Hello Sifted reader,

Start Summit, the OG student-run startup conference in Europe, is happening at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland this week.

Alumni of the uni include big names like edtech founder and angel investor Verena Pausder, wefox founder Julian Teicke and Leapsome cofounder Jenny von Podewils.

Sifted's editor Amy Lewin and DACH reporter Miriam Partington are there under the strobe lights. Here's what they've learned:

Secondaries are big: ICONIQ partner Seth Pierrepont said he’s seeing lots of secondaries opportunities at the moment.
VCs are having to fight over pre-seed and seed deals: Not many startups have amazing numbers at the moment, given wider market conditions, so VCs are scrapping over the few that do look tasty at the earliest stages, said Simon Schmincke of Creandum.
It’s hard to sort the wheat from the chaff: Lots of startups aren’t hitting their targets — but VCs say it’s tricky to know whether that’s because they don’t have product-market fit, have a bad go-to-market strategy or just because of poor economic conditions.
Successful founders manage their egos: That means taking feedback from peers and investors graciously and implementing it into your company, said founder and CEO of venture builder The Delta, Louis Buys, who's a 9x serial entrepreneur. Being an arsehole isn’t always a prerequisite for success, added wefox's Teicke.
Degrees don’t matter as much as you think: Perhaps an ill-timed comment given the student focus of the conference, but Hakan Koç, founder of used car marketplace AUTO1, said that people don’t care if you have a fancy degree as a founder — they care more about what you can do operationally. Some of the best founders, says Koç, are those who have worked in startups before and have “learnt the craft".
The next big thing in AI won’t come from Big Tech: It’ll come from small and nimble startups that rethink how the tech available can be used, rather than trying to copy incumbents. Oh, and Europe won’t have much trouble catching up to the US, said Janette Wiget, CFO of AI investment platform Merantix.

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🇸🇪 Techstars pulls out of Sweden mid-programme. The accelerator welcomed a new cohort of 30 startups just weeks ago, but announced it's shutting down its programme in Stockholm with immediate effect. Startups were offered a full refund or the option to continue programme remotely.

🇬🇧 Non-British founders to pay £2k for UK visas. The flat fee — way below what many were charged before — is part of a reform of the country’s startup and innovator visa routes. The controversial "equity for visa" system will also be scrapped.

👾 Improbable in talks to sell defence arm. The company confirmed that discussions to sell its Skyral battlefield simulation technology have taken place, and one former member of the defence team tells Sifted that a defence multinational would be the natural buyer.

💰 A new fund for "impactful startups" founded by 20 business school pals. Neo Founders has been set up with an initial €2m of capital, and will write cheques of up to €500k at pre-seed and seed stages.

⚡️ Octopus Energy says it's on track for profitability — 29 energy suppliers in the UK have buckled under the pressure of soaring energy prices, but Octopus Energy has remained intact. Sifted's Freya Pratty spoke to CFO Stuart Jackson about navigating the crisis, whether an IPO is on the cards and when he expects to be in the black.

🤖 Inside the OpenAI team making GPT-4 safer. "As adoption becomes more widespread, I think unknown risks will emerge" says one member of OpenAI's "red team", which tries to stop the chatbot from answering harmful or dangerous prompts.

💬 "The real question is: are you going to be an AI taker or an AI maker?" That's what's on the mind of EF cofounder and CEO Matt Clifford, who joined the Sifted Podcast to chat about why the UK government shouldn't set up an OpenAI competitor, the tragedy of DeepMind and the neutrality — or lack thereof — of AI.

🤑 The business loans and grants available for UK-based startups.

💼 A new appraisal process could help you retain female talent. Men and women often aren't evaluated equally in performance reviews — here's how to create a fair appraisal process that will make female employees want to stay.

😬 Faced with tougher funding conditions, these are the options for startups in 2023. (Sponsored by HEC Paris)

📱Could digital CFO tools be the way ahead for financial management in startups? (Sponsored by Scaleup Finance)

💰 Series A+

Piclo, a London-based marketplace for system operators to find flexible energy options, raised an £8.3m Series B.
Vue Storefront, a Polish startup that helps ecommerce platforms build better and more customer-friendly frontends, has raised €20m in additional Series A funding.
Mbiomics, a German biotech company working on microbiome-based therapeutics, has raised a €13m Series A led by MIG Capital AG, with participation from High-Tech Gründerfonds and Bayern Kapital.
Germany's ampere.cloud, a renewable energy management service, has secured a €5m Series A led by Point Nine Capital.

💰Pre-seed & seed

Lun, a Danish climate tech helping European homes decarbonise with electric heat pump alternatives to boilers, has raised €10.5m in seed funding from Norrsken VC, Partech and Lowercarbon Capital, among others.
No-code multi-cloud management software provider Emma, based in Luxembourg, has raised a $6m seed round.
The UK's PocDoc, a digital health platform offering diagnosis and treatment advice for diseases like diabetes, has secured £2.5m in additional seed funding.
Humani, a Netherlands-based AI-powered personal development app, has raised €2m in seed funding.
Geeklab, a Finnish marketing platform for app developers and mobile marketers, has secured €1.5m in seed funding.
German freight management platform Hubtic has raised a $1.3m seed round.
Comstruct, a German platform to buy construction materials, has raised €1.2m in pre-seed funding. Rivus Capital, German footballer Mario Götze and Another.vc were among the investors.

💰Undisclosed

IntegrityNext, a previously bootstrapped German platform for companies to manage their ESG risks, has raised €100m from EQT Growth.
MVision AI, a Finnish provider of software to plan radiotherapy treatment, has secured €5.4m.