2024 was the year of generative AI (again): the year it ripped through investors’ dry powder, scooped up a whole lot of talented engineers and actually started creating products that people will pay for — so it’s no surprise that many of the most popular stories published by Sifted this year revolved around it.
But 2024 was also the year that Europe’s deeptech doldrums really started to bite; Mario Draghi released that report on European competitiveness (top line: it’s not currently competitive enough) — and, as if to underscore his point, Northvolt failed, Lilium failed and Klarna decided to list in the US.
It was also another tough year for founders, with many telling Sifted in the spring that they were considering quitting their startups for good, as a tricky fundraising environment and the push to reach profitability took its toll.
Check out our 10 best-read stories of the year below.
‘We can’t find a single German or European applicant’: Deeptech startups feel bite of talent shortage
Finding qualified talent to power Europe’s deeptech startups — whether in AI, quantum or semiconductors — remains a challenge. Senior reporter Miriam Partington got stuck into why — and what companies and governments can do about it.
Octopus Energy spreads its tentacles in acquisitions spree
Octopus, the UK’s second-largest energy supplier, had acquired at least 15 companies when we mapped them out back in March. Since then, Octopus’ spree has continued, recently acquiring Dutch startup Jedlix, which works on electric vehicle charging tech.
How much equity should you expect from an early-stage startup?
As secondaries became all the rage — with UK fintechs Revolut, Monzo, Moneybox and Tide all offering employees a chance to cash in some options — this piece about how much equity early-stage startup employees should expect to be offered proved very popular.
Three cofounders leave French AI startup H just three months after raising $220m seed
The soap opera of AI just kept giving in 2024, with French startup H dishing up the biggest drama when three of its five cofounders left the company abruptly, just three months after raising a $220m seed round and before the company had publicly released a product.
Did people at VC firm Accel, which led the seed round, get some grey hairs that weekend? We reckon so.
49% of founders say they’re considering quitting their startup this year
In March, startup founders told us in a reader survey that they were “overworked”, “exhausted” and “broken” — and dozens of them were considering leaving their businesses in the coming year.
We’ll be running a repeat of the survey in the new year to find out if founders are feeling more optimistic going into 2025. We hope so!
‘Everyone is there’ — why Berlin’s tech scene uproots to Cape Town every winter
More and more Berlin VCs and founders are flocking to the sunny South African city every winter when it gets chilly back home. Last January, Berlin-based reporters Miriam Partington and Anne Sraders (perhaps a little envious) decided to find out why.
The Enhanced Games: Peter Thiel backs drug-fuelled Olympics-style competition
The Enhanced Games — an Olympic-style competition where athletes can take performance-enhancing drugs — told reporter Kai Nicol-Schwarz back in January that it was planning its first event for the summer of 2025.
Is that still the plan? The Enhanced Games tells Sifted it’s now planning to run its first event towards the end of 2025.
Profitable, AI-powered companies with no employees to arrive “next year”
Is AI smart enough yet to make money, all by itself? A growing bunch of startups are trying to make these autonomous, revenue-generating companies happen, as former news editor Tim Smith discovered in January. But they weren’t quite ready yet… then.
This AI girlfriend startup is making $100k a month fulfilling people’s fetishes
Also in the ‘weird stuff AI can do’ category are AI girlfriends, which some people, we discovered, think are preferable to the real thing. Some startups are making serious money from creating them, too.
‘We’re building the UK’s first $1tn company’ — Amazon Alexa creator’s new startup
William Tunstall-Pedoe sold his startup Evi to Amazon in 2012, paving the way for Alexa — but has no plans to sell his new startup, London-based Unlikely AI, to US Big Tech. Instead, he wants to build a “very significant” company on home turf, and keep it there. When he spoke to Sifted in September, it was still pre-launch; now the company says it’s “in the process of deploying with its first customers” as it builds AI that it says can help clients “make high-stakes decisions without fear of mistakes or hallucinations.”
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/sifteds-most-read-stories-of-2024/
