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The European startups that have gone bust in 2023

What happens when runway runs out?

By Sifted reporters

Investors have been telling startups to extend their runways for months. The economy’s warning lights have been flashing for a while, and many tech companies have already laid off workers to keep themselves afloat.

Sadly, some startups — which perhaps didn’t have all that much in the bank to begin with or had a high burn rate, and couldn’t raise further funding or find a buyer — have simply run out of runway. 

Several bankruptcies have already been announced this year, and we expect, unfortunately, that there will be many more.

Here we list those startups that have gone out of business in 2023 — and the investors that bet on them. 

Our Intelligence team will be updating the Airtable at the bottom of this article with the full details of the companies that have gone under, and the investors in them that we could find who are set to lose out.

February 2023

  • Yababa — Berlin-based grocery delivery company backed by Creandum, Project A and Food Labs. Raised $15.5m in November 2021.

January 2023

  • Lightyear — Netherlands-based company which aimed to produce the world’s first production-ready solar car. Launched in 2016, raised $241m in total — including €81m announced in September 2022 — filed for bankruptcy at the end of January.
  • Glisser — London-based SaaS company backed by Downing Ventures. 

The startups that have gone bust so far in 2023