100-ranking/
