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Hi Sifted Reader,

What do online groceries, digital nomads and erectile dysfunction therapies have in common? They’re all topics Amy and Eleanor are getting to grips with in this week’s episode of The Sifted Podcast. Listen here, plus...

• What the EU’s big new startup plan means for Europe’s tech sector
• How much do German VCs make?
• Global Founders Capital is chopping a lot of staff, Sifted’s heard

— Kai, reporter & Tom, digital editor

European policymakers are about to publish the most comprehensive plan so far for how to help European startups compete globally — focusing on things like talent, regulation, data, access to finance and "deeptech valleys".

But can it put the region on an even keel with the US and China?

Zendesk makes it easier for scaling startups to support their customers with its software. Apply for its growth programme — Zendesk for Startups — for six months free.

Find out if you're eligible here.

That's according to a new report from XAnge, a Franco-German fund, that looked at the salaries of 171 employees from venture capital firms in Germany.

It also looked into how much carry VCs have, how women's salaries stacked up against men's and which sectors were the most lucrative.

Are the results what you expected?

The VC firm is understood to be laying off as much as 80% of support staff, according to information provided to Sifted by a number of investors who have invested in GFC companies.

Global Founders Capital has neither confirmed nor denied that it is making any staff reductions, but if the reports are confirmed the cuts will be one of the first public VC casualties of the tech downturn.

Eleanor Warnock has more.

A Sifted reader has been told that if the startup they work for doesn’t reach profitability by the end of the year, there might be redundancies.

Should they stay and hope for the best — or should they find a new job (now)?

We asked a careers coach, an HR veteran and a recruiter.

Do you also need some (startup) advice? Let us know about your startup problems anonymously and we’ll ask tech experts what you should do. Simply fill in this form or email kai@sifted.eu. 

💰 The B2B BNPL bonanza continues. London and Paris-based fintech Hokodo raised a $40m Series B led by Notion Capital. The startup is looking to bed down in an increasingly crowded market and says it's been entering a new market every three months, but can it sustain the growth?

🐙 Octopus Ventures launches £10m pre-seed fund. The London-HQ'd VC has just closed its first ever pre-seed fund, and plans to pump the money into the B2B software, fintech and healthtech sectors. So why is Octopus so keen to back baby startups?

🛒 Zapp to leave Amsterdam. The speedy grocery startup is in talks to pull out of the Dutch capital, after it says the City forced the closure of two of its key dark stores. It follows proposals from the City to only allows dark stores in industrial areas, putting the mockers on the speedy grocery model, which relies on having stores close to consumers.

🛴 Micromobility startup Voi lays off 10% of HQ staff. The Stockholm startup joins the the ranks of European tech companies cutting headcount in light of the economic downturn. Here's the full list. 

Despite crypto investors seeking positive trajectories and quick wins, the question remains — can this market truly align with ESG goals? Can crypto ever really go green? Find out on July 6.

RSVP.

🎣 How to poach talent. Imagine you've found the perfect person for a role you've been trying to fill for ages — but they currently work elsewhere. How do you poach them? We hear from Martin Sokk, cofounder and CEO of investment platform Lightyear, who's nabbed talent from scaleups like Wise, Revolut and Robinhood. 

📝 The “Black Goose” memo. Our (somewhat fictional) VC columnist Rosie Wood’s firm Mild Conviction shared its take on the markets with Sifted. Founders, take note.

🇬🇧 Spice up your life as a startup people manager. Julia Carloff-Winkelmann is the chief people officer at Dance, and she says that to manage successfully at a startup you need to constantly prioritise and focus. To do that, she asks "The Spice Girls question".

🤔 What does the ESG reckoning mean for VC? Freya Pratty speaks to Micol Chiesa, formerly head of impact at Five Seasons Ventures, about the future of VC's sustainability buzzword. So is ESG dead?

🏳️‍🌈 Are you an LGBTQ+ founder? Proud Ventures, a UK collective of LGBTQ+ VCs and angel investors, is looking to address the huge data gap around the barriers founders from the queer community face, in a new report coming this autumn. You can help them by sharing your experiences. Take the survey here.

🎙 The Sifted Podcast. In this episode, Amy and Eleanor talk digital nomads, an alternative to Viagra, a big online grocery raise, heart disease prevention tech and how travel booking startup Omio came back from the dead. 

💸 How fintechs are taking on the cost of living crisis. The prices of things we need for everyday existence are skyrocketing across Europe, but can fintechs help? From personal spending analyses to education and smart saving, these founders think they can. (In partnership with W1tty).

Kai Nicol-Schwarz

Reporter

Get in touch with him at kai@sifted.eu 
Or @NicolSchwarzK

Tom Nugent

Digital Editor 

Get in touch with him at tomnugent@sifted.eu
Or tweeting @TJNugent92

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