Reflections on Sifted Summit 2025: the resilience of the European start-up ecosystem and funding tips for founders

On 8 and 9 October 2025, members of the Bristows corporate team took turns attending the Sifted Summit, an annual conference hosted in London by the leading media brand for the European start-up community. 

As in previous years, the Sifted Summit brought together founders, investors, commentators and advisors from the European tech ecosystem for a series of talks, workshops and networking opportunities. Over 200 speakers took part, with highlights including fireside chats with high profile individuals such as Herman Hauser (co-founder of Arm), Greg Jackson (CEO of Octopus Energy) and Eric Schmit (former CEO of Google). Below we set out some of the takeaways observed by our team relating to (i) the general theme of the Summit, being the "resilience" shown by the European start-up ecosystem in the face of recent challenges and (ii) considerations for start-ups in the process of seeking new investment.

The resilience of the European start-up ecosystem

A recurring theme was undoubtedly that there is much to celebrate about the European start-up ecosystem at present. Capital is abundant, with willing investors and newer funding sources – namely, corporate venture capital, sovereign wealth and other institutional investors – flowing into the market and creating funding opportunities for ambitious start-ups, of which there are plenty. The European market is often (and will continue to be) compared to the heft of the US, but speakers such as Reshma Sohoni (Founding Partner of VC Seedcamp) were keen to stress that many US investors, too, are more than happy to invest in talented founders and innovative tech located in Europe. Despite the global dominance of the US tech giants, and the sense that too few European start-ups achieve scale in the same way as their US counterparts, in some instances – and with a nod here to London’s fintech expertise in particular – Europe may even be considered the envy of the US. 

And of course, many European start-ups do reach significant scale. Laura Modiano (Head of start-ups at Open AI), echoing her “Love Letter to Europe” (posted on LinkedIn not long before the Summit took place), emphasised the growing maturity of the European ecosystem, which has created more unicorns (privately-held and VC-backed companies valued at $1bn) in the last five years than in the previous twenty. (As of October 2025, Sifted’s list of European unicorns founded after 2005 runs to 174.) As well as generating jobs and creating value, a maturing ecosystem also means that there are increasing numbers of founders with experience of growing a start-up, whose skills and guidance may be recycled into the ecosystem as they pursue new projects.

What is more, Modiano stressed, Europe produces more STEM graduates per capita than either the US or China – individuals with the skillsets required for the technical innovation that will inspire the next generation of successful start-ups. Hermann Hauser echoed this optimism around Europe’s higher education system, noting the rich stream of intellectual property being produced out of European universities – and academics’ increasing willingness to get involved in commercialising it. This enhances the region’s ability to compete in research-intensive areas such as deep-tech (an umbrella term incorporating AI as well as quantum computing, biotech, robotics and advanced materials, among other areas with the potential for significant technological breakthroughs).

To be sure, challenges remain. Hauser also emphasised that, as well as requiring intellectual capital, advances in deep-tech (a critical arena with enormous economic potential, as recently noted by McKinsey) require significant financial investment to scale up. If Europe is to keep pace with the US and China in this area, therefore, more substantial investment will be required into promising European deep-tech start-ups. Further, demand-side challenges remain at the forefront for many European start-ups, and the risk of promising young companies turning their attention to the US and Asia to connect with larger target markets (in the hope of generating revenues) is an active one. Meanwhile, many investors are increasingly focused on seeing a clear path to future profitability, escalating the sense of pressure felt by many start-ups. If the European start-up ecosystem is to achieve its full potential, such challenges will have to be addressed. But the overwhelming mood at the Summit was nevertheless of belief in the strong foundations of the European start-up ecosystem, and cautious optimism for its future.

Top funding tips for founders

Understandably, attracting investors and planning their company’s next best funding move will no doubt have been a key focus for many of the founders (and other company-side employees) attending the Summit. Aside from building a strong business case and developing a persuasive pitch, what did the speakers have to say on this topic? 

Above all, founders should be discerning in seeking out investors who are likely be good long-term fit for their business. In basic terms, different types of investors (e.g. angel vs venture vs private equity) will invest at different stages in the investment cycle, and founders may be able to save time and energy by focusing on the most likely candidates from an early stage. Ensuring that a potential investor understands your market (and perhaps has a track-record of investing in similar businesses) is likely to pay dividends in the long-run, and a shared belief in your vision for the business is critical. Reshma Sohoni advises founders not to get too hung up on geography, however – a great match may be found on either side of the Atlantic (or further afield), so it is generally best not to allow preconceptions to predominate decisions around whether to court investors from the US or Europe. This aligns with our recent experience of advising on investment rounds here at Bristows: start-ups frequently raise funds from a consortium of investors, who are often of diverse international origins. To take one example, Kneu Health (a health-tech spin-out from the University of Oxford focused on tackling degenerative neurological conditions) raised funds from investors based in each of the US, UK, Middle East and Asia as part of its recent seed round.

Seeking to understand investors’ expectations from an early stage is also key. This means ensuring that founders are on the same page as their investors with regard to the economic terms of the investment (and the dilutive effect on the founders’ shareholdings – in this round, and the likely impact of future rounds), as well as the extent to which an investor expects to be involved in key business decisions. As an aside, from an English company law perspective, it is worth bearing in mind that a founder will no longer have sole control over fundamental company actions (such as changing the company’s name or constitution) once they hold less than 75% of voting shares.

For start-ups further along in their funding journey, the question of whether and/or when to IPO is likely to arise at some point. Matthew Scullion, CEO of Matillion (the cloud-based data integration platform that achieved unicorn status on completion of its Series E financing in 2021), is no stranger to this debate and encourages founders to view an IPO less as a potential exit event for them – lock-up periods and investor expectations generally make it difficult for founders to achieve a clean break on an IPO – and think clearly about what the company is trying to achieve by going public. Increased access to capital is only one piece of the puzzle. The massive increase in publicity that an IPO brings is likely to be a unique selling opportunity for the company (if that is what it needs to grow), but this must be weighed against the challenges brought by increased scrutiny and ongoing disclosure, compliance and reporting obligations – part of the reason for the apparent sluggishness of the UK market in recent years. However, the discussion also noted that the UK authorities have lately been seeking to combat challenging conditions and make the public markets more attractive, for example, by simplifying the listing regime, and there has been recent talk of a potential revival of the London IPO market taking root. Meanwhile, the UK’s new regime for the trading of private company shares, PISCES, could prove a welcome stepping-stone towards IPO for growth companies looking to offer liquidity to existing investors (and employees), where perhaps they may not yet be ready for the full regulatory burden that comes with going public. On both counts, the Sifted Summit in autumn 2026 will be an opportune moment to assess whether this tentative optimism around the future of the UK public markets is merited.