Tackling financial fraud with AI: Qonto CEO Alexandre Prot
French fintech Qonto is a rare beast in startup land: it's actually profitable. Founded in 2016, the company provides banking and other financial services to 500,000 small businesses customers across eight European markets, helping them do everything from banking to accountancy, lending, savings, and as of recently, payment terminals.And being in the black gives it plenty of opportunities to expand further, via new product development, acquisitions — and by becoming a fully-licensed bank.In this episode of the Sifted podcast, CEO Alexandre Prot joins Amy to talk about how soon Qonto might apply for a banking licence, how it's using AI to tackle fraud and what lies ahead on the path to an IPO.Key moments:02:30 Acquisition strategy 14:05 Becoming a ban19:24 Secondaries and fundraising plans22:57 IPO?25:37 Challenges ahead 28:14 Fraud and AI35:45 What Alex would do differently building Qonto again
--------
37:10
--------
37:10
Vinted CEO Thomas Plantenga: ‘Vinted is not a company that’s going to exit’
Secondhand marketplace Vinted needs little introduction, with tens of millions registered users around the world who use its app to sell everything from clothes to furniture to even lava lamps.But the (profitable) company is swiftly becoming far more than a marketplace: it also has its own shipping infrastructure, a payments business and — as of recently — a venture arm.Despite that, CEO Thomas Plantenga is far from complacent: “If we really want to make secondhand first choice, then everything that we have needs to be a lot better.”“The only thing that protects you is if you consistently improve what you have, because if you don’t, somebody’s going to see an opportunity to do things better than you do. And if somebody else is delivering more value to users than you, then you don’t deserve the position you’re in.”In this week’s episode of the Sifted podcast, host Amy asks Thomas what’s next for Vinted, how does it plan to stay three steps ahead of the pack and what are its exit plans.Key moments: 2:53 - Vinted's key businesses4.00 - Vinted's userbase7.30 - Secondhand market globally 9.00 - How can Vinted improve?13.00 - About the logistics business18.14 - About the payments business25.06 - Thomas' stance on competition27.30 - About Vinted Ventures31.03 - M&A strategy 33.26 - What does Vinted Ventures wants to invest in?35.24 - What could go wrong at Vinted?38.18 - Advice for CEOs41.09 - Vinted's exit
--------
43:01
--------
43:01
'Defence is where we can play all our superpowers': Visionaries Club’s Rob Lacher
This week on Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast, Amy speaks with Rob Lacher, founding partner at early-growth VC Visionaries Club.Rob unpacks the challenges of defence procurement, why Europe has less than a year to get serious about its military capabilities and how VCs can do more than just write cheques in this space.He also shares why Visionaries doesn’t have an AI investment thesis, why new general partner Judith Dada is the 'single best person' he could have hoped to team up with — and the deals he still kicks himself for missing.Key moments:01.48: Lovable06.30: Visionaries Club's relationships with other funds12.24: Investing in defence companies29.59: Challenges and opportunities for SaaS companies39.39: Building a brand in VC42.45: Quickfire questions
--------
45:09
--------
45:09
What's so special about Lovable?
If you work in tech, you’ve probably heard about Lovable — the AI agent startup that's helping users make websites without writing a line of code.The company hit $50m in annual recurring revenue earlier this year — just 12 months after launching — and recently poached a team member from 20VC. Not bad for a startup most people hadn’t heard of this time last year.But how’s Lovable actually growing so fast? What’s its CEO Anton Osika really like? And is the hype justified?On this experimental 13-minute episode of the Sifted podcast, editor Amy Lewin grills Europe editor Mimi Billing on what she’s found out.
--------
13:51
--------
13:51
'We haven’t made a pitch deck since we started the company': Granola CEO Chris Pedregal
If you’re in venture, it’s quite likely you’re already a Granola user, and if not, you’ve probably heard VCs bang on about how much they like it. The London-based note-taking startup is growing fast, with users increasing 10% week on week, and last week announced a $43m Series B at a $250m valuation — just a year after launching. But the 20-person team faces stiff competition — there are plenty of other ‘knowledge work’ tools out there — and there’s a lot to discover about how we all really want to use AI in our day-to-day lives. On the latest episode of the Sifted podcast, editor Amy asks Granola cofounder and CEO Chris Pedregal: What could the road ahead look like for a company like Granola? Why’s it being built in London? And what’s life like as a founder of a ‘hot’ AI startup?This podcast was brought to you by HSBC Innovation Banking, connecting you with what's next.
Sifted brings you monthly long-form interviews with the biggest names in European startups. We hear from the founders, operators and investors behind the continent's biggest tech companies to learn what makes them tick and what they've learnt while building their businesses.
Netherlands